Bill Jensen

Bill Jensen, Louhan, 2006

"Artists are people who go in a room everyday, let the art drag them a little further, and then sitting back twenty years later say, "How did I get here?" Bill Jensen

oil on panel

some new things that i'm excited about. i've been thinking about structure and order, collapse and reconfiguration.

Society of Interested People

Alexander Kroll

The cat drank all the milk

Bonnard, Le Cafe

Nozkowski, untitled

Guston, Source

mise en forme (desires its placement in form)

Recent exhibition of my work @ Bunny Gunner in Pomona

works on paper and canvas

Art Residency in Spain

Can Surrat, a three hundred year old winery converted into an artist residency. Situated in a grotto on the outskirts of the small village of El Bruc, 45 mins. from Barcelona. Five visual artists, five writers. 4 weeks working in the studio. 24 paintings. Great working environment, great people.

Two of the books I read while I was there were John O'Donohue's, Beauty, the invisible embrace and Musa Mayer, Night Studio, a memoir of Philip Guston.

"there is nothing predictable here. For the artist there is a sense of frightening vulnerability, for anything can come, anything can happen. The unknown outside and the unknown interior can conceive anything. The artist becomes the passing womb for something that wants to be born, want to become visible and live independently in the world." John O'Donohue

"Some other quality of mind, some crazy, driven insistence on getting it right, on shinning the glib and easy reach, on letting the line down through the surface glimmer, past the lotus blossoms and bait fish in common view, into that murky place, into obscurity, and once there, waiting - no, not patiently, but waiting - for the deeper tug of truth." Musa Mayer (Guston)

(top to bottom)

my studio first two weeks

my studio second two weeks

works produced

works produced

works produced

Basel to Barcelona

(top to bottom)

Joan Miro Foundation

Muse d'Art Contemporiani de Barcelona

Sagrada Familia Cathedral

From Basel I traveled to Barcelona, Spain. Spent four days in the city before going to the artist residency. First time in Barcelona, wow. So much to see: Miro, Picasso, Gaudi, Tapies. From a city of museums I will mention just a few of my favorites. The first is the Joan Miro Foundation. The museum opened to the public in 1975. It was to be a site dedicated to the artist's work and also to provide a space to promote and publicize the work of contemporary artists. The Foundation's collection currently comprises over 14,000 pieces: 217 paintings, 178 sculptures, 9 textiles, 4 ceramics, and almost complete graphic works and some 8,000 drawings.

Another site for contemporary art is the Mueseu d'Art Contemporiani de Barcelona. The MACBA opened to the public in 1995. The building, which I found interesting but a bit sterile and institutional, is nested in the historic Gothic district. During my visit the two shows, ironically, where of Americans: Ray Johnson and John Cage.

Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) You can't think of Barcelona without thinking of Gaudi. His architectural genius and eccentricity ( love or hate his work) defines a major part of the urban landscape of Barcelona. Almost all of his works where executed in Barcelona including his masterpiece, Sagrada Familia. It is worth the entrance fee to tour his work. Don't miss the cathedral and Park Guell. If you've been in the presence of his work you know that words are not sufficient to explain what has been made manifest. All I kept thinking is that Frank Gehry seems so conservative.

Basel and Colmar

Fonation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland

Giacometti

Isenheim Altarpiece

I will continue to archive my adventures of the last several months. In October I had the good fortune to spend time in Europe, most of which was doing an artist residency in Spain at Can Serrat located in El Bruc just outside of Barcelona. I started my trip visiting friends in Basel, Switzerland. While there I visited the Fondation Beyeler. The Beyeler is the life work of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, who over a period of fifty years, as collectors and dealers, built up an exceptional collection of works by modern masters. Their collection, which was transferred to a foundation in 1982, was first publicly exhibited in its entirety in 1989. currently comprising around 200 works. The opening of the Fondation Beyler in 1997 provided the Beyeler Collection with a public museum. The building was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. Works by modern master such as Cezanne, Picasso. Rousseau, Mondrian, Klee, Ernst, Matisse, Newman, Bacon, Dubuffet, Baselitz. What was on exhibition during my visit was a great show of drawings, paintings,and sculptures by one of the Beyer's favorite artists: Giacometti.

While in Basel I also had the opportunity to drop down into the north of France to Colmar to visit the Unterlinden Museum, specifically to see the Isenheim Altarpiece. The museum, which opened to the public in 1853, is housed on the site of the former Dominican convent of Uterlinden. The Grunewald masterpiece was executed between 1512 and 1516 for the monastery of the Antonite order in Isenheim, a village 15 miles south of Colmar. This religious institution had a hospice on the premises where the monks ministered to victims of Saint Anthony's fire, a disfiguring disease now called erogotism caused by the ingestion of rye infected with ergot.

To stand in the presence of this work (because of poor weather I was in the room with only two other people) was a profound experience.

Rant Exhibition @ The Pacific Design Center

Top image (left to rt.): Ryan Callis, Dan Callis, Mark Dutcher
Middle image: Monique Prieto (painting), Mark Dutcher (sculptures)
Bottom image (left to rt.): Alex Couwenberg, Merion Estes, Monique Prieto

Top image: Matty Byloos, Ryan Callis, Quinton Bemiller
Bottom image:Merion Estes, Dan Callis, Max Presneill

Back on Line

Its been a while since I have been active on my blog. Part of the issue was technical and part was absence. The technical issue was a sad story of strokes. My little Mac had the first stroke back in early Oct. just days before the Rant exhibition install. Then I went to Spain for five weeks and I left the little guy home to recoup. Days after my return from Europe I was down loading photographs and it had the next major stroke which sent it to the tech. hospital for three weeks of surgery and rehab. I think all is well.
I have a bit of archiving I need to do. Things that have gone on in the past several months.
I will be posting documentation of several exhibitions and my residency in Barcelona.

Its good to be back.