21 Degrees

Not me, only three...but that is what it is supposed to be outside here in Olympia, WA by the end of the night...and I know we will have a couple of weeks of warm weather this summer (maybe) and forget the other eight months...a young women on the bus last Friday was showing some friends the great deals she picked up at a thrift store going out of business sale (the economy is hitting the slightly upscale thriftshops now) and she pulled out this slinky pastel I can see totally threw the thing summer dress...I mentally nicknamed her "Hope"...because somebody really believes in summer...babble... It seems I was still "active in the 20th Century"... Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco ...I have emailed the update...I AM ALIVE...BLAH BLAH...but seems they don't believe me...The annex gallery has some of my early prints the 70s...they weren't quit sure if I was a spirit or not...they have actually picked up all the work they have of mine from collectors and even on estate sale...guess I am getting old...Recieved my electric bill today...another month of ramon noodles n cheese...I've been fanticizing about a couple of pork chops with really wide strips of fat...gosh...my cholesteral is perfect...my wieght for my age great...but it is hard to find a piece of meat with some real fat...

I enjoy a lot of different types, forms, schools, or creative visual experiences...sometimes a poem is worth a million visuals...but rarely do I run across an artist that blows my socks off...found a couple of images on Zazzle where I am putting my stuff up for sale...(I imagine a few collectors and dealers will wilt when they see my lil' bear...I like the bear...and like to eat and stuff like that...I figure they had thier chance and I am grateful appreciate the past but the present dictates a different approach...framed a show two years ago and figure it is going to take three more to pay it off...so never again will I frame anything for a gallery...they want it they buy it up front...just reality).

Anyway where was I?....It has been a long long time since I have seen a body of work of this calibre and this large and by such a young artist. Some of the images might be a bit distrubing to some...back in the 80s I had (still have) a friend who is a collector and a dealer who had an incredible collection of his own plus he would find homes for pieces collectors had grown weary of or just wanted something new...my friend had a habit of bringing out one piece from the 'vault' and sit it down in the den...usually there were three of us; myself , my friend, and his wife... we would sit and at some point the silence would break and we would talk...well one day B took me to another room and sat me down in front of a David Salle piece...about 4' x 6' if I remember stretched canvas...no frame...the whole of the canvas was painted grey maybe val 6...and on this ground were a figure of a women sitting in a frontal position nude with her legs spread...this figure was repeated in bold charcol very loose and nothing even approaching detail...you just knew what you were looking at...really sort of banal...as much as I didn't want to say it was a good painting it was...perhaps it is my training...but somehow really good work transcends the obvious...anyway this young artist has 'it' and consistantly....(didn't find anything banal)...critics (art forum) will bore you to death trying to explain what 'it' is ... but I have never found words that work, anyway check check out Ash Sivils(aka amptone.

Ah two post in the same week...anyway enjoy,
Jim