John Beck

I’m trying to find artists to put on a list that will be The Baddest and Toughest Artists of All Time. I’m having a lot of trouble finding the baddest of them all. Maybe I would be on that list, a painter and performance artist, I am a fierce competitor and Spartan warrior. I may not be the fastest, strongest or smartest but there will be no one that will outwork more or give a greater effort. But am I a badass? No, far from it.

So, what makes an artist a badass? I think of Ernest Hemingway, fighting in WW1. Delivering goods to the front line only to take shrapnel to the leg and then go off to carry a wounded soldier to safety. In WW2 during a war long correspondent mission he led a group of vigilantes during or near the Liberation of Paris. That is badass.

I think of Caravaggio. Who was always a rebel and constantly in bar fights and trouble with the law. During one of these bar fights he killed another man. He escaped from the law and remained on the lam for the rest of his life. He often carried a sword with him to defend himself from those wanting to fight him and/or bring him to justice. He did all of this while painting grand masterpieces.

Of course there is the legendary samurai warrior Miyamoto Mushashi. Although he was a master swordsman first and regarded as one of the greatest warriors of all time in his later life he was also an author and considered a master painter.

I’m looking for traditional artists rather than music/film artists. There are plenty of musicians and actors that are badasses (LL Cool J beat the shit out of a home invader, I remember a story about Ernest Borgnine and how he beat the shit out of a would be carjacker at the age of 60 and Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier and American hero during WW2 before going onto a successful film career). However, there aren’t many badass or valiant traditional artists. There has to be more than Hemingway and Caravaggio. Whether they’re just badass brawlers like Caravaggio or heroes like Hemingway there has to be more out there. We can’t all be sitting in a corner and painting pictures. There has to be someone! Help me find them! I’ve made it my quest to be the next badass/valiant artist, will I be number 4 on the list?

These are the commercials produced by EA for Madden 13 starring Ray Lewis and Paul Rudd. They’re pretty funny. It might be because I’m a huge Ray Lewis fan, no, they’re pretty funny regardless. I even included the interview between Ray Lewis and Paul Rudd discussing their lifelong friendship.

Loving the new Old Spice commercial. Very well done commercial. Great writing, acting, editing. It’s perfect.

Here’s a composite that I put together for a new painting that I just started working on.

As of now it’s to be my first digital painting which is a lot harder to do than I thought it would be. So i’m thinking about doing it in a traditional oil paint version as well. Any suggestions?

A few days ago Bat For Lashes posted a video of a new song from her upcoming album. I must have listened to the song a dozen or more times already. It’s a gorgeous song and the video is beautiful. I can hardly wait to hear what the full album will be like. Check it out:

The incredibly beautiful and continually interesting Diana updated me on a little side project she’s working on. Every day she posts a large number of haikus, some are funny, some are brilliant and they’re all pretty damn amazing. Here’s one of them:

Your sister is hot.
I mean… she looks just like you.
I’ll let myself out.

Visit Diana’s Tumblr page at http://morbidhaikus.tumblr.com/
If you don’t find her as funny and amazing as I do then, well, something is seriously wrong with you.

The St. Germain Cocktail. I discovered this drink a few weeks ago at the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor’s Island. It was my first time having St. Germain and I instantly fell in love with it. The cocktail is crisp and refreshing and is a great drink to have during these hot summer days. I picked up a bottle of it, which is gorgeous in itself, and made some cocktails during Independence day. We went through the entire bottle of St. Germain and a bottle of sparkling wine. It is delicious!

It’s around the halfway point of 2012 and here’s my top 10 of my favorite albums so far. In a rough order from my most favorite.

1. Beach House – Bloom
2. Santigold – Master of My Make-Believe
3. Sleigh Bells – Reign of Terror
4. Lower Dens – Nootropics
5. Actress – R.I.P.
6. Nite Jewel – One Second of Love
7. Polica – Give You The Ghost
8. Grimes – Visions
9. Mi Ami – Decade
10. The Flaming Lips – The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends

A few that other albums I also really like that may take a few more listens to be higher on the list but are definitely among my favorites are the new albums by Chromatics, Squarepusher, Niki & the Dove and Xiu Xiu. The new Rapoon and Windy & Carl albums are also very good. We’ll see if the top 10 changes when I do my end of the year round up.

Last week Trenton, NJ held it’s 6th annual Art All Night. A 24 hour arts festival. This year DeLorenzo’s hosted the smart phone scavenger hunt. I was the ‘host’ of the scavenger hunt so when visitors to the arts festival started the scavenger hunt they were presented with this video:

When they came to shoot me we had a packed restaurant and I was insanely busy. I’m amazed that they did this great of a job on the video considering that I was constantly distracted during the shooting. They’re truly talented to come up with this brilliance.

I haven’t been posting nearly as much as I should or even want to. Max passed away back in May and this is the first that I’ve written about him. I’ve known Max since he was just a puppy running around here chasing sticks in NJ. Last year we spent the night up in Syracuse, NY and he’s upgraded to chasing frisbees. Earlier this year we both were lulled to sleep by a boring first half during the Super Bowl. We share many more memories together and even though Maxxers is gone those memories will always be with me. Good bye Maxx!!!