Crappy Weather and Writing

"I started something, and now I'm not too sure."

The Smith's singles album came on randomly as I started this post and I took iTunes off of random so I could listen to the whole album. Damn, rainy days and Morrissey, what could be more...right?

I've posted a review of the El Guapo show I saw at the Empty Bottle last week up on the In The Periphery Site, you should go and read it. Our esteemed editor has deemed In The Periphery above Amazon linking, so I can't make recommendations there, but I can here. Go buy these albums:



So, my art is hanging in a space downtown and Allen, the organizer of Fest Forward, informed me we'll be setting up a formal "opening" for the artists, so that is very cool. I will probably see Love Pollution three or four times before this month is over. I will post as soon as I know more information.

Feast of Fools and the Art of Found Objects

Last night I went to see a cabaret show called Feast of Fools at Schuba's in Chicago. Frankly, it was not very good. It had a lot of potential, but it didn't seem very well-rehearsed. One major issue was that there were only three mics and like 7 people in the cast. The place isn't even that big. It seemed like they could have just as easily suspended all three microphones and done what most actors would do: project. I hate to say it, because I really like some of the cast members, but I also know that they're capable of better, so if this is ever seen by them, they'll get some honest criticism. I know they may get a write up in the Free Press next week. I'm curious what they'll say. There were individual performances by guests including Patty Elvis, the lesbian Elvis impersonator and this gay male folk singer Brady Earnhart, both of whom were very good. Abby Schachner was this kind of pseudo stand-up/performance artist who sang humorous songs while smoking and swinging around a pork chop (which she called a steak) on string. All in all, it was a really visceral and memorable evening with lots of color and sound and even a strong message about the evils of pharmaceutical companies throwing circuit parties, but like I said, it didn't all come together and I wish it had.

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In other news, my own found object-based visual art will be on display at a prime downtown location starting Saturday, May 29th all the way to June 26th. It's part of a play, Love Pollution, written by my friend Allan Conkle, being performed every weekend in June. You can get lots of information at www.nomenil.com. There's all sorts of stuff going on, including bands playing, stand-up comedy and other artists exhibiting. I've seen the space and it's very...interesting.

My band, Farewell Society, will be one of the featured bands in this year's Challenge, which is an improvisational film event that has teams of filmmakers make improvisational films inspired by songs by local bands. Split Pillow, a not-for-profit improvisational film organization that's headed up by my buddy Jason put the event together and I think it will be cool to see what one of my band's songs (I don't know which song they're using yet, but it's off of our upcoming e.p.) inspired a group of people to make a movie about.

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You'll notice some changes. It's part of the remodel. It will probably take a few days as I figure it all out.

So, I wonder if the artist Jemima Stehli was recently in the news or something. Observant readers will remember her piece from the Art Chicago 2004 review I made a while back. Her piece was the multiple color photographs of herself being watched by three different men while she took off her clothes. Anyway, her name has been googled several times and people have found my site as a result of it. Maybe she's just googling herself, because it was using several different search engines, though, then why would she keep opening my page?

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I posted a dream today and yesterday. They're short, but weird.

I wrote a little bit on the READING site, too.

On the FOUND blog, there's a snippet of a No Doubt song performed by this band Cat Fight, who were performing at the Mad Hatter's Ball on Saturday. The Mad Hatter's Ball is a fundraiser for the Looking Glass Theatre Company. Friends of the Foreit family are involved including this guy Joey Slotnick (sp?), who I guess is on the wildly popular show, Nip and Tuck, which I've never watched, but I guess it's on F/X. Could be wrong.

5 pieces of my artwork will be on display at the Loop Theatre, located at 8 East Randolph in Chicago, right across the street from Marshall Fields on State Street. The Loop Theatre is owned by the City of Chicago and they basically give the space away to applicants for about a month at a time every month. My friend Allen Conkle of Nomenil Productions has gotten the space and will be shaking that touristy mainstream area to its foundations for most of the month of June with the play Love Pollution. I strongly encourage everyone with the ability to go see this to do so (and look at my art). I will be helping him to transform the space over the next week, and the first official opening night is May 29th. There will be a 144 foot vortex of found and reused objects as a centerpiece to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Also, if you go to the nomenil site, you'll see a whole cornucopia of events that are going on at the space, including a performance by Chicago's Three Dollar Bill.

New Dream.

Also, a little reporting on some Found Objects.


It was a very productive weekend. I finished a large box, which will be on display at some space downtown in June. I'm not sure of the details yet, but they will be posted. Oh yes, they will. I was in my studio for probably a total of 18 hours out of 48 on Saturday and Sunday. No more progress was made on the portrait colors project, but I did sell two of my old paintings to a friend. She got em real cheap, too. They are both paintings from when I studied in France 5 years ago (ugh - getting old). Here they are:




The first one is an oil and the second, obviously, is a watercolor. My instructors in Aix-en-Provence (France) always told me I had a style that was washy and looked watercolor-esque, so the two make a good display pair.

Since we're on the subject of art, here's the second and final installment of Art Chicago 2004.


Vic Muniz is possibly my favorit living photographer. He creates elaborate copies of famous images out of strange materials. In the past, he's used Hershey's chocolate syrup and spaghetti. Here, he's used a collection of brightly colored toys to create a likeness of a famous Don Quixote image (I can't remember the original artist's name right now). Pretty cool, huh?



Stephen Knapp creates compositions of pure light by projecting light at color glass panels. The result is pretty interesting. This image is not quite as vibrant as in person, but it definitely has close to the same feeling. To give a sense of size, I'd say this "painting" had dimensions of about 3'X4'.



I took this photo specifically for one person. You know who you are. I didn't even take the artist's name. I thought it was of some noteworthiness that two different "fine" artists chose comic books as subject matter, though.



This guy is my favorite Chicago artist. I actually own a very small piece that he executed for Art Chicago 2000. He only made four pieces of this size and has never made any others. This piece was hanging horizontally, but I changed the direction so you can see it a little better in my silly-sized image area (which will change in about a month - I hope - when the hub redesign is complete). His name is Pancho Quilici. He utilizes several disciplines to create these elaborate artifacts. There are elements of drawing, technical drafting, sculpture, painting and collage. There is an overwhelming sense of geometric harmony and of precision. Here is a detail shot (though not a very good one):


There's a lot going on, but it's difficult to tell with these crappy images. There's this almost jewel-like quality to that center item. It looks almost like some future-bug trapped in a perfectly round and clear amber resin. And then there's a plastic casing around all of that which projects pretty far from the rest of the image. Surprisingly, this whole piece, which was about 6 feet wide by about 2.5 feet tall, was only around $6,000 if I remember correctly. In 2000, he had a piece of similar size that was going for nearly $20,000, if memory serves, but perhaps it was even bigger and my memory sucks as it is, so don't quote me, please.



Nathan Slate Joseph was commissioned to do a bunch of similar panels for the restaurant 160 Blue several years ago. They are large panels consisting of several sheets of oxidizing metals. The oxidization provides the interesting and rich colors. Very heavy pieces. Not good for people who move a lot.



This guy is named Martin Mull - I'm not sure if it's the same Martin Mull who is the actor, but if it is, it's pretty good. Very charming and surreal painting/collages. I think I recall reading somewhere that the actor Martin Mull was painting, but again, I could be wrong. In any even, I like these works.

Finally, a Dahli.



Though I saw a huge show of his works on paper, I still am not used to seeing anything but his paintings. I really enjoyed the lightness of this piece. In a way, the realism of his paintings make them so heavy to me, sort of in a way that almost turns me off. Maybe I'm just in a mood.....

I worked in the studio again the other night and completed two more color sketches: blue and green. Again, they are surprisingly decent considering how long it's been since figurative painting (four years).

I did these after I finished some of the polyurethane glueing of the box I'm currently working on, which is the largest thus far (app. 1'x1'x3'). Here is the mess my studio is in as I work on this project.

I am most excited about this particular box because I am incorporating sound, light and a fan to blow through a barbie's hair. Should be pretty cool.

Art Chicago 2004 Part 1

On monday, I took off work early and went to ArtChicago, which is a pretty huge art exhibition. I actually worked as a floor manager for it 4 years ago and it was a great experience. I saw a bunch of people I knew both socially and people from the art world (and those that intersect) and so it was fun in that way too.

I try and make it every year, but I almost always forget about it until the last minute and end up rushing through it.

This year I tried to document as much as I could. Here were some of my favorites along with comments.



This one was called "Nina's Friends" and was executed by a female artist named Sun-Rae Kim while she was pregnant. I thougt they were so cute. If you could see the detailing, you might be able to tell that many of them are made from cut straws and others from fine japanese paper.



My friend Tamara insisted this one was her favorite artist (Man Hyeok Yim), and at first I couldn't tell why. But upon closer inspection (which you won't be able to do), I saw that painting is executed on handmade paper and alot of the detailing uses the natural fibers of the paper as sort of a guide. Up close and in person, it's very nice.



The diamond dogs I don't know any details about, but they were cool looking.



This piece was one of the first that caught my eye at the show. It's a series of color photos hung, unframed, of what I'm assuming is the artist, Jemima Stehli getting dressed in front of three different male subjects. The males hold the little plunger that controls taking the pictures. I'm assuming she merely instructed them to click pictures when they thought they'd look good or whatever. Interestingly, she's the object of his concentration, but we see her back and his face, so he becomes the subject more than she. It's a perspectival triangle that touches on desire, vanity, the viewer/art dynamic and more.



The image is of an adult walking with a child through a park or something. The child is pointing back at what looks like some sort of conflagration, like a burning bush or something, and inside the fire is a figure of a person. The painterly, thick brush within that fiery part is really nice in contrast with the flatness of the rest of the painting. And the burning figure inside the bush is eery and provocative. The painting is by Dan Attoe, I think and he's represented by Wendy Cooper Gallery here in Chicago, so I may go there again to look at more.



It's hard to get from this photo, but this is a photo collage mounted on this architectual wood construct that uses a third dimension to enhance the perspective of the view of the image. It's quite cool in person. I should have taken a picture of the side, so you'd get an idea of the depth (it came off the wall about10 inches at the furthest point, I'd say). This artist had several of these, but I can't figure out from my notes which his or her name is now. Whoops.

The following three are all images from the wonderful world of comic books and they were made by Mark Newport. They all use knitting and embroidery to emulate or affect comic books, which is kind of interesting. It seems to sort of touch on a sort of feminine quality about comic books. Or maybe I'm just projecting?

Posted a new DREAM that is quite possibly the weirdest to date. Also wrote a bit about what I'm reading.

I may be back later to post some pics from a girls' football game I went to on saturday.

Just posted a really quick snippet of a dream.

I'm on my way to see a girl's tackle football game. Chicago vs. New York. Should be fun.

I wrote a new article for In The Periphery.

Last night I worked on some studies for a new painting that I'll be working on. It's a series of self portraits centered around a found object. The object is a child's writing/spelling assignment. It's in pencil on that really big-lined paper that you use when you're first learning penmanship. It's just 8 statements that all begin "I am.." and end with a color. So the painting will be of 8 portraits all using a monochrome of a specific color (I'll be using one other color as well - usually the color's compliment, if applicable). This study is a watercolor, but I will probably do the painting in acrylic on panel. The piece will also have other found objects incorporated into it as well. It sounds abstract now, but it will be cool. Anyway, here are the pics of the studies from yesterday. The red watercolor and just a sketch of what will be the blue study.

Some new writing in the reading blog, and I added a dream yesterday and am about to add a short one right now.

This past weekend I went to San Francisco partially to attend a wedding and partially to see my friend Kristine, who is living out their as she pursues her master's degree at UCSF. My flight to SF was rather uneventful except for the final remark of an air mattress (flight attendant) to a woman disembarking in front of me:"You're blouse is unbuttoned; just wanted to let you know before you walk across the whole terminal with all that waving around."

I noticed that the armrests of my plane were equipped with ash trays. Blast from the past.


Oh yeah. Also, there was a big group of about 20 turban-sporting Muslim guys, most of whom did not speak English. I wonder if anyone else on the aircraft felt moments of anxiety. I found myself anticipating moments of conflict. Several of them stayed out of their seats after the seat belt sign was illuminated, for example. I watched them whenever they got out of the bathroom and examined their hands and pockets and even their turbans for signs of weapons. Should I feel bad for immediately suspecting these people? I didn't. I have to say that I usually don't hold it against people for stereotyping me. It's not my fault that people judge me because of the actions of a few people who happen to look like me or share similar behavioral traits, but it's also not the fault of those who judge. It's not even the fault of those people who do things that start stereotypes in motion. People should be able to act without feeling the weight of representation of an entire social caste. But stereotypes arise out of the really human need to anticipate the future and to be prepared.
Two Arab men sat in the exit row and fortunately the female flight attendant had the wherewithal to inquire if they understood the requirements, and they didn't understand English, which is in itself one of the requirements. I thought about the idea of them not wanting to leave their seats and why they wouldn't want to, eventhough they acquiesced immediately, once only really seemingly Americanized companion translated that they must move. I though about the idea of someone opening the emergency exit. I was in the third to last row in the back of the plane, so it didn't scare me very much. In fact it sounded rather exciting. Like I would be participating in an action movie. After landing, there was an armada of SUVs and many of them had video cameras.



The Baby that sat near me was quiet the whole way, too.

When I arrived, my friend Eric picked me up from the airport. We read for about 3 hours at Cafe Flore, a cafe near Castro and Market. You can read what I read about here.

Eric and I wake up and he treats me to a delicious bowl of raisin bran with bananas and soy milk. I hadn't had raisin bran in years and it was truly refreshing. We once again head to Cafe Flore for some reading. While there, I decide to make a hair appointment. Eric left after about an hour at the cafe to do some errands and on a lark, I called my friend who I had run into the previous day (Mark Pellegrino) and he had a free moment, so met me for lunch. We had a nice little conversation and caught up before he drove me to my hair appointment.

The salon I went to was called Glam-A-Rama, and touts itself as "San Francisco's gayest hair salon." It was indeed pretty gay. Just look at their toilet.



I also shaved while I was in San Francisco, so I now look pretty different.

It's the new Jan Brady!:



After the hair, which was executed by a nice young man named Zeon (the third man in a row with a four letter name to do my hair), I walked back to the Castro (about 3/4 of a mile) taking some lovely pictures along the way (there is a photo gallery at the end of this post) and picked up a few new found objects. I was a bit hungry and internally debated going to a new place or just going to Cafe Flore. Cafe Flore won out yet again just because I wanted some place comfortable to read and write.

After this, I picked up two new tank tops, a wristband and a t-shirt from a store called All American Boy on Castro. It was a quick and impulsive shopping jaunt and I didn't go anywhere else before meeting back at John and Eric's for a shower in preparation of night #2 with Kristine, which I write more extensively about in Jet Set Ready Blog. Or you can continue reading here and find out about the rest of my trip and go back to the Jet Set Ready when you're finished. Your choice.

On my third day, I stayed at the Clift hotel. Here's me sitting in a chair there.



Our friend Jeff's wedding took place in the Presidio, which, beyond being the title of a nineteen-eightysomething film, is also an historically significant decommissioned army base near the marina in San Francisco. It was a quaint little white chapel on a hill (nearly every location in San Francisco can be relegated geographically in relation to a hill - either on top of, on the bottom of, or up the side of).



Instead of throwing rice, small little vials of bubbles were passed out, which had a great effect. Here's my favorite pic that captured the moment.



Being at a Catholic wedding in San Francisco, though, I couldn't help but ponder the somewhat recent events surrounding gay marriages in that coastal city. I have to say that at that moment, especially considering everything the priest was saying about the "meaning" of marriage, I definitely felt like, as a gay person, I had less rights.

The priest brought some interesting things to our attention. He talked about the first marriage, which was between Adam & Eve. Weren't they also the first and only people? Yes, I think so. So that brought me down to chains of reasoning. The first part is that there wasn't a gay marriage because there weren't two men. Two, their marriage would have to be one never subject to jealousy. I mean, there were NO OTHER PEOPLE. Of course they didn't have any marital problems.

The priest also said that God ratifies the union, the priest merely bears witness. I was wondering about where he got that information. Is that particular nuance of the way things work actually in the bible? Do they just make things up as they go? If anyone has any insight into that, I'd really like to know. I mean, it just seemed like it was his own interpretation. Mostly because it made logical sense and rarely are Catholic teachings severely logical.

The reception was held just down the hill (see the pattern?). The food was good. Not much else to say.

Earlier that day, a huge crowd of bicyclists clogged street traffic downtown in what's called "Critical Mass," which I guess is a monthly event.



That evening, Claude and I went to see "Time of your Life", which is a play that actually originated back at the Steppenwolf back home in Chicago (I think), but is a play whose setting is San Francisco circa 1939. It was a pretty good play, though the circumstances leading up to me seeing that kind of soured my experience. See, a friend of ours HIGHLY recommended the play and even said it was the best play he's ever seen. It annoys me when people say stuff like that. I mean, I say that occasionally, but I usually inform people that I have odd tastes. Anyway, it was a pretty good play, but I won't tell you it was my favorite, even if it was.

After the play, we were exhausted and went to sleep.

I finally made it back to the Haight to get to the Amoeba record shop. It was pretty huge. Claude was waiting for me, so I tried to rush, which was stupid, but I knew even taking my time would have run into DAYS. Ultimately, I only looked through most of the 'S' section and part of 'T' and just a portion of 'G' IN THE CLEARANCE SECTION, mind you, and still came away with 10 cds which only cost me $24.70. They're not with me now, but let's see if I can remember all of them:

• Hubcap
  
• Stillwell
  
• Slowdive
  
• Tekulvi
  
• Tribe 8
  
• The Mercury Program (I don't know why it was in 's'
  
• Twinhaters
  

Um, guess not. 7 out of 10 ain't bad though.

OK, here's that street art photo essay I promised.



This was the first one that REALLY caught my attention and made me want to take some pictures. It kind of brought the whole phenomenon to the forefront of my consciousness.









I saw this motorcycle, which didn't even succeed in avoiding being covered in creativity. It's a crotch rocket, even. That's certainly one thing I noticed in San Francisco: people are not afraid of contradiction and duality.





I was even fortunate enough to see someone working on their own public art.



Oops! Watch out!



Hey, What's Pneu?