The Orange Arborists

...nothing that should not be seen...

"According to one attitude, there is nothing that should not be seen; according to the other, there is nothing that should not be recorded. Cameras implement an aesthetic view of reality by being a machine-toy that extends to everyone the possibility of making disinterested judgments about importance, interest, beauty. ("That would make a good picture.") Cameras implement the instrumental view of reality by gathering information that enables us to make a more accurate and much quicker response to whatever is going on. The response may of course be either repressive or benevolent: military reconnaissance photographs help snuff out lives, X-rays help save them."

- On Photography - p176

Excerpts from 'On Photography'

by Susan Sontag

published in 1973

"Through being photographed, something becomes part of a system of information, fitted into schemes of classification and storage which range from the crudely chronological order of snapshot sequences pasted in family alums to the dogged accumulations and meticulous filing needed for photography's uses in weather forecasting, astronomy, microbiology, geology, police work, medical training and diagnosis, military reconnaissance, and art history. Photographs do more than redefine the stuff of ordinary experience (people, things, events, whatever we see—albeit differently, often inattentively— with natural vision) and add vast amounts of material that we never see at all. Reality as such is redefined—as an item for exhibition, as a record for scrutiny, as a target for surveillance. The photographic exploration and duplication of the world fragments continuities and feeds the pieces into an interminable dossier, thereby providing possibilities of control that could not even be dreamed of under the earlier system of recording information: writing."

p156

"While many people in the non-industrialized countries still feel apprehensive when being photographed, divining it to be some kind of trespass, an act of disrespect, a sublimated looting of personality or the culture, people in industrialized countries seek to have their photographs taken—feel that they are images, and are made real by photographs."

p161

"To possess the world in the form of images is, precisely, to reexperience the unreality and remoteness of the real."

p164

Zen in the Art of Photography

"Cartier-Bresson has likened himself to a Zen archer (see my post on 'Zen in the Art of Archery'), who must become the target so as to be able to hit it; 'thinking should be done
beforehand and afterwards,' he says, 'never while actually taking a
photograph.'"

-'On Photography' by Susan Sontag

Found Cut-out

Found Sculpture

The Living Roof

At The California Academy of Sciences

"Stop and smell the wildflowers during a visit to the Academy's living roof, a 2.5-acre expanse of native California plants. The museum's most iconic green building feature, the roof provides superior insulation, prevents stormwater runoff, reduces the urban heat island effect, and creates a new habitat for native birds, butterflies, and other local wildlife."

My uncle and other companions at the Academy noticed that the living roof had an uncanny resemblance to another fantastic agricultural landscape.... Teletubby Island. And I have to say, it is an eerie topographical synonym.

This is not a beisa oryx

Academy of sciences, San Francisco

Found Time-Based Piece

Melting Candy, outside the De Young

Found Sparkles

Found Textile

Overheard: Liberty/Valencia

A dude on the phone, while walking with his girlfriend...

"Hey, I have a question for you about unicorns... Are they gender
specific?..."

Gregory Webster

The Pocket Books

2/5 of the band

Let's Whisper

Antarctica Takes It!

The Apple Orchard

Land Of Ill Earthquakes

Now...
Acoustic music picnic in Dolores Park
Part of SF Pop Fest
There's a really nice spirit here...

Found Fortune

....says...'A Distant Relative Will Phone You Soon'....

...the way Rice felt while listening.

"But Rice, on the spot, gave Johnson carte blanche to hire the Alberses—and immediately. He made the decision not because he knew anything of them or because Black Mountain was so desperate that he had to pick names out of the hat. Rather, it was the way Johnson had looked when he talked about Albers—and the way Rice felt while listening. 'If you ever meet anybody who has seen a great teacher in action,' Rice explained years later, 'something happens as soon as you mention his name. Something happens to the person that's talking to the person who's talking about him. You see a vision.' It was one of the shrewdest intuitions, perhaps the key decision in Black Mountain's early years."

Found Frame

/found drawing

click on the image for a better look at what is framed

Found Gesture

Found Sculpture, Cat Sleeping in the Sun

slack licorice, soft dusty, flop cuddled

dreaming

in a meadow somewhere, sun warming, squinting

blue ceiling, deep, endless

veils and pillows, soft and swaddle

soft earth, whispering low

caravan of friends trafficking

endlessness, forever, and infinity

Found Sculpture

Orange Peel : hiding in the grass
Traces of a conscious unveiling : one piece
Traces of time : petrification

Found Drawing

Salted Caramel

Light at the End of The Tube

Come One! Come All! (Right Now!)

The California College of the Arts:
MFA Exhibition

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 7, 6–9 p.m.

Info: 415.551.9271
Free and open to the public
Running May 7–16, 10 am–7:30 pm


Come mingle with talented, up and coming, artists like Conrad(ical) Ruiz.

(pictured at left)...

... and Mysterious, Allstar Curators like the fabulous Jens Hoffmann.

(pictured at left)

The Keys That Survived The Fire

Artist Talk Tonight!!! 7pm

Abraham Cruzvillegas will be here... and so will his parents! Who are
the subject of his recent work for the Passengers exhibition @ the
Wattis Gallery (CCA - 1111 8th st. - San Francisco).

'Abraham Cruzvillegas was born in Mexico City in 1968. He lives and
works in Mexico City and Paris.'
- Wattis Literature

Che Bel Fiore!

Walking along on a gray rainy day and then WHAM! Color hits you upside
the head!

The why...

... It's best not to leave your bike locked up on the street forever...

Because if it doesn't get stripped for parts... It's bound to end up
as somebody's public art project.

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.