Wolf Kahn Obligations

Bravo, Mr. Kahn. I couldn't agree with you more about having a sense of obligation to our culture. Our better angels thank you.

Covered It Before - Music is Art

This post was first published in December, 2012.  

Music is art.  This statement needs no explanation, except I came to it late in life!  Of course music is art, and those who teach and play instruments are my brothers and sisters.  I stumbled (or is it youtubed?) onto Nadia Boulanger and was taken instantly by her genius as an instructor and by her authority.  Anyone animated by art will learn from her.

Mademoiselle Boulanger quotes Paul Valéry:
 "The gods kindly offer us the first verse. What is difficult is to write the next ones, which will be worthy of their supernatural brother."


Although I am the world's worst music patron, I find Mlle. Boulanger's stature and teaching style to be a very cool drink of water. I am listening to the longer video posted below as I type this, and although I am also the dimmest bulb at French, I am learning. 

"It's always necessary to be yourself – that is a mark of genius in itself,"  Nadia Boulanger.

Nadia Boulanger

My friend at Art and Music, Katherine van Schoonhoven, well understands the bridge between these two arts. Another friend and blogger is Rosemarie Kowalski, who blogs at Peaceful Ones, and she also celebrates the connection between the two.

This longer video, in French with subtitles, I recommend to you.

Nadia Boulanger.

5 Things Captain Kirk Teaches You About Art

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Why consider James T. Kirk, of TV's Star Trek fame, as an example for artists?  Mostly because of thing number 1, presented below.  The Kobayashi Maru story is about innovation, and I want artists (and other leaders who might be reading) to grasp some break-out thinking styles like that represented in the fictional stories of Star Trek.

Captain Kirk is the protagonist of TV's Star Trek, a 1960's science fiction drama set in the distant future.  Many forget that in the sixties, entertainment still relied on drama, instead of special effects, to carry the plot. William Shatner, as Captain James T. Kirk, dished up drama to an absurd level, and we ate it with a spoon. Star Trek and Kirk enjoy a cult following today, and it is fun to draw analogies from this fiction.

5 Things Captain Kirk Teaches You About Art

1. The Kobayashi Maru.

The Kobayashi Maru is the name of a fictional Star Trek training exercise where Kirk finds a solution that redefines the problem, especially when faced with a no win scenario.

Another way of explaining the art principle involved here is to describe lateral solutions.  A common problem in painting, such as which color to choose next, may be solved by choosing the local color (true, common color of an object), which is boring and expected, or by selecting the complement of the local color (the opposite color on a color wheel), which may also be expected. My favorite lateral solution: choosing an unexpected color anywhere else on the color wheel. This sometimes manifests itself as choosing the one color that is proscribed by good technique: it is garish, sick, and unexpected.  Now, you have a whole new set of colorist issues at play, and fun and enjoyment is revived in your painting.

2. McCoy versus Spock.

In Star Trek, Dr. Leonard McCoy is the ship's red-blooded, plain-spoken physician, and Mr. Spock is the first officer, a half-alien who is dispassionate, and over-burdened with logic.  They present a dichotomy of ideas when adverse scenarios confront our hero, Kirk:  emotion versus logic.

Artists have learned to seek out ambiguity.  Does it need any more explanation than this: the expanding of possibilities is increased by posing questions? Antimony is your friend, if you want to discover new paradigms.

3. Struggle Much.

CPT Kirk is a warrior character, an armed forces spaceman who battles seemingly invulnerable alien forces of the universe. Do we struggle as artists in the studio, when faced with the blank canvas?

Some have an aversion to the word "struggle" as a description of the artist's way.  Not me.  Certainly you have to admit there is a surfeit of creative inertia in the world, and especially among artists working today.  I want to overcome that force, to do new things, and I want to do that every time I approach the blank paper.  It is an inner struggle.

4. Thirst for knowledge.

James T. Kirk was called "a stack of books with legs." His insatiable curiosity about the universe drove him onward, and his broad knowledge helped him in troubled times.

Art is created, in part, by the out flowing of knowledge.  At the very basic level, it is knowing what things look like, so that even the abstractionist must use the image of things as a wraith; he avoids the look of things on purpose, or else represents images by other images.  

On a greater level, the artist knows what images have gone before him, and uses that knowledge to spring forward into new terrain.  The universe of knowledge available regarding art history, art, and the look of things is only the start.  Add to these disciplines the full gamut of liberal studies, and you begin to identify the role of the artist as greater than meets the eye.  Artists are cultural leaders because they study the universe, and represent it in new ways.

5. Skill.

A Starfleet captain of Kirk's caliber has a full and broad range of skills. CPT Kirk is the best of the best and much admired for his skills and abilities.

Skill is traditionally recognized as a key element in an artist's makeup. But, Modernist artists have said they are against skill.  This is well and good as a philosophy of art, but an argument can be also made to demonstrate the high skill levels of masters like Egon Schiele, Odilon Redon, and Henri Matisse. Matisse, at the apex of Modernism, is also held up as one of the great draftsmen of history.

Skill alone does not make the artist.  But, every artist realizes more powers and abilities accrue with time. Enhancing your skill level is a great pursuit. 

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Finally, we admire CPT Kirk because he wanted to "...go where no man has gone before." You would do well to go where no artist has gone before.  Innovation is the soul of fine art. Think sideways to fool the inertia monster.  Accept asymmetry in your direction. Go to war with your own fears.  Seek new knowledge and hone your skills.  Here is where I'm tempted to say "live long and prosper," but that would be silly.

See also:
Five Leadership Lessons From Kirk


"Intuition, however illogical, is recognized as a command prerogative." Kirk in Obsession.


"Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, 'Today I will be brilliant.' " Kirk in The Ultimate Computer.

Quotes credit: http://voices.yahoo.com/best-quotes-captain-james-t-kirk-star-trek-204167.html

Wassily Kandinsky

Autumn in Murnau, 1908

o/p

 32.3 x 40.9 cm

Wassily Kandinsky

"THE ARTIST’S LIFE IS NOT ONE OF PLEASURE. HE MUST NOT LIVE IRRESPONSIBLY; HE HAS DIFFICULT WORK TO PERFORM, ONE WHICH OFTEN PROVES A CROWN OF THORNS. HE MUST REALIZE THAT HIS ACTS, FEELINGS, AND THOUGHTS ARE THE UNDEFINABLE BUT FUNDAMENTAL MATERIAL FROM WHICH HIS WORK IS CREATED; HE IS FREE IN ART, BUT NOT IN LIFE."  Kandinsky.

I think Kandinsky was so busy making the new painting that he rarely made the best.   But, his goal was not to please me, that's for sure.  Kandinsky, in his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1911, theorized a periodic pyramid of the new in art. The main idea is that the vanguard of art, or the top of the pyramid, will be occupied in any given era by a precious few works that are ahead of their time.  A very lonesome place is Kandinsky's summit, as by definition, no one else will appreciate or understand your work.

I find a few of his works do please me, and it is a good thing to study his take on Modernism and Abstraction.  He was certainly a trend-setter and worthy of his star in art history.

Kandinsky at Wikipedia.

Wassily Kandinsky, 1866 - 1944 - friendsofart.net.
Tumblr blog dedicated to the man. Very nice resource.
Online University - extensive article and links.
Project Gutenberg - Concerning The Spiritual In Art. (I read mine via Kindle, which I do enjoy better than the PC screen.)

Kandinsky.  Always Thinking.

Post Modernist Post-Mortem

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst (1991)

Source: Wikipedia.

Prospect Magazine has published the post-mortem on Postmodernism. Author Edward Docx reports on the Victoria & Albert Museum's upcoming exhibition,  Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990.

"Gradually we hear more and more affirmation for those who can render expertly, the sculptor who can sculpt, the ceramist, the jeweller (sic), even the novelist who can actually write." Edward Docx.

Read the article at Prospect to understand the ineffable movement just a little bit more.  And, start wondering what to do next.

Compulsory throw-away link to Wikipedia on Postmodernism.

Courage In The Breed

Here is an essay first posted in early 2009.  Inspiration for the artist, I hope.

I was driving to the city yesterday, past snow-clad fields, and I noticed a farm dog running like his tail was on fire. I thought to myself, "I wonder if he's...he is! " He was facing down a coyote intruding in his domain, and then I noticed that it was two coyotes.

"...courage is essential to the artist." Henri Matisse

I regarded that as an amazing display of courage by that dog. A pair of coyotes can easily defeat even a full grown deer, and the matter was simply that the dog had his range to defend and nothing was going to keep him from doing that! 

The antipathy between farm dogs and coyotes is well known, and as a matter of fact the dog's behavior was common to his breed.

What characteristics are common to your own breed? The artist is known for artistic integrity, and presenting an abundance of that is having courage.

For a review of these traits, see the following posts: Artistic Integrity and Artistic Courage - Get It!

Have you defended your artistic space lately?

The Artist's Ideas - The Artist's Ethos

Edvard Munch
The Scream, 1893
o/c, tempera & pastel

A work of art can't be questioned or dismissed. Saul Bellow.


The obscure word ethos has a different meaning today than it did seventy years ago, and it has traveled a malleable path since the days of Aristotle. Whereas, today, it is a corporate creed, it formerly held a deeper meaning. Pre-war artists owned the word - it was the artist's ethos. My 1936 Webster's dictionary has the following:

Webster: From the Greek, ethos, ἔθος, character. The moral, ideal or universal element in a work of art as distinguished from that which is emotional in its appeal or subjective.

How do the artist's ideas exhibit themselves in an artwork? Is it important for an artist to express an ethos through the making of art?

We have been considering The Artist's Ideas, with these previous posts:

Have Ideas
Quotes - The Artist's Ideas
The Inner Meaning
The Artist's Ideas
Paint Better Now


The Artist's Ethos.

The Greeks saw ethos as the first proof of debate, and it had to do with trusting the moral competence of the rhetorician. Fast-forward to our concerns and the artist's ethos. Let's unpack the definitions of moral, ideal and universal elements.

The Moral Function of Art.

Webster describes a moral element in a given artwork, which is, by definition, an illumination of right or wrong. As concerns the formal parts of art, there is no right or wrong. "There is no must in art because art is free," Wassily Kandinsky. So, we are left with artworks that reveal a moral quality intended by the artist, such as in the case of Sacred Art. See below some artworks that reveal strong moral qualities in a broader context. See The Sistine Chapel for Sacred Art.

John Dewey said that “Art is more moral than moralities.” Artist and blogger Katherine A. Cartwright is reading Dewey's important 1934 book, Art as Experience, and hosting a community discussion on The Moral Function of Art. See here, here and here, and remember to read the comment fields.

Here is the "see below." For my part of the discussion at Katherine's blog, I have been illustrating the moral function of art by identifying individual artworks that I see as strong moral forces in the canon of Western art. Blogger/artist Linda W. Roth had the idea first, and she chose Edward Munch's The Scream for its moral content. I think she's right on with that, and I thought of Andrew Wyeth's Groundhog Day, and Willem deKooning's Woman 1. These artworks are linked below.

The following opens a window into Dewey's thinking: Art is morally powerful because it is indifferent to moral praise and blame (loosely quoted). Do you agree?

Ideals - The Artist's Ideas.

Notice that the Websters definition relates to a work of art, and not the group known as artists. My understanding of "the ideal" is that an artwork must, to be true to the artist's ethos, reflect his ideas. See these quotes on The Artist's Ideas.

Universal Elements.

Art is a universal mode of language. John Dewey. Philosophers will tell you that language is wanting in descriptive power - it falls short of expressing what man is able to think. Art is a huge bridge in "speaking" to mankind aught words.


Edvard Munch, The Scream.
Andrew Wyeth, Groundhog Day.
Willem de Kooning, Woman 1.






Ethos at Wikipedia.
John Dewey, Art As Experience.

A Philosophy of Beauty

Are you looking for a coherent philosophy of beauty as it relates to art? Roger Scruton has offered the series, Why Beauty Matters, through the BBC. I post the first of six here, and you may follow the prompts at You Tube to see the rest of his excellent show.

My own take is that the presence of beauty in contemporary art is the strongest argument for the sublime in fine art. Beauty continues to please contemporary tastes, and so I would ask: if post modernists have proven that art is not contained by beauty, then why is there so much of it in art today?

View Mr. Scruton's series, and I believe you will have a clearer picture of art's value than was presented by Mr. Schama's series, which I linked to previously.

Content

Umber River, Upside Down

The River Series is a collection of pastels that I painted specifically for the Sausalito Art Festival in September, and is currently exhibited in Kirkland, Washington through January 4th., 2010. These paintings adhere to a few simple ideas that are concerned with formal qualities. If you were to describe them as representational, you would be less than right. On the other hand, if they remind you of a specific place, you would be right on track. This "instability" is fully intended - they are meant to toe the line between abstraction and description.

"A song is anything that can walk by itself." Bob Dylan

Light River Reflections, Upside Down

Below, I lay out the formal concepts that I used in the River paintings, but I would say that almost any set of ideas would have worked as long as they were recognizable as a thread throughout the series. That's why it is so important for the artist to get a one person venue. The viewer needs to connect the ideas of the whole.

Here are the threads I wanted:

1. Dark areas (dark secrets) that I used as eye magnets.

2. A fairly even value spread - which means that a range of values are used from very dark to somewhat light.

3. A drawing approach - line and value compositions; bare process versus resolution.

4. Intense color passages, because that is a signature aspect of my work.

River Aine, Upside Down

The process I followed in the River Series did involve an actual place as the starting point. I stood on the bank of the Little Hoquiam River and absorbed what impressions I could, and took some photos. I worked up several drawings, in graphite, charcoal or pastel. A few were taped up on my studio window and viewed with light passing through them. I looked at them on my computer screen as well. Finally, I spun the images from memories, and worked from the specific to the general - I wanted your river, not mine, to be foremost.

"If the picture has a countenance, I keep it." deKooning


Here are some more observations about the series:

1. I used landscape formats, which is an easy formal way to portray realism.

2. Low points of view were favored, which makes the river scene easier to apprehend.

3. I didn't want direct light sources - no blue skies.

4. Some classic compositional tools were employed, in order to create easier access into the picture.

5. The water became a place for abstract play.

Readers of The Colorist have noticed that I explained the River Series posts with music videos rather than with words. I did this for a couple of reasons. One, it was an oblique and not-wordy way to expand on the pictures, and two, I could link the river theme to river songs and suggest a unity to the series. Incidentally, there was a list of qualifications to the music videos, too. Live venues and sincere performances were the main themes.

Dark Secrets

Dark Secret
Sketch from Little Hoquiam River
Thumbnail Size
Charcoal on Paper
Casey Klahn

For some time now I have been carrying this dark secret. It just appeared one day, out of the blue, in my painting Blue Wandering.

Blue Wandering

14" x 10"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn

You can see it there - a dark "spot" or space hovering by the trees. What is it doing there? Soon, dear reader, I shall reveal this dark secret to you.

The Hoquiam River series

The series of works that I have been doing, which I call "The Hoquiam River" series, explores this dark path, or space. My home town of Hoquiam, Washington, is an overcast place - just like my father's home town of Forks, Washington, which was made famous by Twilight.

Stephenie Meyer says about her book, Twilight:

For my setting, I knew I needed someplace ridiculously rainy. This turned out to be the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. I pulled up maps of the area... And there, right where I wanted it to be, was a tiny town called "Forks." It couldn't have been more perfect if I had named it myself. I did a Google image search on the area, and if the name hadn't sold me, the gorgeous photographs would have done the trick. (Images like these of the Hoh Rainforest (a short drive from Forks). Also see forks-web.com ).

This coastal hometown

"Ridiculously rainy;" good one. Rain and clouds dominate everything, and one's cup runneth over with nature, as it were. Trees, moss and greenery as thick as primordial soup cover all aspects of the landscape. Mud and muck; clouds and cold. A place to love, but only if you're from there, it seems.

Little Hoquiam River
No Vampires Visible

This coastal hometown is where I first started drawing and developing my art. As you might imagine, the colorist side of me never flourished until I moved to the sunny eastern side of Washington state. But the fundamentals of light and line were my muse on the coast.

Trees as tall and as big as all heaven surrounded us, and the pathways between them, well - there weren't any. The undergrowth is as thick as a jungle, which coastal forests here are literally. They are called temperate rain forests, and are exactly like jungle, minus the nice temperatures.

What are the dark secrets? Just ask yourself this: what are the ways to create a plastic space in a picture? Why might one's eye fix inside the picture plane and stay there? More when we enter the Hoquiam River Series...

Credit: MP3 Music from the Dark Shadows TV Series.

Mere Creativity

Author C.S. Lewis

"No man who values originality will ever be original. But try to tell the truth as you see it, try to do any bit of work as well as it can be done for the work's sake, and what men call originality will come unsought."

Clive Staples Lewis, by way of Juliette Aristides, Classical Painting Atelier.

In the Breed

I was driving to the city yesterday, past snow-clad fields, and I noticed a farm dog running like his tail was on fire. I thought to myself, " I wonder if he's...he is! " He was facing down a coyote intruding in his domain, and then I noticed that it was two coyotes.

"...courage is essential to the artist." Henri Matisse

I regarded that as an amazing display of courage by that dog. A pair of coyotes can easily defeat even a full grown deer, and the matter was simply that the dog had his range to defend and nothing was going to keep him from doing that!

The antipathy between farm dogs and coyotes is well known, and as a matter of fact the dog's behavior was common to his breed.

What characteristics are common to your own breed? The artist is known for artistic integrity, and presenting an abundance of that is having courage.

For a review of these traits, see the following posts: Artistic Integrity and Artistic Courage - Get It!

Have you defended your artistic space lately?

Plastic Color

Four works on the easel, awaiting good photographs.

The studio was humming this weekend, and I got four works done. Three sketch/studies, and one medium sized pastel. If you want to count failed works, then many more were done!

Four New Works

At Pastel, I posted some words on plastic color, as part of my Tree School series. Find out why I don't paint my trees green.

Plasticity in art is important to understand. "Plasticity is the quality of the presentation of a sense of movement in a painting," said Mark Rothko. Another less developed theory of plastic qualities in art refers to the three-dimensionality of the visual arts.

Deadlines for juries are looming, so I want to get a series done so as to submit four to five images that agree with one another. I hope to photograph them in a day or two, and you'll get to see them, too.

On another topic, I recommend Joanne Mattera's Marketing Mondays.

Ten (Theological) Theses on Art - A Response

Photo: Lorie Klahn

Extreme navel-gazing alert!

Occasionally I go "out-of-niche" and try to make my blog world bigger. Art blogging is a surprisingly small niche, and it gives me pause to wonder if it is indicative of how art fits in contemporary society. I found an interesting (if egg-headed) discussion on a theology of art going on, and decided to engage in it. I am planning an exhibition at Northwest University, my alma mater, and have been pondering about the nexus between art and spirituality.

Ben Myer's blog, Faith & Theology blogspot, published his provisional, Ten Theological Theses on Art, Sunday, December 14th., 2008.

Here, from my Christian perspective, are my Ten Theses on Art:

1. Art (etymology=artifice,artificial) is a visual, organic parable. Emotional and conceptual aspects of art are of the soul. Auto-didactic art remains a function of nature.
2. Sacred art is a category of art that involves subject. If art were, or could be, "Sacred," the Lord Jesus would have drawn the gospel.
3. At some point, content must always supersede subject in art. Content is the construct and concept of the artist.
4. Nature is corrupt, but art may rise above nature inasmuch as it may be created in an environment of redemption.
5. Making art is a creative act. Individuality is intrinsic to the making of art.
6. The need of art is an act of faith, rather than a scientific quantity.
7. Truth in art is no more self-evident or intrinsic than any other act in nature. We assert that truth is resident in Jesus Christ.
8. Beauty in the classic sense is resident in nature, and therefore must be interpreted.
9. Art has a long life - longer than human mortality. With perhaps the exception of performance art and conceptual art, Fine Art is a corporeal object of exceptional longevity.
10. We reject the theology that God must not be represented in art. God is personal, and art is one of the many (perhaps imperfect) means of relating to Him.

Of the responses written to Ben's, my favorite, so far, is Erin's Six Theses. I took great umbrage with poserprophet, whose angst over Auschwitz has made him completely forget the redemptive acts.

Intuition Revisited

Abstract Reds Over Blues
20" x 12"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn
Private Collection

This is a re-post of a favorite essay.


Under the tutelage of Diane Townsend, I painted this abstract work. It has some elements of color field painting, like Mark Rothko, and extensive gestural elements. The gestural nature is in keeping with the drawing roots of the pastel medium. I like the way the paper's surface is evident, and yet the color blending, and heavily worked nature of the piece makes it work as a painting for me.

The choices that a child makes are very intuitive


Let's talk a little bit about intuitive choices in fine art. The choices that a child makes are very intuitive, because their knowledge base is limited. The hands start moving, and the limitations are the length of their little arms, and the characteristics of the tools. They are mostly trying these tools out for the very first time.

A great deal is made of technique in art. The pastel medium is no exception. In fact, technical skill is probably too emphasized in this medium. It's supposed to be hard, you see. And, admittedly, there is much to know (much that I do not know!). Sometimes beginning steps are not rewarded very well by the outcomes.

"Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things," Edgar Degas



So, intuition! First sketches with bold gestural marks always work better for me than deliberate and measured work. The thing is to have years and years of drawing from memory in one's back pocket, and then the quick marks made on the paper will seem intentional. I don't subscribe to the subtle and tentative working that is often required of detailed realistic work.

The same goes for compositional choices. It is not easy to describe, but I think that studying good composition is necessary, and then ought to be put out of one's mind. If you can internalize compositional knowledge, it will come out naturally as you draw. The best thing I can say is: "try it".

The pastel medium is "made to order" for the artist who wants to favor intuitive creation


The ability to critique one's own art becomes more important when you want to be an intuition-driven artist. Did this one really turn out to have the best composition? Color Choices? Does it have too much to say for one painting? Ask these questions of yourself.

Wolf Kahn has a chair that he sits in and ruminates over his finished art. Most artists do take some time and distance away from their works to try and get an objective perspective on their own creations. It's challenging.

The pastel medium is "made to order" for the artist who wants to favor intuitive creation. It is a direct, and rewarding tool. It's interesting to consider that in the book, Wolf Kahn's Pastels, the great colorist chose to make the text a collection of essays on artistic process. A natural fit, I think.

Riposte -Repost

I am making a fine recovery from my operation on Tuesday. It will be a while before I am 100%, as my medical professional wife and I agree, it would be hard to find a more painful operation to have done. Meanwhile, enjoy a re-posting of this Barn subject essay.

Anthology of American Literature, McMichael.

Elijah Shifrin at Art & Critique has written about my barn and rural building subjects in his article, "Casey Klahn: Barns And The Abstract Wizard Of Washington".

Elijah is thoughtfully focused on the abstract qualities of my building paintings. I have carefully tried to avoid being cast as "the barn guy". The reason is that sentiment is so easily attached to this great American symbol, and yet sentiment is bygone content in contemporary art. The challenge has been to de-construct this awe inspiring structure and make it relevant for today's art.

My Barn
Photo: Lorie Klahn

Working against my efforts to keep the barn image down have been a number of forces. Sales, believe it or not, has been a force tugging at my shirt tail. The popularity of this theme and image, the American Gambrel barn, has been so high that sales of anything barn related are a fairly easy turn. The great thematic content that is associated with the barn is reflected by the book cover that has my Red Barn with Ramp image on it: An Anthology of American Literature, by McMichael. Another force is the fact that I live out here in the rural landscape where every farm has a big barn.

Barn Sketch
Pencil
Casey Klahn

Here in Davenport, WA, the barn isn't just American myth writ large, but an actual part of our lives. To be sure, the way of life is changing. The Heath family pioneered this farm at a spot about five minutes walk down canyon from my house. When the internal combustion engine started to replace livestock for locomotion, the farmers were able to build their houses and outbuildings uphill and farther from spring water sources. My family are the third owners of this farm, and the agricultural roots are gradually being eclipsed for a number of reasons. How wonderful for us to not see another house from ours!

Violet Oil Drum
7.5" x 10.5"
Soft Pastel
Casey Klahn

I'm heartened that Elijah has seen the abstract elements that are key to these building paintings. Shapes, colors and position are the content, more than the buildings themselves. Don't get me wrong. I'm as much a sucker for the deep meaning of the American barn as the next guy. My father built a barn once upon a time. And, the building in my iconic painting is my own barn.

Thumbnail of Barn
Pastel
Casey Klahn

The architect who designed the Gambrel barn was a flat out genius. The way the barn structure occupies the open land in rural America is stunning in scope and even vision. My barn, which is no longer used for any working good, occupies a side hill and commands a territorial view. I have some pride in owning it, but the Great Horned Owl that frequents it seems to have a bigger claim by virtue of time spent there.

Behind the Garage
Graphite on Sketch Paper
7" x 8.5"
Casey Klahn

Wolf Kahn uses the barn image a great deal in his work. He has taken it down to the pictorial elements with content that describes the position of the building on a slope or prominence, and elements like through-looking doors and windows, and severe value gradients.

The Heins' Farm
7.5" 15"
Casey Klahn
Private Collection

The story of my Red Barn with Ramp image I have told many times. I received a box of twelve "Wolf Kahn" Terrage pastels made by Diane Townsend, and in a first moment of inspiration I made a very small thumbnail sketch with the colors. It was the barn image just as it is seen on the book cover, except that sketch was about 1 inch square. I was in the moment, entranced by pure color and by the tactile qualities of the big, thick pastel sticks. Abstract shapes were the tools, and color was the content.

Elijah has written a good back story to the barn and building themes. The literary link to The Wizard of Oz is apt. The elemental truth of my surroundings is hard to contradict. Wind, sun, sky and agriculture. Can an artist overcome his environment long enough to forge content that aspires to higher art? I suggest not thinking too hard, but letting the hand and eye draw intuitively. Maybe that's the only way.

Late Breaking Rausch Up

Robert Rauschenberg
Detail of Erased de Kooning Drawing 1953
Collection SFMOMA and Rauschenberg estate

Here's my round up of the late Robert Rauschenberg buzz. The following will be the most comprehensive linkage to the esteemed man's obituaries, reviews and articles that you have seen.

My first impression anytime a famous contemporary artist passes from the scene is, "good on him for making it big and living an artist's life." Then, if I am at all curious, I read up on the subject and (graciously) pass my own judgment on their corpus. That means the work.

Rauschenberg is counted among the Pop Artists. They being the ones who supplanted the Abstractionists.

The story that sticks with me is Robert going over to de Kooning's studio with a bottle of liquor under one arm, and asking for a self portrait of the great Abstract Expressionist. Willem de Kooning says, "I know what you're doing," and graciously gives up the charcoal and graphite portrait. The young acolyte takes the art and erases it. It takes much effort and many erasers to destroy the master's work, and the point is well taken.

Links:

Rauschenberg defends his erasing of de Kooning (You Tube).
Tyler Green's incomplete round up.
Jen Graves
Regina Hackett
Roger Kimball
Is it okay to take a shot at the newly deceased artist? Kimball does, which rounds out this round up.

Blue

Turquoise Forest
14" x 10"
Soft Pastel
Casey Klahn

Blue Wandering

14" x 10"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn

The following quote from Lloyd is a good reminder of what we love about the color blue. It is prized by the artist, and I will add that French Ultramarine is the easiest color to form into pastel sticks, and my yummiest single color.

Blue. The noble color of the sky.

Blue has always been associated with royalty, it is cool, soothing, a reminder of infinity and things spiritual. It gives a sense of stability. It is no co-incidence that big financial institutions often have blue colored emblems.

Although the sky and the sea are both rich in blues, blue coloring is rare in natural minerals, Azurite and Turquoise being almost the only ones used for art until modern times. Ancient Britons covered their faces in Woad, and around the Mediterranean Indigo was used for dyeing textiles. The scarcity of good and affordable blues meant both were employed by artists from time to time. The Egyptians developed Blue Frit to meet the need for a good blue but it was too weak and coarse to last until modern times.

When the Europeans began importing ground Lapis Lazuli they thought they had found the perfect blue finally. It was except that it cost more than the same weight of gold. It wasn't until the synthesization of Ultramarine in the 1820's that artist had what they really needed all those years, an affordable, permanent, and useful deep blue of great beauty.

Lloyd Irving Bradbury

Barn Free

Anthology of American Literature, McMichael.

Elijah Shifrin at Art & Critique has written about my barn and rural building subjects in his article, "Casey Klahn: Barns And The Abstract Wizard Of Washington".

Elijah is thoughtfully focused on the abstract qualities of my building paintings. I have carefully tried to avoid being cast as "the barn guy". The reason is that sentiment is so easily attached to this great American symbol, and yet sentiment is bygone content in contemporary art. The challenge has been to de-construct this awe inspiring structure and make it relevant for today's art.

My Barn
Photo: Lorie Klahn

Working against my efforts to keep the barn image down have been a number of forces. Sales, believe it or not, has been a force tugging at my shirt tail. The popularity of this theme and image, the American Gambrel barn, has been so high that sales of anything barn related are a fairly easy turn. The great thematic content that is associated with the barn is reflected by the book cover that has my Red Barn with Ramp image on it: An Anthology of American Literature, by McMichael. Another force is the fact that I live out here in the rural landscape where every farm has a big barn.

Barn Sketch
Pencil
Casey Klahn

Here in Davenport, WA, the barn isn't just American myth writ large, but an actual part of our lives. To be sure, the way of life is changing. The Heath family pioneered this farm at a spot about five minutes walk down canyon from my house. When the internal combustion engine started to replace livestock for locomotion, the farmers were able to build their houses and outbuildings uphill and farther from spring water sources. My family are the third owners of this farm, and the agricultural roots are gradually being eclipsed for a number of reasons. How wonderful for us to not see another house from ours!

Violet Oil Drum
7.5" x 10.5"
Soft Pastel
Casey Klahn

I'm heartened that Elijah has seen the abstract elements that are key to these building paintings. Shapes, colors and position are the content, more than the buildings themselves. Don't get me wrong. I'm as much a sucker for the deep meaning of the American barn as the next guy. My father built a barn once upon a time. And, the building in my iconic painting is my own barn.

Thumbnail of Barn
Pastel
Casey Klahn

The architect who designed the Gambrel barn was a flat out genius. The way the barn structure occupies the open land in rural America is stunning in scope and even vision. My barn, which is no longer used for any working good, occupies a side hill and commands a territorial view. I have some pride in owning it, but the Great Horned Owl that frequents it seems to have a bigger claim by virtue of time spent there.

Behind the Garage
Graphite on Sketch Paper
7" x 8.5"
Casey Klahn

Wolf Kahn uses the barn image a great deal in his work. He has taken it down to the pictorial elements with content that describes the position of the building on a slope or prominence, and elements like through-looking doors and windows, and severe value gradients.

The Heins' Farm
7.5" 15"
Casey Klahn
Private Collection

The story of my Red Barn with Ramp image I have told many times. I received a box of twelve "Wolf Kahn" Terrage pastels made by Diane Townsend, and in a first moment of inspiration I made a very small thumbnail sketch with the colors. It was the barn image just as it is seen on the book cover, except that sketch was about 1 inch square. I was in the moment, entranced by pure color and by the tactile qualities of the big, thick pastel sticks. Abstract shapes were the tools, and color was the content.

Elijah has written a good back story to the barn and building themes. The literary link to The Wizard of Oz is apt. The elemental truth of my surroundings is hard to contradict. Wind, sun, sky and agriculture. Can an artist overcome his environment long enough to forge content that aspires to higher art? I suggest not thinking too hard, but letting the hand and eye draw intuitively. Maybe that's the only way.

New School Color Philosophy

Light in Branches
21" x 13"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn


Click This Image To Read The Text

Want to read more on New School Color as an art philosophy? Please consider the following posts:

Atonement & Automatism
Rough Drafts
Pink
Intuitive Choice in Art