Lyn Bishop : Sharing Secrets

This is the question I find myself asking recently as more and more curators and gallery directors are choosing to exhibit controversial and shocking art that involves the death of living beings at the hands of the artists they represent.

Let me be clear, I do believe that the artist has a role to play in holding up a mirror for society to study their own, often hypocritical and cynical, behavior in relationship to the darker sides of humanity. I also acknowledge that artists have a long history of using dead animals in their work. However, I draw the line when artists and curators exploit the killing and torture of animals for the publics’ entertainment and for their own profit and fame. (more…)

I know this may sound crazy, but I have conversations with my art. Yup, it’s true, I talk with my work, and then allow myself to connect with the quiet energy that it communicates back in response.

I became conscious of my conversations during my exhibit in Kyoto last year. Perhaps it stemmed from the daily prayers that I offered at the small temple along Tetsugaku-no-Michi (Philosophers Path), or the quiet moments inside the temple before I opened the heavy doors, or maybe I’ve been doing it unconsciously since who knows when. However it started, it’s become ritual, especially during exhibits.

I think, in general, we artists invest tremendous amounts of love and care into our work and often find it difficult to let the work have a life of its own after it is finished. We often want to protect it, as if it were a child. We want the collector to love it as much as we do.
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Last weekend I hosted my annual Open Studios exhibit. It’s a fantastic opportunity to share my art directly with my community. Art lovers from all over Silicon Valley come out to visit the artist in their working studio, ask questions and learn more about the creation of the work. I find it fascinating that year after year, there is a core group of “fans” that come back to see what I’ve been up to… and that got me thinking about my own fanaticism in regards to music.

I’m a long time music fan, and have followed bands across the country and to foreign countries just to hear their concerts. Last night in the afterglow of Open Studios I made the connection. Art collectors are like music fans. (more…)

The arts in San Jose are gearing up for the summer months, and last night art lovers were shaking off the winter chill down at Anno Domini with outside live music, an urban street market and the opening of Stephan Doitschinoff’s solo show in the gallery there.

Doitschinoff is a self-taught Brazilian street artist a.k.a. †CALMA†, who is now hitting it big with shows in London, Germany and the US.

His work is highly symbolic, including religious and Alchemical forms that he has modified and repurposed into his own personal symbolism. His use of intertwining body parts and latin folk imagery hint at a Frieda Kahlo like personal suffering, while Asian elements like wave forms and lotus flowers reflect the artists own distant Chinese ancestry.

His solo show includes both small detailed pencil drawings and large elaborate paintings. In addition, he’s extended his symbolism beyond the canvas onto the walls and floor of AD, keeping him true to his street painter roots.

On Exhibit thru June 21 at Anno Domini, 366 South First Street, San Jose.

For years I have carried a small folding paper-based portable art portfolio with me everywhere I go. Dog-eared and well worn, it served it’s purpose as a quick tool to share my art with others. It has it’s limitations – it holds only 12 pieces – and updating it with new work is a labor of love (print out thumbnails, cut thumbnails, glue thumbnails to portfolio – you get the idea).

But no longer! I still carry my portable portfolio with me everywhere I go, but now-a-days, it is in the form of a sleek and ultra-modern presentation contained on my iPhone! (more…)