Cai Guo-Qiang, Light Passage -- Autumn

I had seen this artist before but I fell in love with his work after seeing it in person in Philly. The photo definitely doesn't do his work justice. Guo-Qiang uses gun powder to create his works. He literally blows up his art. Yet the results look amazingly ephemeral and airy and I love it. This work represents a part of a four part series of the seasons. The coloring and the floating quality of this one makes me think of Fall. There was also an installation in the gallery called Fallen Blossoms where he hung a trail of golden leaves about ten feet from the ground. Again, amazingly beautiful. One of my new favorite artists to watch.

J.M.W. Turner, Burning of the Houses of Parliament

I adore Turner's work. I think he was really ahead of his time. This painting is just beautiful and I love the abstract quality of the brush work. The way that he is able to make the colors glow with that brilliant yellow is just phenomenal. I love that you can feel his passion through his paintings. Really fantastic image and I got to see it recently in Philadelphia.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Haven't blogged in quite a while. Not sure why exactly. Partly a lack of inspiration, partly because my time has been consumed by a combination of work and John's visit. So John has been here a while and he's kind of moving in. I'm still fuzzy on the details. This has caused a bit of trouble with the roommate. I think things are going to be ok, but now there is a bit of animosity between the two.

Anyway, getting into the month of March has been a bit of a stress on me as far as my thesis goes. So far this semester, things have been very go with the flow and allow things to progress as they will. But after a progress meeting on Monday, my March is now full of imminent deadlines. By Monday, have a thesis. In two weeks, turn in an outline. And by the end of the month, finish a first draft. It's all somehow becoming very real. And I'm still struggling a bit to find a direction. I think I want to continue with environmentalism and feminism but I'm not really finding a way to combine the two approaches. Mini-scholarly crisis which has to be solved by Monday.

Once again, I'm going to attempt to recommit myself to this blog and post more often. Gotta find more art that gets me excited though. I wish I could be in NYC this weekend because it is the opening of the Whitney Biennial and the Armory Show. Two major events for contemporary art that I would kill to be a part of.

Black and Gold Super Bowl!!

So, it's Super Bowl Sunday and who would have thought that I'd be so invested in football. Really, I didn't jump on the bandwagon with the rest of the crowd once they started winning, although it seems that way. At the beginning of the season, I was living with John so I had no choice but to be excited about Saints football. Once he left, I got my roommate involved by telling her that their symbol is the fleur de lis. Anyway, it has been fun following a winning season and maybe I'll be a fan for life.

Update -- We WON!!! Such an exciting day for Louisiana.

100

I've been holding off on posting because this is my 100th and I felt like it should be commemorative in some way. I wanted it to be brilliant, and now it's just going to be sad. Because now something has come up and I definitely need a place to purge these feelings all over this blog.

My best boy got accepted to the Peace Corps today. I tried to sound supportive and encouraging when he told me earlier and I am sincerely proud of him, but he could see right through me and just kept asking if I was upset. At the time, I was ok; I knew that it was a definite possibility that he'd get in. But I didn't expect to hear it today; I didn't even know he had his interview today. And now that it's sunk in, I'm really sad. I'm just so disappointed. I graduate in May and he doesn't have a job so I thought we would finally have a chance to be together. It just seems like every time I see the light at the end of the tunnel, something happens and then the tunnel gets longer. I just don't know if we will ever be able to be together. I looked it up and he's going to be gone for over two years. He wants to make it work, wants me to visit and wants to stay together. He said it couldn't come at a better time cause we are stronger than ever. I agree that our relationship is stronger than ever but I don't think that I am. When he's gone, we will be talking even less than we do now and this is already killing me. I just don't know if our relationship can survive another long period of time away from each other. I want to make it work, I don't want to give up but I don't know if I can deal with being sad all the time. I just don't know if I'm strong enough. And I don't know why the universe seems to continually sabotage this relationship.

Richard Serra, The Matter of Time

So my inspiration is creeping back slowly. I've been inspired enough to find something I like, though not certain that I'm inspired enough to write something brilliant or telling. What I know is that I greatly enjoy Serra's sculpture. He is considered a Post-Minimalist in his earlier work although his style has changed a lot since the 1960s. Most of his later work are on a massive scale (as you can see from the people in this shot). Because of this our interaction with the works is really the most important part of the experience. He really has succeeded in creating environments that we enter into when viewing his work, both physically and visually. And again, I think there is something really beautiful about the form of his pieces. The color of these sculptures is particularly captivating and I think it adds an element of warmth to what would otherwise be cold, impersonal steel.

Anselm Kiefer, Engles

Still feeling uninspired, but I thought I'd post something anyway. I love this sculpture by Kiefer. Saw it in the Modern in Fort Worth and it was quite moving in person. I love the textures of his paintings. His works are extremely tactile. There is also something really beautiful and poetic about flight imagery. I love the combination here of flight and a book.