if i believe

if i believe – e.e. cummings

if i believe
in death be sure
of this
it is

because you have loved me,
moon and sunset
stars and flowers
gold crescendo and silver muting

of seatides
i trusted not,

one night

when in my fingers

drooped your shining body
when my heart
sang between your perfect
breasts

darkness and beauty of stars
was on my mouth petals danced
against my eyes
and down

the singing reaches of
my soul
spoke
the green-

greeting pale-
departing irrevocable
sea
i knew thee death.

and when

i have offered up each fragrant
night,when all my days
shall have before a certain

face become
white
perfume
only,

from the ashes

then
thou wilt rise and thou
wilt come to her and brush

the mischief from her eyes and fold
her
mouth the new
flower with

thy unimaginable
wings,where dwells the breath
of all persisting stars

Marianne Stokes, Death of Tristram, 1902:

A Little Bird Told Me

Charlie “Bird” Parker, the legendary jazz saxophonist and bebop giant, famously said, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn”. Assuming that’s true, I could play a hell of a song right now about modeling for art classes. I have no clue what a song like that would sound like, but it would be authentic that’s for sure! Indeed, I have lived it.

Whew, I’m tired. I worked all week, Saturday and Sunday, and today. Now I’m home and ready to do absolutely nothing but relax. In 1946, Bird suffered a nervous breakdown in a hotel in Los Angeles. He had been drinking heavily, caused a disturbance in the hotel lobby, and accidentally set his mattress on fire, allegedly caused by an errant cigarette. Parker was arrested and committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital where he received six months of treatment for heroin and alcohol abuse. The stay at Camarillo proved to be a successful one. Bird got clean and sober, played with the hospital band, slept, relaxed, and even tended to the vegetable garden on the facility grounds which he enjoyed a great deal.

Parker knew that his confinement at Camarillo was one of the best things to happen to him. He left the hospital with a feeling of renewal, rejuvenation, and a new lease on life. Before he returned to New York, Parker wrote a song in honor of his recovery called Relaxin’ at Camarillo. And why not? Bird himself had “lived it”, so it came out of his horn. And what a surprisingly upbeat, optimistic little tune it is. Charlie Parker may be one of the few addicts in history to have actually LIKED rehab! This is Music Monday:

Fortunately, my need for relaxation is not due to addiction or substance abuse. Mine is just a plain old fatigue and a sore body. Still, listening to Bird’s version will do just fine. Catch you later, friends

Finding Composure

I have neither the will nor the energy right now to discuss at length the unhinged madness of the world in which we live. Who am I kidding using the word “discuss”? There is no discussion. There’s only hysteria, fear-mongering, verbal abuse, and the insidious effects of groupthink. In my lifetime, I can’t recall a period in our culture of more overheated rhetoric, more histrionics, or more twisted priorities than the times we are in now. What’s most disheartening to me are the sheer numbers of people who refuse to analyze anything in depth and can thus be tricked into believing they are supporting a noble cause, when really they are just being manipulated as pawns. I guess they’re naive. Or perhaps they enjoy that feeling of “righteousness”, however misguided it may be. Still, I would say to those people: you are being played.

Enough of that. Given that Twitter and the social media scene has been an absolute trainwreck of late, I am delighted to be in the midst of a busy modeling week. Thank you Jesus! The past few Thursdays I’ve been posing privately for the wonderful figurative artist Sigmund Abeles. In our sessions he is teaching one student and doing a little art himself. Here’s a lovely pastel drawing Sigmund created during a 20 minute pose. I was fairly crunched up here and leaning to my left. Sigmund captured the gestures and shapes very nicely:

Golden Jam

For today’s Music Monday, I am posting a video that I have fallen so in love with I can’t even estimate how many times I’ve watched it. With over five million views on YouTube, this is musician Drew Arcoleo jamming with his friend’s dog, a golden retriever who clearly digs the music.

If this video doesn’t make you smile, then you must have a defect or deficiency in your personality. So watch and enjoy as an adorable Golden Retriever gets its groove on Thanks to Jonah Goldberg of the National Review for posting this on his Twitter.

Saturday Stuff

Happy Saturday y’all! May I ask that you take a brief break from your weekend football viewing preparations to read Museworthy? You can buy beer and chips later, ok?

Just passing on word that I’ve been hearing from several folks in my art modeling travels, that the Renaissance Portrait exhibition at the Met is a must-see. A must MUST see. I’m due for a visit to the Met myself, so I’ll be checking it out soon hopefully. Busy modeling schedule in the next few weeks but the show is up until March 18th. Still plenty of time.

Time is running out, however, for London-area Museworthy readers, for Leonardo da Vinci at the National Gallery. That’s closing on February 5th. Wish I could see it. And it seems that art lovers are getting up at the crack of dawn for Leonardo. The sold-out record breaking show is turning away latecomers.

Southern California folks might want to see Images of the Artist at the Getty Center before it closes on February 12th. An exploration of portraits and self-portraits of artists over five centuries. Looks fascinating.

These portrait events are quite apropos since I’m immersed in portraiture these days. I’ve been sitting for a portrait class on Friday mornings, and am posing again for a pastel portrait workshop taught by my friend Sam Goodsell. We did it back in September, and now we’re doing a sequel! That will be next weekend and I’m really looking forward to it.

From the year 1450, this is Portrait of a Lady, by Paolo Uccello:

That’s all for now friends. Enjoy the weekend. Go Giants!!

At the Theater with Everett Shinn

Hello friends. This post was supposed to go up yesterday for Music Monday. I planned to write it when I got home from work but something came up that put me in a crummy, unsettled mood. It’s not a big deal, I just have a sensitivity to old unwelcome emotions being stirred up. So I sulked most of the night and neglected my blog

I wanted to share these images of Everett Shinn paintings. Shinn was a member of the Ashcan School, a talented group of American realist painters who explored urban subjects and daily life in New York City. Although not an organized group in any official way, the Ashcan artists shared an interest in city life and the social conditions of the time. Portrayals of gritty, unvarnished realism was the driving focus for most of the Ashcan artists. Subjects such as tenement buildings, beggars, drunks, and street scenes were prevalent.

Although the great Robert Henri is considered the “founder” of the Ashcan school, its other members, many of whom studied under Henri, produced works of great atmospheric impact, authenticity, and skillful execution. Everett Shinn, the youngest of the group, was an impressive figure. Handsome, well-trained, and visually astute, he worked at various times as an illustrator, theater set designer, fine artist, and even an actor and playwright. It was Shinn’s extensive experience in the theater that allowed him to create marvelously vivid works of vaudeville scenes and downtown theater performances, all of which were thriving in New York City in the early 1900s. Shinn’s depictions really transport you into the seats, crowds, and intimate, informal atmosphere of colorful theater life.

This is one of my favorite Shinn paintings. Spanish Music Hall from 1902, oil on canvasboard. See the entry for this work at the Metropolitan Museum website for some nice zoom-in details. Love that dress!

The Orchestra Pit, Old Proctor’s Fifth Avenue Theater, from 1906. Interesting angle and perspective. It should come as no surprise that Shinn was a great admirer of Edgar Degas. Read more background about this painting at the Yale University site.

This is Revue, from 1908. Shin captured the performer’s gesture perfectly and gave the white costume, ornate hat, and woman’s face all the light and attention, yet his background darks are not so dark to appear muddy or dingy. It’s all beautifully done.

Check out this great platinum print of Everett Shinn. Kind of sexy Here’s another informative page and a terrific blog post on Everett Shinn. Very interesting guy in many ways. I think we’ll be seeing more of him, and his Ashcan buddies, on Museworthy again in the future.

2011 in Review, and an Art World Rumble

Hey gang! I was just chatting on the phone with my Mom and I casually mentioned that I’m due for a new blog post. When I told her I would procrastinate and do it Friday night, she suggested I get it up now. Oh snap! My Mom doesn’t mess around. So, under extreme pressure from my momma, I’m posting now. Ok, maybe not “extreme” pressure, but enough to make me comply. She is my Mom, after all.

This has been my first week back to modeling after the holiday break. I’m happy to report that it’s off to a splendid start. Feels great to working again and to see my calendar filling up. Will post work from my modeling jobs as it comes in. Also, I thought I’d take a cue from other WordPress bloggers, namely my dear friend Doug Rogers, who shared with his readers the “year in review” stat roundup given us by our WordPress custodians at the end of every year. It’s fun to check out, so thought I’d share. And I’d like to say thank you to the United States, Great Britain, and Canada!

“The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog:”

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 200,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 9 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The next item is really cool. I love a good art world brawl, don’t you? Well, British artist David Hockney has offered up a well-deserved smackdown of notorious “conceptualist”, hack, and dead animal exploiter Damien Hirst. Hockney, who was recently honored by the Queen with the Order of Merit, criticized Hirst for his use of assistants to produce art that bears his name. The British arts press is having a field day with this story. Here’s the Daily Mail article, and here it is in The Guardian. I say we take this further. How about a WWF-style match between the two men? I put my money on Hockney, not only because I agree with him, but because he smokes and doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks about it. Very badass.

Here’s some great David Hockney:

And of course check out Hockney’s website for more images.

Alright friends. I’ll be back very soon. I have a portrait class in the morning, so I need my beauty sleep  Fun stuff coming up in the new year for Museworthy. Hope you all stay along for the ride.

What Lies Ahead

2012 has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Look at it written out: twenty-twelve. It sounds really fresh and sharp, but also has a tone of valor and assuredness, optimism and resolve. The alliteration and concise rhythm add to that tone. Twenty-twelve. Of course neither I nor anyone else knows if this year will unfold with such attributes. We’ll see.

Because I was just in Boston last week, I thought I’d post a New Year’s poem by a Boston native: the one and only Sylvia Plath.  She found the inspiration for “New Year on Dartmoor” as she was taking a walk with her young daughter. While the child sees the end-of-year surroundings with wonder and “newness”, the mother’s voice – the cynical and apprehensive adult – points out the superficiality of it all, knowing that challenges and uncertainty lie ahead. Plath presents it like only Sylvia Plath can.

New Year on Dartmoor, by Sylvia Plath

This is newness: every little tawdry
Obstacle glass-wrapped and peculiar,
Glinting and clinking in a saint’s falsetto. Only you
Don’t know what to make of the sudden slippiness,
The blind, white, awful, inaccessible slant.
There’s no getting up to it by the words you know.
No getting up by elephant or wheel or shoe.
We have only come to look. You are too new
To want the world in a glass hat.

You can read a superb analysis of this poem here.

Happy 2012 to all of my readers. Let’s hope for peace, prosperity, love, and strength in the New Year. Looking forward into the future, we all have much to think about.

A beauty from Frederic Lord Leighton, this is Solitude: