Seuss Dynasty Reviewed in Today's Miami Sun Post!

Review by Michelle Weinberg

Dorsch Gallery, Miami

Dorsch Gallery, April 12, 2008

With Victoria Cueto and Carolina Calandaria, curatorial team for FIU's Aesthetics & Values 2008 exhibition...

From Basho, Edo Japan poet and wanderer

In this mortal frame of mine which is made of a hundred bones and nine orfices there is something, and this something is called a wind-swept spirit for lack of a better name, for it is much like a thin drapery that is torn and swept away at the slightest stir of the wind.

This something in me took to writing poetry years ago, merely to amuse itself at first, but finally making it its lifelong business. It must be admitted, however, that there were times when it sank into such dejection that it was almost ready to drop its pursuit, or again times when it was so puffed up with pride that it exulted in vain victories over the others. Indeed, ever since it began to write poetry, it has never found peace with itself, always wavering between doubts of one kind and another. At one time it wanted to gain security by entering the service of a court, and at another it wished to measure the depth of its ignorance by trying to be a scholar, but it was prevented from either because of its unquenchable love of poetry.

The fact is, it knows no other art than the art of writing poetry, and therefore, it hangs on to it more or less blindly.

I Love Construction Sheds

I love construction sheds. Here is one en route to the Met several weeks ago. They're so provisional--I love the skirt--and the way they alter space. There is something very exciting to me about structures on top of structures.

Institutional Architecture

Institutional architecture is both beautiful and energy draining. Sometimes I relish its neutrality, but often, feel violated by its anonymity. I do like this courtyard.

Matte and Dense

Quest for an Ideal Surface

Brooklyn State of Mind (spring 2008)

Meditation while painting

New York fall 2007

Gourds

Bird and Flower Chinese Painting (wash)

A demonstration of washes by Yu JuXuan in the bird and flower idiom.

Screenprinting

Several weeks ago, I embarked on a screenprint project with printmaking students at University of South Florida: Wendy, "Pencil," Daniel and Ben. At this point, they are printing the layers and I have not seen it in a week. I am very excited to see how it comes out--the foggy layers of the mylar you see here do not at all resemble the complex layers and compression in the actual print.

Night Fools, 1998, oil on linen, 16 x 20

Goodbye, Dolls

A photo of dolls en route to Salvation Army.
For many years, I made paintings of my dolls, while collecting at least 500 specimens. Now in the process of sorting through and dispersing the collection, I experience both relief and a sense of poignancy saying goodbye to such a huge part of my painting life.
Above, the painting Night Fools, in honor of the departed dolls.

Preparing for my exhbition Seuss Dynasty at Dorsch Gallery that opens April 12th, I have been pondering: What is Seuss Dynasty? Yesterday I realized Seuss Dynasty is the aggregate of places I have been, the aesthetic layers that coalesce in my work and simply, where I am. Right now, Florida. The old wood shed faded green, cactus run amok with rare flowers, bare tree silhouettes embellished with ball-shaped seed forms and raking white light. Layered into this, the tree next door in Brooklyn (where I can only see the top leaves, because the bottom window is opaque), the row of pine trees in front of Yaddo's pool-house, the manicured trees in Taipei and Taichung and...what to come? On my way to the studio now.