new drawings

This is a collection of drawings I'm working on right now. Pen and ink on Rives BFK with embroidery and liquid gold leaf. Classy. Individual views on flickr, with all the other things I'm working on.

This is a counterpart to being totally obsessed with news (SF Gate, The Nation, The Guardian UK) and corporate watchdawg sites like Knowmore and Sage Francis. It's all becoming a giant ball of burning activism. The preparation for the show is going well. I'm hopeful that we'll actually be able to raise a good amount of money to send down to the coast.

I'm getting tired. I really need to sleep long and deep for a good week or so. Argn.

Small Works (for a Big Problem): Hurricane Relief Benefit Show

I'm working with a couple of wonderful and talented and amazing people to put together an art show at Roxie's in Starkville, MS. This is the email that was sent across the country. Want to be in a show with work from around the nation? This is your shot. Hey, maybe Morgan Freeman will come! (someone said that to me earlier today.) I think I've found someone to make a website for us, so we should have something by middle of next week.

Hurricane Katrina has devastated the Gulf Coast, and we are still watching the repercussions unfold. It is difficult to know how to respond to such widespread suffering. Many of us feel that we want to help, but we  just don't know what to do.

It took some thinking, but we've figured out a way we all can help. Small Works (for a Big Problem): Hurricane Relief is an
installation show featuring work from around the U.S. The show will be at Roxie's, in Starkville, MS, and the auction will begin at 8:00 pm, September 22nd. Jason Jones and Ming Donkey will play. The pieces will be sold in a silent auction and will open at $15. The proceeds of the benefit will go to the Red Cross on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We've booked the space and the bands, now we need your work.

These are the specs:

-All work must be 4" x 6", because the work will be displayed in a grid.
-Pieces may be any medium or subject matter.
-All work must be ready to hang easily with T-pins or small nails.
-All pieces should be labeled on the back with the artist's name, the title of the piece, and contact information.
-All submissions must arrive by Sept. 18, 2005, and should be mailed or handed to Jamie Murphey, 621 University Dr., Apt. C., Starkville, MS 39759.
{All work is a donation and the organizers reserve the right not to include pieces in the exhibit for any reason.}

 Those of us with family and friends on the Coast have been deeply affected by this disaster, and we are very moved by the outpouring of concern. Thank you for helping us make a difference.

I know this is schmaltzy, but I love you guys. This has been a crazy couple of weeks. I'm very blessed to have such amazing friends.

I'm going Vontrappy.

I think my thesis show is going to be me dancing in the hills a la Maria Vontrap. "These are a few of my favorite things...". This is the newest little painting.

My thesis meeting went well. I have changed directions (sigh of relief) and I am going to do a lot of small pieces, which I am really excited about because I prefer to work small. I don't know why I was overtaken by this unbearable modernist urge to make REALLY BIG PAINTINGS. I blame Bush. I am going to make an installation, maybe with a couple 3-d pieces. I am much happier with the direction the series is going now. If you want to see an example of how I'm thinking my show might go up, look here.

This is the completed paint test. I'm having trouble keeping the process fluid and responsive. The respirator hurts my head and it's hard to really disappear into the work. Blah.

This is my artist's statement, still very much in progress. Pardon my dust.

I am interested in the place where disparate cultural artifacts or ideas intersect. The average American is exposed to magazines, television, Internet, billboards, and branding on consumables every day. All of these media deliver a steady stream of archetypes and stories for us to consume and identify with. Jumbled around in one American are the disparate ideas that sell consumables, but they form a fluid story line that often remains transparent: vitamins will give you peace, expensive running shoes will make you powerful and singular, some oil companies care more about the environment than others, Hummers are a way of connecting with the wild parts of our planet, black people can't hold down a job, Asian girls are kinky and shallow, terrorists are about to strike at the east coast again, New Yorkers don't like anyone but themselves, smooth legs are beautiful legs, menstruation should be sanitized and hidden because it is inherently filthy. I can type stream of consciousness style indefinitely. In these paintings I am attempting to visually highlight some of the interesting ideological juxtapositions that I see in American culture. I am trying to limit myself to a visual language which is specifically "Americana", but American culture is so adaptive that the origin of the artifacts may be Western European or African or East Asian.

I want to plumb something that is true and poignant, something that retains a sense of fun and an appreciation of the ridiculous. I find that the more I draw and try to get these ideas out on paper the subject matter is increasingly political. I am not sure if this is something I can avoid, though I want to feel of the paintings to remain inviting and homey, and I foresee a conflict there. I find that textiles, fonts, and vegetal designs are a nice neutral space to tie together a collection disparate ideas and imagery. And while I enjoy the associations that I make to icons and prolific images, I want the paintings to work on a non-representational level: the shapes and colors and texture of the paint must be pleasing. My first priority is that the painting works on a formal level, second that the paintings read on an archetypal level.