Surprise Bonus Post: BODY OF ART

A dedicated and resourceful exploring the mystery reader was kind enough to send me a CBS video link which I want to share with you - Body of Art: Meet Performance Artist Marina Abramovic. The interview aired today, November 30, at 9:45 A.M. (in case the link below doesn't work maybe you can locate it).  

I loved seeing Marina and hearing her voice. During the program, an assumption is made that Marina's childhood experiences are responsible for the direction her performance art has unfolded. Do you think this is true? 

Does an artist's work explain the artist's life? 

I would love to know what you think as we may be exploring this question in future posts. Email me or comment on blog comment section which you can reach by clicking on exploring the mystery that is underlined below.


For the interview with Marina - click on underlined words below and then again on the blue line that pops up beneath it if needed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/body-of-art-meet-performance-artist-marina-abramovic/

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

Constable Inspires Layered Approach - #138

WSJ headline, "An Artist, Inspired and Inspiring"  intrigued me. Turns out the article promoted the exhibit,"Constable: The Making of a Master," (an exhibit through January 11, 2015, at the Victoria and Albert Museum).  

Tour of London, 2011. Final stop for day: Victoria and Albert Museum.  To observe paintings and ceramics throughout the massive building, it was necessary to walk miles and miles. I didn't know until recently that John Constable (1776-1837) was Britain's best-loved artist or I might have ignored my sore feet and fatigued body (mostly what I remember about the V & A) and rallied to locate a Constable.

The article mentions Constable worked and reworked other painter's ideas, often giving them as much attention as he gave his own work. He grappled with the complex subtleties of ideas put forth by others.

Not only that, Constable worked to make his paintings convey the layered complexity of nature. 

He was ahead of his time. 

What a guy! 

He knew how to shift his attention from passive attention to active attention. Active attention is the focus of today's mindfulness. Pay attention, be in the Now. Slow down and pay attention.

My goal is to slow down enough to consider that most of what I deal with comes in layers.  When we slow down enough to pay attention, it is obvious that paying attention to the surface layer of most things is not enough. There is always more to consider.

Do you have a Constable hanging in your living room? Would you like to have a Constable? Do you know a constable? Do you practice active attention? If you meditate and follow your breath or a word you chose and return to it over and over during your meditation, you are practicing active attention. Do you pay attention to layers? Please let me know by replying to this message or going to blog and posting in comment section.

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

The above image is to represent the complexity of nature and is not a Constable. Google John Constable to see his work. 

Midweek: What Does Life/Art Ask Of Us?

"When you commit to a life in the arts or to any field that demands your full creative involvement and your largest meaning investment - whether as a research physicist, inventor, poet, activist, investigative reporter, or country-western singer - then you have made a deal with yourself that you will spend years, decades, even a whole lifetime in the pursuit of real results, excellence, and success, however you might define or measure these. You have said to yourself, "I am authentically involved in this. This matters to me."*

What is life/art asking of you this week? 

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall

*Creativity for LIfe by Eric Maisel, Ph.D. 

What Does It Take To Be A Great Artist? - #137

 "You know how you know you're an artist? It's like breathing, it's a necessity...but that doesn't make you a great artist. It just makes you an artist."  

 (Quote from WSJ interview Marina Abramovic) 

Marina divides people into two classes: "originals" (like herself & a man I met on nature path who was tickled pink to be photographed - see image above) and "those who follow." 

"Being a great artist requires total sacrifice of everything and loneliness."

Marina exclaims with a laugh (according to he interviewer Alexandra Wolfe) that she has fulfilled these requirements: "I'm single, divorced, have no children, and spend much of my time traveling."

Naifeh and Smith's biography of Vincent Van Gogh captivated me for 868 pages.  Vincent was a great artist. Vincent was lonely and sacrificed for his art.  

What does it take to become a great artist, turns out to be a sobering question.   

Have you ever wanted to be an artist of any kind? What held you back? What do you think it takes to become a great artist?

Thanks for exploring the mystery of art - Nicky Mendenhall

Midweek: The Real Magdalena Abakanowicz

My attraction to Flock II has a long history.  Shortly after moving to Des Moines in 1977, I became fascinated with the idea of contemplation. As a mother of three there wasn't a lot of time to practice this big word but when I discovered The Des Moines Art Center, I knew I had found a place to practice.

My first stab at contemplation was when I contemplated the headless statues. What on earth were they about? What was the artist trying to express? It was almost embarrassing to like them so much. The more time I spent with these guys, the more I noticed how different each one was.  

When I became a docent in 2002 and was given the assignment to study a piece of art and make a presentation to the other docents, I headed straight to the headless wonders, trying not to knock into them, a definite docent no-no.

When researching this work, I learned that the artist, Magdalena Abakanowicz, was born on her family's estate in Poland. When she was nine, she watched the violent takeover of the family estate by German troops.  


Exploring the mystery of Flock II with all of you in exploring the mystery has been satisfying to contemplate. I'm contemplating why these figures mean so much to me. 

Is there a piece of art that you like but can't explain why? Do you spend time with art? Are you learning to tell the difference between Magdalena Abakanowicz and Marina Abramovic?

Thanks again for responding to my emergency plea. I still haven't located the subscriber list but the service seems to be working nevertheless. 

Thanks for exploring the mystery of art - Nicky Mendenhall

Magdalena Abakenowicz 

The Flock II

Burlap and resin; dimensions variable

Permission given by Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections: Purchased with funds from the Edmundson Art Foundation, Inc.m 1992.36

Photo Credit - Rich Sanders, Des Moines

The Delicate Phrase: Don't Look Away - #136

Your first instinct, when viewing Marina Abramovic's provocative  performance art, will be to avert your eyes.  

I can hear astute exploring the mystery readers saying: "Not me, I won't look away!" 

But before you bet the ranch, consider this:

In a retrospective of her work at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2010, WSJ reports visitors were asked to brush up against nude performance artists in close quarters. Meanwhile, in MoMa's grand atrium, Marina sat perfectly still, staring straight into the eyes of visitors who lined up to sit across from her.  

Her next exhibition will focus on sensory deprivation as an antidote to the fast pace of modern life. Isn't it interesting that she wants to slow down too?

Marina wants to wake up her audience and if this means they are uncomfortable, this doesn't concern her. I imagine she often murmurs "Don't Look Away" when circulating among her fans.  

The question posed (November 4 post), "when would you say Don't Look Away" elicited no answers.  

This wasn't a total surprise; it was a delicate question. The surprise came this week when a situation showed me how difficult and how rewarding it is to say: Don't Look Away. 

When Feedburner stats said exploring the mystery had 0 subscribers and I couldn't find your names on a subscriber list, I needed help.

In effect I was saying, "I'm in trouble here. Don't Look Away!"

And you didn't. As your "got it's" came into my inbox, I understood how important Don't Look Away can be. And I understood how risky it feels to say, Don't Look Away.

Do you look away when you need to keep looking? Do you know what it feels not to be seen?

Thanks for exploring the mystery and not looking away. 
                                                      - Nicky Mendenhall

Image above on Pacific Beach this fall. My favorite restaurant, The Green Flash, was named for what happened when the sun set. In order to see it, you couldn't look away! FYI - the restaurant closed and I was very sad. The end of an era.

Mid week: this might be an emergency

This morning I was "messing around" with Feedburner and fear I have erased all of the email addresses on subscriber list. My pain is visceral.  I can't bring myself to write a regular post because I don't know if it will be delivered.

If you do receive this Mid week greeting - I would be eternally grateful if you would hit reply (to the email you received).  If you tell me you have this email, you will have my undying gratitude.

If you didn't receive anything from me on Wednesday morning - I hope you made your way to exploring the mystery blog and will figure out that you need to subscribe again - look under my picture where it says "follow by Email" - under that put in your email address and hit submit.  You may have to prove you are not a robot. When you pass this test and hit submit, you will receive an email from Feedburner with a link inside that you need to/ have to click on to complete the subscription.

I'm hoping that you won't look away! 

Image illustrating the weather today.

nickymendenhall.blogspot.co

One More Deception - #135

   

I hope since we were last together, you have not been holding your breath in anticipation that this post would reveal who said:    

"Don't look away," 

Because instead of the answer, get ready for a new contest:

 Tell us a situation where you might need/want to say: 

"Don't look away"?   

The prize for the most creative answer: Diane Durston's Wabi Sabi: The Art of Everyday Life.

As you ponder your answer, enjoy the picture above - one received by my camera last year. Then continue reading to learn more about art and me.  

Flummoxed is a word I don't use often but one that describes my feelings since I discovered that Marina did not create Flock II. Have any of you seen Flock II in Pei Gallery at the Des Moines Art Center? If you have, please share the feelings it aroused in/for you. Or if you can't make it to Pei, go to www.NickyMendenhall.blogspot.com and scroll to Post 134.

I would have never mistaken Abramovic for Abakanowicz if I would have known about the Abakans (1966-75). The abakans, so-called after her own name, were enormous three-dimensional hanging structures woven from a variety of fibers.

Abakans have been referred to as not only objects but also spaces. Sculpture as space! How interesting!  Google "images of abakans" for a look at them.

The lesson in all this - don't shy away from mistakes - they will teach you something!

When you enter the contest above, please tell me some of your most profitable mistakes. It will comfort me!

Thanks for exploring the mystery of mistakes  -
                                                                Nicky Mendenhall

Please Look Away!

Early in the twenty-first century, I resigned my volunteer docent position at the Des Moines Art Center. 

A few weeks into my retirement, I read an article about artist Marina Abramovic. Here was a familiar name! I remembered her difficult to pronounce last name when describing her work, Flock II, to fellow docents. And now here she was doing performance art!  I marveled that she could do so many things!

For the next several years, every article about Marina further cemented my bond with her. I knew her real work - it was at the Des Moines Art Center!

In my new Des Moines Art Center Collects seven pound book, the vital statistics of the artist who created Flock II, the work I described in my presentation, didn't make sense to me.  It said she was born in 1930. How could this be? The latest article reported that she was 67. And when I looked closely, her name was Magdalena Abakanowicz.

Yes, years ago I mistakenly decided that Marina Abramovic was Magdalena Abakanowicz - the Polish artist of my docent presentation. 

If you conclude the rushing I've been accusing myself of in the last few posts is true, I would have to agree. 

All I can promise you is that since my error has given me intimate knowledge of both artists, I will share some tidbits about each of them with you. Next post you will learn whether Marina or Magdalena said, "Don't look away!" And you will also learn the   shocking circumstances that made her say it.

Thank you for exploring the mystery with me - Nicky Mendenhall