Art at the movies: Ken's art appears in the film Concussion

Here is a still from the just released movie Concussion showing Alex Baldwin and Will Smith with Ken's artwork in the background.  (Image: Sony Pictures)
Click to see movie trailer

Well this doesn't happen everyday. I was contacted by the Concussion production company last year to get permission to use my art in their film. I was told about the story line and that it would star Will Smith and Alex Baldwin. I was told that they were filming in a client's home and they wanted to use my existing artwork there.

I was delighted to accept and they paid me a reasonable license fee. You never know if they will use that scene with the art in it but months later on Christmas day I saw the movie and there it was.

The scene is when the two characters, both doctors, talk outdoors at the Baldwin character's home.  Just after the outdoor scene, they enter the home and the artwork is behind them, just inside the entryway. Don't blink or you will miss it. No 15 minutes of fame here. :)

Concussion is a remarkable movie, more than a sports story and one I would heartily recommend seeing.


About the film:

In Pittsburgh, accomplished pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions in the course of normal play.

Director: Peter Landesman
Writers: Peter Landesman, Jeanne Marie Laskas (GQ article "Game Brain")
Stars: Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks

Disclaimer: No artworks or artists were harmed in the making of this motion picture.

Three Short Films about Peace by Errol Morris

Three Short Films about Peace by Errol Morris
Three parts, 49:34 minutes

"They deposed a dictator, helped defeat Communism and started a movement to end famine. In this NY Times Op-Docs series, the Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee, the former Polish president Lech Walesa and the rocker Bob Geldof talk about their campaigns for peace. Read the Director’s Statement on the page for more information.


It is very difficult to be a successful artist when there is no peace. Being an artist and purchasing artworks is a luxury and a side-effect of living in a peaceful environment. Yes, artists work in war zones, but survival is the priority, not acquisitions. We are dependent on so many for peace and we stand on the shoulders of millions that came before us.

This is a straight-forward and thoughtful film. It's like talking to a neighbor who has the most amazing story to tell.

It's good to see Lech Walesa again. I had been wondering about him. I wasn't aware of Ms. Gbowee but the two of them received the Nobel Prize for Peace. They were both at the center of impossible change in their countries, ordinary people with simple wisdom that moved mountains. Geldof had a singular idea that touched millions of lives.

As artists, we make moves on our canvases, paper, clay, etc and trick the eye. We get a lot of credit for it and I've learned to just say thank you and make more.

Sometimes we can move mountains. It takes thought and a lot of moves as well. I think the artist and citizen of the world in you will appreciate this.

Peace,
Ken

Art in Film: A little film companion to the recent film Gravity

I couldn't resist passing on this out of the box idea, a treat for those that have seen the movie "Gravity."  Click to play 

Jonas Cuaron's seven-minute companion short, filmed in Greenland and featuring Bullock's voice, could make Oscar history.

This story first appeared in the Nov. 29 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

The idea for Aningaaq, which follows an Inuit fisherman stationed on a remote fjord in Greenland, occurred to the Cuarons as they were working out the beats for the Gravity screenplay "It's this moment where the audience and the character get this hope that Ryan is finally going to be OK," Jonas, 31, tells THR. "Then you realize that everything gets lost in translation.”

Both Cuarons spent time in the glacial region (Alfonso once toyed with setting a movie there) and fell in love with the barren vastness of its frozen wilderness. During one of those visits, Alfonso met a drunken native who would become the basis for the title character, played by Greenland's Orto Ignatiussen. But it wasn't until Jonas, on a two-week trek gathering elements for his film, was inspired by the local inhabitants' profound attachment to their sled dogs that he decided to incorporate that element into the plot.

The short was filmed "guerrilla style" on location on a budget of about $100,000 -- most of which went toward the 10-person crew's travel costs -- and Cuaron completed it in time to meld the dialogue into Gravity's final sound mix. The result is a seamless conversation between Aningaaq and Ryan, stranded 200 miles above him, the twin stories of isolated human survival providing thematic cohesion. Still, Jonas says he was careful "to make it a piece that could stand on its own." Should both get Oscar noms, an interesting dynamic would emerge: Two films potentially could win for representing different sides of one conversation, to say nothing of having come from father and son.

Monet Filmed While Painting Water Lilies in Giverny

Click to view this film made in 1914 showing Monet being interviewed and painting at his home in Giverny.

Watch carefully and you can see how he takes in the subject, his brushes, palette and paint application. Surely this is not Monet working at full power with his immaculate white coat, but there is plenty to see here.

How did he ever keep from setting his beard on fire? The dangling ciggie ash creates a dramatic tension... it's an art film!

Enjoy this history. We are lucky to have this film of a master at work.