Wednesday, November 12, 2008

blake's exhibit


the past saturday, we ventured up to lowell, mass. to see our good friend's exhibit. the curator (?) at the exhibit was very nice and patient as our whole family looked at his paintings (or rather after a cursory look, the kids ran around outside while pat and i took turns looking more closely). anyhoo, here's a quote from blake that i think describes his art as well as life:

“Each painting contains many possible associations, making the point that meaning is always in play, constantly rearranged by our own thoughts and associations. The paintings, as in life, contain moments of clarity, if only fleeting, while resounding of uncertainty.”

his paintings all had simple titles, often not more than three words (i.e. one was named "punch"). at first, i thought my camera did a pretty good job capturing the paintings. but looking at it now, i realize how poor these pics are. they do nothing to capture the texture, color and detail. oh well, at least it gives you a feel for his art.

without further adieu, here are the paintings (posted with permission):

i believe this is one of his "wall follower" paintings. i didn't get a pic of the other one that had a clear part of cubicles in it.
you gotta love the tartan print in this painting. i seem to remember every painting having a small (much smaller than that tartan print) detail of bold color.


this was called "wednesday".


he had a funky stop motion movie too. the best part was when this "man like" thing walking around with an "animated" photograph for a face rips out of the background until just an outline of face remains (hope that made sense). i also liked when he pinned a fly on a string to the wall, but not sure why i liked that part.


i also learned that blake is very prolific - only one painting was completed when U of MASS decided to display his work - all other paintings were new. his work has changed a lot in recent years (according to the curator); his early work was very "representational." unfortunately, i missed one large painting that was on the back of a wall. i found out about it at lunch when lily told me it was her favorite; she also liked the painting "with blocks."
blake & jennah: feel free to correct me on any mistakes. thanks.

5 comments:

Scrappycook said...

Very cool exhibit! I need to get my kids out to all of the wonderful museums in the Twin Cities. Now that they are a bit older, the thought of taking them there does not make me so nervous!

jennah said...

Nothing to edit. Your so kind to take the time to visit AND blog about Blake's exhibit. Really, thank you for the support. Your good friends.

Amanda said...

Wow.

I love it. Love the tartan and the way he explains his work. Thank you so much for putting this up for everyone to see!

I think I have had several Wednesday's that look like his painting.

sorichfamily said...

thank you! thank you! finally a look at the famous blake shirley exhibit! i loved it and couldn't stop looking at his amazing art! i'm so glad that you went and shared it with us! he is one amazing man and artist!

i agree with amanda...i think we have all had a few wednesday's that resemble that! well done!

and it looks like you had a really fun trip as a family!

yea for a great day!

natalie said...

Wowzah! Blake is amazingly talented! Thanks for sharing!

quotables

"is that lily holding baby lily?" -lily's response when i showed her a picture of gracie holding her when lily was a baby.

"drama class is actually a lot of fun." -gracie (this is only humorous in that grace seemed surprised by how much she likes drama class. this from my child who we refer to as "a drama queen" when she is not around.)

"mom, you can go with my teacher and i'll stay home with japie and evan. daddy can go to work, and i'll be the mommy" -lily, in response to learning that she would be going to preschool next year instead of this year.

"mom, if you don't get rid of that smell soon, you're going to have to buy a new car." -gracie when it took me a couple of days to clean out my car after returning from a road trip.

"mommy, they have dress-ups for you!" -lily while walking by the prom dress section at macy's.

"i said the prayer "last"-erday." -lily's replacement word for "yesterday."