Be Brave

Lead Climber
11" x 6.75"
Graphite on Paper
Casey Klahn

"If you're looking for something to be brave about, consider fine arts," Robert Frost

More next time on how to be brave in art. I'll be out of pocket somewhat for the next two weeks with my annual recreation time.

Moral Courage & Art

Courage
Photo: Robert Capa

Clear-cut courage has few detractors, if any. It is above reproach. It is a trait of few words.

Courage can be defined as doing the right thing in a "What are you going to do now?" kind of circumstance. Courage requires things of you; actions, and precious few words, if any.

Once you say you have courage, you have just kicked the ball away. Courage deep down has less to do with yourself, and more to do with an ideal. Courage builds up others, and our culture and civilization depend upon it.

Courage costs you dearly, and it forever adds value to the rest of humanity. There is an intertwining of the moral and the physical sides of courage. In other words, if I act bravely in an immoral cause, what is the benefit? Less than none, in my opinion.

Clear-cut courage has few detractors, if any. It is above reproach. It is a trait of few words.

My searches for artistic courage via Google were less than dismal. The query results are underwhelming in the extreme. Logically, there either is little understanding of artistic courage among visual art, few examples of artistic courage (available to see on Internet text), or else the trait is pedestrian and unremarkable.

How to explain it?

Artistic courage is a more abstract kind of thing than the military or physical trait. How to explain it? It generally is a lot slower kind of courage than the type personified by the soldiers at the "hedgehog" obstacles in the famous Capa photo above. But courage does involve obstacle defeating, no matter where you apply it.

My first thoughts of artistic courage go to Vincent van Gogh. See my posts on van Gogh. The founding member of Modern Art, our Vincent may have been feeble in his physical self, but in pushing the boundaries of artistic possibilities, a hero.

...courage with the brush! Courage with color!

But, courage with the brush! Courage with color! That's what we know our man van Gogh for. He was in the van of making pure color say expressive things on the canvas.

Another artist that comes immediately to mind is Francis Picabia (1879-1953). Picabia cared more for artistic exploration than for his reputation or profit.

Via Pollocks the Bollocks,

With his brilliant reputation firmly established after the exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1909, Picabia abandons the past and his place as its famous protagonist to embark on the adventure of modern art....

A young artist of thirty, he is banished from the company of established galeries, their clientèle and critics. The coup de grace is administered by Danthon, March 1909, at the Hotel Drouot where he auctions off over one hundred of Picabia’s lmpressionist paintings.

Order of Courage:

Van Gogh, 1886
John Peter Russel


Picabia

If your culture demands that you make your art this way or that, what must you then do? Next: How To Have Artistic Courage!

Courage Denied

"You Want My What?"

"The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner."

The satirist Mark Twain uttered that line. In my search for copy on the subject of courage, I have found the truth of Twain's words. Here at The Colorist, I have been studying the traits of a fine artist. Interest and support for the trait of courage is at an all time low. Try another quote:

"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men," General George S. Patton.

Here is a watershed moment: artist takes the army to school regarding courage.

Here is the story:

Army castrates heraldic lion

Published: 13 Dec 07 12:34 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/9398/20071213/

Protests from female soldiers have led to the Swedish military removing the penis of a heraldic lion depicted on the Nordic Battlegroup's coat of arms.

The armed forces agreed to emasculate the lion after a group of women from the rapid reaction force lodged a complaint to the European Court of Justice, Göteborgs-Posten reports.

But although the army was eventually happy to make the changes in the interests of gender equality, the artist who designed the insignia was less than pleased.

"A heraldic lion is a powerful and stately figure with its genitalia intact and I cannot approve an edited image," Vladimir A Sagerlund from the National Archives told Göteborgs-Posten.

Sagerlund blasted the army for making changes to the coat of arms without his permission.

"The army lacks knowledge about heraldry. Once upon a time coats of arms containing lions without genitalia were given to those who betrayed the Crown," said Sagerlund.


"We were given the task of making sure the willy disappeared," Christian Braunstein from the army's 'tradition commission' told Göteborgs-Posten.


But the castrated lion has already won the day and is now worn on the arms of all soldiers in the battle group's Swedish battalions.

"We were given the task of making sure the willy disappeared," Christian Braunstein from the army's 'tradition commission' told Göteborgs-Posten.

"We were forced to cut the lion's willy off with the aid of a computer," he added.

The Nordic Battlegroup is one of eighteen such military groups in the European Union. Some 2,000 of its 2,400 soldiers come from Sweden, with the rest coming from Finland, Norway, Ireland and Estonia.

Perhaps interest in courage is at an all time low. For the love of God, how does taking away the pride of someone else benefit these faultfinders?

Just to get it straight, courage is defined basically in two categories: physical and moral. We are interested here in the moral courage sub-category of "artistic courage". What is it, and is there any to be had? Is there anywhere to turn to discover the trait of artistic courage?

Stay tuned.

Matisse Trail

Self Portrait, 1900
Ink on Paper
Henri Matisse

Via Adam Cope, of Dordogne Painting Days, is this gallery website: Le Domaine Purdu. The gallery is connected to (run by?) the last student of Matisse. I particularly enjoyed the Fauve works found in the Modern Art section.

Commitment

Photo Credit: Lorie Klahn

Finger Crack,
Leavenworth, Washington

Commitment, in the world of mountain climbing...

Commitment, in the world of mountain climbing, is a word used to represent the point in a climbing route where turning back is a worse option than continuing. In other words, going back down the way you came up is either more dangerous, or more arduous than continuing to the summit and then down the originally planned way. The finding of oneself at the point of commitment in a difficult climb, and with just enough energy, food, and (worse yet) protection equipment to go on is a test of one's will that is truly challenging. Rubber meets road. Do or die. That kind of commitment.

Commitment: interaction characterized by obligation.

Parents know all about commitment, too. Getting up at night to feed the little squawker. Putting on those boy scout trousers and heading to the meeting. Commitment is defined as an interaction characterized by obligation.

What are an artist's obligations to himself? Does he have any obligations to society?

Rothko. Let's Talk Inimitable.

Rothko was obliged to his art

Mark Rothko seemed to feel an obligation to his art to the degree that he backed out of his commitment to hang his paintings at the Seagram Building. He didn't wish his art to be the decoration for a restaurant. Rothko became so invested in the "life" of his paintings that he created demands upon the methods for hanging his paintings. The lighting, the position, and so on. Rothko was obliged to his art.

I suppose, in the light of this kind of story, one may ask the question: does society have any obligations to art?

But, enough about "society". This is supposed to be my goal setting task. Stay tuned for the next character trait that an artist wants: Courage.

Characteristics & Goals

Blue Trees in the Middle Distance
7 - 3/8ths" x 5.75"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Since my children are starting school, and my summer art fair season has ended, my goal review and new goal setting exercises happen now. One of the things that I learned from Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach, has been to think about and state your desired character traits along with your goals. In other words, what are the traits you aspire to along with your career progress?

The artist that I aspire to be has:

Commitment
Courage
Creative Integrity
Decisiveness
Excellence
Generosity
Knowledge
Self Understanding

These are loaded words and "heavy" language, but they have deeper meanings for me. I'll be posting on each one, to expand on what these attributes mean to me.

Need Motivation? Try this renowned article (soon to be a book?) by Gaping Void. Hugh MacLeod is the Gaping Void cartoonist, and a Marketing Strategist. Excerpt:

Ignore everybody.

The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours.

Merit can be bought. Passion can't.

Thanks, Katherine Tyrrell, for this link.

Hillary Spurling and the Biography That Slept Late

The Unknown Matisse
Matisse The Master
both by Hilary Spurling

Eminent biographer Hilary Spurling, who wrote the two volume major biography of our Henri Matisse, was presented with what, for a writer, must have seemed a suicide mission. Matisse' life story is perhaps the last biography about a major figure of the Twentieth Century to be written. Why? Look at how dead boring he seems to be!

The paintings are superlative, but the artist - oy! He makes Sigmund Freud seem like a rock star, if you go by the staid personage that photographs of Matisse present.

I got word that there was a filmed interview of Matisse, and I searched for it on You Tube and on Google. Nothing turned up (let me know if you find it), except I did come across this Charlie Rose interview of author Hillary Spurling on the biographies of Matisse. The first half is the director of the Guggenheim foundation (skip this if you must) and then the die-hard fan of the great Henri Matisse will be delighted to hear Spurling's account of her books and the man Matisse.

With apologies about the length, here is the video. Tip: I open the video, and then place it on pause while it loads. Later, I skip the cursor to the half way mark and then enjoy.

The King of the Fauves - Henri Matisse

The Goldfish, 1912

o/c, 146x97 cm
Matisse

Since the proto-colorists were called "Fauvists," it has been my long time goal to study that most-noted Fauve, Henri Matisse (1800-1950). Matisse persisted in his ultra colorful style even after the era of the short-lived Fauvist movement (1905-7), which featured stylized realism and assigned non-local color to objects.

The giant Pablo Picasso overshadowed Matisse as they both worked simultaneously to create Modern Art in the early part of the Twentieth Century. Picasso, the great Cubist, and Matisse, the father of Fauvism, were friendly rivals. The one brought us the line, the other brought us color in the Modern Art sense.

As I bring this study along, I will be writing reviews of the books and articles that I am reading, and I will generate a link list and a "Quick Key" button for this blog page that will lead you to the best Matisse info on the web.



Bibliography:

Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: the Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954

By Hilary Spurling

The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse: the Early Years, 1869-1908

By Hilary Spurling

Matisse,
By Volkmar Essers



Matisse Factoids:

Rude patrons at a salon displaying Matisse paintings would openly revile his work, and to amuse themselves would smear the still-wet paint with their fingers.

The Red Studio was voted the number 5 most influential Modern Artwork of all time by a panel of 500 art experts.

Like our hero, Mark Rothko, Matisse has a chapel. Don't you? Maybe I'll have to start a post about great artists and their chapels.

Part of Matisse's legacy has been his active progeny. One of his sons, Pierre Matisse, and his daughter, Marguerite, were influential in interpreting their father's works and life. Also, Pierre ran The Pierre Matisse Gallery, in New York City, which gave first-time exposure to a lexicon of notable Twentieth Century artists. His grandson, Paul, and his great granddaughter Sophie are active artists working in the US today.

Fiddy

T.A.D. - Top Artist's Directory

The Top 101 Artist's Blogs list has morphed into a new creation: the Top Artist's Directory, and it has gotten its own blog address.

Part of the motivation for Kim Barker's new list has been the instability at Technorati. Reading there is nowhere near as fun as it used to be, with the metrics swinging wildly around. Kim, of the Laketrees blog, exemplifies artistic generosity by freely linking many, many artist's blogs. Her own profile bears the fruit of this, giving her a large and loyal blog following. Way to go, Kim!



From international things to things local: my art will be up at the Karlson/Gray Gallery in Langley, Washington through the month of September. If you visit anytime, and don't see my work hanging, then ask to see it, and the gallery will be more than glad to bring out my pastels for your viewing.

Shared Things - Fiftieth Birthdays

No stress here.

My five-oh birthday is coming very soon. Guess who I share this remarkable event with?


Also, this guy.


We were thinking of a reunion tour, but they declined, saying they didn't know who I was. Fine by me.

C.A.W. Creative Artist Award

This is a list of my award giving:

Excellent Blogs

Meg Lyman
Julie Oakley
Maggie Stiefvater
Tracy Helgeson
Lisa Hunter
Joan DaGradi
Robyn Sinclair
Elijah Shifrin
Stephanie Smith
Deborah Paris

Made Day

Julianne Richards
Martha Marshall
Elizabeth Love
David Novak
William Lehman

Brilliante Award

Petra Voegtle
Tracy Helgeson
Deborah Paris
Lloyd Irving Bradbury
The Gang at Moleskine Exchange International, present party excluded
Adam Cope
Ann Nemcosky

Arte y Pico Award

Eden Compton
Vivien Blackburn
Harry Bell
Joan DaGradi
David Cornelius


Looks like I must really like Tracy, Joan, and Deborah because I awarded each of them twice! Some people never get meme awards from me, such as Corrine Bayraktaroglu (Jafabrit), or Kim Barker, because they are the ones giving me the award every time. Either that, or I look and see them recently receiving the same award!

I did create a virtual medal of art, called The Art Medal, which is presented with some fanfare and a letter. It is a more-serious-than-the-standard meme award and is characterized as the recognition of artistic courage. The sole awardee is Corrine Bayraktaroglu.

The Creative Artist Award goes to:

Jennifer Phillips
Mad Silence
Kate Beck
Joanne Mattera

I ask these bloggers to write roughly 100 words about artistic creativity and post them at their blogs.

Thanks, again, to Kim Barker for giving me this award!

Response to Orange

Pinks & Greens
7.8" x 6"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

Violet Woods
6.25" x 9.2"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn

The Bunkhouse
6.5" x 8"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn

In thinking about the Orange post by artist Kate Beck, I wanted to revisit my own responses to orange. None of my artworks shown here are based on orange, but they rely on it to stay together.

Put a different way, orange misused can ruin a color composition. Orange is a poison, or a pleasure - it depends on how you use it. I did some orange based works a few years ago, but I don't have a record of them. They were rather crude, I think, but their color compositions held together.

One comment I'll make about the artworks posted above is that they don't resort to blue or green to counter-poise the orange. I'm happy about that, as those colors are too obvious and I want to say "easy" to turn to when making an orange composition.

Consider this a post where I begin to formulate my ideas on an orange-based series. It has been a long time coming, and I think Kate's post has given me the inspiration to git'r dun.

As a point of reference, here is a page with many Wolf Kahn orange-influenced works. Kahn has admitted that "Orange is a vulgar color, more than a little pushy." It takes an adventurous artist to play with orange!

Advanced Composition Study

See my Five for Friday tips blog for an in-depth study of perspective today.

Artist Interview-a-Palooza

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

Via Harry Bell, at Boogie Street, comes this blog project called The Pulse: an Artist's Survey. It is hosted by Seth Apter, of The Altered Page blog, and it features 95 artists answering 7 questions. Save this for a rainy day, and you will enloy all the new artist link surfing you know you love.

Creativity

Kim Barker, of Australia, is a great one for memes and awards. She excels at this activity, having created the Top 101 Artist's Blogs list. I want to say thanks for adding me to her list with this award: The Creative Artist Award.

I, too, created an award, which is The Art Medal. Unlike the standard blog award, this meme is given out very, very sparingly, and without much link activity associated with it.

But, I am a fan of blog bling, and will pass this creativity award on. After me, I will ask my awardees to write something original about creativity. Say, 100 words in your own opinion on the subject of creativity. As I usually do, I'll contemplate whom to award, and get back to you soon.

My words on creativity:

It isn't easy to be creative as an artist. That may sound funny, but I hold creativity up as the chief mission of the artist, and in the land of two dimensional art it is hard to find new avenues for expression. You will find other artist's ideas compelling, and the classic artists were tremendous copiers. One thing I can say is interact, for heaven's sake, with the works you are interested in! What makes them attract you? What place do these works have in the broader art world? What can my work possibly add to the bigger corpus of the art world? Look out for triteness and the overdone content. On the other hand, take what is common and give it your signature.

Item of Interest:

See Alyson's post on Art Documentaries.

Through Alyson's ArtBizBlog, I found my way to: Rothko's Rooms.

Family Days

Air Show Crowds

Pass Time for Your Blogger

The family spent some time off of the farm last weekend. The Air Show was a big kick!

I'll be gone til Monday. Be good!

Review of Bellevue ArtsFair 2008

Lovely Wife Helping with Set Up

Where Did I put That Coffee Cup?

Lots of Art on the Walls

I'll rely on this pictorial review of the Bellevue fair, since time to write copy is so limited. I'll be at Family Camp Wednesday through Sunday. See you after the break!

Quick Key Link Buttons

Your Portals to Reference Heaven

The popular link buttons on the right hand margin of this page are easy for you to make. They resemble computer keys, and represent quick key-stroke access to a particular subject.

Why Make Quick Key Links?

The genesis of these little label-linkers was the incredible traffic that I was getting for the search query: "Jackson Pollock". I was amused and bewildered at first, because I had done some light-hearted and entertaining posts about the great Abstract Expressionist, but I didn't consider any of it to be really meaty content. Nothing new or scholarly, in other words.

I realized that the numerous visits that I was getting here at The Colorist seeking Jackson Pollock were coming in from students doing research. Of course, my Google rank has something to do with the search engines coming here, but I felt a certain obligation to make sure that these art history students had real content to find. I wanted to provide a comprehensive jump-off point that would point my kind readers to the Pollock meat - the best internet resources quickly found.

My Quick Key Link Buttons, which now include Washington State Art Bloggers, Leonardo da Vinci, and Jackson Pollock, also needed to fit my own criteria for good link etiquette. I want first to have my link seeker find most of his links on the first click. I am not opposed to taking my reader on a tour of blog posts at The Colorist, where he will find all posts labeled "Da Vinci" for instance, but I really dislike being required to hit the Enter button twice to produce a result. Clear, quick, thorough and concise is the goal. If for one reason or another you can't get your visitors to your subjects in one click, then create a bridge post called "Jackson Pollock Researcher," or the like, and have it provide the link to all of your labels to that subject.

How To Make Them

Do you have a traffic-nexus subject that you notice gets numerous hits on your blog? All of your chilled cucumber recipes? A lot of posts labeled "Space Sprockets"? Review your blog labels about this subject. You may need to go back and add labels to posts that you have in mind, if you've been remiss about good labeling.

Hint: create one post with the label of the link button, such as "Jackson Pollock Researcher," and then have that be the only post you label as such. In that post, offer your readers to select your standard label about the topic: "Jackson Pollock."

Select an image to use as your button, and size it properly in a Photo editor like Photoshop. My quick links are 83 pixels by 51 pixels. Making them uniform keeps your blog tidy, and gives the system a clear vision. I also have created my "buttons" as faux computer keys, to give the idea of a quick stroke on your keyboard. BTW, the image on the Pollock link is his painting titled "The Key." This took some tricky Photo shopping, but it isn't rocket science, either. All you need, though, is an iconic image that signifies your topic.

Open another window with the blog page you want for your button. Cut or copy the URL (to your clipboard).

Now, on your original blog page, open your layout page (Blogger), select Add A Page Element, and select Picture. I browse for the 83x51 jpeg that I have stored on my desktop and select it, and then in the URL link box, I paste the address of my blog page which you have placed on your clipboard.

Save and review. You should have your spiffy picture that links to a post, or set of pages with a label, on your blog. MAC users, talk among yourselves. I'm sorry that I have no idea how to translate any of this outside of PC methods.

Another solution is to send your reader to a Squidoo Lens or unique web page that you have designed. I am working on my own Squidoo Lens, now. The thing about these lenses is that you want to have something very original, and with a certain amount of authority, if you want it to be worthwhile. Using a post and label target, however, translates into multiplied visits to your blog. And, quality content and systems keeps your readers coming back.

Washington State Blogger Button

Add to my growing list of "Label Buttons", seen in the right hand column of this page, the "Washington State Art Blogger" button. When you click on the button (a map of Washington State), you will be taken to all of my posts at The Colorist with the tag featuring my local art bloggers. We few happy souls need some links, I say. If you are aware of any others, please let me know!

Students of art history may also enjoy my label lists reached by hitting the "Jackson Pollock Researcher", and the "Leonardo da Vinci" buttons. You will be rewarded with clear and comprehensive link lists for these famous artists.