2:45PM update: i've begun the drawing for parade 23. very exciting! the image was shot at MOMA in 2008. this one will be 60x60," or 5 feet square.
10AM update:today my studio looks different. rather than being set up for painting, it's set up for making drawings on 5 canvases for the next 5 in the larger format (larger than the 16x16" i've been doing for the past year) of my parade series, which are all views from above. the largest will be 60x60" so for about the next 4-5 days, i'll be making these drawings. i'll post photos as they become available.
TODAY'S LOOK BACK: today we're looking at 2 drawings of my dad, roy tarlow.. the one on the left was done 3 weeks before he died. on the right, 12 hours before his death, his head cradled by his second wife, mary. my dad died in his own bed, not in a hospital. mikela and i were there, along with mary and his helper and nurse, vincent, who was from ghana.
a year before his death, when he and mary were still living in their apartment on e. 55th st. in NYC, he turned to me suddenly one day and asked, "so how old am i?" i answered "you're 93 dad." shocked, he said, in his thick new york accent, "so what the hell am i still doing in this body?" he was not afraid of dying. he considered the whole thing an ongoing process. his only request, which of course i honored, was that i say the mourners kaddish for him, 2x a day for a year. 6 months into it, i realized it was as much for me as it was for him.
read this great article on cave painting and see why the art historians have got it all wrong:
http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/most-powerful-artwork-i-have-ever-seen.html