ONETHIRTYNINENINE

May 8, 2016

My first spoken words today right out of the gate this morning were 'one thirty nine nine.'  My next words were 'one thirty eight nine.'  Hmmm.. 

We are all driven by habit.  Routine.  Most of the time, if we're lucky, habit serves us.  If forced to change or if we change all on our own by will, the feeling of the change can be palpable.  It's like trying to write with the hand we don't write with.  It's interesting to be locked into our own familiar ways. It's our comfort zone. I'm guessing that getting out of the comfort zone may be a growth factor. Howard Rugg said, "Change your mind. It's good for you."

To that :  A couple of days ago I saw a short video that featured John Waters, the off the wall movie director who has certainly moved those of us who have seen his films out of our comfort zone!  Pink Flamingos!  Say no more. Say no more...  Waters was friends with the painter, Cy Twombly.  I've often used markrobman's phrase to discuss Twombly:  "Getting away with it."  Indeed, Twombly may have gotten away with it, but to hear Waters discuss it was eye opening.  Really.  For those who are not familiar with Twombly, maybe looking him up on Google before moving on here might be an idea? 

I'll wait. .  .   .    .      .      .

Are you back?  .  .  . ?  Hmm?

Okay.  Twombly's big big canvases with which I am slightly familiar are scribbles.  Here's an example:  Scratches?  Black or gray blackboards with loops like a primary school teacher would have first graders do to get their Palmer Method cursive to get our little hands and arms and shoulders and fingers and all coordinated. But Twombly's scribbles and loops were all over the place sometimes, the opposite of the neat loops that  Miss Rockema wanted us to make in the first grade?  I was unaware of his other huge canvases with splashes of color and action: movement and events.  Now, thanks to this brief video by Waters I have a new insight.  http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/videos/2016/04/legendary-filmmaker-john-waters-on-the-audacity-of-cy-twombly.html

It will be nice to explore Twombly in more depth and take some time to get beyond my long time prejudice.  I won't "like" Twombly simply because John Waters exposes some insight into the artist that I had not considered, but .. oh wait.. Maybe that IS it.  Waters' last line in the video talks about the person that Twombly was and that, perhaps, makes a big difference.  

Just as the ego of Thomas Kinkade turned me away from his technical rendering skills, (Painter of Light? Gawd!)  maybe John Waters' tribute to Twombly is enough for me.  Hopefully, I'll find some of Twombly's colorful action paintings and spend a little time with them.  

My own art?  Long suffering!  Sheep, 18th century philosopher, Messiah maker, Blonde movie star, Sojourner.  Figure that out? 

Sunday.  Missed Wassemiller's birthday by two days. Sorry, Jerry. 

May 8, 2016

michaelsheehan