DAILY ART FIX: ‘The Track Record Is Disastrous’- Musician Nick Cave on His Cautious Return to Art

Art world links which caught my eye…

Nick Cave “Devil Bleeds to Death”

I love the dark and powerful music Australian singer Nick Cave made through 1980s to the early 2000s. Starting off with the nightmare postpunk band the Birthday Party, then forming his own epic Old Testament/Southern Gothic flavored anthem group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave survived addiction, angst and personal tragedies to become one of the elder statemen of alternative music.

Here is a sample of what Cave was up to in 1988: Music Video “Up Jumped The Devil”

Now Cave has intensifed his visionary explorations into another field, visual art.

“One can tell from viewing his work that Cave is serious about making art. In ‘The Devil — A Life,’ a honed and aesthetic sensibility is apparent in well-executed ceramics, which cleverly reference Victorian porcelain but which feature Lucifer as the main subject. The works relay a tempestuous tale that oscillates between good and evil and stirs corners of empathy in a strange sort of way, a way we might have felt before from his music. Cave loads in a lot of symbolism and draws on topics around death and violence, but also love and religion. Darkness is always paired with light…

These larger standalone pieces evolved out of so-called spill vases that he had initially started out making—Cave’s interpretations of Victorian vases that would hold a roll of paper or a twig, used to transfer a flame from one place to another in the house. ‘I wanted to make these because I wanted my work to be well and truly craft, so that it would not put me into the art world,’ Cave says. ‘On some level, it is the last place I wanted to end up as a musician—the track record is disastrous. I went to art school [and so] I had a lot of artist friends and making art was a serious thing; they put their lives into this. This idea that you can knock out some paintings between tours felt like a kind of a vanity. That’s why I wanted to make craft things.’”

Their folkloric style and craftiness, however, is exactly what makes them appealing. In an art world where so much work is just about a clever elevator pitch, the works Cave has made are sincere, clearly the result of an inner world percolating outwards, and products of an interest in process and curiosity. Maybe that is the irony—Cave’s attempts to avoid being read as an artist as such landed him in an art gallery. And that in-between state of Staffordshire ceramics (which he actually collects himself) as neither high or low art is what makes them so interesting to the art world, but also to Cave. ‘They are a bridge between craft and art, essentially made to bring a little joy into people’s lives,’ he says. ‘There is a naive innocence about them—no pretension.’”   

Read the full article: ARTNET – ‘The Track Record Is Disastrous’: Musician Nick Cave on His Cautious Return to Art

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Music Video -‘The Lively Arts’ by the Damned, Illustrated by Teenagers

Art world links which caught my eye…

From the Damned’s 1980 Black Album. This Youtube version was illustrated by teenagers:

Innovation Day 2013 at Dixons City Academy in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK. I had a class of 13, 14, and 15 year olds for the day. I showed them my own version of I don’t wanna grow up, by the Ramones first. They each got a line from the song (they didn’t have a clue what the song was). By the afternoon they had worked together to create their own illustrated Damned song, and they loved it. Who says it’s impossible getting a bit of Punk into the classroom?!

Lyrics
I’m gonna stay in bed all day
I’m not gonna hear a word you say
It’s gonna be a life of style for me
Electric blankets, pillows, fire and TV
Take a look outside
Those lively arts are on the slide
And culture’s just a bore
When you’re angry young and poor
And if I got my way
Those idle rich would pay
When the discussion starts
On the lively arts
I’m gonna be a lazy slob
Sod the folks and sod the job
And tell the foreman that I’m ill
And in a week I’ll be here still
Yes I will
Take a look outside
Those lively arts are on the slide
And culture’s just a bore
When you’re angry young and poor
And if I got my way
Those idle rich would pay
When the discussion starts
On the lively arts

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Video – 25 BIZARRE AND CREEPY VINTAGE CHRISTMAS CARDS

Art world links which caught my eye…

I wonder about the context of some of theses motifs. Why all the frogs? What do they have to do with Christmas?

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Theme Songs for Our Artistic Methods

From June 11, 2017

Richard Bledsoe “At the Crossroad” acrylic on canvas 24″ x 30″

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I’ve written before about how vital music is in our studio, as the soundtrack of our art. Recently my wife Michele Bledsoe and I took our musical influences to an even greater intensity. One afternoon while we were painting, we identified songs that we felt epitomized the way that each other approached creating our art.

You see Michele and I have very different methods to the way we paint; we are diametrically positioned, which is why being a married artist couple works so well for us. Opposites attract. We both act as conduits in our artistic expression, but it’s very different forces that we channel.

Michele has spent years watching me paint in a kind of frenzied trance, taken outside of my normal senses in service of the art. While I paint I tend to pace, curse, pray, rant. It’s an ecstatic process for me; not just in the sense of happiness, even though it fills me with joy. It’s so intense I’m not paying attention to the way I’m behaving. An unknowing witness would not understand all my frantic swearing is actually a sign of overwhelming engagement, as I push further.

Michele’s song for me is “Crossroads” by Tom Waits, a collaboration with writer William Burroughs. The story it tells shows the sense of abandonment to the demands of creation, no matter the personal cost. There is nothing diabolical about what I’m going for, but the reckless commitment is there. I always say painting is my healthiest addiction.

Click the image to see the video “Crossroads” here:

The lyrics:

Now, George was a good straight boy to begin with, but there was bad blood
In him someway

and he got into the magic bullets that lead straight to
Devil’s work, just like marijuana leads to heroin;

you think you can take them bullets or leave ’em, do you?
Just save a few for your bad days

Well, well we all have those bad days when we can’t hit for shit.

And the more of them magics you use, the more bad days you have without them
So it comes down to finally all your days being bad without the bullets
It’s magics or nothing
Time to stop chippying around and kidding yourself.
Kid, you’re hooked, heavy as lead

And that’s where old George found himself
Out there at the crossroads
Molding the Devil’s bullets
Now a man figures it’s his bullets, so it will take what he wants
But it don’t always work out that way

You see, some bullets is special for a single target
A certain stag, or a certain person
And no matter where you aim, that’s where the bullet will end up
And in the moment of aiming, the gun turns into a dowser’s wand
And points where the bullet wants to go

George Schmidt was moving in a series of convulsive spasms, like someone
With an epileptic fit, with his face contorted and his eyes wild like a
Lassoed horse bracing his legs. But something kept pulling him on. Now
He’s picking up the skulls and making the circle.

I guess old George didn’t rightly know what he was getting himself into
The fit was on him and it carried him right to the crossroads

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 Michele’s mode of painting could not be more different.

Michele Bledsoe “The Great Fear of Falling” acrylic on canvas 14″ x 11″

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I have spent years watching Michele work tranquilly at her easel. She sits down and the art just begins to flow out of her, methodically, with great order. Layer upon the layer the intensity builds without interruption until she has crafted a mysterious and moving environment. She calmly renders complex compositions with profound depths and eruptions of otherworldly expressiveness.

 

 

What musician other than Ludwig Van Beethoven could reflect such a method?

 

 

My song for Michele is Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 in A major, Op. 92, the second movement, Allegretto. It starts so quietly, but goes through cycles of growth until it is truly cosmic in scale. Such precision and feeling. That is how Michele makes her art.

 

 

There aren’t any lyrics, but there’s no need for those when the music speaks so eloquently on its own.

 

 

Click on the image to see the video for the 7th Symphony, “Allegretto” here:

What would be the theme song of your artistic method?

 

“The Remodernist’s job is to bring God back into art but not as God was before. Remodernism is not a religion, but we uphold that it is essential to regain enthusiasm (from the Greek, en theos to be possessed by God).”

-The Remodernism Manifesto

 

 

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: My Encounter with Gwar, the Artist Collective That Brings Heavy Metal Fever Dreams to Life

A true story…

Gwar: The Boys in the Band

In the 1990s, after I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, I stayed on in Richmond, Virginia. One of the city’s claims to fame at the time was Gwar-a metal band that mixed muppets, gore, and slapstick into a fake-blood soaked spectacle. I remember one show of theirs I attended where they must have put too much color into the various fluids they sprayed into the audience; even the hairs on my arm were dyed pink for days afterwards.

Gwar in Action

There came a point where Gwar was banned from performing in costume in their own hometown, due to the over-the-top grossness and silly obscenity of it all. They used to do local shows as Rawg, where they would perform the music without the theatrics.

At the time I was the chairman of the exhibition committee of Artspace, an artist-run cooperative gallery. I had a great idea: if Gwar can’t use their props and costumes in Richmond, what not put on an art show with them? I imagined national press attention, MTV coverage, and a spirited debate about free expression.

The Gwar guys didn’t act like rock stars. They were always just hanging around the local scene like anyone else. I was able to get an introduction pretty quickly. One afternoon I met up with singer Dave “Oderus Urungus” Brockie for a tour of Slave Pit Incorporated, the facility where they manufactured their elaborate outfits and gear. There were rubber body parts everywhere; I remember there was a big latex O J Simpson, who was very topical at the time. Brockie was gracious and supportive of the idea of an art show. It all would have made for a great exhibit.

Long story short, Artspace decided they couldn’t get insurance for an event like this. I think many of the gallery members were too intimated by the crassness as well. The idea was dropped, and Gwar continued to grow their international cult following.

Here is a relic of those times: a little rubber souvenir I found one day on the cobblestones of a Richmond alleyway:

Dave Brockie sadly passed away in 2014. However, the band continues to this day, as recently covered in Atlas Obscura:

Slave Pit Incorporated in 2017

This is the studio that creates custom costumes, sets, and stage props for two-time Grammy-nominated thrash metal band GWAR. The group’s costume- and FX-fueled live comedy-horror operas won international attention in the early 1990s and continue to disgust and delight audiences today. Concertgoers can expect things like huge, grotesque monsters raging amid fiery explosions, as band members dressed like satanic space-ogres shred on guitars with headstocks that spew fake blood.

The artists working here are responsible for bringing the show to life. They’re considered band members and work on everything from storylining albums and scripting stage productions to filming music videos and writing branded graphic novels. And sometimes they play monsters onstage. The team consists of two full-time artistic directors and a few dozen contract contributors. Most attended art school at nearby Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

Read the full article here: ATLAS OBSCURA – The Artist Collective That Brings Heavy Metal Fever Dreams to Life

Dave Brockie: RIP

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Video – The John Lurie’s Art

Art world links which caught my eye…

Examples of artist/musician/actor John Lurie‘s paintings.

Music John Lurie (Marvin Pontiac) – Power

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Video – Vincent Price Sings About Being an Artist

Art world links which caught my eye…

Actor Vincent Price (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993), known mostly for horror movies, was also an connoisseur of art. Price’s knowledge and appreciation of art were so renowned that when Sears wanted to launch a fine art department, he was brought in to run the effort, as I wrote about before: The Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art.

In this video, Price displays some unexpected singing talent as he celebrates the magic of painting.

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Empty Spaces -‘The Wall’ Artist Gerald Scarfe on Selling His Pink Floyd Archive

Art world links which caught my eye…

We Don’t Need No Education: From Gerald Scarfe’s Iconic Art for The Wall

Pink Floyd’s concept album The Wall is a case where the music is inseparable from the imagery on the gatefold record.

Artist Gerald Scarfe created a scratchy, distorted dystopia in illustration and animation to accompany the haunting songs of alienation, loss and power. In 2019, Scarfe decided to part with his collection of artwork for the album.

Working off the musical landscape and the backstory [Pink Floyd bassist Roger] Waters established, Scarfe — a political cartoonist by trade with a flair for darkly comic caricature — developed The Wall‘s iconic imagery and characters, a twisted menagerie that would keep the attention of concertgoers while Pink Floyd literally built a wall between themselves and the audience: the Marching Hammers, the boogeyman Teacher who feeds his dead-eyed children to the meat grinder, the anus-mouthed Judge and the main character Pink, an unformed human that Scarfe’s animation tosses around like a marionette dummy untethered from its strings. “We couldn’t just have a blank wall sitting there,” the artist said.

The Bleeding Heart and Artist Gerald Scarfe with His Creations

Read the full article here: ROLLING STONE – Empty Spaces -‘The Wall’ Artist Gerald Scarfe on Selling His Pink Floyd Archive

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: New Painting “A Ghost from a Wishing Well”

Richard Bledsoe “A Ghost from a Wishing Well” acrylic on canvas 16″ x 12″

Since my youth I’ve been haunted by a mysterious and beautiful song. I put those feelings onto a canvas.

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RICHARD BLEDSOE is a visual story teller; a painter of fables and parables. He received his BFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. Richard has been an exhibiting artist for over 25 years, in both the United States and internationally. He lives and paints happily in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife Michele and cat Motorhead. He is the author of Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization:

“Remodernism is not a style of art, it is a form of motivation. We express the universal language of inspired humanity.

“We do not imitate what came before. We find in ourselves the same divine essence of love and excitement which has inspired masterpieces throughout history. We are strengthened by drawing on traditions thousands of years old.

“We integrate the bold, visionary efforts of the Modern era into a holistic, meaningful expression of contemporary life. Remodernism seeks a humble maturity which heals the fragmentation and contradictions of Modernism, and obliterates the narcissistic lies of Postmodernism.

“Remodernism is the return of art as a revelation.”

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I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

DAILY ART FIX: Raw power – Why Iggy Pop posed naked for Jeremy Deller’s Life Class

Art world links which caught my eye…

Lust for Life Drawing! Iggy Pop Poses

In 2016, rock ‘n roll shaman Iggy Pop acted as a model for a special life drawing class and exhibit sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum.

Deller convinced the Brooklyn Museum, a group of local artists and Iggy himself to play along. The result, Iggy Pop Life Class, opens at the museum next month. The show involves 107 interpretations of the star’s nude physique by 22 artists, ranging in age from their teens to their 80s. The museum will pair their work with objects from its collection depicting the male figure over the last few centuries: sculptures from ancient Egypt, Africa and India; drawings by such artists as Egon Schiele and Max Beckmann; as well as photographs by Jim Steinhardt and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Deller, best known for creating vast imaginative works with a political theme, first approached Iggy 10 years ago, but the star demurred. “Ten years ago I was a little too young,” says Iggy, now 69, in the book that accompanies the show. “I thought I didn’t have the weight. Now I feel like a lot has happened with and to my body. For some reason, it felt important for me to just stand naked for a group of human beings and have an exchange.”

Read the full article here: THE GUARDIAN – Raw power – Why Iggy Pop posed naked for Jeremy Deller’s Life Class

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RICHARD BLEDSOE is a visual story teller; a painter of fables and parables. He received his BFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. Richard has been an exhibiting artist for over 25 years, in both the United States and internationally. He lives and paints happily in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife Michele and cat Motorhead. He is the author of Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization:

“Remodernism is not a style of art, it is a form of motivation. We express the universal language of inspired humanity.

“We do not imitate what came before. We find in ourselves the same divine essence of love and excitement which has inspired masterpieces throughout history. We are strengthened by drawing on traditions thousands of years old.

“We integrate the bold, visionary efforts of the Modern era into a holistic, meaningful expression of contemporary life. Remodernism seeks a humble maturity which heals the fragmentation and contradictions of Modernism, and obliterates the narcissistic lies of Postmodernism.

“Remodernism is the return of art as a revelation.”

**************

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

Learn more About My Art: Visionary Experience

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Remodernism Video: BEFORE THERE WAS FAKE NEWS, THERE WAS FAKE ART

Visit other posts for more commentary on the state of the arts.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!