couldn't make it to the brooklyn studio, so (oddly enough) instead of pounding beers at the mcmanus tavern, i cruised the galleries...

* jill moser at lennon, weinberg is a great show by an under-appreciated painter. moser has been around and has been consistantly strong in her work of line and gesture. in the new work she's working the color more and is (perhaps) a bit more rugged in her approach... i do miss that singular blue of her last show however...

* the late, larry zox at stephen haller gallery: the later painting doesn't work for my eye, but the earlier geometrics are incredible. so much great and near-great painting came out of the late '60's and early '70's-- what a period... what a time to be young and making art. i've mentioned before the names that haunt me that i've never heard of-- those unknown talents who labored and loved and brought it on in nameless studios around manhattan about the time i was learning to crawl... and then there are those whose names we know but whose work we should know so much more of: when does the pat lipsky retrospective come?? good question, that...

* i was reading "the screaming pope," the blog of poet/novelist, francis levy the other day and he mentioned "in the belly of the beast," by jack (henry?) abbott... today, in the dojo locker room as levy and i prepared to spar, i mentioned to him that i had first read abbott's book when i was about 12, (maybe older, who knows??) and that it contributed to my misbegotten youth (i added dostoyevsky to the list of influences...).

abbott's life and work was what sartre and camus had pontificated on, writ large and set in a most visceral reality. this was not theory, or cafe philosophy-- this was fact-- real violence, real bars, real fear, real blood and real tragedy...

of course, it took an american (mailer) to try to write his way around all that reality, for good or ill...

* an afternoon spent buying drawing supplies for a spring and summer of working on the terrace...

this will be a very new experience, indeed...

so, yeah, chelsea...

* you get the list and you hit the streets between 10th and 11th and just hope that something reaches out and grabs the eye. gallery after gallery, plastic cup of wine after plastic cup of wine. but, now and then, something hits: maureen mcquillan at mckenzie fine art has a great show of drawing and drawing "inspired" photos. her fascination is with the line-- in all it's circuitous frenzy... as far as chelsea goes right now, there are a handful of galleries you can (somewhat) count on to exhibit strong works on canvas and or paper-- mckenzie is, for sure, one of them...

* as always, there is a sameness to the "alternative" media, an academicism that chokes on it's own self-referential wit... best of all of, they have their own martyr: the de menil kid who overdosed 'cause he could afford to. like the song says-- "it's so easy..."

* had a good studio visit with kathy markel on wed. she left with 4 20x20's to hang in her new bridgehampton space (soon to open?). it was good hanging and talking with her. novros' name came up and a few other cats from the '70's...

after she left i got back to work. feeling a little better and a little stronger...

for as long as we've been smearing paint on a surface, it's indeed rare to come across a young artist who (perhaps) labors over work that could be called singular. rare, but possible-- as exampled by alex couwenberg these last 10 years or so.

i'd like to think that the act of painting is one of discovery and daring. you can toss triumph, fear, loss, destruction, etc, into the mix as well... couwenberg toils along (as we all do) and he brings it together in a fresh, invigorating art. in doing so, he elevates this ancient form of communication that we humbly and passionately embrace...

his exhibition at Markel Fine Arts should not be missed.

sitting here in the andi campognone booth at the red dot fair... happy with the work i've got here though no sales as yet... thats cool. the reception last night was a good time although they managed to run out of beer and we were left with a choice of brandy or straight gin... indeed. fortunately the artist james austin murray went for beers and the party continued...

afterwards stopped by gary snyder project space for the john griefen show... griefen is one of the truely heroic painters at work in nyc today. his monochromes have a meaty, physical feel thats at once lyrical and wholly masculine. a formidable colorist, he moves between high octane and soft smoky tonalities with ease...

right now a few people are cruising the red dot... slow scene. earlier in the day i did the armory with the lovely erica, andi's assistant, and was amused to note how utterly (and predictably) bogus the contemporary art was... no real point in going into it, but yeah... the modern wing was truely inspirational-- particularly some great work by sam francis and norman blum-- but the best that could be said of the contemporary wing was that there was champagne to be had for $16 a shot...

a lot of life since any writing here...almost too much life.

as for art (as opposed to life) i'm ready for the red dot fair... I'll 3 new pieces with andi campognone projects, out of pomona california. new work seeing the light of day is a blessing that is often taken for granted. not this time.

i'll keep this short for now (if anyone is out there) but i'm back on it...

Some NYC action:

*surely one of the most poetic visions committed to paint on canvas this past year was offered by robert kingston at the randall scott gallery in DUMBO. harshly brushed, worked canvases that invoke, at once, landscape and masters of the past such as twombley and, at times, klee. last year i was lucky enough to attend the opening of kingston's san francisco show and was simply blown away by his achievement. now it seems he's taken the possibilities of that show to new heights. if it's possible for a mature artist to further that maturity, kingston has done it. of particular note was a suite of small works-- a brilliant example of taking control of the issues, not of size, but of scale.

*david hockney at pace was about as dismal a show as i could imagine. huge, multi-paneled paintings of childish landscapes, built up with a clumsy paint handling that just should not be seen from an artist at this stage in a celebrated career...

*you walk chelsea and there is this awesome proliferation of incredibly beautiful japanese women...

*bjorn ressle will be opening his new space downtown...

spent the morning looking at and meditating on the re-worked painting started in 2001. after several months of working mostly in acrylic, all this black oil is really moving. while the speed of acrylic opens it's own possibilities, i'm really digging the slow pace of working in oil once again-- it makes you look and understand what is actually going on in a painting... there is a lot to be said about good acrylic paint, and the improvisation that is readily available while working in acrylics has it's own poetry. but, yeah, oil paint... black oil.

something else entirely...