You were never really here

Lynne Ramsay’s You were never really here was by far the best of the new films I saw in the last year, unless you consider the Other Side of the Wind a new film, which it may well be, though not entirely new to me.  Ramsay doesn’t get to make many films, though she’s better qualified to do so than all but two or three people now working. You were never really here is her fourth feature in twenty years.  I watched it twice in rapid succession and will likely watch it a third time very soon.  I especially appreciated Judith Robert’s presence as Joe’s mom.  (One may recall her as the beautiful neighbor in Lynch’s Eraserhead, dissolving in a milky pool as she kisses Jack Nance’s Henry.)  Here she serves as the everyday crazed normalcy to which Joe clings.  As for the film’s view of contemporary American politics: it strikes me that it couldn’t be more apt. 

Santa Octopussy & Long Neck Santa

It being Xmas time, it’s a good time for some Santa sculptures by Paul McCarthy.  It’s also appropriate given the upcoming dick, pussy and teat ban on Tumblr as an example of work that is at once thoroughly, even proudly, obscene yet slips under the radar of their new prudery.

Andrew & Daniel model in tandem

Life drawing at Eureka Valley Recreation on Saturday 8 December 2018 with models Andrew Pembroke and Daniel. A third man, Ivan, also modeled for the warm up session and the first long pose but left early for unexplained reasons.  It was great fun drawing a group of figures as opposed to one in isolation.  In this case the first four drawings above are the long poses, thirty minutes each, and the rest were all three minutes.

Goya's Miniatures for his Son's Wedding

This set of miniature portraits by Francisco Goya was painted to celebrate the marriage of his only surviving child, Francisco Javier Goya y Bayeu, to Gumersinda Goicoechea in 1805.  The boy was twenty one years old at the time. The miniatures show his bride’s parents and sisters, as well as the new couple.  The pictures were painted in oil on copper discs 8cm in diameter.  Over the years they have been dispersed and are now in various collections, so cannot be seen as a group, as they should be.

Quinn Fowler, Live Model

Eureka Valley Recreation life drawing Saturday 1 December 2018 with Quinn Fowler as the model.  The first four drawings above are thirty minute poses and the other four are two minutes each.  The two minute poses serve as a warm up period.  The first drawing above was the third long pose of the day and in it the model, either unconsciously or not, replicated the pose of Degas’ Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer  (La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans 1881).  The room was cold. so the model put some clothes on afterwards, which were tight enough to show his form, plus he had good boots.  I had a touch of the flu the last few days, so the drawings are a little more conventional than usual.