incidental / age of plastic

at first didn't really think these things were connected. and maybe they're not, chance of contrived-for-blog right? anyway i take a lot of pictures. downoad to desk machine frequently, often daily. habit.

one of the ways i think people can enjoy viewing traffic cones is by entering a heightened state of observation - if you're walking around looking at something, or for something, other things will jump out at you, things you wouldn't likely otherwise notice. i imagine birdwatchers experience this with trees and clouds and things. certainly in museums i've had the experience of noticing a particularly striking circuit box or other structural component not intended to be viewed aesthetically as part of the exhibit.

plastic? went to buy glacine, so i can stack the dry chess boards and they won't stick to each other and the paintings will be safe from dust. have been trying to figure out how to show chess, keeps changing a little bit. all of a sudden have been thinking that plastic might be a good solution.






















this is a big change. i used to use the word plastic as an insult. plastic was bad, wood was good. now, very near the plastic seller and the glacine merchant was this traffic cone.

















hey, traffic cones are plastic, i'm really into traffic cones, i've actually been pro-plastic for over a decade without realizing it. internalized but never aware.

so, if traffic cones are almost art, what about this?

















and i think, i was born into the age of plastic? because this is a glass bottle and a metal can. i do remember those things. plastic already feels old, but when my mom and dad were little, did they have legos? tinkertoys would have been more likely.

so on the way to accomplish some of the more mundane tasks necessitated by artmaking (materials selection and purchasing in order to create and maintain work) i incidentally became aware that i am a plastic child born into a plastic time, through incidental traffic cone observation, and wanting to share that.

all of this somehow seems related to inquiries into the purpose of art, which has been on my mind, but goodnight.