Curious Room

Bog moving

2009-09-02T12:06:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone,
This blog is being moved to the curiousroom.com site. Please visit the new and improved site whenever the mood takes you!
This site will no longer be updated.

see you there
Larry

It's an all-art issue this month for Rare

2009-08-12T11:50:00.009-05:00

Featured in the Art issue of Rare this month, my work (including Vanishing Austin) is in good company with many notable Austin visual and performing artists:

Rare Magazine :: August/September 2009 :: Art

Shared via AddThis

'Vanishing Austin / Frisco Gold'
by Jann Alexander (c) 2009

Pray to the sun goddess and Laugh

2009-08-03T16:52:00.008-05:00

Masses of people reach to the sky, pray to the sun goddess, men jumping with joy, women running naked around bond fires and children laughing with delight. The new and improved curiousroom.com web site is ready to launch. Of course it took way more work than I anticipated and I couldn't have done it without the html wonder worker Josiah Spence, who endured hundreds of my emails throwing abstract design instructions in his direction, and the sound web wisdom of Tom Bartling offering advice as needed. At the risk of changing gears and downshifting to reverse brings me to the topic of staring at large amounts of artwork for long periods of time on a monitor. Styles blur together, images of surreal Bambi's and colorful cows invade my sleep and I have dreams of being frozen in place as a huge blue-green wave of (high quality) oil paint submerges my body in a aqua velvet world. Of course this is preferable to my usual re-occurring dream of being in an existential black and white mock up of my elementary school (no joke) and a footnote sitting in the corner of Naguchi's 1940's studio. Go figure...... so browse the site and then build a fire in your yard and dance around it (counter clockwise please).

Anselm Kiefer : Operation Sea Lion

2009-07-15T13:33:00.001-05:00

Interesting film!

My Idol

2009-06-17T11:19:00.003-05:00

I just finished a six week course at Steve Dubov's studio on bronze casting. Excellent class and I learned that the process is a HUGE amount of work (endless grinding). I made these crazy idol friends. I think I need to give them names so they will stop staring at me!

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Trioon

2009-06-16T13:46:00.000-05:00

This is beautiful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7az9jgc5wz8

Beauty, or how I found beauty in the ugly cracks

2009-06-12T12:22:00.005-05:00

On Beauty,
I want to ask a question, what is your idea of beauty? It is something I have been pondering recently. I was in a sentimental mood last night and was watching The English Patient because I always marvel at how well crafted the film is. Writing, visuals, acting—all in one cohesive package. I thought it was beautiful and in my mind I link art with beauty. I was speaking with a sculptor friend and we were debating the age old question, what is art? He said that art is intention. At first I was unsure, but now I think it is true. You cannot have art without intention. Taking this one step further, can there be beauty without intention? The intention to find beauty in life. When I asked myself the question what is beauty to me, strangely, the first image that came to mind was watching my hand change shape as I ran it under the green water while in a small boat at a lake. Strange, I didn't think of beautiful women or amazing paintings or wondrous architecture but an event that happened long time ago. Other things come to mind; Snippets of memory watching a film with a high school girlfriend, or eating an amazing risotto on a sunny Italian patio, or drawing intricate patterns in blue chalk on cracked gray sidewalks. Beauty can be an event too. It can be action. There is beauty in love making, but there is also beauty in other actions. A powerful image that comes to my mind is pouring cold water over my head after spending sweaty energy in a hard played soccer game. Beauty makes you feel good as does some actions. Last night it stormed with fabulous lightning storms and driving rain and hail. I loved it. It was like mother nature (or whatever you bow down to) was saying, "hey, look at me! I am beautiful. And tonight my mood is dangerous and I am tragically beautiful." Glorious indeed. Beauty, sometimes I have to work for it.

Be Well
L

New Jann Alexander Photos

2009-06-08T17:20:00.003-05:00

Hey All,

Here is a succulent taste of some new work by Jann Alexander. Enjoy.

The Floating World

2009-06-08T17:05:00.004-05:00

Cool stuff by Pae White

Wish I was in Venice

2009-06-04T11:34:00.001-05:00

Check out this article about Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/arts/design/04icel.html?_r=1&ref=design

Anselm Kiefer

2009-06-03T12:46:00.005-05:00

I really like this guy, Anselm Kiefer's work, as do many others because he is super famous. I'm not sure about the bit with the stacked concrete cubes though. Humm... again, what is art?

Amateur or Professional?

2009-06-01T12:41:00.007-05:00

Hello Everyone
I am teaching my first class of the summer tonight and I thought that I would re-post this bit that I wrote at the beginning of last semester as I think it is still relevant. Enjoy!

As some of you may know I teach a couple of illustration and design classes at ACC. Today I had my favorite class, illustration, and only a few of the students showed up. Seems things have become hard and it is easier to stay home than come to class and face the work. I read a book once called "the war of art", where the author (can't remember his name) said that the difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional shows up no matter what. Professionals are at their work even if they feel crappy, uninspired and uncreative. The amateur thinks about working but never actually does anything. When making art it is important to designate a time to work every day and stick to it. Even if it's just standing in front of your easel (or computer) and making random marks. Something will happen. If you think the thoughts of how hard the work is or if it wouldn't be nicer to go watch TV, or even worse you go watch TV, then you have robbed yourself of the chance for the universe to help with your work. Beware of distractions! TV, video games, drinking, the list goes on and it will divert you from the creative path. So back to my class. The ones that are here today are working hard. The ones that are not here are not working hard on their projects. Period. Amateur or professional?

ps I added a cool photo of an Emigre cover by uber illustrator Henrik Drescher because we all need something fab to look at!

Curious Room Site Redesign in Progress

2009-06-01T11:59:00.003-05:00

Hi All,
A quick note that the Curiousroom.com site is currently undergoing a complete site redesign. Even though the current site is visually eye catching it needs some updating in terms of back end streamlining and ease of database use. We will be merging this blog into the new homepage and making the site more interactive and aiming to drive more traffic to the site using the latest web optimization techniques. Not sure when it will be done (soon I hope) but keep an eye out.
Cheers

Frozen Art

2009-05-31T09:12:00.005-05:00

Hi Everyone,
I have always been in awe of the ice hotel in Sweden. I love the idea of making something beautiful that lasts for only a short time, then melts back into the earth. Disposable art. Impermanent art. Precious art. I think we as humans try to preserve almost everything, old paintings, buildings, our bodies and emotions, are some examples. This may be a subconscious need to combat change. Or perhaps a need to resist the fear of change. I had some steel chairs made from some of my designs and they, like a lot of my art, take up space in my house. So I put one out in the yard and it started to rust. No surprise here but what did surprise me was peoples reaction. "How can you let that beautiful chair rust?", perplexed people would ask. I found that it was peoples reaction that had become the art. Their fear of things falling apart that reminds them of humans rush to unavoidable death. We become so attached to "stuff" that we forget that objects are not that important really. We spend huge amounts of time and energy keeping artifacts from rotting away to dust instead of creating new work. I love to watch cooking shows. Partly this is because it is fascinating to see a chief create a beautiful dish with the purpose of having it destroyed (eaten). Performance art? So my advice is to make something you love, art, food, whatever. Then give it away, eat it, let it rot or destroy it. The feeling of liberation is amazing. Anyway, the ice hotel, at least from the photos I have seen, is a wonderful place that I have on my list to visit someday, along with Iceland, the Nile river and Japan.
Ice hotel: http://www.icehotel.com/ and my chairs that become rusty with time: curvy chair
cheers
(It's hot here - is it fall yet?)

Uber cool art from Janet Reeves

2009-05-29T10:50:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone
So one of my ex students is doing some very cool work. Kinda a hybrid between fine art and illustration (is there a difference?) check out her site here: www.janet-reeves.com.

This Twitter Thing

2009-05-29T10:16:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I am rather a newbie at this whole social media stuff and I have been trying to figure out, like everyone else, how to use social media to promote the curiousroom.com site and get more people to view (and buy) the artwork for sale. This leads me to twitter. At first I was unsure about it but signed up because people kept inviting me to to join it. ( by the way: http://twitter.com/larrygoode) One of my friends was curious (pun intended indeed) why I would want to use twitter to keep up with friends when you can only use two lines of copy. I informed my buddy that it's real use is for networking, getting new clients, and keeping existing clients informed and frankly, remembering that you exist. A good friend of mine, John McElhenney, http://uber.la is a social media guru and gave me tons of good info that can, hopefully, help with my art sales. Anyway, from time to time I will be writing about my journey through the social media vortex and my assesment on it's usefulness for us artists and creative types.
Cheers
Larry

Happiness

2009-05-27T12:39:00.004-05:00

I was thinking of doing a series of portraits of famous people. So I started with the Dalai Lama. And here he is!!
I've been thinking of happiness recently, with the economic downturn and all, and I have come to the conclusion that I am not my work. For many years my happiness seemed to depend on how many projects I had going and how much money I was making. This is a hard thing to maintain year after year through good and bad times and eventually becomes a boat anchor around our necks. I think it is important to shift with the times and not let the boat anchor keeps us mired in the mud of the past. When I get down because all my marketing efforts come to naught, I try to remember that I am alive and healthy (sort of) and there is much beauty in the world. I just finished a book called 2666 by Roberto Bolano. A brilliant book indeed and it made me happy that there is such skilled art of staggering beauty that I have access to. Is that not a gift? I once was taking a print making class in Florence and in the class was a woman who created very beautiful prints. She would say out loud that everything was a gift. When she created a brilliant piece it was a gift, when the piece was a disaster she would laugh and say it was a gift. When the attendant failed to show up one day to unlock the studio she said it was a gift and now she could go shopping! I had never seen such happiness and it rubbed off on the rest of the class. Our quality of work soared with the positive energy. Now I don't particularly think of myself as a positive happy person who spreads joy, but I feel something shifting in the world for the better. I hold on to that and look for the gifts that come from inside and outside my work.

cheers
Larry

The baboon knows what you're doing!

2009-05-13T13:56:00.004-05:00

I decided to create a series of animal illustrations.... Here is a baboon for no particular reason.

Good article on graphic design

2009-05-13T13:47:00.002-05:00

Interesting bit for all you graphic designer types
http://designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=39207

Some monoprints

2009-03-19T20:46:00.005-05:00

Hello you fabulous world citizens.

I have a small press in my garage and on occasion I feel like using it. I blurbed out some monoprints the other day, faces for some reason and I felt like putting a few of them up. So here they are.
cheers
L

The Mid-Century Works of Mort Baranoff

2009-03-19T20:39:00.003-05:00

Hey all you lovely people.
I am helping my good buddy Carl put this show on. If you have a chance, drop by the opening for an extra fun time and fabulous art by Mort Baranoff.

You can check out his bio here
AND preview the show here

the details:

The Mid-Century Works of Mort Baranoff
Opening Saturday, April 11th
5:30pm to 8:30pm

Austin Art Space
7739 Northcross Drive, Suite Q
Behind Northcross Mall
Austin, TX 78757
512-771-2868

www.AustinArtSpace.com

Curiousroom Show April 4th

2009-03-12T10:38:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone,
I'm having the first annual Curious Room spring show from April 4th -April 10th at the Austin Art Space gallery featuring the work of Jann Alexander, Rebecca Bennett, Larry Goode, Judy Paul, Terrell Powell and Lin Swanner. The opening is Saturday, April 4th. I hope to see all of you there for a fabulous art time.

www.curiousroom.com/show/index.html

Austin Art Space
7739 Northcross Drive, Suite Q
Behind Northcross Mall
Austin, TX 78757
512-771-2868

Curious Room Show

2009-02-06T14:22:00.002-06:00

AND.... I am having the first of (hopefully) many shows for the curiousroom.com artists. The opening is Saturday april 4th at Austin Art Space. Write it down!!

When creating becomes Hard

2009-02-06T13:55:00.004-06:00

As some of you may know I teach a couple of illustration and design classes at ACC. Today I had my favorite class, illustration, and only a few of the students showed up. Seems things have become hard and it is easier to stay home than come to class and face the work. I read a book once called "the war of art", where the author (can't remember his name) said that the difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional shows up no matter what. Professionals are at their work even if they feel crappy, uninspired and uncreative. The amateur thinks about working but never actually does anything. I think when making art it is important to designate a time to work every day and stick to it. Even if it's just standing in front of your easel and making random marks on the paper. Something will happen. If you think the thoughts of how hard the work is or if it wouldn't be nicer to go watch TV, or even worse you go watch TV, then you have robbed yourself of the chance for the universe to help with your work. Beware of distractions! TV, video games, drinking, the list goes on and it will divert you from the art path. So back to my class. The ones that are here today are working hard. The ones that are not here i'm sure are not working hard on their projects. Period. Amateur or professional?
Thoughts anyone?

I really like Ryuichi Sakamoto's music

2009-02-06T13:46:00.002-06:00

Hey all, I really like Ryuichi Sakamoto 's
music to paint to. check it out. Music that is designed.
L

Rebecca Bennett

2008-12-09T17:48:00.004-06:00

Hi All,
Welcome the newest curious artist, Rebecca Bennett. Her work is wonderfully minimal. Love it!
check it out on the site, www.curiousroom.com

Vanishing Austin!

2008-12-01T17:59:00.006-06:00

Hey All,
Check out work from Jann Alexander's Vanishing Austin series. It's VERY cool and it reminds me of the old Austin days. I moved to Austin in the 1980's and there are times that I don't recognize my city anymore. sigh.....

anyway, there is no crying in art! So go to www.curiousroom.com now damnnit!!! ha

My New Design site

2008-11-08T11:14:00.001-06:00

Hey All,
check out my new site for my graphic design business.
Any feedback is welcome!
cheers
Larry

www.larrygoode.com

The Tower

2008-10-01T10:52:00.002-05:00

This is one of my new steel sculptures that I photographed. The photograph has become the art and the sculpture just the prop. Fun for all....
cheers

Judy Paul Fab Work!

2008-09-13T12:22:00.006-05:00

Hey All,
I've very happy to have some of Judy Paul's fabulous work on the the site!
check it out NOW!.

On another note you may (or may not) have noticed that the navigation on the left side of the home page isn't linking correctly. I'm working on it but may have to call in the big programmer guns to fix it. Never buy a computer, It will ruin your life. Trust me..... Hopefully all these bugs and problem will be fixed when the entire site is redesigned. Actually I have the design part done, it's just the development bit that needs to happen next.

Jann Alexander

2008-09-08T12:14:00.002-05:00

Hello All,
I'm very happy to have Jann Alexander's work on the Curiousroom.com site. (they should be up soon that is). Cool photos of old Austin landmarks that are passing into history as we speak. You can check out her site at AustinDetails.com .

metal work

2008-09-04T13:57:00.004-05:00

Hey All,
It's been a long while since posting.... oh well.
In the mean time I've been doing some metal sculpture... Here is a piece I call "Nest".

Larry

Lin Swanner

2008-04-20T18:26:00.002-05:00

wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Where does the time.... ?

I've very happy to add some wonderful drawings by Lin Swanner to the Curious Room site. Check them out!!

Alice Was a Punk Rocker

2007-11-26T10:12:00.000-06:00

World meet Alice. Photos I took yesterday of my friend (and curious contributor) Tara for my Alice in Wonderland series. Yes, Tara rocks and having quit smoking last year, she only agreed to smoke in the photo in the interest of art.

L

curiousroom.com

Eduardo Recife

2007-11-19T14:12:00.000-06:00

The guys work is excellent. I love the "Design Destruction" as I call it. (more on this later) He blurs the line between art and design and it makes me wonder if there is any difference.
Crowned a Larry favorite indeed.

Check it out
misprintedtype.com

curiousroom.com

Mark Bradford

2007-11-18T22:18:00.000-06:00

I saw this artists work tonight on a tv show. I love collage and this work rocks!
Some of his work is here: http://sikkemajenkinsco.com/markbradford_works.html

What to write?

2007-11-18T14:21:00.001-06:00

Hello All!
I've had a few people ask me what they should write about for this blog. Anything having to do with style, design, art, music or culture that you find interesting we would like to read about!
Ok, now you can write guilt free.

Rehab

2007-11-16T14:37:00.000-06:00

The queen is dead drunk. #2 in a series for a show at Wallyworkman gallery in December. The theme is Alice in Wonderland.

L

curiousroom.com

Pay yer Guitar Now.

2007-11-15T12:53:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I played my guitar. I dragged my amp out of the garage, and my dusty guitar out of the closet, and I hammered on it with my blocky hands with the amp on 10 with the intent of pissing off the neighbors. They didn't complain so I failed in that regard, but I did something that I hadn't done in a long time, I had fun. I used to play guitar all the time, in fact, I was obsessed with it. Then somewhere along the line I just stopped playing. I felt too old and was always busy with business affairs and money worries. I was crusty inside. Stiff and hard and tired. Not a good thing. I had forgotten how important it is to do things you love. I think that people who are always pissed off, worn out, and fed up haven't done what they love in a long time. In some cases since they were kids. But sometimes it works in reverse. I was painting the other day and nothing was working and every stroke I put on the page was crap. In frustration I gave up and symbolically put all my paints away. I sat on the porch and though about it. Had I forgotten how to have fun when I paint? I was trying to paint for everyone else except myself. Trying to satisfy the gallery and everyone else was killing me. So I stopped. Once again no fun equals a crusty, unhappy Larry.

My mother told me about a friend who has terminal cancer. He is my age. As you know time goes fast and you never know what's going to happen. Do what you've always wanted to do now. I'll tell you a secret, no matter how much money you have it will always be a problem. The definition of money is problems. Go to Italy, eat ice cream, write a novel or whatever. Just do it.

So go play yer guitar–now.
The photo above is me playing my guitar (on the left, and looking silly) in 1993.
Luck for you there are no photos of me playing guitar now. (and there won't be)
till next time....

curiousroom.com

Lost in Tokyo with an Italian!

2007-11-13T12:09:00.000-06:00

I find Japanese design wonderfully whimsical yet a bit confusing. The jamming together of old world ethstetic and the hyper-new design of the 21st century makes for some strange creations. Does the normal Japanese person feel the same? I wonder if they have the same visual sense of history about their cultural past as us westerners (probably somewhat distorted) perception of Asian culture? Or are they, for the most part, caught up in the modern visual vernacular, unaware of any blending of styles? Having never been to Japan I can only surmise from photos and movies the design truth of the Japanese environment. I usually find beautiful and unique images better than real life. That said, I think that well designed environments can trigger the same feeling that beautiful film, photos, paintings and style can evoke. Have you ever thought, "wow, I feel like I'm in a film". Possibly this is because you're responding to a visceral response to your current environment and a longing to be somewhere else beautiful and interesting. When I watch a modern Japanese film I notice that I'm as drawn to watching the cities in the background as I am in the story. It's facinating to see all the crazy buildings and signs. In the film, "Lost in Translation", I enjoyed the two nightclub scenes. Indeed the two scenes made the film for me. One was very organic, in a modern sense, with lots of blue crazy light flashing from wonderful globes of light. The other club was a stark fetish club, very stylish and clean. In both cases the club goer, because of the environment, knows exactly what kind of experience they are in for. The design was of the highest focus and clairity. In our world we suffer greatly from lack of design focus in our everyday life. How are we suppose to feel good about the environment we are in if the design is unfocused. It makes us uncomfortable and breeds a subtle discontent in our daily life.

Enter Claudio Colucci. A Italian designer working in Japan merging Italian style with Japanese culture resulting in interesting work. I put a couple of photos of his work above.

His site: www.colucci-design.com

Lin Swanner

2007-11-12T09:05:00.001-06:00

Hey All,
you should check out my friend Lin Swanners paintings. Very cool work. Wonderful semi-abstract figurative work.You can view her work at swannerart.com.

Contribute!

2007-11-12T09:02:00.000-06:00

Damn if my fat fingers didn't hit the return key and post - nothing!
Anyway, you guys listed as contributors please contribute something about cool art, style and whatever .... or not is ok to, as you will.

Contribute Please!

2007-11-12T09:01:00.000-06:00

Kuba retro design rocks

2007-11-07T12:31:00.000-06:00

I found this great site for a defunct German TV company. Talk about amazing retro design! I really love retro design and I think it's interesting how design that seems "dated" can eventually become "hip" again. The site also got me thinking about a design "factory". Notice the advertisements featuring pictures of the Kuba factory. A large building filled with people creating ideas and turning the ideas into physical products is appealing. In today's world where everything is digital I have a romanticised (and totally unrealistic) longing for the days when people sketched on tracing paper and built things by hand. Early in my design career, my first year working in an ad agency, we didn't have computers yet and I had to layout every thing by hand, and that was a bitch. In any event check out the pics from the Kuba museum, very interesting.
www.kuba-museum.de

What kind of art would you buy?

2007-11-07T08:27:00.001-06:00

Hello all,
Since this is a blog for Curiousroom.com (among other art related things) and curiousroom.com sells art (mostly hi-end prints) I wanted to ask your opinion.
1. Would you buy signed prints?
if so,
2. What is the price you would be comfortable paying for say a Terrell Powell print? Currently Terry's prints are priced around $500, is this too expensive? He sells them for more than that at shows.
3. If the price was cheaper would you be more inclined to purchase a piece?
4. Would you like to see works by other artists on the site? Such as custom clocks, furniture, original paintings, ect...?
5. What do you think could improve the curiousroom.com site? (I am considering a redesign)

Thank you very much for your feedback!
Larry

New Terrell Powell Book

2007-11-05T10:01:00.001-06:00

I'm designing a book of Terrell's new work featuring his animal theme. It will be available on the curiousroom.com site in a couple of weeks. Books will be signed by Terry with a small hand drawn illustration unique to each book. Enjoy.

Some images from the book.

The Queen is Dead (drunk)

2007-11-05T09:56:00.001-06:00

Here are some of the photo I took yesterday for my "queen of hearts" piece. I'm planning on making a collage out of them. My tiny digital camera rocks!

Alice in Wonderland

2007-11-03T12:45:00.001-05:00

Damn it's been along time since I've posted! Where does the time go?

I've been working on a series for a show at Wally Workman Gallery here in Austin, the theme of the show is "Alice in Wonderland". I really like box construction so I took some photos and built a collage. I'm feeling pretty good about how it turned out. Next I'm working on Alice, The Catapiller and the Queen of Hearts.

Whenever I think of Alice in Wonderland I get a creepy feeling. Maybe it has to do with Louis Carroll's preoccupation with little girls - ick.

As you probably see if you're reading this blog I am having a home show with Terrell Powell on Nov. 17th. We'll be selling originals and some prints. If you need a Christmas present then this might be the place for ya.

Terrell Powell Home Show Nov. 17th

2007-11-03T11:59:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone!
Were having a home show featuring the exquisite and wonderfully raw work of Terrell Powell and myself on Saturday, November 17, 10am - 6pm. 2016 Brentwood St, Austin, Texas 78757. Many original works for sale.

Hope to see all you art lovers and don't forget to check the curiousroom.com site for new work and prints.

New Mexico Light (and space)

2007-08-16T19:55:00.000-05:00

I went to New Mexico a couple of weeks ago. The light is different in New Mexico. It's bright and dry and very hot and feels like it will burn all the bad living out of me. All the alcohol and bad food and evil thoughts just melted away. The light strikes the ground at an odd angle that makes the shadows longer than usual. The light in Austin, where I live, is flatter, wet and heavy and feels a bit moldy and sticky. Does the environment affect the act of creating? I believe so. A couple of years ago I spent a few weeks in Florence, Italy working in an amazing printmaking workshop. It was a shop that Picasso had done some work in - there were artists proofs of his on the walls. I was inspired and amazed at how different the art I created was compared to the work I do in Austin. The experience was, how do I put it, magical. When I got home I tried to create the same sort of work, I have a small press at the house, but it was impossible. All the work came out with an "Austin" feel. I would love to work in Berlin for a while to see what I come up with.

Anyone else have the experience of your work being affected by place?

Go West

2007-08-14T16:04:00.000-05:00

I'm going to New Mexico tomorrow for a week for some inspiration (and persperation). I love New Mexico. It has a special creative energy and I always feel energized when I come back AND I love road trips. There is something freeing about just getting in the car and driving. No one bothers you, no one calls and complains about whatever (turn off your cell), and no one, and I mean no one, can find you if you don't want to be found. That's what seedy western motels are for. New Mexico is a strange place. I've found that people either love it or the energy freaks them out. I'll be taking my camera and sketchbook of course. I hope to get some good freaky photos of ghost towns and desert and falling down gas stations. All that stuff that is creepy and fascinating at the same time. The ephemra of towns past their prime and worn down by the desert sun.
I'll write more from the road.

Go Deep

2007-07-29T18:49:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about the process of making good art. I have come to the belief that you have to "go deep", as I call it, to really become a master at your art. One must become so good at what you do that people may not like it but they certainly will respects what you're doing. That said, there will always be people, especially where art is concerned, who don't get it - or won't try to get what you're doing. Forget about these people. They will just bring you down. They are the ones who like misery and want you to partake at the misery feast. When you've stuffed yourself with that warm misery pie you can't do great work.

What does "going deep" entail exactly? My belief is that it's doing your work every day, even if you don't feel like it and would rather be at the movies or playing video games. I once read in an excellent book called "The War of Art", that you have to become a professional at your craft. A professional gets up everyday and works. He (or she) doesn't think about working, he just gets on with it and works – even on days where you're sick and don't feel like it.

What is the thing in life that you're best at? I've been trying to figure that out and I realized that I wasn't sure. And not being sure is a sign that I haven't gone deep enough in my painting yet. I've done graphic design and illustration for many years but only recently have been really working on my painting. I can tell that I am making progress "going deep" because I keep making small discoveries and reaching what I call "seeing" plateaus. "Seeing", is where I work on a painting or series for a while then put them away where I can't accidentally see them. After a week or so I will look at them and almost always will see them differently and will add something or paint over them or whatever. It is my quality meter. I think you cannot be a great artist until you learn to see what is good, or what you want to accomplish.

Hello

2007-07-22T23:04:00.001-05:00

Hello all,
This is my first post for my Curious Room site. What is Curious Room? It is a fine art site where one can buy prints of my work and Terrell Powell's work.

Curious Room

Bog moving

It's an all-art issue this month for Rare

Pray to the sun goddess and Laugh

Anselm Kiefer : Operation Sea Lion

My Idol

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Trioon

Beauty, or how I found beauty in the ugly cracks

New Jann Alexander Photos

The Floating World

Wish I was in Venice

Anselm Kiefer

Amateur or Professional?

Curious Room Site Redesign in Progress

Frozen Art

Uber cool art from Janet Reeves

This Twitter Thing

Happiness

The baboon knows what you're doing!

Good article on graphic design

Some monoprints

The Mid-Century Works of Mort Baranoff

Curiousroom Show April 4th

www.curiousroom.com/show/index.html

Austin Art Space 7739 Northcross Drive, Suite Q Behind Northcross Mall Austin, TX 78757 512-771-2868

Curious Room Show

When creating becomes Hard

I really like Ryuichi Sakamoto's music

Rebecca Bennett

Vanishing Austin!

My New Design site

The Tower

Judy Paul Fab Work!

Jann Alexander

metal work

Lin Swanner

Alice Was a Punk Rocker

Eduardo Recife

Mark Bradford

What to write?

Rehab

Pay yer Guitar Now.

Lost in Tokyo with an Italian!

Lin Swanner

Contribute!

Contribute Please!

Kuba retro design rocks

What kind of art would you buy?

New Terrell Powell Book

The Queen is Dead (drunk)

Alice in Wonderland

Terrell Powell Home Show Nov. 17th

New Mexico Light (and space)

Go West

Go Deep

Hello

Austin Art Space
7739 Northcross Drive, Suite Q
Behind Northcross Mall
Austin, TX 78757
512-771-2868