In my art history class, we are studying the original piece “Raft of Medusa,” by Gericault. I was excited to find this reproduction by Joel-Peter Witkin, on (Notes on) Politics, theory and Photography.

Here’s a link to his own words on it : http://www.edelmangallery.com/witkin33.htm

Witkin is probally the only artist who’s book we hide from the kids. He’s pretty gruesome, studying his work reminds me of the story of Leontius. With my own internal conflict of whether to look or not. Why would i want to look at some of his creations, seeing some of them as beautiful, is it a moral weakness? a lack of temperance? a war against the appetites, as Plato put it. my philosophy professor would be proud…

close up:

i just booked another art show for August, at Picasso’s. i’m not sure what it will consist of, but i was thinking 1) huge handmade paper pieces, like 4 feet x 3 ft 2)sewing art 3)male nude figure drawing creations. we’ll see…

i did watch one of my now favorite movies A Love Song for Bobby Long. It’s one of the best well written and acted movie that i have seen in years. here’s a quote from the movies that rung throughout,

“Some people reach a place in time where they’ve gone as far as they can. A place where wives and jobs collide with desire. That which is unknowable and those who remain out of sight. See what it is invisible and you will see what to write. That’s how Bobby used to put it. It was the invisible people he wanted to live with. The ones that we walk past everday, the ones we sometimes become. The ones in books who live only in someones mind’s eye. He was a man who was destined to go through life and not around it. A man who was sure the shortest path to Heaven was straight through Hell. But the truth of his handicap lay only in a mind both exalted and crippled by too many stories and the path he chose to become one. Bobby Long’s tragic flaw was his romance with all that he saw. And I guess if people want to believe in some form of justice, then Bobby Long got his for a song.”

It’s so refreshing to have writing like that and the screenplay was wriiten and directed by a lady, Shainee Gabel. michael wants to write her a letter to tell her how much she rocks.

more good things to come…

what!, why do you think we are up to somethin’

my angel?

we start them early, in their training for karaoke godliness. here they are perfecting their own Janis and Cocker duet.

Michael’s gig last night went off well, despite his bass breaking in two, when he took it out of it’s case, before the show (it’s fixable…). So he went electric and still played till his fingers bled. He has another show next sat at the wayout club, down in the city. hopefully the upright will be fixed by then and a babysitter will come through.

I talked to my friend sara yesterday and she always makes me happy. There’s something about being poor, a wife, with kids and not normal, that we can relate to each other… and have a nice laugh about it as well. i miss my portland people a lot.

this is Michael, before we met, playing bass with his old band The Last Call Brawlers.  This was a afternoon side gig on one of their tours in CA.  This is the same tour when Michael’s beautiful bass fell over into oblivion. A sad sad day.

fair monster

absolute cuteness

and a bunch more of whitman…

the piece that i made for a local coffeehouse. i regret selling it for what i did, but one has to pay the bills. the background is in oil pastels… never again, and the face and shirt is handmade paper with charcoal on top. fair decided to join in and drew across two of the women’s faces, it was back to normal after two more thick coats of pastels. michael and i have learned not to keep art laying around, unless we want it to be a collaborative piece.

this is the very first piece of graffiti i’ve ever made and i did it last week in michael’s studio. this is one of many upside to michael working in a pretty much condemned warehouse. the walls are completely covered with art, but it is pretty freaking cold and scary at night, well during the summer it’s a sauna. anyways, i am quite proud of my new art. it’s the fumes that are no fun, i want to keep what’s left of my brain cells…i killed quite a few at an early age…