Tuesday, March 25, 2008

catch up/process/changing times

it's great that many of the paintings in the jasper johns show now at the Met are not behind glass. it allows the viewers to really see his encaustic techniques. i am wondering what, if anything, will be the influence of this serene show? a majority of the work is encaustic-will more people learn about this medium, will more artists explore it, will we see more interiors done in gray?
also currently at the Guggenheim is "i want to believe" by the chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. see this show. talk about a process using heat. Cai uses gunpowder and fuses on large sheets of paper to create his large drawings. destruction, transformation, matter, energy, politics, history and science are all expressed in this work of various media. he is also one of the creative people planning the open and closing ceremonies of the coming summer olympics. can't wait to see what that will look and sound like.
a polaroid just isn't fast enough any more...the polaroid company-which really isn't the company since the company went bankrupt and another company bought them for their name-has announced that they will stop making polaroid film next year. many artists use their film but don't know about this. the film should be saved. each photo is  unique, a quality as far as i am concerned and if you don't know about polaroid transfers onto water color paper it is a great process that can also be taken further with hand coloring or by using encaustic on top. for further information just google save polaroid film.