Sunday, July 31, 2011

07.30.2011
where the party's at 07.30.2011

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07.26.2011
07.29.2011
07.31.2011
07.30.2011

These are the watercolors I am in the midst of working on right now.

Bye Chicago, thank you for a nice visit.

Friday, July 29, 2011

07.28.2011 (adams and jefferson)

Thursday, July 28, 2011

07.26.2011 (putter)

07.26.2011 Crown Fountain (way better pictures are to be found online than this one)

07.26.2011

07.27.2011 Calvin Black (see below)

07.26.2011 "Ridin' Dirty" Mark Bradford

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I am in real sponge mode right now.

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My foot got run over by a young man on a skateboard today, luckily he wasn't too big or he would have broke my foot.

He didn't even look back at me.

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Yesterday I went to Intuit - The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.

The image above labeled "07.27.2011 Calvin Black" is from the show "You Better Be Listening: Text in Self-Taught Art". I was excited about this sign and wondered what it was for, luckily the Intuit provides a lot of information on their didactic plaques. I learned that Calvin and his wife Ruby ran a rock shop in the Mojave Desert. In 1954 they started building Possum Trot as a way to attract customers. They created animated displays that ran off of wind power. Calvin carved over 80 life size dolls that each had their own function and personality. Ruby sewed their clothing. He would put on shows with them in the "Bird Cage Theater".
Today I watched Possum Trot: The Life and Work of Calvin Black, 1903-1972. I couldn't have imagined what their home looked like, it was way more than I had thought. Calvin got the wood to carve the dolls from telephone poles that had been knocked down by car accidents. Many of the dolls are based on friends and all the dolls have name tags. The documentary was filmed after Calvin had passed away and Ruby is alone taking care of Possum Trot.

The Intuit also houses the remaining contents of Henry Darger's home space in Chicago. The exhibit is permanent and houses his furniture, personal items, one of his typewriters, bundled stacks of coloring books, magazines, other paper source material, and his cakes of paint. On the Intuit's website you can take a virtual tour of the room by scrolling down to the second image on the page.

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A list of things for me not to forget:

Western Exhibitions People Don't Like to Read Art
Rebecca Blakely - Lichen Books: On the Road
Deb Sokolow
Band of Bikers
Goshka Macuga: It Broke from Within
Eiko & Koma

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

07.25.2011

07.25.2011 obligated

07.25.2011

07.25.2011

07.25.2011

07.25.2011 here i am

07.24.07

07.24.2011 studio

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Oh Michigan, Michigan, Lake Michigan

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Image from Shaun Gladwell's video Apologies 1 - 6, 2007-09

I saw this piece a couple of weeks ago at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT. I have been thinking about it a lot. It is one of two videos in the show from Gladwell's "MADDESTMAXIMVS" series. The figure dressed in black is holding the corpse of a kangaroo that had been struck by a vehicle. Everything is slow and looks hot. When there are big trucks that go by in the video it feels like they are never going to pass. I sat a long time with this video. I wonder how the kangaroos smelt. The figure in black shoos away the flies and picks up the kangaroo. Each time is as deliberate and careful as the time before. The kangaroo is brought to the middle of the road they pause, the figure in black leans in closer to the kangaroo and then they drift off screen to the right.

"Gladwell's Apologies refers most strongly to contemporary Australian issues - the destruction and deforestation of the land in the name of progress. Even more, through interaction with the kangaroo, Gladwell symbolically apologizes to the indigenous peoples of Australia who were mistreated under colonization." - Patricia Hickson, Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art

This piece was presented by Gladwell for the 2009 Venice Biennale a year after the Australian government issued a formal apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island families.

Shaun Gladwell's videos are currently on view in the Matrix space until September 18, 2011.

(The color is off in this image, sorry about that.)

Monday, July 25, 2011

07.20.2011 House on the Rock

07.20.2011 House on the Rock

07.20.2011 House on the Rock

07.20.2011 House on the Rock

07.21.2011 Milwaukee Art Museum


Midwest tour, yes!

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I am in Chicago for the week at 3 Walls doing a residency through the Tinkertank program. So maybe I will write a post every day? Maybe two a day? Will that drive you a little bonkers? But with my track record we will see if I actually do another one in the next two weeks.
07.17.2011 Ursula and Bryan's wedding

07.20.2011

07.20.2011 Mlps

07.16.2011

07.14.2011 love on the road

Monday, July 11, 2011

& In One Another reception 07.08.2011

& In One Another reception 07.08.2011

"their life uniform" & In One Another reception 07.08.2011

Transport Amphorae 06.18.2011

bounty 07.09.2011

all done 07.05.2011

caged rocks 07.02.2011

Charcoal Kiln 07.02.2011

waking up, 07.02.2011

All the Trappings: (S)wallow, 07.02.2011

All the Trappings: (S)wallow, 07.02.2011

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So much.

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Last Friday July 8th was the reception for "And In One Another: A Massive Collaborative Sketchbook Project". About 60 artists were each given a blank sketchbook and over the course of 60 days 30 prompts were sent out and used by the artists to respond to in the books (loosey goosey of course). I was exited to see where there were overlaps and differences in the interpretations of the prompts in the books and in relation to my own book.

It was really overwhelming but nice to sit down in a packed room and explore the books with blaring music and wet summer heat. The work took center stage, everybody had a book or was looking over someone's shoulder.

If the books go to a different venue I will let you know (before, not after they are packed away).

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I went to see the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art about a month ago. I am still processing it.

I went on a rainy Saturday so it was very crowded, we were in line for an hour and a half to get into the exhibition. Sound terrible? Actually it was kind of nice and interesting. The line winds through the museum so you get to see a selection from the museum's collection that is from various points in history and cultures, kind of a mash-up in the brain.

The Savage Beauty website will give you far better content than I can provide you here about McQueen and his work. If you can't go see the show I would suggest spending time with the website.

I have been thinking a lot about Dress, No. 13. It kind of encapsulates my love/love/hate of fashion.

The robots are jizzing all over the model and she isn't sure and she is not fighting back and she takes it and lays down for all to see at the end.
But the dress looks super awesome and the show was exciting (if not triggering for some). The spray paint treatment on the fabric looks pretty sweet in person.

McQueen was able to combine amazingly constructed pieces of fashion with amazingly constructed runways shows. Everything he says he was interested in and trying to convey in the work is there and it is still there years later.

On maybe a more boring note I really like how the Met designed the exhibition.

I would like to be a Jellyfish.

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I need to learn more about caged rocks and their function.