Tony Orrico is a human spirograph

"he explores the capacity of the human body as a physical tool for creating art"

More info at:
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/14440/tony-orrico-performance-drawings.html

The big C, Benlysta and feeling the tingle

We all have battles, and should you have an interest, I'll share mine with you. But really, all I want to do is feel my spine tingle.

Although we read with our minds, the seat of artistic delight is between the shoulder blades. That little shiver behind is quite certainly the highest form of emotion that humanity has attained when evolving pure art and pure science. Let us worship the spine and its tingle.

- Vladimir Nabokov

I don't know where this photo came from, but I think it is a miner in China.

 

Teraysa
charcoal and white conte on brown paper, 30 minutes

24x18", June 2011

 

 Miss Lisa
charcoal and white conte on Canson paper, 30 minutes
18x24", June 2011

 Teraysa
charcoal and white conte on brown paper, 30 minutes
18x24", June 2011

Do Something.....

....from a letter by Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse.

Teaching blog back online......

I have revived my teaching blog.  Please follow along, if you are so inclined.

www.jacobsstudio.blogspot.com

Figure Studies

Michele, pastel on brown paper,
18x24, 30 minute study

Jeff, vine charcoal, 14x11"
30 minute study

Planar Analysis, 14x11",
graphite, 20 minute study

 

Jeff, vine charcoal, 14x11"
30 minute study

Finally....Amsterdam....Part I

First of all, Amsterdam is lovely, more quiet than I expected, and has more canals than even Venice. So, it's lovely to stroll through, and not too large a city---easy to navigate.  I did my homework on that end; I knew the locations of all the museums, public buildings and coffee houses I wanted to visit before I even boarded the plane. I did not, however, take the notice that two of the large museums were under renovation, assuming they would be still vast enough to keep me happy and occupied. Wrong. Rijksmuseum, which is normally prodigious, was limited to one small wing.  Lovely work, but excessively crowded with 10 second per image visitors. And no cameras, phooey.

Anyway, two images stood out to me...one surprised me, and the other seduced with with it's richness. Both reminded me that there is no substitute for experiencing work in person.

 Willem Van der Velde I
Battle of Terhide, 1657, ink on canvas
Ink on canvas! Delicate. Lovely.  I am not fond of the subject matter in any way....just the technique.

Rembrandt's little self-portrait is so much richer in person than I ever realized...I've studied a few Rembrandts, but was so conscious of the richness of color here---more intense than those in New York, by far.

More later....