Angela Watters

Or, at least it is why I’m tempted to send him a love letter.

From Seeing Out Louder by Jerry Saltz on artists relationship to their art,

“It is unruly, weirdly independent, and needy. It takes up way too much of your time, energy, and money. You love it or need it but it dominates your life and your inner-life. You think you understand it but you don’t, quite. Worse, you never know exactly what it’s going to do in front of people. It often embarrasses you. Sometimes it’s unmanageable, stupid, tiresome, goofy, or gross. Sometimes you hate it and want to get rid of it; other times it seems to hate you and won’t do anything you want it to do. It is often stupid when you wish it would be serious, and serious when you wish it would be playful. You are in control of it, yet somehow it seems to be weirdly in control of you. Any time you describe it, you get it wrong. The more you describe it, the wronger you get. Jasper Johns said, “you avoid everything you can avoid, then you do what you can’t avoid doing, and you do what is helpless and unavoidable.” Johns makes you understand that on some level, as weird as it sounds, that artists don’t entirely choose what art they make, and that somehow, in some way, that art chooses them to make it.”

Last week, I tried to take pictures at the beach but my dog wanted to play messy beach sand fetch and I never took my camera out of the bag.  10-14 hours later, Laney (dog), was vomiting and shivering.  I’m pretty sure she picked up something nasty in the water. Consequently, this weekend I did not bring her along with me to the beach and actually was able to take some pictures.  

This probably won’t be the picture I use, but I thought it was funny.  Actually, I’m temped to go back with a bag of bread and see what happens. Will I get attacked by seagulls?

Before today, I’d only seen the part of Cremaster 3 that you can get on DVD. I just returned from seeing 1 and 2 today at the Music Box, where they are showing the whole cycle this week.  The Music Box offered a pass, which I like because I can spread my viewing out over several days.  Barney’s issues with pacing and tedious dialogue (if there is any) make it necessary to break up the viewing experience, in my opinion.  Seriously, I saw Drawing Restraint a few years ago at the Landmark and almost pulled my hair out during. The funny thing about that is that I liked the movie, but it was painful! So, between 1 and 2, 1 is definitely my favorite. 2 had some cool parts like the bull riding scene, but was boring overall.  Witney Siebold writes an interesting review of the whole cycle. Siebold writes, “The only problems with “Cremaster 2” arise when Barney clearly becomes a little too enamored of the aerial photography. Nearly a fifth of the film is devoted to long slow shots of Canadian mountain ranges, lakes and glaciers. The pacing become, well, glacial in itself.”  I agree.

A new photograph of a figure from an antique chalk ashtray taken in a window. Although a caricature from Great Depression,  his expression and posture are alarmingly current.  People just don’t seem to be hiring right now and many of us without jobs feel like this beaten down man. I photographed this same sculpture a few years ago to show longing and alienation from home.

You should make one too.  I had an amazing visit with my former professor at Columbia College Chicago, Barbara Kasten. Her recent photos brought up powerful emotions and visions. I imagined car crashes and post-modernist glass buildings breaking apart. When I asked her about her process and why she made these images, she explained her interest in showing materiality and capturing the essence of things.  Of course, I’m so drawn to narrative and symbol, I had to create a story from them.  Thank you Ms. Kasten for a lovely afternoon filled with talking about art, being an artist and blogging.

Interesting conversation always occurs in the comments section of Paddy Johnson’s posts about Bravo’s “Work of Art,” on Art Fag City.  Frequent, impish commentators like  Jesse P. Martin regularly face off against show contestants/artists like Judith Braun, Trong Nguyen, Peregrine Honig, Erik Johnson, and Nicole Naudau with heated and interesting discussions about contemporary art.  Some times these discussions can get a little ridiculous, like when Erik Johnson flipped out on Paddy Johnson in the comments of the review of the Audi episode. I made the photograph below in response to Abdi Farah‘s painting on the show last week, which Martin feels is far too similar to the paintings of Alexander Ross. I see vague similarities, but don’t feel Abdi’s work is either knowingly or unknowingly derivative. Actually, I sort of wonder whether Abdi has ever seen my badass lamp.  I took a picture of it this morning on a red bookshelf in front of an unfinished painting.

Pain Scale. L to R: No Pain, Mild Pain, Moderate Pain, Moderate Pain (interferes with concentration), Severe Pain, Worst Possible Pain

Oh, those awful universal pain scale faces you see in the doctors office. I imagine they’ve done studies and found that they are effective, otherwise they wouldn’t be so ubiquitous, but I detest them.  My contempt (and fascination) with pain scale faces stems from my experience as caretaker of mother during her battle with non-tobacco related metastatic lung cancer. In the photograph above I drew new faces on these blonde Fischer Price figures (to match the pain scale) then arranged them group portrait style on sweep of aluminum foil. I’m planning on creating more scenes for my “pain face ladies” in the future. I decided to make a group portrait, after looking through a box of old family portraits with my family this summer.

Here are links to my collective’s CFE. Check out the first two entries to come in the mail at our Tumblr and Blog.

The Foster Collective, a Chicago based artist collective, seeks visual and written responses to the oil disaster in the Gulf. All entries must be on gas station paper towels. You can draw, paint, collage or write directly on the paper towel. Or, glue or tape your artwork/photograph to the paper towel. Paper towels can be found at any gas station and are usually in the same container as the windshield squeegee. Paper towels can be any color or texture.

Requirements:
1. Leave a 1inch margin at the top for hanging.
2. Please submit the whole paper towel. Do not cut or add to the dimensions, which are typically 9 1/8 x 10 1/8 inches.
3. Write your name, email address, and location on the back.

If you want your piece returned, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with your entry. The postmark deadline for inclusion in the Landslide Gallery exhibition is July 19. We are currently exploring venues for future exhibitions in other cities. The Foster Collective does not charge an entry fee.

Postmark Deadline for Chicago Exhibition: July 19, 2010
Exhibition: Gulf Oil Disaster Response
Sponsor: The Foster Collective
Location: Landslide Gallery, Chicago, IL
Exhibition Dates: July 23-31, 2010

Questions: fostercollective@gmail.com

I don’t love the show, Work of Art. But, I think it is entertaining. For me it works best when paired with Paddy Johnson’s commentary on Art Fag City.