Slowly but...

So as I continue to somewhat haphazardly apply paint to canvas board, I figured I'd upload a few photos of the latest works. Earlier I posted my first painting a take off on Jasper Johns' targets. This online set has another one. This one is better color wise, it's less pure primary color and I think that helps. Right now I'm playing around with collage, which creates depth far better than I could using just paint. Trompe L'oeil masters don't have much cause for worry.

From Aaron's Work

Suggestions? Titles for the works? How can I make these better? What's missing?

Left Behind

 

I saw this finely made, discarded boot while walking to the gym. I like to think of the story behind the loss. Did the boot fall out of a bag? Was it horrifically uncomfortable? Why just one? Where is the other? I cropped the photo to accentuate the vertical lines and the different textures. I wanted to emphasis the distance and the length of separation from other objects.

Thoughts?

Oscars: The Grouch.

The Oscars lasted so long last night that I'm pretty sure Abigail Breslin is able to drink. I think when they started Peter O'Toole still had facial affect. Seriously, it was a long show. According to the Post the broadcast was just under 4 hours making it nearly 1.5 hours longer than last year. I feel like a general rule for the Oscars should be to have a show that is not longer than the combined length of all the short subject films combined. Instead of watching the Oscars you could have watched An Inconvenient Truth and Little Miss Sunshine and still had time to see the opening monologue and the final two awards and probably one of the short features.

A few highlights: Ellen's opening monologue was really pleasant. Not outstanding but funny. And it featured one truly hillarious joke: "If there weren't blacks, Jews and gays, there would be no Oscars...or anyone named Oscar, if you think about it." Another quality Ellen moment came when she asked Steven Speilberg to take a photo of her and Scorcese. Then corrected his framing, and asked for a second try.

Little Miss Sunshine won a few awards, too few for me. Al Gore was funny. Jennifer Hudson appeared in serious danger of wardrobe malfunction but the collective forces of gravity and cotton's tensile strength prevent the scandalizing of everyone involved. Martin Scorcese and his caterpillar-etic eyebrows finally won, and people were happy about that. I was largely unaffected by this news, but was happy as it signaled the end of the show.

Crossover, not if Tim has anything to do with it

Tim Hardaway, part of the Golden State Trio Run TMC, is best known for his great crossover dribble. The essence of a crossover is the ability to go either way with the ball. Turns out this only applies to basketball. Because when it comes to sexuality, Tim is straight. He's only going one way. And boy does he hate you if you're not like him.

`You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States.''

What an ignorant moron. Tim Hardaway hates gay people. Alright, but honestly who really cares what Tim Hardaway thinks. He doesn't think that's right.He would ask for the teammate to get traded. But, according to the host, most other teams wouldn't want a gay player. So they come to the conclusion that their career should end.

What if it was Dwayne Wade? He says that couldn't be. Apparently you cannot be good and gay. Who knew. Tim Hardaway expert.

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UPDATE
As I was heading for work I saw Tim Hardaway on ESPN explaining how upset he was and how he's going to have to do a lot of thinking. I'm guessing his agony is less related to concern for the hatred he expressed, than for the paycheck he's likely to lose because of this. ESPN, I would imagine, is less inclined to have a virulent and public homophobe serving as analyst. Didn't they tell him you have to be homophobic off the record, geez.

"A" Team.

Petty? Yes. Outstanding, you bet.
Congressman Weiner has apparently had enough of the Republic Party and their inability or disinterest in governance.

Accumulation

According to the National Weather Service it looks like we had about 2 inches of snow/rain/sleet. So there you go. I was wrong. Oh well. Still, not that big a deal, except here - where all the schools were cancelled.

Fell.

Listening to The Clash today. Finding it particularly nice for an overcast day with a little slush everywhere. Nothing more elaborate than that. Just an update on the irrelevant minutae of my life.

"I wasn't born so much as I fell out"

Over Under

A few weeks ago my boss and I were talking about the "blizzard" forecasted for the DC area that evening. I told him that my general belief was that whenever dealing with DC and snow take the under. Meaning if the weather folks and general public expect 2 inches, I bet below that. In those situations I anticipate half an inch, or something like that. Today everyone seems to be buzzing about this major storm we're supposed to receive. I haven't checked any weather reports, I haven't paid any attention. Why? Because whatever happens, I know I'll have dealt with more and worse conditions, and no matter what I'll be at work tomorrow. So anything else is only interesting for guessing game purposes.

Like I said I haven't checked the weather, so I'm not sure what we're supposed to receive. But the general feeling on the street seems to be like children before a snow storm they expect will close school. So from that I have to believe that there is a good deal of snow expected and or a lot of freezing rain.

My prediction, using my patented DC General Hysteria Dopler Radar, is that we'll get an one inche of snow and maybe some sleet that will freeze. Oh, and that everyone who braved the lines at Whole Foods to stock up on staples like sushi, mangoes, quinoa and 13 dollars a pound cheese to outlast the blizzard of 2007 will find themselves going to work tomorrow.

Care to place bets on the snow fall for the next 24 hours.

My prediction is 1 inch. What's yours?

Minnesota Party

Photos from Libby's 3rd Annual Minnesota Party.

I went as Tangled Up in Blue. I wore a blue blazer, blue jeans and was wrapped in blue yarn and blue painters tape. I also had a "book" of Italian poetry from the 13th Century and a cook book on cuisine of the "Great North Woods." Hooray for abstract costumes.

MN Party 07

Teasing

Earlier this week former NBA center John Amaechi announced he is gay, marking the first time anyone who has ever played in the NBA admitted to being gay. Professional sports are rarely described as places of great enlightment. I'm guessing there tends to be better racial understanding in the NBA and NFL than in a lot of other work places. I don't imagine that being an out man in the NBA would be easy.

A lot of players have been quoted and some sound pretty dumb, some informed and then there is Shavlik Randolph

Shavlik Randolph: "As long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine." Apart from the general "ew icky" factor and the incredible lack of understanding about the way the world works...he doesn't even manage to couch his fear in a grammatically sensical way. Bring gayness on me. What? Force gayness on me, sure. Bring gayness around me. For the love of god Shavlik if you're going to graduate or at least attend Duke learn how to put together a fucking sentence. I mean, ideally that sentence would be more progressive, informed and enlightened than the one he stumbled through, but come on. Somewhere at Duke an English teacher just lost tenure.

There's a part of me that wonders whether Shavlik is simply lashing out at others to make up for his own difficult childhood. I am trying to imagine a middle school kid with the name Shavlik not getting mocked, wedgied and taunted mercilessly. I don't care if he was 6'10 at 11 years. If your first name has the work "lick" in it, things will be said. Oh, yes. Things will be said. So maybe Shavlik (which looks a little like shave lick, which gives you to bites at the taunting apple) is just getting out his aggression for prior insults. Or maybe he's frustrated that a gay Brit was able to average 6.2 points per game in the oh-so macho NBA, while he (Randolph) struggles to score 3 points a game for a decimated, truly inept Philly team.

Johns can rest easy

Knowing that I represent no threat.

Inspired by the Johns exhibit at the National Gallery, I went to an art store plunked down 40 bucks and got a bunch of paint, two brushes and some canvasses and canvass boards. What I didn't get, and don't have is any ability. And yet, it's still pretty pleasant. Posted below is my first painting ever. It's bad. I realize that. I think I need to mix the paints more to get a less "primary" looking set of colors. Oh, and you know learning technique could also be good. That said, it was oddly pleasant to sit hunched over my little master work.

Well Said

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

A quote I got from Evin.

Jasper Johns

If you're in the DC metroplex do yourself a favor and go see the Jasper Johns' exhibit. Ann, Ashelely and I went yesterday. It's great stuff. I'll try to write more about the exhibit, and would be happy to respond to any emails about it, ie more personal than this. But for me, it's rare that I see an exhibit that makes me chuckle let alone laugh out loud. This exhibit was fantastic, pulling together a bunch of pieces from Johns first 10 years. They focused a lot on his target works, his colors (yellow, red and blue) his devices, and his fascination with mapping and depicting the body. But as you walk through the exhibit you watch Johns begin to deconstruct his own work, and tease himself. After doing numerous targets and no doubt hearing people explain that they could do that, or when would he expand his vision, Johns assembled a DIY kit. The piece was a line drawing of his iconic target, and a set of three small Crayola style paint cups -- red, yellow, blue. It's like he was saying, fine if you think you can do this, please do. He's taking modern art and making it a coloring book, but without a touch of anger, arrogance and condescension. He even has a line on the painting where he's signed the painting and includes a space for his "collaborator" to sign the work.

I burst out laughing when I saw it. It's a perfect work of modern art. It's clearly an example of art as a series of choices. It's not that I couldn't do what he does. I can -- and he is encouraging that thought, if not that action. It's that I wouldn't have thought to make the target, let alone to deconstuct the art to the point where I divorced myself from the making of the art. In a New Yorker article a month or so ago, Johns was interviewed and explained that he views all art as a collaboration between the creator and the artist. It's a fairly well travelled idea, that art is about the interface between creation and observation, experience. But with Johns he's intentionally leaving the artwork unfinished (though you could make a pretty strong argument that the artwork is only finished when left uncompleted by his collaborator -- allowing any person a chance to envision what it would be like to work with and on a painting by a famous artist). By gently mocking the assertion that anyone can make modern art Johns is honoring his vision of art as collaboration. Johns work invites you to feel a part of it. It's art as conversation. When I walked through the rooms, I was filled with questions. I regressed to the age when an entire discussion could be conducted using the question "Why?" You remember those days, when you'd ask your parents a question and just keep lobbing "why" out there like an accusation of insufficient information. I don't want art to teach me through an entirely external voice and point of view. I want, and believe great art, can help me come to these conclusions on my own, and with my own additions to the work. Is it possible that I am giving Johns credit for ideas that he never conceived while painting these works? Of course, but art is collaboration, and together Johns and I came to these conclusions. I have to believe that your collaboration with Johns will yield different results. It sounds overly post modern and relativistic and entirely too soft, but I like to think of it a little like all those rap records where a couple of artists work together. You have to believe that Jay-Z featuring Pharell will be a functionally different work of art than Jay-Z featuring Missy Elliot. So it is with visual art.

Super Bowl Photos

Photos of the Super Bowl as oberserved at Henry's yesterday.

Henry's Super Bowl Party 07

Endorse.

With the growing ubiquity of Peyton Manning and Jay-Z commercials, I've come to one obvious conclusion. Jay-Z should endorse Peyton Manning. But, you say, Peyton Manning isn't a product, and even if he were his brand would be tied to his own celebrity. To this I say, "Hey look over there."

Now that smarty pants is occupied staring at the side of the monitor, or inspecting the keyboard for defects I can return to my brilliant and unassailablly sound idea.

SETTING
Jay-Z faces the camera, medium distance. He leans against a stool, wears a designer suit. A matte black backdrop is the only other element in the frame.

"Growing up in the projects you learn to bet on a winner. You don't get many chances to be wrong. As a young man, I knew enough to bet on myself. I knew I was going to be legendary. I've made hit after hit, record after record. That's how you build a reputation in my game. Peyton Manning, he's taken hit after hit, and set record after record. Seeing him on tv every night it was endorse or be endorsed. It was him or me, and I'm not going to be shown up by some one whose white as chalk, and just as salty. "I'm from the projects you take opportunity, before someone takes it from you. That's why I'm proud to endorse Peyton brand DVDs, the finest DVDs. Whether it's breaking down defenses, or breaking down MCs, these DVDs deliver the finest performance -- like Peyton in the regular season."

What do you say.

On last Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Frank D. Hargrove, a Republican lawmaker in Virginia's House of Delegates, said that instead of seeking a formal apology from the commonwealth for slavery, "black citizens should get over it." Hargrove also reportedly wondered how far such apologies should go. "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?"

Old Favorites

I've been enjoying my new fancy external hard drive. It's allowed me to take all the files off of an older computer I had been keeping in my closet. So now I have all my photos and music from the past 5 years. I've been using Picasa to edit and upload some photos as I find them. You can go here and find photos I took in previous iterations of my life. Check out the photos in the Arches and Mt. Rainier collections as well. I'm particularly proud of those.

Old Favorites