6/29/2006

Mari Eastman

14 comments:

Painter said...

California

zipthwung said...

Duuuude. Painting hunting dogs is like painting tits - you're loaded for bear. I went into a montana gallery once - totally about hunting. Know your market, as they say.

Ever play duck hunt on the Nintendo? Thats more what the younger generation identifies with. The older like Currier and Ives Prints.

Same shit.

At the montana gallery they had two hunting dogs lying around - for show and because they actually went hunting. Authentic hunting dogs.

At the montana gallery they had a display of ornate winchesters,a not ghostly ones, and no mansions in site - just ranch style houses for ranchers.

At the montana gallery they had placed the gun collection next to paintings of flying geese. Best curation I've seen since henry Darger drawings in a cross of vitrines at the Visionary folk museum in Manhattan.

In conclusion, I dont know much about dogs, but this is illustrational in the sense that it is an illustration, by the definition of the word, which may now be meaningless, but they do separate the illustration department from the fine art department in schools, still, right? In the same way that graphic design is different from quantum physics or a brand expansion specialist, who could put this illustration on greeting cards, t-shirts, and if they were good, cereal boxes. Tea. Linens. Chew toys. Ammunition. (alergy) Drugs. Galoshes.

Debra Maypole said...

I like it, although this is not my kind of subject matter. love the content of some of her other work. love her wet-burry type technique. It's pretty and light and refreshing. i wish she was a teenager painting to the best of her abilities things she loves to paint. painting because it's raining outside and she can't go out and play.

no-where-man said...

unicorns and rainbows are sweet thin washed water colors are sellable, but not much to talk about.

no-where-man said...

k, take it back, guess i am bad with jpeg's rest of the stuff online does not really even strike me as kitch,

youth--less said...

How about the delicacy of the style? Really lovely -- the way she painted those moors or whatever you call the background.

The subject matter makes me wonder WHY? The subject matter means very little to me. That's why I put the pic of the buildings on my blog. That I could relate to. Where there's a disconnect between style an subject is more interesting to me.

youth--less said...

What have you got against delicacy, blue balls? I find it fascinating myself.

no-where-man said...

gazinia, when i think of "kitch" in High Art it brings to mind Artists dealing with questions of high/low - (koons as the most obvious). Also people seem to use it as a write off. I think the imagery alot of these Artists on this site deal with could be read as "kitch" but comes from a more personal knee jerk reaction place, - when i think of images of "child like" or "fantasy" places i don't think Kitch off hand - childhood was a dark place for most people I know. I guess the same thing could be said of JK's later toy works.

poppy said...

yes i have to agree with the Koons summary, his balloon dogs don't speak kitch to me. They are very much similar to the snowmen by Gary Humes. Minus a circle and you have 1 sphere. So you have 1 dog in a field, cut the dog in half and you have a Damien Hirst. Everything comes from what is considered low culture at some point. Maybe for some reason you have just seen one too many dog portraits. This artist may not even be dealing with the high/low thing.

poppy said...

this reminds me of something i saw on PBS. Our brains tire quickly of what is real and natural. When the greeks mastered the human form in a natural standing pose, they immediately began posing the figures in a more active stance, then after that, exaggerating the features. Some other cultures exaggerated things that were most desirable. I think my point may be that you are bored from seeing alot of the same thing which becomes too real and natural, and hope instead to see what you desire to. I desire a cigarette which feels very natural right now.

jeff said...

schlock art always sells...

no-where-man said...

i thought the 'toys' latest sonabend.. had to do with the loss of a child(isht) after the porn(ish) whate ver buushit

koons is one of the greatest artists of our gen.

Sven said...

I think Mari's apocalypse now painting is rather beautiful, I also like the one closeuup posted. If you go to a 99cent store they sell pictures of dogs kittens, etc, which are simliar images to some of the ones Mari has painted, hence the kitsch comparison.

How is MJ and Bubbles not kitsch, btw, aside from JK saying its a portrait of "the greatest abstract artist alive".
I also think JK's paintings of the past 5 years are crazy weak and predictable.. I'dve thought Karl Lagerfeld had cooler tastes.
does that make me a dick?

no-where-man said...

i love Lagerfeld - and his H&M kitsch line... Koons - his earlier work comments on kitsch and very well nod ot it thru its appeal, the later work "toys" come from a deeper spot namely a divorce and child custody battle.