Tag: art

Rosalind & Joan

Posted on Posted in book shelf, creativity, studio tableTagged , , , ,

Is Rarity or scarcity of greater value . Is a topic Infrequently discussed. A topic with more power of attention. There are two loaded subjects: death and sex ..[topic point in EXS, 1974]. If we add aging, have we multiplied a value by its scarcity.

Most artists are interested in self as youth, after all, that is where and when they began . One of the most common pictures seen in freshman photography classes are self portraits from the women students — common trope is legs in tub; while the male students photograph themselves before a mirror holding a camera. The women have taken the picture from their eye view. Men and women place themselves into different environs, engaged in different actions. These transactional differences seem to apply universally across art schools.

One arc: FROM LOOKING AT OTHERS.. TO LOOKING.. looking to seeing?

Fox Solomon says she knew of only two photographers by name when she started making pictures: Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams.

–[At thirty-eight, while living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Rosalind Fox Solomon began a new life as a photographer. Studying with Lisette Model in the early 1970s, she honed the photographic voice which would define the prodigious half-century of work to follow. After moving to a loft in New York City in 1984, and travelling to Peru, India, South Africa, Cambodia, and beyond, she became renowned for her unflinching photography of everyday life around the world.

www.mackbooks.us/products/a-woman-i-once-knew-br-rosalind-fox-solomon

With Camera

–[ The With Camera series (2001—06) marked the first time Joan Semmel purposefully posed in front of the mirror with a camera. Like her earlier Locker-Roomworks (1988—91), these paintings celebrate the aging process through their accurate portrayal of the artist’s body. Semmel continued to develop these ideas in her Framed series (2005—2006), which presented images of her taking photographs framed inside a mirror

I want them to be more than they are… they serve as stand ins for something yet to be filled. My understanding is incomplete. They have a presence I failed. Of course, some of their standing is because of the “Big Empty;” things unexplored. Age happens to be the Box they are filling in. No matter how many items they put into it, it will never be filled.

They do what they do well. That they have done so for so long is sufficient reason for engaging their work.

>> Rosalind Fox Solomon (April 2, 1930 – June 23, 2025. In 2007, the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography acquired Solomon’s archive, which includes her photographic archive, books and video work

>> Joan Semmel (born October 19, 1932…Semmel states, “While my work developed through series, the connecting thread across decades is a single perspective: being inside the experience of femaleness and taking possession of it culturally.

  • Moreland, Quinn (2026-04-15). “‘I wanted my work to be shameless’: 93-year-old artist Joan Semmel on her trailblazing nudes”. The Guardian
  • Richard Meyer, “’Not Me:’ Joan Semmel’s Body of Painting,” in ‘’Solitaire: Lee Lozano, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Joan Semmel’’, edited by Helen Molesworth. (Wexner Center for the Arts, 2008).
  • “Joan Semmel Self-Portraits Offer Vibrant Affirmation of Aging”. Hamptons Art Hub. 2016-09-29
  • You Have to Get Past the Fear”: Joan Semmel on Painting Her Aging, Nude Body, Hyperallergic Magazine September 9, 2016

Leaf & Frank +

Posted on Posted in art stuff, book shelf, studio table, visual mindTagged , ,

Robert Frank ( November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019 ), June Leaf  (August 4, 1929 – July 1, 2024) 

success feeds through interaction . it’s a very fortunate artist who gets to share their life fully with another .

steidl’s ink factory –One form of the atelier. [ g-d couldn’t spell-find ] Home to book forms of both Robert Frank and June Leaf. August 2026 that is changing — [ jul16 steidl news ]

The group can be small, but it must be . In an ideal artworld every0ne is an artist. Your daily minimums are fullfilled by nearest. The scroll unrolls — you mark out portions with increasing fluency. 

The days when the group was a photo lab are gone. The print dryer doesn’t exist. 

work unrolls — The harder part of working is finding others to work with not on your work but on the work they make  that  makes your work .. their work amplified their life.. The coral reef.

Worlds, manners of stimulation — tiktoking between observation and conception — construction and marshalling. 

Steady-state studios over decades in New York and Mabou proved art accumulates within a space. Physical memory. Leaf: “I have discovered that thought is infinite” 1975 — “It is impossible to do the same story every day.” She worked daily, relying upon visual intuitions, much like Robert. Her first training was physical as a ballet dancer. “When I see a drawing it’s like a locomotive or something powerful into which I just put back the machine.” Along her craft path, she learned and built a forge. She builds her drawings/paintings as sculpture. As if forging a multipart art world.

Art has no singularity — all is wireframe. The lucky live within an accepting world that nourishes … Artists do more when living with other artists … 

Fn,  [own] because of so many uses of “hyper-personal” use by Foster. Master’s degree in 1991 from Brown University.[Looking closely and nudging others toward a shift in perception have become life’s work for Foster ] ~b. 1965

Judd, Albers again

Posted on Posted in art school, studio tableTagged , , , ,

Judd’s red book, Writings, is a table regular. Taking breaks by flipping thru books from the shelf is my way of avoiding news of non-art-world. One turned down page held a big question mark bookmark. It was from Judd’s 1963 reflection about Josef Albers’ book. About how expensive it was. How beautifully made, along with it owing much to Chevreul who had made so much influence on Impressionist painters.

some passages: Albers: “We study this first, not as a surprising or entertaining illusion but to make eyes and mind aware of the wonders of color interaction; second, to learn to utilize color deception in creative color performance.’ “The book Interaction of Color is a record of an experimental way of studying color and of teaching color.”

Judd observes instance of Albers’s teaching: Albers wants to emphasize that “color [is] the most relative medium
in art.” A color can be made to look different. The class is shown examples of this.““Then the class is invited to produce similar effects but is not given reasons or favorable conditions. It starts, therefore, on a trial-and-error basis.”
.. and: “The information taught to art students is even more relative than color. It is highly circumstantial and transitory. But at any one time, specific knowledge of some kind is necessary. Usually, though, it is being formed at the same time that it is necessary. Techniques and information are vital if there is an artistic use for them and completely useless if there isn’t.

finally, my margin-marked item : … Albers’ particular view of color is indicated by a qualification to a harsh study in black and yellow: “Despite its lack of an harmonious or pleasant appeal…” He goes on to say it is useful anyway. [Judd’s writing ] AND my takeaway lesson.

Aspect Michel Eugène Chevreul Josef Albers
Primary Focus Color contrast and its laws Relativity of color perception
Theoretical Methodology analysis of color interactions Experimental and pedagogical approach
Key Work: The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours Interaction of Color
Impact on Art Laid foundational principles for color theory Expanded understanding of color use in art

Expending time with my shelf is what I do instead of asking the passing webstream. I had to review Chevreul. Very glad I did. Not because it will help my art, instead because it raises questions about how much some people contribute to general knowledge as they pursued their curiosity of “sense” world.

from wikip “Chevreul became the first scientist to define the concept of a chemical compound and the first to formally characterize the nature of organic compounds; he is consequently considered a founder of modern organic chemistry … and … Chevreul’s study of textile dyes while director of the Gobelins Manufactory in Paris led to color theories that “provided the scientific basis for Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painting”

The cruel gap  between knowing and doing ..

those who know it all have little left to learn; if learning was a pleasure, little pleasure remains

july 2026: am changing what, why I use the net as writing surface.