Lari Pittman at Regen Projects

I went to the Lari Pittman opening last week. I was introduced to his work when I was at the Art Institute of Chicago about 10 years ago. I was, at the time, skeptical. I was interested in signs (the literal and the figurative) and I thought he was a very good painter, but I never got as excited as many did. I guess one needs to spend more time deciphering the works than I was wanting to invest back then.

The new works are much more interesting to me than the older works were. They seem deeper and definitely more complex. There is also an element to the work that I attribute to the "personal." Having been in the program at Otis and knowing his partner, Roy, and knowing Roy's work and knowing a bit about the objects they collect, I feel I have a bit more access to the work now.

But, then there are very specific subjects in the work that are fascinating: Cacti, fruit, overgrowth, vines, body parts, eggs, lamps, shafts of light. There seems to be a more specific era evoked in the work as well. There is an idea of traditional Americanism that looks toward "bounty" as a sign, but then there is also presented the reality of cultural diversity and the abjectness of this excess. The conflation of various technical depictions adds to this read for me. Woodblock, carvings, patterns and color schemes (could these be viewed as Latin American, as well?).

A quote from the press release doesn't give much narrative explanation but does talk nicely about the dichotomies that exist in the work:

In these new works, a rough, dark, and unsettled undercurrent is present. A formal and conceptual tension exists – an antithetical dynamic structured by the co-existence of numerous dichotomies. This simultaneity of opposites is illustrated in the themes found within the works: somber/celebratory, death/life, beautiful/ugly, utopic/dystopic, sublime/profane, radiant/contaminated. Formally, Pittman's paintings are also structured by dichotomies – abstraction/figuration, personal imagery/broad cultural signs, reality/illusion. Within this play of opposites, a tension is created that draws the viewer in and invites them to explore the event unfolding before them.

Be sure to check it out soon. The show closes October 20th.

Open House Housewarming Weekend

Click image for a full view

Plato and a Platypus

Finished reading Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes this week. Not a difficult read at all, and so I would recommend it. It is not for someone who wishes to deeply understand philosophical concepts and their history, but it does go over a number of basics. I guess my main recommendation is it is entertaining. The jokes are not rip-roaringly funny, but I chuckled here and there.

On the negative side, I would have wished the philosophy part had been a bit more extensive and a been a bit more contemporary. I was also shocked that Karl Marx wasn't really touched on, even though the book did talk about political philosophy. I even expected a mention of post-modernism and deconstruction, and, perhaps, mention Derrida.

Give it a go.

Bike Spill #1

So, I've had my bike for about a week, trying to do more cardio exercise. I have been loving it. When I first moved to LA, I had a bike, but let it go after a while. Started driving everywhere. Where we live now is perfect for bike riding. To get to work is 12 kilometers and takes about an hour. There are hills both directions so I get a pretty decent work out. I can get to Alhambra or Downtown in about 30 minutes. Going past buildings at a slower rate, you discover tons of new and interesting places. Cute shops or ethnic restaurants. It's been fantastic.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I went down just 5 minutes away from the house. I was going around a parked car and as I went by it I saw a huge pavement buckle right in front of me. There was little I could do. I tried slowing down, but perhaps I slammed on breaks. Not really sure, just know I went flying through the air and landed underneath the bike. Dazed and sore, blood but not sure from where. A driver stopped and gave me a towel and some water and I began cleaning my face where I thought most of the blood was coming from. My chin, and perhaps, my left cheek. I was feeling faint, and my vision was clouded, all I could sense was sunlight and pain. I tried to lift my backpack with my right arm, but didn't have the strength, or couldn't due to the ache.

I was right in front of the Debs Park Audobon Center and a bike rider came by, someone who worked at the Audobon. I was still dazed and he went up to the center and had a friend drive back down for me. He took my bike back to the center and his friend drove me home. By this time, I was aware that I could bend my arm but not use it in any normal way. I wasn't sure if I had strained it or not. I called Clay and he said he'd meet me at home.

A few minutes later, he was driving me to Huntington Hospital where they did about seven x-rays. The arm was fractured, but not severely. No splint, no cast, just a sling, and perhaps, no exertion on it for a week or two. It will be swollen for awhile, too. Just need to try extending it frequently so it doesn't lock up. A few scrapes and definitely a black eye and bruised chin, a road rash on the left arm and banged up knees.

But, over all I'm kind of pleased. I was out there doing something I enjoyed. My first sport's injury since I broke my left arm riding a tricycle off the front porch when I was five. I really do want to get back on the bike as soon as possble.

House Related Post #1

The Curtains Shrank!!!

We bought temporary IKEA curtains to keep out the 100 degree heat. They were about 10 inches too long so I was preparing to hem them. I washed them. The tag said not to dry clean or tumble dry. Like I've ever followed washing instructions! Got them out of the dryer this morning and was rehanging them, an they shrank ALOT. 10 inches to be exact. So, no need to hem them. They seem like (after I iron them) they are going to be just perfect. Some times things just work out.

Living Room




Bedroom

Jan 27, 1998 - Sept 4, 2007

Belmont...


She passed away very unexpectedly. She was the youngest of the four. She was a rescue from a homeless man on Belmont Avenue who was beating her. She had a good life. She never learned exactly how to use a litter box. She wasn't fazed by much. She was loved very, very much. She purred like crazy.

Montenegro - Day 4

The old city of Ulcinj is a touristy city that I didn't expect to be a touristy city.

When I took a driver from the city of Bar (where the train dropped me off) to the city of Ulcinj, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was exhausted from the flight and the train trip. I also had no money (cash) on hand. The cab driver took me to an ATM which worked perfectly. I got out some local currency and was on may way to Ulcinj. I wasn't sure where I was going so I got out of the cab in the middle of Ulcinj (the city proper). I bought a pastry to eat and being exhausted, I sat down on a sidewalk. A shop keeper saw me there and tried to communicate with me. I had contact information for Vahida and the colony and she got a cab for me to go to the beach area to get to the old town. When I got to the beach, there was a cigarette vendor on the beach that knew someone who knew Vahida. He caled this guy and he, being a neighbor of Vahida, took me up into the old town to find Vahida. Vahida welcomed me and once I was settled in, I realized how small the town was (in that every one knew everyone - population is about 10,000), but also, how large it was (in the sense that it was populated by 'others' that were only there to "summer").

Old Ulcinj is actually not that old. When I was in Le Mont-Saint-Michel, I was fascinated by the way that the streets were made adaptable for the wheel chairs that were being used by a number of the tourists. It was a truly ancient site that was repurposed for a modern tourist aesthetic. Old Ulcinj is similar in the sense that Ulcinj was destroyed by an earthquke in the 70's. But instead of a tourist visiting ruins, the whole city has been rebuilt from the ruins (a phoenix from the ashes). The same rocks have been used to rebuild original structures, as well as new ones. It is quite hard to see where old ends and new begins (or where new ends and old begins).

As a tourist town, it is not overly luxurious. I was reminded of a spring break town, a beach city like Corpus Christi or South Padre Island. Night clubs going till 2AM. Loud parties. Open containers. But, it seemed like this was where people went when they were not able to go to Ibiza or Mallorca. Slightly decadent, but still affordable. The tourists came directly from Italy by ferry or from Germany, possibly through Belgrade by air and train. There were also a large number of Russians living there in summer homes. And a huge amount of new construction of mini-McMansion on the hillsides overlooking the Adriatic.

Scritti Politti - Songs To Remember

From Songs To Remember:
"Asylums in Jerusalem"
"Jacques Derrida"

From a Q&A between ELVIS COSTELLO & GREEN GARTSIDE: A Scritti Politti-Costello chat in the October 28, 2006 Los Angeles Times (would've included the link but it's for pay now)...

ELVIS COSTELLO: Wordplay is something for which I was constantly flagged in the early part of my career. People find it in my songs even when none is present. At one point, I could pun and alliterate compulsively, but I cannot do crossword puzzles. Do you think that perceiving patterns in groupings of words can be an affliction, or is it just a trick talent in service of an idea or emotion?

GREEN GARTSIDE: Well, wordplay is important in all aspects of life. In understanding the world. In certain circumstances it helps rhetorical force, in other places it undermines it. I don't think of "it" instrumentally. It's endlessly productive.

EC: Have you ever hesitated before including a reference in a lyric that might be regarded as too obscure or, that most English of accusations, pretentious? Have you ever gone ahead anyway, just for badness?

GG: No I don't mind being pretentious. I think there may well be something to be said for pretensions. I don't police my lyrics much.

EC: Speaking as someone who only had a Secondary Modern education [high school], I feel fortunate to have had a reading list reflecting a life and class structure that I could recognize, even if I didn't feel bound by it. I'm speaking of "angry young man" writers like John Osbourne and Alan Sillitoe, with some obligatory Shakespeare thrown in. Is there anything in your education that particularly influenced your work?

GG: I'm really alarmingly unfamiliar with great swaths of 20th century writing. I've generally been more inclined to read books that are "philosophical," a word that others find more wanting than I do. That's a self-taught thing. I started at art school with Wittgenstein. I was interested principally in the indiscrete problem of meaning. The Beatles introduced me to the most powerful thing: ambiguity.

The interview of Green Gartside (the creative genius behind Scritti Politti ) in the Times made me think of the song "Jacques Derrida" from the 1982 Songs To Remember. I had intended to post it when Jacques Derrida died on October 8, 2004. He is by far one of the most influential of the philosophers that I read. But, even in the lyris of "Jacques Derrida" and throughout the rest of the album, there are further references to Lacan and Marx. I do love the "wordplay" that Gartside does over the complete album. It seems that Gartside wants to live above the Law. He's been talking in the tongues again. Here are the lyrics to "Jacques Derrida":

I'm in love with the bossonova
He's the one with the cashanova
I'm in love with his heart of steel
I'm in love
I'm in love with the bossonova
He's the one with the cashanova
I'm in love with his heart of steel
I'm in love

How come no-one ever told me
Who I'm working for
Down among the rich men baby
And the poor

Here comes love forever
And it's here comes love for no-one
Oh here comes love for Marilyn
And it's oh my baby oh-oh my baby
What you gonna do?
In the reason - in the rain

Still support the revolution

I want it I want it I want that too
B'baby B'baby it's up to you
To find out somethin' that you need to do
Because

I'm in love with a Jacques Derrida
Read a page and know what I need to
Take apart my baby's heart
I'm in love
I'm in love with a Jacques Derrida
Read a page and know what I need to
Take apart my baby's heart
I'm in love

To err is to be human
To forgive is too divine
I was like an industry
Depressed and in decline

Here comes love for ever
And it's here comes love for no-one
Oh here comes love for Marilyn
And it's oh my baby oh my baby
What you gonna do?
In the reason - in the rain

Still support the revolution

I want it I want it I want that too
B'baby B'baby it's up to you
To find out somethin' that you need to do
Because

Oh I'm in love with bop sh'dayo
Out of Camden Town for a day - oh
I'm in love with just gettin' away
I'm in love
Oh I'm in love with militante
Reads Unita and reads Avanti
I'm in love with her heart of steel
I'm in love

He held it like a cigarette
Behind a squadee's back
He held it so he hid its length
And so he hid its lack - oh
An' it seems so very sad
(all right!)

Well I want better than you can give
But then I'll take whatever you got
Cos I'm a grand libertine with the
Kinda demeanour to overthrow the lot
I said rapacious
Rapacious you can never satiate
(ate what?!) desire is so voracious
I wanna eat your nation state

I got incentive that you can't handle
I got the needs you can't assuage
I got demands you can't meet
'n' stay on your feet
I want more than your living wage

Well I want better than you can give
But then I'll take whatever you got
Cos I'm a grand libertine with the
Kinda demeanour to overthrow the lot
I said rapacious
Rapacious you can never satiate
(ate what?!) desire is so voracious
I wanna eat your nation state

Old drawings

I came across these older drawings (probably did them last year) while cleaning up my harddrive. These are similar to the ones I posted last month in the use of basic office supplies and the balance between representation and abstraction. Images from left to right are: 1) A drawing of the wine shop from the desk at which I sat. 2) A drawing of a business card from a wine rep. 3) A phone message turned into a drawing. 4) A line drawing using various office supplies. 5) A U.O.ME/"Deathstar"esque abstract drawing. 6) A drawing of a missle fired from a silo. These were about 9" x 4" each.

I am back at work on new drawings and will post soon.

Stephen Duffy - Because We Love You

Track listing:

"Something Special"
"A Lot of Ink"
"Sunday Supplement"
"Why Shouldn't I"
"Unkiss That Kiss"
"I Love You"
"When You Go To Bed"
"Love Station"
"We'll Never Argue"
"Julie Christie"

Kelly J. Kitches is getting married!!!! And all she wanted was "Something Special" by Stephen Duffy to play at the reception. And who was able to finally deliver it for her?? Yours truly.

This was one of my early favorites. Stephen Duffy actually founded Duran Duran with Nick Rhodes and John Taylor. He left to pursue a solo career and Simon Le Bon was added to the line up. I can't say it was an unwise move on Duffy's part. I think, musically, Duffy was brilliant. Yes, Duran Duran became mega-stars and sold out ("sold out") arenas all over the world, but listen to "Julie Christie" and you'll see what I mean. Long live Duffy.


All things Duffy are available at Stephen Duffy and the Lilac Time

The Bush Administration's Failed North Korea Policy

Democrats.org has a post called "The Bush Administration's Failed North Korea Policy" that's worth checking out...

Over the last four years, the Bush Administration has outsourced our diplomacy with North Korea to other nations and failed to take the lead in making sure America remains safe and secure. Today's announcement is further evidence that President Bush has taken his eye off the ball, allowing a member of the so-called ‘axis of evil’ to allegedly test a nuclear weapon.

While I think Dean focuses too much on the idea of 'outsourcing' as the worst part of Bush's policy, it is important to note the continued failures of the current administration. It is obvious, when compared to the Clinton approach to diplomacy, they are NOT the party to make the world more secure.

Call for Artists

The Universal Symbol for Emptiness
a group exhibition curated by Calvin Phelps
fall 2006

If emptiness can be defined as “an experience of being without, of not having,” then we have all, in our lives, experienced a form of emptiness. It is arguably a presupposed position starting from our birth and a state that we attempt to fill with experience throughout our lives. The state of emptiness is a point of beginning in both Eastern thought and Christianity, and can be seen alternatively as the ideal point of spaciousness and freedom or the point of crisis, deficiency and oppressiveness.

In psychoanalysis, C.G. Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious refers to the part of a person’s unconscious that is common to all people. Jung theorized that particular symbolic subject matter do exist across all cultures, through all time, and in every person. Is emptiness an unconscious part of us that can have a representative archetype? If so, what is it and how can it be depicted?

This exhibition tries to answer these questions, while raising more provocative ones. The work in this exhibition does not simply evoke the personal-psychoanalytical artists’ response to trauma or loss, but looks at the various forms the void of emptiness can and does take.

Please submit images of works for consideration for this exhibition to Calvin Phelps, 411 S Main St #413, Los Angeles, CA 90013 or email mail@calvinphelps.com.

______________________________________________________


Carl Jung is buried in a family grave at the Protestant Church Graveyard in Kusnacht. The gravestone is rectangular about five feet in height, bearing the arms of the Jung family, and beneath this the names of father, mother, sister Gertrud, wife Emma Jung-Rauschenbach, and C.G. Jung. The top and bottom borders repeat in Latin the motto he choose for his house Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit (Called or not called, God will be present). The right and left sides contain a passage in Latin from St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:47) Primus homo de terra terrenus. Esecundus homo de caelo caelestis (The first man is of the earth and is earthly. The second man is of heaven and is heavenly).

Visited Countries Map

Pretty cool map feature showing what percentage of the world you have visited (I'm at 7%).


create your own visited countries map

Montenegro - Day 3

OK, so I admit. I'm just making up stuff now. I have no idea if it was day 3 or day 7 when the things I will describe to you happened. I know that after a night of meeting the new folk and general comraderie, we all started bonding. The American Women didn't arrive till a little later. So, for the first night it was just us. We stayed up on the hilltop in the Villa.


The next day, Rushit, Shawn and I took a trip to the beach (well, they went to the beach. As for me, "I don't like the sand, I don't like the water.") I spent time wandering the steets of Ulcinj. Ulcinj is a small town of about 20,000 peolpe or so. It is on the coast near the border of Albania and is thus populated with about 90% Albanians of which most are Muslim. The other residents are Orthodox Christian. Now, expecting to be in Serbia/Montenegro, I had practiced Serbian words like 'hvala' and 'pivo'. I didn't realize that Albanian would have come in more handy. While the local Albanian population spoke Serbian, it would have just been more polite had I at least learnd the basics of their language.

Luckily, since Shawn and I were Rushit's roommates and we took a liking to each other, we spent alot of time together. Rushit would translate for us since, being from Kosovo, Albanian was his first language. The waiters at the Villa and pretty much everyone in town were Albanian, so it certainly helped to have Rushit around.

Random photo of the city...


Up in the Villa there were a number of restaurants which served primarily fresh seafood of the day. Here is a photo of the catch before being prepared for that evening's dinner.


I guess it was that evening that Vahida divvied up the art supplies. This came as a bit of a shock to Colleen and myself, as we were both from educational backgrounds that did away with disciplinary boundaries. I more recently have been doing photography and video and was not expecting to paint. I knew painting was certainly going to take place, but I didn't think it was the sole practice of the residency. And, as it turned out, it wasn't going to be the sole practice of the residency. But, more on that later.

New Drawings

I did these drawings today. They work as a suite of five images arranged in this order...


Details of each image follow. Each image is 9.25 by 8 inches. The first, third and fifth drawings are collages using newspaper images with Scotch tape and black Sharpie and Dry Erase Marker. Image two and three are drawings using various pens, markers and highlighters. Click on any image to get a closer look.

An image of a soldier with a baseball on a baseball filed.



A drawing made using highlighters and a Sharpie.



An image of Mexican politicans in front of a political poster.



An drawing of a dry eraser marker with shadow.



An image of a woman crying in the arms of a Salvation Army volunteer in London after the 7/7 attacks.

Cy-Fair High School Reunion Mix

"586" by New Order
"Cars" by Gary Numan
"CCCan't You See" by Vicious Pink
"Desperate But Not Serious" by Adam Ant
"Don't Tell Me" by Blancmange
"Fade To Grey (Extended)" by Visage
"Forever Young (New Single Mix)" by Alphaville
"Get The Balance Right (Razormaid Mix)" by Depeche Mode
"Heartbeat (Class X Mix)" by Psychedelic Furs
"Here We Go" by Ministry
"Hungry Like The Wolf (Razormaid Mix)" by Duran Duran
"I Love a Man in Uniform (12" A Side)" by Gang of Four
"I Love You Too Much (Original Version)" by The Human League
"Imagination" by Belious Some
"Promised You A Miracle" by The Simple Minds
"Promises, Promises" by Naked Eyes
"Sailing On The Seven Seas" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD)
"Smalltown Boy (Full 12" Version)" by Bronski Beat
"Tainted Love/ Where Did Our Love Go (Extended)" by Soft Cell
"Tears Are Not Enough (12" Version)" by ABC
"Tour de France (Original 1983)" by Kraftwerk
"Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
"Whammy Kiss" by The B52's
"Wishing (I Had a Photograph)" by A Flock of Seagulls

Montenego - Day 2

I arrive in Ulcinj totally exhausted. But, equally, I feel exhilirated. I am supposed to go to the Old Town but Vahida doesn't answer her cell phone. No problem. I find a guy selling cigarettes by the beach who speaks enough English to help me find Ismet, the 'mayor' of Old Town. Five minutes later, he is walking me up the stairs to the Old Town where he takes me directly to Vahida's house. Fellow Americans Colleen and Shawn have arrived, as well (we were all on the same train, but we didn't know it), and we meet for the first time. I also meet Rushit from Kosovo, Ana from Serebia and Ioan from Romania. More on all these later, but first, images of the Old Town.



Vahida tells us that we are going to Ada Bojana (at least, I think that's where we went first). On the way to the van that will drive us there, we pass the jail where Cervantes was imprisoned. By then I have meet Marko and Tamara, a married couple from Serbia (who I will later stay with on my trip home), as well. In the photo below are Marko and Rushit with Shawn, Tamara and Ioan looking into the prison.


We pass the Orthodox cemetery on the way to the van.


When we get to Ada Bojana, I learn we are to clean the boat. Well, technically, Marko, Tamara, Ana, and Vahida begin cleaning and tell us to hang out. But, watching them go at it for half an hour, we all decide to pitch in. This is the closest to the 'slavery' that I got 'sold into' (everyone kidded me about that happening). We will end up using the boat later during the residency.


Wild cat eating a fish head.


On the way back to Ulcinj, we stop at Copa Cabana in Ada Bojana, a huge beach that goes as far as the eye can see.

Serbia & Montenegro - Day 1 & 2

A recent LA Times article describes the journey via train from Belgrade to Bar, the coastal town in Montenegro. It was from Bar that I would take a cab to my final destination of Ulcinj. Before I boarded the train in Belgrade at 10PM, I purchased a plastic 2-liter bottle of Pivo to be my companion on the start of the trip.

These two new friends told me I could share their cabin on the train. The guy on the left spoke adequate English, but his friend...not so much. We were quickly joined by two young brothers and thus began the train ride.


On a stop along the way, the two brothers met up with a friend of theirs and his girlfriend. It was obvious that I was not to get much sleep in this cabin. There was a bar on the train that the two younger guys frequented, but for the first leg of the trip, I shared my beer with the group.


Most of the people I met in Serbia & Montenegro (including the Bosnians, Croats and Kosovars) were still quite nationalistic. They were not aggressive or disdainful toward each other in any way. But you could sense that some unresolved issues were always near the surface. The people I met seemed eager to let these disputes play out in a democratic way and were never pleased with the military conflicts to which Milosevic had made them a part.


I ventured down to the bar and had some Rubin Vinjak at 100 dinar a miniature bottle (cheap). It is a cognac-type liquor that is produced in a town about 100 miles south of Belgrade. What was interesting was that not only were the passengers enjoying a cocktail, but so was the train conductor...



The bathroom....





After a quick trip to the bathroom, which was as described in the LA Times article, my two new friends decided to find another cabin -- away from the teen-agers.

It wasn't until early in the morning that my English-speaking friend woke me up, The train was coming to a near stand-still, so I asked if we were arriving. His answer came as a shock. We were approaching the ravine where in January the train to Bar had lost use of its brakes and careened over the edge of the mountainside. I wasn't aware of the accident, but read about it at the BBC once I got to a computer.

Serbia - Day 1

The trip to Serbia & Montenegro began with a flight from Los Angeles to New York. A short layover and plane change in New York and then on to London. London to Milan, and then Milan to Belgrade.

Below is a photo just for Anna. The Captain announced that we were flying over the Swiss Alps. This is as close as I got to Basel this year. Maybe next year.



As we flew into Belgrade, I was intrigued by the architecture of the city. This image of New Belgrade is of the Communist-era brutalist architecure that was popular through the 60's. Tito led Yugoslavia from the 40's until his death in 1980. During this time, he built the city of New Belgrade across the river Sava. In a move away from Soviet formalist and narrative architecture, the predominant style of New Belgrade was more Western modernist and avant-garde.



After I landed, I took a cab ride around the city. The driver (though ripping me off) was very friendly and informative. He took me by many interesting spots, including the ruins of the Army Headquarters bombed by NATO in 1999. There is a very interesting article regarding the architecture of Belgrade and this building at the following link: nato as architectural critic by Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss. A short quote:

(W)hat can be the strategic value of a highly visible large building in the center of the city, especially after being emptied of its personnel and equipment? Physically, its strategic value is zero. The only possible strategic justification for the destruction of this building was its symbolic disappearance from the skyline.

I didn't spend much time in Belgrade the first day, but when I came back through, I spent 2 days with my new friends Tamara and Marko. Pictures of that visit later...