The Enthusiast: thinking about things

Video: Henning Strassburger's "I like my style."

2012-01-27T02:48:00.000-06:00

Henning Strassburger is a cool dude. This is hilarious.

His show with Wendy White, "So Athletic," just opened in Berlin. Check it.

New News: Updates from January 2012

2012-01-18T05:14:00.000-06:00

Recent and fun things include:

* Photos from the excellent London Artifice / ILK reading are up here.

* Some really exciting print and publishing projects are in the works for my return to Chicago this summer.

* I now have two author WorldCat library entries, which is pretty neat.

* A review of mine was published in the newest edition of Art in Print, on Richard Deacon's prints from Paragon Press.

* My 2011 poetry collection, Grow No Moss, was recently accepted into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection.

* I've been invited to be the juror for the 2012 Mid-America Print Council exhibition, to be held this spring at Spudnik Press. Quite looking forward to seeing lots of new printmedia work!

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Madame Cézanne with striped skirt, c.1877, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston)

I've been researching a bunch for school, and after thinking so much about Picasso's 1912 use of printed paper collage last term, I've become very interested in the use of printed, painted wallpaper in early modernist painting and portraiture. I'm starting to realize just how bizarre it looks. This is especially after seeing the Cézanne et Paris exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg (Paris) a month ago—an excellent show.

Wallpaper: it was everywhere for a long time! And now it is nowhere! I'm headed to the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A Art Library for more explorations later this week. Very exciting.

Art in Print (Issue 5) Review: Richard Deacon at Paragon Press

2012-01-18T04:49:00.000-06:00

British sculptor Richard Deacon’s newest prints from Paragon Press are, at first glance, linear and flat in the Greenbergian sense of the word, refusing illusion and emphasizing the frontal surface of the picture plane. Based on a series of drawings Deacon completed in 2008 while on a trip to Mali, these monochrome, fractured polygons in metallic red, blue, silver, and gold reference the African patterns and architecture of the capital Bamako, a city in which maps have little function and buildings serve as the main points of reference. The angular lines of the Bamako prints echo the nesting loops of Deacon’s twisting geodesic sculptures, but set against flat white paper rather than within the spatial context of a surrounding environment. The Bamako prints become cross sections, laser-thin dissections of Deacon’s three-dimensional work. Yet despite this deceptive flatness, without a trace of relief embossing the ink stands heavy, with a velvet surface subtly mottled by the pull of the paper from the block.

The plates have been subtly rotated and layered, forcing depth in the diamond-shapes where color overlaps—the metallic ink forces you to move around the prints, to look from many angles, to consider them spatially, and it is this bodily effect that returns Deacon’s line to sculpture.

—Julia V. Hendrickson, for Art in Print, vol. 1, no. 5

Music: Lianne La Havas / No Room For Doubt

2012-01-15T14:41:00.000-06:00

She is lovely. Has a nice range, and sounds a bit like Feist.

Late Styles, Bad Artz: de Chirico and Picabia

2012-01-14T14:31:00.000-06:00

This week I gave a presentation at the Courtauld on Giorgio de Chirico, Francis Picabia, Andy Warhol, "late style," and "bad art". I got pretty excited about it. Here are some tidbits.

Commercial Short: Jalouse

2012-01-14T07:52:00.000-06:00

Jalouse Magazine: Une Fille Comme Les Autres from Matthew Frost on Vimeo.

This is a clever, self-conscious commercial short film by Matthew Frost. Via Scribbler.

His sound editing is really lovely in this short film as well.

Video: Tameka Norris

2012-01-14T06:40:00.000-06:00

This gal is pretty kick-ass. It's worth going through her performance and video work from Yale.

Artifice & ILK in London.

2012-01-02T16:49:00.000-06:00

I'll be reading at this tomorrow night, along with James Tadd Adcox, Caroline Crew, Kerri French, Pete Bloxham, and Jack Castle. Probably something related to A Very Short Introduction to the Atlantic Ocean will happen. See you there.

The Artist as Institution

2011-12-12T07:55:00.001-06:00

I wrote a short review for Printeresting, on institutional critique and Natasha Pestich's poster show (at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts) documenting the fictional career of Jan Xylander:

The Artist as Institution: Natasha Pestich is Jan Xylander’s Personal PR Machine.

Proud to be involved with the Printeresting guys—they recently were awarded an arts writing Creative Capital grant from the Warhol Foundation!

Easing In

2011-12-09T19:21:00.001-06:00

There are these things about which you should probably know.

1.) Ash, London, is what we find inside wood, inside buildings, inside each of us, is the thing revealed by heat, is (as you noted) the secret heart of gray.

2.) ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: [Red Lightbulbs #5]

3.) "Your Personal Panopticon: An Interview with Christopher Meerdo" [The ~~California~~ Printeresting Printmaker]

4.) Oxford once, Cambridge twice. Venice for the Biennale. Paris next week (mainly for this). Then Ohio. Then, further secret adventures with compatriots await.

5.) It has been collage. Newspaper. Yet. Lately, my thoughts tend toward wallpaper.

Thoughts on Cubist collage

2011-11-06T12:01:00.000-06:00

Working on the first term paper at the Courtauld, on Cubist collage and the use of newspaper, and thinking a lot about Picasso's beautiful, spare, three-material collages from November–December 1912. I love all of those early collage pieces, but I just got the MoMA catalog for the show Picasso's Guitars: 1912-14 that was up earlier this year, and the gorgeous reproductions and studio shots positioning the collage in series with the sculptural assemblage of the guitar have got me thinking in all different directions. Even more than the 1913-14 works, its almost as if the spareness of the image, just using line, newspaper, and the substrate of the paper, is an indication of three-materials in three-dimensions. Of holding an object like a newspaper and seeing it, seeing through it, and seeing beyond it.

More to come.

Pablo Picasso, Bottle and wine glass on a table, 1912.

Pablo Picasso. Installation in the artist's studio at 242, boulevard Raspail Paris, December 9, 1912, or later. Gelatin silver print, 3 3/8 x 4 1/2" (8.6 x 11.5 cm). Private collection. Photo: Objectif 31. © 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pablo Picasso, studio composition, photograph, 1913.

Thoughts from London: On time zones, waves, Richter, and Cubism

2011-10-30T08:30:00.001-05:00

I am an hour closer to you now.

I never thought about how Daylight Savings would be different in another country. It makes sense, sure, but I never thought about it. It's weird that for this week only I am only 4 hours away from Ohio, 5 from Illinois. Our time zones are practically buzzing they're getting so close. Being in the future from a past you've always known is a shaky-ground place.

Does Flava Flav care about time zones?

I've been reading a lot, which is good. Not enough to feel like I'm making a difference on the void-in-my brain-representing-all-that-I-don't-know-about-modern-art-history, but the act of reading itself is a nice thing to remember how to do. I have begun a French artist-writer-collector-printer-publisher timeline in post-its on my wall above my desk, hoping to find some kind of sense in these overlapping lives. I've been thinking about waves and movements and wondering if feminist political theory can/does apply to the eternal debate about modernism and postmodernism in art history. That the idea of a wave rising up and sucking everything that came before back into it seems really nice for postmodernism. I like waves, too, because they correspond with life cycles.

This timeline on my wall reminds me to think about when these 19th and 20th century artists actually started thinking about the world in an adult fashion (probably around age 18-20), and that the contemporaneous context was probably really important to a sense of identity and development. You surface into the world slowly from the depths and the things that make the most sense are the ones nearest your gaze. So, Manet born in 1832 'matures' at 20 in 1852 (opens his studio in Paris in 1856). Then artists and writers like Redon (b.1840) and Mallarmé (b.1842), when they 'mature' at 20 in 1860 and 1862 cannot help but be influenced by Manet's place in the world (e.g. Olympia, above, is 1863). It's an oversimplification, I realize, but one to work with.

Stadtbild Paris (Townscape Paris), 1968, 200 cm x 200 cm, Oil on canvas

Went to see the Richter show at the Tate Modern last week (although I apparently missed a room). Mixed feelings about it, but I was glad to see so much of his work in one place. As usual the wall texts were disappointing in how much they dumbed-down everything. Richer's movement between monochrome faux-photorealism and garish abstraction is certainly a jarring one. This particular painting, Stadtbild Paris (1968) stood out to me as entirely different from the rest of the exhibition. We've been talking about walking the city (e.g. Paris) as a modernist practice in my course lately, so I was drawn to this bird's eye view depiction of a 'postmodern' Paris. Here Richer is merging his two brains, pulling the photographic monochrome as a layer over his abstract sensibility. It's Richter channeling Johns through the eye of a camera, which I like very much.

The other Richter component I'm still thinking about is his visual relationship with Marcel Duchamp. I thought the textual justification in the exhibition was a little wishy-washy, but I like the idea, and there's definitely a conversation between this:

L: Gerhard Richter, Ema (Akt auf einer Treppe) [Ema (Nude on a Staircase)], 1966, 200 cm x 130 cm, Oil on canvas

R: Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912

This 1965 Descending Richter that the Art Institute has shows the fractal play of light and movement a little better, though, I think. But, still, Richter seems to care more about the figure (e.g. reclaiming the nude body and the portrait for painting) than he does about the movement and perception of objects in space.

Thinking about Cubism a lot lately, too and the very formulaic way it was applied by artists other than Picasso/Braque/Gris in the early 20th century. It seems like most major artists had to make at least one 'Cubist' painting (e.g. this 1914 Reservist of the First Division painting/ collage by Malevich seems very weird for him). Duchamp painted Nude Descending a Staircase in 1912 and then moved on to everything else except painting. What was behind this need to mimic Cubism? Why was it used in such a formulaic way by so many artists, when the intention was anything but formulaic? Is it photography (e.g. the question What images do we make now that photography exists?) or is it collage (e.g. the three-dimensional expansion coupled with the act of reading) that solves the problem of the grounding for Cubism, gives us the framework behind when a 'Cubist' painting works or does not work?

PROJECTIONS: PIPILOTTI RIST, TONY OURSLER, & T.J. CLARK

2011-10-02T12:10:00.002-05:00

A few days ago I stopped by the Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre to see the new Pipilotti Rist (Swiss, b. 1962) retrospective that opened September 28. Wow. I watched a video installation of hers at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago last month, and really enjoyed the purposeful plush carpeting, bean bag chairs, and low lighting that were part of the experience of her video work. That conceit was used again a number of times in Rist's installations at the Hayward Gallery (which, by the way, managed to make very good use of the space, with tiny cubbyholes to discover and videos projected in very unlikely places: a stall in the women's restroom and the inside of a conch shell). Rist provided cushions (some as stuffed shirts and pants meant to look like cartoonish disembodied people) that forced you down on the floor and on a new visual plane in order to experience and visually interact with the viewers around you. Body (especially the female body) and forcing the viewer to become conscious of body in space and in relation to a projected image plays a huge role in her work. There are lovely video glitches, too, and a use of the machine in unexpected and often startlingly or strangely familiar ways.

(Apparently she's also made a feature-length film, Pepperminta, which looks completely and insanely wonderful). She's represented by Luhring Augustine in New York, and Hauser & Wirth internationally.

Today I've been reading an essay by T. J. Clark today, Modernism, Postmodernism, and Steam (published in October, Vol. 100, Obsolescence, Spring 2002, pp.154-174), in which Clark brought up Tony Oursler (b. 1957, American) and his Robert Morris-influenced projections of faces onto steam (and trees, apparently). The visual connection to Rist—projections into darkness—is clearly there in my mind, and both are equally bizarre image-makers.

Here are some excerpts from Clark's essay that I found to be particularly interesting:

"[...] ghosts that the internet itself dreams up" (156)

"a new form of visuality spreading like a virus through the culture at large — a new machinery of visualization, a tipping of the social balance from a previous regime of the word to a present regime of the image" (161)

"Modernism's motto was the great phrase from the young Marx's critique of Hegel: Modernists believed it was necessary for any art, any Realism, to take the forms of the present deeply inside itself, at the risk of mimicry, almost ventriloquism; but that out of that might come the possibility of critique, of true destabilization — they would 'teach the petrified forms how to dance by singing them their own song.'" (161) [Clark quoting Marx at the end]

"[...] the two great principles that gave modernity its character — on the one hand the reality of the machine's regularity and uniformity, on the other that of a profound social randomness and evacuation. You could say of the purest products of modernism [...] that in them an excess of order interacts with an excess of contingency." (164)

On Malevich's Peasant in the Fields (c. 1928-32), there is "the will to put the fragments back into some sort of order" (172).

"Our present fictions of the now" just happen to be "virtuality and visuality" (174).

Cate Marvin on being a poet.

2011-10-02T10:22:00.006-05:00

"I like to think of poets as moving through the world with their minds poised like nets, intent on capturing scraps of language, resonant images. Thinking as a poet means viewing the world as a poem; thus, the poet is prone to existing in real space and time in a most vulnerable manner. This means being super-observant wherever your physical self takes your mind, as it requires being terribly receptive to light, images, movement, conversations between others, oddities many might be inclined to overlook in newspaper headlines, heatedly intimate conflicts overheard in public places, disingenuous directions offered by advertisements and street signs, etc." [From the BOMB Magazine Blog].

Cate's website is here.

Read the excellent poems "Fragment of the Head of a Queen" here and "Scenes from the Battle of Us" here.

Film: Two Brothers Brewing (Warrenville, IL)

2011-09-30T15:17:00.000-05:00

I liked this neat little documentary about Two Brothers Brewing, a local (to Chicago) craft beer company in Warrenville, Illinois. There are actually two brothers. It's a fun inside look at a brew pub.

The Brothers Brew from Jamie Gallant on Vimeo.

Glenn Brown on language.

2011-09-28T17:46:00.000-05:00

You can’t look at anything without the knowledge that other people have looked at it and thought about it. We are made of other people’s opinions whether we like it or not, because we are surrounded by language. That’s what language is—a sharing of ideas that allows us to make up what seem like our own ideas but are in fact just an accumulation of other peoples’ thoughts. The only free will we have is to decide which ideas to agree or disagree with. We exist within language; we can’t escape it.

Glenn Brown

Art in America

April 3, 2009

NYC Wall Street Protests

2011-09-28T10:20:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of the more powerful statements I've found on police and protester action in New York City over the last few weeks.

--------

n+1 Mag: Notes from an Occupation by Astra Taylor and Mark Greif (27 September 2011).

Friday, September 23rd:

Astra: It’s a very youthful event, and perhaps naive in a lot of ways, but I’m happy they’re doing it. That said, I’m always a bit irritated by the incessant emphasis on the youthfulness of the demonstrators, which is a way of infantilizing and dismissing them (silly kids, they’ll grow up and get over this dumb protesting stuff!) and also lets older people off the hook. Shouldn’t we all be out there, railing against the vampire squid? The fact is there are plenty of older people at “Liberty Plaza,” a good number of retirees mingling with the recent graduates. Our society, and the left especially, has this strange idea that young people are the revolutionary vanguard (In his famous “Letter to the New Left” C. Wright Mills made the case that youth had replaced the working class as the “historic agency”; Theodore Roszak calls this shift the “adolescentization of dissent”) but of course, being young, they don’t have all the answers (not that old people do either, obviously).

Sunday, September 25th:

Mark: Nine days is nothing to sneeze at. I know people keep complaining that the occupiers don’t have a platform, but any real deliberative convention takes time, and these folks were strangers nine days ago. The idea of the occupation, to me, is to remind everyone that Wall Street belongs to the City of New York, the banks’ money belongs to the American citizens and people worldwide who have temporarily parked some of it with them (hoping they’ll do some good with it), and the rules they play by ultimately come from us. I wish the NYPD didn’t feel obliged to pen the protesters in away from Wall Street, though, and I hope Burger King on the northwest corner continues to be generous with its bathroom.

I made it to the General Assembly tonight. Weird for me, after so much suspicion in universities and professional groups, all my life, of order and parliamentary procedure and quick-running meetings, laughed away by saying, “Oh, since the Sixties we’ve forgotten all that stuff!”—to see an efficient assembly managed by kids, democratically, inclusively, and good-humoredly. I wish n+1 meetings ran like this. The left knows more than we think it does, as always. Noam Chomsky had sent a personal message by email. It was predictably long-winded; I wished people would make the “get to your point” sign. I was sitting close to the aisle of waiting speakers and I was surprised to watch participants whom I assumed knew each other well—since they were working together smoothly—whisper to ask each other’s names. They’re the most easygoing bunch I’ve seen at a protest, and the most calmly confident. Very gentle and not rattled by disruptors. Presumably that’s the confidence of nine days. Also the multiple confrontations that they’ve won nonviolently.

Bonjour. Au revoir.

2011-09-27T19:32:00.001-05:00

Tremendously excited about projects in London. Writing a lot. Working on a new poetry/prose collaboration using found and re-edited text, and very much enjoying the freedom and time to read books at my leisure and think about thesis-related ideas. It's nice to allow myself thoughts that evolve into new creatures after hours and days, rather than only having the headspace for short bursts of activity quickly forgotten. I am still myself, I will always have one too many things to do, but for now, for here, in London, in one of the most bustling cities in the world, I've managed to slow down a little.

Mostly I've just been noticing how otherworldily-similar this city is to Chicago. Life seems to be the same, it's in the same language, except every third thing is just a little bit different, just that much more removed from what I expect. It's like Amelie changing her neighbor's shoes to a size smaller, or his lightbulb to be a bit dimmer. It's deja vu but not quite. It's a dream lived only in the corners of your eyes when you're trying to test your peripheral vision.

Today I visited Christie's South Kensington and had the treat of seeing an upcoming auction lot on display from the mysterious "Travel, Science, and Natural History" department. Loads of very strange and wonderful things.

Three taxidermied hummingbirds, c. 1850.

A Huntley & Palmers biscuit from the stores of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1908-1909, Cape Royds.

British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904. 42 contact prints, the majority by Reginald Skelton, the subjects including Discovery in Winter Quarters at Ross Island, Mount Erebus and the scenery around Hut Point, sledging scenes and camps on the Barrier, and the return of the Southern Party.

A THREE-ROTOR ENIGMA CIPHER MACHINE, circa 1939. Number A-1206, with electric core, three aluminium rotors each stamped WaA618, raised 'QWERTZ' keyboard with crackle black painted metal case, plugboard in the front with ten patch leads, carrying case with spare bulbs, and green night-time filter.

A FRENCH TREPANNING SET, Leseur, late 18th century. Signed on the drill LESEUR also with a punched maker's mark of a crown over an A, drill-heads, perforators, elevators, lenticulars with turned wooden handles, in fitted case. 13.5in. (34.5cm.) long in case.

A MODEL OF THE 1784 GÉRARD FLYING MACHINE, FRENCH, LATE 19TH CENTURY. Painted wood and metal model with two wings on model engine mechanism, the tail feather and forward rudder operated by two interior handles, two opening doors, on three wheels. 21in. (54cm.) long.

Gah! It has feathers and a tiny door and tiny wheels!

Wonderful. From the larger poster, below.

TABLEAU D'AVIATION , French, Circa 1880. Lithographed poster illustrating mechanical flying machines from 1500-1880, by E. DIEUAIDE, 18, Rue de la Banque -- Paris, backed on linen. 21½ x 27in.

A BOXED AMERICAN ORRERY AND TELLURIAN SET. Josiah or Dwight Holbrook, mid-19th century. [With an accompanying awesome book: The teachers guide to illustration... 12th ed. (Chicago: Andrews, 1873).]

Donald Barthelme "Snow White" (1965/67)

2011-09-26T19:36:00.000-05:00

These are two wonderful passages (almost short stories in themselves) from a Barthelme book I recently finished reading.

" Paul sat in his baff, wondering what to do next. "Well, what shall I do next? What is the next thing demanded of me by history?" If you know who it is they are whispering around, then you usually don't like it. If Paul wants to become a monk, that's his affair entirely. Of course we had hoped that he would take up his sword as part of the President's war on poetry. The time is ripe for that. The root causes of poetry have been studied and studied. And now that we know that pockets of poetry still exist in our great country, especially in the large urban centers, we ought to be able to wash it out totally in one generation, if we put our backs into it. But we were prepared to hide our disappointment. The decision is Paul's, finally. "Are those broken veins in my left cheek, above the cheekbone there? No, thank God, they are only tiny whiskers not yet whisked away. Missed in yesterday's scrape, but vulnerable to the scrape of today." Besides, most people are not very well informed about the cloistered life. Certainly they can have light bulbs if they want them, and their rivers and mountains are not inferior to our own. "They make interesting jam," Hank said. "But it's his choice, in the final analysis. Anyhow we have his typewriter. That much of him is ours, now." People were caressing each other under Paul's window. "Why are all these people existing under my window? It is as if they were as palpable as me--as bloody, as firm, as well-read." Monkish business will carry him to town sometimes; perhaps we will be able to see him then. "

Donald Barthelme, Snow White, Scribner Paperback Fiction: New York, 1965, 1967. p.61-62

----------------------------------------------

" We were sitting at a sidewalk café talking about the old days. The days before. Then the proprietor came. He had a policeman with him. A policeman wearing a black leather blackjack and a book by Rafael Sabatini. "You are too far out on the sidewalk," the policeman said. "You must stay behind the potted plants. You must not be more than ten feet from the building line." We moved back behind the building line then. We could talk about the old days on either side of the potted plants, we decided. We were friendly and accommodating, as is our wont. But in moving the table we spilled the drinks. "There will be an additional charge for the stained tablecloth," the proprietor said. Then we poured the rest of the drinks over the rest of the tablecloth, until it was all the same color, rose-red. "Show us the stain," we said. "Where is the stain? Show us the stain and we will pay. And while you are looking for it, more drinks." We looked fondly back over the inches to where we had been. The policeman looked back over the inches with us. "I realize it was better there," the policeman said. "But the law is the law. You don't mind if I have just a taste of your stain?" The policeman wrung out our tablecover and tossed it off with a flourish of brass. "That's a good stain. And now, if you'll excuse me, I intuit a felony, over on Pleat Street." The policeman flew away to attend to his felony, the proprietor returned with more stain. "Who has wrinkled my tablecover?" We regarded the tablecover, a distressed area it was true. "Someone will pay for the ironing of that." Then we rose up and wrinkled the entire sidewalk café, with our bare hands. It was impossible to tell who was wrong, when we had finished."

Donald Barthelme, Snow White, Scribner Paperback Fiction: New York, 1965, 1967. p.178-179.

A story of friendship in print.

2011-09-06T12:27:00.002-05:00

In the summer of 2008, after just graduating from college, I made plans to move to Madison, Wisconsin to begin a printmaking internship at Tandem Press. Needing a roommate and friends in this new city, I asked for the phone numbers of my soon-to-be fellow interns, and called Elizabeth Stoutamire in Georgia. I still have a very vivid memory of that phone call; we did not become roommates, but found an instant affinity with each other, working happily together in the print shop over the summer. Printmaking has served as a thread throughout our friendship, and has brought us together for many collaborations. We have made a tradition of visiting each other every few months, always brainstorming a new project, and excitedly making plans for the future.

In May 2009 during the opening for a print exchange and exhibition Elizabeth had organized in Madison, she mentioned something about a guy named Gabriel who had stopped by. She was unusually excited to see the fellow, and breathless when we hung out with him later that night. Something was afoot!

That August Elizabeth visited Chicago and we made our first collaborative print together, a combination of etching and non-toxic photo-etching. In October of 2009 we printed together again, this time producing the screen printed show posters for an exhibition I'd curated. Gabriel drove Elizabeth to Chicago to attend the opening. A year later, in the fall of 2010 we collaborated for a third time on a series of screen prints and an etching, working into a plate with cotton blooms from Elizabeth's Southern childhood and trillium flowers from my youth in Eastern Ohio; flowers that both bloom white and decay to purple, marking the passage of time. By then, Gabriel had proposed to Elizabeth, and she was already talking about screen printing her invitations.

Another year has passed since then, and my life points from Chicago toward London for grad school. Elizabeth and Gabriel are getting married on October 15th, a few weeks after I move, and they've asked me to be in the wedding party. I very much want to return to Wisconsin to help them celebrate, and to give them my wedding gift---a photo-etching of Elizabeth and Gabriel, a hand-made print to commemorate three years of friendship and printmaking---but I can't do it without your help.

I've started a fundraiser on IndieGoGo.com to raise money to get Elizabeth's wedding present to her wedding. Help me do it!

UPDATE!!! A very generous donor has offered me her frequent flier miles, bringing the cost of the plane ticket down to $200. So now I only need to raise $600 to get Elizabeth's print to her wedding!

Note: Since I won't need to meet my initial goal of $1,200, the site charges a 9% cut on funds raised. So since I need to raise $550 more, I actually need to raise $600 to cover the IndieGoGo fees.

June 2008: Within a few weeks of knowing me, Elizabeth made me a lemon birthday cake.

June 2008: Birthday in Madison at Memorial Union.

January 2009: New Year's in Chicago.

March 2009: Southern Graphics Council (printmaking conference) in Chicago.

May 2009: Places of Origin print exhibition in Madison, Wisconsin, curated by Elizabeth.

August 2009: Collaborative print (copper plate etching and photopolymer etching).

August 2009: Elizabeth mixing inks in Julia's former studio in Chicago.

August 2009: Julia running her press in Chicago.

August 2009: Pulling the first proof of our collaborative print.

August 2009: Julia and Elizabeth, sleepy from so much printmaking and hard work.

October 2009: Collaborative screen printed show posters, printed by Julia and Elizabeth, designed by the Museum of Contemporary Art's Scott Reinhard.

October 2009: Elizabeth screen printing in Madison at Mess Hall Press.

October 2009: Julia screen printing in Madison at Mess Hall Press.

October 2009: Trunk Show at Barbara & Barbara Gallery, Chicago, curated by Julia.

February 2010: Elizabeth's birthday in Madison.

September 2010: Boating on the lakes in Madison.

November 2010: Collaborative copper plate etching, Chicago.

November 2010: Two collaborative etchings.

November 2010: Collaborative screen print, Chicago.

June 2011: Julia's birthday in Chicago.

June 2011: Julia's print exhibition at Spudnik Press. Photo by Maureen Sill.

Elizabeth and Gabriel in Wisconsin.

Grow No Moss: Process, Prints, & a Shop!

2011-08-23T18:08:00.000-05:00

I recently posted on Printeresting about my time in the Ox-Bow print shop, and there are lots more photos from Ox-Bow on Flickr here. I thought I'd share some of the process behind making the lithograph that was printed as the cover of Grow No Moss.

Some shots of the book being printed at Spudnik Press are below as well. Everything is being trimmed and bound at Salsedo Press today!

And! BREAKING NEWS! You can place actual online book orders (pre-sale until August 25th) and check out more prints for purchase on the snazzy new Grow No Moss website.

Original lithograph in black ink on Kitakata paper that serves as the cover artwork for the book.

Lithographic stone (pre-etching) at Ox-Bow. Lots of tusche. Playing around with stamping, painting, and dripping with moss. (Yes, actual moss. Little bits of dirt and moss and sand on the surface of the stone there).

Lithograph on two small sheets of Kitakata paper, about 5" x 7" each, featuring poems from the book. More moss-tusche action on the left.

Lithographic stone (pre-etching) with poetry written backwards, playing around with cover options. This stone was big enough that I was able to print multiple sheets of paper for one roll-up and vary the size of the print.

This is the printed state #2 for one of my original cover ideas. A lithograph in black ink on grey Stonehenge paper. Tusche, moss stamping, pencil. Lots of experimentation in the margins.

State #1 on the stone (pre-etched) of the print shown above.

State #2 on the stone (pre-second-etch) of the print shown above. The tusche is still drying on the stone.

Offset press-master Aaron Smith at Spudnik Press in the middle of printing my book!

Sheets just offset-printed drying on the rack.

The ethereal offset plate, ready for registration and ink.

It's real! GROW NO MOSS release and reading August 25th.

2011-08-15T23:12:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, August 25th, please gather for the GROW NO MOSS book release and reading at Andrew Rafacz Gallery.

Doors at 6:30, reading begins at 7:00pm.

Joining the metaphysical poetic-prosaic dance floor will be new work read by the excellent, dashing, and fabulous:

MAIREAD CASE (Proximity Magazine, Dil Pickle Club)

ZACH DODSON (Featherproof Books)

DENISE DOOLEY (The Next Objectivists)

GABRIEL WALLACE (The Great Sheboygan Panty Raid of 18977)

Books, zines, and prints will be available for sale.

Excerpts: "An Elemental Thing" (2007) by Eliot Weinberger

2011-08-14T20:03:00.000-05:00

38 - 39: Liu Hseih wrote The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, the first extended book of Chinese literary criticism.

"'Look toward the present and create the unusual; consult the ancients to establish the laws.'"

"'The perfect combination or balance of wind and bone, the metaphor for the ideal poem, is a bird.'"

42: "A Kaluli lives in two worlds: the visible world of people and the world of their reflections, where people live as wild pigs or cassowaries on the slopes of Mr. Bosavi. When a person dies his reflection also disappears, and turns into a bird in the invisible world. Birds see each other as people, and their calls are people talking to one another. The passage of life is from infant to bird."

116: "Against Descartes' Cogito, [Ezra] Pound's letterhead read: J'AYME DONC JE SUIS, I love therefore I am."

150: "In the British Library there is a box of fragments and dust from a birch bark scroll buried two thousand years ago on the Jalalabad Plain, west of the Khyber Pass. It is the oldest known Buddhist text, written in the Gandharan language. Some of the chips contain only a single letter, but the scholars have pierced them together to reconstruct a sutra:

'Doing no violence to living things, not even a single one of them, wander alone like a rhinoceros.'

[...]

'Fire does not return to what it has burnt, wander alone like a rhinoceros.'

[...]

'At home anywhere, wander alone like a rhinoceros.'"

Film: "La Notte" dir. Antonioni (1961)

2011-08-13T20:21:00.000-05:00

Monica Vitti and Marcello Mastroianni.

"Grow No Moss" Pre-Release Review

2011-08-07T20:29:00.001-05:00

My dear friend Charlie recently wrote a thoughtful, considered pre-release review of my upcoming book of poetry, Grow No Moss, and on community and collaboration in art-making. You can take a look at what he wrote here. An excerpt, below:

The sheer magnitude of effort required to keep oneself from dissolving and the sheer magnitude of effort required to make oneself a little known to anyone else—these surface on every page of Grow No Moss. Not only in the poems, but in the paper, the glue, the ink, and the ally-trafficked rooms of its creation.

Working on inviting some other Chicago writers to read with me at the book release at Andrew Rafacz Gallery on August 25th-- more details on the awesome line-up to come soon! Also will be reading at the Forest Park Public Library some time in September.

I just returned from Ox-Bow where I worked hard, slept very little, and made seven lithographs in six days, one of which will be the cover for the book. The image above is a shot from the Ox-Bow website; I'm inking up a stone in the print shop. Ox-Bow is a marvelous, deliriously beautiful, magical place. I can't wait to go back, hopefully next summer, and work even harder.

Working on a Printeresting post about the class, with loads of photographs to come. Keep an eye out.

Upcoming: Ox-Bow lithography, Grow No Moss (new book), and more!

2011-07-28T08:23:00.001-05:00

Eleanor Coen. Ox-Bow Lagoon, 1940s. Watercolor on paper. Courtesy Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery.

So many thrilling things are happening in the next few months! Starting on Sunday, I'm off to Ox-Bow for a week (thanks in part to an Ox-Bow scholarship and to a Community Arts Assistance Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency). I'll be taking my first lithography course (with one of my favorite people, Mark Pascale), hanging out with some pretty awesome people, and unwinding in cabins and on the lake in Saugatuck, Michigan. I've never had the Ox-Bow experience, and I'm so excited to finally see what it's all about (and also taste some of Eric May's cooking - yum!).

Miyoko Ito. My Room at Ox-Bow, 1949, lithograph on paper. Courtesy Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery.

Part of the reason for going to Ox-Bow is to make a lithograph that will become the cover for a chapbook of poetry I'm releasing in mid-August (also partially CAAP-funded). Over the last year and a half I've been working on this group of poems, honing ways to express myself as a writer that I was never able to do before. My writing has evolved, and with the help of some very kind editors (and your readership), I've had the courage and the inspiration to want to make a book: Grow No Moss. The always generous Chad Kouri is helping with the design of the book, and it will be printed on the new offset press at Spudnik Press, with the help of Angee Lennard and Aaron Smith. Salsedo Press (where the offset Ork Posters are printed in Chicago) has offered to do the binding and trimming.

The turnaround for the book has got to be quick (and precise!), because ten days after I arrive back in Chicago, I'm going to be releasing Grow No Moss at my first-ever poetry reading. Save the date, kids! On the afternoon of Saturday, August 25th, come find me at Andrew Rafacz Gallery (835 W. Washington, Chicago) and see what I'm all about. It's nerve-wracking but wonderful, and I'm making a book so I wouldn't have it any other way. (Sneak previews to come soon!).

Christopher Meerdo in his studio in East Garfield Park, with his dog, Indiana. June 2011, photograph by JVH.

Down the line, keep an eye out for a new Printeresting project, too! The guys (Amze, RL, and Jason) have been putting together a take-over of a journal called the California Printmaker. I've been helping out a little, and just finished a really exciting interview on the intersections of print and the internet with Chicago artist Christopher Meerdo. The Printeresting California Printmaker should go to print in the next month or so, with a September release date, I believe. I was so happy to be able to interview Chris, he's an amazingly talented and intelligent artist, and I continue to be inspired by our conversation.

Joe Zucker, Joe's Painting #125G, 1965, acrylic on canvas, 72" x 72".

At the gallery I've been toiling away (lovingly) on an amazing catalog for our September exhibition, Joe Zucker: The Grid Paintings, a survey of the grid series of works that is also focused mainly on the years during his undergraduate and postgraduate days at the School of the Art Institute (c.1964-68). I love being immersed in book production, and I'm learning so much about it with the help of John, Jim, and Sonnenzimmer (the book designers--check them out as they live-print at the MCA this week as part of the We Are Here project). The Joe Zucker show opens September 17th, and then a few days later a whole new life begins as I fly off to London to start grad school at the Courtauld. I'm in the midst of a beautiful whirlwind, friends, and I hope to share more with you in the coming weeks. Hope to see you around the spaceways!

"Certainty" by Octavio Paz, from "Days and Occasions" (1958-61)

2011-07-25T09:24:00.000-05:00

The Last Picture Show (1971)

2011-07-24T22:52:00.000-05:00

"I'm just as sentimental as the next feller when it comes to old times."

In conclusion: little bits.

2011-06-19T11:08:00.001-05:00

Detail of a Van Dyke print on vellum. Printed by John Neff for John Neff Prints Robert Blanchon at Golden Gallery (Chicago).

Bits I've written recently:

Newcity - Nulla Dies Sine Linea / Instituto Cervantes (May 23, 2011)
Printeresting - From Cuba, via Chicago: The Neche Collection (May 24, 2011)
This Public Works - Rebecca Ringquist at Packer Schopf Gallery (June 6, 2011)
Printeresting - Alastair Johnston at Columbia College Chicago (June 15, 2011)
This Public Works - Chicago Art: In and Around the News (June 15, 2011)
Printeresting - John Neff Prints Robert Blanchon at Golden Gallery (June 18, 2011)

In other writing news, I'm trying dreadfully hard to be satisfied with this latest batch of poems so I can send it to the designer and start figuring out how to get the darn thing printed. More to come...

Video: Whole Foods Parking Lot

2011-06-18T08:40:00.000-05:00

Alright, this is gratuitous and silly and full of white people problems, but it did make me laugh. Produced by Fog & Smog, out of LA and San Francisco. Directed by George Woolley and Pedram Torbati (who also made a great spot on Emily Haines of Metric).

Exhibit: Blinky Palermo at Dia Beacon

2011-06-08T21:19:00.000-05:00

Blinky Palermo, To the People of New York City (Part XII), 1976.
Dia Art Foundation. Photo: Bill Jacobson.

Blinky Palermo, Coney Island II, 1975. Acrylic on aluminum, four
parts: 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (26.7 x 21 cm), each; 10 1/2 x 57 7/8 inches
(26.7 x 147 cm) overall. Collection Ströher, Darmstadt, Germany. Photo:
Jens Ziehe, Berlin.

Here's a show I'd love to fly to NYC and take the train for an hour to the Hudson River Vallery to see: the first North American retrospective of German artist Blinky Palermo (neé Peter Schwarze, b.1943, d. 1977). The works on paper and metal sculptures in Blinky Palermo: Retrospective 1964–1977 will be stunning, I'm sure, in the wide expanses of Dia: Beacon.

From the PR: The exhibition provides a fresh and in-depth examination of the evolution of Palermo’s aesthetic, illustrating the significance of his contributions to the field of postwar painting. Surveying the four major types of work over his career, the retrospective comprises: objects he created shortly after he graduated from Joseph Beuys’s class at the Dusseldorf Art Academy in 1964; "Cloth Pictures (Stoffbilder)" ; documentation of in situ Wall Paintings and Drawings; and examples of his late "Metal Pictures". The majority of the works will be on loan from private and public lenders in Germany.

I spent a fun afternoon a few summers ago with old college friends Matt and Nick, journeying out of the hot city into the wilderness, only to find Dia: Beacon closed when we arrived. I've always wanted the chance to return. The retrospective is co-organized by CSS Bard, which would be a dream visit, too.

Ah, missed opportunities.

If you're on the easterly side of things, be sure to direct your travels Beacon-ward.

We didn't get in, and we were the only folks around, but we sure had a grand time of it.

We ate terrible food at the only restaurant open in the tiny town.

We drank too much bad coffee, talked about music and carpentry, and jumped off of precipices.

Music: tUnE-yArDs' "Real Live Flesh" on W H O K I L L

2011-05-24T23:16:00.000-05:00

I've really been enjoying listening to the new album W H O K I L L by tUnE-yArDs (Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner), and lo and behold I discovered yesterday via a Yours Truly video that a talented friend and artist, Alex Chitty, did the artwork for the album. A little detective work unearthed Alex in this awesome lo-fi music video.

Video: JiLLian Mayer

2011-05-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

Prepare for weird.

I'm really digging what she's playing around with, down in Miami. Check out more of her projects on her website and blog.

Music: Ketty Lester's Love Letters (1964)

2011-05-21T13:02:00.000-05:00

Could she get any dreamier? This has been stuck in my head after a recent Blue Velvet viewing.

Out and About

2011-05-16T23:09:00.000-05:00

Alex Valentine, Hallucination Glitter Schème (2011), detail, offset prints at SAIC.

I've been neglecting The Enthusiast of late because all of the sudden I'm also writing for a number of other awesome online publications. If you're interested in some of my other, subject-specific endeavors, keep an eye on the following feeds:

Printeresting All the news that's fit to print.

>>>>> Read my recent post about SAIC's Printmedia MFA graduate students. <<<<<

This Public Works Chicago art, culture, & design.

>>>>> Read my recent post about everything awesome, ever, that is happening this week. <<<<<

(I also had a guest post back in April on Steve Ruiz's Chicago Art Review, for Seven Artists of the Week).

In conclusion, if you do nothing else, feast on this (NSFW):

Schizcago Trailer from Schizcago Pictures on Vimeo.

Mother's Day

2011-05-04T08:29:00.000-05:00

Card I made for my mamacita. (Shh, don't tell).

Send love to your mamas on Sunday!

Video: David Wain tours Shaker Heights

2011-05-02T18:56:00.000-05:00

Apropos of nothing, here's a delightful clip of comedian David Wain (of Stella fame) in 1978 giving a tour of Shaker Heights, Ohio (including a look at the "exotic bonzanza of high schools"). Most adorable are the tiny little bursts of teenage boy laughter before it cuts.

Poem: "Prone"

2011-04-27T09:08:00.000-05:00

Prone

Why do we write in bed
(as I do now)
brushing drowsy thoughts
one hundred times until static
weighs one hundred tons
and images shape
to pages braiding
black lines together?

Video: Videogame tribute to Barney's Cremaster 1

2011-04-24T19:24:00.000-05:00

In March 2010, user fluxlasers created a level using Little Big Planet on a PlayStation 3 based on the film Cremaster 1 by Matthew Barney. It's a perfect tangential tribute to Barney's never-ending, never-winning video game world.

Via Meg Onili at Bad at Sports.

Video: Mexican Boots

2011-04-19T07:58:00.000-05:00

This is fantastic. Modern times!

Chicago's Top Creative 30 Under 30

2011-04-18T19:31:00.000-05:00

Culture and fashion website Refinery29 recently named me as one of Chicago's top "30 Under 30" creative people. I'm humbled to be in the mix with a lot of talented folks. It's quite an honor.

When they contacted me, I didn't have any head shots on hand, so photographer Maureen Sill generously did a photo shoot with me. Here are a handful of the awesome shots she took, while we ambled through the alleys of Chicago. Check out more of her beautiful work, both analog and digital, on Flickr.

All photographs (c) Maureen Sill, 2011.

Video: John Marin's Watercolors at AIC

2011-04-17T23:56:00.000-05:00

This is a little dry, but remarkably interesting look at how the Art Institute (and the department of Prints & Drawings!) went about historically re-framing the John Marin modernist works on paper.

Below is a more general overview of Marin's watercolors, with curator Martha Tedeschi. Both incredibly interesting!

Song: Ray Charles' "Lonely Avenue" (1956)

2011-04-12T13:44:00.000-05:00

Check out that pulse.

Events: Two Great Things Tonight!

2011-04-12T08:26:00.001-05:00

Tonight at 6pm the School of the Art Institute (280 S. Columbus Drive)is hosting Wangechi Mutu, who was born in Nairobi, Kenya, educated in Britain and America, and has been a resident in New York since the mid-nineties. You can see her work here.

A chance visit to the MCA to hear Lorna Simpson give an artist talk last weekend alerted me to Mutu's work; Simpson showed a film called "Corridors" (2003) in which Mutu plays two women going about their days, one from the 1860s, one from the 1960s. It is a beautiful, layered composition, with a strange and disjointed soundtrack.

Later tonight at 9pm, hosted by Homeroom at the Hungry Brain (2319 W. Belmont), Lumpen comics editor Joe Tallarico interviews 1970s Chicago Comix artist George Hansen, along with the erstwhile contemporary comics creator, Edie Fake. Should be a nerderific good ole time.

Film: "I Am the Queen"

2011-04-11T08:11:00.000-05:00

Marwen Territories contributor, Josué Pellot, with Henrique Cirne Lima, directed this Chicago-based documentary on the Puerto Rican transgender community and the Cacique Pageant, the first annual transgender pageant held in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood.

The film screens this Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 8:00 at the Instituto Cervantes, as part of the Chicago Latino Film Festival.

Video: Buttons

2011-04-09T17:57:00.002-05:00

Miranda July makes buttons.

Film: Some Girls Never Learn

2011-04-08T08:15:00.000-05:00

Some Girls Never Learn TRAILER from Jerzy Rose on Vimeo.

Some friends of mine made this film in Chicago. This is the deal:

A university has found the leg bone of Amelia Earhart. The diver responsible for the discovery is receiving prophetic messages from the famous, long-dead pilot.

Elsewhere, a high school science teacher travels to the underworld to bring back his girlfriend, who was lured there by the ghostly cotillions of a surprisingly pink and bubbly circle of the inferno.

Animals are arranging themselves into concentric circles and helium has escaped into the luminiferous aether. Assumptions are made and hearts are broken.

(It looks AMAZING).

Artist: Pete Cuba

2011-04-04T00:27:00.000-05:00

This evening I had the pleasure of a studio visit with Pete Cuba, a Chicago graphic designer-by-day, painter-extraordinaire-by-night. I've been a fan of his work for years, and I am excited about working with him again on a few new upcoming projects. A hand-picked selection of his paintings on wood will be hung very soon in Dusty Groove Records (1120 N. Ashland), which is below Corbett vs. Dempsey. When I say they are on wood, they are, in fact, drawn and painted on scraps of board. Furthermore, these paintings pertain quite often to nature and the very pleasant qualities of trees. And the very unpleasant qualities of people. Please come to see them in person, they are quite lovely.

You can see much more of Pete's work on his website, Two Horse Town, as well as on Flickr.

Opening: Territories

2011-04-01T08:10:00.000-05:00

OPENING TONIGHT!

April 1–May 14, 2011

5:00-7:00pm.

The Untitled Gallery at Marwen

833 North Orleans Street, 2nd floor

Chicago, Illinois 60610

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition Territories, organized by Arielle Bielak for Marwen, curated by Julia V. Hendrickson, and designed by Scott Reinhard.

The exhibition's artists include Jessica Taylor Caponigro, Suzanne Caporael, Ryan Travis Christian, Austin Eddy, Maria Gaspar, Erika Hess, Ryan Ingebritson, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Matt Nichols, B. Ingrid Olson, Josué Pellot, Kevin Reiswig, Aurora Tabar, Russell Weiss, and Sara Zalek.

Catalogue writing contributors include: Arielle Bielak, Kate Blair, Jack Shelton Boyle, Beth Feldman Brandt, Evan Burrows, Danny Caine, Paula Clark, Carlos Colmenares, Alana Cuéllar, Zach Dodson, Jonathan Eliot, Victor Estrada, Chris Eves, Jason Foumberg, Fred Frederick, Maria Gaspar, J.M. Harper, Julia V. Hendrickson, Charlie Hogle,, Lindsey Huster, Andrew Gregory Krzak, Peterson Kuyk-White, Christopher M. Lee, Timothy Lehmann, Nate Long, Landon Manucci, Julianne Mentzer, Megha Ralapati, David Reale, Izabella Redzisz, Miguel Renée, Susannah Ribstein, Andrew B. Sartorius, Maureen Sill, Peter Stevens, Aurora Tabar, Bryn Tulip, Ina Weise, Russell Weiss, Justin Williams, Meredith Wilson, David Yontz, and Sara Zalek.

A discussion with guest artists Maria Gaspar, Theaster Gates, and David Schalliol concludes the exhibition on May 14, 2011.

[N.B. The first 40 copies of the catalogue will be made available for sale at Marwen starting in mid-April. After the first 40 have sold, it will be made available for sale online].

B. Ingrid Olson, Untitled (2011), grease pencil on paper

Josué Pellot, Aggressively Happy (2011), Acrylic on wood, baked polymer clay, found object.

Ryan Travis Christian, New Bikini Jam, 2010, graphite on paper.

Austin Eddy, Night time seat, 2011, oil on muslin.

Matt Nichols & Jessica Taylor Caponigro, The Feeling is Mutual, 2011

Plywood, primer, and magic marker.

...AND SO MUCH MORE...

Film: Scrappers

2011-03-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

Scrappers Trailer from scrap movie on Vimeo.

If you haven't seen this amazing 2010 documentary yet (given two thumbs up by Roger Ebert), then make it your next movie viewing priority. Driven by a stellar Frank Rosaly score, and winding through classically Chicago alleyways, Scrappers steadfastly follows Oscar and Otis, two men who have made a living by collecting and reselling discarded scrap metal. Among many things, the film touches on the 2008 financial crisis, gendered economic production, class struggles, and immigration rights.

You can see some interesting post-production photos of the people in the film here (from one of the directors, Brian Ashby). Otis recently celebrated his 77th birthday!

Brian Ashby and Ben Kolak leave today on a Southern Circuit Tour, visiting 9 states (including Ohio and Pennsylvania!) for screenings over the next few weeks.

Lit: Catalogue for "Territories"

2011-03-16T00:13:00.002-05:00

Detail, in-progress screencap of Territories: a compendium

I cannot adequately express how excited I am about the progression of the last few weeks. Since the fall of 2010 I have been working on curating a group show called Territories, opening April 1st, 2011 at Marwen in the Untitled Gallery. The artwork is coming together marvelously, and I'm so happy with how the exhibition will look once we install everything in a week or so. All of this could have been enough, but for some reason I got a bee in my bonnett a few weeks ago, and I decided I wanted to do a catalogue as well. (!)

With the enthusiastic and invaluable help of my friends, designer Scott Reinhard and Marwen exhibitions coordinator Arielle Bielak, we are almost done pulling together a fantastic catalogue that was conceived, written, designed, and executed over the course of four short weeks. A few other people had a hand in it as well (an understatement) --- the catalogue not only serves as a document of the exhibition, but it is a compendium of texts on the subject of "territories" as well. In just one week, Territories: a compendium grew to over 130 pages, with forty-two contributors sending forty-six submissions from twenty cities all over the world. I am honored, touched, and proud to present the artists and writers who have contributed to this book. This is just a sneak peek at what's to come. Email me at sendmissiveshere [at] gmail [dot] com if you'd like to pre-order a copy (we're only able to print a limited edition of 40, unless you order one in the next few days!)

Detail, in-progress screencap of Territories: a compendium

Video/ Dance: Amberley Productions & Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

2011-03-07T23:16:00.000-06:00

These are a few dance-related videos that I can't get out of my head of late:

Ah! - Oval from Amberley Productions on Vimeo.

This strangely hypnotic one's from Amberley Productions in Berlin (although the band is on the Thrill Jockey label in Chicago-- a lot of cool videos on Thrill Jockey's Vimeo page), and I sure wish they had a few more projects out in the world, because I'm digging the German dish they're dishing.

This is from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, (b. 1960, Belgium), originally choreographed in the 1980s. Below is a more recent piece, although you wouldn't know it to see it, given the pastel nursing home costumes and orthopedic shoes.

New work: "Increase Circulation"

2011-03-03T01:28:00.001-06:00

Collage from Spudnik Press' monthly throwdown this eve. That kid is just so lonesome! And cold. Hoping to roll with this one, could be a cool print.

Guest writing: Bad at Sports

2011-02-28T21:37:00.000-06:00

Gallery shots from the current Peter Saul show, Stupid Arguments, at Corbett vs. Dempsey (Photo by Julia V. Hendrickson)

I'm still recovering from the whirlwind writing gig over at Bad at Sports last week. I was so happy to have the forum to share interesting stories about some amazing friends of mine in the Chicago art scene. I'm pretty sure I wrote, typed, and transcribed over 40 pages in five days (while working full-time, too!). Who knew that an hour-long recorded conversation covers about eight pages? It was a great experience in terms of pushing myself as a writer: I'd never formally interviewed anyone before, nor had I tried to write from recorded interviews. I hope that those conversations continue to evolve over the rest of the year, and that they will be of interest in the future.

Take a glimpse into the worlds of some of the people that are part of my daily life here in Chicago, and let me know what you think!

February 25th, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: Arielle Bielak (Marwen)
February 24th, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: John Corbett & Jim Dempsey (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
February 23rd, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: Nadine Nakanishi & Nick Butcher (Sonnenzimmer)
February 22nd, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: Angee Lennard (Spudnik Press)
February 21st, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: Mark Pascale (Prints & Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago)

Bad at Sports: Notes on a Conversation with Mark Pascale

2011-02-21T09:06:00.000-06:00

I was invited to be a guest blogger this week over at the Chicago "contemporary art talk" website Bad at Sports. Take a look at my first post, an interview with a curator in the department of Prints & Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Mark Pascale. We look through some fantastic Edward Gorey illustrated envelopes and letters that are a recent addition to the Art Institute's collection (more photographs of those here).

Poem: "Left / Right"

2011-02-19T08:29:00.000-06:00

Left / right

My grandmother mends the seam
between Atlantic and Pacific,
one half silk, the other linen.
But, as quickly as family
they pull apart,
the threaded waves unraveling.

Where do they begin to be themselves,
those two halves, water bodies whorling,
meeting, like hair, in crests?

I picture
a woman's spine
alone on a white bed,
twist cork cracking,
or a raphae, the ridge
that seared
your two competing
minds together.

– JVH

Video: A trailer for Marcel Dzama's new film

2011-02-17T21:39:00.000-06:00

Such a strange, strange fellow. A lot of Lynch embedded in this one.

Film: "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" (1959) & Duras

2011-02-17T00:43:00.000-06:00

A dark, lovely film from Alan Resnais in 1959.

Marguerite Duras wrote the screenplay, and I recently finished reading her 1984 novel The Lover for the feminist book club this month. It's distant and haunting: a strange, autobiographical perspective on Lolita.

Artist: José Lerma

2011-02-16T23:25:00.000-06:00

I've been aware of José Lerma's work for the last few years, my interest sparked by a print of his that I saw while working at Tandem Press in Madison, WI.

José Lerma, Untitled 2, 2006
Lithography, woodcut, ed. 20. 32" x 30 1/4". Printed at Tandem Press.

His globby, paint and fabric-stacked portraits are hilarious and heavy, yet delicately intricate. Lerma has been quite busy lately, showing at Andrea Rosen in New York and Gallery Loock Berlin. He also curated a huge group show called A PERSON OF COLOR: a mostly orange exhibition recently (including some of my favorites: Matt Nichols and Josué Pellot) in Milwaukee at Green Gallery. And, excitingly enough, opening April 8th, he's on the docket for gallery 2 at Chicago's Western Exhibitions.

José Lerma, I am sorry I am perry, at Andrea Rosen 2010

José Lerma, OLL KORRECT, 2010

José Lerma, Untitled, 2010

Quoted: Anne Elizabeth Moore

2011-02-14T06:59:00.002-06:00

Here are some thoughts that have been sticking with me, from Anne Elizabeth Moore, a writer, artist, activist, and zine enthusiast based in Chicago. The statements are taken from a recent January 10th, 2011 PBS Art:21 interview she did with Caroline Picard (of the Green Lantern). The interview is continued here on Bad at Sports. (Emphasis added in bold).

Image credit: Anne Elizabeth Moore, cover for "Unmarketable," pub. The New Press, Fall 2007
--------------------------------

I think, too, I’ve not only gotten extremely depressed by the heteronormative and tiny independent publishing scene in the US, but I’ve gotten bored with how media operates. A stressed out country does not read, and they certainly do not react to what they read about with action. Don’t get me wrong: the destruction of the independent publishing scene goes against the founding principles of this country. The loss of sustained independent bodies of reporting has directly contributed to the tracking and cessation of further violations of civil and human rights in the US, not to mention allowed for unchecked limits to freedoms in academia and elsewhere. But I’ve also really enjoyed moving away from the idea that journalism is the only solution. Smart people can get the same information from different sources.

- AEM

Because copyright doesn’t actually cover all matters of intellectual property rights: there are a ton of things that we do, make, use, and create that we don’t bother to assign copyright to. Cooking, for example, and quilting and knitting and sewing. Traditionally known as women’s work. Most of this isn’t eligible for copyright because, in the theory that went into creating the law, they worked from the accrued common knowledge of a group of people and result in products that are intended for private consumption. So: the law is publicly acknowledging that some work traditionally identified as feminine doesn’t matter in terms of this law, which after all is about the right to have ownership over, but also profit from, your own work. This is therefore a law that is fundamentally flawed, in several different arenas. Fighting it on its own terms isn’t going to change the basis of our understanding about the kinds of work that matters and the kinds of work that don’t.

- AEM

Video: Cinthia Marcelle's "Cruzada"

2011-02-13T08:33:00.000-06:00

CRUZADA from cinthia marcelle on Vimeo.

Cinthia Marcelle (b. 1974) is a Brazilian artist in film, installation, and photography who recently won the 2010 Future Generations Prize (with an international jury, including Robert Storr). Her video work evokes a hypnotic and mysterious narrative, a duel and a dance that interacts directly with the Brazilian landscape.

View the other construction films here, and see more photographs of her work at Galeria Vermelho and Sprovieri.

Interview: FANTASTIC STANZAS at the Post Family

2011-02-08T22:18:00.000-06:00

I am so thrilled about this recent interview from Chad Kouri of the Post Family here in Chicago. His enthusiasm is contagious! Many thanks.

New work/ exhibit: FANTASTIC STANZAS at Anchor Graphics

2011-01-31T08:02:00.001-06:00

Julia V. Hendrickson, "B-b-but, I d-d-didn't mean..." (2009-2011)

Photo polymer etching in blue-grey ink, with collage, on cream paper

3.5" x 5" (image), 8" x 10" (sheet)

I am very excited to announce the following solo exhibition of my recent print-collage work! More here.
...

FANTASTIC STANZAS
February 4th–March 26th, 2011
Opening reception, Thursday, February 10th, from 5:00-7:00pm
Anchor Graphics
263 S. Wabash Ave, Room 201
...
Opening soon at Anchor Graphics, Julia V. Hendrickson presents new work in the solo exhibition FANTASTIC STANZAS. These hyper-realistic photographic prints, collaged with the graphic, overblown qualities of cartoon imagery, are surreal paradises where logic exists in a constant state of warfare with elements of the unknown. Futuristic machines assemble in peripheries, lurking with a subtle violence that is subverted only by the presence of satire and play. Small objects are made monumental, skewing perception of the visual space and placing them outside of time. Each scene is a constructed illusion—stanzas brimming with narrative implications—filled with poetic fragments of an unfamiliar everyday.

Anchor Graphics is a not-for-profit fine art press that brings together, under professional guidance, a diverse community of youth, emerging and established artists, and the public to advance the fine art of printmaking by integrating education with the creation of prints. Anchor Graphics is a program of the Art + Design Department at Columbia College Chicago.

FANTASTIC STANZAS will be on view Mon – Fri, 10am – 6pm and Sat. 2pm - 5pm, through Saturday, March 26th.

Julia V. Hendrickson, "gymnasts flung across the diabolic cutlery of sunny rivers" (2011)

Photopolymer etching in brown ink with collage on Japanese paper

5 x 7" (plate), 9 x 12" (sheet)

Review: "Chicago's Current Comic Affairs"

2011-01-29T08:39:00.000-06:00

This week I wrote the "Eye Exam" review for Newcity, a longer piece that I've been working on for a bit. You can find the published version here, and my extended version of it below, with links to many of the artists' websites. The MCA's New Chicago Comics show closes tomorrow, so get over there whilst you can!
-------------------------------------------------------
Eye Exam: Chicago's Current Comic Affairs
By Julia V. Hendrickson

Enrique Chagoya, "Return to Goya No. 9," 2010

(January 24th, 2011) Comic and cartoon artists work quietly but profusely in Chicago, drawn, perhaps, to the functionality of its gridded streets, city blocks like frames on a page. Comic book and specialty bookstores like Quimby’s and Challengers flourish because there is an audience for experimental narratives and a vibrant community surrounding comic art. In reaction to such public interest, January brings a flurry of exhibitions related to comic and sequential narrative art.

For those interested in historical context, the Block Museum in Evanston offers a small but superb collection of prints in “The Satirical Edge,” with work from the 1950s to the present, all using graphic comic and cartoon imagery for socio-political commentary. The majority of this collection features a group of artists, the “Outlaw Printmakers,” who were part of a 2004 exhibition at Big Cat Gallery in New York. Most striking are Tom Huck’s series of small-town narratives depicted in large, hypnotically intricate woodcuts. A handful of R. Crumb comic books from the early 1970s are the only direct connection to comics, but the influence of comic art is evident in works like Richard Mock’s bug-eyed linocuts and Enrique Chagoya’s collaged accordion book.

Chagoya’s newer work is also prominently displayed, and includes an etching from his latest edition, a dancing, demon-chased Obama, a subtle revision of Goya’s “Los Caprichos.” The Block aptly compliments the “Satirical Edge” with a concurrent exhibition of prints by eighteenth-century caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson.

Corinne Mucha at Las Manos Gallery (click to enlarge)

A survey of twenty-two contemporary Chicago comic artists is shown at Las Manos Gallery in Andersonville. Titled “StatiCCreep,” the exhibition, like many presentations of comic art, is a visual overload, without coherent direction. Hung salon-style, the work tends to blend together. There are sketches, comic-book page layouts, hyper-realistic fantasy cover art and an animated cartoon.
After sifting through the stereotypical breasts and biceps of mass-produced comics, a few artists offer engaging alternatives. The prolific Jeffrey Brown indulges in uncharacteristic, yet funny, zombie illustrations. Nicole Hollander’s classic “Sylvia” strips and Heather McAdams’ strange, endearing portraits of famous country singers represent the seasoned newspaper syndicates. Happily, emerging artists also play an active role in this exhibition, such as Lucy Knisley, whose intricate pen-and-ink drawings reveal a deceptively sweet style with wry undertones. Corinne Mucha’s witty one-page comics function as short stories and hypothetical worlds, with a suitably simple line and engaging dialogue. Wisely, in the back of the gallery, many of the artists’ books are offered for sale, providing a much-needed opportunity to read and reflect on larger bodies of narrative work.

Lilli Carré, excerpt from "A New Leaf," 2009, at the MCA

Concurrently, the Museum of Contemporary Art focuses on four local, working artists in “New Chicago Comics.” Jeffrey Brown makes an appearance, along with Lilli Carré, Paul Hornschemeier and Anders Nilsen. It’s quite familial, for Brown, Hornschemeier and Nilsen all belonged to the same small collective from 2002-2008 called The Holy Consumption, a weekly drawing exercise and promotional venture. Despite the closely cast net, however, all four artists are pioneers, redrawing boundaries and offering new insights into the narrative possibilities of comic art.

The stippled, delicate intricacies of Anders Nilsen’s lines quietly obscure the bizarre morbidity of his story. Jeffrey Brown’s frantically filled sketchbooks and his fascination with cats add dimensions to his often-dour persona. Lilli Carré’s work stands out in her adept ability to transition between multiple modes. She doesn’t limit herself to creating work solely for publication, and instead maintains her graceful, unique style throughout thoughtful experimentations in narrative, artist books, and animation. Her triangle-nosed figures are mesmerizing, commanding solitary spaces where wondrous things can happen.

What is lacking in “New Chicago Comics” is a cohesive institutional understanding of the medium. The title is a misnomer, for the majority of the work shown is neither new (much of the work spans the last decade), nor truly intended for exhibition. The oft-overlooked issue with presenting contemporary comic art is its intended final product. Most of the time the end result of comic art is a printed publication, a book or a zine, but problematically museums and galleries insist on showing comic art that is in transition. Blue-pencil and ink drawings require subsequent colorings and reproduction, and when printed are meant to be physically held, read and absorbed on multiple levels. Viewers automatically reached to turn the pages of Carré’s artist books, and closely hunched over the cases protecting Brown’s sketchbooks as if poised to dive in. As a result, “New Chicago Comics” begs for a reading room, an interactive display of the artists’ books, to be handled alongside the originals, allowing for tactile interaction and an appreciation of both imagery and text.

Paul Hornschemeier, from "The Three Paradoxes," 2006, at the MCA (click to enlarge)

Unfortunately, as a result, Paul Hornschemeier’s work suffers the most from the presentation. In order to highlight his multi-faceted drawing styles, instead of just showing varied work, Hornschemeier’s entire book, “The Three Paradoxes” (2006), is printed verbatim on vinyl wallpaper. The book is a highly experimental graphic narrative in both style and form, yet most of it is plastered illegibly high on the wall. His blue pencil and black ink drawings, pieces that are intended for publication and subsequent stages of inking and coloring, are the only original work of his that is displayed.

The art world’s reliance on simply plucking pages from soon-to-be books does not do full justice to an artist’s intent. Exhibiting working drawings is only one facet of comic art; it can be a useful aid, but is too often an endpoint. Comic art, when pushed to the walls, is strongest when it can simultaneously function as a singular work as well as a piece in a larger narrative. The four artists in “New Chicago Comics” are seasoned and talented enough to recognize this, and the pages presented are certainly powerful in their own right.

Ultimately, despite technicalities of display, the comic art currently presented in Chicago is engaging and exciting because many of these artists function as modern philosophers: posing and answering mundane, existential, and wildly hypothetical questions with grace. These artists work as skillful storytellers, playing with, and against, the ever-dangerous, charming nostalgia of comic imagery.

Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago,“New Chicago Comics,” through January 30. Las Manos Gallery, 5220 North Clark, “The StatiCCreep: An Exhibition of Sequential Art,” through February 6. The Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, “The Satirical Edge in Contemporary Prints and Graphics,” through March 13.

Look: Fantastic cards from YeeHaw Industries

2011-01-22T20:38:00.000-06:00

Will you just look at the hilarity that is rolling off the YeeHaw Tennessee presses? I have had the phrase "Butter my butt & call me a biscuit" stuck in my head for weeks! I just know it's going to pop out at an inopportune moment. They've also got some timely and tastefully typographic Valentines, like "XOXO".

Tender Moments with the Godfather, $20; Butter my Butt, $13.

Video Documentary: Paul Muldoon, on poetry and the creative spirit

2011-01-19T19:00:00.000-06:00

Five Dialogues, Paul Muldoon from Wunderkammer Magazine on Vimeo.

This inspiring interview of poet Paul Muldoon was recently released from Wunderkammer Magazine, filmed and directed by a friend, J.M. (Jason) Harper, and his colleague, David Michael.

Muldoon is the poetry editor at The New Yorker, and was one of Jason's professors at Princeton University. After being introduced by Jason to Muldoon's work this summer, I have plunged back into his Pulitzer Prize-winning Horse Latitudes (2006) recently, and it is a rewarding and stunning experience. Read aloud, it bewitches; read to oneself, it evokes laughter and invites revisiting. One of my favorite poems, Eggs, can be heard read by Muldoon in a 2007 NPR story here. It's worth it.

Note: Jason's other film projects (commercial, documenrary, music video, and narrative) can be found here. (My other favorite of his is Drug Police).

Music: New singles from Seoul, by Peterson Goodwyn

2011-01-16T11:58:00.000-06:00

My dear old friend Peterson recently finished a stint teaching English in South Korea, and upon his return to the hallowed halls of Pennsylvania has just released two new singles recorded in Seoul. He's a talented fellow, a drummer and music producer hailing from the soft arms and sweet caresseses of the Good Luck Joes and the tender but fierce ministries of Saw Fist Tree.

The two new singles from his self-titled project, Peterson Goodwyn, can be found here. A side: Dream About, B side: Yes, English!

More to be released on February 1st and 15th!

Video: Well said, Jon Stewart (on Arizona)

2011-01-12T16:07:00.000-06:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Arizona Shootings Reaction

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>

The Daily Show on Facebook

Succinct, and poignant. Thanks, Mr. Stewart.

Poem: "Alla breve"

2011-01-09T10:12:00.000-06:00

Alla breve

Why do
painters, painters
of houses,
beards matching
pigeons, drink
five red
Coke cans,
flush, with
stories of
houses under
their nails?

In painted,
empty houses
they follow
hair, hair
floating to
final destinations,
tangle sticky
in distracted
spider decor.

Loose tufts
waft white
as milkweed
from fingers,
caught dry,
on hot
biscuit tongues.

How did
they seem
painters, painting
then, young?
Stand in
cotton, hair
blown, against
trees? Still
bright summer-noon
teeth, big
pie sliced,
bottom-lipped smiles,
cutting the
eye of
their grin?

- JVH

Video: The camera's turned back towards The Sartorialist

2011-01-06T21:04:00.000-06:00

Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist fame was recently featured in an Intel-sponsored short documentary. It's beautifully produced (wish I knew who directed it!), and a fun insight into the mind of working blogger/ photographer.

Claudine Isé's MCA 12x12x100 review

2011-01-04T08:23:00.000-06:00

As the Museum of Contemporary Art completes its 100th 12x12 exhibition in ten years with Jessica Labatte, critic Claudine Isé of Bad at Sports makes a cogent case for an MCA New Year's resolution: re-think it.

Claudine, thanks for vocalizing issues that are often overshadowed by the glamour and excitement of contemporary work appearing in an institutional context. They asked for your input-- now let's see if they listen up.

"And that’s the problem that I have with the 12 x 12 series as a whole. It’s too much about giving every artist their turn, and not nearly enough about ambition, innovation, and critical expansion of an artist’s practice (and an audience’s understanding of it). I’ll be even more blunt: 12 x 12 shows rarely feel special. The work by artists that is exhibited in this smallish gallery off the MCA’s main entryway is no better, and more often than not it’s significantly less good, than the work that that same artist has shown at a local gallery."

[...]

"The MCA needs to do more to make this opportunity count. 100 shows and almost 10 years is long enough to prove the Institution’s commitment to emerging local artists. Now, I think it’s time for the MCA to expand that commitment into something more lasting and meaningful by taking a long look at how they allocate their resources and at what they, and more importantly what their artists, truly want and need from a 12 x 12 exhibition."

Read the full review here.

Interviews: (on index cards) Nabokov and the Reeders

2010-12-28T09:10:00.000-06:00

Excerpts below from Vladimir Nabokov: The Art of Fiction No. 40. Full interview at the Paris Review No. 41 (Summer-Fall 1967).

INTERVIEWER

Could you say something of your work habits? Do you write to a preplanned chart? Do you jump from one section to another, or do you move from the beginning through to the end?

NABOKOV

The pattern of the thing precedes the thing. I fill in the gaps of the crossword at any spot I happen to choose. These bits I write on index cards until the novel is done. My schedule is flexible, but I am rather particular about my instruments: lined Bristol cards and well sharpened, not too hard, pencils capped with erasers.

[...]

INTERVIEWER

Is there a community of which you consider yourself a part?

NABOKOV

Not really. I can mentally collect quite a large number of individuals whom I am fond of, but they would form a very disparate and discordant group if gathered in real life, on a real island. Otherwise, I would say that I am fairly comfortable in the company of American intellectuals who have read my books.

[...]

INTERVIEWER

What is most characteristic of poshlust in contemporary writing? Are there temptations for you in the sin of poshlust? Have you ever fallen?

NABOKOV

“Poshlust,” or in a better transliteration poshlost, has many nuances, and evidently I have not described them clearly enough in my little book on Gogol, if you think one can ask anybody if he is tempted by poshlost. Corny trash, vulgar clichés, Philistinism in all its phases, imitations of imitations, bogus profundities, crude, moronic, and dishonest pseudo-literature—these are obvious examples. Now, if we want to pin down poshlost in contemporary writing, we must look for it in Freudian symbolism, moth-eaten mythologies, social comment, humanistic messages, political allegories, overconcern with class or race, and the journalistic generalities we all know. Poshlost speaks in such concepts as “America is no better than Russia” or “We all share in Germany's guilt.” The flowers of poshlost bloom in such phrases and terms as “the moment of truth,” “charisma,” “existential” (used seriously), “dialogue” (as applied to political talks between nations), and “vocabulary” (as applied to a dauber). Listing in one breath Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and Vietnam is seditious poshlost. Belonging to a very select club (which sports one Jewish name—that of the treasurer) is genteel poshlost. Hack reviews are frequently poshlost, but it also lurks in certain highbrow essays. Poshlost calls Mr. Blank a great poet and Mr. Bluff a great novelist. One of poshlost's favorite breeding places has always been the Art Exhibition; there it is produced by so-called sculptors working with the tools of wreckers, building crankshaft cretins of stainless steel, Zen stereos, polystyrene stinkbirds, objects trouvés in latrines, cannonballs, canned balls. There we admire the gabinetti wall patterns of so-called abstract artists, Freudian surrealism, roric smudges, and Rorschach blots—all of it as corny in its own right as the academic “September Morns” and “Florentine Flowergirls” of half a century ago. The list is long, and, of course, everybody has his bête noire, his black pet, in the series. Mine is that airline ad: the snack served by an obsequious wench to a young couple—she eyeing ecstatically the cucumber canapé, he admiring wistfully the hostess. And, of course, Death in Venice. You see the range.

----------------------------------------------------

Excerpts below from Scott and Tyson Reeder Talk to Each Other (Jan-Feb 2008), The NY Arts Magazine.

If you could hire anyone throughout art history as your studio assistant who would it be?
Scott Reeder: Joseph Albers—it seems like he would be really organized and have really clean brushes, plus he seems to be pretty good with color. Warhol would also be a nice assistant because he would be good at attracting other interesting assistants and he would always come up with the easiest way to do something.

Tyson Reeder: Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart. A painter who could help me with my titles and play sax.

How do you get your ideas?
S: I have a system of notebooks where I write down things that pop into my head. It’s all numbered and color-coded (I use a four-color pen). Green is for art ideas. Red is for video and film ideas. Blue is for music and sound ideas. And black is what I use to write down boring information like grocery lists.

T: I have hundreds of small drawings on index cards that have become my own dictionary of colors, marks, accidental stains, and spills that I draw from in order to make distortions of Midwestern rural and urban space, small town freaks, and regional history.

[...]

If you had to come up with a name for it what would you call the art movement that is going on right now?
S: “Image Searchism” or maybe “more broken mirrors.”
T: “punk for sale” or “post-good.”

If you wrote a manifesto what would it be titled?
S: Not sure what it would be titled, but the text would be all dingbats.
T: “Let's Make Something New”

Happy Holidaze, and Mewwy Kissed-mouse!

2010-12-25T00:12:00.000-06:00

With love, from Julia.

New print: Jo

2010-12-23T20:43:00.000-06:00

Julia V. Hendrickson, Jo (2010)

Photopolymer etching in brown ink on cream paper

1.75 x 2.25" (plate), 5 x 7" (sheet)

Commissioned print, private collection.

Photographer unknown.

This is a print I made recently, commissioned by a dear friend as a Christmas gift for his mother. It's a photograph of her as a little girl. It turned out quite small, and is a very sweet little piece.

Please contact me at the address below if you're interested in something similar!

sendmissiveshere [at] gmail.com

Gift Guide 3: Chicago-made prints

2010-12-20T01:00:00.000-06:00

Since I normally spend most of my waking hours looking at, thinking about, and handling prints, I thought I'd give a little run-down on some of the coolest giftable prints that are out in Chicago right now. Here is a selection of my favorites, in no particular order.

(Disclosure: I am friends with some of these artists, but I made these choices on my own, and this gift guide aims to be bias-free!)
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JAY RYAN / BIRD MACHINE & DIANA SUDYKA (Skokie, IL)
Darwin's Finches, 5-color screenprint, $30 (Diana Sudyka);
Pigeon with Toy Car, 8-color screenprint, $100 (Jay Ryan).

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STARSHAPED PRESS (Chicago, IL)
Urban Gardening letterpress print, $12;
Silent film-inspired letterpress cards (HELLO! and Seeing You), $3/ea.

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SONNENZIMMER (Chicago, IL)
In Search of Cromwell Dixon 9-color screenprint, $60;
Collaboration with Chicago artist Rachel Niffenegger, 9-color screenprint, $100.

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RYAN KAPP (Chicago, IL)
Skokie Night, 11-color screenprint, $45.

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CROSSHAIR (Chicago, IL)
Fort #3, 10-color screenprint, $80.

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YELLOWLION (Evanston, IL)
Folk Pattern, 3-color screenprint, $20;
Fire Truck, 1-color screenprint, $15.

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SANYA GLISIC (Chicago, IL)
Winter Garden, 4-color screenprint, $50.

New work: "Hey, don't drop dat der."

2010-12-14T10:03:00.000-06:00

Julia V. Hendrickson, Hey, don't drop dat der. (2010)

Photopolymer etching with collage on paper.

5x7 (image), 9x12 (sheet).

Click the image to view larger.

Music video: Mates of State "Get Better"

2010-12-12T10:06:00.000-06:00

Mates of State - Get Better from daniel garcia on Vimeo.

My morning anthem for the time being. From Mates of State's 2008 album Re-Arrange Us.

Video: Sensorium Show's "Disconnected"

2010-12-10T08:37:00.000-06:00

Russell's got a new video up on The Sensorium Show, and I helped! With hands and brain power. He did the wizardry. Featuring: my ghost hands and hands-poking-stuff. Those thorns were killer.

If you click "Subscribe" to his channel, you can get an email when he posts new work!

Gift Ideas 2: Out-of-town favorites from Renegade Chicago!

2010-12-09T22:16:00.000-06:00

Featuring products from my three favorite out-of-towners from Chicago's Holiday Renegade fair! These are all works on paper, but, gee whiz, I just couldn't help myself!
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JUST A JAR (Marietta, OH)
Fin de siècle letterpress charm

These cards can be found on Etsy here.

I'm always a sucker for all-things-Ohio, so this little press from the southeastern corner of my home state caught my eye. Sara Alway & Bobby Rosenstock have got a good sense of humor, and these remind me a little of another Ohio favorite, Married to the Sea (here's my vote for a collaboration!). Just A Jar's other projects are neat, too, including a series of posters with quotations from the German philosopher Martin Heidegger; a Do THIS, not THAT classroom (mis)behavior guide poster series; and a Spring 2011 forthcoming book called Soil Mates: A Vegetable Dating Guide. Neato!

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1CANOE2 (Columbia, MO)
Whimsical, illustration-based letterpress

Carrie Shryock & Beth Snyder have some seriously sweet handwriting; the fanciful script is distinctive, the colors bright, and their tendency to organize fun and functional. I've always wanted a collection of "Things That Are Round," as the coasters above illustrate, and the skewed proportions of "Things That Are Long" looks like my kind of math. Those rainbow-hued recipe cards above come with a handmade wooden box that is really mouth-watering (and it just got picked up by Anthropologie, so you may be seeing loads more of the like in the near future).

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KRANK PRESS (Los Angeles, CA)
Modern, simple letterpress cards and prints

Eleanor Nissley works as an architect in LA, and her organized, modern architectural aesthetic shows in her letterpress work. The New York Times Magazine did a post about her back in January 2010, which you can read here.

I love perpetual calendars, and a beautiful, functional calendar that tells you what produce is in season for your area is right up my alley. She had Chicago-area produce calendars at Renegade, but they aren't offered on her website right now, so contact her if you'd like to order one.
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Gift Ideas: Local favorites from Renegade Chicago!

2010-12-06T13:17:00.002-06:00

This weekend marked the 5th Annual Holiday Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, held at the beautiful Pulaski Park Fieldhouse. I worked Saturday at the Ork Posters booth, and yesterday got a chance to browse around. It was such a treat to know so many wonderful artists and craftspeople at Renegade this year, mainly through my involvement in the Chicago Printers Guild, and I was really proud of all the hard work my friends put into their stands.

Since I most often write about printmaking and works on paper, I wanted to share a handful of my favorite shops that are based in Chicago that have nothing to do with paper (in no particular order), and a piece or two I liked from each one... gift guide alert!

(Check back soon, because there are more out-of-town favorites from Renegade to come in the next few days!)

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FIORI FALSI (JESSICA TAYLOR) (Chicago, IL)
Hand-printed fabrics, bags, and accessories

Jessica Taylor, under the name of Fiori Falsi, is a talented friend and fellow printmaker. She screenprints patterns onto the fabric herself, and offers a wonderful line of fashionable, sturdy, well-made bags and purses. She's also able to make custom bags, if you have specific things you want (everyone is picky about their purse!). If you like her style and want to give one as a gift, she offers gift certificates through her website as well (so that way your recipient can customize his/her own!). I've been longing for one for ages!

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KATY COLLIER (Chicago, IL)
Hand-printed fabrics, linens, and cards

Katy Collier is another talented friend and fellow artist (originally from Portland, OR) whose work I love. Her drawing and illustration style is charming and sweet, and she uses simple plant imagery in her linocut prints on fabric. If you have any newborns in your life, she has onesies, and if you'd like to give a housewarming gift, her curtains, tea towels, and napkins are all perfect for such an occasion.

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MAKER and MAKER (Chicago, IL)
Handmade, limited-edition ceramics.

In the persons of Andy Hunt, Tim Woodbrey, and Ali Gibbons, Maker and Maker has clean and simple forms, with funky, rustic designs and glazes. This particular line is classic, vintage Americana. My favorite piece was the buffalo sculpture below (also in rust color). Keep an eye on their Etsy page for new work. They'll be releasing new lines of limited-edition ceramics (new designs, and new glazes) every few months, I believe.

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WINTER SESSION (Chicago, IL)
Durable, functional accessories and bags made from recycled clothes and fabric (with a preppy twist!)

I was very much drawn to the beautiful fabrics (those stripes are just calling my name!) that the folks at Winter Session use, and pleased to see that they use re-purposed clothes to make many or most of their products. Everything is already a little worn and immensely touchable, with that soft, old-cotton feel that you get from favorite shirts you've had lying around for years. They also make smaller accesories that were for sale at Renegade (but not visible on the website) and neat scarves from old men's button-down shirts that drape beautifully and look awesome.

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Video: THE SENSORIUM SHOW

2010-12-02T12:06:00.000-06:00

My dear friend Russell Weiss has been working on a project he calls The Sensorium Show, a strange kind of video sketchbook chock-full of hypothetical worlds and inane ponderings: a delight in visual-aural experimentation. Here are the first three videos he's posted, but be sure to check back at the Sensorium Show on YouTube for new videos in the coming weeks.

Watch these, if you can, in full screen HD (change the button that says 360p to read 720p or 1080p) with some good speakers.

Poem/Video: Burroughs says "Thanks"

2010-11-24T22:58:00.000-06:00

A Thanksgiving Prayer, from the year of my birth. Read the text here.

Dear William S. Burroughs, not a whole lot has changed.

Via Isaac Fitzagerald at The Rumpus.

Lit: Alice Munro's "The Love of a Good Woman"

2010-11-21T16:20:00.003-06:00

Illustration for The Love of a Good Woman, pen and graphite on paper

Julia V. Hendrickson, 2010

Feeling a decided lack of intellectual, literary discussion in my life of late, I've started a new feminist book club with some lady friends o' mine. We're reading a book a month, and are also in the planning stages of making a monthly (or perhaps quarterly) zine. For the first book, I selected a stunning collection of short stories by Canadian author Alice Munro (b. 1931), who in 2009 won the Booker Prize for a lifetime body of work.

The Love of a Good Woman, published in 1998, is a collection of eight stories set primarily in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada, and spanning many decades. Munro's mostly female protagonists are haunting; the stories are filled with silence and secrets that have as much to do with place as they has to do with the lives of "good women". The title story, the first in the collection, is slow to unfold, and Munro's measured process of revealing a small town makes the reader's entry into her work an uphill battle. Yet, as time progresses, and the macabre relationship is revealed between the "good woman", Enid, and Mrs. Quinn, the woman in her care, the steady pacing is rewarding, soothing, even, amidst the always lingering sense of threatened disaster, and minds going over the edge.

This miasma in the minds of Munro's characters, and her purposeful use of language and of place, reminded me very much of Virginia Woolf, whose presence echoes quietly throughout the lives of Munro's women. In the story, Cortes Island, the unnamed narrator is reading Woolf's To the Lighthouse. In Jakarta, two married women (Kath and Sonje) are in strange, unsatisfactory relationships that beg for release, socially trapped by their male partners in a very Woolfian way. Indeed, Woolf's Clarissa from Mrs. Dalloway is referenced in Jakarta: "'Oh, Sonje, are you going to be the tactful hostess?' the older woman said. 'Like somebody in Virginia Woolf?' So it seemed Virginia Woolf was at a discount, too. There was so much Kath didn't understand." (pp. 96)

The passage from Jakarta below (referring to a D.H. Lawrence story, The Fox) also reminded me very much of something from To the Lighthouse:

The soldier knows that they will not be truly happy until the woman gives her life over to him, in a way that she has not done so far. March is still struggling against him, to hold herself separate from him, she is making them both obscurely miserable by her efforts to hang on to her woman's soul, her woman's mind. She must stop this--she must stop thinking and stop wanting and let her consciousness go under, until it is submerged in his. Like the reeds that wave below the surface of the water. Look down, look down--see how the reeds wave in the water, they are alive but they never break the surface. And that is how her female nature must live within his male nature. Then she will be happy and he will be strong and content. Then they will have achieved a true marriage. Kath says that she thinks this is stupid. [...] She can't stand that part about the reeds and the water, she feels bloated and suffocated with incoherent protest. (pp. 84-85)

The imagery of the reeds/ woman, waving like an Ophelia below the water, is powerful, and has lingered in my mind over the past few weeks. It reminded me of one of my favorite Woolf passages: “Beneath it is all dark, it is all spreading, it is unfathomably deep; but now and again we rise to the surface and that is what you see us by.” (Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse). The water is self, and gender, and narrative, and memory; its presence is imperative for understanding, and inescapable.

Memory, which plays such an important role in Woolf's writing, is important to Munro's sense of narrative as well; Munro discusses this in a recent interview:

Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories—and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories. We can hardly manage our lives without a powerful ongoing narrative. And underneath all these edited, inspired, self-serving or entertaining stories there is, we suppose, some big bulging awful mysterious entity called THE TRUTH, which our fictional stories are supposed to be poking at and grabbing pieces of. What could be more interesting as a life’s occupation? One of the ways we do this, I think, is by trying to look at what memory does (different tricks at different stages of our lives) and at the way people’s different memories deal with the same (shared) experience. The more disconcerting the differences are, the more the writer in me feels an odd exhilaration. (January 8th, 2010 interview).

Video: Flying Lotus (...with kindness)

2010-11-18T18:29:00.000-06:00

Flying Lotus - Kill Your Co-Workers from beeple on Vimeo.

Hilarious and creepy. Directed by Beeple, aka Mike Winkleman, based in Neenah, Wisconsin. His Everyday self-educational project is pretty neat.

Music by Flying Lotus. Animators can download the source files and mess around with the characters from the video.

Illustration: Lesbidrama

2010-11-17T23:44:00.000-06:00

Julia V. Hendrickson, Lesbidrama

Graphite on paper

November 2010

Wit / Lit: Amy Sedaris and Lynda Barry

2010-11-11T17:31:00.000-06:00

Two awesome women both have new books out this month, and they'll both be in Chicago in the next few days...

I still get night sweats when thinking about the fold-out poster of Sedaris covered in icing and sprinkles that was hidden in her last book, I Like You. Her recently published "crafts for poor people" book, Simple Times, looks similarly heart rate-increasing (come on, a section called "Fornicrafting"?!).

She's doing a book signing this Saturday, November 13th at the Borders Books in downtown Chicago (830 N. Michigan) at 3pm, and will also demonstrate the very necessary how-to secrets behind tinfoil balls and crepe–paper moccasins.

Be sure to read this hilarious interview with her at the Rumpus.

Of course it's a candle salad.

With a doily, an extra-long match, and that signature Sedaris mayonnaise dressing.

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Equally glee-inducing, contemporary comic art great Lynda Barry is also coming to Chicago! She's giving a lecture and a reading at SAIC (280 S. Columbus Drive) at 6pm on Monday, November 15th from/ on her new graphic narrative, Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book. I know I've always needed to LEARN HOW TO ART.

It's from Drawn & Quarterly, everyone's favorite classy Canadian comics publisher. Bring along your yellow lined legal pads, kids, it's gonna be a good talk to doodle to.

Watch: Chris Ware's Animated "Quimby the Mouse"

2010-11-10T09:11:00.000-06:00

Quimby The Mouse from This American Life on Vimeo.

I may be a year late getting this newsflash, but my jaw dropped with delight when I watched this yesterday, via a friend in Pittsburgh. A more perfect marriage I never did see: Chris Ware and animation! Quimby the Mouse is particularly suited to movement and slapstick humor, and Chris Ware's flat visual style works perfectly with Flash animation (reminds me of Felix the Cat cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s). From the This American Life - LIVE! 2009 special, Ware did the drawings, animated by John Kuramoto (who also worked with the New York-based animation studio, Twinkle, on the animations for American Splendor).

Two other more traditional, personal narrative-based This American Life collaborations between Ware and Kuramoto can be seen here (Kids building video cameras, 2007) and here (False memories of Jackie Kennedy, 2008).

More info about Chris Ware at Chicago's Carl Hammer Gallery, and Bad At Sports interviews Ware in a podcast from March 2009.

The song is Eugene by Andrew Bird.

Listen: Sharon Van Etten

2010-11-07T13:09:00.000-06:00

I had the pleasure of seeing Sharon Van Etten perform last night at Lincoln Hall, as an opener for Junip, José González's new band. While I still like his music, José González was less than inspiring, and frankly, nap-inducing as a performer. I think he may be coasting along on his Swedish-Argentine charm and some of that newfound attention a little too much (he's the recent subject of a documentary, The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of José González, for instance). Perhaps the band allows him to hold back as well. However, as much I was disappointed with Junip, the trek was worth it to see Sharon Van Etten.

Above and beyond the fact that she's cute as a Brooklyn button, and her tattoos are rad, she's a very sincere, humble, passionate performer. NPR has her new album, Epic, streaming here, if you're interested. The songs "One Day," "For You," and "Love More" (with a hand-pumped piano) stand out, and will surely be echoing through the autumnal halls of my apartment for the new few days.

Image of Van Etten from Schneidblog.

Feature: Lorna Simpson / Harold Washington Library

2010-11-05T08:37:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I spent a very enjoyable afternoon in nerd-dom doing art history research at the Harold Washington Public Library in downtown Chicago. The 8th floor is where all of the art books reside, and while my ravenous intellectual fingers were dismayed to realize that practically every art book in a public library is special collections and/ or reference (and therefore not touchable or browseable by the common woman, but must be personally requested), I still had a really good time. I'm quite sure I worried the reference desk attendant however, by showing her a list of over 20 items that I wanted to see. Academic libraries, and access to material, has spoiled me dreadfully.

Regardless, my quest was for books about Christopher Wool, research in preparation for the current Sound on Sound exhibit at Corbett vs. Dempsey, but I discovered many other wonderful things in the process. (Aside: the catalogue for the Hammer Museum's 2008 exhibition Oranges & Sardines: Conversations about Abstract Painting is really quite good. The title comes from a stellar Frank O'Hara poem, Why I Am Not A Painter, which you can, and should, read here. This particular catalogue can actually be requested through inter-library loan in Chicago, and is recommended as a resource for anyone interested in contemporary abstract art. The premise of the show was to ask abstract painters to list artists and artworks which influence them, and to create an exhibition around both the contemporary work and the tangential, inflential work. I wish I could have seen it in person).

In my journey up to the 8th floor, however, I came across a surprising fact: the Harold Washington Public Library has an art collection! The list of current and upcoming exhibitions can be found here, and currently Christine Perri has work on display. Mitchiko Itatani has a huge painting in one of the first floor stairwells, and (my personal favorite) one of Lorna Simpson's photograph-sculptures is featured prominently by the elevators on the 8th floor. I couldn't find an image of the exact piece, but it's very similar to the work below (titled Flipside) which is part of the Guggenheim's collection.

Two gelatin silver prints and engraved plastic plaque, diptych, edition 2/3, 51 1/2 x 70 inches (130.8 x 177.8 cm) overall .

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Purchased with funds contributed by the Photography Committee 2007.32.

Simpson's text is usually what draws me in. Her sense of humor is quiet yet unabashedly satirical, and the simple aesthetic (the black & white photography, the typography, labels, etc) that she often uses makes her work misleadingly "retro" and safe.

I was first exposed to Simpson at the very beginning of college, via a 2008 exhibition at the College of Wooster Art Museum curated by a wonderful art history professor, John Siewert, and organized by the talented and resourceful Kitty McManus-Zurko. Lorna Simpson's work has haunted me ever since. The 1960s nostalgia her work evokes (and ultimately destroys) probably has something to do, for me, with those young, heady college days. I was also reminded of her contemporary work while visiting Minneapolis' Walker Art Center earlier this spring in the small but powerful exhibition titled, Recollection: Lorna Simpson.

Lorna Simpson, Wigs II (1996-2006), waterless lithographs on felt.

N.B. This image is from Simpson's website, but I believe the Walker owns a smaller version of this piece, Wigs (portfolio), from 1994.

As a printmaker, the piece Wigs II, shown above, blew me away. Lithographs on felt! Of course! So tactile and simple, so elegant, and so surreal. You can see much more of Simpson's work on her website here.

I hope, if you are able, that you make a trek to the Harold Washington library to see Simpson's work, and explore enough to find other hidden gems that are part of the collection.

New Work: Prints

2010-11-03T23:56:00.000-05:00

Julia V. Hendrickson, Untitled (2010)

Photopolymer etching in blue ink on cream paper.

Photograph by the artist.

Julia V. Hendrickson, Untitled (2010)

Photopolymer etching in black ink on ivory paper.

Photograph by the artist.

Two new prints (printed at Spudnik Press during the non-toxic photo etching workshop I taught there) the first in luscious cyan. Branching out with color and I like the cyanotype effect.

Scans of these prints are strange, because it's digital > physical > digital again, but, so be it.

It's begging for a little collage...

Feature: Eyeworks Festival (Chicago)

2010-11-01T19:45:00.000-05:00

Some of my favorite Chicago artists, in the persons of Sonnenzimmer (Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi), Lillie Carré, and Alexander Stewart (who created the beautiful animated 2005 Errata), have teamed up to produce something pretty darn awesome: Sonnenzimmer designed and printed 200 silkscreened posters that vary a little bit between each print, and which compose an animated advertisment for the 2010 Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation!

Eyeworks Festival 2010 Poster Trailer from Alexander Stewart on Vimeo.

How cool is that? Organized by Carré and Stewart, the Festival takes place this coming Saturday, November 6th, at 247 S. State Street, with video showings at 1:00pm and 3:00pm. At 7:00, animator David O'Reilly will present some of his work, including his much-lauded The External World (which premiered at the 67th Venice Film Festival). Can't wait for this.

Artist: Erwin Wurm

2010-11-01T19:24:00.000-05:00

There was an opening yesterday at the Jack Hanley Gallery in NYC, and it featured a myriad of gherkins. Yes, zee pickles. A haunting, upright, righteous horde of 26 of them, titled Selbstporträt als Gurken.

Austrian artist Erwin Wurm (b. 1954) strikes again with good humor and aplomb. Realism, Formalism, and Cucumberism are salted and thrown to the wind. Obvious phallic gags aside, Wurm's portraits just make me laugh, for which his work is much appreciated. A charming video from the Submarine Channel's Pretty Cool People Interviews series below casts another light on Wurm's personality. It showcases Wurm's famous One Minute Sculptures which he has been making and photographing for the last few decades.

Erwin Wurm - Pretty Cool People Interviews from SubmarineChannel on Vimeo.

Print/ Video: Oil & Water Do Not Mix

2010-10-27T07:48:00.001-05:00

Screen printed with oil from the Gulf of Mexico, limited edition of 200, 76.2 cm x 50.8 cm. Signed and numbered in pencil.

OIL & WATER DO NOT MIX from Happiness Brussels on Vimeo.
The song is by Queens of the Stone Age, "Make It Witchu".

What an idea! Belgian design collective Happiness Brussells conceived and United Kingdom-based Anthony Burrill designed, taking action to raise money for the Coalition to Restore Costal Louisiana. New Orleans print shop Purple Monkey did the leg work.

The idea: use traditional screenprinting methods combined with the oil washing up from the Gulf of Mexico. I wonder about the toxicity of the oil (why weren't they wearing gloves, ack!), but it does look like they baked the prints at the end, so perhaps that sears away any nasties. At a whopping 150 Euro, these puppies ain't cheap (but, hey, neither are oil spill disasters, eh?). You can read more about the cause at Gulf of Mexico 2010.

More of Burrill's witty truisms can be seen below.

Anthony Burrill. Work Hard. Woodblock poster, open edition, signed in pencil, 51x76cm.
Printed by Adams of Rye onto 100% recycled sugar paper using traditional woodblock printing techniques.

Anthony Burrill. I Like It. Woodblock poster, open edition, signed in pencil, 51x76 cm
Printed by Adams of Rye onto 100% recycled paper using traditional woodblock printing techniques

Anthony Burrill. Temporary window designs for the Colette shop in Paris.

Artists: Mamma Andersson & Jockum Nordström

2010-10-19T20:47:00.000-05:00

San Francisco's Crown Point Press just announced a new edition of etchings from Swedish artists and partners Mamma Andersson (b. 1962) and Jockum Nordström (b. 1963). Hot diggity, these are beautiful! Be sure to watch the short video below, released by Crown Point Press, of Mamma Andersson discussing the work.

I really love the subtle influences in tone and space of early 20th century French and Belgian artists (e.g. Vuillard and Ensor). This, combined with a decidedly mid-century modern figurative style and line, recalls the Chicago self-taught artist Henry Darger, as well as Chicago Imagist art, especially that of School of the Art Institute professor/ artist Ray Yoshida. The etchings at the bottom, Pieces and Faces, in particular, remind me of both Yoshida and Christina Ramberg.

David Zwirner (who also represents Chris Ofili) recently presented two solo exhibitions by Andersson and Nordström titled Who is sleeping on my pillow (both from 29 April–12 June, 2010). Accompanying the exhibition is what appears to be an amazing catalogue (of sorts), due to be released on November 30th. It was designed, sweetly enough, by the artists' son, Valentin Nordstrom, and is meant to be part monograph, part artists' book and part personal archive. It includes an interview with the artists, conducted by artist and illustrator Marcel Dzama.

More information about the background and other work of Mamma Andersson and Jockum Nordström can be found on Art Daily, as well at David Zwirner: on Andersson here, and on Nordström here.

Andersson/Nordström: Hunter, 2010
Color spit bite and sugar lift aquatints with aquatint and soft ground etching, 21½ x 28½"
Edition 30, Printer: Emily York, Publisher: Crown Point Press

Andersson/Nordström: Readers, 2010
Color spit bite and sugar lift aquatints with aquatint and soft ground etching, 21½ x 28½"
Edition 30, Printer: Emily York, Publisher: Crown Point Press

Andersson/Nordström: Lou, 2010
Color spit bite and sugar lift aquatints with aquatint and soft ground etching, 21½ x 28½"
Edition 30, Printer: Emily York, Publisher: Crown Point Press

Andersson/Nordström: Surfers, 2010
Color spit bite and sugar lift aquatints with aquatint and soft ground etching, 28½ x 21½"
Edition 30, Printer: Emily York, Publisher: Crown Point Press

Andersson/Nordström: Pieces, 2010
Color spit bite and sugar lift aquatints with soft ground etching, 28½ x 21½"
Edition 30, Printer: Emily York, Publisher: Crown Point Press

Andersson/Nordström: Faces, 2010
Color spit bite and sugar lift aquatints with aquatint and soft ground etching, 28½ x 21½"
Edition 30, Printer: Emily York, Publisher: Crown Point Press

Video/ Lit: How Ink (& a book) Is Made

2010-10-18T23:53:00.001-05:00

via Christopher Hudgens at Bad at Sports.

While this ain't no Reading Rainbow video, it still is pretty nifty to have a context for the inks that we're surrounded by. Those velvety rollers and tubs 'o CMYK really make me drool. The featured business is from... can you guess? Canada! It's The Printing Ink Company.

Tangentially, I was wistfully reminded of a favorite children's story of mine that also happens to be a Reading Rainbow book, written by Aliki (full name Aliki Liacouras Brandenberg), called How a Book is Made. From 1986, it's a charming, educational insight into the writing, printing, and publishing process. I just love it when cute, well-dressed cats tell me all about books.

All images copyright Aliki and HarperCollins.

Interview: Julia Hendrickson on the Print Perspective

2010-10-18T08:07:00.001-05:00

Kansas City-based artist and writer Matt Kuhlman interviewed me this summer for a printmaking blog called the Print Perspective that he's starting as part of his graduate studies. The site's pretty minimal so far, but he's got a lot of pieces planned (a write-up on Steve Walters' Screwball Press in Chicago is next). It's pretty neat that I'm his first subject.

Excerpts below:

I gathered a strong sense of surrealism from her work, but not in the typical means used by Dali and Magritte. She creates such a tight focus on these small objects the viewer’s perspective shrinks down to that scale and causes them to ponder the importance of the objects. [...] Just about everything she makes is very cohesive [...] yet also very simply done as if it took almost no effort to get all the pieces to fall into place. [...]

It is truly rare to meet such a young artist that has accomplished so much and still has plenty of potential to spare. She even understands the importance of balancing artistic ambitions with realistic needs. “I’ve also been focusing a lot on other things lately, like cooking and reading and writing,” she told me on her back porch overlooking the picturesque garden below and a patchwork of rooftops fading into the distance. She seems to know that the best results are achieved by combining several interests into a healthy balance of thought and action. My advice would be to start paying attention to her now, because at the rate she’s going you might not be able to afford her work ten years from now."

Dang! Pressure's on! You can read the full text here. Our apartment looks much nicer now, artwork on the walls, even (perhaps I'll post some photos when I'm finished hanging the space). Yet, this all reminds me that I need to get/keep/stay crackin'.

Graduate school thoughts have been at the forefront of my mind and the tip of my scribbling fingers these days, but I'm also working on a few new projects, including: the exhibition of some new/ old work at Marwen's Art Fair 2010 (opening Nov. 5th); an upcoming collaborative screenprint (trillium and cotton blooms) with my southern belle, E. Stoutamire from Madison; a hopeful winter WWOOFing trip to Costa Rica; and a handful of silly, comic drawings for a new, secret, yet-to-be named zine with some feminist lady friends, which I can't wait to finish up and share.

Photograph taken by Matt Kuhlman (2010).

Review: Chris Ofili's "Afrotranslinear" / Arts Club of Chicago

2010-10-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

Here's my recent Newcity review of Chris Ofili's show, Afrotranslinear, at the Arts Club of Chicago (201 E. Ontario St.), which is on view through December 22nd, 2010. Chris Ofili is represented by David Zwirmer in New York.

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(Oct. 11, 2010) After a splash on the London art scene in the 1990s, and an infamous controversy regarding elephant dung and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, painter Chris Ofili quietly relocated to Trinidad in 2005 to remove himself from politics and focus on his art. The Tate Britain, which also presented Ofili with the prestigious Turner Prize in 1998, held a mid-career retrospective of his work earlier this year. With Ofili’s current exhibition, “Afrotranslinear,” The Arts Club presents a more specific survey of more than 100 works on paper created over the last decade.

“Afrotranslinear” is the first Chicago exhibition of Ofili’s art, and his graphic, cartoonish figures present a 1960s and seventies style that aligns remarkably well with Chicago Imagist art. This may be the simplest, most restrained work of Ofili’s to date. As in his most recognizable paintings, his hand still strays toward the intricate and adorned. Yet, in his bright, flat watercolor portraits, and with a reduced palette in his graphite drawings, it is easier to notice the simple beauty and thoughtful humor in his work. With vibrant colors reflecting tropical Trinidad, Ofili’s lush watercolor portraits are crude in execution, yet purposeful in hue. Local flora is inseparable from the portraits, as the brightly patterned clothes seem to grow from the base of the page, flowering in the figures’ heads. The Arts Club’s choice to present solely Ofili’s works on paper is a significant one; they get all of the flashy, secret thrills of “that shit artist” with none of the obvious, immediate scandal.

Ofili’s musings on sexuality and race are most evident in his graphite drawings. The white of the page is primarily left untouched, against which his male and female figures are composed of simple, dotted lines; the tiny dots, upon closer examination, materialize as wide-eyed, afroed faces. Other drawings use these afro-dots in abstract, graphic compositions, the lines becoming hypnotic as undulating waves radiate from the tiny heads. Despite the predominance of the white page, Ofili’s afroed, black figures command the space, and the entire composition transitions into a representation of blackness. Ofili encourages such movement, as the title “Afrotranslinear” suggests: to see and appreciate an all-encompassing black, across and beyond the lines. (Julia V. Hendrickson)

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Also, be sure to check out J. Foumberg's -ahem- tangentally and thematically-related review of the Rebecca Warren exhibit at the Renaissance Society. This may or may not have been dog-eared over at Newcity this week.

Tamarind Turns 50

2010-10-03T21:17:00.000-05:00

On the heels of my Chicago Printers Guild post, here's a tidbit from Sarah Hanley (at the excellent PBS Art:21 blog) about printmaking and the University of New Mexico's Tamarind Institute turning 50 this year. The traveling exhibit that occurs in conjunction with the anniversary looks like it will be quite good (including artists Vija Celmins, Kerry James Marshall, Philip Guston, Kiki Smith, Leon Golub, Jonathan Lasker, and Polly Apfelbaum).

Read the post here. A selection of new lithographs recently released from Tamarind follows (including some remarkably sweet prints from Laurent de Brunhoff... recognize the elephants?).

Nicola Lopez, Monument V (09-302)
Ten-color lithograph with collaged, hand-cut, printed elements. 22 by 18 inches, Edition 12.
Collaborating printers, Bill Lagattuta and Valpuri Kylmänen, at Tamarind Institute.

Kiki Smith, Afternoon, 2010 (09-310)
Five color lithograph with glitter, 16 x 20 inches, Edition 24
Collaborating Printer Bill Lagattuta at Tamarind.

Laurent de Brunhoff
Dancing Elephants I- IV
A suite of four three-color lithographs, 8.5 by 11 inches each
Collaborating Printer Valpuri Kylmänen at Tamarind, Edition 25.

Exhibit: Chicago Printers Guild show opens Oct. 8th!

2010-10-03T19:09:00.000-05:00

Please join me and a wonderful group of printmakers at the first-ever Chicago Printers Guild group exhibit, at the Chicago Urban Art Society (2229 S. Halsted St.), opening this Friday, October 8th, from 6-11pm! (through Sunday, October 17th). It will be a great survey of contemporary printmaking in Chicago. The press release follows.

The Chicago Printers Guild (CPG) was founded over a year ago, hell-bent on fusing together the tradition and success of its well-established print shops (including The Bird Machine, Delicious Design League, Sonnenzimmer, Crosshair, Screwball Press and The Post Family) with the creativity and flexibility of its up-and-coming studios (such as Spudnik Press and FugScreens Studios). Its first show since its inception, CPG hopes to do that and more, showcasing over 40 artists' collections and ranging in aesthetic and printing disciplines.

Serving as an introduction to the city of Chicago, the CPG show wants to take the viewer past the familiar settings when one thinks of print-making. Gig posters and t-shirts aside, this exhibition will illuminate the many disciplines within the printing medium: typeface, intaglio, lithography, even unconventional 3-D work will be included.

Chicago, with its rich print-making history, has a vastly dynamic community of artists which is constantly growing yet deeply rooted in tradition. The CPG is hoping to invigorate and engage the city of Chicago in order to promote print-making, as well as celebrate the vast array of artists taking part in this exhibition.

Participating artists: Angee Lennard, Billy Craven, C J Mace, Celene Aubry, Chad Kouri, Cherie Tymkiw, Dan Macadam, Dan Grzeca, Daniel Mellis, Diana Sudyka, Erin Page, Jason Teegarden-Downs, Jay Ryan, Jennifer Farrell, Jeremiah Chiu, Jessica Taylor-Caponigro, Johnny Sampson, Josh Davis, Julia Hendrickson, Justin Santora, Kathleen Judge, Keith Herzik, Kim Ambriz, Kwasi Amankwah, Kyle Baker, Lloyd Patterson, Megan Sterling, Michael Lauritano, Michael Schwindenhammer, Mike McQuade, Nadine Nakanishi, Nicholas Butcher, Phineas X. Jones, Rebecca Rakstad, Rich Kelly, Ryan Kapp, Sanya Glisic, Shawn Roberts, Steve Walters, Thomas Lucas, Veronica Corzo-Duchardt, William Sturgis, Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff

On View:
Saturday, October 9, 2010, 1-5pm (printing demos!)
Sunday, October 10 2010, 1-5pm
Thursday, October 14, 2010, 6-9pm
Friday, October 15, 2010, 6-9pm
Saturday, October 16, 2010, 1-5pm (printing demos!)
Sunday, October 17, 2010, 1-5pm

Music: Mark Ronson & the Business Intl (plus, avenging bikes!)

2010-10-01T09:53:00.001-05:00

Watch both of these:

Mark Ronson & The Business INTL "Bang Bang Bang" from Warren Fu on Vimeo.

Mark Ronson & The Business INTL: "The Bike Song" from Warren Fu on Vimeo.

A song about loyal bikes that fight back! Yes! Très élégant! Scott Schuman would have a field day.

This duo of dance-pop music videos for British producer/ DJ Mark Ronson's new project, Mark Ronson & the Business Intl, has seriously got me hooked. For what it is, the new album Record Collection is great, full of catchy, experimental dance tunes (you can stream the whole thing via Grooveshark/ Flavorpill here). I know I'm being sold something with these videos, but (kind of like in Mad Men), I'm buying the pitch--and the salesmen--more than the product.

Chicago-native Warren Fu directed, and I'm loving his work, too. The Guardian has a bio here. He worked at Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic as a visual effects art director for five years, so maybe that explains the retro-future vibe these videos have got going on.