Every Day

from "I Completed the Following Requirements"

2012-02-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

On October 15, 1994 I recorded my best in the following tests:

Pushups: 20 Pullups: 1

Situps: 20 Standing long jump: 4ft. 0in.

Run/walk 500 yards: 2:10

In October 1994 I presented myself to my leader, properly dressed, before going on an overnight camping trip. I presented the camping gear that I was going to use. I demonstrated the right way to pack and carry this gear.

In October 1994 I spent at least 1 night on a patrol or troop campout. I slept in a tent that I helped pitch on a ground bed that I prepared.

On November 14, 1994 I demonstrated how to display, raise, lower, and fold the American flag.

On November 14, 1994 I explained why we use the buddy system in Scouting.

On November 15, 1994 I demonstrated improvement in the activities listed above after practicing for 30 days. I recorded my best in the following tests:

Pushups: 28 Pullups: 2

Situps: 30 Standing long jump: 4ft. 4in.

Run/walk 500 yards: 2:01

On November 15, 1994 I demonstrated the Heimlich maneuver and told when it is used.

In November 1994 I demonstrated how to whip and fuse the ends of a rope.

In November 1994 I repeated from memory and explained in my own words the Scout Oath, Law, motto, and slogan.

In November 1994 I knew my patrol name, gave the patrol yell, and described my patrol flag.

On July 7, 1995 I demonstrated tying two half hitches and a tautline hitch by using these knots to pitch a tent.

On July 7, 1995 I demonstrated the rules of safe hiking, both on the highway and cross-country, during the day and at night. I explained what to do if I were lost.

On August 15, 1995 I identified local poisonous plants; and told how to treat for exposure to them.

On August 15, 1995 I displayed first aid for the following:

· Simple cuts and scratches

· Blisters on the hand and foot

· Minor burns and scalds

· Bites and stings of insects and ticks

· Poisonous snakebite

· Nosebleed

On August 15, 1995 I participated in a Scoutmaster conference.

On September 15, 1995 I completed my board of review for the rank of Tenderfoot.

Fun, Finally, Pt. 3

2012-02-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

Wilfredo Prieto - Miren el tamaño de este mango (Look at the size of this mango) (mango, rubber band, and Blackberry) 2011

Scott Reeder - Symmetrical Pirate (acrylic on canvas) 1998

David Shrigley - Cat with No Head (taxedermy) 2006

Zofia Kulik (as KwieKulik) - from Activities with Dobromierz, 1972-74

Elad Lassry - Raccoon B (c-print, painted frame) 2010

dess-up (more on this later)

2012-02-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

2/4/12, St. Louis & Addison, Chicago, IL

2012-02-05T11:15:00.001-08:00

busy bunny

2012-02-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

my week is packed and i'm running around every day - more than once today i thought it was monday - plus i had zombie dreams all night, not normal ones though. the kind where zombies are elsewhere and i and a bunch of others are living in dark and decrepit buildings, eating food and wondering when it will run out.

so i need a bunny

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Do you even know

2012-01-31T05:54:00.000-08:00

Do you even know - Adam Farcus, Created by members of the University of St. Francis woman's volleyball team: Ashley Richards, Jazzmyne Robbins, Laura Shain, & Ashley Thompson (acrylic and spray paint on canvas) 2' x 2', 2012

Andre

2012-01-24T10:17:00.000-08:00

MCA artist guided tour with 7 1st graders today:

(all of the students are sitting on the Carl Andre piece)
me - are we now part of the art?
all students - yes!
me - ok, can we make a circle around the art now?
(students circle around the Andre)
me - are we still part of the artwork?
student - yes because we're thinking and talking about it

Carl Andre - Zinc Lead Plain (zinc and lead) 1969

@)>-%---

2012-01-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

per Hennessy Youngman's video about curators:

Adam Farcus - A Flower for Nat (Youtube comment and digital image) 2012

[watch the video here]

ideal vs real

2012-01-21T09:05:00.000-08:00

Weltschmerz; noun
\VELT-shmairts\

1. mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state
2. a mood of sentimental sadness

The Man Comes Around (prep)

2012-01-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

names

blame

same

down

around

sup

cup

ground

around

pipers

signin'

kettledrum

cryin'

dyin'

come

tree

wick

tree

pricks

shalom

home

throne

crowns

around

still

down

around

pipers

signin'

kettledrum

cryin'

dyin'

come

tree

wick

tree

pricks

pound

around

Adam Farcus - Scare Eyes (collage) 2011

[preparatory collage and color scheme for a sculpture. also, reference to the title and words above]

On the road beside it, BLOOD.

2012-01-15T13:50:00.000-08:00

    FADE IN:

1    EXT. THE EMPTY STREET OF A CITY - DAY

No people. A FEW CARS AND TRUCKS are parked at odd angles, abandoned. 
A TITLE FADES IN, one phrase at a time.

FIVE YEARS...
SINCE THE DEAD FIRST WALKED.

2    EXT. THE CITY - DAY

We hear THE SOUND OF A STRONG WIND. DEBRIS flutters through the streets. A LARGE ALLIGATOR slithers into frame, stops and looks around.

MONTAGE: as MORE GATORS explore the empty streets, knocking over GARBAGE CANS, upsetting the MANNEQUINS in A DEPARTMENT STORE WINDOW. A GATOR crawls out through the open doors of AN ABANDONED BANK. LOOSE BILLS are dragged along under the animal's tail. They flutter away on the WIND.

3    EXT. THE CITY - DAY

GATORS crawl over A '79 CADELLIC. A FEMALE SKELETON sits slumped over the steering wheel. In the back a BABY'S BONES are strapped into AN INFANT'S SAFETY SEAT. One of the gators THUMPS its tail maddeningly against the windshield. ANOTHER TITLE APPEAR:

FLORIDA - 1987

4    EXT. THE CITY - DAY

CLOSE ON A SECTION OF PAVEMENT as we hear THE SOUND OF SLUGGISH FOOTSTEPS approaching. A SHADOW appears at the bottom of the frame. It gets longer and takes on the shape of a man.

TIGHT ON THE AFTERNOON SUN, blinding us. Into the FOREGROUND lurches THE FIGURE which cast the shadow. Glare obscures all facial detail until the head jogs into position directly in front of the fiery ball in the sky. Then we see its hideous, dead eyes, its blue-grey colour, the blackened wound where a large portion of jaw has been ripped away. This is a ZOMBIE! A MUSIC CHORD SOUNDS and THE MAIN TITLE 
APPEARS:

DAY OF THE DEAD

28 Weeks Later script

job stuff

2012-01-15T10:25:00.000-08:00

like a fucking champ. i applied to 2 teaching jobs this morning (U. of Montevallo and Bellevue U.). i've done 9 in the past few weeks, with 5 more (currently) left to do. LA (for CAA), hopefully here i come!!

unseasonably warm

2012-01-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

been hearing, and thinking of, this term a lot recently.

Library of the Human Genome, the best conceptual poem evar!

2012-01-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

i found these images of this after looking for a published (as .pdf) version of the whole human genome online. such things do kinda exist, but they involve .tar and .fa files, and programs that i don't have - or care to get. you can find it here: http://hgdownload.cse.ucsc.edu/downloads.html#human

i was looking to find the whole code to use it for a project, but then i found that it was first printed and is currently installed at the Wellcome Collection in London. for me, this set of books is a better project than could ever be made. let me explain: we have decoded our genes to get a better understanding of how we, humans, work. scientists have identified many genes that explain our traits, evolution, and ailments (mutations, syndromes, cancers, etc). this knowledge is then used to inform modern science and medicine. this re-application of this data by scientists is what makes this research applicable and relevant to our lives. but, this bookshelf is only raw data - a huge sequence of letters. this data can't be read, especially by visitors to this collection. thereby these books don't hold transparent language that tells us something about ourselves, but holds an opaque depiction of how we are trying to further understand ourselves. and in a way, that is a failure. for most people the experience of 'reading' these books must be about only the process of it's creation. this is why i believe that this library is one of the best uncreative pieces of writing... ever. (Kenny Goldsmith eat your heart out!)

the first printed copy of the Human Genome (displayed at the Wellcome Collection, London)

detail of ASCL1 (Achaete-scute complex-like 1)

i still wanted to add (through further mediation) to this discussion, so i created another piece based on this transcription of our DNA. the following is two excerpts from a 2,451 page (printed) text piece called human_genome_map.jpg.

the excerpts are shown here as images because the text, when pasted into blogger, goes kinda crazy. to make this, i saved an image (human_genome_map.jpg) of the human genome from a Google search, changed the file extension from .jpg to .txt, opened the file in Microsoft Word, and saved it as a .doc - the final piece. interestingly, at the very beginning of the file you can read a bit of the code - it says "file written by Photoshop 5.0". in this piece there is a fairly straightforward conversation about coding, legibility, and language.

Hexes

2012-01-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

i photographed the first of these hexes along RT 14 between Harvard, IL and Beloit, WI (there were many more that i need to go back for). the last one is from outside Coal City, IL - specifically at the intersection of RT 113 and Jugtown Rd.

details of the 4 hexes

New Year Dérive

2012-01-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

"The revolutionary transformation of the world, of all aspects of the world, will confirm all the dreams of abundance."

-Guy Debord, 1955

Guy Debord - The Naked City

last night i played games till 2, then danced till 4...awesome. this morning i went to a coffeeshop. i was reading through chapter 2, "Language as Material", from Kenneth Goldsmith's Uncreative Writing, when i came across an idea [below] that can solve a project/assignment problem that i will encounter in the coming spring semester of Intro to Drawing: we can't do our outdoor (city) dérives when it is cold.

Moved indoors, branding has its own psychogeographic typography. [Matt Siber's] Untitled #3 shows a drug store display, scrubbed of its texts. Here packaging, with a slant toward natural beauty, sets the structure and tone of the work.

Matt Siber - Untitled #3, 2002

from this, the plan is to get a college van and bring my drawing class to the Louis Joliet Mall to execute our dérives. during prior in-class dérives in downtown Joliet the students have document "the appealing or repelling character of certain places." [or things] (Debord, from The Introduction of a Critique of Urban Geography) in text. this text then takes final form in another Situationist International form, graffiti. the final collaborative piece resembles concrete (pardon the pun) poetry and Siber's text erasure pieces.

documentation of the Fall 2011 Introduction to Drawing dérive graffiti

the final piece(s) of the mall dérive will probably not be graffiti, but a discussion around each or our lists/poems/maps. to test this out i went to CVS and did an in-store dérive. below are the results.

Essance
High Life
19.9
HEAT
AZO
VSFlu
ets. 1837
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Ο
WOW!
5
grey felt squares
orange crush
sun drop
Congclados
b 2x
"I can see so clearly"
rum
Beauty
Implements
93930G790957
09/09/10
red $5
poofs
blackhawks
wisk
bounce
gain
purey
boost
fantastik
horizontal teal stripes
bones
bolts
car cigarette lighter light-up angel
nut
only
sweet peas
fire
AMEREX
AtoZ
blood pressure test
(1)
say it with flowers
-4-
-5-
-6-

invisible

2011-12-31T16:06:00.000-08:00

visited the art institute today - with my new (xmas gifted) membership card, so i got free Intellegensia coffee, mmmm. the Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph, 1964-1977 was pretty amazing, and very hard to get through. the show is large and fairly packed, in addition to most of it being dry and/or cerebral. dear AIC, perhaps 'exhaustively as possible' was not the best way to attend to this type of artwork. i can only imagine how inaccessible this is for people without an art background. anyway, i will need to spend more time with it, but some things do stick out:

Victor Burgin - Photopath (inkjet prints on vinyl) 2011 (first created 1967) [this was in the foyer of the modern wing - but still part of the show. taken with my phone]

Giovanni Anselmo - Invisible (slide and slide projector) 1971 [not the actual piece from the show - photography is ironically not aloud in the photography show. the exhibited version is red and it projects onto the bodies of visitors when they enter the gallery]

plus, Baldessari and Le Witt rocked the house. (ps - lots of white men in this show)

Journaling / Documenting as practice (some examples)

2011-12-30T23:17:00.000-08:00

1. Nicholas Felton - annual Feltron Reports. The Feltron Reports document each year of Nicholas Felton's life through data, statistics, graphs, charts, and maps.

Nicholas Felton - From the Annual Feltron Report, 2009 (encounters with friends)

2. Kenneth Goldsmith - Fidget. "Fidget is a transcription of writer Kenneth Goldsmith's every movement made during thirteen hours on June 16, 1997 (Bloomsday)." full and interactive version, here. the following excerpts are from 10:00 and 18:00 respectively.

Eyelids open. Tongue runs across upper lip moving from left side of mouth to right following arc of lip. Swallow. Jaws clench. Grind. Stretch. Swallow. Head lifts. Bent right arm brushes pillow into back of head. Arm straightens. Counterclockwise twist thrusts elbow toward ceiling...

* * * * *

...Exhale. Dart. Snort. Drop. Sit. Mumble. Quicken. Left. Right. Left. Cool. Walk. Gulp. Click. Smack. Draw. Loll. Dig Itch. Shudder. Sip. Tip Curl. Spit. Rest Hear. Smack. Smack. Click. Lick. Inhale. Follow. Walk. One. Two. One. Two. Reach. Scratch. Fidget. Pick. Burp. Bend. Up. Out. On. Blow. Wind. Bite. Cross. Scuttle. Twist. Turn. Bring. Tingle. Slide. Spit. Groove. Massage. Strike. Penetrate. Dig. Penetrate. Snort. Dig. Pass. Grab. Sigh. Lighten. Still. Pressure. Rush. Accentuate. Tuck. Raise. Gaze.

also fitting is Goldsmith's piece, Soliloquy - where he documented everything he said for a week.

3. Roman Opałka - 1965 / 1 - ∞

In 1965, in his studio in Warsaw, Opałka began painting nunbers from one to infinity. Starting in the top left-hand corner of the canvas and finishing in the bottom right-hand corner, the tiny numbers were painted in horizontal rows. Each new canvas, which the artist called a 'detail', took up counting where the last left off. Each 'detail' is the same size (196 x 135 cm), the dimension of his studio door in Warsaw. All details have the same title, "1965 / 1 – ∞"; the project had no definable end, and the artist pledged his life to its ongoing execution: 'All my work is a single thing, the description from number one to infinity. A single thing, a single life', 'the problem is that we are, and are about not to be'. (Wikipedia)

Roman Opałka - 1965 / 1 - ∞ (detail 1-35327) (tempera on linen) [n.d.]

4. On Kawara - One Millions Years. a two volume set of books. one volume lists the years from 1969 back in to the past one million years (998,031 BC to 1969 AD), the other lists one million years from 1993 AD to 1,001,992 AD.

On Kawara - One Million Years (artist's book in two volumes) 1999

from "428 Comments"

2011-12-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

skinitback

She looks like a latina Catherine Zeta-Jones. I love it when she's getting it from behind while her little Catholic schoolgirl skirt is up around her waist...

June 29, 2011

Christine

AWESOME, I have watch this three times now and have cum everytime, when she sits on his cock and takes it all a 4.34 it gets me every time. we were never this lucky when I was younger. God knows were all the huge cocks were then.

July 2, 2011

Marc

Very Sexy

July 4, 2011

mmmmmm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....delicious

July 4, 2011

eageru

so beautiful, this is the kind of girl I want, fuck to die

July 5, 2011

oGC

What a dick !

July 5, 2011

* * * * *

luv269

hey Natasha, i'll upload a vid, with my girl, never got ruler out, but say two hands round my cock and room for a mouth. most girls love the feeling when i first hit their pussy lips, they know its gonna be tight from the start. it gets them real horny. and they give better head. you seriously gotta try it, don't be anchored down by hubby. but you must be real moist, which you don't have a problem with. cheers Goodluck

August 2, 2011

Sexy

Hot dick

August 3, 2011

Guy

One of the best fuck clips ever on Youporn!

August 3, 2011

love boys

thats me can you fuck me

August 3, 2011

james

i lke that girl...so hot...hot....????

August 4, 2011

Natasha

hey luv269, I would luv to see a pic if possible. from what you describe I can totally picture a huge mushroom head on the tip uhh god! luv to try and fit that in my mouth. I have to say I tried fooling around with hubby and he was not into it and said go find someone to take care of you. Now i don't know how serious he was so, i went to work today with a light see thru kinda skirt commando. And let this guy I work with see the kitty well actually I kinda leaned over and I'm sure he saw but I did it 2x to him. I started to get wet and got nervous I will try again tomorrow. He seems like he has a big dick from the bulge in his pants. Oh well keep you posted!!

August 4, 2011

LongStrong

Natasha please tell us more

August 8, 2011

luv269

maannnn, NATASHA you've put a bulge in my pants just by thinking of you at work. i wish i worked with you. I'd take it out and thrust it into you, while you're bent over, perfect senario for a porno. Anyway once the "mushroom" head goes in, the rest is roses. keep at him, you're gonna luv the sex with him. you wont want to stop, i had to practically fight my girl off me the first time. Would luv to see you in action, i reakon you are gonna go off!!!!!
goodluck

August 9, 2011

Natasha

Hey luv269 and LongStrong, So I went back to work yesterday in a sun dress but this time I took my thong off at work in the ladies room. I walked out and started feeling frisky already. So I went to the mail room and kinda let the three guys back there see the kitty. Anyway the guy that i work with that has the bulge started flirting with me via IM and it got hot. He stopped over my desk and while I pulled away from my desk I opened my legs and let him see it. At first he wasn't trying to look and he got all red and I asked him why. He was like is that what I think it is? Sure is ,So I asked to see his and he took it out at my cube and WOW huge dick all length. So i just gave it a few long strokes and got him rock hard. I'm talking purple head and i then just put my lips around the mushroom but I wouldn't suck it. I just licked it a little and he wanted more. But i want to play a little and build it up a little before I let him shove that in me. I have a tight little ass too and am tempted to try anal. My co-worker stuck his finger a little in my butt hole and I kept tightening up. it kinda felt weird but good I only let him use the finger tip. Any way I am going see if my husband wants to hit this. he either has another woman/homo or just tired of me.

August 10, 2011

Kristina

Good fuck. I want this big cock in my pussy. I like big cock, I have a tight pussy. Grrrrrrrr

August 11, 2011

george bush

334 coms, famn, a lot of view i agree

August 11, 2011

"Expression"

2011-12-28T22:29:00.001-08:00

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done othewise

2011-12-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

A text should be written, as Craig Dworkin postulates, not in terms of “whether it could have been done better (the question of the workshop), but whether it could conceivably have been done otherwise.”
- from Lemon Hound

Kenny G. (a horrible paraphrasing that i have done)

2011-12-20T22:16:00.000-08:00

12/16/11 7pm
Kenneth Goldsmith lecture @ the Poetry Foundation

In 1969 the conceptual artist Douglas Huebler wrote, "The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more." I've come to embrace Huebler's ideas, though it might be retooled as "The world is full of texts, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more."
-from Uncreative Writing, by Kenneth Goldsmith

on the institution
-occupying power of poetry
-social power of poetry
--poetry is normally marginalized - why doesn't poetry matter?
Goldsmith is asking for an "activist poetry"

with the example of Marcel Broodthaers as a model Goldsmith begins his talk about the power that poetry can use to critique institutions. he emphasized that context should be championed over content and that it should be self-reflexive (staples of conceptual art since Duchamp). these qualities may be found through insincerity and unreadability. here the example of Broodthaers can be used - as this piece (Broodthaers' first sculpture) is made of poetry books of his that he could not sell - and marked his transformation from a poet to an artist.

to further the critique, Goldsmith referenced ISSUE #1 (a large collection of poems that were generated by computer software, and then attributed to famous authors) and Vanessa Place's Factory Work (poems written by others but published under her name, and a nod to Warhol's "Factory"). through appropriation (which of course asks, "who is the author") both of these examples draw attention to how poems can challenge the structure from which they are born.

he then humbly mentioned that avant-guard work like this (which has almost no popular readership) needs to be supported by an institution - and would seem to undermine the whole premise of institutional critique. on the contrary, Goldsmith argues that poetry (an art) can critique and comment on the institution from within. he mentioned some art (Andrea Fraser, to name one) that did this, as well as his reading and suit from the White House Poetry Night (an event he was invited to - with no real strings attached. he was basically free to read/say whatever - sans anything "political"). evidently his suit was of the same style and made by the same people who made Obama's suit he wore that night (of course the pattern was different). he read two excerpts from other poems (one by Walt Whitman and the other by Hart Crane) and a bit from Traffic - all very non-tradition, but accepted in this setting non-the-less. for Goldsmith, he sees this place as a meeting of the everyday and the avant-guard - a place to straddle tradition, but still be radical - and to fuck with the institution in a way that it never notices.

he also mentioned that the occupy movement is a prime place for such activities. he sited a person in S.F. (i think) who brought a sign that read, "GUCCI, Do The Dishes". by Goldsmith's recanting, this person was booted out of the protest because she or he had broken the social contracts of the occupy movement. so, Goldsmith was able to enact his critique because he played by the rules of that institution, while the GUCCI sign carrying protester was excluded from the discussion because her or his message challenged language and social contracts directly. in an interesting twist, a quick google search for 'gucci do the dishes' comes up with this:

anywho, he ended his talk with saying that poetry should be used in other fields (law [Vanessa Place], science [Christian Bök], politics, etc) to drive and alter that field's discourse.
---
in the Q&A he laid out his basic principle of "uncreative writing":
poetry is near 100 years behind visual art. this is because the visual arts were challenged by new technologies: the still and moving cameras. these technologies were able to do what artists had done for millennia, so they had to adapt. writing is facing this change now. "The internet revolutionized writing... Language will become mimetic"

*
i've since, and because of this, decided to put my piece, D, on my site. all the text in this piece is taken from Wikipedia.

today is a good day

2011-12-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

finished reading a nice graphic novel on the Metra into Joliet today

got some coffee from the train station coffeeshop (Expresso)

have 3 lucky pennies in my left pocket

made my brother's "tee-shirt" tee-shirt

love that the sun is out (even if it's 30 degrees)

found a bunch of jobs on Higher Ed - 2 near Brian Biskie (Virginia)

had a good teaching day (did a new project with a fumage/paranoiac critical technique)

smooched a cutie

batch

2011-12-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

batchin' it (v)
A term meaning "living like a bachelor," usually used by married people or ones in serious relationships whose significant other is temporarily or permanently away. It has a male connotation.

"My wife is in San Diego visiting her mother and buying yarn for the store, so I've been batchin' it."

allie is visiting her grandfather in California for the weekend - i told my mom and said, "Oh, so your batchin' it this weekend huh?" this is something people have said to me before. i understand the use of this term, but not why people thing this is an accurate term for me. through the definition, and the way the term is used, it implies that i will somehow have more freedom without allie around. meaning that i will not necessarily be acting like a bachelor (not cleaning, going dates, giving flowers to girls, etc, etc) but that i am somehow restricted by my partner - which couldn't be farther from the truth (and is actually more the opposite - that i feel more freed when i'm around allie).

perhaps this says more about how people normally conceive of others' relationships (or of men in their relationships) - that they are somehow more happier and free when their significant other isn't around. yikes.

harder rain

2011-12-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

candles, matches, a working flashlight and battery powered AM radio - in Ken and Sondra's basement, Beloit, WI

road barricade at the Shoppier Road entrance ramp to I-90 outside Beloit, WI (used to block traffic when the highway is snowed over and impassable)

these are some objects that signify a potential. they have potential energy; they are waiting to be put to use. in these two photos the objects wait for a large meteorological event (e.g. blizzard) that would cause a blackout or impassable roads. the barricade, flashlight, radio, and candles currently serve no function other than foreshadowing what may be - when they will become active.

the above photographs predict an external action (blizzard/blackout) and an action that will be taken by the object(s) (barricade set up/candles lit/etc). this second action is somewhat internal to the object(s) - it is its purpose. in these, the two actions are fairly obvious. whereas the objects in the photograph below signal its two actions in a less pronounced manner. i see the predicted and external action here as a death. the second action is the burial and engraving of the tombstone; but there are other, more slippery, actions that are sprung into play after the predicted event: the wake, funeral, funeral precession, prayers, and even the flowers that are left at the graveside years later. in actuality, the second event here is mostly emotional.

then, the predicted events/tragedies trigger a flash light that illuminates a darkened house, a shut-in winter day, a body that is laid to rest, and a person that is mourned for. i like thinking of these together.

my grandparent's tombstone, Oakwood Protestant Cemetery, Wilmington, IL

(i think i may like to re-create the radio/candle arrangement as a sculpture titled we go to bed, but we don't sleep too hard)

Oscar the Blind Kitten and His First Toys

2011-11-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

avacado love boats

2011-11-26T18:39:00.001-08:00

It is an unspoken hunger we deflect with knives--one avocado between us, cut neatly in half, twisted then separated from the large wooden pit. With the green fleshy boats in hand, we slice vertical strips from one end to the other. Vegetable planks. We smother the avocado with salsa, hot chiles at noon in the desert. We look at each other and smile, eating avocados with sharp silver blades, risking the blood of our tongues repeatedly.
-Terry Tempest Williams, from An Unspoken Hunger

everything is on fire, slow fire

2011-11-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

I'm talking about the individual US citizen's deep fear, the same basic fear that you and I have and that everybody has except nobody ever talks about it except existentialists in convoluted French prose. Or Pascal. Our smallness, our insignificance and mortality, yours and mine, the thing that we all spend all our time not thinking about directly, that we are tiny and at the mercy of large forces and that time is always passing and that every day we've lost one more day that will never come back and our childhoods are over and our adolescence and the vigor of youth and soon our adulthood, that everything we see around us all the time is decaying and passing, it's all passing away, and so are we, so am I, and given how fast the first forty-two years have shot by it's not going to be long before I too pass away, whoever imagined that there was a more truthful way to put it than "die," "pass away," the very sound of it makes me feel the way I feel at dusk on a wintry Sunday...

And not only that, but everybody who knows me or even knows I exist will die, and then everybody who knows those people and might even conceivably have even heard of me will die, and so on, and the gravestones and monuments we spend money to have put in to make sure we're remembered, these'll last what -- a hundred years? two hundred? -- and they'll crumble, and the grass and insects my decomposition will go to feed will die, and their offspring, or if I'm cremated the trees that are nourished by my windbown ash will die or get cut down and decay, and my urn will decay, and before maybe three or four generations it will be like I never existed, to only will I have passed away but it will be like I was never here, and people in 2104 or whatever will no more think of Stuart A. Nichols Jr. than you or I think of John T. Smith, 1790 to 1863, of Livingston, Virginia, or some such. That everything is on fire, slow fire, and we're all less than a million breaths away from an oblivion more total than we can even bring ourselves to imagine, in fact, probably that's why the manic US obsession with production, produce, produce, impact the world, contribute, shape things, to help distract us from how little and totally insignificant and temporary we are.

-David Foster Wallace, from The Pale King

no man

2011-11-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

island

* * * * *
figured out a pattern in my practice today - it seems pretty accurate:

a silent radio, tuned to an EAS station

2011-11-18T10:28:00.000-08:00

working titles:
silent shortwave
silent radio
EAS (silent)
a silent solid-state analog shortwave receiver
candles lit by no hand, then melted into nothing
still shortwave

other recent notes:
the morning light annexed our apartment
"He is out. Needs 2 get used 2 new blood." (text from my mom, 11/16/11 11:54AM)

[i'm noticing more and more that i am drawn to dismal/beautiful ideas]

on when i might eat someone

2011-11-16T17:26:00.000-08:00

had a collaborative-cook dinner with allie. over spaghetti and asparagus we talked about how we would, or could, live in a distopian future. some subjects were: avoiding suicide and murder, how we would get supplies from Home Depot, and when we would resort to cannibalism.
this is not an uncommon subject of thought for me, but i had never talked about it with allie. it was kinda revealing to hear that she has similar fears.

still sick - it still sucks.
made this drawing (or sketch, or something) at USF today:

it's a rubbing of a man-hole cover outside of the Rialto in downtown Joliet.

my insides

2011-11-14T19:44:00.000-08:00

feeling like i'm somewhere between squishy, un-confident, and __________.
from teaching, from lack of clarity (?) at a PD, and from getting sick :(

(Active ingreedient (in each drop) Purpose
Menthol, 4.8mg.......Cough suppressant, Oral pain reliever)

-i like how the back of packages sometimes read like T.S. Eliot poems.
my mom called to tell me that my grandfather has something that she couldn't remember - turned out it is diverticulitis. then i said some things about how i will probably be sickier tomorrow and she was all like, "that's good."
at least the (brief) critique in Intro to Drawing went nicely. a student brought this in:

Inside Looking Out (tattoo transfer papers) 2011

(detail)

swirling my coffee

2011-11-13T13:21:00.001-08:00

gyre; noun

1. a circular or spiral motion or form; especially : a giant circular oceanic surface current

11/11/11 11:11:11

2011-11-11T21:17:00.001-08:00

(i wasn't awake for the AM [or real] version - oh well)

bluets

2011-11-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

leaves in the Harris Bank parking lot, downtown Joliet, IL

For Mallimaré, the perfect book was one whose pages had never been cut, their mystery forever preserved, like a bird's folding wing, or a fan never opened.
-from Bluets by Maggie Nelson, pg 70

Untitled, Chicago (to Cy Twombly)

2011-11-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

i found this object outside of the hidden gallery of Cy Twombly sculptures at the end of a row of galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago - it really mirrors his work in the gallery. while i was photographing it a few people stopped to look at it, as if it were a sculpture.

found object/sculpture/wall outside Gallery 267 at AIC

Cy Twombly - Untitled, New York (wood, cloth, nails, and house paint) 1955

Cy Twombly - (To F.P.) The Keeper of the Sheep, Jupiter Island (wood, cloth, plaster, and nails) 1992

Cy Twombly - (To F.P.) The Keeper of the Sheep, Jupiter Island (wood, cloth, plaster, and nails) 1992 (detail)

silence, in 9 parts

2011-11-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

Silent Band (from My iTunes)

Aphex Twin - Penty Harmonium

Beck - Black Tambourine

Blackalicious - Ego Sonic War Drums

Boards of Canada - Dawn Chorus

Fela Kuti - Funky Horn

Sparklehorse - Piano Fire

Squarepusher - The Modern Bass Guitar

Talking Heads - Sax and Violins

Thom Yorke - Cymbal Rush

2011-11-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

YES

disposable

2011-11-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

some highlights from the disposable camera that i just had developed.

the rain on Venus

2011-10-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

virga; noun

1. wisps of precipitation evaporating before reaching the ground

Ika

2011-10-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

negotiating my experience of Irena Knezevic's work at Illinois State University. was really nice to see so much of her work in person.

Irena Knezevic - Trained Girl (fiberglass, foam, hair, fabric, Donald Judd plywood box) 2010

Irena Knezevic - Universe Girl (detail) (acrylic, leather, fabric, hair) 2011

found these two things around the ISU art building:

and found (got) a title for the wind-chime piece that i have in the works (see the sketch here):

Ghost in the Graveyard

rhyme scheme

2011-10-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

in the works, maybe done:

Adam Farcus - Schema (a-b-c-b-a-e-a-e-c-b) (cloths pins, acrylic, brass) 2011, 12" x 3½" x ½"

actually, on later thought, this piece needs to be bigger - the brass rod needs to be around 6 feet long, and the cloths pins should follow a specific poetic rhyme scheme.

Axes (Axis, plural)

2011-10-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

Axis (after Jason Dodge)

i pulled this out of a lot of notes from about 30 minutes of standing in the Jason Dodge gallery in the exhibition "The Language of Less (Then and Now)" [or as it is read on the wall and in publication "Then The Language of and Now Less"] at the mca.
<3
i think this, and my 9/11 poem from this year, signal a poetic form that i need to explore more: axis - poems organized like compasses. a language of orienteering and orientating.

Jason Dodge - The Flutes are Filled with Poison (blockflutes, comium maculatum, silver) 2010 [a piece not in the mca show, but sooo nice]

haiku

2011-10-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

we went over what a haiku is in NWA today. 5-7-5 and with reference to a season. i noticed the that the source (content) of the form wasn't addressed in any of the poems that were handed out. so i wrote one (my first ever, i think) that addresses something about me (a white american dude) writing in this form.

1945
summer in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki

yep- that's my second poem that references atomic bombs. (1st here)

"measure"

2011-10-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

an idea to be explored:
Measure
a portrait of my immediate family and me
- Sears portrait? Photoshopped?
printed large (24" x 36")
placed in a large, hand-made, frame made of yard-sticks
-or all photos stuck in the frame of a yard-stick framed mirror (see below)
with other photos & memorabilia stuck in the edge of the frame (old and new)

(frame found on flickr)

Kerry James Marshall - Untitled (Mementos) (c-print) 1998 [from the MCA collection]

my dad and mom in the hospital, right before i was born (i found this in my parent's basement a long time ago)

a Sears family portrait found on Google

Coal City High School Art Club at the Morris, IL Wal*Mart

what?

2011-10-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

these two things are not the same. my childhood has changed.

<3 - Lawrence Weschler

some notes

2011-10-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

7/1/11
the candles lit themselves and then melted into nothing

8/15/10
secure shadows, slow temperatures

5/10
rose colored glasses
-Brian Biskie

8/6/09

"we go to bed, but we don't sleep too hard"

-Papa Maxie

'red' and stuff on the floor

2011-10-16T18:23:00.000-07:00

i went to the first meet of a new poetry reading group at Adds Donna today - it was really nice. i think i have a new friend crush, and she gave us this quote, "a big part of poetry is being aware that you are reading."

thinking through some materials on my studio floor (while channeling Jason Dodge)

in our group we read Autobiography of Red, by Anne Carson. it's pretty amazing - i need to read it again. here is a nice part from it:

Then he met Herakles and the kingdoms of his life all shifted down a few notches.
They were two superior eels
at the bottom of the tank and they recognized each other like italics.
-
The world poured back and forth between their eyes once or twice.

pg. 39

the change from my pocket on the bathroom tile

next month we read Maggie Nelxon's Bluets. [from red to blue - rods and cones]

the sound it makes

2011-10-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Adam Farcus - Scales (collage and acrylic on newsprint) 2011

*some new-ish things - a collage, and a sketch for an installation. been listening to: Rolf Julius, Rachel's, and The Conet Project.

magical thinking

2011-10-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

Rachel Foster - Protection Pendants

The Center For Magical Thinking

What is Magical Thinking? Most of us, who are familiar with the phrase, think of those people who carry a lucky rabbits foot or avoid stepping on cracks in the sidewalk. Magical thinking is for those who are afraid of the world, who won’t walk under ladders, who always say “god bless you” even when a stranger sneezes. What about reaching for the Aspirin when you have a headache and feeling better before you’ve even swallowed the pill? Does the idea of “what goes around comes around” help keep society civil? Can karma affect our pocketbooks? When the terrified public speaker has his lucky penny in his pocket, does it help him deliver a better speech? And what about baseball players? Can all those rituals really improve their batting average? What’s the difference between magical thinking and self-fulfilling prophecy? How much control do we really have?

Scientists state that schizophrenics exhibit more magical thinking than those who are clinically depressed. Schizophrenia enables sufferers to make more connections within the world (albeit paranoid connections), whereas those who suffer from depression typically see no connections, think the world is in freefall, and do not believe in fate.

Superstitions, blessings, rituals, karma, destiny…all of these things are another way to express desire. Getting blessed from a priest during Sunday mass exhibits the desire to remain safe, protected, and loved. Perhaps we think magically because the universe is so much bigger than any of us. Because we are so small. Because we are scared. Because, ultimately, we have so little power and control. Perhaps, magical thinking is the most beautiful, universal coping mechanism.

The Center for Magical Thinking was born from the desire to explore these ideas and the gray areas in between. Welcome! We are excited to have you join us. We hope you enjoy the results of our labor.

-this is the statement from the exhibition of the same title, by Rachel Foster, at Carville Annex in San Francisco. if you're in that area, it is up till Oct. 29 - you should go for me!

found vs. art

2011-10-11T15:07:00.000-07:00

(after yesterdays post)
i think i might want to do lots of these pairings:

photo, found near Talman and Warren, Chicago, IL

Bob Linder - Abstract (lightjet print) 2007

magic found in a science book

2011-10-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

they kinda remind me of these two dudes:

Dan Gunn - Harlequin No. 4 (acrylic, fabric, caning, hardware with wood) 2010

Anselm Reyle - Untitled (acrylic and purple pvc foil on canvas in acrylic glass box) 2006

tomorrow

2011-10-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Living with Everyday Problems

Adam Farcus and Allison Yasuakawa

Violet Poe Projects, Bloomington, IL

5pm - 8pm

photo of the show card (and a plastic dog) at my friends' house in Richmond, VA

gig in the sky

2011-10-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at transcribing Pink Floyd's The Great Gig in the Sky.

* * * * *

And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it — you've got to go sometime.

oa oh ah oh oh ah oh ah oh ah

ah ha

yah

ah ah ah

hah

ah oo

oh oh oh oh oh

yay ya ya ya

ay ay ha

oh oh

oh oh oh

ha ya

ha ha ya

oh oh oh oh oh oh

I never said I was frightened of dying

oh oh oh oh oh ay

oh oh

woh

oo-ay

oh oh oh oh

woh

woh oh oh ay

ah ha ya

NWA WTF

2011-10-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

I just came back from my Monday Neighborhood Writing Alliance writing workshop. After considering today's developments and past comments, I have a few theories about the NWA.
They seem to want to proliferate the status quo. So I ask myself:
- what's my beef with that? (I think I accept this love boat approach - they like it, it fulfills them, and I'm happy for them)
- why should I push against it? (I think I'm bored with the status quo - I want more - I want to be challenged, and to challenge/think/work)

I've heard my written work referred to as "experimental" by undergrad professors (at ISU), graduate professors (at UIC), the NWA publication review staff, and today the head of our NWA group said it. (Perhaps she used it because the review committee did?) So I ask myself:
- is my writing bad?
- am I actually experimenting (and don't know it)?
- is "experimental" a (poorly) named genre?
- are they trying to hold me to outdated modes of production?
This term seems to be used in a slightly back-handed way. It is almost derogatory. Like the things I write are not trite, or undeveloped, and don't warrant consideration.

Maybe it is time for me to look elsewhere. Maybe just artists? Or maybe I just want the warm embrace of an academic institution (but that doesn't really sound like fun).

Ok. So I talked to Allie. She is so smart.
I have unreasonable expectations for this group. Most of the people in this group seem to be there to write "personal narratives;" or something like that. They're not there to challenge what it means to be a writer in 2011 or to bring the critique pain. These are the things that I am looking for. But, my writing is also an extension of my visual art practice - thereby I want my writing to be populist. This means that this may be a good (even if frustrating) place to test the populist waters of my poetry - to see how far I can go and what I need to do to be understood by more than academics.
I'm gunna start going to the Next Objectionists meets at Mess Hall too - to complement the NWA.

call and repsonse

2011-10-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

James Schuyler
Gulls

Gulls
loudly insist on indefensible rights

Spruce
gather together on spindle shanks

Queen Anne's Lace
tip platters at perilous angles

Hawkweed
all sneeze at the same time

Rocks
go back to sleep

Birches
grunt as they scratch themselves

Stumps
grow old in hospitableness

Moss
free of dandruff

Bunchberries
trotting about

* * * * *
this post, made by Google image searching each of the coupled lines of James Schuyler's Gulls. the first image (regardless of how great others might have been) was selected. the process, from steve roden.

blush, celebration, dimples, snoozy, kitty

2011-09-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

OMG QT

(#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#)

(#^.^#) \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ (#^.^#)

(#^.^#) \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ (*^-^*) \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ (#^.^#)

(#^.^#) \(^.^)/ (*^-^*) [(~.~)] (*^-^*) \(^.^)/ (#^.^#)

(#^.^#) (*^-^*) [(~.~)] (=^.^=) [(~.~)] (*^-^*) (#^.^#)

(#^.^#) \(^.^)/ (*^-^*) [(~.~)] (*^-^*) \(^.^)/ (#^.^#)

(#^.^#) \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ (*^-^*) \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ (#^.^#)

(#^.^#) \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ \(^.^)/ (#^.^#)

(#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#) (#^.^#)

DIY?

2011-09-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

maybe i'll call these interventions DIY Sculptures - a play/translation of bricoleur.

Adam Farcus - Face (digital photograph) 2011

from Beloit today

2011-09-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

Adam Farcus - Gone From My Sight (digital photograph) 2011

a hex on the main building at Apple Hut (an apple orchard) outside Beloit, WI

November Graveyard

2011-09-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

And green tea of

CS Gas stove and skinny training squad last means all along we ask a lot of change when you try ads and our asked not to hide behind the enrollments grass and this holiday grandiloquent nine and a school and sexuality fellow at night and ends crimes of engaged in knots between us down 18 minutes rained down is honest dropped to an elaborate hot ham bone and freeing it can mean a lot in stocks got in bulk Smeal offense, all play ties much known as the reactions and the sun and essential asking Stan R. Stanton U I's boys division of dazzling and we a Los Gatos man and Colleen – rows across and long reign of the shortest outing mind which key goals and may have came from 10:00 AM

And green tea of is a poem made using Windows Speech Recognition, Microsoft Word, and a Youtube video that features Sylvia Plath reading November Graveyard. Perhaps I'll do something better with this process soon.

uncreative writing

2011-09-12T20:42:00.000-07:00

"In the event, [the UbuWeb conceptual poetry] collection happened to gather a particular kind of writing to make a secondary argument: some of the presumed hallmarks of poetry—the use of metaphor and imagery, a soigné edited craft, the sincere emotional expression of especially sensitive individuals—might be radically reconsidered, and poetry might be reclaimed as a venue for intellect rather than sentiment. Understanding writing to be more graphic than semantic, more a physically material event than a disembodied or transient medium for referential communication, the online anthology showcased works fundamentally opposed to ideologies of expression."
-Crag Dworkin, The Fate of the Echo, Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing, 2011. [via the essays, seen here]

seemed fitting for today

2011-09-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

9/11/11

2011-09-11T19:59:00.001-07:00

finding talismen in everyday places

2011-09-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

post

2011-09-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

a dead coyote on a fence near Lipan, TX, via http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenkuhl/95172104/

a photo I took of some catfish heads I found nailed to a post outside Mazon, IL, circa 2001

Recently, I came across this photo of catfish heads I took in high school, which spurred my investigation into the practice of putting dead things on fences. In the case of the coyote, the carcass is supposed to ward off other coyotes that might kill a farmer's cows - in a similar function as Vlad the Impaler's use of impaled enemies to warn off invading armies.

In the case of the catfish heads there are two possible explanations: 1. as a way of displaying your catches (trophies), or 2. a functional and easy way of cleaning a catfish evidently involves nailing the fish's head to a post to hold it in place while it is cleaned - the head is then cut off and left on the post afterward.

Thinking of these references I decided to take to task these odd bits of yellow expanding foam that I keep finding on the train tracks outside my apartment. The intervention is in a large empty lot (almost a whole block large) in my neighborhood.

Adam Farcus - Horns (intervention and photograph) 2011

So, I hope Horns is at once a trophy, a totem, and an (mythical) omen. What is a trophy or totem for is up for debate - fungus, dicks, disease, industry, abject objects...

:)

2011-09-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

eyes    :;8BX
noses     -^co
mouths    )]3DpP

150 happy faces
420 characters
565 characters (including spaces)
[from a work in progress]

:) :] :3 :D :p :P :-) :-] :-3 :-D :-p :-P :^) :^] :^3 :^D :^p :^P :c) :c] :c3 :cD :cp :cP :o) :o] :o3 :oD :op :oP
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John Rainbow

2011-09-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

John Rainbow - Nov. 26, 2005

I've been looking back at the work I made with the collaborative group, John Rainbow. At the time (2004-2007) we considered what we were doing to be involved with (juvenile) humor, populist ideals, narrative, and a lack of heavy or serious content. I can say that maybe our goal was to be philosophically set up against the Avant-Garde, and the exclusive nature of art. Maybe we were shooting for kitsch and didn't know it?

John Rainbow - Hot Shit

Unfortunately we were still dependent on the academic and exhibition system to disseminate our drawings, sculptures, and performances. But, this was and still is a base line that flows through my work... and the work of the other people that were involved in the group: Neil Vine (Gavin Bunner), Mr. Pine (Dan Mrva), Richard Maple (me), and Lane Woodbridge (Stephanie Lebak). (Our names are made through the "porn name" process of taking your middle name for given name, and the name of the street you grew up on as the surname.)

John Rainbow - Boop, Bop, Bleep

How has John Rainbow effected my growth? I think I employ some of the tactics form John Rainbow, but in more subtle ways. It can be seen more in my Interventions. There is a lot of play, pleasure, and humor in these works; but most of all, they are made for the everyday public - not an art audience. I understand that through the few times I have exhibited these as photographs (and at least me posting them here) I am putting them into the "art world". I guess a question here is, how do I want to present myself? Meaning, how do my intentions as an artist align themselves with this problem of audience and access?

Adam Farcus - Menards, Joliet, IL (store intervention and digital photograph) 2009

The group is still together (with only me, Mrva, and Bunner)... but on hiatus till we figure out how to collaborate between Chicago, L.A., and Bloomington, IN.

painting painting

2011-08-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

the first one i've made in about 7 years. it is now hanging in my brothers new house!

Adam Farcus - Double Refraction (Calcite/Libra) (acrylic, pencil, and matte medium transfer on canvas) 2011, 36" x 48"

ecstacy and god

2011-08-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

Charles Simic

Night Picnic

There was the sky, starless and vast—

Home of every one of our dark thoughts—

Its door open to more darkness.

And you, like a late door-to-door salesman,

With only your own beating heart

In the palm of your outstretched hand.

All things are imbued with God's being—

(She said in hushed tones

As if his ghost might overhear us)

The dark wood around us,

Our faces which we cannot see,

Even this bread we are eating.

You were mulling over the particulars

Of your cosmic insignificance

Between slow sips of red wine.

In the ensuing quiet, you could hear

Her small, sharp teeth chewing the crust—

And then finally, she moistened her lips.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini - Ecstasy of St. Teresa, ca. 1647-52

some inspiration

2011-08-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Michael Queenland - Meant Every Other Way (detail) (constructed box, cats, cotton Lycra fabric) 2007

Abraham Cruzvillegas - The Invincible (rock, feathers, and mixed media) 2002

Abraham Cruzvillegas - Menu in progress (set of 60 boxes, acrylic paint on cardboard, wood, paper, plastic, and polystyrene) 2005

Alexandra Bircken - Stammgäste (wood, wool, acrylic paint) 2006

Jeppe Hein - 360 Presence (steel, sensors) 2002

Suchan Kinoshita - Gordijn (Curtain) 2006

BSA Art

2011-08-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

My mom has often told me that at a young age she and my dad realized that I was into art. Her friends told her that if I was into art that she needed to get me into scouting. I do attribute a decent amount of my development and interest in arts to Boy Scouts, but not in the institutional structure. I liked walking around campgrounds and councils, alone; discovering animals; watching sunsets; fantasizing about ghosts, monsters, psychopaths, and ufo's in the dark; and finding odd natural and man-made stuff (trash, dams, trees growing around nails and fences, odd seeds, etc). I was also obsessed with the (quasi-military) insignia and iconography. I collected (and still own) as many pins and patches as I could. I was interested in what those characterized images symbolized, and the beautiful aesthetic that went with them. They stood for so much, not just some requirements that were fulfilled, but a set of moral and social codes - most of them were often romantic in their yearning for a more simple and righteous time. I never made it to the rank of Eagle (I only finished the rank of Star, two short of Eagle) because that wasn't important to me. I wanted to explore and create the world, and not file my ideas into another pre-determined system.

Some of the things I did in the BSA seem interesting to look at now. Least to investigate the problematic Leatherwork and Indian Lore merit badges, below are the 2011 requirements to get the Boy Scouts of America's Art Merit Badge. (And it's still crazy how easy Basketry is compared to other badges.) I don't understand how this represents how art is currently practiced or taught at all.

Tell a story with a picture or pictures or using a 3-D rendering.
Do ONE of the following.
1. Design something useful. Make a sketch or model of your design and get your counselor's approval before you proceed. Then create a promotional piece for the item using a picture or pictures.
2. Design a logo. Share your design with your counselor and explain the significance of your logo. Then, with your parent's permission and your counselor's approval, put your logo on Scout equipment, furniture, ceramics, or fabric.
Render a subject of your choice in FOUR of these ways:
1. Pen and ink,
2. Watercolors,
3. Pencil,
4. Pastels,
5. Oil paints,
6. Tempera,
7. Acrylics,
8. Charcoal
9. Computer drawing or painting
With your parent's permission and your counselor's approval, visit a museum, art exhibit, art gallery, artists' co-op, or artist's workshop. Find out about the art displayed or created there. Discuss what you learn with your counselor.
Find out about three career opportunities in art. Pick one and find out the education, training, and experience required for this profession. Discuss this with your counselor, and explain why this profession might interest you.

These investigations often lead me to consider what things could be making/doing now if I had gone to a progressive school in a city - or even an after school program like Gallery 37 or Spiral Workshop. (Even-though I did attend the art summer camp at Eastern Illinois University for two years in high school - even in its flaws I am very grateful for it.) In the end, it seems like I should not focus on what I could have been or done if I had had a better early arts education, but what I can do with what I have.

a gate I made for our campground at a summer camp in Kentucky, 1996

report after ACRE

2011-08-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

My time at ACRE this year was much different than last. I was more introspective and private. I guess I had a lot of personal/studio things to work on. I didn't make much, but did research, plan, work on ideas, have studio visits, travel around (lots), and talk with Allie a lot about how our practices work and work together (collaboratively). Here are some images and notes from my 12 days in Southwestern Wisconsin.

farms outside Bloomington, WI

8/6/11 - ACRE

some notes from a studio visit with Jan Tichy

"The Stars I was Born Under" - he saw this as a talismanic object - because people enjoyed it and took them away - balloons are give-aways.

what does it mean that I'm interested in portals (hexes) now that I am "cleaning my space"

is kitsch not already spiritual, talismanic, and magical?

notes on hexes and White Hex:

-does it need to fit the space?

-permanence vs. ephemerality

-portal = door? window? person sized?

One Day at a Time (in process - I think it needs to be much larger - it is still at 'craft' scale)

laundry along Rt. E between Steuben and Boscobel, WI

8/9/11 - ACRE
some notes from a studio visit with Brandon Alvendia
"poetry" - artists often use this work incorrectly
mining - digging up
- I'm an anthropologist who joined (or came from) the tribe
what is the material link to the place my work/inspiration comes from?
thread to real life can deal (attend to) kitsch and irony
- where's the tell

Sentinel (for ACRE) - in the ACRE studios at the Steuben Lodge, I left him there

8/13/11 - ACRE
some notes from a studio visit with New Capital (Ben and Chelsea)
One Day at a Time - showing the/a dark underbelly of Midwestern America
cultural scale - is constructed of individual's opinions of cultural scale (melting pot)
Ben gave me a question from a psychology test - white rabbit in a white room - what do you do? A: I try to pet it but it hops away from me. (I evidently am not afraid of death, and want to know it, but it is elusive)
*they agreed that something else needs to happen to One Day at a Time - they suggested a scale shift - to take it out of the craft/folk realm.

me and some other resident artists watching the 32nd ward recall election debate at a bar in Steuben

detail of a wall at the Dickeyville Grotto, in Dickeyville, WI

8/13/11 - ACRE
notes from a studio visit with Duncan McKenzie
One Day at a Time - funny, but cute
-participates too much in the folk space
-it needs some "tooth"
irony gives you a (critical) distance - and enough distance to access nostalgia (in the avant-guard) art world
-enough to look at it / cold reflection / because it's scary and rich with meaning
he said that I'm replicating emo values
"you have no God before art" - art world's slogan - it is anti-dogma
belief - not theism
what have we lost by not having belief?
is there belief now?
art is good at exploring what can be "Art"
-doesn't/can't change the world
he wanted to know how do/can I live off of (have a career) with an intervention based practice?
-Conrad Bakker

an eagle, flying over the lock and dam on the Mississippi River at Davenport, IA

Jesus and Mary

2011-08-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

i took these photos along Augusta Blvd, near Western Ave, in Chicago today. Jesus and Mary live at neighboring houses. the lens-flare in the Jesus photo was an (amazing) accident.

Google Street-View of the location (with the crucifix and altar)

SW WI

2011-08-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

a house near Bloomington, WI

a sign in Pairie du Chien, WI

a picture found in a Life magazine in the Community Thrift Store in Boscobel, WI

faith and support

2011-08-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

(photographs and notes from when I was driving from Chicago to ACRE [Steuben, WI])

with help from some great people, i'm becoming a better person.
so, i'm making work about help and support (for others), because thinking of others is a thing i'm trying to improve in myself.
but, these pieces are also for me - to help me help myself.
i find source materials and inspiration in places of support in our culture: Pennsylvania Dutch, Christianity, witchcraft, AA, counseling, astrology, and belief systems. i look to these things not to create my own faith, but to use them as a model for associative moves in my studio.

new in my studio - hexes

2011-07-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Adam Farcus - White Hex (pencil, nails, and thread on wall) 2011

sketch for a video

Adam Farcus - Magic Perfecting Base (acrylic on magazine page) 2011

Adam Farcus - Magic Perfecting Base (2) (photograph) 2011

chain letter

2011-07-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

this may be my piece, Package to Paradise (for Gavin Bunner), at the "Chain Letter" exhibition at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles. i took this off of a youtube video of someone clumsily walking the the (apparently) bombed mess of an exhibition. i also sent Gavin a part of a collaborative piece for our (me, Gavin, Dan Mrva) group, John Rainbow - i didn't see our sculpture anywhere in the litany of videos and photos on the web. oh well.

living like a weasel with tooth decay

2011-07-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

And once, says Ernest Thompson Seton - once, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found a dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle hand pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveled and bit as instinct taught him, tooth to neck, and nearly won. I would like to have seen that eagle from the air a few weeks or months before it was shot: was the whole weasel still attached to his feathered throat, a fur pendant? Or did the eagle eat what he could reach, gutting the living weasel with his talons before his breast, bending his beak, cleaning the beautiful airborne bones?
-Annie Dillard. Teaching a Stone to Talk. 1982.

the quote above is from Annie Dillard's story, "Living Like Weasels", plays a primary role in Laurie Anderson's Speechless (Eagle and the Weasel) from the album Bright Red. both address passion and impulse and holding on to life, no matter what happens. this is important to me, this week, because i just went to the dentist and found out that almost all of my teeth need dental work:

some teeth are not represented, because they're ok, or (as in one case) missing. the teeth that need anything with "resin" in them have surface cavities that require drilling and filling. the two that need to be extracted are rotted wisdom teeth. tooth #3 has a large filling that i had worked on when i was a kid - it is evidently "leaking" now, and requires a lot of work. in total it would take 4 visits (one for each quadrant of my mouth), and total $3658.00 - for someone with health insurance that does not cover dental. i now know what is wrong with my teeth, and thereby have a goal. before this i lived in denial and fear of what might actually be happening in my mouth. so i'm going to latch onto this, save/find some money or other dental options (UIC clinic?), and hold on. hopefully i won't be gutted - but if i were it would be a good case for how our health system in the US needs to be fixed. (really, i could only dream to live, or die, as a martyr for my liberal beliefs.)

at sea

2011-07-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

I am thinking of making a piece with international signal flags. The flags are the form, but that form doesn't have any specific content yet. I think I want it to be a message of longing - one which not too many people understand... or only sailors understand. Or for the love of the sea (via Rebecca Mir?). The language is similar to the one I used in the poem Civilian Camo. So here is a message to Bas Jan Ader (who was lost at sea).

"COME HOME"

Gary Snyder
Things to do Around a Ship at Sea

Go out with a small flashlight and a star chart, on a good night, and check out the full size of Eridanus.
Sunbathe on a cot on the boatdeck
Go forward and talk to the lookout, away from the engines, the silence and shudder
Watch running lights pass in the night
Dolphins and sharks.
Phosphorescing creatures alongside the shipside, burning spots in the wake.
Stag, Argosy, Playboy, and Time.
Do pushups.
Make coffee in the gallery, telling jokes.
Type letters to his girl friend in Naples for the twelve-to-four Oiler
Sew up jeans.
Practise tying knots and whipping
With the Chief Cook singing the blues
Tell big story lies
Grow a beard
Learn to weld and run a lathe
Study for the Firemans Oilers and Watertenders exam
Tropic- and sea-bird watching
Types of ships
Listening to hours of words and lifetimes–fuck & shit–
Figuring out the revolution.
Hammer pipes and flanges
Paint a picture on a bulkhead with leftover paints
Jack off in the shower
Dreams of girls, about yr girl friend, writing letters, wanting children,
Making plans.

light in solid form

2011-07-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

When a gas changes phase into solid it is called deposition (or desublimation). Examples are frost, hoar frost, and snow forming in clouds. Each of these changes are from water vapor to ice. So what would it be called to go from energy and light to a solid (kinda-of)?

Fulgurite (image from the NASA blog)

Fulgurite - created when lightning strikes sand or silica rich dirt. The silica it turned into glass due to the high temperatures of the lightning. Otherwise know as "fossilized lightning". Some of this stuff is for sale - for fairly cheep on eBay... I'm considering getting some.

exit through the vomiting

2011-07-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

i just finished watching Exit Through the Gift Shop, with a glass of wine. i have to say first: i like some graffiti art (when it's smart, or fun, or original), and even do some of my own, but there is something about the story of Mister Brainwash (Thierry Guetta) that makes me feel physically uncomfortable, sicky. like i fear becoming him.

still from Exit Through the Gift Shop

the way he functions as an artist, and the money he spends, seems anti- everything i think an artist should be. he seems to be fully and blindly absorbed in the "hype", decadence, and glamor of being an artist (or rather, a sensation). in graffiti, and art, i hope to see (and strive in myself) for passion, and at least critique - this guy's practice (after his "film-making") seems completely devoid of all of this. but hey, maybe Banksy wanted to make him look like a fool. either way, i need to purge these gross feeling by reading some soulful work (i recently bought Sherman Alexie's, Ten Little Indians), thoughtful making, and love.

rayons de lune

2011-07-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

Aux rayons de mémoire et aux temples de l'armoire

(On the shelves of memory and in the temples of the wardrobe)
-Colette Wartz, Paroles pour l'autre, p. 26.

But the real wardrobe is not an everyday piece of furniture. It is not opened every day, and so, like a heart that confides in no one, the key is not on the door.

* * * * *

André Breton, with a single word, shows us the marvels of unreality by adding a blessed impossibility to the riddle of the wardrobe. In Revolver aux cheveux blancs (p. 110) he writes with typical surrealist imperturbability:

L'armoire est pleine de linge
Il y a même des rayons de lune que je peux déplier.

(The wardrobe is filled with linen
There are even moonbeams which I cannot unfold.)

-Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 1994, p. 79-80.

Girl, here's a list

2011-07-08T14:25:00.000-07:00

Jamaica Kincaid
Girl

Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn't have gum on it, because that way it won't hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won't turn someone else's stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharf–rat boys, not even to give directions; don't eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you; but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a button–hole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a crease; this is how you iron your father's khaki pants so that they don't have a crease; this is how you grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don't squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don't pick people's flowers—you might catch something; don't throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don't like, and that way something bad won't fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man; and if this doesn't work there are other ways, and if they don't work don't feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn't fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it's fresh; but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?

humble superstitions

2011-07-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

Adam Farcus - Humble Superstitions (digital photograph) 2011

and an in-process poem, started at the Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA - for serious, that is what they go by!) last week:

* * * * *

Coal City Superstitions

"It brings bad luck to play cards across the grain of a table."

Kentucky Superstitions. Daniel Lindsay Thomas, Ph D. 1920.

If the cows are laying down in the pasture, it will rain soon.

A girl thrown from her bed by a ghost will grow freckles over her bruises.

If you stomp on a rat, and it doesn't die, your mill is in trouble.

A neighbor's haunted attic should always be unfinished on the west side.

A lucky penny, once washed, will no longer be lucky.

Falling into a mine shaft is a bad omen.

A broken bone, caused by falling into a mine shaft, will heal with guidance of drowned miners. When the weather is wet, the bone will hurt in memory of the mine's spirits.

The backyard of trauma will always be dug up.

The left thumb will turn black in sympathy for a smashed right one, and vice-versa.

EST.10-23-1982

2011-07-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

(A.A. & lucky pennies) in progress

2011-06-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

sketch for a new piece, tentitavely titled One Day at a Time (pencil and paint on paper)

studio floor with parts for One Day at a Time, Adam Grossi's preemptive drawing with 121 heads-up (lucky) pennies, and some finished birds from Sentinels

Billy Collins in Chicago

2011-06-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is in memory of the Billy "don't ask why I'm not William" Collins reading yesterday at the new Poetry Foundation building. He didn't read this poem, but this was the one that our friend read at my and Allie's wedding.

Litany

You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.

* * * * *

During the Q & A he talked about growing up and maturing as a poet. He said that at some point he stopped repeating (at 3rd rate) past works and found his own voice, mixed with little bits from all of his favorite writers and pieces. The end result was a melted pot with no traceable history, except for himself.

blur sand

2011-06-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

I visited the new exhibition, Pandora's Box: Joseph Cornell Unlocks the MCA Collection, today. All in all, it was a fairly decent exhibition - due mostly to the strong pieces. To note, it was nice to see Pipilotti Rist's piece, Sip My Ocean; Gabriel Orozco's, Socks 1 and Ball on Water; and a small collection of borrowed Cornell boxes.

Gabriel Orozco - Ball on Water (c-print) 1995

After a few rooms dedicated to themes in Cornell's work (usually exemplified by only one of his boxes) I began to notice that the curated work from the MCA collection often overshadows and even alters the read on Cornell's more humble pieces. This is made exemplary by the "The Voyeur" room - where an innocently curious box displaying a cut-out nude image of Betty Page is seen in context with a overtly loud Jeff Koons piece and a series of re-photographed images of women from pornography magazines wearing progressively less clothing (the clothing theme here is a suit). To me, this seems like the largest reach among many reaches in this show. It seems like the boxes are just a device to exhibit some of the collection. Although, Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman, and especially Henry Darger's works do share some common ground with Cornell's understated and private piece. In these, the sexuality is more subtle, playful, and devotional.

Jeff Koons - Woman in Tub (porcelain) 1988

Also, I have seen Cornell's boxes in museums and in reproduction where the verso of each piece is accessible. This is interesting because there is often a collage on the back side. But in this exhibition, all of the boxes are carefully backed up and secured to the wall (or in one case, laid flat). A similar approach is taken to the double-sided drawing by Darger. To fully experience a full-round piece, it seems that the artwork should be seen in the full round. (Let's not even talk about how Cornell's boxes were meant to be played with - interacted with to create an ever changing arrangement of objects and sounds.)

To top it off there was a spelling error on a wall tag:

this should read 'blue sand' (reminiscent of a recent piece by Eric Fleischauer)

bp / rosen

2011-06-11T21:19:00.001-07:00

I have made connections between the concrete poetry and linguistic systems in bpNichol's and Kay Rosen's work before, but I've never seen it so straight forward as this. It is unclear which came first (bpNichol's book was published in 1990, and Rosen's Read Lips was made in 1989), or if one influenced the other. Regardless, these two piece are certainly mining the same intellectual ground. For me, finding this bpNichol piece really informed and opened up my read of Rosen's piece - which prior, seemed both on the surface and coded.

bpNichol - Portable Systems 17 (from art facts, 1990)

from later in this piece:

W = C1 + C2 + C3 etc

where W is the circumference of any word, C the circumference of the mouth opening at the apex of its particular phonemic movement & where 1,2,3 etc indicates the particular phoneme in terms of its place in the relevant speech sequence.

Kay Rosen - Read Lips (paint on wall) 1985

Where bpNichol's is more cold (analytic), Kay Rosen finds a place of geographic/familial investigation. (mum is 'British' for mom). This 'mom' (or the idea of mom), is illustrated in a manner that is surprising because of its cold approach, through a phonemic series, to a term that is used in mostly private and personal places.

2011-06-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

Street of Jewelers
by Charles Simic, from Night Picnic

What each one of these hundreds
Of windows did with the gold
That was melting in them this morning,
I cannot begin to imagine.

I act like a prospective burglar
Noting the ones that are open,
There curtains drawn to the side
By someone stark naked,
I may have just missed.

Here, where no one walks now,
And when he does, he goes softly,
So as not to tip the scales
In the act of weighting
Specks of dust in the dying sunlight.

Christianity, made through humble means

2011-06-07T14:33:00.001-07:00

These are all photographs of thing that I have found, or sought out - in the case of the altar. Although I was baptized and confirmed Methodist, I don't hold allegiance to any Christian faith. My past, and my family's history, does influence my thoughts on this subject. But, I am largely interested in Christianity as a transformative power, and as a model for making (my) art.

carved tree outside a of factory building, along Lake St, near Damen Ave, Chicago

Highway Church of God in Christ, along Van Burn St, near Leavett St, Chicago (the church faces I-290)

roadside monument, along Halsted St, near Cermak Rd, Chicago

altar to Mary (who's image was found in a water stain on the cement wall here), along Fullerton Ave, under the I-90/94 overpass, Chicago

Siphon

2011-06-01T03:57:00.000-07:00

Adam Farcus - Siphon (for My Grandmother) (Apache tear (obsidian rock), gin, blanket) 2011

Finding the formula again

2011-05-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

Albert Goldbarth
Various Ulia

      Did we say it loud? Eventually
we said it. Cancer. Somewhere someone else
said AIDS. But only toward the last,
near the end, when the dying was
the fear‒and not the dying's being invited.
For such is the power of utterance.

      Susie says that even ten years since the divorce,
she refuses to drive alone at night
‒that's when the words come back.

      Although the infamous Mercury Theater production
of The War of the Worlds (October 30, 1938)
was intended to horrify, still,
"CBS cut the cries of the invading Martians
('Ulia, Ulia, Ulia') as too frightening."

      A song comes on; she won't say why, but
she needs to turn off the radio.

* * * * *

I have, again, come into an understanding of how my 'formula' for making work functions - after a talk with Allie about my poetry reading this past weekend. Simply, it isn't just a matter of soundly conceptually constructing a piece (that is important), but there also needs to be room, running room. As Tony Tasset would say, "Make it weird."

luck and function

2011-05-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

Adam Farcus - My Universe and Yours (light bulb, water, dust, star confetti, clamp light, and extension cord) 2009/2011

Our (me and Brandon Anschultz) opening reception for Ingredients for Humble Magic, at the Hills Esthetic Center, was last night. It was pretty well attended, the show looked really nice, I organized a few trades, and has some good conversations (a few of which I took notes on).

dice - use up your luck really quickly
non-function function - much of my work (Map of the Universe, ][][][][][][][][][, Conduit, & My Universe and Yours [image of this piece installed at the show above]) all propose a function but deny it in some way

Today at 1:00pm is my reading. Hope it goes well.

Letter to...

2011-05-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

Adam Farcus - Insufficient (college, stamp, postal markings, and typewriter on envelope) 2011

12:35pm, May 17, 1983

2011-05-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

I have received very few emails from my grandmother. Today I got the second ever:

Subject: It's your day!

Hi

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM

Hope you have a great day.

Love,

Pa and Grandma Mimi