July 6th : 10 a.m.

This is a view from a 1500 ft. tower.

Final Countdown?

(Blind Spots, Photographic Etching on Zinc... made before my great escape last winter)

T-minus 19 days until my special man friend and I make our trek out to the great state of Idaho...
T-minus 2 months until I make my great escape to Bratislava...
This semester is killing me.

Shameless

(Still image from Veritable Swings, 2009)

I've added a few of my still video images to my University run website... It's kind of ghetto, but it gets the job done. You can see all of the goodies here!

Start Over

RIP little guy... We had some good times.

My twin-reflex Seagull has gone to the great camera gods in the sky; it is officially the end of an era... Whilst shooting this morning I realized that its shutter had completely lost its will to live... so sad. So the question remains, where do I begin again? I've got six 35mm cameras loaded with half used rolls of film, expired Polaroids, and plenty of video footage to keep me company. Not good enough. Aimless in the studio on a Sunday afternoon.

Signs Taken for Wonders

PixPix and I went for a walk up a hill at dusk...this is what ensued

Response to Hal Foster's article writen for Art in American circa 1986...

Greatest Show on Earth?

Giving a mini lecture on P.T. Barnum's contribution to the marvelous freak show craze of the 19th century today. The itinerary includes : Zip, Millie/Christine, the FeeJee mermaid, Dog-faced boy, and many other fantastical human anomalies. Happy Monday!

Bones, Bones, Bones

Top 5 Favorite Childhood Costumes:

1. Gypsy (this was in heavy rotation for multiple Halloweens)
2. Dinosaur (although I really hated that one at the time)
3. Cleopatra
4. Tank Girl
5. Giant Grape (this costume is in honor of my dad, he dressed up with me every Halloween and took me trick-or-treating. This particular gem consisted of brown pants and copious amounts of purple balloons safety pinned to a purple turtleneck. Best costume EVER!)

Due to my laziness this year, I'm dressing up as the zombie form of a Eddie Vedder. Why? I'm not quite sure yet, I think mostly so I stay warm.

Update: Not so bad Tuesday

Beautiful bike ride + tasty breakfast + studio + mixed tape = a not so bad follow up to my crummy Monday.

Here is a list of a recently composed fall mixed tape I made (even though it's still in the high 80's out here in Tucson.)

1. Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles Francoise Hardy
2. Little Garcon Born Ruffians
3. Heart of Chambers Beach House
4. New Partner Palace Music
5. My Angel Rocks Back and Fourth Four Tet
6. Gee, it's good to be back home Cass McCombs
7. Don't Watch me dancing Little Joy
8. The Rifle Alela Diane
9. The Clown Roy Orbison
10. House of the Rising Sun Cat Power
11. Smoke Rings Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra
12. Jukebox Babe Alan Vega
13. Old old Fashioned Frightened Rabbit
14. I'm a Coward Gino Washington
14. Bye bye bye Plants and Animals
15. Things will never be the same jj
16. Perfect Day Lou Reed

Worst Monday Ever

This guy is so happy...

Today begins the start my candidacy review week; I wake up with terrible nausea and a headache, just my luck. Working on every bit of energy I can muster up before I go teach a class and sit through a lecture (and the fact that my studio has an overwhelming smell of cleaning supplies is not helping.) Perhaps I can conjure up this image whilst teaching to keep me from throwing up.

Wise Blood

Image of a Shrunken Mummy: this character plays the most precarious of parts

Based on the novel by Flannery O'Connor, John Huston's epic film (circa 1979) can be summed up as a masterpiece for lack of better adjectives. Philip and I stumbled across this gem on a lazy Sunday, and were completely taken by the beautiful packaging done by artist Josh Cochran. We were even more happily surprised when the film lived up to our expectations.
I highly recommend watching it.

all in the present must be transformed

So Delicious!

Spaces In Between

Join the Harold Jones Distinguished Alumni Committee this Friday for a fantastic lecture/exhibition honoring Vicki Ragan!

(image on the bottom is one of mine, hurrah!)

I wanted a verb and you gave me a noun

You Mistake Me

Asleep, in a cave, on a mountain, by a river.

For this you won't be disappointed.

Shanna Perez-Hill and Kenric McDowell as Guitars

Go here to hear the mysterious and mystical pleasantries of the lovely duo, Guitars.

Back to work.

Starting a new project today featuring the Tacoma Narrows. Co-stars will include a lovely bowl of mashed potatoes and the Hindenburg. Also on the itinerary: film development. Also, also on the itinerary: ice cream and soda pop.

Today I feel like this guy...

Sam Rockwell as Sam in Moon

I've been waiting on hold with the financial aid office for the last hour. I'm never going to get off the moon.

of night windows

Currently getting over a cold, and recovering from a series of long distance drives and doctors appointments.

It's my birthday tomorrow...

No hamburgers were hurt during production... Just tasty, tasty frosting!

And not only is it a special day because I'm turning 24, it is also significant because I will be observing my ten year anniversary of becoming a vegetarian. Instead gifting myself with the traditional aluminum or tin suggestion, I thought a delicious cake fashioned in the style of a hamburger would be more appropriate. Happy Day!

In the forest I go walking.

The last woodland adventure involved this little number. 

I'm headed back to the woods after a long week in Sun Valley, ID (aka Yuppie town USA). I'm looking forward to a long drive and lots of time spent trolling the forest looking for some things I may have lost. After this, Portland ahoy! Unthinkable surprises are bound to happen... but what they are?

Во́лка но́ги ко́рмят

Dripping Pitch : Roaming House

Mixed media collage with polaroid transfer of cat.

The Order of Things

Not to be confused with the classic publication The Order of Things: an Archaeology of Human Sciences by Michel Foucault, lexicographer Barbara Ann Kipfer presents a fascinating archive of the many hierarchies, structures, and pecking orders that may or may not face us each day. It's fun and non committal. 

Example:

General Caste System of Early Times

most to least important

Persons of holy descent

Landowners and administrators

Priests

Craftsmen

Agricultural tenants and laborers

Herders

Despised persons

I guess that puts me in the middle...

Skandi Dag!

A fruitful day for farmer's markets and Scandinavian heritage festivals in the Magic Valley!

Fresh radish, turnips, leeks, horseradish, lettuce, and baked treats galore!

Steve sheers Dolly the one-year old sheep... I made a faux pas by calling her sheared wool fur, which I didn't realize was a faux pas until my dad started shaking his head. 

oops.

My wildest dreams come true!

With a little help from photoshop, I too can don the styles of the lovely Miss Leigh...

I'm keen to the floating head/skirt combo

This collection hails from the classic Leigh film, Sidewalks of London 1938 

Designer: John Armstrong

S rch The thEgs that DoNOT BELog in thesee

my first successful drawing of a narwhal 

credits: mom

Platonic Solids

owl and window

white fine archers

So said the sign on an abandoned barn that greeted me as I made my entrance into the northern plains just two days ago... Adjusting to the drop in temperature and jump in elevation has got me noggin' all out of whack. I took some pictures with the hopes of finding my equilibrium.

Behold! 244 Larkspur Dr.

So far I've been privileged enough to see two fantastic unicorn tattoos whilst waiting in line at the grocery store, AND have been lucky enough to need a blanket at night for warmth. This summer couldn't possibly go wrong... I'm headed to the uncharted depths of the woods tomorrow afternoon, so hold tight my little ocular readers for adventures to come.

Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo.

This happens to be the most amazing thing to ever come out of The Simpsons EVER! (This is perhaps my favorite animated series other than Bunny and Claude: The Great Carrot Train Robbery.) As I continue to box up my belongings for the fast approaching date of my departure out of Tucson, I keep a continual flow of Simpsons episodes playing for background ambiance and my general amusement. In the episode "The Last Temptation of Homer" (season 5) we are introduced to Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo, a clever alias used by Homer whom turns out is a fellow drinker at Moe's tavern. It's the most clever alias I've ever heard of, and possibly the funniest. Although I'm disappointed of the pacing in the newer Simpsons episodes (mostly from season 10 on to the present) it's these earlier episodes that really get my goat.

Resonant with bees...

For today I just can't help myself.

Kiki Smith Nest and Trees 1997

The cordial quality of pear or plum

Rises as gladly in the single tree

As in whole orchards resonant with bees.

-Emerson

Boxes

Having OFFICIALLY finished my first year of graduate school, my life will soon end up like this:

Hopefully it will be this uniform.

Icy Icy

Notice the tiny starfish

As the heat of the Tucson summer finally shows it's monster face, I turn to the water tunicates of Antarctica. This species has been kept in the darkness for thousands of years by a thick icy cover. If only I could be at the bottom of the ocean.

Tonight: An evening for all seasons.

Come out to the Loft Cinema this evening at 4pm for a screening of my MFA Graduate video class's work this semester! 

If you are in Tucson, please don't pass this screening up. This is a great opportunity to see work from eight super talented and up-and-coming artists from the University of Arizona. Plus it's free, and it's 100 degrees outside. What could be better than a cool, dark theatre with great people and libations on a sweltering afternoon?

On Repeat for the Month of May

 perspection: the noisettes 

Lift your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven: Godspeed you Black Emperor

Eaten by Wolves

Cloud Busting!

A little taste of genius for your Thursday.

Haste Haste little Chiron

After an interesting sequence of events, the planetoid Chiron has been impressed in my mind...

Chiron's discovery: astrological chart

Chiron, the planetoid that lies between Saturn and Uranus, was discovered in 1977 by American Astronomer Charles Kowal. Chiron's strange gravitational path crosses over the orbits of Saturn and Uranus and for that reason, astronomers concluded that this planetoid could not have been in the solar system for more than two million years because it would have either crashed into Saturn or Uranus, or been caught by their gravitational pull and become a moon. If we examine Chiron’s elliptical orbit, its perihelion and aphelion in Libra and Aries, respectively, map this out over time and correlate it with human history, we begin to see a definite cycle. Individually, this plays out over 49-51-year cycles in our lives. The elliptical nature of Chiron’s orbit means that this cycle’s nodal points differ from person to person and from generation to generation. Individually, this traces the waxing and waning of our inclination and ability to address and deal with our Wounds.


The wounded leg of the centaur, Chiron, symbolizes the woundedness of our lower nature—a nature that sees one side of the world while repressing, ignoring, denying, disowning, condemning and/or failing to acknowledge the other balancing sides. Such is the origin of blame. Chiron’s message is only understood when we understand and appreciate that the world we see around us is a world of perceived duality. Everything in existence has an equal and opposite companion, albeit often hidden from us in the beginning. Modern quantum physics concurs with this view in its conception of matter and anti-matter.

In search of sound.

Backwards Walking Straight, 2009

This is a clip from one of three video pieces I have been working on this semester. After an amazing screening and lecture from Deborah Stratman, I'm finding that my attempts to source sound are proving to be much more difficult and less seamless then expected. Deborah is a Chicago-based filmmaker whose works intermingle between experimental and documentary. The Magicians House is a beautiful representation of her rich and intellectual aesthetic, as well as her impeccable sound design. More about Deborah and her work can be found here: pythagorasfilm

Saturday: a day for new wave 80's rock and yoga

My lazy Saturday will consist of watching Robert Frank's 1988 film Candy Mountain, and will soon be followed by some serious yoga time... In a perfect world I could do this everyday!

Latest Obsession:

Parc Avenue by Plants and Animals. 

Escapism

I'm in the process of doing research on Richard Misrach's Desert Cantos series for an American Art seminar class, and I happened to stumble upon this little literary gem Escapism written by Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan in 2000. Tuan is such a captivating writer, and I'm finding that his chapter on Hell relates so much to Misrach's three cantos entitled Violent Legacies. Don't let the title fool you, Tuan shows that escapism is an inescapable component of human thought and culture and should not necessarily be considered as negative. I'm loving it!

Apple Picking?

The question of the day is whether or not to pick apples in Oregon for six months...

Lost: Schwin Breeze

This bike is the doppelganger of mine, but it does not have a basket.

Last seen the evening of March 23, 2009. It has a front flat tire, an adorable basket, and makes a lot of noise... If you see it, please let me know.
Also missing: an old pair of leather loafers, but I left them outside on purpose.

For today, this is heaven.

Long Life Cool White 1999

I have just started reading Long Life Cool White: Photographs and Essays by Moyra Davey. This is a brilliant collection of her works published by the Yale University Press last year. If you are unfamiliar with Moyra, I highly, highly suggest looking her up. I just love her. 

Caffeine, Baseball, and Picnic!

I'm hoping to score a box of these...but I would be happy with cotton candy.

Three of my favorite things all of which I get to enjoy today with my lovely sister who is staying as my house guest for a long weekend! We are starting with tasty cafe food and slowly making our way to the Texas Rangers and Rockies Spring training game this afternoon. If I'm lucky I will catch a fly ball, if my sister is lucky I will catch two... I'm trying not to think about what I have coming up academically, all I know is that next week is gonna be a doosey.

If I wasn't vegetarian...

I would eat this today!

I forgot to wear something green to work, and had to compromise by drawing a crude four-leaf clover on a chartreuse post-it. It keeps getting caught in my hair.

Planned time spent working not breaking...

Spring break has befallen upon me and, unlike many of my boisterous cohorts, I will be Spring working not Spring breaking. Luckily I have this lovely little mural to walk by everyday on my way to school. I'm not certain who painted it, but it sure makes me happy!

Although the goal of spring break is to get some serious work done, I plan on seeing the amazing musical talents of Portland, Oregon singer/songwriter Alela Diane this evening. She is a great motivator to buckle down and get some substantial reading finished because last time she passed through the southwest she canceled her Tucson show. If you are a fan of psych folk and campfire gospel I highly suggest catching her gig. Alela will be featured at Club Congress as part of their West by Southwest showcase. If you can't make it out tonight I recommend checking her out here:

www.aleladiane.com