Brooks Blair Golden: January 2007

1/13/07

#~friday night art stomp...1/12/07

So , we started the art stomp on 32nd Halsted for Juan Chavez's drawing show "Hilo"

~Floor installation(nice)
~Wall drawings(not my faves)
~Framed drawings(excellent)
~crowded as usual, and hot
~usual cast of characters...
the artist himself "Juan Chavez"
cody hudson
the viking
oscar ariola
joe compean
mike genovese
and the obligatory
east pilsen art enthusiast

~there was an ample snack table including:
dried fruit
chocolate raisins
sesame sticks
spicy peanuts
and fresh
grapes

~lastly, it was comforting to see what I thought was Juan's close family in attendance (kids included)...
a good showing all around.

Next stop was crosstown to Rogers Park at Bar None for Anthony Lewellen's Showing of some of his latest pencil drawings...
"Gray Matters"

~Much smaller crowd, much smaller venue than 32&Urban...
~Dank and Smoky (its a bar :/)
~Tevo Howard on the 1's and 2's...
breakbeat
house and
old school Hip Hop
...music was definately an A+

~In attendance
Sneaker fiends
Hip Hop heads
Rogers Park Bar None locals
~A lil difficult to enjoy the art such a loud , distracting enviroment
~pieces were excellent and well priced, maybe even low priced....
~Favorite piece was "Trafficer"(sp?)...pictured in flyer below
~Anthony was gracious and friendly as usual....

Then, back south to Clothes Optional on Clark Street...
Photography showing...

...Kevin manning the door in an oh so stylish leisure suit jacket...
small and cramped...theres a theme here.
Lots of cool nick knacks and vintage clothes,
The photos were OK at best and really hard to see...
Punkers and other worldly peeps....my kinda people :)

...Highlights
Good Old Punk and rocker music
Kevin's enthusiasm
Levis pouch for $2.50...dude
Lacoste Vintage Winbreaker, $7.50, just like the one I had in grade school, with and old school elastic & metal clasp, in case you wanted to wear it as a hipsack! OMG! It also folds into a easy to carry pouch, to say the least Im delighted..

Back to belmont for:
Mandatory Pizza slice and Cheesefries(OMGravy!!)
at Philly's Best...a sidewalk slice in the summer here is the best!
...back to the casa

all this happened in like 5 hours...and we had a great night on the town....amazing

Brooksy

1/12/07

ride or die, subway stories 2

"He crossed Broadway and kept walking, thinking that he might even try to figure out which subway could take him uptown. Bunting had only taken the subway only once, shortly after his arrival in New York, and on the hot,crowded train,he felt in mortal danger. Every inch of the walls had been filled with lunatic scribbling, every other male on the subway had looked like a mugger. But, Frank Herko took the subway in from Brooklyn everyday. According to the newspapers, all the subway graffiti had been removed. Bunting had lived in New York for a decade without ever getting mugged,he walked alone down dark alleys and streets, the subway could not possibly seem so threatening to him now. And it was much faster than the stinking bus."

--from Peter Straub, The Buffalo Hunter

Brooksy

aint no half steppin', subway stories 1

"...We enter the Broadway-Lafayette subway station, pass through the turnstiles, and walk down several flghts of stairs to the lowest platform. We carefully jump off the platform to the tracks, carefully crossing the third rail. There is no space , absolutely none for a person to stand between the wall and a passing train without being struck..."

"Don't step on the third rail," Seargent Steve K. warns me. "I hate to see that happen. Sparks fly everywhere, but the worst part is that the electricity blows off the extremeties...Hands, head, whatever,they explode. It's disgusting.

--from Jennifer Toth's book, THE MOLE PEOPLE: Life in the Tunnel Beneath New York City

Brookstein

1/10/07

#~favorite painters 1(Contemporary & Modern)

Ann Gale~

Yang Shaobin~

Jenny Saville~

Dana Schutz~

Lucien Freud~

~Chuck Close

~Jean Michel Basqiuat

~Pobert Rauschenberg

~Botero

~Gustav Klimt

...And finally ~ Pablo Picasso in the 1920's when he painted both like this and this...

..there are about 20 more painters who I love their work..but, these few took 2 hours to assemble....peace

The comments from myspace.com

Brooks

*erin

there is a very good range here. not that i would expect it from you, but i'm glad you didn't just stick to one genre. how boring would that be, eh? i wish i had the time and the skill for painting. we still need to work on my wall sometime!!!

Posted by *erin on Thursday, August 24, 2006 at 2:01 PM
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Brooks Blair Golden

Thanks Erin, I do believe that variety is the spice of life and couldnt imagine life without a huge range of interest..especially art-wise...As a side note..I wanted to add that all these artist were picked because they have for many,many years directly had a affect on my work in one way or another....dont get me wrong, I like lots of fleeting,trendy artist but these artist have changed my work and how to see my work in relation to all artworks.

Posted by Brooks Blair Golden on Thursday, August 24, 2006 at 4:31 PM
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Dreams [Now available in HD]

I like the Yang Shaobin. Picasso is an clear choice. And the Basquiat you chose is different that the works he's known for. Interesting.

Posted by Dreams [Now available in HD] on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 9:14 AM
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Brooks Blair Golden

Yeah, Yang shaobin has been a bit of an obsession for about 4 years now, I had a chance to see some his paintings at Art Chicago in 2002, i was blown away and so totally consumed, that i went back the next year just to see his work...he also has a book out that is a complete retrospective of his current work, there is such a huge range...amazing..it cost me about 30USD...
...Picasso is really the shit, the academic painting,the red(rose)& blue periods,Dada,Surrealism,Sculpture,Artist as Celebrity...Supreme Metamorphosis during his long life..he was the best, Almost no one can fug with his catalog of influence on the present art world. It was hard to admit my love for Picasso, but having examined him and written a thesis about his pyscology..he was a art genius plain and simple.
...Finally Basquiat,after years of admiration from afar, I clung closely to the worlds most recognized African american Painter,but for many years I didnt enjoy his work and couldnt understand his appeal,as I read more about his life ,Dove deeply into interviews with his contemporaries and Finally being able to see his paintings in person last year at The Brooklyn Museum of Art...Roughly 100 pieces of his works which I only had the priveledge of seeing in books, I saw with my eyes...The Freedom in his painting style,the obsessive writing,and the historical references were hard to deny the power in his paintings. Having looked at these works first hand I was really changed,i realized credited or not,everybody is doing faux-basquiat..he had a large sense of genius as artist that was so natural it came across as naive,he was a true visionary,who saw the world through a lens that was blurred with,prejudice,fame and finally drug addiction...his candle had burnt out...at both ends....thanks gabe

Posted by Brooks Blair Golden on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 6:27 PM
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MARIO DESA

i wish i could remember artists' names better...but i like the ones you mentioned, at least the ones i know. i just saw that jenny saville has a book out, i need to pick it up, i've really been digging her stuff for the last couple years, at least the few paintings of hers i'd seen.

Posted by MARIO DESA on Saturday, August 26, 2006 at 1:52 AM
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Brooks Blair Golden

yeah I figured that you would like her paintings...theres a theme in her newer paintings of Trans-gender politics, physical brutality,and child abuse..interesting huh? Her newer work have a more expressive Brush stroke and arent as refined, I like to see the brush marks, theres something great about art being recognized for something other than how technical you can be..You might like Yang Shaobin's paintings too, his are litrerally about "fighting" I have a great book of his if youd like to check it out , let me know.......he's real fresh...peace homie

Posted by Brooks Blair Golden on Saturday, August 26, 2006 at 4:41 AM
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MARIO DESA

i'll check it out. i looked at the jenny seville book the other day. it has awesome photos of her studio, real close up shots of alot of her reference materials and "tools". alot of it is unsettling...weird photos of dead bodies and injured people. but, youknow me, i love that shit. also has alot of close up detail photos of her paintings. the thick layers of paint and brush strokes are very "violent"...definately goes with the subjects. damn...i'm an artfag inside...did you know that?

Posted by MARIO DESA on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at 1:26 PM
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Brooks Blair Golden

YEP!..well, an aspiring art fag at least....

Come out the 'art closet' an be free like me,
All yer tough guy posturing.......is..well........attractive..jk,jk,lol.......wait ,I guess that makes me a FULL BLOWN Art Fag....whimper ,cry...whimper......

Posted by Brooks Blair Golden on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at 4:00 PM

1/1/07

Goodbye to the good people...a photo memorial 2006

A bunch of really talented and great people die every year unbeknownst to me and sometimes others...
here's a small look at a few good people that left us and left us with all there great contributions....

Coretta Scott King
Activist