That's Not Art - Broken Area Podcast

This week, we discuss David Lynch’s “The Art Life.” Mark thought it was interesting to see how much Lynch’s painting explained a lot about his movies’ dark looks and feels. We loved watching Lynch paint with his hands. I thought that Lynch’s paintings were very strong, I loved how he shaped clay on wire to write words and integrated that text in his paintings. I loved “things I learned in school”… childish and eery. Gloomy. Tending towards the grotesque, just like Twin Peaks Part II. I wonder what it is that makes us painters want to reach pieces of the past, our past, and grab them and reflect on them through painting ? Is it a form of release ? or perpetuation ?

Episode 50! Wooohoo! We looked at the work of Elle Pérez today. This photographer is interested in showing images that question the boundaries of gender, fragility, inside and outside. Their work fleshes out detailed visual cues, a drop of water, a tiny scar, to evoke in the viewer feelings of empathy. The question the artist poses in the Art 21 video “Works between the frame” made me think about those boundaries in my own work. Mark turned 50 and we talk about how it feels to get older.https://art21.org/watch/new-york-close-up/elle-perez-works-between-the-frame/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/elle-perezs-poetic-visceral-bodies

Spring will never arrive! Sault Ste. Marie saw the most snow this year, Isabelle can see 5 ft tall snow banks out her window while Mark can see grass out of his in London Ontario. Isabelle would rather forget this past Winter. Talking about memory, there was in ancient Roman time a social behaviour called “Damnatio Memoria” which caused Romans to want to erase another person from history by scratching this person from paintings, removing their names from walls. Isabelle argued that the modern impulse of Damnatio Memoria would be “unfriending” someone from Facebook. Mark and Isabelle discuss grant applications, they talk about an hypothetical visit from an uncle wanting to discover contemporary art. And as usual, they banter about anything and everything.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae

Isabelle welcomes two special guests today, Yves Larocque and Mónica Márquez, owners and facilitators of Walk the arts, an artistic company that oversees the administration of BRAVO-ARTS, in Ottawa. We met on International Women’s Day at Algoma University where we recorded this conversation. This special episode then, marks the end of a long process for Isabelle, as a recent member of BRAVO-Arts (Bureau de regroupement des artistes visuels de l’Ontario), she facilitated the installation of pentadécagone and welcomed two artists Doris Lamontagne and Nancy Brandsma who came to Sault Ste. Marie to install this multi-video exhibition. It is important to note that this exhibit was important for our northern Ontario town because according to Michael Burtch, former Curator of the Art Gallery of Algoma, the last visual exhibition in French was in 1987; Sans Démarcation regrouped English-speaking Ontarians and French-Speaking Quebeckers 32 years ago while pentadécagone was in French only. It was also a significant event for 180 Projects, a small Ad Hoc Collective working hard to bring alternative voices to Sault Ste. Marie. This multi-video exhibit also brought ACCANO (The African Caribbean Canadian Association of Northern Ontario) to 180 Projects for the first time. Finally, pentadécagone served as a point of beginning and of social change for a small but very essential number of Franco-Ontarian women to come and view art completely in French. Many people contributed to this installation: Jacky Dupuis, Lon Granger, Katy Huckson, Taylor Jolin, Andrea Pinheiro, Miranda Bouchard, Ray Fox, Lisa Meschino, thank you so much for helping in your own way to this successful exhibition. We decided to do the podcast in English in order to mix our voices to the others in this podcast. Links:https://www.walkthearts.com https://www.bravoart.org/publications/edition-bravo-livre-catalogue-depliants/133-pentadecagone-2016https://www.sootoday.com/local-entertainment/pentadecagone-1213571https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1151757/exposition-artiste-visuel-francophone-sault-ste-mariehttp://oneeightyprojects.ca

Gabriel Orozco, Yeilding Stone, 1992 2009

Last Saturday September 29th, I had an exhibit on board the MS Norgoma but I did not want to miss the opportunity to speak with Ryan Amadore before he left with his amazing work for Kapuskasing where he lives with his wife Sophie and son. For the past month, I worked in my studio space, right beside the gallery where Ryan’s work was exhibited. I kept catching a glance at his water or his ducky, the two paintings I could see while painting. His loose yet controlled brushstrokes were a reminder to keep exploring and staying fresh and loose. Not to overwork my work. I am indebted to Ryan for this et merci aussi à Sophie!!I was so fortunate that Ryan was happy to share his thoughts with me. It’s a shorter than usual recording but such a wonderful one. Thanks Ryan and happy trails in the middle of no(some)where.Visit http://picbear.xyz/ryanamadore to know more about Ryan!Photo: Ryan Amadore 2018Music: Neil Young, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, 1969

Jason, Mark and Isabelle continue their meandering  conversation.  It take us to many places: Lola festival, talking about Yoko Ono, Bus Shelter pieces, Prince Trivia, Undiscovered Facts, Roberta Bondar , 180 Projects, so many things lined up, the realities of being an artist/breaks, Basquiat, Ben Portis, the future of podcasts as archives, Deep Color podcast, Cough Park Project (35:00).From London Ontario to Sault Ste. Marie, from Toronto to Vancouver, and to Brooklyn where Jason lives with his wife and two sons. Thanks to Jason and Mark for this great opportunity! It was an honour to get to know more about a wonderful London born artist.    To submit to Cough Park Project:(347) 601-4266 Youtube video of Cough Park Project : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBv548ayE1I One Eighty Projects:http://oneeightyprojects.ca Music credit : Zaz, Prends garde à ta langue

What a treat ! Mark sat with Canadian Artist Jason McLean who was visiting from Brooklyn last Sunday. Jason is a multitalented artist who is currently showing at the Michael Gibson Gallery in London Ontario.  I was a bit jittery meeting Jason via Skype and felt little mini tiny butterflies in my stomach at the start of recording but almost immediately those went away as I listened to Jason’s kind voice. We had such a good time recording that I had to split the recording in two parts! Part one highlights: BGL Group, Beal Secondary School, Bubbles of your own realities, working tools, collaborations, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Snakes, Jason’s process, goalie pads, blocking things out, grocery store feeling, local content, Farhi, areas of despair in cities, historic walking tours influences, colour palette (electricity)/wanting life in colour/dressing story, (36:25) looking like my artwork/dressing like my father-in-law, barn smells, Art gallery of Algoma.  Jason McLean Website :https://jasonmclean.weebly.com Current Exhibit “Boomerang Smile” :https://gibsongallery.com BGL Group Current Exhibition at Museum London :http://museumlondon.ca/exhibitions/bgl-spectacle-problems Marc Bell, London Artist :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Bell_(cartoonist) Ray Jonson Brick Snake :https://goo.gl/images/pTAoJw Opening music : Most Def, Yo Yeah.

Why do we torture ourselves reading about Trump ?  Mark talks about his reading habits and recounts memories of the last time he played a video game. Perhaps video games have changed to allow more fun instead of being all stressed out. Mark met a new artist with Natalie, a patron of the arts. They met her at The Arts Project in London. We might meet Angie soon!  Music credit : Zaz, On iraImage: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9wpU_wtRyHs/VFY8xLgT0dI/AAAAAAAABTQ/BWwxC2mc1e8/s1600/AndrewWyeth_CowinaPasteur.jpg 

Sally Mann's talent is indisputable. Using her own children, to create that amazing series, was perhaps a bit exploitative. Where are your limits as an artist ?  As with most of our conversations, we go a little bit everywhere. This week was no different!  Lately though, we've spent a bit more time talking about our families and the past. Mark and I grew up in the 70's. The saturated colours, the excessive styles are excellent periods for tv shows, Fargo in particular. We discuss painting, photography and what is the Avant-Garde. 

This week, Mark has some bad news, he lost a dear friend, Ben Portis.  Luckily, Mark had a chance to spend some time with his friend back in April. They went to see an orchestra. To his family, colleagues, friends, and all the artists who knew him,  we wish to offer our deepest regrets on this tragic loss.http://canadianart.ca/features/ben-portis-1960-2017/

In this episode, Isabelle has a conversation with a musician friend from Toronto.Sam was the co-owner of the Gore Street Café, in Sault Ste. Marie (2015-2016). In this episode, I reconnect with him through the magic of social media. He talks a little bit about some of the shows he saw recently in Toronto; Jessica Karuhanga does performances based on dance and projections (see link below.) Sam has a very experimental side to his artmaking. He blogs and podcasts on Instagram. He plays music and hosts open mic nights at the Belljar Café. I talked to him a bit about the Dawaa Dazhi Gallery and a little bit and my summer activities. I feel happy to have had a conversation with Sam, he is always full of surprises. I think he laughs a little bit at my old fashioned ways.... haha! That's ok, he's allowed. Intro song: Stargazing by Sam Decter, 2015. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND41Rs8PnjQ https://www.instagram.com/sa_me_di/http://www.belljarcafe.com/http://boxesofboom.blogspot.ca/2016/https://soundcloud.com/sam-e-m-decterhttps://vimeo.com/184163619

Why are clowns so creepy? It could be the ambiguity we feel about these characters, are they safe or not? Is it the fact that the brain is wired to find average features attractive and therefore trustworthy? Is it something learned socially about jesters and characters that have populated our childhoods ? Maybe all of this together ? However, Cirque du Soleil clowns are not as scary.  Making art 247 is not necessarily my choice, I do make a lot, maybe not up to the point of some artists. Cindy Sherman creates staged photography. She transforms herself to create different moods, with a vacant look in her eyes, inspired by the women in advertising around her in the 60's and 70's.  https://art21.org/artist/cindy-sherman/https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s5/transformation/ 

Micheal Snow and Richard Prince, two artists who have a different idea of intellectual property. Snow VS Eaton, read about it here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_v_Eaton_Centre_LtdRead about Richard Prince here: http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/richard-prince--june-12-2015Intro music: Bob Marley, Three Little Birds.

Christoph Niemann talks about his work and his process. He designed many of the magazine The New Yorker front covers. There is a new series on Netflix Abstract : The Art of Design which we are watching. We talk about when is the time when kids start not drawing emotionally and instinctively but according to standards set by whoever around them. Why is it that they are not encouraged to continue along that line. As usual, our conversations take on a meandering of its own.  (PS a little scratchy here and there.)Abstract: The Art of Design   https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/80057883 Christoph NIemann :  http://www.christophniemann.com/

We watched an Art21 movie on three artists.  Katarina Grosse makes gigantic sculptural paintings involving trees, dirt, and the space of the art gallery itself.  Joan Jonas makes performance drawings involving dancers, musicians, and herself in her installations. Omer Fast makes experimental/journalistic-like movies about Drone Pilots or Porn Actors. We agree that performance art is problematic. Becoming the body that is viewed as the art is a little bit problematic. Where is the line? How much of that happens out of peer pressure? My definition of art is pretty broad and I would not say performance is "not art" however, I would definitely say that I cannot engage in it the same way that I would with physical space.  http://www.art21.org/artists/katharina-grosse

Mark suggested we watched Diana Al-Hadid, a young artist of Syrio-american artist on Art21. Al-Hadid gives a tour of the Venice Biennale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqZ9B5L_5vY .I worked on self-publishing my paintings in a book, it's not perfect but it's cute. http://www.blurb.com/b/7656667-kow-and-zibraHappy New Year and Bonne Année 2017   

Mark did some computer programming and he liked that, it's a creative program solving that he likes. Stan Douglas of Vancouver brings us inside the old neighbourhood he grew up in. He did a show called "Les détroits" of photography and prints of Detroit. He is focussed on Urban Decay.  Diana Thater produces installations that are movie based, or influenced by film. Abstraction in film for her is abstraction of time. Diana Thater builds a maquette, she photographs the animals that she displays.As viewers of videos on the Art21 website, we are really fascinated with the process of art making. As viewers we are seeing the complete arc of artmaking from the development of ideas in the studio to the actual installation of the pieces, to interviews with the artists during the exhibition. Immersive installations because they involve all the senses and the space require so much knowledge and also so much money to get the right kind of equipment, they might not be the easiest thing to get into. However... it can be done!Opening song: Ratatat Loud PipesPhoto : Diana Thater, Knots and Surfaces (2001)For more information on all these awesome videos we are talking about:  www.art21.org 

Today we watched the Art21 website and we both picked an artist to view and we discussed these artists. Mark went for the work of Matthew Barney who made a film series called "The Cremaster" which he started in 1995. I believe he made 4 movies based on his study of Male Sexuality.  We also watched Liz Magor talk about her gloves that she is casting and we saw an aluminum house on stilts in Coal Harbour British Columbia. Amazing work. Matthew Barney's work, I must admit to not understanding and it almost seems like the biggest extension of a man's ego I have ever seen, short of the Trump Tower... but maybe I am missing the point. Who knows? Opening Theme: Blink 182 I miss youImage: Liz Magor Being this 2012 http://catrionajeffries.com/artists/liz-magor/works/#25

Pixels and technology have inundated our lives. Charles Baudelaire said that urban living or the city was  "an immense reservoir of electric energy." in his essay "The Painter of Modern Life" (1863).  In the rise of industrialisation and mechanisation,  "the eye was never allowed to rest." (Geiger, Rutsky, 2005) The same anxieties felt in the fin du siècle are mirrored in the Twenty-First Century whenever we talk about technology.  Bombarded by pixels and movies, video games, apps, memes, pinterest images and instagram, the pixel is ubiquitous. Mark and I are still on that topic!! Join in, anytime you feel! Drop me a line at isabelle.michaud@gmail.comIntro song by Félix Leclerc, Hymne au printemps Photo: Isabelle Michaud Une journée dans la vie de Madame Michaud

Mark's new phone works, which is good. We discuss my projects in Advanced Studio and in Painting IV. The mixing of drawing and digital work in in my mind, where is it going? I am not sure. Mark used Corel Draw in the past to help with his studies of paintings.  We both find zebras fascinating. Join us in our meandering conversations. Do you want to join us? If you're an artist interested in joining the "That's not Art" conversations. Please email me at isabelle.michaud@gmail.com.   Music : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfnaQ9Cuw5k

Summer meanders led the wheels of our Jayco Tent Trailer to the Bruce Peninsula then to London where we visited family and with co-host Mark. The first part of this podcast is a free conversation we had at Kelsey's and the second part is a Skype conversation about a visit we made to the Thielsen gallery in London on Adelaide street. Frank Caprani's amazing mylar paintings were on display at this historical location. It would be an understatement to say that Caprini is as colourful an individual as his paintings are. Indeed, Caprani's masterful treatment of colour and composition was skillfully orchestrated to evoke true joy.  It was a delight to meet Mark's friends who are all seasoned and accomplished artists. Brian Saby's invitation was most welcomed.  Next time Brian, we're visiting you in your studio!! Another fine «rencontre» was to meet Gerald Pedros and Laura Woermke. Mark had the occasion to visit Laura's installation at Pedros' studio. What an amazing woman she is!! Woermke is not only the Curator of the St. Thomas Public Art Gallery, she is also an innovative and current artist. Thanks for listening, this time around I decided to mix things up a bit, we'll be enjoying 3 songs. Songs: Nina simone Aint got no , Shannon Moan Old blue sofa and Abd Al Malik Mabrouk . http://www.thielsengallery.com/http://www.stepac.ca/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFd7dEMBpaAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5jI9I03q8E&list=RDMML5jI9I03q8E 

Isabelle and Mark meet at Kelsey's in London Ontario and share impressions on recent exhibits they recently saw. As it turns out, they both saw the work of Barbara Astman especially the exhibit Clementine. The Amy Friend exhibit Dare Alla Luce is amazing, the stars shining over sienna coloured photographs as little fireflies was so good I could have sat in front of those forever.  I thought Museum London was really great, there was a big educational room downstairs about water, also an exhibit about Mementos and Memorabilia, and a great contemporary exhibit All is Well.  http://www.barbaraastman.com/ Thanks to the Swingrowers for their remix of Pump up the Jam - The Lost Fingers

Back after a 6 week break, we touch on my recent trip to Ottawa and Montréal. The Kiki Smith / Tony Smith exhibit at the National gallery was a great exercise in trying to find similarities. What blew me away was a painting by Degas "Woman with an umbrella."  By the way, I made a mistake about a painter I really liked, I said his name was Monkhouse but it was in actual fact the work of Kent Monkman that I enjoyed so much.  Mark talked about how when you're starting out, you might not like some forms of artwork but when you mature a bit your tastes start changing.  I totally agree. We talked about Barnett Newman's Voice of Fire. My family got really passionate about talking about it.  Mark loved it and it really inspired him to paint. We totally invite you to experience that painting for yourself. It might surprise you! Oh, check out my new website www.isamichaud.com if you're interested. Let us know how we're doing on "That's not Art."

Tim Hawkinson - Uber Organ - MassMoCa

As an art student, I find it humbling to listen to the passion in Brian Saby's expression as an artist. Brian is from Windsor, he studied at Fanshawe. As you are listening, you will hear that he is a zero bullshit kind of guy. I guess this sharpshooting and clarity of purpose shows up in his amazing paintings. Looking forward to meeting that dude!! I think he even started painting while we were talking. 

Mark wishes he could travel to Europe and see the Louvre.  I came back from a 48 hour video-making challenge hosted and ran by the Gore Street Café in my town.  I presented a 4 minute video for the first time and it was pretty freaking fun!

The holidays brought in a lot of interesting stuff, then the return was pretty busy. Mark went to Cuba and I was busy with schoolwork.  In this episode, we talk about stuff in a general way. No real topic, just chatting!

Today we have a treat!! London-based artist Jeff Willmore joins Mark and me on our crazy chats about the art world. I very much enjoyed our discussion about his life as a seasoned artist. I especially enjoyed the story about the birchbark suit! Jeff doesn't think painting is fun: it's work for him.  We discussed drawing, painting in Canada, abstract painting in North America and a whole lot of other stuff!  Mark and Jeff have an amazing friendship, it definitely comes through in this conversation. Please join in.Check out Jeff's amazing artwork here:  http://www.jeffwillmore.com/ audio Block Double-click here to upload or link to a .mp3. Learn more

It's good to be joined with Mark again. We discussed Art and Science. What does it mean to be making art in 2015? Does painting have a place in the Canadian art scene? Young Canadian artists are influenced so much by science, it does seem that exhibits are becoming increasingly oblique.  How can the viewer understand the meaning of the exhibit? Also, I messed up in Printmaking. Yay!http://www.joycharbonneau.com/Main.htmlhttp://www.sandrameigs.com/http://www.aryenhoekstra.com/

This last Friday, I had the pleasure to chat with Aryen Hoekstra.  We discussed his exhibit Above the clouds which has been showing at 180 Projects and which was closing that night, in Sault Ste. Marie.  As a Third year undergraduate, my artistic language is still somewhat limited, so it was an amazing opportunity to sit down and listen to Aryen.  I am still trying to compute everything that I have seen. I imagine that it will take a while for all this new information to settle in my mind.  I was so fortunate to have this opportunity and again, I want to thank Aryen for his generosity.

I was so lucky to meet a great art teacher and artist last Wednesday. Shawn Serfas is a Canadian artist born in Saskatchewan who creates 3-D, multi layered, textural paintings about landscape and about many other topics related to Human interaction with the environment.  Shawn graciously agreed to allow me to record our talk together.  The song clip at the beginning is Swisha by Ratatat. This podcast was mixed using my iPhone and mixed using Audacity. This is my first time trying Audacity, so wish me luck!!!  Thanks for listening and please comment! :-)

Inspired by Mark's posting of a video of Ellsworth Kelly, now 92 years old, we went on talking about our childhoods and our understanding of art at that time. It was a great little video which I would recommend you watch. https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/ellsworth-kelly-explains-abstraction/ 

This week we have not prepared anything to talk about specifically, so we let our previous posts on our Facebook page guide our conversation. Isabelle could not remember if Renoir was an Impressionist because of his more "realist" or "classical" tendencies... But he indeed was an impressionist and hung out at Manet's studio. I got my categories and my dates mixed up in this podcast and I'll try to get those firmly in my head. Édouard Manet was the mentor painter who supported and helped Monet, Renoir, and Degas at a period called "la fin du siècle." Then Mark talks about his artist friend Jeff Willmore from northern Ontario https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Willmore who made a forest and town made of styrofoam in an installation called "A forest the size of France."  

Mark and I met at Milos pub on Talbot Street in London Ontario.  Mark recently returned from a visit to the Detroit Institute of the Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit (MOCAD) as well. We had a two part conversation about what he saw and about my work as a student and how things tied together.  At the Detroit Institute, Mark and his girlfriend Ashley saw works by Claes Oldenburg (he makes huge sculptures of everyday objects, Mark saw an outlet, but he also made a clothespin, needle and thread, lipstick), by Lichtenstein (Brushstroke number something, which we talked about in my Drawing class, in relation to "scale." We are learning about 'scale') by Rothko, and others. He also saw an exhibit at the Museum of contemporary Arts by Latin American artists and one piece struck a chord with him. The exhibit is called "The United States of Latin America" and assembles over 50 artists from Latin America. Mark described a piece that was done right inside the walls of the gallery and it reminded me of my experience with a visiting artist Duane Linklater. In the podcast I said that Duane was Oskago but in fact he is Omaskeko, also, he graduated from the Milton Avery Graduate School of Art at Bard College in Upstate New York but did his undergrad at UofA not at the University of Calgary (I mix them up all the time), and the piece I was referring to is called it means it is raining and it is at the JCA Philadelphia. In this piece, Duane wanted to find the drawings of an artist named Kimowan Metchewais. Linklater sanded the walls of the gallery in order to find the old drawings. It is very wonderful when somehow things seem to be interconnected.  The noise in the Milos pub is a bit loud but I hope you enjoy our conversations. Please feel free to comment and if you feel like joining us, let us know!!

The Fluxus manifesto asks artists to purge from Europanism and to make anti-art that all peoples can understand.  What if people only like traditional art?  Are some artists able to make universally understood Fluxus art?  Mark identifies a few. 

At Marks's suggestion I attended last night's opening of Paul Walde's Exhibit currently showing at the Art Gallery of Algoma. This is a raw recording of the opening.  The first voice is that of Jasmina Jovanovic, the gallery's Director and the second voice is that of Walde.  Paul Walde was Andrea Pinheiro's art professor at one point in her career, Andrea being herself a wonderful Fine Arts professor at Algoma University. She encouraged her students to go meet the artist and enjoy his installation which featured a series of wood panels, a large photograph, a piano under which was suspended some evergreen trees or maybe some red pines? And a film of a piano recorded on St. Joseph Island where Paul Walde spent some time as a child.  

In this episode, Mark and Isabelle talk about Isabelle's return from a 3 day workshop on Manitoulin island.  Mark argues that everyone is capable of creativity, as it is part of the human experience. Isabelle talks about her infatuation with cows. 

Photography for me is simply a way to archive my life. For others, it's a means of artistic expression. Lynne Cohen is an amazing photographer and artist. Her exhibit Faux Indices was super cool. She created spaces that one might have otherwise overlooked. Her compositions are decontextualised so as to create a cold, clinical, odd and distorted outlook on the way humans choose to inhabit their work places or places of leisure. Photo: Lynne Cohen.

Lately, I have noticed an influx of artisanal art into the current multimedia and hybrid art movements. Crochet has escaped Aunt Midge's livingroom and taken to the streets in the form of yarnbombing.  It is also found a new home as organic sculptures or great installations in art galleries.  It is just fascinating how the art of crochet has been transformed over time. Heres to the humble crochet.

Les tapisseries du musée de Cluny are lush, sensual, repetitive, heraldic and bright. After all these years, the colours still dazzle my eyes. The figures are strange and funny sometimes, especially the leopards. Art and Nature intertwined. Fabulous!! Photo: Broderie aux léopards, Musée de Cluny.

Hodgkin is super neat because he paints in lose, large, and  strong strokes over the frames of his paintings. So in effect, the paintings are about the paintbrush and the frame first and then about colour. Or you could argue that it's all about colour, too... His minimalist way of painting brings the painterly to the maximum, it overtakes all the space available on his surface.  Or you could argue as well, that it's all about emotion, of course. Bold, muttled, garbled, primal emotions. Whichever strike your fancy, it's all there to be discovered!!  Photo: Howard Hodgkin Fisherman'Cove Permalink

Henri Matisse is perhaps the most often cited painter by my professors. His Fauvist style has no equal still today.  He has the unique ability to place elements in his paintings. His compositions are super fantastic; he might be the master of colour in the 20th-21st centuries mindset but in my view, he is the master of composition first and then of colour. Yay Henri!! 

While Mark is away doing super important family activities and other cool summer things, I decided to keep the recordings alive until his return which I hope will be very soon. So the next series of podcasts will be about a wide array of topics, from Matisse to the use of crochet in art. Each episode will be short, 7 minute podcasts about stuff I like, artists I admire, things I like about art.  I know you miss Mark, I do as well, but he shall return very soon. 

After a three week break, Mark and I discuss the business of art, the way in which art is evaluated,  and everything we can think of around this subject.  We argue that collectors are central to the valuation of artwork and wonder if some artwork will hold up well in 200 years.  Will Mark pick up his paintbrush again? I do hope so. He's a good artist! It looks like I'll continue giving my paintings away for a while as I am not quite ready yet to enter the world of making art for money. Living the life of the Visual Artist interests me more right now. It's a good life.  Photo: Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone living, 1991.

Abstraction is vast, people often hate it, but Mark and I love it in our own specific way. Why is this so? We're not quite sure exactly, we're figuring out. Maybe some questions can't really be answered. Mark went to the AGO and Museum London and talks about what he saw there. 

The art that was created through the ages fascinates us. From the cave paintings of Chauvet to the Byzantine mosaics in Greece. We cover a lot of ground today but there is still so much we wish we knew.

In this episode we cover a huge amount of topics: Algoma Blue by Llewelyn Davies, Frank O. Gehry's Gugenheim in Bilbao, Serra's UN Square entrance piece, Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial, amongst a few. As usual, our conversation meanders to what we've done and liked. I have since found what the pick up stick game is called, it's called Mikado sticks! That's what Algoma Blue looks like! Although Isabelle laughs at Mark's red paintings, she actually loves them. Enjoy and don't forget to comment!

Artist Stephanie Babcock a.k.a Geordie joins me on a discussion about our time together at Algoma University. In this episode, we talk about her end of the year Thesis show, about Conceptual art, and Expressionist art.  We also talk about Jack Bush and Kazuo Nakamura. Expressionism is one of those categories that we find difficult to define. But what the heck, we'll have fun talking about it anyway! Thank you so much for joining me today, Stephanie and I hope we can join our voices again soon. 

I came upon the Group of Seven when I came to live in Sault-Sainte-Marie, Mark learned to see art through the eyes of a friend who initiated him to the vastness of art in Southern Ontario. Mark's sensibilities were closer to the Automatistes, Paul-Émile Borders and Jean-Paul Riopelle.  My parents loved Jean-Paul Lemieux and the Automatistes of course. Who else is there beyond Varley, Carmichael, Lismer, Johnston, Harris, Jackson and MacDonald?  A whole lot more! But somehow, no matter what, we always seem to return to these seminal seven (or eight with Tom Thomson, or eight with Emily Carr, or nine with Casson...) Somewhere deep in our hearts, they have a special place and that's all fine.

Chuck Close, Andy Warhol, Hyperrealism, Andrew Wyeth and more.