Color Procrastination

I've become obsessed with color the last two days, perhaps because the elements I am working on in the open studio are going to be quite dark. At the moment, I'm settling for playing a little with color on the computer, to have a place for the thoughts to go. I'm not saving most of these exercise, but once in a while I hit on something I want to hold onto a bit.

Sincerety, real or faux, is not enough

Read an article in Artlies, Vol. 49, on (S)incerety in art ... really, faux sincerety. How much does it matter if the artwork is sincere or intentionally made to look like what loosely and supposedly passes for sincere, like what "sincerety" justifies, or what is in the manner of the "sincere"? If it's bad, it's bad ... regardless of intention. At times, it seems as though we've lost the ability, or at least the willingness, to judge the result of visual effort based on the actual quality of its aesthetic impact. Eliminating aesthetic standards, or expecting no aesthetic response, though does not make art work more assessible; indeed, it seems to put it further out of reach: to reach it, one must be okay with elevating the bad or ineffectual over the powerful and moving.

City of Chicago Open Studio

I am the Artist in Residence at the City of Chicago's Open Studio this month. The Open Studio gives the public the opportunity to watch an artist at work. I am working on the elements for an installation using woven newspaper figures as the surfaces for my imagery. My primary days will be M, W and Th from 9 to 6, and intermittent hours other days. The studio is beneath the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington -- access via elevator in the Cultural Center or through the pedway.

Two days into this, I don't yet have much up in the way of art. I sit behind a table, cutting and interweaving newspaper strips (after I read the paper, of course). Lots of cutting. Lots of interweaving. Staring at the wall/space and at some of my larger, imperfect scraps -- I do alot of staring -- gave me a idea for laying out a separate wall installation moving around a corner, related in general shapes/forms to the main work. Art is fluid that way. I'll be seeing what comes of the idea at the same time that those who stop in.

So far, most people that stop by have hovered outside the windows; a few have dared to enter and talk for a while, some about art and some about general events.

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