So, what with all of the vegan brunch hosting, Shadow Art Fair going, blogging, and uploading and categorizing hundreds of travel photos to flickr, the semi-annual rearranging of the water studio has suffered a bit. But fear not! It’s ready for action and with more work space and room to move around, I can’t wait to nestle in with my audiobooks, drawing pens and fancy papers. Behold the glory that is organization!
My friend and art colleague Ryan, recently texted me the somewhat cryptic message: “Check out the paintings of Jordan Kantor.” Where had he come across these paintings? Why was I supposed to see them? An email cleared it up: Ryan has seen them at the exhibition Untitled (History Painting): Painting and Public Life in the 21st Century at the newly opened University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor. I still need to get over there to see them. In the meantime, we can take a look at why Ryan thought I should check them out:
Jordan Kantor Untitled (Challenger), 2007 Oil on canvas 70 x 60 inches
Jordan Kantor Untitled (Basel lens flare 6761), 2009 Oil on canvas 21 x 28 inches
Jordan Kantor Untitled (Basel lens flare 5727), 2009 Oil on canvas 21 x 28 inches
Jordan Kantor Installation view, 2009 Art Statements Art | 40 | Basel
Ryan and I discussed his text message to me. He thinks something in my new work resonates with Kantor’s work. What do you think?
Within hours I went from hanging out in wonderful, wacky Budapest in clubs like Szimpla Kert:
(…this is where Michael and I spent our last night in Budapest and had to say goodbye to some fantastic new friends, who we’re sure to meet again. There’s a Halloween trip to NYC afoot!…)
…to my peaceful, breezy life in Michigan. Here are some scenes from my domestic eden:
gladiolas from my welcome back party hosted by Mark
Juni asleep. Chandelier pillow compliments of Mary Elise Bolam.
laundry time
the beast! (aka Wobbly Bob)
the kitchen window box
And since too much peace in my life is unsettling, I decided that my home studio isn’t arranged quite right, so now I am grappling with this mess:
But thanks to my amazing fellow, there’s a fridge stocked full of my favorite things to fuel me. I also made sun tea. Thankfully right now, wherever I am, there is glorious summer!
I was recently told: when walking around in Budapest, instead of looking down, be sure to look up for all of the beauty that can be found above you. I am paraphrasing, but that was the general gist. The architecture, statuary, and ornamentation here is amazing and thankfully survived a lot of the wars and bombing that befell other European cities.
Széchenyi Baths
just inside the entrance of Széchenyi Baths
just inside the entrance of Széchenyi Baths
The Opera
the building in which my and Mark's hostel was situated- these courtyards are very typical in Hungarian buildings
ornamentation on an old building now used as artist studios
I like the use of color on these shops in Buda
the entrance to the building that houses David's studio (part of it was on loan to Michael and me while here)
the falling ivy in the courtyard of the studio building
I feel like a mad scientist…perhaps an anthropologist spelunker.
I am really into the work of the artist Mike Peter Smith lately. Can you guess why?
Nannette and I have been collaborating on a video piece the last couple of days…
I’m not exactly sure how it will turn out, but it’s been a lot of fun to work on so far. Props involve a bathtub, oil paint, a rock, the stuffing from a plush pig’s belly, a sharp knife (to procure the pig guts), a gold threaded cloud puppet, one broken video camera, one working video camera, ink- black and shimmery blue. Here’s a still image from shoot #1.
The clouds have been floating over my bed. I think they like it near the map drawings…
Nannette forbade me from posting her image, but since Mark wants to know who my new friends here are, here’s her picture (with a giant breast):
Uh oh. She’s going to kill me tomorrow…
In the photo, we’re at a place called Gödör, which, in Hungarian, means “hole.” At some point, the city intended to build an amphitheater here, but never finished it, so a private party created a club out of the hole that the city started to dig out and thus resulted the Gödör. Here are some photos of this popular hang-out spot:
When Mark was still with me for the first couple of days of my time here, we saw our friend Chris play with his friend’s band inside.
Getting back to tonight, at this point in the evening, we had been to a couple of openings, and decided to indulge in some decadent drinks, so we ended up at (rats I don’t remember the name of it!) some lovely bar. Here we met friends, and got drinks that looked like this:
a rose-tini
an extra dirty martini (I've never seen this much care put into drinks before!)
You can see our bartender just behind my martini glass. Just in case you think I’m spending all of my time here partying, here is an image of some work I did today. I finished (I think) two smallish- to mid-sized island paintings:
Dear Carl Adamshick,
I love your poetry. Specifically Pacific. I am writing you this letter on my blog for everyone to see because in searching for you on Google, I can’t find out how to contact you, so here it is. Perhaps you, when Googling your own name, or when a friend Googles you, will discover this letter and the compliments it contains.
For all of the non- Carl Adamshicks out there, which would be most of you, sadly, you can read only an excerpt of this fine poem here. Why write a letter to a poet on a blog about (predominately) visual art? This particular poem, addresses Amelia Earhart and her place in history, specifically in the year 1935.
The poem opens thus with a quote:
“After midnight the moon set and I was alone with the stars.
I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty.”Amelia Earhart
So, Mr. Adamshick and I are caught up in the roughly the same subject. If anyone is interested in reading the whole thing, get a copy of The Missouri Review Volume 31, Number 3, Fall 2008. Thanks Joe, for calling my attention to this poem. Mr. Adamshick, I apologize for turning this letter into a blog post addressed not only to you, but everyone else out there, but it is, after all, a blog post.
Speaking of Amelia Earhart, I have finished the fourth little panel in a set of four with Howland Island and Gardner Island as their subjects. These little panels are artifacts. They are wooden photographs.
Here is #4:
and here they are together:
So, please feel free to peruse the rest of this blog, as images of AE-influenced work abound. Thank you for your time and patience with my cyberpermient.
Sincerly,
Amy Sacksteder
I keep forgetting my camera when I go out. Last night was no exception. We went to an opening, then to a bar called Instant followed by a theater performance–an English/Hunagrian retelling of Hamlet (in 45 minutes). I borrowed this photo of Instant from flickr:
the sweet fish sculpture in one of Instant's myriad rooms- the ceiling opens and closes, naturally
Nannette took me to the “tooth museum” a little room dedicated to teeth, but alas someone had broken in and most of the teeth were missing. I don’t remember my dreams from last night, but I am sure they were about losing my teeth… Mark has been requesting photos of the people I have met here so that he knows who the heck I am talking about when I describe my adventures. One day soon, I will remember to bring my camera along.
In other news, I have set up a space in the apartment to do some oil painting. Again with the islands. I have big plans for these… I’ll see how that goes, as sometimes Art has it’s own plans.
stu-stu-studio
…it looks like a am painting in quarantine because of all of the plastic. I also wear a hasmet suit.
the fourth yet probably not final one of these: