The Journey Begins

Wednesday I finished my first hand-carved alabaster piece. I was very excited. Mostly because it turned out 1) completely unexpectedly and 2) as something I actually like. See, here's the thing, this first sculpture, made from a very small piece of pretty crappy alabaster, was supposed to just be a "test piece", a "get my feet in the water piece", a "remember how to carve alabaster piece". And it was exactly that. That it became something better than I expected. Well, that was quite a nice surprise.

Here's a not very good photo of it:

It's really small, like six inches wide. And it's two separate pieces. I have never done that before. I actually made the two pieces individually without any intention of putting them together. But they fit quite naturally. It was like it was meant to be. Alone, neither piece is very complete. Interesting how that works out.

The title is, for now, "The Journey Begins" and I am not going to talk about what it means or what it's about or what this body of work is all about. Not yet anyway. I need to get more into it, get my thoughts in order, work on my new artist statement before I can really discuss what is going on here. But I will say that elements of Nature, the Universe, Human Existence are all a part of the concept. Not really a surprise given my previous work and ideas.

Anyway, things are going just great. I am excited to be carving even though it's only two days a week. Working up in Petaluma is going well. I really like being there where I have no distractions. And the weather has been agreeable so it makes working outside great. Talk to me in January. But hey, I'm used to working in bad weather. Hell, I spent two months making art in Mendocino. Not exactly Warm.

I've made some very interesting discoveries in the last two weeks, about the challenges of hand-carving alabaster. First was the realization that what I thought was going to be the most difficult aspect of this whole endeavor has turned out to be not that at all. I figured that the biggest challenge would be the part about Carving By Hand, No Power Tools. Not so. I forgot how incredibly soft alabaster is. You do not need air or electricity. Ever. Really. I don't care how fast you want to crank out that sculpture - Don't. For one thing the stone is to easy to bruise and also, what's the rush?

No, I am doing okay with the hand tools. What is giving me trouble is the raw, natural state of the stone. I don't know what to do with it when it's like that. Okay. Let me back up. When I first learned to carve stone it was on alabaster. And I got used to working with the rocks in a natural, rough state. It was practically half a sculpture already. How easy is this?

So, when I moved on to marble and was faced with this very cubic chunk of stone I was completely floored. I couldn't see what was inside it. There were not clues. It was a Block. What do I make of this? But time and practice and experience taught me how to deal with that challenge and now I like to think that I am pretty darn good at bringing out the shape that lies within the Block.

Now I am back to the chunky, natural rocks and I'm floored all over again. What is inside? I can't see it. How do I begin? After doing this first piece I think I am starting to develop a process, a pattern on how to start. I am figuring out a way to discover the sculpture that lies inside. What a fun process this is so far. I really think that good work is going to come out of this. I am very excited!

Show Recommendation of the Day: Clark and Michael

This is an Internet "reality" show and it is Hilarious. Michael is Michael Cera who played George Michael on Arrested Development. If that television show was your preferred brand of humor, or maybe you really dig The Office (BBC or the American versions) or The Larry David Show, well then, this is for you. Check it out!

It's The Little Things That Really Get On My Nerves

Today I am not going to bore you with the details of my art practice and what I did this week, etc. Okay, well I will say that I am up and running at my friends' place in Petaluma. Did some actual stone carving this week and that was great. There is still lots to do to really make the space a great work area but at least I am set up to work there, when the weather's nice anyway. So, that was a cool. I'll write more about how I am feeling carving by hand and all of that in a future post.

But I feel like writing about something that has bugged me for a long, long time. It may seem unimportant to some people but it's a real pet peeve to me. Hidden Tracks! They seemed to have come into fashion sometime in the mid-nineties when cd's became the music industry standard. Somebody thought, "Hey, we can add an extra song that's not mentioned in the linear notes or credited anywhere on the cd. And people will just discover it when they listen to the album. And it'll be this really cool little secret. Wow. What a great idea!"

And yeah, it was pretty cool. At first. But then it just got annoying. There are different ways to have a hidden track. I think the most straight-forward way would be to have an extra song at the end of the CD. Nothing fancy. Just an unlisted track. But you don't see that much. No, artists seem to think they need to be clever and either tack it onto the last track after inserting a minute or two of silence. Annoying! Or maybe make it track 99 and make tracks 16-98 zero seconds long. Super Annoying! Either way it gets old fast.

Now with the invention of the portable MP3 player and the dominance of iPods it gets even more irksome. See, you upload your CD into your computer so you can listen to it on your iPod. And if it's the 16-98 tracks of nothing before the hidden track then that is actually no big deal because you just don't upload those tracks. Where it's really a problem is when the extra song is tacked onto the last listed song on the album. So, now you have two songs in one place and you can't do anything to remove the silence in between or listen to the two songs separately. Well, actually there is something you can do but it's a lot of work and only super anal people would bother. I don't and you know how anal I am.

Anyway, I hate the existence of hidden tracks and most people I talk to feel the same way. They are just lame and pointless. It seems that within the last five or six years, though, a hidden track appearing on a cd has gone out of fashion. But still, every once in a while one will surface and you just want to ask the artist or producer or label or whomever thought this was a good idea: Why? Really. What Is The Point?

There's nothing I can do about it but it just annoys. And I suppose, if this is the worst thing going on in my life, then I am doing alright. But really, should we have to put up with this? Ah well. I'll get over it.

Super Excited Feeling of the Day: This weekend is the Monterey Music Summit!

Yay!! I can't wait. Eric and I are gonna have such a good time. Two days of great music and (hopefully) nice weather. And did I mention great music? So many of our favorite bands. I can't believe the line-up. Woo-hoo! Monterey here we come.

Inspiring Art At The SFMOMA

Last night Eric and I went to SFMOMA (Thursday nights from 6-9pm are half-price) to check out two exhibitions. One was Olafur Eliasson's Take Your Time. The other was Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination. More on the Cornell retrospective later.

First I must speak, gush really, about how incredibly amazing the Eliasson exhibition is. I was beyond inspired. His work really titillates the senses. You can enter the show, which is on the fifth floor, one of two ways. Either via the stairs or the elevator. I suggest starting at the stairs. When you get to the fifth floor bridge you walk through the most amazing tunnel of light and reflection (One-way colour tunnel, 2007). Walk slowly. It is there you realize the importance of the show's title. I mean it. Take Your Time. It's worth it.

The first room you encounter is the "studio". In it are displays of Eliasson's models and experiments. There are so many and it is such an incredible array of shapes and forms and optical illusions, you could spend hours in this room alone. When I walked into this room I was moved to near tears. I couldn't get enough of all of the objects. I knew then that this exhibition was special.

From there you can go into various other rooms where your sense of sight, sound, and even smell (unfortunately not touch, though - this is the SFMOMA after all) as well as depth perception will be highly aroused and even altered by the displays Eliasson puts forth.

It is very difficult to put into words what I experienced seeing this show. For one thing, it is highly personal as each person's perceptions of what they are seeing will be different. And also, it's so overwhelming there really is no way to describe it all.

Installations that really captured me were: 360 room for all colours, 2002 and Beauty, 1993. It was in those two rooms that I really felt all of my senses engaged. I am trying my hardest to describe what these two installations are like. But I really don't know how.

Another fascinating, though hard to take for very long, installation is Room for one colour, 1997. This room is bathed in a particular yellow light that makes everything you see look like black and white. It's almost unnerving. It's also the room that the elevator is in. So, if you choose to enter the exhibition via the elevator this is what you will walk into. I recommend going downstairs and then coming back up that way to get the full effect. It's like entering another world.

Many of the installations use light and mirrors to alter what you perceive to be seeing. It really pushes the boundaries of what our minds accept as reality.

Also on display are photographs that Elliason has taken of nature and the environment and it is hard not to notice the connection between these images and the sensations that he is trying to create with each installation.

There is no doubt that it is worth taking your time while visiting this exhibition. What you see will change as you are there. I am excited to go see this show again. There is only so much you can take of some of the works. Both Eric and my's senses became a bit over-loaded after a while. But there was definitely a lasting affect on us. We couldn't stop talking about it afterwards when we went to Thirsty Bear.

Also, on display on the second floor is Elliason's Your Tempo. Though nowhere near as engaging as Take Your Time, this installation is fascinating none-the-less and worth a visit.

After taking in the Elliason exhibition we went to the third floor to see the Cornell retrospective. In hindsight we should have seen this one first. After getting our minds blown by Elliason we were in really bad shape to take in all of the wondrous works that Cornell created. We just couldn't focus. For that reason, this show warrants a second look.

But that didn't stop me from at least appreciating all of the marvelous little found objects that Cornell used in his collages and display boxes and cabinets of curiosity. I told Eric that from now on he couldn't make fun of me for all of the little found "treasures" I like to keep or of my pack-rat ways. He countered that I would have to put all of those things to use like Cornell did. Well, touché.

Anyway, the best part of that show was Goop Joe's Poultry Pages a faux newsletter Cornell created in the early 1930's. I would have loved to have stood there and read every single one but my eyes just wouldn't have it. What I did read was absolutely hilarious and silly and fun and I wish they were compiled in a book that I could look at whenever I wanted. That's another reason that I need to go back and revisit this exhibition.

Take Your Time closes on February 24, 2008 and Your Tempo will leave on January 13, 2008. The Cornell show goes until January 6, 2008. I am going to make a point to get back to the museum as soon as possible to avoid the holiday crowds which will start in November. These are two shows worth seeing again.

I left the museum last night feeling really inspired. Though, I will admit, also a little humbled. I mean, how on earth am I supposed to continue on with my explorations and vision when I see work that I can barely imagine being capable of creating? It's just too much. These men are geniuses.

Goop Joe Quote of the Day: From "Goop Joe Poultry Page no. 19"

Duck Hunter Falls Out of Boat; Drowns

Details of this tragic event have just reached the offices of the P. Page. It seems that one (1) A. Jacker of Westhamper, long Is. was victim of grim Pop Fate last sat. aft. when boat capsized when he had only finished his eighteenth peanut butter sandwich and had hardly any chance at all to enjoy the scenery. The saddest phase of this catastrophe was the fact that he went down with four or five turkey sandwhiches inside of his jacket which unfortunately were water-soaked by the time the body could be brought to the surface. Just how the diseased came to fall out of said boat is still a mystery as friends of his say that they can’t understand how he could ever manage to get in a position to fall. The Ed. of the Poultry P. is scouring his attic for his ouija board & may possibly have something further to report next week.

Mr. J. was a duck HUNTER in the real sense of the word.

We shed a tear.

P.S. We have at our office Mr. J’s underwear & winter overcoat for sale CHEAP.

Living Life In The Fast Lane

Oh my gosh. I am so tired today. Yesterday at Decom was a long, long day. But so much fun! The Bottle Cap Tree had it's final display. Though unfortunately the bottom half lights weren't working so only the mid-section of the tree was lit. Oh well. At this point I am just too tired of the tree to care.

It was placed in a really good spot, though. Right at the entrance into the park, near the main gate. So, lots of people saw it. I do not know what I did right in a previous life to be getting such good treatment from the art placement folks at Burning Man but obviously it was big. They just really seem to like me.

Anyway, the set-up, done by me and Eric, went smoothly and we were done in less than an hour, right around noon when the event started. Being there early was advantages for us because we were able to find a good spot in the park to set up our picnic area. And also we were able to just hang out, have lunch and chill out before setting off to see it all.

We tried to keep the day as mellow as possible knowing we would be there until past 10pm, when I had to start taking down the tree. So, we rested a lot in between exploring and dancing and hooping and mingling.

Our friends Penny and Bill came with their two boys in the late afternoon and we had a super great time with them. The kids seemed to have a blast and the adults did, too. It was really nice that they came out.

Taking down the tree went pretty well, though Eric did have to haul all the pieces a fairly long distance as we weren't able to bring our truck into the event like we did when we unloaded because the street activities went on until midnight. He did great despite the fact that he was tired and it was late.

We finally managed to get all of our gear and ourselves and the dog loaded up and we headed out. Tired but happy. Got home a bit past midnight and crashed. But neither of us slept very well so we are pretty beat today. That's what happens when you go to a party on a school night!

Anyway, today I have just been doing administrative stuff. Got my SculptureWalk application done and my website updated with images of Sayulita. You can check them out here.

Eric took digital photos and slides for me on Saturday night. He's such a great guy. He's my photographer, my studio assistant, my manual labor. He even helps me when my website management gets a bit complicated. And he's fun to hang out with. I am so lucky!

Here's our makeshift photo studio, set up in the garage. Sure saves me a lot of money to be able to do this stuff "in-house".

Anyway, I don't have the energy to say more. We still have to get the tree out of the truck and take the dog out for a hike. The day is not over yet.

General Recommendation of the Day: Get More Sleep.

Sayulita Is Done. Yeah!!

I finished up Sayulita today. And I am so happy with it. I especially love the texture I did. It's nothing innovative - just used a bushing tool. But it's not something I've done before and I really like it. That is on one surface. The other surface I sanded to 120 grit. To me that is a texture, too.

I am really trying to experiment with different textures. I want to go beyond the obvious "polish until it's so shiny I can see my face in it" finish. Actually, I never like to go past 300 grit. Some people love to polish to a really high gloss but I never have. I mean, sure it's aesthetically pleasing and you cannot stop yourself from caressing the stone. But if I want to look at shiny stones I'll buy a rock tumbler.

It was hard to get myself to stop at 120, I will admit. It's difficult, I think, to let tool marks show on the surface, even if it's just tiny sandpaper scratch marks. But it can be really interesting, if done well. And I think that for this piece it was appropriate, the textures I used. Since the form was inspired by shell fragments that were worn dull in the hot Mexican sun it would not be right to go to a high polish finish.

Friday we'll take slides and digitals of the sculpture so that I can submit it to next year's Sioux Falls SculptureWalk. I'll post images next week.

I am really excited to continue with stone carving. I can't wait to work out more textures. There are infinite possibilities to discover and all kinds of ways to use different tools to make marks. I just have to get creative. And do a lot of test pieces. But that will be fun.

I think for my next sculpture I am going to carve a simple spiral in a small piece of alabaster I picked up this summer. Just to get myself started with this whole carving by hand thing I am embarking on.

I'm really interested in studying the spiral and how it's found in nature since it's a form that seems to come up quite regularly in my stone carving. I got some books to read on the subject but haven't done much of that yet as I have been catching up on my Harry Potter lately. I am currently re-reading Book 6 so that I can read Book 7 and finally know how it all ends.

Anyway, things are moving along well for me. And I am excited about each day that I get to work on my art. Not too bad a life.

Music Recommendation of the Day: Silverchair, "Young Modern"

I hadn't heard these guys since "Frogstomp" came out more than ten years ago. They've been huge in their home of Australia all that time, not so much here. But this new album is so great. I am loving it. I can't even describe their style. But musically, it's just blowing me away. Awesome.

Final Thoughts On Burning Man (And Other Ramblings)

It is October 1st and I am happy to say that I did pretty well accomplishing my September goals. Number one, I successfully moved out of my studio, as of last Wednesday. I got all of my stuff stored in either my little storage unit or my garage. Yesterday was the big day of achievement as Eric and I cleaned up the entire garage and it is now much more organized and we can actually walk through it without stepping over crap that is everywhere. Also, all of the the last bits of playa dust are gone. We could even fit a car in there! We will see how long this lasts.

I was also able to get some work done on finishing up my sculpture from Marble, I am going to call it Sayulita. I am almost done with final shaping and sanding at 90 grit and then I can start work on the textures. I'm all set to get to work this morning but it's been raining (Raining!! During my Indian Summer!! Grrr!!). I think it's clearing up now, but I am going to wait a bit before I head outside to work. I plan to finish this week and then I can get it photographed and submit it to Sioux Falls SculptureWalk.

I am ready to start completely focusing on getting a stone carving work area set up in Petaluma and start hand-carving alabaster. The sooner the better - hopefully by the end of this month. I am almost completely removed from my Burning Man experience. Just have Decom this Sunday and one more time dealing with the Bottle Cap Tree. Then it is officially Over!

Funny how Burning Man has continued to be on my mind. I seem to be still processing the event. I can't get over how much mixed feelings I have about it all. On the surface, for me, it was this totally fun, extremely bizarre, and absolutely exhausting experience. I wouldn't have changed a thing about it. I had a blast!

But there are definitely things that bothered me. First of all, I really cannot get into the whole "Welcome Home" attitude about the place. As though, for only one week out of 52, certain people feel like they are in their element, that they are understood, that they are with their "tribe". Well, my feeling is if you don't feel comfortable or "at home" in the rest of your life, the other 51 weeks of the year, then there is Something Wrong! Your life is every day. Own It. Accept It.

So, you don't feel like yourself with your co-workers at your crappy cubicle desk job because you can't wear your furry boots and body paint? Those people just don't know the real you? Well, guess what, that straight-laced looking dude, with the long sleeved shirt covering tattoos and nipple piercings (You!) is just as much a part of who you are as the guy who pole danced in a skirt and Viking Helmet on some disco art car (You Again!). Is this not obvious?

And then there is this feeling from a lot of participants that is, like, "Oh look at me. I am so different. I am so 'Alternative'". Yo! Look around. You look like Everybody Else. You are acting like Everybody Else. You are on the same drugs as Everybody Else. Not so unique, eh? You know who is unique on the playa? That nerdy looking gentleman in the Dockers and tennies and hat with the flap that covers the back of his neck, taking pictures of all the art and "strangely" dressed people, looking completely out of place. Now that guy is Different! I dig that guy.

And then, how about the Trash. Damn. The MOOP was everywhere. I think the Leave No Trace memo got lost in the mail for a lot of people there. And the theme, Greening the Man? Forget it. It had absolutely no impact at all, in my opinion. No one seemed to even notice, much less care. Why bother. Besides greening Burning Man is an oxymoron anyway. An article in Saturday's Chronicle, "GREENING UTOPIA: When it comes to artful eco-conscious living and improving life, Denmark's new biennial Index design award - and not Burning Man - shows the way" by Zahid Sardar, sums things up better than I ever could.

In the 1960s, a British group of architects and visionaries called Archigram dreamed of nomadic groups - the kind Burning Man attracts - that would build instant cities made of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes and delicate structures transported by large balloons. The idea was to live lightly on the land and not deplete the environment.

A drawing by Peter Cook, one of Archigram's principal architects, shows such a city, and it may well have influenced Nevada's ephemeral Black Rock City's fantastic skyline.

Geodesic domes, flashing lights, lightweight towers and temples and tents made of giant parachutes billowing in the wind at Burning Man show that Archigram's utopian city can indeed be made but - despite (or, perhaps, because of) so many people trying to be kind to the earth at one time - it couldn't possibly be green. Mass migrations are not the way to a green utopia and Burning Man has to define itself merely as an artful party in the desert. At best it is a sort of world's fair of self-expression.

Compost containers and idealists notwithstanding, there is no easy way to stamp out the carbon footprint of 50,000 people camping in one spot, hundreds of RVs and zillions of mobile fire-art pieces roving around the playa spewing propane flames in the air. And that's not counting the ritual burning of the Man and other structures, such as artist David Best's wrenchingly moving but toxic Temple of Forgiveness made of plywood scraps.

Exactly! But, hey, I'm not saying the event shouldn't happen. Just consider the consequences more and don't pretend to be what you are not.

Oh, and Magic happening on the playa? I don't buy it. I'm not saying amazing things can't occur out there (Hell, I saw that double rainbow, too) but how are they more amazing then the little miracles that happen in our lives All The Time. You don't have to be out in the middle of nowhere to have epiphanies. Just look around. Your life, being here, existing, reading this blog on some machine made of plastic, those are miracles in themselves.

I made a tree out of bottle caps and took it to the desert for people to see. I played and had a great time. Burning Man is Fun! But that's all it is. My tree? It was about fun. I had fun making it, people had fun saving bottle caps for me, and (hopefully) people had fun looking at it. Is it a statement I am trying to make. Nah, not really. Okay, it was about realizing that there are a Shit Load of bottle caps in the world but is that a monumental discovery? Of course not. Not everything has to be full of Meaning all the time. The same can be said for Burning Man.

Would I go again? Heck yeah! Despite how hard it can be out there it is, like I said before, a lot of Fun. Who doesn't want to have fun?

Okay, okay. Rant over. I don't want to come off like a Hater. I am thoroughly looking forward to Sunday's Decompression, to putting on some playa wear (yes, I'll look just like everyone else), setting up the tree one more time and reminiscing about all the good times I had at Burning Man. But Is That All There Is? Heck No. I've got all the other parts of my life to keep me entertained. Every single day of the year.

Spam Philosophy of the Day: The train is leavin' the station. Get on board Monday.

That's right. Keep living your life Right Now. Do not, I repeat, do not wait until the next time the Man Burns!