Geoffrey Chadsey

This is some freaky-deeky shiz- and by that I mean I LOVE THIS WORK! Chadsey's work combines great skill, interesting and off-beat narratives, and a healthy dose of "WTF is going on here?" I've been watching his work for a while and it just keeps getting better and more original. Here's a couple more that I scammed from his facebook page. You can check out more stuff at the Jack Shainman Gallery website.

Nina Rizzo at Linda Warren

Nina Rizzo's show at Linda Warren is one of the best that I have seen in a while. The paintings are pretty fresh- they feel like they were painted in a couple of hours, but we know that could not possibly be true.

When we walked into the gallery my friend Retta's little girl Francesca ran right up to this one (above) called Thaw. She loved the paintings too. She's 3 and she knows good painting when she sees it!

The paintings reeked of oil paint (yum). The paint is laid on pretty damn thick. They're probably not even dry yet!



Michelle Wasson's paintings and collages in the backroom weren't too shabby either. This one above is called Pieta. Go check out this show!

Rachel Niffenegger Scares Me.

Rachel Niffenegger's work gives me some serious heebie-jeebies (in a really good way). She paints, she sculpts, she makes my skin crawl! The work is well-crafted, genuinely expressive, and completely her own. I met Rachel one time at an event (which I am sure she would not remember) and it is hard to believe a girl so sweet could make work that made me want to rip my face off. I love that! Rachel shows at Western Exhibitions in Chicago. Mark my words- you'll see her work in some biennial in about six minutes.

Andrew Holmquist

Andrew's work is pretty nice, right? It's almost as nice as he is. Andrew is one of the nicest guys I sort of know. He was a student of my best friend Loretta Bourque and now he works at SAIC and I get to run into him sometimes. I first started to dig his work when I saw this great piece called Cranberry at his BFA show. I still want it Andrew. GIVE IT UP, DAMNIT!

PS. I had to add two more Holmquist images. I am going to call these two untitled pieces "Homage to Bacon" and "Reclining Male Nude". Figure out which you think is which.

Getting Dirty with Ms. Sanchez

...and by "dirty" I mean, I have no idea what the "F" I am doing and this might turn out real ugly!...Collaboration is the Mother of Invention. I am not sure who said that first, so just google it and let me know. I just started re-working some pieces that my friend Jennifer Sanchez and I started as "collaborations" some months ago. She's a fierce and sophisticated Latina and I'm just a boring Gay. We should have a show on Bravo for Christ's sake, but that is another post.

Jennifer and I both have a thing for explosive color, pattern, decadence, materiality, festivity and some other stuff. Initially I sent her two watercolors for her to tear into. She busted into those and sent them back to me with another start of her own. I made some "moves" tonight on the original two and am still trying to figure out how to address the third piece. Stay tuned.

Jennifer has been posting about our "collaborational" activities since we started. If it interests any living soul- I will continue here. By the way, Jennifer's blog kicks my blog's ass. I really should not even be doing this, but that's another story all together. Check out Jennifer's Blog!

Kent Monkman

I've been wanting to post about Canadian artist Kent Monkman. Monkman's work gets me going for a number of reasons. It is really smart, super well crafted, and accessible.

You can read a fun interview with Monkman and his drag persona Miss Chief Eagle Testickle (pictured above) on the BUTT magazine blog.

Worst (most infrequent) blogger of the year

I have figured out that I am really not all that good at blogging. I am not sure if it is because I am lazy, I have nothing to say, or both. Anyway, I have a few things to share today so here goes. Here is an image of the last painting that I finished. It is called Cruising Poses. It is mostly watercolor and gouache with some collage and spray paint thrown in. It is pretty big at 44.5" x34".

I was pleasantly surprised to see my work on the BEAUTIFUL/DECAY Magazine Blog.

Over the years I have loved looking a lot of the work in the printed magazine and the blog including work of my friend and super talented artist, John Parot.

The Big Move (TBM)

So I have this thing I call “The Big Move” (TBM). I’ve been working TBM in my studio for many years. TBM is a gutsy, risk taking, balls-out action that normally happens at the end of one of my studio sessions when I am stuck, frustrated (and/or drunk.) TBM always feels good, but it is a hit-and-run kind of scene (my last move) and I never know how good the actual results are until I come back the next day for a sober survey.

Because I am only an amateur and a "Sunday Painter" at best, it often takes me months or (gasp) even years to actually finish a painting. I've been focusing on this particular painting since this past summer. The thing that has really tripped me up in putting this one to bed is this one dude’s hair! Tonight I walked into the studio, laid out some paint, and worked TBM.

Images posted here are in reverse order. The first image posted is where I ended up tonight after TBM. I’ll let you know tomorrow whether or not it’s finished. I will post an image of the entire painting soon.

PS. Get used to my blurry iPhone pics.

a poem to get us started

A while ago, this little jewel arrived in the inbox of my personal art website (robbondgren.com) *It honestly hurt my feelings at first.

Date: Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 3:52am
From:

i don't know why?

you?

see, why is it that dilettantes
always seem to just
get BFA and MFA's from
MEDIOCRE schools...???

because their art is so
common and trite?

this has been proven with you.
A dilettante and a talent of
mediocrity.

what goes up can never come
down.......

so, why can't you seem never to
be more than such?

your cream can't rise to the top?

a pity!

*until I saw the time stamp- 3:52am. I guess someone had nothing better to do than write me in the wee hours of the morning. I am now thankful that s/he took the time to write me this note. If the mystery poet is reading this, you'll never know how much your poem has meant to me.

I don't really have a great reason to create a blog- but who the hell does? I spend way too much time on Facebook, so I thought that maybe this would be more productive. Please send me all of your hateful poems, images of your art and design, things you love or dislike, and other ideas and I will do my best to entertain and annoy you whenever I can.

XO Rob