The wandering offspring returns home. A piece created over 35 years ago in my Girard Avenue studio purchased at auction from the estate of a good man who collected lots and lots of art, including this and 6 other pieces of mine. Thanks Bob, I’m honored it had a good residency in fine company.
Enamel paint on sealed corrugated cardboard w/handmade frame.
What appears to be an orderly day in City Council Chambers was anything but. Momentous outburst and some heated speech spiced the days proceedings. Two main issues were if Chicago is to remain a sanctuary city and should hearings regarding police ethics and abuse cases be open or closed. WOW! The day had fireworks!
Chetanaé Ellison giving an impassioned speech about remaining a sanctuary city. Seated before her is retired CPD officer J.D. Anderson.
It was indeed a boisterous session with heartfelt and at times roughly expressed perspectives, but as each would want their chance to be heard, the reminder is that, that right need be extended to contrary positions. Messy at times for sure.
As Winston Churchill was found to say,”No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried ..”
Pitt Artist Pens and fountain pen w/DeAtramentis Document Brown ink on Hannem?hle sketchbook.
An old commentary from 3+ decades ago has recently resurfaced as if a frog from a deep freeze.
Pachydermocracy – scratchboard drawing w/handmade poplar and amaranth wood.
Ever tell yourself, “Okay…that’s enuff.”?
So Dubuffet’s sculpture, which has occupied the open corner of Clark and Randolph between Helmut Jahn’s former State of Illinois bldg. and the colonnaded city hall is to be taken to NYC and then find permanent residency with the Art Institute of Chicago. Not sure where that actual location is to be. Personally, if it must be moved, I’d prefer if it could be located in the midst of the Laurie garden south of the Pritzker Pavilion just across Monroe north of the Renzo Piano addition of the AIC. The 29’ tall sculpture fondly known to its detractors as ‘Snoopy in a blender’, would rise majestically, perhaps menacingly, from the echinacea and prairie plantings whereas it’s scale is now somewhat dwarfed between city hall and Jahn’s soon to be Google bldg.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved the location on the triangle of public access to the SOI bldg which had a stream of commuters passing by it during the rush hours in and out of the north Loop. And, I like that bookended as it has been between the edifices of state and local government, by the theater district, and in the realm of the financial district, it – along with its massive siblings of Art, those being the Picasso, Calder, Oldenburg, Miro, Kapoor’s Cloudgate, Crown Fountain, and the murals by Roger Brown and Chagall was a clear sign of the role the arts have played in Chicago’s identity and commitment to same, as well as the important impact the arts have on the regional economy.
The Dubuffet belongs in the public realm. Under natural light. Viewable from a huge range of vantage points. Accessible, for free, by the public 24/7/365. You paid for it.
Drawn on site with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens on watercolor paper.
Revisions. “Work that page!!” I urge my students to make the most out of your sketchbooks and studies. This ledgerbook I’ve been drawing in since 2017 is getting worked over pretty thoroughly. I can’t leave alone pages of the quick 1-3 minute gesture drawings or sprints as I call ‘em. And if a figure drawing can’t stand on its own then I jump into any open space that begs to be assailed. Tends to keep things nice and loose. Robust. It’s a learning process in which I don’t want to be prissy or treat my studies as precious. The studies over the last 3 weeks of Elizabeth, Tor, Gretchen, and Bobby were slung onto sketches from 2017 and 2019. All done at the Palette and Chisel. I may like a figure but still feel the page needs work. Or, I may like a page as it’s developing but am disheartened by some of the studies. The first page, for instance, the drawing of the model on the step ladder irritated me for a few years and last night I dropped a pose of Bobby on it that I felt was one of my better studies this last month, and the gray background only served as a challenge to work highlights back into his shoulders and torso. The page of Elizabeth and Gretchen was fun and I liked the color play but Gretchen doesn’t look like Gretchen. And while I let go of getting a likeness if the structure and values and marks all add up to a well constructed head, but….I have drawn Gretchen scores of times and I confess, it bugs the bejezzus outta me that I miss the mark on her likeness. Maybe if I actually spent less time on the bloody internet and more time drawing.
Consider me a devout practioner of pentimento and palimpsest. sprawling the thought process out onto a page.
As for medium used, all the usual suspects are here, fountain pens, Platinum Carbon and DeAtramentis inks, grease pencil, and Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens.
