Highlight in The Washington Post

So, I told you that I got a little blurb in The Washington Post?
No?
Well, I did!
Unfortunately it was in the middle of a pretty negative review.

Philip Kennicott wrote a review of the Art for Obama book that features two paintings by myself.

Kennicot trashes the book saying, “It is a catalogue of celebratory art, of smiles and hope and change, and somehow, it leaves you with a hollow, panicky feeling in the gut.”

But, along the way he highlights my painting, “Is He Black Enough?” as one of the images that positively stood out:

Even the occasional interesting image, such as Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s wry comment on race and the “black enough?” debate, suffers from juxtaposition with the hackwork, throwing off all the irony detectors.

I think that’s fairly great.

I mean…

…given the context of the article.

Me standing next to “Is He Black Enough?” and “Kenyan-American” at the hanging of Manifest Hope:DC

Barkley Hendricks: Birth of the Cool

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and Barkley Hendricks.
(Please excuse my hair.)

The retrospective of the career of Barkley Hendricks, Birth of the Cool, is now at PAFA in Philadelphia. The show runs until January 3, 2010, and I suggest all of my readers who are in Philly visit the show.

I saw the show a couple of Sundays ago when Hendricks, a Philly native, was there to talk about his work. It was my first time seeing his work in person and the paintings, realistic life-size portraits on flat backgrounds, are pretty remarkable.

During his talk, Hendricks was asked about his flat, one toned backgrounds. He said that he wanted to create the illusion that the figures were in the same space as the viewer and, could seem to walk off the canvas. That illusion was very effective with his “all white series” in particular, subjects dressed in all white and painted onto white backgrounds. Especially given the size of his portraits, the subjects did seem to occupy space in the gallery along side the viewers.

What was interesting about examining his work (I like to look at paintings just inches away from them), was discovering that he works wet on dry. Wet on dry means applying wet paint on to paint that has already dried, as opposed to wet paint on wet paint (the way most oil painters work). I found it interesting because I work wet on dry as well.
It’s a wonderful show with a lot of work. His career spans over 40 years and the retrospective includes paintings that were created just a few years ago, to work created in the late 60′s.

I found it all very inspiring.

My Health Should Not Be Up For Debate

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, My Health Should Not Be Up For Debate, Oil on canvas, 2009

Even though I think Barack Obama could have proposed a better health care reform, let’s get this public option.
Affordable health care for everyone -
young, old, poor, rich, healthy, sick.
Because we’re human.
And deserve to be treated as such.

Detail:

Fela Kuti

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Fela, Acrylic on canvas, 2009

Painted live at Felappreciation at The Arts Garage in Philadelphia.

Standing From What Was

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Standing From What Was, mixed media, 2009

Detail:

Experimenting with paper – the background image was printed on paper and mounted to the canvas. I used oil paint on top of that.
This painting came about from working through ideas of how to use old black and white photographs of African Americans in my work, as I talked about in a previous post.

Old Painting: Misogyny

I did this piece a couple of years ago when I was a student at the University of the Arts.
I was trying to visually express how I feel about misogyny.
To really explore misogyny and all of it’s attributes would need to be done with a series of different pieces, I think. This one painting was an attempt to show a general sense of distress, discomfort, anger.

There are a few problems I have with the painting.
1. It’s unfinished. There are areas that are no more than the underpainting.
2. The males hands that are gripping her should not be alone without the male bodies they are supposed to be attached to. Right now, the hands are just sticking out of the background. I should some silhouette male bodies behind her.
3. Maybe it was a weird perspective on the reference picture but, her hips look way too small.

I will more than likely go back into the painting, fix those problems, and finish the painting. Because over all, I like it. And think it could work.
Misogyny is a theme that I am starting to explore in a new series of paintings. It will be interesting to see how I tackle this theme now compared to how I did back then.

Creating and Preparing.

For the rest of the year I want to focus on creating new work.
In 2009 I participated in many exhibitions and art shows, which is good for exposure. But in doing so many shows, some of them overlapping, I had to stretch my art work and show the same pieces numerous times.
I showed work that I wasn’t really ready to show.
I don’t know if it was worth it.
So for the rest of the year, I want to seclude myself and just create new work. New, thoughtful, great pieces.
I have a couple possible shows for the rest of the year but, I really want to focus on creating and developing new ideas for the next few months, so that next year I can come out of the gates running.
And ,thankfully, the art scene is ready for me. I’m just making sure I’m ready for it.