David Weiss died today.
He was 66.
He passed away at his home in Zurich.

Peter Fischli & David Weiss - Son et Lumiere - Le Rayon Vert (flashlight, turntable, plastic cup, adhesive tape) 1990

<3 <3 <3   @)}-%---   @)}-%---   @)}-%---

guut glick

BRING ABOUT THE NEW WROLD ORDER (ILLUMIATI VIDEO PAST DOWN THRU GENERATI...

in corners, in squares

Lisa Fishman
from "Current"

Fastening

the wind to the shape of the wind
the wind to the turn of the wind
the corn grows in corners, in squares
the roads too
In a fell swoop the school came down
the mind at fault, the bricks
could be pictured there
Had been looking around in the time
around the time, may want to say chime
or the name of the cat’s Tom Horne In the Chanterelles
the fluted mushrooms—nothing known
to be that orange
Often in love
with two or more guests in attendance,
the field has a particular, imaginary charge
my dear
The foxtail by the road resembles foxes’ tails specifically but briefly
in a light also fox-colored, didn’t mean
to write it down

* * * * *

<3

sails and stones

when i read about art or theory i often substitute nouns and verbs to make the statement into something about me and my practice. thus, i turn

"palimpsest-like surfaces — evidence of her working everything out on the canvas"
-from John Yau's review of Katherine Bradford's exhibition.

into, palimpsest-like surfaces: evidence of working everything out on the piece. which leads me to this piece:

 i don't have a title yet, but i know it's about moving/traveling (as i'll be moving to Baltimore very soon) - hence the sail shape; luck and charms (the stones and beads); and ephemerality. i've also been thinking about, and looking at, the Cy Twombly sculptures at the Art Institute a lot. perhaps i should say that there is some Dan Gunn, Ian Hamilton Finlay, and maybe even some Rashid Johnson in there too.

i've made 4 of these things now and i'm gunna make more. i like how loose, fun, and expressive these things are - but i'm bothered by what this means. so it comes with some great insight that i find Yau's review of Bradford's paintings, which caries this pertinent quote near the end:

"one should not be surprised by how many artists find a way to be a conceptual artist that paints."

conceptual love

Sol LeWitt - Cube with Styrofoam White on Black (latex, styrofoam on plaster board) 1994

Kay Rosen - Setting Plaster under Borrowed Light (latex house paint on wall) 2011

Sol LeWitt - From the Word 'Art'- Blue Lines to Four Corners, Green Lines to Four Sides, and Red Lines Between the Words 'Art' on the Printed Page (colored ink and pencil on paper) 1972

the ongoing whatever of my teeth

this is my temporary bridge. obviously it should be in my mouth bridging the missing tooth (that i've written about before) - instead, it's on this cardboard box. meanwhile, in my mouth, the two teeth that are supposed to have this glued to it are very senitive and fairly painful... because they're exposed. it's hard to drink or eat.

Ghost in the Graveyard

a test of the sound/sculpture installation titled Ghost in the Graveyard that i will be showing in a 2 person exhibition (me and Bill Conger) at Box 13, in Houston, TX, in November. one of these set-ups will be installed in every Northeast corner in the space.

Friday the 13th

Cover, installed at The Tree House Gallery

The Tree House Gallery.
728 N. Dryden Ave. Arlington Heights IL 60004
http://www.facebook.com/events/397642413593780/

me reading D

shade and Hex

officially (i decided), today is the first day of shade this year

* * * * *

and, i'm fixing a troublesome piece of art, Hex:

Hex, in it's not-right-form (charcoal, burnt paper, Lamb of God poster)

i've since reconstituted the Lamb of God poster into a grey & speckled ball paper-mache. i think this was a premium decision. the final form will be less drawing, more sculpture. i need to make a mount for it - to come off the wall like a flag - but in the meantime, here are some referential artworks for what i'm planning.

Haim Steinbach - Untitled (cabbage, pumpkin, pitchers) (mixed media construction) 1987

Min Song - (foreground) Untitled (powder-coated steel) 2010, (on wall) Untitled (Cockatoos) (inkjet print, paint, bolts, washers) 2010

Carol Bove - W.A. (shells, steel, concrete and bronze) 2010

Dan Gunn - Constellation No. 2 (acrylic and watercolor on canvas) 2009

       

 Irena Knezevic - Omophagia

Joliet, IL; Dwight, IL; Cabin Gallery

Incienso: The Dream Maker

INCENSE

of the

WEST

PIÑON

INCIENSO

de Santa Fe

A true impression of the region.

Approximately 40 CONES

2.5 oz. / 69 grams

Instructions

(1) Remove cone from box

(2) Hold cone over a flame until tip is well lit.

(3) Set the cone upright on a fireproof surface. The flame will go out leaving the incense to smolder.

The pleasant smell of burning natural wood is traditionally associated with sleepy little towns and pueblos throughout the Southwest and the Rockies.

Essence extracts of the woods are compounded into incense by,

Incienso De Santa Fe, Inc.

320 Headingly Avenue Northwest

Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107

www.inscents.com 505-345-0701

Dream with Incienso,

• Of Morning and evening smoke rising in sleepy little towns and pueblos.

• Of chuck wagon cooking fires out on the range.

• Of campfires by the singing trout stream.

• Have jolly picnic fires on the mesa and in the canyon.

• Of the tall yarns around the glowing fireplace.

• Of the memories of friends.

• Of visions of new adventures in the far west.

Incienso

The Dream Maker

7 8577 01101 5

CAUTION: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN AND AWAY FROM ALL FLAMMABLE MATERIALS. NEVER LEAVE INCENSE UNATTENDED AND MAKE SURE ASHES FALL ON FIREPROOF SURFACE. NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. NON-TOXIC.

night yipping

i woke up at 4:30am last night to the sound of some very loud (close) coyote yipping and howling. this is a sound that i know well, but was frightening non-the-less. i put on my glasses and ran to the window in time to see two coyotes walking south on the railroad tracks outside my apartment - the tracks are about 10 feet down and 20 feet out from my window. from the noise it seemed like there were one or two somewhere else in city calling in response.

not my video, but the sound is the same (sans the waterfall)

conceptual is always vs. skill...

i have many things to write about from the past 3 days - i'm going to start with the most recent, and most salient.

tonight was the reception for "On Beyond Zebra: 2012 UIC Art MFA Thesis Exhibition 3". i really liked it, as did a lot of other people. my former junior college professor, a colleague of his, and a former student came by. we were having a nice conversation... then we started talking about approaches to art education, mainly the role conceptual art does or doesn't have in that. his argument was centered on the idea that having a good idea is great but it isn't worth anything if it isn't executed well. this obviously assumes that if you work conceptually you can't work skillfully, don't need to learn any traditional skills, and throw out all the 'important' parts (traditional forms of making such as rendering and gesture) of art when you do so. later in the conversation he made reference to some of the work in the exhibition as proof.

Paul Cowan - Untitled (fishing lures on canvas) 2011

i tried to talk to them about differing approaches - and to explain that UIC might not honor the transfer credits from his junior college because the courses are taught quite differently; at UIC the foundations courses are centered on conceptual meaning-making through skillful application of everything from traditional to contemporary methods of working. (i didn't phrase this so tightly in the conversation, but the idea was there.) he replied, "well who's fault of that?"

Neal Vandenbergh - White and Yellow (High Intensity Prismatic Sheeting, Yellow High Build Traffic paint, copper, wood, latex paint, hardware) 2011  [another piece from "On Beyond Zebra" <3 ]

so i normally would let this roll off my back - compared to my thoughts, some people have different ideas of what the function of art should be, and that's valid. and then maybe this work isn't for him/them - and why should i care if someone hates on some stuff, i like it. the problem is that this was my teacher, a person that i considered a mentor.

it hurt to hear someone that i've looked up to for so long completely dismiss the way i work in my studio, the way i teach, and the way i understand art and the world. today was the day that i stopped seeing this man as my mentor, and started to see him as a person - imperfect like the rest of us. i think this is a good thing, and look forward to getting to know him in this new context. and i'm still want to include his work in the The Earth Below exhibition about faith and belief that i've been working on for... 3 years? here is the piece i want for the show (his name removed out of respect and privacy).

Personal Cross (mixed media)

through the object

One of my rules is that I don’t want to be inventive or, more precisely, I want to avoid needless innovation.  For a long time I only re-presented things that I found, but at a certain point, when I felt a strong pull towards making things, I loosened the constraint.  So now it’s okay to invent a form, but I have to feel like it existed in advance of me.
-Carol Bove [from what I was told, pronounced BOW-VAY]

a collage i made at USF last week

a in-progress piece (photogram) that i scanned on a dirty scanner bed

"melancholy... the most voluptuous of all sensations"

In [t]his depression and dreadful uninterrupted suffering, I don't condemn life. On the contrary, I like it and find it good. Can you believe it? I find everything good and pleasant, even my tears, my grief. I enjoy weeping, I enjoy my despair. I enjoy being exasperated and sad. I feel as if these were so many diversions, and I love life in spite of them all. I want to live on. It would be cruel to have me die when I am so accommodating. I cry, I grieve, and at the same time I am pleased -- no, not exactly that -- I know not how to express it. But everything in life pleases me. I find everything agreeable, and in the very midst of my prayers for happiness, I find myself happy at being miserable. It is not I who undergo all this -- my body weeps and cries; but something inside of me which is above me is glad of it all.
-Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff (via William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience)

 signs from a yet-unfinished piece of mine titled Cover

the white bouquet, given lucky pennies

 Cy Twombly - The Second Part of the Return from Parnassus (detail) (wax crayon, lead pencil, oil paint, and colored pencil on canvas) 1961

the art institute has moved it nice collection of Cy Twombly sculptures to the room that formerly housed the Robert Ryman pieces - The Elliot Room (Charter Series). mainly, the organization is different, giving less space to walk around the sculptures :(, but the large windows do give the sculptures better light than their previous room :).

 Cy Twombly - Untitled, Rome (wood, plaster, clay, and white paint) 1985-95

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

i spent a decent amount of time with Twombly, as well as the gutted galleries around the courtyard in the back of the museum. after working for a few institutions i have come to understand that places like these are not so holy or perfect as they are made to seem - they are just as flawed as any other man-made thing, but i am still delighted to see instances like this that show the institution in a different light. with it's facade removed.

then i went up to walkway that leads to the park and photographed the lucky pennies, batteries, and keys that people had tossed onto the ledge. there is more water and rust in it now too.