posted by Ian Summers on October 8th, 2010
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David Hockney said:
It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work.
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Collect some artists’ staterments from the Internet or some other source. Compare the statement to the work.
Have you ever written your own artist’s statement? Is it congruent with your work?
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Here’s mine. It was written to accompany a solo show at the Stewart-Leshe Gallery.
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http://www.iansummersartwork.com
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I am for an art of memories; chipped and fragmented, but not nostalgia. Life lived gathering experiences that are searching for meaning and connections. faces conjured forming associations with persons living and dead; with those who may have lived nowhere but my mind. I am for faces buried for fifty years or more and guessing how I know them. They haunt me in my sleep and when I am awake.
I am for the seas of people on the streets of New York. I am for remembering everyone I have ever met and inviting them to a party in Central Park guessing who they have become. I am for the rags and bones of my childhood — encountering legends and myths from the moment I broke my first Crayola to the last drip of enamel paint splashing on my sandals and pealing it from my toenails. I am for spontaneity and mistakes. I am for not knowing where I am going until the painting wheezes and whines unless I change the course. I may resist but I go there anyway.
I am for an art on tar paper that bleeds and bubbles and smells and ghosts and is unpredictable.
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I am for projects that respond ot life like when I spent three months — mesmerized — watching the aftermath of 9/11. Faces flashed for nanoseconds. I tried to paint everyone of them. Gestures. Expressions. Pundits. Soldiers. Police officers. Politicians. Anyone. Even the actors on disconnected television commercials. Working faster. Faster. At record speed. Over one thousand monotypes made from plates no bigger than an index card eventually congregating pinned to walls making installations twelve feet wide and six feet deep.
Faces. More faces. I am for art commencing from high school yearbooks. I am for painting high school seniors who are now in their sixties. I am for emailing people who have not heard from me — their high school art teacher — in 45 years, finding them on the Internet, sending them JPGs of the art. I hope they find this website.
Faces imagined in Sunday school Bible classes of members of a huge dysfunctional family beginning in the Garden of Eden and painted in the nineties. Moses. Ezekiel. Sara and Ruth for openers.
I was the kid who drew faces on blue canvas 3 ring binders. I wish I still had a few of those. I think they would look as if they were drawn by this seasoned artist.
Post your statements, links to your artwork, and we will discuss them.
Link to a vision statement by Robert Motherwell
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posted by Ian Summers on October 8th, 2010
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When I saw this poster this afternoon, it was one of those ‘I wish I had written it’ moments.
Visit this site to see some amazing innovative green design products.
I contacted them for permission to post the message.
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Hi Ian,
Thanks for getting in touch. It was a pleasure to check out both your website and your artwork.
Based on your testimonials, it sounds like you have really created a positive impact for numerous people.
Thanks for offering to put the manifesto and plug for Holstee on your site — that’s very kind!
We are in the process of making Manifesto posters available in our shop in the next week.
Hand silk-screened onto recycled elephant poop paper.
Perhaps, if it is something your visitors would be interested in, I could make a special coupon for visitors from your site?
Best wishes from NYC!
Dave Raparvar
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http://www.holstee.com
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posted by Ian Summers on September 29th, 2010
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Larry Fink will give a presentation documenting his work from 1957 – present
November 5th at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem PA at the InVision Photo Festival.
BETHLEHEM, PA—Presentations by some of the nation’s most esteemed photographers, dynamic photography exhibits and the Lehigh Valley’s only public photography portfolio review highlight the inaugural InVision Photo Festival Nov. 5-7 at ArtsQuest’s™ Banana Factory®, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem, PA.
InVision gets underway Nov. 5 with a free evening of presentations and exhibitions. Activities kick off at 5:30 p.m. with InVision Artist in Residence Larry Fink, who will give a presentation documenting his work from 1957-present. A professional photographer for more than 45 years, Fink has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Musee de la Photographie in Belgium and the Musee de l’Elysee in Switzerland, among others. His commercial work includes advertising campaigns for Smirnoff, Bacardi and Cunard Line, and his photographs have appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair, GQ, Detour, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker.
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Charlie Rose’s Interview with Larry Fink (1997)
About his Book – Boxing
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(for more information see my previous post)
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