John James Anderson

My latest exhibition, upcoming at Adah Rose Gallery.

2012-02-07T22:54:00.000-05:00

Below is the text from the press release for my upcoming exhibition at Adah Rose Gallery, in Kensington, MD. The opening is Saturday, February 11, 6:30 -8:30.

“The Pleasures Here Are Well Known”
featuring the work of John James Anderson and Susan Stacks
Opening Reception, Saturday February 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m.February 8 - March 11, 2012

Adah Rose Gallery, 3766 Howard Ave Kensington Md, 20895www.adahrosegallery.com
Hours: Fri-Sun 12-6 and by appointment.

Music by Walker Road

John James Anderson
The printed word and the acquisition of language are the principal ideas in the work ofJohn James Anderson. His first series, “Building Blocks,” adopts the playful vocabularyof pop art with familiar logos and graphics which require reading through a lens that isboth nostalgic and cerebral. Mr. Anderson creates a graphic alphabet from the eye- catching lettering of soda cans, candy wrappers and cereal boxes. In his second series,“Out of Print,” language and the evolution of our collective literacy is also explored, thistime in the decline of print journalism. Mr. Anderson collected the front pages of nationalnewspapers and carefully erases portions of their content, resulting in graphic andpoetic musings on the fate of mass communication.

John James Anderson earned two BFAs from Iowa State University in graphic designand fine arts. After earning an MFA in painting from American University, he taught atAmerican University, George Washington University, and The Corcoran College of Artand Design. He is currently Associate Professor of Art at Prince George’s CommunityCollege. He has shown extensively in the DC area, most recently at the Arlington ArtsCenter, Transformer Gallery, Glenview Mansion, and the Stamp Gallery at the Universityof Maryland.

Susan Stacks
Beginning with the unconsciousness of a doodle, but executed with the commitment ofsurgery, Susan Stacks creates drawings with pencil and pen that are artifacts of ameditative experience. These intricate and elegant works reference landscapes,microscopic forms, and cartography. As she draws, a twist becomes a tug, a dash a dot.Her influences are as varied as novels, mythological figures, plant and bacterial life,rock stars and vending machines. Ms. Stacks refers to her drawings as emotional maps,parasites, friends, and penance.

Susan Stacks recently earned an MFA from the School of Art & Design at the Universityof Michigan. She recieved her BFA, Magna cum laude, in sculpture, art, and visualtechnology from George Mason University in 2008. During her three years at theUniversity of Michigan, she worked as a Graduate Student Instructor. She has receivedseveral grants and fellowships, both as an undergraduate and graduate student, andhas exhibited both in Virginia and Michigan. This is her first show at Adah Rose Gallery.

Getting Ready for a New Show

2012-02-01T23:33:00.002-05:00

By first broadcasting work from an old show.

In August I exhibited "The Gun Show" at the Washington Project for the Arts. For all of the quotes about Heller vs. DC, or all of the statistics regarding the disparities in Washington, or the failed Second Amendment blog written by James Madison's zombie, an interesting centerpiece for the exhibition was a video that illustrated DC murders between 2006 and 2010.

Lots of them were committed with a fire arm.

<br><br><br>Whi

End of Silver Gelatin Prints at the Library of Congress

2011-10-28T15:02:00.000-04:00

Start of a glide, Orville and Wilbur Wright, collection of the Library of Congress

My recent article for Washington City Paper is this week's arts feature. You'll need to read it before reading the blog post.

PROPS TO THE EDITOR
Initially a 2800+ epistle was whittled into a 1500-word essay, and stands as another testament to the relationship between writer and editor. I've been lucky enough to do some freelance writing for CP for the last 16 months, and Jonathan Fischer has been a heckuvan editor (not to take anything away from Erin Engstrom and Ally Schwartz, who have edited most of my smaller ditties for City Lights). I don't know if he has made me a better writer, but he has certainly made my writing look better in print.

THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
Two elements didn't make the print edition.I thought I would share them here.

The first bit was about Jantzen in the 1980s. His first job was working as a preservation technician for the Library of Congress.

The negatives he worked from were not the original negatives. Jantzen knows this first
hand; he used to be employed by the Library in the 1980s as a contracted preservation
technician. One of his responsibilities was quality control on negative duplication. “Part
of my job was to make certain the duplicate matched up with the original. You know. No
big hairs [on the duplicate negative].” Because materials become brittle as they age, the
Library of Congress duplicated the negatives in their collection so they could continue
to provide duplicate prints of work in the collection without damaging the primary
artifact. “When I first heard of it I thought it was bull shit – that you could not have a
duplicate that would behave the same as the original. And, I was stunned [ at the result].”
He wondered what it would be like to print with the duplicate. 20 years later, he became
that guy.

The second bit that was not included was a note on the developing process.

The process of developing a silver gelatin print lacks the immediacy of digital
photography. The film, a negative image, is dusted off and set in the negative carrier,
which is then placed in the enlarger. Light shines through the negative and projects an
image onto an easel below. To figure out the right exposure, a single sheet of silver
gelatin paper is placed on the easel, and strips are exposed to various durations of light.
The paper is developed through successive liquid baths, which reveal the image and
desensitize the strips of silver within the paper to any further exposure to light. The
various strips determine contrast and brightness, and allows Jantzen to make an informed
decision about how long to expose the print. That first print he likens to a rough draft. Usually
those are good enough for a basic print. However, since he does not know what client
requested the image from the Library of Congress, he has to assume the print must be
exhibition quality.

A second print is exposed, and Jantzen goes through steps called dodging and burning.
Dodging is a process of blocking light to allow more detail to appear within darker
sections of the print. Burning is a process of over-exposing very light sections of the
print, again to allow more detail in those areas of the composition. . “If there was a slight
difference between an almost perfect print and a perfect print, I’ll expose more paper.”
Detailed notes are taken throughout the process. In the end, the prints that require it will
receive spotting and etching. Spotting is the process of adding dabs of dye to the print to
obscure dost spots that affixed to the negative when the original negative was initially
processed. Etching is the process of taking a knife to the final print an scraping away bits

of silver gelatin to reveal more details and value within the darkest parts of the print. The
final step involves toning the prints to give them a warmer quality.

On a final note: One thing I constantly find of interest is how quickly digital has evolved. This might be the reason why I have chosen to write about the issue with the Library of Congress as well as an early critique of the Photo Annual at Artisphere. I bought my first digital camera in 2003. It was a 5 megapixel (mp) point-and-shoot (pas) and it cost $800 refurbished. Today 5 mp is standard on an iPhone and you can buy a 16 mp pas for around $100.

I Got Vandalized

2011-10-23T17:49:00.000-04:00

In April, Christopher Knight via the L.A. Times CultureMonster blog tossed some criticism toward the Washington City Paper (specifically Kriston Capps, Jeffry Cudlin, and I), for an article that made fun of an unsuccessful attack on a Gauguin painting. (Unfortunately we couldn't become web-famous for a day, because he didn't mention us by name... he did call us dumb.) The biggest offense in our blog post was not that we pretended there were other works of art we'd destroy first, but that I claimed to defacing a Sol LeWitt wall drawing weekly. (Which is ludicrous on many levels.) Several other art blogs were upset at us because they expected better. Perhaps they were right. (Though, in our defense, I still maintain that we wrote the piece for the blog of a weekly tabloid four days after April Fool's Day, and that the tabloid gets a large sum of revenue from "adult" shops. The New York Times the Washington City Paper is not.)

Christopher Knight might be tickled pink to learn that Karma has turned its ugly head. Last week,

Friday, a group of MoMA Young Associates came down to see the WPA's Options 2011, amongst a few other stops. They toured the exhibition and listened to some of the artists discuss their works. When it was my turn to speak, I stopped mid-sentence and noticed that someone had amended my installation.

My past couple of blog posts have mentioned this work. It's a series of collaborations with day laborers, whom I hired for 30 minutes to complete an hour of labor, and to discuss their experiences. Most of the laborers are immigrants, and some I learned are illegal. We've discussed labor issues, abusive treatment, sneaking into the country, being unable to sneak out as easily, and personal stories about family, lost love, and politics. I've been fairly fortunate that my work in the exhibition has received some mention in The Washington Post and on Pink Line Project.

The work in the show is an installation of completed projects - documentation, if you will. On the wall behind the saw horses, lumber, fasteners, and tools, are accounts of my conversations with these men. One of the men told me a story about the woman he intended to marry upon his return to Mexico. He hoped to return to Mexico a year after he left. He's been stuck in the States for four years, and she has since married and had a child. He called her Ani, and he wrote her name on a board in nails. As I began to talk about the projects to the MoMA Young Associates I looked down. Some ass hole added a series of nails in the shape of a triangle.

I've worked as a carpenter's assistant. I know it's not uncommon for crews to "correct" the work of a "Mexican" (as some of these men are called by passersby - a lot of them are not from Mexico). This was not work that needed correction. Alas, it is now a part of the piece.

Considering the work is conceptual, and that the story is the more profound piece of art, I don't really think of the work as getting defaced. And, considering the climate of hostility toward illegal immigrants, I think its addition is fitting. I'm still peeved, though.

Here ya go, Google

2011-10-05T23:19:00.002-04:00

I was thinking how Google might respond to the passing of Steve Jobs. So far they simply have a link to Apple's home page. I anticipate seeing something like this tomorrow morning, or on the next anniversary of Jobs' birth.

Hours of Labor - WPA's Options 2011

2011-09-14T21:57:00.004-04:00

The above piece is from a series of work titled Hour of Labor, wherein I approached a Day Laborer at Home Depot and worked with him for 30 minutes (combined = one hour) on a manual task (sanding, driving screws, building a saw horse, sawing a board, driving nails), while I asked him questions about labor conditions. If he was from another country I might ask him about what brought him to the United States (contrary to some popular belief, not all day laborers are "Mexicans."). Ideally, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my work and my collaborator's work. The above image is certainly one exception.

Four of the five works from the series will be on exhibit beginning tomorrow in Options 2011, the Washington Project for the Arts' biennial exhibition of emerging and unrepresented artists in the region. The exhibit runs through October 29 at 629 New York Avenue NW, 2nd Floor, Washington, DC 20001. (Next to the Midas shop and near Marrakesh restaurant).

The work displayed above was completed with the help of Mauricio, a man from Bolivia. His contribution is on the right, and as you might assume, he was a bit engaged, politically. Of course, we were also using screws, so while he argued in defense of Socialism, he was simultaneously screwing Socialism. Anyway, his story is below the break.

The first in the series exhibited at Aqua Art in 2010 as a part of William Brovelli's Coil Contract installation with Horse Trader Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. The Coil Contract - roughly put - contractually links artist and collector together in a manner that prevents the artist from making a duplicate of the work sold, and prevents the collector from selling or loaning the work. The contract nullifies upon the death of one member int he contract.

So, while Hour of Labor is partly about labor issues and immigration, it also has to do with the art market and art as commodity. So, the work sells for the cost of parts and labor (+ gallery mark-up). So, while the project gets into that Duchampian/Manzoni space of "the artist declares the hammer is an art object," a hammer is still a hammer whether I declare it is art or not, and it would be bullshit to pay $1000 for the same hammer you can buy at Lowe's for $5.

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BOLIVIANS DON’T PLAY GOLF

It had been nearly a year since I produced a work in the series, Hour of Labor. Back then, no swarm of men approached the car. This time it was completely surrounded, as if we were rock stars surrounded by masses of adoring fans. One man tried to get in the car. After some effort we finally got out of the car and negotiated with the mob for one interested person to work for 30 minutes. Expecting to receive hourly wages from the day laborers, most of them insisted I give them a quote for how much the job would pay. Considering the nature of the job, $15 seemed reasonable, and several men returned to the shade of a tree to play cards. Several men seemed to linger to watch, but it was clearly down to two guys – one loud who seemed to know a lot of English, and another guy who was more stoic, and visibly weary of the other loud boorish guy.

The quiet guy won out. He assessed the job and gestured to the drill in his bag. I said we would only use manual screwdrivers. He wanted to know how far apart they should be, and my translator, Ramon, clarified that the placement of screws was entirely up to him. For the next 20 minutes I tried to engage this man in conversation. Every question I asked him received evasive responses. He is who he is, and he was from his country. His family is back home in his country. Often the loud guy answered for him with more specific information, which made my working companion rather frustrated, to the point where he began yelling at him in Spanish. Ramon would later tell me that some of the onlookers would apologize for the loud guy, who apparently was drunk. “He does not represent us,” they said. After 20 minutes had passed, the drunk walked to the card game, and soon after my colleague warmed up enough to tell us his name.

Mauricio was from Bolivia, and the design in his board reminded me of Pinocchio in profile. I had asked some frivolous questions about food and futbol, which resulted in vary unsatisfying answers. Since our half hour was nearly over, I asked if he had questions for me, and he wanted to know why we were not using drills. I explained that I found some parallel between how laborers felt at a disadvantage when they began to be replaced by machines, and how some people claim that imported labor puts domestic laborers at a disadvantage because they might cost less. When I saw that the half hour had concluded, I let Mauricio know we were finished.

He wanted to keep working. He wanted to finish his design.

Mauricio came to the US for work. In Bolivia there was no work. For years the government had been corrupt and there were no jobs and no money. I asked if Morales was to blame for the lack of work, and he said he thought things were beginning to improve under Morales because he was a democratically elected Socialist, and he got rid of all the corrupt politicians that preceded him.

Mauricio railed against Capitalism, which I described as a vicious circle of the people blaming the president, the president blaming business, and business blaming the need to satisfy investors and patrons – which are the people. It’s a system that works great if you are at the top, but someone always has to be at the bottom. “Exactly!” Mauricio said, loudly, slapping his hand on the trunk of my car. Capitalism makes rich states and poor states, and capital enterprise, from his perspective, has turned Bolivia into nothing but golf courses; the only jobs for Bolivians are maintaining the golf courses (for foreigners), and Bolivians don’t play golf. The conversation remained political throughout the next half hour, and it became clear what Mauricio was designing: a sickle and hammer.

With his design finished I pulled out my wallet to pay him. Mauricio just shook his head. For him, this was not a real job. “I no take.” Ramon, my interpreter, and I just looked at each other, dumbfounded. I urged, “how much?”

“No. I no take. I’m a Socialist,” replied Mauricio, and he walked away, disappearing in the parking lot.

Art Shows, Past and Present

2011-09-08T22:31:00.002-04:00

The Gun Show at the WPA is technically still up. Though the run ended on Sept 2, they are busy with organizing Options 2011 and preparing for the (e)merge arts fair, and I am busy getting work ready for Options 2011... so it is still up through Monday, Sept 12. Buck Downs had some nice things to say about it in a rather thoughtful review, and I was fortuante enough to have the exhibition selected in weekly round ups on DCist, WAMU, and Washington City Paper (for whom I also write).

I mentioned Options 2011, curated by Stefanie Fedor, formerly the Assistant Director of the AU Museum Katzen Gallery, and the new executive director at Arlington Arts Center (AAC). I'm still finishing up a project where I hire day laborers at a Home Depot to assist me for half an hour; together we make up one hour of labor doing manual carpentry tasks. While we work I ask them about their treks to the U.S., their working conditions, their experiences, home life, and so forth. The only remaining document is the labor. the show opens next week, September 15.

Speaking of AAC, Planning Process, curated by Helen Allen ((e)merge, PULSE), is still up and running through September 25. There I have a bunch of erased newspapers. When I installed the work in their Tiffany Gallery, a couple came in to set up a birthday party for their daughter's sixteenth. The husband took special interest in the erased Minneapolis Star Tribune and pointed it out to his wife. Transplants from Minnesota, I asked what brought them to DC. "Oh, she's the Senator," her husband replied. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, MN (D) then introduced herself.

Erased Newspapers are also part of a show at CCBC, Catonsville, titled "Text Me: the Art of Words." They are also exhibiting a few series of Four Letter Words.

And, finally, Moment of Zen is on display at Brentwood Arts Exchange.

Flash Suppression: Getting Ready for a Gun Show

2011-07-20T11:24:00.003-04:00

Last September Maura Judkis at TBD.com broke the news that I was planning to do a gun store for my next project (so was Cory Oberndorfer... my ambitions alone do not garner media attention, but two = trend (sorta... anyway)). Currently I am preparing material for the exhibition, which is slated for exhibit at the Washington Project for the Arts on August 12.

The last several months I have been collecting data, and one of the goals is to make several Flash animations illustrating where violent crime (with a gun) occurs within Washington, DC. Needless to say I am learning a lot about the program Flash.

Top 3:
1 - Flash has a limit of 16,000 frames; it will not publish anything over that quantity. My project looks at 5 years of violence in DC (Jan 1, 2006 - Dec. 31, 2010), and I had dedicated 10 frames per day, at 30 frames a second, which resulted in over 18,000 frames (for a total running time of just over 10 minutes). Fortunately I was not far along in my construction, and I needed to rebuild. Shaving 2 frames off of each day dropped the total below 15,000 frames. Score!

2 - Sometimes text does not animate very well. At least, it might not when exported to a Quick Time Movie. In an early test, all of my text disappeared. This would include counters for date and crime, which comprises an abundant amount of content in these videos. I attempted to break apart the text, and that appears to have done the trick.

3 - Exporting to Quick Time Movie is ridiculously slow! I have yet to search for a solution to that problem, but needless to say, it is quite aggravating. A video that is less than 9 seconds in length takes several minutes to export to QTM. Imagine how long that export rate will take when the full 10(ish) minute video is completed! I could tour Italy for a week!

Wesselmann Review Overdue

2011-07-18T09:39:00.004-04:00

The back story is as follows.

April 16 I went to see the Tom Wesselmann drawing exhibition at the Kreeger Museum, took part of that weekend to write a review of it for City Paper, and then went back to the business of being an art professor the following week. The following weekend, the Washington Post surprised readers with Jessica Dawson's (I think) final exhibition review (she had announced her departure from WP weeks earlier, and to the best of my knowledge everyone thought she was done).

I submitted my write-up that weekend (April 23/24), and my editor suggested I re-work the review the following week (around April 28) to address some of Dawson's comments. Instead I tabled the review to write a couple other pieces, prepare and grade final projects and exams, pack and move, finish a commission before I lost my painting studio, and a few other odds and ends.

Then it was July, and I thought that "I better finish the Wesselmann review." So, I finished it up and submitted it. My editor liked it, but wondered how he could justify publishing to the blog a review for an exhibition that opened in April. So, the review is below. Enjoy.

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Placing an exhibition of Tom Wesselmann's drawings in the Kreeger Museum seems as logical as placing a smart phone with touch screen in a museum dedicated to the rotary phone. Wesselmann's "Pop Art" is out of place in the same building that houses a collection of late 19th Century and early 20th Century European masterpieces. Or, is it? Jessica Dawson's review of the show on April 22 asked one major question, "how Pop was he, really?" Though she lets us decide for ourselves, she did note that, "Wesselmann owed more to Matisse than to the 1960s avant-garde." (Note: Roy Lichtenstein was also fascinated by Matisse.) In the context of the exhibition on display, the relationship between Wesselmann and the 19th Century European Avant Garde is probably closer than we might consider, and Wesselmann is revealed as the artist of still life and nudes that he had always been.

How did Wesselmann become a Pop Artist? Better still, how did many of the artists we identify as "Pop" become Pop Artists? In 1962 and 63, when exhibitions of new, often American art (mostly painting), were organized in LA, New York, and DC, curators and organizers summarized what they saw with descriptive titles like "New Painting of Common Objects" (Pasadena Museum of Art), "New Realists" (Sidney Janis Gallery), "Six Painters and the Object" (Guggenheim Museum), and "The Popular Image" (Washington Gallery of Modern Art). All were significant exhibitions that included some artists we continually label as Pop Artists: George Segal, Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Watts, Jim Dine, and Jim Rosenquist, to name a few. However, like Wesselmann, Segal, Thiebaud, and Watts showed a greater commitment to interests other than Pop: genre, still life, and Fluxus (respectively). Jim Dine could also be considered to have a greater interest in still life than to Pop, and would probably find a better fit in the quasi-category of Neo-Dada with Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns (artists who were also included in the seminal shows of Pop, who also hated the label of Pop, and probably also hate the label Neo-Dada). Even Jim Rosenquist in his recent autobiography fights the label of Pop artist. As Donald Judd noted early in 1963 the "various artists are too diverse to be given one label..."

Unfortunately, one label stuck, and that label was Pop Art. Alan Solomon also recognized the limitations of the so-called movement's title, and in his essay "The New Art," (first published as the catalog essay for "The Popular Image" at The Washington Gallery of Modern Art), "Like all vital new movements in the modern period… it has quickly been assigned a pejorative title – or string of titles, in this case … emphasizing the wrong attributes of the style." Wesselmann gets lumped into Pop Art because, amongst other things, he wasn't bashful about collaging elements from billboards into a composition that reflected what should be a contemporary still life: a hoagie, a pack of Pall Malls, and a can of Budweiser. So to look at Wesselmann at the Kreeger, it is necessary to remove that rubbish Pop Art label and heap it into Lawrence Alloway's dustbin, where it belongs.

"Drawing," at the Kreeger, contextualizes Wesselmann in the great tradition of reinventing Classical art traditions. In the late 1950s, when Wesselmann was studying at the Cooper Union, art students throughout the country were being trained to become the new generation of Abstract Expressionists, and it became essential for many of those artists to abandon that training in favor for something different. At the same time, it was essential not to return to old methodologies of painting. But returning to old subjects was permissible, and for Wesselmann the great challenge in his mind was to make a drawing or painting of the nude female form that was just as beautiful as the nude female he was drawing or painting. Often his subject was a model named Claire, a woman he eventually married.

Every reclined female Wesselmann painted is reminiscent of Manet's "Olympia," which in turn reference's Titian's "Venus." Neither Titian nor Manet is remotely Pop, but referencing either establishes Wesselmann's interest with art history. His relationship with art history is further cemented in several of the works on display. "Great American Nude #20" quotes Van Gogh's "Sunflowers." A study of "Judy Trying on Clothes" is reminiscent of Degas' drawings of women preparing for the bath. Matisse is also a reoccurring name in many of Wesselmann's titles.

What the exhibition does as a whole is deny Wesselmann as a painter. He seldom challenges the medium in the way that Sisley, Chagal, or Mondrian challenged painting, - works by artists you can view in the Kreeger's permanent collection, upstairs. Wesselmann's use of painting is often flat, and seems only in the service of applying color to an otherwise exquisite drawing. Color in service of the drawing is best illustrated in his later cut steel pieces like Hillside Farm, Callicoon Center, 1990, and Still Life with Fuji Chrysanthemums (double layer) 1985/92.

: Drawing Version of Bedroom Painting

With these cut steel pieces we truly get a sense of what Wesselmann was attempting with his work: challenging the limitations of drawing. As Richard Serra demonstrated with lead, unless molten and fluid, you can't draw with steel. So the challenge of these later works is to maintain the sensitivity and grace of fluid line in an otherwise inflexible medium. Throughout the progression of the exhibition we see how Wesselmann challenged the notions of drawing, by denying their flat surfaces with works like Drawing Version of Bedroom Painting #24 (1973), or Drawing Maquette for Still Life #59 (1972), both of which take a series of flat drawings and stack them into sculptural compositions.

All of the work on display stresses Wesselmann's unmistakably traditional interests, as Dawson points out, but it hardly seems to be an albatross. The only Pop in the show is one of expectation: Wesselmann's label as a Pop Artist, despite how the show was promoted, is a bubble that bursts. His practice gave a breath of new life to Classical themes of still life and the nude, and it pushed the boundaries of two-dimensional surfaces. Through Wesselmann we can actually learn something about art and its history, as opposed to some mimeographed day-glow portrait of Marilyn Monroe, which teaches us more about marketing.

Strictly Painting 8 and Planning Process

2011-06-16T09:34:00.004-04:00

Tonight I'll have a couple of new ideas on exhibit at Strictly Painting 8 at the McLean Project for the Arts, running through July 30.

Ideas? Yes. Ideas. Or, rather, idea (same idea but two different pieces). As a graduate student I made paintings that referenced collages of torn advertisements that simulated torn posters that found along the streets of Rome. And, of course, I got raked over the coals in critique for one of three reasons: 1) the work was too close to Rotella, Rosenquist, etc, or 2) I wasn't defying Cubism 3) I wasn't being didactic enough with the narrative. After graduate school I chose to stop painting (I teach more digital courses, anyway), until I could figure out the kind of painting I wanted to make.

The pieces on exhibit in McLean are ideas that step toward that goal of making the paintings I want to make. Or, at least, the paintings that I would like to be making now (I'm fickle). Unfortunately, the work might make people think I am trying to tackle Elsworth Kelly or (more locally) J.T. Kirkland - artists I like, but not work that I want to create.

Despite the work on exhibit, I'm holding my cards close to my chest before revealing my hand - I don't want to write about the work, yet.

Also on exhibit in Planning Process at the Arlington Arts Center, are pieces from Out of Print, my series that explores the slow, agonizing death of the newspaper, which is represented by my efforts to erase the front pages of various newspapers from across the country. I'll have 17 papers on display, plus some early digital drafts of the work (the process). Planning Process won't open until June 22, and the work will be on display through September 25.

If you're not busy next week... lectures at PGCC

2011-04-28T13:58:00.003-04:00

The academic year has forced this blog to grind to a halt, (postings and musings to come this summer), but I do want to announce that Prince George's Community College has a couple of speakers next week, on May 4 (Jeff Gates) and May 6 (Victoria F. Gaitán).

6:30 P.M., Wednesday, May 4, Marlboro Hall, Room 2055
Jeff Gates -- Using Design for Change: the Chamomile Tea Party Posters

Founder of the Chamomile Tea Party, artist and designer Jeff Gates will discuss how effective design can be used to influence change. The lecture will examine his use of Photoshop, social media, and political activism. Jeff Gates' work was recently nominated for a People's Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and has been featured on the Huffington Post and Boing-Boing.com.

1:00 P.M., Friday, May 6, Marlboro Hall, Room 2080
Victoria F. Gaitán: process and obsession

Victoria Gaitán will discuss her photographic process, how to get something from seemingly unusable digital files, and her photographic obsessions with illness, memory, interpretations of pain, private and public intimacies, trauma, beauty and conditioned responses. Gaitán’s work has been written about on Brightest Young Things, and TBD.com.

Directions to Prince George's Community College

Purge

2011-04-22T23:20:00.002-04:00

In preparation of a move, things are getting pitched. And since artists tend to be pack rats, it's essential for things to be re-evaluated from time-to-time.

Why are artists pack rats? Good question. Somewhere down the line, some professor once planted the seed in the heads of all his students that it was important to save everything in the event that you get or want to get 1) a show, 2) a grant, 3) a retrospective, 4) a book written about you. Somehow this also translates into saving every magazine you've ever bought because it has a little something about art. Meh.

What got tossed:
Upwards of 400 slides. Remember those? I have no clue how many hundreds of dollars were spent on those. But I have not taken a slide, converted a digital image into a slide, or sent out a slide for nearly five years (if not longer). If an exhibition asks for slides, or a college job opening only wants to see slides, I ignore them. All of the slides tossed were duplicates of about 185 original works and details. None of the work was created after 2006, which means most of the work was created as an undergrad or a grad student. What is even more interesting is that some of that work has been destroyed or lost. Some got damaged in floods, some got pitched in moves, some were given to friends as gifts (and I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere along the line Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so asked each other if they really wanted to save the large contour drawing of a nude woman in a Unibind frame that has warped the Plexi and board off the wall).

Magazines. Some get saved because there is an article I haven't read, or because there is some current event that makes an already-read article seem relevant.

Old class projects. I still have my Art 100 stuff -- from undergrad. Even then I thought I might teach and that it might be a good idea to save some stuff. So, everything (or most everything) from my painting and graphic design majors has been preserved. Until tonight. Some of it is in a big dumpster out back. Some of it gets saved for students to look through (to see process). Some of it gets incorporated into instruction.

Old sketch books. Only a few are going in the big bin. Some are going to get examined and interesting notes will be re-posted here. What I found interesting as that in the beginning of graduate school I burned through a sketch book a month. Semester 1 = 4 sketch books. The rest of graduate school fits into two sketch books.

What else goes? I have a feeling there will be a bundle of painting supplies that find their ways to happy homes. Time will tell.

Artist Fellowship and Dying Newspapers

2010-10-05T09:02:00.005-04:00

A couple weeks ago I received word from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities that I will be awarded one of the FY11 Artist Fellowship awards. the excitement that underlies this award is the potential (and hopeful achievement) to open "The Gun Store," a work that examines the second amendment and the practicality (or lack there of) of gun bans and restrictions.

Already this idea has gained some traction, and as I learned in the days leading up to the grant announcements, I am not the only DC artist who has this idea in mind. Cory Oberndorfer, another DC artist and American University alumnus who has made a name for himself around town by painting murals of roller derby girls at an incredible scale, was conceiving of a similar idea, except he wants to open a gun store that sells nothing but toy guns... or is it a toy store that sells nothing but toy guns? Either way, the stream-lined direction of his store, I must admit, is enviable.

Maura Judkis caught wind of the news of these "dueling" gun stores and wrote about it on TBD.com. So, the ante has been raised in terms of perceived expectations and accomplishments. Time to get the ball rolling!

An exhibition of grant recipient work will be on view in the Corcoran's Gallery 31, which is typically their student gallery, October 21-31. I believe admission is free. No gun work will be in that show, only newspapers from my series of erased newspapers in honor of the dying medium. For this exhibition I have acquired the final editions of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star, and the first edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The papers merged in June signaling the death of two and the genesis of one. For many cities around the nation that have two newspapers, the market place is like the thunderdome: two papers enter, one paper leaves. Such is the death of print journalism in the past and future decades. It probably won't be long before newspapers have dwindled into state newspapers, rather than city newspapers, with regional inserts to cover local news. I know I am not helping; we haven't subscribed to a paper in several years. If we had more time to read the Washington Post we would still subscribe. Or if we had a parakeet.

Conspicuous Absence? Not Really.

2010-08-28T09:37:00.002-04:00

Previously, on absent postings on this blog, I was remiss to post anything because I was too busy writing content for Washington City Paper's Artsdesk Blog. Now, I have a new excuse.

The good news: I was recently hired as an Associate Professor at Prince George's Community College (PGCC) in Largo, Maryland.

The bad news: my writing for Washington City Paper, like this blog, will languish. CP will actually get more stuff from me because this blog does not pay (though, some might argue the pay at CP is almost like not getting paid... hey, they admit it too! So, it's not like I am revealing anything new.).

The worst news: my daughter is now in day care. Heart wrenching!

Future posts will mention upcoming shows or some thoughts (like the long overdue "how passing out buttons at Metro stations is art" posting... I have not forgotten). For now, know the following:

1. Three of my erased newspapers are in a show at Pittock Mansion, Portland, OR, through November.
2. I'll be installing "America's Grave," a collaborative work with Randall Packer first installed in 2006 at the Katzen, at Zero1 in San Jose, beginning September 11.
3. I'll be in the PGCC Faculty Show in October
4. I think the Post Conceptualist show is still on for March '11 at Univ. Maryland (organized by Mark Cameron Boyd).
5. I was in an exhibition at Healing Arts on U Street (DC), which comes down on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
6. Speaking of the gallery PGCC, you should check out the current National Sculpture show. The gallery is open until 8:00 Mon-Thur. In the words of Cartman, it is "pretty kick ass."

An Introduction to Conceptual Art

2010-07-08T00:14:00.001-04:00

A few days ago we (here in the States, anyway) celebrated the birth of our nation 234 years ago.

Though, there is one fact we tend to overlook. July 5th, 1776, most of the citizens in the United States awoke as subjects of the crown. Only a handful of guys, who were present in the room during the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, awoke with hearts lightened with the murky vision of what America might look like (as well as a lump in their throat for the potential penalty worthy of treason: beheading).

Actual independence as a nation state did not come until the Treaty of Paris in September of 1783. Or, some might argue it didn't come until January of 1784, when our Continental Congress was able to ratify it, or April of 1784 when the British King did the same. But, as true Americans, we celebrate our initiatives, not the initiatives of those aided by the French (thanks during the Revolution, BTW), or the blessings and acceptance of foreign kings. It's like celebrating budget surpluses (which are projected).

We celebrate the idea.

But, my question is, if it is possible to unify 300 million people around July 4th, 1776 as the birth of our nation, why is it so difficult to get even 1/10th that number of Americans to embrace some of the simplest conceptual works of art as "works of art."

Perhaps we should take up arms and fight it out for seven years. Though, as F.T. Marinetti discovered after his Futurist Manifesto, artists make lousy soldiers.

An Interview with Chuck Close

2010-07-06T15:31:00.002-04:00

As June has become July, with projects in various stages of wax and wane, and with the knowledge that I will remain only a semi-finalist for the Trawick Prize (i.e. I was not selected as a finalist), I began writing for Washington City Paper as their new art critic. I use the term "art critic" loosely since it is difficult to be overly critical of anything in 150 words, which is the ballpark figure I have been given for writing one gallery pick a week for the print edition (plus a few more for the on line version).

I started writing for City Paper in mid June, and have managed to churn out about 10 pieces since then. But, to my surprise one week into the gig, I was asked by my editor if I would be interested in interviewing Chuck Close. Uhm... SURE!

The Corcoran and Close had arranged for a handful of press to come and receive individual 20-30 minute tours of the show with Mr. Close as guide. At least, that was the idea. The result was a little different. Most members of the press requested to walk through the show prior to their appointed times, and as a result, Mr. Close was barraged for over an hour starting at 9:00.

When 10:30 rolled around, and it was my official turn to meet and speak with Chuck Close, I almost did not get a chance to do so. He was clearly fatigued, and concerned about his lecture later that evening. He agreed to a few more questions, and Janet Anderson (no relation, writing for Washington Print Club Quarterly) and I began firing away.

Prior to interviewing Mr. Close, Janet and I had been going over some questions we had in mind, and discussing our research leading up to the interview. Both of us wanted to avoid the answers we had heard repeated, so we quickly abandoned questions about abstract painting (he didn't have any angst), his process (golf and inverse Pollock metaphors), and so on.

The net result of my interviews with Chuck Close, and later with curator Terrie Sultan, can be found at Washington City Paper's Arts Desk Blog. These were trimmed down from a 4200 word piece, and a couple things got removed in the process (for instance, Close laughed when I said his work is indirectly a record of aging, and he offered that his birthday was "next Monday" (July 5))

And, unfortunately, the net result also yields nothing new, as I have learned from watching his interview with Charlie Rose, and reading an interview with his biographer, Christopher Finch, on Guernica.

Oh well. Below is a list of links of most of those who had a chance to speak with Chuck Close and Terrie Sultan.

Sophie Gilbert at The Washingtonian
Brendan Smith at Pinkline Project
Philippa Hughes at Pinkline Project
Frances Chung at Brightest Young Things
Jordan at Ready Set DC
Max Cook at We Love DC

Mid June Odds and Ends

2010-06-11T11:42:00.002-04:00

All right: recent happenings.
Kate Mattingly wrote about the JOB Creation Project for The Pink Line Project: here

My website is finally redesigned with new content up, including documentation on projects (Building Blocks for Child Literacy and Out Of Print) and notes on recent events.

I've also had a couple pieces on The Pink Line recently: one on Daniel Dean and the Container Space, and one on Elisabeth French's exhibition at the American University Museum.

The Daniel Dean article was started in February. Then came snow storms and a snowbound house guest, which was followed up with projects ramping up (Maintenance Required at Arlington Arts Center, JOB Creation Project), teaching, and that full-time stay-at-home dad thing.

JOBs Article in Washington City Paper

2010-05-07T20:32:00.007-04:00

A couple weeks back I had a conversation with Maura Judkis, who writes for Washington City Paper, about my JOB Creation Project. Nearly 2 hours of conversation have been distilled into this linked article.

The American University Museum in the Katzen Arts Center has a couple of shows opening tomorrow (May 8). One Hour Photo, a project conceived by Adam Good and curated Chajana denHarder and Chandi Kelley, has been getting a lot of buzz of late (articles have popped up in The Washington Post and Pink Line Project). The concept: each photograph (of the 128 photographs created by 128 photographers) will be on display for one hour during the show. Each of the artists have signed a (moral) contract never to exhibit the work publicly again. I am one of the artists, and if you are interested to see my image of the hotel and opera sign across the street from the Amargosa Opera House, you can view it on June 1st between 2 and 3pm. (After which I can show you a print, I can e-mail you an image, I can sell a print (I think), but I can never exhibit it).

I love the concept of this exhibition, which is why I submitted a work. I don't consider myself a conceptual artist any more than I consider myself a political artist (see the WCP article). But, I do know my work rubs elbows with those labels from time to time, since it might comment on something "political," or it might be concept-driven. Since I don't consider myself a photographer, just an artist who happens to use photography as a medium of executing and articulating an idea from time to time, I have no qualms with exhibiting and then "destroying" the image of the opera house sign.

The other exhibition to mention is of Emilie Brzezinski's Family Trees. Last November I had an opportunity to see this work first hand; Barbara Rose had contacted me looking for someone to make a video of the work and of an interview about the work. I spent two days out at Ms. Brzezinski's home and studio and had a pleasant and interesting time. Of course, between the time I was asked to do the shoot and the time I got out there, I completely forgot that her husband, Zbigniew, was Carter's national security advisor. So, there I was, meandering around the home seeing these photographs of her husband with Carter and the Pope (J.P.2). Kind of a Twilight Zone moment of the fish-out-of-water scenario... the kind where you have to ask yourself, "how did I get here?"

Side note: Emilie grows her own mushrooms and makes w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l mushroom soup. We had a bit of wodka with lunch. So, I can say I've done shots with Barbara Rose and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Long story short, the intention of the video documentation was so that it would play inside one of the trees of the installation when it exhibited in New York in February. Barbara didn't think my rough cut set the right mood or was in the appropriate direction for her vision. So, I mailed all of the video files to her around Christmas and haven't heard boo about the project since. I am curious to see if any video is included in this installation. And, I'd like to see Emilie again, too; she's a sweet woman.

Finally, I look forward to seeing "Convergence" one last time. I happened upon the exhibit as it was being installed, and Jack Rassmusen gave me a sneak peek of the show. The shows Jack has been able to assemble in his tenure at the gallery never fail to impress me, either for the work on display or for the unusual nature of the work exhibited.

What do I mean by unusual? When was the last time you saw a group show of Lebanese artists? The fact that Jack is willing to go to Peru or Norway or wherever to put together a show is fabulous, and far more interesting than the National Gallery of Art having another exhibit of Jasper Johns work. So, stepping off the elevator, onto the third floor, and seeing a video triptych by Jean-Pierre Watchi blew me away. I walked into the rotunda and scattered around the floor was Mario Saba's "The Temple," with a projected blue screen on the wall, noise - noise - noise, and a couple of assistants tasked with the busy work of putting it all together. He graciously spent a few minutes discussing the work with me, though the chaos of sound and the erosion of memory make me recall only this little bit: an allegory about the collapse of the Tower of Babel, hence the noise.

Why do I mention this now, one week before the close of the show? I heard the exhibit reviewed on NPR. That sort of takes the steam out of writing about it on this little blog. But, the show is quite remarkable, and a public needs to be reminded it is still here, even if for only a little while longer -- and that it is worth seeing.

Maintenance Required at Arlington Arts Center

2010-04-23T20:39:00.004-04:00

Early last autumn I learned my work, Maintenance Required, was selected for the Spring Solos, on view through June 5, 2010 at the Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA.

Beginning in late March, 2009, I began taking walking and driving tours of various neighborhoods throughout Washington, DC, documenting my tour and the various broken hydrants I found along the way. Since 2007, Washington has come to grips with the state of repair of its fire hydrants, determined which organizations were responsible for testing and repairing the hydrants, and set out a plan to replace about a quarter of its 10,000 hydrants in the next five years. According to a message I received from the DC Water and Sewer Authority, as of the beginning of March, 2010, DC WASA has replaced approx 3100 hydrants, which is well ahead of schedule.

189 Hydrants, 2009-2010

While my tours were initially devised to find as many hydrants as I could, I very quickly realized that though I had been in these neighborhoods many times before, I knew nothing about them. The work became as much about getting to know the neighborhoods as it became about finding the hydrants.

Seeing the educational possibilities of the work, for this installation I wanted to turn the gallery into a classroom. I painted a 70' chalk board across four walls of the space and framed it with base board. A mini gallery (of sorts) existed in part of the space, and I thought it was a fitting location for a bulletin board closet for 189 of the nearly 200 hydrants I had documented since the beginning of the project. (Why 189? Well... the 190th probably got misplaced along the way by the printer between the cutting mat and FedEx.) The bulletin board is nothing more than wrapping paper and some cheesy border trim I found on line through a teacher's supply warehouse.

Throughout the building are fire hydrant sculptures in various states of repair (tacked together with wood, duct-taped, stapled, stitched, filled with HVAC foam). Located near each hydrant are call boxes. People walking through the building can push the call box buttons and listen to a little clip about my reflections on the project, DC, and hydrants.

Reflections on JOBs at the Capitol

2010-04-14T11:06:00.002-04:00

What a disappointing day!

Question: how many JOBs did law makers and their staffers make today? None. And, the sad thing is they didn't have to debate, didn't have to vote, and didn't have to worry about deficits or tax-payer money. They simply had to pull a lever twice – more times if they wanted to make more JOBs.

I set up my little stand on the corner of Independence Avenue and 1st Street, SE, between 7:55 and 8:00 AM this morning. "Business" was at a trickle. Eventually a walker passed and asked a few questions. "Is this some sort of right wing thing?" "No, sir." I replied. "No right wing. No left wing. Just makin' JOBs."

See... if you drop your Gs, people think you are folksy and can relate to you better. At least, that's what I've heard.

He chuckled and made a JOB, and then took another JOB for a friend.

Then the Capitol Police showed up and asked me for a permit. I stated that I did not have a permit, but that I did receive permission from Officer... McDonald, was it?... on the phone last week.

"You mean O'Donnell?"

I suppose that was her name, I responded, and fiddled with my audio recorder, trying to get it in my pocket.

"Can you please keep your hands away from your pockets, sir?"

So, there I was chatting with one officer, arms akimbo (or on my pedestal), while the other officer radioed in. Fun times. I was told about the things "I wouldn't believe" people do while they are on patrol. Apparently one time this officer was asked for directions while he had a gun on a suspected felon, patting him down for a firearm.

I had to move. I could not be on the sidewalk. I had to be on the grassy area. So, I moved away from the street into the land of little traffic and no interest. A couple of staffers, when asked if they would like to make a JOB, declined saying, "No thanks, I already have one."

Nice. The JOB is for you to make and give to someone, not for yourself.

To paraphrase James K. Polk, people in Congress busy themselves with making jobs, and then hurry to fill them themselves.

Other Capitol Police approached. Some walked away. Officer Gallagher talked to me for a while and told me where I was supposed to and not supposed to be. However, since I was one person (and since I was leaving at 9:30), I could kind of be wherever, so long as I was in the grassy area.

There seemed to be a lot of foot traffic near the middle, and I asked if it was okay to move over there. Sure! Then, Officer Gallagher made a JOB and took another.

I moved toward the middle, and once there people were a lot friendlier. Of course, by then I was calling out to passersby like Dan Ackroyd with a Bass-O-Matic (minus the cocaine buzz). People smiled, laughed, said "good one!"

Still... only one other couple made a JOB. Vacationing tourists are more interested in making JOBs than people walking past with badges and pins on their lapels.

So it goes.

Next JOB action: Wednesday, March 31

2010-03-29T20:47:00.007-04:00

We'll have two JOB distributions this week. A future post announcing location two to follow.
This Wednesday, if you want a JOB, look for me at Farragut Square, most likely near the NW portion of the square. Again, JOBs are available while supplies last.

In the mean time, images from last week's JOB (laissez) Fair(e)

photos by Jesse Kimes

JOBs at Gallery Place Metro

2010-03-24T10:31:00.004-04:00

Today represented the second artistic act of job distribution, this time at the Metro entrance at 7th and F streets, NW, Washington, DC (Verizon Center/Gallery Place/China Town).

Because of a slight snag in my commute, or my planning, I started about 5 minutes late. Interestingly enough, more people took JOBs at Gallery Place, despite coming up the escalator at a trickle. They were friendlier than Dupont Circle's audience, and within 30 minutes 200 people had JOBs.

Photos will be posted by Saturday. And, at some point, I'll have a response to a criticism questioned by a granting committee that denied funding for the project: "What is the definitive artistic merit of this project?"

To put it another way, as a friend of mine once asked, "what makes this art and separates you from any other ass hole handing stuff out?"

An answer to come in the near future.

Pics from Job Creation Project, March 17

2010-03-20T22:45:00.006-04:00

Dupont Metro Station, Circle; March 17, 2010
photos by Jesse Kimes

JOB (laissez) Fair(e) - rehearsal notes

2010-03-18T09:56:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, March 17, between 8 and 9 am, I handed out JOBs at both entrances of the Dupont Metro Station in Washington, DC, and at one point also near the fountain.

The responses of passersby were interesting, and in some respects, expected.

At 8:00 in the morning, anyone headed to work is in iPod Land, even those without earbuds plugging their external auditory canals. iPod Land is easily identified by the haze that only one cup of coffee alone cannot cure. It's like a hangover, only without the alcohol. Essentially, it is an aura, projected by the passerby that sighs, "leave me the f--- alone."

I stood at the Q-Street entrance saying, "JOBs?"

I got the following responses:
ignoring downward glance
the polite no thank you wave
the second glance
the hesitant grab
the oooo free stuff grab (sorry. no coupon. enjoy the button!)
and the get-out-of-my-way or I am going to run you over while I clutch onto my rolling briefcase and triple-shot-tall-soy-mocha-no-whip.

Conversations I had with people include:
"What is this?"
It's a JOB.

"You gave me two."
Give the second to someone else.

"Can I have one?"
Yes.

"You gave me two. Now I am over worked."
Laughter (this was from the woman handing out free copies of contemporary Irish literature... I regret not grabbing one)

"What are you doing?"
Handing out JOBs.
"Damn right!"

When I got bored, I moved locations.

One of the people handing out Washington Examiners looked a little irritated by my action.

Two (illegal?) immigrants thought about getting JOBs, until they realized they were JOBs and not jobs.

Some people received the JOBs with a smile. A couple people gave thumbs up, or said "all right!" Some people laughed out loud after reading a quote on the card clipped to the safety pin. Those who were awake, and paying attention, seemed to embrace the spirit of the project: a mildly intelligent critique wrapped in dumb irony.

What is missing is the pitch. That comes with the next action.

In other news, Congress just sent an $18B Jobs bill to President Obama, and it has been signed in the Rose Garden. One Republican lawmaker is quoted as saying it is "an $18B debt bill, adding debt, debt, and debt." "And the beat goes on," as Sonny and Cher once sang.

To learn more about the JOBs Creation Project, and to see images from the actions (as they become available), go to www.jobcreationproject.info The FAQ seems to be popular.

Why (dot)info? Because the utility of my money spent on a (dot)com is better spent elsewhere.

JOB Creation Project

2010-03-16T20:50:00.003-04:00

Sometime in 2007 I came up with the idea of distributing Jobs on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This artistic action would have been under the umbrella of the US Department of Art and Technology. However, after some procrastination (largely due to conflicts of time), the idea was dropped.

Until now.

Beginning tomorrow, March 17, 2010, I'll begin distributing JOBs to anyone who wants one (while supplies last) at the Q-Street entrance of the Dupont Circle Metro Station (Washington, DC).

This will be the first of several artistic actions to take place on successive Wednesdays (while supplies last), which I am calling JOB (laissez) Fair(e)s. Each action is a part of the JOB Creation Project.

Each JOB consists of a 1.25" button, and a card with quotes about government, labor, and economics from various politicians and economists.

The motivation for the project is two fold. First: Politicians fondly champion job creation, yet opposing parties have different perspectives on how it is done, reducing the process to incoherent and conflicting sound bytes, and reducing the word "job" into a platitude. The JOBs I create are, therefore, worthless; they are buttons, after all.

Second: (as often is the case) is the pun – a reference to the book of Job, and the thinking that those who keep searching for work, in the face of adversity (high unemployment, recession, etc), must have the patience of Job. And, considering some of the jobs numbers are padded by those who are underemployed, the idea that a person has a job can also be relatively meaningless if that job does not enable an individual to pay the bills.

There Is Nothing Original

2010-02-20T22:46:00.002-05:00

In an effort to merge procrastination and productivity, I took a break from preparing work for my upcoming spring solo at Arlington Arts Center and took a look at boingboing.net, segued directly to the art/design section, and discovered a poster for the ingredients of a pizza pocket. Immediately I was reminded of my friend's work at Ork Posters, and was so charmed by the work that I clicked on the artist/designer's (Justin Perricone) website. Lo-and-behold! After navigating to the blog section I discovered (much to my pleasure and chagrin) that he too delves in the appropriation of typography from product logos.

His Alphabet
My Alphabet

More are in the works on my end, and I can assume the same is true on his end. Truth be told, this was a project I hoped to have completed mid 2009 - but with a rejection from Flashpoint to exhibit the work (on the merits that it was too "graphic designy" (their words)), I postponed the alphabets project because others took priority.

The other night I made a list of projects in process and projects I have conceptualized, just haven't started. At present, the total hovers near 20, discounting the Maintenance Required project (to show at AAC in April - a continuation of broken hydrant documentation within our nation's capital), and my Jobs Creation Project (hopefully I'll get in gear and begin distributing Jobs in mid March (more on that later)).

Exhibitions, Guest Blogging, and the Website

2010-01-16T14:19:00.003-05:00

A few months ago I was invited to a meeting with The Pinkline Project, hosted by its founder Philippa Hughes, gathering arts writers together to write about art for her new site. I haven't written about art for anyone else for a couple of years (with the exception of a couple failed efforts to get reviews and crits published in local papers... correction: failed efforts to get responses from editors or publishers of papers or magazines after submitting work... details), and I was rather gunshy of writing any kind of review. Fortunately, Ms. Hughes didn't want reviews; she wants to create a culture of enthusiasts who seek out and attend arts events, and maybe even increase the number of art collectors. It took a while to piece an essay together, and another while to get it up on the site. But, the essay is up. To summarize, it basically says that you don't need to buy art at Target, you can get affordable art at a number of venues in town.

The spring is/was getting to be incredibly busy. Before the new year I shot a portion of my work of Homonyms off to The LoDi Project in Raleigh, NC for an exhibition on the use of letters in art (judged by a graphic designer, so the topic makes sense, it runs through Jan 30). last week I was asked by the gallery director at Prince George's Community College if he could include my work in an exhibition on the subject of time. He wanted to include Moment of Zen, but I suggested work from Maintenance Required instead, since Zen showed in a faculty show in Fall '08. Meanwhile, in preparation for a new installation of Maintenance at The Arlington Arts Center in April, I was getting a new work ready, Job Creation Project, for a group show at The Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland (more on that "project" later). However, due to some miscommunication, it turns out that show is Spring '11. The Job Creation Project will be on hold for a couple weeks so I can reschedule and get work ready for Arlington.

Meanwhile, I redesigned my website, making it a lot sleeker and easier to update, only to have problems posting it. As it turns out, I was having a server hosting issue. So, I contacted the host, switched servers, and apparently am still in the process of switching servers 96 hours later. Maybe the issue will be resolved by Monday afternoon... maybe. I was excited because I finished my first web piece. It's a simple piece of HTML, but it also falls into the art-about-art category, which I know is less interesting for some people, and kind of functions like a joke on Conan where only a select portion of the audience gets it... just like art.

The Memory of Ken Noland Leaves Little to Remember of Washington

2010-01-06T15:04:00.008-05:00

Today the art world begins to mourn the loss of Kenneth Noland, who died yesterday from Cancer at his home in Maine at the age of 85. As the art world mourns his death, DC can mourn the near omission from the memorial record. The New York Times does manage to note his settling here in the 1950s, and his teaching at Catholic University and the Institute of Contemporary Arts. It was also at this time he befriended Morris Louis. The article omits that Noland also taught night classes at the Washington Workshop Center of the Arts, where Louis was teaching. Most other publications omit his having lived in DC. Most of the DC information is a foot note upon a footnote. However, that does not mean his time in DC was inconsequential.

Tibor de Nagy is given credit for giving Noland his first solo show in 1957. Some keen writers note that it was his first solo New York show, which is more accurate. Noland had his first solo exhibition in the Watkins Gallery in December of 1950. For those unfamiliar with it, Watkins was a little bowling-alley closet of a gallery located in the Watkins (Fine Arts) building on the SW corner of American University's campus, before the gallery was rendered obsolete by The Katzen Arts Center in 2005. Today, not even the footprint of Watkins Gallery remains in tact, as the space has been restructured for classrooms and offices. I presume what Noland exhibited in 1950 was work from Black Mountain.

What I find fascinating about Noland is his work ethic. While he was teaching and painting in DC, he was also driving a cab to make ends meet. As some painters chase the ghost of Cezanne or Picasso, Noland chased the ghost of Paul Klee and emulated his style in the pursuit of abstract painting. (Image pictured left is a Noland c.1950-1953.) At one point he sold the little abstractions for $50 a piece in order to buy Christmas presents for his three kids.

The legend has it that Noland and Louis were swept away to New York by Clement Greenberg. They saw Frankenthaler's studio, abandoned what they were doing, and changed the course of painting history. Washington, DC remained as little more than a sleepy backwater footnote to the history of Noland's development. This is the fable handed down through the abbreviated histories. Such a fable is not far from the truth. What becomes more interesting are the relationships.

Noland met Greenberg as a student at Black Mountain. Some accounts suggest they remained close. I suspect Black Mountain operated somewhat like Chautauqua Institute, where, if not in residence, respected artists and critics might journey away from Manhattan for a couple weeks, or a month, to lecture, teach and critique. This kind of interaction does foster friendships, but I cannot imagine the two became really close until after Noland married Cornelia Langer. His wife had remained friends with her former professor from Sarah Lawrence, David Smith - who Clement Greenberg had been reviewing (for publications like The Nation) since 1937.

The trip to New York with Greenberg, Noland, and Louis did not occur until 1953. Shortly thereafter Noland abandoned his pursuit of Klee and worked in an all-over style, producing canvases that echoed Pollock, de Kooning, Frankenthaler, and Still. It would be almost another decade before Noland would leave DC.

By 1955 Noland started working with the circle, for which he has become well-known, and by 1956 he had established how useful a hoola-hoop was in the execution of his work - it helped true-up what were once very sloppy circles. When he had a solo show at The Jefferson Place Gallery in 1958, the other artists who exhibited with the gallery were stunned by the size of his paintings, some of which were as large as 8 feet square and needed to be unrolled and stretched in the gallery before they were hung. Some of the other regular artists even protested that his work was no longer art. I think some of them recognized that art, as they knew it, had officially changed. Eventually, the writer Tom Wolfe (former writer for the Washington Post between 1959 and 61) would refer to Noland as the world's fastest painter in the book The Painted Word, because of those circles.

DC enabled Noland an opportunity to find his direction. It is what DC does for artists. There is little pressure in this town because of its distance from New York. There is also the opportunity to accelerate into the lime-light, provided you have the right relationships, because of its proximity to New York.

In Memorium: Terry Kirk

2009-10-27T13:09:00.002-04:00

As a professor I often reflect on the people who inspired me enough to want to become a professor. Obviously, most of those people were professors. I aspire to live up to the qualities of the great professors I had, and I hope never to fall prey to the shortcomings of the professors I loathed. It should come as no surprise that I have kept in contact with most of the professors that have inspired me for the better; they have become part of that group of people that I call friends.

On Sunday, Oct. 18, I learned that one of my friends was gone. The death of a friend is never an easy thing to accept, and it becomes harder still to learn that a friend took his own life.

Terry Rossi Kirk was professor to approximately 500 students a year in Rome, lecturing on the art and architecture of Modern Italy (1600 - present, give or take). Since Rome is a living textbook, lecture classes were not restricted to slide presentations in darkened rooms, they consisted of walking tours throughout the streets of the Eternal City. What made Terry's lectures stand apart was not just the enthusiasm and interest he possessed for his subjects, it came from his ability to perform his lectures.

During the first semester I had Terry for a professor, studying painting in my final semester as an undergraduate at Iowa State University, Terry lectured on the piazza as public theater, comparing most works of Classical and Modern architecture to the stage, scenography, the proscenium arch, and the billowing curtain. The analogy even carried into sculpture of the period, most notably the operatic work of Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa in the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria, where onlookers from balconies peer down to see the arrow of the angel plunged into the entrails of the meditating saint. However, instead of simply lecturing about it, Terry went a further step, performing the plunging arrow, discussing - in an enunciated whisper that could be understood by the pope, several miles away in Vatican City - the sexual connotations of the ecstasy, and the penetration of the angels "arrow" into her body. He then moaned, in accordance with the expression on her face. It was not a moan of pain, the moan a mother might make in the midst of labor. It was an orgasm. In a church. In Rome. And students were not the only people in attendance.

We then went for coffee.

Terry bought a painting from me after the completion of that semester. Had it not been for that acquisition, I might have remained one of the hundreds of students he has in a semester. It was a triptych, measuring a total 100cm x 50cm, with the middle measuring 50x50. Considering its size I was a little dumbfounded that he picked it up on his bike with a spool of twine.

Two years later I was getting ready to return to Italy, to a 2 year MFA program through American University in Washington, DC. Prior to applying for the program there was one name on the list of faculty that stood out to me: Terry Kirk. He taught my graduate art history course, and I sat in on an undergraduate architecture of Rome course, from time to time.

I left Italy after a year to finish my degree in DC, and Terry and I kept in touch, bumping into each other at College Art Association conferences. The last time I saw him was in February in Los Angeles, and he suggested I tell whoever I was interviewing with that, if hired, if they wanted to set up a semester long program, he would help me help them; I should be teaching in Rome, after all.

On the afternoon of Oct 18 I learned that Terry's body was found on Saturday in his car on the outskirts of Rome with his wrists slit. He had been missing since Wednesday. While I believed the news, I did not accept it. Terry had e-mailed less than a week earlier, proud to have been mentioned in an article by Susan Spero, writing for the LA Times about her time in Italy and the importance of Fascist architecture.

There was no news on Google searches. Eventually I looked at Terry's page on Facebook. There the reality of his death hit home. Four people I did not know had written their farewells to Terry.

It is interesting that Facebook has given me a better outlet to grieve over his death. On Terry's wall, a small community of people have gathered to say goodbye, to pay respects, to share stories, and to mourn. It is cathartic not only to contribute to that space, but to read the contributions of others, no matter how brief. I doubt Mark Zuckerberg ever thought this might be a use for his social networking creation, and I fear that, if after a certain period of inactivity, Facebook consumes his dormant site; in a way, Terry is still alive on Facebook, and it is the community of friends he made during his membership that continue to post stories and pictures. In a virtual space we gather together to celebrate a life.

Admittedly, I did not know Terry that well. To be in his presence for a semester, to be the student of his lectures, to listen to his enthusiasm and his flamboyant performances, was to know half of the truth. Privately he might be quite and demure, less likely to be on the stage, and more likely to be focused and concentrated on the conversation at hand. As e-mails have passed back and forth between friends and colleagues who knew him, I've been told he suffered from depression and was bipolar. He masked it well and I suspect only those who were closest to him personally and professionally knew of this. I was not a member of that fraternity, nor had I any reason to be.

The first step toward suicide is not simply wanting to die – though that motivation certainly helps – it is having a plan to carry out the mortal act. According to a news story in Il Tempo, wherein a young American was found dead outside Rome, he was found with keys and papers in his pocket. His final act was not impulsive. I wonder how long the plan had been ruminating in his mind. I'm told, a few days before he died, there was a party at his flat. I am wondering now if Terry intended that as his farewell party, and all the guests were oblivious. I also wonder if the final e-mail I received was another goodbye. Better to go out on high notes. Though sad, there is a certain poetry with that.

I still cannot comprehend his suicide. In truth, with grief subsiding, I'm angry about it. And, I'm left with no choice but to forgive his decision.

To Paraphrase Wednesday Night

2009-10-23T09:21:00.004-04:00

Over the past few months, thanks in part to the gift of a generous benefactor willing to pass down used/read back issues of recently published art magazines that she might otherwise throw out, I have been enjoying Dave Hickey's random essays in Art in America. So, it was with great surprise, Wednesday, that I learned he was speaking at the Smithsonian American Art Museum later that evening.

Sometimes news like this escapes me, and I can't help but get pissed about my own laziness, ignorance, apathy, or some combination of the three.

With my wife's permission, I attended, proceeding to SAAM immediately following my 4+ hour class at GW, book bag in tow, the contents of which were approximately 30 lbs of books, mostly on the subjects of Flash and ActionScript3. Since I teach Wednesday afternoons, dinner usually consists of whatever I threw in the crock pot that morning, so Gretchen was taken care of. And, as luck would have it, the coffee and cake a scarfed down at 4:00, just after my marathon 3.5 hour lecture on animation, held me until I got home at 9:00.

Hickey was introduced as a man with a singularly American voice. I disagree. Though his subjects are generally American, as with other critics of American culture (I'm thinking of the Australian, Robert Hughes) Hickey's strength comes from a perspective that is keenly not from America. After all, he is from the Republic of Texas, which allows him the ability to circumnavigate the apologetic bull shit and ass-kissing in his writing. Basically a Molly Ivins for the art world.

The subject of the talk was The Evils of Creationism: Art History According to Darwin. I don't recall either Creationism or Darwin being specifically mentioned.

While he began by linking today's art market to the art market developed in the Renaissance, the point of his argument – which basically ranted against having a federal Department of the Arts – was how an evil called "stupid money" upsets the whole apple cart.

"If blood money gets blood on your hands, and dirty money makes everything it touches dirty, what does stupid money do to the intellect of those who receive it?"

Hickey noted how, in the past 40 years, a lot of money has been thrown into the art with good intentions, but it has been distributed by committees who give the money to the wrong artists. They don't give it to the genius who might show up drunk - if at all. They give it to the person that is likable, sober, and makes okay work. MFA programs are no better because, as he put it, "I have never seen a bad artist go through an MFA program and come out the other side a good artist." What happens is that bad artist might come out the other side a better-educated bad artist.

The issue with stupid money is akin to an article, forward to me from a friend, regarding child sports titled, "Stop the Little League Arms Race." The economist Charles Wheelan basically argues that if everyone placed their kids in accelerated athletics programs the net result would be a waste of time, money and quality family time - not to mention a lot of surgeries to correct limbs prematurely mangled by stress fractures - and that the really talented kids would still rise above the fray because money cannot buy talent.

The same can be said for art.

Not So Experimental Media Series

2009-10-22T10:05:00.003-04:00

Last week I was able to attend the final screening of the WPAs Experimental Media series.

As is the nature with juried shows, the juror looks for quality work and for the work to fit together in a program. What Kelly Gordan assembled for the one-hour program flowed together quite well.

A critical assessment of the individual pieces are not necessary. It would be safe to say that there were some great works, some good works, and a few stinkers that ranged from annoying to stupid. There was also room for a couple pieces that worked in the context of this screening - or within the context of any juried screening - but might not function as stand-alone pieces.

What does remain is a critical assessment of the title of the exhibition. Nothing in that program seemed experimental, and the very nature of the call for entry limited the potential for real experimental media. I had the same opinion a few years back when I saw Paul Roth's curatorial selections.

Some might state that, "by its very nature, video and sound are experimental." And, of course, I can agree that, generally, the work of the artist, as individual, is to experiment with a medium. But that doesn't mean he is establishing a new foundation, or pushing the height of the plateau. He may simply redefine his personal aesthetic and conceptual boundaries for what passes as art.

The whole title for the Experimental Media series is off.

First, Experimentation:
The notion of experimentation evokes the mad scientist. Think Nikola Tesla. Or Doc Brown (Back to the Future). When it comes to video, I can't say for certain that it has all been done before. However, what was on display last week evoked early cinema, montage, Godard, Hollis Frampton, the telenovella, and even Triumph (from Conan O'Brien, though I was actually reminded of MTV Italy's Pets). Not all possible influences have been listed above, and from the list, not all would be direct influences. Some would wallow in the shallow depths of bad analogy. But, none of the aforementioned examples are malapropos.

As for sound, I heard hints of Cage and Paik. Anytime I hear someone play the inside of a piano, I think of Cage.

Next, Media.
The call for entry was limited to video and sound. Media, however, has a much broader boundary which typically encompasses most things electrical, digital, interactive, performative, mechanical, engineered, and otherwise weird. Granted, that broad assessment would allow a spin painting displayed vertically and placed on a rotating whirly -gig to be considered Media Art, provided it was plugged in. So much of media art today seems to rely on the computer and bits of information from the Internet. Yet, no Internet art was available for digestion.

With the call for entry limited to sound and video, the call for entries went one step further by limiting the work to a single projection. Aspiring video wall artists need not apply.

I will accept that opening the boundaries to be more inclusive creates the challenge to find a suitable venue to show all of it. So, when it comes to retitling the series, I'll be willing to meet the judge and jury half way.

Kelly Gordon's comment on this series, and her selection process, was to look for work that feels fresh. She had the daunting task to review approximately 575 works for the series, nearly doubling her annual intake of video and cinema. And some of this work did look fresh. But, that doesn't mean it was experimental.

Perhaps the better title for the series would be Fresh Media. Compilations can be wrapped in butcher's paper.

Fart on the Ave

2009-10-14T17:29:00.003-04:00

Two weekends ago my family ambled down a street in Del Ray with friends in an effort to enjoy Alexandria, VA's Art on the Avenue. The next time I go I should chat up the vendors selling "paintings"* and start asking them "how do you do that."

Actually, I know the answer. The better question is, "why in the hell are you doing that?"

The "that" in question is the wretched process of taking a photograph, applying a filter to it in Photoshop, printing the result on canvas, and stretching the canvas. Granted, a fool and their money are soon parted, and in the case of those who would sell or buy, there are two fools involved (because my guess is the vendor goes home with a lot of unsold canvases).

The thing is, a bad vacation photo does not get better when Photoshop's "stained glass" filter is applied to it. Nor does it get better when printed with archival Epson inks on canvas paper. Nor does it get better when the canvas is stretched around a few pieces of pine.

There was a lot of "art" of this sort floating about The Ave. It impressed me no more two weeks ago than it did seven years ago when I found myself sitting in a doctor's office in New York City (whereupon after learning I was an artist the doctor responded, "I do a little art," and then pointed to the photo with inverted colors on the wall behind him). And, it reminded me of two lessons I teach beginning students in my digital art classes.

1. Stay away from the filters. It's not that the filters in Photoshop are bad. At times they are great, but if used selectively. When it comes to using the tool properly, the filters menu should simply be deactivated until later in the semester (or for a later course) so the user gains a better understanding for how to use the tools. The tools do the work. The filters act like a drug. I think anyone who has ever smoked pot knows that the pot doesn't make the problems of the world go away – war an famine still exist – it simply makes the problems of the world seem more tollerable for a very short period of time.

2. Stay away from Live Trace. This is a tool in Illustrator that will break down a photograph into a series of vector shapes, sometimes tens of thousands of vector shapes, and make the photograph look like a drawing... sort of. Again, Live Trace has its place. But, for beginners it becomes a knee-jerk stylistic choce and avoids learning how to do things like draw with the pen tool or use a gradient mesh.

Of course, this is all the vendors did to photos of beaches and mountains. And each "painting" looked as bad as the next.

In the process of chatting these people up, I would hope to gain how well these people are doing when it comes to selling a bad non-painting "painting." Sure, everyone needs a hobby, but those tents are expensive and printing on canvas isn't exactly cheap. So, how does it all shake out for this, ahem, artist? Do they break even in a given year? What is their business model?

I am also curious who the buyers are. You most likely wouldn't find the Kogods or the Cafritzes buying; you won't find the Barlows buying either; and you probably won't find any artist who is regularly showing at area commercial, non-profit, and alternative galleries buying work there. So, who is the competition? Is it Ikea and Target?

Of the great things that could be found at Art on the Avenue, all of them could be re-defined as "craft" or "artisan". I do not mean that in the pejorative, either. The last time I sat at a potters wheel, in 1995, I managed to throw a good bowl, but I wouldn't make a living from doing it, no matter how funky the glaze looked after a raku firing. There is skill to this craft, much like drawing, and it {is/can be} an art, and it is an art that I cannot confidently attempt to master. Besides, I have a feeling most of the ceramics, wood turned objects, scarves, and such were being sold for utilitarian purposes... much like the hand crafted olive oil soap. Unless, of course, the soap sellers intended for their soaps to sit on a pedestal.

*there are a few vendors selling legitimately painted paintings (notice, no quote) at art on the ave. the above critique does not apply to them.

Best Hydrant. Ever.

2009-09-20T14:40:00.002-04:00

This gem was found between 5th and 6th Streets along H Street, NE.

And junk

2009-09-16T11:57:00.002-04:00

I don't think it is too much for me to ask that, whereever I teach, I get to sit in an office that has a computer compatible with my responsibilities. Let me build up to this point.

This is the start of my fifth year as an adjunct professor in the greater Washington, DC metro area. To date, I have had three grueling semesters: one teaching five classes and an independent study between three schools; one where I taught from 9am-7pm, between two campuses, twice weekly (in addition to other courses on other days); and last semester when I taught four courses between four schools.

The onus for these schedules is a shared responsibility, but the initial responsibility is mine. I chose to begin teaching, and I chose to say yes to teaching the number of courses.

The shared aspect is two-fold. The First is from schools bouncing around their schedules, but I have little comprehension for how departments, schools and registrars piece everything together. Based on my experience at Iowa State University, I could expect certain classes to meet at certain times. Their schedules functioned almost like clockwork -- at least they did in the College of Design. But, it always seemed, without fail, that there were 9 am bio, soc, or psych 101 classes M/W/F. the Second is due to the pittance all schools in greater DC pay their adjuncts.

As a student, I did not know there was a difference between the various rankings, because they all had the same in-class responsibility of instruction and grading the products of students. We did not know of or perceive the title of "Lecturer," and few if any of us knew the difference between Assistant and Associate professor, or how they differed from Full Professors. The concept of tenure was, at best, fuzzy.

When I was a junior I was in the check-out lane of a grocery store (Hy-Vee) and the clerk one aisle over was my professor from my 3D design studies course. The long story short: she was an adjunct, teaching one or two classes a semester, and Hy-Vee paid much better than the university.

What does being an adjunct professor mean? The responsibilities are simple: teach class, hold office hours, grade work, give grades. This differes from the responsibilities of full-time professors, who are required to sit on department, school andinstitution (college/university) committees and meetings. Depending on the institution, there can be many. Adjuncts are not required to become parts of committees or attend meetings, and if they do the only compensation may be a pat on the back. It also might be ire.

The compensation for teaching is a low monetary stipend; there are no other benefits (healthcare, dental, 401K)

To give an idea of the disparity, it is not uncommon for an assistant professor to work a 3/2 (three classes fall, two classes spring) or 3/3 schedule and earn between $38,000 and $55,000, + benefits, depending on the location. ($38K seems low, but recently a small school (maybe a Community College) in MD offered a one-year appointment for someone to chair the art department, run the gallery, coordinate adjunct faculty, and teach a 4/4 schedule for $35K. I'll wager the applicant pool was easy to sift through.)

I was told a few years ago that the best pay in DC, for an adjunct, was $5,000/class at Georgetown. Most schools around The District offer $900 - $1200 per credit hour. No school offers benefits.

Some schools offer offices for their adjunct faculty. At three of the schools (four departments) where I teach, the adjunct faculty get to share an office. One department has a large room with multiple computers and desks; one department provides a shared office with several faculty members, and access to one of a handful of computers, depending on what kind of course the professor is assigned the computers work in the office or don't work in the office (the offices are in different buildings; one department has a room with two desks, one computer, and ample shelving; one department has a computer that barely works in a room that can almost fit the desk, the chair, and the adjunct faculty member (if he places the chair on the desk). One school has a lounge for faculty, but they never give the code to adjuncts. One school does not offer an office, but there is a coffee shop in the student union.

Anymore, if I am asked to teach a class I am asked to teach digital art.

Students are not required to attend office hours, but I am. Depending on the institution, I may be there from one to two hours. This is a great time to get work done for the course, either via the creation of documents (assignments, tutorial notes, etc), or via the grading of completed student work. However, if the equipment is not working, or if the computer does not have the Adobe Creative Suite, then I have several options available to me: check e-mail and twiddle thumbs.

Of course, I could always blog about my troubles.

Class starts in ten minutes.

An Open Letter to Glenn Beck

2009-09-08T12:02:00.002-04:00

After seeing Jeffry Cudlin's reaction to Glenn Beck's commentary on how Rockefeller was a Communist Fascist, I thought I'd shoot a response to Glenn Beck. (My only wish is that I double checked the spelling of Siqueiros before sending.

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Mr. Beck,

I found your commentary on the art of Rockefeller Plaza to be of interest, for multiple reasons. I wanted to respond to some of your comments.

First, kudos for noticing the stylistic similarities between the art of the US, USSR, and Italy during the 1930s. I think even a casual observer of art history could draw the stylistic parallels you drew (if paying attention) and pause for a moment to scratch his head and ponder why. And, your observations are something I might address in a class I teach on Visual Literacy. For instance, "how does the logo for Shell Motor Oil represent the sale of oil?" A wise student might respond, "because shells represent fossils, and oil is made from fossil fuel." The natural conclusion, then, is that the Shell Motor Oil company chose the logo and identity of a shell to represent their product. It is logical. Just like your argument that Rockefeller was a closeted Communist/Socialist/Fascist based on the art on Rockefeller Plaza. Here is the problem with my student's conclusion: Shell Motor Oil didn't start out selling motor oil products; the company started out selling sea shells. The problem with your visual argument is that it ignores art history just as much as a college student ignores art history when signing up for an elective.

There were two major styles in the 1930s: Art Deco and something called Social Realism. Art Deco embraced the speed of the present (aeronautics, the car) and the streamlined promise of the future. Social Realism, poorly worded as it is, is basically realism with contemporary themes of agriculture and industry. Sometimes, the streamlined look of Art Deco would find its way into Social Realism. The reason why Social Realism gained in popularity has more to do with a response to abstraction in the forms of Cubism and Expressionism, both of which were viewed as "not art" from such politically polar opposites as Adolph Hitler and Teddy Roosevelt. Both men could not comprehend the work of Duchamp, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Kandinsky, or Moholy-Nagy being classified as "art."

The new politics of Europe in the 1920s and 30s (Communism in the USSR, National Socialism in Germany, and Fascism in Italy) embraced the style of Social Realism in an effort to identify with a populous that they thought was being ignored by the previous ruling parties. While all of those political philosophies were at odds with each other, they did have at least one common ground that was, for lack of a better phraseology, elevating "the common man." (The roots of Democracy also spring from this soil. As tyrannical dictators formed and managed the politics of parts of Europe, we could extend the soil analogy further - weeds also grow in fertile ground.) The art form of Social Realism was used as propaganda. For the aforementioned states in Europe, the propaganda partly illustrates the benefits of the benevolent government. The propaganda of the European states also championed some ridiculous notion of "the ideal man," which lead to jingoism, and eventual xenophobia resulting in death camps and executions.

The U.S. had something similar to Social Realism: Regionalism, as painted by John Stuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton, and Grant Wood. There were also muralist painters in Mexico that were influencing the art of the U.S. with artists like Diego Rivera, David Siquieros. Regionalism also championed themes of agriculture and manufacturing. But, the reason was, in theory, to empower those hurt most by the burden of the Great Depression. Regionalism was also used as propaganda for the WPA. What better way to illustrate the strength of a government program than to commission artists to paint families benefiting from the food grown on lands now irrigated by a newly constructed dam?

By the 1950s, with The Cold War, nearly all citizens of the U.S. regarded Communism as an evil.
As the U.S. was fighting World War II, nearly all citizens in the U.S. regarded Fascism as an evil.
But, in 1933, when much of this art was commissioned, the U.S. opinions of either of these political philosophies was, at best, mixed, and for some cautiously optimistic.

It would seem irrational that Rockefeller, who benefitted from Capitalism, and is arguably the wealthiest man ever to live in the United States, would toss away his fortunes under Communist rule. He hired Rivera not because of his politics, but because his mother thought he was a great painter. Art history thinks much the same of Rivera (though not with as much favor as it does with those masters of The Renaissance). As for the other art commissioned for the building, it was executed under the dominating style of the time, Art Deco and Social Realism. Had Rockefeller gone with a more avant garde style, like Expressionism, people would have received it with much lass favor because of its non-objective nature. Had Rockefeller chosen Cubism, well, as the joke goes, everyone knows a person does not have three eyes.

Tyrants often choose symbols to represent their messages. These symbols can easily be seen with dread by those who do not share the ideals of the tyrants - that is the oppressive control of the tyrant over his subjects, masked under any political ideology. The tyrants of Communism chose the hammer and the sickle, pretending to champion manufacturing and agriculture (while exploiting all of their citizens). There were many in 1933 who were unaware of the tyranny under Soviet Communism. So, there is probably some anachronism in your assertion that Rockefeller is a Communist based on the images of hammers and sickles on 30 Rock. What is more plausible is that, he was obliged to put art there under whatever percent for art regulation was in place at the time. Since this coincided with the WPA, a program that supported artists amongst other public initiatives, artistic allegories to work that stimulated the economy or got people out of bread lines and into the markets were preferred.

There certainly is anachronism based on your assertion that the donation of Swords into Ploughshares (which is from The Bible in the books of Isaiah and Micah) proves Rockefeller is a Communist, especially since the donation was in 1959 -- 22 years after John D. Rockefeller II's death. But, since the quote is in The Old Testament, (Tanakh) does that mean that all Jews are Communists? (I know this was a popular belief by some in the Right Wing back in the 1950s.) Does it mean that all Christians are Communists, because they also read the Bible, which contains the Old Testament? No. Such assertions would be as anachronistic and false as suggesting that some Neolithic people are Nazis, simply because they used the swastika as a religious symbol 7000 years before Hitler appropriated it.

Sincerely,
John James Anderson

Go see "Paradox Now" at AAC

2009-08-14T11:23:00.004-04:00

I'm not going to be critical about the exhibition in this post -- I was and still am hoping to accomplish that elsewhere. Be that as it may, of the exhibitions I have been to this summer, Paradox Now, at the Arlington Arts Center, has tickled my frontal lobe and funny bone the most. The show is, in its own right, a paradox, and one that possesses little truth within its violation of common sense. But, with the intellectual gymnastics that this exhibition will provide, the push is not to challenge the truth, but rather to challenge how we perceive the truth.

The exhibition runs through August 22.

Strike when the Iron is Hot (and don't forget your camera)

2009-08-10T17:08:00.004-04:00

Sometime last week I took a drive down Chain Bridge Road, past the cite of the Cafritz fire. Apart from my slight and morbid curiosity to see the remains of the house (which was heart-breaking to see), I was more curious to find the condition of the fire hydrants near by.

Driving further down the block - toward McArthur Blvd - I saw two fire hydrants were Out of Service (red collars), and (if memory serves me correctly) one had a Maintenance Requested collar. With fathering responsibilities superseding art creation, I had to leave documentation of these hydrants for another day.

That was supposed to be today.

Less than two weeks after the fire that destroyed Ms. Cafritz's home, every hydrant along that stretch of ChainBridge Road, including the two decrepit hydrants that were "Out of Order," have been replaced by shiny new hydrants. Apparently, they closed the road to complete the work; at the bottom of the hill were parking cones and a sign indicating such.

Fir to the Cafritz Mansion. Maintenance Was Required.

2009-07-31T15:31:00.004-04:00

As Gretchen and I were leaving DC Thursday morning, the traffic report on WAMU indicated a massive fire near Nebraska Avenue and Foxhall Road that was holding up traffic. It was suggested that traffic crossing Chain Bridge Road heading up Arizona find alternative routes. As I have come to learn, the fire destroyed the home of a local arts patron, Peggy Cooper Cafritz. While I have not read any information on the cause of the fire, what has been reported is that low water pressure contributed to the total destruction of the property.

As an aside, in some ways, there are two strange ironies. The DC Art Bank just purchased two of my works. One of them is a collection of fire hydrants photographed in Ward 6; each hydrant is in service requesting maintenance. So, the city is purchasing art work that reflects a problem the city has recognized and is at present getting lots of negative press regarding how it is handling the problem. The other irony, they chose not to review the Ward 3 battery of hydrants I have photographed; Ward 3 is where the Cafritz home is located.

This tragedy for Ms. Cafritz and for the DC art community will remain a black eye for WASA, which has been working diligently over the last two years to locate, repair or replace 2500 of the 10,000 broken hydrants within Washington, DC. Of course, to label their process as diligent is gleaned only from their website and the math. They had given themselves 5 years to get 2500 replaced, and were ahead of schedule last time their website reported (i.e. much more than 1000 hydrants are claimed to have been repaired or replaced in the last 2 years).

However, what WASA reports on their website and the truth of the matter might be different. It certainly doesn't help that Ms. Cafritz's neighbor, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, is quoted in The Washington Post about complaints to the city regarding low water pressure. Regardless, as I have travelled parts of the city documenting broken hydrants, I see the signs change from "Out of Order," to "In Service," or disappear all together. So, I have to believe that something is being done, and that this is a very unfortunate circumstance for WASA. I have also seen "Out of Order" signs return to what I presumed were repaired hydrants. And, in parts of Ward 6, some "Out of Order" signs have "In Service Signs" placed on top of them, which is conspicuous at best, and a great sign of incompetence (on a potentially criminal level) at worst.

Whatever the case of WASA's handling of the situation, the destruction to Ms. Cafritz's home is a tragedy on many levels. For the DC art community, where art appreciation and art collection seem anemic, it strikes at the Achilles heel.

Asked to get the word out: ACC Solo Deadline

2009-07-26T09:24:00.000-04:00

Deadline approaching: only one week left to apply for 2010 Solos at the Arlington Arts Center!

The Arlington Arts Center invites you to apply for the 2010 Solos exhibitions. We are looking for contemporary artists based in the Mid-Atlantic region to submit proposals for an exhibition of their work in any and all media.

The panel includes Anne Surak, independent curator (formerly of Project 4 Gallery, Washington, DC), and Henry L. Thaggert, collector and curator.

Submissions are due August 1st. To download a prospectus, visit http://www.arlingtonartscenter.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/solos-entry-2010.pdf.

Contact intern.exhibitions@arlingtonartscenter.org with any questions.

Maintenance Required: recent work at Glenview Mansion

2009-07-09T23:13:00.003-04:00

For the better part of the last year I have been walking and driving around Washington, DC documenting broken fire hydrants, and documenting my journey and observations. On display at the Glenview Mansion - through July 28 - are 14 recorded tours in parts of Wards 2, 3, and 6, composites of broken hydrants, and a few sculptural renderings of hydrants.

The work has been brewing in the back of my head since May 1, 2007, when The Georgetown Library and Eastern Market were heavily damaged by fire. In each instance, nearby fire hydrants were either broken or had low water pressure. Little was done to address this issue, until early fall when a large fire in Mount Pleasant summoned a four alarm fire that raged for hours because of inadequate water pressure from several nearby hydrants. That fire destroyed an apartment complex, damaged a few nearby buildings, and was too close for comfort for the DC Ward One Council member who lived near the fire. Within days legislation was enacted to find and replace the broken hydrants within the district.

Soon hydrants were labeled with "out of order, maintenance required" collars, or "in order, maintenance scheduled." Early on, the former seemed to be everywhere. The latter seems a recent edition in the posted signage, seemingly appearing on the scene late last year or early this year.

In the last two years, the city has moved relatively swiftly to replace or repair close to 1/5th of the districts 10,000 fire hydrants. I have to give them kudos. Yet, I still see these labeled fire hydrants throughout the city. So, I thought I would document them.

The walks and drives are also reflections of this city I have lived in for almost five years, yet I still feel like a stranger within it. Coming to DC in 2004, I associated it with monuments and government. Five years later I know that it is much more than all of that, and that there are far more things to see and do, but I know the millions who flock here annually only experience the well known. For instance, no one comes here for The Building Museum, but thousands flock to the (reminiscently Fascist) World War Two Memorial, or traipse through the overblown FDR memorial. Lots of things get missed in the whirlwind tours... kind of like fire hydrants in the landscape. You don't notice them until you need them. Sometimes when you need them, they are out of order.

Dirty Diapers

2009-06-23T11:32:00.005-04:00

As new parents, my wife and I have been exploring the variety of brand options available for our daughter's diapers. To date we have explored Huggies, Pampers, and a generic brand from Costco. For the last month I have noticed the different designs found on these garments, but did not really start thinking about their significance until today.

To be blunt, designs on a diaper are dumb and a waste of ink.

Huggies depict images of Winnie the Pooh. Pampers have a variety of characters from Sesame Street (baby versions of Bert and Ernie, Big Bird and Snuffleupagus, Cookie Monster and Elmo. Costco simply has a smiling monkey with some miscellaneous patterns. Apart from the quantity of diapers typically available from Costco packages, whereby increase in volume reduces price per unit, that illustration of a random monkey does not have all the trademark issues that Pooh Bear or the mini-muppets have, which further reduces the cost.

As I was changing a diaper this morning, I looked at that design. My daughter was not looking at it. She stares at the ceiling, blank walls, and sometimes the various things hanging on the walls. She does not make a conscious effort to look at the diaper. I'll wager that once she has greater motor skills in her neck she still will not make an effort to bend over and look at the commercially familiar or mundane generic characters illustrated on her diaper. To add more fuel to the fire, those banal and insipid illustrations are covered by whatever garment she wears. So, if the intention of the smiling cartoons is to inspire happiness, the intention is cloaked under onesie, pants, or dress, eliminating any potential function. Unless the function is to provide some sort of happiness for the parents, or possibly some reminder to the parents that their child's development will not be complete without box sets of Sesame Street DVDs, or perhaps Winnie the Pooh dishware, allowing the child to see Tigger at the bottom of the Cheerio bowl, look at Piglet when spooning up peas, or to drink milk from Eeyore's head.

When I was a child, disposable diapers were just coming onto the market. My parents had the misfortune of fumbling with cloth diapers - plain, white, cloth diapers. They have since been recycled into burp rags. The only cute thing on the diaper was a baby's bottom (either mine or my brother's). While this certainly caused for a gray existence - this absence of commercial happiness - they did have the distinct advantage of knowing that if some stroke of yellow was protruding from my blue onesie, it was most likely a soiled diaper and not the feathers of Big Bird.

220. 221. Whatever It Takes.

2009-06-01T13:10:00.001-04:00

My wife and I recently celebrated the birth of our daughter. As a result, next semester I am dialing back on my teaching load.

This past semester I taught four courses at four institutions (The Corcoran, American University, George Washington University and Prince George's Community College). This felt like my most grueling semester to date: 16 contact hours, 6 commute hours, 3 required office hours. Grading and prep were mostly manageable and I doubt I ever eclipsed a 50 hour work week from teaching. However the semester was interrupted by a convention in LA (Feb), interviews at two schools (Mar), and odds and ends participating in 5 exhibitions. (Meanwhile, I am getting work prepped for a sixth exhibition in July.)

To better define "dialing back," in the fall I will be teaching one class at one institution (two if I can find and accept a Saturday course). In essence, it will feel like a sabbatical. The rest of the time I will be Mr. Mom.

Significance: studio time!

Car Hit. 12th & U. Help to find other vehicle.

2009-05-03T20:52:00.002-04:00

First, I am currently in an exhibition at 12th and U streets with the PostConceptualism group. Check out http://www.internationalartaffairs.com/IAA2009/2009_Agenda.html for more info.

Second, my car was struck while parked on 12th Street NW, between U and T, this evening between 4:30 and 5:30. According to one witness, the car was an SUV that was trying to (rapidly) back into a spot behind my car. Instead, it was successful at smashing in the rear driver's side fender.

APB: custom burgundy SUV with a damaged rear passenger bumper and fender. Any leads on Make, Model, and Plate Number would be greatly appreciated.

Baby Blues: Body Image Edition

2009-04-06T23:31:00.004-04:00

With a child soon to be delivered, Gretchen and I strolled through Babies "R" Us the other afternoon, gathering necessities for the nest. Most of these products are bunk, catering to the conceptions of the mother and father to be. Most things are unnecessarily fluffy. The stereotyped color coordination with child's sexual identity is in overdrive amongst the merch. Finally, when it comes to clothing, it caters more to the visual identities and associations of Mom and Dad than it does to the actual needs of the child. So, while it is extraordinarily cute for the kid to be dressed like a miniature version of an adult, in the end it seems a little ridiculous and overpriced for something outgrown in six weeks, worn twice for "special occasions," and mostly spit up on. While I could possibly forgive the allegiance parent places upon offspring regarding team affiliation (in this store's case, the regional proximity to the Baltimore Orioles), it's simply stupid.

All of the above aside, I was struck dumb by the insidious Disneyfication of a swath of kiddie furniture. Specifically, Disney Princess and Fairy Chairs were probably the most concerning. Despite all the princesses having the exact same mouth, they all have the same body shape. And, regardless of how poofy those shoulders are on the gowns, all of them are "Twiggy." What impact will this have on present and future expectations of body image for impressionable minds? Pushing the button, what is the consequence of the flirtations and seductive gazes of the fairies? Maybe I am looking too much into it. And, maybe I am just sick of Disney and its never ending perpetuation of kitsche branding and marketing that takes the kids of the last generation and makes them the enabling force to provide the next generation with the same watered-down fairy tales and contrived histories.

The other thing that got me thinking - why does every product have to feature some wild animal as an anonymous, glazed-eyed, smiling companion? The example below was pulled from Babies "R" Us's website.
I knew a lot of frogs and turtles in my childhood. Not one was happy to see any human. Though I never crossed the paths of elephants, lions, or aligators as a kid, I'll wager if I had that I would know not to amble over and pet the creature. Once again, marketing playing on the associations of parents. Frankly, I remember thinking, as a six year old, that the smiling aligator teaching me how to brush my teeth in the dentist's office was hooey. And, as excited as I was about my sandbox when I was little, the fact that it was shaped like a turtle was irrelevant. In fact, I know I once ondered how it could be a sandbox when not shaped like a box.

Silence is Golden

2009-03-29T15:36:00.002-04:00

Friday night, at DAR's Constitution Hall, Gretchen and I attended a performance by the Kodo drummers. There were between 15 and 20 performers, each playing a drum that looked like an ancient relic that needed to be played with sticks the thickness of some branches. Some drums measured four feet in diameter, and produced rumbles that sent a wave of energy into the seats of the auditorium, tickling the sternum. Gretchen is 33 weeks along, and our daughter had a fit during the first part of the performance, oddly enough keeping in beat with the drums.

In high school I had several friends on the drum line, and issues pertaining to sticking (height, angle, uniformity) were of some concern. During the performance on Friday there was as much uniformity, structure, and composition to how the drums were played as to the sound produced - a ballet with batons. However, apart from the ceremony of sticking, or the rhythmic beats, there was an awakened awareness of the importance of silence amongst the audience.

I seldom recall attending a concert where an audience did not respond with vigorous applause when the music stopped - or attempted to cease - for even a moment. Most conspicuously this occurs during orchestral performances where a section of the audience is unfamiliar with the movements, and they begin applauding during a decrescendo, only to realize that some oboe is struggling to be heard above the din of wrapping hands, and that the specific piece has yet to cease.

In one piece, seven snares were placed along the floor. The center snare (4) would begin playing, gently. Each note was a whisper of sound. Then, each drummer would alternate in: 5, 3, 7, 1, 6, 2. Slowly they would disappate - perhaps in the same order, perhaps in reverse order, perhaps in an alternate order, leaving the center drummer (4) to remain tapping. They might move their sticks from the edge of the snare to the center, and then back to the edge - changing the pitch of the sound. They might crescendo and decrescendo. The noises produced were similar to locusts in summer, singing in the trees: one starts, others follow, and eventually they stop, for a moment, before one begins the cycle again.

After five or so minutes, the applause began upon a decrescendo, as drummers moved sticks from the center to the edge, and the drummers on the wings disappated. Drummer 4 (in the center) kept playing (like that struggling oboe), and eventually enough audience members figured it was in their best judgement to be pateint and not slap their meat hooks together.

Four stopped drumming. A clap from the audience was followed by a second and third. Then #6 started drumming, and stopped nearly as suddenly. The approbation of the audience stopped. #3 answered #6. Other drummers also responded, each in turn. The thunder of drumming continued without synchronicity and without order - like hail on a car's roof top. Eventually the individual beats fell in synch, and slowly dissapated, decrescendoed, and ceased. At the end, the audience waited for silence, and only applauded once the drummers had lowered their sticks.

In art history classes the theories of John Cage - regarding randomness and silence (or the space between notes) - always creep into the lectures surrounding Robert Rauschenburg or the influence of Black Mountain College. Rarely do I see or hear of it deomnstrated (unless articles about iPod-wearing pedestrians crossing against the light and being creamed by city busses are not indicative of the value of listening to or for random noise apply). During this instance, it was beautiful to witness the value of Cage's theories bear fruit.

I'm Frozen in Middle English

2009-03-26T18:09:00.003-04:00

The last time I designed anything in Flash the US was more than a year away from invading Iraq. Ahhh... those were the days! Flash 5.5.

Trying to design a web page in Action Script 3.0 (after being away from the program, for the purpose of web design, for the better part of the decade) is about is pleasant as drawing a heavy line from wrist to elbow with a dull razor. There is no question something is going to sink in, but the result is going to be mostly painful and eventually drain the life blood from you.

The analogies for Actionscript 3.0 (on line and in books) is strange. Yes. I get that this coding involves logic. And that I get to name things (like text blocks, or movies). However giving me an analogy about Bob and Tom and how Bob has black hair and Tom has brown hair does not help me program a button in frame 1 to goto and stop in frame 2 onMouseClick.

I have been, as the gamers call it, pwn'd.

Shameless Plug: Transaction Analysis

2009-03-15T10:39:00.002-04:00

I've been sky-hopping around the country lately, and have little time to mention that I am in “Transaction Analysis” in the Cade Center for Fine Arts Gallery, at the Arnold campus of Anne Arundel Community College Arnold campus (101 College Parkway).

The exhibition runs through April 14 and was juried by Irene Hofmann, executive director, Contemporary Museum of Baltimore.

Pop Culture and The Global Market are on display. The Global Market is always listed as "dimensions variable," and the gallery director, Chris Mona, has apparently taken great liberty with that concept by spacing the individual panels five inches from one another. No complaints on this end; I can't wait to see what that looks like.

Some More Work In Process

2009-02-22T10:07:00.002-05:00

Feeling Good

2009-02-22T02:12:00.003-05:00

Feeling Good, Nina Simone
Uploaded by mrfnk

The instant I wondered what the tile of a song was, I googled the lyrics. After a flood, a flu, and the death of two externals, this lightened my mood. I do not know who composed the graphics. Although, I haven't looked very hard.

I've Had Worse Weeks - But Not Many

2009-02-21T17:01:00.002-05:00

If it were bad enough to begin last weekend with a flood in the apartment, where upon the loss of some old (and admittedly not great) work was identified, that'd be par for the course: a typical expectation resulting from the ups and downs that comes with a life lived. It may have also been a forecast for the week to come - a forecast that should have included the consumption of a live frog, daily, first thing in the morning. As the saying goes, nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

Next week I am in California at the College Art Association annual conference. To say the least, I am hopeful; I have interviews. And, with time a precious commodity I have yet to afford, I had been alotted this one week to prepare. Or, so I thought.

Wednesday, as I was in the midst of preparing files, I accidentally knocked my external hard drive off the desk and caught it before it hit the floor. Actually, caught is not the correct word. Pinned is more appropriate. I pinned it - quickly, forcefully - against the leg of the desk before the drive could hit the floor. More appropriately still: I pinned the drive with enough force that it might have been better had it hit the floor because maybe the drive still might work. "Maybe" we can all identify is the operative word.

As a professor of digital media I often tell my students to back up their work. And, while they're at it, to back up their back ups. After all, storage for media is so inexpensive these days that there is nearly no excuse. Get a second travel drive. Get four! Burn things to disc. It's not like they have to buy a Jazz drive. They simply have to be mindful enough not to lose something the size of a stick of gum (which has more memory than those clunky Jazz discs from yesteryear).

As a professor of digital media, I should take my own advice more often. Though, a student backing up a Gig of info is easy. A professor backing up a couple terabytes is a little less.

Fortunately I do take my own advice. Sort of. While the loss of the drive is significant, it is not devistating. The work is backed up, but not as a unit. It is a diaspora of savings, spread across three computers, three additional external hard drives, and a hand full of DVD-Rs. Some where in there is a shepherd metaphore. That stated, some of the content on that hard drive is permanently lost. In all, not a complete waste of nearly 400 GB of content, but one rather large pain in the butt.

A pain that I thought I would be capable of easing on Thursday. That was until I found myself quickly succumbing to stomach flu on Wednesday night. As Bill Cosby once stated (about drunks vomiting, but it is mildly apropos), "and you wouldn't be surprised if you saw your shoes coming out of your mouth." Man! I saw every shoe in my closet come out of my mouth. By Friday afternoon I was back to productivity - in as much as consuming broth and toast is productivity.

So, here I am, trying to pick up the pieces of what was lost on Wednesday evening (prior to my cookies and my lunch). The remnants of one broken hard drive are slowly being pieced together. In the process, a second hard drive has failed - for the life of me I have no recollection what was on it.

Lessons are sometimes learned the hard way, right before interviews at a conference 2,500 miles away. So the time has come to get a back up. And maybe a back up for my back up. And maybe a remote archiving site, tucked somewhere in the corners of Billings, or Calgary, or Memphis. Before the frogs fall from the sky. And the meteors. And Jesus. And the zombies.

Nothing Says I Love You Like a Flooded Studio.

2009-02-16T12:17:00.002-05:00

Valentine's Day greeted Gretchen and I with a sewer that backed up into our toilet and tub, and eventually water found its way into the studio (the pipes to the bathtub are on the wall with the studio - I think that is how water found its way into the studio).

The damage probably amounted to only a few hundred dollars lost on supplies and past works. Honestly, when a collage from graduate school - assembled from trash - is damaged in a flood, does it really lose value? They were studies for paintings that have never been - and would (realistically) never have been - made. And, as I have found my interests moving elsewhere the last few years, it is only fitting that these relics of unrealized intentions and potential got washed away.

Water is a symbol of purification and rebirth -- even if dirtied by mud and God-knows-what-else.

Some Work in Process

2009-02-16T11:43:00.005-05:00

I am nearing completion on a set of work designed to be touched. Above are iconic transcriptions of the hands of Adam (left) and God (right) as seen in the Sistine Ceiling. Beneath is the word Hands, and beneath that is a transcription of a sketch by Leonardo. The work is fairly large; Adam and God is the largest at approximately 10 or 11 feet in length. More on the work in a future post.

When Interns Write Obits

2009-01-16T12:51:00.005-05:00

Growing up I had three major artistic influences ever present in the home: reprints of Norman Rockwell on True Value Hardware store calendars, a reprint of a girl created during Picasso's pink period, and a reprint of Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth. The reprints were framed in various parts of the house and the calendar usually hung in my bedroom.

To learn of Andrew Wyeth's passing is met with shock and nostalgia. Shock: I thought he had already died. Nostalgia: he is no longer an influence, and I cannot say I still admire the work, but I am somewhat fond of it in much the same way I am still fond of soda pop (it isn't nourishing, but having one every so often can't be all that bad, either).

However, at this moment I am infested with an overwhelming sense of disappointment, not from his passing but from the obit I just read on CNN. Compare Wyeth's obit with Ricardo Montalban's obit and you'll see some major differences in writing style.

My friend Claire once worked at NBC's flagship. She'd tell me stories about how she (and others) had to research and fact check the biographies of world leaders and celebrities while they were still living so that they could be archived and updated, and easily accessible once news broke of the death. In the event of that celebrity death, the biography became the obituary. This practice merits the skit of Dana Carvey as Tom Brokaw announcing the death of Gerald Ford before going on vacation.

The Montalban obituary reads like it had been prepared months, if not years, in advance. It is polished, meticulous, and is identifiably news. The Wyeth obituary reads like it was handed to an intern late last night - an intern who, when given the assignment, immediately asked, "who?" What gives this away? Citations to Ask Art and Info Please! (For comparison, notice that the author of the Montalban obituary did not cite the Internet Movie Database.) Though I cannot expect the author to discuss the significance of Wyeth's realism in relationship to the movements of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, or Minimalism, at the very least the author(s) could have mentioned that Wyeth's work is included in the permanent collections of The Whitney, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery, and The White House. Perhaps t(he)y could also include his National Medal of Art award, received in 2007, in the body of the article, rather than in the caption of the accompanying photograph.

This tenuous obituary would hardly merit a C- in college writing, lacking in both style and research, and is unworthy of publication. Perhaps it is an editorial decision by CNN that reflects their perspective on fine art, which from this angle makes them a less trusted source for news and information. It is bad enough that schools across this country limit the importance and value of fine arts by cutting arts programs from elementary through secondary curricula. Providing death notice attributions to various Internet sources - boring, general sources at that! - further cheapens and deteriorates the contributions artists are capable of providing to a populous. Though Andrew Wyeth may only possess nominal importance to 20th Century American Art as a stalwart apex for the conservative harrangue, and from a news perspective the value of that is a considerable trifle in comparison to Israel using white phosphorous on Palastinian civilians in what is an unparalleled military offensive, I find the debate over how we perceive objects and value art to be considerably more significant than the sordid details about Boy George's conviction for imprisoning a male escort. But that's just me.

Maybe CNN should take a lesson from The Boston Globe.

"That's the news, and I. am. outta here." - Dennis Miller, Weekend Update.

Is "Starving" an Adjective or a Verb?

2009-01-14T15:24:00.003-05:00

Two weeks ago Gretchen and I spent a few hours buying "modern" furniture at our nearby Ikea. Spoils loaded into the car, sights set for home, we sat idle for a few minutes, stationed parallel to the Holiday Inn, waiting to drive onto the on ramp and away from College Park, MD.

"F.ART!" I cried, pointing out the passenger window to the couple of somewhat ambiguous youth, wealth, and race walked to their parked car. "F.ART!" I cried again. Gretchen looked out her window. In their hands the couple clutched two paintings - starving artist paintings.

Gretchen reeled in horror. "Don't do it!" She screamed. It was cool out, and our windows kept out the chill of an early winter breeze, but they weren't so tight to seal in our mocking cries of horror. Or, so it seemed, anyway. The couple looked at each other. They looked around like children seeking the guidance of adult supervision. They looked at their newly acquired "art" and made the faces of uncertainty.

We gasped as he turned over his work: an insipid sea side portrait that might even make Thomas Kinkade, the current king of all kitsch, cringe. We gasped again when her work came into view. More of the same. Thin paintings, straight from the tube. The light turned green, and we drove onto the Interstate, choking back our vomit.

There is art and there is crime. We caught them red-handed.

What Can Brown Do For You?

2009-01-03T16:06:00.003-05:00

Let's focus less on what they can do for me and more on what they can't do for me. The answer: they can't screw it up any worse than FedEx has.

Pleased to learn that I would have work show in Chicago, I sent The Global Marketplace via FedEx Ground to A.R.C. gallery on Dec. 22 (A.R.C. doesn't write the name with the periods, but they pronounce each letter when answering the phone). It was slated to arrive within 2-3 business days, and with a holiday crammed in the middle, I figure it would arrive around the 28th. Currently, the work is in what is called a "destination station" in La Grange - about half way between Chicago and Naperville.

After three phone calls to Fed Ex I have learned quite a bit about their business model. Not enough to become an expert, but possibly enough to know that, unless it isn't urgent, I am sticking USPS. After all, they deliver for you.

I'm willing to believe the typical FedEx user ships from a retail store - a location to buy shipping supplies, get some "Kinkos" copies, and maybe do some computer work, all for exorbitant rates that they might deem "competitive." From there, it goes to a destination station, which differs if you ship air or ground. To the zip code I shipped, air goes to Hillside, ground to La Grange.

Destination Stations can also determine their own hours and work days. In La Grange, they don't do weekends. This might be the same for all FedEx Ground, but I cannot recall. The other thing La Grange apparently does not do is Dec. 30, Dec. 31, or Jan 2, as there is no vehicle activity for my package on any of those days.

There was a time when I swore I would never ship art again via FedEx or UPS. One summer I worked as the Assistant Gallery Manager at the Chautauqua Center for the Visual Arts Gallery (they are only open during the 10 week summer season), and the Gallery Manager and I were strolling the grounds (got a coffee) and we passed a FedEx or UPS truck (f.ups for short) about a block away from the gallery as he was making a delivery to another building in Chautauqua. The f.ups guy was literally throwing boxes around the back of the truck, and I joked to the manager that those boxes were probably ours.

See... we were expecting work that week for the upcoming "craft" exhibition - most of it glass.

The exhibition at ARC I believe opens on Jan 7th. My work, and the work of several other artists, might still be in La Grange.

I miss DHL. Though the joke was that it means "Dumped, Hidden, or Lost," I never had a problem with them. I'd like to believe it is because the D meant Deutsche.

Merry Christmas (belated)

2008-12-30T00:47:00.000-05:00

Add Two Exhibitions to the List?

2008-12-11T12:54:00.003-05:00

I just received word that The Global Economy has been accepted to an exhibition at ARC Gallery in Chicago, opening January 7 and running through the end of the month.

Also, piggy backing onto my last post, which briefly mentioned the curatorial process of work into group exhibitions, I received disappointing news that some recent paintings would not be included in an exhibition entitled Clamoring to Become Visible at the Brooklyn Arts Council in Brooklyn, NY (there is a Brooklyn, IA - however, I don't think they have an arts council). The juror and I had been corresponding about my work as she was winnowing the selections. Instead of the paintings, what might get included is my video, Platelet, into a first Thursday video screening.

Not a bad start to the New Year.

Odds and Ends: Illumination

2008-12-09T13:32:00.003-05:00

I attended a meeting last week that gathered artist input on how the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities could make a better community for artists and public works of art. A lot of things were discussed, and I wasn't much of a contributor; prior to the meeting I'd been suffering a bit of insomnia and attended without eating a substantial breakfast or consuming a cup of tea.

Anyway, these two or three consultants gave a slide show of other great works of public art in cities throughout the United States (and a couple abroad), and they showed this fabulous work of people walking on sensors in a museum. These sensors were linked to a display of LEDs on the outside of the museum.

I just opened M.M. Lloyd's newsletter -- I'm going to pull from it. Lenny Campello does, so why can't I?

"WASHINGTON, DC: ART is ELECTRIC - MODERN STYLE - In the concourse walkway between the West and East Buildings of the National Gallery of Art there is an art installation of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). As you walk through or stand gliding along the people moving conveyers in this underground walkway, approximately 42,000 computers programmed LEDs chase along this pathway, fading, brightening, twinkling, and undulating. The art installation is by the sculptor Leo Villareal. The lights gyrate and cascade as the architectural fountain waterfall splash down along combed stone facing behind a glass wall at the café end of this venue. It takes nearly two minutes to travel the 200 foot length space, but collection wise you’re connecting centuries of cultural history, from classic to modern. At the Smithsonian American Art Museum there are sixty-two hundred LEDs in a twenty-eight foot sculpture created by Jenny Holzer. This floor to ceiling column emits more than a day’s worth of spinning and changing words and phrases. A timely paced city walk of from 15 to 20 minutes connects these two venues in time and place."

I couldn't tell you if this work at NGA and SAAM are by the same artists/collaborators as were mentioned in the consultant slide show. Regardless, I'm pumped to see it because there is a need within fine arts to get off the wall (figuratively, literally) and move away from being completely about the visual. In my brief threads through this DC art community, I get the sensation that a lot of artists struggle with this concept and realization. Some artists abandon the idea: how do you make a painting inhabit REAL space? Some go whole hog into it, rejecting the traditional as some sort of primitive archetype that belongs in a diaper. Some straddle the fence, hoping they don't slip and get racked by consequence.

In other "off the wall" news, The Arlington Arts Center is having an opening this weekend, and I regret the fact I'll be unable to attend (I'll be in Charlotte trying not to get "racked by consequence"). I was rejected by this show, and as I am now learning, guest curators not only look to see which works are good and fit a theme, but to see also which works fit well together. I have no clue if the three jurors for this exhibition even liked my work (and the point is moot, because it doesn't work with what they chose), but I am excited to see this exhibition. Three performance artists and one installation artist are amongst the six works exhibited: pretty bold!

Pop Culture

2008-12-05T12:57:00.002-05:00

Pop Culture: letters of the alphabet composed from 26 different soda pop designs. No particular label repeats in form or derivation. For instance, Coca-Cola is only used once (L); diet, cherry, and other alterations of the formula are not represented.

Some are common, some have narrow distribution, some are no longer manufactured, and some have changed their logos.

The work was produced in Illustrator.

Web Page Returns

2008-11-11T01:14:00.003-05:00

An announcement of little consequence: the website is up and functioning again. Minor edits have taken place, but the majority of the old visual content remains. On the list of to-dos is a massive overhaul and redesign of the site. If I have my act together, this blog will migrate to the website

At present I am backing up portions of my hard drive. My computer is, column by column, doing its best Barnett Newman imitation, which is now driving me batty. In April or May a pink stripe fell the height of the screen to the right of the apple. It was a peripheral line, one easy to ignore when working on a project - less so when watching a movie. By July or August, two more developed, one pierced the File Menu, the other landed between the wireless and volume. Needless to say, it was decided to then stop watching movies on this thing and to buy a television. (A first!) Five more lines have developed recently - four in the last two days.

Apple assures me this is not common. (groan) My first iMac may have been clunky and heavy in comparisson to the sleek flatscreen before me, and sure it had low memory, RAM, and storage compared to this whisper of a machine currently in front of me. However, I miss my old CRT -- and last I knew, it still works! It may not be capable of handling CS3, but at least the screen isn't pinstriped.

Is it really necessary to make technology the thickness of an After Eight chocolate dinner mint? Is this just some fetish our culture has? Our population is getting fatter, (shrug) but at least the technology is thinner. So is the life span of our gadgetry... and my patience with it.

Index Page Down

2008-10-30T20:50:00.002-04:00

I seem to be experiencing some difficulties updating my website.

For those interested parties, you can still access the content.
This painting link should get you started.

The Global Market

2008-10-29T10:52:00.002-04:00

57 individual currency symbols, composite gold leaf and graphite on 6" square canvases. Dimensions pictured, about 42"x54".

After creating Currencies in the Four Letter Words series, I wondered what the individual symbols might look like. As a culture we are likely aware of the symbols for the British Pound, the Euro, and maybe the Japanese Yen, but what does the Korean Won look like, or the Russian Rubble? You can find them above.

The materials, once again, recall the alchemical relationship between gold and lead in the middle ages. The use of gold leaf also recalls the classical tradition using gold leaf to represent the light behind icons.

I h8 DC. Broken Water Main on NY Ave edition.

2008-10-28T00:50:00.002-04:00

A water main broke somewhere between Florida Ave NE and Montana Ave NE on New York Avenue NE, this afternoon or this evening, bottle necking traffic from three lanes into one lane. I did not know this as I made my commute from American University to Prince George Community College at 3:50, which typically routes me MA - RI - Q - FL - NY - 50 - Belt - ...

The stretch between Gallaudet and the break is about 1 mile, and I drove that stretch in 2hrs 15 minutes, spending 15 minutes in the jug handle connecting FLA and NY Aves.

Initially, like any calm individual thinking it was just rush hour traffic, I called my grandmother. Realizing I moved less than 1/10th of a mile in half an hour, I hung up and decided I should pay attention; somewhere ahead of me a bus load of blind nuns must have careened into a bus load of quadriplegic school kids with Downs Syndrome, and I would soon be dodging bodies like parking cones in a test drive commercial.

I missed the traffic report on WAMU!
I went to "McCain 570" on the AM dial as a last ditch effort. They were only reporting the traffic problems in the White parts of Virginia, not the Black parts of DC.

Resigned. Crestfallen. I switched the dial and listened to Market Place. I watched the sun set.

DC has interesting driving patterns. You know how you are not supposed to "block the box?" I'm mindful of that. I don't want to be that guy -- that guy who is stuck in the middle of the intersection when the lights have changed.

My light turned green, allowing the one car in front of me to proceed through the intersection, just far enough to cut off the traffic from the cross street, trying to turn right on red. It's an 80 second light. Traffic starts honking at the 40 second count down, and there is just enough daylight ahead of me to scoot my car into the cross walk on the opposite side of the intersection. At least, there was enough room until cars from the cross street decide to turn right onto red and eclipse my right of way. I can understand one car making an eclipse, but three? Since when did Maryland and DC drivers become Italians "in line" for gellato? I say a silent prayer, hoping for the death of the man who placed drivers licenses in Cracker Jack boxes.

Now I'm that guy -- that guy stuck in the intersection because the lights have changed.

Change. True.

2008-10-25T13:10:00.002-04:00

I don't like Budweiser, but I have always been fond of their advertising. Though A/B does not support the views of this video, it takes the cake.

A Couple Recent Activites

2008-10-21T16:51:00.002-04:00

Evidence that the Chalkboard Talks at the Katzen took place. the event was part conversation, part performance... and I didn't even need Piero Manzoni to sign me to become a piece of art.

Prince George Community College is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the art department is hosting a faculty show to coincide with the celebration. Moment of Zen, along with work from other current and past faculty members, will be playing in the Marlboro Gallery through November 6.

Out of Context

2008-10-20T09:42:00.004-04:00

My latest work from the series of Four Letter Words involves words taken Out of Context. If viewed correctly - or incorrectly, depending on context - it is my most obscene work to date.

To recap:
The series of Four Letter Words is a challenge to the title. "Four letter words" is a euphemism for vulgarity, and vulgarity is typically thought of as those words George Carlin examined which could not be said on television (most of which were longer than four letters). This discourages the 3900+ four letter words out there (as deemed playable by the Scrabble dictionary).

The interesting thing with Anglo Saxonisms (another quaint euphemism) was examined by Diane Ackerman in her book A Natural History of the Senses. To paraphrase, "Why fuck when you can fornicate?" In one chapter, wherein she briefly explored a history of language, Ackerman suggested that the languages of Anglo and Saxon were considered brute and harsh when heard by the ears of the Gauls. As a result, the televised audience (in the US) will more than likely hear two four letter words replace once, because the sensors believe an audience would rather hear about couples who "make love."

To counter the brutality of our linguistic Anglo Saxon heritage, as a culture we have invented other euphemisms and colloquialisms for penis, vagina, intercourse, and masturbation. It is also a methodology for adolescents to speak outside the radar of adults. This tradition is older than The Bard of Avon whose phrasings were "wont to set the table on a roar" when such subjects were discussed.

When proposed for the Athenaeum in August, this was a series that was refused from the exhibition. The refusal was based on the grounds that the Athenaeum serves as a rental facility for weddings, events, and ballet classes. It is simple to empathize with that position, since display of that work would probably provoke some outcry from patrons as well as the city of Alexandria. It's also unfortunate. The three works that sold the best were the two series of Onomatopoeia - one because of its relationship to Roy Lichtenstein's pop paintings (blam), the other because they are monosyllabic nonsense that have acquired some sort of intelligible meaning (hunh) - and Currencies, though not as a complete series. I believe the latter did well because they were shiny (composite gold leaf and graphite). Out of Context would have sold as a series... and probably had back orders. Intellect aside, there is a repressed juvenile in us all.

Floating with the FLC at the Katzen

2008-10-11T16:49:00.005-04:00

I was recently asked to join the Chalkboard Talks as part of the Brushfire Initiative by Provisions Library. I'll be speaking with Mark Cameron Boyd, Kathryn Cornelious, Nick Karvounis, and a person to be named later, to discuss "The Intersection of Art & Society" on October 18th at The Katzen Museum at American University. The talk/conversation is around 1:00.

To prepare, I stopped up at American University to see what the show was all about. There are a few jaw-droppingly hysterical works, like the translation of Dazed and Confused from "American" to "Indian" (accent). What I would no have given to have a recliner and a six pack... I would have watched the whole movie.

OF course, the exhibition made me realize that I am still behind on the clone of myself that I need to do the volume of work I'd like to complete before the polar ice caps melt... back to the studio.

A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

2008-10-09T13:02:00.001-04:00

For some reason I just got this page as I tried to perform a search through my Google search short cut. Blogger and Gmail still work, but this is a little disconcerting.

Missed Opportunities

2008-10-09T11:17:00.003-04:00

If it has escaped the viewership that all the bally-who of the 2008 political debates is little more than theater, then the viewership is not paying attention. It is the ultimate in "reality" television: it is highly scripted; it is not very insightful; and though McCain and Obama won't "hook up" at the end of this season, one of them will get "voted off the island." At least this go around it is more interesting than 2004, when dull and duller took to the podiums and bored a nation into a mandate (of less than 51%).

Listening to the political debates is just as frustrating as watching the debates. More so, actually. Palin's voice is grating, and her performance lacks the charisma without winks and her funny smirks. Obama's even temper still resonates, but his articulation is less so ("uhm" is louder on the radio). At least hearing McCain stumble over the Iranian puppet's name (Ahmadinejad) and correcting himself, only to never get it right, is amusing, no mater what the medium.

What is also heard is the nonsense. These are not debates. Debates are articulate discussions back and forth over policy and ideas. Fortunately these two guys do not have to stand before the audience with a random assignment of a position. They have positions and they should argue them, develop them, enumerate benefits and set backs, and allow us to truly evaluate the complexity of an issue. Instead, they interpret the opposition's position in an over-simplified sound byte, and never articulately clarify their own position. They get asked questions by moderators and begin their answers by rebutting the assertion of their opponents' answer to the previous question. This is not debate. This is masturbation, and the end result is just as messy.

Here are some things I'd really like to hear debated:

What does a tax cut for 95% of Americans really mean? Is there a figure or percentage on how much I can guesstimate my taxes will decline? Can you reassure me how that money will be used, or how the cut will be offset elsewhere?
What does victory in Iraq mean, when we don't have the profit of land, or riches, or material goods to be gained in the end, and when the competing factions of the (now) civil war hate our guts and want us to leave?
What is clean coal technology (really) and why should we pursue that as a positive alternative? How does it differ from dirty coal?
Why is nuclear technology so controversial? What makes it bad? What makes it good?
Why is socialism such a dirty word when our friends in Scandinavia are socialists? Why does the label of socialism make "universal health care" sound so unappealing? How is universal health care socialism when a $700 billion economic bail out package proposed by a Republican Treasury Secretary not labeled socialism (as hastily), and why is it good?

I have my own positions on these issues, and if I were to voice them I'd bust out my flip flop and step on a pop top. But, I am not running. My position has no direct influence on the outcome of this election. Their opinions do, and I would like to hear them voice their opinions directly, and not in two minutes.

This means the style of the debate has to change. Ten minutes on an issue does little. What if the debate was broken up into half hour segments, where the candidates could get into the meat of a single issue. While the candidates prep for the second question, these half hour segments could be interspersed by relevant sitcom reruns. Discussing Foreign Policy? M*A*S*H. Discussing technology? Max Headroom. Discussing a woman's right to choose? Maude or Murphy Brown.

While the content of these theatrical escapades the last three weeks have been in desperate need of an editor to omit the redundancies and to pencil in some serious content, what has kept the whole thing lively is the use of language and most importantly the style of delivery.

Language: this can best be summarized as, "Drink if you hear Maverick, Change, or My Friends." On their own, the words repeated throughout the debates could quickly become insignificant icons, like D-List celebrities. Hope is hopeless. Change is uniform. Maverick is just a "closeted gay actor" hoping to make Top Gun.

Delivery keeps the language afloat. Listening to McCain's quiet emphasis becomes hair-raising. These issues must be very serious and frightening and I can believe from the tone of his voice that he "can do it and will do it." Listening to Obama's cadence is spiritually uplifting and makes hope and change seem tenable, that the promise of America is still alive, and that together we can make a difference.

But, now they're just words: ear wash affected by a 24 hour news cycle that replays the sound byte of a stump speech that is the same in Gary, Indiana or Hope, Arkansas. It hardly matters that for either candidate there is no longer any there there - it's been squeezed out and sucked dry. Their causes seem to have little, if any, remaining affect. (pun!) Thankfully there is less than a month to go and it will all be over... until the recount.

I just hope, if I'm listening to the last round of debates next week, that I don't miss a moment similar to the town hall between Bush and Gore in 2000, when Bush said something that insulted Gore and provoked Gore to stand from his chair. In the awkward silence heard on the radio, the TV audience watched Bush shoot Gore a smirk, as if to say, "what're ya' gonna' do? Hit me on television?" Maybe Gore should have - his approval rating might have gone through the roof.

The Short Selling of Art

2008-09-22T17:01:00.005-04:00

It is a bad analogy, but it may be apropos.

Last week papers seemed tickeld by Damien Hirst's London auction sales. The record sale of nearly $200,000,000 of art "produced" by Hirst is certain to astound anyone, but Liz Gunnison's assertion that "Art Hangs On" when the US economy is in bedlam is hard to swallow. It may be the irrelevant silver lining in what is otherwise grim economic news, but Hirst is hardly the champion to be celebrated. As the Wall Street Journal was reporting, his buyers were owners of Sotheby's, owners of Christie's, and Gagosian and White Cube Galleries - Hirst's dealers. Oddly no judgement was attached to that report. At least, no negative judgment was attached to that report.

For an artist - Hirst - with diminishing sales and interest, jacking up the price through auction is hopeful. It is a hope fulfilled when the galleries that represent him drive up the bid (because they have a backroom filled with this crap) and inflate the market for his work. But, in the end, it smells like a conflict of interest. Kinda like having someone rate a bunch of "toxic" home equity loans as AAA, only to sell them off to other banks. Granted, if Francois Pinault's investment breaks from its glass vitrine, Christie's won't get pickled in formaldehyde.

As previously stated, a bad analogy. But, will there be any surprise if these bozos don't find a market for Hirst's work outside their little cul de sac?

Portraits of Power

2008-09-17T16:53:00.003-04:00

It'll be a while before I make grand comments on The Corcoran Gallery of Art's newest exhibition, Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power; I have 24 students writing essays on the exhibition and I'd like to do as much as possible to mitigate any of them borrowing my words (this has happened to me before).

This is by far one of the most powerful photo exhibitions I have encountered, and Paul Roth deserves big kudos for a job well done. Last year when he spoke to me about the Adams and Leibovitz exhibitions he mentioned the Avedon exhibition. I'll have to get on my iTunes and dig some of that up for a later post.

Unlike my perception of the Adams exhibition last fall - where I preferred the intimacy of his calendars (blasphemy!) over elbowing for room at the opening - the Avedon exhibition requires the gallery, the scale, and the grandeur to truly capitalize on the experience. That is to say, the companion book of the exhibition sold in the book shop for $60 is nice. But, looking at the book versus the exhibition is like listening to a tape of Chopin versus listening to it performed live at the Kennedy Center (somewhere out there an Adorno fan is smiling).

God Bless You, Mr. Hughes.

2008-09-15T12:35:00.004-04:00

Having read recently about Damien Hirst's lots of work going directly to auction - avoiding all together the gallery setting - I was pleased to learn that on Sept 7, art critic Robert Hughes called Damien Hirst's work tacky, and the overblown commercial success of the work was a disparage to the art market. A couple days later, Hirst responded that the commercial quality of his work is no different than Velazquez or Goya.

Over the weekend, Hughes's response to Hirst's defense (and proclamation that Hughes is a luddite... a man who finds the work of Paik and Turrell amongst the best of the 20th Century) was published in the Guardian. Apart from such zinggers as, "...Charles Saatchi, that untiring patron of the briefly new," I think the following is my favorite paragraph/sentence.

The now famous diamond-encrusted skull, lately unveiled to a gawping art world amid deluges of hype, is a letdown unless you believe the unverifiable claims about its cash value, and are mesmerised by mere bling of rather secondary quality; as a spectacle of transformation and terror, the sugar skulls sold on any Mexican street corner on the Day of the Dead are 10 times as vivid and, as a bonus, raise real issues about death and its relation to religious belief in a way that is genuinely democratic, not just a vicarious spectacle for money groupies such as Hirst and his admirers.

Pure poetry.

Whenever irony became the chief buzz word to defend a work of art as significant, Hirst's work is without question a reminder of how thin that veil can be. In the case of Hirst, or for that matter Koons - to borrow from Dennis Miller - that veil can get as thin as "used Neutrogeena," and tends to be as ironic as Alanis Morissette's moronic song about unfortunate circumstances.

A Little Help - Movies in/with DC

2008-09-11T12:11:00.004-04:00

I am soon to begin a project where I use footage from various Hollywood movies which use DC as a backdrop or a principle element of the film.

This is a petition, to any reader, to think of a movie that is not on the list below, which might be of some interest:

Absolute Power
All the President's Men
The American President
Bob Roberts
Born on the Fourth of July
Bulworth
The Candidate
Charlie Wilson's War
Citizen Cohn
The Contender
Dave
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Distinguished Gentleman
Enemy of the State
A Few Good Men
Forest Gump
The Good Shepherd
In Country
In the Line of Fire
Independence Day
JFK
Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Murder at 1600
National Treasure
No Way Out
The People vs. Larry Flint
Primary Colors
Private Parts
St. Elmo's Fire
True Colors
Truman
Wag the Dog

I know there are more... tons more (Die Hard 4, True Lies, probably a couple Jack Ryan movies). There is a good comment stream on DCist last year that covers some of this terrain. But, their interest was "when Hollywood gets DC wrong." That's partly of interest, but not the chief focus.

Any additions you can provide, please comment.

Unpacking the issue: Jessica Dawson

2008-09-03T23:21:00.005-04:00

After Jessica Dawson's review of Picturing Politics, a little brew-ha-ha erupted over it, the most visible of which is over on Jeffry Cudlin's blog. Mostly, the article left a few of us wondering what she was referencing and why the vitriol.

Contributors to the exhibition "Picturing Politics 2008: Artists Speak to Power" wield opinions like loaded muskets at a battle reenactment -- they're packing so much firepower that they quickly overwhelm.

If people are overwhelmed by any of the pieces, they haven't been paying attention. (Understandably, the reviewer is finishing a degree in art history at GW, so maybe she hasn't been.) The work exercises an approachable restraint in most cases... with the exception of watching a Black man get slapped around by a White man for eight minutes... or that six channel video opera in the basement that plunges the viewer into light deprivation. Otherwise, restrained.

The result reminds us how hard it is to get politically minded exhibitions right.

We need a judge on this one. If right means "correct," then who has written the rules on this subject and where might they be found? Sometimes political art piddles in the pool of political cartoon, mining a subject for a punchline. I'm not laughing when looking at any of these pieces, and that's a good thing. If right means "conservative," well... frankly I've yet to encounter conservative political art. It's kinda like conservative journalism which, as we've recently learned, gets talking points from The White House. But, I digress.

With few exceptions, "Picturing Politics" batters us with its liberal agenda -- an agenda as rife with polemic as the rightist politics its artists oppose. Its artists distrust surveillance, doubt the media and hate George Bush. So what's new?

Well, I wouldn't expect apologia. As for the last statement, where does she get this? I suppose at a cursory glance a viewer might glean that interpretation from America's Grave (which is in reality a critique of the corruption that has occurred during this presidency due to fanatical religious extremism in the most conservative wing of the Republican party, how that has trampled on civil liberties, how there is an historic precedent for such action (slavery), and how it has bankrupt the value of the word America... but I think Dick, Rummy, Condi, Falwell, Robertson, Osteen, Parsley, etc. take some of the blame - it isn't just Bushy. Don't forget to tithe folks!) But I don't think that judgment fairly comments on any of the other work because commentary on The Media, surveillance, or a hatred of George Bush simply. isn't. there.

But, not getting it "right," and "liberal agenda" makes me wonder if Dawson has straight blond hair. (What's a blog if not for a few zingers?)

What's missing is the patience to unpack the issues -- immigration, gay politics, the invasion of Iraq. Too many of these artists take the easy road.

Well, space and time are major considerations: space on the part of the gallery, time on the part of viewer attention spans. But those are weak excuses. There is a point about a thesis to a work, or a body of work, that should never be over-looked, and I'll wager most of these pieces are building on the body of that thesis rather than encapsulating the whole. It's how we artists roll! No one single piece will unpack the issues, or more appropriately, an issue, because each issue is bigger than one work or one room. Only art historians and survey texts roll up the body of an artist's work into a single work... two if you're Picasso... three if you are Michelangelo... and the footprint of the Sistine Ceiling is at least twice that of the Arlington Arts Center.

It is evident that "what is missing is the patience to unpack the issues." And the onus is on you (the viewer). It always has been. If you lack the patience to unpack them, then pack up. Art is intended to contemplate when not decorating. The artist addresses the issue and helps further awareness, opinion, angle, and interpretation. History unpacks the issues. Criticism unpacks the issues. Dialogue unpacks the issues. Action to correct unpacks the issues. Art is the catalyst, and the job of the artist (in this case) is to leave enough open to the viewer to start the unpacking.

"Artist's Medium: The Sledgehammer?" Not at this show. That was playing at Transformer a couple weeks back. Here's the highlight reel.

Oh, why not more Wordle - Obama edition

2008-08-23T18:41:00.003-04:00

2004 DNC Keynote Address - the Audacity of Hope




2007 Presidential Campaign Announcement, Springfield, IL
 

2008 Speech on Race

Wordle - Bush's 2005 Inaugural

2008-08-23T17:39:00.004-04:00

  

I saw on Dave(from Pave)'s blog a post on Wordle. Great stuff.
Above is Bush's 205 Inaugural address.

Below I decided to test out Joe Biden's quote,
"Rudy Giuliani - he's a noun and a verb and 9-11."

"Yes We Can" all make Obama T-Shirts

2008-08-23T08:16:00.004-04:00

On August 18th I received an e-mail from Obama for America about a new T-shirt design campaign that they are having. Geez... Shepherd Fairy makes an unsolicited design for your campaign and you think every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to do the same? Well... you're right!

When I received the e-mail on Monday, the list of submissions was two pages deep. A page can hold 30 submissions, and I think there were a total of 37 between the two pages. Today, having learned Joe Biden is the VP, I think it is appropriate to submit today what I designed on Monday... even though the list of submissions is now 17 pages deep.

You can vote on it... if they accept it. There were a list of rules on the Obama site, and they have the right to reject submissions that are deemed offensive. It's all a matter of perspective. When Joe Biden said what he said* - back in, what was it, January or February of 2007?!?! - my only thought was, "exactly! Obama is articulate and bright." Such perspective all stems from a specific speech a certain skinny kid with a funny name gave at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.

As for the t-shirt designs... on the website there are lots of great t-shirts that have been eloquently designed. Frankly, I am hoping to vote at least twice - once for my design and once for a design that is really good. Since Obama is from Chicago, I am hoping that the voting is done Chicago-style: vote early, vote often.

*"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American, who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy – I mean it's... That's a storybook, man!" - Joe Biden

Blog Bites Back

2008-08-22T10:49:00.003-04:00

On Monday I was tickled to hear TXT MSG mentioned on WAMU's Art Beat. Neither my name nor Mark Cameron Boyd's name was mentioned on the radio, but the venue and gist of the work was mentioned.

On line, however, a little more detail was given about the event, including names, and links to our respective blogs!

They chose to link to something I wrote in March about Four Letter Words. In there I make a bad joke about the pronunciation of the word cwms. For those who read this blog regularly, I make a lot of bad jokes. But, what is becoming more apparent to me is the level of responsibility I need to have when writing these epistles. I never know who is going to link back to them, or where they might link.

In the case of where Art Beat linked in my blog, the writing is less revealing about the work, more revealing about the process, and gives strange insights on how I look at dictionaries. But, the writing is carefree, much like the nature of Four Letter Words as a series. The Staff writer at the Washington Post touched on that by commenting on the title, ""Four Letter Words" features more than 200 paintings... of, well, four letter words, though not necessarily the kind you are thinking of." Where neither the Art Beat link nor the Post picked up (nor DCist for that matter in their recent Arts Agenda) is that even a four letter word can posses complexity. Spellings may have truncated or expanded over the years (idyl is an alternative spelling of idyll... or is it the other way around?); they may fall out of the lexicon; they were adopted into the language through colonialism and trade, and have since fallen out of use in some stretches of the globe; or they are phonetically similar to another word and misspelled as a result.

Visually, since an abundance of type faces are available on anyone's personal computer, why not use them? At least once. I take a bit of pride knowing I never repeated a font in this project. Granted, in the process of painting, Times Regular and Times Bold may look similar, but each is a different font from the same family. The relationship between font and word is arbitrary, assigned methodically and randomly throughout the work. This can avoid any stereotyping... like when a greenhorn graphic design student chooses to use Fortune Cookie to design the menu of a Chinese Restaurant. It's a nice bit of variety to impose on a work. Besides, I'm tired of text made from stencils in art works.

But I digressed. This epistle is supposed to be about my responsibility with my blog writing.

If I write what I'd really like to write, will it come back to haunt me? It depends on how I write it, I suppose. Today's discovery on WAMU is a lesson to be mindful of that. I have no knowledge of who reads this. And, after my post about the Chinatown bus, I learned it could be anyone.

What I question more is, if I do carefully craft the commentary I care to publish, and it is done so in a manner that is objective, polite but critical, and with a gear toward insight, is it a path for alienation, a path that pushes discussion and debate, or simply something floating in the abyss like so much flotsam on the Internet?

In DC? Pick up the Onion.

2008-08-21T10:32:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from Maura Judkis, freelance writer for The Onion A/V Club (and a whole bunch of other periodicals too), saying she wanted to interview me about my work at Transformer, Moment of Zen. Two weeks later, it is on the newsstands in DC. Unlike the video, the article/interview is light and fun - a good read. It'll be

TXT MSG Podcast

2008-08-18T15:04:00.003-04:00

Prior to the opening of TXT MSG, Mark Cameron Boyd and I recorded a podcast with Twig Murray who (essentially*) runs the space. For those interested in taking a listen, this is the URL and link to the podcast: http://www.artsdc.com/txtmsgpodcast.html

To address on a couple of things that may shock or surprise people:
I imply that the body of work came about while playing Scrabbulous - the online version of Scrabble that was recently shut down. Specifically, the series related to currency came about from playing Scrabbulous, not the whole body of work (Four Letter Words). The whole body of work came about in part due to...

...the "atrocious" writing of my students. I actually say something to this affect in the podcast; it is a gross generalization intended for a punchline, and as all instructors in post secondary education are aware, a stereotype that exists for a reason: student writing is generally bad. In truth, a lot of writing is generally bad. There are people who get paid to write (copy editors, journalists, etc.) and their writing is filled with mixed modifiers, disagreeing subjects and verbs, disagreeing tenses, and so forth. Most classes I teach are visual classes, yet I spend more time reviewing written work in an effort to curb some of the pitfalls of student writing.

For instance, there are actually high school teachers who claim that "they" and "them" are appropriate pronouns for SINGULAR subjects. (Go back and re-read that with the voice of Lewis Black.) Their students matriculate with the expectation that this is universally understood. For this I have a joke, "What's black and white and red all over?"

I have had some talented writers pass through my courses, as well as many cogent written communicators. However, the scales weigh heavily toward those who have less talent expressing themselves with pen or keyboard. Every professor I know talks about bad student writing. Every professor I know has a story about bad papers, and we talk about them in an effort to out-do the other professor in his/her tale of woe. We console and support each other about the poor writing of students, as though we were members of a 12 step program. Coffee and hugs only adds to the atmosphere.

There are things I didn't talk about in the podcast. Frankly, there is no need to mention Ed Ruscha, Robert Indiana, Joseph Kosuth, or John Baldessari, but these are artists with whom people might quickly associate the work. I have mild interest in each artist. But to associate this work with the work of those artists, simply because they used text and writing, is flawed. No doubt, though, their work gives future artists the permission to use the word as a subject, as a still life, and as a figure.

I was once a graphic designer... but now I am found. I have a love of words and a love of language. I find the cornucopia of font families intriguing. But, I have a strong distaste for working with clients.

After working on this series I began to feel like a scribe. There is a certain amount of patience and diligence that is necessary when making this work. There were times I found myself meditating on each letter (no televisions were harmed in the making of this project). I began to think of those monks who labored over transcriptions of the Bible in the centuries predating Guttenberg's printing press.

*Admittedly I don't recall Twig's title. But, if you want to propose a show at the Athenaeum, she is the person to contact.

Opening at Alexandria's Athenaeum

2008-08-17T11:02:00.007-04:00

Yesterday TXT MSG opened at the Athenaeum on Prince Street in Alexandria, VA. The event had fairly good attendance and I was happy to sell 25% of my work. The options are to buy individual squares for $20 each, or to purchase a whole series and get a bit of a discount on the work. For instance, a series of 24 sounds would sell for $400, or a series of 64 homonyms sell for $1100.

The images included are Homonyms (top), Homophones (below), and Uncommon (bottom).The show runs through Sept 21.

And, yes (Pave), some of the Homonyms are heteronyms.

Mark Cameron Boyd's Song for Europe was well interpreted by many. Though hardly anyone could address the Greek board, the Latin and French boards received heavy traffic and his English board is nearly completed!

All Cops should use Hands Free

2008-08-08T13:28:00.003-04:00

Will the Arlington County police officer
driving on Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA
at 1:30 PM Thursday afternoon,
License Plate Number 145 654L,
please use a hands free device
the next time he drives and talks on his cell phone?

Appreciated.

I hate carpeting

2008-08-05T00:21:00.003-04:00

Not the actual material, mind you, because it dampens sounds, is soft under foot, and gives off that cozy sensation. Carpeting: v. the act of laying or placing carpet in a room or space.

In the last week the crew I have managed has turned one of the experimental galleries at Arlington Arts Center into a giant black box. Today we took one step closer to completion by laying black carpet. It looks gorgeous, for the most part, and it will look better once vacuumed. Too bad we'll just heap a ton of dirt on top of it on Wednesday or Thursday (literally... one ton of fresh top soil).

In other news, the final touches have been put on the series of 64 homophones and 64 homonyms. For a time, I had a few of my homophones and homonyms mixed up. Granted, most homonyms are homophones by their/there very/vary nature.

Homonyms - words that are spelled alike but have different meanings.
Think pike: It is either a pole with a pointy end, or a fish up in Canada

Homophones - words that sound alike but may be spelled differently.
read and reed. Or read and red.

Until I started working on this project there were some words I was not aware existed, let alone knew they were homonyms or homophones. For instance... I think I was unaware of the word mete. I may have heard someone say "meted out," which would simply be "dividing," but I don't say it; it is not in my lexicon. Outta sight, outta mind... or something like that. For the sake of argument, let's say I didn't know it.

Mete: v. to allot.
Mete: n. boundary.

Where I may or may not have known the first definition (archaic, according to Websters), I certainly didn't know the second. Or, maybe I didn't think I knew it. For all I know, I thought it was meet, which is a verb. If fishing in The Boundary Waters, are they located where Ontario meets (joins) Minnesota, or where Ontario metes Minnesota? Granted, if I am in that situation I'm thinking about catching meat to pair with wild rice.

Seldom is it that this stuff keeps me up at nights (post will be around 1:00 am; this is an exception). But, occasionally I get that student paper where their/there is confused, and I'm haunted into the wee hours/ours wishing I had the hair/hare to pull out.

I'm a dork.

Progress and Mistakes

2008-08-02T20:35:00.002-04:00

The last two weeks have been a grueling exercise to see how much work I can accomplish in a small window of time.

America's Grave needed to be rebuilt into a reusable structure, free from cardboard. That was last week. This week we were allowed into Arlington Arts Center to begin preparing the space. Step one: build the walls. Across both weeks, most nights I'd return home and paint for two to three hours after dinner.

My first job after graduate school was working as a carpenter's assistant during the week. With respect to the 20-foot by 8 foot wall I built this past week at AAC (with the help of a soon-to-matriculate college freshman assistant) - and to the 8 foot by 7 foot wall - I can never claim it is the most beautiful wall I have ever constructed. I can only assume Bill F (the boss, whose last name was always illegible on the check stubs) and Paul (the foreman) would have fired me. The mudding and taping is sloppy, with seams and corner bead still visible. But, painted black and in a dimly-lit space, most of those day-laboring blemishes should dissolve.

I'm still a day behind schedule, and need to carpet, install the lighting system, and "dig" the grave. So, the extra day of mudding had to go out the window. And, with the mud in the bucket (rather than 20-minute joint compound), there is much more drying time. Theater and carpentry are about illusion anyway. Shim it. Mask it. Fake it. As long as the disbelief is suspended and the wall doesn't fall down, who will know?

But I know I am tired and prone to making mistakes. The canary in the coal mine: I recently sent out an e-mail to a bunch of people to promote the work and forgot to bcc everyone. Half the recipients were cc'd. All I can do is shake my head and proclaim what a bonehead I am sometimes.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

2008-07-21T01:26:00.004-04:00

Rejection by DCCAH
A couple of weeks ago I learned that my 4-Letter Words proposal was rejected for SPP funding from the DCCAH. Apparently there was some confusion whether or not 51% of my artist activities would occur in DC - note, my studio is in Ward 2... about 30 paces from my pillow. Moreover, the project was rejected becuase the work would show in Alexandria, VA. Sigh.

Fear of Electricity Slowly Overcome
I hate the notion of becoming a circuit or working with a table saw. That stated, this week I successfully constructed 19 of 20 48"-fluorescent lamps for the upcoming show at AAC. 2 weeks ago I had no knowledge that Black = Hot or that Green = Ground. Now I can take 14.2, connect it to a grounded plug and connect the other end to a ballast with a 95% rate of success (not my fault I got a bad ballast).

Gretchen Is a Published Scholar
My wife, Gretchen, had an article on wearable electronics published in the June/July issue of IEEE. Pride and envy reside, as with one article she has made the sum of my writing for DCist, The Georgetowner, and The Daily Chautauquan singularly underwhelming (for the uninitiated, (IEEE is an A-Journal).

Exhibition Unopening at Transformer, August 8th
In January I proposed exhibiting Moment of Zen in the window of Transformer - something they could show as window dressing between shows. Transformer will be closed during the lion's share of August, but my video will be playing in the window from Aug. 8 - Aug 25. Though the work will be promoted, no opening or closing reception will be held. Which is fine because...

Four Letter Words at the Athenaeum, August 16
My series of painted four-letter words, exploring typography and the complexities of our language, will be installed in the Athenaeum sometime between August 10th & 15th. A little over half of my 200 +, 8" x 8" canvases have been painted. I think the rest will be completed this week... then I wait for other stretcher bars to arrive on the slow boat from China (literally). This work will show with Mark Cameron Boyd's Song for Europe, which I eagerly look forward to see.

Saw Dark Knight Returns.
Yeah, Ledger was a genius, and I don't think the shadow of his untimely demise is clouding anyone's judgment. But, what did I like least about the movie?
a) It's about 20 min. too long. Mmmm
b) The transformation of Harvey Dent felt like a Joel Schumacher stunt. Kinda... and Aaron Eckhart wasn't helping.
c) There are so many plot twists that it is tiring. Possibly.
d) Bale's growling Batman is a bad imitation of what it might sound like if Charlton Heston were to imitate Mark Hamill imitating Dana Carvey's imitation of Kirk Douglass. I think that's it!

A Season In Hell and America's Grave at AAC

2008-07-14T22:39:00.005-04:00

On July 29th, I once again begin grave digging with Randall Packer - this time at The Arlington Arts Center, where the piece America's Grave will be included Picturing Politics - an exhibition curated by Rex Weil.

With each incarnation, the work expands. The solitary grave, first exhibited in American University's Katzen Museum in January 2006, expanded into a grave and cosmology in the autumn of 2006, down in Athens, GA. Last spring, the work was "exhibited on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building", safe within the confines of Provisions Library. This time, the work finally expands into the story boards for the multimedia opera Randall has been composing steadily since 2001. While the final edit of the work has not been completed, elements of the score will be imposed in the grave, along with the various regions of hell, as transcribed from Dante's Inferno.

This is also the first time that the work will be resented in perfect isolation from other work. In the next two weeks I prepare lighting, arrange for carpeting, collect the necessary materials to build a wall, and once again prepare the skeleton of The Grave. Instead of being an "object" of art, as in previous incarnations where the work could be viewed as sculpture, the work is positioned into a theatrical environment.

Installation begins July 29 and runs through Aug. 14 - plenty of time to lay 600 square feet of carpet, build 320 square feet of wall, install 20 lights, and unload half a tone of dirt onto a raised platform.

The exhibition runs Aug. 15 - Sept. 27.

Chinatown Bus: Never Again

2008-06-30T13:39:00.000-04:00

A trip up to New York, to see the work of Olafur Eliasson at the MoMA before it closed, was overshadowed by a teeth-clenching, white-knuckle ride on the "Chinatown bus." Like many a friend and acquaintance before, I too was suckered in by the low price of the commute. Unlike my friends, I never heeded the warning of buses breaking down on the interstate, U-turns over the median, or the bus catching on fire. Fortunately, these specific events did not occur on the travel.

What did occur?
Bus hit something before leaving the parking lot in DC. Check
Bus nearly sideswiped a semi on I-95. Check
Bus cut off a semi. Check
Bus constantly changed lanes driving upwards of 75 MPH on the interstate. Check
Bus driver often driving with one hand while eating peanuts. Check
Or, talking on his cell phone. Check
Bus was late for the return. Check
Got yelled at in Chinese. Check
Bus broke down before leaving NYC. Check
Bus driver smoking while driving. Check

As a list, it doesn't look that bad. Most passengers seemed oblivious to the fact they were sitting in a death trap that weaved across three lanes of traffic like a novice learning to saddle stitch. But, whatever man! It's a $6 ticket! This price would explain the lack of toilet paper in both the DC Chinatown office, and the lack of toilet paper on the bus.

The AM bus departed from DC at 8:00 AM. The return was at 3:30 AM. Same bus driver. I hope he had a nap at some point.

The best part: an emergency stop at a NJ rest stop to swap commuters from one bus to another. Prior to the bus breaking down in NYC, there was some confusion if the bus was going to DC or Philly. Turns out it went to both. But, after an hour on the interstate, the bus I was on (let's call it Bus A) pulled over into the rest stop to tell commuters to DC to get on another bus (let's call it Bus B). Those en route to Philly on Bus B disembarked for Bus A , and those of us on Bus A headed to Balt/DC disembarked for Bus B. The goal was apparently some sort of time saving strategy.

Once settled on Bus B, Driver A and Driver B held a little conference in Bus B about something. It was at this time that Driver A decided to yell at a passenger seated behind Driver B, complete with pantomimed kicking and vulgarity. The lady was confused. Passengers were becoming unsettled. And, the look of utter shock and horror saturated the face of Driver B as he tried to stop the unsolicited assault of verbal abuse spewing from Driver A.

The Eliasson show? Enlightening. And Buckminster Fuller at The Whitney made me feel smarter. But, all of this got left behind on East Broadway, sometime between 9:45 and 11:00 PM.

Carlin, 71, Now With Joe Pesci

2008-06-23T08:27:00.000-04:00

The attached video should explain the titles (but you have to go through 7:29 of bull s***).

I don't recall what age I began listening to his comedy routines on HBO, but Carlin had a way with language, analogies, and utilizing solecism that was new (to me at the young age of 10, 11, or 12), and always refreshing. My recent series of painting - Four Letter Words - was inspired, in part, by his Supreme Court case on obscenity in 1978.

I've Got Blister's on My Fingers!

2008-06-22T21:39:00.000-04:00

The quote from John Lennon seems most appropriate. Pictured are 200 stretched 8"x8" canvases for an upcoming exhibition (with Mark Cameron Boyd) at the Athenaeum in mid August. I stretched 1/4 of them this evening.

I know! There are machines that can do that. Like Vader, am I more machine now, than man? Maybe. But, there is aback story to this that has stretched my patience (as well as caused me to stretch a bunch of canvas). Initially I ordered approximately 300 pre-stretched canvases from Art Supply Warehouse in mid April. When they had not arrived by late May I gave them a call.
It seems my canvases were on backorder and would not reach the warehouse until mid July.

"Where are they on backorder from? China?" I said, incredulously.
"Yes sir," the operator replied. "It takes a while for the barge to cross the Pacific."

I ordered pre-stretched canvases because I calculated (rather liberally by some estimates) that it would take 24 hours to assemble 1200 stretcher bars, cut 300 canvas squares and stretch 300 canvases. This does not also account for placing 600 D-rings on the backs. So, I guess by virtue of the associative property, I'm more Chinese now, than man - or, something like that - because my studio definitely felt like a sweat shop this evening a I stretched 50 canvases in two hours (to the tunes of ( ) by Sigur Ros and l'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio).

Sadly, when I had to default to stretcher bars and canvases I couldn't complete the full order. 6 boxes of stretcher bars are on back order - from China. Does it mean I have no soul if I state for the record that I hope they aren't coming from the Sichuan province?

Assassinating Another Art (Media) Whore

2008-06-09T09:47:00.000-04:00

ArtsJournal pinged a June 6th Washington Post article on Yazmany Arboleda, who recently had some brew-ha-ha with the NYPD and Secret Service over the titles of his recent "Assassination" exhibitions (featuring Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama), which is an effort to assassinate character through sexist and racist stereotypes. I'd thought to comment on it, but since my last rant was regarding the "abortion" of art at Yale, I don't think it is necessary to dedicate a bunch of key strokes to bemoaning a guy in NYC who claims he wants to "raise a dialog" by making an exhibition of a couple dick jokes. I link to the "exhibitions" simply because everyone likes a train wreck. The WaPo article is also a great essay on how to get free publicity.

Instead, I turn my attention to our wonderful planet earth. BoingBoing.net pinged a snapshot of the planet and moon from Mars via NASA. Better still is this image of the earth-rise from the moon. A few weeks back I was doing a preliminary interview with a second visually impaired student at AU. He was sighted until the age of seven and stated that the only thing that saddens him about being blind is missing the ecstasy of looking at art.

Ecstasy.

Seldom do I hear or read anyone discussing art with that term: a word so simply structured and yet a state of being so difficult to achieve. I find no ecstasy in the "art" of Arboleda.
I doubt anyone does. Nor would anyone be capable of having a serious dialog about the work or comprehensive dialog about the real issues (which is missing from his exhibition).

I do find ecstasy from seeing the earth captured 88 million miles away. From that perspective, $4/gal gasoline also seems insignificant.

Art-Schvart: the abortions of art education

2008-04-25T17:12:00.001-04:00

I've been hesitant to comment on the work of Aliza Schvarts. Condemning it is to easy and quick - and 87,000 people have already felt the need to do so. What is necessary are alternative perspectives and rational discussion or analysis: one that doesn't demonize her for artificially inseminating herself nine times in as many months and then taking herbal supplements to abort the possible fetus on the 28th day of her cycle; one that doesn't quickly belittle her act or her intentions as insane, illegal, or murderous; one that doesn't dismiss her for the act as another young artist trying to get famous quickly.

It's necessary to consider at least three things when addressing the piece and the intention of the artist in question: The Artist's Intention as canon, Accepted Performance Pieces that function as a foundation for the work, and the objectives of teaching.

I Blame Duchamp: The Canon of Artist Intention.
The first two are related, but it is necessary to separate them. The Artist's Intention as Cannon goes to Duchamp's Fountain. When Fountain is cited as the basis of work defended under the larger umbrella of "The Artist's Intention" it is necessary to understand both the context of that particular piece - Fountain - in terms of its submission and in terms of the time it was submitted. Fountain was submitted to an unjuried exhibition, wherein the participants of the exhibition could submit any work they wanted for the fee of $5. The piece would be exhibited regardless of what it was. Duchamp, under the pseudonym of R. Mutt, submitted a urinal to be displayed on a pedestal under the title Fountain. The piece was later rejected and it was the only piece rejected.

What the submission, and later act of rejection, calls into question is the academic and public response to what is and what is not art. Four years before Duchamp submitted Fountain, Teddy Roosevelt walked through the first Armory Show in 1913 and declared "That's not art!"Amongst those exhibited were Robert Henri, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Matisse, Leger, Delaunay, Odilon Redon, Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Seurat... the list goes on. Though the following may be conjecture, it also may be accurate, because I cannot say for certain if Roosevelt was speaking about a particular piece or about the exhibition as a whole. But, if my estimation is correct, Roosevelt, like so many other educated pedestrians and professors of the old guard of art, considered the bucolic landscapes, bowls of fruit, allegoric and historical paintings in the Classical tradition to be art; anything that opposed the tradition of what the fine arts re-presented was antithetical to what the fine arts were. The Armory Show of 1913 moved the bar up, just a little. In 1917 Duchamp moved it further. It was a response to technology: photography and film, automotives, aeronautics, the advance of science, the scourge of trench warfare and chemical weapons.

This canon has been used to defend the works of many who followed, forever pushing a boundary further and further from a public grasp and understanding of what is and is not art. When bad work crops up it is the easiest thing to point one's finger at and blame. Yet, when examining the work of Cage, Turrell, Paik, Holzer, Rauschenberg, Johns, Irwin, etc we seldom thank Duchamp for creating a plateau from which to continually redefine our boundaries.

The Celebration of Burden and the Shock of a Few:
Schvart's work has also been linked to Chris Burden's work, Shoot, executed in 1971, wherein he had a friend shoot him in the arm. It gave him a flesh wound, a degree, overnight notoriety and celebrity, and the ability to (I'll bet easily) get tenure. But, herein lies several problems: was it the shock and awe of the work that was so celebrated, the sheer chutzpah to ask the same question as Duchamp, only to solve it with a more bombastic and explosive answer or was it the fact that his piece was sheer genius truly shedding light on an aspect of fine art that had remained unanswered until the hammer was dropped? Did it really expand our knowledge of the tragedy of the violence in Vietnam, removed from that country's civil war, removed from its politics, and seated comfortably in a white walled gallery in California? Did it expand our consciousness in the United States in terms of violent acts committed through a barrel with a bullet, violence that had taken away the lives of John and Robert Kennedy, Dr. King, Malcolm X; violence that picked off students from a bell tower in Texas; or violence that took the lives of four at Kent State? Considering the assassination attempts on Ford, Carter, and Reagan; the wakes of The University of Iowa, Columbine, and Virginia Tech (and all the school shootings between those 15 years); the continued debate over the right to bear arms; the continued wars currently campaigned in Afghanistan and Iraq, Burden's Shoot is nothing more than an artistic act of futility. Part of the reason why the answer to those questions is a resounding no is because little documentation exists from the work. It was seen by a few people. But it remains discussed in college classrooms throughout the US. Had ample documentation existed, maybe he too could have been pictured on the cover of a Rage Against the Machine album like more relevant acts of protest during Vietnam through self-immolation committed by Buddhist monks. Burden's statement, done in the sake of art, lacked all the poetry and beauty of burning Buddhists who didn't flinch under fire (like Burden did).

Shocking art has been created by many (and sadly I forget their many of their names). The artist who placed herself nude on a block of ice and lay there until she bled. The artist that ate chocolate and lard to make a point about body image, consumption and over eating. The artist that had sex with an art buyer who agreed to be part of the piece as a criticism of the art culture. Manzoni defecated into tins and critiqued the art market. When Carolee Schneeman stood nude like a life model, painted her contour on her body, and then read a scroll pulled from her vagina she was commenting on the objectification of women as objects. The list goes on and on.

What becomes mildly interesting is what gets remembered and what doesn't. In a decade will anyone outside of DC remember Adrian Parson's Shrapnel performance at The Warehouse? A man cutting off his foreskin is rather impressive in a way... it was a shot in the arm for DC shock art. Shock has been relevant in art for centuries, bringing artists into light and remembering their seminal works while eventually forgetting what brought them to the front at all. Some remained up front and center for centuries because of their talent. Leonardo, for example, is remembered for Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Most of history has forgotten that his name first gained attention because he participated in the gang rape of a boy. Caravaggio is remembered for turning out the light in 17th Century painting and ushering in The Baroque. We seldom discuss the pederasty of his early Bacchus-es - not only the pederasty of the models but the pederasty committed by the Cardinals who commissioned them. But, in another century will we still hold Damien Hirst's animals in formaldehyde or Jeff Koon's vitrines of basketballs and vacuum cleaners with as much "praise" as we do today? I'll guess not, though they may become analogous to the Emperor's New Clothes, if they aren't already in many circles.

When we "celebrate" these questionable pieces, is it really celebration or is it acknowledgement? After all, Paris Hilton is a celebrity. She's photographed all the time and appears as a source for gossip constantly. But, do we really celebrate her (or this questionable art) like a 25th wedding anniversary, a child's first step, the landing of a space shuttle, or the reward of a job well-done? Sometimes the shocking art of a few is truly brilliant. But, in many instances we simply need to reassess our values and how we guide our attention.

The Blind Leading The Blind:
The guidance of attention and value in education is at first steered by our professors. The weight of a project is evaluated by them and directed by them, and the good professors try to remain one step back from contorting a student's creativity into the professor's creativity; the student should work on his own work, not our work. We can purposefully direct how to draw an object, how to mix a color. These are, for lack of a better term, known quantities. What many art professors eventually want to encourage is how to think - how to create your own problems.

If the work cannot communicate directly the artist statement or curatorial statement is an attempt to fill the gap. As a result, art programs try to teach their students how to write. Published in The Wall Street Journal and borrowed from Ms. Schvarts is the following passage from her artist statement, below.

"The reality of miscarriage is very much a linguistic and political reality, an act of reading constructed by an act of naming -- an authorial act. It is the intention of this piece to destabilize the locus of that authorial act, and in doing so, reclaim it from heteronormative structures that seek to naturalize it."

The first point of criticism is, just because you go to Yale and just because you are in a fine arts program does not mean you need to write like an ass hole: constipated and up tight. More to the point, H.G. Frankfurt (from Princeton) would quickly label this writing as Bullshit. While the writing is clearly versed in linguistics, the troublesome nature of many artists who study linguistics through Feminism and Gender Studies (as she clearly has) is they fail to realize that only other linguistics people can read their writing because it isn't English - it is linguistic-uesse. Let's dissect a little:

"Miscarriage is very much a linguistic and political reality..." Really? I thought it was a biological reality. Politics has no place in even attempting to position whether or not a zygote matures into a fetus, unless uterine linings have become politically active. It is true, however, that some uterine linings are possessed by politically active people. What is a linguistic and political reality is not miscarriage, it is abortion!

The linguistic reality is that people in the medical world refer to a miscarriage in three terms: missed abortion, incomplete abortion, and complete abortion. An abortion, as we discuss it in popular culture, is actually what is classified as an elective abortion. So, it could be determined that Ms. Schvartz seeks to qualify the weight of an adjective. Yet, she does not state the noun abortion, to which the value of the adjective can be adhered, in that quote.

Her process of insemination and expulsion, repeated nine times in as many months, lacks some science and reason. The first is that she never tested herself for pregnancy, so there is no telling if she actually conceived. After the 28th day of her cycle she consumed herbal supplements to abort the questionably existent "fetus." The ambiguity of existing fetal tissue, she rationalizes, questions whether the act is an [elective] abortion or a miscarriage. the only problem with that rationalization - as her professors responsible for the guidance of this project should have made her aware - is if she elects to consume a product that will terminate the pregnancy, then she has elected to abort the pregnancy. Or is the question that, if it does not involve dilation and curettage that it is not an abortion?

An additional point of note is that a miscarriage or an elected abortion typically damages the uterine walls, and requires approximately two menstrual cycles to heal. If a woman gets pregnant immediately following a miscarriage or abortion, she increases her risk of having a(nother) failed pregnancy. At least, that is what my wife's doctor explained to us after our miscarriage in November. So, Ms. Schvarts' thesis not only discounts linguistic logic, it spits in the face of biology and statistics as well.

However, this is missing the point! Why? Because her performance and its documentation is not about the language of pregnancy and miscarriage, it is about who society says should have babies and how portions of our anatomy are used to make them

The "authorial act" and "heteronormativity" of her thesis is arguing against the declaration that vaginas are meant to receive penises and that women are meant to have babies. Well, if procreation is your goal, until recent scientific advances, there could be no other way. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous... even the pregnant man in the news is, biologically a woman - he just happened to have a sex change and keep his uterus. If procreation is not the goal, the "authorial act" and the "heteronormativity" she should be railing against is the legislation and legal and social condemnation against activities that might expand beyond procreative acts. This would include anal sex, homosexual sex, oral sex, and other acts of penetration. The right not to bear children has ever been legislated against, to the best of my knowledge.

So, while her act does question form and function as it converges on the body, was it a necessary question that needed to be asked and did she answer it in any rational and articulate way. Her thesis has already been proven and added to for centuries by nuns and priests through their vows of chastity and historically recorded acts of pederasty. The same can be stated for many members of the general public, for kings and queens. Just because it wasn't in your high school text book does not mean it didn't happen.

And these are the very holes her professors should have poked through her ideas. Because, while it is necessary to get the students to consider problems in their work, it is also necessary for them to arrive at the answers. For painters and sculptors, traditionally, this may have occurred over decades, building upon their research and expanding their answers. For students, sometimes they need a little help. The obvious answers were in front of her, but she over thought them, nose deep in Jacques Derrida's doo-doo.

As for the general public, the question they are asking is just as invalid. Is this art? As opposed to what? Craft? Not art? This is absolutely art; the artist has declared it so! The point missed is that art is not the value to be assessed. Art is a commodity, like an appliance or consumable. The question the public should be asking is one of value. Is this good art? The answer is no.

Balducci's Might Be Run By Morons

2008-04-25T13:55:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I went to Balducci's to use a deli coupon to buy a couple of sandwiches and quickly learned that I cannot do that, which confused me. I naturally assumed from my experiences getting sandwiches at delis at several grocery stores in the Midwest and New England that this was common: ya' want a sandwich? Go to the deli! In fact, if I recall from living in Brooklyn, if I wanted to get, say, a Rueben, I could walk to a neighborhood deli and order a Rueben. Not a grocery store, mind you. An actual business called a d-e-l-i wherein they make s-a-n-d-w-i-c-h-e-s.

This is not the case at Balducci's on New Mexico Avenue in Washington, DC. In the deli department you can get your "deli sliced meats." The deli department does not make sandwiches; those are made by the sandwich department which may or may not be in the prepared foods department. I'm going out on a limb here, but I have a feeling the sandwich department gets its meat from the deli department.

The objects I most wanted to purchase from the deli are pictured on the right of the coupon. Pictured: Sandwiches! However, sandwiches are not "sold by the deli," as I was informed by the clerk. "They are sold by the sandwich department." Therefore, the sandwiches I wanted to buy, the sandwiches pictured on the coupon, were not valid purchase items.

Apparently there is a glitch in their system - or departments just don't talk to one another. For example, if I were to buy a sandwich it might get rung up under prepared foods. If I were to buy cream it would go to the dairy. If I purchased a hunk of Fontina cheese, it goes to the cheese department (yes... I know... that's a dairy product, but not a product sold by the diary department). So, when the graphics people in the marketing department make the coupons that go to John Q. Public (or, in this case, John J. Anderson), they don't know the ins and outs of sales. So, if there is going to be a special in the deli, why not represent that deli transaction with a sandwich? After all... IT JUST MAKES SENSE!

That is, of course, unless you are handling the sales, which is run by Major Major from Catch-22.

Maj. Major Major Major: Sergeant, from now on, I don't want anyone to come in and see me while I'm in my office. Is that clear?
First Sgt. Towser: Yes, sir? What do I say to people who want to come in and see you while you're gone?
Maj. Major Major Major: Tell them I'm in and ask them to wait.
First Sgt. Towser: For how long?
Maj. Major Major Major: Until I've left.
First Sgt. Towser: And then what do I do with them?
Maj. Major Major Major: I don't care.
First Sgt. Towser: May I send people in to see you after you've left?
Maj. Major Major Major: Yes.
First Sgt. Towser: You won't be here then, will you?
Maj. Major Major Major: No.
First Sgt. Towser: I see, sir. Will that be all?
Maj. Major Major Major: Also, Sergeant, I don't want you coming in while I'm in my office asking me if there's anything you can do for me. Is that clear?
First Sgt. Towser: Yes, sir. When should I come in your office and ask if there's anything I can do for you?
Maj. Major Major Major: When I'm not there.
First Sgt. Towser: What do I do then?
Maj. Major Major Major: Whatever has to be done.
First Sgt. Towser: Yes, sir.

Graffiti Research Lab: Art Happens

2008-04-24T11:39:00.000-04:00

Though the adult in me finds Borf to be a nuisance for the defacement of property, the artist in me has always found his "tags" - on a graphic level - to be very compelling (even if his stuff is a tad derivative of Banksy and Fairy). And there is something in me that wishes I had the chutzpah to do the street art that might be deemed as "destructive." For instance, with the plethora of exhausted fire hydrants in DC I wouldn't see a problem if several of these tripping posts could be adorned with gold leaf (like the icons of city mismanagement that they are). Unfortunately, I think the po-po would find my amused interest otherwise. To this date, apart from the occasional moving violation, I don't have a record... I'd like to keep it that way.

So, we have the Graffiti Research Lab, empowering persons of various persuasions to post non-destructive marks of creative interest on whatever surface they so desire. After all, they can be easily removed and have no permanent effect (or defect) to the surfaces they adorn. They are made with projections, or magnets stuck to metal. In the case of Mark Jenkins - tape.

A philosophy of mine is that "Art Happens." This has two meanings, and both happen outside the gallery environment, which are warehouses of art that has already happened. The first is a transformative experience that occurs when an individual stumbles upon something "out of the ordinary." Typically, the out-of-the-ordinary physical object placed in the environment that forces a person to pause and reflect. Graffiti does this, whether it is classically painted onto a surface (Borf, Basquiat, Banksy or anyone else whose name starts with B) or whether it is a sculpture of tape.

The other way art happens is when we project meaning onto an otherwise mundane object or event. Think: the videos of the floating bag from the movie American Beauty. In either event, if we allow it, Art forces us to engage our perspective of our surroundings: physical, social, aesthetic, etc. It allows us to assess everything between our known knowns and our unknown unknowns.

USDAT activities on Boing Boing

2008-04-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

The one downside to working for a fictitious government entity is knowing (or not knowing) if there are others out there silently plodding away on their own agendas. While I can only assume Billy Kluver, Under Secretary for the Bureau of Reality, is probing the after life for ways of making technological bridges back to our world, most activities of the US Department of Art & Technology, to the best of my understanding, are only being concocted within a few blocks of my apartment.

But today I learned of (Trade) Mark Gunderson and his Artistic License. (Here is a permanent link to his enterprise.) Neither of us are listed as staff in the Department, so I have no clue what his role is. But, it's entertaining, just the same.

I blogged too soon: grant award from DCCAH

2008-04-10T20:24:00.000-04:00

Tuesday afternoon the fat letter from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities arrived, awarding me with my second (and final) Young Artist Project grant award. (Rejection letters are typically thin because they do not have all the additional tax paper work that needs to be filed upon acceptance).

The proposal was to create visually interesting work (for the bulk of us) that was also aesthetically interesting to the visually impaired.

The project proposal stems from a student I interviewed at American University (Paul) who is blind. The intention of that interview was to create a sort of video documentary/profile to gain some understanding - as a sighted individual - about how the world is perceived when blind. However, what I was learning in the course of the interview became far more interesting than a video piece. I knew, going into the interview, that Paul played saxophone in a jazz group, and was also a very talented classical pianist, so he did have some appreciation for the arts. But, part of what interested me was when he told me about experiencing the Torqued Ellipses and other serpentine sculptures of Richard Serra.

Every time I go to the National Gallery I marvel at Serra's steel sculpture that, if installed improperly, will kill the preparator. It's a piece that really cannot be felt like one of his Torqued Ellipse (at least, I'm not brave enough to touch it). You can walk through the ellipse and it will affect how you hear the space. If you are prodding through it with a white cane, it will also affect the dimensions of your boundaries - for example the wall might meet the floor over there, but every time I walk there I bump my head.

Think of how many other works of fine art can be experienced like that? Pieces that are heard and touched - as well as seen. My grant from DCCAH will fund a few pieces that should affect at least three of our five senses.

Read the Fine Print

2008-04-08T00:43:00.000-04:00

After completing another application for a Small Project grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities I found the one line that may explain my last few project proposals getting rejected. "Priority will be given to applications who have not received grant funds from the DC Arts Commission within the past five years."

Of course... maybe it has something to do with my last few proposals funding the Graviton - my project which will pull the moon out of its orbit, closer to the earth.

Who knows?

When it rains it pours.

2008-04-03T16:38:00.000-04:00

Confirmed today - August is going to be a busy month of exhibiting.

Moment of Zen will play in the Transformer window.
The latest incarnation of America's Grave, my ongoing collaboration with Randall Packer's A Season in Hell project, will be installed at Arlington Arts Center with its most recent
Mark Cameron Boyd invited me to exhibit new text-based work at The Athenaeum in Alexandria, VA. I am currently painting approximately 400 words: 1 word/canvas for the show.

Future posts will depict images of the Virginia work.

Dumb Pondering

2008-03-21T16:08:00.001-04:00

I don't pay attention to NCAA basketball. Or sports much, for that matter (it's been 14 years since the '94 MLB strike, so I should stop blaming it). And I don't have a TV.

I noticed that American University and George Mason University were in one bracket (are they called brackets?) of the Road to the Final Four, and that Georgetown University and University Maryland Baltimore County are in a different bracket. I thought, "well that's odd... I drive past Georgetown on my commute between American University and George Mason University. Why aren't they in the same bracket?"

Four Letter Words

2008-03-13T18:55:00.001-04:00

One of the previously mentioned "upcoming projects," from a few posts back, is entitled Four Letter Words. The project is a bit more intelligent than it sounds, but before venturing in depth with content I have to post a few rules regarding the project. Rule No. 1 is don't talk about fight club. Rule No. 2...

That stated, of the 3900 words I pulled from a Scrabble word list, I have been sorting through them with a 1994 copy of the Merriam Webster Dictionary (MWD) - one of those cheap pocket garden variety that every would-be-student gets for high school graduation, or prior to matriculation. Needless to say, not all 3900 words accepted by Scrabble were accepted by the MWD (and fewer still accepted by the genius that is Microsoft Office); it is not a massive volume. It is also not up-to-date and does not include such hip new words, like w00t. (w00t is typed with zeros and I am ashamed that Google spell check isn't giving it the red line.)

Dictionaries can be rather frightening objects. I've seen some as thick as a toddler is tall, and that was usually just the first volume of a three book series. But, those ridiculous monstrosities typically engage the etymology and evolution of a word. They require a spotter to lift onto a sturdy oak table that is buttressed. And while particular rules regarding my project began eliminating some of the words typically found as associates in the dictionary (plurals, past tense, etc), some of the words I came across I had to raise an eye-brow.

"Cwms" is a word. I kid you not. It is Welsh for "valley" and pronounced cooms (as in Sean Puffy). It's also drunk-typing for "cwms."

...and now a word from James Agee

2008-03-12T12:44:00.000-04:00

A while back Bill Christenberry told me to read Now Let Us Praise Famous Men. Bit by bit I get through it, struggling to find the time to complete it in a succession of sittings. I wanted to share this stretch on page 126 (of my copy, anyway):

...the work is done by half-skilled, half-paid men under no need to do well... and this is what comes of it: Most naive, most massive symmetry and simpleness. Enough lines, enough off-true, that this symmetry is strongly, yet most subtly sprained against its centers, into something more powerful than either full symmetry or deliberate breaking and balancing of 'monotonies' can ever hope to be. A look of being most earnestly hand-made, as a child's drawing, a thing created out of need, love, patience, and strained skill in the innocence of a race. Nowhere one ounce or inch spent with ornament, not one trace of relief or of disguise: a matchless monotony, and in it a matchless variety, and this again throughout restrained, held rigid...

A part of me thinks he looks upon that "powerful" nature as beautiful and poetic. Another part of me thinks he looks upon that "powerful" nature as desperate and hopeless. Not to miss the point of Agee's text, but I always find it interesting to be able to walk away with art lessons from unexpected places and at unexpected moments.