I
feel honored to witness someone practice a craft. It gladdens me to see someone create something useful and permanent with their hands, backs, and brains. It seems we do not honor such work, or the crafts that require such work as much as we should. Maybe because we have the Internet at our fingertips on “smart” phones, maybe it is because we bury the planet in mass-produced, injection-molded, plastic widgets that mimic the results of true craft but with none of the exquisite visual and tactile subtlety; none of the unique imperfections and flourishes that distinguish a product of human hands. Compare one plastic Jesus to another, and there are no distinguishing characteristics that might prompt you to conclude one was made by craftsman X, and the other by craftsman Y, or craftsman X created Jesus #1 early in his career, and Jesus #2 in his waning days.

If we remain perpetually connected to the Internet, are we perpetually disengaged, too? Does access to instant and infinite reminders of intimidating masterworks of others perpetually discourage us from creating our own solid, non-virtual artifacts of our existence — irrefutable, non-photoshop-able proof of our existence?

I have no idea, but I wish every day I would see more men and women creating (nearly) permanent things instead of buying throw-away things. Or staring at “smart” phones.

If knowledge is power, know-how is power at work. And that is nice to see. Civilization needs know-how.

There is an exhibition going on at the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art in Detroit through September 10, called “Homeland.” It is curated by Rebecca Mazzei.

Here’s the exhibition description from the N’Namdi website:

“Homeland”
June 17, 2011 – September 10, 2011

Homeland is a group exhibition featuring Chicago artists Bill Woolf and David Philpot alongside Detroiters Jother Woods, James “Slim” Thompson and Jerome Ferretti, curated by Rebecca Mazzei. The exhibition explores the powerful relationship between identity and place. Each artist has developed a singular language to portray a deep personal, cultural and spiritual connection to the environment that they call home. An incredible sense of imagination and invention unites them, laying bare the richness of their interior lives.

This art of Jother Woods has been little viewed by the public, yet this west side Detroiter is easily one of the region’s greatest visionaries. Woods, a native of the Louisiana, has for 37 years been working diligently to construct his own personal utopia, a miniature-scale environment which he calls his “Plantation Home.” At 54-feet long, the tabletop landscape is his childhood dream carried to its fullest extent, made in intricate detail from discarded materials.

David Philpot’s walking canes, of which there are now hundreds, symbolically reference Moses’ instrument of divine power, the staff. Philpot states that his work began one fateful night nearly four decades ago when he was called by an “inexplicable higher power” to break a branch off his neighbor’s tree and carve a cane. Many of his canes recall the decorative embellishment of African mourning vessels.

Bill Woolf’s work is reminiscent of classic folk artists like Grandma Moses or Ralph Fasanella, and fits into the larger tradition of memory painting. In narrative landscapes, he employs abstraction as a ground, then overlays white trees, and a stream of tiny nude figures meandering toward “The River Jordan.” The exhibition also features scenes from various residential Evanston, Illinois streets. Some of the houses have ghostly spirit figures rising in the sky above the architecture.

A fixture in the Detroit creative community for more than four decades, Jerome Ferretti learned masonry from his father at age 10 and turned toward art making as an adult, developing his own complex process for sculptural masonry and honing equally impressive skills in watercolor and oil painting. Whether building sculptural monuments in the metro area or painting street scenes, he faithfully memorializes the community he loves.

James “Slim” Thompson was one of the most unconventional and storied characters of Detroit. He rode around the city’s Cass Corridor area on his art bike, a conventional Schwinn street cruiser which he modified to the extreme with pictures of his friends and people in the neighborhood, pinups of kinky ladies, religious symbols, flags, fabric, fur, milk jugs, pinwheels and a wooden toilet seat. Radios he affixed to the bike played the blues. At approximately 7 feet tall and 9 feet long, the bike was sized to fit its costumed rider, a six-foot-eight costumed legend of the Detroit art scene.

-Text by Rebecca Mazzei, with excerpts by Aron Packer courtesy Packer Schopf Gallery and Rebecca Mazzei courtesy Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, both in Chicago.

N’ Namdi Center for Contemporary Art is located at:
52 E. Forest, Detroit 48201
313 831 8700

Detail of "Evanston, Asbury Street" by Bill Woolf. Photo by Matthew Piper

Some of David Philpot's "Staffs." Photo by Matthew Piper

There it is. I saw this show. Twice. I liked it. The work on display was imaginative and captivating. Bill Woolf’s paintings could be stared at for hours, while your mind conjures up all sorts of scenarios to explain them — a sort of magical realism on canvas. Mr. Ferretti’s watercolors, with warped perspective, vibrant colors, and distorted figures present an amusing, but slightly unsettling representation of reality — sort of like political cartoons with the politics sublimated.  And Jother Woods’ “Plantation House” — an imagined, hopeful world in miniature from found objects — will not be forgotten if for no other reason than the installation defies categorization. Go see it. You will be stunned. Then look at the paintings, walking canes, and Slim’s outlandish Detroit bicycle — while it is called, “Only In America,” it’s got Detroit written all over it. You want to see it, trust me.

It is worth noting, too, that the gallery staff at N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art were warm, well-informed, and welcoming. And the gallery space is stunning. A credit to Detroit and its art scene.

Norm's Liquor City -- Jerom Ferretti

See more: Leigh Art Trail – video and photos

ORIGINAL PAINTING BY BHIL ARTIST BHURI BAI

A THROBBING IDENTITY

Philosophers have said “ life is a journey from the concrete to the abstract”. Thus , there is an urge to plunge deeper into the traditional canvas of GOND ART, a contemporary art form where you first observe, then adapt and actualize the process of accumulating and appreciating art in its varied forms.

It is here that Must Art Gallery breaks away from its co brethrens and chooses to specialize on the Traditional  Art Form straight from the heart of Central India. Gond Art Paintings, as known by  all art lovers, get absorbed through the senses and gradually envelops the heart and the soul with its warmth and valor. Must Art Gallery adorns its collection of passion on GOND ART PAINTING. We aspire to make it a priceless treasure trove for the passionate art lovers. We have embarked on our journey with great humility and unlimited enthusiasm.

With uniqueness in our approach we shall walk through the kaleidoscope of time adding pages to this venture of ours. As we see our brain child flourish, your contribution as an ardent admirer of GOND ART  will be no less interesting than the collection itself. We promise to make this gallery a living identity throbbing with life ,not just an assimilation of technological advancements.

Must Art Gallery promises to see and feel with its heart. Just put out your hand and walk with us. The world of Must Art Gallery awaits your grand arrival…. visit www.mustarts.com

Petit Pierre Avezard, one of those beings, began in 1937, devoted nearly 40 years, and created the Fabuloserie to amuse and astonish. Petit Pierre succeeded.

more video (careful, this one is really loud for some reason):

more:
http://www.coeur-de-france.com/fabuloserie.html
http://www.fabuloserie.com/

Elliot Erwitt, 1963

Elliott Erwitt • Six Decades
October 13 – November 20, 2006Elliott Erwitt’s timeless photographs of ordinary life, beach scenes, celebrities, children and dogs have delighted viewers for decades. According to Henri Cartier-Bresson, “Elliott has to my mind achieved a miracle working on a chain-gang of commercial campaigns and still offering a bouquet of stolen photos with a flavor, a smile from his deeper self.” At age 77 Erwitt has culled through sixty years of his work and chosen what he considers to be his very best photographs. These ebullient images, many of which have not been published before, reflect the vast scope of the wittiest photographer of our time. Andrew Smith Gallery will have approximately 25 of Erwitt’s photographs representing many phases of his long career, including several photographs taken in New Mexico in the 1960′s.

Hockney: Road to Thwing

here’s some slideshows of David Hockney at work:

Publications: TV / Video

It’s quite interesting to see Mr. Hockney assemble murals from multiple canvases painted separately, in plein air.

The site offers a generous sampling of his work, too:

Works

Here’s the first question from an interview with writer Paul Harding, author of Tinkers:

From what I’ve heard, you received a lot of rejection letters before Bellevue agreed to publish Tinkers. Now that you’ve got a Pulitzer and a major PEN award, anyone in particular you’d like tell, “I told you so”?

No. I’ve got people in my mind, and I figure they know who they are. Personally, it’s very frustrating to be rejected like that; you work your tail off on your novel or your stories or your poems, and then you’re met with that kind of apathy from the world of publishing. But that’s a fairly common lot for writers. I look back on it as my fair share of that sort of business. Short story writers in particular…they have to keep Excel charts of magazines and rejection letters. There are all these stories of people wallpapering their studies with rejection letters, so I think I just got my fair share of the writer’s lot.

Read the whole thing here: A Conversation With Paul Harding

Now get back to work…;)

1st edition cover -- Francis Cugat

Here’s an excerpt from the original review of “The Great Gatsby” that ran in the NY Times April 19, 1925:

At the Buchanans Nick met Jordan Baker; through them both Daisy again meets Gatsby, to whom she had been engaged before she married Buchanan. The inevitable consequence that follows, in which violence takes its toll, is almost incidental, for in the overtones-and this is a book of potent overtones-the decay of souls is more tragic. With sensitive insight and keen psychological observation, Fitzgerald discloses in these people a meanness of spirit, carelessness and absence of loyalties. He cannot hate them, for they are dumb in their insensate selfishness, and only to be pitied. The philosopher of the flapper has escaped the mordant, but he has turned grave. A curious book, a mystical, glamourous story of today. It takes a deeper cut at life than hitherto has been enjoyed by Mr. Fitzgerald. He writes well-he always has-for he writes naturally, and his sense of form is becoming perfected.

If you like the book, you should read the whole review. But what struck me about this section is how easily it could describe the investment bankers, private equity raiders, and hedge fund managers of today. They are lost and don’t know the way back.

Art would be one place to start. Its foreignness forces you to see the things you might not want to see. Art reveal the true state of your soul better than a long look in the mirror.

Maybe some of these folks should read, or re-read, Gatsby.

Anna Judd

There’s an artist in L.A. named Anna Judd. She’s a painter. A good one. And she’s an avid runner. A marathoner, in fact. And she wants to run a marathon that courses along the Great Wall of China. She can swing the airfare, but…

…like always in this world, there’s a catch: along with buying tickets to China, she is required to book a tour package and hotel stay offered by the race sponsor. Here’s the sponsor’s site: http://www.great-wall-marathon.com/ The price: $1,210, each, for a double; $1,370 for a single. The race is May 15th, 2010.

The deadline is April 15th.

This marathon is a really big deal to her. She’s trained hard, she’s ready to go, but she can’t muster the cash to cover five nights in that hotel room she doesn’t want.

Read her own words below, and then ask yourself if you think she deserves a few bucks to finance a passion that may lead to a billion dollar painting in the future — think of Gauguin, then think of it as an investment. Buy one of her paintings and send her on the run of a lifetime! You can see her paintings and contact her here: http://www.annajudd.com/

Without further ado:

Here is the original blog:

I’m sure that not all of you are aware of this, but I’ve been training for a marathon since the beginning of the year, namely the Great Wall of China Marathon.

Much to my dismay, as I was arranging travel tickets and about to buy my bid for the race, I realized that in order to go there I have to buy a tour package, I can’t just buy my bid by itself. I wish that I could afford this, but I can’t. I was going to grab a discounted flight into China as a courier, carrying a mysterious package that leaked a yellowish powder and stay in a $2 a night hostel in Beijing for the days preceding and following the marathon.

Their plan is AMAZING (five star hotel, you get to hang out with all the other runners of the marathon, they take care of your meals, you get your own personal servant and masseuse who will follow you around 24/7 to make sure that you are in good spirits and good health) but costs nearly five times what I could finagle it for.

So I wrote them a letter.

To Whom it May Concern:

I just spent a few minutes filling out the contact form, but I don’t think you received it. The computer froze. So, I’m going to make an ass out of myself again, and hope that at least it’s the first you will have to experience it, although it is the second time around for me.

I need to run the Great Wall Of China Marathon. It is an innate need rooted deep within me. I’ve been consciously training for this run for the last four months, but unconsciously, I’ve been training my whole life. The Great Wall calls to me, begging me to trod upon it.

Unfortunately, I was not blessed with the sense that God gave a goat, and my finances are exactly what you would expect from an art school drop out who makes her living on a painting by painting basis.

I have been saving my nickels and dimes in a Mason jar for the last two years, existing on nothing but Top Ramen and packets of ketchup that I pilfer from McDonalds. I have finally saved enough fly to China, stay in a dumpy hostel and assuming that I can con the stewardess into sneaking me a box of peanuts, I’ll be able to eat on my trip.

I’m sure that a million people (who no doubt have hundred dollars bills overflowing from their pockets) contact you every day, miserly jerks who are looking for another way to cut costs and save money by not going through your company to buy the tour package. I’m not one of those people. I would love to stay in a lavish hotel, eat a glorious pasta dinner with the other runners the day before the race, and enjoy the splendours of China not by myself, but with a group of kindred spirits. However, the load I carry is a weary one, and I know that I am a lone wolf.

Would you consider letting me simply sign up for the race without buying everything else?

It’s really the only way I can manage the trip. I thought about setting up a 501c3 for Underprivileged Runners, and then shaking people down for tax deductible donations, which would pay for my airfare, but I don’t want that kind of  bad karma following me to the East.

The bit about me being an artist is true. I’m a painter. If you guys let me just buy my race bid, and nothing else, I’d let you have ANY painting on my website, and some are priced at higher than ten thousand dollars. That is how bad I want this.

I would even volunteer for your company, doing whatever menial task no one else wanted to do.  I’d arrive to the race early at 2 am and cut little orange slices for the runners before I started the race. I’d run the race and along the way I’d be a cheerleader, encouraging other runners not to give up, to keep on keepin’ on. I’d assemble and disassemble port a potties. I’d work in the massage booths afterward, and if you don’t have a massage booth, I’ll fashion one out of wild bamboo and palm fronds.

Please consider my offer.

Cheers,
Anna

Tom says I’ve lost my marbles and I’m retarded to think anyone would negotiate with a person crazy enough to send an email like this one.
But, my fingers are crossed.

Now, buy a painting that comes with a great story for cocktail parties, and send Anna to China…http://www.annajudd.com/

Here’s her blog: http://annajudd.blogspot.com/

The race is May 15th, 2010.

The deadline is April 15th.

– grassfedart