Lebenskunst

"All Arts contribute to the greatest art of all; Lebenskunst -- the art of getting through life" -Bertolt Brecht

Best (and heaviest) Xmas book

This year Santa needed extra strength to bring me this amazing Contemporary Chinese art book, outdoing himself from the 15 lb Matthew Barney book a few years back. This monumental volume illustrates the Estella Collection from the past 40 years and features highlights from today's emerging contemporary scene.

Artist Portraits

This self-portrait of Jacob Lawrence (in 1977) reminds me of a picture I took of my mom (in 2004) when she was working on her monotypes. There is nothing greater than seeing the smile that art generates!

Memories / Pulse

I remember when I was obsessed with Ani Difranco in high school and now when I hear her songs, they resonate with such overwhelming nostalgia for that specific phase of my life that I can't even hear the music for what it is anymore. But today I thought of one tune in particular and it was just what I needed for this moment, as a gift for the one I love:

"i would offer you my pulse
if i thought it would be useful
i would give you my breath
except
the problem with death is that you have
some hundred years and then they can
build building on your only bones
100 years and then your grave is not your own
we lie in out beds, and our graves
unable to save ourselves from
the quaint tragedies we invent
and then undo from the stupid circumstances
we slalom through
and i realized that night that the hall light
which seemed so bright when you turned it on is nothing
compared to the dawn
which is nothing, compared to the light
which seeps from me while you're sleeping beautiful
and grotesque resting cocooned in my room
that night we got kicked out of two bars
and laughed our way home
and i held you there thinking
i would offer you my pulse
i would give you my breath
i would offer you my pulse"

(to bits xoxoxox)

Jaclyn Mednicov -- AOD

Chosen mainly because I love elephants and the color yellow. The artist does demonstrate a good color sense and composition in her other work as well, shown here

Image Inspiration

This laughing Buddah carving rests in the rocks of the Lingyin Temple ("Temple of the Soul's Retreat") in the Hangzhou region of China. When I was there, I missed the rock carvings and would have liked to sling jokes with this guy.

Brian Wilson Rap

Listen here

I love the Beach Boys but my goodness it sounds like Brian Wilson got high and had his way with Garage Band. Kind of awesome; very scary.

Pieter Hugo -- AOD

Photo from the "Hyena and Other Men" series. Fascinating story, found here

Ho ho ho!

Santa Maggie prepares to go crazy.

Today's Jukebox

Holiday Wink

Long Way Home

I had the pleasure of catching folk lovers (literally!) Mike and Ruthy last night-- their Tom Waits cover has hatched eggs in my head and I couldn't be more delighted. Here are the lyrics and you can find the song through their website.

LONG WAY HOME

Well I stumbled in the darkness
I'm lost and alone
Though I said I'd go before us
And show the way back home
There a light up ahead
I can't hold onto her arm
Forgive me pretty baby but I always take the long way home

Money's just something you throw
Off the back of a train
Got a head full of lightning
A hat full of rain
And I know that I said
I'd never do it again
And I love you pretty baby but I always take the long way home

I put food on the table
And roof overhead
But I'd trade it all tomorrow
For the highway instead
Watch your back if I should tell you
Love's the only thing I've ever known
One thing for sure pretty baby I always take the long way home

You know I love you baby
More than the whole wide world
You are my woman
I know you are my pearl
Let's go out past the party lights
Where we can finally be alone
Come with me and we can take the long way home
Come with me, together we can take the long way home
Come with me, together we can take the long way home

Amber Boardman: China Projection

Artist of the Day Amber Boardman's zoetrope animation.

Pigs do Fly!

A sneak peek at one of many incredible new paintings by Samuel T. Adams.

Marek Haiduk -- AOD

© marek haiduk

Today's Artist of the Day is a graphic designer from Germany, with whom I share a dislike for birds.

Memories

Ah, Melvin the Bunny. I found this in an old sketchbook and realized that if he was still around, he'd be 13 years old today! But I know he's hoppin' on clouds now-- and still having a nice time.

Sketchbook 11

Image Inspiration

This picture of Levon Helm and his daughter makes me want to move to upstate NY and get a barn. And a banjo. Start a family. Wool socks. Dogs everywhere. Wildflowers.

For info on his new album, go here. Hats off to Frannie for her work on this story!

Cat helped with Folding. Then got stuck.

Erica il Cane -- Artist of the Day

White Flag, 2007

Today's AOD is Erica il Cane for her etchings and engravings involving animals with a twisted sense of reality. If I was a chicken, this would be me on a bad day at the office.

Starring

I'm officially in the spirit (thanks to David and Molly)!!

Sketchbook 10

Kirstine Roepstorff --AOD

Today's artist of the day (AOD), Kirstine Roepstorff, makes collages that capture a fleeting moment in modern culture and reveal the ticking time bomb embedded in it all. Sadly, her work is part of a group collage show at Gagosian right now that, on the whole, looks like a confused teen shredded up a celebrity magazine and tried to juxtapose the clippings with a pop-cult-obsessed edge. Her "Where the World Wanders" series stood out above and beyond.

See more here

Memories

My friend sent this to me and it turns out to be the exact Gregory Crewdson photograph that I worked on in Pittsfield, MA during the summer of 2004. If you really squint, you'll notice that the woman inside the car is actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. And I'm somewhere on a side street with the smoke machine boys, going crazy. Oh how I miss those mountains!

Martin Puryear

Moma's retrospective of sculptor Martin Puryear made me:

1. proud that another artist I like is from Washington, DC
2. want to go to my Uncle John Talbot's carving studio and see his process in real life (although this website has beautiful pictures)
3. want to clean my cutting board with that special wood oil that people keep telling me I have to clean it with to preserve it
4. want to befriend a Keebler Elf to see what the inside of a tree really looks like

Formal Wear

The look of the season.

Holiday Boston

Tara Donovan

(Photo: © Tara Donovan/Stephen Friednman Gallery/Pace Wildenstein)

I revisited the MET's mid-career contemporary space that Neo Rauch claimed a few months ago and was pleased to find Tara Donovan's abstract metallic bubbles spiraling around the walls. I agree with the New Yorker review that, "As with previous projects, the work takes on an organic quality in its proliferation; the arrangement of plastic clusters suggests a beautiful bloom of algae, collapsing soap bubbles, or archipelagos."

Bird Snacks

This gull's got gall!
(thanks to karyn)