iPad Art, David Hockney and Charles Saatchi

Much to my surprise, I got an iPad for Christmas. I already have a desktop, a laptop and an iPhone, why would I need an iPad? Then I remembered a video that went viral a few months ago of a man finger-painting a realistic portrait from a live model on an iPad, using the Brushes app. If you haven't seen it, check it out:

Being a recovering, as opposed to a practicing artist, I ignored all the red flags that go up whenever I encounter art supplies of any kind and downloaded the Brushes app. Twenty-four hours later, I came up for air.

Brushes records all of your strokes and they are immediately available for play-back, stroke by stroke. This is the feature that practically hypnotized me. After doodling for a while, the possibilities for animation became abundantly clear and I began experimenting. So, if you will indulge me and remember that I'm not a practicing artist, I offer my day-after-Christmas doodlings, just to give you a taste of the possibilities:

What can a real artist do with an iPad? David Hockney, always eager to experiment with new media, currently has an exhibition, Fleurs fraîches (Fresh Flowers) at La Fondation Pierre Bergé in Paris, consisting of iPhone and iPad drawings. Some are projected, some are shown on actual iPhones and iPads displayed museum style in a darkened gallery. He continues to update the exhibition, emailing new works every day. It runs through January 30.

Click here to see a video of the exhibition and a discussion between Hockney and curator Charlie Scheips.

Click here for a review of the show in the Atlantic.

Are you doing iPad  art? If you would like to submit a piece of your own with the animation for possible publication on this blog, upload it to YouTube and email the URL to me at iPadsubmissions@offrampgallery.com. Do not attach the original movie file to the email -- they're too large and I will have to delete them unopened.

Click here to purchase products from the Offramp Gallery Blog Store.

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My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic is a slim volume of questions and answers to advertising mogul, art dealer and collector Charles Saatchi. He refuses to be interviewed in person but allowed questions to be submitted by journalists, critics and members of the public.

Keeping in mind the controlled environment in which he presents himself, Saatchi comes across as surprisingly candid, self-deprecating and funny. It is also abundantly clear that he adores his wife, domestic goddess Nigella Lawson. It's hard to dislike a man who loves his wife and says when asked about a recent weight loss, "I was fat and ugly and now I'm thin and ugly."

When asked if he is concerned about his impact on the art market, he responds: " I never think too much about the market. I don't mind paying three or four times the market value of a work that I really want. Just ask the auction houses. As far as taste is concerned, I primarily buy art in order to show it off."

Just a regular Joe following his passion. He does sometimes come across as self-serving, such as when asked to look ahead 100 years and say who are the great artists who will pass the test of time:

"General art books dated 2105 will be as brutal about editing the late 20th century as they are about almost all other centuries. Every artist other than Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Damien Hirst will be footnote." Saatchi famously funded Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living  (a.k.a. the $12 Million Stuffed Shark) and showcased it in 1992 in the first Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. The piece resulted in Hirst being nominated for the 1992 Turner Prize (which he didn't win that year) and launched him to superstardom.

Saatchi redeems himself when asked what he thinks about artists: "Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on. I love them all."

This book is a light and interesting read, another piece in the puzzle for anyone who, like me, struggles to make sense of the seemingly incomprehensible world of contemporary art.

Click here to purchase products from the Offramp Gallery Blog Store.



Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story

January 9 - February 6, 2011

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 9, 2-5pm

Offramp Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition, Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story from January 9 - February 6, 2011. The opening reception will be on Sunday, January 9, from 2-5pm. For her second solo exhibition at Offramp Gallery, Los Angeles based artist, Anita Bunn, will be exhibiting a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image.

 

Anita Bunn, untitled, 2010, halftone photolithograph,18" x 14" framed



RIP Captain Beefheart; Man with a Blue Scarf and Lucian Freud

I was sad to hear of the passing last Friday of the reclusive avant-garde musician/visual artist, Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart. I was fortunate enough to have met Don several times in the late seventies when I was working at a Licorice Pizza record store in the valley. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band were rehearsing in a warehouse nearby that had no bathroom, so naturally, being the star-struck youngsters that we were, we offered them full access to our employees-only bathroom.

One day I looked up to see Don coming through the front door wearing his signature fedora, on top of which was a traditional cone-shaped Chinese straw hat. He strode up to me at the counter, pointed to his head and announced "I'm wearing two hats." I dissolved into giggles and didn't ask why -- it seemed like such a Captain Beefheart thing to do -- and have cherished the memory ever since as my own personal surreal Captain Beefheart moment.

Here's a video of my favorite Captain Beefheart song, the uncharacteristically romantic ballad, Observatory Crest.

Don Van Vliet is represented by Michael Werner Gallery in New York. Click here to see a selection of his paintings. 

R.I.P.

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Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud by art critic Martin Gayford  gives unprecedented access into the otherwise private realm of artist Lucian Freud's studio, and a look at the slow, deliberate process of painting his masterful portraits. Gayford sat for "Man with a Blue Scarf" from November 2003 through July  2004, for hundreds of hours in the same position, with his right leg crossed over his left, wearing the same clothes, bathed in the same pool of light in the darkened studio, sometimes in silence, sometimes in dialog with Freud. He kept a diary as they went along, recording bits of conversation, thoughts and observations. It is from this diary that he has crafted this charming and revelatory book.

As a former painter, what struck me most about this book was the insight into Freud's process -- specifically, how slowly and intentionally he paints and how that would seem to contradict his broad, spontaneous-looking brushstrokes. The portrait in this case starts with a quick charcoal sketch on canvas, over which Freud begins applying paint to the area between the sitter's eyes, working slowly out in all directions, leaving parts of the white canvas unpainted almost until the very end. Intense concentration and looking proceed each brush stroke, and often the stroke is "practiced" by tracing it in the air with his arm. Once on the canvas, if the stroke isn't exactly right, it is wiped off and the process begins again.

The progress is sometimes so slow it is difficult for Gayford to perceive: "I want the picture to move on, I want it to be finished. My hope is that he will begin a new area -- the chin, the scarf, the jacket. . . . LF [as Gayford refers to Freud throughout the book] doesn't seem remotely concerned about hurrying." The quality in Freud's work is "inextricably bound up with emotional honesty and truthfulness." It is this emotional honesty that Freud painstakingly strives for in his work, slowly building a relationship with his sitter, searching with each layer of paint for a deeper understanding and more real representation of his subject -- not just the fleshy corporal outer shell that he depicts so masterfully, but also the complex underlying substrata and depth.

Man with a Blue Scarf is illustrated with over 50 mostly color illustrations of paintings from all periods of Freud's career, photos of Freud at work in his studio, as well as reproductions of other artists' work that influenced him. The book is sprinkled with Freud's insights and opinions of artists, mostly the old masters, as well as anecdotes about those he has known personally over the course of his long career.

I recommend Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud for anyone who has ever painted, is thinking about painting, or simply admires Freud's work.

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story

January 9 - February 6, 2011

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 9, 2-5pm


Anita Bunn, untitled, 2010, halftone photolithograph,18" x 14" framed

Offramp Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition, Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story from January 9 - February 6, 2011. The opening reception will be on Sunday, January 9, from 2-5pm. For her second solo exhibition at Offramp Gallery, Los Angeles based artist, Anita Bunn, will be exhibiting a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image.



Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, the Pogues, and more . . .

I was skeptical when I heard that Patti Smith's Just Kids had won the National Book Award for nonfiction. Fortunately, curiosity won out over skepticism and I decided to read it, and add my voice to the growing chorus of praise.

Seduced from page one by Smith's poetic yet straightforward language and her eye for detail, I devoured this touching memoir of Smith's early life and her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe -- first as lovers, then later, as Mapplethorpe explored his homosexuality, as friends. They were young, innocent, in love, and devoted to living their lives for art.

Smith paints a vivid picture of artistic life in New York City in the late sixties and early seventies, warts (or should I say lice?) and all. From Max's Kansas City, to the Strand Bookstore, to the legendary Chelsea Hotel (where both Smith's and Mapplethorpe's portfolios are accepted as collateral for a room deposit), she brings to life a colorful parade of characters including Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Salvador Dali, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

Even though Smith and Mapplethorpe ultimately went their separate ways -- Mapplethorpe becoming an acclaimed and controversial photographer, Smith a poet and punk rock legend -- they remained devoted to each other until Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS in 1989. Before he died, Smith promised Mapplethorpe that she would one day write their story. She has more than fulfilled her promise -- poetically, tenderly, and with undeniable artistry.

Click here to buy Just Kids.

Here's a video of Patti reading from the book and singing "Because the Night."

Now that I'm in a New York City/punk kind of mood, I wanted to share one of my all time favorite Christmas songs, the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York." Enjoy!

The perfect holiday gift

I won't be recommending electronic appliances very often, but this one is awesome, the perfect holiday gift for the artist or coffee lover on your list: Aeroccino Plus Automatic Milk Frother. Fill it with milk, push a button and in 90 seconds you have a heavenly pitcher of perfectly frothed milk. No fussing with that nozzle spewing hot water and steam all over the place, this magical machine takes all the pain out of making a perfect cappuccino.

Upcoming events at Offramp Gallery

We had a wonderful turnout for the opening reception of ArtZone at Offramp on Sunday! Thanks to everyone who came, the 28 artists who contributed work to the exhibition and to everyone who helped put it together. ArtZone is open every day through December 19 from 1-6pm and there will be a closing reception on Sunday, December 19 from 2-5pm.

Here's video from the opening reception.

Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story

January 9 - February 6, 2011

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 9, 2-5pm

Anita Bunn, untitled, 2010, halftone photolithograph,18" x 14" framed

Art Basel Miami Beach: The View from Pasadena

Having perused at least a dozen articles about last week's Art Basel Miami Beach extravaganza, the message I get is that the art market is back, along with celebrity-studded parties, mega-galleries expanding their international franchises, collectors with more money than god, corporate sponsors, seven-figure sales, and super-star artists.

There are some obvious questions here: Is this a good thing? Where is the art? Will Miami trickle down to Pasadena? Is there anyone left who still believes in the trickle-down theory?

As I've mentioned before, I'm not against making money, and hope that Offramp Gallery will be able to participate in a few fairs soon. But would I trade the cappuccino-fueled conversations at Offramp for an international team of lawyers, accountants and sycophants? Would I give up the salon-like atmosphere that the steady stream of artists, writers and musicians to Offramp affords, to jet-set to every art fair in the world? I don't think so, and I'm fairly certain I would be miserable if I did.

But what about the dedicated artists who work hard all their lives, juggling their art career with several part-time jobs, with precious little to show for it in terms of money, security or material comfort? Why does there seem to be so little middle-ground in the art world? Is this a reflection of the economy as a whole, where the rich are getting richer as the middle class disappears? Or has there never been a place for artists in American life?

What do you think? Should every artist and every art dealer strive for jet-setting super-stardom? Or should we embrace the starving-artist-in-the-garret-art-for-art's-sake lifestyle and quit grousing? Is the not-for-profit world going the same way as everything else -- billionaire funding for museum wings to house their own collections on the high end; the imminent closing of organizations like the Municipal Art Gallery here in Los Angeles, on the bottom?

I know that's a lot of questions for one blog post, and I am the first to admit I don't have the answers, but I can recommend another great book to shed some light on the subject, Sarah Thornton's Seven Days in the Art World. Structured around seven aspects of the art world, each one a chapter in the book, we are given insider access to a Christie's auction, a CalArts crit class, the Art Basel fair, Artforum magazine, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami's studios, Britain's prestigious Turner Prize, and the Venice Biennale. It's a great read that you won't be able to put down. 

Image of the Week

James Griffith
Dark Wings (Moth 2), 2010
tar on panel
8" x 10"

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Saturday & Sunday (December 11, 12, 18, 19): noon-8pm; Monday - Friday (December 13-17): 4-8pm. ArtZone is a joint venture between Project 210 and Offramp Gallery, a one-stop holiday shop for affordable art. Twenty-seven artists from both galleries have been invited to submit art work priced at $500 or below.

The opening reception for ArtZone will be on Sunday, December 12, from 2-5pm. The exhibition is at Offramp for eight days only with these special hours:

A Few Thoughts on Art, Commerce and Damien Hirst



A recent opening reception at Offramp

Gallery

As we begin the mad consumer dash to the holiday finish line, I thought I would share a few thoughts on the commercial side of running an art gallery.

The art business is a business like no other -- we are held to a different and sometimes double standard. Case in point: At an opening here at Offramp Gallery last year, someone complained about how crass it was to have a cash register at the front door. (It was a laptop, and we were selling a humble catalog for $10.) It was one of those things that really got under my skin and made me wonder how many free art openings this guy goes to a year, how many glasses of wine, how many plates of crackers and cheese he consumes -- without ever dropping a dime to support the gallery -- and on top of it, he feels justified insulting the host. This malcontent would probably be the first to call us elitist if we acted like we were above making money and paying the bills!

Don't get me wrong -- receptions and the buzz they create are an essential and fun part of the gallery business. But it isn't galleries like Offramp, that are struggling to show honest, quality work, that give the contemporary art world its bad reputation.



For that, one need look no further than Don Thompson's The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art. A fascinating look into the machinations of the high-end of the contemporary art world, this book is a real eye-opener. What exactly possesses someone to pay $12 million for a stuffed shark? It's all here, from the personality and ego-fed branding of gallerists, artists and auction houses, to the collectors who blindly follow them, competing for the right to pay millions for work they neither like nor understand. I highly recommend this book as a must-read for artists and art-lovers alike.



I found this video of art critic Robert Hughes, who isn't buying the hype about Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol or Richard Prince. He chats with billionaire collector Alberto Mugrabi, reducing him to babbling inanities about why Richard Prince is a great artist.

What do you think? Does Hughes speak truth to power and money? Or is he a bitter, washed-up art critic living in the past?

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Congratulations to Offramp's Myron Kaufman for the profile published about him in the Pasadena Star-News! Click here to read it.

Click here for more information about Myron Kaufman.

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Image of the Week


Chuck Feesago
ART LIES, A Contemporary Art
Quarterly #1, No. 60/Winter, 2008,
Theatre As Metaphor, 2010
paper, string & acrylic
approx. 64" x 64"

Click here for more information about Chuck Feesago

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Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

The opening reception for ArtZone will be on Sunday, December 12, from 2-5pm. The exhibition is at Offramp for eight days only with these special hours: Saturday & Sunday (December 11, 12, 18, 19): noon-8pm; Monday - Friday (December 13-17): 4-8pm. ArtZone is a joint venture between Project 210 and Offramp Gallery, a one-stop holiday shop for affordable art. Twenty-seven artists from both galleries have been invited to submit art work priced at $500 or below.

Tempus Fugit: Observations on Time



Myron Kaufman, The Ride of Your Life, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 25 1/2" x 16" each
of three panels



This week's Image of the Week is Offramp Gallery artist Myron Kaufman's The Ride of Your Life (right). One of the hallmarks of Myron's work is his gift for witty narrative -- in this case, an amusement park-like ride of your life that ends with "EXIT ALL" through the ominous jaws of death.


Thanks to artist Gary Raymond who recently returned from a trip to England raving about Christian Marclay's 24-hour video "The Clock" that was showing at the White Cube in London. The film is a fully functional 24-hour clock made up of clips from several thousand films referencing the time. It also has the critics raving. Here is a BBC news video about "The Clock".  I'm dying to see it and hope it makes it to this side of the pond soon.

Speaking of artists with too much time on their hands, here are two other 24-hour video clocks by Dutch designer Maarten Baas: the grandfather clock and the sweeper's clock.

I found this thought-provoking video "The Secret Powers of Time." Professor Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus in psychology at Stanford University, talks about our individual perspectives of time and how they influence our work, health and well-being.  He describes the six major time zones that humans live in: two focusing on the past, two on the present and two on the future. Which time zone are you operating in?

Congratulations are in order for Offramp artist Quinton Bemiller, who is included in the soon to be released The Open Daybook. Over 300 contributing artists have created work especially for this book that is designed to be used as a daily journal, sketch book or admired as an art book.  

To launch the book, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is holding The Open Day Book Party on December 5 from 4-6pm which will feature drinks and appetizers, astrology readings, and speed drawing to fill your calendar for the years to come. The event is open to the public -- I hope to see you there!

Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery

Gwen Samuels, Springs,

2010, mixed media, size

varies, from ArtZone at 

Offramp Gallery, Dec. 11-19 

The opening reception for ArtZone will be on Sunday, December 12, from 2-5pm. The exhibition is at Offramp for eight days only with these special hours: Saturday & Sunday (December 11, 12, 18, 19): noon-8pm; Monday - Friday (December 13-17): 4-8pm.

ArtZone is a joint venture between Project 210 and Offramp Gallery, a one-stop holiday shop for affordable art. Twenty-seven artists from both galleries have been invited to submit art work priced at $500 or below.

Artists include:  Lea Anderson, Quinton Bemiller, Wilhelm Bleckman, Anita Bunn, Elaine Carhartt, Marilyn Cvitanic, Joyce Dallal, Chuck Feesago, James Griffith, D. Jean Hester, Stanton Hunter, Myron Kaufman, Bianca Kolonusz-Partee, Nicholette Kominos, Linsley Lambert, Megan Madzeoff, Kristan Marvell, Caroline Maxwell, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Richard Osaka, Gwen Samuels, Susan Sironi, Francesco Siqueiros, Erika Suderburg, Theodore Svenningsen, Ruth Trotter and Megann Zwierlein.

Art and Technology: From Eadweard Muybridge to Evan Grant

Anita Bunn, untitled, 2010, halftone photolithograph,
18" x 14" framed, included in Offramp's ArtZone exhibition,
December 11-19, 2010.

I'll start by introducing a new feature, this week's Image of the Week (right), by Offramp artist Anita Bunn. The photo, along with many other works by 27 artists, will be featured in our upcoming exhibition, ArtZone, from December 11 - 19. The opening reception is on Sunday, December 12, 2-5pm.

The sepia tones in Anita's photo got me thinking about the photos of Eadward Muybridge, often referred to as the Father of the Motion Picture. There is a Muybridge exhibition currently in London (through January 16), Muybridge at the Tate Britain. Highlights include a seventeen foot panorama of San Francisco and recreations of the zoopraxiscope, a method he developed of projecting animated versions of his photos.

For the occasion, the Tate is offering a free iPhone app, called . . . wait for it . . . the Muybridgizer! Users of the app can "Muybridge-ize their frames with grids and sepia tones, transforming their moving images into striking vintage-style pictures."

If you want to see more of Muybridge's images without traveling to the UK, I recommend his classic books, Animals in Motion and The Human Figure in Motion.

Skipping from 19th century technology to 21st, I came across this interesting BBC news video about light artist, Evan Grant, and his amazing 3D architectural projection mapping. Grant is the founder of "collective seeper," where he works as "director, developer and producer with a self-applied remit for innovation led wonderment."

Screen capture from Evan Grant's Battle of Branchage.

A little research led me to these videos of Grant's work: the Battle of Branchage, projected onto the walls of the third-century Gorey Castle, and this one, projected on Frank Gehry's  IAC Building in New York City.

What do you think? Art? Spectacle? Both? Feel free to comment below.



Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery


Lea Anderson: Membrainchain installation

detail


Don't forget the closing reception & artist's talk for Lea Anderson: Membrainchain this Sunday, November 21, 2-5pm. The artist's talk will begin around 3pm.

Lea's show got a great review by James Daichendt in the Weekend edition of the Pasadena Star-News.

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Offramp artist, Myron Kaufman, will be reading from his illustrated children's book, Jack and Kate, this Friday, November 19 at the studio of Offramp artist, Quinton Bemiller.  Myron and Artist/Poet Jackie Tchakalian will read aloud while the book's images are projected in slide format. For more information and to RSVP, contact Quinton Bemiller via email (quinton.bemiller at gmail.com) or telephone 626.590.5584.

More Musings on the Brain, Oliver Sacks & Hieronymus Bosch

Lea Anderson, Membrainchain, 2010,

installation detail, at Offramp Gallery

through November 21, 2010.

Living with the beautiful chain of morphing brains in Lea Anderson's Membrainchain installation has given me the perfect excuse to revisit the books of Oliver Sacks -- especially his tales of visual artists.  For those of you not familiar with Sacks, he is a neurologist who writes compassionate and fascinating case studies of patients with neurological disorders.

"The Case of the Colorblind Painter," from Sack's An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales tells the story of a mature, accomplished artist, who after suffering a concussion in a car accident, becomes completely colorblind -- not your red/green garden-variety colorblindness, but completely unable to see any color whatsoever.

"The Landscape of His Dreams" involves a man who becomes a painter after a strange illness. He is suddenly compelled to paint from memory every nook and cranny of his childhood home in Italy. It is as if he has a 3-D model of the town in front of him and can turn it to whatever perspective he wants. The obsession takes over and becomes his life.

Not all of the case histories in this book are about artists (there's one about a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome!) but all are fascinating. 

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How can you not read an article with this title: "Shocking news from Oxford: you can't play a flute with your bottom: Musicologists in Oxford have made exact replicas of instruments featured in The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch." It's guaranteed to make you smile.

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Thanks to Heather Lowe who filled me in on the artist's name I couldn't remember last week: Patrick Hughes. His "reverspective" paintings are fascinating. Here's a video of him talking about his work. 

Upcoming at Offramp Gallery

The closing reception and artist's talk for Lea Anderson: Membrainchain will be held on Sunday, November 21 from 2-5pm. The artist's talk will be at 3pm. If you haven't seen the installation yet, try to make it on the 21st.

Offramp Gallery and Project 210 are merging for the holidays with a joint venture, ArtZone, a one-stop holiday shop for affordable art. 27 artists from both galleries have been invited to submit art work priced at $500 or below. The exhibition will be held at Offramp Gallery for eight days only, December 11-19, 2010.  The opening reception will be held on Sunday, December 12, from 2-5pm. Please note Special Holiday Hours: Saturday & Sunday (December 11, 12, 18, 19): noon-8pm, Monday - Friday (December 13-17): 4-8pm

Musings on the Brain, Optical Illusions, and Membrainchain

Lea Anderson: Membrainchain, 2010, detail

As you can see in the photo on the right, the hundreds of links that make up Lea Anderson's installation, Membrainchain, currently on display at Offramp Gallery, are transparencies, each derived from the same MRI image of the brain.

With brains and intense visual experiences on my mind, I went web surfing looking for interesting new info on brain research. As often happens, I got sidetracked -- by some very interesting optical illusions that I thought I would share with you. Some of them you may have already seen, but if you haven't they're worth a look.

Here's a test for schizophrenia called the mask test. While relieved to find that I am not schizophrenic, I was determined to see the rotating mask the way a schizophrenic would: no luck, no matter how many times I tried. Let me know if you can bypass the illusion.

Next I looked for artists who used optical illusions in their work. I came across this video of Roy Lichtenstein's House I at the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden.

That reminded me of another work I had seen a while back at a gallery in Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. Here's a shaky video of it at Art Basel Miami 2008. I can't remember the name of the artist or the gallery at Bergamot, so if any of you know who it is, let me know. 

My all-time favorite is a Mental Acid Optical Illusion. Be sure to look at this one full-screen and stick with it to the end -- it's worth it for an amazing visual experience! 

After the intensity of the "acid trip," I was happy to find this calming little video of Animated Optical Illusions.

Lea Anderson
Magnetic Resonant Imagining 11, 2010
drawing on digital print on Mylar
14" x 18" image size, 22" x 26" framed

But back to Membrainchain . . . I just posted a slide show of Lea Anderson's drawings on Offramp's website. Click here, then scroll down on the left until you see the thumbnails. Click on one to start the slide show and have yet another intensely visual experience!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, where I'll be posting Offramp Gallery updates, information, images and other interesting items.

Our current exhibition is Lea Anderson: Membrainchain -- A Mind-Blending Installation. If you haven't seen it, I hope you'll drop by. The reaction I'm hearing the most from visitors is "WOW!"

We are very excited that Lea will be back in town from Albuquerque for the closing reception on Sunday, November 21, from 2-5pm, with an artist's talk at 3pm.

Lea moved into the guest room for a week to do her installation. It was a blast having her here and watching her produce her piece. She is a consummate pro and put in many late, late nights!



Lea Anderson, Magnetic Resonant Imagining 1, 2010,

mixed media, 14" x 18"



Besides the installation, there are 11 drawings on display by Lea combining MRI imagery with mixed media.

In these drawings, Anderson conveys a heightened sense of wonder, much like what one feels when encountering the beauty and complexity of the natural world. Using organic forms and vibrant colors, she creates works that seem to live, breathe, and celebrate a sense of being alive.

The organic quality of Lea's work reminds me of what I consider a basic reference book for visual artists, Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel. First published in 1904 in Europe, the plates show a multitude of unusual life forms, drawn from nature, but with a special emotional quality that makes them so much more than typical scientific renderings.

That's all for now. I'll be posting more about "Membrainchain" soon.