On Louise Bourgeois /  by mirena

Today is a very sad day ( I am writing in the early hours of the next day but for me today hasn't passed yet ) - Louise Bourgeois passed away in her home in Manhattan, I was just telling a friend of mine last night that I finally had her number and wanted to call and visit her. And today was also the last day of Marina Abramovich's show at the Moma, where I practically moved in the last few days. It was my dream to talk to Louise since she adressed a number of issues I have always struggled with, and not just struggled I would say blackly terrified. Pain, fear, frustration and suffering, power, red. So often i am overwhelmed by anxiety and fear, I am terrified of power and pain, I could not casually look at violence or watch tv and switch between real and staged sufferings with a button. I learned from Louise how to use the color red, how to "give meaning and shape to pain".

An artist practices vulnarability and that's part of the trade, an artist often crosses to the other side and claws into the subconscious and that is a gift. Louise once said: "I have been to Hell and back and let me tell you it was wonderful."

Bay to Breakers Portraits /  by mirena

Mirena Rhee - Bay to Breakers portraits. I run the race and took the photographs - all images are Copyright Mirena Rhee This series for me is a collective reflection on the human condition. Behind the funny hats and painted faces are the anxieties we face in the 21 century - terrorism, global disaster threats like the Swine flu, freedom to choose partners, freedom to accept other people's choices, the environmental Health of our Spaceship Earth, globalization, multiculturalism and the extinction of identity.

Pixar animation studios - art for good /  by mirena

I feel very fortunate to be part of the great northern California adventure of digital art and film. I had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the most talented people in the digital art industry, the movers and shakers of the contemporary digital art world. Recently I have been thinking more and more of the opportunity we have as artists to influence the visual advancements for the greater good and for social change in the world. I believe change happens one person and one good and one single minded intent at a time. My friend Maria Lee invited me and a few friends from the film and game industry to donate art pieces to a great cause - I was really glad to see my friends rally around and make a difference. Thanks to Maria Lee and all my friends and of course John  Lasseter & Pixar who generously organized and hosted the event.

SOMA SPRING OPEN STUDIOS: APRIL 17-18, 12 noon - 6 pm @301 8th Street @ Folsom, #245 /  by mirena

Good Morning and Happy Spring ! I'd like to invite you to SOMA SPRING OPEN STUDIOS: APRIL 17-18, 12 noon to 6 pm. I will be showing ink drawings on paper at site301: 301 8th Street @ Folsom, #245.

Thanks to Kathy Arnold who kindly invited me to share her studio. I will be thrilled if you can make it! For more info. please, visit  http://www.somaopenstudios.org/

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. R. Buckminster Fuller /  by mirena

The tree of Life grew out of a tiny seed drawing, about 2x2 inches. I wanted to refine a process where I would plant a seed little drawing and allow it to grow into a full piece. The top image is the very first stage of the Tree of Life, the equivalent of a lump of clay. This moment is one of the scariest in art. It's like you are standing at the edge of a cliff and wish you could close your eyes and fly away. It turns out you need to climb up instead. Actually being at that very moment is never scary for me, I enter the tunnel space of my vision and the world around me becomes absolutely perfect. I generally do have a partial tunnel vision where things don't quite register and i could, without a penalty, focus on only one thing at a time. And no, there are no drugs involved ;) i could never drink or eat when I draw, they are incompatible activities. Tree of Life - the beginning

Mirena Rhee - Tree of Life, Black India, Sepia and Red Ink on hot pressed board, 23x29 inches

Art Mart Manifesto /  by mirena

I spent days in New York looking at almost all art fairs, including The Armory, Volta, Red Dot, The Independent on 22nd street, as well as Pulse and the Art Dealers on 5th ave. Also went for the Skin Fruit show at the New Museum, The Whitney Biennale ( stunning works on paper ), MOMA - where William Kentridge had a show I have seen and completely overpowers me every time, and where Abramovich had her pre-miere. Also went to be delighted in the works on paper at  the Museum of Art and Design. Just counting the number of galleries at the fairs, I saw about 350-400 galleries represented and that was just the most intense experience and very solid exchange of molecules. As a student of art I am very interested in process. I believe the process drives the outcome of a piece and allows the artist to bring a lot of power to the surface. Seeing Picasso's experiments, trials and errors to reach the final Guernica taught me a lot about process. In fact, I spent far more time looking at Picasso's sketches and thrown away work rather than Guernica itself. Process could be many things - studying Goya's black paintings at the Prado and studying their history allowed me to see the broader reach of process, where it also includes intent, and anguish. In the black paintings Goya used printers ink and I recognized that a solid enough process allows the artist to introduce and control seemingly "random" experiments. Just like in Martial Arts, once you have done your poomse about 10,000 times you feel confident leaping around a bamboo forest.

I also used to worry about the viability of paper as a medium but after seeing Bronzino's drawings at the Met I absolutely recognized the fact that the fragility of the paper in no way diminished the power of the line. The work was so moving and the rooms so crowded with breathtaking works that I never had that doubt again.

Most beautiful thing /  by mirena

Most beautiful thing happened to me at the Met - I went looking for "the Nose" ticket from the scalpers and in the confusion got... a standing room ticket... for La Boheme. Sometimes greed and unfavorable circumstances guard the doors to most wonderful places. Seeing opera, like art, moves me beyond the obvious, profane and the mundane and, of course, the most beautiful things happened while I wasn't looking. I got to meet absolutely delightful couple art collectors from Denmark and My standing room neighbors were ardent opera fans - There was the orthopedic surgeon exchange student from Tokyo, an ardent opera lover, and on right was an IT guy from HBO.

After first act we were standing around chatting about what we thought we liked so far when a really nice couple handed us their tickets on the way out.. leaving early. My Tokyo friend and I were grateful to the really nice people and got to see the rest of La Boheme first class ! La Boheme was the most moving music and singing I heard this year so far - it inspired me beyond the visual and the sensual. The soprano was world class and Rodolfo was great too. But most of all, I got too see the power of high class art to turn a "light" story into a grand excursion of the imagination and emotion.

Before.. and after:)

Exquisite Corpse /  by mirena

Black and sepia Ink Drawing on Hot Pressed Board, 30x40 inches. The Corpse gave me a chance to collaborate with a group of awesome artists and also address the subject of the body. I have dealt with the body a lot as a photographer and this was a very different experience. To me the question of what happens to the body and what is the body is as important as what is outside of it, part of the reason i dislike ruffled backgrounds is because the substance of what is around the thing is as important and material as the thing. I am also very interested in the contact - how is the body situated in what surrounds it, since it's essentially the same matter, it's just a trick that it's invisible to the naked eye.Location: Part of a Absurdas Exquisite Corpse collaboration

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Hand Detail

Happy New Year 2010 ! /  by mirena

Earth never stopped spinning for me in 2009, it started with a beautiful dance with most dear friends in a chilly square in Sofia. We danced a horo and made merry. Since then 10 years worth of things happened, but even more things didn't happen and the latter turned out to be really important unhappenings. I can only say I didn't get enough of my family and dearest friends in 2009 so I'd love to have more in 2010. The other almost as important event was of course seeing Picasso's Guernica in the Reina Sofia in Madrid, in the last days of December. along with it seeing Picasso's process while developing his ideas for the giantic piece - it was as if seeing Michelangelo carving a slave or Bernini growing Daphne's marble tree. "Effortless" Guernica took an enormous amount of rejection to make the perfect composition. My quick iphone notes from that moment:

"Reina Sofia . Dali, Picasso, popova, Magritte , Dali:) the masters had impeccable sense for composition. Broad strokes, Dali's paintings are very detailed and full of wonder. And finally the guernica by picasso - picasso's fury monochromatic with perfect sense for composition, I crave to get closer . Odd looks a bit like a collage. Increddible. This has been such an intense day so far. Seeing picasso's process was a very special / guernica looks effortless but took a lot of preparation and study. In hindsight now i understand why Guernica looks like a collage - He worked on and developed parts individually. Can't get enough of Picasso... My back is killing me:) but I am still on the second floor."

Picasso's Guernica

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