by "Pierre Brassau"

So, thinking of paintings made with mammary glands reminded me of this work I’ve read about lately. So, Pierre Brassau did four paintings for a show in Sweden, which received rather consitently good critical review. Mind you, Pierre Brassau turned out to be a chimpanzee, who did in fact paint the works for Åke “Dacke” Axelsson, a journalist with something to prove to the art critics. Now that’s a stunt.

Hit the link below to read the full details. Something to think about while we ponder how much the stunt makes the art.

Found on Reddit, painted by someone's girlfriend's roommate's breasts

So, I have really no details about this (other than being done by a 21-year old Caucasian gal with 36B cup size using non-toxic paint and her breasts) painting. I found it today on the Reddit, from user “marblecakes” (click the image to skip to his profile). So, all shock factor aside (and chances to use words like ‘knockers’ seriously on my site), how do we process a painting like this? I mean, it’s attractive–I rather like it–but, without the context of the execution, is it worth anything? Knowing the context, is it worth anything even then? I’m unsure, actually, but it was enough to catch me off-guard.

Anyway, I’m not even sure where to start with this. If you’re unafraid of the internet, or are otherwise unphased by staring down 500+ Reddit comments, you can find the full comments on it here. And then, hey, hit me up in the comments with your thoughts, and maybe we can figure this thing out.

Look ma, an update!

So, it’s not been all fun and games this weekend as I’ve been installing new OS’s and setting up the new laptop. There’s also been paint, in preparation for a show I’ve reportedly agreed to to with Midwest Emerging Artists. So, to those ends, here’re shots of my studio as stands, with the newest finished painting, one for the series in progress on the wall, and two boards on the floor that’ll become that sketch you see there.

Well, by canvas I mean “board,” in this case. But as they’re the field upon which my paint will reside, the vehicle for my artistic vision (snerk), they’re still my ‘canvas’es, if ya get my drift.

Anyway, gearing up for a show in March I’m going to do quite a few new, smaller paintings and hopefully a new 4×5′ monster to go with five finished ones. The theme will be “Relationships,” a theme I’ve apparently been exploring a lot lately and thought deserved to explored into a proper body of mismatched musings.

Well, this officially marks my first day as a Mac user. Voluntarily, this time, unlike at the design department. I gotta say, OSX has come a long way since it’s early incarnations, but, all of its improvements alone I don’t think would be enough to accomodate my workflow if not for one thing: the new 4-finger gesture touchpads. Keyboard shortucts are marvelous, but Exposé, which makes multitasking on a Mac possible, is normally bound to the function keys all the way on the other side of my keyboard from the Scared Touch Pad where all my navigation work is done.

Or, now I can flip my fingers up or down. Guess which is more useful? Actually, the gestures are so useful they might be my new favorite time-saver, supplanting the all-mighty Alt+Tab. Now that’s impressive.

Oh, and pinch-push scales my thumbnails in LR, and yes, rotating on the touchpad rotates my images. That’s workflow I can get behind.

So, I’ve been working on the mask for the Great Chicken Skull Revival. Some of you old-skooler’s will remember that the original ones were based on my currently-defunct comic character, ChickenBones. Anyway, I was looking at the shots I posted this morning, and was realizing the beak was far too long. The bulk of the skull was formed like my more mature rendering of old CB, but the beak was the too-long narrow mistake of early CB (see reference picture from strips 1 and 83).

So, I did a beak job. A beackectomy, if you will (except not, ’cause I didn’t remove the whole thing. Just the tip. Beakumcision, maybe.) I think the results are better. But, don’t trust me, check out the gallery below and decide for yourself.

[UPDATED: New 'point' added to beak]

by Diego Gravinese

So, let’s get it out of the way: there is no doubt in my mind that artists who work in a photo-realistic style– that is, in a style that without immense scrutiny is indiscernible from real life or a photograph–have immesne and extraordinary talent, and deserve all due recognition for it. But, other than feathers in the cap for technical skill, I don’t get the point. Technical skill does not itself make art, if it did Flickr’s approximately 18 billion technically flawless macro shots of flowers and elapsed landscape shots of water crashing on rocks would seriously threaten Christie’s business model.

by Juan Francisco Casas

And that’s because—for photography, at least—we’ve accepted that technical merit alone does not equal art. It equals technical merit, while art is retained for something that captures an idea, emotion, or moment. So why is photo-realism in painting, a medium that long ago abandonned capturing life verbatim once the camera tripped onto the scene, so popular right now?

Don’t get me wrong, artists like Diego Gravinese and Juan Francisco Casas (both pictured, linked, and found on Artist A Day) make good images. I’m just saying I’d like them identically as photographs and not just paintings (or ballpoint pen drawings) that look just like photographs. Again, other than the “oh wow” factor, which is transient, I don’t understand what this retrogressive technique adds to the image.

I suspect, whatever the artist’s intentions, the popularity has to do with the notable trend currently of ditrusting anything but the most authentic image, because of a fear of forever being lied to spurred by the digital revolution. It’s popular currently to cling to the insane notion that there’s an ‘honest’ way to create images that doesn’t distort, alter, edit, and lie the moment you frame a slice of infinite, 3 dimensional life elapsing in time into a single, 2 dimensional frame. Which, I also don’t understand. But, I welcome your thoughts and debate on the subject.

Not much to report this evening. The Great Chicken Skull Revival mask continues to shape up. Got a new painting started with no idea what it’ll be (I love surprises!). Nick’s over and we’re tipping some gin and he’s playing with acrylics and seeming to have a jolly good time. Shooting the breeze and discussing a couple of the upcoming Machines shoots and a snow shoot he wants to do with a lovely gal provided we get more snow this winter.

Anyway, enough talk talk talk, Pictures!