the nights are getting shorter

photo credit: Joshua Vrysen


cosmic craft crap

sometimes when I feel like punching myself in the face I put this nice bag on


Myself and my relationship to my work;
joy (back and forth)
anxiety, accumulate material, accumulate motion
willingness to fail.

Please come over sometime. We can eat something crunchy and go for a walk and look and find. I want you to see it and I want for you, if nothing else, to appreciate. I know that is a grand desire.

Welcome hands this is how this feels, and for right now you can put that there and that there and that there.


Two exhibition catalogs I found yesterday that I am excited about:
Beyond Desire (2005)
Beyond Green toward a sustainable art (2005)

"the bear is in the igloo"

I know you said just war as in "I support a just war"

Did you ever see that episode of "Night Court" when someone became possessed by a ghost and everyone kept thinking that the ghost wanted "just ice" because of the way the possessed wrote down justice on a piece of paper.

just in justin

I am going to Minnesota in January to perform at the Ice Shanties. I will be performing January 23 and 24 on Medicine Lake in Plymouth Minnesota between the hours of 1pm - 4pm. If you are in the cities or around it would be nice to see you. I am going to perform with my portable doll fort pictured here.

Here is a link to the Art Shanty Project website.

Eat Me.




.......on another note, if you are around the Amherst area Tom Friedman is speaking at the University Gallery today at 5:30 pm.

Link to the University Gallery:
http://www.umass.edu/fac/universitygallery/highlighted.html

Link to Tom Friedman on the Gagosian website:
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/tom-friedman/

When One Is Trapped Inside A Rock


Things we are thinking about today:

Infantilism

It is snowing today but it was 70 degrees Fahrenheit two days ago.

Rita MacDonald's video interview http://www.vimeo.com/7832385
Janelle Iglesias' video interview http://www.vimeo.com/7555655
Yoko Inoue's video interview http://www.vimeo.com/7552965

Tumble Cat Poof Poofy Poof in Palmer at the bowling alley.

smoking or non smoking

Have you ever watched Guy Madden's The Saddest Music in the World?

I think I might not be using time well.

CALL AND RESPONSE



This is the show card for Call and Response and my response piece to Sara Veglahn's piece of writing called Mayflies.

The show is curated by the artist Diana Simard. It opens on November 14th and will be up until December 10th at the Central Gallery located on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst campus.

Here is the link to the blog that Diana Simard has put together for the show http://call-and-response.tumblr.com/

This blog has images or text from all of the artists/writers participating in the show and a synopsis of the concept for the show.

grab your wing and run
my tail is strong and will fuck you up

Tonight, Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Hillside Salon at Umass Amherst.
I am speaking for 6m 40s
Showing slides and video excerpts
Pecha Kucha (“pe-chak-cha”)

The event is being held from 6-8pm at the Chancellor's home at Umass Amherst. The other 4 artists talking about there work are Amy “BannerQueen” Johnquest, Silas Kopf, Chris Nelson, and Shona Macdonald.

you can read more here:
http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/newsreleases/articles/92359.php

I am in the new Gladtree journal along with many other wonderful wonders of western mass and beyond. It is edited by John Shaw. If you would like to learn more about The Gladtree Collective or purchase a journal please go to http://www.gladtree.com/print.htm#journal3


Also I have uploaded 2 videos on my vimeo account, if you would like to see them please go here http://www.vimeo.com/user394020

My profile picture on vimeo was taken by Molly Roth on our visit to the Minneapolis Science Museum so long ago!

show card designed by Lilly Pereira



Ali Osborn (left) and Teddy O'Connor (right) work on installing Teddy's piece "Triedi"




Kathy Couch (left) and Julia Hanschuh (right) installing their work.




my piece "untitled" (practice in Narcissism)


Hello so late on writing these things.

I am currently in a group show called "Range" in Pittsfield, MA at the Storefront Artists Project. It is one part in an exchange show between Northampton and Pittsfield, MA's emerging artists. The show opened on September 5th and runs through September 27th.


Curated by ELIZABETH STONE

the artists are:
KATHY COUCH
JULIA HANDSCHUH
MAT MATERA
TEDDY O’CONNOR
ALI OSBORN
LILLIANNA PEREIRA
ANGELA ZAMARELLI


On September 19th I will be co-moderating with Leslie Ferrin a Salon with the artists in this show and Pittsfield emerging artists. If you are in the Berkshires it would be nice if you would come. The salon will be from 6-8 pm.

RANGE and all of its related events are free and fully accessible to the public.

The Storefront Artist Project is open Saturday and Sunday, from 12 to 5 p.m.
124 Fenn Street, Pittsfield, MA
413-442-7201

www.storefrontartist.org

More links:

Leslie Ferrin http://www.ferringallery.com/

Betsy Stone http://ehstoneart.com/

Kathy Couch http://www.valleyartshare.com/profile/kathycouch

Julia Handschuh http://juliashoe.com/

Mat Matera http://www.matmatera.com/

Teddy O'Connor http://www.teddyoconnor.com/

Ali Osborn http://www.aliosborn.com/

Lillianna Pereira http://www.lilliannapereira.com/

Angela Zammarelli (that's me)

"untitled (I want to come home)"






"untitled (I want you to come home)"


These are images of the work I have up right now at the APE Window space in Northampton, MA as part of the group show "Release the River!" I will be posting images on my flickr page of details of these two pieces as well as some images of the other work in the show (I have to ask first). flickr.com/photos/azammarelli

These two pieces are a back and forth between each other. They are separate in the space but I built them together and feel like they are talking to each other. One about waiting for and one about being away and wanting to get back.

The bottom piece called "untitled (I want you to come home)" is a stool that has a stuffed being on top of it then wrapped up in plastic table cloth. The stool is seeping and has grown a rope that is reaching over to the "cake". It is presenting a present.

The top three images are of "untitled (I want to come home)" with "Busy Hands, Busy Mouth". "Busy Hands, Busy Mouth" is the mound of chorus members (creatures) huddled around a portal (video monitor). "untitled (I want to come home" is the tent structure with the panorama inside and relic/treasure on top of the cushion inside.

Neil Young

Joshua Vrysen

Fafnir Adamites

Angela Zammarelli



Sunday I went to the MacDowell Colony Medal Day that honored Kiki Smith.

Kiki Smith's acceptance speech was short and sweet. She mentioned having to sleep in many different beds all over the country and how she was thinking about how maybe we are a utopic culture of always traveling around. She put it better than that. I was thinking this is a nice way of looking at it. This made me think of my friend and artist Molly Roth and her idea that we are a culture full of homesickness. Both of these ideas are interesting ways of looking at us and our mobility.

Here is a link to the MacDowell Colony website:
http://www.macdowellcolony.org/index.html

Here is a link to Molly Roth's website:
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=89462

Hello. I am in a very nice show this month called RELEASE THE RIVER! If you are in the Northampton area during the month of August please stop by. If you are not around I will post pictures on my flickr page here www.flickr.com/photos/azammarelli
I have posted the show information below.

artist people:

Dan Cashman
Jess Goddard
Jeff Hartford
George Myers
Bill Nace
Lauren Pakradooni
Crystal Regan
Phinehas Roy
Joshua Vrysen
Angela Zammarelli

Curated by Raphael Griswold

APE Gallery at Window
126 Main St.
Northampton, MA 01060

Opening Reception:----------------------------------------August 7, 5-8 and on!
IN BOUNDS Artists’ Book Fair:-----------------------------August 28, 5 ‘ti forever!
Performances:-------------------------------------------------TBA =

Open Tuesday through Sunday, 12-5
Friday 12-8,
Saturday 12-6 and on!

For information and updates, visit www.raphaelgriswold.com and www.apearts.org

Words from the curator Raphy Griswold:

The Gods of Sight and Sound, dripping with the blood and tears of Kunstwollen, have crawled from the Great River of New England to bring us this summer’s most awesome audiovisual onslaught. Liquid Swords, fabric demons, and the garden of earthly delights converge in this heavenly flood. RELEASE THE RIVER! showcases the art of emerging Northampton artists, all masters of the pen and the amplifier. Forsaking the photocopier, this group of draftsmen, painters, printmakers, sculptors, and
musicians has exploded into the APE Gallery this August in a three-element show curated by Raphael Griswold. Exhibition cum performance space, the APE will host a month-long visual art installation accompanied by a series of musical events, performances, and an artists’ book fair.

Lauren Pakradooni brings us recent drawings and prints from the realm of wigs and fungus. With pizza box sketchbooks Dan Cashman, Jess Goddard, Jeff Hartford, George Myers, Bill Nace, Crystal Regan, Phinehas Roy, and Joshua Vrysen have constructed the world’s first secret drawing megawall. Each of these heartyvoyagers was assigned an identical hand-bound notebook in which to expunge the deepest depths of their artistic ouvre. The recombinant product is one giant mass of individual pages. Sculptor and fiber worker, Angela Zammarelli is the fabric that holds it all together.

Three rivulets, one river. Break the dam! RELEASE THE RIVER!

Catalogs available soon from THE PRESS, a subsidiary of GRISWORLD INDUSTRIES

•Supported by Grisworld Industries, the Northampton Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council•

This Friday July 10th at 6pm I am the guest speaker for Smith College Art Museum's "Artists on Art" night. It is an informal talk on a piece in the museum that the guest finds interesting.

The piece that I am going to talk about is "Reliquary with Judgement of Solomon" (pictured above). It is a very small box. The enamel work is lovely. When I see it I think about what could be inside. I know that it is probably empty but I think about bones, hair, teeth, clothing, all sorts of relics that might be inside of someone who did something miraculous.

I wrote a post last year about how I think being raised catholic has had a huge influence on my aesthetic choices and how I create work. The theatrics, the magical objects, and rituals.

This image is from an article on how Smith College Museum of Art acquires new pieces of art for the museum.

The article can be found here http://www.smith.edu/news/2006-07/NewAcquisitions.php

Threaded is a show that I co-curated with Ven Voisey at Gallery 51 in North Adams, MA. The show is up from June 25 - July 26, 2009. The gallery is open 7 days a week 10am - 6pm.

Please go to flickr.com/photos/azammarelli to see more images from the show and links to the artists websites.

My grandma has been having this reoccurring dream that my grandpa comes to her on a bicycle and asks her to come for a ride. She is in her nightgown and doesn't have any shoes on. She doesn't like the feel of the pedals on her feet so she doesn't want to go for a ride.

My grandpa finds her a pair of shoes.

Off they go.

In the dream she sees people she knew who now are not alive anymore.

******

My grandpa isn't alive. He has been dead for 15 years. The only time I have ever seen my grandma cry was when he died. She is a tough and practical lady and I have known her for 27 years.

I didn't get into the Smack Melon residency program in New York this year, but I was named a hot pick. The website was updated a couple of weeks ago. Here is the link: http://www.smackmellon.org/hotpicks.html

http://www.thenationalspiritualallianceinc.org/

I went to a show here a couple of weeks ago. The show was a special Saturday edition of the Phantom Brain Exchange (which is normally the last Wednesday of the Month at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls).

I am just finishing a book called "Ghosts in the Valley" that I purchased from here for a dollar. The valley referred to in this book is the Delaware River valley not the Pioneer Valley where I and Montague live.


Here is a link to the Phantom Brain Exchange website. Do you like lectures and videos and noise? I do. If you happen to be in western mass at the end of a month, try and come it is a real nice time.

http://phantombrainexchange.suchfun.net/

ps. Neil Young (not that neil young) is the brain behind the exchange and we thank him for that!

My aunt is a maternity nurse.
I made her these heart wraps for still borns.

bereavment

She organizes... she makes their arrangements.

We have differing views on abortion.
I love my aunt.

A Boy and a Girl with a cat and an eel
Around 1635
Judith Leyster

"He who plays with cats gets scratched” or as the Parlor Players would say "don't trouble trouble and trouble won't trouble you"

I find this painting very funny.

The National Gallery in London suggests it was painted as a warning against mischievous behavior. Dutch painters at this time commonly used children in allegory for the foolish behaviors of adults.

http://www.freerice.com/ has added a famous painting section to their guessing games, this painting came up. The site, has a series of different guessing games, each correct answer they donate 10 grains of rice.

These images come from the site Laff in the Dark (http://www.laffinthedark.com/articles/mp/mountainpark.htm)




The artist who did these paintings was Dominic Spadola. He created the aesthetics of the fun houses at the former New England amusement parks Mountain Park (Mt. Tom, Holyoke, MA), Lincoln Park (North Dartmouth, MA), Rocky Point(Warwick, RI), and Whalom Park (Lunenburg, MA). I am trying to find out more about him. When I was a kid my favorite part of Whalom park was the fun house.

It is crazy looking at these web sites and reading about the parks' histories, looking at pictures, and reading how strongly people feel about theses places. It fills me with a deep sense of longing for some reason. I think it has something to do with how festive and bizarre these parks were. I went to Rocky Point and Whalom Park as a kid and believed they were places, even though they were a bit dated, would not close because they were amusement parks.

Mountain, and Whalom Park started as trolley Parks. This kind of a picnic/recreation park that was located along or at the end of the trolley line. These parks were the precursor to amusement parks.

the jingle from Whalom Park ads on tv

If fun and excitement are waiting for you,
Then Whalom Park is the place for you!
Lots of rides and loads of fun,
Whalom Park for ev-ery-one!
Fun and excitement,
A place to unwind,
Whalom Paaaark...for a whale of a time!
Whalom Park, you'll have a good time

here are some links to articles and pictures about these parks

Lincoln Park:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Park_(Massachusetts)
http://www.artinruins.com/arch/?id=decay&pr=lincolnpark

Mountain Park on Mt. Tom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Park,_Holyoke,_Massachusetts
http://www.defunctparks.com/parks/MA/mountain/mountainpark.htm
http://www.karenandjay.com/mtpark/mtpark.html

Rocky Point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Point_Amusement_Park
http://www.artinruins.com/arch/?id=rip&pr=rockypoint

Whalom Park:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whalom_Park
http://www.laffinthedark.com/articles/whalom/whalom1.htm

In the basement of Mass MoCA

Currently Mass MoCA gets 5% of its energy from solar panels on top of the museum's roof.

The Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective is open and will be up for the next 25 years. The gallery space for the work looks amazing. There also is a nice video showing the apprentices creating the work. There was over 60 people working on the drawings during the install, that should be an indicator of how much work is the space. It spans three floors specially renovated for the retrospective with earliest work on the first floor to later work on the top floor. Personally my least favorite work was in his mid career.



In the largest gallery Simon Starling: The Nanjing Particles

Here is what the museum has written about Starling.

"Starling investigates the social, cultural, and material implications of object-making, examining how his own artistic
processes overlap with industrial production. Engaging with MASS MoCA’s industrial past, Starling’s installation began
with an 1875 photograph of a group of Chinese immigrant workers brought to North Adams to break a strike at the
Sampson Shoe Company (once located on what is now MASS MoCA’s campus). Literally and figuratively mining this image,
Starling extracted silver grains from the photograph and presents these particles as stainless steel forms enlarged one
million times their original microscopic size. Forged and hand polished by workers in Nanjing, China, the sculptures
connect the museum’s past and present to global economic conditions. The shiny forms reflect the museum’s historic
architecture as well as the visitors who have replaced workers in the space."

Up on the second floor at the back of the large gallery there are tables set up with documentation of the process of making The Nanjing Particles. There were contact sheets for the enlarging of the images of the silver taken from the photo to create the silver objects in the installation. Also on the table were books documenting this project and other projects Starling has worked on.

After spending time in North Adams this summer and learning more about the history of the town and the Mass MoCA campus I really appreciated this work.

On a side note, the surfaces of the silver sculptures reflectected the ceiling and the windows of the building in a very exciting way.


Hello,

it is chilly.

I was rejected from Vox Populi in Philly this weekend, and rejected from Smack Mellon's (in New York) residency program but was named a "hot pick", so I will be on their web site.

The Amherst Community Art Center closed this month. It was a non-profit art space that offered classes in ceramics, painting, jewlery, comics, and a variety of other classes and a camp called Art for All. It wasn't able to keep afloat due to the current financial situation.

There is only a couple days left for the online art auction benefiting the Kinji Akagawa interdisciplinary scholarship fund at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. There are some great pieces by Molly Roth, Ursula Husted, Robin Cotton, Bethany Kalk, Erica Ritzel, Mitchell Dose, Adam Collignon, Jennifer Hibbard, Paul Shambroom, Sharon Koelblinger, Todd Norsten, and many more! I have a piece in it too.

follow this link
http://www.cmarket.com/auction/AuctionHome.action?vhost=paradigmshiftart

Since the early fall my household has been watching David Attenborough's nature documentaries. We have watched Life in the Undergrowth, Life in Cold Blood, Planet Earth (British version), and are currently watching The Life of Mammals. The series are filmed beautifully and the information is stimulating. There are so many creatures that I have not seen before or had any idea about how they live and look. Attenborough is a very enthusiastic host and it seems he cares deeply about the creatures he is talking about. On the Life in Cold Blood DVDs there are bonus interviews with the scientists who study the different reptiles in depth, here too Attenborough is engaged and asks interesting questions.

I saw the Life of Birds series several years ago but am ready to watch them again. We are also on the look out for The Private Life of Plants, and Life in the Freezer.

I am not in Minnesota anymore but I am still excited for the Art Shanty Project which opened today. Happening on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, MN (15 minutes out of Minneapolis) the temporary shanty town is a festive winter destination.
If you happen to be in the neighborhood it is a really good time. There are performances, Karaoke, augers, puppets, and Retroactive Minnesotan Lessons given by the charming and informative Andy Sturdavant.

It is happening until February 14th, forget going south for the winter, go to the upper mid west!

The mission of the project is "an artist driven temporary community exploring the ways in which the relatively unregulated public space of the frozen lake can be used as a new and challenging artistic environment to expand notions of what art can be."

check out the schedule of events at
http://www.artshantyprojects.org/
Here you will also find links to the different shanties' blogs and web pages.


Here is the link to the snapshot shanty blog: http://thesnapshotshanty.blogspot.com/ (my pals Molly Roth and Emily Darnell and friends)

Here is the link to the Imperial TransAntarctic Expedition blog: http://antarcticshanty.blogspot.com/ (pals from Elsewhere Artists Collaborative)

(pictured above is medicine lake in the "soft lake shanty" from 2007 by Adam Collignon, Molly Roth, and Angela Zammarelli)
(yes the lake looks like a giant ghost fetus with a claw hand)

My friend Isa Gagarin made me this "crazy eye" paper necklace back in September. I am finally putting a picture of it up now. It is amazing. It was a total surprise. She is amazing, a real explorer. To me she seems really unafraid of experiencing life and making art that is apart of it.

Here is a link to her MNartist page http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?action=list&rid=114446

Fixtures & Foibles
Line Bruntse has work at the Stone Soup Gallery. The show is up until March 8, 2009. If you happen to be in the Western Mass area I highly recommend checking it out.

Pictured above are Bruntse's "Orphans". In the gallery the Orphans are lined up against a wall on the floor. Across from them in the center of the room, raised on low cement pedestals are the Orphans separated shadows. The fleshy Orphans are made of pink leather and are adorned with embroidery. The nubby little ones command a fair amount of space when you see them in person.

Stone Soup Gallery
221 Pine St. (Arts and Industry Building)
Suite 165
Florence, MA 01062

Line's website:
http://www.linebruntse.com/index.html

Stone Soup Gallery website:
http://www.stonesoupconcrete.com/art.php

Jane Lund playing accordian.

Jane is a local artist who does incredible pastel paintings and also these really weird paintings/assemblages. When I say weird I mean that in the most loving way, I mean I relate to them.
I met Jane when I was working at a frame shop in Northampton. I framed some work for her and she invited myself and co-workers to be in some small work shows. She is really supportive of young artists and older artists.

I admire her.

Tumble Cat Poof Poofy Poof aka Joshua Vrysen has a really nice interview in the Valley Advocate (western mass).

Behind the Beat: The Cat's Pajamas
Tumble Cat Poof Poofy Poof's boom box ensemble extraordinaire.

here is the link:
http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=9011

"I feel like when you're playing the same show over and over again, you're fighting against what you've already done," says Vrysen. "Where you're constantly repeating this thing that has already happened—you can go back to that moment, and you can do it again, but why would you do the same thing over again when you can try something different, or grow upon it? And even if it's falling apart, or decaying, that's more interesting to me than being this stagnant thing."



Also my housemates George and Dan had an interview in the same column last week about

Behind the Beat: For the Sake of the Songs
DJ duo Purity Supreme shares the love.

http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=8966