Figure 11

This is an installation I've been working on for the last month/month and a half. The picture is from the open studios at CCA last Sunday, April 5.

Drawn

This Image is from my sketchbook. I drew it one night when I wasn't sure what I wanted to work on, but I knew I wanted to work on something. -- Drawing the bow. Being drawn in. -- There is something about the archers look... the intensity and focus... his mind must be so still... 

After I drew it I was reminded of this excerpt from the book "Creators on Creating", edited by Frank Barron, Alfonso Montuori, Anthea Barron.

Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel

"Eugen Herrigel was a German philosophy professor who studied archery in Japan. In this excerpt he discusses the importance of relaxation and concentration, and the role of  the teacher in allowing the student to realize for himself or herself what is needed to engage in the process of archery (or any other learning process) in a spiritual manner."

(Click on the images to make them larger and easier to read)

Dan Graham

Figure 7

Re-Vision Re-History

Re-History

Wandering through pillars of erected fixation- standing to the heights of invisibility- cast shadows bleeding into blurs of solidity-

Following one on top of- around and below and beside one another- woven knotted linking binding- whispering shouting splaying blinding-

Disoriented in Mazement- 

Charging forth and tiptoeing hero/heroin/heroish sees through- sees in- sees with-

Peeling out and off- rearranging particles of collected universal- etching figures in grime-

Hollow mythology fading wheezing tired- Sapling hallucinations Incarnate 

Paul Chan

I saw Paul Chan speak today at the Berkeley Art Museum. Every once in a while I see someone speak who I really feel I can learn something from, and this was one of those occasions. 

He was younger than I expected him to be. There is a quietness, maturity, and depth in his work that I just assumed would belong to someone with gray in their hair. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it seems to take people a while to settle and be willing to express sincere sentiments. It is not always fashionable to have heart and make work with a measure of depth and intimacy; and it is certainly not easy to do so without coming off as cheesy or contrived. Maybe that's the point. From listening to Chan talk today, hearing his responses to questions and explanations of his work - I don't think he is trying to make work that has heart, depth, and intimacy. I think that he has those qualities, and he is just making the work that he wants to make, the work that is right for him to make. And his work, because it is a reflection of him, possesses those qualities...

Hear Chan talk about his work, his inspirations, and about his project The 7 Lights. ("Lights" is supposed to be crossed out in the official title, but I couldn't get blogger to do it... note the official title in the video, and the use of crossing out words in the text pieces on his website):

Interview 

with Hans Ulrich Obrist of Serpentine Gallery

Check out his website National Philistine. You'll encounter text pieces, free audiobooks, free fonts, radio, and lots more:

Website

The Amen Break

Nate Harrison, Can I Get An Amen?, 2004, 
recording on acetate, turntable, PA system, paper documents
dimensions variable
total run time 17 minutes, 46 seconds

"Can I Get An Amen? is an audio installation that unfolds a critical perspective of perhaps the most sampled drum beat in the history of recorded music, the Amen Break. It begins with the pop track Amen Brother by 60's soul band The Winstons, and traces the transformation of their drum solo from its original context as part of a 'B' side vinyl single into its use as a key aural ingredient in contemporary cultural expression. The work attempts to bring into scrutiny the techno-utopian notion that 'information wants to be free'- it questions its effectiveness as a democratizing agent. This as well as other issues are foregrounded through a history of the Amen Break and its peculiar relationship to current copyright law."

- From Nate Harrison's website

Show and Tell

I painted this bird today.

It's one of Alfred Wallace's specimens from Malaysia.

Specimens...

I haven't painted in a long time.

When I opened my paint box and went rummaging through the brushes for the ones I needed, it was like saying hello to old friends. I remembered the times we'd had together... moments with this one, and that one... the way they feel against canvas, paper... each one's particular character... it was a nice reunion.

The Body Reflected

The mirror is one of the many surfaces we encounter daily. The mirror is the looking glass in which we see our own body reflected. It is the individual encounters we have with other people, in which our social selves are reflected. It is culture at large, in which our ideas and thoughts are mirrored in the expressions of others. Mirrors are the measure by which we double-check our reality.

The mirror, being that to which we look in order to understand ourselves or the world around us, is not indifferent to our gaze. It’s reflections shift and bend, and sometimes, when it knows we are looking, it denies us insight altogether and shows us lies.

Carrie Mae Weems- Mirror, Mirror

LOOKING INTO THE MIRROR, THE BLACK WOMAN ASKED, "MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO'S THE FINEST OF THEM ALL?" THE MIRROR SAYS, "SNOW WHITE, YOU BLACK BITCH, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!!!"

Jan Švankmajer - Alice 

The mirror, both object and encounter, is the bridge that stretches between the inside and the outside of the head/body.

"My head, for example, my head: what a strange cavern that opens onto the external world with two windows. Tow openings– I am sure of it, because I see them in the mirror...

This back, which I can feel leaning against the pressure of the couch when I am lying down and which I might catch but only by the ruse of the mirror. And what is this shoulder, whose movements and positions I know with precision, but that I will never be able to see without dreadfully contorting myself?...

There's no need for a soul, nor a death, for me to be both transparent and opaque, visible and invisible, life and thing. For me to be a utopia, it is enough that I have a body."

-Michel Foucault "Utopian Body", from "Sensorium" by Caroline Jones

Michael Jackson- Man in the Mirror

Studio #91

Just in case you were wondering... that's where you can find me. Top O' the Stairs, Main Building of the Graduate Complex, California College of the Arts. Knock Loudly, I'm probably in the midst of a dance party with my iphone.

Here is my desk after a day of exploration through the creative wilderness.

p.s. I'm not killing that plant. I actually rescued it from the dumpster and am rehabilitating it. Sheesh!

Cupcakes and Spiders

What would happen if a processed, packaged Sprinkle-Head dared to head out into the unknown and discover what life was really about...?

Find out! In this adorable (and somewhat: oolala!) animation by Kirsten Lepore

"Sweet Dreams"



Also, a little folksy number to get you ready for bed:

"Story From North America"

Kirsten Lepore also has a great website, and blog of her very own, with more informations and animations:

http://www.kirstenlepore.com/

Joseph Beuys - What Would Buddha Say?

"Buddha would say... Art would like to release something... It is social sculpture that is no longer related only to the art business... But related to all people and the social problems in which we live... "

-Joseph Beuys, quoted from Documenta 6 Satellite Telecast

****Call 415.294.3609 then enter 407# to hear SF MOMA's audio regarding Joseph Beuys and the three works that represent him in the 'Participation' show, now on view at the museum.

Action:

The Jungle @ PlaySpace Gallery

Curated by Stephanie Mansolf and Natalia Nakazawa

Artworks pictured below by:

Nwamaka Amaka Nnenne Chika Ikejimba (floor painting/sculpture)

Natalia Nakazawa (hanging beaded sculpture)

Jen Prather (detail from larger installation: tangle of colorful pillowish things, yarn, jewels)

There are lots of other great artists and interesting works in this show, which is worth making a special trip to see. The pieces are meditative and thought provoking, as well as playful and sensuous. And the Raccoon in your heart will be pleased with all the glittery baubles. 

New Digs

Moving moving moving

I have a new studio... for real now! Time to dig in the heels and stir up the waters. 

What am I? I think I'm a social practice artist, who also draws, paints, and makes stuff. The important thing for me was always the context. That the dialogue about the work would revolve around social relevance, content, meaning. Yes, I paint, but I am bored by conversations about form and color. (Even though, I'm a sucker for pools of color my eyes can swim in)

All The Things

Late August - November 12, 2008

These are my 'notes to self' from my sketchbook. Artists, books, films to remember and check out. Ideas to explore, thoughts to think more about. Loose threads of fabrics not yet woven.

I'm trying out something new. This drawing of all the things I want to revisit and think about and explore. I have sketchbooks galore filled with ideas and references but they don't really help me in book form. My brain has been overflowing lately with all these ideas I'm trying to keep track of. At first I was sort of diagraming the information. Eventually the words began to feel like marks and a composition began to form. - Seeing it all at once makes so much sense to me. It's in my brain all at once.
I really like the process of discovering how things are connected.

Things People See

We see a baboon at Cape Point

in South Africa

photo blogs

200 years from now
100 solid years of digital photography, at least
everything has been seen
all is uploaded
we are ready for the virtual world
we can go anywhere
see anything
we just plug in
Already today
I've seen:

heroes

death

children
clouds
landscapes
lightening
cute animals
flooded piazzas
flooded frozen basements
barns
stars

"Destruction Is Creation"

While not posted as a comment on my last post, this was a response that I got to my reflections on the neon statement: "Artists need to create on the same scale as society has the capacity to destroy"

I've been thinking about this statement. "Destruction is Creation."

Here is a quote by Chuang Tzu, as translated by Derek Lin:

"When you break something up, you create things.
When you create something, you destroy things.
Material things have no creation or destruction.
Ultimately these concepts connect as one." 

Yes, this is true. 

It is true that forest fires create space for new growth and generate ash which is very fertile for the land.

It is true that the breaking down of a structure can allow for a new one to form. If one is not attached to either form than the "destruction" of one can certainly be the "creation" of another.

Still, there is something sticky. I suppose I am thinking about different types of creation and destruction. Different qualities, different intentions. As an artist, I'm thinking about my own creative process, and the things I've learned along the way. I'm thinking about a transformative process and calling one type of energy "creation" and the other "destruction". 

The process I am aware of, which I call "creation", has an intention which guides it. This process is deliberate and considered. It is a kind of refinement and also communication. 

The process I am aware of, which I call "destruction", uses a totally different type of energy. I feel like the difference is in the intention. I think that the attempt at communication is missing, and rather, it is a kind of erasure. 

Here is a piece that I "created" this past week for a show at 23HAM in Berkeley.

To create this piece I cut out 95% of all of the words that were printed on the map. This was a subtractive process, I was, in a sense, taking the map apart. Does this make it a destructive process? I don't think so.

I did destruct the map to create the artwork. Is that the same as cutting up the map aimlessly? Destruction that results in a pile of cut up paper? Is a pile of aimlessly cut up paper different than art? Hmmm... these are tough questions. My sense is that they are not the same. Intention seems like the key.

Here is a Scottish artist (who shares my name) who focuses in this type of creation through destruction, Georgia Russell:

De Baudelaire au Surréalisme 2007

Farmlab

Seed Samples

?

Is this supposed to mean that the one balances out the other?

First of all, destruction is a much more rapid process than construction... Second of all, that's a HUGE responsibility for Artists!

How about:

"SOCIETY IS ONLY ALLOWED TO DESTROY AT THE RATE AT WHICH SOCIETY CAN CREATE"

Junker Gardens

"... (they) grow from the engine cavities, cabs, flatbeds, and trunks of scrap vehicles. Conjuring new ways to integrate organic life into an auto centric built environment the wheeled vehicles are still mobile when pushed or towed."

-Farmlab brochure

Photos from Farmlab in L.A.

"Continuing to serve as a catalyst for community involvement and change through the development of art actions, projects, and otherwise, Farmlab is dedicated to the preservation and perpetuity of all living things."

Egret Observations

I see them

4 white Egrets in the marsh

fishing 

looks like

They have orange bills

they stand, they don't swim

every once in a while 

they jab at the water

Actually there are 5

Spied unaware

bathing together

on a warm afternoon

It's The Little Things...

I've been doing projects with found pennies since 2002.  Why? I'm asking myself that regularly. They are these recurring elements, falling in between valuable and worthless, noticed and unnoticed, cared for and disregarded. They are like so many, many things in our world. It's not about the pennies...

I Declare!

The Bread & Puppet "Cheap Art Manifesto"

"Thank you, Francis!"

by Francis Picabia

January 1923

One must become acquainted with everybody except oneself; one must not know which sex one belongs to; I do not care whether I am male or female, I do not admire men more than I do women. Having no virtue, I am assured of not suffering from them. Many people seek the road which can lead them to their ideal: I have no ideal; the person who parades his ideal is only an arriviste. Undoubtedly, I am also an arriviste, but my lack of scruples is an invention for myself, a subjectivity. Objectively it would consist of awarding myself the légion d'honneur, of wishing to become a minister or of plotting to get into the Institute! Well, for me, all that is shit!

What I like is to invent, to imagine, to make myself a new man every moment, then forget him, forget everything. We should be equipped with a special eraser, gradually effacing our works and the memory of them. Our brain should be nothing back a blackboard, or white, or better, a mirror in which we would see ourselves for a moment, only to turn our back on it two minutes later. My ambition is to be a man sterile for others; the man who set himself up as a school disgusts me, he gives his gonorrhea to artists for nothing and sells it as clearly as possible to amateurs. Actually, writers, painters, and other idiots have passed on the word to fight against the 'monsters', monsters who, naturally, do not exist, who are pure inventions, of man.

Artists are afraid; they whisper in each other's ears about a boogey man which might well prevent them from playing their dirty little tricks! No age, I believe, has been more imbecilic than ours. These gentlemen would have us believe that nothing is happening anymore; the train reversing its engines, it seems, is very pretty to look at, cows are no longer enough! The travelers to this backward Decanville are named: Matisse, Morandi, Braque, Picasso, Léger, de Segonzac, etc., etc. ... What is funniest of all is that they accept, as stationmaster, Louis Vauxcelles, whose great black napkin contains only a foetus!

Since the war, a ponderous and half-witted sentiment of morality rules the entire world. The moralists never discern the moral facts of appearances, the Church for them is a morality like the morality of drinking water, or of not daring to wash one's ass in front of a parrot! All that is arbitrary; people with morals are badly informed, and those who are informed know that the others will not inform themselves.

There is no such thing as a moral problem; morality like modesty is one of the greatest stupidities. The asshole of morality should take the form of a chamber-pot, that's all the objectivity I ask of it.

This contagious disease called morality has succeeded in contaminating all of the so-called artistic milieux; writers and painters become serious people, and soon we shall have a minister of painting and literature; I don't doubt that there will be still more frightful assininities. The poets no longer know what to say, so some are becoming Catholics, others believers; these men manufacture their little scribblings as Félix Potin does his cold chicken preserves; people say that Dada is the end of romanticism, that I am a clown, and they cry long live classicism which will save the pure souls and their ambitions, the simple souls so dear to those afflicted by dreams of grandeur!

However, I don not abandon the hope that nothing is finished yet, I am here, and so are several friends who have a love of life, a life we do not know and which interests us for that very reason.

originally published in Littérature, new series no. 8, Paris, January 1923 as 'Francis Merci!'

"the radical artists' manifesto"

by arp, baumann, eggeling, giacometti, helbig, henning, janco, morach, richter

11th april 1919

A clear, straightforward gaze must predominate if decisions of great import are to be taken. Spiritually and materially, we demand our right: representatives of an essential part of culture, we, the artists, want to take part in the ideological development of the State; we want to exist in the State and take our full share of responsibilities. We declare that the artistic laws of our time are already formulated in their main outline. The spirit of abstract art represents an enormous extension in man's feeling of freedom. Our faith is fraternal art: art's new mission in society. Art imposes clarity; should serve as a basis for the new man. He should belong to everyone without class distinction. We want to channel the conscious production-strength of each individual into the completion of the communal undertaking. We are fighting lack of system, destroyer of strength. Our highest aspiration is to realise a spiritual basis of understanding for all men. This is our duty. This work ensures the greatest vitality for all people. The initiative for this is ours. We shall direct its course and give expression to its wishes by joining into a harmonious whole its most disparate elements.

11 April 1919.

arp, baumann, eggeling, giacometti, helbig, henning, janco, morach, richter

"Extropic Art Manifesto 

of

Transhumanist Arts"

____________________

We are transhumans.

Our art integrates the most eminent progression

of creativity and sensibility

merged by discovery.

I am the architect of my existence. My art reflects my vision and represents my values. 

It conveys the very essence of my being—coalescing imagination and insight, challenging all limits.

We are exploring how current and future technologies affect our senses, our cognition and our lives. 

Our attention to these relationships become fields of art as we participate in the most immediate and 

vital issues for transhumanity—extending life, augmenting intelligence and creativity, exploring the universe. 

Artists, as communicators, bring together the passions, the dreams and the hopes of transhumanity and 

express these emotions in ways that touch us deeply. 

Transhumanist Arts reflects an extropic appreciation of aesthetics in a technologically enhanced world.

We are voices of transhumanity. Our voices are a synthesis, rhythm and exploration of imagination.

The Transhumanist Arts movement and its genres regard art as more than an artifact. 

Art influences social and cultural change: how we live and who we are. 

It creates a sense of self, art as being, autonomous yet connected to culture’s 

continuum. How we accomplish our intentions is a matter of selective individual choice—

whether abstract or representational, whether artifact or conceptual. 

Our criteria for art remain open and we welcome cross-disciplinary innovations.

As we move into the 21st Century, 

Transhumanist Arts and Extropic Art will suffuse the universe around us. 

Our unique ingenuity will spread far out into the capillaries of our culture. 

We are active participants in our own evolution from human to posthuman. 

We are shaping the image—the design and the essence—of what we are becoming.

Natasha Vita-More

Authored January 1, 1997 ©

2003 ©

I Spy...

Through My Bionic Eye...

So, another science non-fiction. 

What will we see with extra-sensing eyes?

How will it change our understanding of the world?

...Do we need special lenses to expand our perceptive capacities?

Does our ability to "see" reside in the circuitry?

Or does it depend on our cognitive capacity of understanding?

Is a mechanical improvement really what we are looking for?

As humans, aren't we always looking for an expanded vision that reaches beyond mechanics into meaning?

What blind-spots will be created by a constant 3rd party analysis of what we perceive?

Computers are not omnipotent voices from on high, they are created and programmed by a select group of humans.

What could we accomplish if this type of creativity, innovation, and intellectual prowess was applied to the world crises in communication and distribution of resources?

What would happen if we invested in those issues?

More Bionic Eyes:

Related Articles:

"Bionic" Contact Lens May Create Tiny Personal Displays; National Geographic

Bionics: The Six Million Dollar Question; Scienceagogo.com

The Twilight Zone

This is a picture of a mouse that has been frozen for 16 years. Why are we looking at this? Scientists have successfully cloned a healthy mouse from the cells of this mouse-sicle. Scary.

What's next, Woolly Mammoths? Saber Tooth Tigers? Or how about we bring to life some of our ancient relatives, like our dear friend the Neanderthal Man or Turkana Boy, so we can imprison them in laboratories, stick electrodes in them, and study ourselves!

Who are the aliens that are abducting people and probing them in scientific experiments? WE ARE!

(read the article)

Holy Amazing-ness Batman! (website)

Okay, this website, and the projects on it, are INCREDIBLE!

Here is some info about the group:

"Bestiario is a small Barcelona/Lisbon based company, which was founded two years ago. We are dedicated to data dynamic representation and to the creation of digital spaces for the collective creation of knowledge. Our slogan is: 'making the complex comprehensible.' We combine art and science to design and create interactive information spaces. We developed a powerful framework based on graph theory, topological algorithms, physic models, geometrical and geographical representations."


The Masterminds are:

Jose Aguirre
Santiago Ortiz
Andrés Ortiz

and here is their site:

bestiario.org

You MUST check it out! It will blow your mind.

Personal Service Announcements

Laurie Anderson: Personal Service Announcements

I think these are from the late 80's early 90's. It was actually hard to find information about them (resources anyone?). They are amazing.

PSA: "National Anthem"

PSA: "Women and Money"

PSA: "Television"

PSA: "National Debt"

PSA: "Military Research"

PSA: "Jerry Rigging"

Dreaming of L.A.

I dreamt about Laurie Anderson last night. 

We had a moment. 

I was in a large warehouse style room. Gigantic really. Everything was white, metal, clean. There were enormous storage bins suspended from the ceiling which held different ingredients. It was some kind of backstage for a restaurant. A kitchen. I was managing a team. Restaurant workers? We were preparing something, cleaning, putting things in order. Something was spilling. Maple Syrup leaking out onto the floor, overflowing from a dish on a table onto the floor. No problem, just clean it up. Then drip drip drip, leaking from above. The bin, a bedroom-sized box filled with Maple Syrup, is busting at the seams. Streams of Maple Syrup running down its sides. And then it "goes" - and there is a Maple Syrupy mess everywhere. We are startled. We step back and clear the space, and then the bin next to it goes. Large rigatoni pour from above, crashing over the sterile kitchen architecture. Another bin goes. More pasta. Click clackety tap. Click clackety-tappity-clackety-tappity-clackety-tappity-clackety-tappity-clackety-tappity-tap. Raining percussion . There is no anxiety, only suprise. We retreat.

I left a note for Laurie Anderson. I told her about the uncontrollable cascades of food items and ingredients.  She and I exchange words in whispers. She is like an aunt, who is not really my aunt. Wise, Experienced, Gentle. 

"I'm a snob"

This is one of my favorite things that Laurie Anderson said at UC Berkeley on Saturday afternoon. She was answering a question that a member of the audience had asked. He had inquired about the kind of feedback that she received about her work; were people ever confused? Did people misread her work? --- Her answer was great. "Sometimes," she said, "people don't like it at all. They get it and they don't like it." She went on to explain that she didn't really care. That she was coming from the culture of the New York art world where: the less someone understands it the better. She mentioned that when her hit single from 1981, "O Superman," topped the charts, her peers were the opposite of impressed. Being famous was not the goal, being cheered by the masses meant that you were doing something wrong. "I'm a snob," she said. 

I'm not usually a fan of snobbery but whatever her angle was really worked. It was liberating to hear that one didn't have to make art that everyone could understand. It helped that she didn't seem like a snob at all. She just seemed like someone with a lot of confidence and integrity. She was polite and respectful to everyone, even the wacko types who asked her weird personal questions (which she maneuvered artfully).

"O Superman":

A few other favorite Laurie Andersonisms from Saturday:

- a hint for something to do when feeling blocked: set out to make the absolute worst piece of art that you can imagine. She says that this is helpful because it shows your limitations, the places that you are labeling for yourself as "off limits". (it also probably helps just to get you going. It must be easier to attempt making the worst art ever, than the best -- heck, I do it all the time without even trying!).

- she doesn't think that art has to change the world or make it a better place. She explains that it's not bad if art does this, and certainly it does from time to time. However, it shouldn't be the burden of artists to fix everything. She says that we should all be doing that.

- she doesn't like blogging. She refers to it as "mesearch" and says that she doesn't care that much about other people's personal lives.

For You

The first project that I started working on was a mini-vigil operation. I came into grad-school being very interested in creating positive experiences for people and facilitating reaffirming moments. A central focus in this theme was the power of positive thinking. I felt that by creating a positive intention in our minds, we are creating positivity in our lives. I guess I thought that being an artist would give me an excuse to go around doing good deeds and adding a drop of sunshine to the lives of the people that I encounter. -- When I write it out like that it is no wonder that most of the people I've told these ideas to think that I am naive. Maybe I am/have been. The naivete, however, is not to believe in these things, but to assume that one can present them so bluntly. -- So I'm working on a spit-shine for my naivete.  -- 

The candles were my first attempt at the mini-vigil. I made little clay candle holders for them and then they sat in my studio for weeks because I couldn't decide how to send them out into the world. Finally, I found an entry point. Although I had wanted to approach people directly and invite them to join me for a vigil, I didn't feel ready for that. So, I decided to leave the candles randomly in different spots around the neighborhood (Potrero Hill, SF).  I wrote the words "for you" on the candle-holders so that the "finder" would understand that they were intentionally left to be found. -- I hope that a few people noticed them, and that curiosity was inspired. I wonder if anyone took the candle home, and I wonder if any of them were lit and meditated upon. 

     

Doubt

"The only sensible way to regard the art life is that it is a privilege you are willing to pay for.... You may cite honors and attentions and even money paid, but I would have you note that these were paid a long time after the creator had gone through his struggles.

-Robert Henri

1865 - 1929

"Finishing a painting demands a heart of steel: everything requires a decision, and I find difficulties where I least expect them.... It is at such moments that one fully realizes one's own weaknesses."

-Eugene Delacroix

1796 - 1863

"Even at this late date, I go into my studio, and I think 'Is this going to be it? Is it the end?' You see, nearly everything terrorizes me. I think that when an artist loses that terror, he's through."

-Robert Rauschenberg

1925 - 2008

"I believe in listening to cycles. I listen by not forcing. If I am in a dead working period, I wait, though these periods are hard to deal with. For the future, I'll see what happens. I'll be content if I get started again. If I feel that alive again. If I find myself working with the old intensity again."

-Lee Krasner

1908 - 1983

"I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn't matter --- that would be my life."

- Jasper Johns

1930 -

"I was discouraged about life, discouraged about people being blind, but I don't think I had a day that I ever questioned creativity. There has never been a day like that."

- Louise Nevelson

1900 - 1988

$5.20

Five Dollars and Twenty Cents

That is approximately what I am paying every hour of every day that I am enrolled in graduate school (not including the extra loan I took out to cover living expenses). Yes, I think about this, probably more often than I should. I'm thrifty person, and it seems very counter intuitive to spend more money than I have - isn't that the first commandment of personal finance that is not to be broken. But school is different right? It's an investment... 

Is an advanced art degree really worth $60,000? You know what I've learned so far? That only 10% of MFA grads continue to make any art at all after they graduate (note: 5 a's in a row!). Now a statistic like that doesn't actually discourage me, but the question is still to be explored: Why are my professors teaching me that statistic? I've also heard that the MFA degree is the most popular advanced degree to be awarded; again, not very encouraging. 

$120 a day for 9 months. That would cover regular yoga classes for the rest of my life.

Doubt. All artists have doubt. Do I doubt whether or not I will continue to make art? No. Do I doubt whether this degree is really going to help me get where I want to be? Yes. Do I know exactly where I want to be? No.

Ahh, sweet unknowing, your scent fills the night air and intoxicates. 

Even though I know it is not fruitful to  dwell on the anxiety, it is easy to indulge in doubts when there are challenges. Doubts offer a way out, and they always buy time. Hesitation, the difference between a tourist and a local. 

The best response to this question, I've decided, is that: since I've already laid down the money for this adventure, it would be silly to waste time I've already paid for by re-weighing a decision I've already made. The best thing to do is to get the most out of it until the point when I am faced with the decision again, at which point I can re-evaluate.

Oh! The exciting life of spending ridiculous amounts of money!

Bikes, History, and Keepin' It Real

A bike tour of Dissent in San Francisco.

That's how I spent my afternoon. I've recently come into contact with a great local activist named Chris Carlsson. He's been involved in activism and culture making for a LONG time. He's a historian, and a dreamer. He's written a utopian sci-fi novel, After The Deluge,  of what a post economic San Francisco would be like in the future, and he recently came out with another new book: Nowtopia. His new book examines how we, in American society, occupy our time, specifically, how we "work". The book examines a new push in our culture to spend enormous amounts of time engaged in voluntary community activities and projects which feed our souls in a way that our "day jobs" cannot. Nowtopia is filled with examples of people "doing it for themselves". It's really informative and inspiring.

So Chris led our group of about 10 cyclists around the streets of San Francisco stopping at sites of protest, activism, alternative community initiatives, and the like. It was great to be biking through the streets as a group, and hearing this important community history was really wonderful. 

Among Chris' many other projects is his involvement in CounterPulse which is a local performance space and grassroots organizing hub (where I might be volunteering soon!).

Already Here

So many people out there saying the same thing. So what?!

This idea that somehow we all have to be different. Somehow uniquely unlike anyone we know, or anyone else knows, is ridiculous. Art school is full of people trying to be different. Our careers depend on it. We have to have "new" ideas and say things in "new" ways. Well, I don't think there are any NEW ideas, only OLD ideas. Everything we "discover" is just a process of remembering, or waking up. "NEW" is narcissistic, "new" is ownership, "new" is "mine". I, me, my name should go next to that. The colonization of mental space. Stick your flag in the next new theory. From now till the end of time, that's a "jackson pollack paint splatter," a "freudian perspective," a "(I wish I could think of lady culture-maker to insert here, alas)". I don't believe in the new. I believe in the "already here".

Utopia & Eutopia

The word "utopia" translates to "no place". (Thank you Thomas More)

There is a flaw built in to our collective imagining of the future if nonexistence is built into the most commonly used word for a positive and idealistic projections. 

The word "eutopia", on the other hand, translates to "good place". Not an illusion, not impossible. Just good.

I am interested in the way that different people relate to these ideas. I am interested in hearing personal visions of eutopia/utopia. I want to know what fits in to these ideal environments. And I want to know what obstructions there are to contemplating optimistic possibilities. Does it feel silly? Does it feel unrealistic or irresponsible? Why? 

To Anyone,

If you are reading this blog, post your thoughts! What does your eutopia look like? What does it feel like to imagine it? When does it happen? 100 years? 1000 years? Next week? Who/What is out there leading us toward that vision? Who/What is standing in the way or pulling us in the opposite direction?

Eutopia

The future. What does it hold? Is it possible that our society can evolve and learn to solve the problems we are now facing? Can we all learn to get along? What would we do if our lives were not spent in solving conflicts? Would we spend our time avoiding conflicts? Would we create and experience new wonders? Sustainable wonders?

Will the entire world run out of water, oil, food? Or can we do something now to prevent that from happening? Isn't "pre-emptive action" the specialty of the times? 

The future is now. Who said that? At least 126,000 people. It's not a secret. 

The future. If the future is now, then we have the power to change the future. By the decisions that we make in our individual lives, and the decisions we make collectively. 

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Tonight I'll be summarizing theory: Maurice Merleau-Ponty. - "The Intertwining -- The Chiasm" from The Visible and the Invisible.

This work is incredibly dense. We are reading it in our Contemporary Art History class, and it has inspired rage in several people. "Intellectual masturbation," it has been called by some, "bullshit," by others. I, personally, didn't mind it that much. As an exercise, a jaunt into the bog of abstract ideas and exploratory thinking, I found it relatively entertaining. It did take a frickin' long time to read (Truth: I didn't actually read the whole thing, but I've been assured that nothing startling happens in the second half). So, yes, it is very abstract. It has to do with perception and the relationship of the subject and object. 

Okay, here we go:

"The Intertwining -- The Chiasm," by Merleau-Ponty is an exploration, in thought, of our subjective experience; our relationship with our senses, and our relationship, through our senses, to objects and beings outside of ourselves. Through an analysis of visibility and the visual experience, touch, speech, thought, and language, Merleau-Ponty attempts to show that there is no real separation between the observer, and that which is being observed; that perception is limited by the body (the means of perception), and that there is a true essence/substance of all things, ourselves included, the understanding of which, is not attainable. 

According to his view, the individual is connected to all other individuals, and to objects, through his/her similarity in tissue; in actual physical matter. However, the individual is also forever separated by his/her lack of ability to see/sense beyond the skin of appearances.

Through a rigorous mental investigation, Merleau-Ponty examines age-old questions of, "How do we understand our world?", and "How do we understand ourselves?". His answer to these questions is that we are fated, by our material selves. to accept only a nominal grasp of the substance of our existence. He seems to suggest, through his analytical approach, that the best we can do is to understand the complexities and contradictions of our perception, and to remember that everything is us, and also, not as it seems.

Mingling

I met Brian Conley tonight. 

(Aside)

I actually went to high-school with someone named Brian Connely (spelled differently, pronounced the same). The one I went to high-school with was an all-around great guy. He was nice, smart, funny, athletic. He was an achiever and he was modest. I think he ended up marrying a girl that we went to high-school with, Liz Strauss. Anyway, he's not the one I met tonight. 

The one I met tonight is the former chair of the Fine Art Program at CCA. He was nice, interesting, I enjoyed talking with him. He's an artist that used to live in NYC. The story is that he came out here 3 years ago to do an artist talk and CCA ended up offering him the job as chair of the MFA program. He's not the chair anymore, he's teaching two classes. He's happy to have more time to be making artwork. We talked about the importance of understanding contemporary theory, and how we both enjoy allowing our concepts to decide our materials rather than the other way around. He currently has work,  Miniature Iraq War in Las Vegas, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

recent bio from CCA

older, but more in depth, bio

First Days of School

I moved into our shared studio today. It feels so good to have a home for my art materials. Now the work can begin. The space is relatively small, to share between 13 people at least, but it will have to do. The official first day of classes is tomorrow but I don't have my first class until Wednesday.  "Strategies in Public Art" will be my first breath of grad-school air. My impression of the instructor, John Leaños, is that he is not one to adhere to prescribed academic structures, but we'll see. I guess one (namely, "me") would hope that all art school educators, especially ones at the higher level, would think outside the box, but, damn, there are so many boxes!

So my first class is not until Wednesday but I think I'll go into the studio tomorrow anyway. I want to set up a little bit. I have some reading to do also: Walter Benjamin, Greenberg, an article about the Avant-Garde, + some others. Yes!!! Let it begin! I've already read the Benjamin and I remember it to be baffling-ly dense. I look forward to giving it a second go. 

I'm also going into the studio because I need to give the curators of PlaySpace (our student run gallery) some labels to go along with my penny collection. They are including part of my penny collection in their upcoming show about collections/collecting (I'm actually not quite sure what it is about, but, hey, it's good to participate, and my pennies are cool!). I gave them 4 small jars of pennies. There are "Found Pennies", "Canadian Pennies", "Wheat-backed Pennies", and "Smashed Pennies". I'm curious to see the exhibition all together, the opening is next week sometime.

Openings, Articles, and Artwork... Let The Games Begin!