I'm back...

Back from Idaho and I will post pictures tonight. In the mean time this quote blows my mind in the best way:

"TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
— Howard Zinn

Idahooooo

Here is my rally poster to be distributed around the art dept. with the hope of drumming up a group of students to collaborate on this project with me. I leave today and will be working all week and I'll be posting pictures of the outcome when I get back into town. I am really excited about having my templates be the choir members and having the collaboration be the created gospel songs. That's the music. I spend so much time by myself hoping that this work I make by myself will translate into something that will make the world a slightly better, happier place. This group art making will step up the chances for that desired goal (ideally). We'll see. I'll go in tomorrow, paint the below sketches straight onto the wall (already explained below) and then invite all of these savvy young art students to make some noise. YES!!!!

Thanks Mark

Mark Dutcher posted this on Facebook today and it stoked me out so much I had to re-post it.
It's from Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse..


Dear Eva,


It will be almost a month since you wrote to me and you have possibly forgotten your state of mind (I doubt it though). You seem the same as always, and being you, hate every minute of it. Don’t! Learn to say “Fuck You” to the world once in a while. You have every right to. Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping, confusing, itchin, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, numbling, rumbling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning, horse-shitting, hair-splitting, nit-picking, piss-trickling, nose sticking, ass-gouging, eyeball-poking, finger-pointing, alleyway-sneaking, long waiting, small stepping, evil-eyeing, back-scratching, searching, perching, besmirching, grinding, grinding, grinding away at yourself. Stop it and just DO!From your description, and from what I know of your previous work and you [sic] ability; the work you are doing sounds very good “Drawing-clean-clear but crazy like machines, larger and bolder… real nonsense.” That sounds fine, wonderful - real nonsense. Do more. More nonsensical, more crazy, more machines, more breasts, penises, cunts, whatever - make them abound with nonsense. Try and tickle something inside you, your “weird humor.” You belong in the most secret part of you. Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you - draw & paint your fear and anxiety. And stop worrying about big, deep things such as “to decide on a purpose and way of life, a consistant [sic] approach to even some impossible end or even an imagined end” You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO!I have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work - the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell - you are not responsible for the world - you are only responsible for your work - so DO IT. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be. But if life would be easier for you if you stopped working - then stop. Don’t punish yourself. However, I think that it is so deeply engrained in you that it would be easier to DO!It seems I do understand your attitude somewhat, anyway, because I go through a similar process every so often. I have an “Agonizing Reappraisal” of my work and change everything as much as possible = and hate everything I’ve done, and try to do something entirely different and better. Maybe that kind of process is necessary to me, pushing me on and on. The feeling that I can do better than that shit I just did. Maybe you need your agony to accomplish what you do. And maybe it goads you on to do better. But it is very painful I know. It would be better if you had the confidence just to do the stuff and not even think about it. Can’t you leave the “world” and “ART” alone and also quit fondling your ego. I know that you (or anyone) can only work so much and the rest of the time you are left with your thoughts. But when you work or before your work you have to empty you [sic] mind and concentrate on what you are doing. After you do something it is done and that’s that. After a while you can see some are better than others but also you can see what direction you are going. I’m sure you know all that. You also must know that you don’t have to justify your work - not even to yourself. Well, you know I admire your work greatly and can’t understand why you are so bothered by it. But you can see the next ones and I can’t. You also must believe in your ability. I think you do. So try the most outrageous things you can - shock yourself. You have at your power the ability to do anything.I would like to see your work and will have to be content to wait until Aug or Sept. I have seen photos of some of Tom’s new things at Lucy’s. They are impressive - especially the ones with the more rigorous form: the simpler ones. I guess he’ll send some more later on. Let me know how the shows are going and that kind of stuff.My work had changed since you left and it is much better. I will be having a show May 4 -9 at the Daniels Gallery 17 E 64yh St (where Emmerich was), I wish you could be there. Much love to you both.

Sol

Nampa, Idaho

So this project that the below posted sketches are for will take place at Northwest Nazarene University in lovely Nampa, Idaho. My friend, Amanda Hamilton, who is an awesome artist, and who along with my buddy Drew (her man toy) moved to Boise to teach there and is constantly drawing us So. Cal. -ers up there to do projects, which is great.
I will fly out on Sunday and shag ass to get this done before it opens Thursday night so I will post plenty of photo's as I go. Who am I even talking to? Myself! I'm okay with that.

Sketches for Boise...

These are sketches for site specific wall pieces for a show that I'm doing in Boise Idaho next week. The idea is that these will be turned into transparencies, projected on the walls, maybe as tall as myself, and then painted directly on the walls. This whole project will be in collaboration with the art students that attend the university where these pieces will be executed. My hope is that these will act as templates that those art students will then help me fill in and add to.
I'll fill in the show details in the next few days.

New American Paintings West Coast edition just came out and includes my work in it.
I am very excited about this although my local Barnes & Noble has not got it in yet.

Good week for surf. Above is Da Cat immortalized in a cheesy but awesome painting I found online.

Ranting and raving...

Oh Ezrha.
I just dug up this bad review of my work by an LA critic who I befriended before I read this. After reading it, and a few deep breaths, I still think she is one of the cooler more interesting, well informed people roaming the streets of this fair city and if anything, it was good food for studio thought.

Installation at Laguna Art Museum

This installation that I just finished will be a part of the "OsCene" at the Laguna Art Museum that will open on February 20th. Grace Kook-Anderson, the contemporary curator at LAM has done a kick ass job on this show and I am really excited to be sandwiched between Ali Smith, and Nobuhito Nishigawara, both of who's work I like a lot. Should be fun.

It has been a long time since I got all installational with my installation but this work is part of my new Look Up Gospel Choir project and the work all feeds into it. The "it's o.k." abstractions are the gospel songs and the figures are the choir members singing and shouting and clapping. The structures and moves of the abstract bits are all based on 6 and 12 which comes from the Morse Code translation of "it's o.k." 6 dots and 6 dashes. So all of the moves come in 6 and 12. It's really fun.

All of the moves come in a call and response to eachother which makes me think of Dan Grahams Rock My Religion and how much of the way I think comes from the "yeah....yeah" of old timey spirituals, gospel, jazz, rock, back and forth.

I liked hanging it low as well to get people to have to crouch and move and stand and crouch back down if they want to see it. Like the up and down of worship or church.

At any rate it was fun and I think that it looks good and I hope that a few new eyeballs see the work.

Also in Riviera Magazine they did profiles on a few of the artists in the show and likened my work to that found in Liz Armstrong's awesome 2007 show Birth of the Cool at OCMA which is awesome for me since the show included a few of my painting heroes (but they totally greened out my piece).

oldies

I found these on my memory stick of my camera. Two of them I sent to my ol' buddy Greg when he moved to New York and one I gave to Max Presneill. At any rate I really liked making these and they were made in this really fucked up transitional time where I was kind of ape-ing Steve Roden's system of letters to inches and using that to create the structures and the moves. I was really not knowing how to fit it all together and then these clapping hands popped up and made it worse, but it all made so much sense I had to press through. I think my work now owes everything to this six months of hard won ground back in the winter of 07-08, and these three were part of the battle carnage. It was post grad school and I was figuring it out on my own but looking back I really like these.

Look Up!!!

While we're at it....

I had never archived this on my blog. Here is an article that Sam Kho wrote for the online mag Curator for the salon that I used to curate and have since handed off to pops.

Ryan on Ryan action

Anthem Magazine wrote an article on new buddy and upcoming Raid show curator Ryan Wallace and I was quoted quite a bit in the article. Way to go Ryan.