halo

anthelion: noun pl
A luminous, white, halo-like area occasionally seen in the sky opposite the sun on the parhelic circle.

image from here

play, rocks, and the lake

me and a group of guys on the beach of Lake Michigan at Sheboygan, WI. stacks by me and Brian Biskie. smiley rocks by me.

James Schuyler love

i was digging for my old photocopied copy of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," and instead i found a half-page note from my graduate school advanced poetry class. it follows:

2/11/08
James Schuyler - Quote from Diary

On the surface of the bay
the sun counts change,
quick and expert, and with
dignified stealth
the water pockets
its tributes.

new book covers

Astronomy One. J. Allen Hynek & Necia H. Apfel. 1972.

Bright Peaks. Paul McKee, Annie McCowen, M. Lucile Harrison, Elizabeth Lehr, William K. Durr. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1966.

Bright Peaks really gives me an itch to curate an exhibition (about explorers/the future/utopias/voyages) of the same name with this image as the show card. Astronomy One has yielded many great illustrations and old science data, let alone the amazing cover.

Truisms for Myself as an Artist

(or letter to an artist, myself)
the beginning of a poem/letter/list/writing:

Artists are Magicians
Make the Most Obvious Thing in the Most Surprising Way
Making Art is Always a Personal Battle
Embrace the Suck

flag / marker

i went for a walk today and found this brilliantly red plastic in a vacant lot (my new favorite place to explore). i made this sculpture on a fence from a long-gone building or property, and left it there. Curating National (two works from the show follow my piece) has led me to further consider cultural markers of many sorts - in respect to the exhibition, it seems that flags are the most ubiquitous forms. so i've gather a few of my favorite pieces of artwork that involve flags (this is not an exhaustive list at all).

Adam Farcus - Marker (intervention and digital photograph) 2010

Allison Yasukawa - Eclipsing a Sun (ladder, light, thread, altered Japanese flag, daughter [absent]) 2010

Rebecca Mir - Flag for the Nation of Rubaccaquon (green, silver, and purple fabric, flag pole, and flag mount) 2010

Rebecca Mir

Tobia Blaise - This is not a flag, 1990

Mark Wallinger - Easter (flagpoles, woven fabric) 2005

Vince Dermody - Altered City Flag (for D.M.) 2005

Gardar Eide Einarsson - Burnt Black Flag (cotton and grommets) 2005

David Hammons - African-American Flag (dyed cotton) 1990

Jasper Johns - White Flag (encaustic and collage on canvas) 1955

new research images

some things that have been sticking around, either in my head or on my computer:

Astronomy One. J. Allen Hynek & Necia H. Apfel. W.A. Benjamin, Inc. 1972. (photos by Thomas E. Graves)

Hex Signs. Don Yoder and Thomas E. Graves. E. P. Dutton. 1989.

damaged/fixed wall in Chinatown, Chicago (duct tape on tile) - 2010

*and what it looked like a year ago! - 2009