A few common sense and quantum physics cliches

More is less, but less isn't more - more lines on the paper don't a better piece make. I discover this first hand and decide to  take comfort in the foreign territory of quantum physics, I often feel good in foreign places. I come back to quantum physics by listening to Leonard Susskind of Stanford after I discovered a random fact about certain "work function" - this explains why you get sunburn, and this is the threshold frequency in order to kick an electron out of an atom. I think it's pretty simple to understand that low frequency light like infrared heats you up but it takes high frequency light like ultraviolet to get you skin burned.

There are a few quantum physics cliches I really liked even before understanding what they mean, like Quantum entanglement, destructive interference and the uncertainty principle. The great thing about the latter is that on the scale of people and cars it still exists, it's just too small to be critical. I take great comfort in the fact that things that we really thought are quite obvious, like your speeding ticket, are just assumptions and approximations of certainty.

The abstract thought in physics and abstract thought in art became simultaneously apparent in the West. The Zen monks who designed these gardens in Kyoto, however, were already abstract 5 centuries before. When I sat on the wooden floors contemplating these gardens I came very close to feeling like an atom, a particle:

New Work - the leap of faith into creating a new piece

Starting a new work is a leap of faith. After the initial decoupling with solid ground, all traditional notions cease to exist. You are in a state somewhere between free fall and zero gravity except the center of the pull is unknown. New work is a trip into the subconscious masquerading as a constructive act. At certain moment you feel like the clock from a Dali painting sliding down a glass surface. Somewhere along the way is a mirror which you eventually smoothly slip through and it marks the boundary of the world of the painting. Until then you travel with an intent to make the painting, beyond the mirror you and the painting travel together. Once through the mirror the old universe no longer exists.

A Great poem that inspired me

The Seventh (A hetedik) by Attila József translated by John Bátki

If you set out in this world, better be born seven times. Once, in a house on fire, once, in a freezing flood, once, in a wild madhouse, once, in a field of ripe wheat, once, in an empty cloister, and once among pigs in sty. Six babes crying, not enough: you yourself must be the seventh.

When you must fight to survive, let your enemy see seven. One, away from work on Sunday, one, starting his work on Monday, one, who teaches without payment, one, who learned to swim by drowning, one, who is the seed of a forest, and one, whom wild forefathers protect, but all their tricks are not enough: you yourself must be the seventh.

If you want to find a woman, let seven men go for her. One, who gives heart for words, one, who takes care of himself, one, who claims to be a dreamer, one, who through her skirt can feel her, one, who knows the hooks and snaps, one, who steps upon her scarf: let them buzz like flies around her. You yourself must be the seventh.

If you write and can afford it, let seven men write your poem. One, who builds a marble village, one, who was born in his sleep, one, who charts the sky and knows it, one, whom words call by his name, one, who perfected his soul, one, who dissects living rats. Two are brave and four are wise; You yourself must be the seventh.

And if all went as was written, you will die for seven men. One, who is rocked and suckled, one, who grabs a hard young breast, one, who throws down empty dishes, one, who helps the poor win; one, who worked till he goes to pieces, one, who just stares at the moon. The world will be your tombstone: you yourself must be the seventh.

I love the number seven plus you can find more great poems here: visit http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/590

St. Marina day

A hot day in New York and a big holiday in Bulgaria, St Marina's day is my grandfather's and my name day. In the Orthodox Christian tradition and in the old days in Bulgaria, the name day was considered a personal holiday bigger than the actual birthday of the person. Wikipedia says that Name days in Bulgaria are important and widely celebrated. By an ancient Bulgarian tradition, everybody is welcome on name days; there is no need to invite guests.

My grandfather was a successful businessman and a self-taught painter. After 1947 his fortune was nationalized and he was declared an enemy of the state. I always remember him glued to the BBC and Voice of America. I grew up in my grandparents' house and remember that a mustached person from the Party also always lived there. My grandfather drew and painted well into his 80's and had a great sense of humor, sang beautifully and had a very laid back attitude for just about everything. An anecdote says that one of his aunts warned him that his apprentices are stealing... and he said:" There is something for me and something for them."

Manufactured Realities

 

As an artist I am in the business of manufactured reality - when I draw or paint or make 3d worlds I destroy pristine surfaces, sacrificing the blank page, the white canvass and the empty page for imaginary creations.

Most beautiful thing

Most beautiful thing happened to me at the Met - I went looking for "the Nose" ticket from the scalpers and in the confusion got... a standing room ticket... for La Boheme. Sometimes greed and unfavorable circumstances guard the doors to most wonderful places. Seeing opera, like art, moves me beyond the obvious, profane and the mundane and, of course, the most beautiful things happened while I wasn't looking. I got to meet absolutely delightful couple art collectors from Denmark and My standing room neighbors were ardent opera fans - There was the orthopedic surgeon exchange student from Tokyo, an ardent opera lover, and on right was an IT guy from HBO.

After first act we were standing around chatting about what we thought we liked so far when a really nice couple handed us their tickets on the way out.. leaving early. My Tokyo friend and I were grateful to the really nice people and got to see the rest of La Boheme first class ! La Boheme was the most moving music and singing I heard this year so far - it inspired me beyond the visual and the sensual. The soprano was world class and Rodolfo was great too. But most of all, I got too see the power of high class art to turn a "light" story into a grand excursion of the imagination and emotion.

Before.. and after:)

For unconditional love and other things

When someone tells you repeatedly they love you - you get used to it and when this is gone you terribly miss it. Unconditional love is a very hard thing to get over and I have been trying to come to terms with that loss this past week. I will never forget this black monday, I hope the worst is over and I can keep my head up moving forward. My grandfather Spas passed away in the morning of September 28, 2009 bulgarian time and I was absolutely powerless to do anything to be able to see him for one last time. I spent endless summers with him, family and friends and these were the happiest days of my life. Once I found out I sent heartbreaking letters to friends who knew him. This is what a friend of mine wrote back:

mirena -

so sorry to hear of the passing of dear diado spas - such a wonderful vital man full of genuine good spirit - i think he must have had a terrific life and earned a lot of good karma to have continued to enjoy everything as he did at a ripe old age - that plus eating a whole lemon every day!

you are a lucky lady to have had such a real connection to this kind of spirit - so seldom in our world today -

i am sure that his positive vitality will continue to inspire you your whole life - this is when memories can truly have meaning -

please give my condolences to nicki his daughter your dad and your whole family -

my heart is with you!

And he attached this picture from my birthday a couple of years ago - Grandpa Spas is in the middle:

Lucidity is out and beautiful

Lucidity has been announced by Lucasarts and the ign preview is here. There is one essential quality to beauty and it is the fact that it doesn't need champions. People always aspire to beauty because it is a window to a pure world - it lifts them up and makes them aspire to things bigger and better than themselves.

The Flying Tree inspired by Piranesi

The second in a series of drawings inspired by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. I drew the first sketch a few years ago while on a stint modeling 3d Baghdad for the US army - in between IED detonation simulations I was thinking about the Flying Tree from Stephen Baxter's book Raft... and started imaging it in my notebook.  My visual language is drawing on my work as a 3d artist but the look is a few centuries old, an etching technique developed in the fifteenth century and mastered by Piranesi in his capricious fantasies. I really enjoy seeing how the imperfections of the drawing are shaping up in total juxtaposition to the flawless figures I imagine in my head, the dreams of a 21 century polygonal brain.

Avedon vs Frank vs Adams

I hit the jackpot st SFMoma and was able to see the three back to back, floor to floor. I totally fell for Robert Frank and the fact that The huge pieces, maybe 4x6 feet, by Avedon had less in them than the tiny by comparison Frank photographs. Yes, frank and honest and authentic, grainy, rainy, oppressive and grim - Robert Frank's pieces were a crime back in the sugary 50s and still zap you today. "Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy - the tone range isn't right and things like that - but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention." (Elliott Erwitt)

The think in pictures blog mentions that Jack Kerouac wrote in the introduction of The Americans that “after seeing these pictures you end up finally not knowing any more whether a jukebox is sadder than a coffin.”

Sleep of reason

"The Sleep of Reason" - a piece by Sui Gian Guo at SFMoma, all made with plastic toy dinosaurs and a plastic Mao, sleeping in the middle of the sea of dinosaurs.  What I appreciated in this piece is its honesty and irreverent title  - I always appreciate others doing the kind of things I struggle with, like colored plastic and ideology. This work was inspired by an original painting by Goya, titled "The sleep of reason produces monsters"... In the same line of reflection was the movie Goya's ghosts directed by Milos Forman, who also directed Amadeus.

Sui Jian Guo: The Sleep of Reason