B

Only you and I can help the sun rise each coming
morning. If we don't, it may drench itself out in sorrow.

                                      Joan Baez

Would it embarrass you very much
if I were to tell you. . . that I love you?

                                    Lord Buckley

You-- special, miraculous, unrepeatable,
fragile, fearful, tender, lost,
sparkling ruby emerald jewel, rainbow splendor person.
It's up to you.
                                    Joan Baez

Jesus, gold and silver -- standing naked in roomful
of modern men. What nerve. Jesus, gold and silver --
you have no boots on, and you have no helmet of gun--
no briefcase. Powerful Jesus gold and silver with 
young, thousand-year-old eyes. You look around
and you know you must have failed somewhere.
Because here we are, waiting on the eve of destruction
with all the odds against any of us living
to see the sun rise on one day soon.
You, Dear Reader -- You are Amazing Grace.
You are a Precious Jewel.
                             
                                 Joan Baez   

A

Damn everything but the circus!
                    e.e. cummings

Damn Everything But The Circus

Screen Print by Corita King

But The Circus

....letters of the alpabet frighten me terribly.
They are sly, shameless demons -- and dangerous! You open the inkwell, release them:
They run off-- and how will you ever get control of them again! They come to life, join, 
separate, ignore your commands, arrange themselves
as they like on the paper-- black, with tails and horns.
You scream at them and implore them in vain:
they do as they please. Prancing, pairing up shamelessly
before you, they deceitfully oppose what you did not wish
to reveal, and they refuse to give voice to what is struggling,
deep within your bowels, 
to come forth and speak to mankind.
                          
                            Nikos Kazantzakis




His costume was human frailty, human helplessness,
and his lot was the human lot
of one disaster after another, His comedy was misfortune
and his endearing grace the patience and dignity
with which he survived an existence
of interlinked catastrophes

                               Winston Brebner 

A Month of Corita Kent

For This month I'm featuring Corita Kent's book "Damn Everything But The Circus". While roaming the aisle of the fort worth central library(yes the library is one of my visited places) I came upon this book. Amazed that it was a female artist and digged the typography it seemed so vintage yet modern for today. I thought I would share the whole book with you. I hope no ones comes after me for copyright infringement. I'm a fan sharing her work, for others who might miss out on this little gem and most of it will be cropped out because of my average size scanner. I hope you enjoy.






When  ancestral kings corrupted their captains, 
and the church blessed both captains and kings,
the court jester got laughs simply by sniffing
the troubled air : implying that the stink in the herring
begins in its head.
In times like our own, it isn't surprising
to find men and women crowding the night-clubs
in hope of seeing somebody sniff the air.
In such times, clowns become witnesses.

                       Nelson Algren

Modernism

I was told that I could talk about what is Modern, but I already had the content in which I was going to post in again my reinvention of this blog. So I will put 2 simple theories what Modernism is and feel free to comment what Modernism means to you.

Modernism is what science and it's achievements have created the manifestation of progress so to live still in pre modern conditions is to be regressive and immature. Modernism is progression.

Modern art is a defiance of all existing institutions and the creation of their works. To be Modern is to belong to no existing institution.

"I do not belong to any school, I simply want to do something that is personal to myself" -- Pierre Bonnard

Dan Flavin

I never gave Dan Flavin a chance to keep my mind open to what his works are. There are certain things I hear about being show in galleries and museums and when I heard he used florescent lights as sculpture. I thought are you kidding me. Anything can be considered art these days. I reluctantly went to the Modern Art museum in Fort Worth on my lunch to see this so called sculptures. I just gasped at this wonderful sight I see. The glowing atmosphere that they create made butterflies in my stomach it's so beautiful it's only something you can experience for yourself. Pictures really just doesn't do it justice. Just the tiniest of glow can take over the room. It made me feel like a kid exploring every piece on my own. I had to come back again on Sunday to really take it all on my own time.

"One might not think of light as a matter of fact, but I do. And it is, as I said, as plain and open and direct an art as you will ever find." -Dan Flavin, 1987.

and in my own modern defiance. I have my own pictures of the exhibit.

Fernando Vicente

Fernando Vincente has blown my mind the first time I saw his work. My lack of understanding the Spanish language hasn't kept me from being intrigued by him either. Born and currently resides in Madrid, Spain he started out doing painting and illustrations in the 80's. He also mixes photographs and paint. You can see his illustrations in numerous publications.

His work of series called Vanitas is what pulled me in. The Illustrations of the exposed ligaments muscles and bones of the beautifully poised models. It is so disturbing at first to see this exposed but the calm serenity of their faces speaks to me in a romantic sullen way. It's as if the women are showing that there is so much more to them that underneath the clothes and skin are complexities that are not shown. So they are pulling back the flesh to give us their vulnerability and truth. I very much love the playfulness of his pin-ups and characterization how easily he can flow from serious to fun to thought provoking.

You can enjoy more at :

Fernando Vicente

Fernando Vicente Blog

Pierre Huyghe

les grands ensembles
Uploaded by Pierre Pell.

Oh where to start with Pierre Huyghe. I got to experience Les Grands Ensembles in person at his One Million + Kingdoms exhibit at the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum and it was amazing! I was lucky to sit alone on this little bench and watch this video installation take place. I was so engulfed it was like I was a peeping tom on this conversation between two buildings. It was like time didn't exist. I could have watched it loop over and over again, but there was so much more I wanted to see.

Mainly Huyghe recycles text and imagery to explore how content is derived and interpreted within our culture. In doing so he deconstructs meaning and creates another dimension to the original text and image's reality and to it's fiction.

Pierre Huyghe mixes fact and fiction, reversing the real to upset traditional expectations of how art is perceived. His strength lies in his understanding that an image always comes with baggage.(nicholas bourriaud http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue7/pierrehuyghe.htm)

Pierre Huyghe