Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Cause I can't be hateful forever

And cause I haven't done an "art that rocks the casbah" piece in a very very long time- here's Monika Grygier. She's a Polish artist who lives in Spain. Other than that, i don't know much about her, but her painting warm the dark little corners of my heart.

Sunday at 6:30 in the city

I love love love her paintings. I want to live in them even more than I want to live in a Morris Lewis painting. They are urban and organic and minimally luscious.

And speaking of luscious- I am also all a flutter for Pat Kagan. There is a perfect balance between fluidity and contrast in some of her works. She captures movement in a very pure way, making you feel every swirl and dip of the brush.

A new kind of meme

I'm in a horrible mood lately. The kind of mood where you give up drinking cause you've just become a sad drunk. The kind of mood where living in a shack ala the Unibomber starts to sound attractive. So I'm not writing much (obvs) because my normally charming and erudite self has decided that endless reruns of cops shows with tough chicks are preferable to being just another poor sad slob on the internets.

But.......

In my botomless pit of negativity I've decided to do a new meme. There is nothing nice about it. I want to hate loudly. So here are a few things I hate sooooooooo much that I'd rather tear my eyes out and puncture my eardrums with an icepick rather than ever have to see or hear about them again.

1. The idea of "honor". Honor gets other people killed, usually women. Honor is this outdated and stupid idea that another person has the ability to diminish you through actions that have nothing to do with you. Better to be diginified, to have integrity, to be ethical or loyal or kind. We don't need to end honor killings, we need to end the idea of honor all together. Honor they mother and thy father? Fuck that if your parents are horrible horrible people. The idea that a young woman or girl can dishonor her family simply by leaving the house. Fuck that.

2. If god helps those who help themselves, then either god is an asshole or it's just an idea that the selfish and greedy use to justify their success. I don't want to believe in a god who isn't there for the helpless. I think that would be the sole reason to believe in god if there was one, some omnipotent being there to help the lowest and most harmed. But everytime I read the news I get further proof that either god doesn't exist or if he does, he's not a god I want anything to do with.

3. Trite and boring art showcasing women as objects. You think that advertising and fashion are horrible, then you haven't ventured into the artworld my friends. I like drawing from sculptues. It's a good cheap way to practice abstracting figures. So I've been crusing modern art websites checking out their sculptures for intersting things. It goes something like this: headless female torso, headless female torso, female reclining in submissive position, boring mother and child sculpture, headless female torso, headless female torso with back view, reclining female, horse head, headless torso, female dancer, blah blah blah. It is very rare to come across just a female bust (clothed) or a male nude. I think I've seen 2 nude male sculptures out of hundreds (and I am not counting the one that was male except for his missing penis. Seriously artists- it's just an appendage, like a finger or a toe). At least the Greeks gave their women heads and let them stand. At least the Romans weren't afraid of a little male nudity. I'm going to go dig through my photographs and go back to drawing from ancient sculptures rather than try anything new.

4. I hate that moms in commercials always have families full of assholes. I thinking of you, Roll over minutes mom with your dipshit son. And the mom in that fancy home phone commercial who is making pallella and your son is a complete ass about it. Maybe it's just moms and sons in commercials? Do daughters get to be assholes in commercials? I dont think I've ever seen that.

So dear readers- if you are still out there, what do you hate hate hate? Vent away!