Art Makes Such Weird

ART MAKES SUCH WEIRD

This is an experimental film in the true sense (meaning I am playing around with a concept that may not be realized here.) I scanned the surface of the New York Times with my camera in movie mode blurring the text and images so that the structure of the paper reveals itself. The music is by Benoit Pioulard. It is a project that is still in progress. I have recently cut it down and I need to finesse the end.

Amplified Riley and Two New Invisible Women

This is an ArtForum piece consisting of 35 ArtForums with Bridget Riley on the cover. Click on it to see the larger image size (which works better). Also below are two of my newest Invisible Women from my Invisible Women series.

ArtForum in progress

I want to find this issue of ArtForum so I can recreate this piece. It's March 2001 and I used it in my "ArtForum 2001" piece (see below).

Dinner July 25, 2008

This is our dinner with Isabel, Sean, Lucy, Theodora, Don and Marta. Menu: Borsht with sour cream; Antiqua pasta with a cream sage and tarragon sauce; lamb chops with mashed potatoes, gravy, and cucumber salad; custered or walnut ice cream and fresh fruit for desert. I also shot a short video of Albert putting the dinner together. (I will post recipes soon.)

Pasta Antiqua with Sage and Tarragon Sauce:

1 package of Antiqua pasta (long hollow tube pasta)
6 cloves of garlic sliced very thin
1 bunch of tarragon chopped
12 small sage leaves chopped
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 cup sauted Locatelli Romano Cheese
1/2 cup white wine (San Gimignano)
2 egg yokes

6 large mushrooms

Boil Pasta.

Slice and saute mushrooms in oil, set aside.

Very lightly brown the garlic in oil. Add white wine, tarragon and sage, then bring to boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Beat egg yokes with 3 tablespoons of half and half and add 3 tablespoons of above garlic, tarragon and sage broth while still hot. Put rest of broth in egg yokes and stir continuously until well blended.

Pour over hot pasta and serve garnished with mushrooms and Romano and Locatelli Cheese.

Borsht with Sour Cream

3 medium fresh beets
2 medium yellow onions
3 carrots
2 cups chicken or beef stock
1/4 head of red cabbage
sour cream

Cut the cabbage in 1/4" widths and set aside.

Peel beets, carrots and onions. chop into chunks using a knife then put through food chopper (mine is a hand crank); put into a skillet and cover with stock then simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste.

Add the cabbage and additional stock or water and simmer for another 15 minutes.

cool in the refrigerator for a day. Serve in bowls with a dollop of sour cream.

Lamb Chops and Mashed Potatoes with Clove/Rosemary Dressing

4 tablespoons of olive oil
6 large cloves of garlic sliced very thin
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
3 sprigs of rosemary finely chopped
1/2 cup of chicken stock
1/2 cup of white wine
2 egg yokes
3 tablespoon of half and half

Sauce:
Partially brown garlic in oil then add stock, cloves, and rosemary and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Season to taste.

Beat egg yokes with 3 tablespoons of half and half and 3 tablespoons of above stock misture to eggs stirring continuously.

Slowly add egg mixture into the rest of stock mixture stirring continuously.

Lamb Chops:
Put cast iron pans in oven for 1 hour at 500 degrees. Rub lamb chops with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in hot pans and put back in oven. Check to make sure it's done.

Serve with mashed potatoes and sauce.

Nancy White's studio in Palo Alto

Nancy White's studio in Palo Alto

Domestic Sculpture

This photo is from my continuing investigation of random domestic occurrences that carry the weight of sculpture.

Introducing Guarino Guarini

This is my cat, Guarino Guarini.

July 5 dinner

This is before our dinner guest (Robert and Kathrine Dunlevie, Lucy and Hugo Traeger, and Nancy and Larry White) arrived. Afterwards, I am too busy to take photos.

The Menu

-Tomato Soup
-Fettuccini with an Anchovy cream sauce
- Chicken Mole, Caramelized Carrots, and an Arugula Salad with caramelized red onions and sautéd red pepper slices.

RECIPES:

Tomato Soup with Zucchini:

8 roma tomatoes
half a can of Italian plum tomatoes
2 medium zucchini
2 cloves garlic
3 teaspoons of olive oil
1 cup of chicken broth
1 bunch of tarragon
salt
pepper
1 tablespoon of sugar

Peel zucchini and blend. Quarter tomatoes and sauté in pan until brown. Add sautéd and canned tomatoes to the zucchini in the blender with the garlic, chicken broth, tarragon, oil salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. Reheat in saucepan. Serves six to eight.

Fettuccini with Anchovy Cream Sauce:
1/2 cup milk
1" butter from stick
2 tblspns flour
2 1/2 mashed anchovies
1/2 cup chicken broth
2oz holland goat cheese
shaved Locatelly (Ramano) cheese

Melt butter n sauce pan with flour adding butter if too pasty; brown stirring constantly. Add milk slowly stirring constantly with a rubber spatula until it forms a smooth sauce. Add anchovies, cheese and chicken broth as needed to create a smooth consistency. Cook fettuccini aldanté; toss with sauce and place on small plates, garnish with freshly grated Romano cheese flakes. Serves six to eight.

Chicken with mole sauce

3 chicken breasts cut into 1 inch square cubes marinated in white wine and garlic (3 large cloves) with salt and pepper.

sauce:
1/2 can of of tomatoes
1" square cube or more of chocolate
1/2 cup of chicken broth
10 sections of white peaches
6 cloves of garlic
2 tspns of paprika
salt and pepper to taste
4 tblspns of olive oil

Put all above "sauce" ingredients into a sauce pan and simmer for an hour or more, adding broth to control thickness.

Toss marinated chicken in a very hot pan with olive oil until brown cooking through. Place chicken onto plates and cover with mole sauce.
Serve with caramelized carrots and arugula and onion salad

Carrots: cut carrots with tops still attached horizontally in half, caramelized in brown sugar in a hot pan.

Onion Salad: caramelize red onions, roast red pepper strips and arrange on plate with arugala. Dress with an herb, olive oil and vinegar dressing.

Serves six to eight.

Opening at the Lab on May 28

Opening at the Lab of the Invisible Women, Iraqi Casualty and Artforum Excavations










































I was happy to get a few good reviews. This one was in the SF Chronicle:

"Congratulations to Francesca Pastine for making Artforum involving again.

Decades ago, in simpler times, people actually looked forward to reading the magazine, when it served as the New York art world's journal of record. Since then, Artforum has followed the trajectory of the art market itself, retailing moneyed glamour and the atmospherics of contemporary art. Meanwhile, most of the intellectual substance has shifted to its outrigger, Bookforum.

Each issue of Artforum now boasts slab-like bulk and a power like kryptonite to drain the strength of any art professional who tries to face it.

But in an ingenious series showing at the Lab, Pastine has found in the magazine the makings of memorable art, by means connected incidentally to Villeglé's practice.

In "Artforums 2001: (Artforum Excavation Series)" (2008), she has meticulously carved a crater in a stack of 2001 issues. At one corner of the top cover - December - we can make out the remains of a tone-deaf banner: "Best of 2001."

The hole Pastine has cut in the magazines, stratified with color from their glossy pages, irresistibly brings to mind the physical and emotional voids left by Sept. 11 massacres.

In a related piece without obvious topical reference, she has cut an irregular hole - again looking something like a comic-book strip mine - into a single issue of the magazine, exposing a page apparently empty of all but a soft gray glow.

In two other series here, Pastine has selectively effaced pages from the New York Times to expose not very deeply underlying contradictions, such as the collision of values in advertising and war news or fashions' real and ostensible values to the women who model them and those who covet them." Kenneth Baker