“War doesn’t determine who is right - only who is left.”
~Russell

You might remember this piece from a while back, seemed right for the day.

Most of us just want to take advantage of the three day weekend, relax, party, whatever….while your doing that, take a moment. Personally, I have too many in the field, too many who are about to be, too many who haven’t returned, and too few who are left to not think about the men and women out there, and recognize how grateful we are to have a chance to live this life. Regardless of what you fought for, a salute goes out to all the fallen….

Here’s a sneak peak on a recent addition….

Ryan came in for the Medusa in earlier sessions. We continue the collection with Pandora’s box…..

Careful what you wish for….

“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the moment — that which none can anticipate.”-Tzu.

A glimpse of some ink work–in the works…..

Right before the rain….not a soul in sight…

Since the release, this has been helping through the long studio sessions. If you haven’t already, support this album…….got a feeling we aren’t  going to hear thoughts like this for a long time.

Taschen, has always been a reliable source for info and reference, and in their 100 Contemporary Artist edition they lay down the select few who dominate today’s world of fine art. There’s definitely a strong collection of artists in the book, and definitely some people I feel are missing. And the more you begin to dig into it, the more fragile and distorted some of the politics that dictate careers seem to be when your balancing  great art  with a business model. But overall, you can relate the major work to the core of why they exist, why they are important, and why their mark is consistent throughout the trends of art in general.

I can be biased when is comes to most work…..sometimes it’s hard to accept stuff when they refer to art that involves concepts or installations where you starve out real dogs  for a week to make a statement, or dump out paint-just to dump out paint, to make a statement on how to dump out paint… but that’s me. Here’s just a handful of some of the favorites-  Doug Aitken, Cecily Brown,  John Currin, Marlene Dumas, Glenn Brown, Wolfgang Tillmans, Richard Phillips, Luc Tuymans, and Maurizio Cattelan who have always been consistent, true to what they do, and organic with their process.

Stay connected, do your homework.