32 short updates about my life

Hey, hello there! Long time, no blog. You might be wondering what is going on here.

1. I finished Doomed Queens.

2. Though I finished Doomed Queens, I’m still dealing with some last production-oriented details. So finished editorially, not finished design-wise.

3. Doomed Queens needs a website.

4. Yes, I’ve designed a teaser page, but it really needs a website.

5. My whole website needs to be redesigned. I know it’s a sad mess since I got hacked into several months ago and had to change ISPs.

6. Guess what I’ve been doing the past two weeks? Yes, I’m knee-deep in html and css and so on. I’m still not finished with the site, but getting close. Tentative launch date: August 7, 2008.

7. But there’s been good news for Doomed Queens.

8. Costco picked it up! “Attention, shoppers….”

9. There will be a point-of-purchase display for participating independent bookstores.

10. I want one for my gallery. I’m an independent bookstore. (Kind of. I do sell books in my studio-gallery.)

11. There will be an exhibition of Doomed Queens‘ art at my studio-gallery this winter.

12. The exhibition will be called “Royally Screwed: Doomed Queens through the Ages.” The opening will probably be Friday, October 29 — in time for Hallowe’en.

13. I’m going to create a window display for it at my studio-gallery. Maybe I’ll even include a faux guillotine to set the mood.

14. Actually, I’m thinking a lot about window display these days.

15. I want my gallery window to look like a Joseph Cornell box.

16. I wish I had more time to dive into it — maybe this autumn.

17. Also, on the gallery front: I’m planning to paint the area above my window cobalt blue with gold ornaments.

18. It will look like a medieval illumination. I hope.

19. I also plan to paint a large art deco-inspired tree on two walls. But in very subtle paint, almost like a paper watermark. (If walls can have watermarks.)

20. My friend Lisa Hunt just started a blog about her upcoming Fairy Tale Tarot. It’s very good!

21. She’s coming up north to visit me later this summer. I can’t wait!

22. Also on the social front: Two friends moved to my neighborhood, one into the apartment above my studio. My life feels like a sitcom.

23. I’m enjoying lots of café society this summer.

24. On the family front: Thea is potty trained. Hip, hip, hooray!

25. Tom is going away for three weeks to curate an exhibition in Germany. Yay for him, boo for us.

26. My father-in-law had a book published.

27. I designed the cover for it.

28. We all went away to Idaho for our vacation, right after my last blog post.

29. It was beautiful, but we lost electricity for three days after a giant tree fell in a windstorm.

30. Thea liked swimming in the lake. I liked reading lots of books.

31. We had a stop over in Colorado. They had lots of great book stores. We had to check an extra bag on our flight home.

32. Since our return to Brooklyn, I’ve been dealing with items # 1-19. I’ve also started opening up my gallery to the public Saturdays from 12 - 4.

And that’s the latest here! How was your July?

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up, up and away

I’m off on vacation for the next week or so. First stop is Florida, to visit my friend Lisa Hunt and take in some sunshine (a commodity sorely missed these last few months in NYC). Upon our return, we’ll have family staying with us for a week — kind of an extention on our vacation in a way.

This past week has been a flurry of appointments and preparations for our time away. I met with the good people at Doubleday, who were full of helpful advice and exciting plans for publicizing Doomed Queens. They’ll even be producing a Youtube video for it.

Toward that end, I’ll be relaunching my website, something I’ve been long planning — and equally as long putting off. But I now have no choice. Aside from it getting too close to my pub date, my ISP was hacked into last week, which disabled some of this site’s functionality. One example: I can no longer receive e-mail notifications for comments for this blog. So update I must!

You can grab an advance look at the front page teaser for www.kriswaldherr.com here. It features my new author photo by the illustrious photographer Nina Subin.

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the naked truth

Remember this? I posted it on a recent blog entry here.

The quote is by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, the eighteenth century German poet-philosopher. Here’s a rough translation of what it says:

“You can not please all with your actions and your art.
Do it right for the few. To please many is bad.”

And here’s the painting it is extracted from. It’s Gustav Klimt’s Nuda Veritas, or the “Naked Truth”.

I seem to remember first encountering Nuda Veritas at the Vienna Secession exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art when I was in art school. Like most Klimt paintings, a four color reproduction can’t really capture its physical beauty — the three dimensionality of the frame, with its hammered metal, the shimmering golds, and the translucent, shimmering coloration of the main figure, with that matter-of-fact serpent twisting around her feet. The painting felt both sacred and profane to me. On one hand, there was something so pure and vulnerable in her glowing intensity. Yet she bears a slightly dangerous edge, in that manner that fin de siecle women bear.

I even pasted a postcard of it on my journal, that’s how much I loved this painting.

And what of its text? At the time, it spoke to my condition (as a Quaker would say). I mean, what better advice for a young artist to have than to be reminded that not everyone is going to like your work. Yet we shouldn’t let that get in the way of doing our best, to try to meet our highest aspirations — “do it right for the few,” in Schiller’s words. It’s part of life: even when we try our hardest, we can’t please everyone. Nor should we want to — though it’s hard to let go of wanting to do so. The desire to be loved and approved is built into our very bones, I think, as is the desire to do good. And for artists it’s especially so. No one wants to feel that they’re working in a bubble, where no one “gets” your work.

Even then, though, I had a hard time with the last sentence of this edict. Is it bad to please many? And why would not pleasing people be a sign of artistic integrity, of quality?

Yeah, there’s crappy artists who have great success — think Thomas Kinkaid (no offense to any fans of the Painter of Light tm). But there are also artists who manage to both please people and make wonderful art. I think of Tim Burton, who combines the best of commercial success with his unique brand of gothic quirk (though some of his films are clearly more successful than others). Or Audrey Niffennigger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, a stunningly original and affecting piece of writing. Even Gustav Klimt — it’s ironic that he produced a painting bearing this quote, yet was one of the most financially successful artists of his era.

I suspect that these examples started out seeking to please themselves, to express their own unique aesthetics. But the power of their art spoke to the masses — to their conditions, if you will. I don’t think their ability to please many lessens the value of their art, or makes them any less successful as artists. It may lead to overexposure. But that’s a different issue.

Yet so often people — Schiller included — equate popular success with losing integrity. And that, even in a painting as stunning as this, invites artists to believe that suffering is something to strive for, that pain is good.

I don’t think it is. And that’s my naked truth.

Technorati Tags: gustav klimt, nuda veritas, schiller, artistic success, artistic integrity

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catching up after vacation

Actually, it’s been almost a week since our return from places north. Since then, I’ve been doing the usual frantic routine that occurs whenever I’m out of the studio for any extended period of time. Vacations require a lot of preparation and then a lot of catching up — they’re tiring! But finding inspiration in new places makes them well worth it.

This year we visited Montreal and Quebec City, mainly because I was hungering for some French culture. Yes, I know that French-Canadian is very different than French Parisian. But there are some similarities — cosmopolitan cities, a sense of historic proportion, and great food in cafes that encourage lingering over an espresso. While we were there, I have to admit to more than a few times forgetting that I wasn’t in some European city I’ve yet to visit — Quebec just doesn’t feel like North America to me.

Our favorite cafe was a place called Cafe Titanic, located close to our hotel in Old Montreal. Why it was called Cafe Titanic was a bit of a mystery — maybe because it was located below street level, in a subfloor? It was decorated with a slightly nautical theme, but nothing too obnoxious. Even though it was just before the lunch hour, small candles flickered invitingly on its walls. I loved the huge bowls of cafe au lait, which were sprinkled with a dash of cinnamon — just the thing to have right before setting off for some serious sightseeing — and the comfy upholstered booths, set against the dark wood interior. Just my kind of place!

We also enjoyed a high tea at the Chateau Frontenac, an experience enhanced by the knowledge that my in laws had enjoyed their honeymoon there 55 years earlier — and here we were with their granddaughter! The tea was complete with a tea sommelier who brought around a tray of fresh teas for us to combine into new combinations. One of the teas was maple-flavored — not surprising for a country that features a maple leaf upon its flag. Oh, and a lot of good bookstores featuring books not-necessarily-published in the US.

What else did we do? Besides Canada, we spent a week in Vermont at a family reunion. Thea had a wonderful time with her older cousin Daisy, who was glad to do kid stuff with her, like visiting secret beaches, playing ball, dressing up teddy bears, painting faces and running around laughing.

And now we are back.Though I was away, the New Book was never far from my thoughts. In my studio, I have a piles of research materials to plow through. It was nice to have a break from this blog, knowing that it was well served in my absence by Elizabeth, Lisa and Karen. I did manage to get a little writing in this week, but frankly, most of the week was devoted to running errands and paperwork — life maintenance, in other words.

And now it’s back to work!

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links on the side: Karen Zuegner on Radiant City

I’m away on vacation until August 27th. During this period, I’ve arranged for several guest bloggers to visit. I’ve long wanted to feature some of the talented people whom I’ve linked to on the sidebar of this blog.

Next up is Karen Zuegner, a painter, cellist and travel enthusiast extraordinare. I joke (but with good reason) that Karen has the best travel karma. She somehow manages to find and stay at the most amazing places—French villas, Venetian palazzos, and five star luxury hotels, all for much less than you’d think. France is an especial passion for Karen and has inspired many of her paintings; her last trip abroad inspired this travel blog and a website about luxury hotels.

Karen’s created this stunning slide show to share another one of her great inspirations: New York City. It’s a real work of art which features some of her art.

* * * * * * *

It’s a great honor to guest blog at Art and Words. I’m a fellow artist and cellist and have been friends with Kris for many years. I’ve lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for the last 16 years in a wreck of a loft that has astonishing, gorgeous views toward the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.

This short slide show has some of the moments I’ve captured over the years and also some of my work that has come from window gazing.

all images 2007 © Karen Zuegner. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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