scurrying up walls

Last night I went climbing at Brooklyn Boulders, it's been sometime - in fact the photo above is from the last time I went climbing, back in Aug. It's sad that it's been that long, mostly for my arms which are quite sore today :-) It's too bad I didn't get any photos from last night, I killed it on some nice climbs!

I spent a good deal of time bouldering until my belay partner arrived. Which was great and gave me some time to really work on my technique. And I even tried my hand at Slacklining, which is my new favorite thing!!! All in all a great work out on a Friday night. Can't wait to do it again.

Getting involved with this campaign was one of the best decisions of my life!

Hard Drive Crashes Stink

Because I still have to get all the music I lost in my hard-drive crash, I found this oldie here for my Buck65 fix. This was such a great show, I missed him the last time he was in town - sadness.

Favorite lyrics from this ditty:

"i was boxing with a ghost and drawing maps, while the bells were accidentally announcing their collapse"

"sailor vs. salesman and nothing bores a genius"

"break chains; make change"

...this is also what we call procrastination :-)

xoxo

Stuart.

Dinner is served

Homemade Vegetarian Pho, Mmm.

Willem deKooning in January

How could I forget to add the deKooning Retrospective in my list of why January was great?!?! I suppose it works out becuase this really does require it's own entry. I mean at MoMA the installation got an entire floor, it's the least I could do. deKooning was of the Abstract expressionism style - a style that I love. Hard brush strokes, emotion in the dried paint - lots of dried paint. Jackson Pollock practiced this style as well. You know it, the splashes of paint, the huge canvasses, the ladders. I know a painter or two who would concur with deKooning's statement: "flesh was the reason oil paint was invented."

Untitled, 1977, I love this. The colors, the texture, the void.

deKooning was known for his Woman series that he created over a number of years and ultimately comprised a series of sketches and better known paintings. I spent a lot of time with these sketches and paintings...so did he. They were adapted and changed over time and most aptly fit his "mantra" of painting: "I was never interested in how to make a good painting...but to see how far one could go." This painting is WomanII and probably my favorite of the series. Again, such depth and color. Emotion. I'm no art critic, I don't pretend to be one. I know what I like, much like when I paint. I've never taken a lesson, I've never much thought about what others think of my paintings. I just paint. I don't care how good it is or isn't. deKooning was reflective, at least in my opinion, he said "one nice thing about space is it keeps going." And it's true. It does. My take on this...no matter what we do space just keeps going. It's one of those things we'll never control, no matter how hard we try, and lord knows people try.

One of deKooning's last paintings is one of my favorites, "The Rider, 1985." After spending hours on the journey of deKoonings work I came to this and it all came together. Here the emotion shifted. Clean lines, distinct color.

Another reason I love deKooning is him saying this: "The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves."

(The three paintings here are three favorites, but I have a list, and I got to see them all. It was a good day at MoMA.)