30 works about 20 days (in china)

just bumping along working on the series.....

starting from scratch

Original Sin

Was just reading/looking at a slide show, "Art and Advertising", in the New York Times online. Interesting that the slant on the short captioned story is Art:good, Adverts:bad, insinuating "those damn advert bastards are constantly stealing from us and Look at My Halo: I've got so much integrity I didn't sell my idea". Sometimes true, I suppose. However, what I find ridiculous is this notion of "the original" and that somehow Artists alone hold exclusive ownership to creative thought. (As if artists are never influenced by anything other that their own virtuous magical brain power or insular clique at the Kool-Aid watercooler. As if artists aren't selling a product....whether the payoff is in cash, exposure, newsprint, notoriety, what have you?)

The dialogue of ideas and influence travel both ways and in all (in)conceivable directions. People and things influence each other and at all times. (e.g. Warhol's brillo box... chicken and egg story. Yes, the box existed before. Warhol's addition was the concept, which changed everything of course, at least in the days before the whole pop visual (minus the theory) was co-opted and made inane, stupid and powerless (but that's a rant for the rest of the days in the calendar).
The label wars of Artist vs. Advertiser, Maker vs. Thinker are getting a bit dull. Whatever happened to creativity as open source. Whether the end product is deemed art piece or advert, so be it. The quality of the (thinking)process remains firmly the same in order to really affect people and the way they think.

Consumerism in the monetary sense seems to muddle people's judgment in terms of good and evil. Maybe like all things it's a bit of both. Aren't litigious claims to copyright as bad as the perceived consumerist evils in their most heinous sense? Is it so unlikely like more than one person can have an "original" idea....god forbid...the same idea? And the same idea for different reasons? Let's face it, we ALL consume, we ARE all consuming (mostly with our own vanity). Take what you need and want, know the difference and be disciplined enough to stop "investing" as warranted.

I mean Peter Fischli and David Weiss weren't the first to create a machine that does nothing. (We just have faulty memories and very short attention spans) Their Der Lauf der Dinge (translation: The Way Things Go. An excerpt from the 30-min video) is a "Rube Goldberg machine" after all. (difference being one is 3-D and the other is 2-D) Should the Goldberg Estate call their lawyers every time a Rube Goldberg machine is made, Intellectual thefting from the family vault of ideas, and demand licensing fees for the use of the words "Rube" and "machines that do nothing"? Rube was likely not the first to think of such a thing either. But you have to admit, the name is pretty catchy.

Ego-mechanical. HA.
Ego is the truly Original Sin.

Gone Fishing (for Ideas)

People leave things in the hallways all the time. But being an art studio, most days you can't tell if things are just there temporarily, art materials, airing out, trash or what. . . so you don't want to move it.








Yesterday, as I was leaving studio, something just sort of came over me, I saw this bottle and cup (that has been on the floor the last two days) and decided spur of the moment to do something. What something. . . I wasn't so sure. The only parameter being that it must take 15-20 minutes to complete. So, I did something and left.





Why a fisherman sitting on a lager bottle fishing out of a cup of dried chalky paint?...dunno. My brain makes connections in strange ways.
(just part of my process to limbering up my dusty brain cells I suppose. Restless heads have to do something with their time.)

The Rapture?

No....it was just an extended stay in Studio Purgatory (the experience wasn't so hot . . . so guess it wasn't exactly Hell, but close).

Recently endured yet another studio move. Hopefully this time 'round it's for an indefinite forever. It has been a rather unanticipated bit of a mental upheaval, not having a proper space for the last 2 years. (Has it really been that long?!)

Other areas of art/life were overtaking my so-called schedule for a while and that's ok. I needed the time. Just happy to be back in the initial art mix. Stirring ideas. Whipping out some quick mental snippets. Taking things off the back burners. Simmering, not quite cooking. Things are only lukewarm for the moment, working towards a boil.

It's a beautful space. Tall ceilings, big, bright view from the window, and heating. Put up my pegboard of tools, set up my kitchenette, some plywood walls...and off I go. One complaint: all concrete walls. But maybe this is a chance to rethink what needs to happen work-wise.

Funny that you always seems to start where you last left off. Ideas I had 7 months ago continue to stick like sap. My dreams of late remind me of the importance of staying true to the "long term" commitment in art(making) and being aware of short term flash in the pans (via curators, critics, galleries). Everyone it seems has an exaggerated ego and the last person who should take part in the balloon festival is the artist. Where's the art-part if the (mental)work(space) is full of shit?

Pop-Up Technologies

Just doodling about with a new pop-up engineering book I bought recently.

Wanting to make a pop-up alphabet book for my brother's new kid and just
doing some sample structures. Rudimentary at best, but having fun.

I think, therefore I am (here).

I've been located. I'm back on the radar, folks.

Gameboy 2000 - Alex Harris

This photo documentary by photographer, Alex Harris, is both frightening and beautiful.

Instruction on How to Appy Your Aura

Funny when you start seeing old things in fresh ways. . . Had to do a double take at the counter of my local paint store, Creative Paint, while waiting for stuff to be mixed. Benjamin Moore brand paints just came out with a new line of low-VOC (eco-friendly) paints called Aura and the store put out a lesson plan for its customers on how to properly apply your Aura. Wasn't necessary to know the background, but somehow makes it all the funnier when you apply esoteric ideas to ordinary encounters (studio-life).

pictures from the street

schmooches

I am feeling ill today. Had a few meetings, ran some errands, and now my knees won't stop chattering and I don't feel like using my legs.... so I am calling it an early day and consoling myself with (ever more) documentaries on Hitler and Nazi Germany (I am completely obsessed). Today, I'm listening to a program on the birth of Ferdinand Porsche's Volkwagen during the 3rd Reich, but I will refrain from drinking Fanta while I watch.

Curious....I've also always had some strange fascination with the Porsche 923. Almost bought one as a college student, till I dug around a bit (sans internet, alas) and realized parts would be hard to come by and settled on a Volvo P1800S (1966) instead. (though funny enough my first car fetish was for my cherry red Karman Ghia (also Volkwagen 1973).

makes me slightly uneasy thinking that these seemingly concentric circles of fascination and fright are all related somehow.

[thinking about propoganda and truth. . . KdF, German: Kraft durch Freude = strength through joy]

Finishing an old thought