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David Brooks on the human mind

2010-07-18T19:05:00.006-05:00

Listened to this on NPR and thought it was pretty exceptional. Take a listen if you want your compassion for other people to rise.
At the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival, New York Times columnist David Brooks discussed what scientists are learning about the human mind - and what that means for both our lives and our public policy.

2010-02-16T14:46:00.002-06:00

This last Saturday, I ushered the dance performance H3: Bruno Beltrao / Grupo de Rua de Niteroi and found it to be very exciting. Anyone from my generation is familiar with hip hop, break dancing and the derivatives of these, but I've never seen anything like this. Perhaps these videos don't quite express what my experience was, but at least shows you a taste of their style.

Sitting in the front row, close enough to smell the bengay, I was a little nervous, like a mother at a wrestling match, for the performer's (and the people in the front row)safety. Moving that quickly can be nearly impossible to control and sometimes with blunt stops directly in front of the audience, I really really thought I'd get or witness a kick to the head, or a dancer running into stage equipment. It should not have suprised me though that I was watching the best in the trade and they know what every centimeter of their body is doing every second.

The only disappointment was 1: the music wasn't really "bumping" but more ambient and slow. 2: they had their shirts on, and I really wish I could see their muscles. To see the movements, although who doesn't like looking at 9 super fit brazilian men?

Anyway, great show. Great dancers. Exciting lighting. Very fun.

Calcutta : CallCutta

2010-01-08T21:49:00.003-06:00

I've begun managing (along with two of my favorite co-workers John K. and Crystal) an amazing performance from Berlin based performance group Rimini Protokoll called Call Cutta in a Box: An Intercontinental Phone Play. The last few evenings I've spent on the 40th floor of the IDS tower trying to figure out how to run this show from two very nice german men and really hope I can do it without them! It is really fantastic and I must must must share with y'all a few images I have taken of some of the packages of breath fresheners that are part of the show. Beauties!

I will post more images soon. Don't want to take too many and scare Sebastien. Will wait for him to leave before that.

Jewels

2009-12-10T18:59:00.002-06:00

My co-worker and style guru, Nichole Neuman, always has super bad ass jewelry, some of which she's gotten from Surface to Air, a lovely jewelry company that makes me wish I had more money (although some of it is pretty inexpensive!) and today, Nichole suggested I look at this fantastic website for pieces of a similar style. verameat
Here's a taste of what you'll find on it:

The Real Wishlist

2009-11-28T13:40:00.004-06:00

If my parents were billionaires I would be giving them this list for Christmas. These things are amazing and even more amazingly expensive.

Top Shop cardigan

Lindsey Thornburg cloak

Lanvin dress

La Dama ring

Nude lace top. Don't care who the designer is.

Jeffery Campbell booties

Philippe Tournaire House rings

Fur pieces(coats/vests/whatever) (faux fur)

Another Lanvin Dress

Another Lanvin Dress

Clogs by a designer whose name escapes me, but I found them on a Parsons aquaintance, Marcus Holmund's amazing blog

Body necklace by Litter SF

BCBG velvet leggings

Balmain jacket

Acne shoes

The Christmas List

2009-11-28T12:11:00.007-06:00

This is my actual Christmas list that I sent to my parents. I've also asked for merino wool socks, isotoner leather driving gloves as well as a garlic press. All reasonably priced items that I need or would like to have. Nothing elaborate.
I find that sending online screen grabs of items is a really good system for people that don't necessarily know what you'd like. It also makes it really easy for them, and then you end up actually liking and fitting into what they give you. My sisters seemed to think it was cheating when I did this last year, but the jokes on them because I was super excited to get some of the items I asked for and while they were getting ill fitting sweaters and vanilla scented candles.

Fashion icons

2009-11-27T15:10:00.003-06:00

I've always been a lover of fashion. High and low, old and young, ugly and beautiful.
When I went to Parsons as a freshman, I had thought maybe I would go into fashion design, but upon arrival, I realized that the competition within this specific design field is cruel and unusual. If ever I am to be a part of this amazing phenomenon of a business, I would much rather be doing graphic design for them. But nonetheless I am constantly looking at fashion blogs, magazines and such, as well as observing the fashions of those that come to the Walker.

BUT alas, my love has some hate involved. Perhaps it is slight jealousy, although I'm quite confident on my appearance, but I get really tired of seeing beautiful young women dressed in rediculously expensive designer clothing. Exactly how does a 20 year old afford a 600$ pair of heels without a trust fund? Really I'd like to know!

So. I've decided to put together a list of ladies that I find to be amazing and even more inspiring than runway models:

Mind you, a few of these ladies are fashion designers themselves, but I love seeing old women in fantastic clothing. (Especially since I won't probably be able to afford the clothes I want until I'm this age.) I've also thrown in a photo of Miss Ditto because she's got style, class and sexiness with an extra 200 pounds on her.

These are some of my fashion icons.

I See You

2009-11-21T11:15:00.005-06:00

I've been working in the Walker design department twice a week on various projects. Some more exciting than others but it's really awesome working in a studio with editors and fellow designers. My internships and freelance jobs up to this point have all been working directly with clients, artists and curators so it's a totally new and really fun experience.

One of the more fun projects I've done is the family (read:children) activity sheet for the Dan Graham exhibition. Today, I got an email with these two images attached of children using the sheet in the galleries. So cute!

images copyright Walker Art Center

Jean-Claude! Rest in peace you fantastic being!

2009-11-19T18:15:00.005-06:00

Jean-Claude, the collaborator and long time wife (51 years) of Christo died today at 74. She will be missed. I've always enjoyed hearing interviews with this woman. She was so mesmerizing and charismatic. Her relationship with Claude was ideal, adorable and fantastic. A beacon of greatness. Although their beacon would be wrapped in some warm colored fabric.

Shogun Totally Won

2009-10-25T12:45:00.003-05:00

Last night I watched the UFC championship with my boyfriend's parents who had a party for the championship. I've seen UFC a few times and enjoyed it, which I (mostly) did watching it this time except the final fight. It was Lyoto Machida (reigning champion) vs Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Mauricio totally won. It was obvious, and they gave it to the reigning champion!? I never want to watch UFC again because they are liars and unfair but would love to watch Shogun fight again. He's quite easy on the eyes and damn, can he throw some punches and kicks. Here's some shots of him at work:

Here's a video of the two fighters that they showed before the fight. But I couldn't find a video of the actual fight.

Another note worthy fighting crew is the Union Square Spartans. I lived in Union Square for a year and probably saw these guys at least once, but there's always so much happening there. Anyway, they're a group of guys, mostly homeless, that have strict rules and found a loop hole around fighting in public by not hitting each other in the face. Here's some beautiful stills and you can find a plethora of their videos on youtube.

Dan

2009-10-22T15:37:00.005-05:00

I saw Dan Graham today at work, and got really excited because A)He's a super adorable old man (much shorter than I imagined) B)He makes some awesome work and an even larger contribution to the art world and what art means today C)I'm currently working for the Walker design dept making a family activity sheet for the upcoming exhibition (opens Oct 31st) and have read more about him than any other artist recently. (AND made a badass vector of one of his pieces.)

MARS and un(der)published JD Salinger

2009-09-16T12:03:00.003-05:00

Upon a recent debate of JD Salinger's genius and whether it's fair for an artist/writer to hoard his works to free himself of critique, I was directed to this website that feature a great collection of his hard(and easy) to find writings.

J.D. Salinger's rare writings

Another thing I've been pointed to is this directory of images of Mars. Here's a brief sampling for you to witness the greatness of this unknown territory.

On a personal note, I am so defeated trying to find a job. I keep applying to appease the parents but know that there's just nothing available. For now, the Walker is my savior and I'm focusing on enjoying the recession and free entertainment such as this Salinger website and all the Coen Brothers films I can see for free at work. I might suggest this letting go mentality to those in my position. I mean is eating rice for a week straight really all that bad?

Love,
Abi

Eyvind Earle

2009-08-30T12:06:00.002-05:00

At work today, my friend/co-worker Joey Heinen introduced me to Eyvind Earle. Known for his work on 1950s Disney animations. Specifically noted for his work on Sleeping Beauty. His style is modern, and has a Japanese feel as well. I like to think about what this man could have done if he knew how to use the Creative Suite.

Testing 1.2.3....

2009-08-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

This is a test to answer a blog my co-worker Joe Rizzo posted on the Walker Art Center Blog to answer the question: What images inspired my creative path in life?

Life Gem

2009-07-25T14:19:00.004-05:00

Not an embarrassing post like I promised, but I guarantee entertaining! I was reading through Gawker's blog and found that they are going to make diamonds out of Michael Jackson's hair, and I thought WTF? So I looked into it and this is apparently possible.

SO, I guess I'll be changing my plan of cremation to cremation, and then have my ashes turned into diamonds so that when someone compliments my loved ones, they can say well this used to be my dearest Abi. Literally, this was her.

uh. EErr. creepy.

IT HAS BEEN FAR TOO LONG

2009-07-23T19:14:00.003-05:00

I haven't blogged in far too long. Partially because I am considering how to switch things up on here and make things more exciting. Please excuse my absence and know that I will make up for it with a slightly embarrassing, surely entertaining post soon!

2009-05-02T17:56:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday at 10:20pm, Toni Coca-cola left our living world. She was a great cat that wanted to see the world so badly, but whose life was cut short due to an uncareful automobile. She will be greatly missed.

Throw Back

2009-04-16T09:53:00.001-05:00

I was looking through my hard drive trying to find professional practice things, and ran into this image. It made me smile, and maybe it will make you smile too!

Now, BACK TO WORK!!

2009-04-08T15:31:00.002-05:00

Although senior project has nearly taken over my life, I've managed to have a little bit of outside fun. Went to the blue house installation opening, and there was a room covered with these "be good" prints, with a tab over the o to make it say "be god"

I've recently been introduced to Open Mic Night at Acme Comedy on Monday nights. They have a drink called the bomb pop (pictured here) which tastes exactly like the delicious popsicles. But a few times when I've ordered it, they've given me another drink. I realized that they have a drink called the Bob Hope, and with non native english speakers as bartenders, this is a really bad naming choice.
bomb pop = good
bob hope = not so good

They were completely full, so Basil and I propped the back door open with one of his shoes and listened in.

Day trip to St. Paul, and the hidden waterfalls. It's treacherous with the snow, but the ice formations are amazing!

Anxiously awaiting summer...

Amazing Shrinking World

2009-04-04T18:06:00.002-05:00

Found this video made by Keith Loutit. Using the tilt-shift miniature faking technique, he's made Syndey Australia seems like a dreamworld.

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

High High HIGH heels

2009-03-07T16:30:00.002-06:00

This may really define me as a midwesterner, but holy crap look at these heels.

Who honestly wears shoes with this high of a heel? Not that I don't think they're appealing, they're gorgeous but just the walk to work alone would kill me.

Thank goodness I'm 5'8"

Let the growing begin!

2009-03-05T13:33:00.003-06:00

I started my self-sustaining system of growing plants and herbs with my own compost this week! So far it's been easy and fun.

I went and bought a few extra containers that were easily punctured for drainage.

And then some starter plants and seeds.

Then I decided based on how the plants grow which ones should go in what containers, and planted them. Next, I found a sunny spot for them all. Two went up on top of my bookshelf where the cats won't eat them, and the fluorescent light that I plug in at night gives them extra growing power.

And then the mint went into its own window sill.

All the seeds went into the basement to grow. Luckily, my old downstairs neighbor, Derek Maxwell, left a grow light from when he tried to plant a vegetable garden in the lawn and sprouted the plants in the basement.

These plants are a test to see which lettuces grow best inside and in what conditions they do this best.

Here from top left, clockwise we have: mixed salad greens A, mixed salad greens B, Spinach, Kale A, Kale B. My plants will never be outside plants because our yard is not at all fertile, super sandy, and won't grow anything. Plus, a sustainable lifestyle is done best in a city where you can easily be more efficient, so why not hone the skills to do as much as possible with little to nothing.

* I planted these two days ago, and the spinach and mix salad greens are already sprouting!

No luck on the compost yet... it's really hard to find compost worms in the winter!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2009-03-01T15:50:00.002-06:00

With the end of Feb I have finally aquired a new camera, and have documented a few outings, innings, and other ings.

This first image is for Jack Randol: You're Christmas cactus bloomed! er.. well there was a flower bud, and then it fell off, but hey it shows your plant is healthy!

Here we have Dylan in a lovely, Vikings-colors, pair of Zubaz that him and Colin adorned themselves with for Senior Project. So funny

And here is a picture from Brunch, where my lovely drag ladies served up some great lip-synching, dancing, campagne, donuts, and sexual innuendos all before 2pm. It was a great setup.

With Thursday came a blizzard! Work was cancelled and wine drinking ensued.

Before the adventurous walk:

Lastly, I recently attended a birthday party of a friend who is dear to me, but whom I do not often see. I brought some of my friends along, and learned a great lesson:
Do not mix new friends with old friends. My entire night was spent mediating, and trying to get people to be cordial to the people I brought. But unfortunately I expected too much from this tight-knit group in thinking that they could welcome someone not from mcad, and decided it was time to go when a friend of over 6 years threatened to break my boyfriend's fingers for no reason. You should feel ashamed of yourselves. Now that I've said it, here's a few pictures from the night.

Natalie made the most bad-ass necklace out of rabbit's feet.

Initial reason for strife at party: Last episode of Conan O'Brien

Trials and tribulations y'all.

Robert Mitchum

2009-03-01T15:44:00.002-06:00

During my film noir class this week we watched Out of the Past, a really great film from 1947. Robert Mitchum is the lead role and woah. What a dreamboat. These images don't seem to do him justice. Go rent one of the 100+ movies he's been in. RIP Robert. You're still breakin hearts from the grave.

Consider:

2009-02-15T19:29:00.001-06:00

The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art!

By HOLLAND COTTER
Published: February 12, 2009
LAST year Artforum magazine, one of the country’s leading contemporary art monthlies, felt as fat as a phone book, with issues running to 500 pages, most of them gallery advertisements. The current issue has just over 200 pages. Many ads have disappeared.
The contemporary art market, with its abiding reputation for foggy deals and puffy values, is a vulnerable organism, traditionally hit early and hard by economic malaise. That’s what’s happening now. Sales are vaporizing. Careers are leaking air. Chelsea rents are due. The boom that was is no more.
Anyone with memories of recessions in the early 1970s and late ’80s knows that we’ve been here before, though not exactly here. There are reasons to think that the present crisis is of a different magnitude: broader and deeper, a global black hole. Yet the same memories will lend a hopeful spin to that thought: as has been true before, a financial scouring can only be good for American art, which during the present decade has become a diminished thing.
The diminishment has not, God knows, been quantitative. Never has there been so much product. Never has the American art world functioned so efficiently as a full-service marketing industry on the corporate model.
Every year art schools across the country spit out thousands of groomed-for-success graduates, whose job it is to supply galleries and auction houses with desirable retail. They are backed up by cadres of public relations specialists — otherwise known as critics, curators, editors, publishers and career theorists — who provide timely updates on what desirable means.
Many of those specialists are, directly or indirectly, on the industry payroll, which is controlled by another set of personnel: the dealers, brokers, advisers, financiers, lawyers and — crucial in the era of art fairs — event planners who represent the industry’s marketing and sales division. They are the people who scan school rosters, pick off fresh talent, direct careers and, by some inscrutable calculus, determine what will sell for what.
Not that these departments are in any way separated; ethical firewalls are not this industry’s style. Despite the professionalization of the past decade, the art world still likes to think of itself as one big Love Boat. Night after night critics and collectors scarf down meals paid for by dealers promoting artists, or museums promoting shows, with everyone together at the table, schmoozing, stroking, prodding, weighing the vibes.
And where is art in all of this? Proliferating but languishing. “Quality,” primarily defined as formal skill, is back in vogue, part and parcel of a conservative, some would say retrogressive, painting and drawing revival. And it has given us a flood of well-schooled pictures, ingenious sculptures, fastidious photographs and carefully staged spectacles, each based on the same basic elements: a single idea, embedded in the work and expounded in an artist’s statement, and a look or style geared to be as catchy as the hook in a rock song.
The ideas don’t vary much. For a while we heard a lot about the radicalism of Beauty; lately about the subversive politics of aestheticized Ambiguity. Whatever, it is all market fodder. The trend reached some kind of nadir on the eve of the presidential election, when the New Museum trotted out, with triumphalist fanfare, an Elizabeth Peyton painting of Michelle Obama and added it to the artist’s retrospective. The promotional plug for the show was obvious. And the big political statement? That the art establishment voted Democratic.
Art in New York has not, of course, always been so anodyne an affair, and will not continue to be if a recession sweeps away such collectibles and clears space for other things. This has happened more than once in the recent past. Art has changed as a result. And in every case it has been artists who have reshaped the game.
The first real contemporary boom was in the early 1960s, when art decisively stopped being a coterie interest and briefly became an adjunct to the entertainment industry. Cash was abundant. Pop was hot. And the White House was culture conscious enough to create the National Endowment for the Arts so Americans wouldn’t keeping looking, in the words of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., like “money-grubbing materialists.”
The boom was short. The Vietnam War and racism were ripping the country apart. The economy tanked. In the early ’70s New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy, bleeding money and jobs. With virtually no commercial infrastructure for experimental art in place, artists had to create their own marginal, bootstrap model.
They moved, often illegally, into the derelict industrial area now called SoHo, and made art from what they found there. Trisha Brown choreographed dances for factory rooftops; Gordon Matta-Clark turned architecture into sculpture by slicing out pieces of walls. Everyone treated the city as a found object.An artist named Jeffrey Lew turned the ground floor of his building at 112 Greene Street into a first-come-first-served studio and exhibition space. People came, working with scrap metal, cast-off wood and cloth, industrial paint, rope, string, dirt, lights, mirrors, video. New genres — installation, performance — were invented. Most of the work was made on site and ephemeral: there one day, gone the next.
White Columns, as 112 Greene Street came to called, became a prototype for a crop of nonprofit alternative spaces that sprang up across the country. Recessions are murder on such spaces, but White Columns is still alive and settled in Chelsea with an exhibition, through the end of the month, documenting, among other things, its 112 Greene Street years.
The ’70s economy, though stagnant, stabilized, and SoHo real estate prices rose. A younger generation of artists couldn’t afford to live there and landed on the Lower East Side and in South Bronx tenements. Again the energy was collective, but the mix was different: young art-school graduates (the country’s first major wave ), street artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Fab Five Freddy Braithwaite, assorted punk-rebel types like Richard Hell and plain rebels like David Wojnarowicz.
Here too the aesthetic was improvisatory. Everybody did everything — painting, writing, performing, filming, photocopying zines, playing in bands — and new forms arrived, including hip-hop, graffiti, No Wave cinema, appropriation art and the first definable body of “out” queer art. So did unusual ways of exhibiting work: in cars, in bathrooms, in subways.
The best art was subversive, but in very un-’60s, nonideological ways. When, at midnight, you heard Klaus Nomi, with his bee-stung black lips and robot hair, channeling Maria Callas at the Mudd Club, you knew you were in the presence of a genius deviant whose very life was a political act.
But again the moment was brief. The Reagan economy was creating vast supplies of expendable wealth, and the East Village became a brand name. Suddenly galleries were filled with expensive, tasty little paintings and objects similar in variety and finesse to those in Chelsea now. They sold. Limousines lined up outside storefront galleries. Careers soared. But the originating spark was long gone.
After Black Monday in October 1987 the art was gone too, and with the market in disarray and gatekeepers confused, entrenched barriers came down. Black, Latino and Asian-American artists finally took center stage and fundamentally redefined American art. Gay and lesbian artists, bonded by the AIDS crisis and the culture wars, inspired by feminism, commanded visibility with sophisticated updates on protest art.
And thanks to multiculturalism and to the global reach of the digital revolution, the American art world in the ’90s was in touch with developments in Africa, Asia and South America. For the first time contemporary art was acknowledged to be not just a Euro-American but an international phenomenon and, as it soon turned out, a readily marketable one.
Which brings us to the present decade, held aloft on a wealth-at-the-top balloon, threatening to end in a drawn-out collapse. Students who entered art school a few years ago will probably have to emerge with drastically altered expectations. They will have to consider themselves lucky to get career breaks now taken for granted: the out-of-the-gate solo show, the early sales, the possibility of being able to live on the their art.
It’s day-job time again in America, and that’s O.K. Artists have always had them — van Gogh the preacher, Pollock the busboy, Henry Darger the janitor — and will again. The trick is to try to make them an energy source, not a chore.
At the same time, if the example of past crises holds true, artists can also take over the factory, make the art industry their own. Collectively and individually they can customize the machinery, alter the modes of distribution, adjust the rate of production to allow for organic growth, for shifts in purpose and direction. They can daydream and concentrate. They can make nothing for a while, or make something and make it wrong, and fail in peace, and start again.
Art schools can change too. The present goal of studio programs (and of ever more specialized art history programs) seems to be to narrow talent to a sharp point that can push its way aggressively into the competitive arena. But with markets uncertain, possibly nonexistent, why not relax this mode, open up education?Why not make studio training an interdisciplinary experience, crossing over into sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, poetry and theology? Why not build into your graduate program a work-study semester that takes students out of the art world entirely and places them in hospitals, schools and prisons, sometimes in-extremis environments, i.e. real life? My guess is that if you did, American art would look very different than it does today.
Such changes would require new ways of thinking and writing about art, so critics will need to go back to school, miss a few parties and hit the books and the Internet. Debate about a “crisis in criticism” gets batted around the art world periodically, suggesting nostalgia for old-style traffic-cop tastemakers like Clement Greenberg who invented movements and managed careers. But if there is a crisis, it is not a crisis of power; it’s a crisis of knowledge. Simply put, we don’t know enough, about the past or about any cultures other than our own.
A globally minded learning curve that started to grow in the 1980s and ’90s seems to have withered away once multiculturalism fell out of fashion. Some New York critics, with a sigh of relief one sensed, have gone back to following every twitch of the cozy local scene, which also happens to constitute their social life.
The subject is not without interest, but it’s small. In the 21st century New York is just one more art town among many, and no longer a particularly influential one. Contemporary art belongs to the world. And names of artists only half-familiar to us — Uzo Egonu, Bhupen Khakhar, Iba Ndiaye, Montien Boonma, Amrita Sher-Gil, Graciela Carnevale, Madiha Omar, Shakir Hassan Al Said — have as much chance of being important to history as many we know.
But there will be many, many changes for art and artists in the years ahead. Trying to predict them is like trying to forecast the economy. You can only ask questions. The 21st century will almost certainly see consciousness-altering changes in digital access to knowledge and in the shaping of visual culture. What will artists do with this?
Will the art industry continue to cling to art’s traditional analog status, to insist that the material, buyable object is the only truly legitimate form of art, which is what the painting revival of the last few years has really been about? Will contemporary art continue to be, as it is now, a fancyish Fortunoff’s, a party supply shop for the Love Boat crew? Or will artists — and teachers, and critics — jump ship, swim for land that is still hard to locate on existing maps and make it their home and workplace?
I’m not talking about creating ’60s-style utopias; all those notions are dead and gone and weren’t so great to begin with. I’m talking about carving out a place in the larger culture where a condition of abnormality can be sustained, where imagining the unknown and the unknowable — impossible to buy or sell — is the primary enterprise. Crazy! says anyone with an ounce of business sense.
Right. Exactly. Crazy.

Death and the Entertainer

2009-02-09T19:44:00.002-06:00

I've been thinking about how odd it is to watch celebrities lives unfold. Here are three that I think are especially interesting.
Laura Dern. If she's good enough for David Lynch she's good enough for me. She's also dated a lot of her co-stars. I also recently watched Wild at Heart and think her and Nicholas Cage are dangerously cute.

Who doesn't love Dennis Hopper. Seriously crazy and has that kind of face you can't look away from.

Madonna and her new Brazilian boyfriend Jesus Luz. She is 50 years old. She doesn't seem to care in that cool way people have. And somehow still has that attitude.. perhaps it has her.

These three are quite respectable even though relatively crazy. (Some more than others) I respect their unabashed living.

Las Vegas Wedding via Internet

2009-02-05T20:48:00.003-06:00

Last Sunday I watched my friend Eric's brother get married in Vegas via the internet. It was pretty interesting to know that this option exists. They stream the ceremonies only when they're happening, but you can watch the lobby all day long! Here's the link

http://www.702wedding.com/live-internet-weddings-lobby.asp

Pegasus 3 and some bad news.

2009-01-29T09:27:00.003-06:00

So sorry for the wait, but here are some photos from the last Pegasus. Unfortunately, my camera was broken at the show. A drag queen was going down, and I tried to help them from falling, but in the process dropped my camera. So this will be the last post until I find a replacement camera.

Cabin Fun

2009-01-15T17:56:00.002-06:00

This last weekend the troops headed North about an hour to retreat to Evan Drolet-Cook's beautiful cabin his father built in the 70s.

a lot of time was spent soaking up the warm sunshine though the window and watching movies by the fire. Here are some bundled cadets.

Hidden within the trees is the cabin.

Only once did I venture down to the lake because after the first day I started getting sick, but it was so beautiful! Here Sophie and Basil look epic in front of the sunset.

Natalie and Dora took off across the river as soon as we got down there, and then came running back toward us exclaiming that Natalie nearly fell into the ice! She found a spring in the lake and luckily Dora pulled her away just as the ice broke.

Evan brought his umbrella of course.

Jake's a very quiet person, but super interesting once you get him to talk. He helped balance the weekend.

Double sided fireplace is awesome.

Evan taught Sophie, Claire and myself texas hold'em poker. It was very fun and after hours I won!

In the morning I was still up for cards. But solitaire as others were wrapped up in Scrabble, which is not a favorite of mine.

Claire is very dedicated to her words.

Evan very dedicated to his reading.

Basil and Jeffrey ringing in the day with a handshake and a screwdriver. (Anyone ringing in the day with Jeffrey would need a drink in hand)

Evan reflecting into Seinfeld. Very fitting for the man who dreams about watching new Seinfeld episodes only to wake and realize he's fabricated them himself.

And lastly, at Basil's request, a photo of him in my glasses.

Cabin time is so much fun, and just what I needed before starting my last semester at MCAD. I can't wait to visit this same spot when the snow has melted, I have a bachelor's degree, and the sun is warm enough to lay outside and ponder what to do with my life.

Saint Paul

2009-01-13T12:52:00.002-06:00

I have lived in Minneapolis for nearly 3 years now, but haven't spent much time in our twin city, St Paul. On a sunny Monday, Basil decided that he would take me on a tour of Saint Paul, his old stomping ground. An obvious beginning point, the Mississippi river.

Saint Paul has many more hills, and some very good lookouts.

We then hitup the Basilica. It was still decorated for Christmas.

Then we went to the Witches' Hat tower, which is supposed to be the inspiration for the Bob Dylan song, "All Along the Watchtower." The moon was out early, and lent itself to a nice shot.

I like how spread out Saint Paul is, but still prefer my home, Minneapolis.

Next to blog: Wintery Cabin weekend with the crew.

NYTIMES Slideshows

2009-01-04T12:52:00.002-06:00

I confess my love of NYTIMES slideshows. With continuously astounding photography of history, architecture, fashion, culture, and pop culture, this is my favorite online indulgence.

TV on turning table

carpeted stadium seating

melted gold

mermaid bathrooms

cold

French decor: bust of a young lad

dreamland and future goals

International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Historia

Solitude of the New Year

plays

camera tricks

Lady Luck

2009-01-04T12:43:00.002-06:00

My mother recently told me that I resembled young Joan Didion and Joyce Carol Oates. I've always been a bit wary of my mother's compliments. But these women seem like a total compliment. Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" and Joyce Carol Oates' "A Garden of Earthly Delights" are supposed to be great.

Glamour Shots in honor of Jackie and a little Christmas thrown in

2008-12-29T12:43:00.003-06:00

Our dear friend Jack Randol is heading to Barcelona for next semester. We met up to say bon voyage and as we arrived Jack dressed us up to his liking.

Natalie got this coat for her parent's dog Coco, and before giving it to them we thought it'd be fun to put it on Smokey.

Christmas time and I was back in Illinois for a whirlwind Christmas marathon. Here is my grandfather and oldest sister Johannah talking about Blagojevich.

Unabashed family shot.

A Pegasus Christmas

2008-12-28T11:03:00.003-06:00

Here are some images from the last Pegasus. It was Christmas themed which I'm not sure if it was a positive addition or not. But non the less my good friend Eric did a great job performing, and Jack made an adorable Christmas tree!

Breakin it Up

2008-12-19T18:19:00.005-06:00

My darling sister Jocelyn came back to Minneapolis for a visit, and then Monday we'll drive back to Illinois for all that holiday fun.

Wednesday night Jocelyn and I set out for The Vegetarian, which is a delicious indian restaurant with amazing decor.

After dinner with the sis, I headed to Joey Heinen's house for his release of his holiday christmas cd. This year he made a found footage video to correspond with the cd. Finally, I felt like it was the holiday season. 30+ people stuffed into a tiny living room making jokes. This is what the holidays are all about.

Here is a song list if you feel like making a copy for yourself.
1. Crosby, Stills & Nash "Our house"
2. Francoise Hardy "Le maison ou j'ai grandi"
3. Erykah Badu "Twinkle"
4. Sparks "Amateur Hour"
5. Vince Gauraldi Trio "Skating"
6. The Astors "Candy"
7. Vampire Weekend "A-Punk"
8. Yoko One "I felt like smashing my face in a clear glass window"
9. Bonnie "Prince" Billy "Knockturne"
10. The Free Design "Proper ornaments"
11. Arthur Russell "Hiding your present from you"
12. Grandaddy "Stray dog and the chocolate shake"
13. KMD "Peachfuzz"
14. The Dirty Projectors "Winter is here"
15. MFSB "Poinciana"
16. Wax Stag "Descant"
17. Magazine "Sweetheart contract"
18. The Vaselines "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam"
19. Jon Brion (featuring Deanne Storey) "Little person"
20. Swan Lake "City calls"
21. The Crystals "Christmas (Please come home)"
22. Serge Gainsbourg "Cargo culte"

Thursday night some friends came over for some records and wine. Toni Coca-cola was being very social and managed to get in nearly every photo.

One of my friends, Evan Cook is in the middle of a year long project that entails him carrying an umbrella with him everywhere he goes for an entire year. His friend, Jeff, is photographing the experiment. Evan made sure to give me grief about taking a digital photo of his umbrella, but honestly. I think his project would fit perfectly into blog form!

This is not him. This is Basil. But the two are sort of inseparable.

Every year for presents, I get some big idea about making something and never anticipate how much work it will actually take. This year, I decided to make boxes. I screen printed the paper to cover the boxes,(FINALLY GLITTER SCREENPRINT WORKED!)and then after a week of construction they're done. This was a much better choice than the year I thought I could knit everyone scarves, although it still took around 40 hours to complete.

Now I finally get to stuff them for people!

Finally Final and Thankful

2008-12-12T10:00:00.002-06:00

Thanksgiving.. A little quite late.

Natalie's mom has a totally amazing ceramic pottery collection.

Spending Thanksgiving with the Mazorol children was lovely. Check out those steins!

And here are a few pages from my Publication final book of a collection of Aphorisms.

And my final Critical Studies/books project: A series of 4 books on post-consumer living.

After printing and binding around 600 pages total, I am finished for the semester. YAY! Next stop: Senior Project

For Terese

2008-12-05T11:05:00.002-06:00

Because I can't post an image as a comment.

Life Photo Archive

2008-11-22T12:48:00.003-06:00

VERY EXCITING!!
I was reading the Jezebel blog (see right on the good blog list) and found this most excellent addition to the internet! Life magazine has archived their entire photo collection on google. Over 10 million, relatively high res photographs.
Here's a screen grab of the opening google page.
You have to type in the url to get to this page. AMAZING!!! The following photos are a few Jezebel posted that are quite lovely hairstyles as well as lady truck drivers from the 40s!

Just think of the possibilities!

Pegasus was born out of Medusa

2008-11-22T12:43:00.003-06:00

Last night I went to a drag show/dance party to watch some good friends perform.
And what an adorable, glittery, and heartwarming night.
Here are some photos of the festivities.

Tony Coca-Cola and Google goodies

2008-11-18T14:00:00.004-06:00

On Friday night these cute little paws followed Natalie and Joey Lunders across Lake Street and all the way home. Joey kept her for us for the night, and then Saturday bitty kitty came to live with us.

Her name is Tony Coca-Cola named from a rock star in the 1979 horror film The Driller Killer. This has posed a bit of a gender complex though, so we've been considering changing her name to Tammy Coca-Cola. (My mother's name)

I've finally gotten to the stage in my aphorism book for Publication where I'm searching the internet for these things. (I always start in the physical because the internet's so freakin easy) And goodness! there are so many! In the process of sorting through glittery gifs, kitchy kitchen signs, and of course church signs, I couldn't help by save these lovely images to my computer as well.

Not sure why a Sheikh photo turned up, but it's so pretty, and I've continued to be intrigued by this religious group. Not to mention simply as a word.. It's definition is a bit hazy. Here is what wikipedia has to say:

Sheikh, also rendered as Sheik, Cheikh, Shaikh, and other variants (Arabic: شيخ‎, shaykh; pl. شيوخ‎ shuyūkh), is a word or honorific term in the Arabic language that literally means "elder". It is commonly used to designate an elder of a tribe, a lord, a revered wise man, or an Islamic scholar. Although the title generally refers to a male person, there existed in history also a very small number of female sheikhs.

It also refers to a man over 40[1] or 50[2] years old generally. Whilst even a new Muslim can be called a Sheikh if he is diligent in seeking the knowledge of Islam based upon the Quran and authentic Sunnah, he can be referred to as such to those he can teach. And usually a person is known as a Sheikh when they have completed their undergraduate university studies in Islamic studies and are trained in giving lectures.[1]. The word Sheikh under this meaning is a synonym of Alim, pl. Ulema, (a learned person in Islam, a scholar)[3], Mawlawi, Mawlana, Muhaddith, Faqih, Qadi, Mufti, Hadhrat or Hafiz.

I work with a guy who is a practicing Sheikh and we've had some conversations about what it is to be Sheikh, but as far as I gather, it's about meditation and having an elder Mentor. Hm.

A Shindig that Lead to Embarassing Karaoke Videos

2008-11-09T15:43:00.005-06:00

OBAMA CELEBRATION!!!

And then Friday, Whitney Weir turned 22. Everyone met up at the VFW for some karaoke.

The woman in the white befriended ben innes and myself outside the bar during a cigarette break.

This is pretty much how we felt about that situation.

I asked Liz to look over my camera. These apparently were taken while in her possession.

"Back in Baby's Arms" by Patsy Cline

Next up Liz singing "Brass in Pocket" by the Pretenders

And then "Little Lies" by Fleetwood Mac

Also a few performances from strangers.

this one's great

Bee Gees

2008-11-08T12:22:00.002-06:00

During Karaoke last night, one of the bartenders sang this song. And today I found this amazing video from 1968 on youtube.

We Have Arrived

2008-11-04T22:57:00.002-06:00

I am proud to be an American today.

I don't even know what's that like.
but seeing the first black man elected as president was one of the most amazing things ever.

These Things, They are happening

2008-11-03T20:02:00.002-06:00

HALLOWEEN

2008-11-02T22:37:00.003-06:00

Went to Revolting Queers Halloween party and it was the best house party I've been to in a very long time. Good bands, great costumes.. I haven't had this fun of a Halloween in years!

Here's some of my favorite characters:

Boy George and Clarisse Starling

Kids in The Hall Chickenlady

White Wolf

Marx Brother

Tomato

Estelle Geddes

Tennis Ball Runner

Ron Burgundy

Not quite sure about this one, but the mouth opened when he talked.. most terrifying costume

Lindsey Lohan and Samantha Ronson

Jane and Daria winning the costume competition

Guess jeans twins

Damaged Goods

2008-10-29T11:08:00.002-05:00

Video of Meg Stuart's Damaged Goods

Arm-wrestling and Birthday Cheers

2008-10-27T23:23:00.003-05:00

Amalia and Kevin both had their birthdays this last week! Here is our favorite lady with a huge sombrero on at Pancho Villa's. One more to join the 21 club at MCAD's favorite mexican restaurant. Dos Dos Equis!!

Saturday's celebration brought out all the kids...

...which led to a bout of arm-wrestling. The highlight of the weekend if you ask me.

last fun thing to report: I dared Natalie to jump the fence and take a few photos through the window that has been open since June, inside the abandoned house next door. This is what she found.

The painted dream catcher has always baffled me.

SUCCESS!

Roy Orbison

2008-10-24T20:22:00.002-05:00

I have a new obsession that is Roy Orbison, whom I can't seem to stop calling Ray but whatever. I've always loved hearing him, but it moved to a new level on Tuesday and ever since then I can't stop listening to him. Also, I've decided that I want to be him for halloween. If anyone has big black glasses or a pomp wig i can borrow, let me know.

Also I had to re-blog this from Maria Horn's blog.. It's so good.

Golden

2008-10-22T20:05:00.002-05:00

Liz Elton confessed to wanting a gold tooth. Here's how fine we'd all look with golden canines.

I think an agate tooth would be more awesome. Here's a picture of a beautiful collection that lives in my house.

18 Pack

2008-10-22T19:58:00.002-05:00

Tuesday night the troop tried some new beer shot-gunning tactics. When two of the four people are photo students, you get some real great documentation of not very good ideas. But the double-barrel shotgun was pretty successful.. one tip: if you're doing a triple or a quadruple shotgun, you need a big can like fosters.

Museo Aero Solar

2008-10-15T11:47:00.003-05:00

Early Saturday morning Liz Elton, Ben Innes and I ventured to see the Museo Aero Solar inflated.
Unfortunately, the building hid the sun so it wasn't able to fully inflate but it was still very beautiful, and we got to go inside.

I love this project and that it's constantly growing and building communities. Also, who can say no to global design connected into a balloon? It was so fun to look at the bags and try to guess where they were from.

Must be the Money

2008-10-09T11:35:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Liz Elton's friend that works at Radio K, a group of us got to go to The Myth and see Nelly for free! It was greatly entertaining.

A lil video. . .
(with terrible sound)

I also took this opportunity to take some photographs of the sort of people that attend a Nelly concert.

This man and his lady had matching black fur coats. I can safely say that this man's fashion guru is Snoop Dogg. He had on about 15 rings, long fingernails and a lil ponytail. They were kind enough to let me take this photo.. I wish it turned out better.

There were so many people taking photos and video the whole time. My question: do people feel the need to document everything instead of enjoying the moment b/c of all the electronics and technology we have? I'm guilty of it, but it was still very suprising the mass amount of it that was happening.

Day of Birth

2008-10-07T17:17:00.005-05:00

This last weekend was my birthday weekend. T'was filled with presents and parties and fun. Here are some keepsakes:

From my mother, a pair of danskos (mine are black)

From my father, a pair of new glasses

from my roomie Natalie, necklace one...

screenprinted cat patch (made by her) left over from the cat-themed crafts we made for the caffetto craft fair this last August

From many friends, an ingenious present that I'd been pining over, an Erin Smith necklace! Thank you Amalia, Liz E, Jenny, Natalie, and the man who thought of it, Jackie Randol

And necklace Three from Natalie, made by Natalie. This is the birthday of necklaces

also a miniature from natalie's menagerie. I've received a piglet.

Last but not least, Natalie made me the prettiest cherry cake ever. It was so tasty!

I was really hoping to get one of these for my birthday. (Really I just miss this one specifically)

Brendan Brogan left this image on my myspace and it has continued to haunt me. It looks so much like me and Hannah Mae combined! Scary!

I've been meaning to tell you this...

2008-09-25T00:36:00.003-05:00

I was introduced to this Berlin dance/ performing art collective by my friend Eric Jones. Constanza Macras / Dorky Park.
They're seriously talented, provocative and mesmerizing.
Please enjoy.

Jeff Wall photo

2008-09-22T23:30:00.002-05:00

The Vampire's Picnic.

read an article for critical studies about Jeff Wall. I'm in love.

Pretties

2008-09-22T00:51:00.001-05:00

Looking back on things I have on my photobucket account, I came across these beauties. I think I found them on a flickr account two+ years back.

Granite

2008-09-19T10:08:00.002-05:00

I spent all last weekend in a granite rock quarry. Here are some images from the adventure.

The bus was the worst time for me, but these two lovelies kept me company.

The stage was built only for this purpose, and was pretty epic. During the show it looked like the end of close encounters.

It also reminded me and my coworkers of "a convention of faceless aliens"

The performance was beautiful because the dancers had amazing bodies and perfect control and form, but I thought that the quarry itself took the cake. The music was slightly improv, and gave the whole thing a relatively creepy atmosphere. It was rainy and cold sometimes, but overall pretty amazing. I have finally gotten over my work hangover.

2008-09-02T12:26:00.001-05:00

Laura Bush is currently eating in 20.21, and her secret service has taken over hennepin avenue to ensure her safety.
They're really taking over. I thought the parade of senators and lobbists were bad.

ILLINOIS AND THE LAST FIRST DAY

2008-08-31T19:14:00.003-05:00

I found this book on my Mother's bookshelf. Its so beautiful, and I know it has to be my Step-father's.

When I go home to Illinois, I have to drive between the two cities my parents live in. This is what the land looks like in between.

And here's my father's front yard and the next is his backyard.

A little peace. Now I'm back in the swing of school and I'm excited, sentimental and exhausted all at once.

The end of summer and things to come.

2008-08-27T23:17:00.003-05:00

My sister Jocelyn moved out of the apartment we shared for a year to move to Brooklyn.

I very much miss this lil doggie as well as my sister.

Today in Publication design, I was given the assignment for the week of making a zine/encyclopedia to answer the question," What is a warlock?" Here are some of my favorite online images found.

New York is just another place to be, if it wasn't for the history

2008-08-04T11:21:00.004-05:00

While staying with Katie, we frequented Oslo, a coffee shop with super cute stickers on their cups.

Bitsy was sad to see me leave. Next destination: Prospect Heights to stay with my sister Johannah.

Johannah took me to this pier in Red Hook that has the best key lime pie. Its in this building that has some studios and multiple plant stores.

It was very beautiful and a much needed quiet spot.

On our way back to her hood, we drove past the Queen Mary 2 which goes across the Atlantic. It is seriously the biggest ship I've ever seen. Here is a diagram of how big it is.

The next day Johannah, her boyfriend Noah, and I went to the Shake Shack in Washington Square park. It always has a huge line, but some of the best burgers I've ever tasted.

We walked down to Union Square, my old stomping ground. When living there, I never ended up taking a photo of my building, but this time around I snapped one. Mine is the building on the corner, but the connecting one is the Decker Building, most well known as the home of Andy Warhol's factory.

While visiting with my friend Mark, the two of us and his roommate Jenny watched TV with our sunglasses on because with the bad reception, it was easier to see this way.

Mark has a very cute loft apartment. Perfect for art students. Below is a picture of a Michael Jackson bust he made. 7 in all I believe. Rhinestones in the eyes.

There was also this amazing painting in his apartment that his roommate's father bought at a prison auction. Its supposed to be Joan Baez and Brigitte Bardot. Why they would be together? Nevertheless, amazing.

Johannah was in the process of moving, so I helped her and Noah paint a few afternoons, and here is their yellow kitchen, which began as pepto-bismol pink.

In return for my work, Johannah and Noah treated me to some amazing Chinese food. We drove to Chinatown, and feasted at Joe's Shanghai. Chinatown has an overwhelmingly large amount of restaurants. Most of them nearly empty; this one had a long line. Johannah assured me this place had amazing food. And it definately did.

Here is their signature dish. The Soup Dumpling. mmm. They can be dangerous if you don't eat them correctly. First, you lift one onto your soup spoon, and then you bite a little hole into the dough. Then you drink the soup out of the dumpling. Once you've drunk the soup, it is safe to eat the dumpling, which has a pork or crab meatball within it. They were so delicious, I think I could have eaten a dozen of them.

Next, I spent a day in Manhattan exploring by myself. It was great and allowed me to relax a bit and explore some of my favorite spots. I then met up with Mark in the evening, and we headed back to his place. On the way we walked through a Puerto Rican neighborhood, and there were all these flags strung across the street.

Here is a view from my sister's apartment in Prospect Heights. So many plant-filled backyards. Her fire escape is covered with plants. This is one of the main reasons I love this neighborhood. That and the awesome brownstones everywhere.

Prospect Heights is a new favorite neighborhood of mine. New York trip over. Back to the Midwest.

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2008-07-20T19:01:00.006-05:00

I arrived in NYC yesterday and have had a fun and exciting time thus far.

We'll begin with Jack Randol's BBQ the night before I left.

Backyard blanket and Apples to Apples.

Fake eyeballz provided by Willie

I told my man Joey I wanted a picture of him with one of his Mint Juleps he was making for people. And he looked so sad, I made him do it again.

Next morning/day two flights.. both with screaming children directly behind me. Single serving friends: Marketing man for LifeTouch (whom I told his product is super cheesy but that that was what I loved about it.) and then a music producer named Earl. He was nice and we flirted a bit.
Then finally I was in the city! My first thought was why did I ever leave?

•••••••
For the first weekend I stayed with my friend Katie P and her roommate Maureen at their lovely apartment in Williamsburg.

This is the view from their porch. It's a perfect place to see the sunset too.

The most amazing bamboo

Katie and I went into Manhattan to the Moma and walked by this store on the way. Seriously the most amazing dress I may have ever seen.

The Moma allows people to take photos of the artwork.. Wow.

These crystal pieces were awesome. The shadows and all.

Out side of their restaurant, The Modern, there was this awesome fiber and neon piece.

More to come, much much more.

Holiday

2008-07-19T11:00:00.002-05:00

I leave for New York in a few hours and am very excited. Unsure of what is to come and anxious to see how it all goes.

But before I hit the skies I'd like to share some great images found on my guilty pleasure website:
http://www.fuzzysquid.com/LJ.php

Los Angeleses & JC's 24th year

2008-07-11T10:03:00.003-05:00

My roomie Natalie and I have been into Botany this summer.
It feels good to help something grow. Good Karma.

I also found this gum at Lyndale Grocery, which I believe has some shady undercover business. I mean who sells 2-4-5 cents gum? But I had to buy it because the logo design had about a dozen variations. This is a bad photo of the best ones.

July 8th was my sis Jocelyn's 24th birthday! To celebrate we first went and saw Gonzo, the biography of Hunter S. Thompson. Which is a good thing to watch if you have plans to go have drinks afterwards. Hunter was a wild one.

After, we went to Martini Blu to see Ross and have a drink, which turned into three and sushi complimentary of Mr. Stangler. It was amazing and Ross is a very generous man. We were then ready to go meet up with many a friend at the Triple Rock.

Dancin'

The following night I went to see my friend Michael perform as Ice Rod. He is back in Minneapolis from L.A. and was great fun to see perform again! Don't let the spandex confuse you, this man is very talented.

He threw in this 80s metal-esque guitar part in his rapping and it was amazing. I'm a sucker for guitar shredding.

After the show, I was off to the C. C. Club to say farewell to my good friend Joe Gillette who is on his way to Los Angeles for a great job opportunity! Here we celebrate with hand signs.

After getting others to do it, I apparently turned it around.

GOOD LUCK JOE!!

Now I have even more reasons to visit Los Angeles.

Monday Countryday/ American Means Freedom

2008-07-04T12:38:00.005-05:00

SO.. some friendlies from work and I got to talking about shooting guns, and how none of us have ever shot a gun, except for maybe once a rifle, and thats because we all grew up in the midwest where hunting is popular. A group of my friends had recently gone to Bill's Guns and Range to shoot for Ross Stangler's birthday, and I was not able to go because of work, so we decided that we should go try it out. A few things to know is that none of us support owning a gun, or do we condone shooting at anything living.

But this .357 Magnum Smith and Wesson pistol was very fun. I felt like I should be in some Quentin Tarantino movie. Power like this should be guarded very closely. Once the apocalypse comes though, this baby will be mine.

We also got a 9mm.

It wasn't quite as fun to shoot as the magnum, and I accidentally referred to it as an 8mm to the range master, or whatever the title for the guy running things at the range is. Art school has made my millimeter talk go to evens. Damn you film students.

Ali locks and loads. Check out that target.. beautiful.

There was this hilarious (ill-tasting) target of two hijackers and a stewardess that my friend Evan got. So rediculous.

Andrew had his Metallica shirt, police mustache, ripped up jeans and boots on. He was the most fitting character for our journey. I tried to get him to give me a hard face pose, but got this half-assed fists-in-air picture. its funnier this way though.

And since the best shooting picture is of Evan, its only fair for me to add this next one to even things out..

Evan found this police helmet in my car en transit. Now he is much closer to reaching his dream of being a soldier for the law.

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Fouth of July

*********

I hit the highway to make it to the best beach I know in the area with some of the bestest people I know in the area. This is the way we celebrate our independence: Go to an unsanctioned beach fondly known as "Naked Beach" and drink some beers.

After beaching it up, Jenny, Jack and I grilled Kabobs on my back porch, and ate fresh cherries jack brought over.

Happy friends make a happy fourth. Summer has commenced.

Spending Time Like There's No Tomorrow

2008-06-28T11:12:00.003-05:00

Recap:

This is my friend/co-worker Emily.
This picture is from her birthday party where she served us all her home-brewed beers.
They were delicious. As were the kabobs and the friendly folks attending.

I also went to Iowa last weekend. I hadn't left Minneapolis since Christmas and for my sanity, as well as to interview my friend for my project, I decided to make a quick trip.

Here is a picture of the barn from 1815 that my friend Will is living in currently. He is an organic vegetable farmer for Friendly Farms.

BUT.. before I got to this magnificent barn, my car's tire blew out.
I then had a police man help me put on my spare, that ended up being flat, and then drive me from the McDonalds parking lot on the exit my car failed by, to a city that was a bit closer to Iowa City, where Will met me and Mr. Trooper. The next day was then consumed by fixing my damn car. Here are a few pictures of the process.

Back to the positive, the barn is surrounded by greenhouses that are surrounded by fields that are on top of a hill that looks over Iowa City. Its kinda magical out there.. Fireflies and brilliant stars make a midwestern girl giddy.

Although it would be great if Will lived up here so that I could see him often, it was great to visit his farm, and provided some much needed downtime.

When the time comes...

2008-06-09T11:59:00.002-05:00

I've come to a sad realization recently that I won't be able to go on my road trip.
This is really really saddening to me, but I don't have a few grand to blow on gasoline so I'm considering my options.

FLYING. either NYC for aprox. ten days, or NYC and LA. shorter trip to NYC, followed by 3 days in Los Angeles. Not sure if this second option is worth the added expense when I could have the whole city of New York available to me for longer. I haven't been there since I lived there two years ago and am so hungry for that city. I await the afternoon that I get the spicy cocout chicken soup from my ex-neighborhood restaurant Republic, and then hit the streets with my digital cam and ipod. AH. heaven for realz.

The loss of the road trip is definately a challenge for my senior project, as research was the main goal of this trip, but I think it will be better this way. I'm thinking about a mailing aspect of research, where I send people these lovely packages that have a survey, a few images for them to respond to, and keep, a disposable camera for them to document their lifestyle and a day in the life, and then probably a little candy for good measure. Then I'll double bag it so that they get a package to send back to me already addressed and paid for.

Alright. Well thanks for reading that.. um on a more face level, here is the new installment of images I've found and stolen from the internet. Why do I do this? Because I love judging and sharing my judgements with the etherworld. So read on if you wish to hear a little from my concious.

To begin with, these are two t-shirt designs that I did for my step-aunt's memorial walk. My family has recently began to understand what graphic design is enough to ask me to do things like this.. they aren't great but most definately an improvement on a crosswalk sign or tennis shoe being used as the main focus. (previous two years)

here's an image of the big dogs at the Walker. (photo by Erin Johnson)
I like that Philippe is the main focus, and you can see Peter in the background. Philippe totally deserves that pat on the back. French foxes always do.

this lil guy is for colin's rat tail.

and these adorables are Blue Heelers. the new object of my lust. I want one of these australian sheep dogs so badly. they look sort of like hyenas, and of a similar temperment to German Sheperds. If I am still alone in 2 years this will be my boyfriend.

beautiful image from fuzzysquid

and here.. the infamous Amy Winehouse. This is the only celebrity I keep up with because I think she's got such a great voice, yet has soo soo many problems. I think her style is awesome. Even if it is crack head shiek. These following images were personal ones that she didn't expect to leak, and I've chosen the sweetest ones. Leaving out the ones of her smoking crack, because we all have our downfalls (hopefully not as bad as crack..) but we are all people, and I was really amazed at how loving and normal these images are.

morning photo op. they look so cute!

and here, Blake impersonating her.. its adorable.

This is like teenage movie shit.. Lovey dovies taking photos of eachother together. Thas love baby.

Moral learned: Even crackhead celebrities can love eachother.

I'm out for now, but will continue to collect random pieces of our culture and report back to you.

BEST DAY OF WORK EVA

2008-06-05T14:43:00.002-05:00

SO today at the walker.. I was just sitting and selling people admission and all of a sudden, i look up and michael stipe is there.. I sold him admission. and talked to him about the different exhibits..etc etc. It was super exciting... I did do one embarassing thing when i saw him.. i looked him in the eye and said " you're.. recognizable" bluh fumble fumble.. and then let him go to gallery 8 instead of 20.21.. oh gosh. I let him eat crappy food.

AND THEN.. I came back from lunch to find that Jeremy Sisto (probably familiar if you watch six feet under) was playing mini golf!! omg hes so sexy even from far away and apparently he loves the walker! ah. i need to give him my phone number if i make contact.. i really will.

Thus ends the most exciting day at the walker ever.. perhaps it will get better and i'll have to post another!

Codpieces and Strong Men

2008-06-03T11:02:00.002-05:00

This morning in the library, Greg told me he felt old because he knew who Eldridge Cleaver was. He then told me that Eldridge designed fashion as well as being a Black Panther political leader. Once I heard the word codpiece, I knew I had to look online for this man. Unfortunately there was only one small picture of his fashion design. But may I just say woah...

Its truly enjoyable to talk to (older) people and hear how they explain something they've known for so long, and then to learn more via the internet. The two usually have very different information highlighted, and give a broader perspective.

Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998) was an influential leader in the Black Power movement. He was spokesperson for the Oakland-based Black Panther Party, and ran for presidential candidacy in 1968.

Sexy, powerful black men always do us good. Radicals are sexy. I wish there were more contemporary radicals.

The Time Has Come

2008-05-20T12:04:00.004-05:00

Ah Summer.. Its finally here, and I have some goals. Goals to have fun as this is my last summer before 'the real world', road trip with Natalie at the end of July.. getting ready for that, which means preparing to research for senior project. ( I know its early but its open enough of an idea that it'll need a year) And patiently awaiting beachworthy days.

As I am staying in Minneapolis most of my time will be spent working at the MCAD library and the Walker.

I will also spend my time:
drawing& reading & writing
playing mancala
crafting shrines
watching films
biking & walking & dancing
swimming & sunning
drinking & grilling
concert going
art openings
drive in theatre
cabins & camping
and hopefully some bar brawls..

if any of these activities might interest you, please give me a call and lets go!

I will also continue to collect images, stories and random clips of nonsense to post on this here blog.

We'll begin lightly with some amusing and pretty fashion images:

The genius that is Harmen is coming.. I hope he leaves a bunch of prints in the printshop again..

I don't think I'd score too badly on it, but I also wonder what a current survey such as this would look like...

Especially because this is what I'd consier a good time. These are my goals for summer fun:

Steve Akoi knows

underwater frolicking

Overwater frolicking

old crafting toys from my youth: plastic beads you iron together

And of course, hanging with this lady...

And traveling with her too.. not to here unfortunately.

But for sure to here:

Cal-Earth Eco-Domes

And here are some random messages from the populous:

OH, and Rob, Colin and I got into the semi-finals of the Adobe Achievement Awards with The Mascot! We had to send in pictures of our ids...Hopefully we'll win some software, yea!

Cheers

And what a week its been...

2008-03-18T11:17:00.003-05:00

The last 7 days have been bizarre.
* Took aprox. 13 hours to install merits/ junior review show
and quite a good amount of anxiety of the whole ordeal. Here are some in progress images:

* Mother came into town on a whirlwind trip of less than 24 hours
* Got a 1996 Volvo Stationwagon (dream car accomplished at 21) and returned the rental car I've had for over a month

* Watched some great movies( "Pas Douce" or "Parting Shot," " Amadeus," "The Darjeeling Limited," "The Godfather Pt.1," "Into the Wild," and part of "Lolita")

Here's some images of the actress in "Pas Douce". I have a bit of a crush on her. Some of the best acting I've ever seen. Seriously. She makes you side with a woman who wants to kill herself, but ends up shooting a young teenage boy instead. AND, she's such a natural beauty, which is so rarely seen in American movies. I mean even the people in LOST have on a ton of makeup. What is that about? If you're lost on an island, you definately don't have blush and mascara. C'mon!

* Tried a bellini for the first time (like a mimosa, but with peach juice instead of orange juice)- got them comped because my sister works at Barbette
- Thanks Crystal-Rose!

* Had Junior Review yesterday. went fine.
Here are some images of my finished installation:

Decided that I needed to have a few drinks, especially since it was St. Patrick's Day, so Natalie, Liz Elton, Luke Berhow and myself went over to a bit of a gathering..
It was a little slow until I suggested we play spin the bottle punching. Which was fun but in the middle of the game, the party was called to an end. So, we finished our beers outside and went on our way.
Here's Natalie. The new Special Export Poster girl:

*ERIK: This is the picture Sarah and I were smiling at. Hope you do too.(I'll try not to blog in class anymore)

And some random greatness I've witnessed recently:

had a conversation about anime being really terrible.. except for this film

fuzzysquid

Took this image of my bathroom window one frosty morning

These two images were from a bad idea for my graphic design 3 class, but the images themselves are kinda funny..

Took this at Amalia and Liz's house. I think it speaks very highly of these creative ladies..

From axe-man . Such pretty packaging

My basement has a terrifying octopus-like old heating system.. here's its face.

Eliot Spitzer's accident. NYTimes posted her myspace page..
ethically how do we feel about this?

Yet another reason to quit smoking, but this lady does seem pretty rad.

* super dry insights lecture last tuesday, and I work the one tonight.Hopefully Project Projects is a little more animated.

WHADDA WEEK!

Bling Bling Blang

2008-03-11T11:04:00.004-05:00

We all like to show off a bit.. Here are some things that I think are especially show-offable.
Do you see the sparkle?

I would really love it if science presented this ring to me in proposal of marriage. I would say yes right away. Wouldn't you?

These pants/ shoes make me gleeful

this man is such a neo greaser.. where you've got the sailor/ tattoo thing down real well, but you're super clean.. afraid to break fingernails even.. This is about as metro as I find attractive.

I've seen this dress many different places, in different colors.. and I don't know who the designer is.. can anyone tell me?
I love it though. zexy.. perhaps I should just buy an american apparel dress and screenprint on it..

diva.

This is my friend Mark. He's from South Dakota, and now lives in NYC.. We went to parsons together and got in trouble from our R.A. together. but now neither of us are going there anymore.. He's so dramatic and amazing in this photograph. . He's the new jesus.

This was Polanski's bling. Sharon Tate.. such a lovely girl, and the manson family made sure to comment on such capital. Writing PIG in her blood on their front door after brutally murdering her, her unborn child, and three friends in 1969.

Retro/German bling.

Fondly Looking Back...

2008-03-01T21:41:00.003-06:00

I have these images, and I feel like I should share them because they're pretty hilarious.
They are from my Walker excursions.. office party, after hours..

I want to post these because I love my job and haven't been working as much lately which makes me appreciate my job even more. After watching performances every weekend for the past 6 weeks, it just feels wrong to not have that anymore..
but i will be going to the zoo next weekend with many many children for work. with my right hand walker man Joey Heinen. (see characature below) * Thanks Andres!

This is Jesse. He is Sheikh, a total philosopher, and rapper actually.. Hes amazing. and these photos from the after hours are hilarious.

Me and some of my posse from the walker.. nevermind the dude on the right..

cake from frida/brits afterparty/workparty (That's the PG Tips monkey)

Joe Rizzo and Lindsey

view from skyline room

and heres where the real shenanigans start...

thanks for putting up with my reminiscing.. I promise my next post will be more ponderous for you.

Please Don't Take My Life So Seriously

2008-02-21T19:54:00.003-06:00

This image had no description, but it appears that these men are writing out arabic(?) translations for the images. Perhaps this is a test to see the subtle differences within dialetc and arabic? not sure, but its beautiful, and i love the little illustrations... what kind of feline is that?

biggest rabbit.

ever.

Speaking of impressionable images, This man. No Country for Old Men's evilest of evils... Javier Bardem.

He makes being bad so so very good.

having all of us ladies shaking in our boots, yet still wanting to swoon after him. I think its the haircut.
and deep charcoal voice.

Here he is in real life...

it worries me a little when an evil character is portrayed so greatly that they are desirable, yet as just an actor hes just a guy.

NOTE:: I do not want a murderer, but what does this say about our culture right now? why is the sinister more appealing that the average? Is it just the desire of something completely fantastic and fictional?

who knows.. thats enough philosophy sharing for me now.

au revoir

Politics and Boat/cars are cruisin'

2008-02-19T10:34:00.002-06:00

Fidel Castro stepped down as President of Cuba today! BIG BIG DEAL Y'ALL!
I got these images of him from a lovely slideshow NYTIMES has..

do any of you check the NYTimes Slideshows? I'm addicted to them. Can't stop. Don't stop, won't stop.
but Fidel did stop, and I don't care what our nation has been saying about him, I think that he is a revolutionary man, and should, and will be honored 4 eva.

I want to go to Cuba. I want to go to Cuba. I want to go to Cuba.

-Mr. Castro, right, and Che Guevara- in Havana in the early 1960's Mr. Castro overthrew the dictator Fulgencio Batista to gain power in Cuba.

found this image on fuzzysquid and I'm not sure what its suggesting, but Kosovo declaring independence is also a huge political issue that this week is taking on.

And now ladies and gentleman:::::::::

the moment you've all been waiting for:::::::::::::::::::::::
the shipping car!
It can go from land to water, to underwater!
If I could read Russian, then I would be able to tell you something about it, but alas, I am but a measly American girl with knowledge of only one language and a translator on my widgets that only does one or two sentences, no paragraphs.

but seeing is believing. So see this and weep.

I love that in all these pictures, the people are super suave and stylish and totally photoshopped.

It has been decided...

2008-02-10T20:00:00.000-06:00

Which Lost Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

Consider the Good Tings in Lyfe

2008-02-08T13:50:00.000-06:00

I went to the Art Shantys on Medicine Lake this last weekend and it was great! Beginning with freez-ee-pops en art..

and dyed ice pile outside of the art car shanty..

Went into the mobile shanty.. It was beautiful, and the man running it was adorable.. I wanted to stay but amalia and liz weren't feeling like making mobiles... maybe they just didn't have the motivation because they didn't think the guy was cute, and they aren't titillated by boxes of feathers & paper cut outs & pipe cleaners & other crafting supplies...

Yay we made it back to the car without freezing! rosy cheeks on liz are super adorable.

My friend Joey took weeks making this in microsoft paint... while at work. Its awesome. zoomed in, its even better.

where have all the men like this gone?

This is where I want to be.. my room looked so pretty at the perfect time the other day, I had to take a photo.. Its so warm and comforting..

puppies

This last picture reminds me of my childhood.. I was such a hellion.

This may be the worst week...

2008-02-08T13:20:00.000-06:00

My car was hit on monday and now has a bent axle....a.k.a. is no longer driveable..
I have spent numerous hours trying to work with insurance companies and still with no results..
frustration, I know thy name!

This last one is the other guys car. Looks exactly like mine.. this ironic point is no longer funny to me.

After all the work I've done for this debacle I'm left with no answers and nothing else that I can do to make something happen... I stranded by the side of the road... and no one can hear me screaming.

Dreamy Creamy Stream of Conciousneam

2008-02-05T19:47:00.000-06:00

Natalie's boyfriend Rocky found these porcupine feet for her. They're amazing. As I've never cuddled with a porcupine, I hadn't realized before how amazing their details are..

Ellie Reynolds took this photo of me in my studio to use for a project in class.. hilarious.

Madness in the Eyes

2008-02-02T17:00:00.000-06:00

Learned about the late Stanley Kubrick this last week in class, and I think that watching Dr. Strangelove and 2001 this week brought me down a little. I really didn't enjoy either movie. I understand their importance within film and think 2001 is beautiful, but a slow killer. They're both dull because Kubrick didn't really want to make dramas. He was more interested in expressing the human condition from a more abstract perspective. I do have an honest interest in his work now though, and want to watch more of them... even if they kill me a little.

Theres this quote from him, that I think sums him up pretty well...
" Why should we bother to write a great symphony or make a living or even love one another when we are nothing but a momentary microbe on a dust mote whirling through unimaginable immensity of space— especially when we live in a universe created by chance and which may be snuffed out by chance?"
—Stanley Kubrick

Post POST

2008-01-29T22:09:00.000-06:00

while searching for french design firms...(to contact once I have a degree to back me up) I ran into this project one of them instigated. .. and its simplicity is so great, but it also reminds me of Adam Garcia's You Will Never Be Lonely Again campaign.

I'm thinking of a similar project for my Global Context of Design . But not helvetica left aligned blah blah.. too many projects are like that.. I'm thinking different sizes for different sayings.. you know. its only a baby right now so no judgements on my child.

n
e
w

fashion that is lights. i think it probably is better for photographs than for actual wear.

painting. pretty. cannot for the life of me remember who the artist is.. i need to start naming my files based on the artist 'cause this is a consistent problem.

lazer vision

These photographs, again the problem with not knowing whose responsible for them, are of the Great Salt Lake and its mirages...

shoddy

rubber bear rug.. wish it was chocolate..

want to be here so bad..

and here even more.

mixed up and mangled

2008-01-25T13:46:00.000-06:00

Russian teenagers in the 70s... beautiful. I love the sign in the back.

Frida Kahlo made work hell for the last month. It definately contributed to my lack of blogging. So here's a little disrespect to the woman of all women. The original feminist. Sorry Frida, but after hearing everyone pronounce your name Kay-low, I can't take your popularity too seriously.

Wild er Nest. Wildernest Wild Life. wildlife.
more to come on this later

These kats are terrifying, and intriguing.

I want to travel. This is my utmost life goal. I want to know these men, and how they differ from the men I know.

This is much more the kind of men I know, which aren't really men at all.

I don't know what this is, but I do know the color is beautiful.

found this on a blog that is spectacular. er a spectacle. either way. otherworldy is amazing.
http://thefashionramone.blogspot.com/

cut out pattern that is amazing. steal it if you like.

DDDDD zign

2008-01-25T13:28:00.000-06:00

I don't remember where I got this image, its a possible repost, but its just such beautiful image of hand painted signs,
I can't not post it.

This is an MM Paris design I believe, but looking at it again, I realized how similar it is to Duane Michals photography... Illusions are one of my utmost favorite things. I want to make more of them. And collect more of them.

It's been a while, but my mind has still been moving IRL

2008-01-25T13:06:00.001-06:00

I recently watched Amelie and it reminded me of the greatness of creative minds. I forgot how inspirational this movie is for me.
If you haven't seen this recently, rent it again. It doesn't get old.

This is so mysterious. This the the house that I live in my mind.

Thanks for the picture Liz! I miss Rob so much. He was a great addition to the design crew 'round these parts.

The ortolan is a delicacy in France. Its also illegal to eat. When they catch these tiny birds (about the size of your thumb) they poke the eyes out, and force feed them. Once they're plump they drown the bird in fine cognac and then roast it. You eat the entire thing, bones and all. When you eat it, you cover your head with white tableclothes. Some say to hide from God, but also because the bird is such a pure, innocent thing, it enhances the experience. Just you and the bird within this pure space.

Amazing and beautiful. What an interesting tradition.

My free dayze are numbered

2007-12-17T10:40:00.000-06:00

Here I am, first Monday of break and I'm blogging in the MCAD library about school.

Tying up loose ends I suppose.

I used to think that was possible, but projects, responsibilities and work just build upon themselves. There is no real break.

But thats a good thing, because I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I did have a break.
In fact, I have made sure that this doesn't happen.

I want to read a few books over the week I am home for Christmas.

I want to build huge pop-ups for a moving landscape, and draw within three of my sketchbooks.

Within the next few days, I need to make myself at least 5 mix cds for my drive home.

AND I want to come up with a system of how to document my experience working with Tino Seghal.
and decide whether this is totally breaking his rules of no documentation. Its not as if I'm saying here is Tino Seghal's work.

I simply want to experiment with this piece.

ANYWAY, here are some images from the Macroimbroglio underground show.

It was pretty awesome, but as my camera broke this semester, I was unable to take any myself.
Luckily, David Frolich was there, and gave me a disc with images from the performance.

THANKS DAVID!

del.icio.us

2007-12-03T16:49:00.000-06:00

I posted some new links to my del.icio.us account. . Sumthings gotta strike you fancy...

http://del.icio.us/a.vonfalcon

The best of my recent additions to the collection

2007-12-02T20:23:00.000-06:00

school has blown up, and my momentum has been stunted due to Thanksgiving.
but I will give you a quick overview of many things.

little reflection, very Work In Prog.

very pretty design

also very pretty design

The most disgusting cake I've ever eaten

Made these for an installation. This image is too poor to use for anything. But 'er they are.

real pretty boxes.

Amazing.

Hilarious.

Lakshmi.

coal-miner.

Thank you for your contribution.

my initials.

I want this.

2007-11-29T12:59:00.001-06:00

I've seen the horror.
horror's that you've seen

but you have no right to call me a murderer,
you have a right a kill me
You have a right to do that,
but you have no right to judge me.

Its impossible for words
to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means...
horror..
horror has a face,

and you must make a friend of horror

horror and moral terror are your friends, if they are not,
then they are moral enemies to be feared

they are truly enemies.

I remember when I was with special forces
seems a thousand centuries ago
we went into a camp to inoculate the children,
we left the camp

after we had inoculated the children from polio
and this old man came running after us, he was crying
he couldn't say...

we went back there, and they had come
and hacked off every inoculated arm.
there they were in a pile.
a pile of little arms
and i remember...
i... i.. i cried, i wept like.....some grandmother

i wanted to tear my teeth out, i didn't know what i wanted to do

and i want to remember it, i never want to forget it. ..i never want to forget.
and then i realized, like i was shot
like i was shot with a diamond
a diamond bullet right though my forehead

and i thought, my god, the genius of that

the genius, the will to do that
perfect, genuine, complete, crystal, pure..
then i realized
they were stronger than we because they could stand up,..
that these were not monsters, these were men. trained contras
these men who fought with their hearts
who have families, who have children, who are filled with love
but they had the strength. the strength. to do that.
if i had ten divisions of those men,
then our troubles here would be over very quickly.

you have to have men who are moral, and at the same time, who are able to
utilize their primortal instincts to kill.
without feeling, without passion, without judgement
because its judgement that defeats us

I worry that my son, might not understand what I've tried to be
and if I were to be killed, and willard, I would like someone to go to my home and tell my son everything
everything I did; everything you saw, because there's nothing that i detest more than the stench of lies
and if you understand me willard
you will do this for me.

Watch me research and free associate

2007-11-12T22:49:00.000-06:00

It has recently been offered to me to help build a moving set for a music performance. I am very excited at the possibilities.
The stalagmites definately helped me with that one. To my right this very moment I see them, peeking into my peripheral. Bulbous yellow gold, hiding under a shelf of papers and books.

I also have been considering that group performance. I think each of us should build a quarter of a room, and perhaps have a live drummer in the center of the space. All the space's aesthetics could collide in the center, and each of us do a monologue at one point or another. Possibly in class. Possibly all at the same time, maybe one after another, or maybe one each day for four consecutive days. who knows yet. but I like this possibility as a beginning point.

I should state that this platform would be perfect for the idea I've been interested in lately.
(See Post Below)

-perhaps I could use more of an obviously religious tone. Still the cleanliness, but bizarre nonetheless.

Speaking of which, shout out to J. Danos for showing me this here lady:

Melissa Pokorny makes some very nice things. I like their cleanlisness and use with architecture,
er architectural elements at least.

Giving me ideas for sure.

Bauhaus also has me goin crazy for architectural elements, and I could consider their use within my larger spectrum of work.

>>>maybe on the moving set>>>

Performance/idea roaming

2007-11-12T00:27:00.000-06:00

The Monologue of Colonel Kurt from Apocalpse Now within a completely different environment.

Thinking maybe very clean/ sterile/ proper/ religious

picture one of the richest men in america's wife serving you coffee or tea and telling you of the horrors.

A little political-

-but I want that.

Werd Lists

2007-11-10T12:06:00.000-06:00

After talking to Stacey Levy. I find myself questioning my research methods.
I really do need to let myself take more time breathing in the research. Letting it settle. Resonate.
But I still have all these random images that I love to look at. Most of them. I don't know where they came from,
but I think about them and how they relate to my work, not outloud... yet

Attraction.
silver shining.
mask.
james dean from the future.
=this definition of coolness.

(self-centered/self-conscious)

look at this. This hairy beast that roams through the nightshot.
Is it a setup? Can we really trust photographs anymore? not.
Cryptozoological beasts excite me.

Cold sore.
Not familiar.
growth.
natural.
disgusting closeup.
parasite.
Viral.
fleshy.
blood.
cell death.

closer.
look closer.
look very close.
can you see the shrine that hides within?
the purity of this scene. . seems untouched by man.. until
you see the artificial shapes.
quiet.
unassuming.
religious.
visceral.

The hair on these.
gorgeous.
singular, yet in mass.
embarrassment of natural.
growth.
human non-verbal communication.

terrifying.
father.
school portrait.
facelift?

mystery.
rite of passage.
trance.
other worldly.

falcon.
death.
life from death.
beauty.

some little pictures for a little installation

2007-11-09T11:05:00.000-06:00

here are some images of a few of the items I created for my personal project.
They're dark. I need to take a lighting class, but perhaps the foreboding-ness of the lighting is fitting.

I'M NOT THERE

2007-11-07T11:52:00.000-06:00

Bob Dylan's un-biography portrait

saw this last night. It was amazing.
No better way to explain a mulit-faceted person with a story that shows each facet separately.

Todd Haynes has mixed up different parts of Dylan's life and personality, and defined them with different names.

I don't think its that reachable for non-Dylan fans, but totally worth the 135 minutes.

I was on the edge of my seat, laughed, cried.

And Cate Blanchett playing Dylan was dead on amazing.

Comes out Nov. 21st.

Marcus Young

2007-11-07T11:48:00.000-06:00

Monday, I went on a walk with Marcus Young.

He gave me some good advice.

Go to where your fear is.

be careful on this journey, but do not be afraid to go.
If you are afaid, it is because you don't know,
and that learning what you don't know can be enriching to you and others.

thats what art should be.
thats what makes things interesting.

thats what growing as a person is all about.

A dull moment

2007-11-03T18:22:00.000-05:00

I've been attending performance art, significant film screening, and worldly music events.

And you know what?

I haven't blogged about it one bit.
but thats all about to change.

So I went to this Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako performance thursday.
It was a group of performance artists from Zaire, er.. congo. er ?

As I learned during this performance, Congo used to be Zaire, used to be a lot of different things and has gone through many many terrible leaders, a ton of violent civil war.

The state of this nation has never been clear. It has never been positive.
But this performance tells us of a coping mechanism.

Happiness, or at least being positive and going on with life despite of the hardships that may come your way.

It was great. There were the most amazing dance moves ever. total control of each muscle.
Stories, analogies, printed flyers passed out, food, drinks. Live band. the air was magical.
seriously. The dancing with the florencent lights was intense. The anger and the love that they could portray.
They blocked eachother off with them, held them as stakes, chanted in a circle and handed them off as reigns.

They also stripped eachother down. Which was aggressive, and seemed to stand for the strife between similar men within their country. But still, Faustin, whom was only about 5'4", had the most defined muscles I've even seen in my life. Each and every muscle could be seen perfectly.

I've never seen a better figure model if I do say so.

I've been doin a little research on living

2007-10-26T00:02:00.000-05:00

Joel Peter Witkins. so terribly disturbingly beautiful.
this guy. oh man. he photographed deformed or abnormal people in the 80s.
More interesting, he also photographed a lot of cadavers. How much he manipulated these dead bodies after getting them, we do not know.
but wow. wow. amazing.

real/fake

This is amazing, and encapsules my thinking thusfar this semester.

as does this in a much different way.

I've been watching a lot of planet earth. I cannot even express the magic.

I FOUND OUT LAST NIGHT...

2007-10-23T18:43:00.001-05:00

That my spirit animal is the fox.

more to come later.

2007-10-22T14:45:00.000-05:00

MELANIE BONAJO & KINGA KIELCZYNSKA
"The culture that does not exist "

In the forests of Eastern Poland, a sacred cult has formed that has withdrawn from the outside world and worships Mother Nature. Living in houses made of growing plants, its members have turned their backs on the modern world. These eco-extremists believe that the origins of humankind lie in plant life, and seek to reverse evolution by living like plants. Far from the hectic life of modern society, they celebrate the existence of the forest in a spiritual way, with special altars and mystical ceremonies.

In their Playstation show, Melanie Bonajo and Kinga Kielczynska provide an absurdist demonstration of our relationship with Mother Nature. They exhibit photos of people dressed as plants in the dark forests of Poland, people who believe themselves to be one with their forgotten natural habitat. We also see an installation made of the natural waste found in the forest and a video of the everyday goings-on of the cult members amid the trees; we are even allowed to witness one of their secret ceremonies.

In modern society, nature has become a subordinate product amid a wealth of other products, and people have become alienated not only from their natural surroundings but also from their own nature. In an attempt to reverse this process, Melanie Bonajo and Kinga Kielczynska explore the extent to which it is possible for us to re-insert ourselves into the holistic system. In the radical reversals of the Polish cult, a near-religious refuge has been created that denies progress. The artists adopt a documentary-like presentation, showing us a glimpse of this outlandish community, absorbed in a quest for something that may in fact never have existed. The cult members have relinquished control over their lives, hoping that a lost intuition will take over. This is certainly an extreme variant of ‘Back to nature!’

www.fonswelters.nl

Ancient Suga'

2007-10-17T16:44:00.000-05:00

This cake.
This cherished delicacy.

Each Odechia was given an egg. To represent the birth that they never had.

And most did not dare touch theirs.

IT was sacred

what would happen if you were to break an egg?

One

One

only one
he did

but not without the rites
The Odechias performed the dance
built the dressing

and softly, their chanting muffeling the cracking noizes ... .. .. .
they bore a hole in the outer shell.

out poured

nothing.

so they bore in a bit deeper and stuck in a brave hand::::::::::
soft. sponge. sticky .

upon making the hole larger, they see the cakes

hundreds of cakes. eating the delicious sugar up as quickly as possible.

Until..HALT!
these precious cakes are to be saved for future generation's finding of the spirit

Once they eat her cake, they will be hers forever

but do not waste it now, for this cake must wait. Thousands and Thousands.
millions of billions

of years

until it re-emerges

Western Society's 21st century goddesses

2007-10-15T16:45:00.000-05:00

The pictures with writing and drawing on them were taken off of the ever-so popular perezhilton.com

From what I've winessed, there is a vast amount of our western culture's population that checks this daily. If not more often.

Their bible. Judgements and all.

It is VERY important that we know this information!

What I want to know though, why have we chosen these characters to follow?

What have they done for the betterment of society?

What have they done, at all really?

they are here to be whatever you want to be

I want to thank all the hairdressers.

All the clothing designers.

makeup artists.

stylists.

The real deities creating this beauty that is worshipped.

Obsessed over. Life shaking. Death warranting.

you've really taken art to a new level.

without any recognition.

talk about a giant golden calf.