Gallery Crawl: Is it Sculpture?

Howdy, folks!

C'mon over to this week's Gallery Crawl installment where I explore new Toronto art. This week, let me know if you think the artwork at the Diaz Gallery is sculpture or something much more sinister...

Tunes - 'Sex Bomb'

These days I am into the Tom Jones version of Sex Bomb.

Painthand

Bill's Painthand

Used the back of my hand to paint with this evening. Hey, if Turner can finger paint, I guess it's OK with The Academy.

'Onro' Painting: Start and Finish

Start

Here's a quick snap of my first paint gestures on the canvas.

I like to get something down as it comes intuitively. Then, sit back and feel my way forward.

I'll post the finished painting when complete.

And here it is...

Finish ('Onro' Bill Pocock, 2008) 107 cm x 107 cm

Hard to believe the initial black on gesso brush strokes would lead to the finished white over gray 'Onro' painting. At various stages along the way, I made decisions which radically changed the image. My method seems to be building up a painting on ruins as if it were an ancient city. Each is related to the other and are interconnected.

The first thing I did was flip the 'start' canvas upside down.

The Handlebar (moustache) Club

Came across this great men's club in London, England. The Handlebar Club.

The qualification for membership is:
"a hirsute appendage of the upper lip, with graspable extremities"
and, in addition, we specify that beards are not allowed.

Here's some of the members...

Gallery Crawl: Feb. 7 - 9, 2008

Come smell the new Toronto art on this week's Gallery Crawl....

Art TV contests

The TV producing gods are at it once again with a sort of art star search show idea. The latest incarnation is on the Project Runway model. Only instead of fashion designers, they would judge artists. Read about it here.

Here's some of my thoughts as I ranted to a close artist friend....

The whole idea is flawed because it would set tasks for an artist to fulfill. I agree with art critic Robert Hughes when he says the job of the critic is to express how one observer confronts a work of art. The critic is not in the position to pronounce certainty.

It's essentially an art school model where students are assigned tasks. Once an artist begins to 'wade into' his/her obsessions and create individual work, the artist can no longer be told what to do. The artist tells.

So, in a show that eliminates artists based on perceived critical value assessments of work done within specified criteria of time, and subject, and material, nothing is truly resolved. It comes down to how well an artist pleases judges.

To quote one producer...

" [Art is] something we consume every day... whether it's your favorite coffee mug, an ad in a magazine or a mural you drive by on the way to work."

Produce a painting in a week. What if your method takes a month, a year?

Every one has to make a sculpture. What if you're a performance artist?

Paint a landscape. What if you're only interested in the human form?

I think it's asking artists to jump through hoops like circus animals and is totally irrelevant to their own, very specific practice.

The analogy to fashion design is faulty. Fashion designers operate in a commercial trade demanding a wide variety of skill sets to satisfy industrial demand. Fashion design is creative craftwork - not art - in my view.

I offer Giacometti as an example. For me the absurdity - beyond exposure - of the TV project is clear when we consider how Giacometti would fare as a contestant. Giacometti created very specific, focused, intense works. Imagine dictating an assignment to this artist outside the realms of his specific obsession with the human form. Imagine demanding Giacometti make a conceptual art work. Ridiculous. To sit in judgment for approval? He would take a puff of smoke, maybe smile, and walk away. That's what I think.

Photo: 'Alberto Giacometti' by Henri-Cartier Bresson

Writer Needed

I'm looking through Craigslist ads and came across this awesome advert...

I need a writer to write a short story about me driving in a lamborghini with the top down eating tons of food, with a hot naked girl. if you are interested, please send me a short sample of your writing. please write a couple paragraphs about me driving in a lamborghini with the top down eating tons of food with a naked girl. If i like what you send i will commission you to write the full piece. about ten to twenty pages. i will pay twenty dollars per page.

I love it.

Portrait of a Young Painting

The evolution of a painting. Approximately eight days from start to finish.

I like it at this point, but I'm gonna take another
crack at it. Maybe I lose the painting, but I'll take
the chance. At least I'll have the picture....




I much prefer this one to the previous ones.
The other painting was lost, but as I look at the
photo, I don't care for it anymore. Let's get lost.


'Double Cross' Bill Pocock, 2008 (BP080207-114114)

G1313 Sandwich Board

I joined the board of a local non-profit art gallery - Gallery 1313.

Here's one of my good deeds. I took an old sandwich board and refurbished it for a new gallery look and feel. At least on the sandwich board.

One thing I learned while painting it? A new respect for the fine craft of sign painting. Damn it hard especially with the toxic fumes and 10 cent brushes.

I'd like to say never again, but I'm too old for that.
.

Gallery Crawl: Feb. 1 - 2

Ever want to see what a block of ice looks like on top of an organ keyboard? Check out this week in Toronto contemporary art at....www.gallerycrawl.ca
.