Everyday: 10/11/15

(digital photograph) Pine Bluff Road, Morris, IL

Polaroids: Coyote

I recently scanned a bunch of old polaroids I've had around for a long time. Not all are scanned, just the ones that seem relevant. Photography was one of the first places I started finding my voice as an artist when I still lived with my parents. I will be periodically posting them here.

a coyote, cut in twain by a train, in Coal City, Illinois

Coal City tornado sirens, and one that might be a bucket on a pole

Hexes

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

BSA Art

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.

1. Tell a story with a picture or pictures or using a 3-D rendering.
2. 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.
3. 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
4. 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.
5. 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

Conversations on Contemporary Art and Nail Salon, Coal City, IL

me conversing with artist Kelly Alexander and her mother, they did not get their fingernails painted

On Feb. 20, 2011 I initiated the piece, Conversations on Contemporary Art and Nail Salon at the Coal City Art Fair, held at the Coal City High School. My position as "Visiting Alumni Artist" granted me the opportunity to show my home town what I have become, as an artist and as a person. I would have preferred to only set up my table, but it seemed that the school (and my former art teacher) needed some objects to make it seem like real art. In this piece I was hoping to introduce visitors to contemporary art through engaged discussion on current trends. I used the action of painting fingernails, once as an ice-breaker, and also as a starting point for discussions on what art can be and is today. While painting finger-tips I asked my participants, "What would you say if I told that that what I am doing right now [painting fingernails] is art?" Often, participants (whom were overwhelmingly students) agreed that either "it was like painting, but on fingernails" or that this action was art "because there are colors." I then followed by asking if our conversation, just me talking to them, could be art. This was a slightly harder sell, but surprisingly only a few completely abstained from this group. Relationships between my creative-conversation-action were made, by students and myself, to stage performances, object-less art (art where the object is missing), and straight forward "telling" of ideas. For older students I would briefly explain what Relational Aesthetics was, using Rirkrit Tiravanija as an example. These connections and investigations were only made by the students (kids). The adults all took rolls between passive interest and glazed-over obligation. The conversations with the adults were always one sided (sans the talk I had with Kelly Alexander and her mom).

painting iridescent yellow on my grandmother's fingernails

graph detailing how many of each age group (split into Adult and Kid at the age of 18) participated in this piece

Two unexpected things happened. I should have expected that mothers and fathers would be weary of some strange guy that wants to paint the fingernails of their daughter. As kids (as young as Kindergarten students) got their fingernails painted their parents usually hoovered questionably close to my table. I only touched my participants with the fingernail-polish brush. Also, I only asked about the art fair, what art they liked, if they went to school in Coal City, and what they thought about my art and this performance. Still, most parents where suspicious. I hope that later these parents checked their responses to my actions later, hopefully landing in some contemplative place about (my) art. The other thing was the problematic action of painting the nails of these young girls. (I only painted the nails of one boy, who was around 17 years old.) It was a bit bothersome for me to be in a position where my art action was wholly buying into and supporting the construction of gender normativity. I'd like to think that the kids would question why I was painting they're nails because the context and act was not normal, but I can't count on 5 to 18 year-old kids being so introspective. In addition to asking if my actions were art, I often asked what these participants thought about boys/men/me wearing fingernail polish. Perhaps this question was a good start for seeding the contemplation of how gender is constructed and enacted, but I believe that I need to re-think this act. I'd like not to remove fingernail painting from this piece, but to shift it to a more aware position.

smug

bringing some art to my home town

Adam Farcus @ the Fine Arts Fair
Coal City High School
Sunday, February 20
12-4

Polaris, birds of a transient nature

Adam Farcus - Polaris (acrylic, pen, and plaster on wood panel) 2003?

I re-found this painting (from 2003?) when I was forced to clean out some rubber-made bins that were in my parents garage. I remember having a hard time talking about it or convincing anyone in undergrad that this made sense, or was good. It maybe got chocked up to kitsch (which I appreciate actually). Looking back now I think this painting was important for me and my conceptual development - which led me to where I am now. I made this because I had moved away from home and was living on my own in a new place (a dorm, then an apartment in Normal/Bloomington, IL). I felt like I was loosing what I considered home. The Polaris is represented here by the word "polaris" and the star's astrological number, αUMi. The symbol marking it's location is a green shovel and pick-axe - a major part of the iconography of my home town, Coal City, IL.
The road map highway line, with the shield for an instate number, is a facsimile of RT55 - the interstate that connects Bloomington/Normal to Coal City. The other graphics are two birds: a red-wing blackbird and a bluebird. The bluebird and (in particular) the red-wing blackbird are birds that are often seen along highways. The red-wing blackbird nests in marshy areas, like the ditches and streams that run parallel to major roads. Thereby, I came to see these birds as symbols of transience - they were the guide to my home, and my new home. Polaris and Coal City are also guides (both for navigating); for travel and as a metaphor for finding my way into adult independence. It's kinda hokey, but honest. Also it is romantic, but I haven't lost that, and hopefully never will. The layering of colored plaster was a slight object-pun to painting. The first layer is white (gesso), the second is red (under-painting), and the top is tan (the final layer). I decided to try this gloopy technique out after seeing and loving some paintings with a similar effect in a River North gallery - only later did I find out that they were made by Steve Zieverink, a fellow MFA student at UIC. I gave this painting to my father-in-law-to-be this week for fathers day - he studies red-wing blackbirds in Beloit, WI.