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Truth, art, beauty and self-actualization. Easy peasy!

This is my sister Laurie's response to my dad's letter about Truth in Art. I love my sister too.

I agree so much about how the beauty in a great work of art "holds the universe."  One of the great tasks life is to learn to see and appreciate and express the beauty/truth that is inherent in a sunset, an orchid, you, me, and all things natural.  Lucia brings out in us the experience of the essential beauty of the universe; it is the music but so much more.  And that beauty is not only in the arts but it is in each of us at our best.  Self-actualization is one of the ultimate goals of our lives, and to me that is what self-actualization is — learning to live and appreciate and be a conduit for what is most beautiful and true in humanity, nature and the arts.  I think it also ties in with Erickson's stages of development, the highest being Ego Integrity vs. Despair — accepting yourself, seeing/feeling/knowing the beauty and connectedness between yourself and others, the greater universe and experiencing peace and fulfillment.

The Truth in Art...according to Rolf

Following is an excerpt from an email my father wrote to his brothers this morning. I love my dad.

A few days ago Bobbie and I looked at a Live at the Met telecast of Donizetti's opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" starring the fabulous young Russian soprano Anna Netrebko in the title role.  The entire cast sang well, and the production was excellent. The music of "Lucia" is of such transcendent beauty that it catches ones heart  moment after moment. I found myself thinking, " How could someone write something as glorious as this?" ... What kind of
species are we humans, who can bring forth a Michelangelo, a Charles Dickens, an I.M.Pei ... and also an Adolf Hitler, an Idi Amin? It's an unanswerable question, I suppose.... and, yet, it's something that skips around in my mind from time to time. The beauty of great art, it seems to me, resides in the unity of a work, the sense that all of the elements of any one work, in whatever medium, work together in a unified structure reflective of the unity of structure that, in a way, holds the universe and all that's in it bound together chemically, materially, and even emotionally. Any one element askew makes that particular cohesion fall apart. Somewhere buried in all this is something that I think of as the Truth in art.

Two words: Stefan Sagmeister

This summer I had the good fortune to study with the great artist, Milton Glaser. His week-long summer workshop at School of Visual Arts in NY was intense and transformative. There were a couple dozen of us students from all over the world — London, Sao Paolo, Copenhagen, Rural Sweden, and across the U.S. I would describe more about the content of the course, but I am sworn to secrecy. If I tell you I'll have to kill you. Or at least color you in with a Sharpie (he he). 

Each day after lunch, Milton brought in a different person in the general field of Visual Arts to speak to us. Before lunch on Day 3, he let us know that our guest speaker was going to be none other than Stefan Sagmeister. Excuse me...WHAT?! There are moments in life when you have the opportunity to be in the presence of greatness. When you hope that some of that greatness splashes off and stains your pristine white tabula rasa of creativity. When you just want to open your skull like a lid and syphon the magic into your not nearly full tank. For the one hour that I was able to be in the same room with Stefan Sagmeister, I willed my lungs to capacity, attempting to breathe him in. Trying my hardest to absorb his essence and fold it into mine. Really, just like his art.

Stefan Sagmeister is an Austrian designer who first caught my attention with a poster he did for an AIGA event. He carved the information into his chest. I asked him if he ended up with typographic scars. I could tell I was about the millionth person to ask. The answer: YES. They faded rather quickly, but would reappear for a while when he got suntanned. He has a body of work that falls more into the realm of traditional graphic design. Where he ignites my passionate admiration is in his ability to move from the printed page to monumental scale. Robert Smithson's Earthworks, like "Spiral Jetty" 1970, and the work of Andy Goldsworthy are impressive in their man-ipulation of nature. Christo's installations, like the "Wrapped Reichstag" and the recent "The Gates" in Central Park, are immensely powerful in the way he uses fabric like paint and the landscape as a canvas. In his environmental work, Sagmeister adds language. Mindful concepts expressed through inventive media in exceptional places make his work unique and significant. If Earthworks are sculpture and Christo is painting, then Sagmeister is poetry. 

Here is a vid from my new bff, TED, of Stefan Sagmeister giving part of the same presentation he gave for us at SVA this summer. Enjoy.

The Underbelly of the Plushy

I discovered Mark Ryden over 10 years ago when I was the Creative Director of the Workbook published by Scott and Daughters. He was generous enough to let me use his painting, “Inside Sue,” for the cover of our illustration annual. As if I wasn't a big enough fan, he was an amazingly nice guy and a pleasure to work with.

What I find so compelling about Mark’s work is it’s ability to feel at once intensely familiar and mysteriously intriguing. He and I are products of the same culture (he is exactly 16 months older than me) and the lexicon from which he draws is largely from my childhood. The mixture of references like “Keane Kids” and Little Golden Books with an eerie underworld that calls to mind things like, “The Island of Dr. Moreau” or a creepy Vincent Price film, makes me feel like I am looking into someone else’s bizarro world through the lens of my own history. As personal as some of these elements are, Ryden also calls on universal archetypes and cultural history. Infused with an array of both Western and Eastern religious symbology, his masterly painting nods to the likes of Rembrandt, Inges and Breugel. Rich stuff, indeed.

Check out Mark Ryden and Porterhouse Art

Fish Story

While walking in Manhattan Beach between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and after having dined on sushi, I nearly stumbled on this fish lying on the sidewalk. After some thought, I realized it must have fallen from a local fisherman's bundle of loot. But for a moment, in a sake haze it seemed like some sort of sign. Like a perhaps that this coming year will be be better than the last. Or at least more...fishy?

On a lighter note...

See art dealer Olivier Renaud-Clement’s vintage car collection. Better yet, hear him describe it. Hint: he not only maintains his sexy cars, but also his matching french accent. Ooo la-la.

View Video of Olivier’s Cars

Arigatou gozaimasu, Nagi Noda.

Innovative and infectiously playful Japanese artist, Nagi Noda, died on September 7. She was only 35. Anata no dai-fan desu.

See Nagi Noda's Coca-Cola commercial.
(btw...yes, that's Jack White singing)

I have looked for a link to a comprehensive representation of Noda's body of work, and have come up short. Here is the article announcing her death from Creativity magazine:
Creativity: Nagi Noda Passes Away

Here are Noda's strangely beautiful hair hats...

Fresh Art

Love Erik Boker's new work. Check it...

Peeling Back the Product