Dali in Character

In Woody Allen’s latest film “Midnight in Paris”, the actor Adrien Brody does a memorable cameo as Salvador Dali. It’s a very funny scene in which Owen Wilson’s character, Gil, finds himself sitting at a cafe table in Paris with the Spanish artist and his surrealist buddies Luis Buñuel and Man Ray. Gil shares with the men his confused feelings about his life and career, his fiancee (played by Rachel McAdams) and his bizarre delusions of time-traveling back and forth from the 21st century to the 1920s. Brody’s Dali, speaking in almost indecipherable heavily-accented English, starts babbling on about drawing and rhinoceroses fornicating. Man Ray seems to think there is nothing peculiar at all about Gil’s strange fantasies. It’s amusing to watch Gil try to distinguish dreams from reality  while commiserating with a group of surrealists. They are of course no help to him at all.

Salvador Dali is one of those characters who was in real life just as offbeat and cartoonish as he is perceived. He cultivated that image. We’ve all seen pictures of him with his bulging eyes, outlandish moustache, looking completely crazy and off his rocker. He even made odd appearances as a contestant on TV game shows in the 1950s. In “Midnight in Paris”, Adrien Brody almost seemed to underplay Dali’s weirdo persona, yet still managed to communicate the artist’s eccentricity to a tee. I’m a fan of both Brody and Dali so the cameo was a special treat for me. I recounted a personal story about Salvador Dali from my childhood in an old Museworthy post.

While Salvador Dali will forever be a colorful cult figure in popular culture, his expert artistic talents should never be overlooked. The man was an amazing draftsman and painter. His works are absolutely masterful in their use of geometry, symbolism, space, and vivid imaginings. I especially like Dali’s treatment of religious themes. Look at his version of the Ascension of Christ, from 1958. That is some serious foreshortening!

Happy 4th Birthday Museworthy!!

Here we are again, dearest friends. Commemorating  another Museworthy blog birthday We have completed four marvelous years. Who would have thought that the life of an artist’s model could inspire enough material for steady blogging? I sure didn’t! Yet, here we are. Here I am, after all this time. It’s a minor wonder, but a wonder nonetheless.

In keeping with an awesome Museworthy tradition, we have a photo of yours truly taken by my friend Fred Hatt. Together we chose an image that reflects where I am right now personally – content, relaxed, fulfilled, breathing in life. Merci beaucoup Fred.

But will this next year – the fifth – be the last year for Museworthy? I can’t honestly say right now. What I do know is that full time art modeling is beginning to take its toll on me. I’ve been feeling it but trying to keep it to myself, until now. I want to be clear though; It’s NOT my spirit. It’s my body.

So a crossroads might be hovering on my horizon. I can either aggressively fend off the deterioration and fight for my right to remain on the art modeling platform with every fiber of my being, or maybe – possibly – think about my future and consider the necessity, the inevitability, of a new life. A different life for my “second half”.

Ah, we’ll see. Right now I can’t contemplate giving up something I absolutely love. Nope. Not today. Instead, let’s just enjoy the Museworthy milestone together as friends. I am still here. Thanks so very, very much, to each and every one of  you

I’ve always liked this track from Bob Dylan. Listen with me to “New Morning”:

Pastels With Sam

The pastel portrait workshop I posed for last weekend was a great experience for many reasons. It was my first ever modeling job at the Art League of Long Island. The people enrolled in the class were incredibly warm, enthusiastic, and congenial. And best of all, the instructor was my very dear friend Sam Goodsell. Sam and I first became acquainted at the Art Students League years ago when I was just a new, inexperienced model cutting my teeth and learning the ropes of the art modeling world. I no longer work at the ASL, but Sam and I have remained friends ever since.

Sam really gave the workshop his all. He did a portrait demo, discussed pastel products and materials at length, showed how he preps a board surface using gesso, acrylics, and ground pumice, and answered every question asked of him. Sam is such an easy guy to talk to. Down-to-earth, sweet, funny.

Here is Sam doing his demo of me. He spoke eloquently about creating values, which is his great strength as a pastelist. Sam’s beautiful tones are what most attracts people to his work. I overheard a student saying that the reason she signed up for a Sam Goodsell workshop was to learn “how to create those values”.

Judy Davidson captured a terrific likeness of me in this pastel piece. When I asked her if I could photograph it for my blog she not only said yes but offered me the actual drawing! How generous! I asked her, “Are you sure you don’t want it?”. Judy was adamant and told me – in fact ordered me! – to take it home. Really nice when artists do that So I have this work in my possession. It is a marvelous addition to my cherished treasure trove of art that I have collected over the years which chronicles my modeling career:

Pastels themselves are beautiful to look at. The quality of the pigment is different from that of oil paint. More pure perhaps? Pastelists have a special relationship with color. Reverent and passionate. It’s like a love affair, and Sam embodies that love. On one of the breaks, he and I were looking at his pastels and I saw him brimming with fondness and adoration for certain sticks that were his favorites, the ones he couldn’t live without. “I love greens” he said, smiling. “God I love greens!”. (I like blues myself). I think if Sam’s place was on fire he would risk his life to collect his pastels and save them from the inferno. Not his clothes or his gadgets or his photos. His pastels.

Another portrait of me, this one by Suzanne Young. So different from Judy’s, but just as beautiful. Everyone in the workshop concentrated intensely, trying to develop the technique of creating tones and values. When the class was working it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

I posted more of my photos from the workshop on Flickr. Hope you enjoy them. And a final blogging note; please visit here on Saturday for a special Museworthy celebration. See you then!

Marsalis on Monday

Hellooooo!! How is everyone? I am in the middle of a work crunch. Did the whole weekend with the portrait workshop and now, like the Energizer Bunny, I keep going: two drawing sessions today, then tomorrow, and THEN I can break a bit on Wednesday

I wish I could write a little more but I’m leaving in a bit. Lots of good stuff coming up on the blog so stay tuned! Let’s have a little Music Monday with Wynton Marsalis. I’ve seen him play live and he’s quite electrifying. Great musician and great ambassador for jazz. Here he is performing “Portrait of Louis Armstrong” with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Enjoy, and I’ll see you very soon!

Community

I am so thrilled over the enthusiastic response to the Museworthy Art Show! Everyone, thank you so much. I’m really excited for this now

So I was thinking that we’ll make the deadline for submissions on November 1st, which is a Tuesday. Then the show post will go up a week after that, on November 8th. Hope that sounds good to everyone. Also, when you send your image, put “Museworthy Art” in the subject memo. Include your name however you want it to appear, title of the work, medium, and any other description you’d like to add. My email address is claudielh at aol dot com. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask, as I’m sure I probably forgot something!

Last thing I want to mention is that even though this blog is strongly oriented toward figurative art, your work does NOT have to be figurative. If it is, great. But you should submit whatever it is you do well – what pleases you, what inspires you. My own mother is submitting a pastel landscape.

This weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, I am posing for a portrait workshop taught by my friend Sam Goodsell. Looking forward to it! I’ll try not to make funny faces at him while he’s doing his demo

Egon Schiele, 1918:

Fellow Americans

 

RIP Tim Welty. FDNY Squad 288 in Maspeth, Queens. Husband, father of two, carpenter, skier, bungee-jumper, fearless individualist . . . usher at my wedding.

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.” — John F. Kennedy

Museworthy Artists

Hey gang! I mentioned in a recent post that I had a neat idea for this blog, so here it is. Are you ready? :drumroll and fanfare: I would like to invite any and all Museworthy readers to submit an artwork for an “art show” blog post! I really hope this interests many of you. I have readers who are artists, others who are not. For those who draw, sketch, paint, or sculpt, seriously or casually, from life or not from life, you are cordially and warmly invited to contribute an image of your work to be published here in a “group show” on Museworthy! You may include a description of your piece and provide any details you wish. It can be anything you choose – whatever you are happy with, whatever represents you, or whatever you think represents this blog! It’s your choice and it’s all for fun

I know that some of you have your own blogs where you post your work, so this blog will be just another viewing setting for your art. I will add that Museworthy has 57 subscribers and receives anywhere between 500 and 800 hits per day. So a decent audience here that I’m sure will enjoy a Museworthy art show.

I need feedback on this idea, so please make your voice heard in the comments and let me know if I can count you in. I would love so much to make this happen! I was thinking we could aim for early November? That would allow enough time for me to receive submissions and get everything organized.

The Tub, by Anders Zorn:

I’m off to bed now. The next blog post (the 500th post on Museworthy) will be published on Sunday, September 11th, at exactly 8:46 AM, Eastern Standard Time. See you then.

From Rags to Musical Riches

Hello everyone! Won’t you join me for a Music Monday here on Museworthy? Today we pay tribute to the uniquely American musical genre known as “ragtime”. In our imaginations, we associate rags with the lively, danceable piano music played at the turn-of-the-century in saloons, music halls, cabarets, even the seedier honky-tonks and bordellos in the red light districts. While the genteel classes were still enjoying their waltzes, the other half of America was falling in love with ragtime and its syncopated rhythms.

Rags are really quite sophisticated compositions, especially those written by the great and gifted Scott Joplin who sought to elevate the genre from its bordello reputation. The son of a former slave father and freeborn mother, Joplin hailed from a region of Texas known as “Texarkana”. Throughout his childhood Joplin played piano after school in the homes of neighbors and family friends. He soon caught of the attention of Julius Weiss, a music professor who emigrated from Germany. Weiss gave Joplin lessons for five years and introduced him to other forms of music like opera and classical. Joplin ended up in Sedalia, Missouri where he performed around town in dance halls, accompanied bands and orchestras, gave piano lessons, and continued his studies in harmony and composition.

Scott Joplin’s signature piece, “Maple Leaf Rag”, was published in 1899 and became a huge success. It is considered singularly responsible for the popularity of ragtime music. Scott Joplin received a 1% royalty on every piece of sheet music sold, which afforded him a steady income for the rest of his life.

Ragtime is a hybrid that brings together elements of black musical styles combined with polkas, jigs, waltzes, and marches. While the earliest rags were crude, the compositions became more refined as the style matured, thanks to Joplin of course. Structurally, rags are written in either 2/4 or 4/4 time. Their most distinct musical quality is “syncopation”, with the notes of the melody falling in between the rhythms and the bass notes and chords bouncing between odd and even numbered beats. A pianist must have excellent right/left hand coordination to play a rag well. Listening to a rag superficially, it could sound like the melody and bass line are at war with each other. But alas, they are not. That’s the beauty of ragtime.

This YouTube video features Scott Joplin himself performing his Maple Leaf Rag recorded on piano roll which was the primary music storage device at the time. No, there was no MIDI in those days! But this is an absolute delight to listen to. Enjoy!

See a complete list of Scott Joplin’s compositions here.

Minor Inconveniences

Welcome to the weeeeek-end!!! A holiday weekend that is. Mine got off to a pesky start; first a malfunctioning refrigerator this morning, then a wild goose chase in search of a specific cordless phone battery (don’t ask), and then a “vandalized” section of my garden apparently caused by some raucous critter in the night. My guess is a raccoon but it could have been cats too. On top of all this, a paycheck I’m expecting (and could really use right now) didn’t arrive in the mail today like I had hoped. Maybe tomorrow. Thankfully the fridge has been repaired with a new defrost thermostat and my juice and tofu are now returning to food safety standards. But sadly, one cut section of cantaloupe didn’t make it. Let’s have a moment of silence, shall we, for the dear departed cantaloupe

I have a nice idea for the blog, but I’ll explain it in another post very soon. Right now I’m going enjoy my cup of tea and look forward to the weekend! A full, jam-packed art modeling schedule is rapidly approaching, so I’m going to make the most of these free days.

Here is a charcoal sketch of me by Bruce. This was one of the poses I was doing while darling Ika was giving me a rubdown