#the project is an art exhibition I will did in my city !!

[erabu-san]

when do you plan to getting back to your daily naris??? i miss him in your art style :(

no pressure ofc, i love your art nonetheless!

Soon !!

Not now tho.. I feel a bit anxious about a new project incoming and I think I need to finish preparing it first

The thing it is about management and I AM SO BAD AT IT 🫠 😭

[silkjade]

i was thinking of you and haitham today and i really would loveeee to hear about a day in the life of your museum au with him 😩♥️ it can be pre-dating pining stage, when you’re first together, established relationship….everythingggg

AHHHH GRAY OMGIE ILY AND TYSM FOR ASKING N BEING INTERESTED 🥺♥️ hmm you asked for a day in the life, so i will give you a particularly special day, erm..night ?

okay so as you know, museum au jadetham is exes to lovers (breakup was Not amicable lolz), so there’s quite the bit of tension + even lingering bitterness, when alhaitham is first transferred to the museum—it does mellow out a little as we get used to each other again though.

enough that, while working overtime on a friday, we successfully complete something n it’s the first time we were genuinely happy around each other again, and it brings up such a Weird sense of nostalgia, that he asks if we should get dinner together afterwards, and i agree—but ofc it is just as colleagues since we aren’t particularly friends either… so we walk to a little restaurant, have dinner, have a couple of drinks… (at one point, he’s about to order for me based on what he remembers i used to like but unfortunately things have changed, including my drink order, and it's the first instance tonight that he REALLY notices.)

after that, we walk around the city towards the same direction home, and there's one of those immersive art experience museums…..maybe it's the buzz from the alcohol but i insist we check it out. (he recalls how i never really cared for these sort of exhibits, but i just tell him that when you work in a museum all day, sometimes a change of pace is good.)

okay HERE is where, if it were a tv show, the ost in the background would be coolest place in the world by suki waterhouse, to set the tone

it feels so surreal when we just sit and take in the art and light and quietude—and again, maybe it's the alcohol—but the projections make you feel like you're in the painting, like a respite from reality that, in the moment, i finally apologize for breaking up w him like that a few years ago. it's very a very pensive heart to heart, and it goes a little smthg like:

“i’m sorry...” “...what for?” (because he genuinely doesn't know what's coming) “for ending things like that. i didn't mean to hurt you, but i did. i’m sorry for giving up on us when you never did.” (imagine more pauses in between okie)

and that kind of becomes an official end to the previous chapter of us, because the old me would have neverrrr apologized like that ! so it's like we've finally buried the hatchet, and it sets things up for even a possible friendship ?! 😱 anyways he walks me home since it’s on the way to his place, and we say good bye with a little wave, small smiles, and a whispered “see you” instead of “bye.”

[keymintt]

Not sure if this has been asked before but, how did you start doing professional work for traffic cabinets? Was there some sort of job fair or exhibit that you advertised your art at and the city decides "this guy is really good, let's get his art in public"?

OKAY so the thing with public art is it's all local and every city kinda does it differently, but so far in my career all of the public art stuff i've done has been application-based

this got long so i'll go into details about what the searching/application process looks like under the cut but tldr: a big part of finding work like this is knowing where to look for local opportunities and submitting applications

generally the cities/towns/whatever will put out a call for artists (also sometimes called a request for qualifications or RFQ) that's basically like "hey we need some artists to do this, this is how much we'll pay you and the details for the project" and from there they'll link a form (or sometimes give you an email address) to apply to where you submit stuff like your contact info, resume/portfolio, sometimes references, and usually a letter of interest on the project

because i submit applications to things pretty regularly, i'm usually good about keeping track of what i use to apply to things—this includes what i've written for applications and stuff like image descriptions—so when I apply to new things it's a lot of copypasting and editing things to explain how i'm a fit for the specific project yadda yadda it's cover letters. it's basically cover letters. pain and agony

in terms of finding the applications, i'm signed up for several local newsletters and arts organizations, but i also check sites like the az commission of the arts (bc i'm az-based) for their updated list of opportunities pretty regularly, as well as searching for stuff like [city] arts and culture and poking around the .gov sites to see if they have an arts opportunities page. in all honesty a pretty big component of finding this work is knowing where to look, and unfortunately if you're doing public art a) it's not always listed on social media b) the best places to look/start are local, and that differs for everyone so i can't say like "oh look here and you'll find something"

once you apply it usually takes awhile to hear back (they usually give you a timeline on the initial application of how long it takes to review all the applications), but i've found people in these fields are good about letting you know when you didn't get something so you can move on with your life lol. atm i'm waiting to hear back from....over five things so i'm kind of always doing this "applying to projects while i'm working on other projects" song and dance which is honestly just...kind of the freelance artist experience?

i feel the need to mention that public art stuff like this consists of about...2/5 of my yearly income...? i'm not solely making a living off of doing these things bc i also usually have teaching and ttrpg illustration stuff in the mix BUT there are artists who can and do make a living off public art and murals and whatnot. i simply cannot resist the urge to stick my finger into any pie i'm even remotely qualified for

working with public art stuff is also that same thing with a lot of fields where once you get some sort of experience, it's easier to get more jobs, BUT as an artist your portfolio can do a lot of speaking for you, even if you don't have experience with public art specifically. take my traffic boxes for example: i've done three of them now and have a fourth lined up, i know that if there's an application for one i have the exact experience they're looking for and will in all likelihood be one of the selected artists at this point. however with my very first one, i obviously didn't have a traffic box in my portfolio so i included a digitally illustrated city banner i designed, several other digital illustrations of mine (bc they wanted a digital artist), and a mural i had painted on a 3d object (to demonstrate i could design with 3d forms in mind), and together these things all helped my credibility as someone who could do this project. as much as i loathe writing letters of interest these are also good places to elaborate on how your portfolio can connect to the project

also with public art starting local is also your best bet at first (not to say you can't land other opportunities right off the bat though), bc people like their artists to know the local scene. i have the experience to back me up more nowadays, but when i was first applying to things you bet your ass i was all like 'i love it here and want to give art back to my local community bc i'm an artist and i'm fresh out of college yaaaaayyyy' you don't have to mean this when you say it, but they don't have to know

thank you for the ask !! and best of luck with any of your potential artistic endeavors (to anyone reading this)!! feel free to ask any more questions, i'm happy to elaborate on anythin btw for anyone :>

[guitarnacle]

H.R Giger, 1940-2014

(Long) list of works:

1, 2 and 3: What I assume are early versions of the Pisces, Capricorn and Ares statues from Giger's 'zodiac fountain' project, 1996. Pictures by Louis Stalder from https://www.hrgiger.com/zodiac.htm

4 (and 6): The "Harkonnen Chair" series. 1981, created from fibreglass for the never completed film 'DUNE' (dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky). 4 is from https://www.hrgiger.com/chairs.htm (no image credit)

5 (and 28): Giger's microphone stand designed for the band 'Korn', in roughly 2001. 1 of 5 works in that series. (side note the website I found it on through google images is a gaming website that also apparently hosts pictures of Giger's Korn mic stand??) also referred to as 'Nubian Queen' on his website.

6: See 4

7: Concept art of the "space jockey" in 'Alien', 1979. Giger also directed the creation of the alien and set (!!).

8: 'Mirror Image' 1977, airbrush painting.

9. Depiction of the alien life cycle for the 1979 'Alien' film.

10. part IV of Giger's N.Y City portfolio, 'Torso 456'. 1980-1982.

11. One of the 'Birth machine baby' sculptures, inspired by the 1967 drawing "Birthmachine".

12: Part of the 'Erotomechanics' series, 1979.

13: I couldn't find much on this one, on Giger's website it is called 'Bei Sydow-Zirkwitz' and the image I found of it is an (unverified) print being sold online that claims to be an original lithograph/stone print from 1976. Also calls it "Promethius New York city." They seem to be largely the same, I just chose this one for higher quality.

14. 'Homage to S. Beckett I', 1968 (This series is one of my favourites and this one is often linked to Dali's painting 'The Great Masturbator', which I thought was interesting).

15, 16: Photographs by Pino Carafa, from Giger's Nov-Dec 1996 exhibition in Milan. The head has a placard that looks like it reads 'Mask 11', but with a quick look into it I couldn't find a proper name or identification for these pieces except for their presence in the past exhibits on the HR Giger website.

17: 'Drawing for sil/Sil's baby', 1994 (?) a sketch I only found because of the Giger database which is an amazingly detailed and and easy to access record of literally everything Giger ever did, here it is (https://www.littlegiger.com/gigerdb/index.php) the images are tiny however :(

18: Noracyclin (contraceptive-pill) 1965, same source as above - H.R Giger has said this and the 'birthmachine'/baby theme throughout his work are (partly) demonstrations of his fears for the planet due to overpopulation

19: From the page on Giger's website about the bars across the world that use his designs and imagery. The image is an example of the bar in Gruyères, Switzerland, which opened in 2003.

20, 21 and 24: 'Biomechanoid' statues, the one with the green/blue finish created 2010, the silver one 2002.

22: A photograph of H.R Giger and a model from one of the 'Alien' films. From the Giger Work Catalogue, image owned by Matthias Belz, as are 20, 24, 25 and 26.

23: 'The Great Beast', Giger's concept art for the 1985 film 'Poltergeist'.

24: See 20 & 21

25: 'Guardian Angel', sculpture from 2002. Could also be the rusted version.

look here 👆 in particular for more excellent images that will blow your tits clean off

these are just some of my favorites that i wanted other people to know about, his website, catalogue and database have so much more PEACE AND LOVE

[artistsonthelam]

Rest in peace, Jason Pickleman. This is his Dreams of a City postcard he mailed to me in 2021, in response to the prompt I've been giving people since 2008, "Tell me one thing you dream of doing before you die. Use this card as your canvas. When you're finished, mail the card."

Jason and I only met twice. The first time was in 2019 when I went gallery-hopping one summer evening. At Ken Saunders Gallery, he approached me to ask about my tote bag. It wasn't until the middle of our conversation when other people kept coming up to him that I discovered he was the artist of the exhibition! (The show was Light Reading.) After that discovery, I took this photo (3rd image) of him.

The second time was in 2021, at the preview for the Neon and Light Museum pop-up, where he was one of the exhibiting artists. Again, he approached me and we chatted at the show, and then later, after I left, he saw me outside across the street putting up my Dreams of a City postcards and came up to me again to see what I was doing. After learning about my project, he then brought me to check out some guerilla art he had secretly and anonymously put up nearby.

I wish I took a photo of it because I can't find any evidence of it online (makes sense since he did it secretly and anonymously), and I wanted to fact-check before making this post. Going off my memory, it looked like a pin drop / location marker and was on the window of a storefront, and had to do with racial justice, and he wanted to see how long it would take for someone to notice and take it down.

And then it wasn't until later when I Googled him that I realized he was an esteemed figure in the Chicago art scene, and even that's an understatement (look up JNL Design and you'll recognize all the iconic work he's done).

But what do you expect? For him to say "I'm kind of a big deal"? He was as humble as he was outgoing and affable.

It's something to emulate, to live life in such a way that two brief encounters would leave such an impression on the other person.

As for his postcard? I'd like to interpret it as a life well lived.

May we all be able to cross out our to-do lists.

// (c) Jenny Lam

[leftistfeminista]

Exhibition: The Body of Memory (El Cuerpo de la Memoria)

October 12 @ 18:00 – December 1 @ 17:00 LONDON

An exhibition by performance artist Janet Toro’s radical work responding to Chilean dictatorship at

Peltz Gallery 43 Gordon Square Birkbeck College London WC1H 0PD

Exhibition opens on October 12 at 6pm and runs until December 2023

Janet Toro’s performance series El cuerpo de la memoria (The body of memory), rekindles both individual and collective consciousness of the coup d’etat in Chile – that took place 50 years ago. This exhibition of photography and video documentation of performances refers back to 1999, when the artist presented 90 performance-installations as part of the second Biennale of Young Artists that was held at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Chile. Walking barefoot for kilometres and subjecting herself to physical constraints, Janet Toro pointed out sites of political detention and torture implemented during the civil-military dictatorship in Chile. Pushing at the limits of her body, Toro experienced 62 methods of torture, that recollected the horrors employed by the dictatorial apparatus to suppress and obliterate anything deemed a threat to their project. Such methods are the basis of Toro’s radical works.

The Performances and Installations were made inside and outside the museum at places related to torture and detention. Additionally I did barefoot walks from those places to the museum and from the museum to those places, through the city of Santiago.

I always walked with some physical sign of limitation of the body, tying my legs or my arms, etc., walked miles in silence and carrying a fragment of a white canvas stained with blood of slaughtered animal (as a shroud), which I had used 9 years earlier, in the Performance: "The blood, the river and the body", at the riverside of Mapocho River, at the height of Pio Nono Bridge, Santiago, 1990. This canvas I kept for 9 years and later I used it, teared it, fragment and knotted it in these performances.

For this cycle I realized a long investigation about various methods of torture, which were practiced systematically in Chile during the Military Dictatorship and which are currently used in many countries of the world. These methods of torture form the basis of my performances-installations, in which I approach the limits of my body and social limits, therefore there was an experience of permanent risk. There was no rehearsal.

This work makes an inner journey to the pain that underlies the collective memory, to the pain that was inflicted on thousands of people, through torture and the systematic violation of human rights in our country.

These actions expose the memory as a corporal and emotional echo, through mute minimum acts, opening the folds of the dark memories of that harsh reality, attached to the organism. Memory is not only a functional activity of the mind, but a bodily experience: "we remember with the body". That is the premise of this work.

[mcad-library]

Slow-stitched Navigation

A Library Gallery exhibition by Malini Basu

We highly recommend making your way to see Malini Basu's exhibition: Slow-stitched Navigation, in the Library Gallery.

Exhibition: Tuesday, February 14–Monday, March 6 Library Gallery @mcad

Introduction to the installation by Malini Basu:

I have never been good at directions—short walks that should be second nature to me could turn into hour-long meanders. When I moved from my home in India to the Twin Cities, I embraced the GPS system on my phone wholeheartedly, enjoying the ease with which I was able to navigate the public transit systems and the city at large. I followed the guiding blue line unquestioningly, trusting that I was being fed the most efficient path. Unsurprisingly, my mindless navigation did not assuage the disconnect I felt towards the cityscape I walked in and land I lived on. In this body of work, I lean into slower modes of traversing the city. I focus on building an observational practice for myself, using objects found on the sidewalks as cues to look up and take note of my surroundings. I gradually build out my own mental map by tying the object to the surrounding intersection, the plants in season around me, the smells, the cracks in the sidewalks, my personal memories in that area. This practice led to tactile explorations of how I can connect my body to my movements through a place. While this project began as a response to navigating Minnesota, I was able to continue this mindful observation while in India this past winter. The works in this show thus reflect walks in both Minneapolis as well as Kolkata.

Recommended library books:

Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys, 1967-2017, by Rachel Adams, Rebecca Solnit, Lori Waxman, and Jane McFadden

The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, by Katharine A Harmon and Gayle Clemans

Walking and Mapping: Artists as Cartographers, by Karen O’Rourke

Walking Art Practice: Reflections on Socially Engaged Paths, by Ernesto Pujol

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats

Fray: Art and Textile Politics, by Julia Bryan-Wilson 

Drawing from Memory, by Allen Say (on order)

[seroquelled]

11-8-23

- august invited over bo leach, bodhi nadalin, and some person that didnt have a name but looked like el hanley to play some orgy game, aug was acting kind of weird the whole time and ended up going to bed. the vibes were very off and nameless chick dipped but i talked to bo and bodhi for a while, was trying to figure out if they were together or not. ended up making out with bodhi (felt v nice) and afterward he said a bunch of stuff about how he was glad we saw each other again and that he lives close and wants to hang out again soon. we were still living w/ aj somehow and they had a bunch of random ppl over i remember thinking i was glad i could prove i had other friends by having different ppl over even if they werent really. they were leaving and the other ppl were partying in the living room area and someone ended up giving me a drink so i sat down and hung out a little. it was this really tasty thick deep red cherry-cranberry vodka thing with a ball of hollow ice that had a little hole you could drink more beverage out of it from.

- dk if this was a continuation of the last one or not but walking through the city w a group of girls, being sort of dressed up everyone had on very avant garde fashion (one of them was cheyenne from water st? i dont remember the rest) and we ended up going to this art gallery that was all hallways with various forks in the road. got separated from half the group because they were basically sprinting through and not looking at anything. everything felt like it was moving very fast. came to another fork but on one side was this exhibit area w raised padded flooring and people sitting all around and a sign that said 'puppy naptime.' and. well. it was puppy naptime. there were a bunch of them and phoibe and mama kitty (not bean) were there also sleeping very sweetly and i was worried i would get in trouble for bringing my cats to puppy naptime. i saw a different very small very sleepy black and white dappled kitten and pet her a little bit. was no longer worried bc obv i was not the only one who brought cat. noticed this girl who had a necklace with a bunch of moss and a live snail on it and talked to her abt it and she said it was her pet and he just liked to sleep there too.

- again not sure if at all related but walking through these very bright almost uncanny paved suburban streets w you and coming across a house where you started telling me a story abt how you used to hang out with some boy there and the mom was wack and you would work on some sort of project that required these sharps and one day you accidentally brought some out with you and they (the parents) noticed and yelled at you and you were like little and scared of getting in trouble so you like ran back crying and put them back and were apologizing and then couldnt go back and hang out again. watching this memory play out in the driveway like a phantom in front of us. in present time next to the car in the foliage there were a bunch of varied types of blades and you said something along the lines of 'they feel awesome, btw' and there was one in particular i really wanted to take but we noticed that the people from the house were actually sitting in the car. left and walked the other way around the block to see if theyd leave, just sort of eavesdropped on them from around the corner. along the way there were various blades on the ground and in the little grass strips in front of driveways and i kept picking them up trying to see if they were sharp or new but they all were really flimsy or dull or covered in a weird waxy substances. you said something like 'my skin is thinner so you should just cut me instead' and it made me upset but i wasnt trying to show it and i said some upsetting shit i dont remember and you were like 'jesus christ, what the fuck' and got v distant didnt leave but sort of like hung back and did smth else. heard some sort of commotion from the people and saw the guy yelling at this fluffy, scrawny cat being like 'i hate that fuckin cat' and it ran over to us and i pet him and he was v malnourished and had fleas and scrapes and i felt v sad for him

- Really dont remember this one but some girl inviting us to go rock climbing and it was just this tiny room that was not even very tall and she was actively putting the rock wall together by just. nailing the holds into drywall in no particular order. no gear, no ropes. i was pissed. i remember yelling at her but i dont remember what i said

[pigeonneaux]

30 26 17(if you say no I come to kick your ass because it seems you stay several hours without drinking and it's no good) 28 7 8 I'll stop here before I ask everytthing

wait just one last and I stop 11

Wowie thank you for the questions i appreciate the attention😢❤️ ce post va faire 3km de long because i cannot shut up

7) "A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate" i love clay and sculpting, i think making things in volume is pretty impressive, i tried it out but i don't like doing it as much as i like seeing people do it

8) " What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in" now you're just calling me out i have too many

There's this Et Tout le Monde s'en fout redraw i will never finish :

And this school project (vraiment celui la je l'ai abandonné, trop galère, trop long)

(can you spot the references and where i gave up? Lol)

There's also those two Doctor Who illustrations i wanted to finish, but i ended up dropping out of the HetBigbang 2022 maybe i'll get back to them next year

And finally thooooose :

They are objectsonas (from left to right, me, @enfoutreur-du-futur @breizhbaguette and @eclipsedshadowk ) i wanted to draw my bestie's sona as well but i had no time 😔 (i also made colored version as a print for @enfoutreur-du-futur that i gave him in person!) (if u see this mwamwamwah)

And this is a wip i am slowly working on, it's my OC's city, but it's also an art school project, the prompt was "Babel's tower" ! Did you see the flying boat? I think it's pretty cool

11) "Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what" i listen to music for hours or to long video essays, the stupider the better (also bad book reviews, they are super funny) lately i listen to a lot of Orelsan and Yodelice, but my Drawing playlist is 50h long and very diverse

17) "Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what" i always have a bottle of water or some tea on my desk (i live dangerously) (malgré ça je suis déshydratée comme une feuille craquante, bonk me)

26) "What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended"

I don't know, i rarely make art that's hard to understand, and when it comes to original art, i rarely put thoughts into the meaning behind it so every interpretation i hear is interesting

28) "Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)"

I'm in the vdf discord's Secret Santa this year, and the last two years i was doing the Kaamelott's fandom secret santa !

And as i said earlier i tried to participate to the HetBigbang but dropped out because i had too much work. i was also in an exhibition this summer in Carpentras, where they got this drawing printed on a big canvas (2x1m something like that) and suspended in the street with a bunch of other artists! :) and i am working with my sister on an exhibit for april. I never made anything for a fanzine but i would love to.

30) "What piece of yours do you think is underrated"

This one

[skell3]

Statement of Samson Murphy, regarding a hike through the Appalachian Mountains, in the United States.

Original statement given October 16th, 2009.

Statement begins:

I met Cecil during the summertime, back when a couple of friends dragged me out to go on a hike. It wasn't something I usually did, but they had something to show me that they thought would be great for one of my projects and- well. You see, I'm a painter, and not exactly a great one, but I have made it into a couple exhibits and sold some for some pretty good cash. It's not exactly a job, per se, but I will take what I can get to get my stuff out there. So I was looking for inspiration, and they said they knew a tree.

The tree itself was magnificent. Massive, with curving roots that stretched over and under ground alike. We even had a picnic on some of them, using a larger root that had been flattened out by travelers over time for exactly this type of occasion. I would say it definitely gave me some inspiration. The beauty of it, surrounded by the other frees in the forest up near Loch Voil. I'd been born in Inverness, then moved to Edinburgh, and while they aren't the biggest of cities- I had definitely mostly known urban more than rural most of my life. So the hike helped, and the tree was great, and it inspired me for a couple of paintings I got done over the next month.

But the tree wasn't exactly what I was painting that entire time. We saw something else out there, and it might be a little too cheesy to say that the encounter changed my life, but it really did. Because out there, in that forest... I met Cecil.

Just a single man hiking out and about, walking around like he not only knew the place, but maybe even lived there. We ran into him and one of my mates, of course, had to be nosey and ask about what he was doing. Quiet, polite. Maybe even a little bit firm. I liked him almost immediately, and it wasn't just for his tone of voice and demeanor- but also that he was rather pretty for a man. Darker skin, like he'd been in the sun for years. Pale silver hair that I thought was dyed like that for a while, until I found out later that it was exactly as it grew. He was young, but one of those old soul types you feel like you can trust.

It was difficult leaving him be to do his wandering, like something was tugging at me to go back and talk to him more. But I hadn't needed to worry too much- I noticed him at the market just the next week after. He recognized me and I think that was the first time a man has ever made me blush in public like that. We even got to talking a bit, and I found out that he makes quite a few trips out to the surrounding parks and forests. Solo hiking, something of a nature nut- and he did photography. I'm embarrassed to say I recognized a few of his shots simply because I'd needed references for a few things, and... well. You could almost say it was meant to be, though that's the cheesiest line in the book.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Skip forward a year... and we were dating. Half a year after that, and we both made the decision to move to London.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It was for work, primarily- Cecil needed to branch out a little more on some of his skills, and there was an agency that wanted him close by to work with him. I also had been hired into another company for my real job, which was surprisingly or not- teaching. I didn't exactly teach whole classes, just some basic art level college courses. Paid the bills, and I could still have access to the things I loved doing, so it worked out. We worked out- the odd couple. The surprise on my face when he admitted I was eight years older than him... but that he liked that.

Cecil still went out often. Every weekend, he'd pick a large park or even catch a train further out to get away from the city long enough to spend a few hours out there. Get some photos. Be himself. I never really asked to go with him, because I knew that he needed that time alone. Hell, our apartment was a two-bedroom so he and I could each have our own spaces. But it worked, and we never argued about it, and I was always immeasurably pleased when he made the decision to take me with him on some smaller trips, or opt to curl up in my bed with me when he wanted the attention.

Cecil was... is different, and I think that's mostly what I'm here to explain. He's different. From everyone, from every... thing.

Three years into dating, and Cecil gets offered an experience to go overseas. His company wants some good shots in the Appalachian Mountains over in the States. Couple of others were going to be going, as well- some sort of advert campaign for a travel company and... I was ecstatic. They would pay for the both of us, travel and lodging, and I could get the time off to go with him. Cecil was... wary. Unsure. I'd never seen him so nervous, but he wouldn't explain why and while he said to pack my bags to go with, he closed his door for the first time in months and it had me worried. Was it the travel? The... distance from home he was worried about? We hadn't any pets, no kids to worry about, and our neighbor Ms. Lorry was more than happy to watch over our houseplants for us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It could've been the plane ride. Both of us got sick up there, did our best to sleep it off. But the moment we touched ground in New York, the trip had just begun. A whirlwind of it, too. Various spots and forest bits, nature reserves and the like, all the way down the mountain. The trip was a whole week of travel and stopping to take photos and I tried to do sketches for some paintings, but I was too distracted. Cecil wasn't doing well with it at all. He got sick more than once, but we couldn't just... stop. We got a little breather somewhere near Roanoke, but it wasn't enough to just stay in the hotel room and rest. I knew he needed to go for a walk, and so I bundled him up for the crisp autumn weather and got us a rental car so we could go out for a bit.

It wasn't like... the super dense forests we were used to. Bit of a climb up into a bit of the mountain range, and I was out of breath but this was exactly what Cecil seemed to need. Get out of the city, or away from the people and be in the trees. He sped past me a couple of times, just stretching his legs, taking deep breaths. Wasn't the same air, he'd said. Wasn't quite enough, but I could see more colour to his skin again, and that was enough for me. So we hiked, and wandered, and he took some photos just so that the company wouldn't complain about our little excursion out. It was honestly... perfect.

Until it wasn't.

It got dark pretty quickly, and while I had expected it since we were well into September, almost at October, I hadn't quite anticipated how dark it actually got up there. Even finding some clearings in the forest, there didn't seem to be any moon, and my torchlight was a little weaker than I'd like. Getting Cecil to turn around to head back was upsetting for us both, but he agreed that it wasn't safe out there for me, and so we set back to head to the car.

I never really thought about that, until later. That it wasn't safe for me, specifically. Like he wouldn't also be in danger if some wild animal or a person came at us. I should have realized what he said, sooner.

We were halfway back when the wolves started howling. At first, it just freaked me out a bit because they were awfully close, and I didn't exactly want to end up as dog meat. I love Cecil, but not quite that much, so I tried urging myself to move quicker to get to the car. Cecil stopped me, held his hand over my mouth and urged me to quiet. Again, the wolves sounded off- closer. Again, I tried to move, but then froze at the realization that the calls were... wrong. I'd heard plenty through videos, nature documentaries. Never in person, but they were still just not right at all to have actually been... wolves. It almost sounded like people, but not. No human could make quite the same eerie howl of a grown wolf, but it was closer to person than canine, and I was about to have a fit if Cecil didn't let me go so we could both make a run for it down the mountain and to the car.

But then he did, and his only word was, "Run."

A branch snapped. I booked it. Not completely out of shape, but still a little sore and winded from our hike out there. I wouldn't have made it, wouldn't have run so fast and recklessly if I had realized Cecil wasn't right behind me. But something else had followed me and by the time I got to the parking lot where we'd left the rental, I could hear its breath right behind me. Right up against my neck. Ready and waiting right there for me to trip or stumble so it could catch me and end me. And I did trip, but it quite probably saved my life entirely, because right behind whatever beast that had been so hot on my tail was another one. A more familiar monster that took me far too long to realize that it was Cecil and not another one of the strange Appalachian things.

He was... feral? It's a bit hard to describe what he looked like, more than what he did. What he was. I hit the ground hard, my head bouncing off the side of the rental, and I heard snarling and a cry behind me. Dazed and terrified, I rolled over onto my back to push myself up and direct my torch- still clutched tightly in my hand- toward the noise. Teeth, blood. A streak of silver, a pelt of pitch black fur. Bone eventually grew exposed, and the fight went on until it ended with a crunch and a horrifying cry of pain. Then there was silence, the sound of my breathing, and the sound of his massive shape in the dying torchlight.

And then... well. I blacked out.

Coming back around, I was in the car, nestled safely into the passenger seat with Cecil's jacket around me. He was driving, his hair a mess. Wild. He was still feral in the car, driving us back to the town again, like it was difficult for him to put himself back together after whatever it is that happened. I rode in silent, eyes on him... on my boyfriend of three years who had never hurt me in any way, who just liked being alone often. Who went out on regular hikes or walks to someplace away from people... Watched him calm down by the time we made it back to the hotel, with the moon shining bright enough for me to see him when he looked over at me.

We both sat in silence for a good while there, until eventually I reached a hand over to wipe a bit of blood away from his cheek.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The rest of the trip, he was fine, though we both still got sick on the plane. He was healthy again when we got back to London, like the air back there settled better with him than the air in the States did. While we didn't exactly... talk about it, now that I knew, it was like a wall had been taken down between us. A wall I didn't mind so much, but realized I much preferred not being there.

We had our fourth year anniversary back at the tree up by Loch Voil, and he proposed to me there. I said yes.

Cecil has been one of the best things to ever happen to me. He's saved my life, both emotionally and physically, and I can't imagine a time without him.

So I think what I'm really here to do, other than to make my statement... is to give you a case where the monsters aren't all bad. I imagine I don't entirely know all about Cecil, about what he does out there, or where he really goes when he wanders into the woods, but he is my world and the kindest person I've ever known to love. Whatever it is you lot study here, however it is you take on your research arguments or whatever... know this: If you ever try to hurt my fiancée, I would personally help him end you.

Heed this warning, and don't stick your nose into his business for any reason. He's not a bad one out there. But maybe you might want to look into whatever's lurking about in Appalachia... because I don't know what happened to the other four wolves I heard that night. Or what else might be out there, like the boogeymen of tales you hope to record here.

[musea-reviews]

Museum Catharijneconvent (St. Catherine's Convent Museum)

‘’The collection tells the art and cultural history of Christianity in the Netherlands.’’ 

Location: Center of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Price: 15,- / students 7,- Duration: 2 - 5 hours Transport: easy to walk to from the central station Language: All text is in Dutch, I didn't ask if the audio tour could change the language Activities: look & read Date of visit: Friday 17 February 2023 Expo at that time: History of Gospel Check out the website

The building was very beautiful from the outside as it was located inside a medieval monastery. You could look in the small garden area for free.

The Children Room The first part of the museum I went to was intended for children and was about all the holidays, this part of the museum even had information on other religions like Judaism and Islam. As these religions and Christianity come from the same set of stories and historical events. The information didn't go very deep since it said things like “the Christmas tree is a part of Christmas because it stays green all year around‘’ instead of explaining it came from pagan religions. I did learn however that we have new year's on the day that we do (8 days after Christmas) because that's when Jesus supposedly got circumcised. Which was a shocking reason to me that I didn't knew. This part did also have some fun interactive elements, such as opening food lockers from a wall to connect 4 kinds of food to the right holiday. Sadly, one of the screens was broken, and the lights were off/broken in that corner, so I couldn’t film it.

Another cool thing there was a built replica of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, with light projections explaining why these 3 religions all want to own this place and fight for it. I was all alone in this part of the museum, probably because it was on a school day

The Treasury The next part of the museum was the treasury, a dim lid room full of shiny objects, I loved it. This is also where the ‘’real’’ museum started, so I got handed an audio tour. I love audio tours. However, on the lowest audio setting, it was still too loud for me. But I simply put the headphones further from my ears, you can also use your own headphones if they have a cord. 

Keeping it real I found it all very interesting, I was a bit disappointed that it was not about other religions anymore, but I went in this blindly and didn't know it was specifically a museum of Christianity. Personally, I don't believe in anything, but love to learn about religions. Next to the normal audio tour that talked about the paintings and the history, they also added some new numbers to the audio tour talking more about controversies about some paintings and people. I liked this since they weren't glorifying the religion and showed more about how it was done back in the day. For instance, in the extra audio tour, they talked about Jesus' skin colour and how everywhere in the museum he's portrayed as a white man with long brown hair, meanwhile, this doesn't have to be the case. They explained that it's easier for people to feel connected to stories if they can see themselves in them. The person being interviewed said that when they visited a church in Surinam they saw the painting of ‘’The Last Supper’’ but with everyone being black. They stated in this interview that they're working on adding more diverse pieces like that to the museum, and assured that they were working on a big new collection of different interpretations of the catholic stories. For now, they had an exposition about the history of gospel in America and told the stories of black artists. I didn't see much of it since I couldn't find the right way to walk thou the exhibition and my legs were already hurting since I had been there for 5 hours.

TLDR + Fun room about holidays, not only about Christianity but also about Muslims and Jewish religion. + In the centre of the city, easy to just pop in and out on a city trip. + inclusive and does not give a blind eye to the bad things of Christianity.

- it was pretty hard to navigate the museum and I kept getting lost, don't know if I missed parts of the museum - I do not recommend it to children/teens since there was not a lot to do

Would I pay the price: No, this would not have my interest Would I revisit it: probably not Who do I recommend it to: Adults interested in Christianity or history Interactive:         2 Educational: 4 Storytelling: 2 Price: 3 Memorable: 4 Total score: 3

[lugonzalez94]

series "brown hands tend the land", for the FOOD CHAIN exhibition at the drawing room sf spring 2024

I feel like I did a disservice to myself for not posting about the series I did for this exhibition during the time it was actually in the exhibition. However I want to accept the grace I gave myself for spending my time and energy coping with the transitions I was going through at the time. I was so busy I only got to go to the gallery once to admire the art and to visit my pieces in the exhibition. Life goes on and doesn't wait for anyone.

Here's what I wrote to describe this series:

Food chain: “a hierarchical system or structure, a pecking order, power dynamics, and the like.” I can’t help but think about the people behind my produce. Every time I go to a farmer’s market, I think about the people who are selling their harvest, the people who picked it, what their stories might be, what their life might be like. It takes me back to the stories my father would tell me about being a fieldworker in his early 20’s in the central coast of California. He would migrate to the states every summer from Mexico, going from bus to car to train. He’d work in the fields of Oxnard with his now-estranged father. He daydreamed about moving with his father and going to school in the states. My dad loved school. But to this day he always cringes at the sight of celery fields, saying what a pain they were to harvest.  In the midst of the systemic racism and lack of social justice plaguing fieldworkers, this country seems to have forgotten that fieldworkers are people too. They’re people with families, dreams, motivations, and a right to a fair life. They were once children too, born into families who valued sharing meals, sharing stories, sharing laughs, passing on traditions, and maybe starting new ones. They grew up in the fields, working during the early hours of the morning, probably before going to school. Maybe some enjoyed the countryside, tending to crops, being out in the quiet, away from the big, loud cities. Maybe some dreamed of something beyond the fields, doing something different with their life. Many people migrate to work in the fields of California in the hopes of fleeing their motherlands for a “better life.” This country often forgets that without fieldworkers, there would be no food. When thinking of the “farm to table” food chain, we often list fieldworkers last. But they are an essential part of the chain. Your organic kale from the farmer’s market would probably be triple the price if it were picked with White hands. Who else would brave freezing morning temps and risk blazing California fires just to get paid? Who else would make the sacrifice to flee their land to a place where their rights are limited? Consider the people behind the produce when you visit your farmer’s market this week. Think about what their life might be like, who they might be, where they may have come from.   This series tells their story. From el campo to the farmer’s market, your food likely comes from caring, hardworking, brown hands. From a campesino born from a mamá.

-------

As I begin working on other projects centered around Día de los Muertos and my culture, I find myself going back to this series and my process. I think about the hardships and hard work of my people, the people who came before me. The children who are affected by the day to day of what it means to be latinx and to live in a family dedicated to working en el campo. I think about my family and my identity and what this all has to do with me and how I live my life. I'm trying to lean into the urge of writing out my thoughts and feelings and actually take the time to explore the things I'm interested in. Like, for example:

the colors and textures used in mesoamerican / mexican art

key mexican artists

the history behind the aztecs and mayans and their mythology

what the history behind common mexican and mesoamerican traditions were

architecture, textiles, symbols

symbolism such as the eagle and the snake, the pyramids, cantaritos, corn, anything else

whether or not catholicism can be separated from the indigenous culture

In some ways I feel like a fraud and I'm not authentic because I don't know these things. I know that's not true. And I think that what matters is that I'm trying now which is better than not trying at all, or just getting comfortable with not knowing and spending my time taking in whatever instagram decides to fill my feed with. I guess what feels hard right now is that since I can't actually go to Mexico and immerse myself in the culture, and there's only so much my parents and extended family know, that I don't know where to start. Or how to start.

I'm going to go to a Oaxacan gift shop tomorrow and to see the chicanx exhibition at OMCA tomorrow in the hopes of getting some answers, and inspiration for a few pieces I'm working on. Maybe that'll be a good start.

[nikkiart66]

Quote:

“On the one hand, this "return of the author" results from the thematization of discursive sites, which engenders a misrecognition of them as "natural" extensions of the artist's identity, and the legitimacy of the critique is measured by the proximity of the artist's personal association (converted to expertise) with a particular place, history, discourse, identity, etc. (converted to thematic content). On the other hand, because the signifying chain of site-oriented art is constructed foremost by the movement and decisions of the artist,37 the (critical) elaboration of the project inevitably unfolds around the artist. That is, the intricate orchestration of literal and discursive sites that make up a nomadic narrative requires the artist as a narrator-protagonist. In some cases, this renewed focus on the artist leads to a hermetic implosion of (auto) biographical and subjectivist indulgences, and myopic narcissism is misrepresented as self-reflexivity.”

Comment:

I found this curated site specific exhibition by Mary Jane Jacob to be interesting in the sense of how the artists got together to learn from the city of Charleston, looking for places they chose to tell a story. Especially seeing as they are not necessarily themselves connected to this city, they managed to highlight the social meaning behind these places in a way that still fit in with their mode of working. This forces a unique experience to an artist ideas and to the viewers perception. Although, I do wonder, based on the quote on this idea of the work apart from the artist, if it is important for the artist to try to find ways around having their work be too close to themselves. I haven’t had much experience with site specific work, it wasn’t until recently in which I was inspired by a certain site and it’s already existing context that I noted the way an artist is integral to a work. When I did take this work into the site specific location, I found it difficult to maintain myself as far apart from the pieces due to this sense of wanting to control, but also contribute to the moment. Perhaps my pieces called for having me participate in the action of the pieces being or existing in that moment, but regardless it was difficult to not be “there” essentially. I did note a difference in making work and placing it someplace as oppose to making work in regards to that specific place. There is also this sense of how far can an artist go to integrate with a location, for example, I would find myself hesitating and being too cautious of my surrounding rather than being free to openly exist for the sake of existing.

Question:

How do we decipher the boundaries of a location with the exploration of a piece? How integral is interaction with the work, does it add onto the context of the work ?

[australiablog]

22/7

Today I’m meeting with Sienna at 9am at flinders street, I was too tired last night to have a shower so I did that this morning. That shower was devine, I wish I could somehow take it with me. Breakfast was included with whatever Sienna is planning today so when I left at a little after 8 I found out that the tram ride yesterday was actually much closer as I thought it was. So I was way too early. Meeting Sienna was so fun, we have been talking in the Dean Lewis group chat since 2019 so meeting her was surreal. She took me to an alleyway that’s especially for graffiti art. It was so fun to see, basically everywhere I’ve been so far they all have art on the side of their buildings, it’s so much nicer as just blank walls. We had breakfast in a very cute tiny road/alleyway that only had cafes with tables in between them. I have never had so many avocados in my life. They are in everything over here and Sienna was surprised to hear they cost quite a lot at home. I talked about the play last night and she had actually never realised all theatre is with an American accent, she didn’t knew why either. I am so curious about it though. We wandered around Melbourne and went to art gallery first, most of it is free and it still blows my mind. The state library was so amazing to see as well, it’s one of the older buildings and it was really pretty. We went up all the way to the top where you could watch over the entire ground floor. They have different “rooms” surrounding the main one that’s all dedicated to something else. They even had a child daycare room. There also was the entire building build out of LEGO and we jokingly send a pigeon picture to Bea (she’s scared of real birds but plastic ones are fine)

The next stop was and arcade hall, they have tons of them here, and in my head it would be like game arcades, it definitely wasn’t that. It was little buildings that had all kind of shops in them and had aircon, which makes sense with how warm it gets here. Today is a brilliant day with sun and 17 degrees and I had long since shed my coat and even though Sienna still found it cold she was very happy that we had such a good day as well. I was saying that I was surprised about the amount of sushi places I’d seen already so we ended up eating sushi. There was a surprise tour after lunch, it was the royal exhibition building. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Melbourne that was build on a hill overlooking the city. I hadn’t really realised it was a hill until we were standing in the rooftop overlooking the city. It was really cool! It was build in the late 1800s and it’s still being used to this day. They have university exams, comic con and all kind of events there still. It was even the covid vaccination centre during the pandemic. Our next stop was sea life, which I was really excited about since I had actually planned to go there with Andrew but due to time restrictions we didn’t. We had to get back to the other side of town and were running a wee bit late so ended up getting an Uber. Sea life had 15 spaces dedicated to different animals and areas. They also had ton of photo opportunities and we had great fun doing them all. The beginning were all jellyfish and all kinds of fish, we were going down and ended up underneath a gigantic aquarium. There were really big turtles, sharks and all kind of other fish I don’t even remember the name off. There was a big circular room where the ocean waves were projected on the floor. The big turtle swam by and we lost it for a second, it swam to the other side and both of us squealed and ran after it like we were 5. We stood there laughing like idiots. The rainforest was next and there was a big glass floor and we stood there staring for a bit, neither of us seeing what was actually in it. When we did see it, it was something out of Jurassic park. There was a MASSIVE crocodile in there, and by massive I mean this literally. That thing was at least 5m if not more. It was by far the biggest crocodile I’ve ever seen. When we were nearly done they announced that all visitors should make their way to the exit, we were sad we didn’t get to see the pinguïns and were pleasantly surprised when they were the last thing. They are so cute, yes yes I know also cunts but cute to look at. We had dinner reservations at 6:30pm so we went to have a look at the casino. Sienna had to show her ID everytime and I was really amused by it. She found the bar so pretty that I dragged her to have a drink there since we had plenty of time.

[serenasufinjapan]

May 22: Imperial Palace and Kyoto National Musuem

Today, I got to see the imperial palace in Kyoto, which is something I’ve always loved to see pictures of even as a kid. It honestly exceeded my expectations, the gardens were so beautiful and the architecture was even more impressive in person. The Heian era is my favorite era of Japanese history, so I was super excited to see the folding screens and gardens in that style. After that, we went to the Kyoto national museum to see the art on display there. The special exhibit right now is art by Sesshu and art inspired by Sesshu. According to the displays, Sesshu is one of the greatest painters in Japanese history, but it’s hard to tell what’s really his work and what is just attributed to him. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get any pictures inside the museum because pictures were strictly prohibited. However I did grab an advert and took pictures of that. For dinner we went to a sushi conveyer belt restaurant, and I really really felt like a tourist. They did have an Oshi no Ko collaboration going on though, and Alexyss really loved that.

The reading this week concerned the Heian period and how the architecture and lifestyle reflected the ideals of the period, even at the expense of comfort. The Tale of Genji was referenced often in this reading, and it is something that I’ve read excerpts of for my Japanese Culture class last fall. I think that it’s ironic that urbanites were often critical of those that lived outside the city, but recreated that rural aesthetic through their gardens like the ones that we saw at the palace. I also noticed the shutters mentioned in the readings, the ones that forced women to wear twelve layer kimonos in the winter. I don’t think I would have noticed that if I hadn’t had read the readings, before, I had thought that the 12 layer kimonos were for show.

The piece from the museum that I chose was Landscapes of the Four Seasons. It caught my eye because there was a line to get to see it, which reminded me of the Mona Lisa. Apparently, this very long scroll is considered Sesshu’s greatest work of art by many art historians. According to the Tsuzuri project, it is over 10 meters long and depicts scenes from Sesshu’s travels in Japan and China. Sesshu is such an influential artist in Japan that all of the exhibits in this museum were works by him or inspired by him. His influence on the art of the Edo period is unmatched, and some schools of art taught their students to paint just like him.

[curatingworship]

NEW WORK ACCEPTED INTO ARTISTS OF RUBBER CITY JURIED EXHIBITION - inspired by If These Trees Could Talk's "Trail of Whispering Giants" and Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive"

I have a brand-new painting that will be on display at Summit Artspace in downtown Akron, Ohio from April 5 – June 15. The piece was accepted into this year’s Artists of Rubber City Juried Art Exhibition and it is entitled:

It’s There that We Found More Than was Lost (Faintly Like a Whisper, Familiar Like Her Ungloved Hand)

This painting has a special meaning to me as it gave me an opportunity to create an artwork that was highly influenced by some of my favorite creative people (musicians/artists who also happen to have ties to Northeast Ohio). Our geographical connection was highlighted by the fact that this juried art show is curated by Akron’s own Artists of Rubber City collective.

As I gathered ideas and research for this piece, two key inspirations really stood out: a brand-new song I’ve been crushing called “Trail of Whispering Giants,” by an amazing band named If These Trees Could Talk, and a hauntingly beautiful film I adore called “Only Lovers Left Alive,” by an amazing film maker named Jim Jarmusch. So, the process of creating this painting held a lot of significance for me as it allowed me to spend a lot of time with one of my favorite bands and with my favorite film maker and my all-time favorite film.

If These Trees Could Talk is an amazing post-rock band whose music resonates deeply with me.

When I heard their new song, I instantly knew that I was going to create an artwork inspired by it at some point in my life. I’ve written about that sense before, because sometimes the right song (or movie) hits you and you just know that you must create an artwork in response to it.

One of the band members, Zach, said in an interview that their music could be described as a “non-lyrical exploration of emotion.” I like that. I think that abstract expressionist painting is very similar in that the artist can use color and texture and the elements of art to attempt to explore emotional concepts in an abstract and non-lyrical way. And while my work happens to also focus specifically on using words and language as art, the core of every painting I make is rooted in my non-lyrical abstract expressionist style.

So, for this project, I put “Trail of Whispering Giants,” on a loop and listened to it while I did most of the major work on this painting. The song informed and shaped a large portion of what the viewer experiences on the canvas. I got to see If These Trees Could Talk play this song live at Musica in downtown Akron during the time I was working on this piece. That more intimate experience of “Trail of Whispering Giants,” added a further dimension to my connection with the song and the way I was able to interpret it in my artwork.

I have a whole page in my art journal where I broke “Trail of Whispering Giants down into what I heard and felt were the different voices, themes, emotions, and movements discovered within the 8 minute duration of the work. The band employs 3 guitars, bass and drums, so there is a lot of complexity and nuanced layering of ideas at work in this song. I tried to capture those ideas in my painting, and as such, the viewer should discover a variety of ideas including wrestling with the dissonant tension of liminal spaces, the crushing weight of despair, the faint voice of hope, the loneliness of absence (or near silence), and what I felt was an overwhelming call to keep pushing forward through it all.

The second main inspiration for this painting is my all-time favorite film, “Only Lovers Left Alive."

A few years ago, I created a short film called “Only the Dead Survive Winter in Providence (High Places are Getting Harder to Find)” that was highly influenced by Jim Jarmusch’s vampire film, and I couldn’t help but explore his work one more time here in this painting.

I focused specifically on one scene from the movie (which happens to be my favorite scene in a movie), where the two main characters have a very intimate moment that revolves around a wooden bullet, an old 45” record, and dancing. It’s a scene that reveals so many raw and honest ideas about juxtaposed themes like suffering/despair/loss and hope/perseverance/love. And it does this in a way that just connected with me in a deep way and spoke into my own decades long struggle with chronic physical pain and the reality that my body is quite broken.

I wrote down a key moment of dialogue from this scene and revisited it often as I painted. Eve says to Adam:

“How can you have lived for so long and still not get it? This self-obsession, it’s a waste of living…that could be spent on…surviving things, appreciating nature, nurturing kindness and friendship…And dancing. (a long beat) You have been pretty lucky in love though, if I may say so.”

I also kind of kept coming back to this one interview I found where Jarmusch said that Adam and Eve’s vampiric state can serve as “a metaphor for the fragility of humans.” I thought that was powerful and an accurate portrayal of how I felt about the film and perhaps why it’s so important to me as an artist, but also just as a person trying to find beauty and hope amidst the painful parts of my life.

I loved the color palette in the film and especially in this scene. As such, I used some still frames from the scene to inform the color palette of my painting – the stencil graffiti I created of the two flowers represents Eve and Adam and reflects the colors they wore in that scene (Adam had teal-ish hospital scrubs, and Eve wore a robe that had warm reds and golds in it). The core color of the painting kind of was taken from the sofa in the room.

The first part of the title of my painting comes from a line in an E.E. Cummings poem named “When Faces Called Flowers Float Out of the Ground.” The second part of the title is my nod to the song and the film that inspired my painting.

One of my favorite quotes Jarmusch said (and I print it and put it on all my art journals) is:

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, conversations…Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.’” - Jim Jarmusch

I also wrote down some responses that Tilda Swinton offered in a few interviews she did promoting Only Lovers Left Alive, and this kind of matches up nicely with Jarmusch’s words:

“All artists certainly need each other…this film is about wearing your heroes on your sleeve.” - Tilda Swinton

All that to say, this painting was influenced by two of my creative heroes and I’m proud of this piece and I cherish the process of creating it, because it allowed me to spend a lot of time with them. This is my interpretation of their work—exploring what it means to me, but also how the song and the movie can reflect off my story and then echo back to others in a way that might help them find meaningful moments in their own stories too.

I always try and create little nods to the people that influenced or inspired my work, sometimes in obvious ways and sometimes a little more hidden (My films “Coffee with Ruth” and “Only the Dead Survive Winter in Providence” celebrate the fact that Jarmusch has shaped so much of my sense as a film maker).

I wrote this in my last post, but it seems worth repeating here as well…I pushed all of my reference material through my personal struggle with chronic pain (which has for better or worse been well documented in my artwork and my writing over these long years).

Pain has made her home with me, and I’m trying to find ways to make our relationship meaningful.

Below you can read my official details for the upcoming Artists of Rubber City Juried Art Exhibition (opening Friday, April 5th in downtown Akron), including my Artist Statement about the painting.

Artists of Rubber City Juried Exhibition

Forum Gallery - Summit Artspace, Akron, Ohio

Juror: Adriana Caso, Director and Founder of Door 2 Art Studio in Hudson, Ohio.

Artist Statement: 

It’s There that We Found More Than was Lost (Faintly Like a Whisper, Familiar Like Her Ungloved Hand) is an abstract expressionist work with particular focus on using words and language as art.

My work is heavily influenced and inspired by music and If These Trees Could Talk’s new song, “Trail of Whispering Giants” served as my primary inspiration and source material for the overall emotional quality of this painting. The song is a complex and beautiful 8-minute instrumental work that, provokes feelings of despair, hope, and especially the discomforting tension of waiting in liminal spaces.

This painting is also inspired by my favorite scene in my favorite movie, “Only Lovers Left Alive.” Jim Jarmusch describes the vampiric state of the two main characters in his film as a metaphor for the fragility of humans. The specific scene I explored is one of the darkest and brightest moments in the film, where the heavy weight of despair a character carries is countered with the brief light of hope that the other character offers/symbolizes. Many of the color choices in this painting reflect the color palette of that scene.

The song and the film scene were pushed through my own long endless struggle with chronic physical pain, and my own search for buoyant hope amidst a sea of relentless heartache.

The title comes from a poem by E.E. Cummings and a nod to the song and film that inspired my painting.

This work also contains lyrical thoughts by the band mewithoutYou.

Artwork Title:  It’s There that We Found More Than was Lost (Faintly Like a Whisper, Familiar Like Her Ungloved Hand)

Medium:  Acrylic, Crayon, and Hand-cut Stencil Graffiti on Canvas

Dimensions:  30” x 40”

Thanks to Juror, Adriana Caso, for selecting my work to be included in this show. It is an honor.

Thanks to If These Trees Could Talk and Jim Jarmusch (and Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston) for making art and music that is authentic and that carries a special significance in my life and my own journey as a creative.