The Art Cure

Bortusk Leer

Michael Rousseau

In a valiant attempt (I’m being VALIANT here, goddammit!) to shake myself out of my current big bad news, TAB-loss, no-music-yet sadz, I’ve started a new, large-ish (36"x54") acrylic/oil crayon on canvas and a smaller piece (26"x48") – a portrait, on paper (in watercolor and crayolas). Despite being in the embryonic stages, I'm psyched.

I’ve also been looking at other contemporary painters on line to, ya know, expand my mind and shit. Fer instance, Michael Rousseau, whose varied subjects are rocked in a High Renaissance by way of NOW with a little hipstery, B&D gun-moll style thrown in for good measure. His technique could NOT be any more different from my own. I'm mondo impressed and intrigued.

Ancient Ocean, which is abstract if you’ve not been staring at dark waves all day, is hypnotic and just totally WOWs.

Bordalo II

Photographer Yannis Davy Gubinga has a series up titled The Darkest Colour.

In many cultures across the globe, the colour black is a symbolism for darkness, mourning and death but also anything else that is frightening, negative and standing in opposition to the purity and goodness of the white.

Massively, deeply inspiring work. Yep, I'm in love.

And, giving me an excuse to travel AND gawk at gigantic, brill contemporary works are the NuArt Festivals in Stavanger, Norway and Aberdeen, Scotland.

Nuart Festival provides an annual platform for national and international artists who operate outside of the traditional art establishment. From the first week of September an invited international team of street artists leave their mark on the city's walls, both indoor and out, creating one of Europe's most dynamic and constantly evolving public art events.

~~~snip~~~

Nuart is a not for profit organization run by a small group of idealistic volunteers, vandals and bored arts professionals. (source)

Phlegm

Through This is Colossal's post about the fest, I found the comic artist/illustrator/street artist Phlegm. Yeah, what a handle. I do hope he doesn’t resemble that name. I feel a trip to West Didsbury coming on so's I can see this baby, at right, live and in person.

Isabella Rotman from Siren School

Now that I’m in Comicsville, I do believe I need MORE Isabella Rotman. Her drawings and writing really spark my bean. I’m gonna invest in Speculative Relationships II, a scifi/romance/comics anthology.

Speaking of books, I gotta hit my local tome and paperback emporium to hunt up new authors.

Specifically, I wanna find Son of a Trickster  by Eden Robinson or anything else I can find by her. From the Globe and Mail write up and her Penguin/Random House bio, she sounds like someone I want to know or, at least, read.

If you hear a voice within you saying, ‘You are not a painter,’ then by all means paint, boy, and that voice will be silenced.
 ~ Vincent van Gogh

The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.
~ Auguste Rodin

I can’t understand how anyone is able to paint without optimism. Despite the general pessimistic attitude in the world today, I am nothing but an optimist.
~ Hans Hofmann