Today is Marcel Duchamp’s birthday. Back in his day he constantly courted scandal so what better way to celebrate him than to drag out this scandalous painting I did a few years back for Fox Kids Magazine to further sully his reputation.
Duchamp's Nude descending a staircase No. 2
Eek Descending a Staircase No. 1
Jeffrey Catherine Jones has died. I was checking out some of my favorite sites yesterday when I came across this on George Pratt’s site. Jeff Jones was one of my art heroes. Growing up, I like many others coming of age in the seventies saw his work everywhere but the classic art book “The Studio” changed everything for so many of us. The Studio lifted the curtain for us sheltered wanna-be’s and showed us four amazing artists in their working environment, it made us hungry to be one of them. They were modern Pre-Raphaelites or art rock stars. The studio only lasted a few years but those guys created some real magic. I loved all four of them but Jones work was closest to mine spiritually. I picked up the recent art book “Jeffrey Jones: A Life in Art” last Christmas and it was there I learned of his gender change, I thought it must have been a tough thing to go through so late in life. From what I have read he/she was quiet, humble and generous and I found that out to be true as I met him in the 90’s and showed him my sketch book. He looked at every page and quietly handed it back to me, I asked him if he had any advice and he said “keep doing what your doing”. Thank you Jeffrey for many happy viewings of your art.
My friend Pete Ruiz just showed me this video and it illustrates the staggering amount of work it takes to put these Google museum projects together.
Art Project Behind the Scenes
I have been so slammed with work I haven’t done anything new in months, so I grabbed an old sketchbook and found a fun Picasso pastiche.
I hope you enjoy
I’ve just viewed a disturbing, scathing, depressing, and accurate assessment of the art world that makes so much sense I have to share it. Through most of my adult life the art world has mystified me with its embrace of work I thought marginal, yet fetching millions of dollars. What was I missing? I grew up in a very humble home and I can still barely call myself middle class but I have always had a love for art. When I went to art school conceptual art ruled the day and I wanted to make images of real things, so I wound up in the commercial art world. In my early twenties I discovered Robert Hughes and though I thought him a bit stuffy I always thought his observations were important. I read his book “the Shock of the New” before I knew it was a TV series and thoroughly enjoyed it wondering why this stuff wasn’t spoken of in my college art history classes. This documentary shows he hasn’t lost his eye or his keen powers of observation. This film helps me put the pieces together in a satisfactory way that answers a lot of my questions about why I never fit in to the art world at large. Very Interesting stuff. Unfortunately it has been removed from YouTube so I removed the link. Last I checked it was here:
