It was a trick question! There are two secret diary Stealth Journals. “Large Plans” and “Adventures of Chuckleberry Chinn.” For when your notes need to blend in to the background. Head on over to Stealth Journals and buy a few!
New year. New art.
It began with an innocent trip to find pizza on Ponce Inlet. A random conversation with Barry Kite on a sidewalk outside his gallery makes up the middle. The end is a wall in my home office.
He said the shark is eating Ophelia.
I bought because he entertained me – both as a person, and with his art. I bought because I have been looking for something that means more than a colored circle with a squiggle. I see a lot of lines and squiggles (coupled by vacation art here in Savannah), and this decorative sort of art just doesn’t do anything for me.
I have not forgotten the irritating “conversations” that we have had with gallery owners on Royal Street in New Orleans and in the River North Gallery District in Chicago either. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, those experiences both began by a visual sizing us up head to toe, followed by a pitch of why we should spend $30-$45k on a lithograph. Er, no way in hell. Ever. No, I don’t care that Chagall signed the print. Thanks for trying. Going to have coffee now!
I understand Kite’s style to be “re-positioning” or “re-contextualizing” select masterpieces that are in the public domain. The works have historically been done by hand, but I’ve read that he may be moving into digital.
If you look closely at my purchases, you can make out a great cast of characters:
- The Girl with the Pearl Earring;
- Vincent van Gogh;
- One of Francis Bacon’s screaming popes;
- Napoleon;
- Mona Lisa; and
- The Absinthe Drinker.
Some art snots might criticize and throw some shade, but I would just throw back a “Well, what is art for?” I buy to please myself, not to put on airs for guests.
Barry: I left space on my wall. If you start mixing Dali’s clocks and Magritte’s trains, you’ve got yourself another sale. I also like the bowler hat man in the sky with an umbrella sprinkled in for good measure.
I. AM. NOT. EVEN. KIDDING.
Further reading:
https://viewkick.com/barry-kite-s-collages-will-make-you-laugh
Llewellyn ran my article about the Old Charleston Jail yesterday. The full article can be viewed here: http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2510
I first learned of Chateau Miranda (a/k/a Noisy Castle) from one of my photography books. It is a place that might inspire a brilliant novel!
Yesterday was the first day here in Savannah that actually gave some indication that we just might finally get to enjoy the fall season that I keep hearing about elsewhere in the country. After lunch, Bob and I took off for downtown to take a walk and enjoy the overcast day that makes the city look particularly green and magical somehow. We stumbled into the Gutstein Gallery and checked out the Craig Frazier exhibit that is showing through November 1.
Many of the color print exhibits appear surreal, and I would direct you to Mr. Frazier’s website to peruse his portfolio and collection. I very much like the series of the man who climbs on rocks to lasso the moon. Unfortunately, the photos I took of the color prints did not translate very well because of glare in the display windows. However, I did manage a few passable shots of some of the sketches that interested me the most. This is how it all begins, anyway. A man with a pen and paper, birthing a new idea.
Links:
http://www.scad.edu/event/2014-09-08-craig-frazier-exhibition-savannah-drawing-it-out
Better take an umbrella.
I’m sharing this post from my paralegal and virtual assistant site because I think it is so timely and relevant to so many workers.
http://ijdparalegalservices.com/2014/03/16/cnn-calls-your-office-dumb/
Today I needed a break. A walk in the garden would have been nice.
I needed some solitary tranquility.
I needed to hold court in the backyard and look over the town.
I needed a stroll without anybody pulling on me.
In reality, I did not get the things I needed today. But I got them once upon a time, and I used my mind to call up this scene again. As long as we are in control of our own minds we can be free no matter where our physical body is.
I saw a job ad a few weeks ago that got my blood boiling so hot that I almost emailed the guy and told him just how big of an idiot he is. He wanted someone who could multitask, withstand several interruptions throughout the day, and constantly shift to ever-changing priorities. The guy was a lawyer (of course).
I wanted to just ask him why he even thought he needed an employee in the first place. Obviously, the employee was going to be completely inefficient and unproductive. Maybe the guy should just get a giant stuffed animal to sit in the desk so he can yell at it and throw chairs around without getting sued for creating a hostile work environment.
I cannot stand these employers who think they are getting tasks done by throwing a bunch of nonsense in the laps of their employees to “deal with,” and then changing their minds after two hours have passed in order to shift focus to the next meaningless urgent project.
I am right, too, I might add. Just yesterday there was an article in Health Magazine entitled “Give Your Brain a Break.” Cara Birnbaum reported a 2010 Harvard University Study which showed that those who single-task and focus on the moment are happier and more productive than those who believe they are multitasking.
Multitasking is what idiots do. They sit in their offices and they answer the telephone and try to read emails and put reports together at the same time. What is the result? No memory of the points of the telephone conversation, an important email that comes back to bite them later because they failed to comprehend it the first time around, and broken sentences and missing words in the report. Why? Because the language centers in your brain can only process one language-based task at a time. A multitasking example that is possible would be talking on the phone while you eat your lunch. Forget the rudeness factor, we are just outlining possibilities here.
Multitasking is complete lunacy. Sure, these people may appear busy. But they are doing nothing except putting on a show. They are not multitasking, they are serial tasking like a bunch of animals at the zoo. Squirrel!
When I go to a new place of business I like to find the person who is sitting quietly working. This is the brains of the operation. The planner, the one with focus, this is the person who knows what is going on. Probably, they use a work journal like the one that can be purchased from Stealth Journals. I like to stay far away from the monkey house.
Further reading:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201103/technology-myth-multitasking
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking
Jamie Davis Writes 