Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

I don't know. I guess I don't see it.

Now that October is here, I'll throw in my two cents, or several
thousand pesos, if you prefer.

Unless I'm not catching the subtlety or tremendous groundswell
potential of these assigned writings, "October Earth" seems to represent a beloved and formerly dynamic, multi-faceted website now reduced to strikingly narrow dimensions by comparison. Perhaps I should remain patient (I often get in trouble when I honestly speak my mind)..... perhaps some more angles to this reinvention are still on the way, or perhaps I should wait to read the finished results of this experiment, if that will be possible. The early returns are mixed for me, at best.

....you sure do got that right....more art and literature talk ....less war and strife.......wired

Cat and WIREMAN:


Here's one viewer's perpective on Rothko ( one of my favorite painters). Agree, disagree? Choose to voice a dissenting or contrasting opinion?

(link)

http://www.haberarts.com/rothko.htm


--Z

Zlatko --

I must plead ignorance, or puzzlement, when it comes to most abstract art. I read the review of Rothko just now and I read your review of the Robert C. Jones drawings (you so kindly sent me) a while back. When I read these critical analyses and carefully study their subjects I always feel as if I am in the midst of Anderson's story about the emperor and his new clothes. I can see some things, but the rest of it seems like ridiculous imaginative extensions and flights of fancy on the part of the critic. The Rorschach inkblots I got to interpret as a child in the office of a psychologist were incredibly beautiful. I saw birds and fair maidens and angels and death and God and Heaven and all kinds of things in the inkblots, but they were still ... inkblots.

I know I must be missing a great deal -- which is exactly why I would welcome a discussion of abstract art. I might learn something.

My best understanding of art is terribly traditional. Art arose and developed as a means of universal communication. The painters and illustrators from Byzantine times on through the nineteenth century were adept at creating works that were filled with universally understood symbols. An illiterate person could study any painting or sculpture or illustration, and without reading a word of interpretation, they'd know exactly what was taking place and the emotions and nuances surrounding the action. I admire the pre-Raphaelites for returning to that symbolism and reinterpreting it in their own unique ways. Show me a painting by Jackson Pollack and I might think it very pretty, but I'd also wonder what it meant and why it was painted. I'd wonder for a long time and not come up with any good answers for myself.

I love your art (particularly your self-portraits) because there's an incredible immediacy and reality about it. Your love of color and detail, your natural precision and a certain inexplicable mood always seem to come through. When you paint (especially what I've seen recently) your bring the viewer into your presence. I include the still-life of flowers you sent, especially. It was impressionistic of course, but the blossoms -- the pinkness and lavishness of them, and the contrast of the stems. It was very good.

Sorry. Chalk it up to my lack of imagination and creativity. Or just chalk it up to ignorance. Maybe Wireman can help, seeing that he's an abstract artist himself.

Mnaz -- never apologize for having an opinion!! I still think we should wait a bit for Litkicks, but I feel the same way. I'm just afraid of getting in "trouble" myself! I want to be fair and balanced here, but it's hard.

In the meantime, it's been chilly and wet here, so I treated myself to the first fire of the winter and have been spending the evening reading in front of it.

Cat.

alas, what has become of Litkicks? from branching arboreal discussions to black-or-white rant-votes!

what is 'victory'? what is 'america'? these are interesting things to discuss but not ones that require you to vote for one 'side' or another of some artificaly contructed debate. if you think there are two sides to a debate, you are automatically excluding a bunch of sides, in any multidimensional issues like war and peace.


by the way abcrystcats: i am starting a studio here to be devoted to discussion of aesthetic philosophy, including questions about the definition of 'art', its social role and so forth. check it out and chime in, when it comes on-line!

litkicks has done enough for me without asking for anything back that i am prepared to trust them and go along for the ride

Yeah.

Actually, I'm starting to warm up to the new litkicks. It is a much
narrower approach, but maybe that's not a bad way to go.
I agree with you, knip. Litkicks definitely opened doors for me.
I guess I was closer to it all than I realized... the way it was... and when it was gone, completely transformed, it was a sort of "shock to the system". I've been through this with good friends; people whom I made connections with along parallel or convergent paths, only to feel a sense of loss when the paths diverged. But a nod toward that time of powerful infusion, or convergence, must remain, and live on.

Maybe it was the topic, yesterday. That topic ignites my anger, sometimes. I should know better, I suppose.

still can't find the edit button

am i blind?

plus, the instructions say, "feel free to reply to each other" or something like that (paraphrased)

and i can't figure out how to reply to someone else's post

anybody got any answers for me?

thanks

zlatko.....I think of rothko often....being a resident of the phillips collection in d.c. for various periods of my art education I was constantly confronted by rothko...his room in the museum ...the thought of his demise and the power of meditation exerted by his paintings......hell I like em.....they make me think and a lotta art does'nt get me to that point.....I see a rothko and I stop ...in my wired tracks....that's an accomplishment in and of it's self if ya know this wired man.......

doreen,

haven't looked for the edit button - i confess it.

as for replying, i put: "Re: Food for the Gods" as my title to show my response to Cecil, and the review board edited out the 're:'. So how to respond? Right now, only through titles, in my estimation but trickier than a mere 're:'

j

Since I get so bogged down in words when I reply to the various options offered on the "New Litkicks", it behooves me (now that is a word I finally get to use!) to ramble and rant on my MS Word, which conveniently reminds me of typos, before copy/pasting into the reply area.

I have a hunch that the staff is doing the same thing, hence the time shift between the poster and their post. A logical thing to do as it gets rid of those darn misspellings, eh?

not only typos.

i thought i'd try to post a fantastic cartoon under 'afterlife' with a link in case the image was uncool in the new format.

Images are uncool, as the staff want to keep messages text only.

so, without further adieu, my contribution to Afterlife




link:http://www.quartavia.org/inglese/novita.htm

judih

well, cecil, i spelled everything right and even used proper punctuation in my imagination poem.... i posted it at about 4 pm yesterday (I think... could have been 5) and didn't see it up online until this morning and i was up until 3am and checked before i went to bed but then again, i was very tired so maybe i missed it that late at night, er, early in the morning

all i know is it took a LONG time to go up online.... so i'm not sure what the process is here..... i imagine they are reviewing each and every piece and if they are away from their computers, they get to it when they can

but who am i to complain?

it took me 2 months to get your artwork up online... LOL!!!!

geeshhhhhhhhhhh

anyway, it's definitely a unique process, this october earth thing, and i imagine this will create a wonderful document once complete

i applaud their efforts!

(though i do like spontaneous interaction, that's not what that project is about.... there's a time and a place for everything)

judih, judih, judih.... one priceless cartoon... zenderful!!

is there no humor left in Litkicks..? the month is young and my words are plenty, so i shall not grope, mope or emote any thing but continue to burn and churn the lamp of hope and rope the words and visions as they fit in landscape harmony, drawing, sawing and pawing my way thru the cosmos of inspirations.

more litkicks feedback...

is somebody capitalizing my lower cases? that's a bit creepy and intrusive, i find. i don't find just any old word worthy of capitalization. it's a bit like coming home to find evidence that some one else has been there.