eco laundry

I'm wondering about trying these washing machine Eco Balls.  I know people who like the dryer ones.


Have you used the washer one?  What do you think of these?

what he said

I've been watching and reading, like most everyone, about the Arizona shootings.  I have found that the most thoughtful and honest and hopeful words that have translated best the ache and concern inside of me, have come from Jon Stewart.    I embedded his segment in my post in case you haven't seen it.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Arizona Shootings Reaction
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

solo show at The Brink Gallery

For the month of October, I have a show of new work titled fix yourself at The Brink Gallery in Missoula.

fix yourself features some of my efforts to pare down and seek clarity of knowledge - a moment that you look and hear and feel something that you’ve seen, heard and felt before but now you are convinced it’s a part of you.

integrating thoughts, LED lights, wire, ink and acrylic on butter papers

installing integrating thoughts

integrating thoughts, detail

the exhibition includes objects, pictures and video works.  see more samples of my work here in the future and at my new blog for my artwork here.

end of summer

After days of mostly cool breezy autumn weather, I'm giving in.  Summer is over.

To close the season, I regularly admire the stand of sunflowers  at the back of the house by the shed that greats us when we come from the driveway.  They love it there, obviously by the way they have flourished, and next year I'll probably plant three times as many and more varieties right there.  Even though it is the end of summer, they keep blooming and spinning (slow as the sun moves of course) tall and proud.  

The thimbleberries that we planted last year grew big and strong which makes me believe they love their location too, but they didn't produce any fruit. It's okay, we just have more to learn there.  Maybe we simply need to give them more time.  They say the third year they really mature, so we'll see!  I hope they pay off big when they do - Bruce might bake them into a pie!

have you seen the signs?

All imagery has meaning.  It's inherent, right?  As does any object.  Hiding messages inside imagery is as old as the hills of course. And it's everywhere, not just in art.  We depend on symbols daily.  

I am exploring communication through symbols and gestures in my studio.  I recently discovered (from Bruce) one obscure way to turn text into symbols or hide a message called QR (Quick Response) barcodes. They won't be obscure for long, I don't think, plus they are already big in Japan (where they originate). I am seeing them more and more in the margins of magazines, as ads, signs and on the web.  Have you?


Image is everything. Symbols and imagery as signage is so often more concise and simply more aesthetic than text, which so easily (and often) becomes clutter.  (When text is done 'right', it is a different thing of course, but save that for another time please.  And save for later another personal favorite - when symbols are more confusing than effective.  Love that too.)  

Today, I'm interested in how QR codes diminish text into clear tidy boxes.  They aren't only to hide a message but to condense them.

In order to read the message, you need a QR reader which now is as cheap as um, freeee and as easy and portable as an iPhone app.  (For any mobile device really.)  There are about a dozen apps for this.  I got the MAAD QR app and it works perfectly fine for me.  You open the app, point the camera lens of your phone at the code and zap, it pops up a translation which could be text, a number or web link.  It's super fast.  So, imagine reading a magazine and instead of jotting down notes on a new solar-powered gadget or ripping out pages to save recipes, you just zap a QR code with your iPhone and you get the additional information. Plus it's handily stored so you can revisit it later.  Love. This.

It's no surprise that artists are embracing the new method to add another layer of visual communication in paintings, music videos and fashion.  Techno and Mod styles merge so well in QR codes.  Beyond the standard bold black and white palette and hard edges, the concept alone can add a juicy layer to a piece for the avant-garde as well as Pop.  Or domestically, how about hiding a message publicly in a chain-link fence?  See below Kylie Minogue's video, All The Lovers, featuring some codes (and other more obvious symbols).

Beyond the artwork itself, galleries and museums (like the Mattress Factory) are using them to condense wall text - gawd isn't that refreshing? As well as use them to track art pieces just like your basic bar code does.  Educators are finding handy ways to utilize them in the classroom.  This site has a list of tips for creatively using QR codes. A downside for luddites is that without a reading device I can't see how a person would translate the messages with their eyes alone. So those people miss out.  However more and more even luddites carry a cell phone.


The appeal of QR codes is more than just being relatively new.  They offer a wonderful aesthetic compromise.  They have just the right ratio of high contrast portions that a person could ignore them if they choose, and say, appreciate the art nearby, be it natural or artificial.  And conversely, they are eye-catching enough to easily spot them among the clutter of the world.  Can't you just see them on t-shirts?

You can put a phrase into a QR generator at this site and make your own code.   

learning at Linda's

So how was the rest of the day at Linda's?  Fabulous of course!  It was way more than the just the demise of my PD150 and plans to capture moving pictures of Linda in the kitchen. (See my post, 'keep learning.') Luckily my Canon PowerShot G6, which I am nuts about and almost always have on me, made it possible for me take a few still pictures. Whew!

First of all, Linda and her husband Bill have a fantastic ranchette that is fun to just hang around and soak in all the characters, like Elvis who is a bit like me and hates to miss out on anything.

  

Wine to start the visit.

Linda casually showed us all the steps and we took turns pitching in.  She makes everything look so easy.

Um, Linda also prepared a tart and other delectables for snacking while we prepared the tortilla espanolas.

This is the Tortilla Espanola - a simple, hearty dish made mostly of potato and eggs.  

Linda is a fabulous pastry chef as well as an over-achiever in many other areas.  Fortunately for us, she generously shares her mastery as she did this day.  I think she calls this Avalanche Cake.  Chocolate, caramel and peanuts.  When you cut into it, the caramel floods down the sides, like an avalanche.

First and foremost, Linda is a fantastic painter.  We became friends through our art first, then our mutual love of good food and wine. Linda's art draws heavily on her experiences in her garden producing food for the table. Her perspective is rich and bold which comes out beautifully in her art.  And she has a big bawdy laugh that I love.

When she gets a website together, I'll link to it.  In the mean time, she has a piece you can see on Ask Art.  This summer Organic Gardening Magazine is visiting her garden and studio, so watch for a coming spread on Linda there, too.

keep learning

When Bruce and I started salty snack studios we each had our own camera.  He came slinging a great little Canon and I brought a Sony PD150 that I bought when I was getting a second MFA, this time in Media Arts, around 2002 or 2003.  (I can't remember exactly.) Anyway, it's a solid work-horse of a camera.  I definitely recommend it.  

A few years ago, we invested in a Panasonic video camera with a great lens that would shoot SD & HD, to tape or memory cards and hard drives.  (The PD150 only shoots SD/standard definition to tape.)  The footage has been fantastic, of course, and I do NOT miss digitizing tapes.  Obviously, our Sony and Canon became 'back-up' cameras.  I have to say though that during one shoot of a rock band show in a bar, the PD150 totally surprised us as the back up.  (Watch this little teaser that uses footage from both cameras.) Since getting the new camera, I have been a techni-chicken. I have completely depended on Bruce with the settings on the Panasonic.  Even when I am the one shooting, I ask Bruce to check settings for me.  I don't trust myself with it.

A couple of months ago, I was shooting video of my friend, Linda, making Tortilla Espanola with the PD150.    Linda is a fantastic chef and artist who once lived in Spain, so I organized a cooking lesson party with her for some friends and me. We drove to her home about a half hour from Missoula for the occasion. I took the PD150 because I know my way around my old PD150 grey mare pretty well. I planned to do all of the shooting plus let Bruce relax and enjoy the party. 

Within the first few minutes of the Tortilla Espanola Party, my camera screen was red.  People's faces, the background and everything was bright red. We adjusted settings and played around but it was a total bust. Apparently the chip died or something.  Something.  Something that once sent to the shop we learned it would cost so much to repair that I might as well get a new camera.  I'm sad to report that we put her down.  

The main thing about that PD150, is that you could really count on it.  Until you couldn't, apparently. The buttons were in all the right places or something because I found it incredibly easy to use.  I have a lot of distinct memories shooting with it, too. Moments of intuitive clarity staring into water through it's lens.  Walking around alone at dusty estate sales in rural Montana. I clamped it to ladders and hung it out of cars.  Once, Valerie and I forgot to shut the back door of the mini-SUV and I nearly lost it zipping down a highway in Polson.  I had accidentally left it recording, too, so I have the footage of carpet with audio of Valerie and I chattering to prove it.

Nothing like a piece of technology forcing you to move on and learn something new.  Now I must warm up to the Panasonic, find all the right buttons on it and get shooting again.  That's the thing.  Since shifting into the world of technology and away from natural materials and methods, I am constantly forced to let things go in a totally new way.  Not a better or worse way, just an unexpected way.  And my PD150 was the start of that discovery.

(photo, Shane Graff)

Here I am looking through the lens of the Panasonic and planning a shot in Burbank last year.  Bruce had already tweaked the numbers.

See the next post, 'learning at Linda's,' for part 2 of the story.

fashion's dirty little revolutionary secret

Copyright and Trademark come up constantly in the arts. In our studio, we debate over rights when considering using found video and film footage, music, imagery and content for making movies, iPhone apps or a tee shirt design. Often clients don't know any different so it is our responsibility to do the right thing legally but also morally by other artists.

On a personal level, artists are all over the board in their feelings of ownership of an idea. When teaching Contemporary Criticism, I brought up the Sheppard Fairey debate and students brought more research and energy to this discussion than almost any other. The subject struck a fundamental nerve for almost all of them. 

In my own personal experience I eventually come to the final question, "did the person who took the idea do it better?" Of course, that triggers more debate for many but the final execution of an idea often brings clarity for me. And then there is that very common feeling of ownership of an idea but never actually making it or doing anything about it. Ideas are pretty cheap in the end it seems. At least ideas all on their own. (Read: Go make something!)

Lately the rights (or lack there of) fashionistas and designers hold has been leading the discussion at our table. This TED video, "Lessons from fashion's free culture" by Johanna Blakely has been a great contribution to the debate and in certain ways very liberating for me. I want everyone to see it.

P.S. Going beyond the idea stage and getting into what has been published or produced, I have been directed to two places to start if you seek rights to use someone else's intellectual property: The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) or Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI). Good luck with that.

Enjoy the video!

Byrne on Arts Funding

David Byrne (on his website) shares his thoughtful comments on funding in the arts, suggests that we as a culture, rethink it all. Start paying more attention to the living. Here, here! Go David.

Shallow Breathing

wtf was I thinking? 300 level course. meets 3 hours once a week.  too much time is now not enough time. contemporary art.  and criticism.  freaking hell.  

One week it is great, my plan works and I see light bulbs flashing in my students heads and I get a huge charge out of it. Another week it is painful and flat. Either way it is draining.  I am a novice performing dental work.  And I know it.  

I'm told that this is all normal.  It's my first time teaching it and it's all new course prep.  Ok.  Damn it that sucks.  And it is so different from other courses that I have taught - I LIKE THIS COURSE.  But ultimately, I can't tell if I care too much or not enough to do this sort of thing. Well.  Do it and be good at it.  

Do you feel the anxiety attack I am living?  When I plan a day's class.  When I grade an assignment.  When I sit alone in my office which is totally bazaaro.

Today I made a pizza with garlic and tomatillos from my garden.  I used dough from a local bakery.  It grounded me. Tasty, fresh and comforting.  It feels good to cook. It put the anxiety attack at bay for a few seconds.  

Enough on that - off the Holland Lake for the weekend for A/D's wedding.  Cheers!!!

Smarts

I've been scurrying around finishing all of the logistics and hoop-jumping for teaching at the University this fall. I've been trained on the Smart room & Blackboard. I've gotten my Griz card and keys to my office and Resource Room. I've signed up for and gotten my half-dozen passwords to get in and out of this mini academic universe.  I've signed a gazillion forms, confirmed my own references and updated my professional stuff.  I've ordered the textbooks.  I've met with the two Art History Professors that have taught this course in the past, for their advice and encouragement. I've tried to devour the required text as thoroughly and quickly as possible. I've measured all the ways I can think of in advance to make the course engaging, dynamic and successful for the students and me. I've shaped my plan for the course and left room for flexibility that I imagine I will want/need. I calculated, debated and finally polished off my grading system. (Thanks B for your help there.) Finally, I am about to post my Syllabus.

This week I have department meetings and my first class meets on Wednesday. For three hours. We meet once each week for three hours. And it will be intense - it's Contemporary Art Criticism for crying out loud!  A 300 level course. This will demand some chops on my part. I realized that I have never taught a three hour class that wasn't studio driven. Eek!  Why did I agree to this? 

Since I had been swinging between excitement and total melt down, last night I met with the Chair (who got me into this whole mess in the first place).  He answered my questions and gave suggestions, then quickly got down to business suggesting other courses that are keen to my own interests and research for me to develop. Now. And to teach it this winter or next Spring.In addition to this one. Gulp. 

I think the world of this guy, so there is no greater compliment or person for it to come from on this matter. Wow.  Talk about an academic sweeping you off your feet.  I have no idea how to answer - if I want to get so consumed with teaching.  But I appreciate the seduction and am relishing the flattery.

My reply to him, "Can I just get through Wednesday?"

Art of Conversation (still learning)

According to the English writer, Dorothy Nevill, "the real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

My mouth leads me around a lot. It gets me into unexpected and interesting places that I like. But when it gets me into trouble, you can bet it is a whopper. 

One night recently I had a completely terrible night of technical problems when I was shooting an interview for a documentary we have going.  The documentary involves musicians and so we were at a bar and it was late. I'll spare you the details but you must know that I was absolutely spent. My frustration with the technical hurdles had left me reduced to a blob with a patch of hair on top. Finally, after we got the interview (which turned out fine, by the way), we packed up the gear and grabbed drinks.  It's midnight and I was operating on fumes.  

A friend spots me and says hello.  She has a two-woman punk band. Their lyrics are strong and funny and they use parenting as one of their themes. For part of the chorus of one song, they yell, "Colic! Colic! Colic!" followed by imitations of a baby whailing. I liked their attitude, their beat and their show stayed with me. Plus, I like her. She's electric. She's a friend that I hardly ever see, but I'm a fan. I eagerly tell her how great their band is. 

We sit down in the beer garden and her pal in the band walks up.  She is a small-framed and slender woman wearing a stiff cotton baby-doll dress. I recognize her face as someone that I recall but I don't place her yet. I just know that I think that I like her and I want to know her. I turn to my friend, "Don't I know her?" She introduces us. 

When I hear that she's the bad-ass little drummer of their band, I light up. She sits down across from me and her dress billows with a crease under her breasts and another at her lap. I remember the last time I saw this petite woman, she was rocking out behind a drum set. Now she's standing in front of me and the way her dress bulges so far out I make a huge awful assumption. (Oh, yes, you see this train wreck coming. Say, "Oh, no, you didn't." But, "Yes. I did.") 

I have never made this particular mistake in my life and spoken it aloud. And without any processing or hesitation, my little groupie p.o.v. now pictures her rocking out pregnant. And I love it. How bad-ass is that? With total admiration I say, "I didn't realize you were pregnant." Even after I say it, I see no risks in what I am saying. I am beaming. She asks, "What?" And still, no clue hits me and I say it again. Finally she replies, "I am not." 

I recoiled physically as I apologized.  I absolutely did not want to offend this woman. Hell, I was trying to make a new friend.I replay the scenario over and over in my head and wish so deeply that I could have a do-over. A time out. Anything. The perverse trick to the lesson is that I wasn't thinking anything bad or commenting on her body. In fact, she's petite. She looked great. I liked that she was a drummer. I was fantasizing about being a rocker. That was all. The dress tricked me, damn it.

I clearly hurt this woman's feelings. My friend immediately explained to her that it is her dress. Of course, the damage was done. Even if such a mistake could be forgivable, it is unforgettable. She went to a different part of the bar. My friend then explained to me that the drummer had just lost 40 pounds. She went to talk with her. I went home.