Show Invites. Something Different

This entire thesis semester has made me realize that I really enjoy making work.  I enjoy creating projects with so many facets that there is always something to do.  Granted, I like to take breaks like anyone else, but I do not create artwork with the intent of working a forty hour week; eventually making paintings in order to make a living but only as a job.  That sounds awful.  With that in mind, I started to think about the idea of the show post card.  It is generally a hideous object; a reproduction of a piece of work that you have spent hours on, reduced to a card that is mass produced.  It is a piece of cardboard and a series of inks used to translate what an artist has spent hours figuring.  The artist's communication is lost.  It is a necessary evil.  Obviously people need to come to the show and in order for that to happen people need to know when the show is to begin with.

That said, while creating this project for my thesis, I have overcomplicated the entire image making process.  I want it to be complicated.  I want it to be unique, individual, and intense.  So I started to draw individual invitations to my show.  I then went around town dropping them off in various random places.  Free art, for anyone who wants it.  Find it.  Take it.  Come to the show.  It would be wonderful to meet you.

 I really enjoy these action shots.  It was fun dropping them off.  I wonder how difficult they will be to spot, if they are difficult to spot at all.  I am super pleased with this entire process.  It makes me feel as if I am finally finding my voice. 

And as a last thought:

Peace
-Mike

Thesis Installation - In Progress

It has been a long week, but I've been meaning to update this blog for the past couple days.  So hear I am chilling out at 11 pm, listening to some Warren G and bringing some work your way.  This week I had to put together the proof copy of my thesis book, which is all good, except that I realized last Saturday that I didn't really have any images to put IN the book.  I had to really poor it on to get some work on the walls and not just in stacks all over the studio.

I had figured out the method that would work for hanging the dowels fulls of blocks, but really wanted to clean up the construction of the backers a little bit and finagle a method of hanging multiple rows off of one hanger.  Both of these goals have been achieved after a very long four days.  I also managed to put together the proof copy of the book by about 3:30 this morning.

Here are some of the images from the installation thus far.

This work is definitely looking way more refined than it has in the past and I am super pleased about that.  I am incredibly impressed with how easy it was to put together the panels on the dowels though the blocks were definitely more of a challenge and thereby seem like more of an accomplishment.

I also received an email today with my image on the postcard for a show.  That is the first time that that has ever happened to me in a group show.  I am very pleased.  Check it out.

Pretty cool.  It is interesting to see someone use that green in this image, however.  I don't know if I would ever use that color, and yet there it is next to my billboard.  Interesting how that works out.  But there we have it, I'm rambling again.

Peace
-Mike

Is this Crunch Time?

Today I received the edits to my written thesis.  I was pleased to see that I didn't sound like a complete idiot to the proofreader.  You never know what the case might be when you have been staring at something for 2 months.  I need to finish the proof copy of my Thesis book by Wednesday night.  Before I can truly finish the proof copy of the book, I also need to finish installing a little more of my work so that I can have an image or two of my actual thesis work and not just past work.  It is going to be a busy couple of days.

It has been productive, however, to be forced to work quickly, sort the work, and try to photograph it in such a way that represents the work that I have actually completed on the Thesis project.  It has been a lot of work.  It just isn't installed as I want it to eventually be.  That said, it looks pretty good as is.  The structures are coming along as well, so maybe it won't be too long. 

Here are a couple of the images I plan on using for the Thesis book.

The blocks are not all red, so I may need to get some blue and purple in there tomorrow.  First things first; I need to get my work up in the white cube for critique and photos.  The process is getting exciting.  Perhaps it is more exciting in the use of the word that might imply a heart attack, but exciting nonetheless.

In other news, my buddy, Caleb Charland, an excellent photographer, was featured on the Contemporary and Modern Art blog out of the UK today.  Check it out.  He is extremely talented.

The semester is almost over.  I am almost an MFA graduate.  Wish me luck, and some decent sleep.  I'm going to need it, and I know it isn't going to come frequently.
Peace
-Mike