Venice and Mediteranian houses

Working with stone is something that intrigued me when I went for the first time back to the Balkans, that was almost three years ago. The home land of my ancestors made me realize that sustainable living is possible in these parts only if you use wind or other non toxic elements. I realized that we have variety of many miraculous geological

works. Developing true style of Mediterranean living you would have to build referring to medieval or even roman building style. For last couple of years I have done many drawings of homes that I would like to build. This is really something I would like to build from scratch. Sustainable building that is powered with many wind propelled turbines. This building in these drawings should be done with minimal use of mortar. Buildings that were build in the style on Romanesque architecture, with quite simple ways of building.


Anyway these are some of these drawings... 

Mr Eicke...Mr Eicke

Person who think deserves much more exposure is René Eicke. His work is rather abstract and main aim of his artwork is not to tell a story but to connect with the viewer through their senses and interpretations. the process of painting he goes trough is mysterious search for patterns and harmony.

René has not used a brush for over ten years, and he likes to first pour and drip paint onto a smooth surface. After it dries he then glues the dried paint as a whole to a linen canvas. The process of gluing the paint to the linen is a consistent way of separating himself from the traditional painting behavior.

According to Eicke abstract art no longer carries the same weight as it used to during the modern art era.

Each painting has a propositioned composition, either through structure or repetition. This composition is more or less identifiable through feeling or recognition.

The random behavior of the paint influences this and disrupts and reconstructs the painting. During the pouring and dripping of the paint the piece is in motion and builds itself up. The painting is at that point “living in the moment”, which destroys historical and museum quality of traditional painting and incredible historical significance that comes with particular historical art pieces.

According to René Eicke, the actions of the paint is the truth behind the painting. Personal expression is not important to him. The focus lies upon the visual recognition of the paint itself and possibly the action of pouring and creating pattern that surrounds us .

The painting is the focal point where form both develops and becomes playful.

JOHN RUSKIN was born on the 8th of February, 1819 at 54 Hunter Street, London, the only child of Margaret and John James Ruskinwas an English author, poet and artist, most famous for his work as art critic and social critic.  A rather interesting character and great social thinker of his time a great educator of working class. Family friend and a vigorous supporter of Turner and a vicious opponent of Whistler and his peacock ways. 

 I stumbled upon a book that he wrote while in Venice called rather appropriately "The Stones of Venice". He arrived to this occupied city with his virgin wife and a servant in order to document and describe all the miraculous works of stone found in Venice. A very detailed book about various architectural feats and knowledge of restoration.  He had In The Stones of Venice attacked the division of labour, which Adam Smith advocated in the early books of The Wealth of Nations. Ruskin believed the division of labour to be the main cause of the unhappiness of the poor. Ruskin argued that the rich had never been so generous in the past, but the poor's hatred of the rich was at its greatest point. This was because the poor were now unsatisfied by monotonous work that used them as a tool, instead of a person. I feel that this sort of behavior is going to be more and more apparent in the modern day America. 

This man who was an peculiar aristocrat and a intellectual wanted to give knowledge to those who were willing to learn about art and architecture. I will not discuss his sexual preferences and odd religious devotion although his religious Christian background often was represented in his Socialist ideas, so much that his branch of ideals was called Christan Socialism. There is something grand about these ideas that empower the common man, and guidance of men in proper moral and righteous ways. 

Anyway all I can think lately is Ruskin family's arrival to Venice and various blimps and surveying balloons of the occupying Austrian-Hungarian power floating above the famous city of the Adriatic sea. And what magical and scary times they were... Mapping out a ruins of this stone kingdom.

Gothic painting is usually never something that today's art world is concerned with, because in these modern times we all lack time for reflection and contemplation. Whilst in Sweden I became aware of this strange medieval atmosphere only in certain places of that beautiful land you can visualize stories of knights and religiously uplifting background. Something that I was interested in was truth in Gothic painting and storytelling trough symbols of painting. I discovered back then Albertus Pictor (1440 - 1507), who was a fresco painter who did thirty churches around Lake Mälaren in central Sweden certainly a form of unique treasure of Medieval art in northern Europe. He had such a great sense of Medieval sensibility and religious symbolism that his work still to this day leaves a significant mark on the mind of a modern man. His work compared things in life that make the audience question their existence, and ponder their choices in life. This affected many even Ingmar Bergman, famous film maker, he put Albertus in his movie Seventh Seal. Seventh Seal is one of the finest movies of all time story that is set in Medieval Sweden. It tells a story of our ultimate ending but trough a fairy tale about a knight Antonius Block who just came back from a crusade to his native Sweden. He ends up playing chess with Death in order to prolong his life, that is full of questions about God, and the ultimate meaning of our existence.

   

Misunderstandings

Many times I believe galleries and curators don't know how to read paintings. People in general like paintings that resemble other famous work that deal with similar themes that they have seen before. Well my work is different, I believe many don't understand most of my paintings, for example my work called "Lets light it up" is very significant to me, although many don't know why. I'm tired of these misunderstandings

I started painting this work in a format that only appears in religious art called triptych, this has origins in early medieval predominately German christian art. This work I did five years ago with colour red and it shows mainly dependency on oil. the urgency of our struggle to survive is our hope for better future. I borrowed the logo of a Fuel-man that is proudly hanging at many gas stations, then I elaborated on this and made two other panels from each side.The Fuelman is us, or rather people who find them selves between extreme people that own oil wells and general oil industries. Indian who is presented with the robot on the right in this case is really a metaphor for other people from Middle East who are perceived as wild men and in the minds of Texans primitive. They are both trying to light their cigarettes while pumping gas, while looking very menacing and ready for a duel. Hence the title "Lets light it up".

And we are just stuck in this vortex of surviving trough the system that lets us charge it on our nice plastic credit card...

Mr. Obey

Im talking about Mr Shepard Fairey. I have followed this artist for a long time. I even wrote him a couple letters. Personally, I like his style, and a fact that he is a fan of the band Clash, but what puzzles me the most is how he turned this rather flat and superficial method of art into something that elevated him to superstar status. Is political propaganda always repeating it self? Posters that resemble soviet propaganda posters cant be that significant of a tool for people to believe in. OR can they? since those days are gone and surely methods that essentially worked then shouldn't work in a modern day US of A. But they did. I remember years ago when he started wheat pasting his obey thing around DC and Andre the Giant was his big thing, people noticed and thought it deep and politically aware. Nixon was also on these posters, and I thought "great" this guy knows how to criticize the system, but it all changed when he did the famous Obama thing. It made me think that his art is not really perceiving the depth and significance of Obamas personality but rather the grandeur of his position. Yet the famous poster presented him as just another candidate who will give you hope but not life and depth. And in a way Shepard's art beautifully represented the plain flat truth that we all got dragged into, because the choices were quite obvious and plain. Go for the good well spoken candidate OR the other, less eloquent one..and his ditsy woman from Alaska. Its hardly something to ponder and reflect on. So it might be a good thing that Smithsonian chose this poster to be preserved in the vaults of this grand institution, for it shows how flat and somewhat shallow political world and world in general is becoming.

Maybe all us are becoming flat representations of ourselves....

Mark Rothko and his political tendencies...

In the spring of 1968, Rothko was diagnosed with a mild aortic aneurysm but that never stopped him, he just continued drinking and smoking. Continued painting and producing enormous quantities of art work. A son of intellectual Russian refugees  from Russia, he was well educated and had very progressive ideas about function of art. He would often joke with other proper artists about their "business". New play in New York called Red is something that explains Rothkos life story. Rothko is played by Alfred Molina british actor known in a movie Frida as an overweight husband, Diego Rivera. The play is created around rather simbolical red panels of color divinity, most of these are owned by the National Gallery. His series of colour red are almost religous explorations of his minimalistic aproach toward painting and art. His earlier works explored medical microscopic images, but somehow I think his progressive thinking through arts and knowledge of historical significance of large scale painting and political ideologies that needed to represented in abstract art. Anyway I think with his Russian and jewish intelectual upbringing he had to show progressive political and advancement of his painting comrades. And his later work with his church is emotional and spiritual journey he lived and painted to his dying day.

 So needless to say I highly recommend this play even though I have never gone into abstraction mainly because my reality is quite harsh and affects me daily.

http://www.civilianartprojects.com/artists/young/service.html

Somehow this makes me sad like I didn't even do any of my gas stations. This looks like Trever Young is someone who dwells in this realm of american lone and sterile landscape. I feel I need to inform these people of my years of painting.

One of my works that I have shown in 2003 seems to appear in this collection of Trevor Young's painting.

This lovely coastal town called Stockholm, has one of the most impressive collections of paintings. National gallery is full of extraordinary paintings from all corners of Europe. Right now they are having a show of dutch masters Van Dyke and his teacher Peter Paul Rubens. Insanely popular painters of their time, were fans of Italian Renaissance and the giant master of the Italian painting Titan (who I discussed earlier with the mentions of the palestinian scarf ).

This is a painting called Adam and Eve..which I thought appropriate....Anyway I realized that the masterpiece that Rubens appropriated is by Titan, one of Ruben's favorites.What I find even more intriguing is that apparently prince of painters- how Van Dyke was called by his contemporaries, never painted a similar scene, or did he..?

Liljevalchs in Stockholm!

oh, so I went to see something called "varsalongen" here in stockholm. it translates to "the spring salon", or something like that. it was sweet. the idea behind the show is that every year, any artist can send in work to the gallery, Liljevalchs Konstgalleri, and hope to get selected to the show. i just learned that this shos is not limited to swedish artists, so make a mental note, all artist out there, to apply next year. 

the show was ridiculously eclectic, which was cool, I guess. high and low. these are pieces I especially loved: 

I am hoping to also go to this gallery called Fargfabriken, which I've hear is interesting. a dude who's work i love, ola persson, was shown there this fall. i would love to show there.

Embassy Show!

I have some more photos from this show but I for some reason can't find them. However this is me and Dejan in front of one of my oil "Three graces". If anyone reading this has photos, will you please forward..? Grazie.

from exhibit in DC

I realized i never put this up here. --from my exhibit in Washington DC (with francophone tunes from boris popovic, listen here):

Tricky perspective

Patrick Hughes is born in 1939 and does very good op art. Hughes style is dubbed “reverspective”; his paintings stick out from the wall in 3D style, but ironically, the point which is nearest you can actually seem furthest away. This is wonderfully demonstrated in many of his scenes, which threatens to punch you in the face if you step too close. Finding his style somewhat of a hybrid between Georgio de Chirico

and Dali's perspective where perspective is distorted in a way that it makes you uneasy.

Anyway this is a little clip of what happens in front of his work....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38864566@N00/2479491895/in/photostream/

Since it is well known that I'm a huge music fan and for years driven with audio tape player in my car. I present 

to you an artist names Iri5 she has definitely done something useful with her tapes.

Iri5 is an artist who specializes in using non traditional media such as old books, audio cassettes, playing cards, magazines, credit cards, basically whatever he can find. I thought it was brilliant and worth mentioning because it relates to my hair obsession. Im doing something similar me self..with silver.