HMNA-Studio Wall

My freind Greg Ruffing @ collect.give

2012-03-02T04:04:00.000-08:00

Greg Ruffing @ collect.give

My friend, grass roots organizer and wonderful once Cleveland now Chicago photographer Greg Ruffing has a print available through collect.give. From his thoughtful and honest series Yard sales, Greg chose a piece to be offered on the website with 100% of the proceeds to benefit the Center for a New American Dream. Apropos for his artistic interests and themes, the CNAD is an organization that helps business, communities and individuals align themselves with a more sustainable, environmental and less consumptive ways. Greg's series Yard Sales is a passionate look into an age old American past time, part recycling, part DIY capitalism, part social endeavor, the allure and culture of the yard sale is fascinating. Greg brings it to life across social economic boundaries his pictures reveal a lot about the human condition, our stuff and our funny habits.

In honor of my trip to the Whitney next week

2012-03-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

Since I will be attending the Whitney Biennial next week I thought I would post this video. Please look past the strange mini you tube video and feast on the infectious loop.

Roger Ballen does Die Antwoord

2012-02-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

I couldn't imagine a better person to team up with the South African rave rap sensation Die Antwoord than Roger Ballen. Ballen sets the stage perfect and creates for the performance art trio one of the coolest strangest, and skull exploding montages ever! It may be the rawest music videos since Grizzly Bear and Allison Schulnik. Fink u Freaky just oozes Ballen and like one of the comments on YouTube suggests, I have the the most awkward boner right now.

8501 to 11400 (On Moving) revisited

2012-02-13T05:25:00.000-08:00

some of my pieces

The long view. I had 8 pieces all together.

Had the opportunity yesterday to take my parents to see the show at MOCA. I admit the night of the opening I was all set to snap a ton of festive photos. The problem was that when I raised the camera to my face and smashed my noise against the back to peer into the view finder all I saw as a flashing blinking, snickering, mocking notice that I had indeed forgot to put my memory card in. Crap. So I took no photos and have only my hazy recollection of the evening that consists of talking with lots of people and sucking down crystal glasses of Jamesons on the rocks. I had a blast but have no physical record of it.

Miles with one of Corries pieces

Corrie on the giant glass wall.

So here are my take-two photos of the show from a much more relaxed outing. It was nice to take in the grand view with less bodies in the gallery. I loved how Corrie Slawsons work, screen printed on both sides of the infamous Ginn Gallery glass wall both brought attention to it's elephant in the room annoyance and transformed it into something more than just a divider that got in peoples way. Corries chaotic mix of logos and maps that highlight the neighborhood, I thought, were made of and embodied the history and energy of the place where MOCA was born.

Ben Kinsleys work, a performance piece, that consisted of sandwich board clad street preachers with dueling takes on the end as final resting doomsday wrath and the end as beautiful beginning was piped in via audio speakers that would randomly chirp out scripture like mantras. They would float out mysteriously from the heavens as if a sign from God.

My work looked nice too. Ha-ha, shameless.

Ursala wows

My family really liked Ursula von Rydingsvards giant wooden sculptures. Looming and bold they had so much energy and mystery. Like ancient relics dug up and reassembled they sat heavy int he gallery with history and material weighing them down. I think the giant ancient hot tub or soup bowl for giants was great as well as the cavernous primordial cathedral in the back room. Pretty amazing stuff.

More Lucas Blalock @ Art 21

2012-02-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

This is a super behind the scenes video about the artist I mentioned in the last post. After seeing this I feel even more connect to his work and finding a kinship with my exploration. He works fast and when he can due to day job and other restrictions.

Two Of My Favorite Artists Talking

2012-02-09T07:16:00.000-08:00

The Humble Arts Foundation featured a show recently with 2 of my favorite artists working today, Sam Falls and Lucas Blalock. On the HAF website there is a transcription of a talk between the two. It is insightful and full of questioning and exploration that is the cornerstone to both of the these exemplary contemporary artists practice. It is quite relevant to my practice as well and was a pleasure to read some of my demons being wrestled with by others and spoken about so clearly. I like this quote about how the Internet can be crappy.

Sam Falls: Well, coming up I have a piece in the Blind Spot auction at the X-Initiative in December, a solo show at Higher Pictures in February, my MFA thesis show at ICP-Bard in April, a solo show at Capricious Space in June, and a book project in the works that will be published by Lay Flat this summer sometime. The book thing is something I’m consistently working on and really started using it as a platform not only for organizing my work and cataloging it, but also getting it out into the world. I got really tired of the Internet viewing arena and blogs and I think books are a nice way to share my work with people I don’t know and maintain some quality control without burdening people with galleries and high-prices, it’s so much better than the Internet in my mind and not pretentious at all.

There are a ton of other gems in the talk as well. I recommend the read.

Here is the link: Sam Falls and Lucas Blalock @ Humble Arts Foundation

Maurizio Cattelan: All The App

2012-02-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

Much to my surprise the other day I came across a very special app. One that for me is a super cool use of new technology that blends contemporary means of viewing with the traditions of the monograph. Maurizio Cattelan, Mr. I'm retiring from the art world, meteorite pope killing artist extraordinaire and the Guggenheim have developed a companion app for his retrospective. It is complete with all the works, interviews stories and history. It's a living book. Interactive in the best sense and at 3.99 USD it is a very cool introduction that gives some in depth access to the exhibition and the artist. Apps man....so cool.

AFTER ZERO: New Abstractions in Contemporary Art @ Tri-C West

2012-02-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

Clockwise From Top Left: Michelle Murphy, Jerry Birchfield, Mark Keffer

I have been so excited and proud of the art that is happening in Cleveland lately. We have a small but growing roster of super promising, hyper aware and relevant artists living and working in these here parts. They have been quietly and slowly breaking out into the larger art world and thus moving Cleveland art beyond regionalism and elbowing into the national conversation.

We have a chance to see 3 of those very artists in one location. THURSDAY, THURSDAY, THURSDAY February 9th Come see a Carzilla of a spectacle at Tri-C west. After Zero: New Abstractions in Contemporary Art will host its opening reception next Thursday from 5-7pm. The show will exhibit the feminist underpinning abstract photographs of Michelle Murphy, the minimalist reductive photographic dissections and explorations of Jerry Birchfield and the historically referenced but reshaped and re envisioned abstract paintings of Mark Keffer.

Just to have anything with the title New here in Cleveland is great. For me it means boundary pushing and moving forward. Which is a cause for serious optimism.

Tri C West Art Gallery

11000 Pleasant Valley Rd.
Parma, Ohio 44130

Flak Photo Winter Picture Slideshow

2012-01-31T07:07:00.000-08:00

WINTER PICTURE SLIDE SHOW @ FLAK

A few weeks ago one of my photos was included in the Flak photo Winter Picture online exhibition. Each day a new winter picture was featured until after 20 days there was a super cool, pun intended, chill-tastic collection of wonderful winter frosty photos. After seeing them all together they indeed are a diverse and descriptive bunch of well curated photographs. Since then Andy Adams, proprietor of Flak, has compiled the group into a slide show for easy viewing pleasure. Check it out HERE.

Brian Ulrich on ArtDrift

2012-01-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

CMA hipped me to this short interview documentary with Brian Ulrich discussing his major opus of exploration of American consumer culture. He is very thoughtful and insightful about his process and motivation. It's a nice primer for his work, his recently published Aperture monograph and his show at CMA. Watch it and remember the power of photography to influence and embed a new way of looking at things and the world. Ulrich helps us to see differently. Shake us out of our complacency.

Tonight MOCA: Ben, Corrie and me. 7-9

2012-01-20T04:26:00.000-08:00

Winter/Spring 2012 Exhibition Promotional Video from Moca Cleveland on Vimeo.

Come out and play. Winter is finally here so get out and give it the finger by going to see some art. There are multiple venues hosting art like things tonight like Zygotes Collected Gems II show opening from 6-9. And of course 8501 to 11400 (on moving) at MOCA in which I am the 3rd Amigo in this three person show. I haven't picked out my outfit yet. I told the misses I was wearing a robe. Not a cool satin Harry Potter robe but rather a fleece natty baby blanket ripped up bath robe. That didn't go over to well. So looks like I will dust off something swank. If only I could get my hands on the technicolor dream coat.

Also I was out at Spaces last night for some Vault screenings and the debut of the crown chakra catopia video in which 2 of our 3 cats were featured. It was a blast. I even picked up this awesome publication, that I've come to find out was put together through Zygote and edited by Michael Gill. It's a stellar newspaper called the Collective Arts Network Journal that features art establishments in the area and not only describes the gallery but also lists and promotes upcoming events. What a great way to organize you viewing habits. You can download it here.

Hope to see everyone out tonight!!

Daniel Cooneys Emerging Artist Auction

2012-01-18T04:05:00.000-08:00

Admittedly HMNA has become a bit narcissistic lately with posts mostly for personal promotion but I swear it's because I have been stretched very thin. I have a folder full of great artists and links that I have been scavenging and hoarding for future posts but having the rare moment to share has become almost impossible to find.

I'm here now and I just can't walk the walk. So to stay true to my recent boring personal sharing and accolades here is just one more. I've been lucky enough to be included in Daniel Cooneys Emerging Artist Auction on iGavel.com and at his gallery in Chelsea. All 29 incredible works from 29 special up and coming artists from around the world are available for viewing at Daniel Cooney Fine Art. If you're feeling collectible and want to bid, iGavel makes it very easy, just sign up and bid on. The starting bids are super low as to, as Dan says, promote aggressive bidding. Get after it you savages!

Here are some of my favorites.

Aaron Blum Town and Country Days

Allison Grant -Flickr Forest

Aaron Norberg-Untitled

Jeremy Miranda- House Boat

Matthew Town-Ballet Boy

MOCA opening Jan 20th

2012-01-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

So cool to stop by the MOCA website and see my work on the splash page. Gushing like a proud parent. This experience already has been one of the best and the show hasn't even opened. I am really grateful.

Featured on Flak Photo!

2012-01-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

Flakphoto!

I was thrilled when the hardest working man in photo today Andy Adams wrote me a email to let me know one of my photos would be featured on his omnipotent web magazine Flak Photo. I have been following Flak for a while now always interested in his ability to harness the power of the Internet in amazing ways. Between his open approach to promoting the work of photographers to his ability to brainstorm and push the limits of cyberspace and it's capacity to foster community within photography with social media, Andy would make Stieglitz very proud.

So go over there and check out my picture and all the great things going on over there.

And find out more about Andy, his work and Flak here:

http://facebook.com/flakphoto

http://twitter.com/flakphoto

http://AndyAdamsPhoto.com

New Work

2011-12-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

Longs Peak02

Mt Rainier View form Paradise

Osprey Habitat in Snow Storm

View from Teton Science Center 01

View from Teton Science Center 02

View from Look Rock E2

I've been working out this little idea for some time now and I just sat back to find that I have over 40 pictures from my little casual project. Pump the breaks I thought. That's a lot. So I tacked up all my pictures, did some editing and much to my surprise had a nice little body of work.

Since my practice at its core bubbles up from the notion of being American and American ideals not to mention my traditional 4x5, out in the world, man and his camera Sternfeldian photographic training, I have always wanted to make some landscape photos. (longest sentence EVER) This series as I call it, The New New American West, is a collection of photographs taken of my computer screen of various national park web cams. I became obsessed with watching the cameras to find the perfect pictures. I managed to collect a lot during all times of the day.

You can check out more here.

Viva Manifest Destiny, from my computer screen, and the comfort of my own home with out ever having to leave or do anything.

Twas the Night Before...

2011-12-14T03:50:00.000-08:00

I love this line from Twas the Night Before Christmas. Clement Moore was quite the wordsmith.

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.

Isn't that just shiver inducing?

Pacific Standard TIme

2011-12-13T04:12:00.000-08:00

I know these have been making the rounds lately but I think they are cool enough to propagate here because, well, I just really like them. I mean who doesn't know about bourgeoisie or "boushy" and or gangsta traffic. Not to mention how incredibly awesome Anthony Keidis is I mean I love a gentle intertwining of sorts. And man what would I have given to skateboard down Sunset Blvd with Anthony back in the 80's. Just like my old Thrasher mags.

Chris Auerbach-Brown @ SPACES

2011-12-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Went over to Spaces the other night for a heaping dose of Thought-tatoes. My friends Ben and Jessica are doing an exhibition there now in which the Mrs ( self proclaimed crazy cat lady) and I participated in. Due in large part to our bigger than average cat family. Called Catopia their exhibition takes on the culture of cat by exploring the human personification of personalities bestowed upon animals and the social circles of both master and pet. It is a grand exploration of psychology both human and animal.

We went to Spaces because we were interested in what a cat psychologist had to say about the nature of the beast and I ended up be totally enlightened in feline body language and development. If I was enlightened in the ways of the cats I was stunned by SPACELAB artist Chris Auerbach-Browns talk and performances. Chris, a trained musician and composer, broke down musical boundaries in his performance or fur Elise on the saw and in his performance of the phonetically poem Ursonate by Kurt Schwitters. Chris gave me this link to check out more. I love the language dissection of the poem. It renders language the way a Pollack blows up representational painting.

His installation at SPACES is also not to be missed with its hacking of sound devices to create new experiences and new instruments in sound and environment. I was really impressed. Try and see it before it's gone. I wish I would of taken some pictures while I was there but alas I forgot my camera.

It's on and pooping...

2011-12-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

or is that "popping"? Who cares. MOCA has the show listed on their website! It's actually real and happening and the deadline for delivered work is quickly approaching. Uh-oh. Reality check. Excited and scared.

On viewing art...

2011-11-28T09:38:00.000-08:00

...One begins to see the connection between viewing art and viewing everyday objects and the mental and emotional processes we go through in order to understand ourselves and our relation to the world.

I like this quote from a review of Jack Strange, a British artist, from Rhizome.

Blue Tuesday

2011-11-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

The Mrs and I attended this concert when she was 8 months pregnant with Ethan. I think I can pinpoint now the effects of hardcore synth and bass on a fetus. He can work just about any computer device and has a keen sense of music already at such a young age The bass was pumping so hard from their Blue Monday cover that he was probably bouncing around in utero. I am sad that my friend Bill, front man of MIR, has moved on from this awesome electronic project.

On the act of photography...

2011-11-21T05:56:00.000-08:00

"...Art was revealed to be a process of delegation to ordinary and everyday objects, and photography became the tool by which to circumvent the need to create a 'good' picture."

From The photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton

A really thoughtful quote about the evolution of certain new types of photography and about the historical defining of photography as an art form. I think it really nails the essence of, at least, representational photography.

Uugh

2011-11-18T07:08:00.000-08:00

I am in total freak out mode right now. Why is there not enough time in the day to really get anything done. I've got to do some serious Jenny Craig on some of the things that eat up my day to make room for healthier and more nutritious hourly nibblets. What to do. What to do.

Eric Yanker

2011-11-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

Eric Yanker throws it all against the wall and while some of it for me doesn't stick, a lot of his drawings and sculpture based works are brilliant social and image critique that uses humor and the absurd to cast a sceptical eye toward celebrity, media and contemporary American culture.

I really needed to go...

2011-11-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

but clearly this was a special bathroom meant for heroes and mutants. I, sadly, had to find another.

11-11-11

2011-11-11T04:34:00.000-08:00

From here

Here's to a binary Friday.

Benjamin Edmiston

2011-11-10T04:43:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Edmiston-Everybodys Working For the Weekend

Found Ben's work while sorting through the obstacle course of book-marked art websites I have cascading down from my drop down Firefox bookmarks menu. He was listed in a group show for the really cool artist run gallery in Philadelphia called Nudashank. An awesome endeavor in its own right, they were having a group show that revolved around I think....um, collage? Maybe drawing. Either way Benjamin, a Brooklyn artist, struck me for his imagination and character representation. I am always drawn to a unique and usually skewed narrative. I have mentioned in the past my penchant for visual language and story telling. I work often in metaphor. Ben has cool characters, a way with space and materials to tell his stories. He's cut from the same cloth as Jockum Nordstrom or Claire Rojas in the nouveau folk aesthetic that I love so much.

Healing the Wall

Blood Brother 3

Modern Antique (AC/DC)

Untitled (Head)

No Title Given

Fanfare for the Common Man

2011-11-09T04:08:00.000-08:00

So long SB5.

From an Interview with Jerry Saltz

2011-11-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

The whole thing is here.

Just a little something to chew on from one of my favorite critics:

What underappreciated artist, gallery, or work do you think people should know about? I think that the many who continually pooh-pooh art-galleries for being boring, or "about money," underappreciate one of the greatest machines for seeing contemporary art that has ever existed in the history of the world. For these complainers the art world is not good enough. Contemporary art is not up to their standards. They're always disappointed. I always want to say to these people, "Go away. We can't help you."

What's your art-world pet peeve? Other than all the people who spend their energies attacking the energy other people, I am peeved at idiot billionaires flying mindless millionaire artists to bloated biennials to party down on private yachts; at seven-figure prices paid for derivative dreck that supposedly "critiques the system"; at cuckoo collectors (like Adam Lindemann) opining in the New York Observer that MoMA's de Kooning show is "dated," "quaint," "bland," and "predictable" and sniffs that he didn't read the great de Kooning bio because "I'm a student of the postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida..."; at gilded auctions attended by those who get their kicks from being profligate in public; at the absolute equation of art with capital; at curators flying from city to city to speak on one other's panels about "The Role of the Curator"; at tenured academics who can't turn the page from 1968; at an endless stream of art-school-trained artists trying to crawl up the asses of Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, and Gerhard Richter in order to stake out a microscopic piece of insular, already-approved territory; ninny critics on reality TV game-shows about art. Also, I wish lots more young art-critics would start online blogs, art-magazines, screed-sheets, Facebook pages, whatever. Art critics aren't paid anything anyway so there's nothing to lose. Other than all that, I'm good.

It is Dangerous Out There

2011-11-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

I did indeed take the wooden sword because truer words have not been spoken. It is dangerous out there and when I'm starting out my journey no better safety device and companion to help in the unwanted advances of a Like-like or Octoroc than a hand crafted artisan rapier. Thanks weird old man in the cave you're a life saver.

Ohio Grit-reposted from A Continuous Lean

2011-11-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ARTICLE

Michael Williams a native of Cleveland consistently churns out great content at his blog ACL. Mostly Americana, his posts range from photography to fashion to food and always are informative and so super stylish. Everything about the blog and its content drips with class and cool. He just posted a round up of old Ohio Manufacturing photos that, much like everything on his blog, is perfectly curated. The comments section for this particular post is as fascinating as the pictures they reference. With even a classy and intelligent argument about the state of and idea of contemporary manufacturing. Two thumbs up and a hardy handshake to what it means to be a gentleman. We all could use a brush up on our manners both in life and in debate. Ahhh, refreshing.

Maurizio Cattelan from Artinfo

2011-11-02T05:25:00.000-07:00

You've long been described as a prankster or a jokester. Do you think your work has been misunderstood? How do you want people to experience your art?

I consider myself deadly serious and often boring. I'm responsible for provoking questions, not answering them. The answers are always inside the viewer, and understanding requires focus.

Copy this down on your studio wall. I think it is an incredible mantra for any artist.

Relics

2011-11-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

A good friend forwarded these gems over a while back. I salivate because they feel so real to me like an Arbus or Paul Strand. The pictures, also, being snap shots is interesting in that they still posses a touch or a sensitivity to the subject. Perhaps because with old cameras, photography retained a technical nature that gave the user an understanding of what a picture was. Something we have lost recently in the advent of digital devices that house cameras. Now for the most part we get hundreds of callous, quick "takes". As instinctively as seeing we snap a picture with little thought. The digital simulated shutter refers to what photography used to be about and then captures the moment as the operator, tough to still call them photographers, skirts the line of participant and recorder of an event. "Taking" pictures has evolved to near second nature to our culture that the pure novelty and thoughts about what it means to make a picture or record something have incorporated into our routines as just something we do. We breath, we go see a concert and video tape the whole thing.

Depth of Focus from Frieze Magazine

2011-10-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

I feel like photography in it's current multi directional divergences is getting a lot of attention critically. Multiple magazines and blogs have dedicated articles and musings on the current manifestations of our old friend. I have lots of thoughts on the subject. One that I have been cerebrally marinating is whether or not photography in most noted form of film and print are dead.

This article is a good read on the subject. I found it on Frieze.com.

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/depth-of-focus/

Sweet sausagy mistress

2011-10-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

Behold the bastard prodigal brother to the conforming and always available Pepperoni bread. He who has always stayed true never mentioned his wild and fennel-y spiced wanderlusting younger brother. And yet he's returned to offer and share his rich stories with us all and two nights ago we sat around the fire that is our oven and warmed the stories out of him, Sausage bread, and then listened to his savory goodness dipped in marinara sauce. Yummy.

Wigwams Dude

2011-10-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Just bought this sweet 3 pack!

Winter is breathing her deathly whisper in out collective ears everybody. What better way to protect those who carry your sorry ass around all day, 365 a year than to outfit them with the coziest of podiacoverings; Wigwams. Still made in the good ole U-S of A these puppies have kept my dogs safe since my brother and I would buy them at the Army Navy store. They sure did fill out a Danner boot quite nice. Happy late fall. Just remember, Fall is Summer on life support.

10000 Gigawatts

2011-10-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Spent a really great day at the museum on Saturday with the boys and the Mrs. I wove a tale to the boys of 8 foot tale mean police guards who roam the galleries in hopes of thwarting a domino effect of smashed glass cases and toppled chainmailed mannequins. Disaster was averted and a fun time was had by all. I even ran into my future self. Strangely we both didn't cease to exist although I'm not sure if the space time continuum was harmed. I did accidentally step on an ant.

Write up in ArtsCritcalATL

2011-10-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

Really excited to have Brenda from Hagedorn send this over yesterday. I am mentioned in the review of the "New Photograph" show. It is always nice to read some insight into your work. After all as an artist you try and communicate through imagery. Thanks Mr. Stalker.

Here is the full article and you can link to it here :

Review: Artists scavenge Internet in Hagedorn’s “The New Photograph”

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By Robert Stalker | Oct 17, 2011

Dispensing with a strictly lens-based practice, the artists in Hagedorn Foundation Gallery’s “The New Photograph” promiscuously jumble photography with other media. In so doing, they create beautiful, sometimes disquieting work that questions some long-held beliefs about what photographs are and do. The exhibition is on view through October 22.
Cleveland-based Brandon Juhasz pulls images from the Internet to construct what he calls “three-dimensional paper sculpture.” He then photographs these collage-sculptures to present images that he hopes will, as he says, “question the legitimacy and meaning” of the glut of images around us. The offbeat titles and crisp, hyper-real juxtapositions in such works as “Prop” — an image of a stack of pies upholding a window — look a bit like Rene Magritte’s tidy but improbable arrangements.
Brooklyn artist Daniel Gordon adopts a similar starting point but moves in a very different direction. He first came to attention with his series of “Flying Pictures,” self-portraits of the long-john-clad artist soaring over landscapes which, like Yves Klein’s famous “Leap Into the Void,” take a humorous swing at photography’s much-vaunted veridical status. For the work presented here, Gordon has photographed 3-D sculptures he constructs from printouts taken from Google searches, creating images whose impossible mishmash foregrounds their own speciousness. (Gordon’s “Pink Face” is at left.) Like Juhasz, Gordon pushes photography in the direction of other media, such as painting, collage and sculpture, suspending our notions of photography’s existential relation to the real.
German photographer Christoph Engel responds to what he calls “the flood of pictures polluting the world” by creating what he calls “digital collages” from images drawn from Web portals such as Google Earth and Google Weather. For the series “Vue des Alpes,” Engel takes images of the snowy mountains, changes them to black and white and, it would seem, re-photographs them from his computer screen.
Blown up to massive size, the resulting ghostly, grainy images, discernible only from a distance, push photography to representational collapse. “Untitled (Ships 091201),” from Engel’s series “Superficies,” plays similarly with the gallery space. Close up, the photograph (below) reveals the startling unreality of dozens of ships in near-collision; from afar, it resembles a mid-1960s Larry Poons painting.
Jonathan Lewis shares with Engel an interest in pushing photography in the direction of color field painting. The Los Angeles artist’s “Designer” photographs of shop windows, taken with a cheap hand-held camera and then blown up to a just barely decipherable resolution, at once evoke 20th-century abstract painting and the photographic tradition of shop windows as subject matter that goes back to Eugene Atget and Brassaï.
Jason Salavon’s “Portraits” most explicitly play off painting. For these pieces, the Chicago-based artist works from his self-created software to determine color averages of Dutch master paintings by Hals, Van Dyck, Velasquez and Rembrandt, reproducing these iconic self-portraits as sfumato-infused abstractions. The pictures are at once mysteriously illegible and recognizable, playing off ideas of art history and cultural capital.
The work of New York artist Penelope Umbrico engages similar ideas about the relations between the illegible and the recognizable from a much different perspective. Her “Suns From Flikr” project (example above) began with her attempt to find “the most photographed” subject. Taking images of the sun from anonymous photos on the Flikr website, Umbrico creates picture-collages with varying degrees of opacity that, as the title “87 Suns From Flikr — 29 Visible” suggests, play the visible and invisible off of each other.
With the exception of Lewis, these artists find their source material on the Web. Lewis uses low-tech equipment to photograph sometimes upscale, sometimes low-end commercial subject matter. The “curatorial” process of these artists raises questions about originality, authorship and just what kind of photograph belongs in an art gallery.

Finally I can get some professional help

2011-10-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

In case you live near Kirtland and have been waiting for the price of Fire walking lessons to come down or a coupon in the Sunday paper. Here is your chance.

Why I'm not an arts writer

2011-10-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

This came from some of the press materials for the Hagedorn show I'm in. The description for my work and the work in the show is money. I want to some how re-write my artist statement with this as the cornerstone. Very eloquently put:

Appropriating images from Flickr, Google Image Searches, Vimeo, YouTube, and Facebook, an increasing number of photographers today are sifting through the constant flow of unedited visual information and re-presenting it in manipulated formats to comment on how the kaleidoscopic output of social network technologies influences our consciousness and makes our culture.

The composite pictures in this exhibition– Duchampmian, surreal, and crafted by mind and machine – are a fresh version of “The Photograph.” Without a camera per se, capturing pictures from a projected screen, as opposed to capturing them with a lens and a shutter, they continue the medium’s tradition of reflecting the culture they represent, altering our perception of what we are seeing and incorporating new scientific and technological trends in the making of the image.

Bigfoot

2011-10-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

It was only a matter of time. Scientists now are 95% sure Bigfoot is indeed real. No frozen monkey suit. No hairy shirtless eastern block uncle out for a stroll in a balmy Appalachian foothills. Aliens are next.

The New Photograph @ The Hagedorn Atlanta Celebrates Photography

2011-09-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

Blog, here, finally are some of my pictures from the opening at The Hagedorn. The culmination of months of working and some fundraising. One incredible weekend that started with just an opening of the best show I have been honored to be included in to date, which should of been just enough for one weekend. But no. We did so much. Including the whim ticket buying extravaganza for a music festival we had no idea was even happening. After the show opening the Mrs and I went over to Piedmont Park with the aid of our new Atlanta Besties photographer Beth Lilly and her husband Pat. They generously gave us aride over to the park from the gallery since serendipitously they LIVE right on the park! In a gorgeous home none the less. They saved us 12 blocks of walking and 3 MARTA stops all to go see the Black Keys, Cage the Elephant and...wait for it....wait for it....COLDPLAY. Holler. What a night.

Without further ado here are a few pictures. I wish I had more but the night was filled with meeting and greeting. Including a wonderful chat with the new curator of photography at the High Museum, Brett Abbott and his lovely wife Annisa (hope I spelled that right, lol). I thought it was a total success. And the work....my God...the work that was there. Jonathan Lewis's prints were like luscious paintings that distorted as you got closer to reveal just color. Accentuating the nature of prints vs the reality it is supposed to represent. Christoph Engel large Google Maps based works are seamless collages of various homogeneous topographies around the globe, Penelope Umbrico's giant mural collage of Suns of Flickr was so impressive, Daniel Gordon's Dark narratives were just yummy and Jason Salavon dreamy images could get you lost in an existential worm hole. I was blown-a-way. And humbled.

we were upstairs

Engel

Lil Ole Me and the Mrs.

Jonathan Lewis. Big and Juicy

Engel-detail

Engel. Boats on the water from google maps

Gordon at the end of the night.

Umbrico

BBQ!

Coldplay at MUSIC @ MIDTOWN FESTIVAL

Our hotel had a nice Eames DCM. Classy all the way baby.

Saturday morning in Georgia

2011-09-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

I'm building some suspense here Blog. Sort of chronicling the events in some what linear progression. Today we visit the High Museum with all of the peripherals located in Midtown. The hippest part of Atlanta we visited by far, every thing was perfect from the homes along Piedmont Park to the steady stream of BMW's and Porsche's down Peachtree. These are just a few samples of some favorite moments. The folk/vernacular art was the highlight for sure. Folk art for those who don't know is by far my reigning champ of genre. Even over photography....shhhhh.

Tap Gastropub

silky Louis up close and personal

Muniz made from spread out garbage on a warehouse floor

Kapoor that was just such a physical presence

I missed out on a lot at the museum. A day just isn't enough. We made it to the Skyway floor to see modern and contemporary but then nothing else. This place was massive. Next time...next time.

Georgia on my mind. First Impressions.

2011-09-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

Oh blog brother what an amazing weekend It was. It was a whirlwind of southern wonder and amazement of grits and hospitality that like anytime I have visited Georgia in the past have always left me wondering why in the world are people in Cleveland so damn grumpy.

3rd Friday @ 78th St and I'm leaving...on jet plane

2011-09-22T04:13:00.000-07:00

It's pretty much here blog. My trip to Atlanta for ACP and the Hagedorn. Sorry if my fonts are a little shaky. I quiver with fear, anticipation and excitement as I write. Tonight I will, like all my trips, throw a few things in a duffel, shelve my box cutters and lucky butterfly knife and prepare for my TSA shakedown. The airport is a very real police state. I got screamed at one time for not taking my laptop out of its protective travel pouch. But hey, its all good. Heh heh heh.

So Friday night I went out to experience 3rd Friday at 78th Street with the Mrs., my pal Justin and the runts in tow. After parking at Edgewater...(not really) but the parking was super tight. I did have to park at the end of 78th street next to a gross bombed out pretty floral printed couch, a watery chuck hole that probably was the origin of life as we know it and a nice black Lexus.

The vibe was super, blogster. Packed to the gills. We saw all the art and with my crappy camera phone took these pictures. Tregoning had spectacular photos from Elisabeth Sunday. The photos that implemented mirrors to make portraits of I think African natives ( I could be wrong ) created strange and ethereal representations of the line between the physical and the metaphysical. A visual attempt at showing humans existence as a medium between the body and the soul. The pictures had bodies that dragged and distorted as if being pulled out of the body from this world to the next. They showed beautifully the magic of life and of spirit. Especially the large body sized prints. They were quite haunting.

Open Studio juicy painting-Dorsey was the last name of the artist.

Miles liked this on the substation by where we parked

Sunday @ Tregoning

cool Cleveland School picture at the Art League

close up of Sunday @ Tregoning

The evening was super fun.

Oh and a side note, this truck in front of the other day was crazy. I feel like it could be some kind of portable art space, no? Anyways blogonni, this weekend is going to be crazy. On Monday I will tickle your ivories with images and thoughts on Atlanta. Stay tuned.

Catch-up and Mustard

2011-09-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

Blog-slice what is happening with the cyberatti? The elite word hosters and Internet posters? I have been out and about but have failed to share my journeys and today with nary a minute to spare I will throw up, regurgitate if you will, a few pictures I took at some shows I've seen. Two to be specific. One from like 4 weeks ago, the fall offering at Spaces and the Creative Work Force Fellows beautifully catered and packed to the gills sweat box opening at the Fawick Gallery @ BW college.

The Spaces trio included a curated group show based on some modern musings on minimalism, a democratic collaboration on capitalism and an interesting exploration of polarization, marginalizing and identity issues within the current social and political climates of America today.

Miles and a Royden Watson piece

More Royden

Overall I enjoyed the the whole lot. The Capitalism sign of course played to my affinity for over the top and meaningful and poignant implementation of humor. The Portability show was a cool exploration of 21 century globalization and the rules oriented stripped down sensibilities of Sol Lewitt minimalism. Royden Watsons show sort of played with minimalism too but with a much more loaded and symbolic way. His appropriation of maps and the icon of the United States itself a patchwork of territories carved up like a nation-Frankenstein now pulled, extended and muddled.

This was Ethan's favorite

Birchfield channeling Aurbach

Super illusion. Love it

The boys loved the CD explosion

Making "bad" art

All the CW Fellows were stellar. This show has a short life span I think only a few weeks but if you can make it out I recommend it. I included a few stand outs from at least what I could get to to take pictures. It was like Wal-Mart on black Friday only without any flat screen fisticuffs.

Mark Slankard of course showed detailed large scaled photographs of Turkeys tornadic battle of new and old culture. Michael Loderstedt had some interesting paper works ( I love paper ), Laura Cooperman also just blew me a way with her cut paper installation. Its delicate medium representing the even more delicate balance of city and man. The show was very impressive and seeing that I wanted to hate everything since I wasn't awarded on of the fellowships. I didn't. It was good and well deserved work.

Mr. Slankard

Not sure who made these but they were cool

Laura Cooperman-Yes please

Fall kick off madness and somber anniversary

2011-09-09T05:36:00.000-07:00

Hi blogs. What's happening. Spoken in my best Lumberg drawl. This week is starting I guess yesterday and predated by Spaces opening of their fall season a few weeks back (still have to post my pictures of that fun evening) is the beginning of yet another season of art viewing. The excitement seems heightened this year. A strange sort of optimism? There is a definite din, a buzz if you will. I want to see everything tonight, Muldrow at Bonfoey, Oldfather at Zygote, I still want to see Roydon Watsons show at Proximity and all the others I just can't type because my fingers are bleeding. I know for a fact I will be swinging by the Fawick Gallery at BW to see Mark Slankard and all the other Creative Workforce Fellows. That opens tonight and since I could sling a cat and hit the gallery from my house, it's a no brainer. After that, who knows where the winds will take me.

I do know this. This picture of the spawn in front of a giant bottle of Hofbrau should pretty much seal the Father of the Year trophy for 2011. Although those smiles are short lived because after this we found out the human hamster ball ride from last years Oktoberfest was banned when some "adventurer" took one out on the lake and supposedly suffocated. The giant inflatable balls can only be opened from the outside. Check this years Darwin awards for details.

I thought I would end up here with thoughts of the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Thursday night while at dinner with some friends we got to talking about the events and how it is just this incredible cultural bond now that cuts across all boundaries. You can bring up that day to anyone who lived through it and instantly have a connection and stories to share.

From Hyperallergic.com photo credit: GODLIS for LMCC

I found this image today from Hyperallergic of Xu Bings installation made from dust he collected from that day in New York. He sat on it waiting for the right time and idea to implement this strange, sad and metaphoric material. I always wondered what good art about 9/11 would be. The years following the tragedy I think were still to close to be able to really reflect. But it seems a decade later we can think back about it and in turn make something that really speaks. Read the article it goes in great depth more than I could about the reading of the work. Especially breaking down the two elements, dust and the words.

Haverchuck and Madeon made my day

2011-09-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. A crossroads perhaps. Stuck in a rut. But this...this made my day. Haverchuck rocks, the dancer is amazing and the mash up is divine. Enjoy and happy Labor Day.

Trale Lewous is sa-weet.

Article about little ole me!?

2011-08-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

TECHNORATI.COM

Blog I am shocked and thrilled. Marie Kazalla a fantastic writer crafted a great article about my work that highlights the minute momentum I have managed to muster. It is always wonderful and weird to have people notice when most of the time as a "young" artist you work in relative anonymity. You move forward because you can't stop. Each work you make leads to the next. I know I like to and strive for exhibitions but sometimes you don't think about actually getting recognition. It's nice and for those neurotic-types (ahem, yours truly) kind of strange in its holy crap people are staring at me feeling. Do I have bats in the cave? Is my fly down? Is my work decent enough to have people care. Oh man I'm spiraling.

Its all good, its all good. breathe it out.

Enjoy the ARTICLE blog, I'm happier than freegan outside of Giant Eagle on outdated bread day.

And check out other things Marie has written. It's good stuffs.

Face Time

2011-08-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

The waning days of summer are upon us as the crickets chirp and the sun sets just a little earlier each day. I'm however holding on not beholden to any back to school schedule, summer for me will live on. And with the living on and moving on and the off on, I am going to sneak out of the ole day job here a few hours early to lounge at the pool. But before I put my old girl iMac to sleep for the day I have to reflect on this picture I screen shot from my Friend face timing me this morning. The picture is dead ringer for a Jenny Saville painting no?

Maybe I'm crazy. But not as crazy as this lady, or the guy who made this car, a life sized micro machine. What is this world coming to?

Spaces employee and board members show @ Legation

2011-08-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Dang it

What a difference a day makes blog. Or I guess 2 days because right now I'm building an ark and Friday night I was basking in the florescent glow of a parking ticket while being warmed by the perfect southern California like sunset on 25th. Yes I got another parking ticket damn it. I think I should count my blessings because with my parking choice this time I was flirting with a towing. I'd warmly accept a 35 dollar ticket over the alternative. Sometimes you roll the dice I guess.

I did brush off the unfortunate meter maid retribution and motored on down to the 78st Studios to attend the Spaces Employee and Board Member exhibition at Legation. I am always smitten with 78th when ever I go because I feel like it is such a model of success for this area. The perfect ,ahem, Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie quote: One monkey -weak. Monkeys together-strong. It is a great example of strength in numbers and organization.

The SPACES show was a blast, lots of friends, great art, open bar. As I was de-beering from the previous nights consumption I opted for white wine. It was the perfect night for a crisp spritzer. Zima anyone? Right. Well with wine in hand we checked out the art and listen to Chris Lynn remind us how lucky we are to have such a great venue and to tantalize us with the upcoming season. There looks to be some really good programing coming up that should fit in just fine with what is happening elsewhere round town.

Some of my favorite pieces on display were of course the always and unmistakable and perfectly DIY steam punk American ingenuity and commerce glow of Dana Depews lamps. I will own one someday. Then there was my, almost cracked into the savings to purchase, Lori Kella's large photograph of a snowy geodesic fictional landscape. I love when an image haunts me like I find myself thinking about it randomly. Qian Li also had an interesting photograph of perhaps, as the Mrs. said, something Dexter would approve of. The bubbling blood type bodily fluid suspension harks to the the mysteries of creation or chemistry. Very primordial and oddly quiet and violent at the same time.

Forgot who did these but they are amazing paintings

Come here often?

Qian Li

Mr. Dana Depew

I had never been to Legation before and I was pleasantly surprised. Although I have never been disappointed by anything 78th st. And I guess the moral of the story is THIS. Spaces board and employees create nothing less than what their program offers up ever year. Really good art.

Now I need a kickstarter to pay my parking tickets.

This things gonna blow

2011-08-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

Talk about unsustainable growth. The national debt has nothing on the Flickr photo database. Look at this stat. It's uncanny how we feed this machine with mostly banal digital relics collected by a devise that translates something in front of us into organized data that somehow validates our existence. This things going to blow, and not the good kind. How many more pictures can we take?

FROM THE FLICKR HOMEPAGE.

One another note. I have a new fantasy love affair. Someone who has opened my eyes and guided me through the fog of crap reporting and corporate sensationalism that is the normal literary and news haunts. I guess it's less about one person and more about the whole blog but Maria Bustillos, a regular contributor to my new favorite I really should be working website the AWL, can really get me excited about reading. Her prose and the others who contribute to the AWL remind me of the best of what a college review or old school underground intellectual mag was like long ago.

My day job master must never find out about she who has saved me from wasted hours at work. May the powers who govern the web at work never find fault in AWL and always keep it on the safe to view at work list. For if I walk in one day and find the yellow "this website is unsuitable for work" deferral splash screen I will surely go the way of Ophelia.

The Artistic Language

2011-08-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

FUNDED!!!

Blog, guess what. No I did not purchase the entire House Industries Font suite for you. But I did get my Kickstarter fully funded in only 5 days thanks to an incredible network of dedicated art lovers who were happy to donate in exchange for some original artwork! I can't thank everyone enough. I still have 24 days to go too and in the event I get more donations I have decided that if anyone still wants to purchase some artwork then the proceeds will go to help with the production of my next show in January. Kudos and Gracias and yippee!

Okay goals reached and shows funded aside. I touched on something in a previous post about language. The language of an artist. I think it was Charles LeDray who got me thinking about the symbols, materials and constructs that artists create in their visual world to communicate the ideas and narrate their stories. What makes a really good and unique artist for me is their ability to appropriate not necessarily common or expected symbols but unique visual cues and icons to express and represent complex ideas and stories. No sledgehammer symbolism. Anybody can come up with those. I am talking about highly personal, well thought out metaphoric visual cues. The sum of which when organized in a visual plane whether sculpture, painting, photography, video...whatever...reach out to the viewer in a way that is not readily available and revel themselves slowly. Objects we are familiar with presented in translucent ways trickle meaning out like a soaker hose in a garden.

To better convey my thoughts. I have assembled below a few artists whom I think have uniquely-not without influences for those who will jump on me for saying this artist or that is unique and groundbreaking-formulated great visual languages to express their vision and ideas. This is, of course, only a sampling of artists. There are plenty others including LeDray who I mentioned earlier. The thing is, the artist that has the ability to tap into their language and who have developed a unique vernacular tend to have longevity. It is only when a good visual alphabet is created can honest work be made. It is the personal language, much like writer finding a voice with in a series of characters or style of prose, that creates sustainability. It is the root system of a healthy fruit tree that if planted and tended will continue to feed year after year.

Tim Hawkinson

Kiki Smith

Kiki Smith again

Rona Pondick

Dana Shutz

My old Prof. Craig Lucas @ Zygote opens tonight

2011-08-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

Hey blog remember Craig my old mentor teacher at Kent for that brief stint at university? He was my favorite person there, super tough love but fair, wise and to the point. "Just paint damn it" he use to say. Don't worry about all the bull shit and make paintings. If one thing from half a masters degree and 7000 dollars in debt has stuck with me it was his approach to making art. Stop mucking about with trying to be something and just do you. Be yourself and make art that is of, about and from you. Very refreshing. He was one cool dude.

Which is why making it out to Zygote to honor and see some of his works would be the perfect memorial. His show opens tonight Aug 4th from 6-9pm. Zygote, blog in case you don't remember, is at 1410 E 30th St. I still remember walking into his studio and seeing all these pieces of paper on the floor, at least 50, all in various stages of painting development. He would hover over them making decisions, taking them closer to completion one mark or stroke at a time. Good memories. Thanks Craig.

I need a KICKSTARTER please!

2011-08-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

Okay I finally got my Kickstarter off the ground. It was a long journey of 7 days that seemed more like 2 months. I spent a year there one night, as they always say. But it's done.

What am I kickstarting you ask? Well I hope to kickstart my art I suppose. I have my first national exhibition in Atlanta for Atlanta celebrates photography festival and I kind of need to get my art and me there for the opening and then back a few weeks later for a panel discussion. I just can't not show up. It's a must for this opportunity. That's why I proposed this project to Kickstarter and they gave me the green light. I plan to document the who big adventure here so that will be cool and insightful right? Maybe? I'm dangling a worm here. I hope the fish bite.

Support will go to help with production, shipping, transportation and lodging and other unexpected expenses like speeding tickets. Just kidding. I drive like an old man. The thing of it is, I'm looking at this more like an artist sale than anything. Donations will be rewarded with original art produced for this occasion. So please check out the page and see what you think.

Thanks everyone for reading and taking the time. If you are a wee bit curious head over HERE, Like I said before I am offering art in return for donations, I wish I had the cool crank radios like NPR but this is a low budget operation.

Any who, I thought this would be a really fun and exciting way to sell some art and get to Atlanta.

Pea's

Things on the horizon and Charles LeDray

2011-08-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

I have few things happening blog so spare me the weeping about how I'm never home for dinner. We will be together soon and I promise I will type at least a 600 word composition on the merits of non-profit art spaces and PBS during these trouble times.

First off though here is a sneak preview of a new body of work I have been crafting while toiling in my stifling windowless studio. A fan is hard to use when your working with paper sculptures. Kind of like trying to create art in that game show machine that blows dollars in a contained Lucite tube and you can keep as many as you can catch.

The new work titled "American Bigfoot is Monkey Suit" is an idea of a group of photos that I've been incubating for sometime, leaving frequently to try something new. failing, throwing everything out and then getting back to what I knew I should be doing which is this work. The pending MOCA show righted my course by fitting perfectly into the themes I wished to address. Here is the first piece from the series.

My new series which I hope to explore and communicate and extrapolate more on desire and coming of age and I have to say, in that vein, I love love love Charles LeDray. I was recently reminded of his work while listening to an Artcritical.com panel review and it was like a rebirth and re-energized my visual language. I connected with these works not only because I found a kinship in subject matter to my own work by the way he uses objects as psychological windows into America and the idea of manhood in this country, but because I love his poetics. For me looking at LeDrays work I am reminded of perhaps my Dad or my Grandpa or at this stage in my life where I may be as I age. The embodiment of the working man. The struggles and rawness of the reality of life. Shredded vintage fabrics of suits, ties and clothes a man would put on everyday for sales or office work. Day in and day out until old and worn they are literally falling off the hangers. They echo our bodies as we age and lay to rest after a life of staying a float. Were the people who wore these clothes failures? Did they succeed in their dreams? Or were dreams even part of the story? Is it about the necessity of work to exist. I feel that I am forever changed by finding these poetic and materially rich works. And for me that is the mark of very good art.

The Strange Wonderfully Weird Internet

2011-07-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

Hey Blog, can I call you bro? No? No problem. That shirt doesn't really fit anyways. I have been working hard the past few weeks so today I really threw off my shackles of labor and pretty much have done nothing. Last night I photographed my second in a series of 6 new works for the MOCA show in January. I try not to be a last minute Larry and frankly if I left this work till November to complete the ensuing stress spiral of sweat and black outs would not lead to the profound artist interpretation of transition that Megan was looking for when she asked me to be in this show. Instead I am fighting the sweltering stagnation in my meager studio and standing under molten 5000K light bulbs to forge ahead in my endeavors.

I'm blabbering. I just thought I would share a few things that I found under some Internet rocks today and in the past couple of times I burned up hours face to glowing LED face with my monitor.

If you have a few hundred...nay...24,000 USD to be exact just burning a hole in your pockets you could be the proud owner of the possibly the sickest, craziest and perhaps tasteless...doesn't make it any less cool....Halloween costume that is sure to beat out Antoine Dodson at the costume ball...Casey Anthony. Imagine walking around on Halloween night how scary you'd be. Shiver.

So scary

On an art related note. Early this decade (that sounds weird) I was introduced to Brian Alfred's paintings. I thought they were great since at the time I was learning some things about vector graphics and design using programs like Freehand and Illustrator. I was really interested in the intersection of computer graphics and painting. Some painters were exploring photoshop technique and while Alfred was taking the computer graphics/Alex Katz generic minimalistic vector approach to distilling form into shapes and opaque colors. The results were and are a banal generated robo world that reflects the contemporary architecture and common shared space of society and culture. It's part futuristic, part antiseptic and all rather austere and desolate. I found this nice documentary of Alfred and his paintings via his website.

So many times news photos are generic wire photos or cruddy stock pictures. But these had real feeling and drama about them. I love the Kennedy one. I gotsta get me a navy cable knit fishermans sweater like Jack.

Well back to lounging.

The High Life

2011-07-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday blog remember when you complained I was gone all day and how you felt neglected and hurt that I cast aside all digital duties such as returning emails, editing photos, or stroking your literary ego with my ridiculously long run on sentences. Well I went out with my cousins golfing, for charity. Well at least to raise money for something or other. Long story short after the mashing and niblicking had finished we retired to a fine country property complete with chicken coop, pond and rickety floating dock that bobbed as you walked perfect for running leaps, and a volleyball net. Anyways, my point is when I reached into the cooler I was stopped by the always tough choice of what elixir to cure my dryness. What am I wet for? All my counterparts were picking the Budweiser. Lame. I went for my favorite the perennial golden quench master. The champagne of beers. Miller High Life. Next to Stroh's fire brewed magic, the High Life is the best swill a man can buy with 5 bucks.

And no one has ever captured America better than these Errol Morris directed MHL advertisements. I love them. They relate to my work soo much in content and emotion. The notion of manhood, America and images. The signifier of specific objects in regards to male identity and the American dream. You can watch all of them in succession on YouTube and because of their prefect balance of humor, irony and honesty they just get better and more poignant everytime. Also after watching them over and again, some are as old as the late 80's I believe, how influential they are on many ad's today. Ride on patriot,

Here are a curated selection of my favorites.

Man can I eat a whole plate of deviled eggs. I think I ate a dozen once. And since I live the High Life, I can do it.

..offend your sense of craftsmanship...

...diverse cast aside elements come together to create something great...

what flavors do you add to the national Knackwurst?

Artists and Facebook effect

2011-07-19T05:33:00.000-07:00

from Loren Munk (www.lorenmunk.com)

Good morning blog. The biblical rain last night had me up and thinking about art. Not my Uncle you yahoo, my chosen field of exploration. More specifically I was, as the rain overflowed my gutters to Niagara proportions ( I think I saw a squirrel go over them in a teeny barrel), pondering contemporary artists impact on art history. We, I think, are at a time when the proliferation of people calling themselves artists is at unprecedented levels. The decentralization of the art world too has contributed to bigger fish in smaller ponds who are doing really pretty amazingly relevant and not just regional accomplishments. Not to mention the fact that modernism/post modernism has opened up the definition of art to the point where skill is not always the defining notion of a good artist. And since more people can have profound idea's and execute them with a wide degree of technique it expands the pool of potential artists to unsustainable levels.

They say networking is the major way to make paths about the art world...or any world for that matter. The new school formats of social media and contemporary media consumption has tremendously affected the consumption of art. I call it the Facebook effect or viral arts promotion and I think it is important to understand this new found means of recognition. To think about both it's positive and negative implications.The last decade or so has created an army of super savvy social technology artists. A skill that along with craft not always being an indicator of the arts furthers the spread of "artists" whom can promote and network through the web and create buzz. The interesting thing about this phenomenon is its dualities. The positives of course is a more accessible way to be seen and heard and to network from virtually anywhere. A website, blog or Facebook posts are super places to showcase your work and potentially get on the radar of many influential people. The downside is that just like any great post on Facebook or blog article, it's buried within hours by the noise of others piling on top. The process lends itself to sort of the one hit wonder flavor of the day mentality by which we "Stumbleupon" and think hey cool, then click...NEXT. It makes it really hard to sustain or get footing as once you have your brief moment you're pushed aside by the next wave crashing ashore. The process makes it hard to cut through the noise and the coolness and trickery to find what is true and lasting. And to make something true and lasting beyond a flash in the pan, one really good idea. Pump and dump.

I think this poses a lot of problems for artist today. How to stay relevant and on the radar. How to be lasting. How to REALLY be important and not just the next hot blog post to be chewed up and feed around the web media for a few days and then die out like a washed up porn star. Ha, that's a little extreme. But still, for artists who want to stay the course and the long term in a vicious see of artistic noise and competition, how will the course of a career pan out for an artist today? Will the future find our art as not about an individual but rather about the time. A sort of collective soul of artist production that we all feed into? Which I think is ironic because we have never been more of a self centered society.

When I start to think like this I am always reminded of a quote I read in an online debate about making art where people were debating styles and ripping off each other. Someone said just make it new....make it you. If the art truly comes from you then it's new.

Aaron Koehn and Brinsley Tyrrell @ William Busta

2011-07-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

My favorite Koehn of the lot

Always late to the party I am blog but I guess as they say better late than never. I spent a nice afternoon yesterday downtown in a duo of awesomeness. I combined two loves, an always entertaining stroll threw Bill Busta Gallery and a gyro from Aladdin's on Carnegie. You can find me on the steps of the church next to Aladdin's going mono e gyro at least once a week.

pictures don't do these justice

At the house that William Busta built I was super excited to walk in and immediately be hit with the intoxicating siren smell of oil paint. I went to the gallery to see Aaron Koehns work but before the cartoon essence of paint hooked its fingers into my nostrils and dragged me into the large gallery I took notice of some large color splashed works in the small gallery directly in front of the reception area. Brinsley Tyrrell large enamel on steel works were pulsing with life and color. He has managed to A, make the largest enamels I have ever seen and 2, manipulate glass, in my mind a rather rigid and hard material, in a way that renders it expressionistic, loose and mannered. Bill explained that Brinsley always says he doesn't know what he is doing when he begins and continues working on a piece. That it's all trial and error. Be that as it may, he has then an unrivaled intuition about the material. We looked at some of his old drawings that were, sure sure, great and accomplished but serisously the magic happens when his draftsman techniques mystically combined with this large scale enameling process. I can explain it as something a kin to a spiritual vision quest, an epiphany. Or I guess like an artist finding his soul mate of materials. The works, all landscapes, vibrate and sing with color and line. Even the base in which the glass is built up is a full of life and bold swashing brush strokes. In a time when squashing huge amounts of paint and pushing it around on a canvas is the new manifesto of young painters. Where a return to the paint reigns supreme. This approach to pushing other materials into the realm of painting is refreshing.

this one was a MONSTER. It worked visually so big in how it created space.

slurp that paint up with a straw

But then, of course, for someone who still does adhere to squashing paint all over the place, and for an artist, me, who gets all giddy when I get to see said paintings, Bill was showing Aaron Koehn. These paintings are schweet. A really great combination of loose, washy backgrounds with tight taped off straight edge and paint smashed surfaces that hover over the canvas and cast the slightest shadow. Koehn seems to be exploring the thin line between representation and abstraction, as many say isn't a line at all since they exist pretty much on the same plane. Reality really isn't real right? But what I found great about Koehn besides the fact that I immediately drew mental and visual connections to Deibenkorn and more contemporary counterpart Michael Dotson, ahem, both painters whom I love, I saw a huge connection with the idea's and concerns of contemporary photography. This minimal, quiet, disconnected and sort of lonely take on our modern environments. Whether it's metaphoric or literal. These canvas are perfectly organized rendering the contemporary structures of our everyday life with sharp straight lines cutting through and making grids and right angles. His approach much like many contemporary photographers is very psychological. I guess "self storage" the title of the show hints at that too. Pretty deep concepts and concerns for a young painter. In his first show with Mr. Busta, Aaron has managed to create a body of work that is exquisitely layered and a fine balance between the understanding of history, of painting technique and of personal concern. These are world class paintings and I expect to see good things from him in the future. This was a really good good show.

Summertime and Atlanta Celebrates Photography

2011-07-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hey blog how are you? My vacation is over and I am left with the overwhelming sense that I need to get my ass into gear. Those 10 days that seemed like 50 are but a fleeting memory now and my rather chameleon like skin tinted something a kin to burnt sienna lingers as a reminder. But I really have to do some work. The curated list came through for the Atlanta Celebrates Photography show at the Hagedorn Foundation Gallery like the howler letter Ron gets in Harry Potter for stealing Mr. Wesley's Ford Anglia. It is indeed time to work on some of the organizational and clerical elements of being an artist. The stuff I wish I had an assistant for. But nah. I actually enjoy doing those things because it brings the works to a close and finishes them off in a way a studio declaration of "Eureka, this one is it! It's finished" just can't do. Let's roll up those sleeves.

On another note the Mrs. and I bought this great picture from a thrift store last week. We have been renovating our home since we bought it foreclosed 5 years ago and just now we started to realize we need more things on the wall. Mr chipmunk on the tree stump complete with fungi rings. The sticker on the back of the frame says Driftwood Gallery E 200th St Cleveland Ohio. Not sure if the framing was just done there or not. Either way its a super cool piece of folk art. It will hang nicely with our 1970's Venice scene that was probably a street vended Italian tourist take home. I love it though in all it's gilded framed glory.

Last because I am still in righteous summer mode I have this playing in repeat mode on my iPod pretty much from May 1st till Labor day.

I also like this of course...

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;And&lt;/p&gt;

and I like this too, while I'm at it, the bass will blow ya speakers.

Watch out for those M80's y'all

2011-07-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

Ryan McGinley-Fireworks

Happy birth of our nation. I am taking 9 consecutive days off starting in about 53 minutes and 42 seconds....who's counting though. I am exercising my right to vacation and to cut my umbilical cord from mother responsibility. There will be no art, no work, no blog, and perhaps no showering. Although I do plan on spending extended periods of time at Rocky River park so getting too sweaty even for my beatnik tendencies could result in a quick rinse. Enjoy yourself blog. Take advantage of the time alone and catch up on those reruns of the Letter People you have in the Netflix queue. And please, I beg, do not try to launch a bottle rocket from your SCSI port. We all now how that ends. If not YouTube it.

Studio Chaos

2011-06-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

Hey blog have you heard? I know the details are still emerging but what I do know is that I have a huge show opening in September at the Hagedorn Foundation in Atlanta as part of the ACP (Atlanta Celebrates Photography), it's an incredible opportunity to show with some photographers whom I have always admired-Daniel Gordon, Penelope Umbrico...a wee bit intimidating as well. On top of that I am penciled in for the final show at MOCA before the move. Another incredible honor that opens in January. One also that requires 6-8 new works-kill yourself!! Yikes. Which means I am shelving the Places I've never been series and focusing on the MOCA works. It's good anyways, not sure I was getting anywhere with those. I may fold them into the batter of my new work. I've been working a lot. Right now I am rotting at my day job. Just sitting here I feel the moldy moisture of this complacent air rusting my neurons. I must stay nimble. Onward and upward.

Here is my studio in a fit of chaotic gear shifting and paper cutting. I love to work there, I wish I were there right now. I also want to buy a new camera. But that sentiment must wait for another day.

I did take a break from life on Friday and took my Pops and me eldest spawn to the Vintage Grand Prix at Mid Ohio. It wasn't a complete wash out. My stinky grassy covered New Balances beg to differ as they are now curled at the tows from 8 hours of traipsing through the soggy grassy infield. Blog, don't be sad I wasn't here tickling your keys and whispering sweet fonts in your ear. I'm here now. Live in the moment.

Spam Nigiri

2011-06-28T06:05:00.000-07:00

mmm Spam

I ate this incredible morsel yesterday. It is as I am told a Hawaiian delicacy sold at the counters of many convenient stores and other retailers as a quick little salty treat. We have snickers, they have spam nigiri. My friend Bill a frequenter of Hilo and Dean of decadence made them over the weekend and always the persuader of the dark side, Darth Bill saved one for me. It was crazy good. The rice perfectly cooked and sticky was dusted with beefsteak plant flakes for added intrigue. It was so tasty I told him he needed to open a shop called Bills Bentos that provided perfectly crafted bento box lunches. I think it'd be a hit.

Crappy phone camera, and I call myself a photographer

On an art related note, I found these pieces in this years MFA edition of New American Paintings. The artist, Saori Moriizumi, an MFA candidate at the University of Pennsylvania is showing some serious promise. This painting approach to materials is really getting me going. It has lines to Stella but with more emotion and painterly-ness. I love how these random materials can be manipulated to create a pictorial space that embraces and relates to the materials but also transcends them. The materials are like salt in a dish, you know it's there but the end result is not salt as a flavor but rather an enhancement and transformation of the ingredients into a more potent experience. I feel we will be seeing more from Ms. Moriizumi.

Ryan Trecartin

2011-06-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

Roamie View : History Enhancement (Re'Search Wait'S), 2009-2010 from Ryan Trecartin on Vimeo.

The other day I was in Marshalls looking for some running shorts. I don't really run but I thought it would be fun to learn. I even Googled "How to run". As I was picking out an embarrassingly too short pair with the underwear sewn in, that should of been my first warning sign, I heard a late high school maybe early college age girl about 3 racks over in the woman's section barking into her cell phone about some serious drama with some dude who she finally went up to and got all Teen Mom Amber on her baby daddy raw on him.

It was fun and amusing and got me thinking about how we interact these days. Drama is nothing new but how we view ourselves I think has changed a lot. If there is one prevailing cultural change that our current world is dealing with it has to be the way we live a very not so private life anymore. Discretion is dead, we love and grasp the spot light with tweets and facebook posts and even...ahem...blogs. Our info is out there like Kramer wearing no underwear and it has changed how we behave.

The 20th century had industialization and the subsequent sprawl. The 21st century certainly is post industrial age of celebrity and tabloid. Which is why I love Ryan Trecartin. This lady at Marshalls if I didn't know any better was rehearsing her part in the a Trecatinian drama. Her behavior is the success of his work too. The thing about Trecartin for me is that he has managed to be the zeitgeist better than anyone working right now. His work truly is of this time. You will be able to look at this work in 30 years the way we look at Duchamp or a Pollack and discuss this broader implications of living in this era. It may sound crazy but we can discuss the prevailing winds and emotions of the early 20th century by how Pollack arrived at this work. With Trecatin we can discuss narcissism, scandal, tabloid, Internet, digital, fear, drama, and American Idol. Not sure if anyone has latched on as successfully as Ryan with the perfect mix of editing, medium/media and story telling. Me thinks it's pretty important work. You can see his current show in New York of multi-layered, multi-roomed, multi-channeled non linear film work at PS1.

Hey Hot Shot Contender and some new work

2011-06-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

What a surprise yesterday when I received an email from Qian Ma at Hey Hot Shot letting me I've been blogged. Blogged!? Like being punked, poked, tagged, or the recipient of 20 billion Euros in the Swiss lottery? But when the haze of confusion was replaced with the clarity of the moment and the importance of the message I about crapped my pants. HHS picked me for the Monday contender blog post. Honored is an understatement. Thrilled wouldn't be doing it justice. Perhaps only a religious awaking could come close to the excitement. Thanks HHS.

I'll follow that up with some new works. The series, tentatively called Places I've Never Been, explores the notion that we can have intimate knowledge of people or places without ever having been there or met them. What is problematic is that kind of knowledge is so one dimensional when looking at photographs. But we like and except that as a replacement for the experience. But to really physically experience a place there are so many more layers, smells, memories, interactions. Still just Google or search Bay Bridge in Flickr and start looking around. In about 20 minutes you pretty much could recall how it looks and what is around it by memory. Anyways, here are the first two in that vein. I'm still problem solving so the pictures will, I hope, continue to get better.

Delicious Fields @ MOCA

2011-06-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

Ardine Nelson is very cool

Photography is tricky. I guess much like painting in the early to mid 20th century before Ad Reinhardt killed it for the first time, painting really is the cat of art history isn't it?, photography is expanding in critical ways not seen before. Experimentation has always been a part of the medium but this new fractured photographic critical landscape is being pushed, pulled and examined beyond the basic camera less means, printing techniques or even abstract/realistic representations into a realm of deep philosophical territories. Perhaps the rapid expansion of the disposable and ubiquitous online images in contemporary society have changed our notions of photography beyond the family snap shot which itself democratic and wide spread but still somewhat socioeconomically restricted by the need of equipment and film and processing and albums. Now the nebulous digital image and cell phone camera and computer upload creates a sort of guilt free paperless materials-not-needed production and consumption that has created landfills of digital photographic waste. What do we do with all these pictures? I think artists have different problems to understand in photography today.

My ramblings here were brought to you by the Delicious Fields exhibition at MOCA. I saw it Friday after which I was finalizing plans for a show there in January...Holler! More to come on that. What the show made me do beyond it's initial psychological probing of narrative situations was to make me think about how versatile photography can be. Each artist in the show was doing their own thing. The medium was generally the same, at least at its core, light being gathered through a lens or hole that activated a light sensitive chemical or sensor to record something that the device was pointed at. Now from that point all hell could break loose. Especially with the introduction of the computer.

Sorry, Like I said crummy camera phone. Jordan Tate is much better than my picture.

So I guess as much as the show was about the narratives of these individual artists, it was also about photography itself. For instance Jordan Tate's cold detached non linear exploration of the photograph was as diverse and strange as the results in a Google image search but tested our knowledge of what a photograph was, is and perhaps will be in the future.

Checefsky

Bruce Checefsky scanner images of flowers exploit the concept of time and the photograph nicely as images skip and drag across the picture plane. I like the hint of cubist theory in these as we are forced to ponder objects existing in 3 dimensional space. They pair nice with Pipo Nguyen-Duy's pictures from his series Garden that capture the same space over time documenting the ever changing cycles of life and space. Reminding us of that a photograph can capture a moment but that moment will never be the same again in life.

I also like the rawness of Mary Fahy's giant pinhole Polaroids. These marry technique with emotion perfectly as the soft focus impressionist images of a grassy area from a bugs eye view elicit a dying persons last view perhaps remembering what it was like to be a child or recalling favorite memories. Sort of like my life flashed before my eyes moment. They have real feeling this pictures.

Although I didn't connect with all the series. The all brought something different to the table and they all make for a serious argument that photography still has a fight in it. It's not getting written out of the series anytime soon.

Mash Thoughtatoes....mmmm

2011-06-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

cool aesthetic interpretation of hydroponic growing!

close up

I strolled into SPACES last night with the Mrs. expecting to be enlightened by the metaphoric mashed potatoes of idea's and viewpoints on agriculture, cooking and memory. What I didn't realize is that there was actually a kick ass mashed potato bar there to warm the soul and create community. It smelled awesome as soon as you walked in. I thought for a second it was Malachi soup kitchen. Nice touch and silly me for thinking thoughtatoes was just a cool marketing idea.

So I talked with the ever so gracious host and director Chris for a moment and tried to get the low down on Michael Ruhlman. The Mrs. and I are big fans. Turns out he was right behind us so we bombarded him with the tag team Juhasz crazy. I think he was charmed. At least we didn't get pepper sprayed like I feel like is always an option when we converge on someone new. But he was super cool and cordial. After we chatted for some time the panel was beginning so we found some seats. I wanted to hang out some more. I mean we didn't even get to ask if he would cook us a meal sometime! In hindsight that would have incited the pepper spray I think. No problem. The panel was beginning. The 3 topics discussed were insightful. The first was a group of folks who do community garden and urban farming. I think their groups were Gather Round Farms and Let it be Garden. What was more fascinating and exciting was that they called themselves Possibilitarians. They are like difference makers. I love that.

Inside the Plush Cave

Michael we weren't stalking you we swear! ha-ha

Next was one half of the duo Rainbow Lighting...whom regrettably I didn't write down her name. Charming none-the-less she led everyone into their plush cave of memory, desire and dreaming where shoes were shed, strangers were packed up close, and the lights were turned off. We were handed small LED lights that we were to switch on and off if we answered yes to various memory triggers. The result was a communal moment of sharing and remembering. The memories, represented by the flickers of lights were like fireflies in an open field at dusk or more literal the spark of memory in peoples minds as we were coaxed into thinking about past situations. It was cool, thoughtful and fun.

Then Michael talked about the importance of food and brought the whole thing together. Memory, art, food, growing and cooking. He touched on all the important and relevant topics facing food and society today. Processed foods, toxic corporate farming and the importance and history of cooking in life and in family/community.

I wanted to stay longer but babysitters aren't cheap these days.

You could even talk home some sprouts

All Suffering is Desire and Lisa Sanditz

2011-06-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

I have the deadly combination of strong opinions and the communication skills of a true Gemini that in the past both alienated others and got me into trouble. But regardless how you feel about religion, politics or the environment this article published on Huff Po today is very well thought out and argued. I myself believe in the Buddhist notion that all suffering is desire, in fact it is one of the driving forces in my Mechanical Bride series. So when I read this I felt it was a piece worth sharing.

Here a few paragraphs that I like:

The Buddha famously pointed out that our unhappiness is a result of craving. To end suffering, he proposed self-restraint, minimal consumption, sharing and other mindful ways of retraining our acquisitive focus on "I, me, mine." These practices enlarge our capacity for empathy and contentment, for they recognize our interdependence; what Thich Nhat Hanh calls our "inter-being." The sense of a self that is separate from the rest of the world is an illusion -- indeed, it is our most problematic delusion. The world, as eco-theologian Thomas Berry noted, is not a collection of objects: it is a communion of subjects.

The greed, materialism and alienation from nature that are the hallmarks of our corporate-dominated world are supported by the supine attitude of "democratic" governments, which today are largely controlled by the economic institutions they should be regulating. They share the same worldview, which emphasizes endless economic growth no matter what the long-term consequences may be. This joint "corporatocracy" appears to be unchallengeable, despite the fact that its ecological consequences already include record-breaking droughts, floods, snowstorms, wildfires and tornadoes. Environmental scientist Lester Brown believes that large-scale crop failures are the most likely trigger of a collective awakening. They may create the necessary "social tipping point" that finally motivates us to truly address the ecological crisis. Evidently, nothing less can wake us from collective narcissism.

Read the whole post here if you're interested. Or not. It's okay. But I do feel strongly that the problems laid out here are real and true and worth spreading.

The article also makes me think of Lisa Sanditz. A great painter whom I admire and have been following for a while. Her series on Chinese industry and landscape exist as beautiful works with a social edge that is inherent but not overly stated. The color works as protest. As you are drawn into the beauty of the paint handling and spacial relationships you are also left a little uneasy by the pallet and the disjointed and scrubby strokes. It is subtle social and environmental commentary that is often left out of contemporary painting except in it's most blatant forms.

That new blog smell and some Thoughtatoes @ SPACES

2011-06-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

So this is it folks. My migration of blog hosters is nearly complete. Figured I'd break my bottle of Moet Chandon on this Spruce Goose and hope I have a longer and more sustained flight than Mr. Hughes did. So look forward to more ramblings on this new site with the option to search the archives above. No content has been lost and no graphics were harmed in the switching of blogs.

And to start things off right the Mrs. and I are heading over to SPACES tomorrow night to hear a great panel discussion about the current state of art and agriculture. All topics that are being explored in the current line up of art programming at said gallery. Should be a fun time. Maybe Michael Ruhlman will want to hang out afterward at Players for post happy hour more happier hour.