innovation on hold

a bit more significant-feeling than variation. so the weather is iffy-looking enough that chess is not going to happen this coming weekend, may 26th-27th will likely be final wetwork days. (don't yet have a waterproof case for the camcorder.)

















each session has seen evolution in the form of painting on chess boards in the park. this detail of a "game" between vineel and stephanie s was created without brushes, using tubes of paint.


















and here's a detail from the final one sunday, steph h and me "playing." it's the only collage so far, we took a picture of the chess board, cut it up, affixed it with mounting adhesive, during this the other person could of course with the second polaroid camera take a picture of a polaroid photo already taken of the board during the development process laying on the board, and so on, back and forth, until we were out of film (about 23 pictures, very little black/white space peeping through). very intense sensation, doing that, and it did end up breaking the no-color rule, mostly due to the age of the film, presumably.

















yes i'm looking forward to may 26th.

project x

what do you do if you start a project, and then eventually you abandon it for whatever reason, and then it never stops remembering itself to you, it won't let go, not that there's anything external to fuel that? and after years you think "ok i want to do it but boy does it have nothing to do with what i'm doing now"? you do it. you start it. again. you start to reach out to your collaborators, and you say yes, that was me, i was the weak one who just slid away, but now, this time, it's ok, it will happen - not like a lost romance right? because we all, any one of us, could have given it that frankenjolt current? or so wait it is like an old flame? still paintings, there is still a space to be made for them, in my near-future, there is no abandonment, yet, of pigment and yolk and brush. while project x ressurects itself, of course.

pay-per-ride

usually i buy a monthly unlimited metrocard. figure a two-dollar penalty for hopping on a bus or a subway will get me into kisokaido shape quicker. 9.75 miles walked today, only one descent into the mta. one gorgeous traffic cone this morning but camera battery was dead, you'll just have to imagine. breathtaking.

newlyweds

the wait is real

please bear with me, a bit tired. ok here's the thing. i used to live near ikebukuro, and i used to work in ikebukuro. but one of my strongest memories of that place, isn't real.

















this is a still from julia's video twenty-nine, part of the twenty-nine stations of the yamanote line. back in those days, we talked a lot about what the end-state of the project would be, and it wasn't just an exhibition. a book, vhs tape, cd, all sold as a little box set, with poems and sound collages and what you see up there only fluid and full-color prints of paintings. multimedia for your living room. what stopped us? fear? lack of connections? disorganization? anyway maybe nothing stopped us. maybe this is a great time to either find a publisher or take advantage of all this distribute-it-yourself, there are a lot of book printing services out there, i listen to mike's cd about once a month, i guess...

anyway this image was one of my favorite things - is, not was - is one of my favorite things to ever come out of an art project i've been associated with. i don't know what makes me more excited or feel better than knowing that in some way i helped make their stuff possible. the experience, with brian, wandering around, yes, nothing could be better, how could time be better spent. but that idea that brian's poems might not exist, would not exist probably, and that particular arrangement of sounds mike made, and now finally being able to see julia's video again, after all this time, got it transferred from vhs to dvd last week, just reminded me - fantasy, my reality has always been grounded in it. life was leaches and braces. reality was "we're going to the stars" and i still have a hard time figuring out what's real, what's valuable, what's true. do i really paint with video?

reduced to a functional object

instead of being displayed for your viewing pleasure, this traffic cone has been converted into an umbrella stand. sort of like using a painting as a tea tray.

statement (<100 words)

i aspire to create genuinely new contemporary visual art. currently I combine new and old media to build installations, conceived as paintings that move. i employ different processes for each project. for example, recently i projected dynamic video onto egg tempera paintings. at present my work adheres to the following methodology: 1) it must be experienced visually by the audience; 2) it must constantly change without repetition, providing a unique experience with each viewing; 3) it must utilize current technology; and 4) it must be something i have never done before. this propels the continual evolution of my artmaking practice.

play-by-play

not everything works out, not everything gets done, but exploring the different things, you can do or you want to do, is how i work. you try it, you like it, you maybe focus on it. maybe it involves too many obstacles and you keep it in the back of your mind for another time. this chess thing, the germs of it really were there in the late nineties, it was based more about the concept of using a timeclock to collaborate on paintings so that each contributor had the same materials to work with - pallette, surface, brush, time. it has changed a bit, but even wanting to use chessboards, that was a while ago, just never took priority, never had the feeling that there was a park in my neighborhood where people would want to do it, or the video element to really make it something i felt i was making - anyway so here's an image from a meeting with one of my most excellent brothers not too long ago.

you could say nothing came of this or will come of this, because we were really thinking about it differently.

or you could say that these images are proof of a meeting which cemented and acknowledged our desire to collaborate again (last time was sonntag). and we were led to silliness rather than beauty, but now i'm thinking, won't the "chess" "players" enjoy a little play-by-play announcing during their "games"? announcing as something we'd like to do was put forth by paul a few months ago, and we've been kicking it around a little bit, where or how to use it - i think this is a pretty good chance, really hope he can show up and feels the same way.

other feeling

for a long, long time have wanted to paint and use computer with drawing tablet and projection all simultaneously. this finally happened, with ron and michael. it didn't feel like painting, far more time-based-artform sensation, like music or dance. a bit like playing with waves in a swimming pool, wasn't prepared for such a different sensation. exciting. wonder what my dreams will be like tonight. that's my hand, holding paint brush, putting wet paint on a chessboard taped to my easel, michael's white photoshop splotches, he's using drawing tablet attached to laptop outputting to projector, ron holding camera for this picture, and there's a virtual chessboard projected onto a real chessboard, but it's flipped, so black squares being projected onto white squares and vice versa - this is right at the beginning of a collaborative piece, one of three or four made today using these techniques, many more earlier in the park, just painting...

what is art for?

one of my goals was to blog definitions of art. and that question looms large in my life, not always at the front of everything, but look forward to engaging in some kind of exploration.

yesterday was a lot of chess email. today a bit of chess email as well. another session coming up, excited.

but maybe more important (long-term) is that i met shin-il. this is someone who is not afraid to address a large room full of people with the question "what is the function of art?"

it has been over six months since i've done that. but i think we have something in common. and i think chasing that answer is going to be fruitful somehow. either way, something not so project-specific which matters, impacts what i do every day.

if you want to join a monthly round-table discussion focussing on this topic, please let me know. first tuesday evening. and if you can think of a good space, with coffee, maybe food, but definitely where a few people can sit and figure out the purpose of art, suggestions much appreciated.