Al Held was my teacher at Yale; we met in 1971. Our first sentence to each other was this: He said, “So, you’re the new dumb blonde?” and I said, “Who are you, the janitor?” He always demanded that I not be that dumb blonde, that I ask questions. His loss in my life was a big deal. Judy Pfaff (via …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/09/12/al-held-was-my-teacher-at-yale-we-met-in-1971/
Materials just get handled the way you handle them. So it doesn’t really matter. Like, I don’t feel like there’s one material that’s sort of mine. Judy Pfaff (via buvisualarts) …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/09/12/materials-just-get-handled-the-way-you-handle/
I probably have a problem with ideas. Most of the art world is idea-based: this means this; this means that. But I’m really trying to get to something very emotional and murky- more sensation and emotion than idea. Black-and-white is not an idea, but it’s based on something … It’s life-based- what …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/09/12/i-probably-have-a-problem-with-ideas-most-of-the/
I try to tell my students not to listen to music while they are painting. They might be making terribly expressive paintings, or quiet paintings, but they’ve got this music pounding in their ear. I ask them what they are listening to, and it has nothing to do with what they are working on. I tell …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/09/01/i-try-to-tell-my-students-not-to-listen-to-music/
Because the ‘impossible’ paradoxes of the Incarnation, under cover of divine transcendence, touched the very heart of an imminence that we might qualify, with Freud, as metapsychological— the imminence of this human capacity to invent impossible bodies … in order to know something of real flesh, of …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/08/15/because-the-impossible-paradoxes-of-the/
I never wanted color to be color. I never wanted texture to be texture, or images to become shapes. I wanted them all to fuse into a living spirit. Clyfford Still. See his monumental painting, Untitled, from 1956 in Where We Are: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1900–1960. (via …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/08/13/i-never-wanted-color-to-be-color-i-never-wanted/
These rough sketches, which are born in an instant in the heat of inspiration, express the idea of their author in a few strokes, while on the other hand too much effort and diligence sometimes saps the vitality and powers of those who never know when to leave off. Giorgio Vasari Jul 30, 1511 - Jun …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/07/29/these-rough-sketches-which-are-born-in-an-instant/
Recently a promising young artist was confronted by the following dilemma. After years of working hard to produce and promote her work to critics and dealers, she encountered a critic whose response to her work was enthusiastic and fervent. He proposed a major, comprehensive article on her work to …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/07/20/recently-a-promising-young-artist-was-confronted/
Painting has to get back to its original goal, examining the inner lives of human beings. Bonnard …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/07/20/painting-has-to-get-back-to-its-original-goal/
Art history - what does it mean for a painter? Most painting is a conversation between continuity and novelty. The latter will get you attention, which can be habit forming. Some people seem to think that continuity, or tradition, is a narrowing down - what’s left over after the innovators have …
https://ricdragon.com/2017/05/15/art-history-what-does-it-mean-for-a-painter/