Fixing unfinished older experiments.1

I made painting a priority in recent days and got back to an older one that I hadn’t finished (code word for “mostly given up on”) and tried to advance it forward without ruining it (always a risk).

Here’s how it looks now:

Hendrix.Vinchesi.purple and green.unfinished

And this is where it started (you can see my comments on the older version in this post, Trying to Get Loose):

Hendrix2.Vinchesi

I used a lot of white paint to allow a re-start on the bandana, which I was very reluctant to do because I liked the blue with splashes of color set against the light-colored (no-color) hair. Part of me wishes I had left the hair blank of color and left the bandana as it was.

I also used white to cut back the boldness of the purple splotch in front of his face, and of course there are the layers of color now on his face, and the black pen scratching for his hair and ear.

All artwork is vulnerable to being over-worked, and this is especially true in water color, where the paper starts to break down after too many passes, or perhaps the beautiful layering that is possible with water color starts to get covered up in a muddy mess.

The only solution is to paint hundreds, and thousands, of paintings, and so we press on..

Iron Skillet Love,”Patina”, and Emotional Connection

A few years ago we discovered the charm of cooking in an iron skillet, and I wanted to share the following photo of the after-effects of last night’s filet mignon — sautéed garlic and onions left behind.

Iron Skillet after Filet

I love the concept of “seasoning” an iron skillet — the idea that after cleaning it, one should dry it (using heat), and then spray it with an oil (we use olive oil). This of course makes the pan one’s own, which is an almost romantic notion if you love cooking.

This reminds me of the concept of “patina” in the vintage watch world. Over the course of decades, a watch dial will often change color, as can be seen in this comparison of a new Rolex GMT versus an older version.

Rolex GMT with patina vs new

The dial on the right has a brown tint, which watch obsessives refer to as “tropical” (as in “tropical dial”) and this feature actually increases the perceived value of the watch for many enthusiasts.

The mark of time certainly has an effect on the human psyche, especially when the object reflects in physical ways its interaction with the person (such as our iron skillet), and seems to facilitate an emotional attachment.

In recent years, some watch makers have chosen bronze as a metal for the express purpose of allowing a patina to develop in a much shorter time (months versus decades).

Here is a nice shot of Oris watches with some patina on the bronze case on the left.

Oris Bronze

 

Discovering Sauerkraut

I have never eaten sauerkraut and have actively pushed it off my plate in any restaurant.

Recently my wife got hooked on the Trader Joe’s brand and offered some to me for medicinal purposes (a good end-run) and I tried it, and liked it (it tasted so “healthy” as I crunched through it).

She then upped the ante and decided to make some on her own, and the chemistry behind sauerkraut is a lot of fun, as it turns out.

Apparently all you do is chop up some cabbage, add salt, and then wait a few days for the chemical transformation to work its magic. The salted cabbage plus the weight of a smaller jar causes a release of liquid that begins to expand upwards.

Her latest batch has red cabbage and you can see its intense color making itself known as time passes…

Sauerkraut Creation

You can also see the bubbles in the picture on the right — the process becomes quite animated, with active bubbling after a few days.

Good times.

Truffle Love

My wife signed us up for “membership” in a truffle farm in France, which entitles us to fresh truffles each year and a part of the farm that is “ours” (such marketing….), and upon receiving our first shipment we wasted no time in preparing a fresh pasta and cream sauce.

Truffle love

It felt quite decadent to shave the truffle as seen in the photo above, and it was very enjoyable of course.

I’ll say that one of the best meals of our lives took place in Italy, and the method of shaving was quite different: the truffle was grated into very small pieces, as if it were parmesan cheese, and I’d say that the effect was superior.

Regarding the pasta we made at home, the photo affirms that we succeeded in getting the sauce to cling rather well to the noodles, and I’ll count this among life’s small yet grand pleasures.

Weekly Love Affair.3

Lately I am in love with the Rolex GMT Master II Blue and Black bezel model (known as the “Batman”) and it took years to reach this point.

Rolex Batman

The reason is that my first love is the Rolex Submariner and for a long time I did not see enough difference in these two watches, but I laugh at myself now. Here is the Submariner:

Rolex Submariner

I laugh at myself because my initial reaction (“they are too similar, why would you want both?”) is probably “correct”, but with several more years gestation of a full-on watch obsession, I now appreciate the GMT for its now-clear uniqueness.

I am sure that that the Jedi mind-trick enacted by Rolex on fans of the brand has something to do with this. This mind-trick can be summarized by its two attack vectors:

(1) Unlike other brands, which release a steady stream of new models every year (whole new product lines and bold changes in core lines), Rolex changes very little from year to year.

(2) Unlike other brands, Rolex does not operate with an ethos of maximizing sales and profit, and as a result, it refuses to increase production of its sports watches (those mentioned in this blog post, and a few other models) despite multi-year waiting lists in certain cases.

If I walk into an authorized Rolex dealer this afternoon and ask to try on a Submariner or a Batman, I will be told “sorry, we don’t have any in the store and won’t for a while. Can we show you something else?”

At the same time, the list prices in such dealers stays fixed despite overwhelming, unmet demand.

This dynamic fuels a particularly absurd result: if a person does not want to wait months or years, he can buy the object from someone who already has it, but at a substantial premium to the standard “brand-new” price. Rolex itself should earn this premium, but it does not: when it supplies a watch to its dealer, the sale price is exactly as stated despite the secondary market’s urgent, premium price for the same item.

This year, Rolex announced a new bracelet for the Batman, shown here.

Rolex Batman Jubilee

There are other enhancements inside the movement as well, but as you can see, it’s still the same watch for all intents and purposes.

It has become a running joke that seeing one in the flesh is becoming less and less possible, and so we have the Internet to provide stimulation in the mean time.

GW in acrylic

GW.acrylic.vinchesi

Like many of my paintings, this one started out as a practice-drawing that I kept messing with. I used a sketch pad (not the right paper at all) but things start to take shape and what can one do but follow where it leads…

I find the artistic process to be very challenging (will it be any good? it started off terrible, is it worth continuing or should I start over? when is it done? and 100 other questions) and this blog is largely designed to share the process and commiserate with people who suffer through the same experimentation.

When I see other artwork that I like, I always wonder what it looked like at the beginning, and the middle, and the end.

Here is a bit of the evolution on this image:

GW evolution.vinchesi.acrylic.2018

My intention is to continue the stars on the top right, in such a way that they are in front of George’s face (not all the way around, but maybe four or so). I like the idea of placing GW a bit in the background (subtle or more dramatically, such as in my paintings in which he is at the bottom of the frame, with a lot of space above his head) as he himself labored to do in the face of countless opportunities to seize the One Ring, which he never did.

New View of Hardwood

I grew up in an all-American suburb where inexpensive wall-to-wall carpeting was the norm and in my 20s in New York city I didn’t like at all the idea of hardwood floors and area rugs. But some years later I realized that some of the familiarity of childhood is not necessarily consistent with aesthetically superior choices, and so now I certainly adore a beautiful hardwood floor.

In almost every room I’ve seen, hardwood is laid in parallel across a whole floor (whether the two-inch or ten-inch varieties, etc.), and it always looks great. At a restaurant yesterday I noticed immediately a unique pattern and wanted to share it.

Hardwood floor in squares instead of straight

I’m sure this is common in many structures, but I don’t recall seeing it before.

I like to say that Design is Destiny, and this includes the building components themselves, the way they are arranged, and the way they are built.

All of the home-improvement shows on HGTV and other channels suggest to me that appreciation for quality design is on the upswing after 50 years of building components turning into garbage and after countless stained glass windows having been painted over.

How You Know When You’re Obsessed with a Subject

Recently I was in a restaurant (a burger joint) with my wife and there were crayons on the table and a table cloth made of paper to draw on.

Without thinking, I drew the following picture from memory, and if you’ve seen this blog recently you know that I am painting the same subject over and over again, for many reasons (not least of which is that I need to become much less attached the outcome of each painting — cannot treat each one as “precious”).

Restaurant.Jimi.Vinchesi

Clearly I’ve become obsessed…

Though the drawing is incorrect in many aspects, it isn’t too far off and yes, I’ve lost my mind a bit at this point (we had a good laugh about it).

My wife asked me “Why Jimi?” and it was a good question.

In short, like many people I was blown away upon hearing his music (more than 35 years ago) and went on to discover that I could listen to the album “Smash Hits” during my morning and evening commute and not get tired of it after a month…and even a year…Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits

But when I heard his live performance of “Machine Gun” performed during a New Year’s Eve concert with Band of Gypsies, I was transported on a much deeper level.

There is also a grainy video of the same performance. The solo he takes in that recording without doubt pierces the veil of consciousness, no artificial substances needed. As is true in Jazz music, you have to be ready for certain recordings, because otherwise it will sound like noise. But if you are….you can break on through.

He and the band performed two concerts that night, and you have to hear the right version, which is in this clip.  Please note that the recording has the amazing introduction to the song, but then cuts straight to the solo, which is not great, but the solo is all there.

Here is the URL to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeu9o7rjVKM

There is an analogy to painting in that of his two performances that night (both were recorded), only one of them achieved a kind of perfection, and it is important to remember that Hendrix played poorly during many performances as he took risks that didn’t work out, and if he hadn’t let himself play “badly”, he would never have reached the heights he reached.

And so doing a Hendrix portrait seemed to be the obvious thing.