(S)Hero

Yes, major congratulations are in order to the brave Greta Thunberg. She's amazing: beginning her Climate Crisis vigilance alone a mere year or two ago, sitting in front of the Swedish Parliament and now at the age of 16 (!!), she is now the face of a movement. A much needed movement... as we all know, the planet is getting astonishingly little help from the powers that be! Greta Thunberg is the inspiration we all need and proof that one solitary voice can activate a whole movement.
So why am I seething? Because of the next image, and you know what's coming!



Okay so what moron, what asshole on The Orange Menace's re-election campaign team thought this was funny or witty or what? Inspired? I can't believe that I am still capable of being surprised by anything he and his evil cohorts do, yet I am. Everyday, they sink to lower and lower lows (Don Jr. shooting rare sheep? House rethuglicans refusing to admit to facts and attempting to thwart an impeachment that should have occurred months ago?) So The Orange Menace tweets vile nonesense at Greta Thunberg because he's jealous of a courageous teenager and then has his tangerine mug collaged onto her body? This a mere week after he posted that hideous mash-up with his foul visage collaged onto Sylvester Stallone's body? Delusional a little? Where are the adults? Who misplaced The Orange Menace's meds? Is this really the world I live in?!?
The world would (obviously) have been better served if The Orange One had taken Greta Thunberg's ideas and started a Climate Crisis task force. Instead, we get some travesty of "the power of promises kept". Just WTF does that even mean??!!?

A Million Tiny Letters Make Words

I've been keeping my nose to the (studio) grindstone and am only briefly coming up for air. That's my table, above, covered with minute letters. I promise that later this week, I'll post a close up of just what all those miniature letters spell out. You would not believe the anxiety induced by losing that perfect tiny "L" that you had waited to use. Probably stuck to the end of my nose! (The same one that's been put to the grindstone.)
The project pictured is all about collecting art. Damned if I know what collectors are looking for. No wait, I'm lying. I have a pretty good idea... The text that I am intricately replicating (think: monks stuck in abbeys at long tables, illuminating manuscripts) is from an Art Basel Miami catalog. I am verbatim collage-ing this "brief guide for collectors" in the hopes of deciphering just what it is they're after. After all, every artist (except the fabled independently wealthy ones) needs collectors. Bleakly, I must report that this helpful guide seems intent on recommending collecting only blue chip, name brands (Say, Gerhard Richter or Cindy Sherman). This doesn't really come as big surprise, but it's depressing none the less. What's a lesser known artist to do?
Well, glue a million tiny letters together to make words, for one thing. I am pleased with the way my Collector's Guide is going. I have nine or ten pages of collaged text so far. The base page is photocopied Cartier watch and jewelry ads (those wealthy collectors certainly like pretty gold things!) Interspersed will be images or "picture pages" and a foreword and an afterword with my sage observations and reflections on stalking those illusive collectors.
But I do know this: many artists seem dead set on copying other better known artists or jumping on some established trend. Yeah, I guess that's one way to ensure sales: make sure you're a more affordable, second or third tier version of an established artist. But honestly? Isn't art supposed to be about having an individual voice or a new way of seeing (and presenting) ideas and images? I sure hope so! I have no urge to replicate some other artist's work in the hope some trickle down economics might dribble my way. I may be nuts (try hunting for fifteen minutes for a combination of "m" and "p" together) but at least it's my own personal insanity!) but at least I'm my own kind of nuts.

Spring and Normal (What ever that is...)

Here's Maggie curled up in the sun and enjoying the first warm weather like a cat. She even tried grazing today, although I think she's betraying a healthy dose of wishful thinking as the grass hasn't begun to really emerge just yet. And every hair on that horse's body is falling out- an avalanche of shedding! I considered saddling up the splendid palfrey and trying to ride, but the wind was so fierce I decided against it. (Wind makes horses very high!)
We heard peepers, tentative, but peepers sounding off last night after I got home from work. I could hardly believe my ears. I think the only one sorry to see the snow recede is Jules who prefers snowballs to almost anything- even tennis balls. There's one small patch of snow by the horse barn that is my reservoir for snowball activity, and Jules is making sure that none of it goes to waste. He and I took a super long walk today; we just kind of kept going. I'm sure the suddenly nicer weather has put me in a better mood about being outside.
And I had my first "normal" day of working in my studio in a while. I bought paper the other day as I feel a collage series coming on. Today I just got into my studio and it felt like home. I began to make a mess and sort of fool around. That's what it takes! I think the extreme weather this winter (remember all that cold and snow?) and my showing in NYC and the hectic schedule of work... all of it contributed to my feeling a bit out of alignment. But now that the weather has changed, I feel like creativity is reawakening.
And Bob and I are starting some seeds tonight! That's a sure sign of a Spring full moon!

Jules was getting jealous that I hadn't featured a picture of him, so here he is. The funny thing about this photo is that Jules looks so small... like a little tiny puppy. Maybe it was the angle.

A Tease and a Discussion of Art Making

This is where I have been spending what feels like nearly every waking minute (that I'm not at job/work.) I have been a very dedicated studio artist, doing what seems like a year's worth of collage and art making compressed into three or four months. But this book project is almost done and it gives me a moment to reflect on the process...
It is very interesting to see the difference in my own working habits when they're linked to a specific show, and a funding source. Typically, I do a bunch of pieces and I have total control. If I get bored or an idea runs into a wall and I no longer am compelled by it, I can abandon it or put it down temporarily. In a case like this one, where I have actually received working money up front, I am expected/required to provide a finished project. Very different!
I am fortunate that the ideas I've been exploring have come fast and furious and my interest has been sustained because I'd be in deep shit if I hadn't wanted to complete the project. I am assuming this does indeed happen. I can imagine having "the well run dry" half way into something, and thinking, "What a waste of time! How on earth am I going to finish this mess!" Like I say, I'm lucky that hasn't happened, but I will allow that I am tired of working so exclusively on one piece and I am very glad to be almost done.

So here's the book, Better Guns and Gardens, spread out over my auxiliary table. That's a tease, alright as I don't think you can see too much at this small a scale except that, yes, it does exist! All I have left to do is finish editing one "article" and finish up my "outro" (what I like to call my conclusion, being the opposite of an "intro"). Parts of it are pretty funny and I'm assuming parts of it aren't, because it's hard to be consistently funny. But lord knows I tried and in general, I am very happy with it. I have a roughly mocked up edition that I keep jiggling; I need to get the order of the pages just right. But the end is nigh!
Again, the freedom afforded me if I do work simply to please myself is great but as I make a lot of work, I don't often get to exhibit/show all of what I do. Much of it lingers in squalid oblivion in a drawer of my flat file and only gets viewed by the occasional fortunate friend. Even the grants I have received in the past didn't stipulate a particular body of work or "themed exercise"; this has been different.
I'm not attempting to draw hard conclusions here about whether one experience is "better" than the other. Really, I'm just reflecting on two different modes of working. I think, ultimately, I'd love to be able to be in my studio full time and not have to interrupt my studio work with the necessity of making a living. I've been luckier than some artists. I can honestly say I've made part of my income form my art! And I can't wait until I get installment #2 from this project so that I can buy Bob and I a new computer...
And oh boy! I have another project for the show in NYC to finish. Guess I know what I'll be doing until January!

Blue America

Here's what I'm working on- a series of collage/drawing hybrids called "Blue America". I've never done maps before and how they came about is instructive. I was asked to participate in the Artspace annual auction fundraiser and this year they have a theme, the color blue. Typically, I detest themed suggestions because it compels you to not just donate, but do a specific work that is not anything you'd ordinarily do. This means if it doesn't sell, you're stuck with some weird usually sub-par piece. (I have several choice left overs in my flat file. Should I just throw these orphans out?)
But for some reason, after a bit of grumbling, I got interested and have spent the past several days making maps of America. Keeps me out of trouble and stops me complaining about the weather...

I'm having fun! I will ultimately donate one (I have four underway) but I won't feel bad about these pieces being in my portfolio. I am enjoying the toying with ideas about "blue" and "red" America; you will notice that Texas is red in the above map. that was not entirely by design and I was going to collage it all over blue. But then I realized that it was accurate. (I have been trying to cut out the whole of America from one page of a magazine.) It's funny because many artists are inspired by maps, and I have been too, but I've never made art based on them.
I cut out a free hand drawing off the outline of America. I just eyeballed it, not traced it which is why the two above America profiles are different. (I did look at a map while drawing it.)
Health update: My bump is shrinking nicely, but I'm already sick of taking antibiotics! Only three days in...

Here's what I've been working on in my (old) studio): a series of collages based on those annoying (and all to present in our modern day world ) phone menus. While stuck on one the other day, I decided I had only two options. Number One was to get really angry and rip the phone out of the wall, or Number Two, make art out of my (and everyone else's) experiences. I chose the latter.
I have made seven of these, including such high lights as, "Please hold the line; your call is very important to us". Or the classic, "Press 5 for more options". Approximately 28" x 22"; I mixed graphite and paint for the grey field areas and the rest is collage.
In the meantime, my membership in the "Losers Club" is in good standing. I applied to- and got fucking rejected from ($^#$%&!!!) three separate art shows/ venues that I thought were appropriate to me and my work. Hey! What do I know? Why I even bother is beyond me. I mean that rhetorically, of course. I do despise submitting to juried shows, as when they reject you, they never even tell you why so it's not as if you learn anything. On the other hand, most of the time it's like what the jurors had for lunch didn't agree with them when they come to your piece. You can't win. But the sheer wanton fear of never showing again compels me forward. I just submitted to another show today, at the insistence of a couple of friends. I truly must be a glutton for punishment!
But on an entertaining art related note, I am currently in a show in New Bedford at the Colo Colo Gallery. (Our good friend Don Wilkinson invited Bob and I to participate). The theme, loosely Christmas inspired, was "Naughty and Nice". An idea come to me almost at once, when out on my morning walk. I thought to make two plates of cookies, as befits the holiday season. Both plates were covered with cookies made from the same recipe of sugar cookies but once batch, while looking innocent, had chunky kosher salt on top (looks like sugar) and the other had lumps of coal. I polyureathaned both batches three times so as to make them as shiny and artificial looking as possible. Guess what happened? A so-called "art lover" (according to the gallery owner Luis Villaneuva) promptly ate one! This was despite them being labeled as "inedible" and a "work of art"! And at the opening, they had to assign a "cookie watcher" to discourage others from attempting to eat them. The least they could have done was buy my piece before consuming it. Hahahahaha.

I suppose as a very funny footnote I should mention that the person who ate my cookie reported that the flavor was good, but they were hard!

Creativity is Flowing

I partly attribute my recent spurt of studio enthusiasm to my participation in New Haven's annual City Wide Open Studios. There's something about involvement with hundreds of other artists- many friends- and the attendance by loads of willing audience (almost 1000 on Sunday!) that just plain feels good. Where else can you get so much contact and feedback? I rarely sell anything and even less frequently get asked to show because of random curators, critics and kunst- hustlers that happen to hustle through, but hey! It's good clean aesthetic fun.
On a happy note, though, I seem to have broken through or somehow overcome my past years inability to make collages. Let's face it: my eye injury is major and traumatic and my vision has resolved into a very odd mash-up of scratchiness and blurriness and imperfection. But it's mine! And I can remarkably do a weird variety of things. Until a few weeks ago, collage wasn't one of them.
But then I started pestering whatever part of us creative people that creates. I have a persistent urge towards a particular subject and look of that subject. Just had to do it! And it's working out splendidly.
I certainly don't see any better than I did a while ago, but somehow I'm working around and through that obstacle course that is my present sight and I am able to cut up small pieces of paper into meaningful shapes.  So stay tuned. A new book is in the offing and it looks great. The above shape fell onto the corner of my table and I immortalized it as a flake of creation.