Home again, Home again

Aw!  It looks so small!  So, I'm standing on a stool, looking across the bar to take this cell-phone shot. And VERY HAPPY to finally have this work at the local "West Richland Beer and Wine Store."  Gotta love the name, right? Classic!  As is the incredibly well-lit atmosphere. This isn't a "bar."  It's a convenience store with a keg problem.

And that's the thing-  I'm proud to have this work sitting on top of the refrigerator.  Is that so wrong?  The first day I brought my cards in the tendress took one look and said "For the love of Beer?" without asking me the title. (which, for the original, was accurate.)  So, yeah, I found the only other Damien Hirst fan in town.

I've been trained, over the years, that no one likes a show-off. And thus, I have also taught myself not to start conversations about my art with sentences like "Similar to Damien Hirst's 'For the Love of God'..." But, apparently, that is what is expected.  I'm doing my best to wrap my ego (much thinner than people would think) around the concept that it is not only alright, but actually expected, for artists to name-drop their betters, shamelessly.  I've always thought it was incredibly alienating and gauche.  Shows what I know after 7 years of artschul!

days before residency

a photographer friend from Oakland descends and saves the day!

Working with truly professional (at least in attitude, he's getting paid in ducks) people, is a truly eye-opening opportunity.  Re-shooting these photos took less than 5 hours. And they look 5,000 times better.

Joe Carrow, jzoe@jzoe.com btw.

Final 3

 mapkini

 mermaid

miss hermiston

ok, 12 makes a calendar, correct?

swimming in imagery

 cantini

 jackelope

 deep sea diving suit

 utilikini

 suffolk puff

 snake boa and bandanatini

 nettini

 sailor jane

pipeclini

So, since I would need a small semi to bring all this work to residency I elected to take stills. (Ofcourse, i decided on this plan of action late, and even though my mentor could have helped me take stills (and still may), I ended up shooting them in my garage) (look forward to ghetto set-up shots next blog)).

The real issue is that I AM SO DONE WITH THIS PROJECT. I mean, mentally.  I still have at least a day on the physical finishing. But, really, done with the bikinis and bathing costumes already.  Time to move on!

Timberlake

So, can I put some bottle caps on that for you?

Apparently it's awesome to have silver fake monkey skulls to accompany your throw pillows, which is totally something I agree with

I already think Justin Timberlake is going to be one of the most influential people, like, ever, but it was this quote that made me fall  in love "I do love a stripe."  Apparently he is branching into interior design, starting with pillows, and adding dishes later in the year.  www.homemint.com if you want to sell your facebook soul in order to have Timberlake and a designer named Estee Stanley give your life meaning though interior decor.

I may be sounding bratty, because I just got off work and I don't know if I'm going camping tomorrow or not, and the coffee shop decided to close an hour early, and the beer store isn't open because it's Monday, even though it's my friday... But, actually, I completely agree with the idea that the home is the place that art and design actually matter most.  Screw museums- if you won't live with my work than you don't really love it as much as I do.

Ok, gotta label some caps before they kick me outta here...

Bottle Cap Project

So, one of the things I proposed last semester was to create a sort of online archive of my bottle cap collection where people could search specific caps, but also rearrange them, and perhaps put them into patterns (like a design your own skull).  My webbed friend (who will actually be doing the "building" part of this) decided that the caps with the nails already through them were out, which depleted my collection enormously.  But we are now proceeding nicely, with over 500 caps to play with.

I have sorted (along with my faithful mother) over a hundred pounds of bottle caps in the last week.  And then photographed the individuals on the copystand (henve the upside down bears with the cat hairs), and now am working through tagging each little guy with colors, brand, notable creatures or motifs, and brewery name and location, to the best of my wiki abilities.  I started by doing them all on a black piece of velvet (which, coincidently, has a ghost image of Pope John Paul II on it as well), but am going to have to re-photograph all the dark colored ones. 

Sorry if this is a dry post. I will be far more interesting when I have a day off from park work, I'm sure. 

cuter than feminists and post modernism, let me tell you. (Craig Owens.)

and "the Myth of the Other: China in the Eyes of the West" (Zhang Longxi)

There's a couple of great lists that are quoted in these 2 papers-  1, from a Chinese encyclopedia (which this paper claims as being obviously untrue) is for classifying animals:

Animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tamed, (d) suckling pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies.

And second, the way white men (a prominent male critic) look at women and minorities: "Ethnic groups, neighborhood movements, feminism, various "counterculture" or alternative lifestyle groups, rank-and-file labor dissidence, student movements, single-issue movements."

Look, no one understands being chinese except the chinese, and only then if they bother, and I don't know very many women who've spent a lot of time thinking about their femininistsishness. I think it's silly to believe that either westerners are supposed to be anything except what they are, and that men are supposed to be anything except men. Phooey! Why aren't I being given the chance to understand chinese as chinese, women as women, and stray dogs as stray dogs...

One LAST Orsay...

ok, actually, I know you're suprised, but I have nothing to say to this article. I read it, it's oddly structured, and that's about all.  The thing is, this topic is irrelevant.  I love the Musee D'Orsay, I'm glad there is a furniture section, I didn't find the space confusing, and it's all good!

Believe it or not, that's a whole beer. And Bacon Pretzels. Whereas the former was one 12 oz americano.