Artist: Gordon Matta Clark

You can learn some basic facts about Matta-Clark from this link to Dwell magazine: www.dwell.com/peopleplaces/profiles/3921046.html

or, of course, Google him  yourself. I think my association with his work is pretty obvious.

This stuff leaves me speechless.

Motherload of Ruins in Palma!!

Check THIS one out! Isn't it delightful? This is in the old part of Palma. It must have been a massive home or block of beautiful apartments. There are so many morsels to look at...need to zoom in on a few details.

architectural details like molding, elaborate ceilings, intricate staircases...

...what is most interesting to me with this complex of ruins is the depth. I have for the most part up 'til now I have been focusing on two-dimensional facades, but the cutting in on various angles and levels of floors is really wonderful here. Reminds me of an artist I love, Gordon Matta Clark.

Silhouettes

This is what happened next to the textural over-lapping of the open boxes of post (Open Box Experiments). Still unfinished, still unsure...

Any comments?

Farewell Biel, Reach for the Heavens!

I would like to dedicate this post to Biel, my good friends' Maite and Xavi's father and father-in-law respectively, who passed away just after midnight on Saturday. He left his body at the young age of 60 and will be missed and held dearly by many.

The passage painted on a home in Muro means "Dominate the heights and await infinity". 

Blessings to Maite, Xavi, Clara, and all of the extended family of Biel.

Walls in Muro

Taking a luxurious walk around Muro village I spotted a few more texture combinations. What attracts me to these images is the compartmentalization like the "rooms" of the torn down which I have posted a few times already. In addition, particularly in the stone wall ones, how what man does with materials will, eventually and inevitably return to it's natural form.
This metal door above is so good, I'm not certain I should even try to paint it. It just is. What can I do to improve it? I think this is why I so often chosoe to work more abstractly, my realistic work always leaves me wanting.

Re-Cycle

These are some of the lovely elements I am using to create texture in my plaster pieces.
I appreciate how man-made or man-manipulated things (almost) always return to their source.

Plaster Relief Experiments

Ok, ok, I know- what does this have to do with anything?      EVERYTHING.     This is a piece of plaster cast from a clay impression I made, and then painted.  I am planning a large body of work in this material, but need to play first to get the techniques down.  The 'baldosas' or tiles will be created with either natural or man-made elements.  You will see how this idea develops (as I do) over the next few months.

 All of the objects used to create the impression were collected from the street and back dirt roads of Muro, Mallorca.

Stay tuned.

Open Box Experiments

Working on the upper terrace today in 80 degrees. Benefit- paint dries quickly; drawback - sunburn. I am posting some soon-to-be underpaintings to get some objectivity. These were created with layers of transparent paint silhouetting open boxes. (See Call for Boxes post).  The first image is early in the process, this is what they look like now:

Hmmm, what to do, what to do?

Boxes in the mail!

Yay! I got a big juicy package of opened boxes in the mail today. Getting mail is an event in and of itself, but this was just heart-bursting. Of course, it was from Gail (see art be Gail Mitchell), I knew she would be the first international addition to the collection. I must also give credit however, to two of my English students.

Some of theses boxes are so cute - I don't want to change them!

addendum: two of my yoga students brought me a big satchel of boxes this evening! Gracies a tots.

Sketches using white-out

I'm not sure what to think of these 2 studies from my sketch book. I had fun making them with white out amongst other mixed-media techniques. How to they inform my new work? Sheer exploration may suffice.

Art by Elizabeth Saitta

Death of an Ideal, mixed media & printmaking on paper, 2007

Here you have a few works by friend and former colleague Elizabeth Saitta.
Measuring Up, collage, mixed media & printmaking on paper, 2007

Portrait Cheesecloth 1,  graphite on cheesecloth, 2008

Trying on the Ideal,  monoprint on paper, 2007

Liz is exploring self-portraiture in both a representational and figurative way. She says, "The work is about the disappearing and breaking down of me and my ideals. I'm interested in communicating this through deconstruction and transparency".

Art by Gail Mitchell

5+, mixed media on vellum, 2007

I would like to share some recent work by friend and former room mate while I studied at the Cooper Union in NYC. Gail Mitchell lives in Williamsburg Brooklyn and can be contacted at: gailrobin@billburg.com

One Unit,  found object assemblage, 2007

Vellum 1, mixed media and found object on vellum, 2007

Vellum 5, mixed media and found object on vellum, 2007

Gail has always been a master at collecting from the streets and shores of New York, and what's more, at re-presenting these objects in their unique glory without clutter.  The ability to edit and leave room for her subjects to breathe are what most attract me to Gail's work.

Escavations in Málaga