divine excuse!

i just found out that september 12 - 18 is National Arts in Education week! YAY!!!! this is a great excuse to fawn all over your favorites, research their work and ideas, or just bask in the awesomeness of painting, drawing, sculture, needlework, film, photography, performance, fashion, poetry, fiction, dance, etc, etc, etc!

ART GEEK IT UP!

here's 15 favorites of mine. i could've easily hit 100. 15 seemed a bit more fair. hahaha! i leave the research to you and your very capable hands. :)





kasimir malevich



annette messager




tracey emin




yuken teruya




vanessa beecroft




kiki smith




henry darger




ed ruscha




banks violette




sally mann




gerhard richter




anselm kiefer




anna gaskell




jenny holzer




artemisia gentileschi

part one- attempting to weave and unravel art history, religion, art theory, contemporary society, and A Clockwork Orange...

one thing i've been thinking about a lot lately in terms of art (in general) and my practice as i continue to wrestle with contemporary theory, is the assertion that original thought is impossible (The Death of the Author) which i don't (at this point) disagree with at all. in fact, i'm very comfortable (and comforted by) the lineage of artistic enterprise. there's a lot to learn and build upon and struggle with/against/for.

but the idea of "genius" is not one of them. at least not for me and what i'd like my work to accomplish.

the problem i have with this notion of the impossibility of original thought or "newness" in art or thinking, is that the idea itself claims to be new. and it isn't. "There is nothing new under the sun" is a biblical quote and contemporary art theory unveils the religious lineage of art by making this assertion. which is only strange due to the fact that most intellectuals (and that includes a great deal of theorists, artists, writers, psychologists, philosophers, etc) will tell you God is dead. more specifically, the judeo-christian God is dead and that morality is a governmental device intended to control human behavior and impulse. basically, it is brainwashing mechanism, government stamped and approved (as religion is, historically, government), to eliminate free-will.

power-structures of greed and dominion are at the root of this and also the common man's struggle for personal liberty. freedom, in this context, is what contemporary art signifies no matter what a person's subject happens to be. artists are no longer in the service of the church, painting murals for popes and members of the nobility. or are they? could contemporary theory be descibed as a Pope? has the pope's hat merely become invisible? and is currently being shuffled around, worn by different heads? would not a rose by any other name still smell as sweetly? (thanks, bard!) especially when that sweet smell emanates from wealth and the power wealth affords (the umbilical cord of gold: the avant-guard does not actually exist)? today, based on Guy Debord's work The Society of The Spectacle, the invisible Pope Hat would be dominant culture itself. the masses who have accepted Images as reality. status symbols. surrogates for the truth rather than the truth itself. if i look rich, people believe i am rich. if i am perceived as successful, i am successful. if i am titled "good", i am good.

which takes us in to A Clockwork Orange, a subject i'll be returning to a lot as i think it is a very important work that i, individually within my practice and thinking, need to wrestle with.

this idea of goodness... what it is and how to create it.

aversion therapy as a means of controlling behavior, of presenting a painful consequence for desire. any desire that is deemed problematic.

violence is definitely problematic as humans are social creatures that must find a way to work together in order to simply not extinguish ourselves. compromise is a necessity. but i find it very interesting that the violent actions of the narrator of the film is juxtaposed with signifiers of youth and innocence: drinking milk and rhyming speech. Alex DeLarge refers to his meal as eggie-wegs and steaky-wakes. a very sing-song slang that, at first glance, heightens the creep factor of the story for sure, but the more i think about it i begin to wonder... is Burgess and Kubrick saying that acts of violence are childish behaviors? a signifier of being spoiled rotten? because violence itself is a form of greed, a take-what-you-can-grab (as evidenced by rape and theft in the story) and but-i-want-it-and-i-deserve-it toddler-esque mentality. yes- i am saying violent people are over-grown, ill-behaved children. but the critique this film performs is to say that contemporary western society itself is pretty much a stunted adolescent, enamoured with sex and power. any method of displaying power or acquiring sex is a-okay: violence: the taking of something by brute force. and this is juxtaposed also in the film by the fact that Alex is shown as being more than capable of receiving sex from a willing participant. he picks up, not one but two, girls and has a threesome- the scene itself, sped up to a blur of hundreds of images too fast to keep up with, is actually quite funny and playful. this highlights common psychological knowledge about rape as actually not being motivated by a sexual impulse whatsoever, but is rather a desire for power. dominion. a person to person mirroring of The State. a microcosm. very much an act of imperialism when it comes right down to it. "might makes right" and all that. again, the take-what-you-can-grab philosophy hard at work.

in this way, Alex is an "every man". a poster child. common. the unavoidable end of living within a society that champions power and aggression. it's like Reagan-omics but with violence instead of money. shit rolls down hill. if your leaders are corrupt, and the masses are so dazzled by Images of status and wealth as to be blind to that fact, the masses in turn will seek for themselves the same level of power and corruption. if you are raised by a burglar, chances are you know how to pick a lock. you've seen it done too many times not to have the steps memorized. and that is called indoctrination. nurture. Alex's droogs even try to attain (take) the level of power he enjoys in the group. an uprising. and Alex puts the kibosh to that with fast violence. pretty much the same thing (again) that the state does to those who challenge its power.

more later. i must jog.

getting girly with Redoute and Lynne Leegte...

giving in to my girly side more and more these days and having a ton of fun doing so...



untitled (redoute study)
30" x 22"
graphite, gouache, and acrylic on paper
2008


i've always loved the print work of Redoute and this piece was done very much as an homage. i love his work (especially the roses suite) and just wanted to honor him as an influence. besides, doing this kind of work every now and then is a welcome vacation from the ideas i'm normally involved in. it's good to take a step back sometimes... away from the dreary and toward the beauty in art (and life).





and i really love this color paint! i've loved it from the instant i saw it and actively seek reasons to use it: micaceous iron oxide (GOLDEN makes it). the paint is so infused with light and sparkle that the color shifts between so many different gorgeous hues of grey. paired with the velvet matte finish of gouache and graphite, it is absolutely beautiful. these pictures do almost no justice to the real thing.

and speaking of beautiful...




ophelia
2006

i stumbled across the work of lynne leegte the other day and it left me speechless. it is so thoughtful, so well executed and lovely that she became an instant hero. seriously, how gorgeous is this work! she's amazing. AND she does installation (sigh) which i adore beyond all reason.

and sadly, i ran out of the beautiful chocolate glitter i'm using on the print edition. right at the end, 3 more to go, and the project comes to a stand still. boo!

Anonymous Landscape 1

10" x 10"
oil on canvas
2008

my fascination with the collective human urge to protect, stake claims, and establish ownership has led me to consider land and our feelings toward it. recently, my friend heather and i were discussing the native american outlook on land ownership: that it makes no sense. how does one come to own land? it's the same as stating one can own the air - something free and shared by all. how tragically opposite this outlook is to the american perception of ownership.

i've also been thinking about land as a classified document in and of itself - it hides its history. when we look out at a landscape, the events that have taken place within its boarders are not at all apparent. trees and tall grass can erase the signs of war, and leave us with no signal of its true past. bearing this in mind, putting a fence around that landscape seems redundant - we'll never know what secrets the land keeps.

it is our fear that drives the desire to stake claims and put up fences: stranger danger. we're afraid our neighbors will take what we've worked for... and why not? the history of the world is full of conquest, pillaging, taking. we've shown each other that none of us can be trusted. is that cynical? or is it true? finding answers to these questions is what my practice is trying to uncover. i'm trying to show that, just as easily as we put up fences around a house or farm, we put up frnces around ourselves. we lock each other out. we wait to hear unknowable passwords instead of extending trust or compassion.

i'm trying to see what we've lost in order to know where to go.

Present Perfect- collaborative works by eddie gesso and Analisa Goodin

If you're anywhere near San Francisco and have an affinity for conceptual art, I highly recommend stopping by The Spare Room Project to catch the closing reception for Present Perfect, a show of collaborative works by eddie gesso and Analisa Goodin. I went to the opening and had a wonderful time and, honestly, the work is worth seeing more than once. I was stunned by the austere beauty of the installation, the thoughtfulness (and seriousness) of the work, and tried not to cry in public when I realized that I was one of the artists who were mentioned as an influence.

here's the press release:





Present Perfect.
collaborative works by eddie gesso and Analisa Goodin
at THE SPARE ROOM PROJECT

Inspiration provided by the following artists (working): Sophie Calle, Rosenclaire, Léonie Guyer, Harmony Hammond, Eva Hesse, Roni Horn, Agnes Martin, Alfred de Musset, Robert Rauschenberg, Leah Rosenberg, Sappho, Angela Simione, Hadi Tabatabai, and Félix González-Torres.

Opening reception Friday, August 29th, 7-10pm
Closing Reception Friday, September 12th, 7-10pm
The Spare Room Project is conveniently located at
270 Anderson Street,
San Francisco, CA 94110 (in Bernal Heights)

The gallery is opened to the public by appointment only for viewing through September12th.


Present perfect examines temporality through a collaborative effort between two artists, and three temporal delineations: present, past, and future.

It is an abstract exploration into the translation of meaning through time. Present perfect is a grammatical term which illustrates a complex relationship between time and desire—it pushes the temporal boundaries of past present and future into each other. Everything we had said will have made perfect sense is one example of language as a manipulation of time in order to bend desire, wantingness, and expectation for a future outcome.

Failures in communication and slippages in the reception of language are our starting point for this exploration. Stretching the logic of language, and subverting its own rules into absurd structures offer a glimpse into the motivations behind our speak. We want to have been understood.

The Spare Room Project was initiated by a desire for more creative experimentation, more space for emerging artists to fulfill both physical and curatorial ideas, and the tight quarters that San Francisco allots the majority of us. SRP aspires to allow artists in the local community opportunities and exposure often reserved through more rigid tradition, and it hopes doing so will foster otherwise unrealized innovation, exploration, and growth. Through exhibitions, workshops, and group critiques, it serves as a vehicle for teaching, learning, communicating, and sharing.

The Spare Room Project is funded by The Alternative Exposure Grant Program through Southern Exposure.