Ai Wei Wei.

BBC: Ai Wei Wei - Without Fear or Favour.
File under 'inspiring'.
∞

Sarah Kay

I would really like to have children with her.
An(other) inspiring TED Talk, this time on: art making, finding your voice and also, passion.

washed out

Pablo Picasso. Harlequin's Death, 1906.

currentinspiration

The first photo of Jean-Michel Basquiat really reminds me I need some soul growing, also known as, art making. My job is just taking up my life, I'm now working as a junior designer, it's my first 'real' job, 9-5:30, but it's more like 6pm most days. I keep telling myself I'm going to sew or paint after work or on the weekends, but it's hard when all I want to do is turn on the air conditioning, get naked and cuddle up with my laptop and read Google Reader in bed.
The second photo is just nice, no relevance other than the fact that I would like it to be my house.

Cubicle Lady Playlist:

work/rest

'Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.'
– Gustave Flaubert

felt

It’s Raining Men by UK textile artist Mary-Clare Buckle.

MFA

'There’s nothing sillier than an M.F.A. What does it mean? Did you learn anything? No. To be a master you have to learn languages and you have to have these things. Nobody gets them. I don’t think the art form is so complicated that you need a college course in order to read it. I really don’t. Art and fashion are the last two bastions where the product itself is what attracts attention; it really doesn’t much matter who made it. There’s this legitimization of something with an M.F.A. But Gaultier draws a shoe, they look at it, they put the shoe in production, it comes out, and it works. Nobody had to know anything about the person. Art is the same thing, something is built and shown, and it enters the culture. I like schools, I like people to go to school, but the purpose of the Academy is to give answers. If they don’t have an answer, they give a solution. The purpose of art is to ask questions. They’re antithetical.' —Lawrence Weiner

>

I've been thinking about going back to school...
But it wouldn't be for another two years or so.

3.

Three paintings by Agnes Martin, Untitled #21, Homage to Life and The Sea.

Agnes Martin's work is so incredible in person. The last two seem like they would be particularly moving in the flesh, I'm especially drawn to the dark spaces she creates, she seems to have really captured the feeling of staring into the abyss. It's the same feeling as night canoeing and being a kid on the ferry with arms flailed over the railing staring into the splashing water underneath.

qing

Li Feng Di. Girl in Festive Costume, 1996.

VD

I've loved a good collage ever since the fifth grade.
This one is especially good.
Ashkan Honarvar.

Also, Happy Valentine's Day, aka VD.

make

Criteria for Art Criticism
By Raphael Rozendaal:

Am I drawn to it?
Do I feel a strong attraction or connection?
Does it trigger a series of thoughts?
Does it change my thoughts?
Does it set a mood?
Does it amplify my emotions?
Does it encourage me to make something?
Does it provide new information?
Is it beautiful?
Does it intensify perception?
What is the level of abstraction?
Does it awaken memories?
Does it make me curious?
Do I want more of it?
Does it summarize an era?
Is it innovative?
Does it stand out?
Do I remember it after 10 minutes?
Does it surprise me?

Via.

space

Some art things I've been into lately.
1. Massimo Vitali. Scala dei Turchi, 2009.
2. Sarah Morris. Pools Century, Miami, 2003.
3. Stephano Cerio's book Aquapark.

I Need a Girl (Part II)

How inappropriate is it that I'm looking at this while listening to this?

The Great Wall of Vaginas

'Why am I doing it and what’s it all about?” I hear you ask. Well, vulvas and labia are as different as a faces and many people, particularly women, don’t seem to know that. Men tend to have seen more than women, who have often only seen their own, and many have never looked that closely. Hence the exposure of so many, showing the variety of shapes is endlessly fascinating, empowering and comforting. For many women their genitals are a source of shame rather than pride and this piece seeks to redress the balance, showing that everyone is different and everyone is normal.'

hedonist

'Finding extreme pleasure will make u a better person if you are careful about what thrills you.' - Jenny Holzer.

parcel

Betty Goodwin. Parcel for Karachi Two (Parcel VIII), October 1971.
Soft-ground etching and drypoint on japan paper laminate on wove paper.

2010→2011

'Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.'

—Ira Glass

Understanding this concept changed my entire perspective this past year. After I finished my thesis collection at the end of May last year, I basically refused to make another garment for the better part of 6 months, that's a lot for someone who had been pumping out outfits monthly. I made excuses for myself, I said maybe I was sick of sewing, but that's such a superficial lie I couldn't even believe it myself. I was mostly mad that I couldn't produce work at a level that I saw as adequate, so instead, I stopped creating. Like Glass said, my work just wasn't meeting my taste, and being the natural aristocrat of taste that I am (ha!), I couldn't help but feel discouraged with my amateur efforts.

Making clothes was something I had always believed I was intrinsically good at, and here I was upon graduation afraid that I would never be truly good at it. I escaped by diving into a world of admiring others' art, mainly film and photography and by harshly critiquing others' effort at fashion design. Meanwhile, I was secretly ashamed knowing that all this time they at least were creating but I was too afraid of failure to even try.

I've never been good at expressing my self through words, so seeing this stated so plainly and clearly I am able to pinpoint the sentiments I was unable to express. I guess this is why quotes has been such an integral aspect of this blog.
So, here's to 2011, the year of studioworks and the continuation of my 10,000 hours.

In the words of Arcade Fire: Here in my place and time/And here in my own skin I can finally begin.

Speaking of which, hey! Do you remember last year? This decade is going to be full of pivotal moments.
Happy 2011.

Quote via Obia.
Photo: Betty Goodwin. Gloves IV, 1971.

'Flat areas of colour'

Katinka Lampe.
I love the flatness of this combined with the luminosity in her eyes.

Note: I thought Katinka was just a name they make up on Zoolander, apparently it's a real name. Katinka Inka Nabovina Nah-Nah?
Via.

La Touche

Gaston La Touche. A Maiden in Contemplation, 1893.
Via.

Baudelaire

“A painting by Franz Kupka, a Czech avant-garde painter living in Paris. The painting is a mixture of realism and abstraction. Called The Yellow Scale, it depicts a portrait, but the painting technique consists of a feast of violent slashes of yellow impasto. This was a work of the transitional stage of Kupka’s oeuvre when he moved from an impressionistic style to the world of abstraction. In the painting we see a supremely bored male individual, staring at us with a stern expression on his green-tinted face, a wisp of black hair sweeping across a wide brow, lounging back in a yellow dressing gown, his head resting against a large soft pillow in an oriental cane armchair. There is a self-rolled cigarette in the semi-salute of his upraised left hand, whilst his right hand’s first finger rests in the opening of a yellow-covered Charpentier paperback on his lap. Who is this lounger? It is no other than Charles Baudelaire, the French decadent poet, based on one of Nadar’s daguerreotype photographs.” 

Via. 

ghosts

1. Betty Goodwin. Vest Two, 1970.
2. Betty Goodwin. Vest No. 1, 1969, soft-ground etching on wove paper.

If you haven't already, go see AT WORK: Eva Hesse - Studiowork, Betty Goodwin - Work Notes, Agnes Martin - Work Ethics at the AGO, it changed my whole perspective, I really recommend it.
Hurry, it ends January 2nd, 2011.