Josh Keyes "Sprout" closing soon

I'm seeing the current Josh Keyes exhibit at David B. Smith Gallery again today. If you haven't seen it yet - it's only up for a few more days (closing on the 3rd). It's a really exceptional show and will easily top my favorite exhibitions of the summer and probably the year. I've mentioned Keyes several times before after first encountering his work at the Limited Addiction group show in March of 2007.

In the current show, I recognized the subject matter source Keyes used on his painting called, "Entangle I" from our many trips to Moab, Utah. The graffiti on the side of the monument is clearly borrowed from these petroglyphs by the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park:

photo by Nathan Abelsdetail of "Entangle I" by Josh Keyes

detail of "Entangle I" by Josh Keyes"Entangle I" by Josh Keyes

Simon Cantamir Hausi

installation view from the flog Berlin

Simon Cantemir Hausi

Simon Cantamir Hausi

Simon Cantamir Hausi, Swim in Organized Place, oil on canvas, 150x100cm, 2009

Simon Cantamir Hausi

Simon Cantamir Hausi

Simon Cantamir Hausi, untitled, oil on wood panel, 22x16 cm, 2008

Long's Peak

I painted this watercolor of Long's Peak on Saturday from the view at our campsite.

Fern Lake

We just got back from a eight mile hike up to Fern Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park (where Lorna took this photo)- it was a beautiful day and an exceptional trail full of ferns, aspens, wildflowers, and waterfalls. Hope everyone out there had a good weekend as well.

The Sublime Beauty of Impermanence

via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Never Be Sad - by Alexis MacKenzie

"Never Be Sad"

"Just this once"

"Don't Fight It"

Alexis MacKenzie

“Never Be Sad” at Park Life

Opening Reception - Friday June 26th, 7pm - 10pm

Art and Film Friday; Vol. 7 - Children of Men

Still from Children of Men - more here.

Tilo Baumgartel, Hol´s der Geier, 2008, 30x40cm, Öl auf Leinwand

Still from Children of Men

Ryan McGinley, Smoke & Silhouette, 2007

Still from Children of MenJames McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Silver: The Lagoon, Venice, 1879–80, Oil on canvas

James McNeill Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver—Battersea Reach, 1872–78, Oil on canvas

Todd Selby

Todd Selby

New Background

My talented wife Lorna took this photo in Silver Plume, CO. I resized it to a wide screen monitor (1280x800) so you can change your desktop background. PC users - right-click and 'set as desktop background'.

Painting of the Day

Julian Lee, Disappearing Tree (Himalaya) Mixed Media on Canvas (190 x 140cm)

see also - this post with Mindy Bray, Alex Katz, and Daniel Richter - and a post from November in which Julian Lee shared a little more with me about his work.

Music for Your Studio; Vol. 18

Odland, "The Caterpillar" ep

Quiet, melancholic twinkling French folk music that goes perfectly with the image on the cover. Free and legal.

Two by Steve Kim

Steve Kim, "blue"
oil on canvas - 24"x24"

Steve Kim, "umma2"
oil on canvas - 36"x24"

Airless: Wallace Stegner on The American West as Living Space

photo by Nathan Abels

I'm reading Wallace Stegner's The American West as Living Space from 1988 -taken from a series of lectures made in 1986. It is a really informative book. I've been writing down a lot of quotes or experts from it and I wanted to share this one in particular:

"...the rootlessness that expresses energy and a thirst for the new and an aspiration toward freedom and personal fulfillment has just as often been a curse. Migrants deprive themselves of the physical and spiritual bonds that develop within a place and a society. Our migratoriness has hindered us from becoming a people of communities and traditions, especially in the West. It has robbed us of the gods who make places holy. It has cut off individuals and families and communities from memory and the continuum of time. It has left at least some of us with a kind of spiritual pellagra, a deficiency disease, a hungering for the ties of a rich and stable order. Not only is the American home a launching pad, as Margaret Mead said; the American community, especially in the West, is an overnight camp. American individualism, much celebrated and cherished, has developed without its essential corrective, which is belonging. Freedom, when found, can turn out to be airless and unsustaining. Especially in the West, what we have instead of place is space. Place is more than half memory, shared memory. Rarely do Westerners stay long enough at one stop to share much of anything."

The Griffin Memorial Hike - Silver Plume, CO

Clifford Griffin
Son of Alfred Griffin ESQ. of
Brand Hall, Shropshire, England
Born July 2, 1847
Died June 19, 1887
And in Consideration of his Own Request
Buried Near This Spot

On Saturday, we hiked up the Clifford Griffin memorial above Silver Plume, Colorado. Griffin ran the Seven Thirty Mine on Silver Plume Mountain in the 1880s. His fiancee died the day before their wedding and to escape his grief he joined the Colorado gold rush in Silver Plume, CO. He lived in a cabin up there and played the violin every night to an appreciative audience in the town of Silver Plume below. The story ends tragically when he takes his own life in a grave of his own making after playing his last notes on violin.

There's a huge monument to him on a moderate hike above Silver Plume, and it is definitely one of my favorite hikes in the area. The hike itself is littered with debris from the mine and weaves its way above the town of Silver Plume through several aspen groves, a gulch full of avalanche damage, and over some rocky slopes. You can find more info on the hike via Hiking Colorado's Summit County (screen-caps here and here if you want to print out the info for the hike). It's a short drive from Denver - located close to Georgetown - I'd highly recommend it. Interestingly, we hiked to Griffin's memorial just one day after he died - in fact, we were there the same day that the miner's discovered his body 122 years ago.

Painting of the Day: Alex Katz

Alex Katz, West Palm Beach, 1997

photo by flickr user theMUC

Full Circle: Jeffrey T. Baker and Olafur Arnalds

Jeffery T. Baker, Clinging, Slipping, 2009
acrylic, leafing, toner, graphite, and wax on panel
7.5" x 7.5"

One of my blog "followers" - Jeffery T. Baker recently completed this beautiful small work while listening to the recommended Olafur Arnalds album from my "Music For Your Studio" post a few weeks ago. I love to think of all the random things that fell into place for that to happen - some time ago Olafur Arnalds asked to be my friend on myspace, some time passed and then I checked in on his "found songs" project and proceded to post the music on my "Music For Your Studio" weekly feature, then Mr. Baker downloaded the songs and made a perfect visual accompaniment to it. Wonderful.

Art and Film Friday; Vol. 6 - Marie Antoinette

There are so many beautiful images in Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette it was hard to choose:

Film still from Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette - for more go here, here or here.

Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005. Oil on canvas.

Film still from Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Andy Warhol, Diamond Dust, 1980

Film still from Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Elizabeth Peyton, Marie Antoinette between Germany and France on her Way to be Married, 8x6", 1995. Image from Fashion is my Muse blog

Film still from Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Film still from Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Kehinde Wiley - image from the artcollectors blogKehinde Wiley, Portrait of a Venetian Ambassador, Aged 59, II (Columbus), 2006
Oil on canvas
96 x 72 in.- more of his work here.

The Sky Below and the Ground Above

found at the nequest flickr stream

Mindy Bray

Mindy Bray - (Installation View) "clearing", cut tyvek and latex paint.

Mindy Bray - detail of "clearing", cut tyvek and latex paint.

Mindy Bray spoke to my Art Appreciation class yesterday and I really enjoyed hearing a little more about her work. She is one of my favorite area artists - producing consistently intelligent and aesthetically pleasing work. I highly recommend checking out her site and her current online collaborative project called the 100 days project. She spoke about some of her influences which include James Turrell, Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt, and Alex Katz.

Alex Katz Daniel Richter, "Küss' die Schlampe, Flagge", 2005, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 91.5 x 1.7"