Portraits by Brooke

February Artwalk 2012

2012-02-05T21:48:00.000-08:00

Artist Statement: Musicians of Midtown

2012-02-05T20:04:00.000-08:00

As a painter, I have explored many different subjects--yet none have inspired me more than portraiture. I am most exhilarated when I am able to capture a unique physical likeness as well as a lived spiritual energy. To do this, I have used both photographic and live models for my visual references in the creation of over 200 paintings during the past 7 years . Interestingly enough, the differences between a photograph and a live model exposed a dichotomy in my painting styles:

Photographic references produced polished, realistic pieces that honor my classical training.

A live model freed a loose and contemporary style.

Fascinated by this phenomenon and the desire to further explore a “painterly” style, I decided to undertake a series that would challenge me to question the ways I visually communicate.

The Musicians of Midtown series is easily the most experimental body of work I have ever created. The inspiration for the series began with an ink sketch at Old Ironsides, one of the oldest live music venues in Sacramento. As the musicians performed-- arching and contorting their bodies to the music vibrating throughout the room-- I allowed my pen to dance almost trance-like over the page. Sketching “blindly,” I rarely took my eyes off the subject to check the accuracy of my drawing, trying instead to capture the true essence of their sudden, unpredictable movements.

Over the next several months, I explored Sacramento’s music venues, quickly filling six sketchbooks (over 450 drawings!) in this fashion. The result became a collection of drawings almost zen-like in its lyricism, with the immediacy of action caught through simple lines.

Yet, while the sketches succeeded as present tense studies of movement, I still yearned to capture the unique spirit of these musicians through the emotional affects of their music. I wanted to visually describe the distinctive feel of rock, for example, as it differs from electronica or funk. So began my study of the emotional links between color and sound, culminating in the discovery of an interesting neurological condition called synesthesia. Synesthesia creates an involuntary merging of the senses, which for some, produces the visual perception of color with an aural experience of sound. As rare as synesthesia is in the general population, it seemed to hint at a more commonly experienced phenomenon: the sense that a certain color or musical note has emotional weight to it.

I began each painting in the Musicians of Midtown series with a black canvas to set the stage-like atmosphere, then recreated the live feel of a performance in my studio with music recordings, youtube videos, sketches and photos. Focusing on how the music made me feel and how the colors on the canvas could invoke the same response, I watched the uniqueness of a musician manifest itself through each brushstroke.

Regrettably, I could not include all of the fine, local musicians in the series. In the end, I made my selections through personal connections that developed (friends, individuals I admire), and through a deep appreciation for the diversity (race, gender, musical genres) that makes Sacramento such a vibrant, artistic community. Above all, I hope that the “Musicians of Midtown” series will inspire an appreciation and support for all of the artists living and working in our local community.

Musicians of Midtown: New Series Unveiled 2012

2012-01-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! I am absolutely thrilled to return to the easel with full force focus on my new body of work. The new series, "Musicians of Midtown," is a collection of ink sketches and oil paintings inspired by the local music makers of Sacramento. I began the series with a sketchbook, "blindly" driving the pen across the paper to mimic the pitching of notes and spontaneous movements of the performers.

The challenge was to not depend upon sight as the primary visual language, but to create a kind of synesthetic experience of the music. Developing the sketches into paintings, I stood at my easel and wondered what the sound of a plucked string looked like? What color does a particular musical note invoke? Does it have a certain kind of brush stroke or texture?

I listened to bands such as Sister Crayon , Element Brass Band, Exquisite Corps, The Nibblers, Ricky Berger, Clemon Charles, Musical Charis et al. for my inspiration.

While I have tried my best to portray the incredible diversity that makes the Sacramento music scene so unique, it is inevitable that many musicians will not be included. For the show at Gallery 2110 I decided to limit the pieces to include only musicians that live in Sacramento. The collection could easily have doubled if I included the myriad international talent Sacramento draws to its stages. But the decision also was rooted in a desire to honor the artists that are living in our midst, right here in our local community, that so desperately deserve our support.

I hope you will all be able to make it to the opening reception!

Thursday, February 9th from 6-8pm at Gallery 2110/Sacramento Art Complex. Located at 2110 K Street (btwn 22nd and 21st streets) in Sacramento, CA. (916) 476-5500 *I will also be at the gallery for the 2nd Saturday artwalk from 6-9pm.

The gallery has asked me to keep most of the "Musicians of Midtown" private for a true unveiling in February. However, you may see a sneak peek of one of the paintings in process in a short film here!

Brooke Walker-Knoblich from Weston Walker on Vimeo.

ARTober & Community Events

2011-10-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I mentioned that I will not be holding any more gallery exhibits of my work til the new series is unveiled in February 2012. However, as the holiday season quickly approaches, I have decided to participate in several festivals and art auctions that benefit local Sacramento Schools and Art Programs. I hope that you will be able to attend some of them this month!

October launches a new festival in Sacramento: ARTober. Throughout the entire month, Sacramento will celebrate the arts and humanities throughout the city... in the streets, on the stages, in the galleries, at the museums, and in community parks! I have been invited to participate in their Modern Arts Festival on Saturday Oct 15th. This will be a great opportunity to not only purchase original art, prints and cards directly from me (gallery shows take a huge commission) but to also experience a live portrait drawing session! I will be sketching ink portraits at my booth on 20th street between J and K from noon to 6pm.

This Saturday, October 8th from 2-5pm, the Jesuit Highschool in Carmichael will host their annual fundraiser. The event is an awesome chance to collect work from many talented and prestigious artists AND simultaneously give back to the community! 50% of all sales go directly to the school. Unfortunately I will not be in attendence but I have given several pieces to the exhibit.

October 29th & 30th, the MAIYA Gallery (located at 2220 J Street, where I had my solo show for my Landscapes in June) will host the Silent Auction "What's in a Name?" The pieces up for bid will not have the artists' names visible. You may recognize an artist's style, but you won't know definitely who created the work unless you are the successful bidder! ALL PROCEEDS will fund scholarships for two El Camino High School seniors who will attend a college or university majoring in studio/fine art in the fall of 2012. The auction is from 1-6pm both days, followed by champagne receptions both Saturday and Sunday.

Last Local Exhibit for 2011

2011-08-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Looking back over the past 6 years (since I graduated college and began pursuing a career in painting) I can honestly say that 2011 has been one of the most exhilarating and intense years yet. Segueing into being a full-time artist--researching and planning exhibits every month, teaching painting and collaborating with local artists, and trying to produce new work consistently enough to keep growing--has been a challenge. Not that I ever had any misconceptions of how hard it would be to make a living in this economy/culture as an independent artist. But I've found that the creative freedom that self determination embodies trumps everything. And it makes me realize why it's so important to have artists in a world wrought with acquiescence.

2012 promises to be another spectacular year, with 2 solo gallery exhibitions in Sacramento already planned. After the 2110 Gallery accepted my proposal for a new body of work based on the local, Sacramento music scene, I have decided that my exhibit next week, "Portraits of Place," will be my final local show for 2011 so that I can pour all of my energy into the new series.

"Portraits of Place" will include a collection of about 30 paintings highlighting scenes from South America, France, Japan and Sacramento.

I hope you will all join me at the International House for the opening reception during the Davis Art About artwalk:
Friday, August 12th, from 6-8pm
Located at 10 College Park, Davis, CA.
*Wine and hors d'oeuvres served!

Thank you, as always, for your continued interest in my art. Non of this would be possible without your wonderful encouragement and support!

Painting en plein air

2011-06-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

Painting landscapes en plein air is the most liberating artistic experience I have had in years. At first, I characterized it as simply a change in genre. My artistic pursuits up until this point had been focused purely on portrait and figurative painting in a photorealistic style. Because I had no real history in landscape painting, no standard, no tested and tried technique to hold myself up to, the painting process was blown open to experimentation. The studio techniques I had developed to achieve translucent flesh tones (through many layers of glazing) suddenly became not only irrelevant but indeed impossible to utilize in a painting that had to be completed in one sitting. The limited palette I had become accustomed to in my figurative works no longer satisfied the diversity of color found in nature. And even the focus of my attention to accurate proportion (so imperative in portrait painting!) became remote in the grand scheme of a landscape.

But beyond the techniques associated with a genre, painting en plein air demanded something entirely new of me as an artist. It required that I relinquish control. I was no longer in my studio at midnight, painting on my own time from a photographic reference that never moved, with a light source that remained strong and constant.

Out in the open, everything changes moment by moment. Clouds collect and scatter in a matter of seconds, winds gust through grasses, rattle the easel, and threaten to whisk the canvas off into the mud. Pools of light kiss tree tops into neon and then drop them into a deep green umber. “Chasing the Light” became a response to the the kind of spontaneous action that painting en plein air embodies. It demanded that I make strong decisions and stick to them, no matter how different the scene may look 5 minutes later. Every stroke counted. And paint could just paint.

Artwalk Map

2011-05-09T23:30:00.000-07:00

Every 2nd Saturday of every month, Sacramento has an artwalk. While most of the galleries in Sacramento county participate, Midtown is the hub, particularly now that it's getting warm. 2nd Saturdays are quite a scene and not the art viewing night of choice by the "purists". No, this Saturday, thousands of people may flood the streets, searching for the delta breeze as they squeeze their way through traffic stalemates around street performers.

Tribal Calling will perform their original Samba Parade and with their primal grooves you can't refuse you may just end up in one of their dance circles! As if there weren't enough art galleries to make the artwalk lively, many alternative venues also support their local artists... restaurants, salons, bars, insurance bureaus, health clinics, and impromptu booths litter every street, making Midtown the perfect 10 square blocks for a night of ecstatic culture.

Unfortunately I very rarely get to explore on 2nd Saturday as I usually have my own reception to attend. And this particular weekend I have 3 exhibits that include my work so obviously I won't be seen in a feathered hat, pulling random strangers into the Samba line. In lieu of hitting the pavement myself, I've created a map of all the exhibits/galleries/spectacles that are a must see and hopefully I can live vicariously through all of you!

This map places just a few of my favorite galleries, all within walking distance. There are many many other destinations worth checking out by bike or car. Visit 2nd Sat. Art Map

Tribal Calling begins their parade at J and 22nd at 6:30/7 and dances along the route indicated by the red dots. You can join them in the parade or wait til they reach 20th street for their community circle! Just listen for those drums...

I will be at the reception for my solo exhibit "An Eclectic Collection" at Active Life Chiropractic 6:30-9:30. Then headed over to Urban Hive where I have a couple paintings in a group show. The Kimberly Trip will be performing an acoustic rock set til 10:30 if you're looking for some live music...

Enjoy your artwalk!

Completing a Painting

2011-04-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

In class couple weeks ago, one of my students asked a question that has stuck with me: "How do we know when a painting is done?" My reply, at the time, was something general like... when nothing bothers you about the piece and you can't see where to take it further then it's done. Temperment also plays a part, when you find that you are no longer enjoying the painting (of course everyone goes through creative trials) but when you just look at the piece on your easel and dread picking up a paintbrush to work on it? Then it's time to call it quits, discard it as a work in progress and move onto something else that you can pour yourself into. Of course this is fine to tell students who are just exploring the process. For a professional artist who, for example works on commission and cannot merely abandon a painting, completion must be achieved through a rigorous criteria in aesthetic and intention.

When I approached the final layer on the commission, I evaluated EVERYTHING: perspective, color balance and rhythm, value relationships, drawing proportions, light sources, the balance of detail and non specific passages, and the overall "feel" of the piece.

My first step was to rectify the "collage" issue. Since I had used two separate images for the background and figure, the painting didn't have an accurate sense of space. Immediately I saw that if the girl were to be truly seated in a field of flowers then the flowers directly beside her (on the same plane) would need to be treated with the same amount of detail as her dress. But something else was bothering me about the isolated figure and background... and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. So I started an online hunt for inspiration, looking for more detailed images of lupine and how fields of flowers behave....

As luck (or perhaps tenacity) would have it, I stumbled upon fields that struck the resonant chord. The addition of California poppies was exactly what this painting needed. It not only made the entire field pop in a diversity that is much more natural, but it successfully united the figure within the scene. The burnt oranges and golds of the petals perfectly matched Nicole's dress so the colors became balanced and rhythmical throughout the entire painting. I purposefully painted many of the poppies closed, still in the beginning of their bloom, to symbolize the beginning of this young girls path to womanhood. And of course the poppies had a sweet resonance with me, personally, as I'm a 5th generation Californian and these vibrant little flowers proliferate the memory of my childhood.

As much as the field began to feel like a natural background setting, the light source was still an issue. Nicole was obviously lit with a bright, directional studio light. The dark shadows that cut her neck, nose, and right eye shriek of artifice. Lightening the shadows created subtle transitions and gave the painting its final diffused glow.

Music in the Painting Process

2011-04-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

I find myself continually intrigued by how deeply interconnected all art forms are within the creative process. Working primarily in a single artistic field (visual, literary, musical or otherwise) it's easy to become isolated, to create only within a comfort zone. That's not to say that all forms aren't appreciated by artists who have focused their energies into a particular media, just that we are most confident working in a kind of compartmentalized system. I think this is a natural occurrence (not something institutionalized by society, per se) as we all have particular gifts that lend themselves to this kind of division. The product of this compartmentalization is apparent in how we define the art (the painting, the novel, the song) with little regard to how the PROCESS was affected by other genres. It is oftentimes impossible to see this crossover, unless, of course, the artist specifically intends to communicate it. Or you are a film maker. Film is the prefect example of the melding of different artistic categories... visuals with words and music.

When I began filming my painting process the issues of genre crossover became an exhilarating new concept to work with. Up until this point I had worked primarily in a secretive fashion, alone in my studio, only releasing images of works in progress to a select few. But creating films opened it all up... questioning how I express the process rather than just communicate through a completed painting.

Music became the prevailing (and oftentimes frustrating!) focus in my filmmaking. I have always painted with music going in the background. And I have always chosen my music by what emotions it brings forth in me that I want to influence the painting. For example, in the portrait of the young girl I have been commissioned to paint for her Bat-Mitzvah, I created a Pandora station of music I listened to when I was about her age. Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell... strong female artists that speak to the unnerving poetry of misunderstanding. But when it came time to put a soundtrack to my film, the modern day issues of copyright infringement hampered my full artistic expression. The only music I could find (unless I could pay $80 to license a royalty free tune) were educational recordings of classical music written before 1920. I "made do" in the first layer films with Chopin, an obvious choice as a lot of his music deals with subtleties of emotion and introspection, but ideally I would have liked to accurately portray the process (and conscious musical decisions I had made) while painting.

After discussing my musical frustrations with my dear friend Harley White Jr. he proposed a kind of collaboration for part 3 and 4 in the commission series. For the dress details I wanted something upbeat and fun, vibrant like the flowing gauze in orange, red and yellow. And this is what spontaneously erupted from the strings in the first take:

In part 4, with the detail work in the field of flowers in the background, Harley played one of his original compositions "Spring"

Witness the final touches on "Nicole's painting" in Part 5 of the commission process. Film will be posted as soon as a tune comes together. If only I had a musical bone in my body this hunt wouldn't be so difficult...

A Commission in Process

2011-04-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

I believe artists create for themselves. Of course every artist wants their work to speak to others, but ultimately we paint, sculpt, sing, dance, and write because we HAVE to. So to produce work for someone else is an incredible challenge. Painting on commission allows for an opening of the artistic process. It stretches the artist's solitary pursuit to include others' points of view and creates a new design and purpose for the painting. Ideally this process remains open, allowing the artist to make decisions that best execute the purpose of the painting. However, quite frequently, there are severe limitations....

Most of my commissions are painted from photographs because the subject is unable, for whatever reason, to sit live. Obviously working from life is the preferred approach as the eye can always see three dimensional form better than a camera can render a two dimensional image. But a photo is essential in most cases. Getting a GOOD photo for reference, however, is the greatest challenge I face in commissioned work.

The commission I started yesterday has an intense due date, giving me less than a month to do an oil painting (with all the dry time in between layers) and ship it to the East Coast. Obviously we didn't have time to do a photoshoot (geography and the surprise gift of the painting also rendered this important part of the process impossible) so I had to use photos my client already had.

This is where conflicting artistic visions wreak havoc! I have serious issues with how the professional photographer staged this young girl. Her long, thin limbs create a distraction through the composition, forcing the viewer to spin off through the extensions instead of resonating in the core of her person. And the light is very harsh, creating high contrast shadows with very little subtle variations in value and color. But I did find her "look" intriguing and the orange dress is just fabulous. I could work with this.

My first response was to crop her legs out entirely and to have her peacefully seated. Holding onto the swing rope sexualized the gaze somehow, so eliminating it had to happen. For the background, I wanted something symbolic for her age (this commission is a surprise gift for her Bat-Mitzvah) so a field of flowers seemed appropriate... blooming and feminine. I chose lupine in particular for the complementary color relationship with the orange in her dress and balancing of the lavenders in her skin. Since I am basically collaging photos together, it's up to my own imagination of how the figure and the background would actually relate to each other in real life. This is going to be extremely difficult, as I usually have to SEE it to paint it, but I look forward to the challenge.

I thought it would be interesting to see how a commissioned painting comes to life so I am filming the whole process and will be posting videos throughout the next couple weeks.

Artist Spotlight: RCC TV

2011-04-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Still Life on a Rainy Day

2011-03-21T07:36:00.000-07:00

The first day of spring and it feels like the depths of winter. Blustery winds wrack the old growth trees making the neighborhood a war zone with downed limbs. My poor wild yellow-bellied finches desperately cling to their sack as it twirls on its nail, spewing seeds into the large mound of shucked shells on the balcony floor. I've been meaning to sweep up the feastings for days now, but with a storm like this what would be the point?

And besides, a day like this implores me to hole up in the studio... and just paint. Sitting down to my easel was particularly liberating this afternoon. Instead of working on pieces for my 2 upcoming shows, I grappled with a relatively new genre: Still Life. Using the burnt-orange raw, silk curtain from my four-poster bed and selecting a few white cosmos from their colorful bouquet, I went to work setting up the first still life in my Midtown Studio.

I have a bag full of new canvases tucked in the corner, but recycling an old one was a conscious decision to eliminate things from my studio. I've stacks and stacks of canvases with just a couple layers of paint. Today, my abandoned paintings feel like old clothes, dulled inspiration left colorless by years of washing. I held onto them because of the memory of how I used to feel at the moment they were relevant. But today I'm exploring new perceptions and I'm cleaning out the closet. It is the first day of spring after all.

Painting "Winter Bloom"

2011-03-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

Back in November (2010) I started a portrait painting to demonstrate my technique for a teaching position at Sun City in Roseville. After digging through my inspirations folder, a collection of magazine clippings and photographs, I decided to paint from an image taken in a Japanese Cherry Orchard. Originally, there was very little weight, or contemporary relevance to the image. I simply found it to be beautiful with its subtle wintry colors and the softness of her person juxtaposed with the gnarled branches.

But after the first coat, the painting just sat in my studio, unfinished. I turned to other projects.... exploring some plein air landscapes, still lifes and several portrait commissions.

Then last week the earthquake in Japan devastated the country and suddenly the unfinished painting took on whole new meanings. I began to see the quiet strength in this woman sitting amongst the flowers. The wintry blues, violets and greens became an emotional entity in and of themselves. Her closed eyes ignore the scenery and turn inward in meditation. Even the cleaving of her cheekbone and defined jaw became a representation of her character.

The completed painting "Winter Bloom" will be unveiled in my upcoming exhibit at the Interfaith Service Bureau. A % of the proceeds of the sale of the painting will be donated to earthquake relief efforts in Japan. In the meantime you can enjoy the video of the final push towards completion.

Please join me at my reception Thursday, April 7th, 2011 to see the painting in person! For more information please visit Brooke's events.

Painting "The Fountain"

2011-03-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

Brooke Walker-Knoblich begins her New Orleans series with "The Fountain." In the first, 40 minutes she covers the canvas in a grisaille layer of oil paint to establish the value relationships and overall color for the painting.
Music by Bill Douglass and Paul McCandless. Recorded in Banquet Studios.

Brooke continues "The Fountain" with a second layer of flesh tones. To be continued...

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Painting in Big Sur

2011-03-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

First painting location: pullout on HWY 1, north of Limekiln

Second painting location: Pfeiffer Cove.

Music: Bach's French Suite no. 4 BWV 815 -III: Sarabande.
Performed by Felipe Sarro.

Midtown Reception at Beatnik Gallery

2011-03-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

When Beatnik asked Brooke to have a solo show in their gallery, she furiously went to work to produce ten large paintings in ten weeks. The resulting series "Midtown" was joined by several paintings from Brooke Walker-Knoblich's portraits/figures body of work at the Beatnik Gallery in April, 2010.

Music by Blvd Park and Musical Charis.

2nd Saturday Artwalk

2010-11-14T00:34:00.000-08:00

Midtown never ceases to amaze me. Tonight's artwalk was filled with characters and incredible artists of all sorts. I started at the Maiya Gallery and found an interesting solo show by Craig Smith. The main gallery was filled with roughly textured paintings of letters and color. It reminded me of playing with words as a child, beautifully shading the letters with my thick wax crayons. One little thing I found particularly interesting about these pieces was their construction. Upon close examination of several oil paintings, I found screw heads jutting out of the surface, right there in the midst of thick strokes. The imperfectness of it, I guess, is what struck me.

My next stop was the Union Hall Gallery, which I'd never been to! It's a lovely little gallery on the 2nd floor of a classic Victorian. Mary Kercher (a beautiful painter from my Muse Monday art group) was exhibiting in a group show exploring the human figure. Her work always stuns me. Her self portrait meets you eye to eye as you walk in the front door.

"Between Depth & Surface" "Human Reign"

I love how free her work is. The colors seem to rupture from their transitions, sweeping the eye along harsh lines broken by strokes resembling fog. Her self portrait rivets you in the directness of its gaze. "Human Reign," she told me "was created after doing yoga." She just sits down to paint and lets it flow from her hand. The brush takes her where it wants to go.

The group show was "Human Expressed" so obviously there were a couple other figurative artists exhibiting work.

"Zero Attention Span"

Matthew Bird's drawings are more like wall sculptures, with their three dimensional elements stretching and bending beyond the frame. Up close, it's all just a dancing, swirling, delicate line of pencil. Lovely. And a young artist to boot! He's my age :)

Moving on to the Art Complex, now known as the 2110 Gallery after its beautiful renovation into a open gallery space, I stumbled upon an artist that made me giggle and prance and even tempt me to climb a cactus to make a vulture wiggle. Well not a real cactus. Or bird. It was a ten foot tall sculpture made of looped rebar studded with screws for thorns and atop sat a mama vulture, also made of twisted metal and springs, her head and legs drooping and bowing with the slightest breeze to feed her anxiously awaiting baby. The imagination and humor and well crafted use of recycled metal parts was refreshing. I'm hitting myself that I didn't think to take a photo, even one of the giant tortoise with round saw blades for shell plates would have been such a treasure to post. But I must admit that Stephen Cook's company name just says it all: Bubba's Garden Art.

There are so many artists in the art complex, it'd be impossible to mention them all. Most of them are working artists, photographers, painters, sculpors, etc. paying rent (mostly) for the foot traffic of this one night a month. There was one artist upstairs that made me linger over her symbolic drawings. Doracy's art works with archetypes. She told me her art speaks to her, tells her what should be done or even which direction it should hang (which of course changes depending on the available wall space). Her black canvases are scraped with whatever she can find: pens, nails, steel wool... interlacing gorgeous white marks with sweeps of form making gesture. All abstract of course. But I see an eye and what looks like a goat, and a manta ray poisoning someone with it's long tail? Very much like an intensely detailed Rorscach test. And no wonder. Doracy spent her life in psychology. We got to talking and it turns out she lived at the Cite Universitaire, the exact same housing complex I lived in back in 2003 in Paris! Such a small world connection. Next month, she's returning to France to work an art internship for a year. When she told me, I could feel the angst of my own wanderlust grabbing at my legs. What's stopping me from going too?

But as I began the 12 block trek home all I could do was grin wildly into the wind. There was no way the chill could withstand my stride as I sorted through the last 3 hours of the artwalk. I was high on all the creations I'd seen, the quarky artists I'd talked to, just feeling apart of this artistic community. Maybe that's why I'm still here: there's too many great things happening in Midtown to leave... just yet.

The Midtown Hum

2010-09-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

The first blog post after returning from Italy has admittedly been a little daunting. The cultural adjustment alone has been a lot to digest, not to mention the new insights the Florence Academy instilled in my artistic endeavors. But returning to Midtown was a truly inspiring experience.

The memory of driving over the wetlands on that first evening back 5 weeks ago, with the egrets exploring the boggy grasses and the downtown Sacramento cityscape finally breaking the valley's horizon, has stuck with me. The swelling of familiarity and comfort began to seep in, fully embracing me only as the City of Trees dappled the windshield. But it wasn't until I heard the quivering voice of my neighbor's harmonica through the dusky glow, that I finally felt home.

Midtown is a force to reckon with. Beyond the vibrancy of diversity (yes Sacramento is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in all of California!) there's an edgy, artistic energy here that's impossible to explain without sounding like a proponent of New Age philosophies. But it is palpable and condensing. You need only go as far as 1 block in any direction to discover it's expression... stencil "street art" stamps the cement underfoot, solo trumpets moan through the trees, African drums pulse through the parks, inked bodies congregate around dive bars, once barren sidewalk medians become luscious gardens of flowers and vegetables, and free newspapers inform us of a new painting class, the latest beat poetry or ballet performance. I could go on and on about the tiniest of things that makes this city speak so intensely to those who are open enough to listen.

If the energy of Midtown were audible it'd be a hum, buzzing even the dark rubble of the freeway underpasses. It does in fact scream through the strings and voices of myriad local bands determined to perform every night of the week. And it scratches and scrapes across white paper as wild pencils try to capture a living model's movement. It clicks through the spokes of the classic cruiser bikes and thunders as thousands flood J Street for the monthly artwalk.

Obviously, Midtown resonates with me. I have finally found a tribe I am honored to be a part of: a proliferation of painters, photographers, and musicians all speaking their own language. It's a language of authentic authority, something that can only come with discovering and understanding one's own vision, voice, and heart.

Our Response to Art and Life.

2010-07-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

Art is a reflection of a life. To be an artist does not simply mean that you paint or sculpt, or write or are engaged in a creative, expressive process. It's so much more than that. It's a whole way of perceiving the world and yourself as an active creator within it. Art not only deeply roots our aesthetics and sensitivities to nuance, but actually shows us how a life is purposefully chosen to be lived.

It is no surprise to me that most artists struggle to make financial ends meet. The artist's purpose (the drive to search for truth no matter how hard or painful it may be; to discover meaning and beauty even in the smallest of things; to engage in connections that confirm and inspire the deepest within us) typically appears irrelevant in a culture that supports flighty entertainment and business prowess. And how a culture responds to and supports its artists is one of the most significant reflections of its own mental, emotional and spiritual health.

When art is written off as too intellectual it exposes the absence of innate curiosity to discover something new and grapple with the challenge of not understanding. When artists have the reputation of being too sensitive it expounds the fact that emotions are not seen as something of dire importance. And when we are not open enough for art to evoke a deep response within us, we have lost an essential part of what it means to be human.

From Start to Finish: The Painting Process at FAA

2010-07-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

At the Florence Academy of Art, there is a strict, traditional process to create an oil painting. Beginning with charcoal on paper, the basic proportions of the model are determined and clear transitions between highlight and shadow are delineated. This preparatory drawing is then transposed (using tracing paper) onto a canvas that has been thinly painted with a mix of oil and distilled turpentine. The tint layer, or primatura, serves to unite the "tone" of the painting and can either be warm or cool. Our teacher, Stephen Bauman prefers to use raw umber for this layer, which is on the cool side, sometimes almost greenish depending on the brand of oil paint you are using. I personally prefer a much warmer color for my undertones, especially for a nude figure in a live setting, so I might have chosen a burnt umber instead, which adds a red-ish tone to the dark brown.

At this stage the painting is only viewed in terms of value, how the shadows and light relate to each other devoid of color, and the painting is "blocked" in with a first layer of oil paint. Then a general flesh color is created to be used for the highlights. The shadows still remain one color, but half tones (transitions) should begin to be perceived with more accuracy and sensitivity. Always "drawing" (re-seeing, re-measuring etc.) while applying these first couple layers is of the utmost importance so that all the quirks can be worked out before serious attention to detail and color begins.

I noticed several major issues with my drawing at this point of the process... her left leg was too long and I had to bring the knee in a couple centimeters. Her lower rib cage had also collapsed (perhaps I had completed that part of the drawing when the model began to tire and was slouching?) so I had to create more space between her breast and belly.

By the beginning of the final, 4th week of the course, we now began to use color. And I finally learned how to achieve luminous shadows! You never mix white into a shadow color because it makes it chalky or dusty looking. If the shadow needs to be brighter/lighter for the form to properly fall in place, pure red or ochre (sparingly) should be mixed into your umber. Where the delicate transitions occur between shadow and light, the color is usually dull, often appearing to be grayish or leached. A liminal color for a liminal space. Another trick to take note of: the darkest part of a highlight will ALWAYS be lighter than the lightest part of a shadow. Keeping the brushes used for lights and shadows separate is a fundamental!

Completed Painting of Sylvia. 85x50cm

Many people have asked me if I learned a lot from the class. The resounding answer for me was yes, but not in the assumed answer to the question. Yes I learned some incredible new technical skills that I will apply in my own process of working... namely how to create luminous shadows and the proper use of hard vs soft line to create depth. The closer the figure appears, the stronger the colors and form should be, the more detailed. But as it recedes, the outlines should begin to blur with the background. Almost like a shallow focus. Otherwise the figure appears to be cut out and pasted instead of belonging to its environment.

But, I also learned more about what I would personally, as an artist, choose to do differently. In regards to subject matter, most of the works I've seen from the teachers and alumni of the Florence Academy of Art, are incredibly academic, often depicting traditional biblical scenes or obviously done in the studio for studying purposes. While beautiful and accomplished, I personally don't feel any connection to the model/subject. They're oftentimes removed, and the intimacy between artist and subject is lost. I understand the "academy" atelier tradition's very purpose is to uphold the techniques of the renaissance masters, but as a contemporary artist I rebuke at the idea of adhering to stories that have no personal or historical relevance to the here and now.

The idea of subject matter has been very inspiring to me and I ache to return to my studio to paint the people, cultures, and places that capture our moment in history and our connections to each other.

Chianti Kismet

2010-07-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

Our Friday night was supposed to be a short evening at the Mercato festival... a 50 minute train ride southwest to Certaldo, some music, maybe some acrobatics, then catch the last train back home. We should have known that nothing would go as expected when the German changed plans en route.

When Ann and I arrived in Certaldo, we were informed that "the group" (several local Italians and Ann's German friend Olivia) were not going to the festival til Saturday night. Feeling a bit guilty that we had taken the train out, Olivia coerced her friend into driving into town to pick us up and take us to a house party they were all attending in the country. Having about an hour or so to kill, Ann and I wandered the spontaneous market that had formed in the piazza in Certaldo's lower city, buying sundresses and skirts from local seamstresses and scoffing at the kitschy tourist jewelry, lace boxes and laquered trinkets. On our way back to the meeting point with Olivia, I stumbled upon a sketch artist on the street. Her work utterly captivated me... by far the best artist I've seen peddling 5 euros portraits.

Her dancing, graceful lines were perfectly contrasted by heavy, bold marks. I passed by slowly, only to stop 100 meters away, turn around, and head directly for the model's chair. Posing live for a drawing is such an incredible experience. The interaction that occurs between artist and subject is so visceral, expressing the whole environment... with it's time constraints and people walking by; an evolution of acute focus and blurry distraction, all interwoven with the bustle of a city street.

Soon we were tearing 'round narrow country roads with an Italian behind the wheel. Ann and I giggled nervously, mostly, I think, to reassure each other as we grasped at the car seats. The jolting accordion singing from the radio kept perfect time with our bodies hurtling through space around the hairpin turns. I was so grateful it was deliciously cool as we wound through the bottom of a valley, the first truly dark night sky I've seen in Italy, salted from hill to horizon. I ached to see the countryside, straining my eyes to peer into the darkness of imagined vineyards and olive plantations.

The party was fun, classically American in celebration of parents gone for the weekend. Sweet shisha smoke greeted us in the candlelit garden, wine and sangria passed from hand to hand, a chaos of electronica (and even the limbo!) echoed off the terra cotta pavers. That night we slept three girls in a full bed, timing our turns with the heat waves in the small room.

The next afternoon we were treated to a home cooked Italian meal by our host's grandmother. 1st "light" course was the largest bowl of spaghetti I've ever eaten... and I've gorged on some serious pasta... in a spicy tomato sauce with freshly grated parmisiano, all drizzled with olive oil pressed from their orchards. When the 2nd course arrived our eyes bulged. Plates heaped high with deep fried zuccinis, potatoes, and an Italian delicacy battered and fried pumpkin flowers spread their way across the table. It was all so unbelievably delicious, painfully so. And then the watermelon came out and the homemade limoncello to aid in our digestion. They finally took us for our word that we were stuffed when ice cream was mentioned and we all groaned in unison, furiously shaking our heads.

Olivia had promised her friend that she would help him trim his olive trees that afternoon so we were soon en route to the orchard.

Ann in a field across from the olive orchard

Ann and I had every intention of helping the workers but when we arrived a group of guys were just leaving to go swimming in a nearby lake and they invited us to come along. Hmmm work through the heat of the day in an orchard in sundresses and high heels (of course we hadn't brought a change of clothes!) hacking limbs off trees or go bask in cool, fresh water. Tough choice.

And we finally got the views we could only have guessed at the night before...

I'd like to say that I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the drive, but in all honesty I barely looked out the window. Maybe it was my propensity for motion sickness in a car moving at NORMAL speeds on STRAIGHT roads. Or maybe it was the stench of 3 shirtless, Italian men wafting through the cabin of the cramped hatchback. All I know is it took all my focus to simply grip the headrest bars and anticipate the curves of the road approaching us at unbelievable speeds.

The rest of the afternoon was like a dream. We wandered from the lake to a swimming pool with an incredible view, watched the sunset over the vineyards and had another delicious homemade pasta dinner. Sitting outside the old stone house, swatting at zanzari (one of the few Italian words I've picked up) I relished in the obscurity the lack of understanding created for me. I could just be, an observer listening to the lilting music a foreign language becomes when not a word is comprehended.

We were rudely awakened from our reverie when we learned that there were no late trains back to Florence. Perhaps if we batted our eyes and mooned over a local he'd drive us the 30 minutes it takes by car? Next train departed at 6:30am...

So off we went to Certaldo's Mercato Festival with three car loads packed with carousing friends anxious to party. Apparently Saturday night is the most popular, the apex of the entire festival. Which unfortunately for us meant it cost 18 euros to get in. When we didn't arrive until midnight and the last act ended at 1:30am, there was no way any of us were going to pay the full price ticket. Finding an overgrown cobble stoned path, we hiked up to the old city ramparts in hopes of finding a secret entrance. Nope! All ways in were tightly guarded. And though I would have liked to make my mountain guide, rock climbing brother proud by scaling an ancient wall in a sundress, we resulted to asking people leaving the festival if they would give us their ticket stubs for re-entry. But the gaurds were also giving every person who left a stamp to get back in.

Luckily there was an artist in the group with a sharpee!

And then the madness of hundreds of people packed into tiny streets spontaneously ruptured with the firework smoke. Flame jugglers, actors, acrobats, stilt walkers, marching bands, fiddlers, belly dancers, lovers and drunks created a throbbing entity all of its own. It is impossible to describe the chaos of such magnetic beauty. The portrait possibilities alone made me clench my camera with a death grip, trying to steady my hand amidst the jostling of Italian rhythm.

By 2:30am we were stumbling back down the hill, Ann and I still hoping one of the guys in our group would give us a ride. I always give men the benefit of the doubt, but I seem to be proved wrong time and time again. They did indeed just leave us there... two young women in dresses, at 3am on an empty street, fuming as they drove past us waving out the window and joyfully yelling "ciao!"

I never thought I'd hear myself say that an experience like that, which potentially could have been dangerous or completely miserable, turned into a moment of pure gold. Within 5 minutes of their departure, as we were sitting on a rock wall determining what to do next, two lovely Italian women walked down the road. Michela spoke perfect English (is an English teacher in fact) and immediately swept us up into her magnetic smile and sparkle. She joined us on the wall for the next 3 hours, rolling smokes, cuddling us with a sleeping bag and helping us imitate the bullfrogs in the nearby riverbed.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

When the sun finally arrived we bid goodbye, promising to visit Michela in Modena within the next two weeks, and walked through the freshly washed streets of Certaldo back to the station.

As we were waiting for the first train to arrive, all we could do was munch cookies that the ever-prepared Ann had stashed in her purse, scratch at the contacts shriveling inside our eyes, smile, and wonder at life's incredible gifts. And of course sleep the whole way back to Florence.

The Importance of Drawing

2010-07-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

When I began my painting class at the Florence Academy of Art I was fairly frustrated when we didn't even pick up a paint brush til the 2nd week of a 4 week course. The first 5 days were spent just drawing. Apparently, in the academic tradition, drawing is of the utmost importance for it allows the artist to study a subject simply through line, gesture and tone. It also frees the artist to explore compositions and make mistakes... it is only a drawing, afterall, something traditionally used in preparation for a REAL work of art. And this makes sense both psychologically and economically, when the very materials (oil pigments etc.) were rare and expensive.

But I never understood how important drawing was til I visited the Uffizi Gallery. Many art historians claim that preparatory drawings created a fundamental shift in both the style and artistic thinking of artists in the 15th Century (the beginning of the Italian Renaissance). Drawing may have begun simply as a means of capturing artistic thought processes but it soon became the ideal way to express more naturalistic perspectives and forms. Even in painting.

Botticelli's tempura painting "The Birth of Venus" perfectly illustrates this philosophy. Obviously this is not the entire composition of the famous painting, but I have enlarged it in order to see the artist's technique. Notice the strong outline around each figure, clearly delineating the curves of the arms and legs, perfectly expressing the toes, and separating the figures' whole bodies from their environs. Each element of the painting is purely contained.

Botticelli, himself, said that the most important part of a painting is the drawing... all the rest is just filling in the lines with color.

That statement deeply resonated with my own process of painting. For years I have been using a digital projector to transpose an image onto my canvas. After quickly sketching the outlines of shadow and form, I have the exact composition and proportions I desire. Then it really is just coloring inside the lines. However, modern technology definitely has it's limitations. Trying to paint a live figure once again has made me realize how untrained my eye had become in seeing proportion correctly. Drawing from life is truly an indispensable practice for every artist. Time to fill up that sketchbook!

"Discovering" Ramiro Sanchez

2010-07-08T16:37:00.000-07:00

If I could choose where to live in Florence the decision wouldn't be hard. The Oltrarno district, south of the Arno River, instantly felt like home the first day I wondered out of the city center. Yes it is somewhat lacking the grandiose tourist sights... not to say that the Piazza Santa Spirito isn't the perfect place to have a lunch or that the Modern museum in the Pizzi Palace isn't one of the more important museums in Florence. It's just that in Oltrarno, it's as real as Italy gets. Women hang out the windows to pinch their wet clothes onto the line, old men ride rickety bicycles, their arms loaded with bags of fresh produce. Laughter can be heard from the depths of woodworking and leather shops, and even a solo, perfectly round tomato forgotten in the gutter becomes a sign that people are LIVING here.

As I was looking for Gusta Pizza I stumbled upon a gallery (inevitably closed for lunch) and was incredibly moved by the paintings and drawings I saw displayed in the window. When I jotted down Ramiro Sanchez's name I figured I was simply educating myself on an artist from the past, even though his work was beautifully fresh, because most of the art you see on display in the city are old masterpieces by artists long since dead. So I was completely shocked when I looked him up online and discovered not only is he a contemporary artist but he actually teaches at the Florence Academy of Art!!!

You can peruse his website and see his magnificent handling of paint in portraits, figures, and landscapes alike. I'm only going to discuss a couple images that really inspired me.

Ramiro's painting "Wicked" took my breath away. How can shadows, by their very nature meaning the absence of light, be so luminous? And his handling of the flesh is so exquisite with the perfectly clear lines mixed with foggy passages of color.

But besides just the technique of paint application, I think what makes this painting particularly powerful is the play between static and active distributions in both the figure and composition. The way her back is curved suggests a restful, well supported position. Yet her cocked foot and the gap under her arm display an awakened activity within the figure. In turn, her weight is simultaneously supported by both an active and static entity...the fabric in the foreground looks like a hammock (which as we know shifts and moves constantly) and the couch in the background is of a solid wood foundation (always stationary). The dichotomies are disturbingly beautiful making me feel, simultaneously, at peace and on edge.

I really love this portrait. How the dreamy, almost sad quality of her expression seems to be represented equally in the background makes the painting a whole emotional piece. The technique of mixing a solid form with a washy background also creates a beautiful juxtaposition and the muted palette is at once delicately feminine and weighty in its substance. It's an incredibly haunting image and I am so thrilled to have found this artist. Tomorrow I will inquire at the Academy if he is available this summer for a class or perhaps just a conversation...

Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy

2010-07-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

I've taken to wandering the city. Finding NEW piazzas has become difficult but I always seems to discover some small, unknown alleyway. And they're always the most beautiful spaces imaginable. Escaping the hustle of traffic and reveling in the subtle tones of shadow within shadow, I feel so at peace in these narrow forgotten streets.

Though the piazzas are, of course, wonderful places. Particularly to glean little gems of knowledge! Wandering through the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, I happened to hear an Italian tour guide suggesting to her group of American bicyclists, that one of the oldest known pharmacies was just around the corner. Without a moments hesitation, I changed course, following the direction of her furiously shaking hand. After only a couple minutes walk I stumbled into one of the most beautiful buildings I been in in Florence.

The Santa Maria Novela Pharmacy, also known as the Officina Profumo-Framaceutica di Santa Maria Novella is one of the oldest pharmacies in the world. It was originally founded by friars in 1221 and was the source of medications, balms and pomades for all the monks infirmaries. News of their quality products became famous and the pharmacy eventually opened to the public. By the 18th century their fame had spread to Russia, the Indies and even China.

The pharmacy is still in operation and focuses exclusively on herbalist art, basing all its preparations on traditional herbs and oils of natural origin. The vast majority of the medicinal herbs are grown locally on the hills around Florence.

The Historic Sales room is replete with painted, vaulted ceilings,

and is where the company's customers were welcomed.

In 1848, as the Pharmacy's fame grew, the Sales room was restructured

to entertain and accommodate all their new the customers.

The Perfume Room's walls are lined with the portraits and urns of the

friars & Stephani family running the Pharmacy for the last 4 generations.

The Herbologist room or old Apothocary shop has a view out into the herb garden and hundreds of multicolored decanteurs and bottled elixers beautifully displayed in walnut cabinets.

Delicate frescoes cover all four walls and ceiling of the Old Library. There is an extensive collection of antique texts (some 800 year old recipes!) now housed in the Sacristy and the Old Laboratory has many machines and mortars, precious glassware and metal utensils that were used in the distillation and production process. What an unbelievable wealth of knowledge.

I left the museum simply beaming. So unexpected! And an incredible reminder of what treasures can be found if only you keep your eyes and ears open and act spontaneously.

Henry Miller in Livorno

2010-07-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

Today we escaped the Florentine heat. Traveling with two Germans through the public transportation system was cause for some minor irritations on their part (why is the que so long and only two windows open? This train is 15 minutes late?! Eh Italians...) but we soon settled into my first air conditioned compartment since arriving in Italy. What a relief! The 1.45h trip to Livorno was a teasing look at the countryside: beautiful open fields, Cyprus and shimmering silver leafed trees conceiling ochre buildings flew by at a rumbling pace. After a short bus ride from the station we were soon burying our toes in the pebble studded sand, already collecting multicolored unicorn shells. Be weary of picking them up IN the water though. Little protruding toes from a live crab still inhabiting his home are quite startling.

I had brought my watercolors with me with every intention of creating little postcard sized paintings of the Mediterranean. I could probably blame my lack of artistic inspiration on the harsh light sucking away color in it's dramatizing of contrast between reflection and watery depths. But really it was because I had picked up "Henry Miller on Writing." Not exactly your typical "light" beach read. Yet his articulate bluntness and character of critical thought grabbed my gut with a death grip. Instead of painting I feasted on his words til the sun began to set and we had to catch the train back to Florence. And even then, as now, his words remained with me. I wanted to laugh and weep and run around screaming, simultaneously. So my art inspiration for the day will be to share a passage from "Why Don't You Try to Write?" that particularly spoke to me.

"Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there." p. 25 from "Henry Miller on Writing."

Art in Context at the Bargello Museum

2010-07-03T16:34:00.000-07:00

Today was an incredible reminder of what is often lost when we experience art. Namely, how deeply affected, in both the creating and viewing, each piece is by it's cultural context.

This morning our class visited the Bargello Museum with our "guide" Joan Reifnsyder. It is an incredible museum, often overlooked by many tourists.

Built in the late 1200's, it is one of the oldest public buildings in Florence and eventually became a meeting place for the city council (a guild of merchants). The merchants' power was, however, severely limited by their lack of a military for they were not nobility afterall. For protection, they would hire a knight from outside of Florence. Bargello actually means Captain of Justice and the influence of these "captains" can be seen in their coats of arms lining the interior wall of of the courtyard. By 1574 the building served as a jail and many of the rooms still show evidence of where the cells used to divide the space.

By the mid 1800's, the Bargello became the first national museum as Italy united and Florence was the Capital for a short 5 year stint. At that time it was completely restored, vaults painted etc. and the building appears now as it was completed then. It is primarily a sculpture museum, housing important works by Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Michelangelo (all of whom are considered Renaissance artists). I name these artists, specifically, because their sculptures are so much better understood within their cultural context.

I, for one, am not a fan of gilded allegorical works. If I had been in the Bargello by myself I would have flown by these two "Sacrifice of Isaac"s without a second thought. But they both play an important role in Florentine architecture and provide interesting insights into newly emerging Renaissance tastes.

by Lorenzo Ghiberti by Filippo Brunelleschi

In 1401 there was a competition to commission an artist to design the doors on the northern entrance to the Florence Baptistry. Several artists competed, all adhering to the same parameters of design (Isaac and Jacob, an angel, a symbolic lamb, a donkey and two shepherds) but only the 1st and 2nd place pieces were saved... the rest were melted down for the bronze to be used in the actual making of the doors... a classic example of how art was actually created in the Renaissance: by commission only. Artists didn't create a piece of art and then try to sell it, like now. Every artist knew exactly where the money was coming from before they started any work of art.

Ghiberti's design won the competition. But why was it chosen over over Brunelleschi's? It all comes down to composition and the depiction of emotion. Ghiberti's design is classically Greek, with the contraposto (weight on one leg with lowered opposite shoulder) pose of Isaac and the beautiful angular structure of the figures, where the eye is led from the symbolic lamb in the upper left, down through Abraham's upraised arm and then perfectly supported at the bottom by the donkey and shepherds. The figures are calm and contained within their borders. Brunelleschi's in much more violent. Abraham is already plunging the knife into Isaac's throat (so much so that the Angel has to actually physically restrain his hand) and the look of torture and anguish on both Isaac and Abraham's face is palpable. The bottom figures seem to be bursting from their borders rather than maintaining a supportive calm. This is the direction the Renaissance will eventually head (Caravaggio immediately comes to my mind) but Florentine tastes are not there yet. They are looking to the ancient Greeks for their aesthetics and so Ghiberti wins because his design is perfectly aligned with such fashions.

When Ghiberti won the competition it began an incredible series of events... later, by default from his success on the northern entrance, he created the famous golden doors of the eastern entrance, coined the "Gates of Paradise" by Michelangelo. AND, Brunelleschi having lost the commission, left Florence to study Architecture in Rome, only to return and build the Duomo's magnificent dome! A perfect reminder that rejection in one place can provide the perfect opportunity for excellence elsewhere.

David sculptures can be seen throughout all of Florence. The story of a young boy defeating a man giant through wit alone was a favorite symbol for the budding republic. These two sculptures were both done by Donatello in the early to mid 1400's.

It is hard to believe that these two depictions of David are by the same artist. The one on the left, cast in bronze, is Donatello's most famous work and was the first freestanding statue (meant to be viewed by walking completely around it) created since antiquity. Notice how young David is depicted here, like a prepubescent boy of perfect proportion, with effeminate features, soft skin and an ethereal expression. In contrast, the one on the right, carved in marble, appears strangely elongated (especially in the neck), with a stronger "male" presence and stance.

The bronze has a history of controversy. Some claim the alluring girlishness of the figure pertains to homosexual practices during the Renaissance, others, that Donatello was simply interpreting the Bible's description of the young lad to an exaggerated dramatic effect... stressing the mind over might allegory. So we know that Donatello had obvious and intentional control of his proportions and emotional impact. So why does his marble depiction of the same character appear so distorted? As I have said before, all Renaissance art was produced on commission, so we must understand the purpose of this sculpture, primarily where it was meant to seen from, in order to understand why the artist choose to create it in such a manner. This David was meant to be fitted into a niche upon the facade of a church where it would be viewed by the public. Limited by the narrowness of the street, the viewpoint would be one of a dramatic upward angle, so in order for the proportions to appear correct, they must be elongated else it would seem as though David had no neck at all. A perfect example of how taking art out of its intended context can completely distort our viewing of it.

Just as the David and Goliath story is a potent symbol for Florentine's social philosophy, so too is Michelangelo's portrait of Brutus an important allegory for political prowess. We all know the story of Brutus aiding in the assassination of Julius Cesar. So how is this important to contemporary Florence?

When the bust was commissioned in 1540, Lorenzo di Medici (not the famous Lorenzo the Magnificent) had recently assassinated his cousin Allessandro di Medici, a direct descendant of the Medici family line who had gained much personal power when he had the Pope declare him Duke. Many attribute the commission of the bust as directly linked to this modern day assassination. Even Michelangelo's rough handling of the hair seems to perfectly depict the texture of Allessandro's mulatto race. The commission would have been a reminder to Florentines of the importance of disposing of powerful despots when that power is self proclaimed and not represented by the republic.

Without this knowledge of the contemporary political climate, I would have walked right by this sculpture, writing it off as yet another simple aesthtic honoring of antiquity. I will never look at art so sparingly again, neglecting to inquire into its purpose, and thereby relying solely upon an aesthetic experience. There's so much more to learn about these pieces. What good is perfect technique if the idea behind it is never understood?

A "New" Technique For Accuracy

2010-06-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

At the Florence Academy of Art they teach the Sight-Size Method, a technique used in the 15th to 18th Century ateliers that allows artists to capture their subject in the exact size that it appears. Basically you set up your easel at a desired distance (the closer to the model the more life sized it will be) and take several steps back. From this vantage point, where the model and your easel are perceived on the same plane, you can begin to translate your view in a one to one ratio. Many artists use tools, like plumb lines (a piece of string with a weight tied to the end so it hangs perfectly vertical) so they can properly see the proportions of where things lie in relation to eachother. Some even use sticks for measuring and black mirrors to properly gauge shadow and light relationships. Once you have a perfect outline of the form then you can start blocking in shadows.

The process is incredibly tedious, involving an observation from the vantage point (feet squared, back straight, arms locked into the correct position for measuring!), walking up to the paper, placing the mark from memory and then returning to the exact same vantage point to observe again to make sure you made a correct mark. Then returning to your easel to make corrections. Try this back and forth for 3 hours with a live model who inevitably is moving. Just the slightest inch of weight change and your drawing is no longer accurate! Oooof.

Of course all of this painstaking work is only for a prepatory drawing that will then be transferred to canvas so that when the painting process begins all the quarks have been worked out. So it's all about simplicity and clarity of outline and where blocks of shadow fall within the form. You're not making a pretty drawing, just a mechanical rendition for plotting a painting. That has been the hardest part for me to get over.

I've been working from live models for years under a completely different philosophy. In Paris I learned to paint the live figure intuitively, to use every contour line to express the model's interior energy. A hard line that separates form in light and shadow doesn't really exist when the transitions always blur in living movement. Even as a small child I specifically remember the moment when, adhering to coloring within the lines in my cartoon book, I searched in vain for my own outline.

Needless to say the past two days have been intense. The physical exhaustion of standing and walking back and forth from vantage point to easel is compounded a thousandfold by the mental concentration needed for such an exercise. They say master chess players burn 5,000 calories just thinking. I wonder what an artist burns just looking?! I can probably eat all the gelato my heart desires.

Paint is Liquid Thought

2010-06-29T01:06:00.000-07:00

"Paint records the most delicate gesture and the most tense. It tells whether the painter sat or stood or crouched in front of the canvas. Paint is a cast made of the painter's movements, a portrait of the painter's body and thoughts. The muddy moods of oil paints are the painter's muddy humors, and its brilliant transformations are the painter's unexpected discoveries. Painting is an unspoken and largely unrecognized dialogue, where paint speaks silently in masses and colors and the artists responds in moods. All those meanings are intact in the paintings that hang in museums: they preserve the memory of the tired bodies that made them, the quick jabs, the exhausted truces, the careful nourishing gestures. Painters can sense those motions in the paint even before they notice what the paintings are about. Paint is water and stone, and it is also liquid thought. " ~James Elkins from What Painting Is

First morning in Firenze

2010-06-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

Mornings always make me wince. The alarm demands attention and groggy confusion beats routine against the clock of the work day. Even the physical comfort of warm blankets become a source of guilt when lingering there only postpones the inevitable beginning to the day. But not this morning.

Today I awoke to birds’ song and a pink sunrise over the foggy hills. Little black angular bodies with their wings sharp and alert, pitched and dived over the terra cotta tiled roofs. Just lying in bed and observing didn’t even occur to me... with my camera already in hand I wandered to every window in the apartment I will call home for the next five weeks, 3 cats in tow rubbing against my bare feet. From the kitchen I watched the sun grace the city, catching at the uneven lines of tiling and puckering the peeling plaster. The gardens remained dark in the shadowed courtyards creating beautiful boundaries between morning and night. And just as the sun wrapped the Duomo in a cloth of pale gold, the first bells began. A perfect morning in Florence.

It’s interesting to me how we become accustomed to a daily routine and how easily we take things for granted. In the absence of a favorite cup or the smell of one’s own in the blankets, even making breakfast away from home (tea and crackers smothered in ricotta cheese) becomes something entirely new and exciting. Living in a foreign country is a process of discovery in the smallest of things... from how differently even milk tastes to the unbelievable gratitude that can abound in finding a portable fan tucked away in the back room.

Brooke Walker-Knoblich at Beatnik

2010-05-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

2007 Interview

2010-05-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

Brooke Walker-Knoblich was asked to be The Art List's Artist of the Month in 2007.

Artist of The Month – Interview Questions

Name: Brooke Walker-Knoblich
City: Sacramento
State: California

The Art List: How and when did you start creating art?
Brooke Walker-Knoblich: My life has always been immersed in art. I attended Live Oak Waldorf throughout my childhood, had a fantastic art teacher in High School, Terence Baxter, and received a BA in Studio Art from UC San Diego in 2005. However, even though I colored 'til I had blisters on my fingers as a child and art was something I did for “fun” I didn’t become a serious artist until I spent my junior year abroad in Paris, France. In Paris I studied with Kathy Burke, a renowned portrait artist, and had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in the Master’s Copy Program in the Louvre Museum, wheeling my easel out of the storage closet to paint from Santerre’s “Suzanne au Bain” for several hours a day. I came back home with a new sense of purpose
and the beginnings of a technique to pursue a career.

TAL: What media and genres do you work in?
BWK: I am a portrait artist, though I have a hard time tying myself to the connotations of this traditional genre. I am fascinated by people in spontaneous moments. Nothing irks me more than a forced “smile for the camera” or a static pose to be placed over a mantel. I am inspired by a moment that involves an interaction between a person and his or her environment. This interaction typically includes the artist (and hence the viewer) by default of just being there to experience the moment with the subject. I work primarily in oils on canvas, though I have done many pieces in charcoal. Both mediums I find to be texturally “delicious.”

TAL: Who or what are your influences?
BWK: Thematically, I’m influenced and inspired by everyday people. I am constantly looking and questioning the uniqueness of every person within my view, wondering how their experience of this shared environment is different and how that is then reflected in themselves. Technically I study and adore Manet, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, and my favorite, Carravaggio.

TAL: What was your inspiration for "Creation" ?
BWK: Creation is a painting of the birth of my cousin Cordelia. I wasn’t able to attend the birth, so my uncle had sent me photos. When I saw one of them, I instantly knew it would make a fantastic painting. The photo itself just didn’t capture the miracle of a birth; the cold fluorescent hospital lights, cartoon dinosaurs on the baby blanket and a plastic cap binding the mother’s hair distracted from the spirit of the experience. I painted the warmth, love, and tenderness back into the image. Both my aunt and uncle wept when I gave them the painting.

TAL: Describe your creative process.
BWK: I carry a camera with me at all times and if I see an interesting scene or a face that strikes me, I’ll take a quick snapshot. Sometimes if a person really strikes me I will ask them to pose for a painting, either to be painted "live" if they have the time to devote to a sitting, or I do a photo shoot. I then use the photo as a reference, sometimes stitching together several to get the composition I want. I then digitally project the image, sketch out the basic forms, do a quick color coat to map out lights and darks of the entire canvas and then it’s detail work from there. I never have the dreaded blank white canvas block because I know exactly what I’m going to paint before I approach my canvas. I am on a constant search for new material and usually have a collection of images that would take years to turn into paintings. I work realistically, but am not a slave to my photograph. It is just a reference for the more complex and subtle emotions that the subject and viewer experiences.

TAL: What are you working on currently?
BWK: I am currently inspired by musicians. Many of my friends play, and music is such an integral part of our experience of a moment. What most excites me about painting musicians is the feeling of creativity in my subject. They are making something larger than themselves that affects all who hear. But music is one of those spontaneous things, and especially when people are playing together, there is a symbiotic relationship that comes into full focus. This relationship is at the heart of my work: a relationship between people, between subject and environment, between ourselves and everything else.

TAL: What are your near/long term goals as an artist?
BWK: I have been working professionally as an artist for almost 2 years now. So, I am a new and emerging artist, so to speak. I have been exhibiting my work nationally and won several awards this year, which is very encouraging. My short term goals include creating a local “hub” for my work (galleries, offices, coffee shops, etc.), just getting my work out there for people to experience. My big dream as an artist is to travel the world and paint indigenous peoples who’s cultures/ experience of the world are disappearing. For now, what better place to start than within my own culture and the people I meet everyday?

TAL: Where can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc.)?
BWK: All of my work can be viewed on my website: www.PortraitsbyBrooke.com. Though I have yet to be affiliated with a gallery, I do post current events on my website. If you’d like to attend an open studio event or know about a local show, please email me at Brooke@PortraitsbyBrooke.com