Talkin' 'bout Art

I got a piece in a show at the Bridgeport Art Center. the opening was Saturday night. It's called "Theory and Practice".

Driving to the show, just west of Sox park Cellular Field on 35th street, at around 7pm, I managed to time it peefectly for sun glare. I nearly hit three or four cars and pedestrians because I could not fucking see. That was the excitement for the night (aside from seeing little art hotties from the Art Institute of Chicago).

Some of my bronze casting students were reluctant to attend as they weren't certain if the neighborhood would be safe after dark. I assured them not only was Bridgeport safe (it is former mayor Daley's neighborhood) after dark, it would be safe at 3am. But you know, elderly white ladies from the affluent horse farm northwestern suburbs are easily alarmed. Must be because Chicago is now murder capital of the US (with 500 murders in 2012), even though the number of white victims fallen by gun fire is exactly five.

Yes, five. Count it with one hand.

Maynard is on the left

So, then, the next day, Sunday, I went to Navy Pier for the Art Expo, with galleries from almost everywhere, from NYC to Beijing. Spain, for some reason, was heavily represented. The one thing I noted was how tired my legs were at the end of the day. Not having done anything physical all summer long has really gotten me out of shape. I toured the gallery aisles up and down, and covered the whole exhibition hall in about two hours, then spent an additional hour zigzagging to check out all the sharp ladies. I really need to start dressing like an adult for these things. Not that I'm not already middle-aged invisible to these lovelies, but looking like Maynard from the Dobie Gillis Show was no help.

I took pictures of stuff, while I was there. I remembered that my mobile is also a camera, which helps. Sorry if the images aren't that great.

This one here, a triptych about fourteen feet or so, I liked for the atmosphere, and the imagery of giant women was interesting. Not sure what the fascination with giant women is, but I think the artist was female, so maybe it's about empowerment:

A gallery from Beijing had some pictures that I liked that were either undersea stuff or microscope slide sutff. They were titled as landscapes. Forgot who the artist was, and also the gallery.

This guy I took a picture of to look up later. I thought, given the visual and thematic similarities in portraiture I saw, maybe the Chinese elite might be interested in my stuff, although his work was displayed in a gallery from Rome. After doing online research, our stuff is not at all alike.









A gallery from Mexico City was devoted entirely to the works of Daniel Lezama, which was clearly all magical realism. I liked his style and subject matter.

A gallery from Montreal was devoted to an artist I forgot to document. I've always loved pen and ink and india ink wash, and the environment of this space was just a cool place to hang out for awhile:

I liked the title of this piece:

And then finally, I came across an artist who is traveling a parallel path to me with funny little curious creatures and their documentation and categorization, and in many ways, doing a much better job at it than I: