I just now checked the Internet TV schedule to see what was going to be featured on (once was Charles Kuralt's, now) Charles Osgood's
CBS News Sunday Morning show (
showing here, on the U.S. West Coast in about an hour and a half at 7:30 a.m., our time) to see if there would be anything on it "worth" taping. In addition to a story on the book,
Hosseini's Kite-Runner, which Diane, I think, mentioned in another post, I saw they are going to be featuring a story on some
Mexican artist, Martin Ramirez, whom I'd never heard of. Because I have a number of close mexicano connections, I decided to google this guy to see if I might want to go ahead and tape the show (I could always tape over it later if it turned out to be not-that-inspiring).
I came across the following, which even at five something in the morning, filled me with great pleasure with the writing and anticipation for the show. Tape machine, here I come....
The Heart of Creation: The Art of Martin Ramirez
Foreword from the catalog
by Elsa Weiner Longhauser
"He is a Mexican, about sixty-eight years old, who is classified as a chronic paranoid schizophrenic and considered incurable, having been institutionalized for over twenty years. His art activity dates back about six years. He is slight of build, greatly underweight, a former tuberculous patient who spends his time on his art. He does not speak to anyone but hums in a singsong way when pleased with his visitors. Conversation as an exchange of ideas is impossible.
His manner of work is unique. When good paper is not available, he glues together scraps of paper, old envelopes, paper bags, paper cups, wrappers- anything that may have a clear drawing area. He often makes many small background studies, seashell and nature forms, which he stores in his shirt, in a paper shopping bag, in tied rolls, or behind a radiator, suddenly to be taken out and glued to an evolving picture. He fashions his own glue out of mashed potatoes and water—sometimes bread and saliva. He squats on his haunches, moving about the floor between two cots, using, stubs of colored pencils and Crayolas, drawing a little here, a little there. His drawing is kept rolled up and usually only a portion of it is exposed at any one time. He has recently shown considerable pleasure with groups of student visitors, to whom he displays his work with obvious pride...."http://thegalleriesatmoore.org/publications/ramirezew.shtmlhttp://www.mercurynews.com/arts/ci_7313525?nclick_check=1NOTE: Even if his kind of art, called "Outsider Art," isn't necessarily the kind that sets your world on fire,
the story, itself, promises to be pretty interesting.
P.S.-- Hey, Nicole, artlover, who started this thread.
Where
are you, and when are you going to start posting here again.....?
