Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Bateman


Bateman heads to Russia for his first big European show

TORONTO -- Famed wildlife artist Robert Bateman is preparing for his first major European exhibition, a four-gallery tour in Russia that will highlight his passion for protecting nature.

"I presume it's a feather in my cap," Bateman, 79, said in a telephone interview from his home in Salt Spring Island, B.C.

"Although I have been in a few art museums in Canada, often art museums in Canada turn up their nose at wildlife art so it's nice to be hanging under the same roof, for example, as Kandinsky."

Robert Bateman in Russia will open at the Russian Museum's main building, Mikhailovsky Palace, in St. Petersburg on Oct. 8 and run there until Nov. 30.

It will then move on to the Tula Museum of Art, the Ivanovo Regional Art Museum and then Tsarytsyno Park, Bread House in Moscow, ending in August 2010.

Featured are 50 canvasses gleaned from private owners, institutions and Bateman's personal collection.

All of his major environmental pieces are in the show, including one he considers to be his most "hard-hitting": An underwater scene of a dead Pacific white-sided dolphin and albatross caught in a driftnet.

"My message is that we seem to think that nature is a free lunch, and there is no free lunch," he said of that particular painting, which has a real driftnet mounted on its front.

Also in the show are paintings depicting polar bears, bald eagles, an oil spill and one "that's giving a kick in the teeth to big logging, which of course is not sustainable the way we've been going," he said.

Bateman has also created a few new works as an homage to Russia's outdoor life, including one depicting a brown bear, that country's national symbol.

"I've got a very large -- I think mine is a Kodiak Alaskan -- brown bear emerging from the foot of a waterfall, where he's obviously been fishing for salmon," said Bateman. "He's sort of coming out of the mist and about to walk past you and then at the last minute he turns and gives you a dirty look."

Overall, the show is "mostly about the wonder and beauty of nature," he said.

"That's what my whole life has been dedicated to -- showing how wonderful and varied nature is."

The show was made possible by Michael Yanney, former chairman of the board for the Joslyn Fine Art Museum in Omaha, Neb., where Bateman has had a major show.

Bateman plans to fly to Russia on Oct. 4 and stay for a few days with his wife, Birgit. Canada's ambassador to Russia, Ralph Lysyshyn, plans to attend the opening, as will Yanney.

-- The Canadian Press


She never took her eyes off me

The Weary Blues, by Langston Hughes (1923)

This is awesome-- came across it randomly when I was looking for some writing by Langston Hughes.

Hughes was the great African-American writer who was a leading figure of the "Harlem Renaissance" of the 1920's, and who (as you'll hear here) introduced the daily common speech of African-American people into "high" art-- Along with people like Zora Neale Hurston, he recognized that the daily speech of black Americans was an art form in and of itself--a musical, cadenced, expressive speech that lent itself well to music and poetry and that could be represented as it was, without having to be changed to fit into traditional, mostly Eurocentric models of literature. Along with a big handful of other artists, musicians, writers, thinkers, etc, he was part of the first introduction of black American art forms to the larger world, and part of their acceptance as "high" art.

This poem, and the video too, is fantastic.

Here's the tag that goes with it on YouTube:
One of 21 video poems in Four Seasons Productions upcoming Moving Poetry Series - Three innovative new films - RANT * RAVE * RIFF. The Weary Blues was written by Langston Hughes in 1923 and recited in our film by author and Harvard Professor Dr. Allen Dwight Callahan.

To learn more about this provocative new series, how to purchase directly from our online store or on Amazon.com and for the full transcripts of our films poems, visit our website at www.4spFilm.com.


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Social Ontology

There is a discussion on what society actually is.

The debate between agency and structure is largely centred on a discussion of how things impact individuals and how individuals make the world, yet there generally exists little in relation to what this mysterious substance that impacts us may actually be.

There is a range, an ultimate range that defines what is ontologically possible, that being the is and is not, or material and amaterial (in a materialist sense), or material and ideal (in an idealist sense), or what I see as all material, mixing in proportion to become what we experience, what we see, and what in many instances is what we do not see.

The dialectic is well recognised, and this is the pulse to freedom.

One by one, the guests arrive


Monday, September 28, 2009

Dim Whoretons "you'll cream your jeans sugar!!!" Book#27-Vol.2

it's been a while since i've posted something here;
how 'bout some donut shop social commentary!?
enjoy! ps. for what it's worth; there is no denying
that i fall victim to purchasing their product
from time to time. ;)


"Many Mozambican citizens fought, not one side or the other, not the governments or the militaries, but violence itself...

People there told me that to take up arms against one side or the other was to play into the very hands they fought against. They would then be reproducing the same violent politics that oppressed them. Even the militaries they fought against won if they took up arms: for they followed the model of power those militaries had set into motion. Violence would continue to define their lives. To truly defeat someone, they said, is not to act by the oppressor's rules, but to institute another set of rules altogether."

Spider


California Blues

Autumn

Sunday, September 27, 2009

drops
on the map
graph violence's
number one
fuel: (be)longing

Saturday, September 26, 2009

What the heck Winnipeg!

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2009/09/25/graphic-violent-crime-rattles-winnipeg.aspx

Pierre Falardeau 1946-2009




So, another icon of Quebec culture has died--Pierre Falardeau, aged 62, died yesterday of cancer.

This is a truly hilarious scene from Pierre Falardeau and Julien Poulien's 1978 film "Pea Soup", what they described as "an ethnographic portrait of the people of Quebec." This kid is fabulous-- ("And where is Kentucky?" "In the east. On Ste. Catherine street.")

As someone who isn't 100% in support of a sovereign Quebec in which everyone should assimilate completely to French-speaking culture or else be forced to leave, Pierre Falardeau consistently referred to me (or people like me) as "the enemy".

I don't know anything about him personally, and so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that, in his personal life, he was a fabulous man. In his public life--print, radio and TV, and movies--he was an angry, angry person. Whether that was a character he chose to play, or that was the real person coming out, isn't really for me to say. But it's hard to like someone who actively encourages others to hate you.

In any case, rest in peace PF. Hopefully the afterlife will provide you with a place where you and John A. Macdonald can sit across a table from each other and bicker eternally in both official languages.

Friday, September 25, 2009

sculpture

the under cover together
under the cover, together
cover together: the under
together, under the cover

Nelly Arcan (1973-3009)



Image from LeDevoir


So, I suspect I'm probably the only one who this matters to on this blog, but a fabulous young Quebecois writer named Nelly Arcan (born Isabelle Fortier) was found dead yesterday in her Montreal apartment.

Arcan gained international fame and was nominated for France's prestigious Prix Femina for her book Putain (translated into English as Whore), which was a frank exploration of her life as a sex-trade worker. She then followed this up with Folle (Crazy), a rather heartbreaking story of a dysfunctional relationship with a coke-head French journalist, and how her life and her relationship was complicated by her endless struggles with self-esteem. Set in the Plateau neighbourhood of Montreal, and using the narrative frame of a series of memories of conversations with her dead grandfather, the book explored themes of alienation, self-abuse, and the desire to be loved. (Note: My friend Amilie lent me this book, and it took me about six months to read--my first novel in French--but I thought it was one of the better books I've read in the last few years.)

I posted, a few years back, a quote from her on this blog about how auto-biography had worked for her in the past, but she was tired of the public self-sacrifice that it involved, and wanted to leave that behind.

Her third book, A Ciel Ouvert (In the Open Sky), did this, being more a pure work of fiction and less autobiographical than her first two, while her fourth book, Paradis Clef en Main (Heaven's Gatekeeper-- my bad translation), is due to come out in a few months, and so some people are already questioning whether her "death" is a publicity stunt.

(What follows is from the CBC.ca website)

Montreal writer Pierre Thibeault worked with Arcan at the magazine Ici, and at TV's Canal Vox.

He said Friday she was the most important feminist writer in Quebec in recent years.

But, he said, the young author tended to keep to herself.

"She was a mysterious person. She was a real writer, and what I mean by that is she was not talking much about her personal life or the work she was doing. If she was writing a book she was not talking about it to people. If she was writing it, she was keeping it to herself," Thibeault said.

Nelly Arcan was 36 years old.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

How do mermaids have sex?

Enclosed spaces
boxy cages

can't ever remember
to pay my bills
on time

but I've
memorized
so many faces
without even trying

When I'm feeling boxed in
I ride my bike
down Prince Arthur

with its

plastic tablecloths

and vagrants
who rattle on alongside

re-performing
that same old skit

And then its back
to the box

with Oprah
who knows

the lady
with the face transplant

Michael Jackson

and

the mermaid girl

All of which
left me pondering
the age old question

:

How do mermaids have sex?

and

Why did I miss garbage day again?

Material reality

Ideas that eat
while the three of you
sing

Held hard at once
grasping the air
and the alloy dissolves

You are one among
two squeezing releasing
a double-edged pin
going right around through

Victoria Beach

Monday, September 21, 2009

Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation (Україна має талант / Ukraine's Got Talent)

found this in a sub/sub/sub folder

Winnipeg retreats

There were fourteen crosses
pointing to the wounds
that lined your fingers

Ten is not enough
and push-ups are
just release

But what if it didn't mean
we had to choose?

The body

The push
is wet
indubitably
telling
us who
we are
just animals
fighting
for no reason
when being
this is the
body
which you
give up

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Flash Fiction contest entry - earlier this year. "L"

Winston’s final thoughts - before 1984

Supposition of a Virtual exploration of a Genial Mind.

I had flown in from miami Beach and didn’t get to bed that night.

These thoughts run through my head, planning for a dreadful flight.

“I just got off a boat, I came to contemplate new auras” said Yoko, as she caressed my shoulder.

“I would love for you to see my work, I’m showing in a Gallery on Broadway and 116th.” Then out of her jeans came a $10 bill which she threw at the busker, as we passed.

The busker looked back with a wink and a smile, and asked us to stay a while .... while he sang.

“Let’s get an ice cream, or some type of Sundae, to cheer on the day as we talk”. “I’d love to” was my reply.. “but I’ll just listen!!”

The harmony and chords intertwined and complemented her every movement, as did her face.

I thought and looked into the future to see some Spanish Lace, and my new found guapa Conchita now had a wrinkled face. Somewhat like a Geisha who’s powder keg had run dry.

The eyes were there and so was the smile, time though had taken its toll. She had been old for a while. Her breast were sagging, which; in retrospect - should have alarmed me BUT, I found them kind of sexy in an avant-gard crossing-guard kind of way.

Saint Peter walked by and said: “Hi, hi, hi” denying us thrice, which was wise, as always.

Just then a cop swallowed his donut.

Sea-urchins blazed on the sidewalk, as the chalk dust exploded. The impact of a raindrop, the impact of the sun.

Then time stood still in the calm of that hazy lazy afternoon, walking through a freeze frame.

Clockwork Orange men appeared out of nowhere and tumbled from the sky like an open air Cirque.

While Gordon Liddy stood on some street corner waiting to take a bullet from a water-gate pistol.

Jack Ruby feigned a killing and let Lee take the bullet. Somewhere in the distance a voice was heard saying “ You’ll swing for this”

It was Elvis, impersonating Gump, they’ve ever been like Brocolli and Spam.

The paintings were hung, Hang-Ten suspended in mid-air by an O’Neill wetsuit freshly skinned from a black pearl diver.

Somewhere in the mid-atlantic a gold-toe was singing “We will Sock you!” Little did he know that Freddy had died, years before.

Prior to being fed to the pigs, Hannibal had been drinking his Chianti. Reminiscent of casting pearls before swine, he hurls before wine.

The Austin Powers union jack e-type based on Harry Rosen days had not yet been invented, but I could Imagine it.

Her cavern was packed, a silhouette in the window outlined Henry performing an equine tango - it should have been a waltz. Al Pacino just said: “Boo-yah!” and continued to sniff his way inside.

Marauders jumped on passers-by with that quaint and distinct panache usually acquainted with Depps’ interpretation of a Rolling Stone.

Once upon a time in my prime I used to laugh about everyone that I saw hanging out, but now Things have Changed.

A shot rang out, then another I saw my mother like Father McKenzie.

Three more, he was giving his piece a chance. The last and final blow

winding it’s way home. How do you spell New York? It was like cocaine running around my brain.

Well, now I lay me down to sleep I pray for the rock and Roll Hall of Fame my soul to keep.

If I die before I wake

I pray for Second-Life my soul to take, in another guise. Some other guys.

“Bingo” shouted Paul, “Ringo” said I; by George he is next.

The blood stained pavement, the pilgrims, the sooth-sayers and the curio-hounds all gather for the end.

It’s only the beginning. Game over.

As I breath my last, my breath is taken away. Now is the moment of truth. Am I greater than God?

Man, I had a not so dreadful flight. Happiness is a warm sun, beating on my face drawing me towards the light, the double-white.

Come in Number 9!!

I wonder if your mind was just Heaven Sent. Goog-goo-ga-joob.

“L” - 16th. April 2009

Some sad thoughts that I had put down on paper imagining that final thought rush.


ok

All this useless beauty - Elvis Costello

Heard this today for the first time

- it made an impact.

- Ludolf.



Saturday, September 19, 2009

Copy of painting























I think that copying another artists work provides an important variety of learning processes. For me, it was integral part of my learning how to paint on so many levels. I found that the process of copying did not change my style, it simply enhanced it. Once I got past the moral notion of copy, I was able to learn more about paint and painting than ever before.

Little techniques that I was able to pick up...

I believe that the paintings that I want to copy, are already part of my aesthetic understanding, insofar as the way it speaks to me and how I see the things I see.

I wish I could remember the painter of this piece... alas this was done in 2001 and my memory does not extend to that distance actively. That said, I still use the notions I learned by way of making this painting in my current process.





Monument by Michel de Broin


This is the new public art sculpture at La Maison des artistes.

Good Vibrations


true, originally uploaded by babajiwotan.

Im feeling good!!

I feel as if there is now a great time of ENERGY!!

Friday, September 18, 2009

You are personally responsible for everything in your life

We say that perception is belief:
Your belief in a stressful situation
will rewrite your genes to accommodate the stress.
If the stressful environment is not even real
is not even out there:
You will change your biology to fit what you believe.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

5pm @ 219 Provencher

Michel de Broin is unveiling his sculpture at La Maison tonight at 5pm....come by and see my show in the community gallery and have some snacks. The guy with the box on his head will be there!

CLG - 10 or so years ago.

My daughter aged 13 at the time. how fast they grow. I like the photo and wanted to share. "L"

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Art of Jim Corbett - to my mind a wonderful artist, and dear acquaintance.

I just love Jim - he is a wonderful artist and not given enough "recognition". Many "would-be art afficionados" self appointed or otherwise; are unaware of his existence let alone his various talents. I have seen the most amazing surrealist type images, as well as landscapes and other work of his. I own 3 large Corbetts and am proud to have them in my collection. - Ludolf.


Jim Corbett was born in 1945 and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. During his formative youth, Jim had a casual interest in art. By the sixties, the casual interest became a passion and eventually an all-consuming obsession.

Corbett enrolled in the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Commerce, which seemed to be a sensible choice at the time. However, during the three years he spent in Commerce, Jim’s creative urges could not be ignored.

Winning first prize in the Manisphere Art Exhibit & Competition in the seventies gave Jim Corbett a newfound confidence. He had a voracious appetite to learn about fine art, which led Jim to enroll in a variety of art classes in the evenings while he worked in the advertising industry during the day. Jim had some terrific art instructors who encouraged him to challenge his abilities.

Creating fine art while managing his own advertising art studio for ten years was draining, but it broadened Jim’s expertise. These years of hard work are now paying off, resulting in painting tours, representation in Canadian Galleries, and his works finding homes in private collections both nationally and internationally.

Jim Corbett now shares with others what he learned by instructing at the Forum Art Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba.


ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My quest to create art with substance became a long arduous journey. I needed to
create intriguing images of mysterious beauty; My image in image concepts have brought me closer than I have ever been in my life.

Early in my career the power of Mother Nature caught my attention. There is nothing
more enthralling to me than Mother Nature when she unleashes the devastating force
of her anger in contrast to a gentle summer breeze.

I embrace Mother Nature as a great business partner even though she is
temperamental, unpredictable and somewhat cruel at times. I try to capture that
personality in a unique way so others may have an appreciation as well.

The work of artist Jean Luc Cornec



Salut! J'ai vu ceci et .........

I thought of you!

Artistic Pollination


I was invited to make a painting at the Macri studio...I had an idea in mind based on an Op Art image I had seen I while back. I even had the colors in mind previous to making the piece....what's curious is that once I was at this stage in the painting I looked up and the similarities between my piece and one of David's became noticeable. Strange!

Tangled Garden

I really wanted to post something, but my current painting isn't quite finished. In the meantime, this is one of my favourite paintings, by Group of Seven's, J.E.H. McDonald. I think I would like to "copy" this since I can't afford the original. Would that be questionable in any way? Statute of limitations is up so I can paint it right?

Found on someone's door - again no names, sorry!

I'm so sorry David - I do not know who the "artist" is!

Now where would you like to start the discussion on this? Ludolf.

Catherine, Blake and Victor at Cre8ery

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Smoky Tiger


smokytiger, originally uploaded by babajiwotan.

This is the cover of my new album. It was made by my friend Willem.

Don't forget to come out for the Smoky Tiger Medicine Show this Thursday night at the Standard. Garunteed fun times for all!

I think that Alfa should invade the Standard with Peace. Great location, on sherbrook next to the nook. Art friendly owners. Lets have openings there.

!!

PROBABLY ONE OF MY FAVOURITE ARTISTS - EVER!!!



Memory drawing - Backyard

Evil Survives




Diane's son Sean playing with his band, a Winnipeg Group that only issues music on Vinyl. Evil Survives. Ludolf.
http://www.myspace.com/evilsurvives
Sean studied with Rusty Cooley in Texas - check him out he is pretty amazing, although its not my type of music. "L"

A piece of my writing. - LRG

The Surrealism of Reality

Qualia in poetic motion.


What is it like to be a bat? She pondered as she gazed into an inverted spectrum.


She was pesimistic or was that epistemic. Her LISP was bothering her.

NON - said the Frenchman.


Have you met my wife? said Oliver as he removed his chapeau.


Her “upside-down” glasses made her feel like she was constantly walking on the ceiling.


Was she going to drop into the clouds?

[While highly improbable, John Locke had told her that; if she could conceive it,

It was possible]


She hoped not, as there was a gigantic apple there left by some Belgian painter.


Just walk away Renée.


Her relationships had always been a problem,

Especially those with her own physical brain states.


Thus her conversion to the total acceptance of the philosophy.


Is it philosophy, or just science? Either way it is Art.


The argument for cloning Neanderthals could be extrapolated to Zombies,

If we took the evolutionary line, when would the phenomenon present itself.


Zombies aren’t part of evolution!!

Well they are - they are beyond the ultimate.


I didn’t find them on the Darwinian thingy!

What bloody thingy?

You know the one with the duck on it.





}

>>>>> }Should I explain this gap? Bollox!!

}


In Dennett's updated version of the inverted spectrum thought experiment, "alternative neurosurgery", you again awake to find that your qualia have been inverted — grass appears red, the sky appears orange, etc. According to the original account, you should be immediately aware that something has gone horribly wrong. Dennett argues, however, that it is impossible to know whether the diabolical neurosurgeons have indeed inverted your qualia (by tampering with your optic nerve, say), or have simply inverted your connection to memories of past qualia. Since both operations would produce the same result, you would have no means on your own to tell which operation has actually been conducted, and you are thus in the odd position of not knowing whether there has been a change in your "immediately apprehensible" qualia.


Let your cross-sensory perception synthesise it.


Maybe I’m just trying you.

My autodidactic skills?

Yes!

or

NO?

it depends on your perspective.

© : Ludolf R. Grollé


Some Graffitti in Brighton U.K.


I thought some of you might like this!! Ludolf.

My little sister - for those of you who prefer to look at something other than my art. LRG




Far prettier and much more pleasing to the eye than some of my paintings and drawings. "L"
This is my little sister who is a wonderful lady and lives in London - she obviously models and travels to many exotic places teaching Yoga and Philosophy. She also has a small line of clothes she designed. T-Shirts, shorts etcetera. Ludolf.

Colour blend study - LRG



No!! I do not know who she is. Ludolf.

For all you ROLLER fans! LRG


Roll roll, scrape scrape, etcetera. Ludolf.

30 Second still life - LRG

Don't even go there!! Ludolf.

Pieces from one of my sketchbooks. - LRG

Well I am trying at least. Ludolf.
p.s. Tips and hints gratefully accepted. "L"

Le Dos - LRG


Yes Roller was used!! So was a pencil. Ludolf.

I am NO-MACRI when it comes to scapes - LRG

Oh well - Ludolf.

I'm pretty useless with nature - sorry. LRG

A little flower composition that I made for my sister.
Ludolf.

Classic Landscape Study in Oils by LRG

No rollers were used in this. I am just posting a few different type of works from the ones that I usually do. If you are interested. Perhaps another side that you may not have seen. - Ludolf.

Chinese Ink Sketch - study in black by LRG

THE ART OF GEOFFROY ETTIENNE DEXTRAZE





This is the Art of Geoffroy - which I wanted to share with you. While it is quite different to my own work, there is something which draws me to it. some I like, some I don't like. Geoff's work is all free-hand pencil work mostly on 8.5"x11". Geoff does not sell or otherwise part with his work. There may be a rare occasion that he chooses to give a piece to a friend, He is a wonderful person, and I hope you all have positive things to say. I hope this is the sort of post you expect here. Sincerely "L"