The Armory Show

Yesterday I went to The Armory Show. The last time I went was 8 or 9 years ago when it was still held at the 69th Regiment Armory, not on Pier 94 on the Hudson River. I'm glad I got there as early as I did, because when I left around at around 4PM there was pretty big line to get in.

The whole thing left me pretty disgusted and a little discouraged. The whole place smelled like fresh paint and carpet fumes (they laid carpet down inside the pier...why?!). Tons of newly built walls which will probably just end up in a landfill by tomorrow. It seems like a lot of effort and a lot of waste to generate for a 3 day exhibition. But I guess it's not really an exhibition; it's all about selling as much work as possible.

Since I haven't made the rounds through the galleries in a while, I figured an art fair might be a good way to see a lot in one day. I was right about seeing a lot...wrong about it being a good way. I don't have many pictures. There was way too much to take it all in, so I kind of just shut down and walked around on auto-pilot. Most of the work didn't really grab my attention, although I did see some stuff I liked. Sarah Sze had a sculpture/drawing thing made out of a laser-cut ruled notepad. That was good. I do have a shitty picture of that. I'll upload that later tonight.

EDIT: Here's the Sarah Sze picture I promised. It looks much better in reality. My camera distorts straight lines and takes blurry pictures. Also the white balance was set incorrectly.

Greatest Invention Ever

There's really nothing quite like riding a bicycle. So much potential from such a simple machine. It's passenger is it's engine. I really believe the bicycle is mankind's greatest invention.

Fenders, racks, and 3 bottle cages; my bike is equipped to ride cross-country rain or shine.

Since I was short on time before my class yesterday evening, I decided to skip the studio and hop on my bike instead. I use the street to ride to work everyday, but since I had no where in particular to go, I got on the West Side Greenway for a more scenic (and car-free) ride. It's nice to ride a bike without any particular purpose. Riding is often my favorite part of the day. It puts one's mind at ease. I do some of my best thinking on my bicycle (assuming I'm not preoccupied by traffic). If you don't already ride, I highly recommend it.

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live. -Mark Twain

The Brand Called Obama

I've been slacking on the blog, and although I still don't have anything original to add I want to share this interesting article: The Brand Called Obama.
Here's a segment:

Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, has long considered himself a political independent. An Obama encounter at a campaign event inspired him to take up arms for the Democratic candidate. "I see him as a leader rather than a boss." A leader, he notes, gets people to do things on their own, through inspiration, respect, and trust. "A boss can order you to do things, sure, but you do them because it's part of the contract."

You can read the whole article here.

Reason to change

This past weekend, I faced the most compelling reason so far as to why I need to reevaluate what sculpture can be and how I should go about making things in the future.

On Friday I rented a truck and moved all of my old artwork to a new storage location. I had more stuff than I remembered and it is HEAVY. I spent the remainder of the weekend in serious muscle pain. While moving, I had a very strong urge to destroy a lot of the work so that I wouldn't have to deal with it again. But that would have been just as difficult as moving it, and since I had already rented the truck I figured it wasn't worth the effort. Although, it probably is healthy to destroy your work every now and then...

Future work needs to either be light weight or have a pre-determined destination before I start building. Models and plans might be a good option when appropriate. I'll also have to look into alternative materials. I'm beginning to think that it may not be worth it to make a big heavy object if I have no specific plans for it afterwards.

Some new drawings

I've been busy/sick/tired/out-of-town over the past 2 weeks, but I still managed to squeeze in some studio time and make some new work. They are cut-and-paste drawings, paper mounted on panel, about 8" x 6" in size. They are studies for larger panels, which I've already started working on. I think they work better when viewed as a group rather than individually. (Click on the images to see them at approximately actual size.)