TOP 5

Top 5 Artists.

Go.

WOW!

We've had a lot of visitors, guys! Here is a list, in order of frequency!
Tucson
Vienna
Palo Alto
Boulder
San Diego
Nashua
Lemon Grove
Bath
NY
LA
Mc Lean
Austin
Ballarat
Istanbul
Ithaca
Dearborn
Woburn
Aliso Viejo
Murfreesboro
Harlingen
Irving
Nowy Sacz
Arlington
Minneapolis
Amiens
Hong Kong
Amsterdam
Bishop
Scottsdale
Auckland

That's 9 countries, you guys!!!! So, thanks to all the visitors from the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, Turkey, Hong Kong, France, New Zealand, and Poland!!!!!!! I hope this inspires all of us to keep at this Art Shit!!!!!!! ;PPPP

Love ya,
Smog

In 12 hours I will be a free woman

Ok, I know this will be the lamest post ever, but I just found out that Christo and Jeanne-Claude flew in separate planes when traveling just in case one crashed and died, the other would be able to continue with their vision.

yeah.

true fuckin' ambition.

ok, back to the books.

wish me luck,

manders

Comix #2: Phoebe Gloeckner

I'm following up the first, more mainstream comix artist profile up with one that's a little more underground. A literal living hero of mine is Phoebe Gloeckner (b. 1960)  and her past cannot be summarized adequately with texts and photos of her work. Her book 'Diary of a Teenage Girl' is an absolutely quintessential read for all women and anyone interested in 60s/underground/SF history. She's currently a professor at University of Michigan and I would absolutely love to be in one of her classes (where they draw Crumb panels and MAD magazine pages). Her father was an artist too although she grew up with her dysfunctional mother and younger sister. Her adolescence and young adulthood in SF, while vividly unreal and insane, set her up for a successful comix career. When she was a teenager, Crumb would come to her house and look at her sketchbooks and write comments in them. She's a freaking amazing comic artist and story teller. As a young artists, her DIRECT influences were The Bunch (Aline Kominsky Crumb) and Diane Noomin etc and she has been published in Wimmin's Comix and Weirdo among tons of other underground mags. She has a medical college background in medical illustration and does amazing anatomical drawings. All of these elements together: artistic influences as a child, her immersion in underground 60s Comix culture, her unbelievable personal experiences and her professional medical education as an artist, make her an incredible influence and her honesty makes her a powerful and real hero.

Early Work, 1976

Later work, 1994  Her semi-autobiographical character Minnie

Untitled, 1990

I seriously suggest checking out her books 'Diary of a Teenage Girl' (Which I hear they're making into a play) and 'A Childs Life'... the latter has a lot of full color medical drawings and some rock posters and that sort of thing. Also the aforementioned Weirdos, Wimmin's Comix, as well as Twisted Sisters, Young Lust and I HIGHLY recommend the Comic's Journal #261 (2004) interview by Gary Groth with her is really great. She was also on PBS' P.O.V. (2006) in response to Hergé's work.

Comix #1: Alex Ross

I have been wanting to do some spotlights on comix artists. I hate the popularity of 'Graphic Novels' and there's of course so much politics revolving around this industry. But I really want to shine some light on some of the great painters. I know this stuff is a little dated but when you say "Comix Painter" the first name that comes to mind is Alex Ross. He's totally famous for his superhero stuff but I think we're all a little bit more familiar with his political work:

(He did that Obama Superman one too)

I guess the thing that stands out the most about Ross' work is that he has a really steady and prolific career in the Superhero industry and his reputation as a quality artist is flawless... is it his wealth and respectable career that allows him the political freedom to say so much in his paintings? In the male dominated world of comix, homosexuality is still "scary" and it seems so rare to see images like this in the industry. It seems like something should have "mysteriously" happened to him already but since nothing has I hope we continue to see this more "edgy" graphic art being released.

warning: contains dead things

Sally Mann
American, b.1951

I have long been a fan on Mann's earlier work, which consisted of a highly controversial series of her children. Immediate Family was quickly labeled as "child porn" by some and "luminously beautiful" by others. Mann was unapologetic about photographing her children, who as it turns out, were doing very children like things. Being naked, getting hurt, running around, sleeping, playing. The fact that Mann chose to capture these intimate moments with her family and display them evoked questions of her intentions. Some's concerns were for the children, and others were simply outraged by the use of nude children. Regardless of her woes in the early 90's with this series, Mann has remained true to her work. Now, nearly two decades later, Immediate Family is highly regarded as a poetic and striking portrayal of the family.

In the years following Immediate Family Mann seemed to veer towards a different direction and focus on death and mortality. The question of what a "body" really is, and what happens to that "shell" we spend our lives in after we die fascinated the artist her work work began to illustrate the degradation that comes with death. One could argue that all of Mann's work seems to have an underlying aspect of mortality to them, but this theme became extremely evident when she started photographing dead things of all sorts.

I recommend that everyone see What Remains. It is a beautiful doc about what Mann is currently doing with her work. It also allows her and her children to discuss her earlier work as well as illustrate the Wet Collodion process she uses, which just blows my mind.

This little world that went berserk

Julie Mehretu (American, born Ethiopia, 1970)

Grey Area / Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin. Interview with Julie Mehretu, Opening reception, October 27, 2009

http://www.whitecube.com/artists/mehretu/

Fabienne Verdier. Born 1962 March 3, Paris, France.

If she is not fully satisfied with a piece she burns it, she is quoted saying; "when spirit leaves a painting. it will forever remain imperfect. deprived of breath, dead works are set to fire outside the studio''.

http://www.fabienneverdier.com/