It's All About Beeswax

YEAR RECAP

OUR FAVORITE THINGS OF 2013 From fashion to beauty products and the best music

YOUR

BEST HAIR! Tips from the best celebrity hair stylists

DEC 2013/JAN 2014 www.clichemag.com

Noureen DeWulf chats about her career, the holidays, & Anger Management

THE ULTIMATE

WISHLIST From bags, jewelry, and makeup, we gathered some of our best gift ideas

BONUS!

The Best New Year's Eve Party Playlist

ART | MICHAEL DAVID

It's All About

Beeswax

A

rtists commonly work with different mediums, such as oil, acrylics, watercolors, ink, and pencil. Michael David takes contemporary art to a new level by using an ancient Egyptian medium of encaustics: a mixture of beeswax, pigment, and resin.

With it, he creates extraordinary abstract artwork.

Raised in Brooklyn, he, with Roy Stuart and Richie Strotts, formed a punk rock group called The Plasmatics (the first with the Mohawks, guitar smashing and chainsaws), while attending Parsons School of Design in New York City. After leaving the band to pursue an art career, he had an exhibition in a solo show at the historic Sidney Janis Gallery in 1981. This was followed by him receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, at the time the youngest artist ever to do so. Like Michael’s 144

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music, his artwork was immediate, dangerous, and reckless, made by pouring hot encaustic wax where, he says, the “act of painting defines the narrative more than the narrative defines the art.” His artwork embodies layers of wax and time, quickly and sometimes more slowly, with the time sequence becoming the abstraction (artwork) like life itself.

Often working endless hours to finish pieces for the next show, Michael accidentally poisoned himself with the toxic fumes of the hot encaustic mixture; this partially paralyzed him for life.

Afterward, in a diminished physical capacity, he created one of his best known works, “Fallen Toreadors,” inspired by the 19th century painter, Édouard Manet.

Speaking of the series, Michael explains, “My work [became] about compassion.

Compassion for those different from us, compassion for each other, and, most importantly, compassion for oneself, for

a painter who was reckless enough to hurt himself doing what he loves most.”

During a recent visit to his studio in Atlanta, Michael was finishing several pieces to be exhibited at the Bill Lowe Gallery. As happens so often with contemporary abstract artwork, the viewer may feel the intensity, rhythm, and complexity of the painting but does not see the work’s narrative. Hanging on the wall is a piece called “Oneeyed Turtle and Floating Sandalwood Log,” which originated from a Buddhist parable. Michael was inspired by the story of a turtle living on the ocean floor, who, every thousand years, floats to the ocean surface in search of a hollowedout sandalwood log, so it could pass through the log and find enlightenment on the other side. With only one eye, the turtle sees that north is south and east is west, always seeking but never finding the sandalwood log, and never achieving enlightenment. This parable becomes the process of painting reflecting the artist’s transformation. “Accept, let it go, let things fall apart, and as it falls apart, pull them back together,” as Michael says about the narrative.

Another piece, somewhat dark, deep, and complex, is called “The Navigator” in memory of his father, a WWII air force navigator. Returning from his duty abroad, his father never made peace with himself, gambled his money away, and the two did not have many family moments together.

Michael’s best memories of his father occured at night when they were together. His father would point out the constellations and tell stories about the war. These stories became metaphors: “How do you navigate through life?

How to be a father? How to be a son?”

Michael recalls. His artwork brings these metaphors to life- along with tearful memories.

Hey… this is a little heavy to understand. It’s like learning French: keep an open mind and start with the basics. As your vocabulary increases, so will your understanding. The same is true with contemporary abstract art.

Sérieux, je ne plaisante pas (seriously, I am not kidding). BY TERRY CHECK

The Very Best You

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Art Freak: Michael David

Michael David, one of the best abstract expressionists of our time, mentioned that, “If the artwork is great, really great, then in time, it will find its place [in history].” He would never describe his work as great, but others would disagree. His work is included in the permanent public collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among several prominent private collections. Next stop? Who knows? Maybe Christies with a million dollar price tag? Check out his work at www.michaeldavidartist.com, and follow his art exhibitions in a city near you.

om, yogi, nutritionist, and business pioneer Hayley Hobson shares her inspiring and life-changing story with the world in her book Hayley Hobson’s Guide to Creating Your Sexy and Abundan Life.

Hobson had a frightening wakeup call after a scary and life-threatening experience and was forced to take a step back from her usually chaotic and busy schedule to reassess her lifestyle. What she learned from there was a feat worth sharing.

“Shutting down for a while was exactly what my body, mind, and soul needed to rejuvenate,” she explains. “It was time to go inward, to re-examine everything including my marriage, my career, my spirituality, and, of course, my health. The stress of my life was making me sick quite literally!”

The self-help book, packed with chapters dedicated to wellness, healthy living, and yoga exercises, is available for purchase on Amazon for $18.90. BY MEGAN PORTORREAL DEC 2013/JAN 2014 |

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