Displacement

One of the first shows that inspired me was at New Image Gallery, when New Image was a small room on the 2nd floor, atop an old T.V. store. Back then, the artist went by Christopher Ruess, he now goes by Alex Kopps (or sometimes emuse) and walking into his installation, I felt like I walked into exactly I wanted art to make me feel. The incorporation of yarn, paintings, sewn art; it was just ideal.

He now makes these beautiful paintings and its been a long time since I've walked into one of his installations but I look forward to the day I can walk through one again. (The lettering he does is pretty rad too)





I want these surfboards, from Mandala




Now he's coming out with a film, Displacement, and I'm excited to see it. It looks like a great incorporation of his painting aesthetic with the moving image.


They are having a benefit art auction for the film on Saturday, June 28th at the Luggage Store in San Francisco. Seems like it'll be a great show, not only would you be buying great art but you'll be supporting a good cause too.

Bike to Beach

I apologize for the slow posts... It's been a busy end-of-the-month, where many projects have arisen and are coming to the deadline mark. It'll be a busy summer, I think and I'm more than excited about it all. I'll be posting a lot more work-in-progress as soon as I am able to.

In the meantime, my goal of going to the beach as much as possible this summer has started. We rode our bikes from our house here in Brooklyn all the way to Jacob Riis Beach, a total of a 24-mile bike ride. It was amazing.

Miss Rockaway

I love the water, whether its rivers, oceans, lakes, puddles... ok, not so much puddles, but big, open, nature filled spaces of water. I think that has something to do with my intrigue of boats, surfing, etc which I guess has had influence on my nautical flag series. So as I was doing some research on the web, I came across Mass Moca's website and immediately something caught my eye. There was this huge, diy raft on a river. And I found this.


It's called the Miss Rockaway Armada. They are a collective of performers and artists from all over the country who decided to converge and build a raft to float down the Mississippi RIver. Funny thing is, they don't really know how to build rafts (nor have the money to build it), they get their supplies from trash or by throwing benefits. As they float down the river and dock, they do performances and have workshops. One of their influences for this project are bookmobiles from their childhood days... Its a really neat concept and looks pretty rad. I'm in awe of people who come up with ideas like this and fully execute it, it seems like a great adventure and experience to be a part of.

KAWAIIIII

Ok, this post isn't going to be about "kawaii" (cute in Japanese). I couldn't think of anything, my brain is fried from a very busy weekend.

I apologize for the lack of attention I'm paying to this blog, I've been working on an project for Readymade Magazine and that, in addition to other projects, have been getting the majority of my attention.

I went by the Brooklyn Museum this weekend to check out the "Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770–1900" Exhibition that ended on Sunday. I've been recently more and more inspired by these Ukiyo-e prints. The composition, the color, the techniques. It amazes me you can look at these prints and be in complete awe of just the beauty of them, but if you sit and think that they these are woodblock prints.... it literally takes my breath away. One of my favorites is Yoshitoshi and they had a couple of his prints there that I was happy to see in person. His work is normally very dark and violent and although they didn't have a many of those prints up, they had a fairly good selection. Here are a couple...


Toyoharu. The prints are fairly small, but if you look at the people in them they are teeny, tiny!!!






Here's an example of Yoshitoshi's "dark" prints, which they didn't exhibit at the museum but I thought I'd show....


I also stopped by the Murakami exhibit and the Ghada Amer exhibit, both worth checking out!

I'm into porn... Food porn, that is...

I think I've become unhealthily obsessed with food. I mean, I've always loved food but I think as I've become older (and perhaps my palette has "matured") its become an obsession. For instance, when I'm eating breakfast, I'm thinking about what to eat for lunch and at lunch, I'm thinking about what to eat for dinner. I look at food blogs all the time (tastespotting, 101cookbooks, being some of my favorites), I like finding new eateries to exercise my palette, cooking, baking, and on and on.



I recently found MattBites, the photographs are amazing, the recipes are something I'll have to try and the writing is so fun. I particularly love this post, because yes, I too, love tacos.





Here's another food porn photographer, I mean photographer.... Jen Altman

Visual Candy

Like most creative types who are stuck to their computer, I have a long list of bookmarks of my favorite visual candy. I just happened to look through a couple of them recently and noticed Clare Shilland, a photographer out of the UK, has updated her site. There are some really great new photos up. A lot of her work evokes something in me. I especially love her "Picadilly" series.



Some of my favorite...

Richie Tenenbaum

Saw this post from DesignSponge last week about these great sculptures from Chris Bettig, inspired by Richie Tenenbaum. One of my favorite movies is "The Royal Tenenbaums," so I'm a total sucker for this.



Check out his art and design as well! Some of his drawings are very reminiscent of Ed Emberley.

5 Year Anniversary show at Needles & Pens, SF

To any San Franciscoans- "Needles & Pens'" is a great little DIY, zine store. Go by and congratulate them on 5 years of greatness!



June 7th, 2008 -6-10pm
Needles & Pens
3253 16th Street, San Francisco, California
5th YEAR + 50th ART SHOW - {! anniversary/party/show !}
Featuring: Alika Cooper, Allyson Mellberg, Amy Browne, Andrew McKinley, Andrew Schoultz, Andrew Scott, Brion Nuda Rosch, Claire Nereim, Canderson, Caroline Hwang, Chris Duncan, Chris Pew, Cynthia Connolly, Dave Schubert, David Benzler, David Franklin, Griffin McPartland, Heidi Anderson, Ivy McClelland, Jake Watling, Jay Howell, Jay Nelson, Jeffrey Brown, Jeff Canham, Jen Smith, Jenny Hart, Jeremy Fish, Jeremy Taylor, Jessica Cusik, John Dwyer, Jovi Schnell, Julianna Bright, Julia Wertz, Kari Byron, Kevin Scott Hailey, Kyle Ranson, Lena Wolf, Maria Forde, Mark Todd, Mary Joy Scott, Matt Furie, Maxwell Loren Holyoke Hirsch, Maya Hayuk, Michael Krueger, Miriam Stahl, Monica Canilao, Nigel Peake, Nikki McClure, Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, Orion Shepherd, Paul Schiek, Paul Urich, Paul Wackers, Peter Thompson, Rachell Sumpter/Jacob Magraw, Randy Lee Sutherland, Ray Potes, Rebecca Miller, Rich Jacobs, Ryan Jacob Smith, Sarah Smith, Stefan Simikich, Sy Loady, Tara Jane Oneil, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Tara Lisa Foley, Tauba Auerbach, Ted Pushinsky, Veronica De Jesus, Will McCurtin, Yuri Shibuya, Zefrey Throwell ...and more, more, more! * PLUS muscial performance by Pale Hoarse.

Bed and Breakfast

A show in New York opening this friday, definitely should check it out!



Little Cakes Little Gallery presents
“Bed and Breakfast” – a show inspired by home gardening
By Evah Fan and Brendan Monroe
June 6th – June 29th, 2008

This show has been brewing for a few years now and we are very happy to have it come to fruition, just as all the farmers markets and community gardens are starting to hit their stride here in New York. We are also proud to be collaborating with Brendan and Evah on such a hot topic which is incredibly close to our own hearts, gardening and growing your own food.

In this show, Evah Fan and Brendan Monroe get inspiration from the primary meaning of gardening to their own individual definitions of it being nurturing and having a sense of responsibility. To them, and to many of us who have learned to enjoy getting dirt under our finger nails, gardening is very “do-it-yourself” in the same way punk rock is/was to us; making your own zines, putting out your own music, making your own food! In this show, they have chosen to use their artwork to enrich the “soil” of our lives.

The show’s installation will include paintings, sculptural works, and collaborative pieces. Brendan will focus on the micro worlds within the botanic landscape. He takes reference from science and interprets his fascination with it to create something that draws our attention to the multitude of possibilities that are happening just below the focus of our eyes. Evah will portray gardening with her quirky point of view. She is interested in creating deceptively simple narratives with small doses of ambiguity and naïve humor.

The artist couple live, work, and garden in Berkeley, California. They both have recently had solo shows at Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles. They are parents to Jalapeño, a cat with lots of spunk!
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Little Cakes Little Gallery – 625 East 6th Street #1B, NYC NY 10009
646-342-1056 / goodies@littlecakes.org / littlecakes.org
Gallery hours are Friday through Sunday, 1pm to 6pm, and also by appointment.
Little Cakes Little Gallery is located on East 6th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.
The closest subway stations are the F/V at Second Avenue and the L at First Avenue.

"We all seem connected"

I love my friends, I really do... I know that's pretty cheesy of me to say, but I really appreciate every one of my friends who have been in my life. Through school, I've met some of the most amazing friends and some of the most talented people I know. This isn't the last time I'll say this so get used to it.

Justin Krietemeyer, I met the first day of school. And as opposite as we were, we became quick friends and I am happy to say we still are really great friends. Steve Harrington, I used to see him at city college before attending Art Center but we all became a good core group of friends. Justin and Steve came to be what is called National Forest. If you haven't seen their work, you should definitely check it out. Individually, they are really talented and inspiring artists and collectively, they kick ass.

Both have a show in Paris coming up, the show travels throughout Europe. I'm very excited to see what they finished. I've seen Steve's new fabric and teepee in the works and they are rad. I'm itching to get my hands on the book that was put out of Steve's work (designed by John Harrington).

Check out the blog that the organizers of the show have put together for images.



Thursday, June 05, 2008
The Lazy Dog Gallery
2 Passage Thiere
Paris , France
www.thelazydog.fr

Saturday, June 07, 2008
Lodown “Gallery West Berlin”
Brunnenstraße 56
Berlin, Germany
www.lodownmagazine.com

Tuesday, June 10, 2008
NANA store
Via Tortona 12
Milano, Italy
www.nanastores.com

Thursday, June 12, 2008
Galerie Montana
Carrer Commerç 8
Barcelona , Spain
www.montanacolors.com