Sun/shower
Posted: August 20, 2012 Filed under: Galleries, Private Collections | Tags: art, bay artists, bloom, contemporary art, flower, heat, life, Lily Martine Baxter, prose, rain, San Francisco artists, shower, summer, sun, weather 1 Comment
Lily Martine Baxter, Bloom Painting (ponderosa), courtesy of the artist
Missing flowers today, caught in the gaping maw of August here. The ravage heat wastes any precious bloom this time of year. Water is just a wish to save all but desert plants from crusty brown demise.
I think of leaving to a lushlovely, rainy place when the sun takes permanent throne. When 100 degrees is ho-hum and only 50 or more days of white-hot 100°+ leaves the weather person dry mouthed and sweating for synonyms for hot. Or hotter. Or hottest. But the clouds hinted at rain this weekend, some wayward drops sprinkled. Plash. A soft pliff here and there. Smell of overheated earth. This painting by Lily Martine Baxter captures the moment.
Where between the sun and the rain, blossoms a fresh cluster of color. The heavens cooled briefly and then the color springs and drizzles. Lavender rivulets and saffron trickles. A color front – precipitation blooming. Open-mouthed to catch a drop or perhaps a petal.
High noon
Posted: May 2, 2012 Filed under: Blanton | Tags: abstract art, art, Blanton Museum, color field painting, egg, Ellsworth Kelley, hard-edge painting, life, minimalist art, sun 1 Comment
Ellsworth Kelly, High Yellow, 1960 Blanton Museum, Austin, TX
It’s a showdown here, folks. Two serious contenders, abstraction vs. realism. We’re facing off today in Austin, TX on the field of High Yellow, speaking to Mr. Ellsworth Kelly. Pitting our need for representation against his refusal to represent. Gear up and let’s get it on. Winner takes all.
Round one: the obvious
Us: This is a minimalist landscape, the green is grass, the blue is sky and the yellow is that scorching beast of a Texas sun.
Kelly: This is greenness, this is blueness, this is yellowness.
Round Two: the memory
Us: Ok, then. This is the yellow ball that finally scored a hole-in-one at Peter Pan putt-putt golf in seventh grade. The night I finally kissed Bethany Mulhaney.
Kelly: This is greenness, this is blueness, this is yellowness.
Us: No fair, you’re using my distrust of simplicity against me. It’s complicated you know.
Round Three: the metaphysical gymnast
Us: This is about the possibility of purity, of perfection – both impossible in life.
This highlights the ironic equation of the cosmos, that blue + yellow=green, every time. But in life inputs rarely equal outputs, anytime.
This is a bridge where representation walks over into abstraction and surrenders to the veracity of color.
Kelly: LOL, this is so simple that it takes a genius to figure it out, huh?
the tie-breaker
Us: You really gonna trash talk me about this fat egg painting?
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