
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Momentary Distractions

Monday, October 15, 2007
Hard Work

It's a relief to be at home, drawing, with the music jammed up loud. The music is always rap. Rap was the soundtrack of my soul half a decade ago and now, when I'm down or when I feel at odds with the world, it reassures and inspires me. Rap is fighting music: uplifting, proactive, aggressive, hard.Which is good for my work. It gets me so I don't give a toss what anyone thinks. I just do whatever the hell I want.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Recognition

Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Get A Piece Of Me
For the third time in the past two years, I am offering a free, unlimited edition print of one of my small, monochromatic works. This one is titled An Outline Of Kelly, Later (watercolour, lead pencil on cold pressed paper, 12cm x 19cm), and was derived from the earliest sketches for a series of six watercolours, Kelly, The First Time, exhibited at Art Melbourne's Renault New Generation Art, this year. As before, the work can be viewed and downloaded free from my web site under a Creative Commons license. It can then be reproduced for non-commercial purposes in any medium. If you'd like me to sign it, you have only to send the work with a self-addressed, stamped (with adequate postage) envelope to my studio address (which I'll provide if you email me at dooneystudio@gol.com).The last time I did this, it caused a lot of ill-tempered discussion among artists and dealers who felt I was devaluing art by distributing it without cost or any intermediary control (read, gallery) to 'the masses'. My response was pretty predictable: fuck 'em!
Monday, October 08, 2007
Word Wars
Lots of people write to me, every day.
Complete strangers offer beautiful comments (sometimes in languages I don't understand) and their words are like precious gifts: "Bonjour. Je suis française. Je viens de découvrir tes créations. Je suis complètement subjuguée. Merci..."
Students write, too, posing questions for assignments. If they're interesting or challenging, I answer in detail. Sometimes, they say thank you, Mostly, they don't. Too many are ill-prepared – maybe they're hoping I'll do all their work for them – so I just direct them to my web site or this blog. My time is valuable and in short supply. I refuse to waste it encouraging a stranger not to think for themselves.
People write to seek permission to use my images for commercial purposes. Often, I say yes. I ask only for an acknowledgement. I vet every proposal. If I don't think it's appropriate, I decline politely and thank whoever it is for considering my work. Most take it well, understanding that if you ask for something, anything, a negative answer is always an even bet.
Some throw little tantrums. They fire back snide put downs of the work they've requested to use – and of me. They remind me of those fucked-up, oppressive men who ask a woman out then, if she demurs, heap abuse on her. I'm rarely offended. It's just a vain, stupid, self-defeating pitch to regain some power they think they've lost – go figure! All it really does is reassure me that I was right. Any other emails they send get junked by my assistant so I don't even have to read them.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Higher Studies

Saturday, October 06, 2007
Reasons To Shoot Myself


Thursday, October 04, 2007
Hot Press

Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Group Think
The first painting that really blew me away was Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending A Staircase, No. 2. It made me realise that art could be exciting and intellectually engaging as well as beautiful.Duchamp first submitted the painting to the Salon Des Indépendants. A jurist, Albert Gleizes, asked Duchamp's brothers to have him withdraw it or paint over the title that he had painted on the work or rename it. They approached Duchamp with Gleizes request but he refused. He recalled, later, "I said nothing to my brothers. But I went immediately to the show and took my painting home in a taxi. It was really a turning point in my life, I can assure you. I saw that I would not be very much interested in groups after that".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)