The People Have Spoken!

Well, to be more precise, nine people have spoken. And of those nine, 6 of them voted for "Hats Versus Cigarettes" as the topic for March's Book of the Month. I'm just hoping that those fervent supporters of "How To Draw B.F. Skinner" can rally behind next month's topic now that all the ballots have been cast and the chads have finished dangling and whatnot.

Time's Running. Not necessarily "out", just running. . .

Today's the last day to vote for "B.F. Skinner" or "Hats Versus Cigarettes" as the subject of March's Book of the Month. Scroll down a post or two and add a comment as your ballot.

The wilting flowers are part of a piece I'm working on for the first post-Blogger show installment of the Zero Sum Art Project. When all the petals fall off, we'll have the next piece. You'll just have to stay tuned and see. . .

FIMP at the Oscars

With the Academy Awards coming up this weekend, it seems like a good time to bring back "I've Wanted More Than Anything To Have Your Respect", my acceptance speech for Oscar Night:



The text is sewn together from previous winners in the "Best Actress" category.

If you want more FIMP Cinema, you can check out the following:

Unimpressed

Uncle FIMP's Storytime

The Tower of Babel

Sculpture between your ears, part II

So, a couple of months ago I offered you some Free Bad Luck, a sculpture that I felt was just as effective when made in your head as it would be if I went to the trouble of actually knocking it together. Here's another one.

Get yourself four chairs. The one's above are just a suggestion, this is your sculpture, use any chairs you want. Add a longish rectangular table. Put three chairs on one side, and one on the other. Now, here's where it gets fun. You're going to make two sculptures, one in which the single chair is the most powerful one, and one in which that chair is the place you don't want to be. For the first sculpture, slide all four chairs up to the table, three on one side, one on the other. Who sits in the single chair? The CEO, the person in charge. For sculpture number two, take that single chair and slide it away from the table, maybe five or six feet. Now who's in charge? That single chair has become the hotseat, and the three chairs have become the inquisitors.

I was given that little mental sculpture by J. P. Darriau, a wonderful sculpture professor at I.U. who taught a drawing class that was taken by all of the printmaking graduate students. He was certainly one of the most unique and engaging professors I encountered there. I'm guessing he picked up this idea from Augusto Boal's Games for Actors and Non-actors, specifically the "Great Game of Power". J.P. tended to dump an enormous amount of interesting stuff on his classes, and just hoped we would sift something useful out of what he threw at us. It was great.

For those following the election news, "Hats Versus Cigarettes" is winning the race for next month's book, with 6 votes, compared to three votes for "How To Draw B. F. Skinner" and one vote for combining the two. Scroll down a couple of posts, and vote for the book you want to see made. Voting closes on February 25!

More Opportunities to Make Your Voice Heard

Are you here to vote on the next "book of the month"? If so, just scroll down to the next post, or let me take you there.

But if you've already voted here, yet you still have a hankering for democracy in action, might I suggest a visit to Today's Snowman, where you can help choose the winner in this month's snowman contest.


Today's Snowman is the official website for Bob Eckstein's "History of the Snowman". Now there's a book that must have FIMP's seal of approval.

And as if that's not enough, Mr. Eckstein, Snowman Expert, provides us with this strangely satisfying video compilation of exploding snowmen. Enjoy!

FIMP Gets out the Vote!

Moments ago, I delivered this month's artist's book to the post office. It is essentially an invitation for subscribers to the FIMP Book of the Month Club to vote on the subject for next month's book. That invitation is extended not only to those subscribers who can anticipate the arrival of this to-be-determined book in their mailbox, but also to the casual wanderer of the web who might happen upon this page. If you're reading these words, you should leave a comment and vote on next month's book.

So, now that everyone knows why they're here and what is what, here are the candidates:



A "how-to-draw" book, claiming to teach you how to draw B. F. Skinner using his methods of operant conditioning, or



An explanation of the relationship between smoking and hats, and a modest proposal based on that relationship.

Now, in keeping with every other book of the month, I will only guarantee two things. Whichever topic is chosen, the reader of the resulting book will neither be taught how to actually draw B. F. Skinner, nor learn anything remotely useful about the relationship between smoking and hats. This is ART, dammit, it's not supposed to DO something. That's just a given!

So, leave a comment with your vote. Make your voice heard! Your single vote might make all the difference. Actually, yours might even BE the only single vote! Think of the awesome power that is at your typing fingertips!

Voting will be closed on Monday, February 25, so you've got plenty of time to fully weigh the merits of both candidates. Choose wisely!

Big Tiny People

I've been making lots of collages recently, and some of them incorporated vintage postcards from Paris. I was swabbing the decks of my drawing table this morning, putting the new "Book of the Month" together, and I found a tiny scrap of a card. There were several people walking in the foreground, each about 3/16" high. Here they are.


These are figures from a photograph. The scrap has lost its specific reference - the landmark that was the reason for the postcard - and I'm left with these completely anonymous people. They seem very particular in some ways - they aren't from here and now - but they're also tiny fragments of incomplete information. Aren't they kind of wonderful?

Improv Everywhere

You just gotta love these guys. Their mission? "Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 70 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City." Sounds good to me!

Tiny Big People

While watching one of the most exciting Super Bowl games I can remember, I was making gesture drawings of the players. . .