The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989

The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989 is on view at the Guggenheim Museum though April 19, 2009. While there were some aspects of the show I found annoying such as the Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg section and the heavy emphasis on West Coast artists, overall I enjoyed this exhibition mostly because it afforded me an opportunity to view some amazing pieces that I had never see before. It also introduced me to some artists whom I had not previously heard of. Being from Northern California I am quite familiar with the influence Asian philosophy and culture has had on that area, whether one is an artist or not. For that reason I found some of the connections to be a stretch. However, that being said, I really did enjoy this show.

Text from the Guggenheim’s website explains that “this exhibition shows how artists working in America adapted Eastern ideas and art forms to create not only new styles of art, but more importantly, a new theoretical definition of the contemplative experience and self-transformative role of art itself.”– http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view-now/2604

James Lee Byars, The Death of James Lee Byars, 1994

The first piece that struck me was at the beginning of the show. The Death of James Lee Byars, 1982/94 by James Lee Byars, was about twenty feet high and contained a death bed –everything was covered in gold leaf. The room attempted to make us aware of our mortality and to accept its inevitability and not fear it.

David Smith stated, “I take delight in using steel as a fluid.” And this is true in his works which are clearly influenced by Japanese art.

Franz Kline, Painting No. 7, 1952

Franz Kline’s Painting No. 7 from 1952 is a beautiful black and white work consisting of a square on the right side of the canvas made of thick black lines with four thick black vertical lines on the left, one touching the outside edge of the square. Very “character-like” in its production but yet he makes it his own at the same time.

Mark di Suvero, Hankchampion, 1960

Mark di Suvero’s Hankchampion is a large sculpture made of wood and chains using only straight lines. The structure collapses in on itself which distinguishes it for the rigidity of Asian work which may have been an influence.

Guston, Painting No. 9, 1952

My absolute favorite work in show is Philip Guston’s  Painting. No. 5 from 1952 (the above image is a similar work as I was unable to find an image of the one from the show). Its monochromatic beige background is filled with textural and gestural strokes focused in on the center of work with dashes of green, red, yellow, orange strategically placed on the canvas. There is so much to see even though very simplistic minimal strokes are all that he used to create the piece. It is subtle but beautiful; I could have stared at it for hours getting lost in Guston’s world.

Noguchi, The Cry, 1959

Isamu Noguchi’s The Cry from 1959 is a stunner. It is made of balsa wood, a medium he preferred to make sculptures in b/c of its lightness and patina; he was forced to make bronzes for commercial success. The center of the work is an oval with a hole in center. A long vertical attached at the bottom acts as a foundation for the oval while a smaller vertical barely touches the bottom of the oval. It is magnificent in its simplicity and is Noguchi at his very best.

Brice Marden’s 4 (Bone) from 1987-88 is Marden at his best. No neon colors, no subject matter, no trying to wow the viewer, just a large-scale work consisting of a yellow wash background with barely there charcoal lines meandering across the canvas in no apparent pattern. It is very Zen-like and the Asian influences are clear.

Anastasi, Issue, 1966/2009

Issue from 1966/2009 by William Anastasi (an artist I was unfamiliar with) is on view. The instructions for its creation in every show it is included in are: Draw two vertical lines 4 1/2 inches apart from floor to ceiling on plaster wall. Chip away at surface and pile debris at base in a mound. Its deconstruction of the wall itself and its no-nonsense creation make it more about the process than the final product. It reminded me of Lewitt’s wall drawings.

A work by Agnes Martin is on view and we all know that her work is truly meditative. She explained, “The line doesn’t have to describe anything. It focuses you, beyond it and beyond yourself.”

An untitled Robert Irwin painting from the 1960s is similar to Martin’s in its grid-like simplicity. Made up of green and pink dots that fade away as the eye moves to the edges of the work, it is truly stunning.

Viola, Room for St. John of the Cross, 1983

I have read about an early work of Bill Viola’s for many years but to see it in person was a real treat.Room for St. John of the Cross from 1983 is an installation that engages the senses. A small monastic looking room is lit as the viewer peers through the window to see a small table, glass and pitcher. The screen in the room surrounding the smaller cubicle has images of mountains. Viola often uses religious stories as the basis for his works and the poetry of this saint is what inspired the name of the work.

One can’t have a show that explores Asian influence on artists without including a work by James Turell. Sojourn is a light work that fills the space with an exquisite pink glow. One is transported to another dimension, another state when taking this work in.

Yoga at MoMa

Pipilotti Rist, Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters), 2008, Courtesy Museum of Moden Art

As a Junior Associate at MoMA I get to go to all kinds of great events: studio visits, curator led walkthroughs, openings at the museum, etc. But Sunday was a first—yoga at the Museum of Modern Art in the Pipilotti Rist exhibit. Pipilotti Rist: Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters) which closed February 2nd was a multimedia installation that completely transformed the atrium of the museum. Mothers brought their children there to play, people laid on the pink couches and soaked in the trippy video that surrounded them on all sides, and friends sipped champagne at openings while watching the flowers, and watery, corporeal, sexual imagery. It really showed how open the museum is to contemporary works in different media than standard painting that makes up so much of the collection. And to be able to do yoga there with about 100 other people was a once in a lifetime experience. With a bleak economy and frustrating times in a city that stands to be hit hard it was a time to focus inward. People had adopted more of a positive attitude focusing on a new president in the White House, and better things to come.

40 Years/40 Projects at White Columns

White Columns, Installation View, 40 Years/40 Projects, 2009

Matthew Higgs the curator and director of White Columns for the past 4 and a half years led us through the current exhibition 40 Years/40 Projects which celebrates its 40 years of existence. As the oldest alternative art space in New York it should celebrate. It has been through may ups and downs and weathered art market crashes and recessions before. Started by Gordon Matta-Clark and Jeffrey Lew the space emerged out of a sense of frustration. In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was an idealism amongst the small art scene in which people showed their friends’ work. In this exhibition the curators chose to display something from a show from each year of its history. For some shows such as a John Currin show in 1987, all that remains is the checklist of works (apparently archiving was not a strong suit of the gallery). Exhibiting the history of the gallery in this manner reveals the eccentricity of the program with a great balance between what is known and lesser known. It helps to show what the artists’ culture and visual culture of New York has been for the past 40 years and how it has slowly and eventually become part of art history.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Perfect Lovers, 1987

Perfect Lovers by Felix Gonzalez-Torres was exhibited in 1987 and consists of two plastic clocks on the wall originally set to the same time but they slowly become out of synch. Originally $350 the work did not sell. Now it is part of the Rebus exhibit at MoMA and is worth thousands of dollars. In 1982 Tom Solomon organized a show about baseball. In this exhibition Neil Jenney displayed his new design for the Mets uniforms. This as an example of the variety of exhibitions that were put on. Showing artists’ interest in other things and working in media outside their comfort zone was often the goal for the curator of White Columns. In the 1960s and 70s the artist Elaine Sturtevant was very successful but she decided to take herself out of the market. In 1986 White Columns had a show for her return. Warhol gave her his screens to use in creating her own works which looked exactly like his but she sold them as her own. Higgs is the first non-New York director and he has been trying to expand the focus of the space outside of New York and urban centers to include a broader international focus. He has been amazed at the difficulties a not-for-profit has as in England the state funds the arts. He says it is humbling to raise money to fund your own salary and operations while at the same time trying to provide a quality program. They have shown 500 artists in 150 exhibitions throughout their history. Recently they have been collaborating with Creative Growth in San Francisco which helps disabled artists. They are constantly testing the idea of what White Columns can be. On March 10th William Scott, an artist with the mental age of thirteen, has a solo show opening and their big benefit auction is in May. It is a great opportunity to get some good art at an affordable price and it is an essential part of their economic survival. I encourage you to go see the show and to learn more about this wonderful organization.

Lecture on Sol Lewitt at MoMA

Sol Lewitt, Lines in Four Directions,1985, Painted extruded aluminum, H 90 ft. x W 72 ft. Design concept donated by the artist, sponsored by Art in Public Places, Inc., City of Chicago, funded by The National Endowment for the Arts and private contributions.

The title of the talk was “Every Wall is A Door,” a quote of Sol Lewitt’s (September 9, 1928 - April 8, 2007). He is best known for his wall drawings of which he made 1200 over his entire career. His first, exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1968 was done in graphite. The work was made up of straight lines drawn in four different directions. What Mont Sainte- Victoire was to Cezanne, “Lines in Four Directions” was to Lewitt. It was often referred to as his “coat of arms.” He even used this when he signed his name sometimes. His work is conceptual and anyone can do it (well, not just anyone but that was the idea) as per his instructions. He wanted to make art that wasn’t about the hand of the artist–the line he draws is the same as one you or I would draw. Another famous quote of his in reference to his work is “the idea becomes a machine that makes art.” He always had a preset plan so that no subjectivity would be involved. His titles doubled as instructions for the works. Every group who creates the work will do it differently. Lewitt knew his work would last well after he was gone. Like a composer he creates the score. Just because he doesn’t do it doesn’t mean it is not his work. His works marry the intellectual with the beautiful.

Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawing #273: Lines to points on a grid, 1975, on view at Dia: Beacon

One of his great influences was Jasper Johns. Lewitt was a night receptionist at MoMA in the 1960s and Johns had exhibits there at that time. Lewitt like the flatness of Johns’s works and his move away from traditional illusionism. Lewitt took that notion one step further and removed the object entirely by drawing directly on the wall. Eadward Muybridge was another influence on Lewitt as he was drawn to seriality and repeated units. And lastly, perhaps the most sentimental of his influences, Eva Hesse. They met in 1960 and Lewitt was ten years older than Hesse. Both were unknown artists at the time. They were neighbors and part of a group of artists and friends who hung out. Others in the group were Robert Ryman, Robert Mangold, Dan Flavin, and Lucy Lippard. Hesse left for Germany for 15 months and Lewitt and Hesse corresponded regularly via letters. There can be connections made between their works of the late 1960s. Hesse used a grid, repetition and simplified forms in her work. In 1970, two days after her death (of cancer), Lewitt created his first work with “non-straight” lines as a tribute to Hesse.

Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawing 95 On a wall divided vertically into fifteen equal parts, vertical lines, not straight, using four colors in all one-, two-, three-, and four-part combinations. July 1971, on view Mass MoCA

The work was never sold, but appeared in all of his important shows. From that point on, he used non-straight lines as part of his lexicon.

Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawings #935, 1999, Courtesy SF MoMA

In 1969 he introduced color into his work; he used the three primary colors and black in his “coat of arms” and then added to make secondary and tertiary colors. In the 1980s his work changed again. He moved to Italy, got married, and these events opened up his work. He used colorful ink washes and not just lines but stars and geometric forms. His works are permanent until they are destroyed. As an artist he constantly reinvented himself. 105 of his wall drawings will be on view at Mass Moca for the next 25 years in a retrospective. You have plenty of time to plan a trip to see them. The idea of every wall being a door is that for Lewitt, one work led to the next. It also went against the Renaissance idea of painting as a “window onto the world” with the invention of perspective. Lewitt didn’t see painting as a window onto the world but he offered his viewers a door into a world of ideas.

Calder Jewelry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bracelet, c. 1948, Silver wire, 2 3/4 x 6 x 4 inches, Private Collection© 2007 Calder Foundation

Alexander Calder considered jewelry an important part of his oeuvre. This exhibition, organized by the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach, FL, is the first full examination of Calder’s jewelry. A great majority of the work on view is courtesy of the Calder Foundation. Clearly his bracelets and necklaces were influenced by African adornments just as many contemporary jewelers have obviously been influenced by his work. Included in the show are rings, necklaces, brooches, earrings, hair combs, tiaras, and belts. The rings were the least interesting to me. But the brooches, ooh the brooches often including a sprialing or twisting form of the initials of the friends or family he made them for are astounding. It is a small, manageable and beautiful show.

Alexander Calder, The Jealous Husband

My favorite piece on view is entitled, “The Jealous Husband”—a 1940 necklace made of brass wire in which a spectacular swirling piece has five protruding “teeth-like” elements that are there to keep potential suitors at bay. His work is gorgeous, but he also had a great sense of humor.

William Eggleston at the Whitney

Eggleston, Hot Sauce, Official website of William Eggleston and the Eggleston Artistic Trust. All images © Eggleston Artist Trust. All rights reserved.

Eggleston began taking pictures in the 1960s. He was the first person to treat casual snapshots as real artwork. Influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s book, The Decisive Moment, he is interested in quintessential American subjects. Early photographs are from road trips he has taken. He lives and works in Memphis, TN and most of his subjects are of the South. I particularly love the image of a Nehi bottle half-empty on the hood of a car from the Los Alamos series as well as the one of two ketchup bottles and salt and pepper shaker on the corner edge of a counter. Eggleston used color photography as an art form—previously this had not been done and it was not really until after his 1976 MoMA exhibition that he began to get the notoriety he deserved. His work is about “the strange beauty of the familiar and unfamiliar.”

Robert Storr talk at the Met

Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art, image from http://www.andersonranch.org/

Robert Storr is an American curator, academic, and critic. He was named Dean of the Yale School of Art in 2006 and was director of the Venice Biennale in 2007. From 1990-2002 Storr was Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. He has written for the following publications: Art in America, Artforum, Art Press, New York TImes, Washington Post, Village Voice, etc.

Richter, Johns, and Tuymans

The idea behind this lecture grew out of Storr’s own curating experience as well as his own personal experience looking at art. Storr tries not to talk about who is hot and who is not but focuses more on the quality of the work–work that he thinks has value. There is no such thing as “absolute” quality because it is a debatable notion. “Art is important because of the different perspectives we have on it and bring to it.” Storr talked about the murmur he hears in museums, the murmur of disagreement. Disliking art is often good because in an attempt to come to terms with what has gotten under one’s skin, the work begins to become digested and understood.

Jasper Johns There is no artist who is better known visually in the United States than Johns. But his work is also the most “unknowable.” Of course that is why he is one of my favorite artists. Other artists don’t imitate his work, but they understand it and it has tremedous influence on them. Canvas from 1956 is one of Storr’s favorites. It is a canvas faced into another canvas. The image of the smaller canvas is not able to be seen and the larger canvas’s focus is the back of the small canvas. This is a painterly object that is more object than painting. It is not a “window on to the world” which painting had been throughout most of history. In this work, the window is blocked.

Gerhard Richter. Self-portrait (Selbstportrait). 1996. Oil on linen, 20 1/8" x 18 1/4" (51.1 x 46.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Gerhard Richter In this German artist’s Self- Portrait from 1996 (one of four that exist) he paints the illusion of reality. Comparing it to Johns’ work it is a painting of a photo versus an actual image or thing. But Richter removes the viewer from the photo by making the image blurry, out of focus. Also, in most portraits the sitter looks directly at the viewer; in this work, Richter looks away and therefore the viewer cannot connect with him. The work is direct in nature, but it removes the viewer all at the same time.

Jasper Johns, False Start, 1959, Oil on canvas, 67 1/4 x 54 inches, Private collection, New York

Both of these artists create “estrangement” in their works. There is a romantic expectation that art will reach out to us because the artist has often been viewed as seer, presenter. However, a lot of contemporary art is about distortion, making the work inaccessible. Giacometti and Picasso did this too. These artists are showing the viewer how photography and painting can lie. In Johns’ 1959 work False Start, words do not name the colors they are painted in. “RED” could be painted in the color blue, etc. Though Johns is a predecessor of Richter, they both address similar problems in art without knowing anything about each other’s work. Richter’s work often has historical elements (usually regarding events of WW2) that Johns’ does not.

Vija Celmins, Ocean Surface, 2000

Vija Celmins is an American west coast pop artist who is very influenced by Johns. In her ocean paintings she uses Romantic subject matter but bleeds it dry of the color that we often associate with the sea. In this sense she uses a familiar scene but alienates the viewer. Richter’s CC of 1970 also uses the ocean as subject matter but he splices together two photos of oceans making the one on the bottom the sea, while the one on top appears to be a sky scene full of clouds (it’s really another photo of the sea). In this way he evokes things but does not deliver them; he manipulates.

Luc Tuymans Die Zeit (detail), 1988 Courtesy the artist & Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp; David Zwirner Gallery, New York

Luc Tuymans

A Belgian artist of a younger generation, Tuymans too blurs works to hide things from his viewers. Like Richter he paints scenes from history but in his work, painting is not quite painting and photographs are not quite photographs. He drains his images of color and positions the viewer so that he/she does not know what is being looked at, thus being forced to really think about the work and what is being presented. The viewer is challenged to rediscover the world by looking at things in a different way. Familiar images are used, but something is off. Like most European art, the content is quite high with historical references even if it is hard to get at. He often uses images from the Congo and its decolonization in his work. History haunts us in these images and these artists tweak the imagery just enough to demand that the viewer be challenged.

Douglas Blau, The Naturalist Gathers, 1992, installation view, SteinGladstone, New York

Other artists that Storr mentioned who use “estrangement” in their work are the artist Douglas Blau who uses found images to create ensembles based on similarities among the photos; YZ Kami is an Iranian born American who paints portraits of people for whom the viewer is given no information, context, or narrative at all.  And of course, Baldessari who uses humor to alienate the viewer by using movie stills but covering portions of them up with colorful circles.

Y. Z. Kami, Untitled, oil on linen, 2004-5, courtesy of the Artist and Gagosian Gallery, New York

By not providing a narrative for the work, all of these artists ask the viewer to supply information in order to create the meaning of the image on his/her own. Another link between all of these artists is that though the subject matter is often heavy, the works are beautifully rendered.

The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions

Johannes Vermeer, Study of a Young Woman, c. 1665-67

As de Montebello prepares to leave the Metropolitan Museum and hand over the reins to Thomas Campbell, this exhibition is a well-deserved tribute to the amazing legacy he leaves behind. In an interesting twist, the exhibit is arranged according to the year the artworks were acquired as opposed to chronologically created which leads to, “unexpected juxtapositions.” There were an astounding 84,000 works acquired during de Montebello’s tenure and only 250 of those are on view. In the first room, black and white photos of industrial buildings by Bernd and Hilla Becher hang next to a religious painting from the 1400s by Florentine painter Lorenzo Monaco. In the same space, a Vermeer greets the viewer nuzzled between a Chinese scroll and a Mexican jadeite mask from the 10th-6th century BC. It creates a very intriguing atmosphere for viewing art.

Mark Rothko, No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow), 1958

Rothko’s No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow) from 1958 dominates the space in the third room. About the nature of his painting Rothko said, “Historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however, …is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human.” A Thomas Struth photo is on display behind an Egyptian statue, a Kiefer can be seen next to 19th century French tables.

Jasper Johns, White Flag, 1955

Jasper Johns’s White Flag from 1955 was a happy surprise for me to see. This is the first work of Johns that was acquired by the Met in 1998. Being able to get up close enough to inspect the surface of the painting is a treat. This work is a treasure—the stripes of the flag look like panels from a hardwood floor. I love the depth and rough texture found throughout the work.

Robert Rauschenberg, Winter Pool, 1959

Winter Pool made in 1959 by Bob Rauschenberg was his first painting to enter the museum’s collection and this did not occur until between 2005-8. The show ends with drawings. It is a completely overwhelming journey but demonstrates the incredible contribution de Montebello made to not only the museum, but the gift he gave to its millions of visitors. There is intense wall text next to every work in order to place it in context. Devote some time to this one as there is a lot to absorb.

Raqib Shaw at the Met

Raqib Shaw, Lady Guilford, 2007

Born in Calcutta in 1974, in 2001 Shaw attended school in London and has lived there ever since. His work shows the influences of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. He uses porcupine quills to apply metallic industrial paint and rhinestones to paper and canvas creating extraordinary works which at first appear simply beautiful but in which much of the imagery is violent –showing the beastly nature of human beings. In 2006 he was invited by The Tate to respond via his work to an exhibition on view by Hans Holbein the Younger. In these responses now on view otherworldly creatures appear in Holbein’s architectural spaces. Also on view is a new series by Shaw called, “Absence of God.” His work is stunning; initially it appears showy and a bit gaudy, but the viewer becomes mesmerized by the “bling” factor of the work. The sparkle and intense detail draw you in. Similar to Kehinde Wiley’s work in the decorative quality, Shaw’s work also has a deeper message. The juxtaposition of these works with Holbein’s woodcuts in the same room helps showcase the talent, creativity and imagination of Shaw.

Fred Tomaselli Studio Visit

Fred Tomaselli, Hang Over, 2005, leaves, pills, acrylic and resin on wood panel, 84 x 120 inches, Courtesy James Cohan Gallery

Fred Tomaselli, originally from the West Coast, started as an installation and performance artist with Paul McCarthy and other California artists. This was a reaction to the theme parks and dislocated realities that his Southern California environment created. Tomaselli yearned to create “sublime experiences.” His familiarity with resin as a medium was due to its use in surfboards. So when he decided to switch to painting as his window to another reality, his vehicle of transportation, resin seemed the logical choice because it allowed him to add real objects, such as pills or marijuana leaves, to the work. He believed that instead of altering consciousness through the bloodstream, the viewer’s consciousness would be altered though the eyes. Over time, a dialogue between nature and technology arose in his work and nature seemed to grow and take over. He always uses imagery and objects based on his own personal interests: at one point drugs, gardening, birds, etc. He moves back and forth between abstraction and representation in his art. His influences range widely from the conceptual art his work grew out of to Islamic art, Abstract Expressionism, the work of Sol Lewitt, German Romanticism, Hudson River School, airbrush van painting, Persian miniatures, Shaker quilts, and Tibetan thangkas. He attempts to have the “-isms” we are all familiar with have an uneasy dialogue in his work. He uses real objects, photographs, and painting in his work to keep the viewer off balance. As his use of geometric abstractions has grown, he claims his work has become more intuitive and spontaneous.

Fred Tomaselli, Big Bird, 2004, acrylic, leaves, resin and printed paper collage on panel 48 x 48 in.

In the two large bird paintings he had hanging for his upcoming White Cube show in London (opening on March 26th) the backgrounds were examples of this expressiveness in his work. He feels that the Abstract Expressionist style of painting is not just about expressing emotion, but also about creating intense emotion in the viewer.

Fred Tomaselli, Guilty, 2005, Print 13 X 13 inches, Edition of 100, Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery

In addition to his paintings on panel he has made photograms by putting pills and sugar on photographic paper and exposing it. Lately he has been using birds’ eyes in his work quite a bit. To him, they resemble planetary bodies. He finds himself going deeper into the details as his work progresses; for example, not just doing bird paintings, but painting an actual bird’s eye. For his works on paper he saves New York Times articles and defaces them with paint because recent articles have made him angry. Other works on paper utilize the grid form with brightly painted sections and were influenced by LSD tabs which usually come in quarter inch perforated squares. Obvious influences of this work are Gerhard Richter and Ellsworth Kelly. His process is meticulous. He cuts images out, scans them, adjusts the color of them, recuts them, sprays glue on paper and puts them down on the paper to organize them. Images are then archived in flat files so he can use them spontaneously. He uses an exacto knife to move these around. He is not using pills anymore but if he wanted to, he has bottles and bottles of them categorized in drawers in his studio. As an avid gardener he also has access to plants of all kinds. For his large works, he starts with a wood panel, does underpainting, arranges objects or collage imagery (often numbering in the thousands) onto the board which is laid flat. For larger pieces he has a contraption which allows him to be suspended above the work. He applies varnish and repaints certain areas to their original colors. He then uses his pouring platform to apply the 50/50 epoxy resin. For this step he must wear a respirator. He also sometimes uses wooden cut out templates to inlay the pills, objects, etc. After the resin dries which takes a day, he sands it and repeats layers for depth. The final layer is waxed with turtle wax. Through this process the sculptor in him gets to remain alive and working. All the work is handmade by him, he has one studio assistant, and the large pieces take about 6 months to create. Many questions from the group I was with centered around the drugs he has used in his work but he is adamant that his work “isn’t about drugs, it’s about perception, altering the viewer’s perception.” He feels his work is predicated on the notion of seduction versus the verbal so he uses pattern and ornament. He wants his work to be a place worth going to. I am lucky enough to own a print of Tomaselli’s that was a gift from my parents. It is definitely a “place worth going to” time and time again.