Skin deep
It's 10:23 PM Saturday March 13, 1999 van gos ear, Venice Beach California.
I went to an art opening tonight in Bergamot station in Santa
Monica. Bergamot station is pretty cool; it reminds me of an industrial
park full of newly constructed machine shops. About 10 buildings
clad in pastel painted aluminum siding, arranged like a coral
with a parking lot in the middle. Usually there are many art openings
on a Saturday night; but tonight only one. The show was titled
"skin deep" actually, there were only 2 works at the
show that were obvious about reflecting the title. And those works
were not even that deep. The piece I am sending you is a snapshot
I took looking at a video monitor. On the screen was a lactating
woman squeezing breast milk, Jackson Pollock style, onto a black
sheet of paper. She then signed it, and the tape repeated.
I got very melancholy
It could not help but remind me of
all the wonderful art I've flushed.
I saw another work of art that looked as though it might have
been a colorist study reminiscent of Joseph Albers. There were
two paintings hung side by side. There was also a tiny copy of
each painting and its title. But the titles were reversed with
respect to the position of each painting. (I will send you a picture)
I spoke with the artist hoping I would get a chance to learn something.
(I really love color theory) I asked him what his work was about.
He said it dealt with language
with signs and signifiers.
I said really
how?
He went on to say that the title
on the left signified the painting on the right
I gave
him a facial expression which said, "is that it?" and
he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and nodding gave me the
expression "what more do you want". Then he went on
to mention he just left a 12 year relationship and the paintings
were 2 foot by 6 foot just like a coffin. I was trying to be polite
so I didn't ask him if he had ever seen a coffin. But the title
of the show was becoming very clear to me. I asked him what he
did for a living, he gave me that you dumb-shit look and said,
"I am an artist
" I said, "wow you make a
living from your artwork?"
Another you dumb-shit look
and said, "I sell all over the world." After peeking
at the price sheet and seeing $3000+ prices for most of the work
I started to feel my bowls move.
The Kount
woman lactating on paper