In the Fort Worth Museum District

There are several not-to-be-missed shows over in the Fort Worth Museum district these days, which caused me to put aside my visceral hatred of what the City of Fort Worth is doing over there.

First off, if you haven't done so yet, GO TODAY and check out the Lucian Freud show at the Modern. I'd been waiting with barely concealed eagerness since first hearing of it last year, and it does not disappoint. An absolutely fabulous show. Warning, if naked people upset you, take a Xanax and get over it.

The accounts I've read of Freud's life would lead one to conclude he may not have been the nicest person to wander the earth, but he is by-god one hell of a painter.  This is, by the way, the only US venue of this outstanding show, and is up until October 28, 2012.

Once you've finished with the Freud show, you owe it to yourself to wander over to the Amon Carter Museum, and check out the show, American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, De Kooning and Their Circle, 1927 - 1942. The Amon Carter does a consistently good job on shows like this. Before you leave, also find the exhibition, Industrial Monuments: Photographs and Works on Paper from the Machine Age. I'm  a sucker for works on paper and actually enjoyed this more than the American Vanguards show (as good as that was). You may need to ask a guard where the Industrial Monuments show is on display - it's a little hard to find.

A retirement

I first met Jim Woodson, lo these many years ago, when I was a long-haired painting major at TCU. And now, some 38 years later, he has the audacity to retire.

I had a number of excellent instructors when I was at TCU and Jim was at the top of the list.

He had a gentle way of guiding one back when you'd strayed a little too far off the path without making you feel as though you'd screwed up or wasted a lot of time and effort

His wife Barbara threw a retirement party for him last Friday that was a gathering of the tribes. I saw old friends I hadn't seen in 20 years and students that could have been my kids.

Dan Shepley, a friend from high school days who later was a college roommate, made it down from Indianapolis. Back in the day, Dan and I lived in an apartment that was across the alley from Jim's house. Watching Monty Python at Jim's was one of our Sunday rituals (along with eating Mexican food at Pancho's Mexican Buffet).

Good times...

Good luck, Jim, and thanks for everything!

Tom Reynolds Trio

We dropped in at this month's Kimbell After Hours (2nd Saturday of every month) to hear the Tom Reynolds Trio. They were amazingly (but not surprisingly) good! I missed their first set but the set we heard was brilliant - composed primarily of swing and other jazz, performed by Tom (on guitar), with Andy Crisanti on clarinet and an outstanding bass player (whose name I did not catch).

I've known Tom since our sons were in Boy Scouts together years ago, and he's a prince of a fellow, in addition to being a phenomenal guitar player. Andy Crisanti was once principal clarinetist with the Ft Worth Symphony before retiring. He said he'd gone full circle, since he started out playing swing back in the 1940's.

A thoroughly enjoyable time. Tom plays frequently at the Scat Lounge in Fort Worth, as well as putting in appearances elsewhere in the DFW area.

Thank, Tom!

The Portrait Project

A few years (quite a few, actually) I decided to start a project that I referred to (in my mind) as "One Hundred Portraits." After the first dozen or so, I decided it was just "the Portrait Project."

The goal was, loosely stated, to do a portrait of everyone I knew. Talk about a never-ending task. Regardless, I've completed around 50 (give or take).


Last fall my good friend Leo Wesson, who I've known and worked with for over 30 years, came over and shot a massive number of works on paper for me on his digital camera. Among the stuff he shot were most of the portraits. After much screwing around, I've finally posted my favorites on the Ralph Art website.

The pieces that comprise the project follow a fairly standard format: all are more or less mug-shots, and are on 22 x 30 rag paper. Not all are paintings; quite a few were done as drawings.

It's been fun, and I'm certainly not finished (I meet new people every day), but only a few people have seen them, and usually only a handful of the pieces at that. If you know me, you probably know quite a few of the people in these works.

A big thanks (again) to Leo, who made this possible.

Enjoy!

New: John on the Ice blog

Rather than posting stuff on this site, I decided to set up another blog for updates about John's Antarctica adventure. It's called John on the Ice (clever, I know). This way folks won't have to wade through my ponderous pontifications about Art and the like, when all they really wanted to know was how John is doing.

By the way, by my clock, he's enroute to Los Angeles now from Denver, where he had his company orientation. He departs from Los Angeles later this evening for Auckland, New Zealand.

The Penguin has departed

A quick note: oldest son John departed this afternoon for Antarctica, where he'll be working for six months (doing food service for the inhabitants of McMurdo Station).

His first stop is Denver, where he'll do a couple of days of training in Denver. From there, after a brief layover, he'll fly to New Zealand. The final leg of his journey, from Christchurch, NZ, to McMurdo, Antarctica, will be aboard a military transport plane.



McMurdo Station, on Ross Island (on the southwest corner of Ross Sea), is the operational hub and logistics center for the United States Antarctic Program, which in turn is part of the National Science Foundation. McMurdo is the largest installation on the continent and is the gateway to all other US bases.

During the active (summer) season, around 1,200 people are based there. They are just entering the spring season down there; average highs for September are -5 F, and average lows are -20 F. December is the warmest time of the year - average highs are around 30 F, with lows down to 21 F.

Curious about the weather? Check the McMurdo webcam.

He'll be there until March of 2012. It should be a great adventure.