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A day without art (Tuesday in Pasadena)
Post #1192 • June 12, 2008, 1:48 PM • 26 Comments
In what turned out to be one of my less intellectually rigorous performances, we went up to the Norton Simon Museum on Tuesday. When I called ahead I reached the gentleman who was trying to fix the museum's phone system. He said to call back in the afternoon, but we sauntered up from south OC to Pasadena anyway. Sadly, the Norton Simon is closed on Tuesdays. So is the Pacific Asia Museum. Ditto the Pasadena Museum of California Art. If only there was a website where you could easily find information on exhibition spaces in Los Angeles County! Like I mentioned, it wasn't one of my brighter moments.
Fortunately, Supergirl doesn't reconsider our marriage when these kinds of things happen, but I thought that some shopping along Colorado Avenue was the least I could offer to make up for it. Here's my beloved trying out some fragrant goo at Lather:
Then we ventured into Urban Outfitters and she disappeared into the racks.
One tiny woman was carrying a purse big enough to hold a family of terriers.
I discovered that I don't know what womens' shoes look like.
Update: Forgot one.
2.
June 12, 2008, 2:20 PM
Well, I have some notion what women's shoes look like, but I have no idea why they would wear alleged shoes that appear to defy the laws of physics. I recently saw an otherwise sensible girl with these stiletto things that looked seriously dangerous. She had to walk with baby steps to keep from keeling over. I'm going, "Hon, you really don't have to risk life and limb to look stylish." Well, I'm sure Oriane knows better.
3.
June 12, 2008, 2:28 PM
I wish Oriane & Arthur & Flatboy would come back. Our recent visitation from that denizen of the netherworld has taken the wind out.
5.
June 12, 2008, 3:56 PM
Is it finally over? Can I come out from beneath the rock now?
Reverend Cleophus James: DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT?
Jake: THE BAND!
Reverend Cleophus James: DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT?
Elwood: What light?
Reverend Cleophus James: HAVE YOU SEEEEN THE LIGHT?
Jake: YES! YES! JESUS H. TAP-DANCING CHRIST... I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!
Anyway...great drawing Franklin. I love to draw and I love to look at good drawings. Nice job. You have good eye hand coordination; you are good at looking and drawing quickly, accurately, suggestively, decoratively. I like what you put in and what you leave out of the drawings in this post.
6.
June 12, 2008, 4:21 PM
One time I was driving through Manhattan and at a traffic light near 19th and Sixth (it may have been 20th or 21st) I noticed a shoe store next to me. For some reason, the angle and shape of a shoe in the window caught my eye, and made me think of a woman with wide hips. When I got home I drew it. (Thinking about it, I think I may have sketched it in the car, probably while driving. I'm the worst driver.)
If I can find the drawing I'll scan it and put it up somewhere.
7.
June 12, 2008, 5:46 PM
One of my favorite movies, Eric.
Do you know it is not on the IMDB all-time 250 best list? That list isn't worth a damn. I don't think Beat the Devis is on it either, but it is jam parked with "arty" stuff, some of it dreadful.
8.
June 12, 2008, 5:47 PM
Beat the Devil. Sorry.
9.
June 12, 2008, 5:49 PM
Diary drawing is very conceptual, Franklyn.
Cedric C
10.
June 12, 2008, 6:55 PM
Cedric, I draw only to draw. My name is spelled Franklin, by the way.
Opie, the last movie I got seriously enthused about was The Beat That My Heart Skipped. You might also try Yes.
11.
June 12, 2008, 7:11 PM
Does that mean you feel that you draw instinctually?
12.
June 12, 2008, 7:38 PM
Instinct is a part of it. What you know is a part of it. Your posture and the motion of your hand are a part of it. Drawing is one of the very best of all the pleasures.
13.
June 12, 2008, 7:50 PM
Wouldn't you be shocked though, Franklin, if you art
was re-appropriated by conceptualism the same way, say, an artist like William Kentridge was?
just teasing you,
Cedric
14.
June 12, 2008, 9:05 PM
Franklin,
How much of your drawing would you say that you throw up on the site? And how about your comics?
15.
June 12, 2008, 11:40 PM
A fraction of my drawings, and all the comics, which are meant to take form on the Web.
16.
June 13, 2008, 9:47 AM
... you have nerves from steel ! I hate the shopping, really fresh series. Very good !
17.
June 14, 2008, 8:28 AM
Uh, you're not even very good man. They're just kind of sloppy. Maybe try harder?
18.
June 14, 2008, 8:33 AM
Try harder at what, Sya? I'm open to suggestions.
19.
June 14, 2008, 10:56 AM
They're sloppy, is all. If you want to call them quality, then I guess that's your call, but there's not much to them in terms of style or content.
20.
June 14, 2008, 11:18 AM
Hey, Franklin, maybe you should consider a post on handling the pain of vague criticism.
But speaking of sloppiness. I look at Matisse, for example -- I have my four-bucks-with-shipping copy of Jazz I've been flipping through for the past couple of weeks -- I look at Matisse and he seems kind of sloppy to me. Some part of me always wishes his work was better, tighter, stronger, more confident. More like...mine.
And then I think, maybe that sloppiness, that childlike scribbling, that happy disregard, maybe that's what makes his work really great. Maybe that's why he's so beloved. And maybe that's what's wrong -- one of the things wrong, anyway -- with my own work. Maybe -- just maybe -- I'm not sloppy enough. Maybe I'm too rigid.
This can't be worked out by talking about it, of course. I've learned that. It needs to be worked out by painting. I need to paint. I've got four panels waiting to be sanded and a batch of gesso cooking for another four, so soon there will be painting.
21.
June 14, 2008, 11:25 AM
(I want to note, parenthetically, that the parallel I'm drawing between Matisse's work and my own isn't some ego trip I'm on. I honestly began drawing in the style I've been using without any conscious influence of Matisse; I didn't even think of him until someone suggested my drawings reminded them of his. Since then I've paid more attention to old Henri than I used to, and that's where these ruminations come from; I don't really put myself up there.)
22.
June 14, 2008, 12:36 PM
Hey, Franklin, maybe you should consider a post on handling the pain of vague criticism.
There's pain?
Sir Tony is famous for soliciting advice on his work from anyone handy, and I admire the hell out of that. It's pretty obvious, though, when the feedback is coming out of a bad place, artistically, emotionally, or intellectually - given the opportunity, the critic can't formulate or even envision a solution.
I share those thoughts exactly about Matisse. Milton Avery too to a significant extent. It's also worth looking at Hakuin and his followers, especially Sengai, for a similar feeling of gorgeous casualness.
23.
June 14, 2008, 11:27 PM
Of course there's pain when someone you've never heard of and for whom you have zero respect comes out and tells you you're not very good. Isn't there?
24.
June 18, 2008, 4:41 PM
I like the drawings a lot. Sya does not sound as if he or she has looked at enough art to have developed the ability to know what is good,...or not. This may sound harsh,..but it also seems obvious, and I'm calling it.
"Sloppy is all"??
I was seeing Bonnard's drawing....
25.
June 18, 2008, 6:29 PM
Great spontaneous drawings.
Bravo!!
Bob Ragland
26.
June 18, 2008, 7:27 PM
You see even a little Bonnard, I'm a happy guy. Thanks to all for the props.
1.
wwc
June 12, 2008, 2:05 PM
Brush pen? The one mentioned in the previous thread?