The continuation of a new series of Remodern America videos. These videos are possible due to the technical skills of my wife: I am the director, and she makes my vision come to life. It’s another fun part of our creative collaborations.
Video Number Six: Masculinity and Art
A video on art and masculinity. Art is not an American male priority. With our focus on responsibility and practicality, art might seem frivolous. It’s considered a hobby, therapy, good for the kids. We have little sense of its potential power.
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 abook. Or a painting.
Peter Doig ” Country-Rock (Wing-Mirror)” oil on canvas 76.7″ x 106.3″ 1999
Peter Doig is a contemporary painter who I was very interested in at one time – until I discovered he uses a projector to create his art. I have strong feelings against this practice, as I wrote about in an earlier piece, The Image Morgue:
“Projector artists. Artists who cheat themselves and their audience by projecting an image onto their canvas and doing a paint-by-numbers routine to create their works. Artists like this have reduced themselves to a mere cog in a mechanical reproduction process, not creating, but taking dictation from their gadgets. They let their tools make their discoveries for them. It is an inferior mode of creation.
“If you’re an artist, do your own rendering.”
Still, Doig has done wonderous things with color and the handling of the paint. which is why I continue to enjoy his work. He can evoke beauty.
It’s estimated Doig’s 1999 painting Country-Rock (Wing-Mirror) will be setting some auctions records.
“In 1972, sixteen-year-old Berg Johnson – a self-anointed ‘Caretaker of Dreams’ – painted a rainbow over the grey façade of a roadside underpass on the outskirts of Toronto. Johnson was inspired by the memory of a friend, Sigrid, who had tragically died in a car accident nearby. He would often complain to her that people in Toronto ‘never looked up’ and following her death he wanted to do something to make people smile.
“It is Johnson’s rainbow tunnel, just off Toronto’s Don Valley Parkway, that we glimpse as if from the passenger seat of a passing car in Peter Doig’s Country-rock (wing-mirror), 1999. This mysterious landscape is distinctly Doig: characterised by his trademark otherworldliness and capturing the familiar ennui of such peripheral spaces.
“Every time a major landscape by Doig is offered at auction it represents an important market moment: only last year, Swamped, 1990, established a new artist record of US$39 million. Replete with mystery and intrigue, Country-rock (wing-mirror)will be a highlight of Sotheby’s Hong Kong Contemporary Evening Auction this autumn, the most significant work by Doig to be offered at auction in Asia.”
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 abook. Or a painting.
Art is not an American male priority. With our focus on responsibility and practicality, art might seem frivolous. It’s considered a hobby, therapy, good for the kids. We have little sense of its potential 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 abook. Or a painting.
Charles Thomson is the co-founder of Remodernism. In April Thomson contributed an exhibition review to Counterpunch Magazine. According to Thomson, “Cute,” the art show on display at Somerset House, is a bait and switch for something much more sinister.
Cute: From Hello Kitty to Sexual Subculture
“That should have been the full title of the show currently on at Somerset House, half a mile along the Strand from Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately, only the four-letter word beginning with ‘c’ was used, which dupes families into visiting an innocent, kiddy-friendly entertainment, only to find out that half of it is a show of transgression and perversion. I understand a number of parents have complained. I’m not surprised.
“The image above is the one used extensively to promote the show and was spotted by the bus stops outside East Finchley tube station by my colleague, Jasmine Surreal. She is self-confessedly besotted with cuteness and equally averse to transgression and perversion. Her enthusiastic anticipation of visiting the show was equaled only by her disappointment on experiencing it, specifically that she ‘didn’t want to see all that shit upstairs.'”
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 abook. Or a painting.
January 23, 2021. It was a dark time in our country, and I wanted a project to focus on, to add some positive content to the world.
It was the first post of what I called my “Daily Art Fix.” After that first entry, I continued to put up an art themed post every day for over a year, until February 24, 2022. On February 25, we lost our internet connection for 12 days. Thieves had stolen vital equipment that knocked our whole neighborhood out.
By the time the internet was restored I had lost the inclination to produce the Daily Art Fix. I’ve been keeping busy on many other projects: painting, writing, planning.
The dark times have continued. The choice we need to make as a country is clear, and we must not allow another theft to occur. To feed the positive and alternative growth of culture, now I’m going to start another run of a daily post on the art world links which caught my eye.
We start with the newest post from my wife Michele Bledsoe’s blog The Secret Kingdom. She reminisces about what her life was like right before we met. Seems like a good place to start.
STRANGE HABITS AND THE ART OF POLYMER CLAY
Many, many years ago
when I lived alone with my dog, Gunther
I developed some strange habits.
Open packages of marshmallow Peeps
all over the place
slowly turning into Peep-jerky..
Dinner was often instant mashed potatoes straight out of the pot
drenched in ketchup.
I never used my oven for cooking…
just for baking all the little creatures I made out of Sculpey.
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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 abook. Or a painting.
The continuation of a new series of Remodern America videos. These videos are possible due to the technical skills of my wife: I am the director, and she makes my vision come to life. It’s another fun part of our creative collaborations.
Video Number Five: Empire Follows Art
Over the last century, our way of life followed art away from reality and into a fantasy world generated by The New Aristocracy of the Well Connected, where they reign supreme. Art for them is just another form of propaganda to propagate their own power.
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 abook. Or a painting.
The continuation of a new series of Remodern America videos. Number four is a video about painting and intellectual theory about “the end of history.” There is no end to history, just as there is no end to human potential. Great art reminds us of this.
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 abook. Or a painting.
Richard Bledsoe “I Believe I’m Sinking Down” acrylic on canvas 30″ x 40″2023
In September of 2023, I completed the third work in a commissioned series of paintings.
I spent much of 2023 on this major painting, a depiction of the final act of a great American myth.
I’ve loved blues music since I was a teenager in the 1980s; the first purchase I ever made in the genre was a cassette of the Robert Johnson compilation “King of the Delta Blues Singers.” I’d read about the legend of how Johnson went to a crossroad and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for worldly glory. The tale resonated with my interests in both spirituality and weirdness.
Those same fascinations drive my art. In 2021, I finished a major painting on Johnson’s tragedy.
In an earlier post I described how my depiction of “Hellhound On My Trail,” sold to an out of state patron. As this painting represented Johnson haunted by his diabolical deal, this patron requested two more works to show the beginning and ending of Johnson’s downfall. He wanted depictions of both the initial crossroad meeting and the ultimate consequences, when the devil comes to collect.
“I have visions. They come at the most random times. I could be washing the dishes, or driving to work, and suddenly the picture is there. It usually arrives now with a title, dimensions and suggestions for technique.”
I had to find the vision within myself for the paintings before I could commit. I was was blessed that inspiration struck, and I saw how I could tell those other parts of the tale.
The new version of “Crossroad” would be that moment where the man had to make that choice, hesitating right on the threshold of destiny and damnation, all taking place as some eerie moonlit blues.
The new version of “Sinking” shows the man where he thought he wanted to be, experiencing the glamour of being on stage, under the lights, unleashing the talent he sold his soul for. But he has never been more alone, singing to no one, in front a kudzu patch strangling the life out of a dark forest. Only an owl, a harbinger of death, witnesses his performance.
The lights reveal the man’s soul demonically twisted into oozing corruption. The end is near.
It was intense to return to this large work over and over again throughout the year, slowly bringing it into full realization.
Here is the full story in the order of occurrence.
Richard Bledsoe “At the Crossroad” acrylic on canvas 30″ x 40″
Richard Bledsoe “Hellhound On My Trail” acrylic on canvas 30″ x 40″
Richard Bledsoe “I Believe I’m Sinking Down” acrylic on canvas 30″ x 40″
I will look forward to doing more paintings exploring America’s rich heritage and mysteries.
As I worked on “Sinking,” I took pictures charting its development, some of which I share below.
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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 abook. Or a painting.
The continuation of a new series of Remodern America videos. Number three is a video about art and the shadow side of humanity. I am humbled in the presence of the Shadow. I don’t make the mistake of believing its power is my own. I can accept the flaws it shows me I have. And as a artist, I can translate its secrets into a shared experience.
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 abook. Or a painting.
At SEEDs for Autism we understand that art is a powerful form of communication. Art encourages creativity and self-expression. Art stirs the imagination and helps us grow as we engage with other artists, improve our skills and create beautiful pictures to share with the world. THE FELLOWSHIP OF ART features the work of local community artists, SEEDs Instructors and students. Please join us on March 31st and be a part of this exciting one-night-only art show at SEEDs for Autism.
Fellowship can be defined as a friendly association between people with shared interests. Artists of all kinds form a fellowship, one that delights in communicating in the universal language of art. “The Fellowship of Art” is a pop up gallery experience that brings together local artists to show with the talented participants of Seeds for Autism for a special one night event.
Richard Bledsoe of Remodern America, one of the organizers of the show, said, “Artists show us who they are with their creations. By hosting this art show, Seeds for Autism is providing opportunity for a diverse group of creatives to come together and share with the community. It truly is a fellowship of art, where everyone makes their own unique contribution.”
SEEDs for Autism is a unique vocational training program in Phoenix, AZ dedicated to providing adults across the spectrum with hands-on experience as they learn a variety of life skills, social skills and job skills in a real-life work environment. Through the production and sale of their hand-crafted home and garden items, adults on the autism spectrum build self-confidence as they step outside of their comfort zone and GROW.
50% of all Art Sales will be donated to support the life-changing program at SEEDs for Autism.
Richard Bledsoe “The Pop Star” acrylic on canvas 24″ x 30″
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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 abook. Or a painting.
THE REMODERN REVIEW 