RICHARD SOLSTJARNA, Deep connoiseur of the chromatic scale – by Richard Solstjarna

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New digital prints now available from Swedish fine artist Richard Solstjarna. All printed on silk coated paper 300g. 4 different prints, titled, signed & numbered at the back. Visit www.absolutearts.com/solstjarna page 22 and you will find all information necessary.

Deep connoiseur of the chromatic scale, with great ability, he obtains in his artworks any chromatic balances of superb artistic depth and for this motive the lights harmony reigns in every composition. RICHARD SOLSTJARNA applys perfectly the perspectives laws. The sign is light, slight, almost absent, because the chromatic mass determine forms and volumes in the works context. In my opinion, the analysis of his paintings proves a reality, transfigured from a convinced, passionate participation and confirms his humanitys charge in all his complexity, in the figures, in the symbols, in the signs and in the allegorys. It is not important which techniques and which means he uses: the result are always excellent, without pauses and without chromatic fractures and for this motive he has obtained the favorable publics and critics consents in every artistic manifestation of that he has participated.  Antonio Malmo. International artcritic Italy

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TIDES – by Cassandra Gordon-Harris

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When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure – Peter Marshall

Irene and I stood at the base of the barranca and looked over the large expanse of the estuary. The sun was setting; water was beginning to trickle into the deeper hollows.

"We need to go now!" she exclaimed

"OK" I sighed, "deep breath, let’s go!"

We ran as if our lives depended upon our speed, and it did. Bare feet slapping on the damp sand, ragged breaths sucking in the wet, salty moisture laden air, we raced time. Ten feet away from the other side, we heard the roar, running even faster we laughed wildly at the danger. Knowing if we did not reach the outer bank, we would be caught in the massive tidal flow and strong rip currents.

"One day, we will wait too long and then….!" Irene said, hands on her hips.

"Nonsense!" I answered "it’s not our time! Lets find your father and see what he has dug up!"

Even at the tender age of 10, I had a sense of time and space. Irene was my best friend. She was born in Cuba, her family having escaped one terror in Germany in the late 30’s only to enter another. Moving to Ecuador in the 50’s like many others, a new life was constructed. They had a primitive stilt vacation house in Playas, a small finishing village an hour out of Guayaquil and a universe away. Her father was an amateur archaeologist and the 2-room shack was filled with beautiful and unusual pottery shards and small artifacts. That one summer, I would go with them to the beach and Irene and I would have adventures that would stay in my heart for the rest of my life.

I can still feel that sense of danger and excitement today. I can see us laughing wildly at everything. At the time, it was my greatest joy and I always held it close, as a light, when I went home to hell.

I think of all the hard times many people have and are having, and how they suffer in absolute pain and cannot comprehend the why. They focus on their sorrow carrying it with them as permanent deformity and burden to their being. They leverage their disability, or inability or lack of this, that or the other on their sleeve for all to see and pity. They cannot see the other side of the estuary and are caught in the rip tide without hope and filled with fear. In addition, they cannot understand that they are whom they are because of all the bad that happened or is happening. Many can carry forward, many do not.

If our lives were filled with nothing but good, we would never know joy.

We are each where we are supposed to be at any point in time in our individual lives. Acceptance is so very hard for most….to take the good out of the bad, to be able to run forward with joy of the journey, laughing at the danger, willing to take the chance. 

Hello June, I am still here!

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The Smoking Underground/Assemblage Arts….A True Story – by Richard Thomson

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My  whole life I have been in awe of art and artists. Even when life was dark and the real bad was closing in, I could paint, sculpt, and create art in my head and delay the pain.

I spent 20+ years as a hair stylist-on national teams, a guest on Oprah twice and Jenny Jones on site stylist for a season, I fearlessly created fashions that can still shock today. All the while my ultimate goal was a chance to create just for me-with my voice.

In the early 80’s I started working with paper sculture and collage. I got good enough that Columbia School of the Book and Paper Arts invited me to give classes on my technique for stretching paper on to frames. Family and friend mocked my collages as being weird…crazy…blasphamy, yuo get the picture. My former wife was was upset by it, I had to sneack studio time at 4am just to avoid a fight

Well booze, industry, and fustration finished of my 1st marriage, but not my desire to create. Thankfully the gods take a special interest in the crazies and brought me agood woman that was wise and experianced in dealin with artists-they also struck me down with some pretty interesting ailments- while providing me with 3 of the most beautiful kid in the world.

Soooo… I started to paint. I painted day and night, and when I was’nt painting I was studying how to paint better, My wife went out and fought in the real world while I painted with babies at my feet . I did not try to sell or in any way market or promote my work. I painted. When the kids were about 3 I stopped, looked at all these pictues and thought "Oh Shit" this is not what I wanted to say at all. This was not my Voice, this what I thought people wanted to hear.

I started THE SEARCH, in book stores, libraries, online, in gallaries, in nature, people, buildings. I could see it in the corner of my minds eye, almost sense it.

I was drifting until I saw a piece by Dale Copeland of New Zealand, and following that thread discovered the big daddy Joseph Cornell, and then some of the new crew, M. deMeng, Richard Salley, Jane Wynn and all those brave souls who put it out there way before it was cool. Thank you for taking the heat.

As for me, it was like a fist in the chest. I knew exactly what was going to happen, I clearly saw MY PATH. My future started with a razor on canvas, a wood box, some rusted metal, screws, and construction adhesive. My  wife, kids, and fiends watched in true horror and confusion as I took that razor to nearly every single painting I ever did and encased them in shrines that told their true story.

As you can see this is a TRUE STORY

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J. Swaminathan And The Story Of Indian Modern Art Then And Now continued – by Rajesh Shukla

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The petty bourgeoisie class that surfaced after independence never went for ‘critical and new’; it became modern by merely following the thoughts and ideas produced by great artists and thinkers of the west. It rejected the ancient Indian wisdom and virtues, art, literature and philosophy by just saying that it’s all produce of Brahmancal culture. Western intellectuals never rejected their heritage and culture; throughout the ages we see them from time to time going back to Greekan philosophy for newness since they believe that Greek is their mother. No debate is complete without talking Greek philosophy whether it is postmodern philosophers or modern philosophers. Heidegger after proposing his philosophy has written that “European philosophies have not traveled beyond Greeks” and almost same statement Derrida have said in his book Dissemination. The entire history of discourse on philosophy, art, and literature in west has been indebted to Greek philosophy. He says hitherto all western philosophy seems to synthesize the core classical doctrines. Discussing the question of Mimique he writes “let us reread Mimique. Near the center, there is a sentence in quotation mark. It is not a citation mark. It is not a citation, as we shall see, but simulacrum of a citation of explication:-“the scene illustrates but the idea, not actual action”….

This is a trap: one might well be tempted to interpret this sentence and the sequence that follows from it in a very classical way, as an ‘idealist’ reversal of mimetology. One would then say: of course, the mime does not imitate any actual thing or action, any reality that is already given in the world, existing before and outside his own sphere; he doesn’t have to conform, with an eye toward verisimilitude, to some real or external model, to some nature, in the most belated sense of the word. But the relation of imitation and the value of adequation remain intact since it is still necessary to imitate, represent, or ‘illustrate’ the idea? But what is the idea? When it is no longer the ontos on in the form of the thing itself, it is, to speak in a post-Cartesian manner, the copy inside me, the representation of the thing through thought, the ideality- for a subject- of what is. In this sense, whether one conceives it in its Cartesian or in its Hegelian modification, the idea is presence of what is, and we are not yet out of Platonism.

This reading of the tradition opens the gate for broader understanding of things and thought. It is because of this that western philosophers came out with new philosophies of art and literature. Without knowing one’s own tradition how one can reach anywhere. Indian modern art and thought from the very beginning rejected existing philosophies and started following western tradition of art and thought yet our left hand critic Gita Kapoor tries to find in it a kind of nationalist art. An art that rejected existing thought, art and philosophies and accepted western thought, art, and philosophy claimed to be representative of National. Swaminathan, Raza, Santosh, etc. and many Bengal and south indian artists Kcs panikar, A.Ramachandran, etc. had a different notion of art so they did not follow the Trend set by progressives.  They were trying to get rid of borrowed language of art since only then they could have been proclaimed their Identity. Identity was not sought in the social field as for as art was concerned it was sought in the invention of ‘new art language’.  Art was not a field of warfare for them as Marxist progressives wanted it to be; for them it was the field in which question of ‘truth of art’ had to be sought. Many artists have succeeded in it and shown the path to the coming generation artists. Swaminathan, Raza, Santosh, KCS Panikar, A.Ramachandran, Biren Dey, Manjit bawa,  etc can be claimed Indian modern artists. Despite this that some artists succeeded in shaking off the borrowed identity yet Indian modern art had never had any discourse as such. Those who became champions of Indian art enclosed themselves in a style and lived on it. It is a fact that their style too was not entirely new it was synthesis of many visual languages. Some synthesized expressionism with tantra, some western figurative language with miniature art etc there was no innovation as such. And it was almost same like many western modern artists. In western art we find truly new aesthetics after invention of cubism and abstract art of Kandinskey and surrealism. These three streams are only truly modern as for as question of ‘new’ is concerned. Cubism died after a decade but Kandinskey and surrealism survived and is playing big role in postmodern art. It is their aesthetic strength that it is still alive and is being pursued by artists. I think Kandinskey was bigger then Picasso in many ways. Picasso could not revolve any movement that could last but his art did. Expressionism that is still alive owed a lot from him. He is first modern artist in whom philosophy and art converse. Surrealism too as a figurative art language stands parallel to it.

 Indian modern art could not create any movement why? It is because of progressive’s approach that was by and large orthodox. Meaning of progressiveness for them was following and copying. It has petty bourgeoisie consciousness (that I call a parasitic consciousness) in disposal that rejected anything progressive. Because of parasitic consciousness it could not create anything that it could claim to the world their ‘own’. Progressives lived on exploitation of socio-political; they appeased existing Govts and created value in their art through false means……  continues

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the pink press – by Jose Freitas Cruz

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Handling the promotion side of our work is something many of us shy away from, or at least find difficult and tend to neglect or do half-heartedly. Ideally, of course, it needn’t be our concern and a gallery or critic would take you under their wing and do that for you. That is ‘the proper way’. But I would venture that most of the time for many of us the ‘Ideal’ and the ‘Present’ reality are worlds apart and we are left alone trying to bridge the gap as best as we can. It is something we must do.  Some years ago I learnt that I was being shunned by galleries and critics because at a certain stage in my career I had resorted to the pink press and less nobler forms of television – Art, according to the pundits, ought only appear in the relevant press and cultural programmes they frequent and deign to bestow their blessings on. I had always heard it say that self-promotion was a dirty word, but quite frankly, I am glad I got over that complex and got on with my life as an artist. In the beginning [and working from outside the system as was my case] you don’t worry much about promotion, word-of-mouth sort of does the trick. But word only travels so far. If you are serious about your work you soon realise that you have to become a bit more aggressive. As soon as you start to show, word-of-mouth slowly runs out – friends and family can only carry you a certain distance. You quickly discover that you have to send out invitations if you want people to keep coming; showing up at openings and parties broadens your data-base; phone calls help.  And when you’ve gone down that road for a certain time there comes the day when they’ve all gone home and you allow yourself to dream for more. When will the critics come? When will the good galleries open up? And time goes by and they don’t come, and they don’t open up… or if the first one’s come the second still don’t open up their doors to you.  That is when the real hard work starts, when you realise you are going to have to go it alone. I call it the crossing of the desert: ahead of you lies this vast stretch [40, or with any luck, 50 years of your life maybe] to cover alone, and you have no way of knowing where you’ll end up. That’s what any artist is looking at beyond the emptiness of the canvas or the weight of the marble or granite block. That is how I felt in those early years. That’s how I still feel today, come to think of it, but I now know this: I’ve enjoyed the ground I have covered so far and worry less and less about where it will end up. Back in those early days, after tackling things for six years I woke up one morning to find my work favourably reviewed in the daily paper for my participation in the young artists competition at an important local venue. In the weeks that followed I also discovered it still meant little – in this tiny country of mine only 1^st prize matters: funds become available, gallery opportunities arise, works find their way into significant collections. For all the rest of us the following day is ‘Business as Usual’ and the quicker we get used to it the better we are able to bounce back and take the next step forward. And for those of us not getting first prize or any significant leftovers the promotion side of the work – and yes, self-promotion – quickly becomes a necessity if we want to stay on the tracks. For whatever unfathomable reasons the establishment may insist on ignoring us, avoid us or even try to fend us off for the major sin of self-promotion and resorting to the pink press [and more recently personal websites and blogs] but we have few viable options to get the message out. Others – and more painfully, newcomers – may seem to be getting ahead in the race, but remember this: it isn’t a sprint. We get into this for the long-haul; time [the fastest one to whatever and wherever the finish line might be] isn’t the most important factor; resistance, experience, perseverance, drive are our ultimate allies. A few years back I bumped into the winner of that award back in 91. She had stopped painting and embraced a more profitable occupation. She was no longer an artist and it showed in her eyes at a deeper level the accoutrements her profitable occupation afforded could never conceal. In that moment I realised I had been sufficiently rewarded. Not because she had given up, nothing saddens me more than finding out that someone with talent has given up, but because I was able to appreciate just how valuable a prize those five lines in a narrow column with no follow-up had really been. When this gets published I will no doubt be back at the studio – business as usual. Crossing a new stretch of desert, looking for the next oasis and, hopefully, knowing better than to allow myself to be lured into staying amidst its comforts for too long. Will I be calling on the pink press again to promote my work? Who’s to know. If nobody else will do it for me I just may, it has hurt me much less than the pundits declare.

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“Death by Paintbrush” – by Annette Labedzki

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  I’m nursing my arm back to health.I still can’t believe that I painted my arm to death..whoever heard of "Death by Paintbrush"….. in the meantime I’m in my frugal factory working on my embellished pieces of fabric.The best present I bought for myself just before Christmas was the "baby lock embellisher".My husband with his thick Polish accent calls it the "embezzler" (we’ve always been making up words ever since we met)This machine can do wonders with fabric and there is no thread involved.I’m also stitching on beads and doing embroidery.Later these pieces of fabric will be incorporated into my collages

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Exclusive – by Hans Mertens

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Create your blog in this textarea.

Dear art friends, Since a  while several of my paintings can be printed on habotai silk of high quality.The sizes are 140 cm x 70 cm, and each one costs  149 euro.(without shipping costs!) The titles of the works you can find on www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/a/aragornare “Storm”, “First flowers of the year”,”Contrast”,”Blinded by the light” and “Restless”. You can also take a look on www.hansmertens.nl Might you be intersted in an exclusive gift, just send a message to hansmertens@versatel.nl. Best regards from Holland, Hans Mertens

 

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The Smoking Underground/ Assemblage Art – by Richard Thomson

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"I once was lost, but now I’m found, I was blind but now I see."

This old verse from a popular gospel song decribes my feeling when I decided to jump in to assemblage with both feet. A sense of relief came over me as I crafted my first few pieces and of course the reaction of both family and friends was, well… less than supportive.

These times have taught me some valuable lessons and over the next few months I would like to share with who cares to listen

rthomsonassemlbage

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GRACIE MANSION PRINT TAKEN FROM PHOTOGRAPH SHOT IN 2007 – by Edward Longo

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This is the color print that will be made from the photograph of Gracie Mansion taken during the fall of 2007. Traditionally, this has been the reidence of the mayors of New York city. Mayor Bloomburg, however, was one of the few who decided not to live there . . . . . The image printed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch Advanced HP Glossy Photo Paper will cost $50 each. Dozens of other views of the mansion are also available at the same $50 each. . . . . . NOTE: An Original Cover Brochure Developed for the Gracie Towers Condominiums on East 88 Street, NYC is also  available for $300.  Although not in perfect condition it is certainly deemed a collector’s item.  . . . . . Prints of this original cover (to be listed soon) will be available for $70 each. . . . . Look for the Gracie Towers Cover.

GRACIE MANSION

PRINT FROM PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN THE FALL OF 2007

MORE PRINTS AND PAINTINGS BY EDWARD LONGO

http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/l/longo

ARTISTS PERSONAL WEBSITE: WWW.EDWARDLONGO.US

 

 

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THE ARTIST PRESENTING HIMSELF ON VIDEO TAPE – by Edward Longo

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Angel Feathers Within Wings was completed on February 12 2008. This painting on stretched canvas is the 6th of the Cement and Acrylics series to date. The painting stands out from others in the series in that it has a way of compelling the viewer to touch its wispy angel feathers. Through a complex series of cement applied to canvas in winding rib-like curves, and strips of acrylic representing feathers, the artist feels he has made an important connection between the angel feathers and its wing. Look for more of this series, with at least a dozen more paintings to follow. NOTE: The Angel Feather Series has been accepted by a prominant gallery in New York City. . .

The Artist Presenting His Angel Feathers Series On VIDEO TAPE - OPEN LINK BELOW:

http://paik.absolutearts.com/cgi-bin/portfolio/art/art_movies/view_movies_index.cgi?login=longo

Signed Prints Now Available – (see below)

 

Chelsea New York

~PAINTING SOLD~

The original painting depicting buildings located in Chelsea New York has been recently sold.

A Glossy Print of This image will be printed on Glossy HP Photo Paper for $50. A professional Giclee print will cost $70 . . . Multiple prints are available Upon Request. Send the artist an email if more information is needed about the print, or the original painting. 

CLICK LINK TO REVIEW COLOR PRINT BELOW:

http://www.edwardlongo.us/chelseanewyork_printL.jpg

Visit Artist’s Website: www.edwardlongo.us

 

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