Barbara Mink

I have started painting again, after several months of inaction and the truly awful loss of my dear stepson and painting collaborator, Dan.  I keep looking at what I'm doing through his eyes; not easy, as those of you who paint know, there is no substitute for a constructive critic with a good eye and good taste. I'm working on a series inspired by reading Norman Davies' book Vanished Kingdoms , which has a lot of metaphorical resonance as well as historical interest. The idea of every-shifting boundaries, the shifting of power and hegemony and styles through the ages, really puts the minutiae of every day life in context. I go between more traditional interpretations of Chinese landscapes and fanciful constrctions.

Thank you Tom Schickel, Ithaca architect, for the roles of old drawings and elevations I plan to use in my next series. Not quite sure how yet, but I think I'll develop them side-by-side with "looking East" series, inspired by Chinese landscapes on raw canvas. For the architecture underlay I'll go back to primed canvas and a technique I learned with Carolyn Fellman a few years ago, incorporating paper underlay with painting on top. Excited.

I haven't been painting for the last few months, too busy with parental care in Buffalo and son health worry in Los Angeles, to say nothing of teaching. But I feel like trying to incorporate some architectural designs into a new piece. A number of years ago I used photos as part of a painting; want to see what overlaying a basis of diagrams with my minimalist approach feels like. 

 It's funny how inspiration works. When I visited the Helen Frankenthaler exhibit at Knoedler in NYC two years ago, I started on my experiment with raw canvas and linen, with the differentiating feature of line and a subdued palette. A few months ago I spent a long time in the Asian galleries at the Metropolitan Museum, and had a similar call to shift direction. I felt the urge to explore my long-standing admiration for Chinese and Japanese landscapes and calligraphy. Abstraction, restraint, and structure I think this is the beginning of a very pleasurable journey.

About to hang new show at Fineline Bistro on State Street. Great restaurant, hanging space. Some new small pieces, some from Timelines; all on raw canvas. Need to figure out what goes with steak and frites...

One of my students did a presentation about this new picture-sharing tool, then two art colleagues touted it. After some skepticismm I jumped on board, and am happy to say it's pretty darned fun. Easy to use for everyone, and a nice way to get a sense of what's out there. I have several boards, keep on adding.

Back on Facebook of course; personal page and an art page at www.facebook.com/artmink. Just got back from NYC, saw the Whitney Biennial and all four blocks of Chelsea galleries. Everything felt a bit moribund, but maybe it was because it was middle of the week. Didn't see any work that looks like mine; I don't know if that's good or bad. Reality is I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing as well as I can.