I have been photographing dumpsters for a few years now, not exclusively of course, just when I come across an interesting one. Our neighbors have one out in front of their house right now. We’re guessing they’re redoing their kitchen. It’s been out there for a few weeks and it is nothing but ugly.
In Spain they are always reworking buildings. Some of them have been around for five hundred years so there are many layers of crudely cut stone, brick, tile and old wooden beams. Exterior doors can be twelve or twenty foot high and maybe five or six inches thick. Living with all this old stuff, Spaniards have developed both a proud appreciation for it and an intense drive toward modernism.
The sound of grinders and jackhammers is everywhere. Dust spewing out of open windows is sometimes so thick you are forced to take an alternate route. And then there are the beautiful dumpsters left out on the street until the project is done.
Picasso study for Guernica at Reina Sophia in Madrid
The Reina Sophia, Madrid’s contemporary art museum has a world class collection so it is a must stop. We wandered through the place in a methodical fashion so as to see it all in one day. We gorged ourselves on Richard Serra, Edvard Munch and Paul Klee as well as younger artists we had never heard of. My jaw dropped when I saw two big Philip Guston paintings and five or six drawings as part of a provocative show called, “Elements: The Space of Crisis.”
A display of graphics, photos and art from the Spanish Cival War wound us up for the killer piece in this museum’s collection, Picasso’s Guernica, a monumental painting he did for the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris in response to the fascist bombing of the Basque town. A total knockout!
Paul Dodd “Homeless Kids” group shot in basement studio
I took photos of these local homeless kids a few years ago. One of them was sixteen and pregnant. I’ve painted them in oil and I painted them again in opaque watercolor. And then I drew them in charcoal on craft paper. The ones shown above are charcoal on drawing paper, multiple versions of six kids. I’m still working on a few but am preparing to move on to another project. Then I’ll photograph these drawings properly and put them in a drawer.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Die Schlittenfahrt (The Sleighride), 1923
I took five books out of the downtown library, all picture books really. Leon Golub : echoes of the real by Jon Bird, The German expressionists; a generation in revolt by Bernard Samuel Myers, Tàpies : January 27-April 23, 1995 by Carmen Giménez, David Hockney : portraits by David Hockney and Matisse: radical invention, 1913-1917 by Stephanie D’Alessandro.
I spent so much time with the German Expressionist book that I had to renew the lot twice. I finally decided to look for a used copy of “A Generation in Revolt” and found one through Amazon. That gave me some time to spend with other books but it makes clear where my heart lies at the moment. I am deep into the German Expressionists.
The library copy, a first edition from 1957 printed in Cologne, was missing a few plates (the color reproductions that are glued on the page) and I can’t wait to see what the Emil Nolde one looks like. As luck would have it davoser-tagebuch posted this beautiful Kirchner painting (above) to my tumblr site this morning.
Paul Dodd “Homeless Kid” charcoal on paper drawing 2014, 18″x24″
Our friend, Louise, writing about a nearby, familiar and favorite spot says it “is so beautiful I think I might disappear: out of life, and into it.” I can’t write anything after that. Here’s a drawing.
It seems I’m posting something related to the MAG everyday. We were there for two different movies and then last weekend’s art opening. Tomorrow I’ll be downstairs in the Creative Workshop for painting class. The Lockhart Gallery in the MAG has an interesting show about the Watson family’s contribution to the Memorial Art Gallery’s collection. I absolutely love this 1931 pencil drawing by the renowned Maine artist/sculptor, Gaston Lachaise. The drawing, like a lot of his sculpture, one of which is on display in the main gallery at the MAG, was inspired by his wife, Isabel Dutaud Nagle.
Toshinao Yoshioka Guidepost 6, 2001 at the Memorial Art Gallery
The printmakers’ world is rather archaic. There are so many rules as to what is technically a numbered print, one in a series where each is the same, and what is either an “Artist’s Proof” or a mono print, a print which cannot be in a series because it is slightly different from the next in the series. But all that is breaking down and the new show, “Redefining Multiples: Contemporary Japanese Printmakers,” at the Memorial Art Gallery pretty much puts those old ideas to rest. How the heck does the artist who squeegees ink on sheets of glass, and then layers those sheets in a single work, produce a multiple? I gave up trying to figure it out and that is exactly how it should be. So forget about the title of the show and enjoy it.
You can’t improve on nature but you can grab a pretty cool film loop if you fly around a cloud. Toshinao Yoshioka’s “Guidepost 6,” a 2001 dvd is stunning. Not sure how he made that. Naruki Ushima’s inkjet photos are beautiful and would really dress up a corporate boardroom. Gallery visitors are reflected in the glass on his photos and the photos themselves are as much about reflections as the subject of the photos. An interesting play. And I enjoyed watching Judd Williams and Todd Smith check out Junji Amano’s minimalist acrylic, graphite screen prints.
My favorite part of the evening was the Japanese prints that the MAG pulled out of its collection. Tokio Miyashita’s orange woodcut with aquatint, a 3d tour de force, and Hiroyuki Tajima’s “Good Evening” woodcut print. It looked like a primitive hologram. The Johnathin Wintringham saxophone quartet playing Philip Glass in the auditorium and the string duo in the courtyard were both outstanding. We had so much fun at the opening we stayed until the guards started packing up.
I exhausted myself writing an artist statement (*required) for two drawings I entered in Auburn’s “Made In New York” show. And now it’s time to watch the Tonya Harding documentary.
“Holy Night,” mixed media by Kaavl Obijn in 23rd Annual Members Show at Rochester Contemporary
We were lucky to get a seat at the MAG’s afternoon presentation of “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show,” Michael Maglaras’s documentary about the now infamous show of radical art (Europeans, Cezanne, Renoir, Van Gogh and Marcel Duchamp as well Americans, Marsden Hartley and John Marin) that took place a century ago. We were fifteen minutes early, rarity for us, and the only seats available were right down front which is right where we usually sit regardless of how crowded the theater is. The film was very good but how could it not be, centering on pieces like Matisse’s “Blue Nude.” Carol Acquilano was sitting behind us and she reminded us that this was the last day for Rochester Contemporary’s 23rd Annual Members Show.
So after the movie we were some of the last visitors on its last day, in fact Peggi and I took our pieces home with us when we left the gallery. Every member gets to contribute one piece and each time you visit the show you get to put a small yellow sticker next to your favorite piece. I put mine next to Kaavl Obijn’s “Holy Night,” a mixed media piece that could have landed Kaavl in prison if RoCo was in Russia. It was rather hard to photograph but you should be able to tell that parents, Joseph and Mary, the shepherds and wise men and most of the animals are gathered around a small tv set in the corner of the manger while the Christ child is let unattended.
Paul Dodd “Investment Banker” drawing at Creative Workshop gallery in Rochester, New York
We stopped down to the Creative Workshop in the basement of the Memorial Art Gallery to see the new show of “student art.” There is no shame in being a a lifelong student. I resigned myself to this a long time ago. Learning is not something you grow out of and this is all the more true at the Creative Workshop because Fred Lipp teaches there. Note: Classes start again next week.
I love the play between these three items in the show, my “Investment Banker” with the one eyed dog (Pauline Johnson Brown’s “Buster”) and Violet Paolucci’s “Untitled” ceramic vase establishing real form in the center. The color dialog is quite nice as well. And then around the corner we found a watercolor of the dedication of the O”Rourke bridge by Leo Dodd and Peggi Fournier’s watercolor of an African boy.
I am still buzzing over yesterday’s experience of reconnecting with an old friend. When I first met Greg he was living in the small studio that Indiana University gave to fine art majors. No dorm room, no apartment, an early piece of performance art and when I last saw him, sometime in the early seventies, he was sitting on a stoop in front of the apartment in the lower east side where he still lives.
Of course we had to run down the whereabouts of the Bloomington trailer denizens. He didn’t know Dave had passed on and that was a jolt. Greg had hired Dave to prepare the old drive-in screen that Greg repurposed as an installation. Greg loved the trailer and we all thought Greg was magical. Somehow I knew he would ride his bike back in to our life.
Greg is still a big idea, small footprint kinda guy. When the phone rang with his name on it it was as if he had crawled out of a cave. He has been living a self described, introspective, contemplative life devoted to art and he was excited to tell me he had recently come full circle in a long journey where he had set aside the production of tangible work. I had to hang up when someone knocked on our door. I told him I would call back to say goodbye but that would be silly.
Thomas Merton portraits from the collection of William Shannon at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York
In England and Wales the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is observed as a holy day of obligation (i.e. you must go to mass). Peter, fisherman, friend and disciple of Jesus, and Paul, a Jewish pharisee and later a self-appointed apostle of Jesus were both martyred and have churches named after them in every major city in the country.
Peter (Monicelli) and Paul (Dodd), local voluntary Catholic exiles, drove out to Nazareth College yesterday to visit the Thomas Merton library (Peter’s agenda) and photograph the stations of the cross in the school chapel (Paul’s agenda). We started with the stations because I was driving. Pete found the lights in back room of the empty chapel and I was able to photograph the fourteen stops. By coincidence, I first spotted the classic, sculpted stations at Father William Shannon’s memorial service last year. Bill, as my parents called him, was a close family friend as well as the leading authority on the writer, mystic, artist, Trappist monk, poet and social activist, Thomas Merton.
Pete Monacelli was in heaven in the Merton Library. Pete is a self described “abstract illustrator” but that sells himself short. He is an artist, a seriously productive and successful artist, as well a great guy with a huge heart. He is very interested in the connection between Merton and the early abstract expressionists. Merton was on the same search as his New York contemporaries when he converted to Catholicism and joined a monastery. Pete showed me many series of works he has done based on Merton’s works, beautiful drawings and paintings and assemblages. He wanted me to pick one to take home and he let me borrow Volume 1 of Merton’s journals. There are seven but he insisted I start with one.
We had lunch at Rocky’s on Jay Street. Pete eats here at least twice a week and can get away with ordering rigatoni as “rig” and calling the waitress “sweetie.” Pete is my favorite drummer in town. He had Rob Storms at Sound Source rig his turntable to run at 16. He says all the guys in his day used to learn guitar parts by slowing the song down, dropping the tune an octave. After lunch we listened to Miles Davis’ version of “Guinevere” and “Pharaoh’s Dance” from “Bitches Brew” on 16RPM. They are both long songs and were twice as long this way but beautiful. You quickly forget that you have changed gears while you hear parts dramatically unfold. He told me with all certainty, the way Pete says most things, that this is what Margaret Explosion sounds like.
Paul Dodd “Investment Banker” 22″w x 28″h, charcoal on paper, 2013
I drew this guy from a tiny obit picture in the New York Times. Don’t know if he wore the patch his entire life but he seems pretty comfortable with it. Of course he’s dead now but his investment banker image is eternally fixed.
Some days I get so bogged down making the rounds of friends’ blogs, news sites and links from my Tumblr page that there is no time left for a post here. That is as it should be. Yesterday was one of those. Who knew that Millie of “My Boy Lollipop” did such a beautiful version of “Since I Met You Baby” and that Jacke Edwards, the male voice on her early records wrote this song. I had always thought it belonged to the Tex Mex border artists like Doug Sahm and Freddy Fender. Kevin is on a roll over at So Many Records.
Louise Wareham Leonard called my attention to a Louise Gluck passage on how writing never gets any easier. I find this fascinating because I recently had a conversation with Bill Keyser, a sculptor, painter and fellow art student at the Creative Workshop. He was telling me how he worries he is getting dependent on our teacher, Fred Lipp, and he wrestles with whether he should skip class for a while. He is torn because Fred has this amazing ability to always be there at exactly the right juncture to call your attention to the next concern. Only when you are ready to see it and be in a position to do something about it. Just when you think I’ve got it, this painting is done, Fred will turn your your head around.
I found this conversation so interesting, of course, because I have been there, still am. If you’ve read Louise’s piece you might want to take a look at this post I wrote a few years ago on the Midas Touch. Like Louise Gluck says “the fantasy exists.”
Paul Dodd “Local Homeless Kid” drawing and Dan McCormick photo at 2013 Rochester Contemporary Members Show
Interesting to think about why the person or people that hung the 2013 Rochester Contemporary Members Show decided to put Dan McCormick’s photo next to my “Local Homeless Kid.” It sort of works.
The annual Members Show is always the best show they have at RoCo. The place was packed last night and it preempted First Friday. It will be packed again tonight. The news, announced last night, that RoCo has met 76 per cent of their five year fundraising goal (to pay for the building outright) in the first year of five was welcome. This is a healthy organization with a great staff and great members. Now we could use a few more great shows.
If you want really good cheekbones you have to move a little closer to death. Our painting teacher went into the storeroom during our last class and brought these two guys out for me to look at. I had drawn a woman who he said, “Looks like she has the mumps.” In attempting to describe the outside profile of her face with line I brought them forward, flattening her face and completely neglected to bring her cheeks forward of that. Just look at these eye sockets! The structure of the face is built to accommodate the features. We need to talk about this.
Bill Keyser painting entitled “White Intrusion” at Lucy Byrne Gallery show at the Creative Workshop in Rochester, New York
I apologize for the quality of my photo of Bill Keyser’s painting, “White Intrusion,” currently on view at the Lucy Burne Gallery in the Creative Workshop of the Memorial Art Gallery. The painting deserves better.
Masterfully simple, it could be described as one color on a white ground, a positive and negative space play, but the title tells you the white is a positive and both colors could be positives. In fact there are three forms involved in this intrusion. The two colors are completely flat but the three forms are multi-dimensional. Bill Keyser is a woodworker/sculptor/painter and a fellow student in Fred Lipp’s painting class. I find this painting very exciting.
Homeless kid charcoal drawing by Paul Dodd 24’x20″ 2013
A few years ago I arranged to meet some kids from a local homeless shelter so that I could draw them. The way it went down only the best behaved kids were selected by the organization to meet with me. And because they were told I would be taking their photos, some of them had their best clothes and face on. We met at the shelter and talked briefly over pizza. The kids were so interesting they made me feel like a statue and I fumbled my way through some awkward conversation before getting down to business.
I set up my Lowel Tota light kit and used the soft umbrellas to reflect the light back on their faces. The photos were a lot richer than my usual low res mugshot sources. I did a few drawings with Tempura and then a set of oil paintings but I was never happy with them. In the past few weeks I have revisited the faces and produced a series of charcoal drawings. I have two in the Irondequoit Artist’s Exhibition at ISquare which opens tonight. The drawing above is not in the show.
Three “Homeless Kids” drawings on wall at the Creative Workshop in Rochester, New York
I was asked to submit a few pieces into an upcoming, juried show at ISquare so somewhere near midnight on the day of the deadline I sent along photos of these three local homeless kids. Truth is the drawings were not done and they have changed considerably since. I had them in painting class last week and I told my teacher that I had submitted the three but only two of them got in. I told him which one was rejected and he said, “That’s the best one. People like pretty. They don’t like expressive.”
But that’s not the end of the story. I just got a note from the gallery director that says the person who did the poster for the show used the image that was rejected so it is back in the show.
My father finished his painting just in time for Brighton’s Art Festival this weekend. He was also scheduled to give a watercolor demonstration at the town hall in conjunction with the show and after the demonstration he and I set up shop to do festival goers’ portraits. I warmed up by doing Peggi and then one of my mom but my mom didn’t like the drawing I did. My father said, “Give her twenty five years and she’ll like it.” She didn’t like a portrait they had done in New Orleans 25 years ago but it’s hanging in their dining room now.
After the show we ate at Magnolia’s, the restaurant Obama ate at when he was in town. We had never been there but found some great salads on the menu and even Railroad Street IPA. After dinner the four of us walked down Park Avenue to Parkleigh where my sister works. We used to buy the New York Times in here when it was still a drug store. Now it is completely packed with stuff I couldn’t imagine buying. I feel like I am on another planet in there but they do a great business and they treat my sister right.
