Washington Notes 18

Wednesday January 4, 2012

Daughters of the American Revolution
- tribute to founders, also a pedigree
- some displays indicate inclusion of African Americans
- a chapter for children of the revolution
- patriotism/ loyalty to the Constitution
- library of records
- can follow whatever paper trail thee exists to connect oneself to past events
- folk art displays
- Paul Revere's tea service that he made
- one quilt from the 1700's
- ideas of family/ working together/ common struggle
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Lunch at Ebbert's Grill which goes back to the 1800's. American foods: oysters, cheeses, peacan bread. Actual gas lights in the restaurant.
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TV: watched Republican Primaries. I heard a twenty-something person telling his desires for pulling out of the Middle East. His passion and argument showed he cared deeply about his country, the people of his own country.
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101 Things to Learn..., Kit White
The importance of an artist is determined by the number of new signs he introduces into the language of art. - Matisse

"... Each new generation describes the world it sees in its own way. The symbol language of art must always be evolving. ..."

My thoughts: mending, by whatever means, by whatever scale, appears to be a part of the world.
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World Bank Bookshop
- books from everywhere
- writers seek markets here
- there's writers, artists, thinkers even in war-torn, unstable countries
- one of those minor major miracles of the human spirit
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National Gallery
- Cabinet of Wonders Exhibit
- I got upset by the pictures of the huge trees cut down during the early days of settlement
- I also got upset about the photos of buffalo herds that used to be
- folk art: quilts and paintings
- Contemporary Art Exhibit
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Emotional Logic / Creative Logic

I've engaged with Truman Capote's In Cold Blood at various levels, by which I mean at various ages ranging from my teenage years to now. The most recent was a movie about how Capote investigated the murder which would become that story. The story was both actual facts and fiction but it rang true emotionally.

If he had been a painter and responding to those events he might have painted Stations of the Cross, or made some sort of contemplative ensemble like Rothko's paintings in Washington. If he had been more poetically inclined he might have written Ginsberg's Howl. Whatever the case, it did start with some sort of imaginative, emotional analysis and there's an logic that goes with that, but I don't understand it myself.

The Embedded Paintings are related to those artworks, but that's another layer of context for the work itself, which is image and text embodying one another. To be continued...
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Washington Notes 16

January 2, 2012

Arlington Cemetery
We saw Kennedy's memorial (quotes again.) Bobby and Ted are buried there? Anyways there are small gravestones at the edge of the memorial property and small white crosses with the Kennedy names on them too. It's hard to figure what went on with that presidency, what with the relatives being such a big part of it.

I was charmed by Jack and Jackie's sexiness. But then I was a teenager. They both had style, but I didn't know that much about them. They were on the TV news I kept passing on my way out the door, and on the fronts of newspapers I didn't read. I was sitting in Grade 10 Math class, it was morning and all of a sudden the loudspeaker came on telling "assassination."

All I knew about assassination was Arch Duke Ferdinand from history class. Afterwards a war happened and my grandfather was part of that, but the story is foggy here. At school though, on that morning, I expected all hell to break loose and my mother's stories about the fighting and devastation would be happening to me this time. It didn't.
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Gertrude Stein Exhibit
I was disappointed because I wanted to understand her more and the excerpts from her books pasted on the wall didn't help me with that. I bought the catalogue/book about her for later reading.
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TV
The Russian station is heavily anti-American depending on the ethnicity of the person doing the program I think. The Chinese station has documentaries which on the one hand smell like propaganda, but also have a lot of new information about Asia. Every country is in the propaganda business it seems to me. I don't have a problem with that because some of the stuff, especially in the States, is pretty fabulous. Most shows, whatever the country they're from, are having debates about the meaning of democracy, particularly and acutely, the Al Jazeera station, but that stands to reason given current events.
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Tate Papers16 (general drift)
- constant change and fleeting impression
- high rate of obsolescence
- icons replaced and expendable
- anxiety, and yet something can always be done
- violence and easy solutions to problems
- desire for closure?
- prolonged ideas
- cumulative effects
- cycles and no resolutions

Thoughts: I'm a news consumer now. What am I looking for?
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American Military Women Memorial
- ambitious women
- still not in straight combat
- sense of agency and power
- personal stories and photos

Thoughts
- still doesn't call to me
- I know I feel rage when I see women in Burkas
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101 Things to Learn..., Kit White (Apologies to Kit White)
# 45 Work from your intuition, and analyze with your intellect.

"Intuition draws upon [my] subliminal knowledge and allows the unfettered, unfamiliar, and unknown to enter [my] work. Once there I can apply [my] powers of rational analysis to discover what [I] have done. At this stage [I] can always edit, but [I don't need to] edit or preclude what does not yet exist."

Thoughts: I paint and write; therefore I exist. Debatable?
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Holocaust Museum
- Protocols of Zion
- recognition: some of the people I love believe this stuff
- but I was just so happy to be with them
- that I ignored their beliefs
- except when it hurt me badly
- and I'm not with them anymore
- and I still feel sad about that
- !
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Up and Down / In and Out

The maps on my walls all show North America and Europe as being "up." I came across a map done by Chinese explorers that showed the Chinese rivers flowing the reverse of what I see on my maps. The image of the Earth from Space shows my "normal" view: North America is safely upright in the world and I'm still standing.... . Yet, the Earth spins in a directionless field, no up or down. There was a German artist who did a series of paintings with up-side-down figures and I'm wondering about his thoughts on the subject. I don't normally paint with any clear idea of up and down in my paintings, that comes later, and I have to satisfy myself for what I want up or otherwise. I suppose I can make this as significant as I want to.
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Mary Cassatt..., J S Barter et al (pp 53 - 41)

... structure... segues (?)... frame experiments... color theories... surface beyond... quality of light... flesh... shocking... fashionable world... spectacle... ensemble... what she knew... protect the subject... vertical anchor... absorbed... reflections... self consciousness... intimacy... domestic mirrors... watcher... physiological and psychological... coexistent systems... compositional device... between public and private... loge... exploring... embrace... .
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Tate Papers 16, Spatial Utopia..., Shelley Rice

"... The quotation... disguise; license to express oneself in terms otherwise impossible." ~ Douglas Ekland (p 10)
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101 Things to Learn..., Kit White
# 61 The whole of life of those societies in which modern conditions prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. All that was once directly lived has become mere representation. ~ Guy Debord

Thoughts: It was sometimes a shock to wake up and find out I wasn't in a movie. Some people think in terms of sitcoms.
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Washington Notes 14

Saturday, December 31, 2011
It's New Year's Eve and after a long walkabout there's TV and laughter.

TV: a show on how the apple, potato, cannabis and flower did "biological travel" throughout the world. Sweet apples are actually rare in the wild. We have sweet taste receptors and these are what moved apples, particularly sweet ones, around. The potato was a valuable food source which felt good and full. Movement is pretty well guaranteed there too. Beauty receptors moved Tulips. THC receptors moved Cannabis. THC receptors deal with forgetting which is pretty useful re trauma or just ordinary life pain.

So we have receptors that help us make stuff, i.e. ornamentation (which gets us power and prestige,) receptors for curiosity (to know and to discover,) and receptors that help us adapt, change, improvise.

Thoughts
The forgetting aspect: I have strong resistance, re my personal history, to both forgetting and remembering. It's taken some dedicated effort to sort out what's necessary or desirable to forget and to remember. I sometimes feel I'm always looking through old garbage to find something that may be necessary now. Ain't life grand.
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101 Things to Learn..., Kit White
# 43 Simulacrum refers to a likeness or simulation that has the appearance but not the substance of the thing it resembles.

"... That disconnect between what we know as image and what we experience, materially or actually, constitutes a large part of what must be the disruption of the world we know. ..."
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Tate Papers 16 (thought trigger words)

...the audience... imaginary constructs... newness... conventions... adaptive... substance... .
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Gallery Observations:
Rothko's paintings at the B Gallery were perfectly lit (low light) as per his wishes. The paintings glowed. What was most beautiful to me was the audience faces. Faces (and bodies) became co-joined to the paintings, each sort of counterpoint, separate, yet of the same body. It felt intimate beyond words.

The computer terminal (Textile Museum) to access more information about the exhibits: I played with it but was unable to access the info they wanted me to. I did send out an email to Sault Saint Marie and it did show up on my google search. That was fun.
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James Elkins and Algoma Paintings

James Elkins is an art critic I very much admire. He was kind enough to make some critical remarks on my Algoma Paintings. I feel his insights and attitude are important, not just for my work, but in the larger field.

KD:
Dear Mr. Elkins: I am a painter living in Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, Canada.
I'm wondering if you do studio visits to web sites. I ask because I am so far away from you. If you do, what would you offer in the way of art criticism and what would you charge?

Sincrely, Karin Doleske
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JE:
Hi, just send me the URL. Glad to make some brief comments.

You might be able to help me, too. I was just thinking ... .
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JE:
Thanks for those notes. They'll end up in ... .

Meanwhile: I can't quite see from the Algoma Paintings what was cut and mended, and what was painted. It's clear on the one painting that's reproduced large, the cover image: there I can see two sets of cuts in "C" shapes, and a box cut in the middle. But the two "C" cuts seem to be mended differently. The one on the right seems to have been cut out and replaced by a carefully cut piece. The one on the left seems to be mended in situ.
And I can't figure out the relation between the rectangular patch and the left-hand "C" cut.

I mention all this because a good critique is dependent on details. I'd be willing to look more carefully, and write more, if you send me a very high-res image of just one painting, with explanation. OK?
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KD
Best of Luck on your writing J. Glad you found my info somewhat useful.

The image shows my basic approach re sewing, mending. I used a blanket stitch and mending (e.g. mending socks) techniques. Patches were added to the front or back and then the actual hole was also reinforced with stitching. I worked the material during travelling and therefore sometimes I worked the back of it, and sometimes the front. I added stitching as necessary so the paint wouldn't dip through, but I didn't always succeed in this, so some paintings still have actual holes.

I want the mending to be something that certain lighting will bring it out (i.e. - in the mornings the paintings will show mending more sharply in some
paintings.) I took photos under same light conditions so the images will be more or less sharp depending on the stitching.
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JE:
Now I understand. The reason it's important is that it goes to the kind of expression the paintings have. I'd have two observations, both with the big caveat (!) that I haven't seen the paintings.

1. About tearing, ripping, and then repairing: the idea of ripping, cutting, etc., has at least three expressive valences:
(a) anger, frustration, etc.
(b) age: wear and tear on the fabric, and
(c) conceptual alterations in the canvas, as in Lucio Fontana.

I don't think
(b) and (c) are pertinent here. That leaves (a), but it also raises questions. If you were really angry, wouldn't you make more kinds of tears? Different sorts of cuts? More extensive, more damaging, or less centered, less geometric? The sorts of damage you've done look controlled, and control shouldn't be part of the expressive purpose here.

And then the mending: the sock-style patch mending has resonance of care, warmth, etc., but the other kind of stitching ("blanket stitch"; I hadn't known about that) looks more violent, less caring.

Having the two in one canvas is confusing. Is the artist mending her own anger (sock stitch)? Is she impatient with it (blanket stitch)? The key, I think, is to separate the expressive meanings of the moments of destruction (make them stronger, less predictable, more believable) and the restitution (make the stitches more consistently caring and careful, or more consistently careless and violent).

2. The painting that then goes on top is an entirely different enterprise, perhaps not connected as strongly as it might be to the stitching. These days, stitching could be enough, without painting. If you also paint, the paint should be connected as strongly as possible to the gestures and meanings of the cutting and mending.

Those are some thoughts. Usually I don't write at length when I haven't seen the work! But it's an interesting practice. Thanks for sharing it with me.
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KD:
Dear J; These were done while I was undergoing therapy and under those conditions, where I had help with my emotions, the paintings make sense.
This is just for your information. I appreciate your help and observations.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely, Karin
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JE:
That makes great sense. For the future, for public settings, then maybe my comments might be useful.
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Washington Notes 13

Friday December 30, 2011

Walked the Embassy area.

Exhibits at the Textile Museum: Weaving Abstractions(Kuba Textiles - bought the catalogue - and Woven Art of Central Africa., and an exhibit on the Congo - 1700's textiles to the present, dance skirt, pile weaving.)
Catalogue: Weaving Abstraction, Vanessa Drake Morago, 2011.

Woodrow Wilson House: time of tremendous changes, positive and negative attributes of his administration, deeply flawed and deeply progressive. Impressive.

The Philips Collection: Luncheon of the Boating Party painting. Couldn't take photos.
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I'm still reading the articles on Alloway (Tate Papers16) and Rethinking Curating. Useful re asking myself questions re my own work. Taking notes is a problem.
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101 Things to Learn..., Kit White
# 42 Art has no boundaries except those imposed by the needs of the maker.

"Boundaries are a form of definition, nothing more. They are a way to create a hierarchy of concerns, interests and priorities. Boundaries change all the time. That is a part of what art does. By defining an area of interest, art allows us to create new definitions of ourselves and the context in which we operate. To blur a boundary is to confuse the definition. To move a boundary is to make a new definition."
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