Slow Motion

You might have noticed that there has not been much action on the website lately. There is a reason for that as there is for everything. 2007 has been a very busy year for us here at Wrinkly Brain in our personal lives so we haven't been able to update the site nor recruit new material. Here is a brief example: Carol and I got married, applied for her citizenship, we have a baby on the way (it's a boy), moved from Houston to Austin (much needed), I got a total hip replacement (much needed), we are buying a condo (I never thought I was the condo type but Austin has nothing but) and we are trying to get to Brazil before the end of the summer. We are also going to reconstruct and move the website to a new server to take advantage of better server side stuff. We have some new material coming for our writing section and our photo documentary section so we will send you a newsletter when we are back up and running.
Thanks to all of you and hope all is well,
Kurt

Seeing clearly in the age of apathy

Living in the US as an artist has been a peculiar place for me. Within a healthy media driven complacent society I find myself at loggerheads with just that aspect of our society. I am constantly berated with "come on, what are you complaining about?". A large percentage of the people around me communicate through their television. The common areas of their houses seems to always surround the television subtly telling a visiter that their TV is far more important to them than anything they might have to say. Owing to the fact that the visitor comes from the same sort of set up, it quite often is. This deterioration of a common meeting area devoid of media seems to be crushing our self esteem and the only way to prop it up is to let media fill our imagination for us. I am seeing my contemporaries fall into a terrible sort of apathy and I find this to be very disturbing. When I discuss this with people they just reply, "I know its terrible isn't it" which is followed by a shrug of the shoulders. I can no longer tell people that I try not to watch TV because they think I am trying to be Superior or as my preschool students tell me "that sucks man".
-Kurt Nilson

"Ipodism"

Ipodism: The amalgamation of commodity, simple graphic elements, hype and a shallow view of the world limited to building a needy self gratifying persona and consumer based automaton. This word comes to me as I am working on a painting dealing with human beings relation to nature. Please add to or detract from the definition. You can also view the painting in progress on the Chopping Block.

Look out! Here comes the Menaissance

It looks like men's identity crisis is dipping into the "old brain" for some help. The metrosexual identity seems to have come and gone and American men are trying to reestablish their manliness. This is what Paul Harris thinks in his article Menaissance in the Guardian. It is a very interesting look at the sort of confusion a lot of American men are experiencing as to what their role is in American society. It is a little creepy at the same time when you see how shallowness is being treated as a virtue. I certainly agree that American men are searching for their identity and I also think there are many socio-political factors involved, i.e. a declining middle class, a complete outsourcing of American jobs to cheap labor abroad, Women finding their place and their voice within the workforce and sexual confusion. Women and gay men are beginning to be heard and this is going to have an effect on the heterosexual American male and lets hope it has more of a tolerant inclusive quality rather than old brained bashing in the skulls of those that don't fit quality. Please let me know your views on this subject because I know you have many. For those of you that live in different countries please express how you see the role of the male.

Luis Jimenez

I am sad to find out the news that Luis Jimenez has died in his studio. He was a fine artist and we had scheduled an interview with him for this summer.

Creative Depression

I know that many of us have and deal with creative depression. I am of the mind that it is a necessary part of being creative and knowing this does not make it any easier. Many times it has brought me to my knees and at the same time through such harsh self criticism it has shown me that it is ok to just be myself. I also believe that we suffer this depression together or communally and the realization of this is most important. This is no Tom Cruise bent on how we do not need anti-depressants or that Scientology will show us the way. I have this gut instinct that we are all connected somehow (be it spiritually or extrasensorilly(sp)) and our depression is shared. I don't think we need to sit in drum circles and chant either but just the awareness of a communal mind takes some of the pressure off. I am a painter and I work from my instinct so let me know how you feel about it and if you have read anything about it.

The Shining

I just read an article in the Guardian that Dominique de Villepin has taken it upon himself to stimulate art in France, much to the chagrin of French artists. He has slapped together a show of works from public and private collections and the 15 curators brought together to pick the works consisted of one artist. It seems his already tarnished reputation just got another patina. It was nice to hear that Gérard Fromanger wasn't going to "Dance for de Villepin" and he pulled his work. De Villepin wanted to pull France's art out of the gutter and onto the world stage yet when I was there the work that I saw in the "gutter" was quite nice. Works on the streets, works in the ancient sewers were all very lively yet this work comes from the gutter and once it hits the light of the world stage itshriekss and withers or runs screaming back out of the light. I am becoming less inclined to believe that good art only comes from places that are hot on the world art stage and more inclined to seek it out myself where the light doesn't shine. Any thoughts?

American Decadence

It seems to me that we are starting to see a few signs that America may be heading for a decline. The middle class is struggling to hang on to that title and they are in dept up to their ears doing it. The bulging real estate bubble, tethered by the hope that perpetual mortgages and the prospect of capital gains will keep it afloat, looms above us all like a giant Zeppelin. I am by no means trying to sound apocalyptic, however the future of our decadent lifestyle here in America is looking rather bleak. While I was in London a few months ago they seemed to be undergoing some sort of boom. There were people with loads of money all around and gentrification was on the move. This is in sharp contrast to how London was when I was there in 1992. I asked around and the consensus seemed to be that on average most Londoners are between 25,000 and 30,000 pounds in debt on their credit cards. It seems the bubble is expanding.
Rapid change has a large effect on any biological system no matter how large or small. So "REPENT, FOR THE END IS NIGH".
Any thoughts?

Revolution

It was very nice to see millions of people out on the streets causing the French government to change it's policy. The students and teachers achieved quite a success over being pushed around by their government. The protest was by large a peaceful one and the French have a history of this. I wonder if America could stand up on this scale and demand that we stop corporations from pushing us around or stop the government from attacking Iran or for the Bush administration to stand up and accept responsibility for the problem in Iraq and to deal with it without bombs?

The transition from depression to inspiration

Entry from my journal Feb. 4, 2006

Some sort of depression has gripped me and I feel dull, almost as if my image in the world is slightly fading. I see people around me talking and going about their business but they are also fading…, and then I hear it. "The women were great but you couldn't get much of a lap dance" says a voice coming out of this dazed state I am in and I anchor myself back to reality as I associate this voice to its source; the chubby guy sitting at a table directly behind me. Inspiration pours into my body warming my blood and making my image solid again.

Later I went back to my studio and finished a painting I have been working on for four months. I stayed up all night in order to finish it. Inspiration for me seems to be preceded by depression. The severity of the depression can almost gauge the intensity of the inspiration. I would imagine that states of happiness can also lead to inspiration yet I think that it is ultimately preceded by depression. It seems that the things that depress me have a more profound influence on what motivates me. Rossen Daskolov has some interesting things to say about this in his interview. How does inspiration come to you?