Monotypes

Patricia Gonzalez
17" x 14", monotype, 2014

My collection of Latin American records is growing steadily. This is due to an influx of, mostly Mexican, records in the thrift stores of south Florida. This is reflected in the Top 100 Archive. In the the nearly finished Top 100 2013/14 there are as many surnames like Gonzalez, Sanchez, and Rodriguez as the are Smiths, Johnsons, and Williamses. In some thrift stores in Miami nearly half of the records come from one Latin American country or another. It's a bit messy, browsing through the shelves in thrift stores in Miami (where of course records are placed on the lowest shelves in the entertainment section of the store). The condition of the records is mostly poor, often the wrong disc is inside a jacket, if there's a jacket at all. Sometimes you'll find the back half of the jacket in a different location than the front half, and the vinyl in yet a third location. It is hardly a deterrent for me. I may assume that those records in good shape represent less popular ones, and I assume too that I often like less popular records better than popular ones. And that introduces me to this gem I found in a Goodwill store on Tamiami Trail in Naples. The gem is an LP by the Ecuadorian singer Patricia Gonzalez titled Un Amor Canta al Amor. The singer is pretty obscure, she doesn't have a presence on line, and as far as I can tell, it's the only one she ever made. But it's spectacular, and in near mint condition too. I saved painting her portrait from the image on the cover of the record for this special occasion that was a monotype workshop that I conducted just today. It's been waiting in anticipation for many weeks. Monotypes are cool. ♥ 'em!

Count Ossie

Count Ossie
18" x 9", oil on wood, 2014

Not long before he died Count Ossie, with his band The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, produced with the three-record-set Grounation his magnum opus.  He was 50 when he died in 1976 in a car accident. He had lived a storied life. As a rastafari in the early fifties he had problems finding work in the music business. It was Marguerita Mahfood who gave him his first break, and his first record was produced by Prince Buster in 1959. Oh Carolina is by some critics considered to be the very first ska record made. In the early fifties Ossie (Oswald Williams) had started a rastafari community in Kingston near Wareika Hill, introducing it to many of the Kingston musicians. The painting illustrates Ethiopian Serenade from Grounation.

Vespers

Sergei Rachmaninov (w/A. Schönberg and K. Perry)
20" x 16", oil and acrylic on canvas, 2014

That the Schönberg painting (superimposed on a Katy Perry portrait) wasn't going to survive was clear ever since its inception. But instead of aborting the idea of painting one portrait on top of the other, I repeated it. Sergei Rachmaninov then was painted on top of the Schönberg/Perry combo. A 1965 Russian issued recording of Rachmaninov's Vespers Mass was the impetus for the choice. If I were to add yet another portrait of a classical composer to the mix the focus of the painting would surely shift back to Katy Perry again. But I won't do that: this painting is officially the illustration for the Vespers recording in the 2013/14 edition and exhibition of the top 100. Vespers is a wonderful choral work in fifteen parts divided over four sides of a double album. Steeped in the Russian Orthodox choral music tradition but with Rachninov's 20th century sensibility the piece breathes life. The fifteen parts of the choral work "are based on ancient chants such as the Znamenni, Kiev and Greek." (liner notes) I'm paying special attention to this because in the Spring I'm thrown in front of a class wanting to learn about the art history of the world up until the 15th century (yikes!) One of the last images in the textbook the class will be using is the famous 14th century German wood carving Vesperbild (Pietà).

Surrealist Techniques (5)

Did a fun little workshop yesterday on the topic of Surrealist techniques. So here are a couple more of my experiments with xeroxes that were source materials for paintings.

Mariko Gotō

Pounding maize

Sergej Ryabtsev

Poly Styrene

Macedonian woman

Pussy Riot

S.E. Rogie

Delia Derbyshire

Arnold Schönberg

Arnold Schönberg (w/Katy Perry)
20" x 16", oil and acrylic on canvas, 2014

Well, the paintings aren't getting any better, are they? Looking for a surface to paint a portrait of Arnold Schönberg on, I stumbled on this two-year old acrylic painting of Katy Perry. It once functioned as a demo in a portrait class with young people (thought they may appreciate that). My wife is a Katy Perry fan but she didn't like the painting. So I painted over it. That was the intention at least, but couldn't make myself cover up those pretty lips of hers. So here's the painting then stuck behind two thoughts. The Top 100 entry for Schönberg is his second string quartet.

Art and music, music and art

Christian Marclay
22" x 7", oil on wood, 2014

Five categories are distinguished when comparing artists and musicians:

1. The avant-garde artist. From Luigi Russolo, John Cage, Laurie Anderson, to Christian Marclay, these artists blur the distinction between the two media. Art is music, music is art.
2. The artist who also plays in a band: Walter Dahn, Sadie Bennett, Mike Kelley, and others. The history of this category goes back to the post-punk (the D.I.Y.) era. The graphics (and videos) for these bands are considered fine art.
3. The musician who becomes an artist (mostly painters): Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Captain Beefheart, and many more. Musicians who become “Big” have a certain responsibility in culture as a whole. To be taken seriously as a bonafide cultural torch bearer many musicians expand their activities into the field of the arts. This presumes a higher standard on the hierarchy scale of culture. The latest to come through in this respect are Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg. The description doesn’t quite do justice to the initial three examples whose paintings are reproduced on some of their album sleeves). It should mentioned too that the composer early 20th century composer Arnold Schoenberg was also a painter and that important writers such as Goethe and Strindberg produced significant experimental works of visual art.
4. Bands with a background in art schools (especially in Britain): The Beatles, Stones, Who, DEVO, etc.
5. Many artists have an affinity with certain music and musicians. They end up producing visuals for them. I’m thinking here of Andy Warhol mainly, but artists like Raymond Pettibon and Mike Kelley come to mind too. The English anarcho-punk band Crass considered visual artist Lee Vaucher a band member.

Then there are songs about art, but maybe not as many as you would expect. Even though there is a clear affiliation between contemporary art and (rock) music, most band shun the topic in their lyrics. The songs there are about contemporary art are almost without exception songs full of anxiety (and full of cliches too).
1. Art Brut: Modern Art
2. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Art Star

Songs about famous paintings.
1. Mona Lisa
2. Don McClean: Starry Night

Songs about famous artists.
1. Jonathan Richman: Pablo Picasso
2. David Bowie: Andy Warhol

Songs about being an artist.
1. Michael Hurley: I Paint a Design
2. Terry Allen: The Waitress