Two Candles, 1982, painting by Gerhard Richter
Today, March 15, 2011, marks the second anniversary of the launching of Drawing Life. I’ll celebrate the occasion with the above image from the German painter Gerhard Richter, a fearless artist who sees no contradiction in pursuing both pure abstraction and photorealism, as well as some of the territory in between.
More fresh content is coming to this blog soon, I promise, but for today we’ll take a look back.
On the first anniversary a year ago I posted a Top Ten Countdown, featuring sample images and quotes from the most-read (or at least most-clicked-on – you can’t tell if people actually read them!) posts of the first year of Drawing Life. This year’s countdown list, starting at #10 and ascending to first place, is as follows:
10: Body Electric: Walt Whitman
Old man, seven photographs, c. 1885, photo by Thomas Eakins
Marbled Belly, 1991, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
Green Moth, 2009, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
Bright Seed, 2000, bodypaint and photo by Fred Hatt
Supine Arched (Madelyn), 2010, by Fred Hatt
SG and child pencil sketch 03, 2008, by Fred Hatt
4: End-On: Extreme Foreshortening
Strata, 2002, by Fred Hatt
3: Womb of Art: Paleolithic Masterpieces
Small paleolithic figurines, from left to right, vitreous rock from the Riviera, hematite from Moravia, mammoth ivory from Ukraine, and mammoth bone from Russia, figs. 121 thru 124 from The Way of the Animal Powers, by Joseph Campbell
2: Drawing as Theater / Presence as Provocation: Kentridge and Abramovic at MoMA
William Kentridge, Drawing for II Sole 24 Ore (World Walking), 2007; Charcoal, gouache, pastel, and colored pencil on paper, Marian Goodman Gallery
Lounging Ryan, 2008, by Fred Hatt
(You’ll notice that two posts, “Pregnant Pose” and “Fire in the Belly” appear in both this year’s and last year’s lists.)
It’s clear that the main determinants of high placement are 1) links from external sites, and 2) correspondence with popular search terms. Perhaps re-promoting the posts that already get lots of hits is kind of pointless, like policies that help make the rich richer, but I’ve already done it, so I’ll just supplement it with a little affirmative action – a list of neglected posts, way down near the bottom of the rankings, that I still think might be worthy of your attention.
My suite of paintings illustrating Wallace Stevens’ classic poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”. I painted this series in 1982, as a young artist just beginning to try to find an adult style.
Blackbird XII, 1982, by Fred Hatt
Experiments in lighting, using as a model a stone sculpture by Thomas W. Brown. I learned about lighting as a film student, but an understanding of how light behaves and interacts with objects is a deep subject of study for any kind of visual artist. This post doesn’t go into all the complexities of light, but it seeks to show how changing the angle of light transforms how we see an object.
Thomas W. Brown, Alabaster, 2004, photo by Fred Hatt, 2009, merge channels version
New Heads and Empathic Portraits
Two posts featuring my portrait work, including some of my favorite drawings.
Esteban, 2009, by Fred Hatt
Shadows and 3D or Not 3D
Two posts featuring my shadow-screen performance videos. The key to my drawing and painting is its focus on energy and movement. Here you’ll find me working directly with movement.
Still from "Convergence", 2010, video by Fred Hatt
I hope maybe these examples will persuade a few of my readers to go spelunking in the archives! Happy birthday, Drawing Life – and readers, stay tuned for more images and ideas to come! Thanks for reading, commenting, linking, sharing, “liking”, tweeting, and/or subscribing to the email feed.
