DAYTON IS NOT IN OHIO

2009-11-25T14:16:00.002-05:00

CLICK HERE FOR DAYTON'S WEBSITE

Trying to figure out why a Google search shows me no website love...

2008-10-29T22:12:00.001-05:00

2008-10-29T21:58:00.000-05:00

PHILLIES WIN!!!!!

2008-10-26T23:24:00.003-05:00

"It's out-a heeeeerrrreeeee!!"
Philadelphia wins with Joe Blanton's gem and four homers. Phil's lead series 3 games to 1, and can clinch World Series title with home win tomorrow night! Go Phillies!!!!

Ryan Howard watches his first one go.

Joe Blanton becomes the 15th pitcher in World Series history to take one out of the yard.

Jayson Werth does his best Shane Victorino impression for stroke #3 of the night.

Howard's encore is the nail in the coffin. When he drops the bat at home, say goodbye to Mr. Spaulding.

2008-10-22T23:10:00.002-05:00

Phillies strike first. Take 1-0 lead in World series.

Utley starts the scoring with a two-run homer in the first.

2008-10-16T00:09:00.001-05:00

NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!

2008-10-13T23:32:00.003-05:00

The Flyin' Hawaiian drops a bomb on L.A.

Phillies 7, Dodgers 5
Phillies lead series 3 - 1
C0-MVPs: Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs (Victorino ties it with a two run homer in the 8th, Stairs follows up two batters later with a two-run wallop to put the Phils up for good). Honorable mentions go to Chase Utley's and Jimmy Rollins' gloves, and Ryan Madsen's and Brad "Lights Out" Lidge's arms.

Matt Stairs trots off a pinch-hit dinger that landed in a sea of limp rally towels. I hope they work for tears too!

2008-10-13T14:23:00.003-05:00

Game 3 Highlights

Shane Victorino commented: "The 'P' stands for Pearl Harbor. Don't forget what happened next."

A dehydrated Manny Ramirez nearly collapses and is assisted to the clubhouse bathroom after a mid-inning bout of Montezuma's Revenge.

2008-10-11T00:04:00.002-05:00

Phillies 8, Dodgers 5
Phillies lead series 2 - 0
MVP: Tough one, but I'm going with pitcher Brett Myers. (5 IP, 5 runs, 6 SO, 3 for 3 batting, 3 RBIs, first pitcher in league championship history to post three hits)
Go Phillies!

2008-10-09T22:30:00.004-05:00

Phillies 3, Dodgers 2
Phillies lead series 1 - 0
MVP: Chase Utley (2 for 4, 2-run game tying homer, started game winning rally)
Go Phillies!

Chase Utley strokes a homer to even the score.

2008-10-05T15:37:00.002-05:00

Phillies 6, Brewers 2
NLDS Champs!
MVP: Pat Burrell (3 for 4, 2 home runs, 4 RBI)
Go Phils!! Bring on the Dodgers!

2008-10-03T00:49:00.002-05:00

Phillies 5, Brewers 2
Phillies up 2-0 in series
MVP: Shane "The Flyin' Hawaiian" Victorino (3 for 4, walk, 4 RBI, Grand Slam)
Go Phils!!

2008-10-02T11:08:00.001-05:00

Phillies 3, Brewers 1
Phillies up 1-0 in series
MVP: Cole Hamels (8 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs)
Go Phils!!

2008-09-30T21:46:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of funny things I happened across:

Ever wonder what your name would be if you were born to Sarah Palin? Try the Sarah Palin baby name generator. My name? Drill Swollen Palin... and my brother Scott's name? Beretta Hockey Palin. Awesome.

If you ever saw the movie Cool Runnings, and cried (like I did) when they picked up the bobsled and carried it across the finish line, then you'll appreciate this: Bolt 4 Bobsled

2008-09-11T21:04:00.003-05:00

Bragging Rights

The worst part of attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago was the fact that there were no sports teams. C'mon... Savannah College of Art and Design has sports. My buddy Keith went there on a baseball scholarship - and he's a good artist. There's Yale, Columbia, etc... I would have loved to play baseball for the Art Institute. I know we would have stunk. Doesn't matter. All that matters is who wins that yearly throw-down between SAIC and RISD. (What up, Ru!?)

So, one thing that was most exciting about teaching at Trinity Christian College was the fact that I had sports teams to pull for again. I realize that an NAIA volleyball powerhouse doesn't engender the same barstool arguments, or grant the bragging rights that D-1 football does, but your team is your team.

Nothing, however, prepared me for the bliss that was my introduction to TCC's mascot: The Troll.

That's right. Trinity Christian College Trolls. Now that's a mascot sure to win a barstool argument. So you have a fighting leprechaun? My Troll will smash you as flat as a shamrock with his giant, knobby club. Wolverine? Ate it for dinner last night. Smoked it with a combination of hickory and Buckeyes.

A giant, hungry, blue beast with unlimited magical power, and a Carl Andre drawing on his chest is pretty much the baddest mascot that ever was, or ever will be created.

Carl Andre, Inverted Henge (Meditation on the Year 1960), 1971

ESPN agreed, by naming the TCC Troll one of the top ten college mascots. I would point out that this list is in alphabetical order, which puts us at #10. But you will no doubt notice that numbers 1 - 9 were actually chosen by the Troll as his favorite side salad, before his favorite meal: Florida Gator.

2008-09-06T13:11:00.009-05:00

Back to Blogger

Welcome to the re-re-located Dayton is Not in Ohio. I've decided to come back to Blogger because it's just easier to work with. Hopefully this will motivate me to post more frequently on what's happening in art here in the windy city.

One thing that's happening is that I'm now teaching full time at Trinity Christian College. It's an absolute whirlwind right now. It's enjoyable, and a boat load of work. Between Intro to Sculpture (never actually took a sculpture class), Figure Drawing and 2-D Design (neither of which have I taken for a decade and a half), my life has become a rhythm of preparing to teach, teaching all day, crashing on the couch, and preparing to teach again. It's a pretty common experience for a new instructor I've heard, and everyone assures me that it gets a little better after a year or so. No problem. At least I know what my new year's resolution in 2010 will be: Catch up on sleep.

This Friday night was the big gallery season kick-off. The west loop gallery district was hopping - so hopping, in fact, that by 9pm, after catching up with dozens of folks that I had not seen all summer, I was beat and headed straight home. I found out about several upcoming shows that friends are having and I'll report on those a little later. I honestly didn't see much of the art, with all of the catching up with friends, and the fact that almost every gallery was like an oven-baked can of sardines. Pretty typical of the first Friday in September... Here are a few of the things that caught my eye, though:

Diana Guerrero-Macia at Tony Wight
The Bigger Picture, Wool, vinyl, leather and cotton on canvas, 2008, 72" x 64"

Reena Saini Kallat at Walsh Gallery
Synonym B, Painted Acrylic on Rubberstamps, 2008, 72"x48"

One highlight was the inaugural show at The School (of the Art Institute of Chicago)'s new exhibition space. Wow. The space was incredible, covering the entire 7th floor of Louis Sullivan's 33 S. State St. structure (can you say, 32,000 sq. ft.). The floor to ceiling windows along the west and north walls of the gallery made the space seen even larger than its already humongous footprint.

The show was titled Decadence and featured a cross-section of recent and not-so-recent Art Institute alumni and faculty. Curator Lisa Wainwright (interim dean of faculty at SAIC) knows she's leveraging the irony of a title that could describe half the work that I've seen at nearly every show at The School since I've been here. Decadence as a show title, then, is interesting, but certainly not shocking, and predictably tried to live into it's title through (spoiler alert!) explorations of decadent sexuality.

No!?

Surprised?

No one else will be either. The tendency toward this kind of work is so common at this point that even work which doesn't attempt to be humorous, becomes so, by effect of over-saturation. Perhaps by Wainwright's ham-handed naming of it, she can kill it off. It's become fairly boring.

Everything wasn't boring, though, and I cracked up at my friend Ben Fain's very smart critique of the decadent sexuality that permeated the show. Ben's video depicted a group of young men and women in a makeshift pizza-scattered tent, that devolves into a mostly-clothed, pizza-smearing mass of writhing bodies. It was an interesting commentary on indulgent, pizza-mad, and sex-obsessed American culture. The clear downside, however, is that I never want to eat pizza again.

Nick Cave stayed above the fray with this gorgeous, Rococo "Soundsuit."

Nick Cave, Soundsuit

Predictably sexually ridiculous, was SAIC photo faculty member Barbara DeGenevieve. Her piece La-Bas (Down There) for LW was a giant swatch of pink fur with a little mouth/vagina dentata that chats incessantly about, what else, vaginas. I hear the real money is in selling these ideas to Spencer's Gifts.

Barbara DeGenevieve, La-Bas (Down There) for LW

2008-04-11T15:12:00.001-05:00

2007-01-11T00:29:00.000-05:00

Goodbye Blogspot

You will find Dayton's new blog here.

Thanks to my brother-in-law I now have a new web hosting service for the domain I've owned for a couple of years. He also told me how the internet "works" so I'm able to actually make a website and not just redirect my domain name (daytonc.com) to my blog.

So my first project was to create a new blog that resides on my own website. In the future I'll have a website for my work, as well.

Here's the new address: http://blog.daytonc.com

Be sure to update your bookmarks and, if applicable, links on your blog to my blog.

This new blog has some cool features like categories for posts, and MUCH better tools for using images and designing posts. Plus (while it is an obvious rip-off of McSweeney's) I like it because it's plain and leaves more room for posting.

2007-01-09T19:27:00.000-05:00

End of the Tunnel "Documentary"

I made this during my vacation to burn a little creative energy. Apologies if you helped with the installation and I forgot you in the credits. There was only one guy who fit the bill to provide the music, but I also forgot him in the credits, and he's famous, so don't feel bad.

2006-12-28T14:59:00.000-05:00

California Trip

So, the family is in Cali enjoying a relaxing time with Karen's folks. It's pretty low ley, overall, but here are the more interesting things:

FSU pulled off a nice 44 - 27 victory over UCLA in the Emerald Nut Bowl last night. I like to think of it as retribution for me not getting accepted into the UCLA MFA program (whether or not I would have eventually gone). I caught the game at a family sports bar in Bakersfield where I was one of two people who actually seemed interested in the game. The other guy was wearing a UCLA football jersey and we went back and forth with TV-screen-directed comments that were just loud enough that we hoped the enemy could hear us. He left early. Go 'Noles!

The front page of today's Bakersfield Californian newspaper sports section featured an article and picture of Jeff Garcia and the Eagles at the top, and an article and picture of FSU on the bottom. I don't imagine this will ever happen again.

Next week I head to Los Angeles for a few days to visit a few museums and visit artist Lynn Aldrich's (also a good article here) studio. I met Lynn through CIVA. She's a UNC graduate in English, got her MFA and has taught at Art Center College of Design, and her husband is on the Board of my Alma Mater, Belhaven College. I really admire her work and am looking forward to this visit.

Lynn Aldrich, Spring, 2005

Garden hose, steel, and wood

(22 x 8 x 8 inches)

While in LA I'm staying with my brother-in-law Dennis Hamm. Dennis is quite a pianist, and his most recent interesting gig was being personally invited to accompany Kenny Loggins for a few Christmas songs at a private shin dig in swanky Santa Barbara. The REALLY cool thing about this is:

Dennis Hamm (pianist) to Kenny Loggins (wrote and performed "Footloose") to Kevin Bacon (starred in "Footloose") in three short degrees.

If it ends up working out, I'll accompany Dennis to his New Year's gig at Yosemite National Park.

2006-12-16T01:40:00.000-05:00

I've settled on a title for my circular bridge: The Mother of Lunatics

To get to the bottom of the title you must read this. You will thank me.

It recently dawned on me that the best explanation for the piece, and the likely inspiration (even the artist reserves the right to wonder where his artwork may have come from), is this chapter in G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is, without a doubt, my favorite book ever, and I've read it more times than any other book save the Bible (maybe my metaphysical poets). Attesting to this are the several years of stratified notes, comments, underlines and highlights adorning my worn hardcover copy. I've always read it with joyful laughter, tears and some pain -- jealous, in a way, of Chesterton's graceful, brilliant wit, and his luscious, luscious, luscious command of language. But who needs another Chesterton, when we have the real thing? I might, however, be the sculptor that he was not. I'm thinking I might improvise in his fakebook for a while.

2006-12-15T21:17:00.000-05:00

The fine line between freshman art, and trash.

I officially completed my first semester of grad school today. I had an art history final last night, and today was my last day of my TA position. The TA involves running the freshman wood shop on fridays. I try to help them keep all of their digits and, unfortunately, I often have to break it to them that they can't run their almost-completed project through the table saw. I really appreciate the job I had at Atelier Art Services at this point, because that's where I learned how to plan projects, and do them in the correct order. These are top-notch students, so they try all kinds of crazy stuff, which is great, but they fail a lot. I'm not there to hold their hand and tell them how to do it, I'm there to answer questions, make it safe, and, sometimes, watch them work on things that I know are doomed to failure. I joked with my boss that the dumpsters must overflow the week after the semester ends. She rolled her eyes and lamented that she's the one who has to do a lot of the trash hauling. Then she showed me what she had just made:
Awesome!

In Advance of the Broken Head (Apologies to Marcel Duchamp)

This sign is upstairs from my studio and I've meant to take a picture of it all semester:

2006-12-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

Warning: Long, Very Traditional Blog Post

Some grad school thoughts as my first semester comes to a close.

Highlighting my grad school experience thus far have been my relationships with my two graduate advisors, James Zanzi and Joe Cavalier. I meet with each of them every two weeks to chat about my work and thinking. I didn't pick them (I registered late and someone chose them for me) but they have really been excellent at challenging and expanding my thinking regarding art in general and sculpture in particular. They have been more like mentors than ivory tower academics, and I have benefited greatly from that. They have both been around the school for a long time and I anticipate being indebted to their wisdom for a long time. Their knowledge of art and architecture and Chicago and the school is encyclopedic. Jim tells a story of how he threw all of the figurative sculpture parapheralia in a dumpster in the 1960's during the battles swirling around formalist theories and the more traditional academic schools of thought. He has since repented, but this little story exemplifies the passionate artists and teachers that they both are. I can't tell you how many times they have said something to me about art or about the school and followed it with "that really ticked off the administration in 19-such-and-such." My mind wanders back to my rebellious undergrad days at Belhaven College and I know that we are kindred spirits.

Joe Cavalier wrote an article for Art Papers in 1995 based on a lectue he gave at an international sculpture conference in 1994. I want to share a couple of very poinant excerpts from that. The article is titled Sculpture's Expanding Field in the Public Sphere. The excerpts resonate personally with my wrestling and thinking about the nature, direction and purpose of my work, and they relate specifically to the academy. He writes:

"In sculpture departments all over the country we find that most are better equipped to service the needs of a medieval army that to provide a context for work in the 1990s. Boasting more than their share of testoterone mythologies, they practically dare the uninitiated student to enter their dimly lit caves. Within it a merry band of myopic vulcans and fuedal guildmen can be seen wielding fire, acid, hammers, chisels and grinders to shape mute materials into objects that join the army of objects already cluttering the world. Production here seems largely focused on the mastery of a mix of pre-industrial skills and crafts that nurture the anti-capitalism permeating most, if not all, fine art schools. Such romanticism merely masks a more insidious capitalism based on the production of commodities for a more elite market."

Before anyone gets 'em in a wad, I want to point out that Joe is not anti-craft. He really likes my current work, and much of his own work is dependent upon a well developed craftsmanship. This next bit clarifies the above excerpt, I think:

"As faculty our responsibility is to educate and not merely train students. This is not to say that the mastery of skills or techniques might not be important to the identity or empowerment of a given artist. It is rather to emphasize the construction of meaning and its reception served by the technique or materiality. We must try to enfranchise students, helping them to integrate their work with the forces that shape their times, and to educate them for a participatory democracy."

This last idea, interestingly, would not have surprised me had I read it in the work of Calvin Seerveld, my favorite Christian aesthetic philosopher. Coming from the pen of an openly atheist person, that's pretty cool. Joe is a thoughtful athiest. He is just how I imagine C.S. Lewis before his conversion. He is genuinely and passionately helping me explore the juncture of my theological convictions and my art.

I have to admit that the production of commodities for the elitist art market has been clouding my thinking this semester. It's a temptation to make objects simply for the sake of their possibly becoming marketable. That an artists work ends up being marketable is not negative in and of itself, but I'm quite sure that this should not drive my work. More thoughts on this later...

2006-12-06T14:53:00.000-05:00

Here's a shot for a sense of scale...

2006-12-04T17:16:00.000-05:00

The Infinite Bridge

2006-12-02T00:33:00.000-05:00

FSU basketball has had a few tough losses to nationally ranked teams recently, but here's a little lemonade made from those lemons, courtesy of FSU forward Al Thornton. Unbelievable.

2006-11-30T12:04:00.000-05:00

Robert Morris

2006-11-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

2006-11-20T14:23:00.000-05:00

Howard wins NL MVP. Rock.

On the art front... I haven't updated this thing because I've been working on making art. The good news is that I should finish up the circular bridge today. Images soon. Rock.

2006-11-09T10:15:00.001-05:00

2006-11-06T18:15:00.000-05:00

Artspeak II

Rob Matthews (1, 2) sent me this scan from Art in America magazine by artist Amy Sillman. It's a nice addition to the artspeak research... This is usually a PG blog, so forgive the salty language...

Artspeak

2006-11-03T18:06:00.000-05:00

This summer I taught my art history students a few handy phrases that they could use when referring to art, when asked by a friend what they thought of his/her art, or any other similar situation. Here are a couple of my favorites, with a wonderful new one at the end. Brackets indicate spaces for specific references...

"[Such and such] really captures the essence of [such and such]" (Example: "His sculpture really captures the essence of the human spirit.")

"What is he/she running from?" (must be said with a grave, thoughtful expression)

Artist: "So what did you think of my [dance/paintings/songs, etc...]"
You: "WOW! You were [dancing out there/all over those walls/all over that stage]!" (this is used when what the person has done really actually sucks. Avoid value-laden language and just state objective material observations.)

My new favorite: "[such and such] really deconstructs perceived dichotomies between [such and such]." (Example: "I find that her choreography really deconstructs perceived dichotomies between eastern and western modes of movement.") ZINGER!!!!

C'mon artist friends... I know you got 'em!

2006-10-30T20:31:00.000-05:00

An example of a cantilever span bridge

Drawing of the side view of one of six sections

Plywood templates routered out to hold the steel for welding

Half of one section completed

2006-10-30T19:51:00.000-05:00

The Broken Spirit of Detroit

Well, the saddest thing you ever saw was the already depressed city of Detroit the day after losing the World Series. The stadium was all dressed up with nowhere to to go, including barricades, spotlights, huge tents and all manner of other festive stuff. It was a ghost town, save the few crews of people dismantling big tents in a gray, freezing drizzle. Get me outta here before I catch whatever they have!

New Project

My latest project is rolling along steadily. It's a 34-foot cantilever span "bridge" that curls around on itself creating a ten-foot diameter circular form. The circle is formed of six identical sections, each of which suggest (in negative space) one partial arc of six smaller, interlacing circles within the larger one. The best way that I can think to describe the form is a rose window with the innards missing.

The piece is being made out of 1/2-inch steel angle and flats in an open frame form, much like the chopstick bridge. So far I have done a drawing for the individual spans, made wooden templates with which to build them, and welded up one-half of one span. Two halves will be joined by 8" bars making each of the six sections about 5 feet x 2 feet x 8 inches. These will then bolt together (hopefully) into a giant circle. I worked very hard to get my measurements and angles right, so all that's left to do is hope (and fabricate well).

I've just been informed that there is a server problem, so your imagination will have to do the work until I can upload some photos of the progress.

2006-10-22T16:43:00.000-05:00

Ah, Detroit!

"In 1984, Detroit was devastated by disorderly conduct that followed the Tigers' World Series victory over the San Diego Padres. One man died, dozens were hurt, and the world saw a picture of a beer-bellied teenager named Bubba Helms holding up a Tigers pennant in front of a burning police car."

If the Detroit Tigers win the 2006 World Series, and do it in six games, it will happen next Saturday night. My sculpture department is taking a trip this week to Detroit for the grand opening of their new contemporary art museum, and will be in Motown at that very time.

I've encouraged everyone to bring their camera, because who's to know who might be the next person to take a photograph that ruins the reputation of an entire city for almost a quarter-century?

2006-10-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

Awww, shucks... I have a new project going, but I thought I'd just post a couple of FSU videos from the good ol'e days... Enjoy. (apologies to Rob for the UNC hit)

2006-10-16T23:39:00.000-05:00

Batting Clean-Up: Tate Fox Castleman

I'm a teaching assistant in the wood shop for the first-year students at SAIC, and when I have some downtime I get to play with the tools. I decided to learn how to use the lathe, and I'm now a pretty big fan. It's just fun. I made this mini baseball bat for my new nephew Tate.

I used a worthless scrap of pine 2 x 2, and made a pretty cool bat for little man Tate. I still need to burn a logo into the bat, and lacquer it. Next up is a full-size bat, and I've already tracked down a specialty hardwood dealer to get ash baseball bat blanks. Two words: Wonder Boy...

Just seeing this picture makes me get choked up.

2006-10-11T08:57:00.000-05:00

This picture gives a sense of scale. The other guy in the picture is Nestor, a fellow grad student and a native of Mexico. The small flag atop the bridge is made from the paper sleeves that Panda Express chopsticks come in. It's not part of the piece really, just a fun way to commemorate the bridge's completion.

2006-10-09T18:04:00.000-05:00

Chopstick Bridge
198 x 66 x 10 inches

2006-10-07T12:39:00.000-05:00

Progress Report (or, Are You Getting Your Money's Worth)

I was nervous coming to school on the backs of, essentially, two big projects, the scale and nature of which I knew I would not be able to continue in the grad school environment. You can't just go around building big things in interesting public spaces. What I've discovered, however, is that the enjoyment that I found in those projects can be transmutated by one degree into something equally as satisfying, and much more compatible with the environment of my studio.

With those two projects, the most compelling characteristic was the interaction between the objects and the ideas they are associated with (pipes as pipes and windmills as windmills), and the spaces they were placed within (a prison and church respectively). This offered, among other things, something interesting for the viewer and myself to chew on (the object mediating between the subjective imagination and the objective world of ideas), and a playground for me to play problem-solver, engineer and builder.

With this bridge I've discovered the same things, only it's not an object to space relationship, it's a material to object relationship. The thing I enjoyed about the windmills was all of the ideas and narratives that could be mined by contemplating what relationship exists between cable-suspended windmills and a space of Christian worship. With the bridge it's the same thing, only now it's between the bridge and the materials that actually compose it. (What do chopsticks have to do with bridges? I have my own ideas. What are yours?) I realize that I've "discovered" a concept that has already been discovered and inhabited by many, many artists before me, but nothing can compare to discovering it for yourself.

Another important dimension to this has been finding a "field of play" with potential, in what one of my advisors pointed out is an interest in "conveyors" (pipes, windmills, bridges). I'd always articulated it as an interest in infrastructural systems, but this really boils it down to which parts of that system I enjoy the most: the delivery systems--the means of transition. Needless to say, and no pun intended, there's a whole world of theological, philosophical and literary parallels to explore within this realm, and I'm quite sure I'm going to enjoy doing so.

2006-10-05T17:44:00.000-05:00

I'm actually a lot farther along than this, but I haven't taken any more images. I'll probably finish it up on Saturday.

I've gotten a lot of good feedback from my advisors and felow students on this. I've decided not to "pave" the surface with chopsticks, but to leave the entire sculpture as an open frame. This makes it more of a bridge shaped object, and pushes it away from the miniature-model association which I definitely did not like.

This view shows a little of the inexact science of building something like this. There's hardly a parallel line in the entire thing, but just a succession of compensations to produce a whole that appears right. This makes it pretty bad as a real bridge, but, in my opinion, much more interesting as a work of art.

Two back with three to go...

2006-09-29T09:06:00.000-05:00

This is the point in a baseball season where heroes are made.

Oh, wait... Yeah, that was four games ago when the Phils had a one game wild-card lead.

Well, heroes can still be made, but these heroes must be forged on the backs of some goats in Dodger blue. The Phillies have a lot of heart, and they know what they need to do.

What the Dodgers need to do is implode.

Let's go Dodgers! CHOKE!!!!

2006-09-28T11:43:00.002-05:00

Le Arche

I completed the arch yesterday, but the real procreative accomplishment was by Rebecca Castleman, my sister-in-law, with the birth of Tate Fox Castleman. This is their third kid and second boy. She pushed for a full 8 minutes before the 6 lb 8 oz bugger came out, quiet, serene and checking out the world. September 27th is my brother Scott's birthday, as well as that of my grandfather Robert Fox who died in 2004. Congratulations, y'all!!

Also on yesterday, the Phils kept their wildcard hopes alive with a two-run triple in the 14th inning by Jimmy Rollins. The Phils tried really hard to lose this one, but pulled it out. In the words of Ice Cube: I didn't even have to use my A.K. - I'd have to say it was a good day...

The moment of truth for the arch came when I finally reached the final gap and it was perfectly level and in alignment. Building a 16 1/2 foot self supporting arch out of chopsticks was more challenging than I had anticipated, but in the end it worked.

I so liked the arch that I had to confer with my advisor about whether or not to go on. His name is Joe Cavalier, and he's a guy that's been around for a while, I really like him and he's been very helpful. He said, "If this were the 6o's I would have told you to leave it, but these days there's a greater appreciation for specific referents, so I think you should definitely see it through." That's good advice from a perspective much broader than mine... that's what I'm paying for. Have I mentioned that I'm loving grad school?

2006-09-26T12:40:00.000-05:00

More Bridge

I've finished one half of the arch and begun work on the other half. This first half stops just short of the halfway point, as will the other half. The final top piece will then be attached and hold the whole thing up. At that point I can begin to build the vertical girders and the bridge surface. The whole process is a little scary. It takes lots of work and there's always that fear that it just won't quite work right, or it will fall or something else. This is a good feeling, because my best projects have been the ones that I'm most afraid of.

All plumb.

I'm loving the shape of this thing.

2006-09-21T17:12:00.000-05:00

Chopstick Bridge Progress

The bridge construction is coming along steadily. I'm running into most of my problems with the engineering of the ellipse shape that the arch takes... I'm mostly eyeballing it based on the huge wall drawing, but this is inexact and necessitates frequent tweaks and stuctural improvisations. I'm sure I could plan it mathematically, but I'm equally as sure that I have no idea how to do that. That's why I'm an artist, and not an engineer. It will have an artist's touch, and by that I mean it won't be perfect, which I'm OK with.

The photos on the wall are of various actual bridges of the same type, Chris Burden's bridges which I mentioned here, and images of chinese workers building the trans-continental railroad. I've decided that it must be a rail bridge, being built of chopsticks and all...

Interestingly, this is the largest grawing that I've ever done. It's not complex, and it serves more as a plan or schematic than anything else (like my drawings have tended to do over the last few years) but it's a big drawing nonetheless.

Below is a little thingy I devised to easily adjust the two hooks that hang from the cable spanning the space above the bridge. This is actually how they built the New River Gorge Bridge so I thought it ought to be good enough for my bridge. The hooks support the structure as it arches out, before the two ends meet.

I'm loving having so much time to work! School is awesome. More updates soon...

2006-09-15T22:56:00.000-05:00

Studio View

Here's a professionally stitched photo montage of my studio at the Art Institute. By professional, I mean that I did it with the help of my super-duper computer. I really like the studio I got. We had a lottery for studios, second-year students first, then us first-years. I was picked third in my round, and I snagged the last studio in the "horseshoe." The horseshoe is a grouping of 12 studios connected by a common hallway. It's actually a lot like the church studios. The studio is 16 x 13 feet and the wall is about 9 feet high. There are a few more studios outside the horseshoe, but they seem pretty isolated, and after the church studios, I may have actually gone crazy in that environment. As things are, I chat a lot with my fellow grad students because few of us have any big projects going yet.

I do actually plan on starting a project once I get the supplies in. I intend on building a small arch span bridge out of chopsticks to connect one wall of my studio to another. By small I mean smaller than your usual example of this bridge type, although it will still be 16 1/2 feet long. I'm not sure how many chopsticks this will require, but I've ordered a preliminary batch to begin building girders and frames. I'll have to build it much like a real bridge is built in order to complete the arch. I've eaten a lot of chinese food since starting school. I just started liking chopsticks as materials because I was using them a lot. They're like little pieces of lumber. It's like being a giant and having a lot of free 2 x 4s at your disposal... what to build?

I thought of my connection to the chinese through my grandad pastoring the chinese prebyterian church in New Orleans, and my grandmother being a missionary to China. Something about this overseas connection, along with the Katrina flooding, and the idea of the pontifex, latin for bridge-builder, from where we get the word pontiff. We also touched on the german expressionist group die Brucke (the bridge) in my art history class (which I love) this week, and I was struck by Emil Nolde's losing struggle with his faith. So, bridges encapsulate a lot of ideas that are interesting to me, plus, it just seems like it would be fun to build. It's a start, at least.

School Update

2006-09-05T22:48:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am actually in school... It's been very busy so far, so I've been just trying to bide my time before blogging on how things are going.

I have a studio, but I need to paint it before moving in. There have been lots of school-related meetings to go to, and it's really kept me on my toes.... errands... financial aid... student computing... pick up paint... drop off immunization forms... eat... get shots... read... read more... go see this show... that show... help someone move studios... class... TA work... remember names... compile slide show...

Be a husband. Be a dad.

I'm loving it.

(pictures soon!)

2006-09-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

Oh. Yeah.

13 - 10.

FSU

Scalp 'em!!!

2006-09-03T16:05:00.000-05:00

Hope Against All Reason

I have to respond to Rob Matthews' formal announcement that the Phillies have had their "Hope Against All Reason" link on his website redirected to the University of Tennessee athletic website.

I fully understand what motivated this change, as my own college football passions run at least as deep as Rob's. However I must question the lack of sensitivity in the timing.

It's true that UT, just a day before the change, beat 9th ranked Cal -- a hopeful boost for a perennial football power that has seen a few hard years (I know something about that too). However the Phils are in a dead heat for the National League wildcard playoff spot. And at the very moment that the link was being changed, Ryan Howard was hitting his major league leading 50th, 51st and 52nd homeruns in three consecutive at-bats, and the Phils were mounting a 9th inning rally that would beat the Braves on a Shane Victorino walk-off single. It's like announcing a divorce at a wedding.

I can empathize. The Phillies (help 'em) are a disappointment waiting to happen. Hope is always risky. I, too, have my hopes on a Florida State squad that is just as likely to break my heart as it is to return to the good old days. So, I have added a "Hope Against All Reason" link in my sidebar that links to the Phillies' homepage.

I'm still with ya boys...

p.s. GO 'NOLES!

2006-08-28T19:03:00.000-05:00

Don't consider this a competing post, but if you want your high quality, obscure music videos click here. If you want some guys shooting a Diet Coke bottle over a house, then you're shopping on the right blog:

2006-08-26T21:01:00.000-05:00

The world's awesomest wormhole, or the REALLLLLY Big Talker.

After moving to Chicago I subscribed to MLB radio online so I could listen to all the Phillies' games. Friday night I was listening to them beat the Mets on the internet. After the win we decided to rent a movie. I get in the car, flip on the AM radio, as is my habit, and flip my pre-set stations until I hear the familiar voice of Scott Graham and the rest of the Phillies broadcast crew that I had left in the kitchen just moments before.

Wait a second.

Am I... did I just... Wha...

(calling Karen on the phone)

"Did we really move to Chicago?"

"Yes."

"So we live in Illinois?"

"Yes."

"THE Chicago, Illinois? Not like Indiana, Pennsylvania, or some thing like that?"

"THE Chicago, Illinois."

"Then how am I listening to WPHT 1210 PHILADELPHIA'S big talker on the radio!?"

I still don't have a good answer to this question.

Now, I am slightly disappointed that I spent $8.00 to hear the Phillies when all I had to do was turn on the RADIO. But then again, what is one supposed to do? "Hey, I think I'd like to subscribe so I can hear the games... Wait! Silly me! Better check to see if we get Philadelphia AM talk radio 1210 in Chicago, Illinois first..." I mean, I lose reception in New Jersey!

The only explanation is that there is a powerful wormhole somewhere near my house connected to Philadelphia. When I find it, I'm gonna save a lot of money on airfare. And it would be great if I could get my studio back!

In the meantime I'll just do what I did tonight on my way home from Pizza Hut with my family: listen to the Philadelphia Phillies on the radio. Yeah baby!!

2006-08-25T15:49:00.000-05:00

I've been having an argument of sorts with Rubens and Ronaldo Ghenov. It's not enough that they love soccer more than life itself, but they also feel the urge to take swipes at how "boring" baseball is. I refuse to argue with them anymore because, as G. K. Chesterton explains, the lunatic's logic is airtight and unarguable. The problem is that he exists in a very, very small universe, not at all like the real world. In the Ghenov's case, the universe is a hollow leather sphere of between 68 and 70cm in circumference, and they've obviously hit it with their heads a few too many times.

This is not to diminish soccer. I absolutely think it's a wonderful sport.

Here's incontrivertible evidence that baseball is NOT boring to watch:

OK, so that's a stretch.

The brothers enjoyed pointing out the bored fans at the game. Naturally, during much of any game the fans may not be screaming. These times of development are what make the overall emotional flow of a game possible. Sound requires silence to give it form. Matter, space. Etc...

One thing can be said for sure about baseball, however: A game has never, in the entire history of the sport, ended in a 0 - 0 tie.

So here's a parting highlight, taken from a fan's perpective. I don't particularly like the teams involved, but it illustrates fans that are definitely NOT snoozing. Of course you can still argue that soccer is more exciting, because if this were Brazil, the pitcher would have been murdered and the opposing fans beaten like Dickens' orphans. I would like to point out that this was just any old game. The team involved didn't win the World Series, or any other great thing. They simply put one of their 120 boring games in the win column.

2006-08-24T18:44:00.000-05:00

Ticket to see the Phillies play ball in Chicago: $20

Train fare: $8

Hot dog: $3

Phillies cap that turned into a rally cap by the 3rd inning: $10

Anna's first ever Major League Baseball game (and Philles blowout) happenning at Wrigley Field: Priceless

I've always wanted to go to a ballgame at Wrigley Field. Being a Phillies fan made this problematic. I certainly didn't want to go see two National League teams, both of which I'd wish could somehow lose... The only solution was waiting for the Phillies to come to town, and I didn't have to wait long! (I've actually been eyeing this series since May...)

Well, it might have been just a little too perfect had the Phils shown their wildcard-charging form of late and put it on the Cubbies. Instead, the Phillies decided to just throw some batting practice. I expected them to drop the fourth game and miss the Mets sweep, but this is the Cubs...

When I bought the tickets, I asked the guy whether this was a rowdy section where we were likely to get spat upon. "This ain't Philadelphia!" he replied, laughing. "Folks are nice here, unless you're pulling for St. Louis or the White Sox." Good to know.

I was pretty excited about seeing rookie ace Cole Hammels start for the Phils, until he decided that since I was there he'd not play like he's played for the last six games. Our seats were great, though, and gave us a superb view of all four Cubs homeruns.

It was still a lot of fun as a family, and the highlight of the game, hands down, was holding my daughter and singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch in the park where the tradition was started!

GO PHILLIES!!!

2006-08-16T15:25:00.000-05:00

2006-08-15T23:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a recent photograph. I'm having fun getting more complex in the way that I arrange these shots and I really like this one.

2006-08-14T20:51:00.000-05:00

Anna and I had an afternoon downtown today, while Karen was at a rehearsal.

First, we were off to Millenium park. The girl cannot stop talking about "beeean" (the Cloud Gate sculpture) and "man, wawa," (man + water = Crown Fountain sculpture). She loves these sculptures, and I love them too, so I don't mind indulging her appetite. Here she is below, kissing herself in "the bean."

Afterward, we headed next door to the Museum of the Art Institute! It was very cool walking up the the ticket checker girl for the first time and just showing her my school I.D. and being ushered in. (Actually, now that I think about it, it's more like a mindnumbingly expensive museum membership, which is less cool...)

Anyway, Anna was all excited to go see Felix-Gonzalez Torres' candy installation which I kept telling her all about ("Ca Ca"). Of course, as museums go, the piece was not currently installed, and one of Torres' paper stacks was taking its place at the moment, which was much less exciting to both father and daughter (although we still took some paper).

So we pressed on, Anna curious as ever (I had to sit through a video piece three times before Anna was ready to go), and papa just trying to keep her from grabbing things. Contemporary art is just not "child proof."

Finally we came upon a Carl Andre metal plate grid floor sculpture (here's an example at the Tate museum) which is intended to be walked on, and I let her loose. Boy, did she have fun. She ran over it, touched it, sat on it, walked with high straight steps like a military march. It was great. Here she is in motion:

2006-08-14T09:14:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Tim Gierschick for the suggestion of checking out the photographs of Edward Weston. Here's an example of one of his peppers series photos.

2006-08-12T18:34:00.000-05:00

In April I posted a variety of photographs that I had taken of strange organ-like forms created with silly putty. I got a lot of encouragement to continue exploring this little rabbit trail, so I had twenty 8x10 inch prints made of my favorites this week. They're pretty powerful when grouped together and allowed to interrelate. This image is a photograph of the actual twenty prints laid out on my kitchen floor (I cropped the whole image in Photoshop, but these are the actual prints laid out in a grid). The dimensions are 40 x 40 inches.

2006-08-11T20:44:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip to Chicago. We left on a Monday at 8 am and arrived in Chicago at 11:30 pm. Rubens made the trip with me and we enjoyed a half day in Chicago on Tuesday after unloading the truck.

Indiana at sunset.

Rubens and I on the train into the city.

Self-portrait in Anish Kapoor's "Bean."

Cloud Gate, a.k.a. "The Bean."

2006-08-05T13:07:00.000-05:00

alive, well in chicago [stop] sbc/at&t dsl service people suck [stop] must use local coffee shop [stop] have subscribed to sbc/at&t telegram network in mean time [stop] dayton [end]

2006-07-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

Thank you, Phillies!

The Phillies ROCKED Dontrelle Willis and the Florida Marlins last night, for what will be my second to last Phillies game in Philadelphia. The 12 - 3 win included four home-runs and a spectacular outing for pitcher Cole Hammels. Thanks you, Phillies. Thank you.

2006-07-29T17:04:00.000-05:00

Some Real Bumper-sticker Theology

2006-07-28T09:02:00.000-05:00

Touché

I met Max Razdow at the Columbia University open house for the graduate art program. Max lives in Manhattan, got into NYU and is starting an MFA painting program there this fall (he was also admitted at the Art Institute of Chicago, but he chose to stay in NYC).

His comment on my pipe post was simply: Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Translation: This is not a pipe.

Zinger!

La Trahison des Images (The Treason of Images) by Rene Magritte

2006-07-27T17:34:00.000-05:00

There's a modern maxim that, if you want it to rain, just wash your car.

Well, I have a new one. It goes like this:

If you want to be hit head-on by a guy on his bicycle, just wash your car.

I took the car for an oil change with a free carwash today. We haven't had the car washed in many, many months, so it was looking pretty grungy. They did a nice job, and I was stunned at the glistening beauty of the paint which I had only dimly seen for the last half-year. I felt like I was driving a new car... then it happened.

Moments from home, just a few hundred feet to the door, I pull up to the stop sign at 8th and Fairmount St. The next thing I know, just as I am about to continue on, a man comes careening around the corner out of control on an old, ratty girls mountain bike. I lay on the horn. His eyes grow large with terror, and then he slams into the car and ends up sprawled on my hood. He jumps off quickly and picks up his bike as I get out of the car. He's obviously very high on something, and he mumbles mostly incoherent apologies and talks to himself while avoiding me with his crazy yellow, bloodshot eyes. I'm just stunned, thinking, "What do you do when this happens?" I'm pretty sure he doesn't have car insurance. Even if he did, would it cover this? I'm stumped as I look down at my recently immaculate hood and left front quarter panel. They're smeared with dirt and grime and oil, and there are several scratches and paint chips from the bike.

The guy was OK. He wobbled away. I drove away. Ultimately, no harm done (if our plan was to sell this car I might feel a little differently). Thos who don't live in the city are really missing the adventure.

2006-07-25T20:27:00.000-05:00

FEMA and the ACC

Perhaps FEMA could learn something from America's best college sports conference. It seems that the Atlantic Coast Conference has a more comprehensive plan for football schedules than the Federal Emergency Management Agency had about evacuation. And if Ray Nagin had the same mindset about levees as John Swofford does about schedules, then perhaps America's most unique city would would be in a lot better shape today:

"Approaching hurricanes could force Miami, Florida State and other Atlantic Coast Conference schools to play home games on the road.

With open dates becoming scarce and hurricanes seemingly becoming more common, the conference announced a new policy Tuesday that established strict rules regarding the rescheduling of games affected by natural disasters.

'Hopefully it won't come into play," ACC commissioner John Swofford said as the league wrapped up its preseason media days. "But we feel like we need to be as prepared as we can be for it and hope we don't have to use it.'"

2006-07-25T15:22:00.000-05:00

This is about music.

I know, I know... I don't actually know anything about music, so I promise that this post won't have the depth or cross-referencing that the blogs of my audiophile buddies (Ben, Rob, Mark, Rubens...) have. It will probably reference artists and bands that lots of people have heard of, and that lots of people like, excepting, of course, those who are really into music. I'm sure if Jack Black's High Fidelity character were a regular reader of my blog he'd leave nasty comments, so I'm marking references to these bands or artists with an (?) to signify my musical ignorance. It only means that the band/artist is famous enough for me to have heard of them. That's my disclaimer, and I'm only really bragging on my brother-in-law anyway.

My brother-in-law Dennis Hamm is a fabulous piano player. He refers to himself as a musical whore because he cheats on his one love, jazz, often, in order to pay the bills. Mind you, he's played with some heavys in the Jazz world, but he's played with just about everyone else. Recently he did a gig at the Kennedy Center in D.C. with a group fronted (or at least assembled) by and including John Densmore, the founding drummer of the Doors(?). You can see the archived performance of this strange eastern-sounding ensemble here.

His current main band is Crosby Loggins and the Leadbirds. Crosby is Kenny Loggins(?) son, and if I meet Kenny (or Crosby) I'm gonna ask him to sing Highway to the Danger Zone or whatever the Top Gun song is called. And Playin' with the Boys

Anyways... Crosby and band (I think they may run into the same problem that motivated Led Zeppelin to misspell "Lead" in order that it not be pronounced "Leed"... and, honestly, I think "Blank and the Blanks" is a tired formula. But what do I know, as I've already said?)... they will be opening up for Al Green(?) on this Thursday, July 27th.

Now, to be honest, the only Al Green song I really know is the one from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, but I like it. But check out these bookends--July 26th and July 28th at the same venue: KISS(?). Now I know KISS is awesome at rock because I was forbidden to listen to them as a kid, even though I didn't listen to, or care about, rock and roll. I thought the prospect of going to outer-space was much cooler.

Now, I'm not dumb. I suspect that headlining at a casino is akin to musical euthanasia. You're old, you're dying, and you just don't want to feel the pain of death... so you voluntarily have the musical life sucked out of you, painlessly... promoter-assisted musical suicide, or something like that. For KISS, painless means the following ticket prices: $155, $175, $195, $215 and $235.

One week after my bro's gig is someone that I will not apologize for. Boasting KISSesque ticket prices: Hank Williams Jr. I know he's awesome, of course, because he sings that Monday Night Football song, and his daddy was famous, like Crosby's.

Check out Dennis' website.

2006-07-19T16:59:00.000-05:00

A different sort of pipe...

Jeff Gracik took up pipe making as a "hobby" when he arrived at Princeton Seminary a couple of years ago. A true renaissance man, I've actually stumbled upon Jeff roasting his own coffee beans on his front porch with a heat gun to use in the $4000 espresso machine that he picked up for a few hundred and stripped down and refurbished. He just seems to go all out when he does something, and pipes were no different.

After a year or so of making pipes, picking up the right tools for the job and meandering off to be tutored by some prominent American pipe makers, he began going to pipe shows with his wares. He's now considered among the best, young, American up-and-comers in the pipe-making world. I like his pipes a lot. He likes my art. We were happy to trade.

So, my first pipe is worth more than... well, a LOT more than I can ever have imagined paying for a pipe. It's nice to start smoking with a fine instrument. Check out Jeff's website to see some more of his fabulous work.

The style of pipe that I wanted is often called a "blowfish." I also love it because of the "long shank," which is the segment between the bowl and the mouthpiece. Sometimes the shank is made of bamboo, or the same "vulcanite" material as the mouthpiece.

The stamp on the pipe authenticates it and also acts as a serial number. My pipe is number 75, and was finished in 2006.

2006-07-17T09:05:00.000-05:00

Crown Fountain in Action

2006-07-11T19:59:00.000-05:00

Crap.

Fortuna laughs at me.

No sooner do I finish singing the praises of Chicago's CTA transit system, and she spins her spiteful wheel down upon my head. It can only make Septa look great!

I'm sorry Septa. You've not made national news for a disaster. You've been hardworking and faithful and no one appreciates the fact that you haven't been bombed, or derailed or met some similar disaster. Sure, you're still useless and overpriced, but you are harmless, apart from the psychological pain mercilessly inflicted by your employees on anyone unfortunate enough to have contact with them.

But who are we to complain?

We're alive.

2006-07-10T13:56:00.000-05:00

Five nice things about Chicago:

Millennium Park Sculptures
Millennium Park is right next to the Art Institute and it has two fabulous public sculptures...

Jaume Plensa's The Crown Fountain

Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate

Our New Apartment
We found a place in Oak Park that is just a little bigger than our current place, right around the block from a nice playground in a tree-lined family neighborhood, 30 minutes door-to-door by train from the Art Institute, includes a garage, kiddie pool backyard, cooking out patio, enclosed porch, walnut tree (for the squirrels), and laundry in the basement.

Our street with the apartment on the right.

Jim's Hot Dogs
Located at the Maxwell St. Market, this place seemed like the Chicago equivalent to Pat's King of Steaks, only cheaper... The standard thing (like Philly's "whiz with") seemed to be a sausage or dog with mustard and grilled onions. You get free fries with every dog or burger and it's open 24 hours. Maxwell St. seemed gentrified to death, but it is where the Mississippi musicians that gave Chicago the blues began to play in the early 1900's.

Pop. Crap, I guess we really are moving to the mid-west...

The "El"
This is in no way meant to be a Philly-bashing blog entry, but this IS the Septa bashing part. It's going to be really nice to have a public transportation system that is efficient, cheap, and has trains that actually go a lot of places you'd need to go.

What we have here is the loop (Art Institute on the right). It's roughly an 8 block by 6 block section of downtown Chicago. Notice the TEN freely transferable train stops in this small area. The trains come roughly every 15 minutes, even out in the suburbs. Now compare this to Septa's THREE regional rail stops in a 30 block stretch of downtown. Transfer on Septa? Yeah, pony up another $3.50 at least, and wait 45 minutes for the next train like you were riding Amtrak! One-way trip to the airport on CTA from a far suburb? $2. Septa? At least $7...

The Art Institute of Chicago

This is my museum. There's actually a "secret" entrance from one of the school's computer labs into the museum. I'm just thrilled to have a studio located just a minute from thousands of years of great art. Here are some popular collection highlights:

Edward Hopper's Nighthawks

Gerhard Richter's, Woman Descending the Staircase

Grant Wood's, American Gothic

Felix Gonzalez-Torres', Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA) of which I took about 15 candies...

Georges Seurat's, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte immortalized for my generation by "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

2006-06-08T09:09:00.000-05:00

Site-specific installations for significant spaces to which I am unlikely to gain access

The problem with an irrational fear is that it never seems irrational while you're fearing it. It's like a scary shadow in your closet as a kid - that it's made by the dirty underwear you yourself threw up there yeatserday is no consolation when, here and now, in the dark, it's a monster. It only appears irrational once it's broken you, and you sob, and you get angry, and you decide that you're going to fight back or run to your mom. I tend to have the cornered animal tendency. I'll run and dart about trying to avoid what threatens me until I feel cornered and hopeless, then I turn on whatever I feel is threatening me, and I attack it angrily and furiously. Many of my better periods of making art were precipitated during these attacks. The most personally significant was, when cornered by death, I sculpted my hatred for death and sin by mocking it. As Martin Luther said, "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." I can only say that I felt much better, and I discovered myself a sculptor.

I guess my new shadow is failure. I'm paralysed by the fear of graduate school. I feel like I've probably used up all of my good ideas, and I'll go to school, and they'll realize their mistake and send me home... Only I won't have a home any more. My family will be wandering gypsies. Blah, blah... whatever.

I've been concerned that I like the whole "site-specific" thing too much, got into school riding on it, and now I'm left high and dry because you can't just go around making art in meaningful, significant places with a rich history, all of the time. I've been fortunate to be able to do a couple of these in the last couple of years. Last night I thought (remember the cornered animal idea, ok, and irrationality), "I'd like to make a site-specific installation in my empty, black soul!!" Hmmm. Now, while I'd have no problem securing permission to use my empty, black soul, I may have a problem gaining access to the site. There is the problem of public access, as well. Who would jury this? And, finally, I realized that my soul is neither black, nor vacant.

There are, however, other sites that interest me, such as my closet as a kid. Said closet, located in St. Bernard, Louisiana, was under 10 feet of water this past September. That would be a fun project. My closet, from memory, as a cesspool of water and fear. Oh, but my memory for such things is bad. If Thomas Demand recreates things from famous photographs, why not just dispense with the photographs (a crutch!) and create things from my terrible memory (the truth?). I use my memory often, but it's useless so often. To use my memory, is to expose my weakness. Would you like to use a world map drawn from my memory? I suggest that you would not. Not if you're smart.

Another interesting site would be the center of my brain. I've had an installation there before (unauthorized), and the de-installation was a bitch, but a proposal wouldn't hurt. Or how about a call for proposals? That'd make for some interesting comments.

Prospectus: Now accepting site-specific installation proposals for the center of my brain. Approx. 1.5 cubic inches. See image above.

2006-05-31T04:35:00.000-05:00

As a fitting end to my pedagogical baptism, Salzburg seemed a hotbed (for a medium-sized city) for contemporary art. As we wound our way into the old city on a quest for the requisite historical and popular locales, we came upon an installation by Milanese artist Paola Pivi. "A Helicopter Upside Down in a Public Place" was a perfect object to happen upon for confounding a class of wet-behind-the-ears students.

The square became a most interesting classroom with this jumbo ready-made, the baroque Salzburg Cathedral, and the adjacent fountain made famous by Julie Andrews and company belting Do-Re-Mi under its cascading waters. I like the chopper, but I like them right-side-up as well, so I wasn't sure what my attraction was at first. I'm not so sure whether it's quite as "perception challenging" (my latest favorite cliche) as she intends it to be. I'd have been more interested if it had been a military chopper, but as it is, it's as easy to associate with forwarded email pictures of strange accidents as anything else. What worked for me was being able to discuss it with students, and its clear, if inflated, connection to Duchamp and Co.

My brain being about as watertight as a collander regarding names, I Googled Pivi, and immediately recognized some of her work. The most interesting connection, was her photographic mural in Venice of a Donkey in a boat, which is plainly connected to the Rob Matthews curated "Posture and Expression" show at UArts in March/April, via Matthew Fisher's painting which graced the postcard.

I didn't have time to veture off the beaten path enough to find installations by the likes of Anselm Kiefer or Marina Abramovic, but I did encounter a variety of others which were all very competent, but forgettable (as in, I can't remember what they were). I'm sure they were well-known artists that I'm too dull to know.

I did visit the Moderne Salzburg, however, where I was wooed by the work of Erwin Wurm. Once again (remember the collander) I had to Google him before I connected him with familiar images (An Art Forum cover, I think) and was able to recall some of what I'd read about him. In the mean time, however, it was nice to not recognize anything in the show and approach it with fresh eyes.

I was particularly drawn to his double portraits of a person and that person again, only fat. The images were utterly convincing, which was nice. Maybe he really had people get fat (they were more "chubby" than obese), or go on a diet, or perhaps it was prosthetic, but there was an undeniable sense of looking at a person of worth, coupled with the baggage of cultural waistline expectations. This idea could have easily been dragged down by its obviousness, but the photos were so unpretentious and direct that they used the obvious statement to drive home the point: People are inherently valuable, fat or not, and we should know this.

Finally, I had to include an image of one of his fat cars. It reminded me of my silly putty.

All this looking has given me a serious case of the art-withdrawal shakes! I return to the States on Saturday. Can't wait to get into the studio!

2006-05-28T08:56:00.000-05:00

I'm currently sitting in the library of Schloss Mittersill, a twelfth-century castle in the Pinzgau Valley of the Austrian Alps, and my home for this week. When I say in the Austrian Alps, I really mean it. I've become fond of looking out of the library window (the castle is a study center with a nice library - although a limited art book selection) or my bedroom, and sort-of verbally pinching myself by saying, "Oh, whadya know! The Alps!" Here's a shot from my castle. I'm not lying:

By the way, I just took a quick break to run downstairs and grab a beer out of the vending machine. Yes, you read that correctly. I put in my €1.60 (That's about 2 bucks) and got a .5 liter Stiegl Goldbräu. Sometimes I secretly wish that it had been the Lutherans, and not the German Pietists and English Puritans who had settled the New World...

Had a great visit recently to the Städel museum in Frankfurt. I had just finished covering the ENTIRE 19th century in about 45 minutes... ok pause for a second... I had prepared to try to accommplish the impossible task of lecturing on 19th century developments in art in an hour and fifteen minutes. I was ready to give it a try, and right when I get cooking - I'm warmed up, and we're touching on the Pre-Raphaelites - a freaking German Ooompah Band walks right into the courtyard adjacent to the house that I'm teaching in and starts to play... I was pretty mad (having set a goal for covering the entire 19th century in one class) and I resisted as long as I could. Finally, it was too loud, I gave up, and I sent the students outside to be immersed in German culture. It turns out that it was Father's day in Germany and that's why the band was going through town. Our host had invited them over, broke out some wine (it's 10:30 am, by the way), and after two delicious therapeutic glasses and a lot of German Dixieland (that's what it sounded like!), we went inside and, fueled by German music and wine, I started at the Salon de Refusees and finished up with Gaugin in 15 minutes. I hope they appreciated the pedagogical miracle that I performed that day... unpause... so the Städel was a really nice museum for teching the 19th century because it's literally subdivided down the middle in a way that illustrates the tension between the academic Grand Manner and the rebelling modernists. Go left and you get PAFA. Go right, and you get, well, you get not-PAFA. I'm talking the 1800's here... Sorry for no pictures, they wanted two euro to take pictures...

Here are some more pics from the trip:

Image from one of the corridors at Dachau concentration camp. It reminded me of Eastern State Penitentiary a bit.

This is the view out of my room at the Schloss

Here's mom teaching theology in Heidelburg Cathedral, the church where the Heidelburg Catechism was written.

2006-05-24T10:09:00.000-05:00

More Pictures...

Door on the Schlosskirche where Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses against the sale of indulgences.

City of Würzburg. We live just a couple of miles from here.

Wittenburg at night, with a view of the Schlosskierche.

The first hymnbook to publish Luther´s "A Mighty Fortress" (Ein Feste Burg).

Nürnburg, from the steeple up.

2006-05-24T09:07:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Germany!

I´ve finally figured out how to use a little USB flash drive at an internet cafe to post a picture or two. It just didn´t seem to be worth posting without pictures...

This weekend I drove to Wittenburg to visit Lutherstadt, which is the old city section that saw the activity of Martin Luther which precipitated the protestant reformation. It´s also the home town of Cranach the Elder and Younger.

I actually went to church Sunday at the Stadtkierche, which is where Cranach´s Luther altarpiece is installed. I´ve been reading "The Reformation of the Image" on loan from Rob Matthews, which is a focused study on this altarpiece, Luther, and the reformation´s impact on images...

On saturday I made the short drive from Wittenburg to Dessau to visit the Bauhaus. The historical displays are nice, but the real treat is just being able to wander around the building. It´s fairly difficult to try imagining what the Bauhaus must have looked like to eyes that had only ever seen Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classical architecture. It´s easy to take the International wall of glass for granted when you are born in A.D. 1975.

My teaching is going well. It´s pretty awesome teaching an art history survey in Europe. We covered the late Baroque yesterday morning, then drove 15 minutes and saw Tieplo´s stunning staircase ceiling at the Residenz palace in Würzburg. We did the Northern Renassance last week, then drove to the Alte Pinakotek, in Munich, which has many major works of the period. There was a Cy Twombley sculpture exhibition there as well. Doing this every day makes for a pretty incredible teaching and learning experience.

I mentioned driving, so I should say a word about that... When I was a kid, we would talk about the autobahn like it was some kind of mythological highway where only Ferraris and Formula One cars were allowed because the minimum speed was, like, 200 miles per hour. I had no idea I was going to be driving over here, so as I pulled on to my first stretch of German racetrack, I was terrified. Well, they drive 1000 x better than Philadelphians, so I´m planning on starting to spread some American Interstate horror stories among the German youth.

Now that I´ve done it, here are a couple of common autobahn myths:

1. No speed limit. --Actually, almost all places have a speed limit, but they change it based on traffic conditions. I´ve seen the sign empty (the signal for no speed limit) only once, briefly, since being here... and no Formula One cars materialized to break the sound barrier during that stretch.

2. Everyone drives a racecar. --I´ve seen more 18 wheelers than cars on some drives. The autobahn vision of my youth did not include giant lumbering trucks. Most of the fast cars are fairly boring looking German sedans... BMW and Mercedes, although I have seen one red Ferrari... doing about 60.

The best part is that folks here follow the rules of driving very strictly, which is a refreshing break from the American anything-goes road culture, and while reality is less cool than the prior vision in my head, the driving can be fast. I´ve topped 100mph several times (I was speeding when I did this, about 165kph in a 130 zone). I´ve seen cars blow by like I´m standing still while I´m doing a fairly average 85 mph.

2006-05-09T14:19:00.000-05:00

MOMIX
We got to see MOMIX the other night, and it brought back memories of many lonely, wonderful weeks while Karen was on tour. Lonely, because my love was gone, wonderful, because she was doing what she does best! I love the show... Here's a shot (a weird angle actually, I think) of KJ doing the signature "bird" from the show Opus Cactus on the southern Australian coast near some huge rocks dubbed the "Twelve Apsotles."

2006-05-05T14:24:00.000-05:00

DADA

2006-04-28T11:05:00.000-05:00

2006-04-27T14:42:00.000-05:00

Anna's First Sculpture

Anna walked up to me this morning while Karen was at ballet and handed me this. I admired it, and told her how nice it was, then gave it back. She promptly walked over to the radiator, and started to place it on top. I said to her that I wasn't so sure it was going to stand up like she wanted it to, but, well, see for yourself. It was then that I began to really look at it. It's quite nice. I like the top brick. I think that little gap really helps make the piece. The eyes are perfect.

2006-04-26T16:10:00.000-05:00

2006-04-25T21:08:00.000-05:00

2006-04-21T14:13:00.000-05:00

I've been experimenting with silly putty recently. Laugh if you want. The thing about materials is that you'll get the best results out of a material you like. I don't tend to be very process-oriented, so I don't "play" with my materials very often. I usually do the playing in my head, and then use materials to realize whatever I've formulated in my brain and on paper. I like silly putty, however, and I'm on a somewhat rare, process-oriented kick with it. This sounds so stupid, to be talking about silly putty like this...

I'm interested in how it flows. I've just been playing, doing all kinds of experiments recently, seeing what it will do visually. I'm most convinced of its value as a medium for video and still images, but I've also been experimenting with the way it flows over and around different objects. It performs.

Just in case you are having a hard time taking this seriously, don't worry, I'm having a hard time too, I'm just still doing it. I think it has potential. No material works like it does. Its ephemerality makes it hard to view as a sculptural medium, but this also makes it interesting to me. I like the photographs I took after letting a sheet of it droop and fold into a plastic cup. It reminds me of pictures I've seen of internal organs and sphincters.

Some of my favorite experiments have been letting it slowly drip through metal grids, flow into and over a varitey of objects, and drip from the ceiling of our home.

2006-04-15T15:24:00.000-05:00

Art:21 Glossary

I found this glossary on the Art:21 website. I've also made a link out to the left under the portfolio. Sometimes non-art folks ask me what certain art words mean... "What's an 'installation?'" This is a simple way to look it up!

2006-04-15T14:28:00.000-05:00

Untitled (with St. Agatha)

I'm posting this image of a painting by UCLA painting professor Patty Wickman for my friend Rubens to check out, as he's done a recent drawing with his face pixellated. I met Patty this summer when we were seated next to each other at a dinner. We chat, and it turns out she's married to Tim Hawkinson. I found that pretty cool. I like his work a lot. Here's "Bear" a Hawkinson piece made out of 300 tons (yeah, 600,000 pounds...) of boulders:

2006-04-14T09:11:00.000-05:00

So, today is my 31st birthday. It has lived up to its billing as a day of ruination (sinking of the Titanic, assasination of Abraham Lincoln, beginning of the great dust bowl in Oklahoma and midwest famine), with the morning death of a friend of mine, brother in Christ, and huge supporter of the work at the Church Studios, Syd Blandford.

Death is a hideous thing.

But today is about being alive, as well, for me. So, with the joy and grief of life so intimately intermingled, I'll celebrate with a post of pictures. The idea for this list was taken from my friend TC's blog. You use the answers to a set of questions as Google image search terms and pull an image off of the first page (no cheating) of images... So here goes (commentary where interesting):

1. The city and state of the town you grew up in, no quotation marks.

2. The town where you currently reside.

3. Your name, first and last, but again, no quotes.

Yes, this is the Wittenburg Church door that Martin Luther bravely adorned in 1517, marking the beginning of the Reformation. I'm delighted that it's so closely associated with my name.

4. Your grandmother's name.

This is not my grandmother, in case you were wondering.

5. Your favorite food.

Three succulent words: Bread Pudding Souffle. Unbelievable!

6. Your favorite drink.

7. Your favorite smell.

2006-03-31T05:13:00.000-05:00

2006-03-22T11:59:00.000-05:00

Minimal, Floppy

This is a great web page I happened across that gives illustrations (and instructions if requested) of fabric representations of the work of a few of the pillars of minimalist sculpture: Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Sol leWitt, Richard Serra and Carl Andre. I'm quite a fan of this crowd, myself.

2006-03-22T07:48:00.000-05:00

Philadelphia Weekly article.

2006-03-21T19:32:00.000-05:00

To commemorate my new online image archive, here's a throwback image from my days as a painter:

I've been slowly working on shifting my images over to this domain name, and I've finally got a little image catalogue started. It's nothing fancy, but I'll continue adding images to it, new and old, as I find old ones or make new ones. I'll be posting a sidebar link to it as well.

Occasionally I miss painting. I was considering, and actually started working on a ritualistic "death of painting" piece, but then saw a few nice figurative works and now I'm thinking of putting the funeral on hold. I'm just going a little crazy right now. The urge to make something is painfully intense.

I've been looking at a lot of Tom Friedman over the last month-and-a-half, first given the tip by Rob Matthews and then getting my hands on a sweet catalogue of Ben Volta's. Tom has more imagination in one eyebrow that I have in my entire body - cubed. It's unbelievable, and I love it, but it seems so artistically unapproachable without being just stupidly derivative. I'm just not that smart. So I decided to be stupidly derivative, and duplicated the process he has used on his couple of cereal boxes and his dollar bill, using my installation postcard.

Five Cheerios boxes sliced horizontally and reassembled into one long Cheerios box.

Detail

My installation postcard.

I used three postcards and sliced them up on a handy little paper-cutter I gave Karen for a scrapbooking gift. It's very handy.

2006-03-02T11:45:00.000-05:00

I was greeted by this surprising plaque at Broad Street Ministry for my installation yesterday. I had no idea. Pretty cool!

2006-02-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

Sweet. I've always wanted a postcard!

2006-02-21T13:25:00.000-05:00

Tilting at Giants Opening

There will be an opening for the installation on March 15th (beware the Ides of March!) from 5:30 - 7:30pm. The location of Broad Street Ministry (Chambers-Wylie Memorial Presbyterian), is on Broad St., a few blocks south of City Hall, across from the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, in Center City Philadelphia. MAP

2006-02-12T17:18:00.000-05:00

The most important test: Does Anna like it?

"I'd call that a big yes..."

2006-02-09T15:52:00.000-05:00

Whew!

Tilting at Giants, 2006, aluminum windmills, votive candles, steel cable, hardware. (click on the image to enlarge)

I've been too immersed in this installation for the past four-and-a-half months to "see" it, but I like it. I'm particularly delighted at the moment by how the spidery, lacework towers command the space so well, while allowing the architecture to breathe and maintain its vertical (liturgical) thrust. I think it even enhances this. I think there's a nice union there. Better than the installation being swallowed by the space, or completely taking over and obscuring it.

Cool.

I need a new project. (Just kidding, Karen!)

2006-02-04T19:20:00.000-05:00

Six Down

2006-02-03T17:04:00.000-05:00

We Have Lift-Off

Finally! Here's an image of one of the first set of windmills to be completely installed. These windmills are the hardest to photograph together, because the only vantage point from which to frame them both leaves them backlit, and they just appear as lacy silhouettes against the bright windows.

The biggest challenge during this part of the installation was getting the windmills to hang so that they are level. This was accomplished using two different methods (because the windmills list along two separate axes). A 27-inch steel rod was inserted in the outside rear leg of each tower to correct for the lean caused by the forward weight of the windmill fan. Then, after being installed on the wire, the two windmill towers were attached together with 30-pound test braided fishing line, and pulled toward each other until level.

More pics:

2006-02-01T14:21:00.000-05:00

Suspension of Belief

All of this work with cables and rigging hardware, scaffolding, building windmill towers... it's all beginning to effect the way I'm thinking about my work. I've discovered a new appreciation for the more recent work of Chris Burden. By more recent work, I mean I've become interested in towers, bridges and buildings, not self-mutilation or being shot.

As I look up at this towering skyscraper of scaffolding, I'm beginning to enjoy it in its own right, quite apart from the fact that it's entire purpose in this case is a means to the end of suspending windmills. It's quite mundane compared with the dreamy fantasy of floating windmills, but no less profound, in a certain sense.

Burden has his own skyscraper plans, made of aluminum, wood, steel cables and the Heisman Trophy winning trunbuckles. The only image I've managed to find is of the thing is on its side in a gallery.

His Erector constructed bridges are fascinating. I'd begun toying with the idea of miniature suspension bridge-like structures, and these are quite impressive and inspiring.

2006-01-31T21:22:00.000-05:00

I'm immediately skeptical about the quality of a book that uses parentheses within its title, but I picked one up tonight at Barnes and Noble anyway (by picked one up, I mean, read in the children's section while Anna made a mess of it). Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, by David Bayles and Ted Orland, caught my eye because of my own ruminations on fear in artmaking. Unfortunately it quickly substantiated my suspicion of its dark parenthetical omen.

The book wasn't complete hogwash. There were some good, if generally mundane, observations in the chapter I read, but there was enough crap to make me feel just fine abandoning it. I suppose I do have to qualify this little review by saying that I did only read the first chapter, and a few lines here and there throughout, so this is not what you could call a genuine comprehensive analysis. It's a short book, and I was quite surprised that based on it's length and the general lack of nuance in the first chapter that the authors would admit in the epilogue that it took them seven years to write. Seriously, it should never take two grown men seven years to write a book this short, good or bad, and they should know that a book like this doesn't need an epilogue, let alone one that talks about the long arduous writing process? Really.

I knew we were in trouble by the bottom of page one when I read this:

"Other people, in other times and places, had some robust institutions to shore them up: witness the Church, the clan, ritual tradition. It's easy to imagine that artists doubted their calling less when working in the service of God than when working in the service of self."

Imagine that!

My difficulty here, apart from those elements obviously left to be desired (Other people? Other times and places? Gimme something to work with here...), is that rather than at least briefly addressing all of the questions this statement begs, they forge ahead as if they've stated some rock-solid anthropological axiom. What if those "other people" (who G.K. Chesterton would point out, are unjustly disqualified if it's done merely on account of their being dead) doubted their calling less because God does exist and working in God's service is a rightly orienting dimension of human life? What if those shoring institutions were serving a long-forgotten, basic human need? What if it's true?

The problem is that the authors took no time to discuss this. The self is preeminent, and so you have to learn to persevere in art, control your fear, and overcome. From what I read, the book should have been titled, Art and Fear: A practical guide for artists trying to survive in these troubling times since the announcement of God's death (we expect to find his body any day now). The book is not dishonest or stupid. It was just annoying in its simplistic brushing aside of what a Christian like myself believes. Granted, that's not what the book was about, but I'm only complaining because seven years had to have been enough time to at least touch on it.

The best part of the book, by far, were the quotes heading each chapter. That's probably why authors put them in, and it made picking up the the little piece of literary detritus worth it. My favorite was a Constantin Brancusi quote that I identified with readily in light of my installation experiences:

"To see far is one thing; going there is another."

And I'll end with this one, my grain of salt:

"Computers are useless - all they can give you are answers." - Pablo Picasso

2006-01-31T12:18:00.000-05:00

Yes. All of the cables are now up and tensioned. No. I do not own the record for the world's largest stringed instrument.

After the early set-back, it looked like this installation was going to take ages to complete. It's hard to believe that all I have left to do is hang the windmills. By "all I have to do" I mean it's all that's left, not that I view being perched atop a ten foot ladder, which is itself perched atop a 22' scaffold, as either easy, or fun.

2006-01-30T14:16:00.000-05:00

Low-Note

Just before I begin installing windmills, I think I may hold the world-record for the largest six-stringed instrument. It gives me ideas for a next huge project, at least...

I was somewhat pessimistic about how taut I could get the cables using the turnbuckles owing to the fact that it was very difficult to get the cable tight at all manually. The problem is, as you are trying to pull the cable tighter with one hand and hold the ladder with the other, the cable is trying to pull you down from 30 feet up, pull the ladder away from the wall, cause enough fatigue to make your arm die, and a battery of additional mechanical advantages it enjoys courtesy of the laws of physics (imagine the arrows in this link pointing down...).

If the turnbuckle is the quarterback, my arm is the offensive line. The greatest quarterback in the world is going to have a hard time producing if he doesn't get a little help from the front four. I did my best, but the cable looked awfully limp. The thing that separates the great QB from the good QB, however -- the one with the big gold ring from the one doing inspirational speaking engagements at the Rotary Club -- is how he performs under pressure. He's the guy that wins the big game with a banged up line.

My turnbuckle is a big-game turnbuckle. Just when I thought there could be no way to tighten as much cable as my scrawny arm had managed to leave out there, sagging in sacred space, the thing became as tight as a guitar string -- with room to spare on the turnbuckle threads.

Awesome.

Before I knew it, I saw a vision of me in football pads, hoisting the Lombardi Trophy above my head, on the cover of Art Forum International.

Turnbuckle for MVP.