Art Star

Took a break from my own projects to go watch a favorite Denver artist do a demo at the Art Students League of Denver. Homare Ikeda has done a lot of monotypes, which is why I often bump into him at Open Press. He's also on the faculty at ASLD. Here he was doing a painting demo, which was well attended and very interesting.

I don't do a lot of painting anymore, and don't usually work in the abstract when I do. I like Homare's loose, open ended forms and his thoughtful, deliberate way of working, though. So chalk it up to networking and professional curiousity when I stopped by. I sent out a few snippets on Twitter, and admired Homare's laid back narrative style. I do a lot of demos myself, and I can always learn.

Homare related that, as a student at Skowhegan, he'd gotten a studio visit from Komar and Melamid, the Russian Pop Artist team. K&M pronounced Homare's work "constipated".

"I figured that was a good thing", Homare related with his shy little laugh. The crowd laughed too. He'd turned the potentially crushing, off hand remark into a small creative victory with his unassuming humor.

Later he tried to explain that being an artist is, to him, nothing special. He's right, and the sometimes idealizing ASLD students need to hear stuff like that. There are geniuses in art, sure. And like many things, art can be done in an inspired way, but before that happens it's mostly just hard work, done with commitment.

He finished up with some sumi-e drawings of traditional subjects; fish, bamboo, birds. It's a fairly unassuming art form, done by a fairly unassuming guy.

Make no mistake, there's more than a little magic in that.

First Day of School

The Grant Street School ( above, now the Art Students League) is a Richardsonian Romanesque building not far from the Mayan Theatre. It may have been designed by Edbrooke, I will have to check on that. When I arrived in Denver in the 80's, it had already been decommissioned by DPS and was being rented out as Artists' studios. I remember visiting many of my friends there- Mark Friday, Jill Hadley Hooper, Phil Bender, Meg Ingraham. I remember sitting in Jill's studio, drinking beer and blasting the Pixies and Wolfgang Press. 

The Art Students League had started in the same Victorian commercial building downtown where Open Press first began (and I began making monotypes). Then they bought the school.

The first day of the workshop was very fun, and it went fast. It's not easy to anticipate all the little issues, and I didn't. Next time I'll be better prepared, and the demo won't take so much time, and there will be more time for basics like paper-tearing, plates and of course, hands-on printing. 

Everyone seems very nice, and most seem to be at least somewhat familiar with printmaking basics. There are eight peeps, which is more than I can remember ever teaching. Most are my age (-ish). I anticipate a lively eight weeks. We did get some prints done, but I got talking (go figure), and forgot to take pictures. Next week. I'll post the demos too, and I bet there are some interesting progressions there, since already I can feel a renewed curiosity about things I used to do, and moved away from. 

Boy, I sure was beat after that, so I hung out on the couch and watched some bike racing, then I took a nap. It felt great to have the first one under my belt, after so many months of waiting. 

Sol Invictus

December, and I'm (mostly) taking a hiatus from the studio. It's a good time to charge the creative batteries and let the mind drift. So most of these posts have been about things I'm reading and thinking about. Which lately, has often been the culture wars. I have another one, on Love and Rockets comics and where they fit into the culture wars, almost ready to go in a day or two, but it's been a while since I posted, so I'm cleaning up some loose ends first.

• I will be at Open Press, 40 W. Bayaud Sunday, Dec 20. As I offered to sit the gallery for the Small Print Show, I thought I may as well work, and since I'm working anyway, I'm making it into a demo. C'mon down and see how monotypes get made. I'll be working continuously from 12-5, traffic in the gallery permitting. I'll try to post pics sometime after Xmas.

• I'm sending out holiday prints soon. I procrastinated until today, so for many, they won't arrive before SquishMas, but probably shortly after. Thank you for commenting and taking an interest in this blog!


• Sometime in the post holiday quiet, I hope to sit down and figure out once and for all why the 'comment' function on Blogspot doesn't allow me to reply to your comments. Or maybe just see if Wordpress will work better? Anyway, thanks for your comments.

• Coming in January, I'll track another print in photos; talk about stuff I'd like to discuss in the Spring class at the Art Students League; and start nailing down a show schedule for 2010. If you have thoughts on what could make for an interesting post, don't be shy leave 'em below. Oh- and I may even start on the long-delayed Squishtoid Manifesto! Certainly all this stuff on the culture wars will tie into it. But I don't want to forget the oldest rule in the manifesto biz- "Leave 'em laughin' !"

I'm sure the next week or two will be pretty busy for everyone. C'mon back when you get a minute, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS from Squishtoid!