Day One- Larry Poons- Ambition Required

January 1, 2014

First of all, Happy New Year!  I am so freaking excited to say welcome to…

DAY ONE of my yearlong art project!  And the first artist is…

Larry Poons was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1937.  He studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music in the 50’s with the intent of becoming a professional musician.  A couple of years later he enrolled into the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and also studied at the Art Students League of New York.

He became popular in the 1960’s with painting ovals or circles on brightly painted backgrounds…such as Orange Crush.

But his painting evolved into something different throughout the years.   Here is a mini-retrospective about his art.  http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/larry-poons-golden-gallery-velocity/

Below are a few of examples of more recent paintings that I’m going to focus on.  Although his style has changed it’s always been about movement and color.  I also love the fact that he’s still alive, painting and evolving.  That’s what I call success.

And what exactly does it take to be a successful artist?  Here’s a short video from an interview with him that he answers that question.  I really like his spunk!

FUN FACT:  Larry Poons also played guitar for a short-lived avant-garde noise band called the Druds that featured artists from the New York pro to-conceptual art and minimal art community such as Walter De Maria on drums, La Monte Young on sax and Patty Mucha was the lead singer.  Jasper Johns wrote neo-dadaist lyrics and Andy Warhol occasionally sang.  Neat huh?

AND FINALLY…here is journey of my Poons-eque piece!

Here’s a little video of the process…yes, I used my fingers at times.  Magma was hypnotizing me!

Finally the finished piece!

Before I started painting today, I thought…”Oh, it’s Larry Poons…abstract shit.  I can do it easily.”  It was harder than I thought.  I kept adding and adding and it never seemed quite right.  Even as I post the finished product I am thinking, “Maybe it needs more blue.”  Well, you learn something everyday and I plan to learn many new things throughout this year with this awesome project.  Let’s keep trucking.  Tomorrow it’s Kandinsky!  Yikes.

Best,

Linda