A Few Things I Liked
Don’t let anyone tell you that silkscreen is easy. The by-hand screen process requires a commitment, and planning. It’s not cheap with time or materials. I began my class in April of this year, and have an advantage in that I’ve had many painting classes, am a film photographer and darkroom printer. On top of that I worked with Sarah Van Keuren for a year on non-silver processes, such as Cyanotype, Gum Bichromate etc. So all of this helps in the concept of a piece. This process is a marriage of photo and printmaking, at least the way I am doing it. I have done quite a few on Mapplethorpe, at least enough to put up an exhibition (if you are a gallery, please email me). This last piece I did was on Michael Moore, and I like it.
To entertain myself and get away from the process I did see:
DVD: Up The Yantgze. I don’t often watch documentaries, but this one is pretty special. In China, a new dam is close to complete and effects the lives of those that live along this massive river. Reveals rather than preaches.
DVD: Alice Neel. I had no idea this painter, now deceased, had such an exotic and interesting background. She spoke around l983 at our University of the Arts (then Colleges of the Arts) in Philadelphia. I met her and liked her, but it was hard to get a sense of the history of a person in such a short time. She was the most influential artist on my own painting style, short-lived as my painting (2 years) was.
DVD: Steven Schama The Power of Art. Great series of certain artists. The best was about Caravaggio. Wow. I didn’t know. I wish his piece on Mark Rothko was more extensive, with a different focus.
DVD: A Prophet. Really good film.
DVD: As It Is In Heaven. I may have written about this before, and if I did you know I loved it. NOTE: Interesting that the actor here, who makes this film so powerful, is a Swedish favorite named Micheal Nyqvist.
He is also the principal actor in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the Swedish version. Of course he is in the entire series made in Sweden.
DVD: Revanche. As good as they said, great foreign film.
DVD: A Single Man. Unforgettable film. Not sure if I wrote about this already, but as Andy Warhol is said to have uttered: So What! I still think about the emotional beauty in this piece. Has what the best films have, and that is a sense of love for that which you render.
You can see I have been watching mostly foreign films, and Hollywood (which I have watched) makes little impression, at least enough to write about. I did like a little film made in my area called:
DVD: Tenure. Kind of a sweet little piece.
**This image is taken by my mac laptop in the Warhol style. It is me. I call it “Peace”.
SHUTTER GIRL 