Douglas Witmer
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Thursday, December 30, 2004
Comments? E-mail Me (for now)
Apparently I'm having a little trouble with the comments feature, and it's somehow related to configuring my archives properly, which is a little bit of a mystery at the moment. Until I get that straightened out, please feel free to e-mail me directly. There's also a link to my e-mail in the column to the right. I'm turning the comments feature off for the moment.
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Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Highlights of 2004
Just bringing the year to a close. Here are some highlights from the year, in no particular order, and I just know I'm forgetting some really important stuff:Salena: my baby daughter. Who would have thought there could be such a delightful little person?
MINUS SPACE The domain for reductive + conceptual art
Sufjan Stevens "Greetings from Michigan" & "Seven Swans"
My recent NYC trip with my friend Bill where we saw Field of Color--Tantra Drawings from India at the Drawing Center (a post is coming on this). We went to the Met, too. It was the first day they had their new little Duccio piece on display. And we serendipitously saw some other knock-out Sienese devotional panels that were temporarily on loan from Yale. (including one of my all time favorite paintings, which I had never seen before in real life, a scene of St. Anthony in the desert by the Osservanza Master, image below)
GarageBand
Visiting Dia:Beacon with our friends Tim & Vicki
Here's some stuff that falls under the general category of "re-connecting:"
--Getting to know my youngest brother David
--Running into my old friend Phil, who I'd last seen/heard from in Cincinnati in 1998, at 21st & Walnut at 4:30 on a September afternoon. He'd been living in Philadelphia for nearly 4 years.
--American Music Club got back together after 10 years apart and put out a pretty decent record
--Remembering the evening in August, sitting on a rooftop patio above the condo my folks rented in Ocean City, getting a call from my friend Daryl in SF, watching the sunset over the back bay and celebrating with him as he headed out...following yet another dream and moving to Mexico.
Kings of Convenience "Riot on an Empty Street" (hopefully I'll get some music streaming soon...stay tuned!)
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Monday, December 27, 2004
Thank you Agnes Martin
The painter Agnes Martin passed away this past month at the age of 92. Below is an appreciation I wrote in response to an invitation from the internet gallery MINUS SPACE (to view the complete artists' responses, follow the "texts" link from the homepage).
(Image is Agnes Martin's "Praise")
There was record flooding in south central Pennsylvania, where I grew up, in the aftermath of Hurricane Agnes in 1972. I was too young to remember the event, but the phrase "flood of Agnes" was often spoken in my childhood. I didn't know Agnes was a woman's name. The sound of it definitely left an impression. This is an aside, though...
I long fancied making a visit to Taos to visit Agnes Martin. I read she took visitors. I never knew what I would ask or say, though. Words tend to drop away for me when it comes to her work.
I believe I did not actually "see" the first Agnes Martin painting I was exposed to. It was likely "The Rose" which sometimes hangs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the time was probably in the late 1980s. It took interacting with the work of my mentor Warren Rohrer, who shared affinities with Agnes, for my consciousness to be opened.
I've begun to think that's how some work is--invisible until its viewer is ready to see.
In my upbringing I was encouraged to "be in the world but not of the world" and this is definitely a feeling I got from Agnes' work. The feeling was bolstered as I learned more about her life and writing.
The story of her move to the desert, building a house by hand (one account made it sound like she began by putting adobe around her camper and worked outward from there) and of her "quitting" painting for the better part of a decade: I find all of that an inspiring example of taking an alternative path. I wrestle personally, though, with the viability of that kind of asceticism for an artist of my generation.
Seeing her early work at Dia Beacon this past fall was a true highlight. Whereas her gridded paintings could at times seem a closed system, cutting themselves off from the world, the early works were incredibly open, humble, innocent, and vulnerable. I could see they came from a special time and place. I am very curious about her decision to revisit some of those images in what was her last exhibition at Pace Wildenstein.
I made a special trip to see those paintings in real life. I'm glad I did, but they made me sad because in them I felt like I could see that Agnes no longer possessed the physical mechanics. The paint quality didn't carry the images like it had before.
Her paintings, like all reductive or distilled work, have such possibility for total failure. In this (our) kind of work, it's a real accomplishment when feel you have made a success. Agnes' work for so long had all the parts in play so beautifully and I am thankful to be able to experience that.
((EXPLORE THE EXHIBITIONS--Agnes Martin @ Dia:Beacon and Agnes Martin: Homage to Life @ Pace Wildenstein))
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Sunday, December 26, 2004
To Whom...
My name is Douglas Witmer. I am an artist, husband, and father, among other things. The idea of adding to the silent digital cacophony of the cyber world gives me pause. And yet, here I go. Long before there was such a thing as the internet, my attempts at keeping journals and diaries were rarely successful. I'm a self-conscious person. I assumed there would be an audience. It seemed pointless to communicate only with myself.It is the end of Christmas Day, 2004 (really the beginning of the next day). I've been feeling the things of my inner life shifting. I don't know what it all means, but I know that I have some impulses. One is looking for new ways to communicate with others. The launch of "DGLS" is in part a response to this.
To you, the reader:
I don't know how frequently this blog will be added to. You definitely won't need to hear about my leaky roof. You likely won't need to put reading this on your list of things to do everyday.
You will find out about my work as an artist. This will hopefully include someday finding out about my music as well. You will likely hear about the art and music of others.
I am an idealist, and I'm trying to take that more seriously.
I can get a little serious...and a little bit formal. I'm seeing what I can do about that.
I am interested in dialogue, so please comment as you feel compelled to do so.
I will assume that I am speaking to "you"--you, to whom and with whom I hope to communicate.
Thank you in advance for your attention.
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Saturday, December 25, 2004
Hi There
Test 1, Test 2...is this thing on?
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