Slow It Down

Though Andy Warhol was arguably the most productive filmmaker of the 1960s, few of his films have been seen.  This is because in the 1970s Warhol himself decided to stop allowing them to be shown.  He liked the idea of them developing a mythos.  Films that were talked about often but impossible to see.

Since his death in 1986 it's become a bit easier to see these films, but not by much.  Some are available on murky bootlegs while the bulk are only shown in conjunction with museum retrospectives of the paintings.  That's how I finally got to see a  a handful of his infamous screen tests.

While it's true that the films are much more stimulating intellectually than visually, there is no denying a certain beauty in his imagery.  Shot at sound speed and projected at silent speed, the nearly imperceptible slow motion helps to give great pomp and circumstance to even the most minuscule movements.  Something is off but you can't exactly place it.

On Tuesday (4/7), Plexifilm is releasing 13 Most Beautiful...Songs For Andy Warhol's Screen Tests.  This is the first ever authorized release of a Warhol film on DVD.  Hopefully there will be many more to follow.  I personally would love to see a Criterion release of The Chelsea Girls.

Photobooth Beauty Queen

I am a huge Andy Warhol fan. Though he could be rather aloof to many and a dick to some I still appreciate the works he created with both film and paint. I even named my photo "company" Pink Cow Photography after my second favorite Warhol creation. So what is my first favorite?

By and large I am not a fan of Warhol's portraits. Yet if I were a billionaire I would buy this painting. I love everything about it. The vibrant colors, the goofy poses, the patchiness of the silk-screen. In spite of the mechanical apparatus(es) used to create it (ie: a photo booth and silk-screening) it contains more life than many/most expressionist works.

So why am I writing about this painting? Because it's subject, arts patrol Ethel Scull, died today at the age of 79. As sad as that news made me - looking at this painting makes me happy.

You can read more about Ethel here.

Practice Makes...

As much as I hated taking statistics in college, it is that course more than anything else that has kept me humping the dream of being successful at any type of art. It was in that class that I learned about the “law of large numbers”. This is the law that keeps Vegas alive. To explain:

Let’s say you flip a coin 10 times. The odds of flipping heads are 50/50 yet it is entirely possible that all 10 flips might come up tails. The law of large numbers states that if you continue to flip that coin several more times the odds will gradually grow closer to 50/50.

Everything is chance including art. The law of large numbers is why some of Woody Allen’s recent films have not been that great. The man makes approximately a film a year. Throughout the 70s and 80s these films were by and large excellent. From the 90s onward that trend has reversed itself. Woody’s career is quickly approaching 50/50.

This is why I keep writing and taking photographs. I figure if I keep doing something over and over again I will eventually generate good work. I will also generate a lot of horrible tripe but it comes with the territory.

On a somewhat related note I have noticed in the past few months that many of my photos look the same compositionally.

I attribute this to the fact that for nearly three years I was taking hundreds of pictures a day at Goofy’s Kitchen. It is my belief that if you do anything enough a style will start to emerge. Whether or not that style is any good is for others to decide.

OK I am done with this mental masturbation. Go about you business.

Bleach & Paint

Tonight Becca and I went to an art show in Costa Mesa. The place is called evocal and the art is by Will Koffman a friend of Becca's from OCHSA. Both the venue and the art are awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone. The show is titled "Bleach & Paint" and those are the principal mediums used. I took photos of my two favorites both done in bleach.

Seeing all of Will's art up there made me a tad envious. It's been a long while since I've had my photography shown anywhere and I think I've grown as a photographer since then. I should look into that. But anyhow go check out will's show it's awesome and also check out his website at: http://www.killmecomix.com/