Saturday, February 21, 2009

a brief history of the chairs in my studio

i can't remember where or when i got this chair, but it has been the one i sit in when i cut up found stickers and rearrange the letters into ransom note style poetry.



this one i found in the trash with a loose seat, a few screws later and it was as good as new.



I found this chair in a dumpster somewhere, all that was wrong with it was a loose screw, so i fixed it and now i sit in it sometimes.

This is a great stool that was being thrown away, it has become my soldering chair. I sit in it when i am soldering.

i found the remnants of this chair on the side of the road, along with the scrap wood that now makes up its "seat". I use it exclusively as a stand for that water heating contraption that goes along with that thermaplastic crap i have toted back and forth across the country never quite making anything with, but will someday...


this is my go to stool. I found the base in a dumpster and attached some 1x4 scraps to the top for a seat. I started using it as my welding stool but had to actually shave down the rough edges a bit so it was easier to sit on. These days if I am not sitting on it while I weld, i use it as a convenient stand for welding related stuff.

this has become a common motif for me, taking a crappy chair and affixing a piece of wood to it and using it as a makeshift drawing stand. the seat of the chair is the oerfect base for all dry and wet media drawing material.


I often times sit on this crate when working on things down low. it's funny in the routine of the studio i spend lot of time moving around from chair to chair, yet i never really feel like i am ever perfectly still.


these are a couple of subway benches i found. The bottom one serves as a cozy nap spot thanks to the moving blankets, and normally the upper level is used for seating and not as a sculpture stand.


these are actually the boxes that the spikes i got and used for making rust prints for the last couple of years came in originally. I now use them both as low stools and as props for unstable things.

this chair is a recent acquisition i got from the museum i work at. it has already been turned into some sort of hybrid drawings board/storage shelf. although this time an extra large drawing board leans against the other side, braced in place by a bucket of random rusty hardware i use for rust prints.


this is a recent creation featuring the frame from an old discarded breur chair and the circular pieces of wood from a display i found behind urban outfitters.

i am starting to over document the studio because i don't know what the future holds for my studio. The business in the front of the building went out of business and It is only me left in the back. The building owners are cool with letting me go month to month until a new tenant moves in. They want to keep me in the warehouse in the back and hopefully the new tenants in the storefront will be cool with a sculpture shop in the back. I am playing it by ear, but I am optimistic that if I do have to downsize or move the studio I will be able to make do where ever i end up. It is actually better than I thought, because initially I thought I would have to leave the end of January when the bakery shut down, but now I am clear until at least april or May-ish.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

dave hickey's recent column left me thinking

what do i think about? Can someone still be critical and demanding of the art they consume and or make? Can I consume the art I make and what would that feel/look like?

I often times feel like an outsider to the exciting fast paced world that is supposedly swirling around out there in the ether. I live in a place that i often think of as the land where time stood still.I don't know why but a part of Dave Hickey's recent serial column in Art in America really struck me as valuable both for art and for general life. He asks the following series of questions:

I think this may be the most succinctly I have seen someone capture the internal dialogue that often accompanies the creation of art and most creative endeavors that are going to be shared with a public. I know for me this is the line of questioning that leads to the tremendous amount of doubt that accompanies the creation of new work. Oh well Dave Hickey does it again, proves he is writer that artists love to quote, and for good reason

Monday, February 02, 2009

superbowl commercials

I know nothing about football. and i know even less about cars. but none the less i felt compelled, as i do every year, to watch the super bowl and this year i took notes on what the commercials were. I still like to watch tv, and when i do i like to study what is coming at me and pay attention to what is being advertised, the following is compiled from my handwritten notes on super bowl commercials

below are my actual superbowl notes, sometimes i jot these down in my sketch book. Taking notes on the commercials i watch is a habit i developed when i though i might apply to go to graduate school at the institute for the study of popular television at syracuse.


and now the list with snarky comments and observations thrown in for good measure:

GI Joe- commercial for a movie that will most definitely ruin one of my favorite childhood toys
Hyundai- a car i will never need,
Bud Light.
angels and demons-should have titled this the bernini code
audi-using jason statham's transporter
pepsi-something i never have or will drink
doritos-yuck
bud light
year one-some sort of movie
toyota-influenced by the same art objects as modernist, actually compares grill of car to african mask
fast and furious-an ad for a 2hour ad for cars
oil- some oil company used inagadavida by iron butterfly as their music...wtf?
Land of the lost-
doritos- something about sex and money
go daddy- something about sex and a girl in a shower
diet pepsi-goes along with your motor oil, regular pepsi and doritos
pedigree-for your dog
budweiser- american beer, owned and invented by germans
budweiser- horse romance, because nothing says america like love struck horses
star trek- beam me up
gatorade- G a sexy new package for sugar water
cars.com-
hyundai- again
e-trade- those damn babies are fucking stupid
disney- really
bud light
h and r block- how are they not bankrupt?
flowers
cheetos- a product i understand
sprint
sobe-sexier sugar water
toyota-made in america designed elswhere
priceline- see star trek
overstock.com- because even in a recession you need stuff
universal orlando- like disney but without rats
ford truck- like a rock
hardees- because high cholesterol is for wussys
coca cola- more sugar water
bridgestone- tires for the hyundai and the audi you just bought
Denny's- we can't even give this food away
monster- you broke and unemployed and hate your life, we can help
Transformers- more toys from my childhood ruined
career builder- see monster
coca cola- used peter and the wolf for some reason
frosted flakes- cereal of my childhood
alltel-built tough and not weak like those other cars
ford-now with my circle
carmax- you really need a new car to go with your coke, cheetos, and new job
zaxby's- overweight celebrity motorcycle designers eat here and you should too
miller high life
hyundai
coke
cash 4 gold- you are a sucker and will do anything , send me your un wanted gold. is there such a thing as unwanted gold, it is the only thing that holds its value, soon it is all we will accept as payment
vizio-because you deserve a flat screen that costs more than your first car
taco bell-drink pepsi
ge- we own everything, deal with it.
hulu- alec baldwin is both ironic and relevant, we swear
ge-we still own everything
pepsi-we own taco bell
bud light with lime- yes we can
godaddy- we do something with stuff

so the superbowl's message, buy a car, drink pepsi, watch a movie,