My hips don't lie

I have really been terrible about keeping up with posts lately and it's mainly because I took a break from everything while I recovered from hip replacement surgery. That's right, I am now bionic! I feel much too young to have gone through this, but it's a genetic thing and I've been needing a new one for a while. I'm excited to see what a pain-free life can bring me now. I love to walk outside for inspiration and I was greatly limited for a long while, but I will be back in action again very soon. In the meantime, I can post about a trip to a museum I made before the surgery.

I went to the teamLab interactive exhibit at the PACE Gallery in Menlo Park. It runs through December 18th of this year and is absolutely worth a trip if you are in the Bay Area. As stated on their website: 

"teamLab, the renowned Japanese art collective, recognized for challenging and expanding the digital art making practice, and Pace Art + Technology will present Living Digital Space and Future Parks. The large-scale installation will invite participants of all ages to immerse themselves in the multi-room environments spanning 20,000ft² and showcasing 20 digital works."

It is pretty incredible and I could have stayed for hours. Take a look at these videos for a peek at what's in store if you can make it.

 

Crystal Universe

Selfies on Paper

Lee Friedlander, Self Portrait NYC 1966

Lee Friedlander, Self Portrait NYC 1966

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam currently has an exhibit titled "Selfies on Paper". It shows artists from the past four centuries capturing their own images in various mediums. As noted on their website: "Virtually every artist in the past looked in a mirror and captured his or her image for posterity – just as we do now." But we all know that they just took a little more time to do it.

In this age of immediate and fleeting gratification, the exhibit intends to make people slow down and take a moment to appreciate the art and the time it took to create. Cameras are not allowed, and instead, attendees of the museum are encouraged to draw or sketch what they see instead of using their selfie stick. I love this!

You can read more on the exhibit on the museum website here, and also on thisiscolassal.com.

Rembrandt, Self Portrait 1639

Rembrandt, Self Portrait 1639

Oskar Kokoscka, Self Portrait 1923

Oskar Kokoscka, Self Portrait 1923

Diebenkorn Rules

I spent the afternoon at the de Young Museum, totally enthralled by the Diebenkorn exhibit. He has always been a favorite of mine, and when I walked in and was surrounded by his work I felt a total rush and I think I even cried a little. It was so exciting to see his artwork up close as well as from a distance—so very inspiring and a must see!

I was also really struck by his notes to himself on beginning a painting:

  1. Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.
  2. The pretty, initial position, which falls short of completeness, is not to be valued—except as a stimulus for further moves. 
  3. Do search. But in order to find other that what is searched for. 
  4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities, but consider them absolutely expendable. 
  5. Don't "discover" a subject—of any kind. 
  6. Somehow don't be bored—but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential. 
  7. Mistakes can't be erased, but they move you from your present position. 
  8. Keep thinking about Pollyanna. 
  9. Tolerate chaos.
  10. Be careful only in a perverse way. 

—Richard Diebenkorn

 

Untitled (Yellow Collage) 1966   Richard Diebenkorn

Untitled (Yellow Collage) 1966   Richard Diebenkorn

 Cityscape #1, 1963  Richard Diebenkorn

 

Cityscape #1, 1963  Richard Diebenkorn