Drip

Drip, writing retreat at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico, February 2007, photo by QuoinMonkey, all rights reserved

-Detail photo from the Wake Up series

-posted on red Ravine, April 28th, 2007

Read Full Post »

A Reason To Be In Taos This Summer

The artwork is less like a noun and more like a verb…
-Martin Facey, speaking of Richard Diebenkorn’s work


 
-All images photos of works by Richard Diebenkorn, 1950-1952
(from the San Jose Museum of Art website)



On June 2 the University of New Mexico Harwood Museum of Art in Taos will open “Diebenkorn in New Mexico,” an exhibit of 50+ paintings and drawings Richard Diebenkorn made during the two years he lived in the state. This particular grouping hasn’t been viewed together since 1951. A book by the same name will be released with the exhibit.

Diebenkorn came to UNM’s graduate art program on the GI Bill in 1950. He came, it’s said, for the landscape and the notion he could be in a place where his work would be “unencumbered.” Diebenkorn gained national recognition in the late 1960s, while living and teaching in California, and today is one of the most prominent American artists of the 20th century.

Martin Facey, a UNM art professor who studied with Diebenkorn and then later became his studio assistant, said this of Diebenkorn: “The artwork is less like a noun and more like a verb, so you can see the artwork in time…It’s more like a performance than making work that’s static in time. In much work, I’d say even to this day, I try to mimic the approach–not the style per se, but the idea that the act of painting is a search and a transformative process.”

I loved this quote, tying art to words. It made me wonder if in my own writing and drawing whether I’m more concerned with the end result than the transformative process.

In case you can’t make it to Taos, the exhibit will be shown at the San Jose Museum of Art October 15-January 6, and the Grey Art Gallery at New York University January 23-April 15.


NOTE: UNM’s Mirage Magazine has a story about Diebenkorn and the exhibit in its Spring issue, but as of today the link on that story leads you to something unrelated.

Read Full Post »

Wake Up

–Wake Up, Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico, February 2007, photo by QuoinMonkey, from the Wake Up series, all rights reserved

When I went to Taos last year to write, I rediscovered photography as a practice. I attended 4 silent writing retreats with the same group of writers over a year period. When you make a commitment to sit with people for that length of time, something changes inside.

There are connecting threads; a deep place of silence lingers in the heart. I can call it up if I pay attention. And listen. And stop all the busyness.

I am grateful to everyone who kept showing up. Even though it was hard. It taught me how to show up for myself.

I am grateful to the teachers that walk the path before me. I am grateful that there are places to go that still honor the past and preserve the land and architecture.

It is these silent places that remind me who I am.

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

Read Full Post »

The Good Stuff’s In Here

-The Good Stuff’s In Here, Caffe, Tazza, Taos, New Mexico, February 2007, photo by QuoinMonkey, all rights reserved

From my Great Places to Write series. The light is right, the cast of characters stimulating, the air is full of French roast, artists, poets, and musicians. You can sit inside or out. And they don’t care if you walk in to just sit in silence. If you’re ever in Taos, this is one of the places to write.

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

Read Full Post »