Looking at Artists

Today my new issue of Art in America magazine arrived. While looking through it, I realized that I had never posted my thoughts on the last issue in this ever-popular "Looking at Artists" series of posts ... "ever-popular" probably exists only in my own imagination, but whatever, it's fun to do.

When I get my new A in A issue, I go through it and flag anything interesting by turning down the page corner. Unfortunately, in a typical issue, I might only flag maybe six pages or so ... A in A has become less enamored of painters in recent years and more fond of installations and other art forms that I just cannot relate to.  My next step is to go to the internet and look up all the artists that caught my eye. Sometimes they look good, sometimes they don't. I bang out my impressions in this blog.

Okay, so on to last month's issue. The first one that got my attention was Tianbing Li at L&M Arts in New York. He has a show called "Me and My Brother", based on photographs taken by his parents when he was a child. As it turns out, his "brother" is imaginary, but the series looks pretty powerful. This would be a good one to see in person ... little images on the web don't have much punch, but photos of the paintings installed in the gallery gave me the impression it would really be effective.  Tianbing's choices in color, cropping, smudging, and things included/excluded sometimes seemed a bit odd, but they make me stop and think.  And the cumulative feeling that I get from looking at all the images is intense, like he he mourning a missing brother.  

Another artist is Xenia Hausner at Forum Gallery.  The image in the ad was of a very loosely-painted work, with paint application a bit like Cezanne and a colorful flowery background like Matisse.  This struck me as very unlike Forum, which usually exhibits artists whose work falls into the "fine arts league" school of Renaissance realism, so it got my curiosity up.  I wasn't too enthused, though, after seeing the works on the web site.  Maybe it was the fact that she works so obviously from photographs, maybe it was that her subject matter was usually herself, but I just got a feeling that it was "art for art's sake" with no real story to tell except maybe a bit of narcissism.  I think she can paint, but I just never felt a connection to what she was painting.

Claire Klarewicz-Okser was featured at Katharina Rich Perlow gallery in New York.  These paintings intrigued me the more I looked at them.  Her people are right on the verge of being real or stylized, so they're real and not real at the same time.  More importantly, her paintings have a consistent mood to them.  The artist I thought of the most while looking at her work was Edward Hopper, oddly enough.  The reason is that she achieves the same feelings of isolation and loneliness with her figures that Hopper achieved with his buildings.  (As much as I like Hopper's work, his figures were usually awkward.  Claire K-O's figures are never awkward.)  Her people look like they're from the '20's or '30's, and it seems to me that she uses this quality of dress to say something about how people can appear to be "successful" while actually being completely cut off from others ... even if they're pushed up against each other, they're still in different worlds.

I flagged a few other artists, but on looking at more of their images on the web sites, I was very disappointed.  So many artists, it seems, are simply copying photographs, right down to the "happy-snap" quality.  I don't get the feeling that they're using their own vision, just whatever pops out of the camera.  The last time I did one of these "looking at artists" posts was in February and I wrote about two artists (David Shevlino and Kim Cogan) who obviously used photos, and this month I started with Tianbing Li.  The difference is that these artists all used the photos as a launching pad for their own visions.  A lot of the artists this month didn't - it was as if they weren't going to put anything into the painting that wasn't already in the photo.  What happened to personal statement and vision?

I still have some more artists to look at, but it's late and I'm pooped.  Maybe more tomorrow.

Follow-Ups to Previous Posts

Yeah, that's right, this post will probably only be of interest to those three of you who've occasionally been stopping in here.

Back on the 14th, I sent a note to all three presidential candidates asking what they were going to do about George Bush's signing statements. To date, the only thing I've gotten are several notes from Obama telling me to vote early in the NC primaries, and innumerable emails and telephone solicitations from Hillary to send her some money. From McCain, nuthin'.

On the 13th, I wrote a post entitled "Free Art?", about how a government agency wanted me to do some artwork for them for free. Instead, I wrote up a proposal for a decent project ("decent" in that it would look like something you'd want to actually show somebody), included what it would cost them (not free, but not my normal gallery costs, either), sent it in, and forgot about it. I figured they'd never go for it. Well, they subsequently asked me for a sketch of what I had in mind. I'm working up a rather detailed watercolor mockup of part of it and will turn it in to them on Monday. Maybe they'll go for the project after all.

One of my dogs came down with Addison's disease a while back. It's not really a disease, but a condition in which her adrenal glands have shut down. I was afraid we might lose her, but the vet put her on a regimen of once-a-month shots and daily doses of Prednizone. Now she's back to normal. I think her stamina is down just a notch, and she has taken a greater interest in humping her sister, but otherwise, she's the same ol' Indy. Thank God.

The local newspaper picked up on my press release about Warrior winning the national competition. They ran a big article on the painting and me. I started getting calls from friends and neighbors commenting on it. Today I walked in the post office and the clerk said "Whoah, it's the world-famous artist!". Yes, it's fun. You can read the article here.

'Nuff for now. I'm tired. My dog Soozee is sprawled out on the rug right behind me, flat on her back, all four legs pointing to the heavens, snoring like a freight train. She's got the right idea.

Jackson Pictures

Jackson's first birthday party ... he seems to have enjoyed himself immensely ...

Political Readings

We get Rolling Stone magazine. Their political reporter, Matt Taibbi, often gets me irritated, since he has a rather intolerant view of his subjects. However, in this issue of Rolling Stone, he has an article on Hillary Clinton and all her pork projects. Apparently she's procured more than $2.2B in earmarks while in office. Unbelievable ... well, except it really is believable. Some examples:

- Hillary was endorsed by Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on the day before MLK Day. Turns out that Hillary put through three earmarks totalling $1.5M to the development corporation run by ... Calvin Butts.
- Hillary secured a deal for Lockheed Martin in Oswego, NY, to build a new Presidential helicopter. One helicopter would cost $400M. That's more than Air Force One cost! What did it cost Lockheed Martin? $10,000 in contributions to Hillary's Senate campaign and lots of free rides on its planes.

Where do these funds come from? Well, not out of thin air. The money comes from the overall budget for the agency affected. The cost for the helicopter, for example, comes out of the military's general operating budget for the year. Congress gives the military X amount of dollars, but pork projects take Y amount of funding, leaving some smaller amount for other important acquisitions (like ammunition, armored humvees, body armor, minor things like that).

Hillary's not alone in bringing home the bacon to political supporters and her state. Republicans had a bad rep for lining up at the pork trough, which was one reason that the Democrats were able to take over the House and Senate in the last elections. However, last year Congress approved more than $17B .. as in BILLIONS ... in earmarks, which is a 30% increase over the Republican-led congress that they portrayed as corrupt feeders at the public trough.

And Hillary's competitors for the Prez job aren't immune to criticism. Barack Obama put in one earmark. McCain had one in '03. Hillary? She had 26 just on the '08 defense bill alone.

Hillary for President? Pleeeze.

Artist-Gallery Relationship

There's a fascinating discussion on the Edward Winkleman blog about the artist-gallery relationship. Edward runs a gallery in Chelsea and bought out his partner last year. Subsequently he revamped it to match his own vision, which meant letting several artists go. One of them recently wrote about it in her own blog, and Edward followed up with his own perspective. This is not a bitter, screaming, Dr. Phil-style divorce show. Rather, both blogs are open and honest and respectful of each other.

Why can't our politicians do the same thing?
(Answer: they're not open, honest, nor respectful, and a bitter, screaming Dr. Phil-style show is good theater.)

This artist-gallery discussion hit home with me because I recently pulled out of a gallery. I joined it a year ago with rather high hopes. The owner had a good eye for art ... I say that not because he liked my work, but because when he talked about my work or that of others, he could pick up on things that the piece was saying or not saying, and when my work was off base, he'd tell me. However, he also began telling me a bit too specifically what it was that he wanted me to produce. My paintings are my own explorations, and if they're made to somebody else's order, they're not MY paintings. I faced a choice: paint what he told me to paint and stay with him and possibly sell some, or leave. I left.

It wasn't a completely negative experience, though. I learned a good bit about the art marketplace, and I learned some things about improving my chances of selling artwork without selling out. And in my discussions with him about my art, I learned something about myself, too.

But now I've got to spend some time and energy finding a way to make my art habit self-sustaining at least. I think it's a given that an artist needs a good gallery, preferably more than one, to be taken seriously. But I also think that I need to explore other options, like grants or working with businesses, NGO's, or other organizations for specific projects. My best works are paintings like Lament, Warrior, and You Don't Understand, pieces that are very moving but certainly will never, ever, decorate anybody's living-room wall. Yes, I've gotten started on this road, but have nothing to report yet.

Warrior Wins National Competition

My painting Warrior was just awarded First Place in a nationwide competition for Iraq memorial art! The competition was sponsored by Art Cries Out (a link to their web site is on the right somewhere). I mentioned the site and the competition here a few days ago. I am so excited, I'm bouncing off the walls! It's been a while since anything this positive has happened to me, at least in my "professional artist" world, and it sure is wonderful.

Signing Statements

I have sent the following note to all three presidential campaigns. I'll let you know their answers.

"President Bush has used signing statements far more than any other president in history, and in such a way that very few people know exactly what any particular signing statement really says. It's my understanding that these signing statements will remain in effect indefinitely unless they are specifically revoked by executive order, court order, or new legislation. What will you do about President Bush's signing orders?"

Got Any Ideas?

I'm looking for some ideas. If you've looked at my web site, you know that I have a series of paintings that's titled "Bush League". It started as a satirical commentary on George Bush and his buddies, and "Bush League" fit it just fine.

Until now. Now we are seeing the last throes, if you will, of the Bush insurgency. In less than a year he'll be gone and already we're moving past him. My paintings are as well. While I'm still doing some satirical images, they're really about the state of our society and not about Republican neocons. To give you an idea, here are three of the most recent ones:

I'm notoriously bad at coming up with names ("Bush League" notwithstanding). So I'm issuing this call for help. Got any ideas for what this series of satirical paintings should be called?

Free Art?

As usual, I have too much to blog about, so I'll just pick one topic for now and get to the rest another time. Right now, what's got my goat is people wanting art for free.

I was contacted earlier this week by a government agency here in town (won't say which one so I don't embarrass 'em). They have a construction project going on by their main entrance, and it has a wooden fence up to keep people out and to hide the really ugly construction stuff. The fence is about 8' high and about 100' long. The agency's director wanted some art that would (a) make the fence look better and (b) honor the people that the agency serves. And once the construction was over, the art would be removed from the fence and kept within the agency. Sounds pretty cool to me. I went out and looked at it, then talked with my point of contact on the phone. We were both talking about a pretty good-sized project, namely five 4'x4' diamond-shaped plywood panels with different things painted on each panel. Everything was going great until I asked him, "What kind of budget are we looking at?"

Stunned silence on the other end of the line. Then "Uhh, well, we were looking for a volunteer effort ... uh, we'd pay for the materials, of course ..."

Right. This government agency wants me to work for about six weeks on these panels. For free. Gee, I'm so honored. I mean, hey, everybody there is working for free, too, right? So is everybody in the construction company ... but the government is paying for the materials, of course!

I've sent them a written proposal that includes a fairly detailed description of what the job entails, how long it would take, and what I'd do it for. I'm even giving them a very cut-rate price since I admire the work they're doing. But it's not free.

The problem is, so many people think that artists are just dying to give their work away for free. This agency is no different from any non-profit, church, school, or tiddly-wink club. I get people all the time asking me for donations for fund-raising events. I used to give to some of them, but then I thought about the business side of it, and have slammed that particular door shut. Here's the business model, in a nutshell:
1. I do the work.
2. They take it away and sell it for maybe 25% of the retail price if they're lucky.
3. They keep the money. The buyer might get a tax break.
4. They tell me how much "exposure" my art got.
5. My collectors have now been "exposed" to the fact that other people are buying my work at a 75% or more discount.
6. I'm left without the art, without a tax break, and with collectors who are pissed off that their collection has just been severely devalued. Think they're gonna buy anything from me in the future?

Grumble, grumble, grumble. This government agency has got me in a grouchy mood. Time to go play with my dogs.

Canine Crisis, Part 3

Our sweet little Indie had her checkup yesterday.  You may remember from previous posts that a couple of weeks ago she suddenly developed Addison's syndrome, which is when your adrenal glands quit working.  We thought we might lose her.  However, Addison's is treatable (not curable).  In yesterday's checkup, all her blood chemicals were normal and her weight was back up to a rousing 13.4 pounds, about where it was when it all began.  Just as important, her spirits are up, her attention level is back to normal, she's active and giving her sister hell.  Her stamina is back to about 99% of where it was before, but then, she's very much a tomboy.  So all is well in Indie-land.

Side effects of the Prednizone we give her every day are minimal.  Her water intake and outflow are up a bit - not quite as dramatically as earlier, but noticeable.  The only odd thing is that she has taken a lot more interest in humping her sister.  Hey, if it feels good, do it, right?  Soozee is clueless, of course.  We don't know if Indie is gender-confused, a hard-core incestuous lesbian, or just feeling the effects of the steroids.  Whatever the case, it's just an amusing and mild side effect, and given the alternatives, we'll take it any day.

Art Cries Out

Art Cries Out is an online site dedicated to protest art. Some is about the Iraq war, some about Katrina, you name it. There's some very good work there. Those of us doing such socially-conscious work often have a hard time getting it exhibited. It's great to have a site like this where the focus is on the message and not on sales. I entered their Online Iraq War Memorial competition. At the moment, my painting "Warrior" is one of their three finalists. Go take a look - I think you'll find some thought-provoking material there.

More Pictures of Jackson

I haven't posted any pictures of my grandson, Jackson, lately. Sorry for being so inconsiderate! Here are a few of the latest.

An Open Letter to CBS Sunday Morning

I just sent this note to CBS Sunday Morning:


I’ve been a regular watcher of Sunday Morning for many years now. I’m a big fan of your slower-paced examination of all sorts of interesting things. As a visual artist, though, I’m not quite so happy with your treatment of visual art. This morning’s story on the Armory Show is no exception.

I’ve noticed that your stories on visual art usually fall into one of three categories:
- The retrospective. In this one, you examine a recognized master, who is always either dead or really old.
- The gimmick. This one looks at an artist who has a cute trick that sells well but is really meaningless. An example is the artist who created “paintings” out of old license plates.
- The “what the hell is that?” piece. Today’s Armory show falls into that category. It talks about how strange some artwork is (ie, “does that really go in somebody’s living room?”) and how much it costs (“somebody’s going to pay $42,000 for that?”), while simultaneously showing weirdly-decked-out art freaks (the two with shaved heads and heavy mascara, or the guy in the mask).

What I don’t see on your show are the stories that delve thoughtfully, and with respect, into some aspect of contemporary art that may seem strange to Middle America at first, but with a little attention, may become deeply moving pieces. There are a lot of artists who are working as hard as they can to create things that express something very personal and profound to them. Sometimes their methods are readily accessible to the average American. Sometimes they’re not at first, but with a little attention, and respectful listening, they can be.

I know this first-hand. I’m a painter and work in a very representational manner that is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. But my primary subject matter is war, so I often get asked by casual visitors whether I actually make a living at it, why I do it, and who buys stuff like that. The answer, of course, is that I do these works because I have to, regardless of whether they sell. I need to put my thoughts and feelings down in a way that means something to me. My messages are easily understood by the average Joe, but since they can’t imagine my paintings on their living-room wall, they still generate confusion.

This confusion is nothing compared to the confusion about artworks that are more challenging. Yet these are probably the ones that most need your quiet, thoughtful approach. Take, for example, Marc Quinn’s sculpture entitled “Self”. This appears at first glance to be a straightforward lifesize bust of the artist. However, it’s made of his own frozen blood, maintained in a beautifully-crafted cryogenic container. In a very real sense, it’s not just an image of him, it is him, while its required refrigeration equipment makes a strong statement about contemporary reliance on technology. If the equipment fails, the sculpture (literally) dies. A work like this can be repulsive at first, but very meaningful once you contemplate it for a while.

And please don’t talk about the “red-hot art market”. I keep reading about it and can tell you that it doesn’t exist except in the most elite part of the art world. It’s like talking about the “red-hot automobile market” because they’re setting records at the Barrett-Jackson automobile auctions, while in the real world, car manufacturers are facing huge losses. Something like 95-99% of artists don’t make a living at their art, even the extraordinarily gifted ones, and even in normal economic times. We do it because we need to, not because of ridiculous prices.

So please, add a fourth category to your repertoire of art stories. Add the “thoughtful look at some kind of challenging art or artist”. Don’t treat us like freaks; instead, assume that we have a good reason for doing what we do. Respect the artists, respect the works, and use your soapbox to shed a little light on something different from the Middle American norm.

Yours,
Skip Rohde

4,000 Dead in Iraq - A Powerful, Personal Link

One of my links on the right is to the "Army of Dude" blog. The writer, Alex, returned from a tour in Iraq earlier this year, safe, but changed. During his time in Iraq, and subsequently, he has maintained an extremely well-written blog about his first-person perspective on the war.

A couple of days ago we passed the 4,000 dead milestone. The mainstream media has had a lot to say about this milestone. Very few of the commentators even knew any of the 4,000 - for most of us, these soldiers are just numbers, or maybe names in your local newspaper. For Alex, too many of them were friends. He has written a powerful and moving entry about them on his blog. Go take a look.

Canine Crisis, Part 2

In yesterday's entry, I wrote about how my dog, Indy, had Addison's disease, which is a failure of the adrenal gland to produce the right chemicals. Today she seems to be a tiny bit better than yesterday: she's more interested in things, wants to play more, and even chased her sister around the churchyard during our afternoon walk.

On the flip side, she hasn't regained her weight yet. I gave her a bath today and told her she was a bag o'bones. She just gave me a look of "yeah, whatever". The poor girl still has very little stamina. She tires very easily, which is really sad to watch because until last week, she was a tomboy, always running and getting into things. On our walks, she always took point, going out as far as her leash would allow, nose out front, on a mission, by God. Now she trots along beside or behind me. And after any kind of exertion, like after a walk or even a playtime, she needs a nap. The lack of energy is noticeable even when she's just lying there ... before, there was an alertness to everything; now, she seems more tired or almost depressed.

The doc has us giving her a small Prednisone tablet every day. We think the dosage may be a bit too high, as her water intake and (especially) outflow are much higher than before. Indy and Soozee have always been picky eaters ... to the point where we put their bowls down and almost have to beg them to "pleeeeze eat your dinner" while they sit back (way back) and try to decide if the food smells like it's suitable for royal princesses. But now Indy seems to have a bit less apetite, too, which makes trying to get her to bulk up even more difficult.

But she's still with us. And she's getting better, slowly. I don't know if she'll ever get back to full Indy-ness, but she's still here. And I thank God for that every five minutes.

Canine Crisis

We had a rough week. Indy, one of our two Shih Tzu's, had a health crisis that came out of the blue. She was fine Tuesday, but then overnight began acting a bit unusually. On Wednesday she was dragging a little bit and wouldn't eat. On Thursday, she had no energy, wouldn't eat, couldn't walk far without tiring, and late in the afternoon started shivering. I made an appointment with the vet for Friday.

Overnight I got one of the scariest moments of my life. In the middle of the night, she wanted to go out ... that's normal, but she went out and around the corner of the house and disappeared. And didn't come back. I got dressed and went out to find her. She was lying at the edge of the woods, looking out into forest, and didn't want to move. If you know animals, you know that sign: it's what they do when they know they're about to die. It was like a cold ice pick to my stomach. I picked her up, carried her back into the house, and put her on the bed. She went back to sleep, but I didn't - I kept checking her every few minutes just to make sure my little sweetheart was still breathing.

So Friday we got her into the vet. She was down to 12.5 pounds, from her previous 13.7 - a serious weight loss. They said she was severely dehydrated, so they hooked her up to an IV, ran some blood tests, and kept her overnight. The diagnosis: she has Addison's disease, which is a failure of the adrenal gland to produce all the right things it's supposed to produce. People get it, too: JFK, for one, so she's in illustrious company. Addison's is not curable, but it is treatable, so for the rest of her life she'll have to have a shot once a month and take a pill every day to restore the chemical balance that her adrenal gland isn't doing anymore.

On Saturday when we went to pick her up, she was much better - still a bit tired, but more active and interested in the world. Today was even better. Her appetite is still not up to speed, and her normally bouncy personality is a bit subdued. It's like she knows she had a close call and is still coming to grips with it. But she's playing with her ball, and this morning she found a bone on our walk and snuck it home when I wasn't looking. The picture above was taken on Saturday afternoon and you can see the purple Ace bandage on her front leg where the IV was.

I've often said that if anything ever happened to one of our dogs, they were gonna have to put me down as well. It's scary to come so close to losing one of your children, you know?

Today's News

Barack Obama has been under fire for some incendiary speeches given by the pastor of his church. Today Obama answered his critics with a speech that is incredibly moving, powerful, energizing, hopeful, and applicable to all of us. For way too long, we've had politicians who bore the stew out of us. Obama, though, is a man who can put words together. Clinton has derided him has just a fancy speech-maker, but that's like saying Rembrandt was just a paint-slinger. This is a powerful speech. You can see the video or read the transcript here.

George Bush has also been speaking over the past few days. He thinks things are going great in Iraq and that invading the country was a perfectly fine idea. And although the Fed is in panic mode, slashing interest rates to their lowest levels in years and forcing bank mergers to keep them afloat, George Bush thinks the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Oh, and George Bush believes in the Easter Bunny.

I dare you to read Obama's speech and imagine George Bush speaking those words.

Admiral Fallon for Secretary of Defense or State

In a post last week, I talked about Admiral William Fallon, who just resigned as Commander, Central Command. The thing that triggered his resignation was an article in Esquire magazine. After reading the article, it's clear to me that Admiral Fallon has a fabulous strategic vision. When Barack Obama is elected President, he would do well to have Admiral Fallon as his Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense. We need smart thinking like that to correct the past seven years of massive stupidity in the Executive Branch.

Micah Wright

I just discovered Micah Wright, an artist who lives in San Diego and has done a fabulous series of satirical posters. He uses old propaganda stuff from the first half of the 20th century and turns them into something new. He's got literally hundreds of them. I've been doing smarmy takeoffs on old ads, but Micah's been doing much the same thing, longer. I'm in awe. Go take a look at his web site!

"Old Times" exhibition and unrelated stuff

Many-Me, oil on canvas, 36"x48"

My "Old Times" series of paintings is on exhibit in Knoxville at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Okay, so this is a shameless plug. Hey, it's my show, and this is my blog! Actually, there are two solo exhibitions there: mine and one featuring original prints by Susan Jenkins. Yesterday (Friday) there was a reception for the two shows. Had a good turnout and met a lot of interesting people. They asked us to do a brief artist talk, which is always fun for me to do. This coming from a guy who absolutely hates to be the center of attention! However, one of the things I learned in the Navy was that a lot of things in life depend on stagecraft, so I learned a bit about how to talk to groups of people, and have gotten to the point where it can be fun. Which it was last night.

Yesterday I also got to meet up with an old friend from my Tennessee Tech days (mid-1970's): Gifford Walker, who now lives in Knoxville. We made arrangements to get together for a couple of hours before the reception and catch up. I last saw Gif maybe five years ago. Yesterday, when I first saw him, I looked straight at him from maybe five feet away and DIDN'T RECOGNIZE HIM. How embarrassing. In my own defense, Gif shaved off the beard he had for about 30 years, so here I was looking for a guy with a full black beard, and instead saw a clean-shaven guy, so I went right back to doing what I was doing until he said something. I think I made a nice recovery ... Gif at least has a great sense of humor. We sat and talked for two hours and had a great time.

Today I made a neat discovery on the 'net. I heard somebody on NPR talking about a web site called "Pandora" and how it was such a great thing for music. So I looked it up. What a cool site! Finding good new music, for me, has been very difficult. Radio plays the same crap over and over again, so does MTV and its clones, and it's difficult to find stuff I like. Well, Pandora has a way to do that. You plug in the name of a musician or group you like, and Pandora will stream music like that straight to you. They call it the "music genome project" - each song has a unique fingerprint, and their system will give you other songs and artists with similar fingerprints. It's free, it just requires registration. Cool stuff. I've already found some good artists, some I'd heard of, just never heard, and others that are completely new to me. Check it out!