snackbar

I still have not found what I am looking for...

2009-08-17T01:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I read Paul Auster's City of Glass. There is a character named Peter Stillman who walks the streets of New York Daily from sunrise to sunset. Day after day he walks what seems to be an intangible maze. Gradually his path manifests itself to words. As the words finally become legible Peter Stillman disappears. I was thinking about Peter Stillman's walk while talking to a friend at a party last night. "Im feeling so lost," she said. "I am going back to school for massage. I want to do something different. I am feeling like where is my life going right now?" This statement resonated with me as I know this well. In this new project I have conversations with people about what they are seeking, longing, wishing they had right now. I will map out and walk their vision as an attempt to realize the identified goal. Drawings will ideally be mapped out with GPS. Each participant will recieve a copy of the mapped drawing and have the option of doing the walk with me. Each walk will pass over a place of importance for the participant. (This one passes by my house!)

dog drawings

2008-02-25T15:10:00.001-08:00

Here is what they will look like. Dolly is finished. Hovita is in progress.

Blue

2008-02-17T17:29:00.000-08:00

Blue belongs to my friend Katie Decker. He is 8 yrs old.

Maxi.

2008-02-17T17:26:00.001-08:00

Maxi is an 8 week old terrier mix. She is very playful.

Hovi

2008-02-17T17:22:00.000-08:00

Hovi is Posies dog. Hovi lives in Seattle. Sometimes she comes to Portland to visit.

Dolly

2008-02-17T17:17:00.001-08:00

Dolly is a pit bull, lab, boston terrier mix. She was found at a truck stop in delaware with a broken leg. Now that her leg has healed she loves to run and play at Emerson Dog Park.

Jackson

2008-02-17T17:10:00.000-08:00

Jackson also goes by Frederick Nelson and Boo. He is a gemini. His birthday is June 14th. He had a hard time staying still for the photo.

Romeo

2008-02-17T17:04:00.000-08:00

Ashley is taking care of Romeo for her brother. Romeo is a golden retriever. He fancies boy dogs especially boodog.

peppy and rudy

2008-02-17T17:00:00.001-08:00

Rudy is a Jack Russel Terrier. He like to dance for treats! "Peppy is my moms dog she is a pomeranian. My mom likes to keep her hair short. Peppy is sometimes snotty with other dogs."

oh!

2008-02-17T11:59:00.000-08:00

on friday, the class critiqued my artist statement. I've always hated writing them! Someone suggested ( I think it was Shelby) that I imagine what my audience might like to hear. At that moment I realized I could write an artist statement as if I were tell a friend about a project that I'm working on. What a relief!

what i would like to be doing

2008-02-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

“ The artist, artwork, the arts institution, or art vehicle has nearly always been cast in the role of bestowing... Is there another equation for art in which both artist and audience each give and receive, in equal or unequal parts? And if so, don’t we need to consider more fully the identities of the recipients of the art experience since they play an important role too, in this process. Acknowledging, identifying, meeting the audience face-to-face, we begin to eliminate the barriers of distance, difference, and power that anonymity otherwise allows.”
“… art is the means of facilitating a dialogue or exchange in which all parties have something to contribute, and again. Everyone is in possession of something valuable and it is critical to respect their knowledge, as we gain from it in order to ensure that it will not be expoited, coopted, or devalued, once offered. A mutual relationship to facilitate generosity has often, for me, taken the form of listening, speaking, and reflecting.”
-mary jane jacob

In Memory

2008-01-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

During Marc Fishers visit a few weeks ago I learned of the passing of one of my favorite teachers, Micheal Piazza. Micheal was an incredibley generous and one of the most genuine people I have ever met. He was genuinely interested in his students. Our class size was small and we would get together and just talk sometimes we talked about art, sometimes we talked about politics, mostly we talked about life. He is one of the first teachers I had that gave us his phone number, If you ever need anything, anything at all please call he said, Im here to help you. Micheal was the first socially engaged artist I had as a teacher. Our class hardly ever meet in the classroom, we would rather explore the city and find places to talk. We met in cafes, We once went to the Chicago Board of Trade. He also brought Temporary Services to my sculpture class in 1999. Through his work with incarcarated youth and the developmentally disabled. Micheal taught me that artists could do more than just show in a gallery, they could make a significant contribution to community.

Something Inspirational...

2008-01-23T15:30:00.001-08:00

Reality Check.

2008-01-22T18:46:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of my first year of graduate school we met as a class and then walked around to everyones studios. Each person had a turn to briefly describe what they were working on. At this time, I had just begun to create my food cart project. I started that project for several reasons. First of all I had been working in the service industry for over 14 years. My customer service job at the time was Ticket agent and Bar Tender /Concession Attendent, Laurelhurst Theater. Through making a food cart, I was interested in somehow connecting my art to my life. My original idea for the cart was that art should provide a service to people. I told the class that I believed that traditional galleries were inaccessible and I wanted to create this public gallery that was part food cart to reach a wider audience. Everyone had something to say to this statement. People began to ask questions like so, since art should provide a service to people are you saying that it doesnt already? Are you saying that art is not important? Are you saying that art is not transformative? And then the implied question, so uhh... why are you in graduate school then?
These were questions I had already been thinking about. At this point I was 30 years old, I had been out of a BFA program for seven years, I had been making and showing work for the last 5 years. I had the experience of having shows that none of my friends came to, and shows that alot of my friends came to. I had only sold work to friends. The reality was that I wasnt making any money off this selling art thing, I put alot of money into projects and never saw anything back. I even recieved a bad review for my last show in the Oregonian. Art was a labor of love. The fact is that being an artist was not easy but, duh everyone knows that. So why was I in graduate school and was art important/ transformative? I don't think art is important or transformative all of the time. Saying that it is, is like putting it (art) up on this pedestal and giving it to much power. Its just like Coco Fusco said, most people are concerned with getting by paying bills etc. Most people dont have the time or luxury to think about art. And as someone that has worked up to 5 jobs at a time with no health insurance in order to get by, that's something I understand. Why was I in graduate school? I was in graduate school to experiment with some new ways of working as well as to figure some answers to questions that had been thinking about, as well as to meet all of the amazing and wonderful artists I have met through this program. (MFA students Im talking about you, teachers, Im talking about you and Monday Night Visiting Artists, well you have been nice too)
As that year went by and the project started to develop, my thinking began to shift about it. I liked the idea of exchanging a snack for a drawing as opposed to having shows by my trained artist friends, which was my original intent. The drawings became a way to remember the people I had met through the project and allowed other participants to see what people had created previously. The snack bar also became a popcorn and coffee stand because I could give them away without having to have a health department license for my stand. As I did the snack bar out in public a few times I realized that it had become closer to my life. It had merged into a combination of my last two jobs, Portland Childrens Museum Studio Guide and Laurelhurst theater, Snack Bar Attendant. At the museum, I made clay creations with children who came through the studio- I would offer children a chunk of clay and show them examples of what the children had made in our clay gallery. Snack Bar served popcorn and coffee like I did at the Laurelhurst. The interesting part about Snack Bar is the drawings that people exchange. I really dont like writing or even talking about my work because I think it makes my work sound important and pretentious, I dont think my work is important or interesting. The truth is that Im dreadfully boring and my ideas are not that interesting or even original. The MOST has an Amazingly Awesome food cart, A few other people are already doing pie projects. What I enjoy about doing projects in public is that alot of people can make an interesting drawing, and many people have stories to tell which are alot more interesting and unique than anything I could ever think of. Im not saying that I want to use other peoples ideas for my own benefit as an artist. For along time I made work in a studio or in my basement- I hated going to the studio it meant sitting by myself for hours on end- it was lonely. Working in public allows me to meet and connect and have conversations with other people. It gives me a reason to work.
People have been asking me about the snack bar. Was it a failed project? Why hasn't it appeared since the summer? NO, I will be doing it more this spring- when I am not working seven days a week and the weather is more pleasant.

2007-11-25T22:02:00.001-08:00

When I meet people at the dog park... their often in a hurry to get to work, rushing home to make dinner, etc... I thought it might be a good idea to make a business card and that way people could contact me if they are interested in having a dog portrait created.

Below is an example of what the drawings might look like.

a penny for your thoughts

2007-11-25T16:31:00.000-08:00

Gary Wiseman and I are collaborating on a project where we offer people a penny in exchange for a thought. For the last three years, Gary has been collecting lucky pennies that he finds on the street. On Buy Nothing Day we went to Lloyd Center Mall. We found an empty kiosk near the ice skating rink and set a sort of fake booth where we offered people pennies. Above are some of the thoughts exchanged.

Hana

2007-11-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

Hana is a Shiba Inu which is believed to be one of the most ancient japanese breeds. Hana translates to flower in japanese. She was named for her love of sniffing flowers. Like the other native japanese dog breeds Shiba Inu were bred for hunting by ancient hunters of Japan, called matagi and were believed to have special characteristics associated with the concepts of spirit, obedience, loyalty and bravery and their temperaments are always calm and considerate, with great dignity. Their eyes tend to be triangular and recessed, "suggesting the burning spirit within."

Lewis and Clark

2007-10-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

While laying on the grass in the Emerson Elementary dog park with my dog pal bodhito, we met these two chaps. Clark is the large fellow up front. He's 9 years old. Louie is 8 years old. They are Pembroke Welsh Corgies, a hearding breed. Their owner explained that she could not let them off their leash because they were very fast and would run all the way home. I told her that I was an artist and interested in making drawings of the dogs that visit our neighborhood dog park. She was really excited about my project and invited me over to her house sometime to see an oil painting of the boys that was done by her artist mother.

view from the grass

2007-10-31T16:45:00.000-07:00

This term ive been feeling bankrupt in terms of ideas. Ive been suffering form what you might call a creative block. I began thinking about the last time I felt this "stuck". It was spring of 2006. I was trying to decide where to go to Grad school. It was between CCA and PSU. I couldnt decide I had two weeks left before I had to make my decision. I tried everything. I went running every morning. I went for long rides on my skateboard. I took a hot bath. I made a list of positives for both schools and they came out equal. I was paralyzed in a state of indecision. So I went to see my accupuncturist. He told me to " Lay on the earth". A day or so went by, it was raining outside so I tried lying down on the floor in my room. It didnt help. I was trapped further and further in my thoughts. About a week later the sun came out and it was Portland's first day of spring. I stepped out of my backdoor and entered our yard. I flopped down on my back. It was wonderful. Finally a moment of clarity.

It would be fun to organize a creative unblocking event where a group of people lay on the grass together.

the pie project is back!

2007-10-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

Ive been thinking alot about Allan McCollums visit and this idea that artists are supposed to make "signature works". So there are probably millions of great artworks out there that have never been made because you think of an idea and realize someone else has already done it so you stop... That said, Ive decided to start the pie project again... This is a service where I offer to deliver a fresh baked pie to a person of your choosing. Anyone may request a pie to be delivered by bicycle within the portland area sorry i dont do gresham or beaverton on bicycle. The service is free or for exchange. A pie may be traded for something, anything it could be a tangible object or an idea or thought that is of the same value... Traded objects, or ideas will be documented as a part of the project.

snackbar drawings

2007-10-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

Some things Ive been thinking about...

2007-10-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Eric was talking the other day in class about his systems for getting things done. Id like to invite other artists to submit systems for getting things done here.... id like to compile these systems into some sort of self help manual for artists.
1. How do you motivate? How do you kickstart your day? Do you get up every morning Jog and meditate? Drink a cup of coffee on an empty stomach and work?
2. How do you organize your life? Keep a day planner? Make a to do list? When do you check the list?

Hurray!!!!

2007-10-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

its friday! today marks the start of not only my first real weekend since the start of school, but its also the date of my first REAL blog entry.