e.e. and futility

i was thinking of futility in context of this piece and what it needs next, to finish it, and then i opened e.e. cummings a selection of poems to this poem at random.

Everyday: 7/29/15

Catherine Borg, Adam Farcus, and Stephen Hendee - 15 - 13 - 35 (acrylic paint on canvas) 2015

[a big loss for me, I scored 13]

Michael E. Smith @ the Sculpture Center

Michael E. Smith - Untitled (sleeping bag, steel) 2015

Michael E. Smith - Untitled (sleeping bag, steel) 2015

 Michael E. Smith - Untitled (ceramic plates, steel pipe) 2015

 Michael E. Smith - Untitled (rocking chair) 2015

Michael E. Smith - Untitled (mugs, amplifier, printed twins) 2015

Michael E. Smith - Untitled (two channel video) 2015 

 Michael E. Smith - Untitled (garbage disposal, headgear) 2015

 Michael E. Smith - Untitled (garbage disposal, headgear) 2015

Michael E. Smith - Untitled (dolly, Nintendo Game Cube) 2015

Michael E. Smith - Untitled (bathtub, springs) 2015

 Michael E. Smith - Untitled (black lab, latex mask) 2015

Michael E. Smith - Untitled (sunflower, steel, vice grip) 2015

Michael E. Smith - Untitled (doghouse) 2015

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Then, as I walked around the neighborhood looking for some food I kept seeing things that echoed what I saw in the museum.

Everyday: 7/28/15

No Name to Give (cockroach acrylic paint on canvas) 2015

title will probably be improved, but I was thinking of this fragment of a poem, The Gauze of Flowers, A Love Poem, by Olena Kalytiak Davis

mockup for something yet to come (maybe)

Everyday: 7/27/15

The Colonial Collection

Everyday: 7/23/15

(Baltimore silt, Old Bay, and glass bottle)

semiotics and the confederate flag

I thought I would write an essay or something about semiotics and the confederate flag, then I googled it and saw it had been done like 50 times over.

Here's the first one: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~class/am483_97/projects/sarratt/intro.html

It seems like bad branding to use the confederate flag, a symbol that signifies hatred and racism, as a symbol of southern heritage - especially when that heritage is tied to a history of slavery and segregation. Saying that this is a small amount of people who understand the confederate flag this way (it's not) or that dissenters don't get it (we do) doesn't make up for the idea that this sign has always carried with it the ideas of supremacy, hatred, and disenfranchisement. These reads of this sign will probably not change, especially if we keep moving toward removing entrenched racism and biases from our society.
It is bad branding, unless they are ok with that connotation, then it is intentionally meant to hold onto and express the ideas that white people are superior to black people. At best people who claim this is a symbol of southern heritage are purposefully ignoring the idea that this flag symbolizes hatred. Your sign is flawed. Your philosophy is wrong.

Everyday: 7/22/15

Booth Family Obelisk (digital photograph)

Everyday: 7/21/15

(vampire teeth and peanut butter)

Everyday: 7/20/15

Forever Traveling
an object secretly and securely left on a Bolt Bus
2015

Everyday: 7/17/15

I, I, I (brass ring and half of a plastic egg)

[I bought this from the "magic" quarter machine in the local grocery store that promised a surprise item]

Everyday: 7/14/15

Two white Sieve pieces made today.

Sieve (heat-shrink tubing, kidney beans, bully sticks, peep holes, memory card, cherry Kool-Aid packages, Parachute Survival Bracelet, and hardware)

Sieve (heat-shrink tubing, grounding clamp, melatonin tablets, light bulbs, Parachute Survival Bracelets, pad-locks and keys, coral, dice, and hardware)

recent found & source material

at 39th St. and Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD

sign at B'nai Israel Cemetery, Baltimore

pre-Iftar, the Ngaiya's house, Baltimore, MD

Everyday: 7/12/15

The False Prophets (found wire)

Everyday: 7/9/15

No Name to Give (cockroach acrylic paint on paper)

Everyday: 7/8/15

Swell (cut plastic sign)

[I'm not super thrilled with this title, but the object seems pretty solid]

Everyday: 7/4/15

Kepler-22b (wallpaper, inkjet print, tape, ink, and colored pencil)

Everyday: 7/3/15

(crow feather and reusable ice cube)

ice yields

images from a mummy now freed from a glacier on Pico de Orizaba because of climate change

-and-

images of "Blood Falls" on the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica

Everyday: 7/1/15

Boil Order (for John Sims) collage, acrylic paint, glue, and debris

municipal utility markers vs. light wheels

Here are two things I've been research and collecting - they don't necessarily go together, but I find that it is sometimes productive to let things overlap in order to create new meaning(s). I am interested in both at the same time anyway.