Artist of the day: Artist of the day February 13: Herb Alpert, John Mellencamp

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Artist of the day February 13: Herb Alpert, John Mellencamp

Today I have 2 very talented musician/songwriter and... painter-sculptor:
Mr Herb Alpert, Songwriter, painter, sculptor and Mr John Mellencamp, American songwriter, painter.

Herb Alpert, Songwriter, painter, sculptor

Herb Alpert, (1935, in Los Angeles, California,) began his career in the music industry as a songwriter. He formed A&M Records with Jerry Moss in 1962, and went on to enjoy success with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and as a solo artist. After selling A&M in the late 1980s, Alpert devoted more time to his art and philanthropy while continuing to churn out award-winning music .Herb Alpert has spent more than half his life as a respected abstract expressionist painter and sculptor.

Alpert started painting in 1969 and in the early 1980s he added sculpture to the mix. Drawn to the figure, both human and animal, the influence of Henry Moore, Rodin and Giacometti, came through. As he began to exhibit his work publicly in California and around the world, he found an immediate audience. "The hardest part as an artist in any art form, is to find your own voice. Honesty is the running thread of all good artists."

Herb Alpert works daily between painting, sculpture and music. His abstract expressionistic paintings are brushed with sinuous lines and loud musical bursts of color and sensual moods. His sculptures are lyrical and powerful. Not only in scale but in the imagination and emotion that pulls the onlooker in to experience what lives inside the bronze pieces. His latest work is of musicians. Alpert's vision is to capture what it "feels" like to play jazz. Alpert says that his sculpting is improvisational. "I get the same satisfaction and energy from painting, sculpting and playing the trumpet. They are all the same." Alpert's Spirit Totems have been described as "frozen smoke." He wants his work to be touchable and approachable, which is not often associated with bronze sculpture. Each individual piece takes about three months to complete before they go to a foundry, and begins as a 10-inch hand-sculpted wax form, then to clay before being transposed into its larger, bronze incarnation (ranging from 13-18 feet tall). Despite their monumentality, they seem intimate. Despite their origins in a foundry, they retain a handmade quality.

9 of Herb Alpert's famed Spirit Totems have been installed at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. Eight of these black, bronze sculptures were erected at the entrance on The Field's south steps, as well as an additional installation inside the Museum's main hall. The sculptures will be on display until September 2016.

Since he began painting, Alpert has experimented with a number of different styles and materials, perhaps none more unusual than his inspired, Coffee Paintings. Alpert's paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in museums and galleries in the U.S. and Europe. In 2013, Herb Alpert received the National Medal of Arts Award presented at the White House by President Barack Obama.

© 2018. All images are copyrighted © by Herb Alpert. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission from the artist is obtained.

Mr Herb Alpert

John Mellencamp, American songwriter, painter

John Mellencamp, (1951, Seymour, Indiana) now living in Bloomington, Indiana, ia a populist songwriter and accomplished painter. After attending the Art Students League in New York in the 1980s, Mellencamp developed a style that fuses the aesthetic approaches of the German expressionists Max Beckmann and Otto Dix with that of American neo-expressionists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente. His oil paintings combine portraits of everyday Americans with a cast of universally recognized symbols—hearts, guitars, targets, and crowns—and words such as “dreams,” “blues,” and “freedom.”

John continues to focus on another facet of his artistic expression: painting. His style has progressed over the years as evidenced by several gallery shows and published portfolios, and in recent years he has increased his output by completing over 100 new works. His pieces were shown in 2012 at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville under the title “Nothing Like I Planned: The Art Of John Mellencamp” and, more recently at the Butler Institute of American Art in an exhibition entitled “The Paintings Of John Mellencamp.” “The Paintings of John Mellencamp” traveled to the Museum of Art-DeLand, Florida and the latest exhibit of Mellencamp's artwork, titled "John Mellencamp: The Isolation of Mister," was showcased at the ACA Gallery in New York. The unique instrumentation of his band and his poignant songs about everyday life in the American heartland, are widely credited with being the forbearer of the Americana/No Depression genre of rural-inflected music. An extraordinary collaboration performed by an ensemble cast of 15 actors and a four-piece live band, comprised of members of John Mellencamp’s band is The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a musical with music and lyrics by John Mellencamp, a libretto by author Stephen King and production by T Bone Burnett. The show is being further developed in London, though King and Mellencamp are no longer as actively involved. Mellencamp continues his journey as the walking embodiment of heartland rock; passionate, plain-spoken, and a self-proclaimed rebel.

John has said many times in interviews that you will never meet anyone luckier than John Mellencamp. He is grateful for the support of those who have enjoyed his work and career over the years. If he has any advice to offer, it is to be tenacious: John's found that far too many people quit too soon in the face of early disappointment. While his own early efforts may have been faltering, he stayed with it--and that tenacity has been rewarded with the successes that continue to the present.

© 2018. All images are copyrighted © by John Mellencamp. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission from the artist is obtained.