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

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:

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.

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. So 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!!

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.

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.

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:

Also want to mention, although I’m sure you’ve all heard, that the wonderful Helen Frankenthaler has passed away. I was a huge fan. She was one of the few prominent female artists in the overwhelming male-dominated world of abstract expressionism. And one of the best, in my opinion. Many great articles and obituaries on Frankenthaler on the web. I recommend checking them out.

Here is one paragraph from the Times article I linked to above. I think it describes Helen Frankenthaler’s work perfectly:

Her staining method emphasized the flat surface over illusory depth, and it called attention to the very nature of paint on canvas, a concern of artists and critics at the time. It also brought a new, open airiness to the painted surface and was credited with releasing color from the gestural approach and romantic rhetoric of Abstract Expressionism.

Hope everyone is well. I will most likely be tweeting my visit to Boston so you can always read me there should you desire a little distraction . . and a little Degas

See you all soon!

She’s a Hajian through and through. Brava!

In mid-afternoon I noticed that my backyard birdfeeder was empty. NOOOOO!!!!! I hate that. My normally crowded, chaotic birdfeeder, frequented by cardinals, blue jays, finches and a host of feathered friends, was now empty and abandoned. And of course, I was all out of birdseed. This was unacceptable. The birds won’t have anything to eat on Christmas morning!! <—– yes, I’m a wacko. So I got in my my car and drove to one of the two garden centers in my neighborhood, hoping that it would still be open at 4:30 on the day before Christmas. When I got there, they started making hand gestures shooing me out the door the minuted I walked in. “We’re closed, ma’am! Sorry.” Yeah I bet you are, you evil bird-hater. So I jumped back in my car and drove like a lunatic to the next garden center. I walked in there and all signs indicated “closing”- gates coming down, lights turning off. But I asked anyway, “Are you officially closed?”. A really cute guy who works there responded, “Why? What do you need?”. So I asked, in my best coquettish flirt-voice, “How about a ten pound bag of birdseed??”. And then, like music to my ears, he smiled and said, “Sure. Ok. Make it quick.” YAAAAYYYY!!!!

You all think I’m weird, don’t you? Well, maybe I am, but I’m a weirdo who will wake up Christmas morning to the sounds of happy feasting birds chirping outside my bedroom window. It is one of life’s wonderful, simple joys. It comforts me.

Have a warm and blessed Christmas, dear friends. Rejoice in the spirit of the season. Peace unto you and all God’s creatures . . . especially the birds

From the fresco of Scrovengi Chapel in Padua, this is the nativity scene by Giotto: