Notebook 1981 and 1982

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Rummaging Through
 Rummaging through my color box there is a Green G. must be fifty years old -- G.George

I find women more like a man. I find men more like women.

There is an easel in my color box with its H-shaped foot.

I still fall over my easel with its H-shaped foot after twenty-five years of working at it.

Nobody in the world is willing to leave well enough alone.

I want to mention spirits, but my voices say, don't.

When in Provence Jeffrey Smart visited Cezanne's studio, which is said to be exactly the same way it always was. There was a palette, an easel, and it all looked as though Cezanne had just gone away for a while. The guide who showed Jeffrey through the studio was a woman, and as Jeffrey talked to her, he realized it was Cezanne's daughter. As the sun started to leave the sky, and while Jeffrey sat in Cezanne's studio talking, and gazing at a bowl of apples placed on the table between the guide and him, he had a moment in which he lost time and identity. 

If I do mention spirits, I want to first let it be known that we make no difference to spirits, that they make no difference to us. We make our difference.

***
Mary O'Connell
Think of her who goes first and foremost to the rescue of the vanishing moment in the movements she designs for her dancers.

***
Rummaging through my color box.
There is one palette-knife in my life. There is another that I got in Paris in 1966, but I use it for transferring paint not for mixing because the one I always use has more spring, and is very sharp.

Mannerly
Black hair and blond eyes

***

Gra-ham, not graim
My love is not like a red red rose

A prism has ROYGBIV
Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet

***
Imagine a very large warehouse filled with all sorts of things -- pictures of every description, musical scores for symphonies and dances and hymns, machines, tools, boats, houses, statues, vases, books of poetry and prose, furniture and clothing, newspapers, postage stamps, flowers, trees, stones, musical instruments.

You cannot identify something witty by any necessary attributes of it, for the same line in one context can be witty there but not in another, so that it would be pointless to try to memorize a number of witty lines unless one also remembers the context of their utterance, which may never arise again.

At a certain time in life it happens that upon reaching for something there is a miss, and it must be reached for again, and sometimes again.

At a certain time in life it happens that upon reaching for something there is a miss and it must be reached for again, and sometimes again.

Friday, January 1, 1982
Lentils -- here
Saturday, January 2, 1982
Reading of Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans
Sunday, January 3, 1982
Date with Ellen Robbins
Monday, January 4, 1982
Dinner with Hugo Niehaus
Tuesday, January 5, 1982
Dinner with Rose Dreyer, Scottie Snyder
Wednesday, January 5, 1982
1982

Sunlight on concrete
How not to be mainstream
New Vermeer; Arthur Wheelock, Abrams
F is for Hot Soup
Galveston to Vincennes
Plastic Arts
Whatever you do is only as good as you are
Wall with Details
Roll Over Beethoven

Plastic Arts
1. Tossing wadded paper into plastic receptacles is not possible. The plastic receptacles cannot catch.
2. Plastic cannot be torn. It can only tear on its own.
3. Plastic bags are always upside down but right-side up if you know this.
4. Plastic cannot be destroyed except by burning.
5. Plastic is not paper nor cloth nor wood nor glass.

Roll Over Beethoven
In the 1950s Beethoven was taken seriously. So seriously that there was never a smile while Beethoven music was played or talked about. Since Roll Over Beethoven and Tell Tchaikovsky the News, things have eased up. It is good to know that one day Wagner too will only be an era.

From Galveston to Vincennes
Aunt Rene wants to go to California.
Orville wants to go to Hawaii.
Mary O'Connell wants to go to Canada.
JoAnne Akalaitis wants to go to Nova Scotia.
Ronald Vance wants to stay in New York.
Selma Schulze wants to go to Timbuktu.
Jane Yockel wants to go to Rochester's girls.
Craig Massey wants to go to Washington D.C.
Hugo Niehaus wants to go to San Francisco.
Fr. Hilary wants to go to Israel.
Laura Myrtle wants to go to Knoxville.
Scottie Snyder wants to go to Paris.
Ellen McElduff wants to go to Broadway.
David Vaughan wants to go to London.
Barbara Roan wants to go around the world.
Ellen Robbins wants to go to Hoboken.
June Cassell wants to go to British Columbia.
Robert Goler wants to go and live in a teepee.
Reagan Upshaw wants to go to Italy.
Marcia Marcus wants to go to Provincetown.

Do women like this Proust, as well as men?

They are always talking of nouns. I learned that the real thing in a language is the verb. Lately I have been very involved with predicates.

Once I knew a young man named MacKay. He did many different things and among them one was a gentleman who would call on him and give MacKay a $100.00 bill after some sexual entertainment. MacKay called the man Weegie for some reason. This was in New York on West 71st street, right off Central Park West. I was visiting MacKay, very curious about Weegie, when Weegie telephoned. MacKay told me to stay until Weegie rang, then slip downstairs and get a glimpse of Weegie as he came up. I could return in an hour.

Before we knew it, Mackay's buzzer rang. He waited for it to ring again, telling me he wants to make Weegie a little anxious. I then descended the stairs. This was a five-storey brownstone, MacKay was on four. I was well below the 4th floor before I heard someone coming up the stairs and hardly glanced at him as we passed one another. He had a man's hat on and was in a gray suit, not a remarkable look anywhere on him, and about sixty years old.

In those days waiting an hour for something else to do was tedious. I went to the New York Historical Society and tried burying myself in American history and tried to think I was thinking, but was much too curious about other things like MacKay and Weegie. Finally an hour and more passed. I telephoned MacKay who told me to hurry back to his apartment.

When I got to the apartment, indeed there was a $100.00 bill lying on the coffee table and a MacKay pretending to have been fulfilled. We talked about all of this, and MacKay said what Weegie was mostly curious about was the man he passed on the stairs on his way up to MacKay. 

***
The best of blue and the clearest of yellow do not make green when mixed together in pigment. It's a good idea.

Swear Suave Despair

I don't live in a penthouse. I don't suffer from a view.

When she said it was inevitable it had already passed.

A pen that writes on ice.

A prism does not show the colors of the spectrum in candle light.

Is looking for work your day's work.

I'm tired of this suave despair.

What did Dinah Shore do?
The man with chicken shit
Carrots with tops

Billion, not biwion
take, not bring
Botanic, not botanical

Graham, not graim
one leg, not one leg missing
jack-off, not jerk-off
dead, not passed on
house, not home
heads, not tail
honest, not honestly
water heater, not hot water heater
a question, not an answer
Fresh Squeezed, not Freshly
Whenever possible purchase carrots with green tops still attached. They stay crisp longer.

***
There was a man named Europe Lane who was an old man when I met him with my father when I was a child. None of us was used to the name Europe. In fact, when his wife died the obituaries read, "leaving a husband in Europe."

There were lots of stories about Europe Lane and his family of three boys who were the same age as my father. The boys played tricks on Europe and anyone around who could be set up for a reason to be laughed at. It was only to do with who could be laughed at by whom.

It goes like this: if one has become the butt of a prank more than once, that one is the one to be tricked again, until that one gets angry and does more than his usual personality allows.

When I first began to see I got confused because I was always looking at my nose. 

I don't live with you in Connecticut.

Still Life express to Venice

standing at the sink
drinking a glass of water
thinking which tuna fish
can this is.
While in the elevator I thought of standing at the sink drinking a glass of water and thinking which tuna fish can this is.
My love is not like a red red rose.
Do women like this Proust?
I don't live in a penthouse,
I don't suffer from a view.
A prism does not show colors of the spectrum in candle light.

On the escalator at 53rd Street all of the screw heads are lined up and go the same way. Order.

Ed Burns says that when he worked on publishing the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook in French, the French said, "Who would want to buy a cookbook in France?"
Inventing recipes is not the way to cook. Cooking comes from what is available at that season, and what is available in the country. Apple pie is not so good in France.

Hey, Nurse, I'm worse,
Hey nurse I'm worse.
It was neither Henry or Bruce and most before we know it, we'll give our secrets
way.
Peas porridge is foul.
February has been hell.

Undercoat thin and very pale, chalky "pastel shades"

***
For some effects there is an advantage in using a cool or warm shade of the same hue.

The brilliant red draperies of old paintings are made by applying glaze of some lake such as madder over a strong tint of vermilion.

Blue skies were under painted with pale yellow or pink.

Sometimes flesh was completely modeled in cool monotone, then given lifelike transparent glaze green earth and white, or a full range of colors.

Model landscapes with burnt sienna and white, overpainting local hues with glaze.

Hey Nurse, I'm Worse
Here I want to mention spirits, but my voices say don't.

If I do mention spirits, let it be known that we make no difference to spirits, that they make no difference to us. We make our differences.

At a certain time in life it happens that on reaching for something there is a miss, and it must be reached for again, and sometimes again.

At a certain time in life it happens that on reaching for something there is a miss, and it must be reached for again, and sometimes again.

Find women more like men
find men more like women.

Imagine a very large warehouse filled with all sorts of things -- pictures of every description, musical scores for symphonies and dances and hymns, machines, tools, boats, houses, statues, vases, books of poetry and prose, furniture and clothing, newspapers, postage stamps, flowers, trees, stones, musical instruments.

Do women like this Proust as well as men?

Inventing recipes is not cooking. Cooking comes from what is available. sometimes at that season, sometimes in that country. Apple pie is not so good in France. 

My love is not like a red red rose.

Standing at the sink drinking a glass of water thinking which tuna can this is.

Waiting for the elevator thinking of standing at the sink drinking a glass of water. Thinking of drinking a glass of water. On a one-way street corner counting how many cars, trucks and buses can get through a green light. In the subway on an escalator at 53rd and Fifth, all of the screw heads are lined up to go in the same direction. Walking through the house looking for a scissors. After all the honey is gone, then what. It isn't really necessary to clean the oven, ever. Dishes are made to stack more than to lean upright. Let the cold water run until it's cold. Don't let the hot water run. It's difficult to try and remember what was thought while waiting for a green light on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 14th Street. Sometime take the labels off tuna fish cans and stack two or three different brands together. There are usually seventeen steps in a public  stairway then a rest. We always thought Debussy was like Monet.

Truly Green Crazy
When painting clouds, Maxfield Parrish used cobalt blue, emerald green, titanium white, Indian yellow, and rose madder. These oil colors were used as glazes. His skies are idealized, but all painted skies are idealized. Clouds must be made up.

I couldn't find anybody 
but that really wasn't the point.

Bernadette is now an Irish name.

Life on the crater.

Booking is square.

Arriving has nothing to do with it.

***

Leos start off the month of June with a huge surge of initiative! You may be tempted to take up some very old projects, rework them, and put them into action. This is a most profitable way to spend the first half of the month and should give you a deep sense of satisfaction. From the 18th to the 26th, you'll be feeling particularly strong -- especially on the 20th and the 21st. From the 26th to the 30th, charm a new admirer.

Just the mention of wanting to hear the overture to "Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg" made us friends for life.

Upon ironing a white shirt hit all the seams but don't linger.

My sister, when we were young, and women came to visit, asked if she could look through their purses. The ladies always visited in the room where the couch was and the men visited in another room where the radio was. There were some men who visited but would not take their coats and even their hats off.

Those who grew up in the city let water run all the while they do dishes.

Talk about good and not good paintings.

Con Edison telephoned to say the bill they sent is being worked on. The next meter reading (July 21-22) will be reading the meter, and checking to see if it is correct.

TO OPEN

SPOKES SLIDE
UPON A POLE
INSIDE
THE PARASOL

Samuel Menashe

Fresh Fish Soup
Giving a cat a bit of string to play with is usually not interesting to the cat unless the string is taken away.

The same happens to babies, which are often indifferent to any toy or object given them until it's time to be taken away.

Is it the same involuntary quirk when one hears the sound of a motor at the moment it shuts off?

In meditation, if there is an unexpected distraction, the mantra increases as though it was under water and out of breath.

Next, my basil plant, when I pinch off the leaf the result is always two new leaves sprout. 

Are these reactions all the same?

Is this a moment of survival force?

The Three Pigs

Once there were three pigs so gay
deedel doedel dum dum dorey,
They took off from home one day,
Oh, you've often heard this story.
They kissed their mother dear goodbye,
And promised her that they would try
To make a fortune or else die,
The three little piggies.

The first pig met a man with straw,
deedell deedell dum dum dorey
He asked him for some straw to build
A little house with just one storey.
The man gave him the straw right then,
enough to build a nice pig-pen,
And then he went his way again,
the first little piggie.

The second pig met a man with wood,
deedell deedell dum dum dorey
He asked him for some wood to build
A little house with just one storey.
The man gave him the wood without delay,
the second pig took the wood away,
And built a house that very day,
the second little piggie.

The third pig met a man with bricks
deedell deedell dum dum dorey
He asked him for some bricks
To build a little house with just one storey,
He knew his house was big and strong,
He knew that he would get along
and life for him would be a song,
the third little piggie.

The big bad wolf then came one day
deedell deedell dum dum dorey
He blew the straw and wood away,
It's the sad part of the story,
Then he ate pigs one and two,
the third pig knew just what to do,
He killed the wolf and saved the two
Hurrah for the three little piggies!

When I was at the dentist having my teeth cleaned, the woman cleaning my teeth was alone with me in a small clean, sanitary looking room. A man came into the room. He looked like a dentist with a white smock and graying hair, eye glasses, and a shirt and tie under his white smock.
I hadn't noticed the small, somewhat hidden door left of the dental chair I was in. In this situation I was lying back, almost horizontal, and although my eyes were open I could only see the ceiling clearly. I only got a glimpse of the man dentist who walked in and he opened and went through the small door without saying anything.
The task of cleaning my teeth continued and little was said to me; nothing about the man who went through the door.
After some time I heard the sound of large tin cans being arranged or re-arranged, and sometimes kicked. They all sounded empty and easy to move. The only thing I could associate this sound with was something dental, the tins were holding selections of teeth.

To always try to never split an infinitive.

***

Consider the lily

Concert: (July 23, 1982, Bennington)
To Open

Da Da Da

Tear Jerker solo

Montessori solo

Bennington, July 23, Friday

Painter who lives in New York
A Quotation artist who quotes in his painting familiar masterpieces. He uses a lot of Vermeer, the 17th century Dutch artist.

Deem's work is seen throughout the U.S. and Europe. A recent showing of 20th century images of George Washington was presented at the Fraunces Tavern Museum in NYC. Deem is also showing in the recent traveling exhibition, " (Contemporary) American Realism since 1960" which opened at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Painter living in New York City. A Quotation Artist who uses images from other paintings in his paintings. Works mostly in oil on canvas and with the images of Vermeer 17th century Dutch painter.

Deem's work is seen throughout the USA and Europe in museums and collections. Deem showed at an exhibition recently at the Fraunces tavern Museum in the Wall Street area of New York City in an exhibition20th Century Images of George washington. Also at the recent exhibition "(Contemporary) American Realism since 1960," a traveling exhibition which opened at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

***

Faculty Dance Concert

Four works choreographed and performed by guest artist George Deem with Ellen Robbins.

also
a work by Michael Kaspar in collaboration with Laura  Goldfaber guitar

Friday, July 23, 7PM
Martha Hill Theater

Music: Alexander Tansman
written in 1968

***

"I thought I knew you."
He shaved his head.
"Do we all look alike?"
"For a moment."

***
The main color of Maxfield Parrish's skies was cobalt blue thinned just slightly with linseed oil. But cobalt is a trifle on the harsh side, so when dry and varnished, he would put on a thin glaze of emerald green, and a trace of titanium white, Indian yellow, and rose madder.

***
I feel when I am entirely within a work of Art where what is is what someone thought it ought to be, if it were going to be, and be itself.

When judging an Art Exhibition, say no first. When nothing works, say maybe.
If you're a painter, give the first prize to a painting.
If you're a sculptor, give the first prize to a sculpture.
Craft is art.

He even told poor little Ted
his bed
was full of bears.

Chances are that if a bumble bee doesn't know it can't fly, it doesn't know its dedication either.

Working with a wizard is
not working with a wizard.
Only home can tell.
Tomorrow is moving in.
Hope and dear.
Tomorrow is diagonal.
Remnants of velvet
and stacks of old clothes
lying near the hay chute.
No hay, it's August when
water is no longer a thrill.

halfway home where's my comb.
I never enjoyed photographs
unless they were of family or friends.

In art school basic painting
is not taught. What is learned
is how to paint for a
long time.

Driving through town
after dark
able to see lighted interiors
through windows
Some envy but plans
to play "Walter's Prize Song"
on the piano very soon at home.

If you life was made into a movie, would now be a good part?

If Sun is the name it's Chinese.
If Moon is the name it's Korean.

The state of Illinois is a huge farm with houses and barns huddled together in a small part of the large square fields.

Don't try to make social or political points in painting. That will come out by itself ,and clearly, if nothing is attempted.

***
I always have a partial Vermeer painted somewhere in case I can alter it.
***
New underpainting tone:
Alizarin crimson
Ultramarine Blue
Indian Yellow.
Makes a brown hue but one can increase each color to turn it the way it's wanted. Ingres has something to do with this mixture. It is purple actually***

In Roman numbers CIVIL = 149 I don't know why

***
Scriabin, the Redon of Music

***

"Are you a famous artist?"
"My name if George Deem."
"D-e-a-n?"
"No, I'm much more famous than that, it's D-e-e-m."

***

I read good writing. I don't read everything I see. I look at the print first and don't read handwriting well. When I read writing that has consideration for words and their placement I read from the beginning.

Maria callas: You can't lie in bed.

Lillian Kiesler has psychic powers but doesn't use them.

I paint paintings because I can't do anything else.
It no longer matters how much sable hairs get out of my brush and remain on my canvas.
Letting paint dry, then repainting, allows me to know where I am.
All an artist need do is the art.
Muzak is music that doesn't interrupt workers.

***

When the first settlers arrived in Connecticut it was 1639. Vermeer was seven years old.

***

Benny Andrews says that his painting looks brighter than expected when he puts white around the colors. They are brighter than they are.

***

Lillian Kiesler was once the Director of the Hans Hofmann painting school.

There are usually seventeen steps in public stairways, then a rest.

Let your nails breathe for a week.
Jewels and gin.
Her eyes were bigger in the mirror.
Don't you love yourself
when you're with me.
God is too high up to hear.
Spirits as I know them; they
are short and can be seen
peripherally or when eyes are down.
They are seen in trees, on
shelves, they scoot through space
and do not necessarily fly.

How to Gain Weight
Every movement of the
jaw adds a calorie.
Heavy people talk more than
thin people.
talk
not to mention chewing gum.
Gritting teeth is not
for weight watchers.

Genre
manners and character
of those events that comprise
day to day existence the truth of life

Things that are never told
Painting medium, regardless how much it is thinned, is never thin enough. The brush must be refreshed in turpentine at certain times to keep the flow constant.

The difference between men and women is exactly opposite from women and men.
There is a difference between summer and summertime.

Fig newtons have changed over the years, but falling leaves haven't.

The only reason artists paint comes in tubes is that the paint never touches air and can be usable for years.

Hairdressers look you in the face. Barbers don't, which explains why the sideburns are not level. Barbers form mustaches well.

What is the difference between painting and sculpture.
Carry a post card in your pocket
carry a marble in your pocket,
and figure it out.
***
Animals cannot see through a telescope.

The March winds have come
and everything is fine
March winds come every year
and have become a figure of speech.

I am working here alone
and never liked the telephone
so i work the way I do.

Why is that those who have trouble
hearing always sit in the back of
the lecture.
Why do, when I take books from a shelf,
other books fall out.

Diego Rivera

You can say Matisse
You can say Picasso
You can say Diego Rivera
but you can't say Rivera
Bradley Walker Tomlin,
never Tomlin
Juan Gris
never Gris

I tried painting a Leger
by putting one of his white
and black women with
a Maxfield Parrish landscape
I wanted to show the bold
against the detailed

***

On drawing hands

Draw the middle finger first.
Look at master drawings to
see how drawn hands
look. Raphael shows us what a drawn hand looks like.
It is easy to see.
Da Vinci hands are
all alike. The masters
have a system. Photographed
hands are not the answer.
If a camera distorts, it's first
mistrust is on hands.

Mars Violet

I'd often heard of Mars Violet, but never experienced it until recently.
Mars Violet is not used in America as much as it is in Europe. An American
painter who studies in Europe studies Mars Violet. Jay Milder uses Mars Red.
Richard Estes uses Cadmium Red Purple instead. Think of Picabia
and you will get to Mars Violet. It's a color which looks serious and,
at first use, one finds the difference between the Red Ochers,
the Burnt Siennas, and the Venetian Reds. It is rather French;
serious and certain with no questions. Juan Gris uses mars Violet.
Diego Rivera uses it.

If you paint every day
everything goes your way.

***
May I be they
of they say?
When I was I,
I could fly.
When I was we
we ruled the sea
Now I am they
and they to stay.

There was a time when
I was I
I didn't know what
to do,
then I became you.

You is a school time
You is time to work,
As this comes to be,
You becomes a we.

We is more than one
a couple on the horizon.
I and you and we
become they
that's what they say.

When I was I,
I didn't know
What to do
Then I became
You.

You becomes school time,
the time to
start to work.
So, you becomes a We,
We being more than one,
A couple standing in the sun.



END