Uncle FIMP reads "Once Upon A Time", the true story of Martha the Passenger Pigeon

Here's Uncle FIMP presenting the tiny book "Once Upon A Time" in its entirety.

Draw every person, eat every pizza.

The guy who is trying to draw every person in New York City made this drawing of the guy who is trying to eat a slice of pizza from every pizzeria in New York City.

Two great projects. Two great blogs.

Casting Call

When creating an angry piece of political satire, an artist or writer needs to pick just the right animal to portray a crazed power hungry military dictator. FIMP's book "Casting Call" presents 6 animals that didn't make it past their first audition for the part.

Still Waiting, Episode 2

Here's the sequel to "A Different Place, A Different Time, But Still Waiting", in which Estragon once again attempts to lighten things up with a joke:



Here's the first "episode", in the event that you want to watch them in order. A little film festival, no doubt.

Lousy Names for Boys

Have a new baby around the house? Here are two names for the little darling to cross off your list. Musky and Gristle are two of the excellent suggestions to be found in FIMP's "Six Lousy Names for Boys".

Right Answers Wrong Questions

Here are the first two pages from "Right Answers Wrong Questions". This is the only FIMP book where I made separate linocuts for each page. Linocuts reproduce wonderfully on the xerox machine! A couple of these tiny prints packed quite a punch. I made a separate edition of the Suppress Dissent linocut, adding a background plate and playing with the color. A pretty satisfying book.

The Quantum Theory of Monkey Superposition

This is the first two pages from FIMP's book "Understanding Quantum Mechanics".

Did you know that the typical "wave" travels in a clockwise direction at about 20 seats per second? Or that the quantum theory of monkey superposition can be used to elect a president? Amazing stuff!

This book got me in a little trouble at an open studio session. I had a bunch of little books out for the browsing public. One of my younger readers, maybe ten or so, studied this book and noted the "Hello Kitty" that I had used for Schrodinger's cat. She looked up and said, "That's not very nice." I was properly ashamed of myself.

Be Better!

A two-page spread from the FIMP book "New Year's Resolutions, Or How To Be A Better Person".

Do I dare to eat a peach?

A two page spread from the FIMP book "Startlingly Lifelike Tableaux: Illustrating Dramatic Moments from Great Works of Literature".

Dirty Words

Subscribers to the FIMP Book of the Month Club will soon be receiving "Dirty Words" in their mailbox. Fortunately the opaque envelope the book is mailed in will hide it from the neighbors, preventing subscriber embarrassment.

This month's book, besides being an excuse for me to put a "wiener" on the cover, was a response to the ban by the Menifee Union School District of the smut-filled Merriam Webster's 10th edition dictionary from its elementary schools. Apparently nobody pointed out to these officials that a kid generally has to have encountered a term in another context before looking it up in the dictionary. Odds are Merriam Webster's definition of "oral sex" ("oral stimulation of the genitals", in case you're curious and don't have the dictionary handy) is a lot less exciting than whatever sent the inquiring student to the library in the first place. If there is a problem, it's probably not with the dictionary.

Now in all fairness, and I do mention this in the book, the school district in question has eased up on its ban, now allowing parents to "opt out" of allowing their children access to the dictionary. My understanding is that they are also considering allowing children to opt out of learning the alphabet, as it was pointed out at the recent school board meeting that any number of obscenities can be written by an innocent student once he or she is given access to the letters by which they are spelled.

All that said, this month's book was really just an excuse for me to indulge in some puerile potty humor, for which I am rightfully ashamed.

COPY JAM!

This 8.5" x 11" painting/collage on paper, "Chester Carlson, Inventor of Xerography", is my contribution to PRINTERESTING's upcoming event, COPY JAM!

On Thursday March 25, PRINTERESTING will host a reception at Philadelphia's Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. This event will coincide with Mark Remarque, the 2010 conference of SGC International, and the city-wide festival Philagrafika 2010.



"COPY JAM!" will be an interactive print event. During the party, fifty works by fifty artists will be displayed in a grid on the wall. Upon arrival, each guest will be handed a complimentary ticket that can be exchanged for one black & white photocopy of any work the guest chooses. There will be no sales; one ticket equals one copy. Copies will be made LIVE in the gallery for one night only!



I tried to make something on paper that would truly be a printing plate for the xerox machine - a piece that was only artwork when it had turned into a contrasty, black and white xerox. And I also wanted to use materials that seemed very inappropriate to the task at hand - a nice chunky painterly collage. The subject matter is a celebration of innovators and thinkers who made xerographic art possible.

So, March 25th, Philadelphia, be there and get a print. It's an open edition, you make the art when you press "print".

Is that Orson Welles slinking off into the shadows?

Sometimes the porch light goes all "Third Man" on me. It's very noirish out tonight.

"Negative Volume: Snow"

I'm working through some minimalist sculpture/environmental art ideas. I call this most recent piece "Negative Volume: Snow".

That Dream, Y'Know?

The latest FIMP Book went out in the mail yesterday, and as I was assembling all of the little envelopes I realized that the whole premise of the book was based on a pretty shaky assumption. The first two pages of the book describe a dream that I am guessing is, in some form or another, pretty universal. But if any reader of this month's book is a super-well-adjusted sort that never has "I'm totally unprepared" anxiety type dreams, I'm afraid "That Dream, Y'Know" isn't going to make much sense to them. Sorry about that.

That wasn't your usual "you're so virtuous" kind of cookie.

Last night I received probably the most useful fortune ever from a cookie.

Estragon Tells Vladimir A Joke

Here's the latest offering from FIMP's Cinema department.

Christmas Lights + Snow

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.