Me in the Real World

And now, a word from Theo. We've been very Vincent lately, but things do happen in the real world, and sometimes I remember that I'm supposed to toot my horn about them. So begging your indulgence, I'll cover a few items.

This is a shelf at an Indigo Books I just visited in Toronto, Canada. Indigo is kind of like the Barnes & Noble of Canada:

Like Barnes & Noble, Indigo carries International Artist magazine:

I notice these things because International Artist was the first magazine to publish me. I am always going to be grateful for that vote of confidence. International Artist is a very tech-oriented practical publication, and whenever I have an idea even remotely plausible as a drawing or painting "how to" article, I send them a pitch. I've got three articles set to run in the magazine this year. The first ran a couple months ago, the second is in the current issue, and the third will be in the next issue.

my painting is, ahem, the one on the right

This article was especially pleasing for me because it gave me a chance to show off the work of Rory Coyne. I like to be able to turn what spotlights I can grasp on artists I think deserve the notice.

Rory Coyne's A Better Companion on the left

Apart from the magazine, my bewilderingly lateral-thinking gallery, Dacia, has a European tour going this summer, as I mentioned previously. They've got 22 of my drawings and 2 of my paintings in tow, and pictures have been coming in from their various showings. Here's my gallerist, Lee Vasu, in front of the exhibition space in rustic Mazières-de-Touraine, France:

July 28

And inside, some people and their enormous Francophone dog consider my work:

From there, Dacia went on to Erfurt, Germany, where they hung my work in a bitchin' Hall of Art:

August 8

Let's admire this strange building from another angle, shall we?

Lee and his partner in crime Damian Salo have moved on to Romania now.

Meanwhile in the online universe, a couple of items made me very happy. The first is an article by art professor, writer, and thinker John Seed in which, in the course of calling on MOCA (Los Angeles) to show more representational work, he lists 40 suggestions. Here's an excerpt from his list:

The piece is on Huffington, here. Let me tell you something. If you're following my career, you'll have seen a fair amount of progress in the past couple years. Most of it resulted directly from efforts I made. And yet, an artist doesn't want every advance to result from targeted effort. You want some progress to happen because you're on people's minds - when they think of something to do with art, they think of you. For instance, if I say to you "post-war German artists," you say to me "Anselm Kiefer" within a few tries. Kiefer is on your mind in this regard. An artist wants to be on the mind that way. So when Professor Seed thinks "worthwhile contemporary representational painters," and comes up with *me*, that's profoundly rewarding. He's got a sharp mind, vast experience, and broad knowledge. I love being on his mind. I'm proud and honored to be on his list.

The last piece is something I found very touching. It's by David Hansen, a playwright from Cleveland whom I met through Leah. But it would be almost as accurate to say that I met Leah through David. He recounts his history with her in this blog post, in which I am pleased to play my own small part.

David was here this past week with a play at the Fringe Festival, Double Heart - a thoroughly delightful Batman Begins-type of origin story for Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing. Hansen has them snarking at each other from the start, as when, on first meeting, they cheerfully unsex one another:

BEATRICE
You are a pretty boy, sir Benedick.
T’would appear you’re hurting for a beard.

BENEDICK
What this?
These bristles have I cultivatéd nigh
These eighteen years.

BEATRICE
How old are you?

BENEDICK
Eighteen.

BEATRICE
So young?

BENEDICK
And yet so old, a soldier now
For three.

BEATRICE
An’ have you taken many lives?

BENEDICK
It’s not a tale to tell to gentle maids,
With constitutions weak and quick to blanch.

BEATRICE
And I?

BENEDICK
O you, I’ll gladly tell.

...so I saw the show and hung out with David, and we went to get Indian food at a fairly imaginatively lit place which you might know if you live in New York:

And that's the news.

There are other temporal developments as well, but they're not quite done cooking yet, so I'll catch up with you from the strange land of "reality" again soon.