Carrie Mae Weems -- Artist Talk at Brooklyn Museum

At last the weekend and perhaps everyone will have some quiet times, time to sit and reflect. As I sit and reflect I realize that reading and experiencing Carrie Mae Weems this week has enriched my life more than I had any thought it would. Late last night, I found that the Brooklyn Art Museum is exhibiting her work through March of this year (I'll miss that by a month, my visit being in April). As part of that exhibition, the museum hosted an artist talk which they have uploaded to the web on their site as well as through iTunes. Weems is a provocative speaker, reaching in and waking up your voice, the one that speaks to you each morning, your muse. The voice that creates your practice.

For now, I'm going to share the video. It does takes time to watch and for that effort you will be rewarded with the vision of this strong woman who can open space in your life to create your own personal vision. You'll see a continuum of her practice and watch her move as she speaks. Think of it as renting an inspirational art documentary but for free, thanks to the Brooklyn Art Museum. Carrie Mae Weems said at the beginning that she sounds as if she has been a girl who gets around. She has and she shares those experiences with eloquence.

Note that there is a small screen symbol on the information line immediately below the video. Clicking on that will take you to a full screen mode.

Alfred Maurer Died Without Approval from His Father or the Artistic World

Here is Alfred Maurer's father, Louis Maurer (1832-1932). Maurer had immigrated from Germany in 1851 with his family and immediately went to work in the arts continuing until his ultimate retirement in 1884. At that time he dedicated himself to his hobbies. Not surprisingly that included painting but it also involved riding horses and shooting. He was a crack shot and at the age of ninety was the only one to receive a perfect score at a match.

He died on July 19, 1932. The biographies of both him and his son Alfred tell of his disapproval of his son's adopting the new modern painting styles from Europe. After Alfred's return to the United States in 1914 Alfred continued to paint in all of the new styles and still live with his father, dependent but not accepted, a dynamic that left Alfred at the point of suicide shortly after his father's death. What turmoil his life must have been like for more than fifteen years, living with a disapproving father yet knowing he needed to be true to his artistic soul. And what soul it was. Here is a series of his paintings (chronologically from 1903 through 1930's) showing those many styles. Who was his muse? It seems we'll never know. Even today after many retrospectives, Alfred's work is under appreciated and fading into our country's past.