Stroke of Midnight

Cinderella
gouache, watercolor, and ink on vintage paper with handstitching.
7 x 10 "
copyright Kate Castelli 2008

"Crack Baby"

I affectionately like to refer to this photo as "Crack Baby". You may be wondering what is going on. I'd like to think that it is performance art.

Actually, this charming little girl has wedged herself in Doris Salcedo's installation Shibboleth (2007) in the Turbine Room at the Tate Modern in London.

By installation, I of course mean a giant crack in the floor that runs the length of the space. It is very cool and the little kids seemed to love it. I watched one little boy drive his toy truck all around it. And if the kids get it, then I would consider it a success. It's fun. It is a work that is puzzling and strangely interactive. What does one do with a giant crack? Investigate it, step over it, walk along it, shove your toe in it, contemplate it. For the official take on it, check out this link: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/dorissalcedo/default.shtm

*Photo notes: this shot was taken with a Voigtlander Bessa-R rangefinder outfitted with a Color-Skopar 35mm f2.5 MC lens and Ilford XP2 film. Taken on 14 March 2008 and of course COPYRIGHT Kate Castelli 2008.

Thanks for telling me

I saw this walking back to the tube from dinner in SoHo (London).

London- Part Three (The Shows)

Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008
National Portrait Gallery

A simply stunning collection where the photographers are as famous as their sitters. There were portraits by Edward Steichen, Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, Helmut Newton, MarioTestino, Herb Ritts, and the golden child of Vanity Fair , Annie Lebovitz. I didn't know that Vanity Fair was initially in publication from 1913-1936. The portraits of that era included Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Cary Grant, Amelia Earhart, Katherine Hepburn, Frida Kahlo, and Jesse Owens. The publisher, Conde Nast, decided to republish the magazine in the late 1980s. The subjects were artists, politicians, glitterati, musicians, actors, and the likes. The images were framed beautifully and the printing was impeccable.
From Russia
The Royal Academy of the Arts

An opportunity I never thought I would have to see French and Russian masterworks outside St. Petersburg and Moscow. Some of the gems of the show included Matisse's The Dance (pictured) which is huge and and almost blindingly vibrant. Also on display was Matisse's Red Room (Harmony in Red) from 1908. The work spanned from the French impressionists to the Constructavists. Kasamir Malevich's Red Square, Painterly Realism of a Peasant Women in Two Dimensions (1915) is perhaps the most beautifully imperfect square one could ask for.

Breaking the Rules: The Printed Face of the European Avant Garde 1900-1937
The British Library

A very unique exhibit that examined the avant garde in print throughout Europe. The show was organized by European city and had beautiful examples of books by poets, writers, and artists. The show explored the early 20th century in terms of "-isms," or art movements with examples from Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism, Dadaism, Constructivism, and Surrealism. It was a fascinating show, you tend to forgets that art had the ability to change history at one time.

Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia
The Tate Modern

This show explored the friendship between the three artists: Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Francis Picabia, who were key figures in the modernist art movement. Through their lifelong correspondence and collaborations we got to peek into the minds and inspirations of the three men. Picabia was the most traditional of the three, he continued to paint on canvas through his entire career. Presented alongside his canvases are the early works of Duchamp and Man Ray. One tends to forget that they too were painters. Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase is often forgotten when Fountain (pictured above) is also on display. Both Picabia and Duchamp had a keen fascination with machines and it was reflected in a series of works by both artists. Duchamp and Man Ray also had a lifelong obsession with the game of chess. They were both stellar players and used the game as inspiration for work. Although often time the three men were on very different paths, they did not cease to communicate. The telegram Duchamp sent to Picabia on his deathbed is a touching example of the affinity the three had for each other.

London- Part Two (Sketches)

Detail of Saint Pauls, from the Tate Modern fourth floor balcony. Friday 14 March 2008

St. James, Millennium Bridge, and Riverfront, view from Tate Modern fourth floor balcony. Friday 14 March 2008

Thames Riverfront, view from Tate Modern fourth floor balcony. Friday 14 March 2008

Statue of Charles II, view from Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square.
Wednesday, 12 March 2008.

Breakfast View, Child's Place, Earls Court Road. Thursday, 14 March 2008.

A few selections from my sketchbook/travel journal. All are pen and ink, approximately 5 x 7".

London- Part One

London Monday/ Scariest landing of my life / Earls Court, Kensington / pouring rain, gale force winds, lightning strikes in Hyde Park / Victoria and Albert Museum / Serpentine Gallery / waiting out the storm / wandering down Sloane Street / Harrod’s food halls / dinner at Sticky Fingers / nursing a beer and listening to the Stones Got Live if You Want It / a wet walk back to room 312 / Tuesday / more rain / The Royal Academy of Arts / From Russia show / Matisse’s The Dance and Red Room (Harmony in Red) / Bond Street / the giant Louis Vuitton billboard of Keith Richards / being refused tea service at Fortnum and Mason (I was not properly attired) / browsing books at Hatchards (oldest in London) / antique fair in St. James square / Oxford Street / new umbrella (old one snapped) / Liberty of London / Carnaby Street / tube to St. Pancras / British Library / Breaking the Rules Avant Garde show / Magna Carta / Jane Austen manuscripts / Shakespeare’s signature / Beatles lyrics / rush hour at King’s Cross Station / lonely dinner at Wagamama / Wednesday / sunshine in Trafalgar Square / drawing the view from Nelson’s Column / musing on the lack of pigeons / little boy fell off one of the lions / National Portrait Gallery / Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 blockbuster show / Tudor galleries / drawing Anne Boleyn alongside 30 school children / taking a break at the café and drawing my fellow dinners / more sunshine in Trafalgar, more people too / National Gallery (Sainsbury wing) / very stuffy and crowded / Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding / Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors / tea and writing postcards on Whitehall Road / the chaos of Leicester Square / The Photographer’s Gallery / weaving my way through Chinatown and theater district / magically arriving on Wardour Road in SoHo / pint at the Ship / chatty waiter, refreshing Pimms, and delicious dinner at Palms of Goa / saw “Cubism is Dead” sticker walking to Oxford Street / Oxford Circus tube / Thursday / surprisingly no rain / braved the queue at the Royal Post office / Tottenham Court Road tube / L. Cornelissen and Son (est. 1855) art shop / Shepard’s Paste brushes and hand cut reed pens, the comforting smell of linseed oil / Antique print and maps shops on Museum Street / Neal Street / the divine Neal’s Yard Dairy / happily sampling British cheeses for an hour / gave in a bought half a wheel of Tunworth (like Brie) / the eccentric Neal’s Yard / lavender soap at Neal’s Yard Remedies / Covent Garden / Jubilee Market / admiring the posters at the London Transport museum / stocking up on tea at Harrod’s / Friday / contemplating the #328 bus to “World’s End” at breakfast / London Bridge / the sunlight streaming into the divine Borough Market / eyes, ears, and nose in overload / wandering the market stalls and taking pictures / octopus, venison, ostrich, chocolate covered honeycomb, enviable Parma hams, mushrooms, green grocers, butchers, fish mongers, bakers, etc. / Queen’s Path along the Thames / Millennium Bridge / birch trees outside / Tate Modern / Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia show / Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase / the urinal (ready made) / Duchamp’s LHOOQ is literally a postcard / Duchamp’s and Man Ray’s obsession with chess / hot chocolate and a 4th floor balcony view of the Thames / happily sketching the riverfront / “Pardon, but photographs are not allowed…” oops / Joseph Beuys Felt Suit / the Tate has a marvelously unnerving way of hanging art / in example: pairing Boccioni’s Futurist masterpiece Unique Forms of Continuity in Space with Lichtenstein’s “Whaam!” / giant “crack” in the Turbine Hall’s floor / back on Queen’s Path / scrambling down the staircase to the riverbank / collecting biomorphic beach stones and beach glass / busker playing Bob Dylan under an overpass / tea break at the National Film Theatre café / browsing the South Bank Book Market under the Waterloo Bridge / mimes and tourists near the London Eye / Westminster Bridge / storm clouds and Big Ben / Parliament and Westminster Abbey / man protesting the Iraqi war camping out in Parliament Square (he’s been there since we went to war) / walk up Parliament and Whitehall road / back in Trafalgar Square / feeling like a sardine on the tube / dinner at Sticky Fingers again / listening to the Stones Stripped / a long walk back to room 312 / Saturday / farewell London / waiting for an eternity at Heathrow / Boston

I'm back!

I am half past dead right now, but home. London was wet, grey, and fantastic. So much to share. But it'll have to wait until I figure out what time zone I'm in, shower, sleep, and unpack. Photos, sketches, and tales to come...

(I had the Kinks' song "This Time Tomorrow" stuck in my head...fitting for a day of traveling)

--Kate

Feeling Restless

I've got my sketchbook, I've got film, I've got my camera, I've got my passport, I'm packed. And now there is nothing left to do but wait.

Currently listening to:
(selections from a great travel mix made for me by Amanda, who generally makes the best mixes)

Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case
I've Just Seen a Face- Jim Sturgess
Whatever Happened- The Strokes
Naturals Not in It- Gang of Four
The Way We Get By- Spoon
Hotel Song- Regina Spektor
I Feel It All- Feist
Electric Feel- MGMT
Doorbell- The White Stripes
She Belongs to Me- Bob Dylan (I don't know how I could not have not known this song, because it is amazing and I adore the lyrics...)

Show!

Glovebox Presents:
The Art Institute
of Boston Illustrators:
Illustration Show

Goody Glovers
50 Salem Street
Boston, MA

Show: March 22-31, 2008
Opening: Tuesday, March 25th 7-9pm

Good eats, good drinks, good art.
http://www.gloveboxboston.com

It's kind of a funny name for a show...

Let's Talk About Process

"Talking about music is like dancing about architecture."
-Steve Martin

There is too much talking sometimes and not enough doing. What ever happened to getting your hands dirty and making things? I think too much. I am very much aware of this, so it is good when I finally get out of my head and onto a surface.

I am becoming increasingly aware of how important my process is to my work. I am not quite at "the process as the work" stage (nor do I think I want to get there). But I have become more in tune with how I work, which begins to inform the work itself.

My grounds (that is the surface on which I work) are almost more important than the drawing or the composition. Developing the ground is a very organic process. It starts with a lot of playing around with elements even before I glue them down.

I hesitate to call myself a collage artist because I appropriate surfaces and not images. The ephemera becomes disconnected from its original context (and thus much more interesting to me). I am like a magpie when it comes to collecting ephemera. My eyes are always scanning the sidewalks and ground for lost and forgotten fragments. Plus used bookstores and antique shops are always good.

I layer color, texture, and linework with whatever materials I can get my hands on. My weapons of choice are gouache, watercolor, salt, Quink, bleach, and Black Magic Ink (very specifically).

I usually don't know how the piece will end up when I begin the whole process. Also, I create several grounds for each individual piece. I create and then edit multiples of the same idea. Eventually (and somewhat miraculously) I end up with a finished piece.

And I always work barefoot.

File under "I don't know..."

I am feeling impossibly blank.

It is not numbness or emptiness. It is perhaps confusion, but not quite. I feel as if my brain has not digested the last couple of days.

London cannot come soon enough. I cannot wait to get on that plane on Sunday. I think this trip is the best thing for me right now. It is not just a break or a change of scenery. It is a desire to be elsewhere.

So what is it about chairs?

The other day in my critique I said I thought the chairs were having a conversation. I received a lot of blank stares from my peers. Chairs having a conversation? I should have explained myself and the whole concept, but it was one of those days.

So what is it about chairs?

Structurally, I approach them like architecture. They exist in a defined space on a defined plane. I push and pull where the chairs sit on the picture plane and sometimes they exist on the page in ways they cannot exist in reality.

Chairs are defined by their functionality. But this functionality is only defined by the presence of people. Empty chairs imply the absence of people. I began to think about the presence/absence relationship. And the chairs become personified. The chairs become surrogates for people who are not there-- a guest, a visitor, a friend, a lover, an enemy. What is not there is still felt by what is, and so the chairs remain.

Conversations
gouache, ink and hand-stitching on ephemera
approx. 7 x 10"
copyright Kate Castelli 2008

Bravo!

Last night was the opening for the Art Institute of Boston's Senior Illustration Show. It was a fabulous night and the response to the show and our work was tremendous. I would happily call it a success! All the headache of last couple of weeks seemed completely worth it. Everyone looked great and it was a nice night to share with our families, friends, professors, and each other.