After Hours

When you're stumbling around turning off the lights, you never know who you might find lying under the table.


Seems like good advice, but not in the bath tub.

If you wander around our house after the girls are in bed, you're always likely to find that sewing machine and umbrella meeting on that operating table. . . the Surrealists must have had toddlers.

The Chemical Wartet

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. . .

So there's this meme making its way through Facebook these days. (Y'know, back in the stone ages we would have used the word "thing" where internet savvy folks say "meme"). It's a sort of chain letter thing (see, this is where you substitute "chain letter thing" with the word "meme") called "25 Things About Me".

Now, I shared some of crackskullbob's reservations about these lists. But when I learned that no less a person than Yoko Ono posted her list of 25 things (thanks for the tip, Bill), I knew I had to get in on this whole public disclosure of my deepest private "things" business. Because, of course, I try to follow Yoko's example whenever possible (this is most evident in my singing voice). That's one of those things my friends don't know about me.

So, in the spirit of that great quote from Picasso that "art is the lie that tells the truth", here's my list of "25 Things About Me".

1. I can really shake my money maker.

2. Chocolate ice cream makes me very sad.

3. My inner child has a parasitic twin, named Fernando. They often disagree.

4. Very small dogs standing on their hind legs make me nervous, as they remind me of the time my nose was chewed off by a rat when I was a child.

5. Strangers have been known to come up to me and tell me how nice my hair smells.

6. Few people can resist my Petits Fours Mazarin-filled Shortdough Cups. No, you can't have the recipe!

7. I have a large collection of pot holders that children made from those little weaving kits. I have purchased them from yard sales, and more recently from eBay, though I never made them myself as a child. Fernando claims to have made quite a few.

8. I was born on a Greyhound Bus, but it doesn't seem to have influenced my desire to ramble. I'm actually quite sedentary.

9. Beer commercials make me all weepy.

10. My prosthetic nose often itches, but I'm afraid to scratch it in public.

11. I've never been the same since I got my Chakras aligned. It was painful, but definitely worth it.

12. My slam-dunk is a thing of beauty, if I may say so myself.

13. Most people are unaware of my interest in mycology. I keep it to myself, as a little private treasure.

14. I cross my fingers whenever I use words that begin with x.

15. I find laundromats very soothing. I often visit them when I'm traveling, just to relieve my "sensory overload".

16. My middle name is an obscene pun in French, so I rarely use it in public, but it makes a good password for my online accounts.

17. I have a really beautiful poem, titled "Footprints", framed and hanging in every bathroom in the house.

18. "Robot" from "Lost in Space" was one of my earliest heroes. I still yell "Danger, Danger" whenever I see something dangerous like little dogs standing on their hind legs.

19. I choose different postage stamps for different types of bills, based on whatever seems appropriate for that particular utility or credit card. I'm hoping it makes someone's life a little better.

20. I can balance a treat on the end of my nose, though I will twitch eagerly until you tell me I can have it.

21. I only use "free-range" worms when I fish, which is surprisingly often, let me tell you.

22. Every time I make a new friend(TM) on facebook I try to stop talking to someone I see in "the real world", just to keep some balance in my life.

23. My attempt to have Fernando and my inner child separated, captured on video, has received over a million hits on Youtube.

24. I can type with my teeth. I'm doing it right now. I have to take off my nose to do it.

25. I'm horribly afraid of making a fool of myself online. Danger! Danger!

Current Events. . . Octomom!

So when I glanced at the front of yesterday's paper, I momentarily thought that printmaking had finally made front page news. The Ethics of Multiples! Imagine my disappointment when I saw that it was only an article about Marvel Comics new character, Octomom. Strange thing is, they don't seem to have decided yet whether she's a villain or a hero.

Which reminds me of a quote I read recently: "Printmaking is like sex; both are about more than just reproduction."

Feasting

This linocut is my contribution to the Moveable Feast portfolio, organized by Carrie Lingscheit and Danielle Wyckoff. So, admittedly, it's not quite the festive image that the portfolio theme suggests. But there's lunar imagery (the Moveable Feast in a religious sense is based on the lunar calendar), there's food, the food is certainly portable, so that's "Moveable". . . and feasting will happen eventually.

Photographic Possibilities by Robert Hirsch

I got my copy of Robert Hirsch's Photographic Possibilites yesterday. It's a beautiful book with a lot of great information for making images using a very wide range of photographic methods. Here's the book's description from Focal Press:

Focal Press proudly announces the publication of Photographic Possibilities, Third Edition, a marvelously updated resource of innovative and traditional photographic processes that imagemakers have come to trust and depend on to enhance their technical knowledge, create astonishing pictures, and raise their visual consciousness.

This concise and reliable handbook provides professional and advanced photography students with practical pathways of utilizing diverse photographic methods to produce engaging, expressive pictures from an informed aesthetic and conceptual position.

This update, in full color for this first time, offers new links between analog and digital photography by featuring clear, up-to-date, step-by-step instructions on topics ranging from making ambrotypes and digital negatives to pre-picturemaking activities that utilize a thinking system to visually realize what is in your mind's eye in an effective and safe manner.

This edition vividly showcases the thought-provoking work of over 150 international artists including Peter Beard, Dan Burkholder, Carl Chiarenza, Michael Kenna, Dinh Q. Lê, Joe Mills, Andrea Modica, Bea Nettles, France Scully and Mark Osterman, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, Holly Roberts, Martha Rosler, Mike and Doug Starn, John Sexton, Brian Taylor, Jerry Uelsmann, and Joel Peter Witkin as well as other major and emerging talents. Image captions explain how each artist technically realized their vision and concept.

I'm delighted to be included in the book. One of my books, "A Mime of the Times", is reproduced in full. It's got a page to itself, directly facing the Table of Contents, so I couldn't be happier about that! It's a real honor to have my work included with this group of distinguished artists.

Morphine Makes Me Maudlin

Subscribers to the FIMP Book of the Month Club will be receiving "Morphine Makes Me Maudlin" in their mailboxes any time now. I spent a few days in the hospital last month with a messed-up hand, and thought I would report back on the experience.





Nothing as dramatic as this happened during my stay, but it was exciting enough for me. Exciting in an uncomfortable, tedious, when do I get to go home kind of way.

Fuzzy Dan

I think we can safely say that in 1951 the Whitman Publishing Company's Tell-A-Tales Fuzzy Wuzzy Series jumped the shark with "Fuzzy Dan". Previous Fuzzy Wuzzy titles included "Christopher John's Fuzzy Blanket" and "That Puppy", which really are more promising themes around which to build a book that includes bright pink flocking on every page. Fuzzy Dan's claim to fame is that he had "the fanciest vest, And the brightest, fuzziest chaps in the West".

A real prize from my collection of strange little children's books.

This Land.

Pete Seeger's one of my favorites, and it's so great to see this.

Litho Press for Sale - The Death of Printmaking - Art and Craft

Over the past few days there has been an interesting exchange of emails that has arrived in my inbox by way of the listserv of one of the larger printmaking associations. In greatly simplified form, the discussion went something like this. A university was selling its litho press, as lithography was being dropped from their printmaking curriculum. A flurry of emails followed, with people expressing their regrets that lithography was no longer going to be taught at this university. These were followed by folks saying that the university should teach printmaking any way they see fit, and if litho isn't a part of it, what's the big deal?

As the rhetoric escalated a bit, the "hate to see litho go" side put forth the argument that those who were expanding definitions of printmaking to include, well, just about anything (digital processes being one of the main culprits here) were responsible for the deterioration of printmaking, the death of a discipline. Removing lithography from a university's printmaking program was a hostile act towards printmaking in general.

The "where's the tragedy, get over it" crowd argued that printmakers should teach those methods that excite them and their students, building a program based on their strengths.

So this "for sale" sign had turned into a pretty interesting debate. My feeling was that it revealed a pretty basic dividing line in teaching philosophy concerning printmaking. Do you teach printmaking primarily as a craft or as an art? I say this as someone with great respect for both, and who feels that both are a necessary component of successful teaching.

Craft concerns itself with preserving and maintaining culture. If you see your role in teaching printmaking as someone who is providing students with access to a body of knowledge, you're probably very interested in the craft of printmaking. Successful teaching of relief, intaglio, lithography, and serigraphy should produce students who have mastered the various techniques associated with those four pillars of print. The university may be the only place where the next generation of artists can be exposed to these techniques, and teaching them will keep them alive.

Art is less concerned about preservation and more interested in engagement with contemporary culture, being a part of the cultural dialogue of the moment. If your goals as a teacher focus on your students' engagement with contemporary art, printmaking may be more about the use of process to convey meaning, the meaning of multiples, indirect versus direct methods of making images, the combination of digital and traditional methods, and similar "conceptual" aspects of printmaking. The "meaning" of the image, including the meaning of the medium used to make it, might be more important than the mastery of a defined set of skills.

Now, I'm guessing that most people would argue for a healthy mix of both. But the passions stirred by the "for sale" sign hint at some strong leanings in one direction or the other, with assumptions being made about the "correct" way to approach this strange mix of craft and art. Those assumptions might benefit from a thorough examination before next semester's syllabi are written.

21st Century Photography

Robert Hirsch, World in a Jar


One of FIMP's favorite photographers, Robert Hirsch, is part of an upcoming symposium and exhibition that sounds really exciting. Here's the information:

f295 Seminar on 21st Century Photography Hosted by B&H Photo

January 18 from 10:30am - 4:30pm at B&H Photo Event Space in New York City

21st Century Photography is a phrase meant to describe the type of photography in which many artists are presently engaged. A 21st century photographic approach includes the use of historic methods, alternative processes, and adaptive techniques. The decision regarding which methods to employ in a project is driven by the artistic vision of the photographer rather than the technical limitation or possibility of the equipment. Terms such as alternative, historic, hand-wrought, DIY (do-it-yourself), and antiquarian have been used to describe this type of work and while those terms can be accurate they are mostly not. The use of any one term greatly simplifies the complexities, combinations, and adaptations which are taking place while at the same time weighing the discussion with preconceptionand bias. Recognizing that photographic technology has become so sophisticated that, for the most part, it is irrelevant and, in an effort to create something new, many artists are freely inventing and combining techniques and processes from the history of photography to create a new 21st Century Photography. http://www.f295.org

F295: 21st Century Photography Exhibition at Camera Club of New York!

F295 is pleased to announce that the Camera Club of New York will be hosting an exhibition entitled F295: 21st Century Photography from January 16 - 20, 2009. This show coincides with the F295 Seminar at B&H Photo on January 18 and features work from a selection of artists who have been involved with the various F295 events over the past 2 1/2 years.

Printeresting

Printeresting: Since 2008, the thinking person's favorite online resource for interesting printmaking miscellany.

I just wish I'd thought of that name.

Thanks for the plug for the Book of the Month Club, Printeresting!

Bird bird bird bird brrbrr bird, brrbrr bird bird, bird.

Time Machine

it's a brand new year, here's the first monkey drawing.

a new year, a new sketchbook, another monkey.

an unapologetic warrior

A wonderfully misregistered image from the local paper.

In Pittsburgh? Get on over to GalleriE CHIZ

If you're in Pittsburgh, I would like to encourage you to stop by GalleriE CHIZ, and check out their big holiday group show. I'm delighted to be one of the artists included in the exhibition. It's a wonderful mix of 2-d and 3-d work. Here are a few of my favorites from the show:



Thomas Norulak
Secret Steps
etching


There are several nice etchings by Tom Norulak. Tom pointed me towards approaching the gallery with my work. He's a great printmaker who lives here in Pittsburgh, and I've spent many fine evenings slinging ink with him in the printmaking studio at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.



Mary Culbertson-Stark
Untitled
charcoal on Rives BFK


There are several really beautiful drawings by Mary Culbertson-Stark. She really knows how to attack the page with the pencil. Great stuff.



Stephen Tuomala
Untitled
oil on board


Stephen Tuomala has both paintings and drawings in the exhibition. I like the way he pushes the negative space around in these small interiors - the action is all in the space around the objects. Exciting work.



Priscilla Hollingsworth
Small Chartreuse Bowl with Large Spikes
terra cotta with englobes and glaze fired in oxidation


It was a real surprise to find Priscilla Hollingsworth's energetic and fun sculpture here. Priscilla and I were at Indiana University for grad school at the same time. I'm delighted to share some gallery space with her!



Marc Snyder
24 Poets and 1 Astronaut
linocut


Here's one of the nine linocuts that I've got hanging there now. One of my favorites, and it happens to be the last one from that edition, so that's just another reason to get in to see the show.

GalleriE CHIZ is located in Shadyside at 5831 Ellsworth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. It's open from 11am to 5:30pm, Tuesday through Friday, and 11am to 5pm on Saturday.

Label the World

Best use of post-it-notes ever.

Kicking Daddy's Butt.

So I'm thinking this one's done:





You saw its beginnings here. I'm calling it "ape or angel", for now.

Then Rachel does this:





and says "Does it look like Rachel with a pretzel nose?".

In a couple of weeks I'm just going to give her the studio, and I'll work on the living room floor.

I'm Not Being Ironic

Well, this month's book just went to the post office. Hopefully the title is self-explanatory - I conducted a search for the honest truth by googling the phrase "I'm not being ironic". The book celebrates six of these small truths. Here's one of the pages:






Now of course there was a lot of sincerity out there that didn't make the book. Here are a few truths that made it to the final round but didn't end up in the book:


I love Cher.

I genuinely dig Lumpy and the rest.

In defense of Lederhosen, I'm sure the Brits would look as grand in them as they do in kilts.

There's good food everywhere.

This one is to me the Star Wars of all love songs.

I always have a shaved head with cut designs into it.

Always fun to talk string gauges and tubes with guitar kids.

I truly dig Hall and Oates.

I'm the kind of lecturer who is very imprecise.

I personally love the idea of slathering my thighs with something the texture of liquid concrete.

All I'm saying is that this is pure fucking Cinema, people.

You most definitely don't give a crap what people think about you.

I wish this show wasn't so boring. . .

trees, buildings, and a chicken

Rachel was building a city this morning, and she started with this border of trees. . .

for Nam June Paik

Play with it. You'll like it.

David Byrne, Jeff Koons, and Sarah Palin

You know how our culture just seems to keep pushing and pushing and pushing those envelopes? At first you think that it's kinda exceptional to hear a toilet flushing in the background of an interview with a couple of pretty famous people:



And then the next thing you know there's a candidate for high office being interviewed with a backdrop of turkeys being slaughtered:



What next, I ask you, what next?

One messed up piece of paper.

So I was wondering what a thoughtful monkey would make of the question of whether man came from apes or angels, and monkey logic lead me to Santa.

You know, it's really hard to make a Santa image that isn't either really jolly or really cynical. I was going for confused-thoughtful-monkey Santa. We'll see how it turns out as we go.

I thought you'd like to see the dirty sock for scale.

A third option for the t-shirt cognoscenti

I decided that in my post below I had perhaps given the potential participant too few options. With the addition of this shirt I think we've got the bases covered. Visit who WOULD wear this? to make it your own.