Friday Feature: Egon Schiele

Holy Family by Egon Schiele

Schiele created characters with distortion to the point of strange and yet they embody personalities just as strong as yours or mine. He abstracted images til they became more "real" to us than a photograph, hitting at the way we feel about things as opposed to what we see.

And... he loved the embrace, as do I.

Schiele's work also tends to provoke the topic of defining the difference between art and pornography. Of this I say that the quibbling usually is done to elevate art and dis porn.  The underlying assumption being that sexuality is bad and should be shunned while "art" deals only with our higher forms of self.  I view sexuality as a sacred energy and think that it is an integral part of who we are.  As such art should not be restrained from addressing issues of sexuality.

If it speaks to you- let's embrace it.
It must be hitting at our core.

 I am only interested in the truth.

Drawing by Egon Schiele

Art cannot be modern, art is timeless. 

I must see new things and investigate them. 

I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds. 

-Egon Schiele

Time for a Little Romance

My Soul
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

Is it just me or has it been totally unromantic around here lately?  

Sorry about that guys, you know how I love the love.  

Well let's define * romance * shall we?

Romance n. 1 a prevailing sense of wonder or mystery surrounding the mutual attraction in a love affair (Oxford) 2 love emphasizing emotion over libido (Wikipedia) 3 an ardent emotional attachment or involvement between two people (American Heritage) 4 a way of showing someone you care, someone you love, like or choose to cherish. Romance can keep a relationship alive, or help it begin. (Urban Dictionary)

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/romance#ixzz2DYIpsTsQ

Ardent emotional attachment or involvement between people; love

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/romance#ixzz2DYIpsTsQ

Ardent emotional attachment or involvement between people; love

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/romance#ixzz2DYIpsTsQ

This week I am trying very hard to read a yummy British time-travel romance novel and it is almost impossible for me.  I just can't sit down with it.  My to-do list is too long.  I want to take action.  But I know, I KNOW that I need to take time for the pleasurable lady's smut or at least allow myself to not be so goal oriented for five minutes.

Maybe we should add to our definition of romance that it is about enjoying, savoring, appreciating, accepting, and relishing a person?  Just as I need to relax enough to relish a cotton-pickin' romance novel.

 People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

-Dale Carnegie

Magnolia Blossoms

Magnolia Blossoms
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

As we approach the coldest time of year 2 things keep me going...

#1- Listening to Billy Joel

#2- Imagining the glory of spring

(You might argue that these two items are one in the same... but maybe not.)

When I painted this rather abstract version of my neighbor's Magnolia tree a few days ago.  I was looking at the shape of the branches, all barren and lifeless.  Then I imagined the blossoms onto those branches again and the colors of spring, when the ice is melting and everything is waking up again.

In the meantime... I need to start the hibernation process, sleep and eat a cookie.

Book Review: The Man in the Clouds

by Koos Meinderts
Illustrated by Annette Fienieg

Oh the bitter irony... a few hours after posting yesterday's blog entry about issues of buying and selling art, I came across this strange new children's book, The Man in the Clouds.

This is the story of a man who enjoys his simple life up in the mountains and sharing a beautiful painting he owns with his neighbors.  One day however someone tells him that the painting could be worth a lot of money so he starts suspecting that everyone wants to steal it.  He ostracizes his neighbors and makes his life miserable until he finally decides to BURN the painting freeing himself from the horrors of materialism.

I immediately took the book to the art class I teach for elementary age children yesterday afternoon.  I read them the story then asked these questions:

1- What would you do with the painting if you were the man?
2- Why did he come to hate the painting?
3- Why do you create art?
4- What is the difference between looking out the window at a landscape and creating a painting of the scene?
5- Would it bother you if someone burned your painting?

As you can imagine... I got some great answers from the kids.  I was most comforted when the kids said that they love creating art "just because it is fun."  That the enjoyment of the process gives the creation value.  Also one smart cookie said that he loves creating art to document the things he loves especially when he knows that those things will change over time.  (He wants to remember his grandmother's garden.  Sweetness!)

Something about the book rubbed me the wrong way (perhaps the overly zealous anti-materialism that is delivered packaged up in a book ready for purchase), but regardless as an art teacher I found it to be an excellent conversation starter.

Ah.. the holidays...

If you are like me you are starting the process of making your holiday list and checking it twice...

I highly recommend supporting one of the many artists (myself included) found on Etsy or Fine Art America.

The Tree of Life Painting
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Original Available on Etsy

On Etsy I sell original paintings.  Most of these are oil on gallery edge wrapped canvas wired to hang.  Esty sellers are required to sell either vintage products or hand-made pieces.  It is an excellent place to purchase high-quality arts and crafts items.

The Cliffs at La Jolla California
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Prints Available on Fine Art America

On Fine Art America you can have prints of mine or other artist's work created.  You can pick which size you want and even have it framed.  I personally like the quality of the "canvas prints" they create.  Except for the bumpy texture I found it difficult to tell the difference between their canvas prints and the originals.  A very diverse range of styles of artists can be found on Fine Art America.

***********

While we are talking about selling I want to go on record as saying that I don't create paintings in order to sell them, that is just a nice by product.  I create art in order to share a message of the abundance of beauty in our world.  (Sometimes I create art in order to convince myself of this more than anything else... but that is another story.)  I used to feel that selling artwork was rather like whoring out a sacred object.  I then went through a period of burning my work after it was created in order to prove that the purpose of it wasn't to come up with an end product.  But that seems overly destructive to me now.  Why should artists not share their work with others and be supported just as they would from any other job flipping burgers?  I love supporting fellow artists to encourage them to continue creating.  For a lot of artists positive feedback is essential to their work because the purpose of their art is to communicate a message.  If an artist hasn't reached anyone and felt that divine echo of understanding they oftentimes fall into despair.  Therefore it is my mission this holiday season to support as many artists as I can with my gift giving purchases and I encourage you to do the same.

I am so thankful for my collectors- thank you friends!

Friday Feature: Jesse Reno

With the Eyes of a Whale and the Wings of a Dove
by Jesse Reno
 "All Signs Pointing - Now - Remember Your Destiny - Remember you're spoiled - Never forget how beautiful."

Layers-

that is what I love best about Jesse Reno's work.  

Layers and layers of paint that remind me of when I am falling asleep with the images, words and thoughts of the day floating one on top of the other until I am no longer here nor there... until I see the same images, words and thoughts that everyone else sees, 

until I see myth.

In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature, there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals.

-Carl Jung

If an artist can reflect the universal elements of human experience that person can act a voice for all people... and an echo is sounded in our souls.

We Will Fly Together
by Jesse Reno
 "The past will reach for you - There are many differences between what you were and what you are."

Happy Thanksgiving!

The sky to the east of my house at 7am.  Amazing!

 I believe that we all have so much to be thankful for... 

for food, 

for shelter,

for our community,

for friends and family,

and if nothing else we can each be thankful that we are alive.

This is a time of year when we can appreciate the natural cycles of the earth.  This is a time of year when we come together to cook and eat with a renewed appreciation for the bounty before us.  This is a time of year to voice what we are thankful for so that we can better appreciate each other.  

Crave only reality.

-Thoreau

An Explosion

An Explosion
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

It was an explosion,

I would erupt with all of the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world.

-Boris Pasternak

Wrapped Around

Wrapped Around
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

An arm is just an arm 'til it's wrapped around your shoulder;

Looped side by side they go stepping out together.

A note's just a note 'til you wake from your slumber,

And dare to discover a new melody.

-Iris DeMent  "Sweet in the Melody"

Friday Feature: Tom Thomson

The Jack Pine by Tom Thomson

This is an ode to the glory of Tom Thomson and his Canadian "Group of Seven."  

In the 1980s my family traveled every year to beautiful Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada.  It is an amazing maze of lakes and streams.  It is full of loons and moose.  From my memories I can tell you that Tom Thomson truly captured the graceful wild beauty of that landscape.  

And yet... 

and yet while he was inspired by natural form he would let go of realism just enough to allow for a heightened sense of color.  Seeing his work is like looking through technicolor glasses... 

or Paul Simon's "Kodachrome," those  

nice bright colors, the greens of summers that make you think all the world's a sunny place.

And it is.

Autumn's Garland by Tom Thomson

Bridge #300000!

The Double Arch
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" X 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

I absolutely love painting this scene, the Illinois Street Bridge in Indianapolis.  I keep going back to get it in different lights, seasons and times of day.  I painted this one in the late afternoon on an October day when the bridge looked almost white.  In the mornings it is shadowed from this angle. 

Because I have done so many paintings of this scene I asked the facebook pals to help me come up with new titles.  This title was suggested by Roy Lynn Myers.  Thanks friends!

They never forgot their beginning;

they didn't trouble their minds

searching for what their end was.

They received life as a gift

and handed it back gratefully.

Minds supple, faces serene,

in a crisis cool as autumn,

in relationships warm as spring,

they were balanced, throughout the four seasons,

and in harmony with the Tao.

There was no limit to their freedom.

-Lao-Tzu

Roses and Silver Fountains

Roses and Silver Fountains
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.

-Shakespeare, Sonnet 35

I Still Believe

I Still Believe
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Original available on Etsy

I still believe that people are really good at heart.

-Anne Frank

Morning Light

Morning Light
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

There was a child went forth every day,

And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became.

-Whitman

Friday Feature: Patrick Bremer

Satyr by Patrick Bremer

What I love about the artist Patrick Bremer's work is how he takes the image of human flesh and distorts it all to hell.  Despite this twisting and manipulation he somehow captures the essence of a human or animal.  You can feel the character of that being staring back at you.  It pushes me to think that we need to come up with a new term for this representational art that can't be called realism... it is like... essencism, when an artist is depicting the emotional energy of an object or being. 

China Bones by Patrick Bremer

Building Bridges

Building Bridges
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Original painting available on Etsy $175.

There is a certain magic that happens when you go outside to paint on a beautiful day.  When I do it... well somehow the air and atmosphere affect the color choices in an interesting way.  Take this example from a few weeks ago- the painting I did is so much more bright than the photographs of the scene.  It just FELT like such a bright sunny morning.  The air was so light and clear.  

The first rough sketch in

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things,

but their inward significance.

-Aristotle

And it is all even more fun with a painting buddy- thanks Charlene!

The Golden Spiral

The Golden Spiral

According to common sense we judge a well-proportioned thing beautiful...

Pythagoras contended that all things exist because they are ordered and they are ordered because they are the realization of mathematical laws, which are the condition of existence and beauty.

-Umberto Eco

I am going to math-geek out on you a bit here.  The image of the "Golden Spiral" above mimics the proportions of many organisms found in nature and was designed by Pythagoras. Many architects and artists have used the "secret" equation of the golden ratio to inspire their work.  It is said to be a perfect reflection of the beauty of the natural world.

And yet... can beauty really be reduced to a mathematical equation? 

I believe that life is just a bit more messy than that.  I still just love the concept behind the Higgs boson discovery that in order for particles to exist a spark of energy breaks symmetry.  In other words- for creation to happen there must be a break down of structure.  We hunt around for patterns to make sense of our crazy world, but the patterns can only take us so far.  For the beauty of creation to occur asymmetry must be thrust into the mix.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

-Sir Francis Bacon

Holding My Baby

Holding My Baby
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

In silence we must wrap much of our life,

because it is too fine for speech.

-Emerson

This is one of several paintings I just did of my daughter and I when she was an infant.  Because she was jaundiced and born early she had therapy from a biliblanket.  The glow of it was ethereal somehow and I remember feeling scared for her health.  A quiet silence filled the space as we held our breath and she started growing.

The Blue Bridge

The Blue Bridge
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Original Painting available on Etsy

How one walks through the world, the endless small adjustments of balance, is affected by the shifting weights of beautiful things.

-Elaine Scarry

p.s.- This painting depicts the blue pedestrian bridge over the Broad Ripple Canal by Illinois Street and Westfield Blvd. in Indianapolis.   I think it was round about 5pm several weeks ago when we still had leaves on the trees.

Friday Feature: Odilon Redon

Mystery by Odilon Redon

One of my favorite symbolist artists is Redon.  The soft and colorful texture of his pastels give his work an ethereal quality.  Some of his thoughts...

Any documents of emotion and passion, of sensitivity or even of thought left on marble, on canvas or in a book, are sacred. There is our true inheritance, our most precious one. And with what nobility it clothes us, poor and precarious creatures that we are: the slightest chronicle, the most precious date, a simple human fact, could they ever tell what the marvels of a cathedral reveal, the smallest shred of stone from its walls! Touched by man, it is steeped in the spirit of the time. Thus every age leaves behind its spiritual age. It is by art that the moral and thinking life of humanity can be felt again and recovered.
-Odilon Redon

Head of a Woman by Odilon Redon

Día de los Muertos

Día de los Muertos
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.

-Thomas Campbell, "Hallowed Ground"

Happy Day of the Dead!