Artist Julie Mehretu's awe-inspiring mural for Goldman Sachs in New York

Goldman Sachs commissioned an enormous abstract mural for their new office building in New York by the artist Julie Mehretu, for a wall inside that’s visible to the outside through wall-sized glass windows.

I read with interest because I want to know how it feels to paint without reference material with as much passion as I feel when I’m using reference. When I’ve tried it, I cover a surface as randomly as I can with shape, color, and line – not thinking, just letting it happen. I hide that painting from myself for a while. When I look at it again, within it I might see an arrangement that would look well in a finished work. The results get fairly good responses, but I wonder how other abstract painters feel when working.

It turns out that Mehretu does use her enormous collection of references, anything and everything that she thinks might work down the road, all of which she converts to abstractions. What interested me was how she paints in layers. Some layers contain her interpretation of the references, others intricate line work, still others shapes of very bright colors. Sometimes she sands down the final layer(s) and finds what she’s looking for in the way of a work of art. Most important to me is how powerfully her work speaks to her intuitively, how it tells her what to do next.

“Mural” is an ocean of abstract shapes, lines, suggestions of architecture and things related. Looking at the reproduction in the magazine, I felt as though the elements were carrying me along with them at great speed, reminding me of what happens when I’m Scuba diving a short distance above the bottom of the ocean floor, when the current is strong.

The link to the article doesn’t show the mural, so I’d recommend looking at it in the March 29, 2010 issue of the New Yorker; the article, by Calvin Tomkins, is titled "Big Art, Big Money". If I took a photo or a screen grab of it to post here, that would not do it justice.

Watching Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are"

Here are some thoughts while I watched Spike Jonze’s movie “Where the Wild Things Are”. A good, satisfying dream world requires a lot of work, whether you need it for escape, or for ideas for your own art.

To escape from the struggles of your real life, you create a dream world, and launch yourself there. Your breakaway is exhilarating. You transport yourself to a place that you can manipulate to satisfy your emotional needs. Sadly, all your dream world has to draw on is your experience in real life. Stay too long in the dream world, and it will begin to deliver scenarios and objects similar to those you are trying to escape. To improve your dream world you must improve what you experience in life.

“Where the Wild Things Are”, a fascinating movie by Spike Jonze, is about the dream world of a boy named Max. His real life is typically American: his single mother struggles to support his sister and him, and apparently to find a new father to replace the one from whom she is divorced.

Over the phone, Max’s mother hears that she has to re-write a report for work and have it ready the first thing the next morning. Watch her canoodle with a date in the living room. Max fails to get her to come up to his bedroom and climb into his rocket ship made of blankets and lamps.

Instead Mom wants to prepare dinner. Max, dressed in a wolf costume, and Mom fight. Max runs out of the house into the dark night. Still a “wolf”, he commandeers a little sailboat for two nights and a day until he arrives at a place “Where the Wild Things Are”.

At first, the “Wild Things” look like humans dressed in costumes like Max’s. But these beings, each a unique fantasy creature, are enormous. Their apparent costume features are their actual features. This movie deserves a rave review for its special effects alone. To protect himself from the creatures, Max spins a yarn about power he’s demonstrated in another world. The creatures crown him their king, and all goes well for an enjoyable, rollicking while.

Sadly, Max’s experiences of humans in his real life intrude. Jealousy among the creatures results in a serious fight. They inform Max that they realize that he’s a fake king. When he confesses, the gig is up. Everybody realizes it’s time for him to return to his real world.

Whether or not Max is able to infuse his dream world with new ideas is left up to our imagination. The ending is promising in that regard. Left up to my imagination is whether or not this film will inspire me to create new kinds of animations. The movie’s influences on me need time to gestate. Already: how can I best depict the fight and the resolution? Sounds promising already.