Julia Reed | 03/29/2009 1:05 pm
An Art Lesson With Julia Reed
Fortunately for me, my favorite artists also happen to be my really close friends: William Dunlap, John Alexander and James Surls. Dunlap serves on the board of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art with me, and is a phenomenally generous soul and walking performance-art piece in addition to being a really wonderful painter. Like Eli Manning, for whom he just did a huge Mississippi landscape, I am blessed to have many of his canvasses. (His wife, Linda Burgess, and daughter, Maggie Dunlap, are also gifted artists — I call them the von Dunlaps.) Roberta Smith compared Alexander to Durer after a show of his drawings at the Beadleston Gallery in Manhattan, and his retrospective at the Smithsonian last year was an amazing show (with an amazing book).
Surls, like Alexander, grew up in Texas and is a soulful writer as well as being a genius of a sculptor. One of my favorite (and most hilarious) photographs features Alexander and New Orleans art dealer Arthur Roger posing as Surls sculptures in my garden – oh, how I wish they were the real thing! The real thing is actually available for viewing right now on the Park Avenue median between 50th and 57th Streets as part of the New York City Parks Public Art Program.
I also really love the photography of Sally Mann, who is one of the nicest people I have ever met.
My favorite dead guys? The Spaniards: Goya, Velasquez and Melendez, whose stunning still-lifes are at the Prado. Melendez’s gorgeous self-portrait is at the Louvre.
Surls, like Alexander, grew up in Texas and is a soulful writer as well as being a genius of a sculptor. One of my favorite (and most hilarious) photographs features Alexander and New Orleans art dealer Arthur Roger posing as Surls sculptures in my garden – oh, how I wish they were the real thing! The real thing is actually available for viewing right now on the Park Avenue median between 50th and 57th Streets as part of the New York City Parks Public Art Program.
I also really love the photography of Sally Mann, who is one of the nicest people I have ever met.
My favorite dead guys? The Spaniards: Goya, Velasquez and Melendez, whose stunning still-lifes are at the Prado. Melendez’s gorgeous self-portrait is at the Louvre.
Read more about: Art, Arthur Roger, Artists, Beadleston Gallery, Goya, James Surls, John Alexander, Linda Burgess, Louvre, Maggie Dunlap, Melendez, New York City, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Sally Mann, Velasquez, William Dunlap
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5 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
My favorite artist is my daughter who is inspired to create artistic pieces representing horse anatomy: horse musculature interpreted through wood and wire to scale.
For her senior art show, she designed a piece, which she said she envisioned in a dream, using hundreds of pieces of bundled wire to represent the horse’s muscle groups - to scale. I’ve never seen anything like it. And her art professor, who has painted ceilings at the Louvre, said it was the best work of the show.
Her goal is to learn welding so she can continue expanding her repertoire.
Hello Bella Mia….This sounds so like my story…My daughter is at least in my top five faves…Her senior work was wound wire also…the creatures were fanciful, not equine…She, too, wanted to learn welding when she went to get her master’s…so now she is "my daughter, the welder…" She works in steel primarily with a plasma cutter…..and can cut almost as fast as she can draw…hence Draw With Fire…She has two little girls and is working full time in the city everyday (in order to keep a dependable income) but works nights and weekends in the "shop"…welding shop….on their farm…You can go see a very old website that needs to be re-built…..If you go to info,there is a mailing address your daughter might use if she wants to "talk shop"…I think the e-mail is not great…http://www.drawwithfire.com
This morning a friend sent me to http://www.followtheblackrabbit.com and I really recommend it….I think she uses armatures which would make sense to your daughter…her animal figures are amazing and the site itself is a knockout….Happy April…!
My very best friend in this world is an artist. I think part of what makes her so unique is that she looks at life from so many different perspectives from the artistic side of who she is.
I have seen her paint anything from small pictures to large wall art, even going into homes and turning thier entry ways into a place that just takes you somewhere else.
The other side of her, is that she paints visionary art work, if that is the right term. People sit with her at fairs various times of the year, for her to touch on the medium side of her and paint angels and guides. Many times bringing unto the art board a relative or friend they had in life, that is standing with them now, and watching thier reaction as she relates what she is seeing or hearing to the person, kind of like taking a coffee break unexpectedly and visiting once again. In that sense, she is one of my heros for what she does for others.
Outside of what the public shares of her, she is just one incredible person.