Chris Simonite's Cubo-Weirdism Blog! A Blog about Chris Simonite's Art by Chris Simonite. Who the Hell else?

A few weeks ago I mentioned that "next week" I was going to blog about some news I was keeping under my hat. If you're a regular reader of this here blog here, you probably don't remember that. Because, now that I think about it, it was more than a just a few weeks ago. Anyway, I am ready to announce. Here goes. Well, actually, a little background first. Sorry, I might as well build some tension here. Or something… A couple of years ago I had a piece (Not Just Some Dude–my portrait of The Dude from The Big Lebowski) in a group show at a commercial gallery in New York called Van Der Plas Gallery. Van Der Plas has been doing group shows featuring artists such as myself from around the world in a series they call All Art+. They have shown the work of hundreds of artists since they debuted this series of exhibitions. A few months ago I got an email asking if I'd like to participate in an exhibition featuring some of their favourite artists that they had shown. So of course, I was honoured to find out that I was one their ten favourites! So here is the actual announcement. I am in exhibition 'at' Van Der Plas Gallery entitled All Art+ Standouts, A Virtual Showcase, which runs from March 26th to May 26th. [...]

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the fact that there are not really any celebrity artists anymore. Of course there are celebrities that are regularly referred to as artists–I'm looking at you pop music world. And side note, I've actually met visual artists who resent that use of the term for people who are not part of the contemporary art world. But to them I say: "get over it!" Art is everywhere. But anyway, as I said in that blog post, I can't think of a single living contemporary artist (or fine artist if you prefer) that is a bona fide household name. But someone did point out to me that Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso are not the most recent artists who fit that description. That honour falls to Andy Warhol. Duh! How did I forget Warhol? Well, my excuse is that I write these blog posts in the morning and mornings are not my best brain-time. Anyway, this post is not about Warhol (although I did do a painting of him, which I'll post to social media on Thursday). This post is about an artist who was a friend and collaborator of Warhol's: one Jean-Michel Basquiat. [...]

Here in my hometown, as well as much of the world, it seems that government mandated anti-COVID measures are relaxing. So I'm sure sure you, dear reader(s) are wondering what that means for the the founder of Cubo-Weirdism, yours truly. For example, you might ask something like: "does this mean his painting production will slow down? Please say it ain't so!". Well, the answer to that question is: maybe. You see on Sunday evening I did something that I haven't done in over two years. I went to a film set to work as a background performer, or what was previously known as an "extra". This is something I was doing to supplement my income in pre-pandemic times here in fabulous Hollywood North, aka Winnipeg. Basically it's a Hollywood with really cold weather and no palm trees. And no fancy studio tours. Also, they don't shoot sitcoms here, although even that is not unheard of. Okay, it's not Hollywood anything, but apparently it's cost effective for some movies and TV shows to film here, so occasionally I get some work. [...]

A couple of weeks ago I decided to do a painting of Picasso, a subject I had been generally avoiding. I mean, I've been making paintings with obvious Picasso influence for quite some time, so I don't really know why I was avoiding him as a subject. It's true that Picasso was an awful person who would likely have been 'cancelled' in the 21st Century, but somehow, maybe because he is considered to be a product of his time, he is still largely revered. Before I painted the Picasso, I did a portrait of Frida Kahlo, mainly because she was not only a great painter, but she is extremely recognizable due to the fact that her main subject matter was herself. In fact, don't be surprised if I do another one of her in the future because, what a great face! And I also have to say, I don't feel a little bit bad about myself when I choose Kahlo as a subject the way I do with Picasso. After I did the Picasso, I decided that there is another extremely recognizable, long dead artist that I should paint. Love him or hate him, Salvado Dali had a great face his own self! I mean, even without that moustache that would be a great face. But that moustache! No one who is/was not an interesting character would have that moustache. Okay, if I saw someone with that 'stache today, I would probably think something like, "that's a weird dude". But deep down I'd know that person is a character. I will also say that I enjoy Dali's work, though he is not my favourite of the Surrealists. That honour goes to René Magritte, but I won't paint him, because–well–does anyone even know what the hell he looked like without googling? [...]

In this week's Cubo-Weirdist blog post, I'm going to talk about something I do that is not Cubo-Weirdist at all. As you know from following me here and on social media, weird Cubist inspired paintings are pretty obviously what I want to spend all my time doing. I suppose that is, until something else comes along. But who knows? Maybe I'll be like Giorgio Morandi and keep painting similar subjects for the rest of my career? I'm open to possibilities but I'm also obsessed, so we'll see what happens. Anyway, as obsessed as I am, there are other things I like to do, although they so often have something to do with drawing or painting faces. I've always been fascinated with that activity. For as long as I can remember faces were pretty much all I was interested in drawing. I was never interested in drawing objects, or even the bodies to which faces seem so often to be attached. If you've ever seen my comic strip Gorilla in the Midst, you might notice that the faces are the best part. [...]