Angels and Infidels: Studio Practices

Artists and Writers. Round 2 @ Flippo Gallery, Randolph Macon College

2011-02-23T10:18:00.004-05:00

Paper Journeys

2010-07-18T11:36:00.002-04:00

Above: documentation of the "Paper Journey" each artist created for an exhibition inspired by scrolls, prayer flags and the realities of working in a "Moving Culture" during July of 2009 during Metasenta's "Moving Cultures: Intercultural Dialogue" project in Tibet.

Curator: Amie Oliver
Moving Cultures Project Director:
Dr. Irene Barberis
May 1 - July 31, 2010

West Creek Town Center, Second Floor Gallery,
Capital One, Richmond, VA

Work by the following Moving Cultures artists is depicted above:
Hetty Baiz, Princeton, NJ (mixed media paper)
Irene Barberis, Melbourne, Australia (mixed media vinyls and paper)
Melissa Chimera, Hawaii (mixed media paper)
Sarah Dyshart, Melbourne, Australia (fabric and bells)
Selby Ginn, Melbourne Australia (wax)
Matt Green, Belfast, Ireland (sound)
(Helen) Jia Liang, Guangzhou, China (video)
Liu Ke, Guangzhou, China (ink and paper)
Andre Liew, Melbourne, Australia (mixed media and hair)
Luo Ling, Guangzhou, China (painting)
Hugh Makin, Melbourne, Australia (wax collaboration)
Amie Oliver, Richmond, VA (mixed media on scroll, globe and panels)
Feung Li Poi, Guangzhou, China (painting)

art for the ears

2010-07-18T10:49:00.002-04:00

Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn improvize at the Montreal Jazz Festival on July 2. Art reflects our times and this was art.

The Dharma Diaries are on the road!

2010-06-10T10:06:00.000-04:00

Louise and her laire

2010-06-01T12:34:00.000-04:00

flash amie

2010-05-26T18:59:00.004-04:00

Free website - Wix.com

The Dharma Diaries: There and Back Again

2010-04-22T08:52:00.003-04:00

The Dharma Diaries: There and Back Again
recent work by Amie Oliver

Please join Amie, Michael A. Pierce and Ginna Cullen for the opening of their exhibitions on Friday, April 23,
7 - 10 pm

on rotation after 8pm:
VCU dance students perform a piece directed by
Robbie Kinter

April 23 - May 23rd, 2010
Helena Davis Gallery
in Artspace @ Plant Zero
0 E. 4th St, Manchester
RIchmond, VA
804.232.6464

Also opening on April 23rd @ Artspace:

In the Main Gallery:
Michael A. Pierce's "In My Busby Berkeley Dreams"
drawing, installation, mixed media

In the Frable Gallery:
Ginna Cullen's "Points of Reference"
book constructs

Closing Artists' Talk:
Sunday, May 23rd
4pm

In the Suzanne Foley Gallery:
Artspace Members Exhibition

image:
Amie Oliver
Mudra I (detail) / acrylic and flashe on paper / 12 x 12 inches
2010

For more information on Amie's work:
804.615.0754
http://amieoliver.net

For more information on Michael A. Pierce or Ginna Cullen:
http://artspacegallery,org

The Dharma Diaries: There and Back Again

2010-03-30T13:14:00.008-04:00

Click on the image to see a larger version

2009 Ladder Sketchbook

2010-03-06T17:49:00.002-05:00

2009 Ladder Sketchbook
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

The ladder sketchbook shown here is part of a traveling installation which will is on view at 303 Grand in Brooklyn, NY. Visit this link for more info:
http://www.303grandnyc.com/post.php?ref=archive&id=120

This series of drawings and collages are the seed of a great deal of the new work I am doing. I'll be showing this series of drawings and mixed works, which grew from my time in China and Tibet last summer, at Artspace Gallery in Richmond, VA during late April. "The Dharma Diaries" were shown in Berkeley, CA this past October and will also be part of the new installation. Richmond artist Michael Pierce is presenting his thesis exhibition in the main gallery. Book artist Ginna Cullen and I will be in the alternate galleries.

on view in November and December on the Westminster Canterbury Campus

2009-11-02T10:34:00.004-05:00

Two Ladies and a Gentleman

Ruth Bolduan
painting
David Camden
ceramics
Amie Oliver
drawing

Westminster Canterbury Campus
through Monday, January 4

artists' talk and reception
November 19th
3 pm

Westminster Canterbury Richmond
1600 Westbrook Avenue
Richmond, VA 23227

General: 804-264-6000

9am - 5pm daily

map to the address

campus map

Richmond in Ragtime : Socialists, Suffragists, Sex, and Murder

2009-11-01T12:03:00.002-05:00

DSC04578
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

Acclaimed actor Raynor Scheine, Harry Kollatz and myself at the premier reading and signing of Harry's Richmond in Ragtime at the Valentine Museum in downtown Richmond.

Guten Tag!

2009-10-19T23:11:00.004-04:00

DSC06528
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

The welcoming committee at the VCCA met us at the gate for the opening of Exchange, a group exhibition of German artists who have worked at the VCCA and American artists who have worked at the Oberpfalzer Kunstlerhaus in Bavaria. Harry and I were thrilled to be greeted by the local "residents" and were even happier to toast the visiting German artists Heiner Riepl, Alfred Boschl, Christine Sabel, and Thomas Hanauer, the OK's board president. Exchange celebrates twenty years of residencies between the VCCA and the OK. It features amazing sculpture scattered throughout the grounds of the VCCA as well as every kind of 2-D work imaginable. My exchange experience at the OK is represented by a free standing bookwork and a series of watercolors created in Tibet during July of 2009. An example of the series can be seen here.

In typical Bavarian fashion the opening and performance was followed by an amazing feast featuring the inaugural Oktoberfest keg from a new micro brewery in Lynchburg. If you visit this link you might see a few familiar faces.

Now on view in Uzbekistan!

2009-10-07T09:32:00.002-04:00

Uzbeckistan Bienniale
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

If you happen to be in Tashkent you might check out the 5th Uzbeckistan Bienniale. My painting "Cake Walk," a 16" x 16" painting from the "Walk the Walk" series will be on view during mid October at the Central Exhibition Hall of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan. I would have made the trip to visit this remote Bienniale but I've already commited to participating in EXCHANGE at the VCCA. It sounds like it will be an amazing adventure. For more information on the event click on this link.

Giorgi Gallery

2009-10-05T21:41:00.002-04:00

DSC05912
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver Gallery Director Rae Douglass adjusts the lights for the opening reception of
On the Road to Dharma.

On the Road to Dharma, Giorgi Gallery, Berkeley, CA

2009-10-05T21:38:00.001-04:00

DSC05892
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

Lia Cook's amazing atelier in Berkeley, CA

2009-10-05T21:36:00.001-04:00

DSC05879
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

Lauri Luck's "Dog Diaries"

2009-09-29T17:12:00.001-04:00

DSC05090
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

Lauri has been drawing and painting from life for as long as I've known her. Intuition and keen observation lead the viewer to surprise and delight and an aperture into her world of canines, felines, family and the poetry life can embrace when one is true to their hearts' desire. The artist is depicted here in front of a recent acrylic work on paper.

Dharma Diaries could arrive in a post office near you.... really!

2009-09-12T10:01:00.005-04:00

The "Dharma Diaries" slide show on view below is a preview of my catalogue for the "Road to Dharma" exhibition in Berkeley, CA. This publication documents the watercolor and collage that resulted from my work and experience with the "Moving Cultures" project described in previous posts this summer. To learn more about the Tibet trip just click on the Moving Cultures link... to purchase a copy of "Dharma Diaries" click on this link.

Best or First and In Between

2009-08-22T15:41:00.002-04:00

Below you'll find the first part of a conversation initiated by Jerry Saltz on his FB profile. Jerry's 'salons' on FB are some of the most timely art dialogue out there... hence this post... and when I question the propiety and consider the topic, I couldn't resist. Enjoy.

Jerry Salz said:
Kirsten Rae Simonsen wants to talk about "artists stealing ideas from other artists." Okay, lets see if there's anything here. Obvioulsy, ALL ART comes from other art. So all art steals from other art. Kirsten must mean something diffe...rent. As a critic I'm very interested in who did what first; but really, I am more interested in who did what "best." Artists, you tell me.

Mark Shunney said
I found it interesting why James Turrell moved from LA to the desert. In his words- It was to get away from the gallery represented Robert Irwin.

Jerry Saltz
Of course, I have watched in art scholls where one students, say, starts using Cadmium Red Light and all of a sudden, like a virus, all of these other artists are using Cadmium Red Light. I never thoguht of this as "stealing." I always thought that it just meant that for whatever reasons Cadmium Red Light just made sense to people, and (you know me), that CRL ITSELF had a need to be seen. ??

And I read my own reviews and see dozens of ideas from dozens of places. So, I'm stealing, I suppose, all the time too.

AdrienneRose Gionta
recently this has been a hot topic around here as one artist directly copied exact imagery from another and tried to pass it off as her own. you can check out this blog for more details if you have the time or concern... i would luv to hear what you think!

Clayton Sean Horton
don't the best artists disguise their sources the best?

Jen Bradford
I agree with your criteria. Artists cannibalize everything, it goes with the territory. So I'd be curious to know what Kirsten had in mind. Not subject matter, surely - stealing what?

Brynna Kate Tucker
I think there is a difference between stealing and innovation. I'm not sure I'm as interested in NEW as I am in IMPROVED. Improved is a direct celebration of the original, but with a new approach or result. It recognizes the past, though and gives it a nod. Innovative ways of thinking, making, and seeing are what interest me in contemporary art... and design as well.

Clayton Sean Horton
yes, if i see anymore canned foam or beeswax in a mfa studio, i'm going to headbutt someone.

Zachary Ziemann
its all about stealing you just have to obscure your source

AdrienneRose Gionta
http://culturallysubvertingbedtimestories.blogspot.com/
here is some of the details about the battle between artists going on over here right now

Julie Tremblay
Didn't Picasso say: Bad artist borrow, good artists steal!"?

Bill Gusky
A sincere effort is all you can ask. Everyone's work is equally important. A sense of timing is the mark of genius. All things are delicately interconnected. Abuse of power comes as no surprise.

Julie Tremblay
But isn't there a limited number of original ideas in the world? I think that there is, it is up to one to take one of those ideas and make the best out it. What else is there to do?

Susan Prince Thompson
the problem is, when you see a really great show, one of the personal artist-criteria of it being really great is that it makes you want to get right back into the studio!- as it reminds you of why you got into all this in the first place! and you are inspired and really grateful "stealing" as a strategic move isn't part of this initial response although the cadmium red thing can be perceived as such also--art is a dialogue--nobody alone is an innovator IMHO

Amie Oliver
Best or First? Best can be subjective and First is often determined by who gets the press....or ink...or a critic's notice.... First. Tiresome? yes.

Samuel T. Adams
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients."

Esteban Schimpf
This is a sensitive topic because when people make something they think it's theirs and theirs FOREVER but when you make something and put it in the world it then becomes the world's.

I think people are still really married to originality despite all the work that our brothers and sisters in the arts have put to dispelling this myth. People still... Read More BELIEVE they just have some doubt and some serious counter examples.

When I was in school I mixed my own ykblue and started painting everything blue just like Yves because he didn't get a chance to paint enough things blue (heart attack at 33 or something from using too much meth) and then all the cool kids a year later started doing the same. Oh well! my bad idea got passed on and just got a little worse...

Eric Beltz
I think the only problem with stealing is if you get stolen from and the person who stole from you did it better than you. But that's YOUR problem not theirs. Obviously you are a creative original force but not the perfect-er of what you created. That is the natural course of innovation and evolution (so says Aldous Huxley). Stevie Ray Vaughn plays... Read More Jimi Hendrix better than Hendrix could (not really stealing though) and Natalie Imbruglia perfected the song Torn - which she ripped off from a small, unheard-of band named Ednaswap. Ednaswap then tried and tried to re-record that dumb song and make it better than NI could. But to no avail. They just showed themselves to be a 2nd rate pop band. Stealing in a creative sense gets dealt with, I believe, democratically. You win some you lose some. But if what comes after you is better, then you just gotta suck it.

Abby Manock
It's like the elevator scene at the end of Working Girl. EXACTLY like that.

Carol Diehl
I think it's okay to steal UP, not DOWN. In other words I've borrowed bits from Alfred Jensen, Johns, Richter and myriad others, but it was NOT okay when a well-known artist came to our school as a visiting artist and blatantly co-opted a graduate student's idea. As he left her studio her studio-mate said, "You're going to see that in Chelsea next year" and she was right. I was angry but said to my student (who took it better than I did), "Don't worry, you'll have more ideas and he won't."

Jeff Gabel
Here's a quote from a one thomas stolperer, in its original context it was just 1 example to support a wider issue, but make my point here, I think: "Have you noticed artists refusing to talk about their new secret ideas until after they've been shown publicly? Anyone making real art shouldn’t be worried about someone copying their artwork, because you can’t copy real art, you can only copy the ideas."

Ardalan Keramati
i think (i'm qualifying just to pretend i am unsure) there are an infinite number of original ideas in the world. it's how to fit them into "art" which can be more limited if your work is medium specific, or an "art context", which is limitless.

Esteban Schimpf
I LOVE stories of artists (who no one knows about) talking about famous he or she came into their studio and took their ideas all the way to the bank!

true or not they're great. Good post Carol!

Martin Bland
If no one 'stole' we would still be roaming the plains of a Savannah, by this I mean that innovation necessitates some sort of imitation or else we would all have to start at point A. I think this may be applied to art, no? There is also the hundreth' monkey effect in anthropology, why wouldnt this be the case in art as well? http://en.wikipedia.... Read Morehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth-monkey_effect
I think the who did it first approach is short sighted as well unless you clarify that with who did it first with the where-with-all to get the attention of the culture industry. As Duchamp said repeatedly, 'these things may have existed before but we did not recognize them'. For instance there is certainly 3 dimensional figurative art during the reign of the Pharaohs, but it is not noticed because it was not sanctioned.

Bill Brady
I like this quote by Jeff Gabel Anyone making real art shouldn’t be worried about someone copying their artwork, because you can’t copy real art, you can only copy the ideas."

Kathy Schnapper
Something that I learned from Leo Steinberg: 'Whatever else it might be about, all great art [or literature] is about art." This 'problem' of stealing is something that art students worry about all the time, when they should be focusing on what is happening, or not, with their own work. Just as their was plenty of room for both the Cubism of ... Read MorePicasso and of Braque, so it is with every other style or material. The only exception that I would make to that is something that is an outright forgery.

Esteban Schimpf
wait wait this is all going too much in favor of the copy.

WHAT ABOUT FIRST TO MARKET
COKE is still better/bigger than PEPSI no matter what!

Julie Tremblay
Not sure about infinite number of ideas. It's like saying that there is an infinite number of things to talk about. There isn't. There are actually only few things that can be talked about. And only few boundaries broken. Kathy, I think you are right on!

Bill Brady
I have heard this from friends accusing me and others that they had the idea first! great.... I have also seen professors borrow everything good from his students studio's and doing it better and have exhibitions with the work!
whoever i...s genius enough to put it out there is the clear winner
If artists are upset or complain then they really are ... Read Moreblind to what is out there and what gets put out there maybe just to much studio time and not enough hustle Artist make themselves, along with their friends and those worried or concerned about stealing ideas need to look around. Ones interpretation is crucial. :-0

Carol Diehl
Despite my earlier comment, I find most artists who complain that their ideas were stolen kind of pathetic, and that the person who they say "stole" it did a better job with it. In the case of my graduate student, though, her work WAS better.

Esteban Schimpf
we like Kraftwerk because they did it first (at least to a largish audience) . There are MANY electronic bands today that make better but we're less interested in them because KRAFTWERK did it fist.

INNOVATORS AND ORIGINATORS

Victoria Wolfe
I find it irritating to spy Artist A's ideas in the work of Artist B. Just seems lazy.

Keren Moscovitch
I think it depends on whether the value is placed on the concept or the execution. Someone who steals a concept and executes it may not be much more than a commercial designer, as far as "fine art" is concerned. If it's a one-liner, then the concept can only be cashed in on a limited number of times. The richer the experience that is created by the work, the more nuanced the work (in the original OR copy), the less "copying" is a relevant matter.

Esteban Schimpf
what are some good historical examples of this "copy"?

I don't know what we're talking about Jer

Jah Jah
There is appropriation here and then there is down right plagiarism. Many of my contemporaries are very close to be called Original , though there is a thick lining of blatant thievery. The biggest problem with the notion of executing an idea with a bit more pizzaz according to ones budget. Alix Lambert did tattooed pig skins on a modest budget ... Read More10 years before the William Delvoye did his tattooed pigskin at Perrotin-Also my crystal skulls on black laminate http://thing.net/~janine/THING.NET/MEDIA_AND_DRAWINGS.html#5 that was exhibited at the Stedelijk years b4 Damien Hirst- ... who got paid more? but mostly who had more money behind them- THat is 2 examples of FEMALE artists being highly ripped off of by well funded- artists-

Noah G. Hoffman
Rothko ripped off the Hopi beginning in 1941. It impacted every image he painted from that point forward. Why does the NGA refuse to recognize this and use public funds to publish Rothko books that won't acknowledge indigenous influences even though the evidence is astounding.
http://rothkono.wordpress/
No emails answered from Chris Rothko in four years!

Julie Tremblay
But still, innovators and originators may still be working with ideas that had been floating around for a while. Did no one do electronic music before Kraftwerk??? It DID come from somewhere!

Jan Rothschild
Didn't this discussion start like 5000 years ago? (Ecclesiastes 1:9-14 NIV) What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Sherry Bittle Rader
You nailed it Jerry. If someone "steals" an idea or technique, they will do it their way whether they realize it or not. Your work remains yours, and if it's good, or dare I say great, it will shine regardless. No fear people! Work, work, work! Grow, grow, grow!

Jah Jah
another example of a certain male photographer who is often out and out stealing from me and getting paid 10 times more- in actuality - Most critics and real collectors appreciate my work much more than this young man, but his club got him more fame than I , to the extent that I was even asked if it was I , who was stealing from this unnamed contemporary who photographs grainy misty nekkid men now....and monochromes too--

Esteban Schimpf
YOU GO NOAH!

let's all get pissed like we did at MOMA and make the ghost of Rothko accountable.

I am reading Howard Zinn's History of the USA so this kind of stuff really sets me off.... Read More

I'M NOT DOWN WITH COLONIALISM (anymore!/ever again!)

Esteban Schimpf
Julie T to answer your Q, YES!

Musique concrète

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_concr%C3%A8te

Jen Bradford
The Rothko assailants just gave me a good laugh. Thanks guys.

Stefany Roseman Benson
What's the difference between being influenced, appropriating, copying or lifting wholesale? As far as I'm concerned, nothing. The one non-subjective assessment of the value of a work of art is how many other artists have done any or all those things in response to it.

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
I like Bill's comment about timing. That is in part what I am referring to. So, this obsession started for me when I discovered that an artist who had been working with imagery from "The Hills" (as I have) got written up in the New York Times (http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/the-hills-lauren-conrads-pastel-pathos/). I was so ... Read Morefrustrated, because the artist, Karin Bubas, had simply finished the body of work faster than me and gotten it out into the world faster. And let's face it, when you make art about popular TV culture, you have to get it out there fast. My reaction was juvenile, I realize. But has this ever happened to any of you? So yes, I am talking about subject matter and concept, not technique. This might be awful to say, but I feel that technique is free for the taking. It's the idea "stealing" that bothers me (although of course "stealing" is the wrong word in this case...I don't even know Karin Bubas! How could she "steal" from me if she'd never seen my work?)

Susan Prince Thompson
my gnarly old father, still working, age 86, product of modernism, who taught sculpture for most of his life, always told his students to stop worrying about being "original"--"' 'Original' is like climbing Mt Everest and spitting, okay??" --heard that old chestnut throughout my childhood

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
But it does bring up this perhaps juvenile question...what if you were working on a great idea, and so is someone else, and they get the body of work out there first? I realize I sound like a disgruntled kid on the playground...

Zeynep Solakoglu
There has to be a diffrence between inspiration and copying everybody has their own way of doing things..you musnt loose your touch with your work.

Melody Owen
conversely, i find it interesting the way artists today try to stake a claim on symbols and materials; boats, dresses, antlers, string, etc... it seems that in the face of the obliteration of individual artistic identity due to over-saturation and over-population, people are grasping at universal symbols in an attempt to declare their "unique" artistic voice.

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
Someone said to me once, after I'd studied art in Bali for a year, that in Asia everyone steals from everyone, and it's considered a compliment to be stolen from there, but in the US, everyone also steals from everyone, but they all pretend that they don't. I found that amusing, although it is a gross generalization, obviously.

Cassandra Jennings Hall
yeah everything has been done before or so I've been told, artist recreate with a different slant or flavor based on their own creativity...

Susan Prince Thompson
on the other hand, apropos of Carol Diehl's remarks, in grad school I had a couple big (for me) ideas copied/appropriated/stolen by professors and it didn't feel so hot so I guess "it's complicated" with teachers etc

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
Ooh, Jah Jah, that is rough...yikes,
Really, Susan? Eek...so, personally, I think this IS a real issue...

Melody Owen
it is complicated... as ideas are so wrapped up with identity for artists, especially conceptual artists.

Susan Silton
This is a multileveled discussion, Jerry. First of all there's the topic of originality, which I couldn't begin to define. And then authorship has always been a tricky business. I think this topic is less relevant with regard to ideas (because all of us live in the world and are influenced by what we absorb, historical or otherwise, which means our... Read More work inevitably reflects to whatever extent what we absorb) and more relevant in terms of the "market." In this arena, the problem here, of course, is that the market continues to privilege a handful of artists. Most artists do not have the privilege of visibility (and way too often the concomitant privilege of unconditional support) that this handful of artists consistently enjoys. A less known artist in the market who is making work with similar content or aesthetic choices as a highly visible artist will immediately be accused, and glossed over because of, being derivative of that artist's work, as opposed to the other way around.

Julie Ryan
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. And there is the homage! I saw a show of a young polish artist and the gallerist explained it was an "homage" to Franz West and Heimo Zobernig. (The gallery happems to show them all). But by saying that gallerist hoped to add credence to the work. Not stealing. Not appropriation. Homage!

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
So here's something else. I am starting a new project which is only text. I think the concept/idea is great, but the whole thing is SO easy to copy. Do I keep all new work off my website, and not show it to ANYONE, until I get into a big show? (now, don't copy me, you guys)

Sean Capone
Julie, I'd have to argue against there being "a limited number of ideas in the world". Ideas aren't like natural resources that we pluck from the ether. It's a process of inference, intuition, education, instinct...and there are so many degrees of stealing, appropriation, contextual reframing etc..If that's the way that Kirsten stated the issue, it... Read More sounds like she's got an axe to grind already?
Please let's retire that "great artists steal" chestnut...like with Duchamp, Warhol et al. it's a dry witticism, not a call to arms..it worked for them (only). Isn't it funny, though, that it would be *impossible* to steal from these artists who were the biggest thieves of them all?

Jah Jah
yea Kristen- actually my real name is Janine Gordon- check out how Steven Meisel ripped off work that is critically acclaimed and got paid 6 figures--
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139089&id=668755049

Susan Silton
And unfortunately, I think what this means is a kind of tacit negation of people's creative process along class lines...artists need to be and should be fierce about protecting that process in themselves. I'll leave the discussion about overt plagiarism out of this...that to me has nothing to do with creative process but more to do with a desperate desire to be one of the chosen...

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
True, Susan...but it's still hard to feel like after someone comes out with "my" idea "first" that *I* then will look like the copier.

Jah Jah
so this is what is happening on a daily with me
http://www.radiotania.org/images/ryan_mcginley1-1.jpg
http://thing.net/~janine/THING.NET/STUNTS.html#0

Jah Jah
http://www.tinyvices.com/ryan_mcginley_IKWTSG_9.jpg
http://thing.net/~janine/THING.NET/STUNTS.html#5

Jerry Saltz
Sam (42 minutes ago); Jan (25 minutes ago): WORD.

Jah Jah
http://www.seenataritzia.com/image/artists/ryanMcginley.jpg
http://thing.net/~janine/THING.NET/MOSH_PIT.html#5

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
Janine, I can't view that FB album...I guess I have to be your friend to see it?

Jah Jah
http://www.nyc.com/image/users/blogs/5428.jpg
http://thing.net/~janine/THING.NET/MOSH_PIT.html#21

Jerry Saltz
Maybe this comes back to the fact that artists can be such big babies? And, I think one steals up, down, around, whatever. I mean didn't Guston say he took from "crapola?" Wasn't the "high low" discourse one of the most prominant of the 20th century?

Rachel Hines
Here's a good quote from Felix Gonzales-Torres:

think more than anything else I'm just an extension of certain practices, minimalism or conceptualism, that I am developing areas I think were not totally dealt with. I don't like this idea of having to undermine your ancestors, of ridiculing them, undermining them, and making less out of them. I think we're part of a historical process and I think that this attitude that you have to murder your father in order to start something new is bullshit. We are part of this culture, we don't come from outer space, so whatever I do is already something that has entered my brain from some other sources and is then synthesized into something new. I respect my elders and I learn from them. There's nothing wrong
with accepting that. I'm secure enough to accept those influences. I don't have anxiety about originality, I really don't.

Interview with Felix Gonzalez-Torres by Robert Storr
ArtPress
January 1995
Pages: 24 -32
By: Robert Storr

Jah Jah
DO YOU SEE WHAT RIAN MCGINNLY DOES TO MY WORK JERRY ???? IS THIS OK???? HE STUDIES THE HECK OUT OF ME AND U KNOW THAT IVE BEEN AROUND LONGER AND HOTTER.. SSO PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I AM DOING WRONG AND HE IS DOING SO RIGHT THAT HE CAN GET AWAY WITH USING EVERY THING I DO AS INSPIRATION _

Jerry Saltz
I go with Richard Prince on this one: "I'm not interested in 'making it new;' I'm interested in making it again."
I say steal from anywhere at any time.

Leah Anderst
Could the idea of drawing from the same wellspring of the spirit of the age apply here too? Certain styles and themes dominate individual periods and places, and without ever seeing each other's work, two artists could easily produce very similar pieces.
The question of plagiarism is clearly totally different than this, but just a thought.

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
I know, I know, I agree about the big babies thing, see the playground comment above. And there is a possibility that my ideas are pretty obvious, and that of course others are doing them, because they are not that original. I think I need to be OK with that.

Jah Jah
so its ok because he has some more prominent friends- and he can get paid more than me-- ok- then let everyone steal and I WILL BE ARMED AND DANGEROUS_ haha

Jerry Saltz
I am a big fan of the work of Benjamin Edwards. He was a student of mine at RISD, as was Julie Mehretu. Love 'em both as people. But there's no doubt at all that Mehretu got A LOT from Edwards; so much that in some ways she's doing his act. On the other hand, their work looks nothing like one another's and one is wolrd famous and one isn't. I still find M's work essentially decorative and think a good E. is REALLY GOOD. Oh well.

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
I love that Felix Gonzalez-Torres quote, it helps a lot. This from a guy who put a bunch of candy in a corner. And that was a great piece. But he did it first, that's the thing. (whine, whine) Maybe I need to think better, harder, longer and more thoroughly about my ideas. Maybe I just need to be BETTER and DEEPER conceptually. Gonzalez-Torres was prolific...that helps.

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
Leah, it's true. And when I remove my ego from this, I realize that that really is the most important point.

Kurt Kauper
I remember Lari Pittman dismissing criticism of artists who supposedly "stole" from him, saying "it's all public property." I think he got it right.

Brad Farwell
I've been studying photography within museums (ie tourists taking pictures) for a year or so now, traveled to italy, did some interviews with curators there and here at the Met, and then had the NYT do a front-web-page story about the concept before I had gotten anything out my door, product-wise.

Did I spend a day or three being pissy about that... Read More? Yes. But it reminded me that whole idea of the journey being more important than the goal is true; making this work has been extremely interesting and rewarding for me, whether or not I got it out the gate to the public first.

You can steal a product, but you can't steal the experience gained by making the product.

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
Perhaps Julie Mehretu is more popular because she IS decorative and that sells. And maybe she is better at marketing herself than the other one. I'm sad to say I have not heard of Benjamin Edwards.

Lori-Ann Bellissimo
I have encountered many other artists "copying" what I do...using my technique or at least trying to, using my imagery, using my size formats etc...I think there's room for everybody. The thing is I did it first. And my new ideas are always perculating...those "copycats" can try to keep up with me...I'm not interested. It's my personal legend to do... Read More what I do and everyone has their own path. From my early days of reading the likes of my fave crits like Thomas Albright it seems who does it best is at hand...Well I do it first and I do it best. I don't reason why it's just the way. The matter at hand is that it may not be immediately obvious to everyone at the time but why does it have to be. We re visit work all the time and I know my work stands the test of time...it's something that was ingrained into my approach and those "copycats" they play on novelty and fads. I'm busy building a body of work, a career that speaks of my life path and I know how to draw. I know I am truthful.

Kirsten Rae Simonsen
"You can steal a product, but you can't steal the experience gained by making the product." Thumbs up.

M.F. Tichy
Originality is a Modernist myth that is still partially clung to.

Jerry Saltz
Empress Jah-Jah: I don't see much resemblance between your work and RM's. He pictures a very close tribe of people; you picture a much larger tribe. His work is very much about him; yours is about WHO you are photographing and what they are doing; who they are or are not changing the world or creating culture; his work is more about white youth; ... yours is not limited in that way. His vision is very clear; yours is wider and therefore doesn't feel as personal. I am not saying it ISN'T personal, my Queen. You are multi-focused. He is singular focus.

Jerry Saltz
Rachel: Word.

Jerry Saltz
Kurt: Word.

Jerry Saltz
M.F. Word.

Sam Tan
Nothing is created in a vacuum, ever.

Sean Capone
When I say "thieves' of course I mean that in the best possible sense... :)
When we learn to read & speak, someone else came up with those words. I don't really believe that all art is stealing just because we learned how to draw or shoot film in formal ways.

Doug Henders
good artists borrow.. great artists steal - Pablo Picasso

Jah Jah
Jerry if he starts shooting Cowboys and my secret next project Im going to go after his head-- sorry but many important people like yourself have pointed out that he is trailing my work- the dust- then the smoke then the monochromes- I have a long history of photographing tribal youths- he is blatantly borrowing visual elements of my work that he is inspired - although in my work it is usually the actual situation as opposed to a totally staged composition. xo

Stephan Fowlkes
there is derivitive art and then there is art which capitalizes on what came before...

William Walker
Bad artists copy, great artists steal.
Not my quote.

Jeff Zimmermann
Simultaneaty (sp), osmosis, and influence are fair and honest. Stealing which we've all seen is cheap and really bs. It makes you not an artist but ripoff artist. C'mon...

Fiona Ross
I love to make things that surprise me. If "stealing" surprises me, well then!

Scott Groeniger
For me it's ultimately about who decides what work gets shown and why. So the idea that generated this topic "originally" for Kirsten and I was when we saw an artist's work that was very similar to an idea we had already explored "in theory" over a year ago come to prominence in a gallery setting very publicly. And when we saw this particular ... manifestation of the exact same ideas, the paintings frankly were SO literal... so OBVIOUS and so direct, that I was completely underwhelmed that a gallery curator would actually go for that work painted in that way. The paintings we saw would NEVER fly in art school. The execution was, at best, undergraduate level. Not that I really care that much about the technique of painting, however this was just astonishingly bad (and not in a good way).

So we began this process of deconstructing the notion of originality and the visual manifestation of similar, if not identical ideas. That led us to positing this issue to Jerry's FB site.

Jerry Saltz
Jah-Jah: I worship your musical self but i think you just made a v. strong case for how your work is totally different from yours. It would be fine with me if he photographed Cowboys next too (I presume Richard Prince would have no problem with that). Regal princess, no one owens anything. Regardless, his work has made a v. different point than yours. In the end it is about YOU not HIM. I beg your leave ...

Jerry Saltz
(I meant that J-J's work is "totally different from RM's")
about an hour ago
Jah Jah
Jah Jah
ok whatever- ill just work for Ryan Mcguinnly and hope i can get my rent paid from all his sales haha

Jerry Saltz
Jah-Jah: With your permission, I htink that in your inner-head you must leave the RM train of thought alone. It is irrelevant to what you do, how it is received, and what you will make. I am walking away slowly without turning my back to you, Oh Great Jah-Jah.

Jerry Saltz
Scott: What are you talking about? Who? What paintings? Since it was all public we need to know. Or it doesn't mean anything.
about an hour ago
Jah Jah
Jah Jah
thank u for your thoughts jerry you opened my eyes to another perspective:) bless

Sean Capone
Re: Felix Gonzales Torres quote--nice. That really said it perfectly. But I still think his ideas are better than his art.
Jerry: interesting connection between Edwards & Mehretu. I really like both, and see the connections without having known about their relationship. I could see them side-by-side in a themed show, however, without thinking they were biting each other's style. Maybe we should go back to the age of stylistic schools (AbEx, Impressionism etc) and duke it out that way!

Michele Gallagher
Hi Jerry -
RE Rae Simonsen wants to talk about "artists stealing ideas from other artists."
Dude Thats all the bitches seem to know how to do
Steal my Fing ideas
but because they are all hooked up with rich book and magazine publishers (bitches) they come out like Hey look at my book about crochet! They didn't give a Shiz about it till I was blogging it non stop Hence the stealing LOL But no worries I come up with original ideas every day they can't catch me... Read More
If too fast and dyslexic that works too

Love you Jerry
xoxo
crafty cameleon
aka lucky bastards club

P. Elaine Sharpe
As an artist I wondered often about my own responsibility in knowing the influences that passed from others into me. I remember my first moment of 'that bitch stole my idea'. I also recall the first time I saw someone else's work resolve an idea I had been roiling over, and did it so well that I gave up on the idea. No problem. I snoozed, I losed. ... Read MoreThe one thing that I find discomfiting, no matter how much I can rationalize it away, is when I make a work and then find out that someone senior to me has made similar work, and I have to stress the fact that it is the similarity in idea or concept that is most jarring, not the visual trope. Works can and do look similar, that's to be expected, but to work away on an idea that is borne of my own experience and thinking and to come upon it as executed by someone I should have known about, whether unexpectedly or have someone else point it out to me, is really a blow. If I steal or quote or pay homage, I prefer it to be a conscious act.

Ravenna Taylor
I am a nobody in the art world, but I've had artistic ideas "stolen" by people who are less and who are more accomplished, a couple times - an artist who took a studio space near mine, and another couple who were invited in for studio visits. Just seems like a good impetus to move on to me. I think artists who won't tell their secret medium's ... Read Moreformula, or whatever, are silly. Since I'm trying to make things I like to look at, if someone wants to help fill the world with my ideas, go for it. I'm no good at making myself famous. But I will just keep generating my ideas, which I will conjure out of my experiences, including my experiences of other art.

Susan Quaglia Brown
Where inspiration comes from is a mystery to me! I once unintentionally stole from an art critic! An artist friend was visiting my studio, commenting on my work, and I said "That painting is Jackson Pollock meets Andy Warhol." She looked at me astonished because she had just read those very words/analogy that morning in an art review about an ... Read Moreartist's work.
This kind of thing happens to me all the time, I pluck information out of the ether. Marie Louise von Franz (Jung's better half) wrote that we would be shocked to realize how un-original we actually are and how rare it is to have an original thought.

John Haber
It's important to recognize too that stealing has had different values in different times. Renaissance it's called doing your job or it's training. Pointillism it's ideology. Duchamp it's f** art. Walter Benjamin or Roz Krauss it's the death of the avant garde. Warhol it's that unique mix of love, loss, and detachment. Other Pop Artists its ... Read Morecelebration. Sherrie Levine's generation it's who owns art history. Now it's often self-aggrandizement. But it's never simply akin to copyright violation and is an essential part of the game.

Jerry Saltz
Hey: Get over to the REPOST. Everytime you post here now you'll delete someone above. I know you're all antsy to go for it but come on, be nice ....

Sean Capone
re: JahJah: "although in my work it is usually the actual situation as opposed to a totally staged composition". Isn't this the keystone of how your work is different than La McGinnley's? You are arguing about stylisms and effects.

Andra Samelson
didn't picasso say, "i never borrow, I steal"!

Jerry Saltz
I will pull this car over right now if you don't get over to the other post!!!!

Doug Henders
stealing is a form of homage. If someone is stealing your ideas and becoming successful then its a form of validation. Given the speed of information it will come your way shortly and the light will shine on you. Be ready.

currency

2009-08-19T12:37:00.001-04:00

DSC02919
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

Made in China

2009-08-03T22:08:00.007-04:00

Dharma Diaries
"4 of 21 days"
7"x7" watercolor, gouache and
acrylic on arches rag paper
July 2009

Paint Made Flesh

2009-07-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

Our summer workshop included a trip to DC to see the exhibition noted above as well as the Duchamp and Self-Portrait exhibitions at the NPG. Paint Made Flesh is an amazing exhibition and I regret that the video the Phillips is using to promote the show is pedantic... and doesn't really do the show justice. It's worth a visit to DC - maybe even two!

Tibet Talk

2009-07-27T18:02:00.001-04:00

Color, color everywhere.. How do I capture the Moving Cultures experience with word and image? I'll attempt a short show and tell on tomorrow at 12:30 in the VCU/AFO crit room. If you'd like a taste of what's to come please visit this link or with luck you'll be able to view the slide show I've embedded below.

Gwangzhou to Lhasa... and we begin again

2009-07-08T14:46:00.005-04:00

Dragon had a bus waiting for ALL of us this morning... (eastern and western teams)...a bus big enough to hold all of us and our many, many bags.

We drove across town to the older train station here in Guangzhou and then began to circle. There is no parking access for a bus such as ours...and we are anxious we'll need to schlep our bags across a great distance. Our guide Dragon proves to be an excellent problem solver... as he gets out of the bus from one gate/station entrance to another and requests access... he finally asks the gate guards if they have ever seen westerners before... and they hadn't! They grant us access so they can take our picture as we exit the bus and collect our luggage!!! We are an oddity here. This is a relief. I am amused and impressed with his solution.

We navigate security screening and follow Dragon to a waiting room that looks like something out of Soviet era architecture.... but with big comfy chairs. I discover a staff member hiding and asleep and we wait and look for something cold to drink. Cold? Dream on.

Once we begin to board the train and make our way to our assigned berths we realize we are not prepared for our accommodations.... our luggage won't fit. There is no air movement. We are hot and crammed into each berth...with team members we don't know. Sweat and frustration abound as Hetty, Dragon, Cindy and I negotiate the heat, the space and our luggage. Not pretty but we survive.

As soon as the train takes off things cool off a bit. We figure out where to put our gear and settle in for three days. Yes, three days of train. How many photos of the landscape can one take in three days? MANY. We wander up and down the car... to see who is where and how the facilities work and look. We listen to each other's music, read our travel guides and get to know one another. At some point I decide it is time to take my altitude meds... and that proves to be my undoing.

I escape into the hallway and sit on a bench and watch the landscape roll by... and try to get a grip on myself. I am not well. It may be a combination of meds... I am also taking a motion sickness medication... whatever is going on, its not the way I want to spend my time on the train so I find my bed, take an Ambien and crash for the night. I try to read. I try to focus. It is like a bad trip... and I am worried a bit.

Guangzhou Cake Walk

2009-07-07T23:02:00.001-04:00

Our two teams share a lovely respite of Chinese tea and fruit at the Orange Gallery. Pictured clockwise:
Andre, Hetty, Kate, the Orange Gallery director, Helen and Ivey.

Are traveling artists are more like cats or cattle? Should we each choose a Chinese animal name since the eastern team members was able to select a western name at some point in their life? This remains to be seen, or perhaps it depends on the context... but we of the west must manage to pull ourselves together to meet the eastern crew on Tuesday morning in Guangzhou. I don't remember how we made it to the train station. I must block all the memories that reference luggage, pain and movement. Maybe this data will resurface at another time. Maybe we shared cabs... I do remember most of the two hours of down time on the train before we arrived in Guangzhou.

Afterwards we had lunch with the Eastern team and discussed the parameters of the next few days. At some point today we will visit the Orange Gallery, our host for the closing exhibition near the end of July. Was our lunch in a private dining room in the hotel? Maybe. It was surreal. We met our official guide, Dragon and the Mr. Fang, the representative from the organizing travel agency. If the room weren't filled with blinding light I'd feel like we were part of a True Blood episode... as it was our first official meal together... east and west there were chop sticks and rice everywhere... with all the rest. Were we nervous? Perhaps.

Our room assignments for the three day train journey (three there and three back) and in Lhasa were made using a lottery method. Intercultural Dialogue insured - Irene and I are sharing here in the Star Hotel but beyond that it'll be a cake walk.

The eastern team members gave us transport to the gallery and back to the hotel. During tea I inquired about access to an acupuncturist and with much discussion afterwards. There is little time for such endeavors on this end of the journey but there is a willingness to help, which I appreciate. Hugh has received acupuncture treatment for a shoulder problem... so I am enouraged... but he was back home in Melbourne where acupuncture is a very common treatment and very reasonably priced. I am not sure how this will come together... in an afternoon. More research needed.

The western team is gathering for a bus ride to a shopping center... an opportunity to prepare for our train journey. I think I'll pass. All I need is water... and I could drink a gallon of Perrier if it were here before me. The heat is like a wall I didn't anticipate I'd have to scale. How could a place be warmer than New Orleans? It is. I left the crew and wandered across the large park across from the hotel. I saw an armed guard with a machine gun guarding a construction site. I discovered a Starbucks, sat in a garden, discovered the locals 'hood, walked by an Ikea and then, (voila!) next to it - a Construction Bank of China. Yippee! I realized that although I thought I was fine on currency I really only had the equivalent of about 30 dollars and I knew there would be no ATM on the train and who knows what we'll find in Lhasa. The bank was closing and could not do anything for me. One english speaking bank employee offered to convert the currency for me from their wallet but I didn't think that would be kosher. I need receipts. He helped me find an ATM at the bank that would work with an American Debit card! It spit out more RMB than I thought I'd need and I was not charged a fee.

I also bailed on dinner with the Aussie gang... I just don't have an appetite in this heat. I checked my email on Irene's computer and organized my gear as best I know how for the rail journey. It was a late night... but I took a walk in the dark... and tried to find a few of the things I could see from our hotel window. Hot. Surreal. Strange. Rooftop gardens, strange lighting... a little Bladerunner-esque - plus I found a cheap, exotic umbrella in the cigar/beer shop near the entrance to the hotel... I didn't find any aussies and no reason to stay out and endure the steamy heat. Lhasa will be a welcome change.

Irene is writing. I am painting and packing. Tomorrow we begin again.

Moon over Hong Kong

2009-07-06T23:36:00.005-04:00

DSC01876
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

My senses are overwhelmed by the sights and flavors of this place. I am reminded of Lost in Translation: jet lag, lost syllables, overwhelming transitions in time and structure. We made our way back on the ferry and out of the tunnel and back into Kowloon proper. A Banyan Tree engulfs a large percentage of the block across the street next to a Tiffany's that seems to be clinging to the block. After a day of dim sum, art and shopping for materials we made our way back to the Salisbury Y to check in on the arrival of the rest of our crew.

I can't remember what I did during our time at the hotel... maybe I made my reservation for our return? I think I met Louise and we talked about the pros and cons of the Louis Vuitton exhibition in the museum across the street. I confess I have no interest in seeing it as it is all work I've see before...repackaged for the Hong Kong / International press. Did I pack for Guangzhou? Its a mystery that only jetlag can explain.

I do know there was a dinner plan but I was not hungry. Everyone met in the lobby and walked past the museums to the point shown in the photo above... to see the Hong Kong skyline in all its byzantine global glory. There is a light show here every night... but I can't imagine how it can compare to the magnificance of this view. It must be something to see.

The restaurant was surreal.. with feathered columns and mirrors everywhere... part vegas and fantasy island. I was there for a beer and to get to know a few of the new faces that landed here this afternoon. I shared a light with Andre from the Australian contingent. He seemed very world weary and we've yet to really hit the rails. That's what jet lag will do to you.

After the meal a few of us walked the point and admired the wonder of a monument to Bruce Lee and looked for anything that would sell us something cold to drink. Hugh,
(Melbourne) Matt (Belfast) and I were up "for a wander" and were fortunate to find a Starbucks and a Pub prior to their closing... two choices (!)... and each shared a version of the view shown above with outdoor seating. I'll remember this place... even if I have no idea how much I am paying for anything at least I'll know where to spend whatever currency I have left at the end of this gig.

a dim sum day

2009-07-06T22:35:00.000-04:00

DSC01673
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

Thank god for Starbucks... I know, I know. its evil. Its bad... but when one is far from the comforts of home it can be a beacon.

We walked to the ferry which transports people between Kowloon and Hong Kong proper... and at this point I truly felt like we were beginning our journey. Irene is intimate with narrow alleys and secrets of Hong Kong so we were free to gawk and take photographs as she led us into the bowels of the city. We climbed the stairs off an alley to a wonderful shop full of Chinese paper, paint and brushes. It was heaven... it was cheap... and they took credit cards. It was hard to say no to quality of the materials for the price... so I had to focus on my eventual return and the three weeks between...still... it was a blast selecting a number of brushes and papers. After our art adventure we found my bank and a contraband Starbucks. Did I mention the intensity of the heat here?

We met Po Chung in the elevator of the China Club. He is the founder of DHL and founding benefactor of Metasenta. It was an honor sharing a dim sum brunch with this worldly man of the arts, philanthropic and business worlds... plus I knew that whatever food we'd have on our journey into China and Tibet... it is unlikely anything could be compared to this amazing meal.

The photo is taken from the stairwell looking into the first floor foyer. Note the gold fish in the porcelain platter embedded with porcelain erotica (figurines). It was part David Lynch and Ang Lee. Exquisitely real.

We climbed the stairs to see three or four floors of the club's collection of post war and contemporary Chinese painting, sculpture and prints - all curated by Mr. Po. We wound on the upper balcony for a view of Hong Kong I didn't anticipate. Is this real or jet lag?

no king kong in Hong Kong

2009-07-05T23:43:00.003-04:00

DSC01566
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

I managed to sleep for eight hours on the 15 hour flight... which was a blessing. We landed around 7pm on July 5... baggage claim, customs, et al was a breeze, mainly because there is strength in numbers. I was relieved to be navigating a strange airport and its potential mysteries with new friends.

After losing everyone while waiting for my luggage (one's bags are the last ones to arrive in the carosel when they are the first to be dumped on the flight)... Steve and the Princeton crew found the counter which handles the shuttle to the Salisbury. We managed to follow the shuttle directives (it was a little surreal) wound up on the bus with more tickets than we had people. That was a bigger deal to the shuttle driver than it was to us... everyone has their own priorities after 15 hours on a plane.

It was fun finally connecting the dots on the bus: artist with work, words with faces, etc. Upon arrival at the Salisbury we made our way through the surreal lobby (with duty free in tow) to check in with the color coordinated staff (very Lawrence Welk... but this observation was lost on the Aussies... ) ... there was a message from Irene - (wow... this is real!)... and a few surprises. I didn't expect a private room.

We met the rest of the western team (Hugh, Matt and Sarah) in the lobby and reviewed tomorrow's itinerary... the arrival of the other team members, etc. I must confess... I was distracted by the need of wifi since the Salisbury only offered a tragic internet corner in the damp cafe downstairs.

Hetty and I agreed to do a wee walk-about in the rain... since I was in search of an ATM for the Construction Bank of China and free wifi to confirm my arrival with the Harryman. No luck on either front... Hetty was together enough to email Harry for me from her blackberry while I stood in the doorway of the Starbuck's... (directly across the intersection from the Salisbury Y!) and searched for a signal...

It was a good thing, having a private room. I took every advantage of it.... stayed up late, did laundry, unpacked paint and paper... and fell asleep to an american tv show... soon enough these western comforts will be far, far away.

An unexpected view of the North Pole

2009-07-04T23:53:00.000-04:00

DSC01529
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

In search of Santa Clause? No. After a night of enduring pre-fourth of July fireworks in our 'hood I was fortunate to wake up for a moment on the flight to Hong Kong in time to see the North Pole. Stephen B. mentioned our route might take us north but I had no idea the geography would be so evident - or so beautiful.

I met up with Hetty and the Somers at Newark. We'll arrive in Hong Kong simultaneously jet-lagged and confused. I hope they have a good view of the world below because there is nothing worth watching on the entertainment channel... "Confessions of a Shop-a-holic" doesn't compare to the North Pole - with or without Santa.

The Life Cycle of Artists: Law, the Arts, and You

2009-07-02T14:52:00.005-04:00

The Life Cycle of Artists: Law, the Arts, and You

Part Four: Estate Planning Issues for Artists

Tuesday, July 7, 6:30-8:30pm

Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Dominion Room

Free to the public

Ever wondered… If you need a will? How to protect your artwork for posterity? If there are any tax issues that you should know about? Enjoy wine, beer and pizza as Richmond lawyers discuss these topics and more! Free educational seminar for visual, performing and literary artists presented by the Virginia Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and sponsored by the

Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

1812 West Main Street

Richmond, VA 23220

804.353.0094

summer blossom

2009-07-01T02:03:00.001-04:00

walk the walk: blossom
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

acrylic and mixed media on birch panel
12" x 12'

Tirefour Castle on the Isle of Lismore

2009-06-21T14:40:00.001-04:00

Tirefour Castle on the Isle of Lismore
Originally uploaded by Simon Bowen

Harry Kollatz and I said our marriage vows here on Summer Solstice 1996. To catch a glimpse of our day on Lismore visit this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amieo2/sets/72157620016632737/

Moving Cultures: Intercultural Dialogues

2009-06-13T11:35:00.005-04:00

Richmond artist Amie Oliver will be a research participant in Moving Cultures: Intercultural Dialogues during July of 2009.

Moving Cultures: Intercultural Dialogues is made possible through Metasenta, Projects Currently working out of RMIT University (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) with the support of founding benefactor The Po and Helen Chung Foundation.

Metasenta Founder and Director Dr Irene Barberis of the Western Team and Professor Isadora Jiang of the Eastern Team have designed "Moving Cultures" to be a multi-cultural, cross-disciplinary research and exhibition collective of people, place and processes situated in the ‘civic space’ of a moving train.

The project is devised through equal academic and organizational input from the Australian and Chinese contingent and is undertaken by invited researchers. Fellow researchers will include interdisciplinary artists, filmmakers, photographers, musicians, poets, writers,
linguists, and philosophers from China, Australia, Great Britain and the United States.

"Moving Cultures" raises critical questions about the desire for a Utopian future and the effect of globalizing processes. It also addresses the problematics of critiquing cultural processes while also being implicated by them via the very practices involved. The artwork and collaborative research that results from "Moving Cultures" will be exhibited at Gwangzhou University in China in late July.

The project will bring together diverse solutions, approaches and responses to the journey by creating an atmosphere of discovery and revelation. Oliver's participation in Moving Cultures was inspired by her experiences as an artist/educator/traveler. As an Associate Professor

at Longwood College Amie Oliver initiated and directed the Longwood College Art Workshop in Scotland program in Virginia during the early 1990's and has since participated in internationally diverse artist residencies in Vermont, Virginia, Paris and Germany.

Oliver's mixed media paintings and bookworks has been exhibited from Maine to Florida as well as in Germany, France, S. Korea and Great Britian. She is currently on the adjunct faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University and teaches painting at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. For more information on Oliver's participation in Moving Cultures: Intercultural Dialogues please visit http://amieoliver.net or one of the sponsoring organizations' websites below.

www.metasenta.com.au

Dr Irene Barberis
Director and Founder Metasenta Projects
Co-Head Drawing
School of Art
RMIT University
Melbourne
Australia

Irene.barberis@rmit.edu.au
Mobile: 0433138058

Field of Sunflowers

2009-06-11T18:01:00.001-04:00

Field of Sunflowers
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

This mixed media piece collage was exhibited in the WhoDunnit exhibition at Ghostprint Gallery in Richmond, VA this month.

Moving Cultures

2009-06-06T23:20:00.004-04:00

During the past few weeks I've been reviewing the work I've put together since last May. The Oberfalzer Kunsterhaus was a bit of heaven... like the VCCA in Bavaria. It seems like a dream when I look back at the paintings and photography from that time.

In one month I'll be headed to China to participate in "Moving Cultures" a project organized by Irene Barbaris, an artist I met during a residency at the Cite des Arts in Paris during 2006.

I have my ticket - now lets hope there isn't a delay getting my travel visa.

now and then

2009-05-30T23:46:00.001-04:00

Self Portrait with Medusa Sunflower
mixed media on two birch panels

Goxwa / May vernissage in Paris

2009-05-21T23:55:00.000-04:00

Goxwa does it again.
Wish I could be there.

Joe Siepel's World

2009-03-01T18:21:00.000-05:00

DSC09423
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

Sally Bowring, myself, Anna Von Gehr and Rob Tarbell gather around Joe Siepel's globe at "Save Planet Art," 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA
http://saveplanetart.blogspot.com

The Garden

2009-02-11T18:09:00.000-05:00

The Garden
Originally uploaded by Amie Oliver

Please visit http://saveplanetart.blogspot.com to learn more about the globe project. It was a fundraiser I conceived when I had the opportunity to recycle thirty globes for 1708 - in honor of thirty years of showing new art in Richmond. The website lists the thirty artists who participated in Save Planet Art.

GOXWA in Chelsea on Dec 11, 2008

2008-12-08T22:43:00.004-05:00

Opening Reception December 11th, 6-9PM

Axelle Fine Arts
547 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
tel. 212.226.2262

Gallery hours, 10:30 – 6:30 daily

http://goxwa.blogspot.com

Richmond in Ragtime : Socialists, Suffragists, Sex, and Murder

2008-11-16T13:41:00.006-05:00

Harry and the Happy Lucky Combo will be doing a collaborative/reading/performance at the NYD in Carytown on Thursday, December 11 from 7 = 8pm. Be there to hear my favorite Richmond historian ROCK before the cult of Harry!

rough cut 2 / InLight

2008-10-01T15:37:00.001-04:00

InLight Richmond

2008-09-30T18:47:00.003-04:00

Twist of Fate

2008-09-09T21:01:00.001-04:00

DSC05811
Originally uploaded by Amieo2

August managed to drift into September for me this year. I spent the month moving art between here and there and still have new paintings in Germany that haven't found their way home.

Now that September has settled in, Labor Day has faded and 1708's birthday candles and champayne are finished it is time to settle into new routines... but before I can really get into my new groove I've spent the day booking a flight to New Orleans, then Jackson and finally Miami. I've heard the triennial in NOLA is supposed to be world class this year. Maybe I'll get to see it.

Walk the Walk in a Bavarian Tagenbuch

2008-08-12T14:02:00.006-04:00

Amie Oliver - Über die Ästhetik der Avantgarde hinaus...

Es gibt ein wundervolles Wagnis bei den Arbeiten von Amie Oliver. Im Angesicht von van Goghs Errungenschaften braucht es eine Menge Mut oder ziemlich viel Naivität, wenn man der heutigen Öffentlichkeit Bilder von Sonnenblumen, vor allem in Verbindung mit Porträts, zeigt. Diese für sich „im Stillen" zu malen ist eine Sache, sie aber öffentlich zu machen schon eine andere. Dennoch ist es genau das, was Oliver gemacht hat und womit sie ihr Publikum herausfordert, ihre Arbeit ernst zu nehmen. Doch wie hat sie das bewerkstelligt? Die Arbeiten sind in einer realistischen(d.h. einer nicht-avantgardistischen) Weise übersetzt worden, die der modernen Ästhetik wenig Beachtung schenkt; weder beziehen sie die Moderne vollständig ein, noch stellen sie sich ihr stur entgegen.

Welche Referenzen ermöglichen dem heutigen Publikum infolgedessen Zugang zu solchen Arbeiten, einem Publikum, dessen ästhetisches Verständnis größtenteils von avantgardistischen Ideen der Moderne geprägt wurde?

Es ist gar keine Frage, dass die Avantgarde die Kultur der Moderne mindestens seit Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts charakterisiert hat. In Frankreich, angefangen mit Courbets Gemälde „Das Atelier des Künstlers" von 1855 und dann besonders in der Zeit von Manets kontroversen Gemälden von 1863, „Das Frühstück im Freien" und „Olympia", wurde klar, dass sich ein bewusster Bruch mit der Tradition im Bereich der Kultur ereignete.

Dieser Bruch hallte auch in den Entwicklungen anderer Bereiche wie Industrie und Technologie wider. Als der Fortschritt in diesen Bereichen anwuchs, gewann „das Neue" immer größere Bedeutung, und modern zu sein hieß nicht nur, die bestehende Ordnung anzugreifen indem man alte Herangehensweisen ablehnte, sondern es bedeutete auch eine nahezu bedingungslose Übernahme des „Neuen", als Realität sowie als Idee.

Vielleicht symbolisierte die Idee des „Neuen" den Fortschritt der Moderne und „das Neue" als Weg zu einem besseren Leben wurde zur „promesse de bonheur", die die Moderne antrieb.

Für Künstler des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde das Alte von der Akademie und ihrer Traditionen verkörpert. Jegliche Annäherung an die moderne Gesinnung bedeutete eine Ablehnung dieser Traditionen. Es bedeutete eine Aufgabe der klassischen Grundlagen, welche das Fundament des figurativen Realismus formten und eine Zuwendung zur Entdeckung neuer Formen und den Gebrauch neuer Materialien. In seiner extremsten Form, der Avantgarde, führte die moderne Gesinnung der Rebellion zu Entscheidungen hinsichtlich Form und Material, die vielmehr aufgrund ihres Schockvermögens als ihres künstlerischen und ästhetischen Wertes getroffen wurden; das ist schon bei den oben genannten Werken von Courbet und Manet sichtbar. Die Suche nach dem „Neuen" und die Erkundung dieses unbekannten Gebiets wurde zum inoffiziellen Ziel des Künstlers in der modernen Gesellschaft, vor allem das des Avantgarde-Künstlers. Trotz theoretischer Diskussionen über die Postmoderne und angeblich neuer kritischer Denkweisen verharrte dieses Ziel größtenteils an seinem Platz.

Die Neuerfindung der Form und der Gebrauch neuer Materialien und Medien zeigen immer noch auf, was als Vorreiterrolle in der Kunst angesehen wird; kurz gesagt, „das Neue" stellt immer noch den Rahmen, mit dem zeitgenössische Kunst beurteilt wird.

Das erklärt auch das aktuelle Phänomen, bei dem jungen Kunststudenten eine große Karriere machen können, noch bevor sie überhaupt ihr Studium abgeschlossen haben. Der Gedanke des langsamen Reifens und die Entwicklung der künstlerischen Arbeiten, etwas das durch eine ausgeprägte Sicht auf die Welt im Laufe des Alters errungen wird, spielt in diesem Szenario keine Rolle mehr – wie Thorstein Veblen in den ersten Jahren des letzten Jahrhunderts sagte: „Im Kampf zwischen Jung und Alt wird die Jugend Recht behalten!"

Aber wie kann eine Idee noch fortschrittlich sein, die schon seit über einem Jahrhundert besteht?

Hinsichtlich der vielen Veränderungen, die wir alleine in unserem eigenen Leben bisher miterlebt haben, können da die modernen Ideen des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts immer noch einen sinnvollen Kontext für die Kunst unserer Zeit stellen?

Um es hinsichtlich ihrer Arbeiten zu beurteilen, befasst sich Oliver mit diesem Problem in unüblicher Weise. Weder umfasst sie „das Neue" oder schließt es von vornherein aus; sie ignoriert es einfach, indem sie es nicht als ausschlaggebend für die heutige Kunst empfindet.

Somit macht sie die ganze Frage nach „dem Neuen" nicht nur irrelevant, sie untergräbt auch die Idee von einem avantgardistischen Bezugssystem. Mit dem Ergebnis, dass ihre Arbeiten und die der ihr gleichgesinnten Künstler unbeabsichtigt eine radikale Stellung anderer Art annehmen. Da ihre Kunst weder schlicht als reaktionär oder rückschrittlich abgetan werden, noch vollkommen als wegbereitend angesehen werden kann, setzt sie sich einer einfachen Kategorisierung und einer darauf folgenden Beurteilung entgegen (ob im positiven oder negativen Sinne). In diesem Sinne trügerisch und gerissen zu sein, mag der Punkt bei Olivers Kunst sein, sicherlich beinhaltet es ein Maß an kritischer Haltung gegenüber „dem Neuen" und ein Bewusstsein der heutigen sozialen Verfassung, in der die avantgardistische Unternehmung Amok lief. Heutzutage wird das Konzept der Avantgarde in der Kunst vom Kommerz übernommen, der nicht endende Strom an Werbungen mit neuen Produkten, so genannten „must-haves", zeigt das deutlich auf. Wir leben in einer Zeit, in der die ursprüngliche Idee des „Neuen" so gründlich von der spätkapitalistischen Kultur im Namen des Kommerz ausgebeutet wurde, so dass sich eine Annahme dieser Idee vielmehr wegen der aktuellen Modeerscheinung und ihrer Neuheit vollzog als eine geniale Rebellion in der Hoffnung auf soziale Veränderung zu sein.

Bei diesen Umständen kann „das Neue" nicht mehr als Revolution gegenüber einengenden und veralteten Traditionen verstanden werden.

Die Ansicht, dass die ästhetische Bedeutung nur auf einer Radikalisierung der Form, des Materials und des Mediums basieren sollte, ist nicht mehr so überzeugend wie sie einmal war. Letztendlich ist nicht nur die zeitgenössische Kunst zu einem Teil der Mainstream-Kultur geworden, auch die kulturelle Entweihung der modernen Gattung wird vielleicht bedeutungslos, wenn „das Neue" selbst zum Status Quo wird.

Sich gegen diese Situation zu stellen, heißt nicht, dass Amie Oliver oder irgendein anderer zeitgenössischer Künstler von der Frage nach der „stilistischen Kompetenz" freigesprochen wird. Es heißt eher, dass „stilistische Kompetenz" jetzt anders verstanden werden muss. Im Fall von Olivers Arbeiten dienen formelle Elemente, Linie und Farbe eingeschlossen, der Thematik und können nicht von Bedeutung und Inhalt getrennt werden. In ihren neusten Arbeiten beispielsweise vermeidet Oliver sorgfältig klare, starke Farben, die ihnen eine dekorative Lebendigkeit geben würden. Stattdessen wählt sie Farben mit sich beißenden Farbtönen. Hauchdünn aufgetragen scheinen diese Farben wie in der Luft zu schweben, als wären es gestaltlose Schleier, die im Raum treiben. Normalerweise erscheinen solche Farben am Rande zur Auflösung ins Formlose, zum reinen atmosphärischen Effekt zu werden; hier jedoch werden sie durch die Linie aus sicherer Hand in einem unruhigen Gleichgewicht gehalten. Diese Zeichnungen verankern ihre Farben auf der Oberfläche der Leinwand. Darüber hinaus haben sie eine eindringliche Körperlichkeit, die sichtbar wird, selbst wenn sie den Formen nur unmerklich Leben einhaucht, das einer menschlichen Figur oder einer Sonnenblume.

Auch wenn Olivers Arbeiten nicht unbedingt eine existenzielle Handschrift aufweisen, wie es zum Beispiel beim abstrakten Expressionismus der 50er Jahre der Fall ist, sind sie dennoch eine Ablehnung von anonymen, undifferenzierten Oberflächen, die typisch für fotografische oder digitale Bilder sind. Indem sie die Präsenz der Hand verdeutlicht ist ihre Handschrift genau so wichtig wie das Thema, mit dem sie sich beschäftigt. Eines der Dinge, dass ihre „Handarbeit" offen legt, ist die tiefe Verbindung zwischen der Künstlerin und dem Sujet während des Entstehungsprozesses. Das Behandelte ist nicht irgendetwas da draußen, abgelöst und getrennt vom Künstler, nur darauf wartend, von diesem in einem Augenblick eingefangen zu werden wie ein in der freien Natur lebendes Tier. Es besteht ein Moment intensiver und vorsichtiger Beobachtung, ausgehend davon erscheint nach und nach das Sujet vor den Augen der Künstlerin.

Die Thematik spielt wiederum eine andere Rolle in Olivers Arbeiten. Es bewahrt ihre Arbeiten davor, etwas zusammenhangslos aus der Vergangenheit zu holen, in der Gegenwart ohne jede Verbindung zur lebendigen Kunsttradition zu isolieren. Dass sie auf solche Verbindungen zur Vergangenheit besteht – und diese nicht einfach im Namen der Moderne abzulehnen – reduziert ihr Werk in keiner Weise. Eigentlich ist es genau anders herum. Es gibt ihren Arbeiten eine zusätzliche Bedeutung und Resonanzmöglichkeit durch die Assoziationen, die sie hervorruft. Gleichzeitig beeinflusst das Verständnis des Betrachters für die bisherige Kunstgeschichte, zum Beispiel seinen Blick auf van Gogh. Im Gegensatz zu seinen Sonnenblumen sind ihre ausgetrocknet, nicht mehr in der Lage, dem Verlauf der Sonne zu folgen, sie biegen und krümmen sich wie Soldaten, die nicht mehr stramm stehen können.

Ihnen haftet etwas Nachdenkliches an, das sich vor allem in Olivers Porträts äußert.

Ihre Arbeiten von Verfall und Vergänglichkeit durchdrungen, etwas das sich ganz klar von den jugendlich lebendigen Sonnenblumen van Goghs unterscheidet.

Olivers Werk, wie jede andere geniale Kunst, beeinflusst unsere Sicht auf und unser Verständnis von früheren Werken. Zur gleichen Zeit erschafft sie einen Raum, in dem sie ihren Arbeiten ihre eigene Präsenz und Lebendigkeit gibt.

Wie es sich Amie Olivers Kunst zeigt, Kunstwerke erhalten durch eine bewusste Bezugnahme ganz neue Perspektiven und Ansatzmöglichkeiten. All das braucht es, wenn ein Künstler bereit und natürlich auch fähig ist, Werke der bisherigen Kunstgeschichte herauszufordern.

-Howard Risatti

translated by Martin Wiesinger

the search for enlightenment

2008-08-11T07:46:00.008-04:00

I wish I could say I haven't been spending time close to my computer but that would be a lie. I've been preoccupied with a design challenge and spending so much time with my laptop that my neck feels like it need to be realigned.

The results of this endeavor can be seen in an ad being shown at the Byrd Theatre every night or in the website linked to the image above. While I was at it I decided I'd try to reinforce the lessons learned by redesigning my own homepage.

The weather this morning promises to be too good to waste it at a computer screen...

entranced

2008-07-20T13:21:00.004-04:00

I've been reviewing the imagery from my time in Bavaria over the weekend. This photo of Craig and Heiner exiting the doors of the Kunstlerhaus in Regensburg has a lovely resonance for me. It is light and dark, luminous and ominous... it hints of magic yet its neighbor is a very ordinary book store.

This memory may also be particularly clear because I misplaced my wallet that day. It had fallen out of my pocket in the car enroute but of course that was the last place we looked as we retraced our steps along the the ancient streets of Regensburg - well, 2000 years old... new testament, anyway.

Memory and Present Tense

2008-07-18T16:56:00.009-04:00

If you click on the file below you'll experience a more recent draft of "Starry Night," a video short I've been working on this summer. Please feel free to send comments. I'll be tweaking it over the weekend. The drum riffs were created by a friend from BGSU the versatile Louis Simon and the french conversation is a from a collection of language CD's I've assembled over the years with the goal of improving my French. Some version of Starry Night will be on view with dozens of other video and light inspired art on September 5 at 1708 Gallery's 30th Anniversary celebration InLight on Broad St.

ps wow. its amazing... the unexpected things that happen when a file is compressed! What an excellent test and evidence that I have much more work to do.... one aspect that changes drastically is the sound mix. The vocals are much more prominent afterwards. I suspect this is something I have limited control over in iMovie 5.0.2.

music to dance to

2008-07-08T16:24:00.003-04:00

Marionette is heading in to the studio again for the next several months with a new member: Tom Brickman. Tom has been a member of some of my favorite local bands - The Ululating Mummies when they once filled the stage at the FLOOD ZONE and the more intimate Broken Hips, to name a few. I am thrilled he'll be with one of our new fave bands, Marionette.

To celebrate their new venture Marionette is performing a free show this Thursday at 9pm at Toad's Place on the Canal Walk. The Try Hard Spring Band will also be performing - described as " a hot jazz trio with members of SPECIAL ED AND THE SHORT BUS. Think Django Rienhardt, Swing Kids, or a Woody Allen Movie with just strings."

InLight

2008-07-05T12:29:00.004-04:00

I've been reaquainting myself with iMovie over the holiday. Last weekend was strenuous with deadlines and freelance work so the long weekend has been a perfect respite for pulling together some of the ideas I've drawn up for an upcoming night of video and light infused art called Richmond InLight. The event will take place on First Friday, September 5 and is being created as a gift to the city of Richmond in honor of 1708 Gallery's 30th Anniversary.

Memento

2008-06-26T23:30:00.004-04:00

Please click on the title of this post to see a selection of images from the past month or so. It was a belle epoch.

Bavarian Tagenbuch

2008-06-23T17:51:00.008-04:00

Most of this work is still in Bavaria... as part of the Amerika Thrifft Bayern exhibition and another two person show that will open in July. I may not see it again until the end of 2008 so I posted it below for the record. It's so new I am not even sure what I think of it... so please consider it a "series in progress..." aptly titled "Bavarian Tagenbuch" which refers to a journal or diary.

Portraits: More Than Just a Pretty Face

2008-06-22T16:17:00.005-04:00

"la femme Sage" portrait of Jackie Wall 2007
Amie Oliver mixed media on birch panel 20" x 20 x 1"

excerpted from VCU press release:

"Portrait Exhibition Challenges Preconceptions"

The VCUarts Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Museum of the Arts, is pleased to announce its Summer 2008 Exhibition, Portraits: More Than Just a Pretty Face, on view June 20th through August 2nd, 2008.

This thought-provoking exhibition examines how portraits—be they artworks or everyday objects—use specific visual codes to assert individual identities, cultural norms, social roles and relationships between the person portrayed and viewers. It includes artworks in a range of media and dating from various time periods, including contemporary works by internationally renowned artists Cindy Sherman and Chuck Close, celebrated regional artists Thomas A. Daniel and Theresa Pollak, and emerging artists Timothy Rusterholz and Chinonyeelu Amobi. Many of the works have been lent by private collectors, artists, or fine arts galleries and are displayed alongside works from the Anderson Gallery permanent collection. A complete check list of the artists included in the exhibition is posted below.

Such things as baseball cards, currency, and mug shots are also presented to demonstrate that “portrait codes” are used not only by artists but also by marketing professionals, bureaucratic institutions, and anyone who has taken a snapshot of friends, families, or even pets. The salient questions that are posed in the exhibition— “How does the portrait employ or manipulate visual codes; to what end? What statement does it make about the person portrayed and who’s interest does it serve?”—draw from ongoing research by Dr. Eric Garberson, Associate Professor in the VCUarts Department of Art History. They explore the history of ideas surrounding the production and reception of portraits.

The idea for the show, curated by students enrolled in the Spring 2008 VCU graduate-level Museum Studies class, began with an intellectual challenge with which museum professionals grapple: How can academic research be displayed in an accessible yet appropriately sophisticated manner? Scholars are constantly developing new theories that change the way we think about art history,” said Samantha Best, one of the student curators for the show.

“Unfortunately, these cutting-edge theories often remain in academia without being concurrently presented to the public through exhibitions. With our show, we hope to bridge the gap between contemporary art historical research and museum practice." VCUarts’ Museum Studies program prepares students to enter the museum profession with sound foundations of critical awareness and practical knowledge. From a curriculum of readings and exercises designed to challenge the student's preconceived notions of the museum's function and role in society, students emerge with a clear understanding of current museological issues. Coursework fosters creative strategizing and critical thinking skills to meet the challenges of today's museum profession. Additionally, students gain practical experience through museum internships and projects such as Portraits: More Than Just a Pretty Face, which benefits from the ongoing support of Anderson Gallery.

“We are excited to have students use our collection to explore new curatorial ideas. The collection is a vital educational resource for VCU as well as for other museums and art institutions,” explains Amy Moorefield, Assistant Director and Curator of Collections of the VCUarts Anderson Gallery. The VCUarts Anderson Gallery is free and open to the public. Its summe hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 1- 5 pm. For more information about this exhibition or the Gallery, please call 804-828-1522, or visit our website at: www.vcu.edu/arts/gallery.

CONTACT: Anne Atkinson Blend Phone: 804-828-1845 E-mail: aratkinson@vcu.edu

Artist Unknown
Chinonueelu Uchechi Amobi
Deborah ArnettRobert Arneson
Matt Ballard
Bill Bamberger
I. Beckett
P.J. Beneduce
Edouard Boubat
Felix Henri Bracquemond
Chelsea Butrum
Chan Chow
Larry Clark
Chuck Close
Douglas Colie
Sandra Cornejo
Thomas A. Daniel
Diana M. Davis
DC Comics
Robert Doisneau
Elliot Erwitt
David Freed
Joan Gaustad
Nan Goldin
Sydney Goodman
Nancy Grossman
Richard Hamilton and Paul McCartney
Alex Harris
Cate Henry
Leslie Herman
Jonathan Hirsch
Mary Holland
Jerome Hopfer
Bradley W. Johnson
Buffie Johnson
Marion Junkin
John Kelly
Erika Koch
Jeff Lassahn
John Lennon
Micah Lexier
Adrien Lommelin
George Platt Lynes
Martson Hill Editions
Olan Mills
Layne Montgomery
Yasumasa Morimura
Robert Nantueil
Carla Nelms
William Old
Amie Oliver
G.S. Ovenden
Asam Parker
Marjorie Perrin
Photographer Unknown
Jack Pierson
N. Pitau
Theresa Pollak
Paul Pontius
Ruth Clide Proffitt
J, Protas
Larry Rivers
Alex Ritchie
Katie Robinson
Timothy D. Rusterholz
Alyssa C. Salomon
Jennifer Shephard
Cindy Sherman
Hunt Slonem
Pat Steir
David Tanner
Andre Thomkins
Dennis WInston
David Wurtzel

Please check back later for additional links.

REcent EndeaVor

2008-06-21T17:56:00.020-04:00

Amie Oliver "Bavarian Tagenbuch" mixed media on rag paper
12" x 12 " each May/June 2008

Amerika Thrifft Bayern
a few images: left an installation shot of the group exhibition Amerika Thrifft Bayern, right: digital print and mixed media on mulberry paper by an American artist and next to last on the bottom: kinetic sculpture and installation photo by a German artist.

a preview of coming attractions... my new work in Atelier 1 at the Kunstlerhaus.
The larger pieces will be shown in an exhibition at the Sparkasse in Schwandorf
later this summer.

„Amerika trifft Bayern“ – 8. Juni bis 27. Juli 2008

2008-06-05T11:48:00.008-04:00

Die Vorgespräche für den Künstleraustausch mit dem Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fanden im Juni 1988 statt. Heute blicken wir auf eine zwei Jahrzehnte dauernde Partnerschaft zurück!

Ein großer Dank an alle Gäste, Förderer und Künstler!
An der Ausstellung nehmen teil:
Ahart Shoshanna,
Avadenka Lynn,
Baumann Hubert,
Beck Ann,
Cahoon Craig,
Conrad Gisela,
Dorn Peter,
Engl Beate,
Gilbert Steve,
Glas Bettina,
Glas Heiner,
Goldman Jane,
Hoch Annegret,
Jacobs Blinn,
Jacobson Leah,
Kames Louise,
Kirchmair Anton,
Klier Fritz,
Moriarty Laura,
Oliver Amie,
Pylant Carol,
Rousseau Ann Marie,
Schröder Astrid,
Zitzelsberger Liz

Anläßlich des 20-jährigen Jubiläums des Oberpfälzer Künstlerhauses und des Künstleraustausches mit dem Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) komponierte der zur Zeit in Amsterdam tätige Oberpfälzer Komponist Andreas Mehringer ein neues Werk.
Um die Verbindung zwischen dem Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus und dem VCCA auch in der Komposition herauszustellen, wählte der Komponist zur Vertonung drei Ausschnitte aus dem Essay Season of the Body der amerikanischen Schriftstellerin Brenda Miller, die Mehringer
bei seinem Aufenthalt in Virginia im Herbst 2005 kennengelernt hat.
Die Komposition Season of the Body für Sopran, Baßklarinette, Baßposaune und Elektronika besteht aus den Sätzen Fearlessly, It's not my imagination sowie In utero und wird zu diesem Anlaß von der Sopranistin June Telletxea, der Baßklarinettistin Ainhoa Miranda und dem Baßposaunisten Dietmar Nigsch uraufgeführt.

Anderas Mehringer (*1975), Komponist, Filmemacher und Fotograf, studierte Komposition am
Rotterdamer Konservatorium. Seit 2004 lebt und arbeitet er als freischaffender Künstler in Amsterdam.

„In seiner Arbeit setzt sich Andreas Mehringer mit dem westlichen Lebensstil auseinander.
Dabei ist er auf spielerische und oft humoristische Weise den Widersprüchlichkeiten und Absurditäten unserer Gesellschaft auf der Spur.“
Brenda Miller ist die Autorin von Season of the Body (Sarabande Books, 2002)
und Co-Autorin von
Tell it Slant: Writing and shaping Creative Nonfiction (McGraw-Hill, 2003).

Sie arbeitet als Associate Professor im Fach Englisch an der Universität Western Washington und als Chefredakteurin der Zeitschrift Bellingham Review.

Zur Ausstellungseröffnung am Sonntag, 8. Juni 2008, um 11:00 Uhr
möchten wir Sie und Ihre Freunde herzlich einladen.
Season of the Body (Andreas Mehringer)

Satz 1:Fearlessly
Helmut Hey, Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Schwandorf
Begrüßung und Rückblick
Thomas Hanauer, 1. Vorsitzender des Fördervereins Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus e.V.
20 Jahre Künstleraustausch

Satz 2:It's not my imagination
Dr. Thomas Goppel, Bayerischer Staatsminister für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst
Festvortrag
Rupert Schmid, Bezirkstagspräsident Bezirk Oberpfalz
Grußwort
Suny Monk, Direktorin des Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Grußwort

Satz 3: In utero
Heiner Riepl, Leiter des Oberpfälzer Künstlerhauses
zum Ausstellungskonzept, Rundgang durch die Ausstellung
Im Park des Oberpfälzer Künstlerhauses (Südseite):
Nach dem Ausstellungsrundgang wird die Eisenplastik von Klaus Caspers „Der Tänzer”
vom Bezirkstagspräsidenten Rupert Schmid an den Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Schwandorf,
Helmut Hey, übergeben. Die Arbeit wurde vom Bezirk Oberpfalz und von Förderern erworben.

Im Stadel beim Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus:
Beim anschließenden Mittagessen sind alle Gäste herzlich eingeladen.
Dort finden Sie sicher eine gute Gelegenheit Künstler aus dem Austauschprogramm der letzten
20 Jahre zu treffen.

Kebbel Villa - atelier

2008-05-22T02:38:00.005-04:00

I've settled into the cellar of the Kebbel Villa, which is a printmaking studio. Maybe Kris Iden and I will have the chance to work together since she lives in the region? It is an idyllic site with a pheasant that visits Heiner Riepl's window every morning, mating snails outside the door and a nesting albatross on a chimney top outside the Oberpfalzer Kunstlerhaus.

This morning it looked like it could swoop down and take a pilgrim or two as a pagean rite of passage...or the season... it is a special German Catholic holiday today and I've yet to find someone who can translate exactly what holiday it is or the significance of the birch saplings that are cut and used to decorate so many of the shrines the pilgrims are led to.

In the meantime every Schwandorfer in town is drinking the local brew and eating bratwurst in the biergarten next to the Church. If only Harry were here...

An invitation to think about Jacqueline J. Wall

2008-05-14T05:29:00.002-04:00

Life is short. Art is long. Hippocrates got it right... altho there are exceptions to the rule like my beloved friend and mentor Jackie Wall. My 2007 portrait of her will be included in the exhibition described above. Jackie lived long, walked the earth as master of her destiny and friend of creatures great and small and left an estate of wonderful artwork and creative progeny in her wake. She lived a blessed life during difficult times. If you click on the link above it will take you to her obituary and a link to an interview with her on NPR.

I think she would be delighted to have my portrait of her included in this show.

Florida Excursion

2008-04-30T10:12:00.001-04:00

James River Film Festival highlight!

2008-03-31T13:17:00.000-04:00

The Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra is
performing a live soundtrack to the silent film,
“Nanook of the North”, on Saturday, April 5, 2008.
8:30 PM
Firehouse Theatre
1609 West Broad St.

Tickets are $10
Seating is limited to about 120.
Advance tickets are advised.
and available at Plan 9 and
James River Film Festival Events.
Click on the link in the title post for a
complete schedule of festival events.

This is the second time the Gourd Orchestra has performed to this
incredible film. The context will be very different... the acoustics
at the Firehouse Theatre are much different than those at the
Plant Zero Event Space where the Orchestra premiered this
composition last year.

The 2008 performance will engage the audience with
the creation of a few sound effects and build upon
the success of their previous orchestration for
NANOOK OF THE NORTH!

Opening at the Red Door....

2008-02-18T10:39:00.007-05:00

You are invited to the opening reception of

SUGAR and SPICE

new work by

Amie Cunningham
Kate Horne
Alison Hall
Katherine Shaw Sweeney
and
Amie Oliver

Friday
February 22
6-9 pm
The Red Door Gallery
1607 W. Main St.
355-0211

for more information on the Red Door Gallery please click on the title of this post

From top to bottom:

Amie Cunningham
Kate Horne
Alison Hall
Amie Oliver and
Katherine Shaw Sweeney

Please note that color variations change the appearance of artwork when it is viewed on a computer screen.

Lost and Found AGAIN

2008-02-08T13:50:00.000-05:00

NEW COLLABORATIVE WORK ON VIEW in
LOST AND FOUND
mixed media works by

Kate Duffy
Aimee Joyaux
Amie Oliver
Kathryn Purvis
Susann Whittier

After the show opened last month we decided to create a collaborative round robin... each of us began a new work and it was passed from studio to studio until all five of us participated in the process. I am looking forward to seeing the end result this evening and will post the results shortly.

To see the exhibition Lost and Found please visit:

Sol Cooper Gallery
306 N. Sycamore St.
Petersburg, VA 23803
804.240.6859

or click on this link to see photos of the opening reception!

Mali Music on Fulton Hill

2008-02-06T18:57:00.000-05:00

Cheick Hamala Diabate
2008 Grammy nominee

Cheick Hamala Diabate, the guitarist and ngoni player from Mali in west Africa will perform Saturday, Feb 16th @ 8pm at Fulton Hill's Neighborhood Resource Center , 1519 Williamsburg Road, just east of Church Hill and Shockoe Bottom.

Longtime global-jazz pioneers and Richmond faves Hotel X are hosting this internationally flavored event.
$10 donation is requested.
for more info :
804-864-5797

Visitation Station

2008-02-06T17:21:00.000-05:00

VCU DEPARTMENT OF SCULPTURE + EXTENDED MEDIA VISITING ARTISTS: SPRING 2008

Teresita Fernández
lecture: Tuesday, February 12 at 5:30 pm
VCU Grace Harris Hall,
Harris Auditorium
1015 Floyd Ave.

Teresita Fernández, [MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1992] was born in 1968 in Miami, Florida and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions internationally and abroad at sites including the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Site Santa Fe, New Mexico, Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy, the Witte de With in Rotterdam, and the Miami Art Museum.

Fernándezis the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards both in the U.S. and abroad, including the 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 1999 Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, and she has had residencies in Japan, Italy, and at ArtPace in San Antonio. Most importantly - she has an installation of new work on view at Reynold's Gallery this month.

from:
lehmannmaupin
grandarts
macfound.org
bio

Connie Butler
lecture: Wednesday, February 27
5:00 pm VCU Student Commons Theater
907 Floyd Ave

Connie Butler is the Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, a position she has held since February of 2006. From 1996-2006, she was Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Butler is the curator of WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, an international survey of feminist art which opened at MOCA in Los Angeles on March 4, 2007, and which will travel to The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY and The Vancouver Art Gallery. A selection of Connie Butler’s previous exhibitions at MOCA include Robert Smithson, September 2004, Willem deKooning: Tracing the Figure, 2002, Flight Patterns, 2000, and Afterimage: Drawing through Process, 1999.

She is currently working on a monographic exhibition of the South African artist Marlene Dumas, which will be co-organized by MOCA Los Angeles and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Connie Butler completed graduate work in art history at Berkeley in 1987 and, in 1996, did further graduate studies in the PhD program at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Butler has taught and lectured extensively and contributed to publications including Art + Text, Parkett and Art Journal.

from:
http://www.moca.org/wack/?p=273
http://www.frieze.com/feature_single.asp?f=1235 http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/connie-butler/174/

Please Note - the webmaster here felt that WACK exhibition at the Women's Museum in Washington DC was very disappointing. It was expensive, offered minimal discounts and a condensed version of the LA exhibition. The catalogue offered a much richer variety of work than the D.C. version of the show.

Su-Mei Tse
Lecture: March 27
(time, location TBA)

Metaphors of futility and longing mark Su-Mei Tse's (b.1973) art works with a young romantic sensibility. This Luxembourg-based artist has produced an eclectic body of work (violin, installation, photography, and sculpture) much of which relies on performance. Initially trained as a classical cellist, Tse still has a fondness for playing and strives to sensitize the audience to the complexities of sound.

from
renaissancesociety
ps1.org
nytimes
modernamuseet

for more information visit this link
Department of Sculpture + Extended Media
(804) 828-7176

Birthday Party

2008-01-30T00:15:00.001-05:00

WRIR, radio for the rest of us, will celebrate its 3rd birthday on February 1, which is also First Friday. It looks like it could be an interesting evening full of art and the music of Erin Tobey, the beloved No BS Brass Band, Dead Goats and one of our faves, TULSA DRONE.

It starts at 7pm, a little too early for the gallery goers but I think TD are the headliners and will perform near the end of the evening closer to 11pm. Admission is $3 if you have a birthday postcard and $10 of you don't! Tickets can be purchased at the door of the Renaissance Ballroom, located at 107 W. Broad St on the evening of the show. WRIR DJ's will be in action with slam poetry, birthday cake and a singuarly unique crowd - the rest of us - filling the ballroom.

Sol Cooper Gallery

2008-01-12T12:21:00.000-05:00

A detail from a new piece I made from this show:
No Reistance
conte and acrylic on wooden puzzel pieces
8" x 8" x 2"
2008

One of Susann Whittier's classic works

curated into this exhibition by Robert Lynch, owner of SOL COOPER GALLERY

If you click on this link it will take you to a collection of photos taken at the opening for LOST AND FOUND: Five Women working with Found Objects. Petersburg is slowing simmering with creative possibilities. I am confident that one day it will be a lively rue of truly charming, occassionally exotic collection of eccentrics and artists from all over. At present it is a little like a salad bar. There are galleries that perfer iceberg and others that go more for roquet!

Sol Cooper Gallery is an exciting indicator of what is possible in Petersburg.

Petersburg Treasure Hunt!

2008-01-11T11:43:00.000-05:00

You are invited to the Opening Reception for

Lost & Found

January 11, 2008

6-9pm

5 women create with found objects

Kathryn Purvis

Sol Cooper Gallery, 306 N. Sycamore St., Petersburg, VA 23803

(804) 240-6859

I've been bombarded by the promises and the creative potential of a new year, hence my later return to Angels and Infidels! Please join us this evening to celebrate the work of the artists listed above. I'll post photos later for those of you who live too far to make the drive!

Finally, some real ink

2007-12-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

On December 23rd at 6pm I'll start taking down "Walk the Walk," a collection of more than sixty mixed media drawings and paintings created over the eighteen months in 2006 and 2007. After a three month run at Plant Zero I am pleased to announce that the show was reviewed here.

If you happen to pick up a copy of Style Weekly this week you'll also notice that they graciously reproduced two other pieces and one of those if of my dear, departed friend Jackie Wall. A color reproduction of that painting can be seen here.

The art dialogue in Richmond evolves around "process" so I'll take the dialogue one step further and tell you all that have time to read the review (in this busiest of seasons!) that I refer to my technique as "staining" or a series of washes rather than "spilling." Spilling refers to "accidents" and I can tell you, there aren't that many accidents in what I do though I am always open to the "happy accident."

A watercolorist would understand this way of working and it is also something particular to working with acrylic or flashe or any water-based medium. It relys on transparency and a degree of control over the elements of water and gravity in relation to the surface one is washing or staining... but this is something I don't think anyone would want to read about so I'll leave it at that. If you are interested in seeing more of this work please visit my website! If you click on the picture you'll wind up with a slide show of the catalogue for WALK THE WALK and it includes a thoughtful essay by Howard Risatti. He saw the work outdoors originally, prior to the show and I know that changes context and how the work is perceived. It is something I'd like to explore further... come to think of it Anaba has fun with some of these ideas in relation to his own painting.

Blogger has introduced a new kind of scrolling slide show... whenever I have time I'll post the exhibitions sequence of images here using this new system. In the meantime I've posted a sequence of sunflower (tournesol)and portrait paintings on YOUtube and they can be seen below:

Industrial Arts

2007-12-16T23:54:00.000-05:00

For those of you who may need to escape the dreary skies and pressures of holiday hysteria you can ponder the artifice and industry of Roberly Bell's sculptural installations here. She recently had a show at ADA Gallery in Richmond and I found her work to be fascinating.

Those of you who who have an appetite for the silliness and camp potential of the season you'll likely enjoy this. Ho, Ho, Ho....

My friend Jackie Wall

2007-12-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

20" x 20" flashe, acrylic and graphite on birch panel 2007
part of WALK THE WALK on view at Plant Zero through December 23rd
the obituary below was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on December 13, 2007.

WALL, Jacqueline J. "Jackie", passed away on December 10, 2007 surrounded by the beauty of her land. Jackie was born to the late Geoffrey and Olga Jardine in Calcutta, India. At the age of six, she moved to England with her aunt, Marjorie Cleghorn. At 14, she traveled with her aunt through Ellis Island en route to Baltimore, Md. During WWII, Jackie served in the WRENs (Women's Royal English Navy) in Norfolk, Va. Jackie Wall attended Longwood College and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Westhampton College with a degree in Psychology. In 1952, she married the late J. Barrye "Bo" Wall Jr. and lived in Farmville. She worked for The Farmville Herald as a staff writer and compiled a cookbook of the best known recipes in the area. Jackie received her Masters in Art Education from V.C.U. She taught art at Prince Edward Academy, the Campus School of Longwood College and Prince Edward County Public Schools. She was also a professor at Longwood College, teaching art education and supervising student teachers. While at Longwood, she was instrumental in procuring the Governor's School for the Arts for the college. She was director of the summer program for the years it was at Longwood. Upon retirement from teaching, Jackie became a full-time artist, her work being shown in galleries in Virginia and North Carolina. She drew her inspiration from her land and her spiritual beliefs. Jackie Wall is survived by her three sons, Barrye of Singapore, Geoffrey of Greensboro, N.C., Angus of Los Angeles, Calif.; one daughter, Marcie of Richmond; and three daughters-in-law, Victoria, Charlotte and Linda. She also has seven grandchildren, Jardine and Eliot Wall, Kenny, Ian, and Alex Wolfe, and Quinn and Jake Wall. In addition, she leaves behind adopted members of the family, Eleanor and Sidney Trent, and their family and many loyal and generous friends. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts, Office of University Advancement, Longwood University, 201 High Street, Farmville, Va. 23901 for the Jackie Wall Memorial Fund. Online donations can be made here.

Please note the one time donation to be allocated to "Other" and specify "LCVA-Wall Memorial". Memorial services will be held at John's Memorial Episcopal Church in Farmville on Saturday, December 15, 1 p.m. Doyne-Burger-Davis Funeral Home is in charge.

To hear Jackie talk about her life in an interview on NPR you can listen to the second part of the Separate but Unequal story linked here.

progression

2007-11-25T18:58:00.000-05:00

I've been on a quest... trying to finish new work for a show at 1708 as well as some new small work to take to Miami. I would like to show the work on the left at 1708 but I think it might exceed the size limitations.

All four works are around 20" x 20", acrylic and flashe on linen.

I sold the one on the end over the past month so it might be the right time to show the others. This series was created around Palm Sunday of 2006 while working on a residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts.

Post Turkey Plans

2007-11-23T23:09:00.000-05:00

I took the advice of a Richmond friend who is living in Miami last night. I had planned on flying into MIA for ART/BASEL but she said JetBlue had some real deals into Ft. Lauderdale... she was right... direct... cheap... no frills!!!

It is time to gear up for the hot art fair elaborated on here. I've never been to Miami and I am very excited about visiting my friend and her growing family... the video linked here makes me apprehensive but I know better than to pay much attention to it. I've been to FNAC in Paris several times, the AFFORDABLE ART FAIR in NYC and even SCOPE and the Armory Show... but somehow the all of the hype for the fairs mentioned above combined don't begin to equal what I anticipate in Miami. I must say I love the French Art Fairs because I don't notice the hype... it seems far, far away in the land of those fluent french speakers.

A Rainy Night in Artland

2007-11-21T16:10:00.000-05:00

I've been uploading photos to flickr this week. For some behind the scenes images of the DICTATION performance please visit here. To hear the interview with Tim Bowring about the performance and exhibition please click here!

Side Streets opens tonite at the Glave Kocen Gallery

2007-11-16T09:57:00.000-05:00

The new Glave Kocen Gallery is featuring a new exhibition of Richmond Artists, sponsored by Richmond Magazine. SIDE STREETS opens Friday, November 16 at 7pm and it features the work of the artists listed below:

Mehmet Sahin Altug,
Andras Bality,
Melissa Burgess,
Adam Ewing,
Kimberly Frost,
Steve Hedberg,
Sterling Hundley,
Matt Lively,
Laura Loe,
Robert Meganck,
Amie Oliver,
Jay Paul,
Louis Poole,
Keith Ramsey,
Fiona Ross,
Jeff Saxman,
Gordon Stettinius,
Chris Smith,
Doug Thompson,
Ed Trask,
Sarah Walor,
Steven Walker,
Robert Young

A portion of the proceeds of this exhibition will benefit ART 180.

ALSO!
Rob Tarbell will be showing his latest work "Struggles" at ADA Gallery, reception tonight from 6-8pm. Ceramic artist Fiona Ross says Rob's new porcelain sculptures are FREAKYGOOD!

I posted a variation of this on the 1708 blog this morning and it took so much friggin time to look up all the artists websites that I haven't had time to write about SPINNING INTO BUTTER which is running at the Firehouse Theatre Project through Saturday evening. It is an incredibly funny - and relevant play. It nailed academia so acutely it gave me the chills. Afterwards there was a talkback that gave us food for thought on the way home. It is one of the best plays I've seen in quite sometime. Ed Slipeck created an amazing set, the casting was flawless and Morrie Piersol did a fabulous job leading this group of thespians to success. More information on the play and the Firehouse can be found here.

Big Weekend

2007-11-16T09:19:00.004-05:00

Tis the season for merriment and the culmination of much effort to raise funds for many good causes. This weekend the 43rd Annual Richmond Craft and Design Show will feature craft artists from around the country at the Science Museum of Virginia. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Visual Art Center of Richmond.

My friend Tom Mann will be passing through town on November 17 to catch up with friends and see my show at Plant Zero. If all goes as planned we'll also make it to the Bryan Hoffa Benefit at the Expansion Joint near Plant Zero. Bryan, a local musician is fighting for his health and the local music community is doing what it can to aid him in the process.

Spokane, Tulsa Drone, Marionette and Mammy will be performing. Tulsa Drone is a fave of ours so we're psyched to hear them again for a $10 donation! The show will run from 7pm to midnight and your donation includes an array of organic foods to choose from!

Selections from Walk the Walk!

2007-11-15T11:02:00.000-05:00

"Walk the Walk" on view at Plant Zero until Dec 23, 2007

An invitation to taste wine from the Rhone Valley and more...

2007-11-12T09:28:00.000-05:00

November is filling up and we haven't even thought about Turkey Day. For Harry's distinctive overview of our last collaboration please visit his blog. I love living and working with a true wordsmith.

Virginia Legislative Districts

2007-11-11T15:24:00.000-05:00

Harry is on deadline at work so I gave myself the task of finding a good source for determining one's legislative district. It's that time of year - grants are due and most srtists file this information in a part of our brain that we dust off once a year.

Harry, my witness to this life we live, as well as a professional journalist is my best resource but today I've done the legwork and have linked it here.

Selections from Walk the Walk...

2007-11-09T23:24:00.000-05:00

I've been wading through my digital files looking for images to pair for slides. There are a number of shows coming up, deadlines, etc. I think the arrangement of images in the catalogue for the show may be more compelling... what do you think? Please advise!

memory of a megaphone

2007-11-07T13:07:00.001-05:00

Above: a photo from my installation "Walk the Walk" in the Project Space at Plant Zero prior to our performance. Below: video clips documenting the performance "Dictation" by Harry and I, and featuring cameos by art cheerleaders Kendra Wadsworth and Rebecca Goldberg Oliver. Videography for "Dictation" courtesy of acclaimed indie filmmaker David Williams. The installation now includes a DVD player which shows the video work in the context of the installation and components.

Tim Bowring's Zero Hour with Amie and Harry

2007-11-05T16:03:00.001-05:00

This is an experiment - I've never embedded an audio file of this length and had to convert it from an aiff file.... Enjoy! I am not crazy about the widget and link but at least the interview is available and archived! Thanks, Tim!

Tim asked us questions about our various projects and our collaboration on DICTATION. Two of the art cheerleaders were on hand to support our endeavor. To see David Williams video of the event click here.

Langdon Graves @ ADA

2007-11-04T23:40:00.000-05:00

An overview of Langdon Grave's current installation at ADA.

I've been following Langdon's work for a number of years. She has a provocative installation of sculpture and drawings on Broad Street at the moment. Roy Proctor wrote a feature on her work which can be read here. The show closes on November 11 - so check it out!

Nathan Tersteeg and Charles Yuen each have solo shows up that are a great counter to Langdon's new work.

Timeless Views from a Southern Artist

2007-11-01T11:30:00.000-04:00

From top to bottom: Sambo Mockbee, Geoge Ohr, Eudora Welty
and Walter Anderson

I ran across the post italicized below in Lennie's archive and enjoyed it. I've been following James Bailey's blog for quite a while (Burning the Flesh Off Modern Art) so I was compelled to read his summary of the best DC exhibitions from 2004... Everything in italics is excerpted directly from Lennie's post, linked above. I am not sure where the original TOP FIVE LIST was published.

Leave it to James W. Bailey to take a simple listing of the top visual art shows from our region and end up with several thousand words on the subject.

Here's his Top Five List:

2004 – The Year a Small Army of Mississippi Rebel(lious) Artists Invaded Washington, D.C.

For the last couple of years I have enjoyed some success (well, some might say so!) as a critically acclaimed experimental photographer who has been exhibited across the country, internationally, as well as right here in the Washington, D.C. area. As a native son of Mississippi, I have been proud and honored to represent my home state with my art.

I currently live in Northern Virginia and my wide range of artistic activities keeps me in constant contact with many independent visual artists, as well as with a large number of arts professionals who work with some of the most important museums, art centers and art galleries in the country.

Wherever I travel to exhibit my photography, my Mississippi background seems to quickly become the subject of intense conversation. Art knowledgeable people outside the South are fascinated by Mississippi; yet, the question I get asked most often lately by non-Southern art elites goes something like this: "How did an open-minded liberal white artist like you ever manage to develop in such a backward state that is on the bottom of every list that is so steeped in racist attitudes with such a hate filled history and populated with so many ignorant conservative Republican Christians?"

Of course, the art sensitive people who ask the above question are usually far too sophisticated to use such crude and direct language (the way we routinely do in the South!) so I’m forced to try and translate their unspoken thoughts... but I’m sure you get the point.

The negative stereotypes about the people of Mississippi are incredibly pervasive in the cosmopolitan world of high art. Many educated arts professionals that I deal with in the Washington, D.C. area seem to operate under this absurd media induced stereotype that the average white Mississippian is a dangerous gun-toting NRA member NASCAR-fan racist redneck Republican who drives around in a beat-up pick-up truck with Rebel Flag bumper stickers plastered all over his vehicle cruising the back roads of the state looking for liberal democrats to beat up.

Many people in the rarified heights of the art world don’t know, and don’t really want to know, anything about the real Mississippi. That’s a shame because this place called Mississippi, with a population less than 3 million, has produced more creative people than any other place in the United States of America.

But despite the condescending comments mouthed by those art snobs who soar in the thin air of high altitude art with the rest of the enlightened and seasoned cultural elite, the meaningful cultural legacy of the grounded dynamic multi-cultural vibrancy of artist heritage of Mississippi will be around long after these people have passed into historic obscurity and, indeed, long after the United States of America even ceases to be united. And no matter what happens in this world, no matter how bad things get, the creative energy of artistic Mississippians will continue to be one of the major forces of passion, hope and love of life that will inspire the world to be a better place.

Black or white, race doesn't matter, artists from Mississippi have a deep love for the world and have longed shared their talents (talents born from a reality that many of the elites in the world of high art will never understand) in a genuine effort to make the ordinary genuine person who lives in every neighborhood in America, and in every neighborhood of every country in the world for that matter, laugh or think or smile or cry.

This is what being a passionate liberal Mississippi artist and proud conservative Southern person is all about for me.

If you don’t get it, you never will... I guess it’s just a Southern thing.

There were 4 deceased Mississippi artists who have had a profound artistic impact on the world who were exhibited and/or noted in a major way in Washington, D. C. in 2004.

There was also a 5th living Mississippi artist/photographer who may have had (some are saying he did!) a certain impact in the D.C. area as well; I will let someone else comment on that fella’s contributions, if any, when that glorious day arrives:

1. Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee - "Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio: Community Architecture" at the National Building Museum.

"A true architect practices all three professions simultaneously. The role of an architect/ artist/ teacher is to challenge the status quo and help others see what the possibilities can be." – Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee

Only in the South could a white man get away with insisting that he be referred to as Sambo!

Sambo worked in architectural practice for many years prior to founding the Rural Studio. In 1977, immediately after completing his internship, he founded Mockbee Goodman Architects with friend and classmate Thomas Goodman. The firm quickly built a regional reputation for utilizing local materials in its exceptional designs, winning more than 25 state and regional awards in four years.

Architect Samuel Mockbee was convinced that "everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul" and that architects should lead in procuring social and environmental change. But he believed they had lost their moral compass. The profession needed reform, he believed, and education was the place to start. "If architecture is going to nudge, cajole, and inspire a community to challenge the status quo into making responsible changes, it will take the subversive leadership of academics and practitioners who keep reminding students of the profession’s responsibilities," he said. He wanted to get students away from the academic classroom into what he called the classroom of the community.

Architecture students enrolled in the Rural Studio actually live in and become a part of the community in which they are working. This "context based learning" format teaches them critical architecture skills with an eye towards social responsibility. It is said that to his students, Mockbee presented architecture as a principle that must be committed to environmental, social, political and aesthetic issues.

Samuel Mockbee was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant in 2000 shortly before he died at the age of 57. He was post-humously awarded the 2004 AIA Gold Medal by the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects.

I considered Sambo to be a friend, an inspiration, a humanitarian and a consummate artist.

2. Walter Inglis Anderson – "Walter Inglis Anderson: Everything I See is New and Strange" at the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building.

"I am continually arriving from some strange place and everything I see is new and strange." – Walter Inglis Anderson

Southern museum goers and art collectors have known of Walter Anderson for more than 50 years. They were introduced to him in 1948, when Memphians John and Louise Lehman persuaded Louise Bennett Clark, director of what was then the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, to mount the first show ever of Anderson’s work. Art critic Guy Northrop, writing in The Commercial Appeal, instantly declared him a "genius." Memphians saw that genius at work again in 1950, when the Brooks focused on Anderson’s block prints, watercolors, and ink drawings, and again in 1967, when the museum put together a major retrospective.

Southern artists knew of Anderson too. Burton Callicott, painter and instructor at what would become the Memphis College of Art, traveled to Ocean Springs in 1948 for a crash course in pottery under Peter Anderson, the artist’s brother and head of the family’s business, Shearwater Pottery. (Walter’s "gift" to Callicott? A mound of clay, no note attached, one morning at Callicott’s door.) MCA students still camp every summer on Horn Island, Anderson’s Gulf Coast retreat 10 miles offshore from Ocean Springs, and the work they do there is still exhibited at the start of every school year.

Did Anderson have an "uneasy" life? Yes, to judge from Anderson’s difficulties as a breadwinner and also from the history of his sometimes fragile mental health — periodic verbal and physical violence, sudden disappearances, incidents of self-mutilation, cryptic utterances, and near-catatonic states, until Anderson, in a series of hospitalizations, underwent treatment at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield.

But it was Horn Island that, in a sense, saved him.

3. George Edgar Ohr – "The Mad Potter of Biloxi" by Bruce Watson in the February 2004 edition of the Smithsonian Magazine.

"I am the potter who was." – George E. "The Mad Potter of Biloxi" Ohr

Despite his reputation for eccentricity, George Ohr was a hard worker. In the later part of his life, he produced quality art pottery that will be appreciated and remembered for centuries. George cultivated the idea that he was crazy, calling himself "The Mad Potter of Biloxi." He said that he was "unrivaled" or "unequalled" and was, by his own estimation, the "world's greatest potter." His antics, self-promotion, and playful spirit are what people remember, rather than what was more likely the case, a determined artist who sought to create attention to his creative production through his eccentric character.

Ohr's skills exploded when he became an "artist-potter." His claim there were "no two alike" was true. The pinched, folded and twisted clay forms, thinness of the clay wall, fluidity of form, tendril-like handles, and freshness of Ohr's creations illustrate a technical skill that is still unrivaled. One hundred years later, potters marvel at his skill and cannot rightly say exactly how it was done. Critics of the day praised Ohr's glazes, but as his admiration for pure forms executed in clay increased, he left many pieces unglazed in bisque form. He believed only in this state could the form be clearly perceived.

Ohr's serious creations did not find popularity with the public. And because the Victorian art pottery of the day was carefully controlled and decorated, Ohr’s energetic and expressionistic treatment of clay was too wild even for refined tastes. Ohr was passionate about his work and supremely confident in his talent. He wrote to an art critic, "I am making pottery for art’s sake, God’s sake, the future generation, and — by present indications — for my own satisfaction, but when I'm gone my work ... will be prized, honored and cherished." In l899 he packed up eight pieces and sent them to the Smithsonian Institution. One of the pots was inscribed, "I am the Potter Who Was."

4. Eudora Welty – Passionate Observer: Photographs by Eudora Welty at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

"I traveled the entire state of Mississippi taking pictures. I saw so many people who had nothing.. . . But even as people struggled, I was aware at a deep level of the richness of life going on all around me. I felt something about this time so strongly that the image stayed with me always." — Eudora Welty

Welty’s career as a photographer comprised a brief part of a long life, but it complemented her later work as a writer. In the late 1930s, Life magazine published Welty’s photographs. She also had exhibitions of her more artistic photographs in New York in 1936 and 1937. In the early 1940s, Welty’s career as a photographer for the most part ended after she decided to instead concentrate on writing.

The photographs that Welty took while traveling through Mississippi for the WPA didn’t get published until nearly four decades later in the book "One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression." However, Welty’s photographs were never widely exhibited during her lifetime, besides a few limited-edition portfolios. In fact, most people did not even know of her years as a photographer until after her death in 2001.

5.) GUESS WHO?
What does it mean to be an artist from Mississippi? Simply this: It means being true unto yourself and your vision and trying to do the right thing.

Where am I going?

What am I doing?

I don't know I don't know

Just try to do your very best

Stand up be counted with all the rest

Cos everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

– Mississippi Goddamn by Nina Simone

My strategy for dealing with these questions is different than most southern men. I just try to do good work and if people take time to read my bio and ask questions they will learn that I grew up in Mississippi and come from a long line of farmers, choctaw indians and french indian scoundrels. I complained endlessly about the backwardsness of my homestate when I was in college - usually to my Dad. The most true thing he ever told me:

"Daughter, Mississippi is last in everything...Its last in this, and this and this (he gave specific lasts the state was known for at the time)... and then he proceeded... and when the rest of the world goes to HELL we'll be the last to go."

What is very ironic is that this past Sunday I was walking across the James River (not on the rocks, though we likely could have with the current drought conditions) but over the Mayo bridge... with a colleague from DC and another from here that we came across on the bridge. I introduced my two friends and we compared notes on our Sundays... my friend from here said that she had a strange meeting her parents that morning... they met and determined what meeting points they would utilize in case of natural or terrorist disaster... and what local and national strategies they would exercise based on the "situation" at hand.

I proceeded to convey my father's truism about Mississippi and I invited my friend from DC to make her way here to join me on my journey south... (She lives seven blocks from the Capitol...) first to gather relatives in NC and then to proceed to last place on earth to go if everywhere else has gone to h... .. it sounds like Mr. Bailey will be right behind us.

David Williams' short video of DICTATION

2007-10-31T23:46:00.000-04:00

Ay yi yi. October is finally over - in seven minutes. Maybe NOW, during November there will be time to breath freely and take in the season? (please?) The Harryman and I have a number of events on our calendar but nothing could compare to the frenetic pace of October. If "True Richmond Stories" were published in 2008 instead of 2007 how would it describe the past month? An ode to my bronchial crud? A few notes dedicated to the Folk Festival?... but that is all for naught. November is here. The David Williams video above documents our performance of DICTATION @ Plant Zero this past Friday.

Most everyone you see in the video braved awful pouring rain and wretched traffic to be there - I suppose there could be a few people who were already at Plant Zero when it started raining cats and dogs... but most of the rest of us would have been home otherwise! Of course... THE SHOW MUST GO ON (!) and it did. David Williams was especially wonderful to get out in the weather and shoot and edit the DICTATION video for us. David is most known for his films "Thirteen" and "Lillian." I was fortunate to work with him for several years during the making of "Long Art." Guest artists include two of the Richmond Art cheerleaders: Kendra Wadsworth and Rebecca Goldberg Oliver.

The DVD monitor at Plant Zero will also feature the Praxis Trailer (the other video depicted here) which I put together earlier this year. I hope I'll be able to go in and re edit the credits since they are practically unreadable in the smaller format. I can understand why so many artists and painters go into film and videography... if your media/technology works it is kinda fun.

DICTATION: Oct 26 @ Plant Zero 7:30pm

2007-10-25T10:50:00.000-04:00

What: a short performance piece with guest Harry Kollatz, Jr that is part of WALK THE WALK: new work by Amie Oliver which closes on December 23

When: 7:30pm October 26, part of the FOURTH FRIDAY artwalk which runs from 7 - 10pm

Where: Project Space of Plant Zero Art Center, 0 E. 4th St in the Manchester District of Richmond, VA

for more info:
listen to WRIR's (97.3 FM) ZERO HOUR at NOON on Friday, October 26, Tim Bowring's weekly interview program. Tim has weekly conversations with local artists about art, culture and society in Richmond. Friday, Oct 26 will feature Amie and Harry talking about DICTATION, Walk the Walk and Harry's new book TRUE RICHMOND
STORIES.

TRUE RICHMOND STORIES will be for sale after the performance for anyone interested in purchasing a signed copy

True Richmond Stories

WRIR 97.3 FM

Pollak Prize Quote of the Day!

2007-10-20T14:51:00.000-04:00

"You were soooooooo good!"
- Mandy Moore, pop singer and star of HBO's Entourage
talking to Harry Kollatz, Jr, Master of Ceremonies

Last night I collected myself and the arsenal of remedies I am taking for whatever strain of crud that's been draining into my bronchial system. I knew it would be a well worth the effort since it was the tenth anniversary of the awards ceremony for the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts.

Several friends and colleagues were award recipients and then of course my better half, the Harryman, was the M.C.

I sat in the back row to avoid interrupting the show with my coughing and it proved to be the best place to take in the spectacle of artists being moved by the rare opportunity to watch other Richmond artists receive accolades.

My two favorite responses to Harry's "suave"* introductions were Jerry Donato's and Johnny Hott's. When Jerry was asked if he had anything to say he simply said "no." After the standing ovation he and Joan Gaustad received for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts he was probably speechless. Joan nearly swallowed her words with emotion.

When Johnny Hott accepted his award for Excellence as a Vocalist/Instrumentalist he walked on stage with with his lovely, if tearful, six year old daughter Odessa and said he didn't know if he would be the musician he is today or be part of the Richmond music scene if it weren't for his friend Bryan. These two acceptances both brought tears to my eyes which quickly evolved to laughter with Mr. K's laser wit. He was "on" last night and it added another level of joy to a beautiful evening at the Singleton Performing Arts Center.

The complete list of the award recipients for the
Theresa Pollak Award for Excellence in the Arts:

Photography: Georgianne Stinnett
Vocalist/Instrumentalist: Johnny Hott
Fine Art: Jack Wax
Dance: Pam Turner
Enemble: Modern Groove Syndicate **
Film: Sonali Gulati
Lifetime Achievement: Gerald Donato and Joan Gaustad
Emerging Artist: Colleen Curran
Applied Arts: Karl Green
Theatre: Richmond Shakespeare Theatre
Words: Laura Browder

The artful graphic above and the description of the Pollak Prize below are from the Richmond Magazine website:

This is Theresa Pollak posing for her bat mitzvah portrait at Temple Beth Ahabah on Franklin Street in 1913. A born and raised Richmonder, she had a full life ahead of her.

Pollak established in 1928 what evolved into Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts, where she taught for 41 years. During the 1930s she founded the art program at the University of Richmond, her alma mater (she graduated from Westhampton College, now part of the University of Richmond, in 1921). Pollak’s work was often shown in exhibits and collections, and she was a lifelong student. In 1958, she enrolled in the Art Students’ League of New York and learned from abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann. Pollak died in September 2002 at the age of 103. In 1998, Richmond magazine introduced the honors named for her. Several past recipients are no longer among us: jazz violinist and educator Joe Kennedy Jr.; artist, mentor and professor Richard Carlyon; theater director Ernie McClintock and actor Mary Sue Carroll. Three Pollaks were posthumous, those for artist Esther Elizabeth Motts, editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly and musical enthusiast and broadcaster Eric E. Stanley. Perhaps no one honoree was more influential than Carlyon, himself a student of Pollak. He recalled in 2001, “One valuable lesson I learned from Ms. Pollak was that you can’t feign seriousness in the pursuit of art.” Or, in the words of Roger Carroll, the 2006 Vocalist honoree, “There ain’t nobody lyin’ up in here.”

*Harry's comments as described by award recipient Laura Browder
** The pianist for Modern Groove Syndicate is Mandy Moore's beau

Harry and Liz on Wordy Birds

2007-10-08T13:07:00.000-04:00

width="145" height="60" type="application/x-shockwave-flash">

Stephen Westfall opens at Solvent Space on Oct 12

2007-10-08T11:19:00.000-04:00

from right to left: Liz Clark, Jessica Langley and Erik Gonzalez install Stephen Westfall's mural designs at Solvent Space.

Stephen Westfall will premiere new murals at Solvent Space this Friday, October 12. “Stephen Westfall’s Grand Opening: Mural Project.” The New York Times describes his murals as abstract twists on the classic grid and “delicately calibrated destabilizations.”

Opening reception 6pm - 8pm On display through December 1. in the Plant Zero parking lot, 0 East 4th St. 869.6051. Hours: 12 - 4 on most Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

bottom left and right: installation shots of Westfall's murals in progress

Also on view @ Plant Zero on FRIDAY evening, October 12-
Walk the Walk, my show of "portraits, sunflowers and stormy weather" and Michael Pierce at Artspace from 6 to 8pm.

I also received an invitation from Lab 307. They are having an Open House that night from 6-10pm at 307 N.26th Street.

Lab 307 houses studios for a number of recent VCU Alumni: Danielle Riede, Thomas Condon, Sarah Mizer, Jeff Vick, Sayaka Suzuki, Erica, Dyen, Kiara Pelissier, and Debbie Quick. It looks like it will be a wonderful way to start the evening before we head over to the Folk Fest. Another cool thing about attending openings at the Plant Zero complex is that many of the artists with studios on site open their spaces for guests and interested parties. Just look for the open studio invitation on their doors.

Countdown to Peace

2007-10-05T10:48:00.000-04:00

And now... a momentary respite from your sponsor... to write about something other than the artwork I've been making and publishing, exhibiting, etc...

I received an email from a friend about the exhibition linked to the title of this post. I've heard about this calendar which records all the days since the beginning of the war in Iraq - but this is the first call for entries I've seen. It sounds worthwhile and I will try to send them something though I wish the war would end and I wouldn't have to.

The Harshest Critic?

2007-10-01T00:11:00.000-04:00

Zero, the resident feline at Plant Zero Art Center, shared his observations of "Walk the Walk" with me this afternoon."Purrrrfection?" Well, I doubt it, but if I knew a pet interpreter I'd love to know exactly what Zero is thinking! He's been dwelling on this particular series of paintings for more than a while...!

Opening in a gallery near you...

2007-09-13T09:20:00.000-04:00

I haven't had time to look at a lot of other art, much less write about it, for the past month or so. I've been focusing on the completion of a new body of work! If you are in Richmond this autumn please take time to visit "Walk the Walk" at Plant Zero, Richmond, VA. As soon as this show is up I feel like I'll have the leisure of looking at other people's work with undivided attention. One show I will take time to see prior to my opening is the collection of new paintings by Sally Bowring at Reynolds Gallery. It opens Friday, Sept 14.

My show, "Walk the Walk" opens on September 28 from 7-10pm and is part of the Fourth Friday Artwalk, located at 0 E. 4th Street in Manchester. It is free and open to the public. The works on the wall will be underscored by a performance/reading on Friday, Oct 26 at 7:30pm and then on on Nov 2 the premiere of video work I've completed since the Praxis Project earlier this year. Although I've maintained a studio in Richmond since 1988 I've been diligent in arranging my life where I have been able to teach, study or work in artist residencies in Paris, Bavaria, Germany, S. Korea, Virginia and Vermont.

I like to think of "Walk the Walk" as an exhibition in three acts. Paintings, drawings and bookworks created during 2006 and 2007 will be on view in the Project Space Gallery at Plant Zero from September 28 to December 23 with a progression of acitivities occuring during the run of the show. The inspiration for this body of work originated in France in 2006 during a four month residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris and was followed by a one month residency at Moulin a Nef in Auvillar, France. It was in the small village near the Pyrannes that I discovered a parallel between my interest in the human figure and the French landscape.

If you would like to request high resolution jpgs of the paintings in "Walk the Walk" please request them through the comments option below.

"Walk the Walk"

2007-08-31T17:32:00.000-04:00

"Walk the Walk" is a 27 full color pages hard bound book. It features an essay by Howard Risatti, whose criticism has been published in Art Journal, Artforum, New Art Examiner, Artscribe, Latin American Art, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Woman’s Art Journal, Art Criticism and Sculpture Magazine. For a page by page preview visit the link below. If you'd like your own copy to enjoy without the help of a back lit screeen just send a personal check or money order for $49. plus seven dollars shipping and handling for each copy ($56.) of "Walk the Walk."

For a preview please click on this link.

Book lovers who'd like to place an order can email me at
oliver dot amie at gmail dot com

A Brief Respite

2007-08-31T00:14:00.000-04:00

If it was essential that you work over the labor day weekend, like moi you might enjoy this. If there is the time and space you might pour yourself a Scotch or a Guinness since you won't have to worry about drinking and driving... although you'll feel refreshed from the journey.

Jane Burton

2007-08-30T15:57:00.001-04:00

Jane Burton is an Australian photographer. She is married to a French film maker and they live in Melbourne. I met her at the Cite International des Arts in Paris via our mutual friend Yvette. We wound up spending a good deal of time together looking at art and nursing hangovers with Yvette and Jane's lover Fab. It was a belle epoche which blossomed into a marriage for Jane and Fab and piles of art and inspiration for all involved. Jane introduced me to some my favorite places near Paris and vice versa. Our art is very different but we share the same muse.

Jane's latest photos reveal slices of what I think are the tips of the trees from that chilly afternoon at Pere La Chaise. I am very attracted to her photographs and hope one day I'll be able to see her work in the flesh. You can see more of her photography here.

Walking the Line on Deadline

2007-08-28T16:17:00.000-04:00

a peek and a boo?

Three Amigos

2007-08-27T09:52:00.000-04:00

This post is in honor of three artists or writers who have inspired me on many levels. On the left: Olivier, a lovely and generous French writer who runs a bookstore in the 14th ar. Middle: I met Goxwa in Paris in 1994. She is a force of nature. She amazes me with her talent and success as a painter and even greater, a muse. Right: The painting on the right should be a portrait of Bob. He's not one for sitting still, even at the ripe age of 84 he is a brilliant, charming survivor of the wrath, beauty and excesses of the 20th Century. As an American living in Paris during the mid century he met Hemingway, interviewed Gertrude Stein and developed a notorious reputation as turning in the most outlandish receipts for his Time-Life Expense Account.. . and I look at him and I see Harry in 40 years. When asked who he preferred, Hemingway or Fitzgerald - his brilliant answer was Faulkner. Ah, a man after my heart.

This series was created during my time in Auvillar, referenced here.

Preview of Coming Attractions

2007-08-26T02:09:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I'll have time to update my website before this show of new work opens on September 28. A limited edition catalogue has gone to press and is available for preview above via pdf files. Anyone out there interested in ordering one please drop me a line. "Walk the Walk" features an essay by Howard Risatti and is 27 full color pages in a limited hard cover, edition of fifty. $49. plus shipping.

Up and Coming...

2007-08-25T17:58:00.000-04:00

another countdown

2007-08-19T12:02:00.000-04:00

"Shelf Life" mixed media on paper mounted on panel
10" x 10" 2006

It is time to pop the clutch into 5th gear. We are on the cusp of another season and from that point it's hard to find time to breath... but I must be careful with my words since my husband is on the war path to banish overused euphymisms. He's more prone to jump on sports related usage and if anyone questions him he just suggests that they google "season kick off."

another king another dollar?

2007-08-16T23:36:00.000-04:00

Nah. There is only one King although Andy may have played it otherwise. One of my favorite scenes in Mystery Train is the argument between the young Asian couple over who the real KING of R&R should be- Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis.

Elvis died on August 16, 1977, in an over-medicated and pathetic state of gluttony... ten years later one of his most famous admirers Andy Warhol died on February 22, 1987 following routine gall bladder surgery. It is frightful to think about Elvis living in a world even more obsessed with celebrity and reality TV than the one he lived in. Lets count the man's, excuse me, KING'S blessings for him!

A version of Warhol's Triple Elvis series hangs in the Sydney and Francis Lewis Collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. It plays a prominent role in a collection with numerous pop references. I miss seeing it now that much of the collection is under wraps due to construction and enjoyed its placement most when the collection was under Fred Brandt's direction.

This could be due to the fact that I have an acute memory of leading a pilgrimage to see this painting during that era. Ivan Karp, of OK Harris Gallery juried a show for 1708 Gallery back in the late 90's. He and his son, co-juror Ivan Karp; were scheduled to talk about the show the Saturday after it opened. Ivan didn't make it. Supposedly he was under the weather but I've seen him sitting on a stool in his cigar shop in SOHO smoking cigars on more Saturdays than I can remember. I can't tell you a single thing about the show they juried. I can tell you that Ethan's talk was memorable and that afterwards the only thing he really wanted to do was visit the VMFA collection.

Harry and I were assigned to be his tour guides and to negotiate the many demands and expectations of the community for his attention. We picked him up from the Jefferson Hotel and discussed his itinerary. He was balking at a request to visit Bill Fisher's studio. He really didn't want to. I told him that would be a mistake because Bill had sold 50 paintings the previous year. Before he would consider his options he wanted to hit the VMFA collection and to my surprise the main thing he wanted to see was the Triple Elvis depicted above. He said he remembered when his Dad sold it to the Lewis' for a song. The story goes that many of the paintings in that collection were acquired through direct barter with the artist (BEST PRODUCTS appliances for paintings) so I was surprised to know the Lewis' had purchased this one through Ivan. They must have really loved it.

We delivered Ivan Karp to an "entourage in waiting" at the now defunct but severely missed Coincidence Gallery. He quickly scanned the work on view there, found a photographer he wanted to show and eventually was delivered to Bill's studio. He recognized a good thing. Bill still shows with OK Harris in SOHO and I am sure there is are places in the world where people still report Elvis sightings. It seemed to me he would fill a hefty folder in the X-Files.

An Appreciation

2007-08-14T08:59:00.000-04:00

Elizabeth Murray: FORMERLY FLEET

1994-95, oil on canvas on wood, 199 x 76 x 6 ft

Elizabeth Murray died of cancer on Sunday at age 66. I remember reading of her struggle and assumed she would beat it. Her work is so strong she seemed formidable. Her constructed paintings were frank, yet delicate; bold, delightful, curious and eccentric. I've always made time for her work when I'm pounding the pavement or the marble halls in search of inspiration. Her visual language contained an iconography I related to. I definitely want to rewatch her video interview on Art:21.