"The Biennial Project" @ Atlantic Works Gallery

"The Biennial Project is a collaborative project by artists Eric Hess, Charlene Liska, Laura Rollins and Anna Salmeron to explore the nature and understand the perception of biennial exhibits within the art world, and, in so doing, to develop a collective body of work that will be exhibited in as many biennial exhibits as possible- especially the really cool ones."

@ Atlantic Works Gallery

80 Border St., 3rd floor

East Boston, MA 02128

November 6-29, 2008

Opening: Thursday, November 6, 6-9 PM

Third Thursday: November 20, 6-9 PM

(insert triumphant trumpet blasts here, or kazoo, your choice)

I've begun working in my new studio space. Although it's much smaller than the space I had at 450 Harrison Ave., this new space has proven to be more than effective. Let's see if I'm still singing the same tune when I start building my pieces for my and Chris Spuglio's show at Atlantic Works in April...

It's been a while since I've done any actual art work. Of course I've been noodling away in my sketchbook. You may be asking yourself, "What does the sketchbook of an artist with all-white 'paintings' look like?" I'll tell you. It's not the equivalent to the sound of one hand clapping. It's loaded with scribbles of ideas and sketches of projects.

Since I have so much lined up, I need to get back into the rhythm of things. To do so, I've begun making 24 new "White Rabbit in a Snowstorm" pieces. Most are 6x8 inches. This has allowed me to reacquaint myself with the materials and given me time to mentally further process the projects in my sketchbook.

Why so many? Why so small?

While I was participating in SoWa First Fridays, many people enjoyed the White Rabbit series. There were always nibbles at purchases, but either the price or the size prohibited any follow through. In most cases an artist would make prints of their work. Since these pieces are all-white and relies on texture to produce the image, printing is out of the question. (There is the possibility of embossing, but that's a new can of worms I don't want to get into right now.)

I want everyone to be able to have the work to enjoy. Everyone should have at least one work of art in their home. That is why so many, so small.

Old School (Part 3)

Although I have several other nuggets of my student work I would like to share, this will be the last installment of Old School for a little while. Once again, this piece is an assignment for the Intro Illustration class I was in. Here, we had to take Edvard Munch's famous psychological work, The Scream, (pictured on the left) and apply one specific phobia, preferably one we had ourself.

The illustration was done on scratchboard then Xerox copied onto plastic film. The film was later placed over a brightly colored, painted background. The film was not archival and over time has muted the colors with its deterioration.

I loved this assignment then and I still love it now. It utilized appropriation (before I knew what it was), multi-processes and techniques, and had an addition of self-portrait. Talk about getting involved in one's own work.

Have no fear... art school is here!!!

Old School (Part 2)

Once again, let's travel through time to the year 1994. Intro level illustration class is using pen & ink. The new assignment is to illustrate one's own zodiac sign:

Above, a nod to Looney Tunes. Below, a shout out to Family Circus.

Kids, if you have a lot of pent up aggression, don't join the armed forces...

express it at art school!

Old School (Part 1)

Here's another pen & ink nugget of a drawing dating back to my sophomore year of college. The assignment here was to pick three words that were in a hat and illustrate them. My words were milkman, school bus and catastrophe.

Don't you wish you had gone to art school too?!

Blast From the Past

I was rummaging through my parents' attic and stumbled upon all my artwork from high school and college. Among it were pads and pads of newsprint with life drawings, all the delightful (and cringe-ful) experiment of the basics of art, assignments of my first (and only) illustration class, and this little pen & ink gem:

You can click the pic to get a closer view of the details. Enjoy!

Dryer Lint

Your clothing makes up a good part of your identity. What you wear expresses to the world your tastes, economic status, and your personality. Clothing gets old and worn out, more clothing is bought. It's a continuous cycle until your inevitable end.

The clothes you buy are "you" at that particular point in time. From that moment, the clothes will not be the same. The first time they are laundered, a bit of them are blown away in the drier. In other words, what the clothes were before then is a slightly lesser version of what they had been. Just like your clothes, who you were then is not who you are now and most of what you are now is slipping away.

Dryer lint empties from the collection screen and fills me with sadness. For me, it's a physical reminder how most things in life slip away. Virtually unnoticed, their passing goes without the appreciation they deserve.

Horror Business

Since it's October, I feel that it is appropriate to blog about stuff relating to all things scary. Hold onto your seats. Get a clean pair of undies. File this under Rated R. Here we go...

I am a big, no, HUGE fan of horror movies. ____ your foreign films. ____ "Forrest Gump." ____ "The Departed."  ____ your Oscar winners. Yeah, they're great, but they will never be as good as horror films. ____ you, especially you, if you disagree.

Now that we're in each other's face, let's take a step back. 'Horror' in the 50's and 60's was, for the most part, not meant to be anything else BUT scary. Some of those films have transcended the generations. Take for instance "The Fly," about the dangers of genetic manipulation, "Attack of the Body Snatchers," about the loss of identity (or fear of Socialism), "The Day the Earth Stood Still," about the universal dangers of eco and social detriments, or George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," a social commentary of the times if there ever was made... and yes, all remakes for contemporary audiences.

My first memory of a horror film was "Friday the 13th" Yes, you may remember the franchise with a hockey (is that sport still around?) mask killer around a lake who terrorizes teens. Jason, our fine fellow fiend, slowly, and throughout the series, very creatively (kudos to the writers- especially in "Freddy vs. Jason") puts an end to teenage sexuality, drug use and aggression. (In my opinion, much more effectively than Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign.) I was introduced to Jason Voorhees, the master of slaughter, and the "Friday the 13th" series at a drive-in double feature.

My parents use to have a camper on a lake by the Jersey Shore. It was far enough away from the urban chaos of Philadelphia and close enough to the Jersey Boardwalk if we needed distraction. We would go to the drive-in movies close by. The first movie played on this particular night was "Police Academy, " starring Steve Guttenberg and that guy who does all those crazy noise effects with his mouth*. (I can't believe I didn't peak through my fingers when my parents told me not to do so during the shower scene. Crap, that was hot... I just saw it the other day!) "Friday the 13th" followed.

A bunch of teens go to summer camp for fun and shenanigans only to be violently disrupted by a woman vengeful upon teens looking for fun and shenanigans. Funny how that works. This movie was also Jason Voorhees' debut although his psychotic mother was the killer.**

After the movie we go back to our camper. Kids go to bed, parents stay up. After a little bit, almost drifting off to sleep I'm startled by a noise. It sounds like something, or someone, outside the camper brushing up against it very subtly. Then, very faintly, the someone's-going-to get-hacked-to-pieces thing starts, you know, the "ch-ch-ch, kill, kill, kill.." thing that almost sounds like crickets in the forest but you know in the movie it spells out imminent doom, only it's right outside my window! Aaaargh! Of course it was my parents but it still took a while to get back to sleep that night.

Anyway, let's get back to horror movies in general.

I knew at a young age, no matter how scary something was, I was a good kid and God wouldn't let any supernatural harm befall me. Not even Linda Blair's performance in "The Exorcist" could convince me otherwise. Then I stumbled upon "Jaws."  This introduced me to a fear of natural things. Not only that, but a fear of what I don't see might potentially get me. Even to this day, I am uneasy testing the water with my tippy toe... even in a land-locked lake.

Now let's jump ahead to 1996 when Wes Craven made "Scream." This flick was a postmodern horror movie about horror movies. The movie, for the most part, put all aspiring horror movie directors in line for our contemporary line of topics and point of view.

"Scream" was a commentary on most slasher films up to date. Up until then, they were formulaic, which "Scream" made serious parody of yet still remained scary. It flipped the genre upon itself giving no forgiveness for amateurish attempts, although many still try with fatal*** results.

"Scream" introduced the reality TV perspective with Gail Weathers trying to get the scoop on the killer. First perspective then took a new avenue with "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999. I don't even want to talk about it... it still scares the crap out of me.

Other than that, there are movies like the "Alien" series which are highly action oriented and hyper violent. Or Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" series which are also ultra-violent. Story lines like these adjusted to our tolerance of violence.

The advent of the Millennium, and the passing of Judgement Day in the year 2000, gave us some relief. The attack of 9/11 gave us new perspective. We had new fears and phobias, even new medias where horror was created, and the Horror Business adjusted.

A new kind of alien invasion hacked into of entertainment... xenophobia. Instead of invaders from space, foreigners invade our bodies, steal our kidneys ("Touristas"), do us harm for entertainment("Hostel"). Hollywood has even remade many Japanese ghost stories ("Grudge" and "Dark Water," for example, and what's that one about the photographer?)

At home, we're attacked with "Saw." Be careful how you live your daily life and how it affects others. Be good and responsible person... or you may pay the price.

Speaking of your daily life... movies like "Pulse" and "White Noise" will have you rethinking your upgrade to the iPhone. Will technology break into other worldly dimensions and kill me with my PS3? Reconsidering: is Blu-ray really better than analog? I still have vinyl records, there's hope for my worldly salvation yet.

Then George Romero presents "Day of the Dead." Without naming actual persons, the story line gives a biting (pun intended) commentary of the current Bush administration and corporate greed. In a twisted way, the zombies in this flick are actually the good guys.

Yes, those are good examples of good horror movies. Sure, there ARE many really, REALLY bad horror movies made. (See: Sci-Fi Network original presentations.) Then again, there are a LOT OF BAD MOVIES MADE IN ALL GENRES. Chick flicks are frivolous. Most comedies are rejected SNL skits or from the makers of "Date Movie" and "Meet the Spartans." (Did people really waste money to go see those? Did people really waste money MAKING those movies?!) I love horror movies because they speak to me. They entertain me with a scope of contemporary views and fears. They make me face those fears. By facing those fears, it makes the real world more manageable and less scary.

*Now seen on Geico commercials.

**What? Really?? Did that spoil the movie for you? For ____'s sake, you ___wad****, it came out in 1981!!! (I recall being traumatized by it in '85 or '86***** and it still freaks the ____ out of me.) Get with it.

***See STRAIGHT TO VIDEO.

****Sorry, I'm very passionate about this.

*****I apologize for all the commentary in parenthesis. I'm not academic and I don't know what to do with all my side commentary.******

******What? These are suppose to be numbers referencing books and other what not? Well, fancy pants, let me tell you what I told my grad school art history professor... "I'm an ARTIST!!!" (Therefore inferring this does not concern me. Duh.)

Blogs

Whew. I wanted to... really. I really wanted to... wanted to post a blog every day. I can't keep up. It takes a LOT of time and energy. Especially if you want it to sound slightly intelligent.

There is one guy who is trying to be a marathon blogger. I found him on CURRENT while watching TV between commercials. His goal is to make one skull or record one skull every day of the year. Creepy, yes. Interesting, definitely.

Check out Skulladay.com for more info.

Piggy Bank

Piggy banks come in all shapes and sizes. I have seen some shaped as Swiss cheese (to be a "Swiss Bank"), some shaped as coffins with mechanized hands that take the money to the grave, and many other shapes. My favorite are the banks shaped like actual pigs.

Squat, bulbous and kitschy cute, the pig is the perfect animal to contain one's (very slowly) accumulating wealth. According to the Wikipedia article you can read by clicking the link, the piggy bank got its name from the type of clay used to make household containers, alternately used to store coins. It also mentions the symbolism of pigs for farmers in a practical sense: 1.) It's food. 2.) The farmer can sell the extras and make money. While the first part may be true, it seems to make the most sense that piggy banks are pig shaped for the latter reason.

In Western cultures, pigs are seen as fat and lazy. Much like the real thing, the piggy banks sit there, eating the leftovers (i.e. spare change) you feed them getting "fatter" over time. The shape of the pig is the perfect metaphor for a change container.

I have a small piggy bank collection. The first I obtained, seen above, is the stereotype for this container. Shiny, pink and ceramic, the bank stares off oblivious and happy. It's a classic, enough said.

The next one is a little more special. I was driving through Chinatown from South Station one day when I noticed a glimmer from the corner of my eye. When I recognized what it was I nearly crashed the car. Quickly (and carefully) I pulled into a parking space and got out. There in the window of a trinket shop was a "gold" gilded piggy bank with Chinese calligraphy in red.

I don't know for certain what the symbols mean, but I assume they stand for wealth and good fortune. Since then, I have seen this piggy bank at Super 88 in the South End. They come in a variety of sizes, from small ones you could fit in one hand to something the size of a beach ball!! (If I had a place to put it, I would have gotten it.)

The next one was given to me as a gift. Instead of one large volume, its design is that of many ceramic spheres put together. Like its classic counterpart, this also stands on all fours. It is painted in a fashion resembling a quilt. Contemporary and country in its look, it is funky and fun.

The next is from IKEA. It strays from the squat, classic shape, sitting upright instead of being on all fours. It is made of a bright green plastic instead of ceramic. I like this one because of its modern feel.

My favorite piggy bank to date is this "laughing" pig. I bought this from a store that sold Asian imports... cabinets, lamps, pottery, etc. The bulk of the body is hollowed out and hand carved from a single piece of wood. The plug in the bottom is also made of wood. Instead of a bright color, this piggy bank has been stained a natural dark wood color.

As you can see, I really enjoy piggy banks. Kitsch is in my life. This has been my collection so far. I regret not getting the silver, metalic piggy banks that were for sale at Target. They reminded me of Koons' ballon rabbit sculpture. It would have made a nice addition. I look forward to obtaining new and interesting banks in the future.