Dear all:

Spring has arrived in NYC, and I am grateful. As those who live in winter climes know, it has been an unusually long, cold, and difficult winter. Texas on the other hand has been dry and is already heating up….in the 90s, and its still early May. We will be there in August when 100 will be the daily temperature. Oh well. There's lots of AC wherever you go. 

The semester has just finished up at NYSS. This was my fifth, and I must say I think I've had a fairly important breakthrough in examining the work of Chaim Soutine and David Park. Soutine looks for the language of art and Park resurrects the figure from abstract art.  Soutine is trying to get it right and find relationships. Park tries to react to what the painting needs. With that, I've added a heavy brush and large quantities of paint to my own pieces. I was truly on a roll from late January through April and began each day in the studio about 9 a.m. and worked through late afternoon/early evening. At last count I think I had finished about 20 new pieces that ranged all the way from a Rembrandt rendition of The Prodigal to a snapshot of pork hanging on a hook in Japan. At a more simple level, there are several still life. Each of these needs some touch up work for them to be declared finished. As usual my atelier leaders Graham Nickson and Elisa Jensen were very helpful in their review, and Eve Aschheim, who is a professor of art at Princeton, presented me with an array of comments. Basically, she said, "Jack, keep it simple."

Then it was my turn for the critique panel where a panel of four (including my atelier plus John Dubrow, a working New York artist, and Jim Plunkett, a working NYC artist and MFA graduate from NYSS) reviewed my work. John has been a panel member for the end-of-semester critiques for the past several years and was more generous this year than before; for which I was relieved.  

I'm planning a series on Nebraska when we make our trip to my high school reunion in Albion next month. I want to take photos of some buildings in Omaha -- like a gas station on Dodge Street, the Missouri River (maybe with a bridge), some trees on the drive to Albion, and some growing plants along the road. If a haystack comes along, I want that too.

The second series may be of life after the Chernobyl explosion in the Ukraine. I think I'll need to go there to be creditable and do the photo work. With the situation between Russia and Ukraine, there is a possibility I can't get in. I have friends in art school from that area so I'll have them check out the travel possibility. A third series is floating around my brain and it would be of bridges in major cities. I painted a bridge in Prague some years ago and have another bridge in Amsterdam. Of course, there are 1,200 bridges in Amsterdam so there is much to choose from there. 

With those series in mind, how am I going to be a full-time student at NYSS this fall? It will be my last formal semester in the certification program, though I may have to stay longer. We really do like this city and all there is to do and see here. (Decisions for a later time.)

Thanks to all of you who keep up with my somewhat erratic blog. If you'd like to drop a line I'd love to hear from you. 

Thanks,

Titled: Marilyn

From an Andy Warhol point of view. I modified this 1950s piece with my own variations on all characters.

More news to come.

This past week, David Cohen, editor of ARTCritique, guided us NYSS students on a tour of the Whitney Biennial which, of course, was held at the Whitney. By the way, the Whitney as it has been known for most of the past century will be moving to the meat packing district in the near future.

In case you didn't know, the New York Studio School was originally the Whitney mansion and then became the Whitney Art School, and then the NYSS. 

We visited all four floors at the Whitney and most of us kept asking the question, "Where is the art?" I found only two pieces of any painterly quality, and these were on the fourth floor. 

My perception of the museum was that it's a jumble of pieces, a mixture of stuff -- glass, wood, and stone -- all laid out in a combination of colors, shapes, and sizes. With a lack of common themes, what's the message? 

I will be interested to follow the Whitney to its new place. And it will worth a visit to this old place when it becomes a part of the MET.

Also this week was a day for MFA critiques featuring a panel of distinguished artists, including the Graham Nickson, Lois Dodd, Karen Wilkin, and Alexi Worth. I’m sure the MFA students are processing the review of their work and thinking about what's next.

We spent a few beautiful days in Austin, where spring is in full tilt, and returned to NYC earlier this week, where winter is still cold. There is something wrong with this picture, but yet that back-and-forth has allowed us time in two beloved places and has allowed me to continue with the spring semester at the Studio School.

School at NYSS started Monday and put spring break and a longer cold/flu break behind me. I'm feeling good but slogging through the cold recent snow this week.

I do need the structure and stimulation of my classes, which includes an upcoming trip to Pierogi Gallery looking at flat files and a talk with an in-residence artist. We will also proceed to Mr Kalish's studio. Then a brief break and back to NYSS for the evening lecture by Alex Nagel. This is all under the direction of our instructor, David Cohen, author and publisher of the Artcritical Magazine.

I find that without the stimulation of the models so available to us at NYSS, I need to push a lot harder to get something on a canvas. I went to a still life of flowers in a vase a morning or so ago, and that helped. Once I have a few weeks more under my belt, I'll share some art images.

Best,

I have been getting up to date on my ARTnews magazine and recently found an old copy with an article on the world's top 200 collectors. The information in this article was totally a new reading experience for me. Do a quick self quiz. Can you name the top 5 collector? Roman Abramovich is listed as  number one -- at least he was when this article was put together more than a year ago. Most of the top ten have several homes around world and fill those homes with art that matches the decor in the respective homes. A yound friend of mine and I had a discussion about collecting art, and his approach is simply buying what he likes . . . storing most of it away (his current work has him living oversees). He does subscribe to several Bonham catalogs which he thinks keeps him up to date on art across the board. He has a love of art and a hankering for investments and has at least some disposable income. One final note on this topic. China continues to be important in collecting art. The growth in wealth and interest in art in many categories is remarkable. The NYT and the WSJ frequently have articles that cover some of the recent acquisitions of art by buyers from China. Who guides them? Are they buying out of their own interest and judgement? Here's one article; David Cohen of ArtCritical has also covered this issue. 

. . .

I went thru a critique with NYSS Dean Graham Nickson before I gave in to the cold/flu a few weeks ago. Trying to get started with my art has taken longer than I thought, but I'm making some progress with more than a few drawings, several paintings, and a new twist with black acrylic and a few drops of varnish scattered on paper. Concerning the last, I then tie together what I can with a charcoal pencil and fixable spray to settle all in. So far it's nothing special, but it keeps my brain thinking in a creative direction. The relationship for me between feeling pretty good and getting it on with art is enormous. It is the best measure of my health I have. 

Thanks much for sticking with my blog. Would love to hear from you.

I've been working through the spring semester at NYSS, weathering New York's winter, and will be back in Austin a bit this month with Deanna. Drawing classes have produced the following (from top to bottom). I still love my time at the school and enjoy learning something new each day:

Dried flowers

Father and Son

. . .

Best,

It has been a very busy few weeks in NYC. The Graham Nickson two-week drawing marathon was a success, and I think after about five of these it was my best effort. As a segue into the spring semester, I was relocated to a different studio -- fondly called the hot/cold studio because of wide fluctuation in the temperature of the room. That has been fixed and is now mostly a livable temperature . . . except when the building's boiler failed. Then it was like a piece of Alaska had blown in. Two days later the boiler was fixed and the heat had returned to the building.

I recently worked on drawings Käthe Kollwitz (1869-1945) who primarily worked in themes of life and death. When you review her biography, it is understandable. She settled on woodcuts mid-career, and most of her important work took this form. The reason I got onto Kollwitz is because my marathon instructor had us reach in a ceramic pot and pull out the name of an artist. Our task was to produce several pieces reflecting that artist. Kollwitz's lifespan covered the Boer War and two world wars. She lost her son on the battlefield in the WWI. With her Jewish heritage during WWII, friends moved her to a small, obscure town in Germany where she lived out her life. I'm to incorporate her theme of death into my paintings of my drawings. At some point, I may put one of them onto my Web site.

I'm going to be leaving the Kollwitz work soon, and moving back to my own theme of impression/expression, some of which is inspired by Ruel. Which brings up Paris. 

We flew to Paris on Christmas Eve, and as we approached the city, the pilot reported rain and high winds, and we were rerouted to Frankfurt. In order to make Christmas dinner with Deanna's brother who had just come in from the Ivory Coast, we shared a rental car with a fellow passenger who lives in Dallas but had grown up in Paris and had three children waiting for him there for a Christmas celebration. It rained almost all the way on that trip, and we were thankful that he could drive us.

During our stay, we visited 15-20 galleries, including one that had several Ruels. We also went to the Grand Palais for a Braque showing, which was fantastic. There were about 300 pieces reflecting his entire career from the early 1900s, with work ranging from cubism to fauvism to analytic cubism. Picasso was included in the show to demonstrate how the two were the leaders in the cubist movement.

We also spent several hours at the African Art Museum. A fascinating structure holds this art, which is literally at the base of the Eiffel tower. I could spend more time there. Clearly, Picasso saw the relationship between African art and modern art. I’m sure he was greatly inspired by viewing the work of African artist.

Deanna was able to visit the flea market, with her brother and I tagging along. She has discovered a booth that carries linens and she had a good time selecting some gifts and additions for our home.

To say the least, our gastronomic desires were met with the array and quality of really good restaurants. We also spent time in the Jewish quarter satisfying our special tastes in that epicurean center. Let yourself go and select whatever sounds good and you won't be disappointed. We had pretty good weather in the upper 40s and 50s with occasional rain. We got smart this time and rented a really nice two-bedroom apartment on the left bank. Nice to be able to cook some meals and eat our own prepared food, especially breakfast. The pastry we bought at the nearest bakery. Not many can compete with that.

I’m back to my work for NYSS, drawing and painting and prepping for some exhibitions. And, on the blog I'll be posting some snapshots of recent work.

Best to all,

Jack

. . .

Note to readers: Our dear friend Ann traveled from Austin to visit us in New York late 2013. She agreed to write a guest blog post, which I’m so happy to share. –JDK

In front of the New York Studio School with our friend Ann.

. . .

As a friend once said, there are four types of travelers: beachgoers, shoppers, hikers, and museumgoers. I am a museumgoer, delighted to spend my hours passing through rooms and hallways transformed by the beauty of art. Needless to say, visiting Jack and his wife, Deanna, in New York City, was an ideal vacation. The Kings are gracious hosts whose knowledge and appreciation of art would be a blessing to even the most informed of guests. Upon my arrival, they set forth an itinerary that took care of details and left me free to enjoy my time.

Because the New York Studio School, where Jack is enrolled in the rigorous Certificate Program, is such a big part of his and Deanna’s New York life, we visited the school on a couple of occasions.

NYSS is in an historic building on Eighth Street in Greenwich Village and is the original home of the Whitney Museum of American Art. A five-step, double staircase entry curves up to the visitor check-in. One flight up is Jack’s studio, which he shares with two fellow students. During my visit, Jack was working on a large canvas inspired by Egon Schiele’s Art Cannot be Modern: Art is Eternal and I observed Jack wrestle with perfection as he created and considered his work. Deanna serves as a non-traditional muse — contributing a lot, offering honest critiques, and explaining his art to the viewer better than Jack (working from inspiration) is able to. An aside: The struggle of the artist to explain his or her work is something that seems common among many lines of art — be it photography, writing, or painting — and so Deanna’s insights are quite helpful.

With Deanna, at the Guggenheim

. . .

The school hosted two lectures during my stay; one from a mixed-media installation artist whose art centered on the theme of water; and another about the late Albert York, who the New York Times described as a “reclusive painter of deliberate, dreamlike landscapes, still lifes and portraits.”

Unimpressed with the first (all I could think of was, How does she afford to live?), I found York’s work to be gorgeous and the roundtable discussion particularly interesting. Of his still lifes, I enjoyed the muted-colored images of garden flowers in tin can vases. One such painting displayed open roses in a Mason jar sitting on a kitchen table. As the panel discussed this beautiful piece, one member made the surprise comment that the painting was “menacing,” while another was so enchanted by the art that he wanted to grab the glass vase with two hands and drink its rose water. With such different reactions to the same piece, I am reminded: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, indeed.

Outside of enjoying the world of the New York Studio School (and catching lovely performances at the Lincoln Center and dining on delicious food at a number of great restaurants), we traveled from the Kings’ apartment in Greenwich Village uptown to the Frick Collection to admire Vermeer’s masterpiece, Girl with the Pearl Earring; visited the Jewish Museum to view Chagall’s powerful, Christ-inspired canvases; and also saw Kandinksy’s colorful and mesmerizing works at the Neue Galerie.

Just got Deanna off to Penn station yesterday for a train to D.C. She had FERC hearings there, and then we leave on Tuesday for two days in Austin before going to Dallas for a quick stop and then to Paris, where we will meet Deanna's brother Mark coming in from the Ivory Coast. Then it's back to Austin in the new year.

Good grief! my mother would have said.

Another semester at the New York Studio School has finished, and I'm pleased with my progress. I'm through drawing and painting transcriptions! I simply don't have a way to justify these as my own work. And besides, I have an over-active imagination from which to call upon . . . still life, plein air, and all the sights around me. I've also discovered that I like larger canvases. And I'm starting to take risks with what I put on the canvas. I'm taking bigger risks with color and discovering how I like that.

Over the weekend we went to the Met to hear and see Wagner's opera done with puppets from Salzburg. Most entertaining. Before that we had time to view the Calder gift of cubist art, including Picasso and Braque (1913 era). I find drawing cubist style comes easy for me. Probably because I grew up in small town Nebraska.

Braque has a large show at the Grand Palais in Paris which we hope to see. Deanna will get to visit her favorite flea market and search for presents. Mark, with his command of French, will be of enormous help so we never want for restaurants or groceries.

Another discovery: Tenured NYU profs are frequently given an apartment close to where they office. Texas only does this for Nobel prize winners and a few others. Ah, well, it was a good career in Texas, and the private work was most satisfying. Thankfully I was able to make it into New York Studio School, and this has been a very pleasant journey. We both enjoy the lifestyle here as there is so much to see and do that's stimulating.

Seasons greetings to all.

I have gone around and around with Time Warner because while I'm in school in NYC, we have TW cable service, primarily for the cable service for the computers. Matter of fact, we don't have a TV here. But the Internet service has not been consistent since we moved to this location about a year ago. We've called and TW made some dial changes and it worked for a few weeks. I spent 3.5 hours on two different occasions on the phone waiting for and talking to service personnel who promised to get it fixed. While I waited for an appointment with the TW service tech at our apartment in NYC, a serviceman apparently arrived at our house in Austin (our billing address), to put in a new box for the cable. Several more calls follow this fiasco followed by apologies, followed by being told I can go to a local TW service store and pick up a new box and change it out myself. My fantasy is that I would have the clout to call in the Time Warner CEO to get the problem fixed. Or we could take up a collection and pay a Washington lobby group to help. Ann Richards, where are you when we need you?

This all led me to think about competition: Time Warner has next to none. Picasso, too, had none but he was at the top of his game.

Which leads me to art: I've started my third and final round at NYSS.  I'm painting large canvases now days and am inspired by that. My thanks to Amanda, too, for holding down the fort at Canopy during Austin's East Austin Studio Tour weekends. 

I was sorry to miss that, and relay thanks to all of you who stopped by.

Best,

Jack

. . .

The East Austin Studio Tour begins. I am stop No. 57.1a on the tour (at Canopy). See you there!

Recent lobby piece at New York Studio School

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