Mad Art Skills: Police Composite Sketches

When artist skills go wonky.

The Artist's Joke

The Pre-quel (Déjà Vu)

                         Stone's Throw                                             Scherzo

In reference to my last post, I just dredged up an old painting from circa 1999. Uncanny that there used to be a central figure in that painting too, and I also got rid of it.

Again with the dark lump at the bottom of the composition, implied gravity, and  a  hand (though the older ones look to be waiting for something).

What Makes a Successful Artwork

I was de-installing an ugly, be-laboured steel wool drawing I made last year, Scherzo (The Joke in Italian. Ref: the myth of the trickster, inspired by a chinoiserie jester on a swatch of fabric someone gave me.)

CONCEPT: that creativity -the art part- is elsewhere. It's not the artwork itself, which is a container/medium for the message, but something -the essence- which is less tangible. [the jester points the way]

I'd always loved the concept and the steely crumbs caught in the paper tray at the bottom much more than the actual drawing itself, which I found . . . so cloyingly literal, fussy and academic in its rendering.

The more I de-installed that drawing, 

the more a new drawing was emerging on its own.

Nearly all the pins came off and the jester began to sag {and seemed to exhale a sigh of relief}. . . .until he could no longer support his own weight (his own redundancy) and fell completely down. All that was left was the wrinkle of his simultaneous absence-presence and a telltale, pointing finger. Lovely performance-drawing, don't you think?

QUESTION: What makes a successful artwork?

ONE ANSWER: Chance and Gravity(Gravitas).

Illy & William Kentridge Team Up

Not sure how I feel about that. Pretty sure I don't much care for it.
William Kentridge limited edition cappuccino set.

Soon to be sold on Amazon, no less.
Illy has a history of working with quality artists like Pistoletto, Maria Abramovic, A.R. Penck, Daniel Buren, and Jannis Kounellis, but must say the majority of the cups are superficially decorative (with few exceptions: Kounellis, Abramovic and Kentridge) and merely souvenir kitsch at mini-art prices. I'd rather have some local artist art myself.

Addendum: I just realized each cup/saucer is a mini replica of one of his video pieces. Wish the photographer had taken the picture of just one cup so the reflections of the other cups on the silver didn't create all that extra visual noise. Is confusing to look at.

Art21 snippet of the Kentridge piece I'm referring to.

This Bird Has Flown

Funny thing happened on the way to the Bathroom.

I found Felix Gonzalez Torres in my stall. (As always seems to happen with his posters. . . they get left, somewhere.) I started documenting the "left behinds" at Venice Bienalle a few years back. And just today, I vowed I would reclaim all the lost felixes and make my own stack at home.

. . . . Only I took it, and accidentally left it at an Anthropologie store, when I put it down to take a picture of a display. HaHa.

Now, he's moved further up the street.

The rolled up print is this one:
Untitled 1992/1993

The two above were found on the grounds at the Venice Bienalle.
(left) behind the American Pavilion where FGT was being showcased.
(right) near the ....Danish? Pavilion 2007. That's nearly an origami crane.