Random Enqtries >circa 1997
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Art

I know what I like

I came to appreciate art in a backasswards kind of way, and, of course, I took some art history too. That and the whole experience of discovering art drove my aesthetic to develop into what it is today. I really like photo-realism, photography, fucked up video and collage. My love of collage passes into music as well. Negativland is a fine example of the 'arty' music that I like. I suppose one has to classify Philip Glass as arty too (this bio reads like that of an Aquarian Poster Child.) In light of the fact that I have eliminated my music page entirely, I've decided to try a new tactic: A New Kind of Music Page that I just add to randomly. If it's successful, it will be given it's own links in the top heirarchy instead of being buried here on my art page.

The first painting I thought was really cool was Peter Blume's The Rock. This was when I was about 8 years old and had just received the game "Masterpiece" as a birthday gift. I didn't know why, but I always wanted to draw that painting from the pile. As an adult, the first painter that I really admired was James Rosenquist. I found him because of the Pop Art show running that the Art Institute at the time, and they had his piece F-111. I just sat in the room with it and absorbed. I'm sure it shows in my early paintings. If I had a slide scanner, I'd put some of those up here, but I don't.

And I like what I know

You're going to catch on fast: 90% of the art I'm really into is contemporary. Joseph Cornell is a favorite, however. He's inspired more than a few collages that I've done. Actually, his image collection method fascinated me, because I came to collage by obsessively cutting and pasting things out of magazines that fascinated me for some unknown reason. I'd meditate on the why by doing a piece and trying to free associate with other images until I figured it out. The result was a collage. I also think that Jenny Holzer is just the coolist. I still regret the loss of my Truisms poster. When I say "loss" I mean "lost", literally. I suspect I left it in the basement when the ex-dog incident occurred.

I later moved on to discover Robert Heinekin, an artist who uses huge inkjet prints in exhibits, and whom I can't find a damn thing about. I suspect I'm spelling his name wrong. As sculpture goes, I'm very enamoured of Martin Puryear, and at this point, my favorite painter is Mark Tansey, and my favorite photographer is Sally Mann. Oh, and as mixed media goes, the Starn Twins are super cool.

Here are a few of Tansey's works for your viewing pleasure. Actually, on the web, it's more like viewing information. His works are enormous IRL, so these can't really give you more than an idea of his style and the kind of concepts he works with.

I first came into contact with Tansey's work via the Metropolitan Museum of Art's poster catalog. I found this really neatokeen poster (The Innocent Eye Test) that I thought we should carry. I figured people would buy it because it was "fine art" and it had a cow in it. Cows were all the rate in the early 90's, you see. I finally saw the painting in person when I visited NYC last year. Man, that poster format *really* doesn't do it justice, but if I turned one person on to Tansey's work, then I've done a good thing.

What can I say about Sally Mann? It seems like everything she's done is "controversial" in some way. I think she evokes life, and the realities of growing up. I feel she's been unnecessarily painted with a broad brush meant to cover child pornagraphers, not artists. Also, she tends to get dumped into the same category with Robert Mapplethorpe when she really belongs in the same category as Jock Sturgis. If you don't know who he is, you might want to listen to Jello Biafra's I Blow Minds for a Living which contains a true story about misplaced censorship. Speaking of black and white portraiture, Lloyd Erlick's site is great. He's a working photographer, plain and simple. Look in particular at the photos of children. Sometimes I think adults have had their picutures taken too many times to make for good portrait subjects. Sometimes.

I just recently found out that Martin Puryear was born in Washington, D.C. Color me surprised. I've looked at his art - a major show came through Chicago while I was fortunate enough to live there - but I've never read a bio. He does large scale sculpture, though the piece in the Governor's State University Sculpture Park is the largest that I know of (while you're at the GSU site, check out the Mary Miss sculpture - it's a favorite of mine. GSU is in Park Forest South, and I was raised in Park Forest, so I know this place). His work wouldn't come across well on the web, I'm sure. It's fairly subtle in that you need to be close to appreciate the detail and craftsmanship. Amazing stuff. If any museum near you has a show and you like modern sculpture, GO. Frankly, I don't consider myself a fan of modern sculpture, but his work really speaks to me.

Just the links, ma'am

© 1997-2002, Nicole Markee. All rights reserved, all wrongs reversed.

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