Bogle & Gates

Today I noticed a bar code on the wooden base of my new sofa with the name "Bogle & Gates" on it.  Not having much of a clue as to what they did, but figuring it was an inventory control sticker, I decided to look it up.  It seems they were a 100+ year old law firm in the Northwest which dissolved in the late '90s.  It doesn't make me feel any different about my sofa, and I can't say that I am unhappy the firm who defended Exxon in the Exxon Valdez dissolved, but I am sure the lawyers all found someplace else to litigate.  By the way, it doesn't appear from what I read that the Exxon case had anything to do with their dissolution, but rather some firm in Minneapolis who hired a bunch of partner and associates from them at a single time which seems to have done them in. 

 

Oops...missed a week again...

While it seems I have been doing a good job lately of not writing, I have in the past week, finally acquired a sofa, and reread all the extant Harry Potter novels in preparation for the new one.  I have also thought about the new iPhone, but still can't justify the cost or a two year contract.  Finally, when I get a good picture of it, I will post the painting I was working on earlier this week, which I may or may not be finished with.  

My modem made an odd noise earlier, so I hope there is nothing wrong.  Everything appears to be working correctly, but appearances are just that.

On top of all that, a book I ordered last weekend came in, "Glitter and Doom:  German Portraits from the 1920s."  I started reading it this morning, after perusing it some last night.  It is a catalog from a show about the Neue Sachlichkeit artists active during the Weimar Republic, generally focused on those active in Berlin (I can not yet say exclusively).  So far, it is interesting, and I am really only breaking the reading up because it occurred to me that I needed to update here, before people lost hope and stopped reading.

Today is looking to be a nice day, so hopefully I won't get too caught up in my book and will get outside.  If I feel like painting, then nice day or not, I will work on that.  I have a small canvas, now I just need an appropriate image.  Enough for now, time to continue reading until I am done with my coffee, then to something else.

Dumpster diving to a new level

I don't recall hearing about "Freegans" until reading this article. I find it interesting, if not inevitable, that eco-consciousness has hit this level. While I believe that just driving a Prius and buying eco-indulgences (carbon offsets) does minimal good, minimal is still better than none. Somewhere between these scavenging (I don't know if there is a preferred term for this sort of shopping by these 21st century hunter-gatherers) souls and rampant consumerism there is a ground where most can live, and live comfortably. Personally, I prefer to save time and buy my food at the grocery, though I don't drive there, preferring to walk. Dropping out of capitalism, while a fun-sounding idea, isn't really practical for most people if you want a balanced life. If you don't have to come up with rent money (because you own or live with relatives), then spending time scavenging your next meal and a dinette set is fine, but I have rent, and I have things I would rather spend my off hours doing, so I will buy. For some of us, it is easier to modify some habits rather than reject that which we were born into. Personally, I buy a mix of new and used stuff, whether clothing or furniture, walk many places, including work, and try to remember to turn lights off, not let faucets drip, and other small things (yes, I recycle as well). I do own a car, and even though it isn't currently running, don't drive it to work when it is, nor do I generally drive it to the store. It is the small things done by large numbers which will change things, rather than the large changes to one's personal life made by the few. Like it or not, this is a capitalist country, and in this country, money talks and business watches where dollars are spent. Only changing the habits of current and future generations will bring about responsible eco-awareness. Remembering that just because something new is out there (I think an iPhone would be great, but my current cell-phone still works), it doesn't need replacing until it is no longer functional--please don't confuse functional with stylish or newest or more feature-laden. Let me emphasize, that I don't believe these people are wrong, but I do think there is another way, not better, but different. One last thing, if everyone stopped buying things, there would be no grocery stores or restaurants to scavenge behind, nor dumpsters full of still good stuff.

still meddling

Shortly after finishing my last post, I changed the color of the church building, and yesterday I turned the dark line across the bottom into a dark triangle. I am still trying to assess the damage or improvement. I do like the church as a darker color, and maybe still need to go darker with the entrance, but don't know. I am also still having compositional issues. There are some nice areas, but overall, I think there is too much going on, hence the problems I am having deciding where next. It seems for basic unity, either I need to put a street or square in front of the thing or bring the horizon down and fill the foreground with housetops. Such pesky decisions, but at least I know a few of the options open to me.

Working something out.

The image quality is pretty bad, so my apologies ahead of time. I am trying to work on some sort of small scale picture combining various impressions of Romania, including the view from the Hotel Prahova where we were whisked for our first week or so of training/acclimation. Some things in this gouache I like, while I am not sure the whole thing works as well as I would like. (The pencil lines which can barely be perceived indicate the size of canvas I am working with, which is tiny, only 5"x7".) I like the way the church dome fits into the sky, but don't care much for the way the factory works compositionally, though it is the balance to the church. With the exception of the trees, the lower portion of the picture is dull and pretty boring. (I have to start putting my fingers in the right place for typing, as I am tired of constant correction.) Considering the way this picture is being done, perhaps I only need to adjust some colors.

I really should have something brilliant and witty to add, but frankly, it hasn't been one of those summers (or late springs, if you must). I have read some 20th century art history and artist biographies, but nothing so stellar I feel it must be shared. My car died a few weeks ago, and there is still the issue of getting it fixed, which involves me going over to my boss' one Saturday and displaying my mechanical ineptitude. Otherwise, there is nothing aside from work going on.

Romania...again...

It may have been de-crimalized in 2001, but Romanians still have an issue with gay people. It would have been fun to be there, more fun to have been at the first two years ago, when the marchers weren't dodging stones. I don't have much more to add, but articles on Romania catch my eye, this one was a bit unfortunate. Hopefully, the link will work for a bit.

Hopper and Bauhaus

I just finished reading a couple of Taschen publications, their books on Edward Hopper and the Bauhaus. From their book on Hopper, and my personal experience, I would say he painted ennui and the dislocation one feels even in the most familiar of places. Somehow this is an American theme (as the book implies Europeans still don't "get him"), perhaps because of how technology transformed the country, and how there were centuries of thought fighting for survival while it did so.

The Bauhaus book was enlightening for what it said about the history of the school, most of which I didn't know. The almost mystical leanings of the early Bauhaus (due to the influence of Itten), and how a couple of painters (Kandinsky & Klee) were instructors there for most of its existence, though I normally don't associate either with the movement, as I always thought of it as an "industrial" design and architecture movement (though architecture wasn't officially taught until the latter half of its existence. I think only in America would one forget how "small" Europe is and be blind to how everything else going on in the twenties would have influenced it--there was even bauhausian theatre.