Movin' On Up (to Hudson)

Hi everyone:

Blogging music today - INXS. I've always been a fan (well, since "Listen Like Thieves" anyway), but I never truly appreciated Michael Hutchence's voice until after he was gone. I remember hearing Bono describe it like a six (or was it 12) string guitar...just a perfectly sincere tone.

I'm a bit exhausted at the moment and am leaving tomorrow AM with the family to go see friends in DC. So, let's get right to it...

You're probably noticing that I didn't get to the print I had mentioned in my last post. I am still working with the image, but some other things came up this week that took precedence - one of them being a cortizone shot in my wrist, which obviously complicated the whole manual labor thing. And make no mistake - this process is manual labor. It's feeling fine now though - thanks for asking!

The other hurdle that came up was a pleasant one - the art dealer I mentioned a few posts back decided to take some of my work to a high-end design studio in Hudson, NY. When we first chatted, he said he thought my work would fit in nicely with their vibe - and from what I've seen, I totally agree. But you can judge for yourself - http://foleyandcoxhome.com/ ( click on the "home"box). The work won't get there until next week, but you can check out the other stuff they have going on.

Now that we are officially working together, I can reveal the identity of this masked dealer of the night. His name is Ken Jones Jr. - based out of Easton, PA. A great guy with excellent taste (obviously), and in addition to his art dealer/consulting business, he and his partner Ron own a gallery called Mercantile Home - (www.mercantilehome.com/HOME.html). Every time I'm in there, I seem to walk out with something. It's a small, intimate space, but they always manage to have something for everyone in there.

Anyway, we're gonna start with 2 pieces - 'Descent' and 'Acquiescence' and see what happens ( probably more in July). Both of them are on my site (http://www.sirinsky.com/), and we went with them because they were already framed. But, I needed to do some tweaking to the matting on these in record time, which turned into a total fiasco, resulting in a week sans printing.

No visual aids today ladies and gents - I'll make up for it on the next one. Enjoy your holiday everyone!


-Marc

That Freaky Modern Art

Hi everyone:

The Afghan Whigs are now blazing through my headphones as I sit in my familiar Panera surroundings. I admit it's getting a little out of control - when I frowned at the length of the checkout line, the manager said "You're in here all the time - if I don't get ya now, I'll get ya tomorrow." Funny thing is - I rarely eat here (usually just tea or a tasty Jones Cream Soda), it's just a place for me to get stuff done without the rug rats scurrying about.

So, I sent out a massive e-mail blast yesterday to update everyone on the whole art thing. I realized I hadn't sent one in almost a year, mainly because I've been focusing on the blog and the website. But, it dawned on me that many folks had either forgotten about the blog or simply just hadn't looked at my website in a while. Plus, I had some new names to add to my list. Mmmm- tasty converts!

Anyway, one of the responses I got back was so hysterical, I simply had to post it here. It was from an old friend from high school whom I haven't talked to in years. Anyway, she sent me the following response:

"As you may recall, modern art kind of freaks me out, so if you could refrain from sending me updates I'd appreciate it, but would love to keep in touch!"

The thing is, if you knew her, you'd know this was no joke. And after she sent me this reply, I laughed my ass off because I remembered a conversation we had many years ago about art, and this is almost word-for-word what she said then. So entertaining in its closed-mindedness; it was worth sending the e-mail update just to get that response.

I'm thinking about finally adding a "Blog" link to the website, so everyone can link in a nice straight line. I didn't do it at first because I wanted to make sure I was committed enough to the blog before adjusting my site design. That stuff costs money ya know! But, I've been a good little artist over the past year, so I think it might be time.

Otherwise, the new roll of film looks pretty good at first glance. Lots to pick from, but I've noticed that I tend to edit in stages. No big surprises there - I am a photo editor after all. Even when editing other photographers' work, I usually pull the first round of images in more of a photo researcher mentality - aka: pull whatever you think might work. From there, I go back through and edit out similars, photos that are less-effective than the rest, etc. Then, I usually take one more pass through - just to make sure I've got a solid group of selects.

For my own work, the idea is still the same, but the process works a little differently. I do a lot of editing in-camera, because as I mentioned in earlier posts, I've always shot selectively. This is a little harder to do with a 1920's plastic camera, where happy and not-so-happy accidents happen on virtually every roll, but I manage. Once the film is processed and I get it back, I do an edit and select which images will be scanned. I usually select a few similars, since the nuances of a shot are sometimes very subtle due to the way the camera exposes the film. Then, once the scans come back, I edit again - and many scans are left completely untouched.

The final edit of course comes with the printing process. I can't tell you how many images I've had that I thought were a home run, only to learn during my crazy printing process that there is no way in hell they're going to work. The good part is that usually I can tell after the first proof if the image is viable. The rules are very different for darkroom or digital printing, but since this process is pretty much my own (unless there is something I don't know), I've had to make up the rules as I go along. But, that's all part of the fun I suppose.

Well, now that you've had a glimpse into my editing process (I know you're all so enthralled and still catching your breath), I thought I'd throw up a few of my all-time favorite paintings. They're three portraits by Theodore Gericault - a French artist from the late 18th/early 19th century who really began as a military painter (battles, portraits of Napoleon, equestrian portraits etc). His greatest masterpiece is widely considered to be the "Raft of the Medusa" - a pivotal image in the history of French Romanticism, and many would argue, the history of art in general. But, in my opinion, his greatest work was his "Portraits of the Insane" series. I'll never forget the moment I saw these in art school - it was during an art history course on 19th century European painting. The professor put up the slides on the projector and I was completely blown away. But then he said they were done in the 1820's! THE 1820's? This was the time of Romanticism! Nobody was doing anything like this at the time - showing people how they actually are, instead of some idealized vision. The composition was completely revolutionary; the brushwork a precursor to Expressionism and even Impressionism on some level. Completely ahead of his time - it would take another 60-70 years before anyone of note tried something like this again. I hope that one day I can see one of these in person.

Well, this has gone on long enough. Happy weekend everyone, and stay tuned for a new piece - hopefully next week!

-Marc

Big Apple and Veggie Tales

Howdy!

A little Wedding Present for the senses today as I blog on the heels of two whirlwind trips to NYC over the past 3 days. Throw in a Scholarship Benefit Auction for my daughter's school in between - and it's a wonder I'm still coherent enough to put together a sentence. Well, maybe I'm not - but let's find out, shall we?

Many of you know that I do not hold NYC up to the standard that most of the creative world does. However, I do enjoy visiting - and it is nice to live close enough to do a day trip every now and again. It makes for a long day (4 hours round trip), but I've been trying to get there about once a month or so - mainly for networking, job interviews, gallery scoping and tasty eats/drinks. One of my favorite things about NYC is that it thrives on the unexpected; the nooks and crannies. While I was there, I went to a secret bar (address and phone number not listed and it has a secret entrance), where I had one of the best mixed drinks of my life. But I also happened upon a gallery/frame shop - it happened to be across the street from where my friend and I were having lunch, and she was late, so I popped in. Gorgeous space and just the right size for a small, quality solo show - which is exactly what they had up on the wall. It doubles as a frame shop, but the framing area is downstairs and the space does a good job of juggling both, compared to many I have seen.

The owner was also very approachable - in fact, he engaged me in conversation. My feedback on the show must have raised a flag because he then asked if I was an artist. I don't usually profess this when I walk into a gallery, at least not right away. I always want to look at the work first, scope out the space and then, if my work happens to be a good match in my mind, I might bring it up. But, I think it is really important to look at the work first, and to be genuine about it. In other words, if you have to try, you probably shouldn't stick around - any more than you would stick around a museum room you didn't like. The last thing you want to do is approach a gallery with an incompatible creative sensibility to yours; and the last thing a gallery director wants is an ignorant or uninterested solicitor. And in many cases, you might love the work that is being shown, but it makes sense to just leave it at that for whatever reason.

Anyway, after he asked me, I talked about my work briefly, gave him a card and we'll see if he offers any feedback. It's a space I can really see myself showing in - bright, clean, unassuming yet professional. The stereotypical NYC gallery snootiness was nowhere to be found...

Otherwise, I'm still holding true to my word and developing this body of work more fully before hardcore promoting it. I have one more piece to work on from the last scanning batch, and 3 more rolls of film just came back that I need to edit. I hope to be filling up the website soon, and once that happens, some of the older work will start to come down. Also, of the two new pieces I recently posted, one of the prints has already sold, so get 'em now, while you still can!

Finally, next door to this gallery was a store/gallery called More North, which focuses on art and design by Nordic artists. The show in their gallery space right now is works on paper by a Swedish artist named Harald Lyth. The exhibition is outstanding - I found his work to be very emotive, and this piece was one of my favorites from the show.

Though I would love to own one of these, they were a little too much for my unemployed blood. But I did walk out with a wonderful little piece by Leena Axelsson - she makes these awesome ceramic garlics, and I just had to have one (I have a glass fruit collection, but this is my first vegetable). She makes them in 3 sizes and in 3 colors - yellowish/brown, purple and white -

but I chose the white - it just felt very elegant and understated.

Happy weekend everyone!

-Marc

It's Go Time

Hi everyone:

Tonight's blog was too important for me to award the soundtrack rights to any single musical act. So, I'm listening to a play list on my Shuffle right now- everything from The Jackson Five to The Sex Pistols is included...hopefully that won't result in too manic of a post.

The big news is that, as promised, I've got two new pieces to show y'all. Hot of the presses- I printed them up this weekend and have two editions I'm pretty darn pleased with - at least for now. So, without further ado, here they are, with some notes from "the horse's mouth:"

The name of the above print is "Lone" - as in "Lone Tree" - though I just found out there is a Lone Tree, Colorado. Who knew? And though this looks like it could have been shot in Colorado, it was shot right here in PA. And "So Lonely" by The Police just hit my Shuffle - how appropriate!

Anyway, this image represents one of my happiest accidents in quite some time - on a variety of levels. Firstly, when I shot it, I was kinda on the fence. It seemed like a scene I may be able to do something with, but I was thinking about 5 steps ahead because it didn't really look like much to me at first. The negative came back clean and the possibility was still there, but I still wasn't sure. But I included it in my scanning batch anyway - just as a hunch. When I got the scan back, I realized that Tom, my scanning guru, scanned it in color instead of the native b/w it was shot in. And I was thrilled because when I saw that image, I fell in love with it. It perfectly encapsulated a lot of what I've been feeling lately and I think it just works. In fact, the straight scan looked so good, I contemplated using it that way without employing my voodoo - and I will say that since I've been using this process, this piece looks the most like the original scan of anything I've done to date.

Next:

This one I felt had possibilities as soon as I shot it. Called "Tower", at least for now, this actually shows a radio tower poking out of the landscape. I grew up near a radio tower and I've always been a little intrigued by them. But for this, I knew I wanted it to look a bit abstract when it was finished, and my process was just what I needed to achieve that feel. As always, with my work, it's about the "essence" of something.

This one was also a b/w image scanned in color, but I converted it to gray scale before moving forward. A no-brainer...my ideas for color on this wouldn't have worked otherwise.

So, in printing these two images, I made some decisions for the future:

1. From now on, I'm only printing a max of 5 editioned prints with 2 artist's proofs for this body of work. Now, maybe it's because I printed both editions once, thought they looked great, and then realized they needed to be reprinted the next morning after I saw them fully dry. But, this process is too labor intensive to do more than 5 + 2, and really, I don't think it's necessary. Before, I was doing 10 numbered prints with no A/P's, and I think 3 prints is worth my sanity (or what's left of it). As an aside, remember that each print is unique because of the process - so get 'em while the gettin's good!

2. Because of the success with "Lone" (or my perception of said success), all negs will now be scanned in color and I will convert if necessary on the back-end. Without this step at the beginning, I probably would have passed over this image and not printed it. As it turns out, it is now on my home page - and if that doesn't say it all, I don't know what does.

Big shout-out to Tom for rockin' on these scans. There are several more where these came from - so hopefully I'll have a couple more new images in a week or two. In the meantime check out the website: http://www.sirinsky.com/ to see the images a bit larger.

Thanks again for being patient and enjoy!

-Marc

The Recovery

Hi all:

The title of this blog refers to my fun, but exhausting trip to Chicago last week. I'd expect my "recovery" to last quite a while, since the drive back was 15 1/2 hours through poorly lit mountain roads (except for the dreadfully flat, boring Ohio portion) with two screaming kids in the back. Not surprisingly, I woke up with a bit of a headache - so for blogging music, I decided to go with The Smiths. Chill, but not TOO chill so that my head falls to the keyboard.

I visited Flatfile for the last time during this trip (see earlier posts for reference), and I must admit I had mixed feelings. They had a postcard up on the wall for every exhibition the gallery ever mounted, and my name was on a whole lot of them - particularly early on during the gallery's infancy. I'm excited to start the next chapter in my career, but seeing all those postcards, the floor filled with office supplies and furniture being sold off - part of me was a little sad about it. But, onward and upward!

I also did some shooting while I was back - 2 rolls. I didn't feel quite as inspired as I did the last time I was there, but there is one shot that I'm praying turns out. The rest of it might yield a surprise or two, but I'm ok with having only one to be anxious about - especially since I should have a bunch of scans this week to get crackin' on.

Today's image is courtesy of a great artist named Mark Debernardi. A fellow Flatfile artist - I actually own a piece of his work: a spectacular self-portrait showing the artist with moth wings from Thailand - I should really take a shot of it and show it to everyone. A great guy - Mark greets all my house guests from our foyer, safely behind glass of course. The below shot is a really cool image of the WTC that he constructed using photographic collage and some other techniques that remain a mystery. So, enjoy all you New Yorkers! Web address for Mark is: http://home.earthlink.net/~mdebernardi/

And I have to show you guys this one too - because I just love it...

No other major news to report...I'll keep everyone posted on progress on the new work. Should be interesting!

-Marc

Are We The Waiting

Howdy!

Hope everyone's week is progressing nicely. I'm going to be doing the friends and family thing next week for birthdays, Passover, etc - so I wanted to get an entry in before the chaos hits. Tunes for my listening pleasure today is courtesy of The Sounds. Fun band, upbeat - something to counteract the rainy, cold spell we've had out here in the Northeast lately.

I had hoped to have some new work ready to post this week, but as it turns out, I'm still waiting for scans to come back...so it will have to wait a week or two more. Sorry guys. I'm also wondering that the hell is going on with the film I dropped off for processing like a week and a half ago. I called and left a message, but I'm starting to get a little concerned - I'd hoped to have my scanning pal squeeze in one or two more from that roll next week (provided they turn out), but that is starting to look unlikely. I've also got a framing guy and an accountant not calling me back - WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON PEOPLE? GET IT TOGETHER!

Since I'm playing the waiting game on my new images, I need something else to scratch my creative itch. I tweaked a few images on the website (http://www.sirinsky.com/) - just color and technical stuff, no new additions yet. I also plan to do some shooting this week as well - not sure exactly what yet, but I'm hoping to bang out another roll or two.

We also have a layout for how the basement will look, should we decide to move forward with finishing it. The front will be combo kids/guest room area and the back will be a home office/studio. Should be interesting to see if this actually happens - we're waiting for quotes on some things before we decide...WOW, my computer just went nuts and had to re-boot...lovely. Luckily, Blogger saves drafts every minute or two automatically.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a mixer for creative professionals - very well-attended and made some new friends, but it was only marginally useful on the whole job front. It was almost entirely unemployed creatives, and nobody in attendance was in a position to hire any of them. Not exactly worth 4 hours on a bus. But, I had a great meal with my new friend Donna (http://donnarickles.com) and got some other stuff done in NYC while I was there. And yes, Donna's last name is really "Rickles." She's a really good sport about it, considering the hell she's caught for it during her life...

Not much else to report, but in keeping with my promise of incorporating more imagery into this thing, I've included a few pieces by artist Cathy Daley. I saw her work a few months ago in a show at Eli Klein Gallery in NYC, and I just fell in love with it. Her media for these is pastel on vellum, and at first they appear very simple, but to me, they feel stark and whimsical all at the same time. The feeling of motion and in some cases, pure unraveling that she conveys is really powerful. These low-res digital images don't really do her work justice - in person, they just jump off the wall.

Happy early Passover/Easter to everyone!

-Marc

A Glimmer?

Hi all:

Hope everyone is having a good week thus far. Here in the Northeast, we went from 60-70 degrees to 40's this week - gotta love it! I was in NYC on Monday for some networking and I froze my ass off! Having grown up in Chicago, I always say that it ain't truly spring until May.

Blogging music today is Social Distortion - a live album they recorded at the Roxy in L.A. Great disc - and I've been listening to it a lot the past couple of weeks. Why? Because recently, an American Idol contestant performed a creepy, weird, uncomfortable version of "Ring of Fire" by The Man In Black, and I found myself yearning for the Social D. cover of it (which they still play on tour to this day).

Anyway, most of you know that I have this weird thing when it comes to jinxes. I don't like telling people good news until it's solid for fear that the fate vultures will swoop in and snatch it. But, there have been some positive developments recently, and since this blog is about keeping everyone updated on things, I figure I should just let y'all know what's up. I'm knocking on wood right now, even as we speak.

The big piece of news is that I may be working with a new art dealer. He appears to be exactly the kind of person I've been looking for to push and distribute my work. Seems like he's an art dealer first and a gallery director second - which is just what I need. I'll likely get more personal attention and he already has some great ideas on new venues for showcasing my work. A nice, very well-connected guy with a lot of contacts in NY, the Midwest and CA - and if things work out, this could be a pivotal moment. We're still in the discussion stages - but the possibilities are definitely there.

The other piece of news is that my wife and I are discussing the possibility of finishing off our basement. Included in the plans would be an office/studio space for me - which would really be great. Currently, there isn't a lot of room for me to create work or do "work" and this will definitely help in a major way. A final decision hasn't been made yet, but it is looking quite likely. I expect that we'll decide pretty soon - and I'm guessing if we move forward, work would be begin by May 1st or so.

Everything is tied together - new exhibition/exposure opportunities, a new studio and the fact that right now, I believe I am creating the best work of my entire career. If these new developments do move forward, my hope is that they will feed into my creative process and kick my work up another notch. As an artist it is always important to find ways to get better- and external factors have a lot to do with it, though many would claim otherwise.

The song playing right now through my headphones is "Prison Bound," and I'm smiling because I think that I may actually be "breaking out." Keep knocking on wood folks - keep those fate vultures at bay!

I'll close with a photo for your viewing pleasure - newly discovered daguerrotype dating from 1848, showing a country estate in Manhattan. Thanks to my brother Eric for sending me the link to the story on the NYT: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/25/ny.photograph/index.html

More soon...

-Marc