Two weeks, at Balse.

I wish for dance from around the world. Dance with tear of joy.

I did not kill him. That’s not the point. I am not a monster.

Digging through kompakt. Still life with glass bottle, flower and microphone. Marja Ahti. Also Shrine.

More intensity, and dance with ZAKMINA, and freshness machine women.

Preparing for Igor Levit at Disney Hall.

Winter that is wonderful opening to life. The Cosmos of Hilma Klint, actual temple several times.

Note taking, and organizing, a life long passion. A fascination.

writing is research
writing is thinking
writing is so important
there is no reason
not to work as if
nothing else matters
than writing
- says Sonke Ahrens

reading like a pro

more galleries, less museums, lately. contemporary - is the the interest. Does not mean not interested in the old, we are always interested, time does not matter, but I am interested in how I feel, how we, collectively, are feeling in this moment, and contemporary, living artists are thus important, and most interesting to me.

Contemporary Figurative Painting: The Ultimate 150 Best Painters Today

less processed. Farm to table.

Back to Tristan, the Tristan Chord. To watch the opera DVD.

Loving the very nice and trancy Miss Monique in Barcelona Brunch Elektronik.

Skateboarding absolute.

Made in LA, bi-annual, started at the Hammer Museum. Checked it out on the opening day.

Leica on film in Paris, how appropriate.

Porsche. more Porsche artisan sushi chef.

Back to painting - Gerhard Richter - “never sentimental, always direct and present. process of layers, reduction and destruction. surfaces are produced with more and more layers, adding and subtracting. sense of beauty…has to happen. something that in a way have to be created by the community. ex ngativo, taking more paint off. desire, concentration, and wish to do something. more accept what is happening“

“I always paint with my windows closed…because the sun comes in…and I could never possibly copy that. It is so much beautiful than any I can paint…” - How to look at an abstract painting | Joan Mitchell | PROGRAM

“The aim of art is to reveal and to evoke vision…art is not an object, art is an experience.” - Magic of Color - Josef Albers

on & on and on.

***JOSÉ LERMA A Trazos***
*NINO MIER GALLERY LOS ANGELES*
*LOS ANGELES GALLERY ONE & TWO*
*September 23 - October 21, 2023*

Words of Wisdom

Oscar Wilde said, “the moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.” Imagination is your creed, sentimentality and lack of feeling are your foes. - How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #5, Zettel 154
What’s the difference between genre and style? Style is the unstable essence and artist brings to a genre - what ensures that no two Crucifictions, say, look the same. Oscar Wilde said that style is what “makes us believe in a thing.”…A fresh style breathes life into any genre. - How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #6, Zettel 155
…serious artists tend to develop a kind of creative mechanism - a conceptual approach - that allows them to be led by new ideas and surprise themselves without deviating from their own artistic principles. As an artist, you’re always studying your environment, absorbing sensations, memories of how things work and don’t. The goal is to create a practice that allows a constant recalibration between your imagination and the world around you. - How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #10, Zettel 156
Embed thought in Material. What does this mean? An artwork should express thought and emotion ( I contend that the two can’t be separated.) Your goal as an artist is to use physical materials to make these thoughts and emotions, however simple or complex, accessible to the viewer…Erick Fischl had said that he “wanted to paint what couldn’t be said.” All artists are trying, on some level, to do the same. - How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #19, Zettel 157
A work of art cannot depend on explanation. The meaning has got to be there in the work. As Frank Stella said, “There are no good ideas for paintings, there are only good paintings.” THe painting becomes the idea…the artist can embed thought in any material. - How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #19, Zettel 158
If you are stymied by some artists, keep their names on a list and keep coming back to them. You might start with Rembrandt, unflinching in depicting the physical weight of the world, every vulnerable. Or Constable, as elementally tactile as any artist who ever lived. Once an artist finally makes sense to you, take on a new one. You owe it to you yourself as a seeing machine - How to be an Artist, Jerry Saltz #31, Zettel 159