Elaboratory

What I did this summer: had a photography show in Marseilles!

2011-08-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Florence Labbe,Marie-Thérèse Luciano et Valerie Agosta , 2002

It has been a long summer with many ups and downs and not much time for writing the blog!

A Highlight: my first ever photography show in Marseilles, as a part of the the Mondial la Marseillaise à Pétanque tournament.

This show was sponsored by the Caisse d’Epargne Provence-Alpes-Corse, Obut and the Mondial la Marseillaise à Pétanque, and was held at the very luminous and airy l’Espace Ecureuil (Yes, that DOES mean "squirrel") in the center of town right near the old Port.

Parc Borély, 2008

Kader Benefissa, 2006

What is this event?
It is a HUGE tournament lasting several days, which takes place at first in the leafy green and sun-baking white-hot Parc Borély every year, and ends with a magnificent final at the old port.

Marco Gouast, 2010

Thousands of teams enter to play, from the world's greatest players to vacationing families. Only one team wins, and the whole event is single elimination. There are Mens, Womens and Childrens categories, and the whole mad event is remarkably well organized.

I started taking pictures here 10 years ago. This exhibit was a selection from those years, a survey, and features the famous and the unknown, the Parc and the Vieux Port....

Marco Foyot et Dominique Usaï

2002

Parc Borély, 2005

Dylan Rocher, 2010

Antoine Ielo, 2006

Philippe Suchaud, 2005

Parc Borély, 2007

Ludivine Isidoro, 2009

Eric Bartoli, 2003

Lysiane Bernard, 2002

Parc Borély, 2003

Parc Borély, 2008

Stéphane Robineau, 2007

Vieux Port, 2007

Molinas vs. Molinas, 2007

Philippe Quintais & Philippe Suchaud, 2009

Alec Stone Sweet, 2007

Lucien Journoud (dit Jesus), 2009

Dominique Lacroix, 2006

Antoine et Joseph Dubois & Kader Benefissa, 2006

Gilbert Noguera 2006

Parc Borély, 2010

Henri Lacroix, 2005

(This is my favorite picture)

Gilles Gayraud, 2005

I am very proud of how the prints turned out- They were printed on large scale MOAB cotton paper, which absorbs the ink beautifully and has a lovely velvet finish. I am considering making a book of these pictures....

Vieux Port, 2005

Parc Borély, 2003

More about the Marseillaise tournament can be found here
Two nice article about my exhibit can be found here and here
more of my boules pictures can be found here

Happy 2011:Where Has The Time Gone?

2011-01-15T03:24:00.000-08:00

The ending of 2010 was a blurred rush for me, slowing down a bit for the Christmas holiday and then heating up again with blizzards of snow, delayed and cancelled flights and enormous changes at the last minute.

I like to think I am fleet on my feet and fairly supple, adapting as the demands need be, but this was a challenging time none-the-less. I took on one too many projects, which collided together in a wreck at the last minute. In addition to my art practice, I had started a new job as Educational Curator at Artspace in New Haven in August, and also had agreed to be in a number of exhibitions, all of which I was very happy about. Happy and busy. But there is a tipping point, and sometimes the overwhelming things are not the big ones, but the small ones, and they can take over.

I don 't want to go into too many details, but lets just say:

"Don't start delicate and exacting bead-work projects with set deadlines when the majority of your available work time is on mass-transit. "

If I can condense this sentence neatly I might make it my 2011 new year's resolution.

("No conceptual beading in a hurry"? "Experimental projects need development time and attention"? -not easy this. I welcome YOUR suggestions- I will then cross-stitch this using hand-sourced hen's teeth and frame it over my desk.

Said project was a silk tie which I was beading with the instructions in Braille for tying a Windsor knot. This project is a collaboration between myself and the enormously talented Harper Della-Piana, a fashion designer. She has an atelier and boutique in Wenham, Ma. (SEAMS) ,which caters largely to brides and is both couture and eco-friendly. She is a power-house and a force to be reckoned with. I jumped at the chance to work with her!

Let me just say here: She asked me to do something on a silk tie that she would supply me with and then put together. I came up with a conceptual project (braille bead-work instructions) that took hours of hand work and required actual concentration to get right. I am soley responsible for making this whole thing WAAAYYY more complex and time-consuming then it EVER needed to be.
Mea Culpa.
Add to this several false starts, a change in materials and you have one black hole of a project, that just does not seem to finish itself. Note to self: get ELVES.
It IS pretty, and should be actually quite wearable, but was it WORTH it?

We'll see how much it sells for- then I'll know. It is to be auctioned off at the annual Cambridge School of Weston Art Auction (see here ), where we both attended high school.
Yes: that was a long time ago, Yes: we are still friends- thank you, face-book!

It was a good cause, I liked my idea and Harper is wonderful,
so I thought : why not?

EXCEPT that I really, really didn't have time, and not having time made me distracted and make mistakes which then cost more time. It took me AGES to complete and ended up with me, in my Ramada Inn hotel room near the Sea-Tac airport, holed up because my flights had been cancelled, sewing, DYING and ironing the durned thing in order to get it back to her in enough time for her to finish it properly and send it off.

It was a craft-gone-wrong sit com situation and I thought of contacting Regretsy more than once. This was of course compounded by the fact that one cannot post, mail, send ANYTHING anywhere near an airport anymore for reasons involving crazed disenfranchised American bombers and angry Muslim extremists-or at least this is the post-office's line. I think they are just trying to put themselves out of business. More than one holiday complication involved the post-office and the impossibility of simply mailing a package in the greater new haven area, without driving over to the wasteland near the Ikea and the highway. That is another boring, angry tirade I'll save for later.

But I digress:
The tie is done, it is lovely and will be up for auction and I will post information on THAT when I have it...

Cancelled flights not-withstanding, I did make it to France for the new year, and was blissfully free of phones, airports, wi-fi, in fact pretty much anything involving connectivity except a tv and face-to-face contacts!

It was also very, very foggy: see above image.

I slowed down, I ate, I worked on my french and various drawing projects and actually thought about what I was working on in a concentrated but un-rushed way. I took stock as well: 2010 was a year for me of branching out, expanding sometimes over-extending myself and making work in new ways. I exhibited quite a lot, made limited edition projects like the seed packets, tote bag and had my first knitting pattern published (see here), as well as participating in several panel discussions and gallery talks. I had many adventures as well: jumped off of high cliffs into waterfalls in Corsica, climbed through wormholes in pitch-black caves in France, hike high atop red stone "fins" in Utah. My Job was going really well, but was hectic and required mental acrobatics.

It felt good to stop and observe the cobwebs....

I visited friends, ate too much, and got tired of all that was in my suitcase: by the time I was scheduled to leave and head back home again I was ready. I was starting to think about my job and all I had to do there: I have a big project involving lots of people that opens in February!

I missed my studio and worried about the house, the car, the snow back east.

My last second-to-last night was spent in Beaune in Burgundy and was the PERFECT (and surprising) lead in to 2011 and a great send-off to head back to work.
We headed into town for dinner and had time to walk around first-
it was very cold and a bit rainy so we were bundled up with hoods on.

The town is VERY beautiful with lots of windy streets and old buildings some of which have multi-colored tile roofs. the old city is surrounded by ramparts and has a river and bridges crossing it to get in. cobbled streets, old stone and stucco walls and a pretty vibrant shopping area with lots of wine boutiques and pastry shops. These were all magnificently illuminated with the cities holiday lights strung across streets and on trees, so even in the rain the effect was magical.

What I did not know was that they have an annual competition for digital animation on the cities historic buildings. There were no signs, no markers, you just wandered and then would see a church bursting into blooms of medieval tapestries flowers with parrots flying across and then the whole exterior would turn into one huge blaze of stained glass.

Even in the cold, in the rain, in a place with limited night-life, save a few restaurants, this got people's attention. we clustered and gawked and watched the luminous flickering show die down to restart in a few minutes.

Some of the fun was really in NOT knowing:
We would head down a dark windy alley to a courtyard and -Bam!- A turret glowing vermilion with images from the Burgundian dukes and scenes of a joust taken from a book of hours would careen across the balcony.

The majority of the works were historic in nature and served to enhanced the architectural features of the building, actually getting one to better notice the existing space (I think the best public art does that: permanently makes you see that which you might have missed before).

Some of the works were more contemporary in nature, some were funny, some regal. The one to the left here has 17th gardens an d fountains blooming across it's surface, ending with a showering cascade of waterworks shooting off for it's finale.

The great square clock tower in the town center served as a sort of billboard and showed off some of the winners from the past- a visual survey. They spanned the gamut from the sophisticated and clever- Pilobolus-like giant legs dancing and prancing , but also trapped by the limits of the tower- to video-game ugly: super-mario like animations on a growing Disenyesque grape vine.

I was entranced.
I was inspired. I was ready to go home and make some art and curate SCRAWL at Artspace and have as many amazing experiences as I can in the year to come!

Welcome 2011, snow and all!

Postscript: good thing I felt that way: In Beaune, the light show was on it's final night, as were the Christmas lights- the next day the Town center was DARK.

It was over,back to business as usual, no more phantasmagoria. and as I flew back to Newark via Germany, things proceeded without a hitch. By nightfall I was back in New Haven, wondering where all my mail was, but with things eerily as I had left them, and then at 11 pm the snow started falling. By the next day the world was transformed into a glittering white sea of dunes, all airports and highways and roads halted.
I made it back just in time.

Happy 2011 everyone!

Seedy Winter Doings

2010-11-29T05:10:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that we are at the end of November already!
Things have been busy and I have been doing more mental blogging than either the actual or virtual kind. In Addition to my JOB and my STUDIO PRACTICE I have been engaged in a few side projects, some of which are coming to fruition now.
So here is some of what has been happening:

Amazing things are happening with the Hudson Valley Seed Library's artist designed seed packets!
I did The one below, for their Kaleidoscope Carrots, a selection of multi-colored beauties that are as sweet to eat as they are lovely to look at. Who could say no to purple and red and yellow carrots?
They were listed as a holiday gift "pick" for the gardener in one's life by Bon Appetit Magazine: see here . The original art and printed packets were on display at the Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art in upstate New York ( a nice review of that is available here),
and come in December ,From the 9-23rd, to The New York Horticultural Society's exhibition space.(see here)
This event kicks off with a:
Preview Party & Exhibition Walk through!

Here is what they say in the press blurb: "Join us for an intimate reception with food and refreshments provided by Great Performances & Katchkie Farm. A talk and guided tour of the exhibition will be led by Ken Greene, co-founder of the Hudson Valley Seed Library. Thursday, December 9th
5:00 to 6:30pm Hort and Seed Library members $10; Non-members $20 online, $25 at door Purchase tickets online or call 212-757-0915 x121"

The Seed Library is also at the weekly Brooklyn Flea as well as other farmer's market venues.
Their full catalog of seed packets plus list of venues is on their lovely website: here.

This is such a fun and exciting project- I am really pleased to be a part of it!
In other news, I have been gearing up for the holidays:
My 2011 travel calendar is up to view and purchase on Zazzle: http://www.zazzle.com/elaboratory* I think it's a really good one, but am so sorry about all of the pictures that did NOT make it.
For those that do not know: I travel a LOT and started to make Calenders as gifts for family and friends (quite a few years ago now) of the best photos from that year's trips. These do not feature pictures of me or my friends- they are strictly sights and details of the places I have been.

I couldn't afford to give them to EVERYONE, and it turned out there was actual interest in it by folks, so I put it up on Zazzle , where anyone can buy one.
I think I am getting better at it, and have a good understanding of what things won't print well digitally and what will. This has made a huge difference!

Dark colors with lots of dim detail for instance, do not come out well. Whites and neutrals are also hard. This means that some lovely subtle images don't make the cut, which is too bad, but they end up murky and muddy when printed. Honestly I think Photoworks has the best quality products I have found, but Zazzle makes selling possible in a very straightforward way.

(Amend that: not that straightforward- I ended up deleting several years worth of calendars in an effort to "clean up" my shop, also last year I had so much trouble logging on to the Elaboratorium, that I ended up creating a whole new site -so yes, I do now have TWO zazzle emporia!)

My calendar was picked as "Today's Best" yesterday, which meant a lot of really nice comments on my shop wall and item page- unexpected and so sweet!

Here are some of the almost rans:

Time has been flying but I do have last year's version up to help keep me on track. Am I the last person on earth to need an actual, paper version I can write on? Somehow I always forget to look at my online and "desktop" versions, but when it is on the kitchen wall I cannot ignore it.
I prefer to do this with a little sweetening-i.e. images of the past year, reminders of where I've been and where I am going...

This year's model features images from France, Spain, Corsica and Utah.

Mind Sets and Attract/Repel: two shows that open soon

2010-10-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

I am in TWO shows The open on the same day!
Happily, only one has it's opening reception then.
Attract/Repel is part of Central Booking's continuing series of science-based exhibitions, this one focusing on physics. It should be a fascinating show and I am really pleased to be a part of it. Central Booking is a really special gallery with excellent and eccentric programming....

Secondly, we have Mind Sets, being held at real-life hotbed of science, the Haskins Language Lab! This was really a unique opportunity, and was so much fun. Meant to be a collaboration between artists and scientists, I can hardly lay claim to any such rigor:
my work is full of fiction, rumor, superstition and innuendo.
I am very happy with it.
From the press release:
"Curated by Cat Balco and Debbie Hesse with Curatorial Assistant Steven Olsen, Mind Sets explores the potential of collaboration between artists and scientists. New initiatives and ideas result from conversations between artists and scientists, offering new ways of approaching concepts through interdisciplinary communication. "

Featured artists include Fritz Horstman, Zachary Keeting, Lucy Kim, Eva Lee, Martha Lewis, Laura Marsh, Kim Mikenis, Carol Padberg, Dushko Petrovich, Cuyler Remick, Matt Sargent, Bill Solomon, Susan Classen-Sullivan and Paul Theriault.

Students of Natacha Poggio, a multidisciplinary designer on faculty at Hartford Art School and Director of the Design Global Change initiative, have collaboratively produced a catalogue and graphic images for the exhibit.

Haskins Laboratories is an independent, international, multidisciplinary community of researchers conducting basic research on spoken and written language. Exchanging ideas, fostering collaborations, and forging partnerships across the sciences, it produces groundbreaking research that enhances our understanding of -- and reveals ways to improve or remediate -- speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, and human communication."

This is an unusual setting for an exhibition and the work I've seen so is daring and varied-

worth a detour and a snoop, I'd say...

actual bag!

2010-06-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

Pictures courtesy of Artspace, New Haven
Ok, so in my last post I said "colored webbing handles"- this was apparently not possible, so what we have is a plain, canvas bag screened with my artwork. I am pleased and think it came out well.
Ignore what it says on the Artspace website- this is indeed an actual picture of the very actual bag, here modeled by one of the photogenic Artspace Interns!

This item is especially useful as many supermarkets are now going to dispense with offering paper or plastic bags altogether!
I understand that this is already happening in California, and while there is a bit of lag time, we always follow their lead...
see here for more on that: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/us/21sfplastic.html
The paper and plastic bag manufacturers must be furious...
Get yours now,
in time for popsicle and farmer's market weather at:
http://artspacenh.org/shop.asp

Artspace offers Martha Lewis designed tote bag for sale online!

2010-04-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

“On Limits of Wireless Communications in a Fading Environment when Using Multiple Antennas, or the Ecstasy of Communication” Shopping Tote-

(Note: This is not an actual image of the product, and the product may vary due to silkscreen quality. This is a comp I put together on photo-shop to give a rough likeness..)

I am one of several area artists Artspace New Haven contacted to make limited-edition multiples for sale on their site as a fundraiser for the gallery. There are mock-ups of the items on their site now, as the actual items are still in the works being printed. Works include a t-shirt by Phil Lique, a beer koozie by Max Toth, and a bag by me.

When I was offered the possibility to do the tote bag I was delighted- I have always wanted to do a multiple, and have a collection of those cotton shopping bags from various venues that I use all the time. It is an object whose purchase saves using up other objects (disposable bags), and is something supremely practical. This may be an art object, but it is one meant to be used and enjoyed for what it is: a receptacle, a repository for things brought and collected over the days journey.

When thinking about this project, I wanted to make something funny, smart and non-gender specific, that would directly relate to the idea of, the content behind, “shopping bag”. I started conceptually with the notion of “screens”: the canvas of the bag as canvas screen for messages or imagery, the process of Silk-screening to print an image relating to media display screens now ubiquitous with cell phones and other hand-held communication devices. Style-wise it references Andy Warhol and the aesthetic of punk/ new wave album covers from the 70’s and 80’s, using saturated, soda pop colors. After all, a shopping bag should be fun, should inspire USE.

The imagery was derived from collaging together, among other things, TV test screen patterns, dial phones, key board touch pads, engine diagrams, computer motherboards, warning signs, symbols and punctuation. I liked the high tech /low tech dichotomy which resulted from combining the visuals with the prosaic nature of the plain canvas shopping bag. This assemblage of past, present and future technologies, on an item meant for shopping and purchased goods comments-playfully-on the intertwined relations between consumption, consumer culture and the technology of communications.

This is my first foray into the world of commercially produced multiples using my artwork, but I don't think it will be my last. I like how affordable it is- it sells for a pleasing $30- and the idea of being able to make something that is for everyday use and supports environmentally friendly behavior.
Next?
I am strongly considering an image for a stainless-steel water bottle, but am open to suggestions- let me know your ideas!.

Tote Bag is available for $30.00 from the Artspace shop website at
: http://artspacenh.org/shop.asp,
All proceeds go to Artspace to support their exhibitions and programs.

Rearranging Formulae

2010-03-22T03:46:00.000-07:00

The collaborative group Metron have curated an exhibition at the O3 Gallery in Oxford, UK, based on various science books which were randomly given to each of the participating artists.
The exhibit coincides with both the Oxford Literary Festival and the UK's Year of Science.
The books were kindly offered and selected by Oxford University Press.
I myself was given the rather challenging "Quarterly Journal of Mathematics and Mechanical
Engineering" to work with, which resulted in the accordion fold notebook shown here.

This is an ambitious exhibition, both in scope and media- there are dancers, performance artists, musical works, videos, paintings, drawings and objects all inhabiting the relatively modest curved tower that makes up the O3 Gallery. An accompanying booklet has been produced, and is essential to understanding this rather complex and obscure display. The works shown in the gallery all have numbers next to them, and the booklet provides much-needed information about the art-object's starting text, the artist, and the project itself. Without this, the exhibit might appear to be a rather intriguing but impenetrable collection of items.

Many of the works are dense and detailed, as the artist grappled with the task of transmuting the content of their starting text into visual form. I myself read and re-read my journal multiple times until I suffered from the illusion that I understood it, and then proceeded to work with it. As misinformation is as important to my output as "correct" interpretations, this did not pose a significant problem for me, but some of artists I spoke with had struggled with the enormity of the task of clarifying and distilling their projects into a coherent visual project.

I was delighted with the variety of work, and of the energy everyone had put into the whole thing: quite a labor of love on the whole, and a really interesting way to include visual arts into both the literary festival and the Year of Science.
I will include pictures of the exhibition as a whole, as I get them!

Re-arranging Formulae
March 20-April 25, 2010

O3 Gallery
Oxford Castle
New Road, Oxford OX1 1AY, United Kingdom
01865 246 131

Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

Another year at it's close and a new one ready to go... And to start things off right, Olympus has posted the winners and runners up in it's BioScapes micro photography competition, which features and amazing array of microscopic imaging from all over the world. This site is a visual feast of the variety, color and richness of form that still exist on our planet. Both moving and humbling, the work also amply shows off the astonishing technological improvements in micro-imaging over the last decade. Such detail, such sharpness- one wonders and admires both the subject and the medium, and again, the world seems fresh. In the shadow of the recent climate summit in Copenhagen, these images offer an inspiring beginning to 2010, with an implied warning of the fragile and adaptive nature of all things biological, a shimmering light show of how everything is in flux, for better and for worse.See the complete set of images at:
http://www.olympusbioscapes.com/gallery/2009/

What to see in New Haven:Time Is Like The East River

2009-11-14T18:40:00.000-08:00

Photo: Time is Like The East River, courtesy of the artist

Time is like the East River, a series of elegant installations by William Lamson opened Thursday night at Artspace, New Haven. The show, curated by Liza Statton, features objects and documentation of performance work in the form of photographs and video. Brooklyn-based Lamson will be familiar to Artspace aficionados through his Long Shot installation which has been up in The Lot since September (and runs through to January 2010), here seen documented in the front room of the exhibition space.

The show is an ambitious one, in that it sets out to put several discrete works, minimal and performative in nature, into a gallery setting, and to have them coalesce enough to create a sense of unity to the exhibition. This is all the more challenging as Artspace’s galleries feature rooms and spaces which are quite separate from one-another. The task of providing enough cohesion without being over-literal is a delicate one.

Upon entering this exhibit, it is a bit of a cipher. The works seem vastly different- aesthetically aligned but not evidently related. You really have to look, and put it together yourself, which is a complement. I really dislike work that declares itself wholly as one big idea, leaving no room for nuance, layers of meaning, space for the viewer. Lamson includes us by not doing all the work for us: though if one needs clues, Statton's concise paragraphs which make up the wall labels offer kernels of insight for the lost. Pleasingly, the curator’s wall labels do not attempt to describe or explain the whole work, just offer some insights, perspective and a bit of background.

The name, Time is like the East River comes from a work Lamson did involving a canoe he altered by dividing it into two smaller vessels which get rejoined again after being separately paddled out from either bank in New York's East River. We are presented with this as the exhibition’s title, yet there are key works here that have no obvious connections to either canoes, or the East River. Time is what turns out to be the glue, the binder of this exhibition.

Photo: Time is Like The East River, courtesy of the artist
Around the corner, in Gallery one, is Timeline, a work which again references drawing, lines and the spanning of space. Like his East River project, Lamson starts at both ends of a distance to be spanned, in this case a vast wall. This surface is studded with holes stuffed with firecrackers, forming a horizontal line.

As with the arrows in the opposite gallery, this work creates a linear mark across a space by breaking down the flat surface of the planar wall the work rests upon. The crackers were lit, eventually meeting in the middle. What is left is a dancing ragged line of burn marks and holes. Lamson evokes drawing as a pulling of forces meeting in the middle: the line is the residue of an action or movement in space. He is ” drawing", in the sense of making a point into a line, pulling, as one does to make a small lump of metal into a wire strand.

A video in the back shows both timeline and the arrow work in process, really essential viewing for understanding both installations.

At one point I wondered if Lamson had had trouble filling the gallery’s vast spaces. My least favorite room(gallery 5) had his canoe-half displayed upright like a sculpture with a clock positioned next to it, the second hand moving backwards. The clock turns out to be set to measure slack tide, the brief period of calm on the river when Lamson and his colleague were able to cross on such small crafts. This is interesting, but in no way evident just by looking at canoe and clock, making it, for me at least, problematic. Since the canoe half and the clock are the only pieces in the room they play off of each other, and while the canoe offered a surprisingly monumental sculptural presence, with the clock the installation as a whole became a tad hokey. Maybe for an exhibition about time and it’s measurements it would seem a natural choice, but given the elliptical nature of his other work, it just seemed too blunt and obvious. I would have preferred the canoe out in the space with the other East River documents, as he did with the paddle, placing it casually leaning up against the wall. This seemed totally right: physical corroboration of the events shown in the photos and an art piece that is also a tool.

Photo: Time is Like The East River, courtesy of the artist
What is perhaps my favorite piece was tucked away in a darkened room in the very back gallery. A video, titled Drip (So are the Days of Our Lives), is shown projected onto a wall of what appears to be river silt (or cement) compacted into a vase-like shape and place on a funnel over an empty two liter bottle in a white tiled space. This video is accompanied by a soundtrack of sort of slapping or dripping noises, from a very close-up microphone. Gradually the silt starts to slide and collapse into the bottle, at first creeping slowly, then dropping in bigger and more watery blobs at a faster and faster rate. Acting as a kind of hourglass the piece again marks time and passage, going from one form and state to another through simple means. This work functions as accompaniment to the canoe journey, offering a minute, up-close version of the vast dispersion of matter across the river bed, over vast periods of time. It could be construed as a model of sorts, mimicking the epic on a very modest scale.

I really admire Lamson's use of simple materials and the graceful structures he manages to make from them. The archery frame, the halved canoe, the soda-bottle hourglass, all are cleanly put together in a spare functional way, without extra elaboration. They are matter of fact: devices with which to render time visible.

After moving myself through the exhibition, things accreted, a logic and order became visible. There is a real interconnectedness to his work which reveals itself only by slowing down to the pace of the work and really looking. For some, this will not be the easiest show to grasp, and certainly not one for someone looking for instant gratification, but neither it is not cold or off-putting. I noticed a nice phenomenon occurring during the opening: people, strangers, were looking at the art and discussing it with each other, analyzing ingredients, discussing motives. Now, to my eyes, inciting curiosity and dialogue is (to borrow from Tom Waits) a rare and a copacetic gift.

Time is like the East River

runs through December 19^th at

Artspace

50 Orange St New Haven, CT 06510

GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday-Thursday • 12-6PM
Friday-Saturday • 12-8PM
Sunday-Monday • CLOSED

203.772.2709 • phone
203.772.0850 • fax
info[at]artspacenh.org

For further information visit: http://www.artspacenh.org/

what to see in NY: Go Get Your Shinebox

2009-11-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

Go get your Shinebox, is a large group exhibition featuring artist made "shine boxes" which respond to the current economic crisis.

The show opens at Brooklynite Gallery on nov. 21, and promises to be vivid, energetic and full of ideas.

See the Terrific video preview here
and visit Brooklynite Gallery's website here

relevant, timely and resourceful are what we need now, and they are giving it to us!

shop the Elaboratorium at Etsy

2009-10-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

I have taken the very tentative step of offering one digital print up for sale on Etsy. This work was made entirely digitally and was printed out on very lovely cotton paper using a rather swish printer. It's colors are rich and velvety and matte, I am really quite happy with the quality.
As most of my work takes months to make, and there is only one at the end, printmaking seemed a natural satellite project. Now that I have a tablet and high end equipment at my disposal, working digitally seemed a logical choice given my subject matter, the peripatetic nature of my existence, and my own inclinations: loved doing silkscreen, loathed etching and lithography. This print has the qualities I cherish in silkscreen, and I am looking forward to doing more- I think they may end up being like sketches for bigger works, even.

The image shown,as-621
is number 2 out of 10 made, and is 11 x17 including white border.
This print uses imagery taken from radio diagrams, floor plans and the spiral sequence of a sunflower. I am offering it for $300. plus shipping/handling.

The link to the site is on the information bar to the right of this post, or click here. I will add more bit by bit, but am jealous of my studio time and am proceeding with caution. I have seen the spoof site, Regretsy, and know all to well what happens to those who do not tread lightly!

What to See in New York: Andy Harper at Danese

2009-10-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

London-based painter Andy Harper is having his first solo US show at Danese gallery this month. The show features an array of mostly large-scale paintings and mono prints immaculately displayed in Danese's lofty sky-lit space.

Harper's paintings of abstracted flora and fauna have to be seen to be believed. Across the smooth surface of the canvasses, thin gels of color are scraped, pushed and blotted to create writhing animated vegetal forms that crowd and push each other in densely packed spaces. The colors are hot, emitting glowing patches of light filtering through the shadowy darkness of his undulating plant forms. They are reminiscent of underwater regions choked with algae and seaweeds, or rich lush tropical rain forests. The overall effect is beautiful but infernal.

There is a decidedly hellish aspect to his work, where survival and the ability to flourish means crowding out or covering up some other living thing. The world shown in these paintings emits the strong scent of decay, underscored by the odd bit of bone-like forms and things that resemble internal organs as much as plant matter, wriggling between the leaves. The best works have a kind of all-over composition: it seems important to have a complex randomness here, as if one were looking at a slice of something which expands well beyond the boundaries of the canvas. Some of the works have more obvious imagery, such as femurs and skulls inserted in them as well. This seems a gratuitous and illustrational route to take when the work beautifully presents it's harrowing subject matter without them.

The surfaces and paint handling in all of his paintings is astonishing. Harper has a swift, virtuosic hand with the brush, and the semi-liquid, gelatinous quality of his paint perfectly serves the curvaceous and rapacious forms he pushes across his fields of canvas. There is a true rapport between the way that the images are formed and what the images themselves depict that make being any more explicit with the content seem unnecessary.

Harper's work paints a funny line between being very old fashioned ( He references Bosch, botanical illustration and 17th C. Dutch painting as much as anything else), and very contemporary: the freshness of his mark-making, the all-over surface patterning are like a re-working of Pollock and De Kooning for a post-Vietnam war era.

An online-catalog for the exhibit is available here.

Andy Harper: Recent Paintings and Works on Paper

October 16 - November 14, 2009

Danese
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY, 10011

T: (212) 223-2227
F: (212) 605-1016

Hours: T-S 10-6
Summer: M-TH 10-6; F 10-4

film screening and artist talk, thursday oct. 15!

2009-10-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

Artspace in New Haven is hosting an artist talk and film screening evening on Thursday, October 15, from 7-8pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Martha Lewis will introduce Swiss artists’ Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ film, “The Way Things Go” (1987). In their masterful film, everyday objects crash, scrape, slide, or fly into one another with devastating, impossible, and persuasive effect.

Viewers find themselves witnessing a spectacle that seems both prehistoric and post apocalyptic, and above all, absurd and completely entertaining. Please come out to Artspace to share this masterpiece with us and celebrate both The Weekend Inventor and Dispersion !

ARTSPACE 50 Orange St at the corner of Orange and Crown New Haven, CT 06510-3107 (203) 772-2709 http://www.artspacenh.org

City-wide Open Studios this weekend!

2009-09-29T05:27:00.001-07:00

CWOS (the city-wide open studios) is an amazing FREE annual event that allows the public into literally hundreds of local area artist's studios, to browse, ask questions, purchase or just get a glimpse of the working process.

My studio is just one of a myriad which will be open this weekend in New Haven's Erector Square. Every year for CWOS I get hundreds of people visiting me over the course of the weekend. This is the ONLY time I open up my space to the public, and means I will be spending the rest of the week cleaning and sprucing up my space in anticipation of your visit!

The picture above is of: Ultra-wide bandwidth time-hopping spread-spectrum impulse radio for wireless multiple-access communications, the digital print I have made and donated to WPKN's Artfest Fundraiser(see below for info. on that). It is a radio-based work I made specifically for thier event, being an avid listener myself.

Erector Square is located at 315 peck street in new haven, and a map is available here.

Hours:
All studios are open Saturday October 3, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
and Sunday Oct 4, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

my place information the CWOS web directory is found here.

Feel free to just drop by, or see below to map out the whole event and plan your weekend:
It's a big event so a bit of preparation is well worth-while.

How works:
Pick up a guide, which lists participating artists and locations. Get one at:

Artspace, the hub and organizer for this event, located at 50 orange street in New Haven.
Pick up a copy of The Advocate which is free and easily available all over town, there is a guide in the center insert.
go online, view artists and locations at the CWOS site: http://www.cwos.org/index.asp

Related events:

There is also a kick-off party and Opening Reception at Artspace, Friday October 2, featuring the exhibits The Weekend Inventor (which I am in), and Dispersion, the CWOS juried exhibition. Artspace, is located at 50 Orange Street, New Haven, in the 9th square district. More info can be found here.

WPKN Radio (a much-beloved independent radio station) is holding their fundraiser ARTFEST at this year’s CWOS, One of my prints is included in their benefit art sale! This too is happening at Erector Square.

WPKN ARTFEST
Oct. 3 & 4,
Erector Square,
Bldg. 6-W, 1st Floor
WPKN 89.5 FM Bridgeport, CT/WPKM
New Haven, CT 06511
Phone: 203-287-1751
http://www.cwos.org/WPKNWPKM_Community_Radio

Here is what Artspace says of the whole event:
"Over the past eleven years, City-Wide Open Studios (CWOS) has drawn thousands of visitors to explore New Haven's neighborhoods while discovering artists, galleries, and the treasures of our city.

City-Wide Open Studios celebrates contemporary art in all its myriad forms, and is undoubtedly Connecticut's leading visual arts event. Art dealers and curators from the region and beyond have used CWOS as a resource to discover new artists, plan upcoming shows, and buy art. As one of the largest Open Studios programs in the country, CWOS connects hundreds of local artists with the Greater New Haven community.

The 2009 CWOS program provides opportunities throughout the year for artists and visitors to connect via open studios, exhibitions, programs and events, and our new dynamic website."

It's really true, too. New Haven boasts an astonishing number of artists for a city this size, and has easy-to-access venues like Erector Square , which means you go, you park and can wander around all day looking at work, chatting with artists and friends, and it's all FREE!
This is a great activity to do with kids, it creates a sense of community among often-isolated artists, and it is organized with great efficiency and panache by Artspace.

I hope to see you all this weekend!

"Weekend Inventor" opens today!

2009-09-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

I am very pleased to be participating in the exhibition
The Weekend Inventor which opens today, September 17th from 6-8 pm at Artspace in New Haven. This exhibit is the first by curator Liza Statton.
The lineup of artists includes : Nathan Carter, Jane South, Molly Larkey, Jeff Shore & Jon Fisher, Peter Sarkisian, Martha Lewis and Billy Malone.

The Weekend Inventor
September 17– October 31, 2009
Public Opening: Thursday, September 17th, 6-8PM

"The Weekend Inventor is a group exhibition that explores the continuously evolving relationship between art, technology, and innovation. Inspired by the mathematical equations, diagrams, maps, and models used by engineers and inventors that attempt to give visual form to complex thought and problem-solving endeavors, the artists in this exhibition employ similar analytical and pictorial strategies, creating works of art that question or subvert notions of stability and utility long associated with technology. In their works, fragmented machine parts, devices, and plans are put to new, at times inventive and absurd, use. Although these artists work in a variety of media ranging from painting and drawing to high-definition video and sculpture, their works have much in common. They share a formal concern for space and material, an interest in the experimental and nonsensical, and an entrepreneurial ethos that underscores the “do it yourself” attitude that has recently re-emerged in the 21st century.

Like the hobbyist-inventor whose ceaseless tinkering is driven by an intense curiosity and a need to create, the artists in this exhibition are fueled by their own imaginations as they push the conceptual boundaries of utility through physical materials, expose the fragility of belief systems, and explore society’s resistance to the notion of failure. Artspace will produce an exhibition catalog that contextualizes the work by these emerging artists, contributing new scholarship to the broader art historical debate around art and technology.

Committed to fostering the careers of New Haven artists, Artspace will commission Martha Lewis to create a site-specific installation in the gallery that participates in these debates."

Additional Programming: FILM NIGHT at Artspace

Thursday, October 15, 7-8 PM Introduction by Martha Lewis
Screening of Swiss artists’ Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ film, “The Way Things Go” (1987).
In their masterful film, everyday objects crash, scrape, slide, or fly into one another with devastating, impossible, and persuasive effect, viewers find themselves witnessing a spectacle that seems at once prehistoric and postapocalyptic, and above all, absurd and completely entertaining.

Artspace

50 Orange Street
New Haven CT 06510

203.772.2709 info[at]artspacenh.org

http://artspacenh.org

Arles

2009-07-02T23:55:00.000-07:00

Arles is shabbier, less opulently bourgeois than Aix. This poverty may have saved it from becoming a Disneyland version of itself, a tourist postcard. A guidebook I read suggested that one might experience deja vu during one's first visit here, as it is very much like walking into a Van Gogh painting. This intriguing pronouncement became was eerily true as I wandered it shuttered faded streets. The colors, sense of isolation, and it's weird off-kilter geometry reveal just how un-stylized Van Gogh's work actually is. It really does look like that! Arles runs along the river, which was once the most important port in France, once Cesar had successfully trounced Marseilles.

Nowadays the river is sleepy, with some few barges and cruise ships ambling through, a shadow of it's former self. Like many southern French towns Arles has Roman ruins right in the town center- in this case an impressive amphitheater currently being meticulously restored in an ambitious long-term project. I spent a very happy afternoon lingering along the water, loping through the shady parts of the street, and in the evening lounging in the central place full of children, old ladies, skate- boarders, foreign tourists, poised on a bench, knitting in the rose-gold evening light.

greetings from the Palais Ideal!

2009-06-30T04:03:00.001-07:00

Like a giant sandcastle, the Palais Ideal seems fragile, ephemeral, a waking dream.
It was made by Joseph-Ferdinand Cheval, the facteur (postman) of the small town of Hautrives in the drome in France.
It was started in 1879 and finished in 1912, and was fully and lovingly restored over a ten-year period starting in 1983.
Cheval was a self taught artist, who gained inspiration from the engravings of wonders of the world in the journals and magazines he would deliver on his route. The Palais features elements from Hindu temples, Buddhist wats, grottos, Mayan structures, pagodas, Egyptian tombs, medevial European castles, and above all, the rocks he found along his route.

The palais is studded with these rocks, shells he collected, and there are faint traces of poly-chroming and paintwork throughout.
However, as one can see from my pictures, it is chiefly a sandy beige color, a hue lent by the cement he used.

I have always wanted to see the Palais, having seen a few photos of it in a book as a child.
It did not disapoint.
This is, interestingly, only one of two works Cheval ever made in his lifetime.
There were, once, preparatory drawings he made for the Palais, now only one survives, but it is wonderful:
delicate, ornate and yet clear, concise and rhythmic.

I tried drawing the Palais over an afternoon, and did not get nearly such good results.I did enjoy myself, however.
The Palais sits in a garden next to the facteur's house.
It costs 5 euros to get in, and it is the only place in the still-sleepy town that might qualify as a tourist attraction. It is amazingly uncluttered, un-kitched up, with few souveniers.

The Palais has been lucky from the get-go. Although a true anomaly, and featuring some very ambitous but naive elements, the Palais has been beloved by the people of Hautrives since it's inception. The book I bought on it shows local sports teams posed for their group photos in front of it, and people came from all over France to see it.
He received fan letters, poems and tributes during his lifetime.
Curiously, this was made not just as a personal project, but specifically to be a structure open to the public and for one-and-all. The majority of the work was done after his retirement, and appears to have been done largely by himself.

It was later a favorite site of the surrealists, Picasso sketched it, and in 1969 Andre Malraux classed it as a historic monument.

The afternoon I spent there drawing (and when I took these photos), was remarkably un-crowded. There were others there, but not many. One can get up close, touch, walk it's ramparts, mosey through it's cool interior vaults freely. The staff are SO relaxed, in fact that I almost got locked in, as they left for the evening!

Even as I made my way out, no one seemed ruffled or concerned....

The facteur's second work of art, also in Hautrives, was less fortuitous, but no less grand.
When his beloved daughter died as a child, he was understandably distraught.
After finishing the Palais he began work on an ornate family tomb in the local cemetary, which he called "The Tomb of Silence and Endless Peace".

My pictures of the tomb show it in context, so you can get a bit of a sense of how exotic, how DIFFERENT it looks from it's surroundings. No big fuss is made about it- one sign from the main road indicates the "tombe de facteur" and it is mentioned in the literature handed out at the Palais. The facteur died in 1924 at the age of 88.

This was so moving, so fun, so grand in scope!
It's hard to put into words what it meant to spend time there, to be near the Palais in total tranquility....

Aix-en-Provence

2009-06-17T02:53:00.000-07:00

Some pictures I took from the market yesterday morning. This one is held every day in the place
near the Mairie. I bought melon, strawberries, and the ususal suspects of assorted vegetables.
I also could not resist a bunch of tiny zucchini with their flowers attached. I stuffed these with goat cheese, breadcrumbs, fennel, olives, herbs de Provence and garlic, then sauteed them in olive oil and some rose. Delicious....

tennis

2009-06-16T03:02:00.000-07:00

I went to Roland Garros for the first time, while I was in Paris. We got cheap tickets on the internet that allowed us to go to any of the courts except the main three.
This turned out to leave us spoiled for choice, and we saw two really exciting matches and several others that were worth watching, but didn't have the same emotional charge.
The place itself is really beautiful- lots of plants, flowers, landscaping etc. There is not a speck of garbage in sight, it is immaculately clean, and there is superb organization.
This is the one French event I've been to where everyone automatically waits in an orderly line- no fragmenting or expanding here!

The day was cloudy, cold and it rained a bit- not enough to affect the games but enough to be unpleasant. We go GREAT seats at every game we watched, often in the front row. Games which involved French players were more crowded, but there really are not any bad vantage points- the courts are gorgeously designed, and the red clay is visually stunning.
here they are watering it in the early am:

I ended up not taking many pictures because I wanted to watch the games- which were riveting.
the first was Alexa Glatch from the USA vs Lourdes Dominguez Lino from Spain. I have a picture of each here, but they really don't convey the drama and angst of the game.
This was a real battle, with one about to loose then rallying, the other about to loose then rallying etc. It was actually quite emotionally wrenching to watch, and I wasn't sure who I wanted to win.
Lourdes Dominguez Lino, a tiny, incredibly strong and fierce woman won. Glatch, who is gigantic, was taken out in tears. I would have cried too- she really worked hard and the stress alone would do me in at the end....

The second really great match was between two men( I found that I really preferred singles- doubles looks fun to play but I thought it was less fun to watch) -Juan Martin Del Potro from Argentina , and Igor Andreev from Russia. The game had been going on for about 2 hours when we got there. The place was packed with Russian and Argentine supporters - surprisingly, because this was a really really exciting match, so people left and we were able to make it to the front row. You can hear, see, smell, almost touch everything. The game finished at an astonishing(to me at any rate) 4 hours 58 minutes long. This with two players who literally threw themselves into every ball as if it were there first swing of the day. There were quick breaks for bananas and water, but the level of constant energy and alertness required for this was overwhelming. I wanted them both to win- they both deserved it, but I was really rooting for Andreev, who lost in the end. He swung with such force and abandon each time, and he would slide with such expertise across the clay. Anyone willing to dive and hurl themselves like that deserves to win....
I did not see the screeching young lady, whose noise-making caused such an uproar they are going to ban grunting. I heard and saw her on the news and am actually glad to have missed that one. enough is enough...
I really want to go again next year- this was so thrilling, in a way that the televised version can only hint at ( though they do a nice job, and it's good to have commentary).

see http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/index.html
for more info...

In Burgundy!

2009-06-10T05:46:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from Burgundy, where I am staying for the week.

The text formatting is working oddly right now-
am going to pretty much stick with pictures.
We have had many thunder and lightening storms and even some hail!
Hopefully this will not kill all the wine....

Some of my friends after work on a Sunday....

Threadless "less is more " entry

2009-05-11T16:34:00.001-07:00

ok, so I succumbed- and entered Threadless tee shirts "less is more" contest.

For reason I myself are not quite clear on, I really wanted to do this!

If you like my design, please vote for it-

winners are selected based on the designs popularity....

It's my small homage to Darwin's anniversary, and that age-old battle between the chicken and the egg...

click here to vote

Yarn Theory exhibit at PS122 Gallery is open!

2009-04-27T06:36:00.000-07:00

Yarn Theory is now up and open!

I am really pleased with how all of the work interacts together in the space, and was totally blown away by how many people showed up for the opening!

My stars...

This exhibit is NOT about hats, scarves socks or mittens, it is about exciting soft sculptural work, with an amazing variety of forms, colors textures, allusions and imagery. I hope this show gets some attention, because I really think the artists shown here deserve it.

Many are practicing mathematicians, which makes what they produce closer to Modeling structures rather than making sculpture, a distinction I am intrigued by.

I realize that I am hardly impartial, but I do think the show works well, and offers so intriguing surprises....

what to do (with your kids) in new york

2009-04-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I've been curating an exhibit called Yarn Theory, which explores the relationship between knitting, crochet, mathematics and science. It is due to open on April 25th- hey that's really soon!

artist Karen Eubel and gallery director Susan Schreiber have been putting together a stellar set of workshops and events to go with the show. Here is the first one coming up, which promises to be a real treat. Daina Taimina is an internationally known mathematics professor and author of several books.

She INVENTED hyperbolic crochet, and was the impetus behind that huge institute for figuring crochetted coral reef project. Not only is she showing new work with us, but she is also doing this terrific kids workshop- and it's free!
WOW!
so here goes:

A special Yarn Theory event for kids at PS122 Gallery!

"On Sunday, April 26th from 11 -12:30 am, in the gallery we will be hoasting a children’s workshop with Daina Taimina!

Free and open to ages 5 and up.please rsvp with the gallery at 212.228.4249or email ps122gallery@verizon.net

Daina Taimina, a mathematics professor at the University of Latvia for 20 years and now at Cornell University for the past 10 years, crochets objects to illustrate hyperbolic space. While looking for a creative way to teach her students about hyperbolic geometry, she came across a design for paper models by William Thurston for a surface with constant negative curvature. Daina translated the paper models into crocheted objects. She has crocheted many hyperbolic objects since 1997 and has exhibited the works as art at both the Machine Project gallery in Los Angeles and the Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space in Washington, D.C.
This workshop will include an explanation by Daina on visualizing hyperbolic geometry, how to find negative curvature in nature, as well as a hands-on learning session on creating your own hyperbolic plane. "

Tell me that's not great?

for more information on Yarn Theory and all the goodies that go along with it-

see the related blog: http://ps122gallery.wordpress.com/

a picture of Daina's latest book, above.

Venice: waterworld....

2009-03-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

This morning at the open air market. A boat full of veggies, and a baby crossing the canal in a traghetto....

More reflections and water-stories.These are unaltered pictures of reflections in the canals- no tricks , no photo-shop, all water and light....

venice: water, water, everywhere....

2009-03-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

What to see in Oxford:

2009-03-16T01:14:00.000-07:00

This is an exhibition I will be participating in, which will be on during the Oxford Literary festival. A group of artists were given books being "De-Accessioned" by The Oxford Library, to respond to in some way. The results are surprising....
If you are in the area, by all means stop by and see this most unusual celebration of books and Libraries.

Endnotes : unwrapping books
An unusual celebration of books and libraries
March 28 - April 26, 2009
Private View: March 27 6-8 pm
The 03 Gallery, Oxford Castle, Oxford UK

Featuring work by:

Marco Betti
Patricia Drew
Alan Franklin
Jim le Fevre
Joanna Gilmour
Laurence Halstead
Sally Howkins
Diane Jones-Parry
Martha Lewis
Mel/ Dominic Lash
David Stent
Chris Stubbs
Nichola Nixon
Karen Purple
Annabel Ralphs
Tom Ralphs Laman
Prue Robinson
Kate Willis

Curated by Diane Jones-Parry and Annabel Ralphs

GALLERY HOURS: Mon - Closed; Tues - Fri 12-5pm; Sat & Sun 11am-4pm

O3 Gallery, Oxford Castle, Oxford OX1 1AY, T: (011-44)(0)1865 246131,

info@o3gallery.co.uk,

www.o3gallery.co.uk

Venice: Stories from the canal- Sunday.

2009-03-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

Another watery photo-essay from the world's most photographed city.....

What to see in Venice:

2009-03-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

Seeing contemporary art in Venice, outside of the Biennalle, is a tricky thing.
There are virtually NO real art galleries, and the ones that do exist tend to be on the stodgy and unimaginative side, featuring a smattering of this and that.

The one real exception to this is The Jarach Gallery, located just next to La Fenice Theatre. They specialize in contemporary photography, and literally every show I have seen there has been terrific.
The current show on view of works by Claudio Gobbi, called "Persistence.
A history of Europe" is no exeption. These are beautiful, moving and odd photographs of theaters and waiting rooms, spaces meant to be elegant, but that are slightly down-at-the heels.
Gobbi favors very long narrow formats and soft evenly-lit colors. His spaces are empty, devoid of people, spaces waiting for action to take place in them.

This gallery is a haven of thought-provoking images in a maze of mask and glass shops.
long may they live!

Jarach Gallery

Claudio Gobbi :

Persistence.

A history of Europe

La mostra verrà prorogata fino a sabato 28 febbraio.

A cura di Daniele De Luigi

13/12 2008 - 28/02 2009

Jarach GalleryCampo San Fantin,

San Marco 1997, 30124 Venezia,

da martedì a sabato 10.00-13.00, 14.30-19.30

unedì e domenica su appuntamento

T +39 041 522 1938 F +39 0412778936

www.jarachgallery.com

www.myspace.com/jarachgallery

fo@jarachgallery.com

Venice: Strange Weather....

2009-03-13T02:25:00.000-07:00

A photo-essay of recent meteorological curiosities

"Baldy", My favorite Venetian Lion...

Buy my work, stimulate the economy!

2009-02-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

I have donated works to two upcoming events, both fundraisers for institutions close to my heart.

The first is this one, being held by my high school, The Cambridge School of Weston. They have an excellent art program, and I seriously doubt that I would have gone as far as I have-no jokes here please- without the patience and valiant efforts of the CSW teachers. They deserve all support possible for their excellent programming, so if you have empty wall space and the urge to spend, check it out!

I gave them a rather nice piece that I am hoping they will get a goodly sum for, economic collapse notwithstanding.

here is the info:

Changing Lives With Art Auction
A special opportunity for artists and art collectors

Saturday, February 28, 2009

2:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:
Thompson Art Gallery - Garthwaite Center for Science and Art at
The Cambridge School of Weston.
45 Georgian Road
Weston, MA

Phone:
7816428647
Email:
artauction@csw.org

To view the catalog of donated works click here:

http://www.truthe.net/special/auction/artauctioncatalog.pdf

"The Changing Lives With Art auction is a celebratory exhibit of works donated by CSW alumni, parents and friends. There will be a reception with juried silent and live auctions.Artists in the greater CSW community have been asked to donate a significant piece of their work to the auction, from which all proceeds will benefit the Arts Endowment as part of the
Changing Lives:The Campaign for CSW. "

Visit http://alumni.csw.org/artauction for more information, or to register.

Secondly,

Artspace in New Haven is having their annual fundraiser auction. They are a wonderful local resource with top-notch exhibits and programming. The event is also REALLY fun: cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, plus Guy Bennett, an auctioneer from Christie's who is terrific, very funny and truly entertaining. They too got a good one from me, which I am hoping will lure those stimulus checks out of everyone's pockets, and support a very worthy institution.

Artspace's Annual Benefit Auction

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Time: 5:30 to 8PM

Tickets: Available in March.

ARTSPACE is a non-profit organization presenting local and national visual art, provides access, excellence and education for the benefit of the public and the arts community.

50 Orange Street (corner of Orange & Crown)

New Haven CT 06510
(203) 772- 2709

info@artspacenh.org

http://www.artspacenh.org

"Join us in honoring artists past and present, and in celebrating Artspace's commitment to building strong foundations in the arts through youth programs.

Enjoy cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and our exciting Live and Silent Auctions, featuring work by:

Ben Blanc, Mia Brownell, Robert Cottingham, Christina Gundersen, Martha Lewis, Sol LeWitt, Eddie Martinez, Mark Mulroney, Esther Pullman, Joseph Smolinski and Leo Villareal among others.

Tickets and complete details available in March!"

Nothing really says "spring" like contemporary art, so get out there, do the patriotic thing and get yourself some!

(or at least have a look...)

What to see in London:

2009-01-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

"The Universal Now"

ABIGAIL REYNOLDS

WEDNESDAY 28TH JAN - SATURDAY 28TH FEB 2009
PRIVATE VIEW - Thursday 29th Jan

SEVENTEEN
17 KINGSLAND ROAD LONDON E2 8AA

If you are anywhere near London, don't miss the chance to see Abigail Reynolds' upcoming show at Seventeen. Her work is terrific, and this latest series of cut and folded book plates is really intriguing stuff.

Here is what the press release says:

"Abigail Reynolds first London solo show, The Universal Now, is a series of collages that uses imagery sourced from publications such as guide books and atlases, combining photographs of landscapes or monuments, enmeshing them together. In the process of splicing and joining the images, cuts are made into the printed surface and the paper is folded and pushed upwards and outwards, creating a three dimensional object, a grid-like construction that changes and moves with your perspective, underlining your presence as viewer. These photographs have come from books that are now historical documents rather than useful tools, and would be viewed for reasons of nostalgia or curiosity rather than to inform a holiday itinerary.

Within the piece Westminster 1915/1952 (2008), Reynolds has removed bookplates depicting the abbey and has woven the two pictures into one field. Oddly it seems that 37 years apart, two photographers have stood in precisely the same spot to capture their image. Reynolds is therefore able to take these two forgotten sheets and splice them into one another almost perfectly, creating a jarring uncomfortable object that refers to this unusual coincidence. Within these pieces parts of the images line up uncannily, where a landmark building remains, but the environs have often changed, underlining the passage of time.

The series title refers to the instant when the camera shutter opened and closed, often years apart, but both moments register a"now". The precise nature of "now" which is debated in many fields from psychology to physics, isn't resolved within these works, however the objects are infused with an overriding sense of time, as the viewer also encounters these pieces within their own separate present. In addition to these works Reynolds presents a video work and a number of free-standing small sculptural collages.

A publication will accompany this exhibition, due in mid Jan 2009. For further information and images please contact the gallery."

What to see and buy in NYC:

2009-01-07T01:07:00.000-08:00

One way to beat the post-new year's blahs, and it's even affordable!

this event is fun, for a great cause, and you can take home cutting-edge contemporary art at rock-bottom prices. everyone wins, and who doesn't love THAT?

Postcards From the Edge benefiting Visual AIDS

Metro Pictures
519 West 24th Street, NYC

Saturday January 10, 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM

$5 suggested admission

The annual display and sale of postcard-size artworks donated from 1,650 artists!

Donating artists include:

Martha Lewis, Alfredo Jaar, Cindy Sherman, RossBleckner, Kara Walker, Jeff Koons, Robert Longo, John Waters, CatherineOpie, Glenn Ligon, Tony Feher, Ann Hamilton, Kiki Smith, Nayland Blake, FredWilson, Mary Heilmann, David Armstrong, Carrie Mae Weems, Barton LidiceBenes, Adam Fuss, Jane Hammond, McDermott & McGough, Vito Acconci, JohnBaldessari, Louise Lawler, Marcel Dzama, Patty Chang, Paul Pfeiffer, T.J.Wilcox, Marilyn Minter, Kate Shepherd, Arturo Herrera, Julie Mehretu, EmilyJacir, Jack Pierson, Barry McGee, Slava Mogutin, Rirkrit Tiravanija,Lawrence Weiner, Annie Sprinkle, William Wegman, Yoko Ono, and many, many more.

A list of all donating artists will be distributed at the Benefit Sale

The Benefit Sale -- ONE DAY ONLY!

Saturday, January 10, 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM

All works are only $75 EACH.

Buy four, get one free.

Works are signed onthe back and displayed anonymously.

Artists' identities revealed only after purchase.

First-come, first served.

$5 suggested admission

The Preview Party

Friday, January 9, 6:00 - 8:00 PM

$75 admission* includes one raffle ticket.

Additional raffle tickets $20.

Your only chance to get a sneak peek at the entire show!

No sales, but one lucky raffle winner selects the first postcard.

More prizes: the new Rizzoli Keith Haring book, a signed Cindy Sherman catalog, artist multiples fromARTWARE editions and Tulip Enterprises.

Special hosts: The Imperial Court of New York.

Plus a silent art auction.

Wine courtesy of Wine & SpiritsMagazine

*Admission for donating artists is waived

All proceeds support the work of Visual AIDS utilizing contemporary art forAIDS advocacy and historicizing the work of HIV-positive artists whileoffering career support

Questions?

Visit: http://www.thebody.com/visualaids/current/postcards2008_faqs.html

Still have questions?

Call Visual AIDS: 212-627-9855

happy 2009

2008-12-31T22:32:00.001-08:00

I think this picture about says it all.

2009 has begun. Lets get serious.

Here are some shows to see soon before they end....

In NYC:

Last chance to see the amazing Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night at MoMa:

it ends January 5th.

This is a jewel of an exhibition: small, well curated, riveting. The works are breathtaking in and of themselves, together they create a surprisingly intimate look at Van Gogh's vision, intellect and strength of will. Truly moving. It is worth the sheer emotional drain of setting foot in MoMa and facing the crowds. Don't let the Baroque and rather draconian admission rules (outlined below) deter you.

"Please note: If you plan to see the exhibition Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night (Through January 5, 2009), be aware that gallery occupancy is limited and timed entry tickets are necessary to visit those galleries. Only same-day Van Gogh tickets remain and are distributed daily at the Museum on a first come, first served basis. Members and accompanying guests are not required to obtain timed tickets. Simply present your membership card and/or member guest admission ticket at exhibition entrance.

Online ticket buyers are not required to obtain a timed entry ticket, but can simply present their online ticket at the exhibition entrance on the second floor. This ticket also permits you to all other Museum galleries, exhibitions, and films. Corporate Members are required to obtain timed tickets. "

For more on this see:

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=5634

Also on view at MoMa, in the "drawing" gallery is:
Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave

December 14, 2008–February 16, 2009

This is an uneven but sometimes magical exhibit of watercolors, drawings and collages by the South African artist. Her figurative, erotically charged watercolors make humans look like the fragile sacks of fluid that we are, and hover strangely close to being photographically real while remaining steadfastly gestural. Of particular note is the striking series of portraits of Jesus, taken from various paintings, which cover a wall like mug shots, blurry and impossible to grasp. A revelation.
Skip the collages and feel free to skim past work that doesn't immediately grab you. This show is huge, ungainly and needs serious editing.

see here for more:

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=3994&ref=calendar

While you are at it, scoot over to the 4th floor to see the wonderful display of works by Eva Hesse, Joseph Beuys (be sure to read the list describing the materials used in his works), the Robert Rauchenberg combines and the fabulous Claes Oldenburg soft sculptures. There is also a Robert Morris sculpture using mirrors and discarded thread and wool and a Louise Bourgeois Phallus that are must-sees.

There is also a large Sol LeWitt wall drawing, which will remain up until June, 2009. This is more Diagrammatic than many of his other works and has an almost quilt-like feel to it that seems, in contrast downright pictorial.

See that?

Exhausting, right?

Once you get in it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to leave without seeing too much.

Having tasted the LeWitt,

get yourself over to Massachusetts:
to MassMoca, in Beautiful North Adams, for an eye-popping Sol LeWitt wall drawing extravaganza!
you have time with this one- it's up until 2033.

see here for EXHAUSTIVE details:

http://www.massmoca.org/lewitt/

this picure is from the Dia Art Foundation, but you get the idea...

Yes, it does have three whole floors of them.
There are other intriguing exhibits to see there as well, so give yourself time for this one.

If this is beginning to seem as if I endorse huge, barn-like mega-art-warehouses, don't be fooled. I loathe being overloaded and advise picking and choosing what to look at. The very quality of the above two institutions makes them impossible to ignore, despite their objectionable enormousness.

While in Massachusetts, sidle on over to Lincoln ,Ma.

and catch the last few days of "Drawn to Detail" at the Lovely DeCordova Museum.

The exhibit ends January 4th!

see:

http://www.decordova.org/decordova/exhibit/2008/Drawn%20to%20Detail/Drawn%20to%20Detail.htm for details(ha!)

In Santa Monica California:

RUSSELL CROTTY / Surf Works: 1988 - 2008
January 17 - February 21, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday / January 17 /
5 - 7 pm
SHOSHANA WAYNE GALLERY
2525 Michigan Ave. B1
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310 453 7535

I love Russell Crotty's work.
A die-hard surfer and amateur astronomer, Crotty has for years been trying to capture and document the motions of the sea and stars. his highly accurate yet personal night sky drawings are wondrous. His surf diaries and drawings more frenetic, more gestural, as he scrambles to capture in an instant the path and shape of a wave and the surfer riding it. This is investigative, passionate, personal drawing at it's best. If you are lucky enough to be in L.A. by all means go...

In New Orleans:

Prospect One, [P.1], the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States, opened to the public on November 1, 2008 in museums, historic buildings, and found sites throughout New Orleans.

closes soon: January 18, 2009

Ok, so it's huge too.

but it was also curated by the brilliant Dan Cameron, and takes one on a breathtaking tour of New Orleans, including the Katrina decimated lower 9th ward, and features a really interesting mix of contemporary art's brightest and best.

the website is very nice-see: http://www.prospectneworleans.org/as is all of the design work for this enormous and ambitious project.

If you can actually visit in person, super. If not take a virtual tour and save the wear and tear on the feet. A worthy project truly well-done.

Back In NYC:

the new "Museum of Art and Design" has opened up!

a goofier, more contemporary counterpart to the venerable Cooper-Hewitt, the madmuseum promises lots of fun, great design, and has finally done something nice with that awful building on Columbus Circle- Yay!
http://madmuseum.org/

So- that's a nice round-up to get the new year started, but really- Huge and overwhelming is SO 2008- we all know that in 2009 the vibe is downsized, low-key, low-cost and ingenuity will be everything.

Pink Poodles are SO 2008, don't you agree?

Damn the torpedos/happy holidays!

2008-12-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, the world is falling apart and things are decidedly worse economically. Yes , Ponzi schemes and greedy bribe-taking politicians abound right here in the USA. Yes, Robert Mugabe is still in power in Zimbabwe. Yes things are still awful,awful awful in Iraq and Afghanistan. None of this is good news, but all of it adds up needing to commit to change in 2009 and being wildly resourceful as we have never done before- and hoping, and laughing and enjoying each other too.

Now is the time....

what to see in New York: Petah Coyne- Vermillion Fog

2008-11-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

Katrina is on my mind, and apparently Petah Coyne's as well...

Coyne is known for her baroque, globby sculptures and installations that usually have the crafty lushness of a fairy tale gone bad. Her works are always luxurious and ornate.

Here, for Vermilion Fog at Gallerie Lelong, the works consist of swathes of Velvet, plastic flowers, beads and pins, dead birds, and wax. There is a heavy gothic vibe here, a Miss Havisham's wedding cake aesthetic. This funereal splendour can usually get pretty wearying, but this time she's really hit the nail on the head. The works in Vermilion Fog suggest massive Victorian-style funeral effigies for our environmental irresponsibility.

Her installations, with their swirled lengths of purple and black velvet, evoke oil slicks, puddles of tainted water and brackish tide pools clotted with pearls, beads artificial flowers and dead birds. They rise into the air, matted together. What is really interesting about these clusters is the way they writhe and yet are so patently dead- they are glamorous, funereal stand-ins for nature. This is the concept of "nature morte" taken to it's most logical conclusion, with stuffed mallards dive bombing into velvet and flower clusters that look like hurricane thrown debris. I was stunned by these works, both horrified and touched by them.

Less successful, in my mind, are the ceiling hung chandelier-like works shown in the first room, off to the right. The ruffled cozies holding the ropes or cables bother me, they make the works look clumsy and leaden, not aloft and airborne. Also the space was crowded and all one could do was peer in, with orate works like this, it is MUCH more satisfying to be able to wander around it, sense it's breadth and mass in relation to one's own body. My complaint is really more about installation and spatial choices than the works themselves- they looked uncomfortable and a bit ware-housed in that space.

The white wax and fake flower lattice hanging from the right door jamb in particular needs a different space than the ones the gallery offers. It is also a pity that there were no shifts of natural light over the works, no interesting atmospheric lighting at all, in fact. I have no idea if the fault is hers, or the preparators, but the installation of these works is flabby and lacks drama and energy.

Coyne's latest work verges on greatness here : an anger, a helpless fury seeps through the gaudiness and lavish textures to make a veritable wake for our own selfishness and short-sightedness.She has presented an apt and timely as a statement of our collective predicament, using a truly surprising set of materials to do so.

Petah Coyne:

Vermilion Fog

oct 24-dec. 13 2008

gallerie Lelong

528 west 26th st

ny, ny 10001

t: 212 315-0470

http://www.gallerielelong.com/

Put a lump in your stocking (& your throat and lungs too!)

2008-11-18T06:34:00.001-08:00

Ah, the good old days here in America, when life was simple and we worked our land for energy instead of wriggling under the thumb of oil-rich Arab nations...

NOT.

We must never, never go back.

Some things really are backwards- the move to coal as a viable source of energy is one of them.

Say no in innovative and informed ways:

Check out this project the Sierra Club has set up to counteract the "Clean Coal" lobby:

they are putting slogans that we the people come up with and post them on their "Truth Truck" which will drive around Washington D.C.

We may not have as much money as those lobbyists, but the creative capital is ALL on our side- let's show it.

Now, I think personally, that they should have come up with a cleaner, greener billboard solution, one that doesn't involve fossil fuels, but there is no denying the flexibility and visibility their trucks will offer.

Who knows, maybe they are electric?

http://www.coalisnottheanswer.org/

The site is good looking and some of the slogans are really, really clever.

They have come up with something that really is both informative and fun.

You can post your own, watch a slide show of the cache of submissions so far, or scroll down the list and vote or comment on your favorites.

So, get busy y'all- we have another dirty little war to fight!

www.coalisnottheanswer.org

martha lewis gives gallery talk at the Decordova Museum

2008-11-10T15:01:00.000-08:00

I hope that many of you in the area will join me!

On November 15th Artist Martha Lewis will discuss her work in "Drawn to Detail" in the Museum Galleries, at 3 pm.

This event is FREE with admission ticket.

General admission during Museum hours is $12 for adults, $8 for senior citizens, students, and youth ages 6–12. Children age 5 and under, Lincoln residents, and Active Duty Military Personnel and their dependents are admitted free.

Decordova Museum and Sculpture park,

51 Sandy Pond Road in Lincoln, MA.

Visit http://www.decordova.org/

or call 781/259-8355 for further information.

YES WE CAN!

2008-11-05T04:21:00.000-08:00

We did it!

We let the right one in...

Let the right one in, redux

2008-11-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

"African-American Flag" by David Hammons

The end is nigh- we are almost there- No more George Bush!!!

OK, so there will be, in all likelihood, lots of squawking from the Republicans about alleged "voter fraud" and lots of attempts to get people's votes not to count.Let's make things as fair, transparent and clear as we can from the get-go, so that this ploy won't work.

Remember: "you can fool me once...."

NPR-bless them- had a story this morning about the National Campaign for Fair Elections, which has set up "Welcome to Our Vote Live", the official site documenting the groundbreaking voter assistance work of the Election Protection Coalition.

They offer an easy to use system for reporting irregularities, asking questions or seeking help with issues surrounding voting. The organization will offer a national hot line to answer voter questions and respond to problems, they also will use high-tech doohickeys like twitter to instantly connect you with help.

The official website is here- by all means go on it before you vote tomorrow!

http://www.866ourvote.org/

At the very least:

PUT THIS NUMBER IN YOUR CELL PHONE!

1-866-OUR-VOTE

to alert them directly and instantly about intimidation, irregularities and problems when voting. I am done with mysterious voting screw-ups and botched ballots. This allows us, the voters, to take control, to cleanly and accurately put a stop to irregularities as they happen- let's make it as hard as possible for them to to throw away our choices!

If you need more reasons/motivation to get up and out into the voting booth, check these fab photos of gov. Sarah Palin out. My fav. is the first one, with dead bear and stuffed crab, but frankly, they are all gems:

http://www.adn.com/photos/v-gallery/story/509850.html?/1521/gallery/509852-a509968-t3.html

let the right one in...

2008-10-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

Politics is threatening to ruin Halloween. Incandescent Obama pumpkins and Sarah Palin beauty-queen bikini costumes abound.

I know that this is the most important election of my life-time, and that if Obama should not win we are all doomed to horrors unimaginable and a slow painful demise.

Still: don’t let these all-too-real fears ruin the best holiday of the year. This is the time for monsters and spooky escapes, and creatures that exist beyond our own all too mortal coils.
Let loose with the fantastic metaphors and visions of the darker bits within us all!
If you have no kids for carving jack-o’-lanterns or to trick or treat with,no party to dress up for, then by all means hit the cinema!

The best film I’ve seen in ages is also a horror film.
“Let the right one in” Is a surprisingly tender story of a bullied 12 year old boy who is befriended by a vampire, also –eternally- 12 years old. The story is told in a refreshingly minimal way that allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions, and uses sparse special effects to very good use. Set in a grim and unwelcoming Stockholm suburb, with a cast of adult characters who are warty, gnarled and have been buffeted by the world, the film is visually lush and gorgeous, with lingering close ups, details, bits of color. It is a study in the mundane and the wonder that can be glimpsed therein. Sparse in terms of characters and locations, most of the action takes place in the apartment complex that Eli and Oskar “Live” in. The two kids and their relationship, in detail, take up much of the film. This could not be less Hollywood in terms of treatment.

Oskar is a translucently pale fragile boy, who moves awkwardly through his days. He is brilliantly played by Kare Hedebrant; his character shifts from being dorky, slightly dimwitted looking and fearful to being exquisitely and preternaturally beautiful. He shifts constantly, shimmering between the sublime and the foolish. He is ethereal if mortal, while she is earthy and undead. He is fragile, she is a survivor. If this were Hollywood, he would always be beautiful, his relationships with his divorced parents uniformly bad, and his triumph over the bullies absolute. Happily we are in Sweden and things are more complex.

The scenes with his father, which seem to offer hope and salvation, lulls us, like him, into a sense of security and happiness, only to pull the rug out. There is an extraordinary scene between him and his mother, entirely silent, both brushing their teeth, that speaks volumes about the tender aspects of their relationship, and how well he is really cared for. This is my favorite cinematic moment in ages.

But it is Eli, played by Lina Leandersson, who really steals the film. At first appearing to be ordinary and somewhat unappealing- she boasts one of the ugliest wardrobes in a film, ever-this actress can do more with a raise of an eyebrow and a twitch of the corner of her mouth than one would think possible. She looks every bit the part of a gypsy ragamuffin, dark, unkempt, a bit unwashed and neglected. In appearance she ranges from being tiny, defenseless and messy to being strong, beautiful and fierce in the blink of an eye. At times she is overwhelmingly pretty and charismatic, and at other times it is switched off entirely, like a faucet. The special effects are used most on her- what I assume are huge contact lenses, double exposures with an older actresses face, various impossible athletic feats, she is a sad trapped monster with the desire to help and protect. As is the film’s way, much is implied about her without being said: is she Romany? Is the man who “helps” her by slaughtering victims and collecting their blood, someone she met when he was a boy? How many have there been?

Most of the usual vampire tropes come into play, but to very different ends than usual.
The scene where one of Eli’s victims self-immolates to avoid her vampire fate is full of a kind of gravitas and dignity that is unusual, given the theatrical special effect involved.

Things I didn’t like: not many.
The special effect involving digitally animated cats just really did not work too well- though the implications were horrific, and the music was bombastic and too loud. Why have a full orchestra for a film so full focused on spare details and microcosmic close ups? A string quartet, lone violin or cello would have made more sense and blended well with implied Eli’s Romanian heritage.
Lovingly directed by Tomas Alfredson this film is based on a best selling book by author John Ajvide Lindqvist, who wrost the film script.

Curiously “let the right one in” is the title to a song by British singer Morrissey, a song that never makes an appearance in the film. It is invoked and then, essentially denied. Odd indeed.

“Let the right one in” is currently showing at the Angelika Film center, Houston st.
NYC. visit http://angelikafilmcenter.com/ for more information.

Another good option:
An oldie-but-goodie.

“Rosemarie’s Baby” is at the Film Forum, also on Houston St., NYC for the next week-see http://www.filmforum.org/ for more info.
Polanski’s horror film about witches living in plush New York apartments is also a wonderful meditation on the strangeness of pregnancy. Mia Farrow is amazing as the tile character, as is Ruth Gordon as the inimitable Minnie. A true classic, totally visually stunning. The rather silly ending deflates it a bit- an example of Polanski-esque humor?

Remember, this is the man who made the wonderfully raunchy and silly romp “the fearless vampire killers”, a b-movie send up, starring himself and his bodacious wife Sharon Tate. This confection is a good choice-Netflix perhaps?-for those who prefer not to have nightmares….

Listen & Learn

2008-10-28T06:21:00.001-07:00

JUST SAY "NO" on NOV 4th!

Like many, I have been surviving the elections and economic crisis with heavy doses of reality-based humour. The Daily show, The Colbert Report, SNL and The Onion have all been preventing me from crying/or having a nervous breakdown on a daily basis. I Really, Really hope Obama wins, and have a glimmer of hope that while he is around that we may just all get through this...

But what, exactly, is "this" ?

I listen to NPR, I read the papers, I listen gladly to the "Liberal Media Elite", but a financial genius, I am (sadly) not. The Election, I get. The economic crisis, not so much. The numbers are just too big, the wheeling and dealing too dizzyingly complex.

"This American Life" put out two broadcasts explaining in an understandable, and actually, downright palatable way what caused the economic collapse, and just what the banks, brokers, lenders, etc were doing all this time. I am still no expert, but I am clearer about what happened. They give an excellent sense of the MAGNITUDE of this crisis, as well: something hard to see as the effects of it are happening Now. I HIGHLY recommend giving these two broadcasts a listen.

They are available online at:
Episode 1 – The Giant Pool of Money (May 08) on the financial debacle - episode 1 , runs about 35 mins. http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355
Episode 2 – Another Show About the Economy (October 08) - a full, amazing hour!
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1263

Thank you Ira Glass & Co.!
If you did not make a contribution to keep NPR going before, you will after hearing this!
Don't get me wrong, things are still dreadful, but I prefer knowing what the dread is about, rather than that free-floating, anxious not-understanding kind.

Knowledge is Power, kids.
End of message: let's get out there and VOTE and try to make things better.

If we can keep laughing while doing it, so much the better!

look and learn:

2008-10-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

One more time, My favorite venue, The museum of folk art in NYC has presciently done it again!

In addition to their exciting line-up in the main space -see below for THAT- at their satellite space near Lincoln center they are offering the fabulous and all-too-timely:

"Recycling & Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s"

Featuring works of spell-binding depression-era ingenuity.

This exhibit :

" highlights twelve quilts from the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, which were made during the Depression era by thrifty women who reused clothing,

flour and feed sacks, and other recycled fabrics to create "new" bed covers in a variety of vibrant patterns.

Also on view are works from the American Folk Art Museum's collection that further explore the theme of recycling, such as the Wonderbread Rug, woven from plastic Wonderbread bags;

Baby Blanket, made up entirely of condoms in aluminum wrappers; tramp art made from cigar boxes; bottle-cap figures; and quilts made from men's clothing fabrics and patriotic silk ribbons."

The exhibition will be on view at the museum's branch location at

2 Lincoln Square
(Columbus Avenue at 66th Street).

For more information, please call 212. 595. 9533.

Look and learn, I say.

It might be a while before most of us "buy" anything new again that we cannot ourselves make,

and the winners in this game will be the ones to display the greatest resourcefullness....

Also, this Friday night, at their main space, don't miss:

" a FREE night in celebration of our new exhibitions with free admission from 5:30 to 9 PM,

four floors of exhibitions, curator-led tours, live music, and drink specials. Masks and costumes are welcome!

Current Exhibitions:Martin Ramirez: The Last Works

The Seduction of Light: Ammi Phillips

Mark Rothko Composition in Pink, Green,

and Red Up Close: Henry Darger

Musical Performances:Hazmat Modine, Mia Riddle, Matt Jones Band

Space is limited. To RSVP or for more information,

please email folk53@folkartmuseum.org or call 212. 977. 7170, ext. 329.

WOW!!!!
Did you check out that roster?
I am VERY excited about the Ramirez show, in particular.
The world may be falling apart, but at least there are still lots of juicy things to look at....

succor

2008-10-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

Economic crisis is an emotional thing. People behave very differently and suddenly needs become very primal. It's not just the cooling fall weather this year: suddenly food becomes very important indeed. The news reports say that the stock of Campbell's soup rising, and that people are buying more inexpensive comfort foods, such as soup and mashed potatoes. We've been eating meatloaf, and when I spoke to my father the other day he was busy preparing a Hungarian Goulash.

I, too crave succor, though it takes it's incarnation a bit unusually in the form of TOFU.

Not just any tofu, though mind you. Not the horrid tofu casseroles of my childhood- made for health without any real culinary consideration.
No.
The tofu I crave is at En Brasserie on Hudson st in the village, NYC.
This is not the tofu of the 70's. En is a vast but inviting place, dark, with softly spot-lit wood tables. Whomever designed it clearly took "In Praise of Shadows"' advice to heart. It feels cocooning and snug, while being able to accommodate a surprising number of diners at the tables, sushi bar and front bar. While not technically an inexpensive joint- the sake prices are steep indeed- the dishes I like best are relatively cheap- the tofu clocks in at $8.- for a two-person sized bowl, not a bad deal at all.

It comes "served warm or chilled with wari-joyu , made regularly at 6:00, 7:30, 9:00, & 10:30", announces the menu proudly. And, indeed, it bears no resemblance to those industrial white bricks sheathed in plastic one gets at the super market. A bit like fresh Buffalla mozzarella, the tofu is rounded and soft , with a more solid part and an accompanying liquid cream part.
It is CUSTARDY!
One friend, L, described it as being :"Like creme brulee!" . She is right. Creamy, warm and fresh, it comes to your table in a lovely square wood lacquer bowl with a delicate wooden serving ladle. the eating bowls are of uneven, mottled pottery and come with dark wood soup spoons.
I like it warm, with cool sake to drink.
Sitting there, and my warmly spotlit table in the womb of the restaurant, I can momentarily escape the events of the day and the events yet-to-come.
Obviously, one needs to face the light of day and deal with things in a clear-headed way, but there are moments when a time out is needed...

visit them at : http://www.enjb.com/

212 647 9196

EN Japanese Brasserie
435 Hudson Street
(at Leroy)
New York NY 10014

Errata

2008-10-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

OOPS...

sorry folks.
I made a mistake in my posting of 9/21/08 .
The title for the project that "Pull" was created for was
"Factory Direct", not "Factory Fresh"- the posting has been changed, and so is now, hopefully blissfully free of factual errors.
Though that does seem to be a lot to ask, doesn't it?

October in New York!

2008-10-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

This is truly the BEST time to be in NYC; economic-horror-crisis notwithstanding.
The weather is warm and breezy, the light is golden, the leaves are just starting to change color.For some reason, even the air seems fresher....
This weekend, when you are out-and-about enjoying the bounty of the season ( and ignoring the terrors that lurk inside the tv and jump from the news papers)

Why not come and visit me in my studio- or about 100 other artists as well?

I will be participating in the

4th Annual Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour (HOAST),

Drop in and see my new work in the studio I share with fellow artist Asia Ingalls!

Saturday, October 4 from 12 Noon to 6 p.m. and
Sunday, October 5 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Studio Address:
2331 12th avenue (corner of 133rd street ) 3rd floor
(just opposite Fairway Supermarket and right near Dinosaur BBQ)
1/9 train to 125th street stop

To preview our work please visit:
http://www.marthalewis.com/
&
http://www.asiaingalls.com/

HOAST offers a self-guided tour through the wonderful and varied studios and galleries in Harlem, one of New York City’s richest artistic communities. Each year, close to 100 artists participate and 2,000 people attend HOAST .
The event is free and open to the public!

Visit the HOAST information center, located at :

Casa Frela,
47 west 119th st,
NY, NY.
(212)722-8577,

for walking tours guided by Artists and artHarlem staff, or just download a map ,
and guide yourself!

artHARLEM and HOAST
are supported by generous contributions from the Johnathan Tisch Foundation, The AG Aggie Gund Foundation, NYC and Co., the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the New York Times Foundation and Harlem Community.

To download a pdf map and information visit http://www.artharlem.org/

Other great weekend activities:

This show should be terrific, offering rich lush paintings that will make you really wonder(once again) just what all of the palaver about the death of painting can possibly mean.
It doesn't get more lively than this....

Gregory Amenoff, Violet Fall, 2008, oil on panel, 18 x 18 inches© Courtesy Alexandre Gallery, New York

Gregory Amenoff : PAINTINGS

at the

AL E X A N D R E G A L L E R Y

Fuller Building , 41 East 57th Street

New York 10022 212.755.2828

http://www.alexandregallery.com/

October 2 through November 15, 2008

" The gallery will present its second exhibition of Gregory Amenoff’s work focusing on new paintings created over the past two years. These richly painted small-scale works continue Amenoff’s investigation of the natural world and the American landscape tradition. The curator Rachel Lafo, has written, “In his work the outer world is internalized; the inner world is manifested in visible form.” This show will include twenty new paintings ranging in size from 11 x 11 to 40 x 40 inches. "

Added bonus: the Fuller building is just pure NY nostalgia, a really perfect place to visit for that Autumn-in-New-york, Woody-Allen-esque experience.

So, make hay while the sun shines, I always say.
Go look at stuff, clear your head and feed your eyes, it's going to be a long hard winter!
( or, to quote the inimitable Bette Davis: "fasten your seat belts, were in for a bumpy ride!")

what to see in new york!

2008-09-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

PULL

September 10-November 8, 2008

The other day I went to hear the artist, Jane Philbrick talk with exhibit curator curator Eric C. Shiner and MASS MoCA curator Denise Markonish. They discussed the creation and meaning of Philbrick's large-scale installation currently showing at Location One. Philbrick made the work during a residency at a security alarm system factory in Connecticut, as a part of Markonish's ambitious "Factory Direct" program.

"Factory Direct" put artists into some of the many struggling factories that used to abound in the state. There are fewer and fewer these days, but for a long while the nutmeg state was a manufacturing epicenter. The program highlighted the various ways and means of production we engage in, on a micro and macro scale. It also allowed artists and non-artists to work together, and to realize commonalities between their modes of production.

Clearly, Pull was a successful collaborative effort between the artists and the employees of the factory, to the point where they still help to install the piece in it's re occurring incarnations.

This talk was illuminating on a number of levels. First, the artist, Jane Philbrick, is articulate and a skilled public speaker. She talks with precision, deliberation and dramatic effect about her process. The piece, constructed just after 911 conjures up the hysteria and pomp associated with creating a sense of public safety, and the knowledge that this is really only a sense, only theatre. That no one is really safe anymore. Attached to this is the fear mongering and manipulation by our government, to use and exacerbate our fear to political ends. She spoke poignantly of this, and at the same time, the other two curators, both orchestrators for "Factory Direct", provided fun and interesting highlights of the process of going into the factories, making work on such a large scale, the various problems and joys of translating the artistic working process to outside of the studio and gallery milieu.

That being said, the work is now very much a gallery piece.
I would imagine that there would be enormous obstacles involved in putting a large work which signals false emergency alarms, loudly and brightly, into any sort of public sphere.

The work was shown at Artspace in new haven, then in a more rural setting in Sweden, and now in Location One.

I wish it were possible to put it outside somewhere, inviting the innocent bystander to walk in and sound the alarm- the problem with the work is that it inevitably preaches to the converted. The lefty liberal arty types who go to such exhibits are likely very much in agreement with the artist already, and the naughtiness and surprise involved with pulling the alarm box handle is strongly mitigated by it's gallery surroundings. Clearly, one is supposed to do it, one is ALLOWED to do it, even encouraged, thus removing the real edge the work might otherwise have.

This talk was by far the liveliest, most articulate one I have been to in a long time. I always appreciate hearing more about the work I see, but the three speakers were so comfortable with each other, and had clearly been through something together during the formation of this piece. That made the talk special, and very happily relaxed and unpretentious.

I admire the optimism behind initiative's like "Factory Direct"- I would love to participate in such a thing-and Phibrick's resulting work is of a really high standard. Fun-yet-serious, very visual (and aural!), it smoothly combines concept with realization. Best of all, it is not uni-dimensional in it's concept- the piece is open ended and leaves the thinking to the viewer, with a rich amount of mental fodder to chew on.

If you are in the area, by all means go visit.

There is a lot of art out there right now, but not all of it is this satisfying.

"PULL is an installation of of 430 fire alarm strobes, 312 smoke detectors, six speakers, 84 fire alarm control panels in our main gallery exploring the nature of security, fear and war. "
Free admission, open to the public.

HOURS: Tuesday-Saturday 12–6PM

Location One:

26 Greene Street

(between Grand and Canal St)

New York NY 10013 - tel. 212.334.3347

Subway: Canal Street stop on N,R,Q,W - 6 - A,C,E