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| Evan Izer. Geminga, 2011 19th-century laundry bluing, inks, gouache & watercolor paint, 24k gold leaf on Arches paper |
... or art, or gold, or laundry bluing. This is a painting I made several years ago, named after a neutron star which, unlike tired old concepts like "race", are scientifically proven to exist and, also unlike "race", are interesting to talk about.
Or you can talk about art, or anything you want, really.
If you're interested in looking at more of my work, I have a lot of drawings posted online. And since I asked you to look at my work, I promise not to insult you or call you names. It's the least I can do.
78 comments:
Very nice.
Looks kind of gay though.
But what are you gonna do?
Beautiful! The layering and textures are very pretty and soothing in a way.
since I asked you to look at my work, I promise not to insult you or call you names. It's the least I can do.
Wise marketing strategy. Have you thought about opening an Etsy Store? It doesn't cost you anything, or much of anything. They also have some good marketing tips and everything on Etsy is either handmade, crafted or vintage antique items. None of that crap that is all over EBay. I think your work deserves a wider audience.
Let there be light... if only neutral.
Be forewarned: I WILL delete any insulting comments or trollish behaviours.
DBQ, I've thought about it. I wanted to do it back when I could produce prints but that's been put on hold for the time being.
I should look into it again.
That is lovely, Pall, but I only like it because you're a homosexual white.
(1) Geminga. I like it.
(2) One of Sheldon Cooper's catch phrases is "bazinga!" which translates roughly to mean "gotcha!" Problem is, my wife has started saying "bazinga!" except she uses it to mean "wow!" or "awesome!"
I find that misuse irritating and for no good reason that I can identify.
(3) Perhaps someday I'll have a diagnosis. Perhaps someday we'll find a cure.
Seriously, Palladian, that is wonderful. One of your best.
How long does it take to produce something like that?
It seems like you work at it endlessly to perfect it.
Thanks everyone. I really appreciate it.
In Beverly Hills Cop, "Neutron Dance" was prominently featured during a key car chase sequence with whose action the song proved musically and lyrically compatible: Allee Willis would describe the experience of witnessing her composition featured in the film as "mind boggling...on that line, 'someone stole my brand new Chevrolet,' this cigarette truck that Eddie Murphy is locked up in the back of, screaming through the streets of Detroit, slams into this Chevrolet. And 'I'm just burning, doing the Neutron Dance,' which to me meant someone could push the button tomorrow and we could all go up in smoke, so make your change now. On that line, a car explodes. I mean, I couldn't have written a better song for a movie scene if my life depended on it."
Wikipedia
I love how we talk about art here on this blog.
What is your favorite type of Art?
Mine is Carney.
How long does it take to produce something like that?
It seems like you work at it endlessly to perfect it.
I don't remember, TY, but it does take a long time, especially works like this one where I don't have an "end point" in mind. A lot of my work, especially sculptures, are representations of things and so I know the destination, so to speak. But paintings and drawings where I'm just following processes and intuiting the composition, it's an extended game of chess, one move at a time until I feel like there's nothing else I can do. These sorts of paintings have a high failure rate, because sometimes it just doesn't develop into anything. If it's done on linen canvas, it's easier to make corrections or even start over, but with work on paper, there's a finite amount of abuse the support can take before it starts to disintegrate. I usually have a lot of these pieces going at one time so that I can move to another one when I become "uninspired". Sometimes these pieces hang around for years before I come to a resolution, or until I destroy it.
"Geminga" began as an experiment with some new-old stock German laundry bluing from the 1800s that I came across somewhere. The bluing is in the form of little strips of paper impregnated with synthetic ultramarine pigment which explodes into a beautiful blue veil of color when placed on damp paper. Somehow this test became an homage to my favorite neutron star.
Geminga
Paradise is blue and gold --
Steeped in ever deeper blue
Guarded by bold shields of gold
The heart finds rest there I've been told.
I love that, ricpic.
It's apt, as I think of neutron stars as a sort of metaphor for my idea of comfort: distant, silent, small, incredibly and impenetrably dense, with enormous gravity pulling everything in.
I love stars because they seem so attractively distant from this world, in space and time.
So this is from you "blue" period?
You can see the effort and care and thought that went into it.
Now that's Art.
You know who is another favorite type of Art?
Art Fowler.
Man he had the career I wished I could have.
So this is from you "blue" period?
My blue period never ends. I should see my gynecologist.
I want to talk about pigment chemistry with chickenlittle. Maybe he'll appear later.
Hey Lem, my brain went right to the Neutron Dance opening scene in Beverly Hills Cop, too. With Eddie swinging around off the back of that stolen ciggie truck. Great scene but ...
dammit. Pop culture is insidious.
Thanks, Palladian.
Neutron stars are really interesting. They're small (Wikipedia describes them as generally being about the size of Brooklyn— fancy that!) but so incredibly massive that they actually bend light. Apparently if you were to look at one side of a neutron star, you would be able to see part of other side of the star at the same time.
Beautiful, ricpic.
My favorite Art is Fleming.
My favorite Neutron Star.
That is a great clip - that is the only time I have ever seen a double trailer used in a chase scene, and whoever did the actual driving is an awesome driver.
And kudos to whoever was able to pull a bootlegger turn in a city bus - that was impressive as all get out.
Not trivial.
Got my neutrons dancin'!
In researching this, I found out that Art Garfunkel never changed his name. And that he also has an interesting tie-in to Forest Gump.
I saw your prints are $75, quite reasonable IMO. I imagine requesting sofa size would be a bit more.
I Saw The Figure Five In Gold by Charles Demuth flashed in my mind's eye while looking at Geminga. Not that Geminga is derivative. Not at all. More that both pictures share the same cubist conception of space. Plus the gold factor.
That cubist way of seeing space (or limning space) is so embedded in modern artists that it's become second nature, not necessarily deliberate.
I put that necessarily in there because maybe it was deliberate. Far be it for me to say... :^O
I always liked that Demuth painting - very impressive 5 he painted there.
... a double trailer used in a chase scene
That was a lot of cigarettes btw.
OMG, that should be far be it FROM me to say. I can't even get the old reliables right.
Nice dusting and cleaning on your topic's comment section, by the way.
Palladian, keep your drawing hand limber. I've got some work for you.
Nice work on the painting.
Question: Is the original of "Geminga" still around? If so, what size is it?
See, the thing is, it's all rectilinear and then BLAM right in the middle a circle like a giant bullet hole and it's all blue with shades of purple and then yellow ping ping ping ping back to rectilinear holes poked through.
Holy smokes, that is gorgeous.
But paintings and drawings where I'm just following processes and intuiting the composition, it's an extended game of chess, one move at a time until I feel like there's nothing else I can do. These sorts of paintings have a high failure rate, because sometimes it just doesn't develop into anything. If it's done on linen canvas, it's easier to make corrections or even start over, but with work on paper, there's a finite amount of abuse the support can take before it starts to disintegrate. I usually have a lot of these pieces going at one time so that I can move to another one when I become "uninspired". Sometimes these pieces hang around for years before I come to a resolution, or until I destroy it.
I appreciate this part, about the process, as much if not more than the piece itself, which alone is a singular delight.
I also like the way the question "How Long?" opened the door to allow this response to reach me, where I stand, as a burst of light, close to golden in nature.
It is beautiful, Palladian. I'll bet it's even more vivid in person (hint somebody should buy it). Just one question: Did any Prussians dye in its making? ;)
Palladian, great piece.
Palladian? Palladian? Heloo? :)
Love this.
Both the emotion of it and the name.
At some point I'm going to order a print, but times are still financially tight in the O world.
Since we're invited to talk about art in general too, I decided last year or so that I want to collect the work of Caspar David Friedrich. His A Walk at Dusk grabbed my soul when I first saw it at the Getty in 2002 or so, a very parched year for me spiritually. That painting was one of 2 or 3 main inspirations that got me out of Pasadena life and into living in the mountains for about 5 years.
For a graduation gift, I got a print of his Monk by the Sea, which is landscape drifting into Modern.
john said... "I saw your prints are $75, quite reasonable IMO. I imagine requesting sofa size would be a bit more."
Ha, yes, probably. I need to amend my site since I can't currently produce prints as all my gear is in storage far away. I do have original artwork, mostly small works on paper, that is available.
ricpic said... "I Saw The Figure Five In Gold by Charles Demuth flashed in my mind's eye while looking at Geminga."
Interesting! I love that picture. As a side note, I once had the opportunity to look at the back of it while it was being conserved at the Met. I have a great fondness for the way that American artists interpreted and adapted European modernism, such as Cubism.
Demuth also holds a special place in my heart— Like me, he was from Pennsylvania, born in a town about an hour away from where I was born. And also like me, he had a fondness for sailors.
AllenS said... "Palladian, keep your drawing hand limber. I've got some work for you."
Cool! The rest of me is going to pieces, but my hands are in top condition!
Aridog said... "Question: Is the original of "Geminga" still around? If so, what size is it?"
"Geminga" may or may not be in my storage unit in Brooklyn. When I was evicted I had three days to pack all of my belongings, which was an enormous amount of stuff, both my personal items and my studio since I lived and worked in the same loft space. I couldn't handle it myself so some of my friends and several of my students helped me. Therefore I'm not sure what was packed since I didn't pack a lot of it, and time ran out so some of it didn't get packed at all. It haunts me to this day, thinking about all the stuff I was forced to leave behind, and that most of it probably ended up in a dumpster.
Anyway, "Geminga" was smallish, probably about 9" x 12". As I said, it may exist in storage, but I can't get to it at the moment, or it may be in a landfill. When I was putting this post up, I didn't think about the physical location of the painting. But thanks for asking anyway...
chickenlittle said... "It is beautiful, Palladian. I'll bet it's even more vivid in person (hint somebody should buy it). Just one question: Did any Prussians dye in its making? ;)"
Thanks, chick! It is quite vivid in person, and the gold is much more striking (gold doesn't photograph well).
To answer your question, no Prussians dyed at all in this piece, despite my fondness for ironically cyanided Prussians. This drawing got the blues from sulfurous sodium aluminum silicates...
Paddy O said... "At some point I'm going to order a print, but times are still financially tight in the O world."
I know the feeling! Worry not— by the time I'm able to produce prints again, hopefully the theology dough will be rolling in ;)
Thanks again to (almost) everybody, for your comments!
To answer your question, no Prussians dyed at all in this piece, despite my fondness for ironically cyanided Prussians. This drawing got the blues from sulfurous sodium aluminum silicates...
Tut tut. You 'gypt us!
@Palladian: is it Egyptian Blue?
The gold would take on an added significance if so...
chickenlittle said... "@Palladian: is it Egyptian Blue?"
Ah, no, but I love Egyptian blue! How can one not love a pigment that can survive for 4 thousand years in the desert sunlight?
The pigment in "Geminga" is synthetic ultramarine blue, from the 19th century German laundry bluing and from other sources.
Here's another interesting "blue" in it's raw state: link
...synthetic ultramarine blue, from the 19th century German laundry bluing and from other sources
Are those the clues?
chickenlittle, to me gold and ultramarine blue always go together, from the medieval times when ultramarine (over the sea, made from lapis lazuli from what is now known as Afghanistan) was more expensive than gold, and from the fact that lapis lazuli often has inclusions of pyrite, the fool's gold.
Ah ha!: The blue color of the pigment is due to the S3− radical anion, which contains an unpaired electron.
chickenlittle said... "Here's another interesting "blue" in it's raw state: link"
Indeed! Several years ago I amassed pounds of lapis lazuli and, following Cennini's complex instructions involving such things as beeswax, colophony and potassium hydroxide, I produced true natural ultramarine blue.
The most intense blue color I've ever seen was "sodium electride" which is made by simply dissolving sodium metal in liquid ammonia. This photo is nothing compared to the real thing: link
The color in sodium electride, like your dye, comes essentially from an unpaired electron. The former is highly unstable while the later is exceedingly so.
Those electrons, God bless'um!
The pairing of electrons is something sublime. That two such inherently repellant things co-exist so intimately amazes me.
To bring this back (sort of) to the topic, do neutrons ever do anything for color?
I just think of neutrons hurting people.
A neutron affecting color would be an isotope effect on color. Hmm. Good question. I'd say yes, but more subtle than subtle, if only because neutrons are "invisible" and only manifest in mass or masses in motion: vibrations, Hooke's Law, etc.
I'll have to think about it.
All I can think of at the moment is that neutron stars would probably appear white to the theoretical naked eye. But on this planet...
Palladian said...
To bring this back (sort of) to the topic, do neutrons ever do anything for color?
January 22, 2014 at 1:00 AM
Palladian said...
I just think of neutrons hurting people.
Maybe not what you expected, but U-235 (which has three fewer neutrons than U-238 does) did something for people without color (Crackology) and hurt a lot of people.
Sorry
Oh, I'm so earthbound in my thinking...
Palladian said...
I just think of neutrons hurting people.
Looked at another way, the 3 extra neutrons found in U-238 prevented the earlier discovery of an atomic bomb and they still provide a barrier (one of onerous isotope separation) for any nation wishing one.
Three little neutrons.
Scary. If it weren't for the fact that the less radioactive isotope is far more abundant than the more radioactive one, we probably wouldn't be around to have this discussion.
It's as if nature locked 235 away with a very hard-to-obtain key.
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