A break from the the city (Santa Barbara) by going to LA,

On Saturday, I went to the Silver Lake Art and Craft market, where I was a vendor, of sorts. Actually, I was maybe the only person to ever, go to an Art Market anywhere, ever in the whole world, and pay the fee, and select my location and set up my table and not bring or try to sell anything. AND I was absolutely happy with the out come.

First off, it was June 13th and somewhat cold, then it even started to rain, so it made for a nice bleak LA day. Eventually, it cleared up, but at first it was even a little Leytonstonish. Anyway, my thing was to just hang out and paint and get a break from the the city (Santa Barbara) by going to LA, I know what you are thinking, but my life in Santa Barbara is pretty hectic, and well in LA, I usually am not equipped with a computer, or cell phone, and also, I try to go there on the week-ends, Sunday is like a quiet stay home day in LA, where as Santa Barbara is non-stop. So, it was a relaxing day, I was able to work on about 30 paintings, Scooter, our Dachshund came down, did some hardcore sleeping, and occasionally looked over as I was painting. I met fellow vendors, Margarette, Mark, Gene and Tracy sister of Fiora, the Ghettoglosser in charge.

And to top it off, Colleen, from the very cool Communicatrix.com stopped by.

As the morning progressed, I did start to feel a little hungry, so I checked the clock in the car, oops, it's almost 4PM and I've got pressing business back in Santa Barbara at 6:30PM. So, a few quick "See you next weeks," and I find myself racing up the coast. Still haven't slept, and there's a party starting tonight at 3AM so I gotta grab a shower and go. Santa Barbara, the city that forgot how to sleep!

Meanwhile I liked this (a lot), if you would, please, click below.

http://www.communicatrix.com/

Thanks, Brad-

the Metropolitan Museum seems like a good idea.

Reindeer paintings at the Metropolitan.

It had to happen, some old photo of a hand (perhaps connected to yours truly) looking for validation in an institution. 

The truth is, it was me, I actually had to deliver 6 paintings to the Frank J. Melie Gallery (1086 Madison Avenue) however, they were out for the afternoon, so I was stuck with a couple hours to kill. It was cold, and a walk down the street to the Metropolitan Museum seems like a good idea. It was only then, that I found myself in an well know art location with, by chance, a bag full of my paintings. Then the delightful Tara, my associate in crime, suggested a photo op. She's full of ideas, like me painting 2,009 Reindeer this year. 

Needless to say, showing my art at the Met was no big deal, if I remember correctly, the guard that eventually asked us to "stop with the photos" could barely bother to walk across the room. Well this all happened a few years back and currently I have more pressing business to attend to. 

Brad-

or else, well... talk about sad.

I think keeping that for this project lightness is necessary, at least somewhere in the back of my mind is really important to keep it that way. It would be really easy to quit, but so far I have kept a pretty positive approach. 

If I am able to be sort of open to anything, to experimentation, and not letting preconceived ideas of art - especially other peoples ideas, or my own idea of what someone else might be thinking, creep in and side track me, then it is possible for some good work to happen.

There is so much "art thinking" and "art ideas" and "art world reality" out there, that it makes it hard to paint directly and to the point for a lot of people. 

Luckily, I have figured out how to try filter out all that stuff. You know what I mean, the anti-academic yet learned at art school vibe that we have been stuck with since the 60's. I think it's very much as if the art scene today is equal to a Classic Rock Radio Station. The same stuff over and over. Jeff Koons a.k.a. Journey, © MURAKAMI a.k.a. Hall and Oats and that other Hirst, I can't remember his first name, the guy who has the dead stuff, I mean if you think painting Reindeer is lame, that guy Damien Hirst (I looked him up) is really somewhat sad, that's what I think, I don't mean any disrespect. 

Then again, if I didn't know me, I would probably think my work was weak too. (maybe not).

I was talking to Ken Nack the other day and I said how Andy Warhol (who's art I sometimes like, but I also have a lot of reservations about) got the part about the "in the future everyone being famous for fifteen minutes" statement wrong. How it's turned out is that everyone is really famous nowdays, (facebook, myspace, blogspot, youtube etc...) but the thing is no one has more then 15 minutes to care. So, he was sort of right, it just turned out opposite.

Therefore, because I actually work at being open to letting things develop as they will, with a total lack of focus, and a non-detail orientation etc..., I was able to get the idea of taking a bunch of canvases and setting them up and then painting a larger reindeer on those canvases. They are canvas # 331 through # 420. The thing is this is just really background paint. These individual canvases will all become their own paintings and the image pictured above will be gone forever, unless I make a postcard out of it. Should I do that? Please comment. Also, please become a follower, I need to heave more than 10 followers or else, well... talk about sad.

Anyway, I was thinking that I could take the shrink wrap off of the one thousand seven hundred 4X5 inch small canvases in a few hours. That is not the case. I am up to the low 700's and that has been since Jan 29th. Today is the 3rd of February, so, it has taken me 5 days to do just over 700 of them . In this time I have also managed to paint the initial backgrounds on around another 300 canvases, this I described above.

Brad-