by Marty Coleman | Jan 6, 2012 | Art, Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
In honor of me having my first big art exhibition opening in 20 years tonight I thought I would draw something about ART. See below the drawing for more info about the opening.
If you don’t have an idea, a concept, then not only are you lost, but you give no assurance to those looking at the work that there is anything to look at. Yes, art must stand on it’s own without words, but the idea behind the work, its ‘raison d’être’ must be apparent if one is willing to look into it.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who learned to fly at age 13.
Quote by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an artist.
My exhibition, ‘Velveteen Women’ is opening tonight at Living Arts of Tulsa. The opening is from 6-9, is free and open to all. There will be other galleries down the street also having openings so you can make a fun art night out of it! Living Arts is located at the corner of Brady and Detroit in the Brady District of downtown Tulsa.
There was a very cool write up in the Tulsa World Newspaper about the show, and also in Urban Tulsa Weekly.
Here are a few images from the show. If you are in the Tulsa area I hope you can make it to the opening, if not the show will be up for 3 weeks.
I will have all the images up after the show opens and will give the link here in a few days.
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 5, 2010 | Art, Oscar Wilde, Photography |
I should take a pic of day #5 of ‘Photography Week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily
In photography or any other medium an artist is the one who is not trying to copy. They have in their head a vision, an idea, a concept, an attitude that compels them to create something out of it all. Something that is not just a news record of a person or event or place.
If they don’t have anything in their head when they start the process they know how to find it. They find it by being curious and fearless, by going places not easily arrived at, looking at things not easily seen, asking questions not easily asked.
What they come up with may start with the scene or person in front of them but it goes well beyond that to include who they are as well.
Quote by Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer and raconteur
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 30, 2010 | Art, Pablo Picasso |
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A vintage napkin from 2002 that I put in my daughters’ lunches to bring to school.
Saying no to your child, making them feel embarrassed by their individuality, stifling their stream of consciousness in thought and play. Those will suck the artist out of any child before you know it.
Don’t let that happen.
Help them let their creativity out, don’t stifle it.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Pable Ruiz Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish artist. His baptismal name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 29, 2010 | Art, Elbert Hubbard |
When I was teaching drawing back in California in the 80s and 90s, I would often take my students on a field trip to San Francisco to see the museums there.
Without exception I always had one statement spoken by a student or two during these trips. Often it would be while looking at an abstract painting, or an art piece that wasn’t ‘pretty’.
The statement was this: “I wouldn’t put that in my house.”
It didn’t take long for me to come up with the perfect response. It was this: “That painting is worth $750,000.00. It won’t EVER be in your house.” I would continue, “You wouldn’t go to a ballet and make that statement about a ballerina. You wouldn’t because you know that the ballerina is to be admired in that moment of dance you are witnessing, not to be taken home forever. The same is true of art you see out in the world. It is for you to admire and explore now, in this moment. It isn’t for you to take home and have over your sofa. Judging it by whether you want it in your home or not is distracting you from enjoying it in the moment.” *
I feel the same way about many things others are quick to judge as if they are permanently attached to them and have to be declared unfit to be so, for whatever reason.
For example, I like people who walk by me with too much perfume on. I am not taking them home and living with their perfume. They are passing by and that fragrance will be gone momentarily.
I like people with:
too much makeup,
clothes too loud,
skin too tan,
and tattoos too ornate.
They are living art, music, dance, sculpture and multimedia extravaganzas in my world even if they don’t know it. I am not taking them home. I am just admiring the passing parade.
* Now, of course I do know there is art for purchase and it is to take home and in that case it’s right and proper to judge whether you can live with it or not.
Drawing, photos (except ‘tan’) and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American artist and writer. Proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement.
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 21, 2010 | Art, Free Will - 2010, Willem de Kooning |
Day #2 of Free Will week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I taught college level drawing for 9 years back in the 80s and 90s. My first question to my students was this: What is the job description of an artist?
I always got a number of interesting answers, and I didn’t consider any of them wrong. But I had my own answer as well. It is this: To do whatever they want to do.
It sounds like I am being flippant, but I am completely serious about it. An artist is the one entity in the human world whose sole job it is to do whatever they want to do. It is what being an artist is all about. My contribution to the world is just that. The society I am in has asked the artists that inhabit it to be free. It’s asked me to give them my vision, not someone else’s. I have been ‘hired’ by the world to express whatever it is I feel like expressing. If I take on the job of artist, then that is my job description.
By the way, I am not talking about commercial artists who are hired to fulfill someone else’s vision. That is a completely legitimate thing and I often do that. I am talking about ‘fine’ artists whose is not hired by others, but does something then may or may not find a person willing to show it, buy it, publicize it, etc. All that comes after not before the creation in other words.
If this were a quote I made up I would have used the word ‘commanded’ instead of ‘forced’ but you get the idea.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Willem de Kooning, 1904-1997, Dutch born American painter, (one of the leaders of the Abstract Expressionist style)
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| Willem de Kooning – 1949, untitled |
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 15, 2010 | Art |
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If you are saying to yourself this doesn’t look like a drawing by Marty, you are right. Here is the story of how it got in my sketchbook.
A question for my female readers. What would you do if the man you started dating told you one day he was going to go to a local art center to do some some figure drawing. To draw a naked person. Well, if you are like most people who were not raised or exposed to art or art education in your past you might be pretty wary. What is going to go on there? What sort of porno stripper girls would pose for this sort of thing, anyway? Why is he going to do this, it’s not really for ‘art’ I bet.
That was the situation a woman I was dating in San Francisco in 1979 found herself in. Her response was to ask to come along. She was curious and wanted to see what it was all about. Maybe she also thought if she was there I would ‘behave’ or something, who knows. I thought it would be a fun date and said sure, come along.
Off we went to the Art Center. I let her borrow my sketchbook, pencils, erasers, charcoal, etc. We got set up in the studio with about 20 other people and waited for the model to come out. Out came the model, the MALE model, dropping his cover and taking his first pose.
My date did NOT expect this. She was very fair skinned and it’s fair to say she blushed about 5 shades of red when the model had his great reveal. She wasn’t an artist, had never done any drawing, and was now sitting in front of a naked guy attempting to both stare at him, not stare at him, and draw him with some level of accuracy. Or maybe just keep drawing until the session was over so she could breathe again. But to her credit, she did what we were all there to do and that was to draw. The drawing above is one from that session.
I have to admit I got a great kick out of the turn of events. It really couldn’t have been any better. She saw what figure drawing is really all about, she experienced how hard it really is, and she got to look at a pretty fit and trim naked guy for a couple hours. What did I get out of it? She became my wife. We are no longer married but the story is still a great one.
Drawing by Kathy Coleman
Story by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 11, 2010 | Art, William Ralph Inge |
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Day #3 of Religion Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
You might ask, what does this quote have to do with religion. My answer is because it’s mine.
When it’s all said and done this is my true religion. To create beauty and seek truth. Not just beauty in art, but in relationships and love. Not just truth in outward reality but inner honesty as well.
There you have it.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Willian Ralph Inge, 1860-1954, Dean, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 12, 2010 | Art, Pablo Picasso |
Vintage napkin from 2002. Drawn for my daughters and put in their lunches before they went off to school.
By flying. By flying above the creative stop signs. By fighting with all your might anyone who says to you as you grow ‘but what will they think?’ By wearing a top hat if you want, or a gypsy scarf around your head with big red earrings. By buying that interesting spice you found in that obscure little store, and actually using it in something you cook. By not being afraid to ask that interesting person if you can take their photo. By buying REAL art for your home, not crap from a hobby store that just fills space.
By fighting for your love of art and not letting anyone rip it away from you, for any reason.
Drawing and passion © Marty Coleman
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up.” – Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish artist. Did you know his full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso?
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by Marty Coleman | May 28, 2010 | Art, Georgia O'Keefe |
Day #5 of Art Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
This is the essence of art. This is the most important truth about being an artist. This is the single indispensable characteristic for creating art.
It is simple, and to teach it is simple. To be an artist, you have to admit who you are. You have to tell the world you love naked people. You have to tell the world you love the color red and only red. You have to tell the world you love the smell of oil paints more than the smell of food. You have to tell the world you love the discarded cutting from the bottoms of the flowers more than the flowers. You have to tell the world you love flowers so much you hate that you aren’t one. You have to tell the world you like asphalt more than grass.
In other words, you have to admit your passions, no matter how absurd, silly, perverse, scary or mundane they are. Do that and find YOUR way of expressing them, and you will be an artist.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“To create one’s own world in any of the arts takes courage.” – Georgia O’Keefe, 1887-1986, Artist
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by Marty Coleman | May 27, 2010 | Art, Camille Pissarro |
Day #4 of Art Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
This is how my mind works. I liked the quote. It reminded me of the artists Millet, Courbet, et al and their finding beauty in the humble everyday lives of peasants, something not the seen as worthy of artistic contemplation until their generation came along.
Then I thought of how to draw it and I thought of our cookie baking pans. Old, black, brown, scratched, antiqued pans that I just gave to my daughter to use after we bought some new ones. I will draw those buried in the back of an old junk/antique store I thought. Good illustration of finding something of little value but beautiful in it’s old way.
When I started drawing them under an old rickety staircase to increase the feeling of them being hard to find I thought of a fantastic story of serendipity that happened to me and my father a few years ago. So, what started out as a napkin about art expanded into a story about anyone, not just artists, finding value and meaning in humble places and humble objects.
Read ‘The Amazing Gift’ below to find out more about the story. Trust me, it’s worth reading.
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where others see nothing.” – Camille Pissarro, 1830-1903, French painter, impressionist leader, mentor to Cezanne and Gauguin
The Amazing Gift
This certificate was given to my father in 1956. I gave it to him again on Christmas Day, 2005, 49 years later. Here is the story of how it came about.
He was pretty famous as an aviator over his career and so I thought it would be fun to ‘google’ him while he sat beside me at the computer. We did so and found all sorts of references to him and the airplane he flew in 1955, the XFY-1 Pogo, the first vertical take-off airplane.
Among the google references was an odd one from Geneology.com. All the entry said was ‘Has anyone ever heard of J.F. ‘Skeets’ Coleman?’ That was all.
I wrote back and said “I am his son. If I may enquire, why are you asking about him?” The gentleman responded and said “I love to go into antique stores around where I live in Leesburg, Virginia. I see many certificates and documents with names on them and often wonder who is that person, do they know the document is here, how did it get here? etc. I happen to see a document that had your father’s name on it and thought I would ask around.”
He remembered the certificate had an X on it, and his name but nothing else. He also wasn’t quite sure what antique store he had seen it in. I asked him to see if he could find it again for me. He came back a few days later with the name of the store, which I immediately called. They still had it downstairs in the basement, in a dark corner, under a staircase. How he ended up seeing it, who knows.
We of course were wondering how it ended up in a store in Virginia of all places. Then I remembered that back in 1956 we had moved to Hagarstown, Maryland. We only stayed a few years, moving back to California in 1959. All we could figure is that somehow my mom and dad had left this certificate behind and it had found it’s way to the antique store. My family also lived in the same region in the early 70s and so it could have been left at that time as well.
I immediately purchased it and had it shipped. I wrapped it and under the tree for Christmas. I gave it to him at the end of all the presents. It was from ‘Cyber Santa’. I told him the present came from Cyber Santa because without the internet we never would have found what he is about to get. I told him it was old but was one of a kind, only could be given to him and him alone. He was 87 at the time and I wasn’t sure if he would even know it had been missing for so long! But when he opened it he was very moved and exclaimed, ‘Where the hell has this been all these years’! It was a great reunion moment of person and an object of meaning in his life.
I love this story.
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