bartender… I’ll have another shot…lol

by | May 24, 2014 | aoj blog

Hey Everyone…. hope your having a great week… Memorial Day weekend is here…… Off on Monday!!!!… I was hoping to have several new works to show you today but I was slightly derailed in completing them this week……. My son graduated from bartending school yesterday and so he was able to show us…. or we were able to taste what he learned while in school….Although my son doesn’t aspire to be a painter, it is clear that he has an artistic gene when it comes to creating a great pour.. .. and yesterday we were the recipients from the budding Picasso  and his creative mixology…..now today I think we are all the recipients of a very creative hangover….lol…

People talk about how there’s no flair in bartending but there’s this other type of flair…….It’s so sexual and beautiful the way bartenders stir and shake their drinks and put the ingredients in the shaker. Think about how they raise the bottle high and the stream can be long or short but it’s always beautiful… and then putting the garnish in the glass.  It’s personal and intimate and that’s part of what makes it so incredibly special especially in this digital world….. in this post-postmodern age,  are bartenders great artisans and are craft cocktails truly an art?   I  think so….Some say bartenders are artists for the way they slowly pour their homemade grenadine into a glass creating layers of alternating colors.  Others insist they’re craftsmen and craftswomen;  choosing the label of “mixologist” in recognition of their recipe skills.

Quickly brush aside memories of the 1988 film Cocktail starring Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown as flamboyant bartenders who toss their shakers and themselves with Cirque du Soleil flair….. like a painter you really need to know and study your craft to obtain that level so many aspire to.

The whack of a large wooden mallet onto a block of artisanal ice brings extra drama and sexiness to the art being created and exhibited in front of you.

So without further delay I am heading to the studio to practice and perfect my craft… well as soon as I reach out to my artist bartender and order another shot!…..lol…. have a great week everyone… I should have several works out next week for all of you to see…talk to you soon

……peace

………………james

“remnants of graduation”…lol

remnants of graduation

don’t buy from the repo man!

by | May 17, 2014 | aoj blog

Hey everyone… hope your week is going great… been gearing up in the studio… I am currently working on a commission piece…. and will be making more canvas’s this weekend…I know its a little time consuming but for me it increases the originality…….recently all the canvas’s I use are had made by me… which means that I start with a piece of cloth… build the frame and then gesso the cloth to get to the finished canvas… for me it really adds to the overall concept of every piece being an original… but it got me thinking about some recent art that I saw in a gallery here in vegas….there was some hype about this particular painter so I went to check it out and was really disappointed to find out it was a print… the artist had touched it with his brush, but nonetheless a print…… Today it seems that many painters, as well as the galleries that represent them, are turning to giclée prints.

Well, a giclée print is little different from the poster you hung on your college dorm wall.  Sure, it’s more (much more) expensive and made with archival inks.  But it’s still just a printed reproduction. They are not the same as monotypes, limited lithographic prints and the like, all of which are made through a printmaking process.  Wikipedia says that  “Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting.”  I don’t care if the giclée is hand-embellished, numbered and printed on canvas – to me, it’s an expensive poster.The point is this.  If you’re thinking of buying something that will have monetary value down the road, it’s not going to be giclée prints.  Those college dorm wall posters you had are worthless.  The only value they have is emotional and personal.  That poster that you had of Van Gogh’s sunflowers was a nice decorative piece but it’s now worth about five bucks, new.I just looked up Van Gogh sunflower prints on eBay.  The poster’s buy-it-now price is $5.  A giclée version on canvas, framed, is $69.95.  Both of these are described as “rare” in the text.  But compare these with one of the original sunflower paintings, which sold in 1987 for around $39,000,000 and is today estimated to be worth about $89,000,000.If you can’t buy the original, you’re better off buying an inexpensive offset print, not a giclée.  Giclées cheat the uninformed public, which is one reason why I don’t do them.In fact, I don’t sell prints of any kind…I am committed to ensuring that each and every piece I create is all original…  And wouldn’t you rather have the original, anyway?  As a student, you can study it in a way you’d never be able to study a print.   As a buyer, you’ve got an investment that a print will never be.I know the counter-arguments.  If you have one painting that you could have sold a hundred times, wouldn’t it make sense to make prints?  Sounds good financially, but some say it devalues the original.   I have collectors buy  paintings precisely because I don’t make prints of them.   Some artists will say prints increase the value of the original.  I don’t think Van Gogh’s original sunflower painting has a huge pricetag because of all those prints hanging up on dorm walls.Have a great week everyone…talk to you soon……….peace

……………….jamessummer splendor

This painting was sold in 2008 and is part of the permanent collection of famous magicians/entertainers  Siegfried and Roy… Oil, gold leaf… and yes…….all original…

summer splendor

 

time for the studio… weather permitting

by | May 10, 2014 | aoj blog

Hey Everyone feels like the creative energy has been building up lately ….  as the weather changes and the heat thermostat outside is turned full on, its time to head back to the studio and start getting busy… working now on a commission piece now… not sure where its going to go.. I usually let the paint tell me… its my 4th commission of the year… kinda weird as I haven’t done many of these in the past,  and as a purist, I usually don’t like doing them , but I definitely have enjoyed the recent ones… and then having them sold doesn’t hurt either…. Ive included a pic of the piece I just started working on now..

start of new commission

As promised here a a few quick shots from last weeks,  Race for the Cure.  Great turn out and support… Have a great week everyone… talk to you soon….

………………peace

…………………………….james

Race for the Cure 2014

 

 

first pic of peaches from the AOJ art garden…..

by | May 9, 2014 | sightings

Hey everyone… here are a couple of pics from the garden this am… Peaches are really thick this year… very dense… but smaller… my guess is they will be super delicious and sweet….need to get a recipe for peach wine, brandy, schnapps, vodka… you get the idea….lol

Enjoy your day….

…….peace

………………..james

hanging with the mayor!!!!

by | May 3, 2014 | sightings

hanging with Mayor Goodman at the Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure… great event, couldn’t believe the number of people that attended…Great Venue, Great Support