Lou Reed's Got Qi! (10/10 Entertainment Weekly)

Do you really want to get me started talking about my current paintings? ;)

Okay, I'm doing a series (six so far) of 24" by 24" panel paintings in oil that are on shaped 1/4" baltic birch. First, I cut them into various shapes, I utilize both bilateral and radial symmetry and also assymmetry at this stage. Then I use masking tape in some areas as a resist before applying gesso. After gessoing the surface, I add another layer of masking tape in some (other, but usually overlapping) areas. It is only then that I begin applying paint. Paint goes on in at least three layers, as I'm trying to build up a sharp contrast between the bareness of the ultimately exposed wood and gesso layers and the heavily treated painted areas. I'm using a LOT of paint here, so it's important that I use a thick medium that dries relatively quickly. So far Windsor Newton Oleopasto is the best thing I've found...

Still awake?:D

ZZZZZZZZ

yawn..

<rubs eyes>

sorry, did you say something, I must have dozed off...

:D

That actually sounds cool. My art is more craftsman type stuff... like benches made out of old skis...lol

The next thing I'm going to delve into is those larger fountains with a rock or something, I'm going to try and make some of those myself.. see how it goes...:D

Yeah, actually these things are moving sorta into sculptural territory anyway. I'm displaying them without a frame and about 3" away from the wall so they appear to hover a little bit. The idea is to make the viewer extremely conscious of the space around the panel as well as the panel itself. I'm calling it "extended negative space" because there are more conventional object/ground relationships with the paint and the gesso, the paint and the bare wood, and the gesso and the bare wood. Although in all of these cases, the object isn't representational at all, but either paint handled in a kind of ab-ex mode or gesso handled in a very flat, pure mode. I'm also working subtractively a bit, using solvents to break down what I've built up and various tools (woodworking knives, mostly) to dig back into the surface and even into and through the wood, creating a further porous nature to the work. It all started when I tried to express Taoist concepts of emptiness and fullness in a painting without falling back on classic symbolism. Now it's become a whole 'nother kind of thing...

The last one I finished was REALLY ugly, although in a kind of fascinating way. I tried using rubber cement as a gestural resist medium that I could drip and splatter but it didn't want to come up easily, so my struggle against it left all kinds of smudgy and scratchy unintentional marks. But using intentionality and accident as complementary opposites feeds back into the Taoist thing, which is why I wanted some drippy puddly areas to begin with. So, I'm experimenting. And digging it!

The title of my essay is "why I don't do kungfu as much as I'd like":D

The title of that little essay is "stuff I'm doing when I could be kungfuing instead."

Sorry about this double post - is it just me or is this forum responding slower than the Bush White House to a subpeona today?

Well, slow, not as slow as a few weeks ago, but still slow...


If you ever wanted a showing or something up here.. pm me, I know some people that are in that scene.

Thanks for the offer. When I figure I'm ready to start shopping slides to galleries, I'll let you know.

...as if being OT has anything to do with anything on a web forum. :rolleyes: We've started to get more orders for got qi? shirts from all over - even overseas. Those people pay twice as much in shipping as they do for the shirt. That's some hardened Lou Reed fans. Man, I've been wasting my time trying to sell shirts by putting them on martial artists. Celebrities are where it's at. Anyone have Beyonce's number?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by GeneChing
Anyone have Beyonce's number?

---

If I did, do you think I'd share it?

:p

Gene,

WTF is up with that letter to the editor in your Taiji issue? I don't have it in front of me, but it went something like:

"I love kung. I practice every day, and watch Kung fu movies. I even hope to go to China to learn kung fu. I am very good.

Why did you put Lou Reed on the cover? He is not good. You should have put someone else on there who is good, like me. My friends hate Lou Reed."

I laughed my @ss off....just wondering why you guys decided to include that one.

Quote:

---

Celebrities are where it's at. Anyone have Beyonce's number?

---

One... No duh.. If you are just realizing that now, you should go back to school...:eek:

:D
I can imagine the balance of who sells and who knows there stuff is interesting to say the least.

Two...
If your nice I'll see what I can do...

oh here it is..

876-5309

Quote:

---

WTF is up with that letter to the editor in your Taiji issue?

---

Gene read that letter out loud in the office... we all laughed... How could we NOT share the joy!!!

THat's just the kind of loving people you count on to pull together your mag...

;)

The thing about it was... I read that, expecting the person to be like 12... didn't he list the age at like 33 or something.

But my friends don't like Lou Reed. And what does my age have to do with it?

If Lou Reed deserves a cover, so do I. Heck, we've both done drugs, we've both sung about transvestites; where's the justice?

MK - If you think that letter was funny, you must read the letters in our new 2003 Shaolin special. There's a sequel - from Black Belt! I kid you not. The Taiji special and the shaolin special went hand-in-hand, sort of a yin/yang thing, getting both heads of both temples as cover stories. Then the letters really cinch it up. You gotta read the new letter.

KC - You sang about transvestites?