flowers.kitch.01

flowers.kitch.01
Originally uploaded by scott_waterman

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Here in My Car

Hi, major news. A door closed and another one opened. You know, the usual. (!) One of my projects was put in the deep freeze and the same day I unexpectedly sold a couple of paintings to my Hong Kong client (via BAMO). Tant pis and yay hurray! So recent events have kind of thrown me for a loop and here comes a blog post that seems like a total non sequitur but stay with me, ok? (And do follow my links, they're great.)

I've been casually looking for a new/new to me car. It's casual or maybe uninspired better describes my mood as I hunt for car. The more I look the sweeter my (current) ride looks. I drive a 1987 Dodge Ram Royal Minivan. Ever heard of such a thing? It's very prosaic in a lot of ways but it also quite unusual for it's exact model, age, and its artsy graffiti. It's an art car. (I once lived next door to a household of tagger punks hence my painted van.)

So I'm looking at all sorts of things and then I think to myself: what is my fantasy car? It comes to me instantly: a Citroen! My father insists it the ugliest car in the world and many agree. To me it looks like the future even at 37 years old. Before my van, (which I bought new in 1986), I drove a 1960 Mercedes 220 Sb, pistachio green. So actually moving on to an older car again has a certain kind of logic.








A very quick Google search tells me the car of my dreams is for sale! I'm not going to buy it but if I were a little more insane, insanely rich, and insanely fortunately to have a Citreon mechanic down the street I might buy it. OMG it's so wonderful. I'd float over L.A. traffic in that thing. That beautiful Venetian blinded thing of beauty! My friend, Paulin Paris has just decamped to Paris for a month. Perhaps I should tell him to take a picture of himself for a ride in a DS, just for the vicarious pleasure of it.






Now to prove my devotion to the Citroen I take you back to my (Adobe) Illustrator class where I made the Citroen my final project. I'm sure my project garnered an 'A". Go with your heart, right? Fast forward many years later and I unearth my Illustrator project and subject it to the Jasper Johns maxim: Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it. Do something else to it.. Actually first I had to render a digital file into object form. I created a transfer print on canvas and did something to it, etc. And the results are pictured. I love making constructions like this but even though it's a small piece working on a big painting seems to take up less room. So back to painting and I'll be back to painting in my next post. Be seeing you.

Island Romance

A number of events coincided in 2003. My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and the family met at a beach house on Folly Island near Charleston. That was nice, relaxing, and low key. I do remember enjoying it but it was a little bit of calm before the storm as I was in the midst of preparing to move from Oakland to Los Angeles. And I was in the middle of a commission destine for another island just a bit south. The commission was for four paintings for a wedding. Hey, is that a movie?







Back at my studio in Oakland I worked as long as I could on the paintings but my packing job was pressing so I packed up the partially completed work and got on with the move to the Isle of L.A. Moving ranks high as one of the most stressful events in your life. Cumberland Island is a nature preserved, calm and serene. I think I captured that in my work despite the circumstances. My four paintings were used to decorate a tent as part of a wedding taking place on Cumberland. Some years before a rather famous wedding took place on Cumberland Island. It must be a romantic place. Have you been?

Ojai On The Fifth Of July

Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Beatrice Wood

I went back to Ojai today for a meeting with my fabulously fortunate clients who have to my mind what most anybody in the world would love to have. Their spread, a few acres just outside of town, could hardly be more lovely. There's a ramshackle house that has been completely rebuilt and is sited just above a rocky creek. There's a red barn and a couple of out buildings currently under construction to house guests. My part in all of this will be small but I feel privileged to be able to fantasize that this is mine and my friends and family have come to share it with me.








I'll update my blog with the work I do there when it has been realized. I hope it will be soon. Following it's completion I have an enormous commission for a mural on the other side of the country so I must get busy.

Oh, btw, since this is Ojai and Beatrice Wood is part of the local folklore the house came with a few example of her work, some tiles that bare her unmistakable stick figure gestures. You do know that that Beatrice Wood is pivotal in the introduction of modern art to America, don't you? If not follow my links.

Tile drawings by Beatrice Wood

Thank you so much my dear readers from near and far. I so appreciate your taking the time to visit my modest little blog.