my make believe collection :: 8 :: Rivane Neuenschwander

Contributor post by Lisa Solomon

it was 2005 NY MOMA - my first experience in the NEW BUILDING !! i was wandering around. saying hello to some of my favorite pieces, soaking in the sites and thinking that it sure felt a lot like disneyland with all the tourists and the photo taking.

and then i spied the row of works above.

and i had to take a picture of the plaque that went with them because there was no way i was going to remember how to spell her name. nope. never.

a version of I wish your wish, Silkscreen on fabric ribbons, dimensions variable.

in googling rivane neuenshwander - you don't actually find very much. she doesn't have her own website. she's had plenty of shows in plenty of museums [here's a link to a retrospective at the new museum] - done some cool installations and some videos. i like how she plays with color and materials. it seems like anything and everything is fair game to her as an art material. she's also literally playful. which is nice. sometimes art takes itself too seriously, don't you think?

After the Storm, 2010. Acrylic paint on road maps, wood, 31 1⁄2 x 26 inches

there's a conceptual edge to her work that i admire - she deals with personal and political topics in a poignant way. she also likes to create participatory environments where viewers help to complete the work.

OK. that's all good. i'm not sure i would recognize a room full of her work as all hers. and i don't think that's important or what her work is about. i'm inherently interested in how she melds literary references and deals with "big topics" [life, death, desire] in such a colorful and eye catching way.

2004. Synthetic polymer paint and ink on printed paper, Each sheet: 7 1/2 x 5 1/4"

but really. what i want, what i still wish i had in my house to own and look at on a daily basis are the paintings i saw at MOMA that day.

oh my goodness. this was a I WISH I HAD THOUGHT OF THAT MOMENT ! i love these. i seriously contemplated trying to take one off the wall and home with me. [ok semi-seriously]. one step beyond pop. the use of color is perfect. the erasure of the action, but utilizing the colors that were with-in the pane to do it. and to remove all the text. how iconic are those thought bubbles? how ingrained are they into our psyches? how much can we interpret from these with the very small amount of information left for us to view? i'd say a lot. and they become universal, right? because almost everyone in the 21st century has had some exposure to a comic book. and nostalgic at the same time because this style of comic book reads "childhood".

there is almost no way to just own one of these. you got to have at least 2 to mimic the physical book. and so i'd choose these two. i like the variation of bubbles... i like the rhythm of the color. and i ADORE that small last black pane with the little bubble. sort of sad and hopeful at the same time.

the whole MOMA set of drawings is here
till next time...follow my collection on pinterest

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lisa solomon is a mixed media artist who lives in oakland, CA with her husband, young daughter, a one eyed pit bull, a french bulldog, a cross-eyed cat, a 3 legged cat, and many many spools of thread. she moonlights as a college professor, a graphic designer, and is a partner in MODify/d a crafty biz that up/cycles and re/purposes discards from the fashion industry.

my make believe collection :: 9 :: masao yamamoto

Contributor post by Lisa Solomon

masao yamamoto, box of ku 154

masao yamamoto, box of ku 246

back in the 90's i worked for braunstein/quay gallery [a contemporary art gallery in san francisco that will be closing its doors soon - after 50 year !]. the gallery was housed in a building that had several other galleries. one was michael shapiro gallery, he specialized in photographs.

masao yamamoto, nakazoro 1082

masao yamamoto, 1651 

to be honest, photography is not my strong suit. sure there are photographers i admire and respect. and i dabble in polaroid and other types of photography myself - although i would NEVER consider myself a "real" photographer. but i don't really know or understand a lot about photographic history [not in the same way i relate to the history of painting and drawing]. i don't really know how cameras work - or the fundamentals of aperture, ISO, bokeh, etc. i just shoot by trial and error, and i know when i like a photograph. for whatever reason.

masao yamamoto, 1213

i also have to say that i'm often attracted to photos generated in a more analog way. that's not to say i don't adore some digital imagery - or to detract from the skill or beauty that digital photos can hold, but usually when i fall in love with a photograph it's roots lie in film [of any sort], and it's often printed in an alternative or antiquated method/process.

masao yamamoto, 1175

but i digress. back in the 90's mr. shaprio had a show of masao yamaoto's works. a show entitled box of ku. and because that show was next door to where i worked i was fortunate enough to live with it. i visited it almost every trip to the bathroom. every time i had to go out of the gallery for lunch or run an errand i would pop in. i kept the announcement card in my desk for eons. until it was falling apart and dusty and dirty from years of sitting there.

masao yamamoto, box of ku 140

masao yamamoto, 1409

there is something so deceptively simple about yamamoto's photographs. they imply a narrative - but never tell a whole story. the feel incredibly nostalgic, and immensely personal. it doesn't ever feel like there is a completely random image - sure some things are caught by luck or chance as that seems to be part of the magic of photography, but then there is a larger force at work. a sense of thought and purpose and hunting for that image. knowing that a particular image belongs in the group with the others....

masao yamamoto, kawa/flow 1606

 they also feel inherently japanese to me. you might say DUH he's japanese, but no - i mean more than just that. his images really embody something about the culture, the aesthetic - they obviously contain landscape and characters that are distinctly japanese, but there's also a sense of composition, of restraint, of quiet that seems to be relayed in a particular way . in fact it is often said that his work is like haiku poetry and i couldn't agree more.

masao yamamoto, box of ku 67

 to help make that point: here's what he says about his latest body of work: KAWA=FLOW

is about the world where we are and the world where we go in the future.
Although we seem to be connected continually there is a rupture between us in the present and those that went before us or that come next.
I tried to perceive this rupture as a KAWA (FLOW, river) that divides a plain and expressed the resulting reflexions in this works.

think, though, that one of the things that REALLY attracts me to this work is the way that he often installs his photographs.

instead of simply framing them and lining them up in perfect rows he often creates installations out of them. groupings of images that then become more powerful and poignant as they ebb and flow against one another. love that there are different scales, different tones, different frames, different methods of printing all living with one another. sometimes he hand colors an image or repeats an image in different saturations.

i think i would be hard pressed to simply choose one image. i would definitely want a grouping [any of the ones i've posted would be A-OK with me !]. in my dream collection i would have mr. yamamoto come and install a whole wall. in any way he'd like - would that be amazing?

until next time - you can follow my collection as it grows on pinterest !

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lisa solomon is a mixed media artist who lives in oakland, CA with her husband, young daughter, a one eyed pit bull, a french bulldog, a cross-eyed cat, a 3 legged cat, and many many spools of thread. she moonlights as a college professor, a graphic designer, and is a partner in MODify/d a crafty biz that up/cycles and re/purposes discards from the fashion industry.

my make believe collection :: 13 :: andrea higgins

Contributor post by Lisa Solomon
 

Laura, 2001, oil on canvas, 52" x 52"

in my mind some of the best art is created via some form of obsessiveness. andrea higgins' work is a perfect example of this. i first saw her work in 2003 at sfmoma's SECA exhibition and was immediately hooked.

detail of Laura

in my mind some of the best art is created via some form of obsessiveness. andrea higgins' work is a perfect example of this. i first saw her work in 2003 at sfmoma's SECA exhibition and was immediately hooked.

Portrait of My Grandmother #2, 2000, oil on canvas, 52" x 40"

detail of above

she started out meticulously painting textiles as portraits of people she knew - or fabrics she remembered/where in her life. the above is a depiction of her grandmother via a familiar houndstooth plaid. i love the simplicity and depth of this idea. we all know that what we wear says a lot about us. it can make or break an impression, it can begin to tell people who and what we are and what we believe in.

Jackie (Mexico), 2002, oil on canvas, 24.5" x 21"

detail of above

she then moved onto outfits from president's wives. brilliant really. they are so scrutinized for their apparel. almost too much hinges on what they wear: how they wear it, who designed it, what color it was, whether or not it was appropriate for the occasion. i love how "familiar" these feel. you recognize them as fabric, but then realize they are painted. by hand - lines and dots repeated until they form an abstract whole. i love that they are not in the shape of clothes. that they are literally rectangles. reinforcing their "painting-ness". of course jackie o get's more than one rendition:

Jackie (Bogota), 2002, oil on canvas, 24.5" x 21"

detail of above

currently she is working on portraits of characters from literature. there's a great explanation of some of her work and some passages of text that correspond on her dealer's blog. she shows with todd hosfelt in san francisco.

Dorian, 2008, oil on canvas and panel, 28" x 36"

i adore the conceptual nature of her work. but ultimately i also love that these end up being very meditative and luscious paintings. they are in a way paintings for painting's sake - the texture and strokes so evident. i was a costume designer in another life, so thinking about pattern and form and what clothing conveys is also something that interests me, so i get a good dose of that in these as well.

andrea painting

 you can view a KQED piece on "the president's wives" series..... and which piece do i want for me? i thought at first one of the jackie o pieces, but then ultimately? it has to be this one:

Lady Bird, 2003, oil on canvas, 60" x 38.5"

detail of above

i love the lemon yellow. i love that i can almost picture what this 1960's dress would look like from this small snippet - textured sateen maybe? empire waist? her hair perfectly coiffed. yes. this one is for me.

thanks for playing along with me as my collection grows. you can follow it on pinterest. till next time. happy almost fall !

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lisa solomon is a mixed media artist who lives in oakland, CA with her husband, young daughter, a one eyed pit bull, a french bulldog, a cross-eyed cat, a 3 legged cat, and many many spools of thread. she moonlights as a college professor, a graphic designer, and is a partner in MODify/d a crafty biz that up/cycles and re/purposes discards from the fashion industry.

my make believe collection :: 11 :: Nina Katchadourian

Contributor post by Lisa Solomon

the artist with caterpillar mustache

i was lucky enough to see nina katchadourian speak once at catherine clark gallery in san francisco [which by the way is consistently one of my favorite galleries in the city]. i love me some conceptual art that has a sense of humor - and that is exactly what katchadourian provides.

nina katchadourian - from the shark journal - sorted book project

sorted books is a perfect example of this. the arranging of book titles - in various collections, and photographing them, so that their meanings are altered.

nina katchadourian - from "composition" - sorted book project

deceptively simple i like thinking of the book as an art material, not just as an object in and of itself. i find myself interested in the size and shape and arrangement of these besides just the humor that the titles invoke.

nina katchadourian - map dissection 1

i'm also a fan of maps. and the idea of mapping. a map is such a functional - and in this day and age almost antiquated - thing. there is something intriguing about trying to depict a 3 dimensional place on a 2 dimensional plane - and i like how a map simultaneously does and doesn't make sense.  here katchadourian took a AAA map of the united states removing all the land and leaving just the roadwork.

it's interesting to think about how the roads connect us - and that even with the land removed the overall shape of the united states is still discernible. [i'm also rather amazed at the intricacy and delicacy and beauty of this as a cut piece of paper]

nina katchadourian - map dissection ii

then she took the same map and put areas of road that formed clusters together and sandwiched them in slides - like specimens. what do our roads say about us? she was interested in how some of them started to look figurative when removed from the whole....

nina katchdourian - genealogy of the supermarket

always interested in systems and family trees she's also done funny things like a genealogy of supermarket products/characters. who/what is related to who/what and what kid would they have ? [oh mr. clean and mr. brawny - i had no idea you were responsible for the gerber baby cuteness].

nina katchedourian - lichen moss map

born in the states, but raised in finland, katchedourian always saw familiar shapes in the moss by the rocks in her family's summer home. rubbing letters onto places she recognized she created about 20 moss maps... funny, right?

nina katchedourian - mended spiderweb 8

but i have to say - the pieces that really really speak to me are from her mended spiderweb series.
here's what she says about the project:

The Mended Spiderweb series came about during a six-week period in June and July in 1998 which I spent on Pörtö. In the forest and around the house where I was living, I searched for broken spiderwebs which I repaired using red sewing thread. All of the patches were made by inserting segments one at a time directly into the web. Sometimes the thread was starched, which made it stiffer and easier to work with. The short threads were held in place by the stickiness of the spider web itself; longer threads were reinforced by dipping the tips into white glue. I fixed the holes in the web until it was fully repaired, or until it could no longer bear the weight of the thread. In the process, I often caused further damage when the tweezers got tangled in the web or when my hands brushed up against it by accident.
The morning after the first patch job, I discovered a pile of red threads lying on the ground below the web. At first I assumed the wind had blown them out; on closer inspection it became clear that the spider had repaired the web to perfect condition using its own methods, throwing the threads out in the process. My repairs were always rejected by the spider and discarded, usually during the course of the night, even in webs which looked abandoned. The larger, more complicated patches where the threads were held together with glue often retained their form after being thrown out, although in a somewhat "wilted" condition without the rest of the web to suspend and stretch them. Each "Rejected Patch" is shown next to the photograph showing the web with the patch as it looked on site.

nina katchedourian - mended spiderweb #14

i think in many cases kathedourian's art works on a conceptualal level really well - it holds my attention, makes me think, points out the absurd and interesting in the everyday - but it doesn't always hold my heart. it doesn't make me long to own it. interact with it YES. have it on my wall, NO. but these pieces. these i want.


just brilliant, right? the red thread is beautiful. the fact that the spider rejects the mending and yet it stays intact, fallen, is beautiful. watching the video of the spider rejecting the red thread is pretty amazing. and the photos they are lovely to look at. a moment before destruction.

i love the idea of this human intervention, with the best intentions, just not working out. a metaphoric example of us, as a human race - meaning to do good, but still failing.

nina katchadourian - mended spiderweb #19

this is the one that i would like to own. it's complicated web. i love the tiers of mending and how the move away from and toward the tree. the laundry line is beautiful with those 2 clothespins catching the light and the dark cabin in the woods in the background. yup. this is the one for me.

until next time.... follow my collection on pinterest

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lisa solomon is a mixed media artist who lives in oakland, CA with her husband, young daughter, a one eyed pit bull, a french bulldog, a cross-eyed cat, a 3 legged cat, and many many spools of thread. she moonlights as a college professor, a graphic designer, and is a partner in MODify/d a crafty biz that up/cycles and re/purposes discards from the fashion industry.

my make believe collection :: 10 :: cy twombly

Contributor post by Lisa Solomon

from the new york times: Cy Twombly at Cy Twombly Gallery in Houston in front of the gallery's largest painting, "Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor."

cy twombly passed away the other day at 83. and it got me thinking. i have been lucky enough in my lifetime to view several of his works in person. and really to understand and really inhale the nuance of these works you have to see them in person.

untitle, 1996

night watch 1966

there is a part of me that is so inherently drawn to abstract expressionalism. the energy of it. the surrender. its complete and utter ability to express joy, pain, freedom, release in dynamic strokes of pens, pencils, paints, chalk...  and what i love about twombly is the frenetic nature, the nod to expressionalism, but what really gets me is his concern and ability to marry the confidence and engagement of expressionalism with the familiarity and comfort of representation.

estate 1993-95

 his works hint to things we all know - flowers, boats, shapes, a made up alphabet, sometimes i feel like he is writing us a letter. one we can't really read, but whose content we understand in our hearts.

untitled 1974

i admire his ability to combine media. his fearlessness. it is rare that i sense a moment of doubt or indecision in the work. i have spent hours in discussion with students and fellow artists about the power and intoxication of confidence in art. twombly's work exudes it in spades.

untitled 1954

thicket 1992

he also made beautiful sculpture. i love the fact that you can often recognize the elements in the sculptural works, but that they seem transformed - altered - content with and excited by their new found life in the world.

epanto iii 2001

truth be told i'm more drawn to his "quieter works". the ones that don't have really thick paint or an expanded palette. i think the beauty and drama of his hand is more evident and easily read in the pieces that show color restraint.

the italians 1961

some people try to denigrate twombly's work by saying it's like a children's scribbles. sure. i wouldn't argue with that. it's said a lot about contemporary art work. and i think we should start to see it as a compliment. because for my money many children make incredible works of art. i do think one thing to consider is intention and control. i sort of think of it like this: kids say really really funny things - but would we consider them all professional comedians? also, i don't know any child that makes work THIS BIG [many of his works are room size] and there is power, intimidation, command in work that big.

ideas of march 1962

untitled 1970

there is also a serious personal investigation. can't you feel twombly creating his own visual vocabulary? hunting for the means and ways to express something? there is meaning in these scribbles i tell you :) ! [some of my favorite works of twombly's are the simple white scribble "erased" on black - the rhythm of them is hypnotizing]. i always tell students it's REALLY hard to make GOOD abstract work. and they don't believe me until they try it.

3 studies from temeraore

there is SO MUCH of twombly's work to look at. prolific through out his entire life [ah such an honorable trait], there are many many pieces of his i would be proud to own [but of course couldn't even scratch the surface of owning for real]. above is one of my absolute favorites and something i wish i could see in person for sure. i'm a fan of odd numbers so 3 canvases appeals to me. i love how the boat/bugs shift in number in each panel 3...2...1 [and how they shift in scale and location as well]. i love the simplicity. the bold strokes. the variation in texture the drips create. i love the negative space [you've heard this from me before]. 

i am sad that we lost such an inspiring soul, but am grateful for his long and productive art making career. thank you mr. twombly for making your work. be sure and visit his site as it is FULL of images and texts.

and keep track of my collection on pinterest. till next time. happy july [wait it's july? how did that happen?]

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lisa solomon is a mixed media artist who lives in oakland, CA with her husband, young daughter, a one eyed pit bull, a french bulldog, a cross-eyed cat, a 3 legged cat, and many many spools of thread. she moonlights as a college professor, a graphic designer, and is a partner in MODify/d a crafty biz that up/cycles and re/purposes discards from the fashion industry.