As most of you know, August 7th was my birthday. I have been waiting for days to post the pictures above— my first birthday gift of the year.
It came in the mail a few days ago. Yes, you guessed it, a Marlboro ashtray for yours truly. Far from being offended, I was incredibly impressed with the Philip Morris company (a subsidiary of Altria Group- Stock Quote as of 8/8/07 at 1:37 PM: $69.49) and their recordkeeping.
Now, I haven’t smoked in over 10 years, and have moved at least 4 times during that period. To think that they cared so very much to remember my birthday and find me— not to mention sending this lovely ashtray— is truly heartwarming.
I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Osama Bin Laden had sent in some proofs of purchase from Marlboro Reds to the Philip Morris corporation circa 1995— with the brand new album Return to the 36 Chambers by ODB blasting in the background as he licked the stamps and got the address just right. I mean, seriously, why don’t we have their marketing department working for the CIA? They could lead our troops to Bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan, and deliver a new ashtray at the same time.
Thank you, Philip Morris. And thank you, Marlboro Man, wherever you are.
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Speaking of 1995, my 33rd birthday held some special meaning for me— as I felt like it had to be a good omen that I was turning the same age as Larry Bird’s number. What does that have to do with 1995? Well, circa 1995 my favorite form of apparel was a Larry Bird jersey. It was my casual wear, my formal wear— my everyday outfit. I was wearing a throwback jersey before it even really got thrown back.
The picture above is from interbasket.net
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So, you anxious blog audiences ask… what have I been doing to earn my keep amidst all this blog silence? Well, generally you can count on the fact that if the blog is somewhat empty I am spending my time writing— working on some poems, some long fiction, etc. It just isn’t the same break to stop writing and start blogging. When I am doing more painting, I use the blog entries as a breather.
But, I have been doing some painting too. Some pieces that will likely be in the model consumer series. A few works on paper— 18” x 24” and doing quite a bit of experimenting with colors (the Hopper show has inspired me to include some complexities and nuances in my color fields— or at least to try it out). I will likely post some work in progress in a few days.
I came across this web video of artist Phil Hansen the other day (http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/23115/strokes-of-genius) where he shows himself working on some larger pieces, and using a mosaic technique— that the article calls “his own brand of pointillism.”
It is a pretty interesting video— interesting to see how people use the internet to expand the possibilities of traditional painting, interesting to see the great public reaction of his work (he had a million hits regarding a piece of art he was working on), and personally interesting for me to see how someone else combines the representational with the abstract and ties it in to a larger project.
What was a fun coincidence to me though was seeing Hansen’s larger circle piece (where he uses words to make a self-portrait) and then come across the piece above on the Castelli Gallery website (http://www.castelligallery.com/).
The image, “Portrait of Leo Castelli,” by Josef Amft, from 1979, also uses a similar technique of using words to render an image. Hansen’s is obviously pushing on this, as he is soliciting input (as I am in the process of in Model Consumer), and he also uses a wheel to spin the image as he goes. There is of course the added feature of allowing the audience to watch all of this as it transpires. But it was strange that I found both of these in the same couple days.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Leo Castelli… he was the Larry Bird of art dealers times ten. It seems that anytime I come across an artist that is major from the past 70 years, at some time Castelli represented them. Check it out. Leo Legned.
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