Saint Fabiola

This past Saturday we were at LACMA to check out the Vanity Fair portraits, and were pleasantly surprised by this cabinet-type exhibit by Belgium born Mexican artist Francis Alÿs. He's amassed an astounding "junk piratey" collection of amateur paintings, needleworks, jewelries, and bean paintings depicting the Saint Fabioloa.  They were hung all toghether in a slightly more conceptual format in the Medieval European art wing.  These are some snuck photos from my camera phone (we liked the blue walls too):

That, plus Chris Burden's lamp post collection, really make a hoarder's day. Happy New Year!

I just made an update with new work to my portfolio. Click Here

in the movies...

I just watched a really weird, avant-gard film about the Italian Renaissance painter, Carravaggio (aptly titled, "Carravaggio"). I love watching biopics about Painters.

The artist in his own biopic is usually reduced to his/her one or two defining qualities and quirks as people, not as artists. Frida Kahlo, with her unibrow and disability, Van Gogh losing his mind, Camille Claudelle losing her mind, Pollock being a douche, etc. The narrative usually plays on a singular theme that the artist has an eccentric personality that deems them some sort of genius.

And have you ever watched a TV show or a movie with a painter where they always have the canvas faced away from the camera, and the viewer never gets to see what they're making? Ooooh that drives me crazy - I just have to see! Or what about the ones where they have to hire an artist to paint what the painter painted and the actor has to pretend he's painting on top of it? Good stuff. Never fails to entertain my imagination.

I found another blog with the same theme here, so I'll try not to overlap. ...and don't forget this quiz from the Guardian UK.

I've seen:
Frida
Pollock
Carravaggio
Camille Claudelle
Love is the Devil
Basquiat
Girl With a Pearl Earring
Moulin Rouge (the 1952 version qualifies more, but I wonder if the 2001 version even counts at all)

I've not seen:
Lust for Life
The Agony and the Ecstasy
The Moon and Sixpence
Surviving Picasso
Rembrandt
Modigliani
Fur (about Diane Arbus)