Old but still good. From Sharon Arnold via. (Click to enlarge.) Thank you, sane voters, that it didn’t go the other way.
Archives for May 2009
Coming to the Portland Art Museum – skin pictures
The chief curator at the Portland Art Museum, Bruce Guenther, sports a full back tattoo — thin, Agnes Martinesque lines wrapping him, like heartstrings pulled out. (Update: Faulty memory alert – not Anges Martin-like. See related post for photo.)
It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that his museum is host to a skin show. From the press release:
This summer, the Portland Art Museum will present a unique visitor
experience exploring the art of tattoo and the impact of this artistic
practice in the local community.Beginning today, individuals who
got their tattoos in Portland or people who have a tattoo and currently
reside in the area are invited to share images of their tattoo/s on the museum’s flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/groups/markingportland. The Museum’s curators will review the submitted images and select some to be presented inside the galleries.
It’s getting-to-know-you, Guenther style. Because tattoos are not a regional phenomenon, it’s arbitrary to confine contributions to his city’s limits. The rule means PAM will not be able to exhibit a photo of the ultimate Northwest tattoo. It exists on the flesh of Patrick Attenasio, who is not from Portland. He happened to see Alfredo Arreguin‘s painting, A Hero’s Journey reproduced online and decided to have it inked onto his arm.
In the center is a poem titled Last Fragment by Arreguin’s friend, the late Raymond Carver:
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.
A Hero’s Journey appeared on the cover of Carver’s final book of poems, A New Path to the Waterfall.
Below are few images from PAM’s tattoo flickr pool I find especially fetching. Those who peruse it will notice a photo of Guenther’s back is not among the entries.
(First says, Live Learn)
Related: In the New York Times – Seafarers’ Memoirs Written on Skin, here.
Messages in windows
Ten tips for artists in a ruinous economy
(All paintings/drawings by Seattle’s Emilia Kallock. Click to enlarge.)
1. Make playing cards for sale at high-end shops.
2. Sew wedding dresses for the wealthy.
3. Paint people’s houses in a flattering light.
4. Consider farming.
5. Become a Skagit Valley river rat.
6. Harness the energy of a cloud.
7. Never underestimate your personal appeal.
8. Invent a machine for turning dry grass into fire.
9. Sleep through it.
10. Try death. It has worked so well for so many.
Jessixa – stop sign
Maps that are the place
(Click to enlarge)
Leo Saul Berk, Hot Spot, 2005, pen/paper, 42 x 92 inches
Ann Chamberlain, Wrist, 1998, pigment print, 20 x 16 inches
Still life with blue bags
Why no women choreographers? They’re not good enough
On her AJ blog Critical Distance, Laura Collins-Hughes confronts the sexism that never says die, here.
Her starting point is an essay by Charlotte Higgins at the Guardian, here. Higgins asked Alstair Spalding, artistic director of London contemporary-dance center Sadler’s Wells, why there were no female choreographers among the “raft of commissions” he’s just announced for the coming season. He responded:
It is something to do with women not being as assertive in that field. It’s not that I don’t want to commission them.
If he only could, he’d be behind women a 1,000 percent. Alas, there’s the regrettable problem of their not being up to scratch, and quality is his watchword, he says, regardless of color, sex, sexual orientation or creed.
Collins-Hughes’ essay is terrific, if theoretical. She doesn’t name any women choreographers she thinks could if given a chance step up at Sadler’s Wells.
Here’s a few, just for starters.
Susan Marshall, BeBe Miller, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker,
Pina Bausch
(at Sadler’s Wells last year), Trisha Brown,
Twyla Tharp, Zoe Scofield and Donna Uchizono.
The Tiny Art Director
Tiny Art Director, so like real art directors as well as the people encountered when making public art. Since his daughter was two (she’s now four), Bill Zeman has made drawings at her request, which she proceeds to critique. Soon to be a major motion picture, or, as the tiny art director herself says, “I want daddy to go away on a trip.” (Via Slog.)
The Brief: A mama snail and a baby snail
The Critique: I’m sorry to say that you’re worser than me. You gotta learn to draw as me. You just don’t draw so well. Why do you think that is? It turns out that I’m the good draw-er. It turns out that you’re the art director.
Artists Note: The critique is on the initial sketch, and compares to hers. She actually likes the painting.
Job Status: Provisionally Approved, pending addition of jumping fish in the lake.
The Brief: A monster (on spec)
The Critique: Too scary! He’s a tomato and he’s yelling right in my ear!
Job Status: Rejected
