Origins

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. Artist Jay Rolfe uses his melancholic artistic temperament to passionately explore contemporary issues such as the nature of existence, disorientation, alienation, loneliness, unrequited love, complex relationships, conflict, unrest, war, greed, unfulfilled dreams, yearning, and boredom.

Last Friday, Leap Day, February 29, artist Jay Rolfe attended the opening reception for "n The Beginning, Exploring Origins In Contemporary Art," part of the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Humanities Forum (which also sponsored the Kiki Smith lecture I attended). The contemporary work of about 33 artists was displayed, all addressing in some way origins of something - life, the universe, personal history, etc. Most of the works were small by my standards. The links to origins of many of the works was hard to discern, but it was an interesting exhibit.

Bread and Puppet Theater

Bread and Puppet Theater keeps popping in front of artist Jay Rolfe, so today's post will be about it. About 2 weeks ago when viewing the DVD "Across the Universe" there were several scenes with puppets that looked like Bread and Puppet creations, including one scene that seemed like the Bread and Puppet Circus field in Vermont. Artist Jay Rolfe and his wife Randy Rolfe have been to the Bread and Puppet Circus and to the Museum in Glover VT and seen the many amazing larger than life puppets used over the past decades, as well as seeing preparations for current shows. Seeing "Across the Universe" again this past weekend we noticed a special thanks in the end crerdits to Bread and Puppet Theater, so that confirmed it was B&P not just a copy.

Also, when artist Jay Rolfe visited the "Puppet Show" at the Institute for Contemporary Arts at the University of Pennsylvania 2 weeks ago, part of the exhibit (right next to the Kiki Smith photos) was literature about Bread and Puppet from the Bread and Puppet Press. The catalog notes said: "Bread and Puppet Theater, directed by Peter Schumann, has been the single most influential live puppet theater twoupe in the United States since the 1960s. Schumann's creation of an avant-garde political puppet theater has depended in part on his inimitable graphic designs, here represented by various publications created by the Bread and Puppet Press." I'm sure Peter would love it. And if the organizers had asked Peter for a puppet instead of settling for literature collected by someone, I'm sure he would have been happy to lend one or more.

To visit the Bread and Puppet Theater website, click on this link. http://www.breadandpuppet.org/ The photo of the day is of the Bread and Puppet Theater.

That's the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's Unique Artistic Idea, his innovative 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. Artist Jay Rolfe uses vibrant color, 3-D, recognizable shape, and huge size to reveal beauty, touch emotion in a positive way, and create Uplifting Conversation Pieces.

University of Pennsylvania

On Wednesday, artist Jay Rolfe visited the University of Pennsylvania to hear a lecture by artist Kiki Smith delivered at the Harrison auditorium of the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, and the ICA museum, and the Arthur Ross Gallery in the Furness Building. It was very nostalgic, as Jay Rolfe attended undergrad and law school at U of P. It was morre nostalgic because the artist had watched the DVD "Across the Universe" the night before. "Across the Universe" is set in the 60's Vietnam War era in NYC and features about 30 Beatles songs, the lyrics of which actually fit the narrative. Amazing writing, and a well done movie (as a Penn grad, I should say film instead of movie). "Across the Universe" had brought up many memories - I met my wife there, partied, courted, demonstrated for peace, and of course attended classes and hung out all around there.

The Dirty Drug was a hangout for coffee and snacks on the corner of 34th and Walnut Sts. It's real name was Cy's Penn Luncheonette - I only remembered because I saw a photo of it - but everyone called it the Dirty Drug. The stores in that area have been replaced by a modern building in university style, but still have stores on the first floor. One irony is that the funky Dirty Drug has been replaced in the exact same location by a Starbucks with its clean corporate look!

Today's photo of the day is from the window of an Urban Outfitters store. The man's tee shirt seems to tell what some modern women seem to think is all a man is good for. From the number of single or divorced middle aged women walking their dogs at the local nature preserve, it looks like many of us have been replaced by dogs and their unconditional love.

That's the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's Unique Artistic Idea, his innovative 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. Artist Jay Rolfe uses vibrant color, 3-D, recognizable shape, and huge size to reveal beauty, touch emotion in a positive way, and create Uplifting Conversation Pieces.

Kiki Smith at Penn

Artist Kiki Smith spoke at the Penn Humanities Forum on Wednesday, and artist Jay Rolfe was in the audience. And before the talk, artist Jay Rolfe went to the ICA (Institute for Contemporary Art) at Penn to see all the exhibits, and especially Kiki's work there as the fact of her talk was related to having work in the ICA show. Her work was in the "Puppet Show" exhibit and consisted of 2 white plaster portions of arms and 2 white plaster portions of legs hanging on wires from the ceiling. In the Puppet Storage part of the exhibit there was a photo of Kiki performing with a Punch and Judy puppet show in 1972, and 2 photos of her in her studio more recently without puppets.

Kiki's talk was interesting, as she started out flat and ended up excited and vivacious after talking about body parts, leaking body fluids, body organs, and of many of her paintings reflecting people feeling "isolated and thwarted." Surprising. Although her visuals were far from funny, she made funny comments that made her and the audience laugh. She really seemed to have fun talking about her work and made it enjoyable for artist Jay Rolfe and the rest of the audience.

Today's photo of the day is of a Kiki Smith sculpture, not one she talked about, but one I could find an image of. It's called "Pyre Woman on Haunches" and made in 2002.

That's the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's Unique Artistic Idea, his innovative 3-D Shaped Stretched Canvas paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. Artist Jay Rolfe uses vibrant color, 3-D, recognizable shape, and huge size to reveal beauty, touch emotion in a positive way, and create Uplifting Conversation Pieces.