Hammer Museum: Art and Salad

I had this salad at the Hammer Cafe the other day. It was delicious! Butter lettuce, slices of roasted beet, carmelized onions, walnuts and goat cheese with a vinaigrette dressing.

Even better than the salad was the exciting art: Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles 1960 - 1980, one of the shows included in Pacific Standard Time, a broad ranging documentation of art  made in Southern California from 1945 to 1980.

I went to the Museum with Judy Chan and we both came away richly inspired and anxious to get back to our studios. Thank you, Hammer!

Apparitional Visitations, 1973

Suzanne Jackson

 Family, 1967

Samella Lewis

Untitled, 1974-76

John Outterbridge

 America The Beautiful, 1968

David Hammons

I loved the photo negative-like quality of the figure in this image and others by Hammons. They are actual body prints, created by covering his (or another) body with grease or butter, pressing it onto paper and then adding a layer of pigment to the paper, which stuck to the greased areas. After seeing his work, I tried this process at home using my hand for the trials and got some interesting results which I hope to put to use soon. 

The Flying Cow

Here is Joe's best swap find from the weekend. How could I not love the person who walks in the door with this curious amalgam of iconic features from China????

Brothers, in a Way

A photograph of this striking drawing from 1903 of Gustav Mahler (artist unidentified) appeared in the L.A. Times recently. I was immediately reminded of my favorite photograph of Muddy Waters, a similar profile view. Each image so wonderfully captures the artist's verve.

One of my favorite songs from this CD is "Baby, Please Don't Go," written by Joseph Lee Williams. On paper, the lyrics seem ordinary and tame. It is what Muddy does with them that makes the song so great.

Baby, please don't go

Baby, please don't go

Bay please don't go down to New Orleans

You know I love you so

Before I be your dog

Before I be your dog

Before I be your dog

I get you way'd out here, and let you walk alone

Turn your lamp down low

Turn your lamp down low

Turn your lamp down low

I beg you all night long, baby, please don't go

You brought we way down here

You brought me way down here

You brought me way down here

'bout to Rolling Forks, you treat me like a dog

Baby, please don't go

Baby, please don't go

Baby, please don't go back to New Orleans

I beg you all night long

Before I be your dog

Before I be your dog

Before I be your dog

I get you way'd out here, and let you walk alone

You know your man done gone

You know your man done gone

You know your man done gone

To the county farm, with all the shackles on

Baby, please don't go

Baby, please don't go

Baby, please don't go down to New Orleans

You know I love you so

New Work From My Studio

George Washington's Choppers, 2012

Annie Stromquist

photo-etching with watercolor

I've been working on a series of etchings based on abstracted teeth. This is the first finished one. The text on the left side reads: 

Washington suffered from poor dental health in his younger years and lost his teeth at an early age. He had two sets of false teeth  made by the most prominent American dentist of his day, Dr. John Greenwood. The dentures were created from hippopotamus ivory and gold.  The upper and lower plates were joined by metal springs which pushed the plates against the upper and lower ridges of his mouth, holding them in place. Washington had to actively push his jaws together to chew. If he relaxed his mouth, it would pop open. Some historians wonder if this is why he looks stern in so many portraits.

Joe's Finds

I never know what Joe is going to bring home from the weekend swaps and that is half the fun. Today, he found one of the iconic Obama posters by Shepard Fairey (which we'll hang so it is visible through the front window when the election heats up), a Japanese wall hanging with a gorgeous bird motif, and these fantastic wooden vessels:

Helen Frankenthaler

I am sorry to read of the death of one of my favorite artists, Helen Frankenthaler. Her non-objective, color oriented works have always inspired me. She was curious, prolific and versatile, exploring printmaking alongside her primarily medium, painting.

Many art historical accounts miscredit Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis with originating Color Field painting, in which oil paint was thinned with turpentine and applied to raw canvas. I was pleased to read Roberta Smith clarify this in her NY Times tribute to Frankenthaler on December 27th. Noland and Louis visited Frankenthaler's studio and saw her working this way before they experimented with the process themselves.

Beginnings

Gorgeous day here in Southern California! I'm spending time in the studio - such a pleasure. Hope you are spending your first day of the new year in happy ways, too.