Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Starting my week on a Tuesday...
after spending the weekend absorbing Henry Darger, Marlene Dumas, Paul Graham and Cuben poet, Reinaldo Arenas. I feel charged with new perspective, as their desire to make work with such vigor has kicked me into motion during what feels to be a major lull. At times I feel I have to lose my mind a little or fight a little harder to make work that's real... but maybe that's just the romantic artist in me that feels struggle makes stronger work. At any rate I feel that absorbing works by artists and writers of all variety makes for a stronger artist core, and this weekend I felt I had just the right amount of diversity to start my week feeling motivated.

I highly recommend watching the documentary on Henry Darger, In the Realms of the Unreal. The movie is a serious visual delight and it gives such perspective on Darger's life and works.


Trailer from In the Realms of the Unreal.

The Paul Graham show is up at MoMA through May 18 and is definitely worth a viewing.


© Paul Graham

Unfortunately yesterday was the last day of the Marlene Dumas exhibition at MoMA, so hopefully you got to take advantage of seeing it. It's pretty damn amazing to see so much work of hers up close and personal.


© Marlene Dumas

And last but not least.. another film definitely worth viewing is Before Night Falls, a movie about Cuben poet, Reinaldo Arenas, by Julian Schnabel. It's beautiful and tragic.. and reminded me of how much I appreciate poetry.

2 comments:

Rocio De Alba said...

Javier Bardem is one of my favorite actors. Since you like poetry, and if you enjoyed Javier's performance in "Before Night Falls", you may also dig "Mar Adentro", "The Sea Inside". It is equally beautiful. ;-)

Amy Elkins said...

I'll have to look into that.. cause I've been enjoying movies a lot lately. ;)