Starry Night

We just got back from a trip overseas. As we were coming in for a landing, I started talking to the man next to me, and it turned out it was Paul Davids, who had written, produced and directed a movie with Universal Studios about Vincent van Gogh. Entitled Starry Night, its intriguing premise is: What if van Gogh could return to life in our century...what would he think about the fate of his paintings, all the money they had generated, and what would he do about it?

Davids is quoted in a review from the Edenburgh International Film Festival:

"The film is a little bit of counter-programming against the wave of edgy movies that are being made now. It's very intentionally a family film about love, second chances, hope, optimism and faith, but it does have a strong undercurrent of irony. We wanted to celebrate van Gogh's genius and to give youngsters an impression of the life of an artist."

It won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Newport Beach Film Festival, out of 400 submitted.

Starry Night is available from Amazon and from its own site.

Pegasus

Pegasus, my last remaining wolfdog, died of lymphoma recently. I knew there was nothing we could do. I'd felt the hard lumps under his jaws, but he seemed so healthy otherwise that it came as a bit of a surprise when, after a few months, he stopped eating and drinking. In the midst of a heavy spring blizzard, we said goodbye. He was ten and a half years old.

One of the things that helped ease the pain was the routine of feeding the other dogs. I'd go out to the shed as usual, pretending that he was still there with them.

Routine sometimes has a bad reputation among painters, but it's definitely part of the process. The sun comes up every morning, we breathe in, we breathe out. Part of our purpose is to avoid stereotypes, but habit can be like a tuning fork, reminding us to pay attention. Is it possible to make a habit of freshness, originality? Look at those colors, the depth, the softness. It won't always be there like it is now.

Low-Budget Travel

Painting outdoors is a relatively low-budget activity, and you can do it without going out of town. I like the idea of planting a vegetable garden and using it as a subject for painting as well as for food. Painting your pets is rewarding, whether or not you end up with a finished painting...it's the increased awareness that counts. The look in their eyes, the poise & strength, the shadings of their coat, the shape of the ears...

But sometimes you do want to travel. It's refreshing, inspiring, enlightening, you can visit museums, friends & family or your ancestral homeland, and experience completely different food, people, art, architecture and landscapes.

There are ways to make it less expensive. Don't buy anything in an airport, go to grocery stores instead of restaurants, fly standby off-season, camp out, or go where the dollar will buy more (like South America instead of Europe).

Here are some websites that are devoted to traveling on a shoestring:
No Budget Travel is a blog with all kinds of information & recommendations.
Couch Surfing facilitates finding (and offering) a free place to stay.
The Hospitality Club has a similar purpose.
There are also sites for inexpensive rooms or apartments. Try AirBnB or Free Rentals (the rooms aren't free, but listing a rental is).
And The Simple Dollar gives lots of general advice about saving & managing money (I've used the "make your own laundry detergent" recipe, which is fun & effective).

Change

I recently came across this, writtin by John Stoehr in the Charleston City Paper, on the topic of the arts and the way they have changed since we all got linked up online:

"These have characteristics that challenge the old guard of established arts professionals... These characteristics include participation over presentation, collaboration over competition, amateurism (in the best sense of the word) over professionalism, and process over product."

That's as good a definition of guerrilla painting as I've heard anywhere...and since "amateurism" means doing something for the love of it rather than for the money it makes you, that's as sound a reason as any. You want to learn something, enjoy the colors, do justice to your subject and to your own perceptions & feelings, but it doesn't have anything to do with making money from it.
He continues:

"Grassroots creativity is an old idea (Walt Whitman exulted the inventive potential of diversity), but the difference now is scale.
Ninety-five million Americans are applying the ideals of Web 2.0 to the real world, including their approach to the arts."

Hmmm...makes you wonder what that might look like.
Probably something quite different from what we grew up with...

"This can be troubling to institutions like art museums, says Nina Simon, a consultant and author of Museum 2.0 (www.museumtwo.blogspot.com). In trying to serve what MIT media professor Henry Jenkins has aptly called the emergence of "convergence culture," museums are increasingly afraid of "losing control."

John Stoehr
Charleston City Paper
Charleston South Carolina

I like to think it will bring more beauty. Like the lamplighters in The Little Prince, lighting their lamps as dusk falls in different parts of the world. Like a dance.

Artist Corps

Artful Innovation: Obama and Arts Education
The concept of an "Artist Corps" is an interesting part of President Obama's education policy. Of course, if artists are to teach, especially in inner-city schools, they'll have to be trained in *that* job as well as being trained artists.

It would certainly help to keep kids interested & engaged at school, and this interest might overflow into their other classes. Their awareness would be enhanced, they might create mental connections that they otherwise wouldn't and see solutions & possibilities that they hadn't thought of before. A real open-ended endeavor, likely to pay dividends on down the road. Sort of a jump-start to teach kids they can make things happen, take criticism, change things, express themselves and their world, make effective decisions, interact, concentrate, participate...and that sometimes there are no wrong answers.

Yes we can.

Waltz of the Colors

Last month we had a benefit sale for 1+1, the charity that the Guerrilla Painter started for rural development in Latin America. There were all kinds of things from Bolivia & Peru for sale. One of my friends, who had been to Bolivia, was commenting about how she liked the oddball things: antique aguayos (hand-woven woolen pack-cloths) and a lantern from the silver mines in Potosi, where she had actually been inside a mine. She remembered how amazing it was to see the miners, working hard and smoking cigarettes inside the mines and using these lanterns, which burned up oxygen which was already scarce enough at over 13,000’ altitude. Obviously, when she looked at this little lantern, she saw something different from what most people saw.

This is what happens when we look at our surroundings for things to paint…we see things differently from anyone else. Sometimes we end up looking for subject matter similar to what we’ve seen other people paint, but this conventional wisdom can often result in uninteresting paintings and frustrating experiences. It’s more work to see things with fresh eyes, and it’s hard to value our own vision sometimes, but isn’t that what painting is all about?

I happened to be in Denver yesterday, standing in a parking lot near a highway, waiting for a few minutes. I focused on a highway sign and the cars going by. I wondered how I would paint such a mundane scene, and then I noticed how colorful it really was. Blocks of bright colors interacting, like a dance.

One palette, many visions. You choose. Austere or rich, or a combination of the two...traditional or edgy, ambiguous or vivid...

"In self-trust all virtues are comprehended." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Plein-car, plein-van, plein-camper

Sometimes your best painting buddy is your vehicle. If the weather turns chilly or breezy (or even if it’s just too sunny) all you have to do is find a place to park where you can paint out the window. If you have a hatchback (or a camper shell), you have more options for finding a view. The Guerrilla Painter does this all the time, and he finds that listening to the radio helps him concentrate (of course, I’d want to avoid the news, which has been way too interesting lately).

Often, it’s while I’m driving that I’ll notice something worth painting, so it’s easy enough to just find a place to pull over. It’s a good habit to keep your gear in your car, ready for any opportunity. It only takes a few minutes to shift into "right-brain" mode and notice colors, shapes, lines, value contrasts. Maybe you find yourself waiting for someone, or there’s just a few more minutes of daylight with the sky turning colors, or you notice an intriguing architectural detail...

Sitting in a car can also help you focus by protecting your privacy & keeping annoying onlookers at a distance.