Man Vs. Toddler

Here's something for those of you who think there's been too much toddler-generated content on this blog:

Modernism in the family room

It's the Ellsworth Kelly playmat!

Amnesty International art auction tonight, in St. Louis

The St. Louis chapter of Amnesty International presents an exhibit featuring the women of Zimbabwe and a silent auction fundraiser, tonight from 7 - 9 at SqWires Annex, in historic Lafayette Square.



I've donated two linocuts for the auction, "Mad Dog" and "Right Answers, Wrong Questions". Add a little art to your collection and support a fantastic cause tonight by attending this auction!

This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio:
a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy:
he hath borne me on his back a thousand times;
and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it.



Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.
Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs?
your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?
Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?



Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let
her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
come; make her laugh at that.

Vintage Halloween Parade

We dug deep into FIMP's film vaults and found this clip of Great Grandma Rachel in her Halloween Parade. She's the bee.

How to Draw a Fish, and a Fish Water Pipe

Our resident master of the Magna Doodle provides a demonstration in drawing fish and a fish water pipe.



She had previously provided all of the artwork for the latest book from FIMP.

Plate of Shrimp and Electric Bassoons

So we were in downtown Greensburg for an art opening, and had to cross the street so that Rachel could check out the drum kit of the band that was setting up in the local coffeehouse. Marti's surprised to see one of the band members warming up with his electric bassoon. The band member is surprised that someone recognizes his instrument, and presents us with his band's 2nd cd (which would be "Snake Charming Music" by Sklenik, go check it out!). And on the cover of Sklenik's 2nd cd? A detail from Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights". There's this like lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything. Suppose you're thinking about a plate of shrimp. . .

Bosch and Buckethead

It would have been nice to have this video back in my teaching Art Appreciation days. Good for the first day of class, I think.

We the People

"We the People," the current exhibition on display throughout Hamden, CT, brings the startled citizenry of this small New England town a look at the darker side of the human condition.



These anonymous Hamden artists have taken the venerable form of the portrait bust and through a few well-chosen displacements of medium and presentation made it a potent vessel for commentary on contemporary life.



They have discarded traditional media such as stone or bronze and replaced it with the pumpkin, producing disturbingly hollow, irregularly shaped heads. Eschewing pedestals, these gourds-as-heads have been placed directly in the suburban landscape, vacant eyes staring up at the viewer from the ground, emphasizing the strange decapitated quality of these emptied shells.



Though the facial expressions are frequently carved with forceful exaggeration and animation, the artists have gone to great lengths to emphasize the void within the head, often inserting a candle or some other feeble light source to illuminate the vacuum behind the frenzied physiognomies.



Strangely, considering the earthy methods used to create these images, they seem to warn of a terrible detachment from reality that is only possible in our digital media-saturated age. These heads act as disembodied emoticons, portraits of the frantic and empty doppelgangers that replace actual human beings in the reality-programming based fully interactive one-stop shopping chatroom that we find ourselves swimming through in 2003.



On display through November 1

Text and images taken from FIMP's exhibition catalog/Book of the Month from October 2003

Celebrity Sightings!

I've been amazed at how many of today's hottest celebrities are prowling the streets here in Greensburg, PA!


Derek Jeter!


Miley Cyrus!


Daniel Radcliffe!

The all-time Yankees hits leader, Hannah Montana, and Harry Potter, right here in town. Wow!

It's a new book, and a new address.

FIMP's finally got a new tiny little home at our local post office. We've left Pittsburgh, and are out in the beautiful Laurel Highlands.

And with at least half of the studio out of boxes at this point, the latest book is being sent out to subscribers.



All of the drawing in this month's book is done by my extremely talented three year old. From our post office box to your mailbox, keep an eye out for it.

Because she said so.

Today, Rachel's animals wore play doh hats.

Every Person In New York

I like this.

Taking Notes

I'm digging out my studio in order to move, and unearthed this sketch. This is pretty typical for my "dumb idea in the middle of the night" notes to myself. I think I thought that Larry King interviewing a house fly would make an interesting book. Somehow I'm guessing that this doodle is as far as that idea is going to get. But you know, now that I'm thinking about it. . .

a few other houses by Frank Lloyd Wright

Well, whattayaknow, it's a new book! Long suffering subscribers to the FIMP Book of the Month club finally have something to look for in their mailboxes - "A Few Other Houses by Frank Lloyd Wright" should be arriving soon. FIMP moves to its new studio at the end of this month - hopefully things will start being produced with more regularity after the move.

A new job, and such.

Sorry for the woeful lack of posts these days. Trying to sell a house, y'know.

But, in related news, FIMP is delighted that Marti Haykin has a new job!

Packaging Design

So here we are, looking up a vampire's nose - a vampire who has a mouth stuffed full of cookies. Adds a bit of menace to sneaking a treat. . .

Rachel Draws Seahorses

Seahorse, white-board marker and magnet on white-board

Refusing to be sucked into the whole "making precious objects" racket, Rachel's preferred drawing media these days have been her white board and her "MagnaDoodle", neither of which produce a drawing which lasts more than a few minutes before it's obliterated and something new is created. Drawing for her is a completely joyful practice. Here are two of her most recent pieces.


Daddy Seahorse and Baby, white-board marker and magnets on white-board

I wish I drew like that.

"Makes A Lousy Gift", FIMP's book of the month

Subscribers to FIMP's Book of the Month club should receive "Makes A Lousy Gift" in their mailboxes today or tomorrow. In the tradition of FIMP's "Lousy Names for Boys" and "Lousy Names for Girls", "Makes A Lousy Gift" provides you with a short list of things to avoid when making one of those difficult important decisions.



Of course, something that would make a great gift is a subscription to the FIMP Book of the Month club.



A mere $25 gets you a bakers dozen of tiny books from the Fiji Island Mermaid Press, spread out over the next year plus a month or two. Now, in all honesty, the name should really be FIMP's 13 Books Over About A Year And A Half As Production Slowed Down A Bit When The Two Baby Girls Showed Up Club, but that's a little cumbersome.

I've been sending these books out since 2000, and the current count is 94, including this most recent book. I'm going to have to do something special when I reach 100 - maybe reprint the ones that have sold out and offer a complete set. Stay tuned, suggestions welcome!

Marc Prill's "FREE FOR ALL" exhibition

be sure to click to see this image in its full glory

Here's an installation photo of the FREE FOR ALL downloadable artists' books exhibition as created by Marc Prill. Sandwiching the books between the computer monitor and the knife and folding bone nicely sums up the way this show bridges the virtual and the real.

Check out Marc's website, where you can find his books and other artwork. It will also open your eyes to the surprisingly life-threatening nature of recreation areas in the UK.

ME, An Autobiography, by Jeanne Borofsky

ME, An Autobiography, by Jeanne Borofsky

FIMP is delighted to add Jeanne Borofsky to our ME, An Autobiography gallery.

See more of Jeanne Borofsky's work at the Dreaming Printer.

ME books go all "PDF"y

ME, An Autobiography, by Luc Fierens

So, FIMP has this ongoing project, ME, An Autobiography, in which FIMP provides you with the format and the questions for a tiny autobiography, you provide the answers, and then FIMP posts the results online in the ME gallery. The answer "unknown dust" remains one of my favorites for "this means nothing to me", by the way.

Anyway, with the FREE FOR ALL show providing artists books in downloadable form, the thought occurred to me when I received a request for a blank ME book that this would be a good time to make the ME book available as a download, instead of sending one through the mail, as had been my previous practice.

So, here's where you can download a blank ME book.

And here are the directions for cutting and folding the book. Even if you don't want to make a ME book, you might want to check out the directions, so that when you're in your next meeting you can turn a blank piece of paper into an eight page doodling surface, instead of just doodling on the handouts. It's more professional.

When you finish your ME book, if you want to enter it in the online gallery, you can either mail it to:

FIMP
P.O. Box 5033
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

or send it as a digital file to freeforall (at) fimp (dot) net

Have fun with it!

FREE FOR ALL in action.

I'm delighted to see someone both making the FREE FOR ALL books and posting his own for download!. If you make the books, I'd love to see 'em in action. Send me photos of your personal FREE FOR ALL exhibition, and I'll post 'em here.

FREE FOR ALL - artist's books, yours for the taking!

FIMP is proud to present “FREE FOR ALL”. This online exhibition of artist’s books invites the viewer to download and assemble the books on display. The eight artists who have created books for this exhibition are Pati Bristow, Ginger Burrell, Warren Craghead III, Marti Haykin, Adele Henderson, Robert Hirsch, Judith Hoffman, and Marc Snyder. The exhibition will remain online indefinitely.

Each book in the show is available as a downloadable file. The viewer typically prints no more than one or two pages of artwork and text, which are then trimmed, folded, and cut to create miniature books. The artists have provided instructions for the viewer for the entire process.

The exhibition explores the boundary between cyberspace and “the real world”, as the show is only finished when the visitor to the site has downloaded and assembled his or her own books. Essentially, the exhibit exists wherever someone creates their own collection of books.

Brief biographical and professional information about each participating artist accompanies the artist’s book in the online exhibition. Links to view more of his or her artwork are also included.

I included both a new, color version of last month's book "Live! from the Black Box", and FIMP's most popular book released over the nine years of the Book of the Month Club, "How To Draw Jean-Paul Sartre With Genuine Human Dignity". Enjoy!

A Visual History of the George W. Bush Presidency

This linocut is my contribution to “A Visual History of the George W. Bush Presidency”, a print portfolio organized by William Mathie, John Lysak and Franz Spohn. Here's the premise of the portfolio:

President Bush has stated repeatedly that history will be the judge of his presidency. Upon the conclusion of President Bush’s tenure as President, this portfolio will use images and printmaking media to begin writing the history of his years in office. All images in the portfolio will be inspired by specific news accounts from major newspapers/news agencies. Each artist will choose the story that inspires the print they create. There is no predetermined political agenda for artist participants.

My linocut is a response to THREATS AND RESPONSES: SECURITY; Bush to Outline Doctrine of Striking Foes First, By DAVID E. SANGER, Published: September 20, 2002.

The portfolio, consisting of eighteen prints with slip sheets that reproduce the corresponding articles, will be on display at the upcoming Southern Graphics Council Conference in Chicago. The portfolio will also enter the permanent collections of the Southern Graphics Council; Anchor Graphics at Columbia College, Chicago; and the Edinboro University Printmaking/Egress Press and Research, the Erie Art Museum.

Here in Pittsburgh, the portfolio will be on display at AIR. I'll be sure to post the dates of that exhibition when I have them.