john grantner

minimally

2011-04-24T19:26:00.004-05:00

untitled

songbird chasing a hawk

2011-04-22T06:10:00.003-05:00

shot with a VistaQuest VQ1005 keychain camera

morning in america

2011-04-22T06:02:00.002-05:00

shot with a VistaQuest VQ1005 keychain camera

good friday

2011-04-22T06:00:00.003-05:00

photo du jour

2010-06-22T06:47:00.001-05:00

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...

2010-02-13T11:15:00.011-06:00

The world is fairly abuzz about Google's entry into social media, "Buzz". Well, my sad little world is, anyway.

Clever name, "Buzz"... as in "I'll give you a 'buzz'" (that's 'I'll call you', circa 1964)... or "I've got a buzz going" ...or "You're such a buzz-kill".

Bees buzz, and of course they're busy and industrious and the quintessential metaphor used by kindergarten teachers to extole the virtues of hard work, brown-nosing and and not bucking the system.

So Google chose the name well.

Unlike FaceBook, Buzz is an elegant, streamlined way to communicate with friends and associates, to share photos or videos or links, or just keep in touch. I'd expect no less from the ubergeeks at Google. One of my kvetches about FaceBook -- and there are several -- is that it isn't user friendly. The site apparently wasn't designed, but haphazardly thrown together.

But Buzz is not without its faults. Like FaceBook, there are security issues. You have to dig into your profile and disable some defaults to prevent anybody and everybody from mining your contacts and followers. These sites should be secure and private by default, not the other round. Major fu¢k-up there.

And, Buzz dumps new buzzes into your "Inbox". SAY WHAT?! My Inbox is already bloated. Supposedly there's a fix for that (yet to see how well that works) but that's something that shouldn't need to be fixed in the first place.

And finally unlike FaceBook, MySpace and Linkdin which connect you with the world, Buzz connects you with anybody who may happen to have a G-Mail account. Hmm... good luck competing with other social media sites, Google.

I've always thought that social media are a good idea in principle, so I'm truly sad that FaceBook, MySpace and Linkdin suck. Maybe Google will get it right with Buzz someday, but they're not there yet.

you and thee

2010-02-12T06:01:00.020-06:00

I like English. I do, in spite of it's infuriating idiosyncratic spelling. Bob Dylan and Bill Shakespeare and James Joyce managed to do great things with it. Having been distilled from a half dozen or so other languages and cultural influences, it boasts a richer cache of adjectives than any of its European counterparts.

And it has never stopped growing, like flab on Oprah. Wherever it has been planted on the globe, the "Mother Tongue" has flourished into a uniquely beautiful variant… I love what the Irish and the

Americans of Appalachia have done for it!

Yes, this little island and its language have done great things for world culture. My only regret is that Modern English dropped the formal and familiar forms of address.

Most languages have a formal and familiar form of "you". English once did (you: formal; thee or thou: familiar). The two "you's" (not to be confused wit' "youse") were a quick and convenient way of placing distance between people. Calling somebody "you" rather than "thee" was often a sign of deference, but not necessarily. It indicated that "I respect you enormously"; or, "I'm not going to pretend to like you since I don't know you ...let's wait and see."; or "The more I learn about you, the less I want to get to know you better ...let's keep our distance."

All of these are useful. Let's face it, though, the latter meaning is the most useful one. Some people you just never can respect, no matter what.

free wine, beer and cheese!

2010-01-28T10:41:00.001-06:00

one person show

2009-12-03T08:21:00.006-06:00

My latest show is up at The Colonie, 610 N. Fairbanks, Chicago. It's a muy cool space, a video production studio with a very large airy, well lit reception area. My work will be up from December '09 til March '10. Stop in anytime during business hours to have a look. A reception will be held in mid January, exact date to be determined.

I'm showing twenty-four of my Shuffled Channel pieces.

self portrait with webster

2009-12-03T08:18:00.000-06:00

primordial ooze

2009-08-21T07:54:00.002-05:00

VistaQuest VQ 1005 key chain camera

formal portrait

2009-08-04T07:15:00.002-05:00

toy camera

2009-07-31T06:48:00.014-05:00

Images shot with a VistaQuest VQ 1005, which retails for a little over $30.

Lately i've been shooting a lot with a keychain camera. (I mean this sucker is literally a keychain fob that fits in my pocket!) I really do like the crudeness. The strange color. The dark vignette. The soft focus. The wavy plastic disk that is the lens.

Maybe I like it because I'm not really a photographer as much as I am a guy with a camera. I began as a painter, became a graphic designer, then digital photo retoucher and recently (when digital photography became affordable for the non commercial snap shooter) I began making personal art with a camera for the first time since college. Honestly, I wouldn't bother with art photography if it still meant stumbling around in a darkroom.

The uncertainty of toy camera photography appeals to me. The exploitation of chance has been key to my art for a while now, and with the keychain camera — as I squint through the tiny viewfinder — I never know exactly what I will get in the end. The contrast will be either harsh or flat, the colors usually bizarre. It's predictably unpredictable and I like that.
###

Polaroids

2009-07-23T12:09:00.015-05:00

These were shot with a Polaroid 690 camera. The 690 is a later variant of the folding model SX-70 — one of the most elegantly engineered cameras ever made, in my opinion.

These shots began as a lark, simply following an impulse. Images from glossy magazines were cut, torn, crumbled and folded into sculptural shapes, and then shot in dim artificial light. The blur from the unsteady hand-held camera and the shallow depth of field made for some interesting and unpredictable results.

Given the accidental nature of the process many images were just uninteresting and I discarded them. A number of the surviving shots became the studies for some of my paintings. Many of the photos have been damaged and/or discarded over time. In hindsight that was foolish and careless of me; I had always thought they are interesting images in their own right. Anyway, as I find more of these in the clutter of my studio, I'll scan them and post them.

Aedelryd

2009-07-16T04:46:00.003-05:00

Madonna and Child in Blue

2009-07-14T09:30:00.027-05:00

This is based upon a commission that never happened. I did a study for a madonna for an Episcopal Church — "Our Lady of Walsingham". It was a straightforward naturalistic image (no halos, doves, what have you) just a universal image of a mother and child. They didn't buy it. I saved the study and adapted the image to my current aesthetic.

(Click on image to see larger)

____________________________________

A while ago I was listening to a BBC radio interview with the late painter Francis Bacon. Bacon was asked about some of his figures being enclosed by what appeared to be either cages or glass boxes (cubes delineated by single strokes of white paint). The interviewer asked him to expand on the symbolism.

Bacon replied that there was nothing to expand upon. There was no symbolism to the "cages", rather they are merely compositional devices, a means of focusing the viewers' eyes on the subject.

That struck a chord with me. In college I learned to use compositional grids; ideal methods of dividing space, of creating frameworks of sorts upon which to "hang" pictorial elements and direct the viewers' eyes. I have used these grids for much of my work since then. Bacon's comment inspired a different way of using these grids. Recently I have been making the grids visible elements of the composition. So it was that I took Bacon's effective cheap trick and made it into my own, slightly more expensive trick.

One ironic element is the Mogen David enclosing the child's head. (I've traced it more clearly in the detail on the right.) This was the (welcome) result of a happy accident. I didn't set

out to paint a Jewish madonna, the star just became apparent as I traced the grid lines.

A NOTE ABOUT RELIGION

I'm not religious, at least not in any conventional way. It's just that I am fascinated by Baroque and Mannerist art, which is very often religious. So it is that my riffs on the Baroque often have religious titles. And by the way, Carravagio — the ultimate Baroque Master — was something less than a holy roller (to put it mildly).

Photo du Jour

2009-07-08T16:03:00.002-05:00

Photo du Jour

2009-06-09T07:54:00.004-05:00

The New Website

2009-06-09T07:17:00.007-05:00

…is up and running. Or maybe strolling. I'm still trying to tweak the functions, which mostly means looking for somebody other than me who can modify the code, cuz I sure as hell can't. Sigh…

johngrantner.com
###

OOH... That's SO edgy!

2009-04-04T18:12:00.010-05:00

NOW I GET IT. THIS IS WHAT THE TERM
"STREET ARTIST" MEANS…

…DOING THE WINDOW GRAPHICS
FOR SAKS FIFTH AVENUE!

Martha and Marian

2008-12-13T12:14:00.001-06:00

Martha and Marian, originally uploaded by photograntner.

# # #

A Lament For My Right hand

2008-11-27T11:19:00.009-06:00

ON THIS, THE DAY OF THE RITE OF THE BLOATED FOWL, I MUST PAUSE AND ASK THE CREATOR... HEY! W.T.F?!

RECENTLY AN ANCIENT INJURY WAS AGGRAVATED (I THINK... MORE ON THAT IN A BIT) CRIPPLING MY RIGHT HAND. NOW I FIND THAT I CAN'T USE PENS, PENCILS, COMPUTER MOUSES, CAMERAS OR FORKS -- IN SHORT, THE MOST IMPORTANT INSTRUMENTS IN MY LIFE. HENCE THE ANNOYING "CAPS LOCK" AS I TYPE MOSTLY LEFT-HANDED.

WHEN I WAS BUT A WEE URCHIN -- MAYBE 3 OR 4 YEARS OLD -- PLAYING IN THE STREET, I REACHED FOR A PIECE OF BROKEN GLASS BOTTLE (CUZ IT LOOKED SO SHINEY AND INTERESTING) AND CUT MY HAND SEVERELY ACROSS THE INNER PART OF THE THUMB. SINCE THEN, THAT THUMB HAS BEEN STIFF, HAVING ONLY PARTIAL MOVEMENT AT THE BASE WHER IT MEETS TH PALM. I HAD ALWYS ASSUMED THAT THE ACCIDENT HAD SEVERED A TENDON.

FAST FORWARD TO ABOUT A WEEK AGO... I'M MOUNTING PHOTOS FOR AN UPCOMING SHOW, BURNISHING WITH A SQUEEGEE-TYPE IMPLEMENT WHEN -- SNAP! -- I HEARD AN AUDIBLE "POP" AND FELT A SEVERE, STRANGE PAION IN THE SAME THUMB. IT FELT (FEELS) AS THO THE THUMB IS BEING BENT BACKWARDS, AND TRYING TO USE THE RIGH HAND CAUSES SEVERE PAIN TO SHHOT FROM THE THUMB AND THRUOUT THE HAND. QUITE A DRAG AS I'M RIGHT-HANDED.

I'M SCHEDULED TO SEE A HAND SURGEON NEXT TUESDAY, WHEN I'LL GET THE FULL PICTURE OF WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT'S NEXT.

# # #

Photo du Jour

2008-11-27T10:38:00.007-06:00

Photo du Jour

2008-10-06T13:18:00.002-05:00

Smoker's World

Photo du Jour

2008-09-29T08:29:00.001-05:00

Suburban Decay

RIP...

2008-09-27T10:45:00.002-05:00

...Paul Newman. A sort of former-day Johnny Depp, he. Matinee idol handsome, but a talented actor, loved and respected by critics and public alike. He'll be missed.

Was never fond of his salad dressing, though.

Running in the Family

2008-09-06T12:12:00.023-05:00

Insanity runs in that family. And by runs I mean runs like Carl Lewis after having had a heaping bowl of steroids for breakfast. I can't tell if it's psychopathy or paranoid schizophrenia. To me those neuroses seem to overlap, but then I'm not a psychiatrist. However, you don't need to be a psychiatrist to see that something is very wrong with them mentally and emotionally, just like you don't need to be a geologist to recognize a mountain.

Delusions abound. Delusions of grandeur and persecution, and just an overall propensity to believe only what they wish to believe, to hear only what they wish to hear. Their grip on reality is tenuous.

They are always right, always. And not just right, as in "correct", but always in-the-right… that is to say righteous. They will hold a position against all comers, with no allies, because it is Right in the universal, transcendental metaphysical sense of Rightness. Never mind that the rest of Humanity says they're mistaken or obsessing about a trifle, because God knows that the rest of Humanity is wrong and inferior and jealous of their superiority.

The insults they suffer are somehow never slight — they're dastardly outrages, I tells'ya! — even though they may seem to be slight, or even perfectly innocuous, to you or me. You and I just don't see it… they are superior so of course, everybody is against them. And to "wrong" them (whether or not one is aware of actually doing so) is to incur a grudge, and they grip their grudges tightly and forever.

Which leads to the cruelty. To a casual observer their cruelty seems pointless, sadistic, cruelty merely for cruelty's sake. Ah, but there's a purpose to it. The cruelty is a tactic; a defensive aggression against those who have wronged them, or certainly will wrong them.

Yes, a rare bunch, that family. I don't know what would cause so much lunacy to be floating around in one gene pool. Is the cause genetic? Is it cultural? Chemical? All of the above? Whatever the cause, the lunacy is unmistakably there. Believe me. I'm right, and anybody who says I'm wrong is an idiot!

###

Photoshoperrific

2008-09-05T09:31:00.004-05:00

My execution (pardon the painful pun) of a friend's concept. Graphics for a CD cover for Mafia Princess: The Musical.

Owed to a Common Man

2008-09-04T12:25:00.004-05:00

My late daddy. A long life poorly spent, there. I don't know if he would agree. Or his other children. I've been reminded often that Dad freely made his own choices and I can't deny that. Nevertheless, a life poorly spent is how I see it. Especially lately.

Lately I've been perusing old photos and seeing some of my dad in the brief second chapter of his life. Chapter One was miserable, an utterly Dickensian childhood. Chapter Two was Joe, the happy-go-lucky young dandy, drinking deeply from the cup of life [he's at the right in this photo]. Chapter Three was Joe the husband and father; provider; workhorse; responsible, self effacing and self sacrificing to a fault; and yet oddly distant from most of his progeny.

Only in Chapter Two (to me, anyway, looking at the old photos) does Joe look really happy. I mean really.

An Old World man born in the New World, he followed the familiar Old World pattern of fatherhood, the one that he too suffered under as a child: that is, Number One Son is all important; Baby child is doted upon; everybody in between is superfluous.

I don't fault him. After all, like all of us he is the product of his upbringing and sociocultural milieu. And also because I see much of him in me.
###