Art Slob: October 2006

Good Times: Part 2

Fishing with Sammy and Skipper on the St. Lawrence River at the Ontario/Quebec boarder.

Many, many laughs. Sorry about the Van Halen....

Good Times: Part 1

Sometimes I need to remind myself of the Good Times.

Eating oysters with Sky Pilot on the deck in Vancouver (1998?) was a very good time.

Good Times: Part 1.5

Dream job time: painting Vancouver tugboats with your buddy for the summer. Here's a picture of pal, Rob (left) and 'Boss of Bosses' Udo (centre).

Thanks, guys.

New Avatar!

A new Avatar is like a new pair of underwear.

King Maher

Don't know about you, but Bill Maher ( and his writers) is the funniest person I know of. It's mostly non-partisan political comedy, but it's spot on.

His weekly 'New Rules' is my must read.

You go, Bill-baby!

All Hallow's Eve

GC 061029

C'mon over to this week's Gallery Crawl Update with all the new Autumn art openings!

Country Style: Part 2

One or two things about my mother...

* She was raised on a Depression Era farm by her grandparents in north Hamilton, Ontario.

* After raising a family and retiring from her editor's job, she fulfilled a lifetime dream in buying a chunk of northern Canadian wilderness. She lived (with two cats) in a trailer for four months on this land while workers chainsawed, bulldozed, and dynamited their way through the forest and built her house. She supervised the project while in her mid-sixties.

* Now in her mid-seventies, my mother loves the forest vegetation which surrounds her home. Whatever tree felled for winter fuel must be dead already.

Ruffled Grouse

* She's in daily contact with wildlife. The Ministry of the Environment provides her with salt licks and feed for deer to cover shortfalls over the winter months. An old Ruffled Grouse, "Miss Cluck-Cluck" was her constant outdoor companion until the bird died a few years ago. Bird feeders are filled year round for colonies of migrating birds. A real life Dr. Dolittle who has a way of communicating with the animals.

Black Bear

* Black bears occasionally wake her up at 6 am as they try to steal a hummingbird feeder from the front of her house. Instead of having the bears relocated or shot, she "scares them away" by bursting through the front door, banging pots together and yelling 'Get off my deck! Scram!!!". Yes, she's willing to risk her own life to save the life and lifestyle of a bear.

Fisher

I give this sketch of my mother as background for an exception to her conservation philosophy. A few years ago a fisher, a vicious forest predator, killed one of her cats.

Mom and one of her current cats, Silly.

Where the safety of the cats are concerned Mom will make an exception. All fishers on the property are to be destroyed. Mom got her firearms license for a .22 caliber rifle (with scope).

A local trapper gave her a spring loaded 'live trap' which will catch a fisher inside a box placed in the forest. She has caught five fishers that I know of. They're still alive when she finds them. Shooting the animal in this way seems the most humane way to kill it. I asked her, "Where is the best place to shoot a fisher dead?". She replied, "Between the eyes seems to work".

In winter a fisher bounds and
slides over the snow.

In the past Mom's given the carcasses to the trapper who can sell the pelts for about $40 on the current market. She doesn't do that anymore as I think she doesn't want to supply the fur trade - no matter why. I wanted to have a coat (or even a winter hat) made out of the fishers she's killed for symbolic reasons, but she'll have none of it. Now mom just throws the dead fishers onto the forest floor, a warning to their kind.

Fisher tracks with my glove for scale.

A lot of people who haven't lived in the country, haven't tried to live in harmony with nature, won't understand my mother's actions. It pains her deeply to kill these animals, but if it must be done it will be done.

Country Style: Part 1

Come with me, into the Canadian woods. Below are pictures of my mother's 1 km driveway on the Canadian Shield. The last time down it we came across a female moose and her two offspring. Black bears like to eat blackberries along the side of the gravel drive. The virgin forest is full of life.

Next weekend I head up to mom's to clear away some of the taller saplings growing up under the hydro (electrical) lines. It's an unending job. Living in the wilderness means there's always work to be done.

Urban life is about my relationship to society and a constructed environment. Rural life is my relationship with nature and wildlife.

Persian Hat

Finally I found a Persian Lamb fur hat for me!

I can't tell you how long I've been looking for a fitted black lamb hat for our Canadian winters.

Ever since I saw Yul Brenner in The Brothers Karamazov I had to have one. Maybe I look ridiculous by contemporary standards in this kinda gear - but I don't care.

How it happened: took a chance on pressing the buzzer of a local furrier. After a few seconds the front door unlocked and I stepped in. I understand why the furrier feels the need to buzz people in as the store is in a neighbourhood with extremists likely to spit on, or spraypaint furs on sight.

With my fetish winter hat in hand, I ask "how much?" The older owner guy looked at the hat in my hand for a moment or two.

Owner: For that...fifty-five.

Bill: Sold. [I don't know what my upper limit on the hat would've been].

I handed the guy three twenties from my money clip. He whips this monster wad of cash out of his pocket and it consumes my twenties.

Owner: How much back?

Bill: Five.

The owner slides a five out of the middle and I take it.

Bill: Thanks.

Toronto Murals

Kudos to Toronto's Finest for sponsoring a mural project downtown with the city's talented young artists. Constable Scott Mills is the point man on a huge alley painting project happening tomorrow.

I spoke with Constable Mills (picture at right) about the worthy program to help build connections with youth and community.

I'm going over to Queen & Bathurst tomorrow (Oct. 29) to document the art happening. See next week's Gallery Crawl for all the art action!

Being Guy

It was nice to drop into the Cadillac Lounge and watch some of the World Series. One of the benefits of just being a guy is pulling on a beer, watching a good game with other guys, shootin' bull.

The Math of Art

"No. 1" Jackson Pollock, 1949

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a fascinating article about a math guy who uses computer software to authenticate artworks.

An excerpt...

In a phone call with Taylor, he said to me: "People often ask me, 'Why would you bring mathematics in to look at art?' My response is, 'Well, why not?' When I got into it, I didn't realize how close art and math are, but in retrospect, it's pretty clear. Both mathematics and art are all about pattern. I mean, it would be unusual that you would not apply mathematical analysis to the question."

Taylor was consulted by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) to authenticate a cache of 'newly discovered' Pollacks.

In 1999 an e-mail message from the Museum of Modern Art's chief conservator, Jim Coddington (a Pollock scholar and strong supporter of computational techniques in art authentication), spurred Taylor to consider the idea that his work might be useful for identifying fakes. Taylor was put in touch with the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and in recent years has applied his fractal approach to 46 poured works of "unknown origins." (According to his agreement with the foundation, Taylor cannot disclose the outcome of those tests.) But the most recent, and highest profile, case of disputed authorship was presented by the six poured paintings of Alex Matter's cache.

'Untitled' one of several paintings attributed to Jackson Pollock
in the year 1949.

The plot thickens as CBC (02/24/2006) reported...

Ellen Landau, professor of art history at Cleveland Museum of Art/Case Western Reserve University, has studied the works for more than a year. On Thursday she announced the works could not be fakes.

Another twist as Eugene Thaw, veteran art dealer and another Pollock authority was quoted in the International Herald Tribune, saying...

"I've spent nearly half my life working on Pollocks, and if Ellen Landau's opinion prevails, people will happily buy them and they'll go into museums and books," he said, "but not the ones that I have anything to do with."

Anyway, back to the math. Maybe you can authenticate the pattern of colour or brush strokes - but what about ideas? Is there a distinctive pattern in my attempt to use triangles for solving all of my problems?

How can I prove 'my buddy' Skipper takes all my comedy routines?

Garth Turner

An artist rushes to the side of a people's representative in his triumph.

Garth Turner is the most significant Canadian politician of our times, in my opinion. In less than a week he has gone from ruling political party member to outcast to an effective independent representative of his people. I was born and raised in his riding and now envy my people who are blessed with a such daring leader.

I know this is an art blog, but for me art is the expression of life. Ideally, politics is the expression of life as lived. I admire the ideal I see in progressive conservative, Garth Turner. [I voted socialist in the last election].

Below is a bumper sticker inspired by Mr. Turner. Now you too can make a 'Speak Up' bumper sticker.

How to make a 'Speak Up' bumper sticker:

0)'Left Click' Your mouse button on the image below.

1) 'Right Click' your mouse button on the full size image. Save the image.

2) Print out the 'Speak Up' image onto 'adhesive' printer paper.

3) Apply your new sticker to the bumper of your car (or anywhere)!

Gallery Journalism Style

After 10 months of this art gallery photojournalism, I begin to understand my style of documentary. I come at it as a sculptor. It's interesting for me to look at the photos over this period (about 10,000) and see the similiarity.

Here's one I like...