Keeping it real

“Happiness Is not an idea of reason but of imagination”

-Immanuel Kant

The Bringers of Light

Every year, Dalvero Academy's founders and my art teachers Ronnie and Margaret gather friends at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to draw the magnificent Neapolitan Angel Tree. A beautiful tradition. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and love to all the bringers of light in our lives. 

 

Subway Commuter

Drawn on my iPhone

Paris :: Part 7 : I Am Beautiful (Je suis belle)

Auguste Rodin made numerous studies of figures and re-used his models in various groupings. One chance combination in plaster of the crouching female and the reaching male figures (both of which were studies for the "The Gates of Hell") became the basis for famous bronze casts. One of the sculptures sits in a glass case by the window at the Rodin Museum in Paris. It's titled "I am beautiful", after Baudelaire's poem:

"I am beautiful, oh mortals, like a marble dream,  

And my breast on which each sacrifices himself in turn, 

Was made to inspire poets with a love  

As eternal and silent as matter.'

The meaning of this sculpture is unclear.  It's ambiguity and intensity is what made me fall in love with it. It is a union of two opposites: female and male, fetal and erect, closed and open, empathetic and violent, static and moving. It's as difficult and as beautiful as the tension between two beings, the culmination of emotional extremes in an interpersonal relationship. Instinctively, I know that I have lived through *that* when I look at the figures. I understand it. But...cannot put it into words. Such is the power of Rodin's sculptures: they are a mirror of all things human yet invisible. 

Drawing Music :: Tricky @ The Brooklyn Bowl

To add to my glorious lineup* of England's best musicians I've drawn recently in New York, here is Tricky performing at The Brooklyn Bowl on December 11!

"Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop culture."

* glorious lineup 2010 - check it out:

Robert Fripp @ the World Financial Center >

Bonobo @ Webster Hall >

Massive Attack @ Terminal 5 >

 Portico Quartet @ Coco 66 >

 Mount Kimbie @ Public Assembly >

Captivated

NYC subway commuter

Drawn on my iPhone

First Snow

NYC subway commuter 

Drawn on my iPhone

Drawing Music :: Robert Fripp's Soundscapes

Arts>World Financial Center program at the Winter Garden hosts really awesome free events. This time I went to hear Soundscapes by Robert Fripp. He's the famous English guitarist/composer, the founder of King Crimson.

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When I saw King Crimson live in NYC about 7 years ago, Fripp sat sideways to the crowd. The stories about his stage fright (even though the man has been performing for nearly 40 years by now) are well known. Way back when he'd even sit with his back to the audience.

Naturally, part of me was curious to see Robert Fripp's solo performance: does he still turn his back? Or hide behind an amplifier? But no..he was in the middle of the huge stage, almost smiling. At the end he took deep bows in all directions, looking pleased and charming. The acoustics of the Winter Garden are perfect for that kind of ambient music. Fripp's Soundscapes have been described as "lush sonic tapestries with electric guitar and digital effects". It was beautiful.

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