Dorothy Parker - "I hate writing, I love having written."

One day, out of nowhere, the above line became a descriptive mantra much like a music refrain we can't erase, year-in and year-out . I remember the exact moment. Bent over in my garden pulling weeds I stood and shouted, "I hate gardening, I love having gardened." Dorothy's lines define my relationship with daily and seasonal chores.

 

But, there are periods when I don't hate, and one is in my studio. Studio time evokes many emotions but never hate or dislike.

 

Dorothy shows me,

I am where I belong.

 

Ida Kotyuk©

If you get fewer than 2,000 rejections a year, you are not working hard enough.

How Do You Pronounce Kotyuk?

I'm a "yuk" not a "yak." Then someone will spell my name "Kotyuck." Or, at the pharmacy, I give them my card with the clear embossed name Kotyuk and get their receipt with the name "Katyuk" in bright red three-inch letters.

"Why don't you change your name? It's too hard to pronounce." a friend once said.

"There's only six letters. Picasso has seven letters and you know how to pronounce his name!"

Some family relatives pronounce the name as Ko Ti Yuk. It has something to do with school teachers and the theory of language.

Others in the family say KÓ tyuk. I grew up pronouncing it ko Tyuk. [Like the sneeze, achew!]

In college, I gave up. My new friends asked, "How do you pronounce your name?" I would say "ko Tyuk." Then I would hear a series of "Ko…Ko…"

Enough already. What do I care how it's pronounced. What is important to me is you can read it clearly on my paintings and drawings. So now I say, "It's Kot Yuk," a phonetic pronunciation. In the meantime, please feel free to say it as you like.

See "Chicken With Its Head Cut Off."

Ida Kotyuk©
If you get fewer than 2,000 rejections a year, you are not working hard enough.

Michelangelo’s David Goes Home!

I love the wit found on the internet.

"After a two year loan to the United States, Michelangelo’s David is being returned to Italy."

http://thebsreport.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/joke-pic-of-the-night-michelangelos-statue-david-being-returned-to-italy/

Ida Kotyuk©

If you get fewer than 2,000 rejections a year, you are not working hard enough.

The Sistine Ceiling

For those who have not yet seen the website: The Sistine Chapel

CLICK AND DRAG YOUR ARROW IN THE DIRECTION YOU WISH TO SEE. In the lower left, click on the plus (+) to move closer, on the minus (-) to move away.

Choir is thrown in free. MOVE THE ARROW AND YOU WILL SEE EVERY PART OF THE CHAPEL. This virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel is incredible. Apparently done by Villanova at the request of theVatican .. Click here: Sistine Chapel.

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Geography

I am ashamed to admit that I am one of those Americans poor in Geography. Perhaps, that is the reason I have no sense of direction. In fact, geography was never taught until I attended college; at which time, I completely ignored it. As I had a poor background in geography, all art historical references to cities were, to my mind, somewhere in Europe. Frankly, it wasn't until ten-years ago that I discovered the location of Wales! I always thought Wales was an island off the southern-most tip of England, and the only way to reach it was by ship. But then, you would run into France.

So, now, as I read the international news I check to see on both my atlas and globe where each discussed country is located. The hardest area to lock in my mind is the Middle East which beat out Africa, another country that has taken me years to understand how different is the north from the south.

Discussing my Middle East predicament with a friend, she suggested, "It's because, if they're not warring with each other (or another), their borders always seem to be changing."

"You mean like Illinois would go to war with Wisconsin?"

"Yes."

"Maybe what we should do is confuse the rest of the world. We should move our contiguous borders every 20 years. But first, every year, we could change the name of our state capitals."

"Or better yet. Change every state capital's name to the same one name."

[I know this would work to confuse others. In my western suburb outside of Chicago each town is jammed one-against-another. Best yet. Each town has a main street called "Main Street!" After 25 years here, I still don't know what town I'm in.]

Ida Kotyuk©

www.portraits-oils.com

If you get fewer than 2,000 rejections a year, you are not working hard enough.

What I Learned Today

1.

No matter the promises I make to myself and no matter my good intentions, I do nothing on Sundays. Rather than beat myself up, I should acknowledge it is Sunday and stay in bed and read.

2.

Back in my school days, there were two areas of study that sent me to sleep within ten seconds. The first area was anything to do with architecture. My instructor had only to say, "This is an arch." My head would fall back, my eyes close, my mouth would gape open, I would fall into a deep sleep, and begin to snore. That is really embarrassing. My head never fell onto my desk.

The second area of study to put me to sleep was history. I think history is taught differently, today. All I remember was being taught dates and "this" is why the date is important. The dates were rarely in context to social/cultural events.

In order to understand the Fauves I discover it is best if I understand the Impressionists. In order to understand the Impressionists, it is best to understand Paris. In order to understand Paris during that period, it is best if I understand Napoleon III.

So this blog today is about Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. I know I am wrong 50% of the time; but the depth of my "wrong" amazes me. Knowing nothing of III, I imagined him to be a watered-down version of his uncle. I think it's because in all his portraits, he has those bedroom eyes; as if he were partially asleep. So I was surprised as to the extent he remodeled Paris; uprooting, if not evicting, 100,000 people to make room for his Boulevards. I read that some families had to move two or three times in a five-year period for those boulevards. Hmmm…. I ask myself, is that when the French developed le shrug?

And so, for the young Impressionists, Paris was a city under constant construction. Rather than these artists being overwhelmed, they wished to become a part of the Parisian mayhem. Would I have had such courage?

Ida Kotyuk

www.portrait-oils.com

Stuff I Learned This Week

To make a short story long, I recently, became interested in the Fauves and their ideas about painting. I especially enjoy their sense of color and fun. Though I love being a portrait painter, in my own personal work, I like to break away and experiment. I do this by either painting abstract landscapes or I copy the "masters" that came before me. Recently I have been copying both the Fauve and some Impressionist paintings.

To follow their thinking and before I could immerse myself into the language of the Fauves I saw a need to better understand the Impressionists. So, I began reading about the history of Impressionism. Sure enough, even after college and graduate school, it is a good idea to never stop learning and to always be curious.

Stuff I learned:

In 1855 Paris there were three serious ideas (and arguments) about painting. The idealists, the romantics, and the new bratty boy on the block, realism. [Daumier did a wonderful cartoon on these issues].

The idealist paintings referred to Greek classical tradition and the artists expected the viewer to be "classically" taught. That is why their paintings refer to Homer, Greek philosophers, etc. Their colors were neutral and cooler. [I've had classical training and I would never have figured that out. Obviously, I don't carry knowledge forward very well.]

The romantics said phooey with the cool neutral colors. We want drama. We want emotion in modern settings rather than classical history; or emotional paintings rather than learned paintings.

The realists considered the two as idealists because "their" paintings were imagined and existed in their mind. I.e., Delacroix never saw a lion hunt, though he painted one. [The differences among the three surprised me.]

Paris' Academy of Fine Arts was founded in 1648 by Louis XIV! The French citizens and following governments promoted the exhibits as essential to French nationalism. [I thought the French tore everything down during the revolution of 1789. And. I was wrong. Did the French have a greater sense of nationalism than the Chinese of 1911?]

That it was Courbet(!) who opened the door for Impressionism! [I understand that realists painted scenes that they themselves saw and experienced and that they were the ordinary and daily occurrences. But I was unaware they purposely avoided the Romantics' heightened emotions and the classicists "learned" theories.]

My education has been in the studio arts, but I am surprised my art history classes didn't discuss these turning points in greater depth. But then, that is the purpose of continuing education.

Ida Kotyuk

www.portraits-oils.com