Got some technical problems today. Hope to get things resolved soon. Keep you posted. Thanks.

• The Peter Principle explains us all. (NewScientist)
• The Glorious Revolution of 1688. (The National)

Nude Model Reading
charcoal and pastel
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

I'm not sure about this one.

• Gordon Anderson at Christopher Cutts, Toronto. (The Globe and Mail)
• Podalida, large format ink drawings by Swedish polymath, Joakim Dahlqvist.
• The difficulty of honouring Camus. (NewStatesman)

River in Winter
oil
40.6 x 50.8 cm (16" x 20")

This is the Red River. Again. Hey, I live close to a river.

• NYC taxis to display art. (CBC News)
• Shhhh...science is boring. (NewSciencist)
• The cost of ignoring beauty. (The American)
• Hergé. (The New York Times)

Dandelion Field
acrylic
40.6 x 50.8 cm (16" x 20") ■


This is a scene from last summer. The field was north of Winnipeg and west of St.Andrew's Church, off of Provincial Road 410, if I remember correctly.

LCD Shovel Full HD: Têtes à claques in English.

Les joies de l'hiver 2: encore Têtes à claques, et demain, Têtes à claques en anglais.

All the best to everyone celebrating Christmas today.

Les joies de l'hiver: with Têtes à Claques

• There's no more to life than a car park. (Financial Times)(via things magazine)
• Casa Morandi. (Wallpaper) (via things magazine)
• The bunkum of learning styles. (The Chronicle) (bunkum: ORIGIN mid 19th cent.(originally buncombe): named after Buncombe County in North Carolina, mentioned in an inconsequential speech made by its congressman solely to please his constituents ( c. 1820).

Grey and Orange Seated Man
gouache
30.5 x 20.3 cm (12" x 8")

There's not much to say about this sketch. It took fifteen minutes. That's about it.

• Concerning E.M.Forster. (The New Criterion)
• An introduction to astronomy. (review)
• The Burj Dubai and the beginning or the end of hubris. (Spiegel)
• Four keys to artistic success. (edward_winkleman)

Grey and Orange Man
gouache
33.0 x 24.1 cm (13" x 9.5") ■

This was done last night. The pose was thirty-five minutes.

I made the model look a little younger than he actually is. There was no complaint.

• Sargent and the Sea at the Corcoran in Washington. (The New York Times)
• The decline of American manufacturing and the rise of American business schools. (The New Republic)
• Damien Hirst is set to become the next Rembrandt. (When Art History Goes BAD)
• The world's worst hotel. (The Travel Intelligence Blog) (via things magazine)
• Strange Maps. (Strange Maps)

• The rise of authoritarian democracies and the trading of individual and political freedom for economic growth. (The National)

Pink and Grey Girl
gouache
24.1 x 33.0 cm (9.5" x 13")

The hand on the hip is a little weird in this drawing. It doesn't seem to belong to the model.

• One Belgium, or two? (The Weekly Standard)
• 3D London fly through. (ZNO) (via things magazine)

Big Teeth
graphite
26.7 x 21.6 cm (10.5" x 8.5")

This is an old sketch for a caricature. I rediscovered it yesterday. There's one problem though. I can't remember who this is a caricature of. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

• The Big Deal About Art in Winnipeg. (Drain: Check The Power of Myth, by Edwin Janzen, under Related Essays in Drain.) (via View On Canadian Art)
• The dubious return of beautiful art. (The Telegraph)
• Hard times for the family of fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. (CBC News)

Whale Watchers
graphite
8.9 x 11.4 cm (3.5" x 4.5")

This couple was watching a small whale through a glass wall at the Nagoya Aquarium.

• The Bauhaus. (The New Criterion)
• Trojamania. (The Australian)

Man With His Hands Between His Knees
gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

An odd pose. The painting took about forty minutes.

I seem to have sorted out my computer problems (at least, for the moment). So we're back in business.

dedication of 9/11
oil and acrylic
4' x 8'
artist: Sylvester Stallone


• Sylvester Stallone, artist. (The Globe and Mail)
• The modern evolution of the Japanese language. (The New York Times)
• 'Omit needless words.', William Strunk, 1918, The Elements of Style. (The American Conservative)
• Van Gogh's letters. (The Wall Street Journal)

Black and Brown
gouache
33 x 22.9 cm (13" x 9")

This seems the beginning of a decent painting. I wished that I had had time to finish it.

5 seconds of Isadora Duncan (I bet that you've all been waiting for this.)

I'm still experiencing computer problems. I'll be without the capacity to scan or up load photos for the next couple of weeks. Things will be slow on the blog until I manage to correct the problem.

In the meantime below is an article from the current issue of style Manitoba magazine on Winnipeg artist, Doug Melnyk, written by playwright and actor, Ian Mozdzen.

A Life Rife with Art: Doug Melnyk by Ian Mozdzen

“I have faith that good things will happen.”

Comforting words from one of Winnipeg’s most pre-eminent artists, Doug Melnyk.
And what Doug says, Doug lives. “A life rife with art and art-making,” he chuckles in the downtown apartment he shares with photographer Larry Glawson, his partner of over 30 years. “Art-making is central to my life. It’s an ongoing conversation with myself that I couldn’t have in any other way.”

The red walls of the apartment are an immense collage of photographs, drawings, art objects and performance artefacts, like an imposing man-sized Christ doll. “You get a chance to live in your daydreams,” Doug muses.

Poetry, performance, installation, drawing, and video – this East Kildonan boy turned graphic designer turned University of Manitoba Fine Arts grad keeps himself on his toes by plunging into every artistic discipline imaginable.

“I prefer being a novice,” Doug admits. “It’s a position wherein I have a lot to learn.”
Over the course of three decades, Doug has developed an intensely personal and hulking body of solo and collaborative work that has titillated and inspired generations of Winnipeg artists. His creations are found in local, national, and international collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

“Every kind of art project that I’ve been involved with is about inventing a new world,” Doug remarks. “I keep getting further and further into situations where I don’t know what I’m doing. I guess that keeps me authentic.”

Not just authentic - singular. Doug’s various cross-disciplinary creations are notorious for being as preposterous as they are profound.

Naked Croquet (1987), his first publication, is a melancholic collection of poetic anecdotes providing meditation on everything from Spiderman to Las Vegas to root canals. The internationally toured Gorilla (1989) is a multi-layered ensemble performance piece sprung from the classic 1932 film Blonde Venus and features a man-sized (you guessed it) gorilla. Then there is the extravagant Fruits (2005), a floridly playful queer comic, as well as the beguiling Adam & Steve (2006), an experimental animation that continues Doug’s ongoing flirtation with masculinity, the animal kingdom and the genesis story.

“There’s a kookiness to most artists. I enjoy it.”

Rambunctious images of Eden also abound, namely by way of gigantic African head sculptures floating in the night, nude male angels, and bookish psychotherapists philoso- phizing about pornography from the grave.

“I don’t know if I would like to live in these worlds ... but I want to see that they have a chance,” confides this self-proclaimed romantic.

Doug has also invested his creative energies into the community. He is a co-founding member of Ace Art Inc., a fixture on the gallery scene for over 25 years, and has been teaching art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery for almost a decade.

“Winnipeg is important to my identity as an artist,” Doug affirms. “People are willing to help each other. There are a lot of big accomplishments, but not a lot of big egos.”
Doug’s newest commission, Nippon Maru, a short animation about shipwreck, survival, and island life, continues his search for humility.

“My normal frame of mind is that I see people as being a very small part of the world,” Doug confides.

Nippon Maru emerged from time spent swimming in the YMCA downtown pool. “What struck me was the pointlessness of swimming. That’s when the image of the sinking ship came to me with people swimming helplessly around it.”

Web surfing for cruise ships, Doug encountered Nippon Maru, a real-life (and still floating!) Japanese cruise ship. The rest is Doug’s vibrantly-coloured, intricately detailed and whimsically animated tale.

“Of the 47 passengers, two humans survive on an island, but only for a short time. When they are gone the island becomes a much more lively and vivid place.”

In the wake of Nippon Maru’s fall 2010 premiere, Doug also anticipates 27 x Doug, Gallery One’s retrospective of Larry Glawson’s work capturing the couple’s decades together. 27 x Doug will feature images of Doug that cover a span of 27 years.

For this optimist adrift in a life rife with art, that’s just business as usual. “All of your experience is part of your project,” he affirms.

Doug Melnyk’s work is represented by O’Connor Gallery in Toronto.
























Nippon Maru
etching

artist: Doug Melnyk

I'm experiencing some computer problems at the moment. I expect them to be fixed by Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest. I won't be able to post much until then. Thanks.

• Henry Fowler and A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. (Policy Review)
• What, if any, were Jean Sibelius's ties to Nazi Germany. (The Chronicle)

Blue and Grey
gouache
33.7 x 26.7 cm (13.25" x 10.5")

I'm not sure that I did the model justice in this painting. It wouldn't be the first time that I haven't done a model justice.

• Today's the big burn day for Miami. Art Burn 2009, co-sponsored by C-Monster, is set to begin at 1 pm. Contemporary art is going up in smoke. (C-Monster)
• The current state of the art market. (The Economist) (via C-Monster)

Relaxing
graphite
8.9 x 11.4 cm (3.5" x 4.5")

This man was relaxing with a drink while waiting for his plane to depart. I remember him. There was someone seated across from him. I can't remember the airport though.

• Richard Serra sculpture saved in Ontario. (The Globe and Mail)
• Rilke. (The Nation)
• The 50 most interesting articles on Wikipedia. (copybot) (via things magazine)

Leg on a Chair
gouache
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

I seem to be in love with black, white, and cream coloured gouache at the moment. It will pass.

• The world's top 10 ugliest buildings. Canada makes the list. (The Globe and Mail)
• Charles II, the People's Monarch. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Roberto Cearsolo, the former financial director of the Guggenheim Bilbao was sentenced to 32 months in prison for stealing about half a million euros. (CBC News)

White Hair
gouache
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

Another quick three colour study, similar to last Thursday's Black, White, and Cream.