When I was at the Guggenheim in NYC last week, I stupidly did not write down the name of an artist I liked, thinking, oh, I’ll remember that. So now, for the last week, I’ve been trying to figure out who it was. I know that it was in the category of abstract expressionism, grouped with in the museum’s “founding collection” in a gallery alongside Braque, Rudolf Bauer, and lots of Kandinskys.
So I went to the MIA [Minneapolis Institute of Arts], thinking I’ll look for the artist there, on the off chance they had one – but they didn’t.
Having learned my lesson, however, I did write down the names of some of the artists I saw there that I liked: I’m going to go to museums, I need to resurrect my old habit of journaling the visits extensively, so I can access the artists and works I liked later.
Here are some of the works I found striking at MIA:
Leonora Carrington’s “Never since we left Prague”
Yves Tanguy’s “Reply to Red” (daliesque)
Joan Miro’s “Head of Woman”
Dali’s “Portrait of Juan de Pareja”
Grant Wood’s “Birthplace of Herbert Hoover”
Luigi Lucioni’s “Village of Stowe Vermont”
Robert Koehler’s “Rainy Evening on Hennepin Avenue”
Morris Kantar’s “Untitled (portrait of mother)” (and I remember Tadeusz Kantor’s work that I saw at the national museum in Warsaw in 2005 – or was this in Krakow?)
I have a definite leaning toward modern and abstract art – I’m not sufficiently sophisticated in the field to explain what it is I find compelling about this type of work, but I do.
I have been putting some work into getting my personal website up and running again, and have finally re-posted some of my own drawings and paintings. I make no claim to be an artist – at the least, I lack the discipline to make it a go of it. But I harbor vague ambitions, I suppose, and I’m fairly certain that if I did pursue it in a disciplined manner I’d have “something to say” – so to speak.
Category: My Drawings & Paintings
Caveat: Decision Making
[The "retroblogging" project: this is a "back-post" written and added 2013-06-09 I've decided to "fill-in" my blog all the way back. It's a big project. But there's no time limit, right?
I wrote this while among the dead. My paper journals from this period are precisely dated and have multiple entries from each day.]
Caveat: En-Ki-Du il grande
[The "retroblogging" project: this is a "back-post" written and added 2013-06-09 I've decided to "fill-in" my blog all the way back. It's a big project. But there's no time limit, right?
I wrote this while among the dead. My paper journals from this period are precisely dated and have multiple entries from each day.]
Caveat: Hospital Handouts
11/24
I got two handouts in group. One made me angry. I drew doodles and notes all over it.
See what I added to the list? Number 13 is the step I'm on now.
Here is the other one. I actually see use in this one. I copied it into my journal. Get it?
Effective Journaling
1) Pick an appropriate journal for you:
– One that you like
– Convenient for you
2) Schedule a routine time every day for journaling.
– But don't limit yourself to journaling at this time, journal also at particularly tough times.
3) Know the important journaling topics:
– Target areas
– Thoughts
– Feelings
– Physical symptoms
– Behavior
4) Review your journal to look for patterns
5) Make journaling fun!
– Reward yourself
– Use fun resources: Newspaper clips; Ticket stubs; Poems, song lyrics, etc.
6) Also journal about the positives
– Especially things that you've learnedExample:
– Cog. B. styleSituation / Thought / Emotion / Response / Emotion
[The "retroblogging" project: this is a "back-post" written and added 2013-06-09 I've decided to "fill-in" my blog all the way back. It's a big project. But there's no time limit, right?
I wrote this while among the dead. My paper journals from this period are precisely dated and have multiple entries from each day.]
Caveat: Michelle Leaning
I drew this while living in Minneapolis in 1994, shortly before I went to Chile for 6 months.
This is a picture of Michelle, actually. It's somewhat "imagined" (which is to say, she wasn't posing for it) – but it's her.
[The "retroblogging" project: I'm not sure what the date was that I made this drawing, but it was around this time.]
Caveat: Kitchen Still Life
I drew this while living in San Marino in 1992.
[The "retroblogging" project: I'm not sure what the date was that I made this drawing, but it was around this time.]
Caveat: Azul
This remains my favorite of my own work in visual arts. I drew it in pastels from a photograph which I then "abstracted" (not sure what else you would call my distortions…). I guess 1992 was a rather productive period for me.
[The "retroblogging" project: I'm not sure what the date was that I made this drawing, but it was around this time.]
Caveat: San Marino House
This is a picture I drew of the old Way family house in San Marino, California (the back property line was the Pasadena city limit). It was built in the 1890's (I think – I'm not actually sure). The house was torn down a few years later and the property subdivided.
[The "retroblogging" project: I'm not sure what the date was that I made this drawing, but it was around this time.]
Caveat: Lines. Motion.
I took several drawing classes during my time as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, in 1988. I happen to have scanned a few images from a sketch book. Here are two of them.
[The "retroblogging" project: I'm not sure what the date was that I made these drawings, but it was around this time.]
Caveat: While the Men Converse
[The “retroblogging” project: this is a “back-post” added 2014-06-19 I’ve decided to “fill-in” my blog all the way back. It’s a big project. But there’s no time limit, right?
These pictures, above, are undated but they appear in a journal from the years 1983~1984, near other pages which bear dates from mid-August of 1983. Those entries are also in the same pen, so I have assumed these undated pictures date from that time and have thus posted them here on this date. UPDATE 2022-04-14: I have added this as one of my daily poems, #2082.]