My Kids' Chess

The kids re-organized their chess game their way, with Lego pieces. They know how to play their version and it is fascinating to watch them.

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." Henry David Thoreau

"C'est La Vie": Territories Series / Troops and Territories Series / Landscapes

"C'est La Vie", detail


Territories Series: Troops - #3
2009, acrylic on canvas, 12”x12”

The small paintings in the exhibition "C'est La Vie", are from 4 different series I worked on:
- Territories series/landscapes
- Territories Series/Troops
- Territories series/connections
- Watching series

The show ends this Sunday.


Territories Series: Troops - #1
2009, acrylic on canvas, 12”x12”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #4
2009, acrylic on canvas, 12”x12”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #5
2009, acrylic on canvas, 12”x12”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #10
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 8”x8”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #11
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 6”x6”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #12
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 8”x8”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #14
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 8”x8”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #15
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 8”x8”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #16
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4”x4”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #17
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4”x4”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #18
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4”x4”


Territories Series / Landscapes - #19
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4”x4”


C'est La Vie
San Diego Art Institute / Museum of the Living Artist
June 5 - July 12, 2009
Monday - Saturday from 10 to 4.
Sunday from noon to 4.
1439 El Prado
San Diego CA 92101
(619) 236-0011
contact Debbie Wells: dwells@mola-sdai.org

Notes from Baja

In Tijuana, on the road to Ensenada: the old fence and behind it, the new one.


The new fence


On the road to Ensenada




In Ensenada










"El Alcobar"


"El Hombre Ballena" (The Whale Man)
by Alfonso Arambula


"El Hombre Ballena" (detail)


Quinceañera




Taqueria "El trailero" in El Sauzal








Evening in San Miguel


In the morning


On the road back to Tijuana


In Tijuana




Waiting at the border

Opening "Trade Show / California - Turkey" @ the Garage

Anna Stump who curated and organized the show,
and Larry Caveney (The Garage)










With Guy Lombardo, who will have a show at the garage in August.
Opening night: Saturday, August 8, 2009





The opening was Friday, July 3. The show runs until July 31.

To see all the pieces included in the show, go to:
Trade Show "California - Turkey"

The Garage
4141 Alabama Street #4
San Diego, CA Email: deepseal2@aol.com

"Trade Show / California - Turkey" @ the Garage, opening this Friday

Marcela Villasenor


Maura Vazakas


Hasip Pektas


L. Odom


Anna Stump


Michele Guieu

(above are some of the artworks included in the show).
To see more of them please check out this link.

After "Voices: Mapping the Hood / A Multi-media Interactive Collaborative Installation @ Art Produce Gallery", and "Give Some, Take Some @ The Garage", here is "Trade Show, California – Turkey", a swap of artworks between 100 Californian artists (a lot of them from San Diego) and 100 Turkish artists. The artists used a two-dimensional, 6” x 6” format. The show is organized and curated by Anna Stump.

Trading is a concept I am very interested in. The three shows/events are not related to each other but they are based on the same principle. I participated in the three events, each of them being a very good and positive experience!

I am looking forward to go to the opening of the show tomorrow at the Garage.

The opening reception: July 3, From 7:00 to 9:00pm.
The show runs from July 1 to July 30, 2009

The Garage
4141 Alabama Street #4
San Diego CA 92104
contact: deepseal2@aol.com
or: amstump@gmail.com

Notes About These Days

Spending a lot of time with the kids. No summer camp until next week and that's OK.
Going to the beach in the morning.
Overcast skies.
Tiny flies on the piles of seaweeds.
They fly away each time someone walks by.

The kids laughing in the waves.
White Zinc on the Face.
Me, a little bit worried about the waves! Shiny wetsuits.
Together, standing in the middle of a sea of white foam.
The sound of the waves, non stop.



Pelicans fishing.
Seagulls stealing food in people's bags.

Looking at the people walking on the beach, one of my favorite subjects. People walking in an almost empty space. No artifice.

Just watching. I do not take my nice camera every day.

Crunchy peanut butter bars.
Sand on my cell phone.

Sand in the house.
Seeing friends.
Taking my time sometimes.
Breathing.

Went with Kyle to the annual dinner given by the San Diego Museum of Art Contemporary Art Committee, hosted by Michele and Rick, contemporary art lovers. Sunny house - lot of cacti.
I was invited because I participated in the talk at Noel-Baza Fine Art, on the occasion of New Contemporaries II. We Had a great time.

Sketching and sketching for my upcoming solo exhibition at Art Produce in December. Wishing to do something low key but surprising and inviting. Thinking about something to give vs something to sell. Thinking about the scale of the work. should I use the second room? I still did not decide. There are so many things I can do. In fact I can do pretty much what I want. This is the nice thing about Art Produce.

Making some connections. Next week I'll meet with some people at the SDAI where I have my show. I am thrilled about that.

Taking one day after another.

A friend of mine, artist, just told me she has cancer. And money problems.

Watching the clouds, in an otherwise sparkling blue sky.

Another friend just went back to France. Hopefully she will recover quickly from the surgery she had here in San Diego. A surgery she cannot get in France. She suffered for 11 years, walking off and on, mostly with a cane, after an injury to her ankle when she was 15.
Great lunch together in Pacific Beach, close to the beach. She was telling me about her work in France. She has a show about History on TV: she invites politicians, writers, to talk about their books. I like her laugh!



Michael Jackson in pain. Dead.
Farrah in pain too. Dead too.
Long gone her beautiful smile and her unbelievable hair.

Seeing some shows.
Always concentrating on what I feel connected to.
Not the rest.

Tired of the endless wars: the big ones, far from here and the little ones, right here. Isn't it possible to be forgiven and compassionate to each other? Why the wars far from here and the people dying do not give us the desire to love more, to listen more?

I hear big words and big thoughts about what is going on in Iran.
But what do we do here, where we live?
Are we capable of real attention?
Could we be less judgmental?
More compassionate?

Talking to my neighbor. He gave me some beautiful lemons from his tree. I made some lemonade for all the kids. Sometimes the house is full, they all play Hide and go seek.
Lots of screaming!

Looking for the best series of paintings to show at Project X Art in Solana Beach for their first show which will be a group show at the end of August. Exciting.

Updating my website as often as possible with Dreamweaver, I still have to write some code some time to time!

Listening to my Pandora station.
Snow Patrol.

In the end we all die. No surprise here. But for now we are alive and it is quite amazing.



Years ago I lost a friend, she was 34. She had cancer. I remember going to the hospital every night. We talked, we laughed. We had a very good time. We were there, together, knowing that the end was close. And we just took a day after another. She was so alive and so close to die at the same time. I remember coming back to my studio each night, not sad. Light somehow. We shared something precious that I never forgot.
I still see her smile.

"Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life"
Snow Patrol / Chasing Cars

May-Ling Martinez: Measured Resistance @ Luis de Jesus Seminal Projects

May-Ling Martinez: Measured Resistance
June 27 - August 1, 2009

Luis de Jesus Seminal Projects
2040 India Street
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 696 9699

Pina Bausch

Lots of good memories about my years spent in Paris came back to me today... I was lucky enough to see Pina Bausch's work several times in the Theatre de la Ville before I moved to the U.S.

Artists' call announcement / "Capitalism in Question (because it is)" / Pitzed Art Galleries, Pitzer College

Deadline: July 20, 2009

Pitzer Art Galleries
1050 North Mills Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
Director, Ciara Ennis
Email, CapinQuestArt@Pitzer.Edu
Website, http://www.pitzer.edu/artgalleries
Tues.-Fri., 12-5pm

The Center for Social Inquiry at Pitzer College and the Pitzer Art Galleries are pleased to announce an open call for art works addressing the broad theme of "CAPITALISM IN QUESTION (because it is)."

The rampant capitalism of the last decade, and its recent catastrophic crisis, has left us in a peculiar and unfamiliar space. Capitalist economic ideology and practices are suddenly under renewed scrutiny. "CAPITALISM IN QUESTION (because it is)" invites artists to explore our current economic predicament and to consider a range of alternatives to it. Visual artwork in all media-painting, installation, sculpture and photography-is encouraged.
.......................................................................
about the juror, Daniel Joseph Martinez

C'est La Vie: Territories Series / Connections

"C'est La Vie", (detail)


Territories Series / Connections (#1)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4"x4"


Territories Series / Connections (#2)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4"x4"


Territories Series / Connections (#3)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4"x4"


Territories Series / Connections (#5)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4"x4"


Territories Series / Connections (#6)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4"x4"


Territories Series / Connections (#7)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4"x4"


Territories Series / Connections (#8)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 4"x4"


Territories Series / Connections (#9)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 6"x6"


Territories Series / Connections (#10)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 6"x6"


Territories Series / Connections (#11)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 6"x6"


Territories Series / Connections (#12)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 8"x8"


Territories Series / Connections (#16)
2009, acrylic on wood panel, 8"x8"

C'est La Vie
San Diego Art Institute / Museum of the Living Artist
June 5 - July 12, 2009
Monday - Saturday from 10 to 4.
Sunday from noon to 4.
1439 El Prado
San Diego CA 92101
(619) 236-0011
contact Debbie Wells: dwells@mola-sdai.org

C'est La Vie - Watching Series

"C'est La Vie", detail


"C'est La Vie", detail

In "C'est La Vie", I worked on four different series of images: "Watching Series", "Territories Series / troops", "Territories Series / Connections" and "Territories Series / Landscapes". Here are the paintings from the Watching Series.


Watching Series (#4)
acrylic on canvas, 12"x12", 2009


Watching Series (#10)
acrylic on canvas, 10"x10", 2009


Watching Series (#8)
acrylic on canvas, 8"x8", 2009


Watching Series (#3)
acrylic on canvas, 6"x6", 2009

C'est La Vie
San Diego Art Institute / Museum of the Living Artist
June 5 - July 12, 2009
Monday - Saturday from 10 to 4.
Sunday from noon to 4.
1439 El Prado
San Diego CA 92101
(619) 236-0011
contact Debbie Wells: dwells@mola-sdai.org

Collective Mail Art

Eric Meyer worked first and sent his envelope to Ivan Sigg.


Ivan Sigg worked on the envelope and he sent it to me.


I intervened last and I sent the envelope back to Eric Meyer.

Cruisin' Grand 2009 - Escondido

Cruisin' Grand 2009 - Friday nights from 5 to 9pm / Downtown Escondido.

San Diego - Paris

My image "San Diego-Paris" is in Paris. I sent it to Ivan and he put it on a wall in his neighborhood, it will be covered by another image soon. Ivan posted it in his blog. It is also in the French blog "Un Jour Une Oeuvre" ("One day One Artwork"), created by Alexis Monville, which proposes one image of an artwork each day.

One-Day Exhibition of Figurative Art / Today, Sunday, June 21

Anna Stump

From Anna Stump:

Dear Friends,
You are invited to a one-day exhibition of figurative art to see Anna's newly restored 1924 Craftsman bungalow before it's rented.

Sunday, June 21(it's Father's Day, bring a dad!)
4 - 6 pm
2968 B St. in Golden Hill
(B and 30th)
there is parking on the street.

Participating artists:
Jennifer Bennett, Jeanne Dunn, Misty Hawkins, Jocelyn Duke, Marcela Villasenor, Terri Hughes-Oelrich, Anna Stump.

You are welcome to bring something to drink,
or a drought-tolerant cutting from your yard to plant...

Hope to see you there.
Anna and the Artists

Red Lights

I love to take pictures from my car, when I am stopped at a red light!

Participate in Brenda Regier's project: "Re Envisioning a World Beyond Borders"

3 photos I took with my cell phone that I sent to the project.
(Pacific Beach, San Diego)

Re Envisioning a World Beyond Borders: A global cell phone project for generation Y and beyond. In collaboration with Qualcomm and Beyond the Border International Contemporary Art Fair. Artist: Brenda Regier.

I signed up for this project and I started sending photos from my cell phone. We'll see what happens. People from all over the world are participating!

Log on and register at: http://www.brendaregier.com (ReEnvisioning)
Selected photos will be included in an exhibition to be held at the Beyond the Border International Contemporary Art Fair, San Diego on Sept. 2nd-4th, 2009.

Essay By Jane La Motte - about "C'est La Vie"

I’ve always loved the expression “You can’t dip your toe in the same river twice.” Everything changes, everything moves on, even when you come back to it in the same place, offering the same bit of yourself to it as you did before. Artists often seem to be taking on two contradictory tasks at once—the preservation of a moment in time, along with a celebration of the fully writhing, changing nature of life itself.

Michele’s second solo show at the San Diego Art Institute has that dynamic. It is both a presentation of her most recent individual works as a painter as well as an installation of beautiful snapshots within a single context. The pieces, all square but of varying sizes and thicknesses, are loosely grouped in thematic ribbons over a large suite of silhouettes that are painted on the walls. The images are not fixed to one another like chapters in a story. If there seems to be only a hint of a narrative here, that is for good reason. They are moments, Michele says, but they are not frozen.

As Michele showed me a preliminary version of the installation you see at SDAI today, we placed the paintings on the hardwood floor of her home. Her children are completely at home with artworks within arm’s reach, and as they made their way in, out, and through the room, they navigated the squares on display as though the paintings were anti-stepping stones. I had to remind myself to stop holding my breath—this is their life, after all, they know what these are. The paths of their bare feet between Michele’s paintings were the incarnation of C’est la vie. Life goes on around you even as you are stopping to contemplate a still life.

With the paintings on the floor, Michele and I talked about an installation we saw in LA last year of handmade stuffed dolls. Each doll had been the result of an experience the artist, Vanessa Matthews, wished to externalize. One doll, for example, was catharsis after anger over a parking ticket. The dolls were individually for sale, but the presentation of all the dolls together, hanging from the ceiling, was most effective. They were funny, cute, sad, and confusing. They were enough of a curiosity that they defied you to leave the room without learning more about them.

Michele feels that the images in this show fulfill a similar need to externalize moments in her life. Most of them have people—sometimes strangers she has photographed at the beach—as the central form. Typically, her landscapes are almost deserted, the ocean is empty. But in this installation, at the same time that her landscapes are like sanctuaries, they make a human connection. Abstract shapes that mimic sea life and tide pools illustrate a bridge between Michele’s mother, a marine biologist, and Michele’s embrace of the natural world.

The clean silhouettes have a way of making Michele’s art look effortless. Does this bother her? When I ask her about it, she says, “The digestion process from photo to painting….is….,” then she looks at the ceiling with outstretched hands. But in the end, that is something only she will know about. “I don’t want it to look like I spend a thousand hours on everything.”

Looking back on Michele’s first solo show at SDAI last year, I am so impressed with how much this river has changed. The change in the scale of her work is most notable, but it is not the only thing that has grown in the year that has passed. Her paintings work together like pieces of a language that is still evolving. As soon as she began to think about this show, Michele says, she knew that she wanted to do something completely different from her previous solo show. She loved the idea of very large scale works, but over time, largeness started to define itself as many small things happening at once. That is life, and to be as large as life is to experience a multitude of tiny moments at the speed they are thrust at us. The great surprise for us is that Michele’s new piece is both the single sweep of the wall in front of you and these many small things that compel you to stop and wonder. The resulting ensemble is appropriately temporary—it will disappear when this wall is handed over to another artist—and the individual pieces will never be presented in this way again.

This is a river. This is life. Michele doesn’t want or need to demonstrate anything. “C’est la vie is about accepting things which are happening without necessarily being resigned,” she says. “I may be less interested in fighting than in finding a way to live in the present.”

Jane LaMotte, San Diego, June 2009.

C'est La Vie
San Diego Art Institute / Museum of the Living Artist
June 5 - July 12, 2009
Monday - Saturday from 10 to 4.
Sunday from noon to 4.
1439 El Prado
San Diego CA 92101
(619) 236-0011
contact Debbie Wells: dwells@mola-sdai.org

"C'est La Vie"

"C'est La Vie", an installation of Paintings (detail)

Lots of things these past days! Could not find any time to write in the blog! I finished the installation of my show at the San Diego Art Institute last Thursday and then the days flew by.


work in progress

The painting on the 45-foot long wall took three very full days and fortunately I was helped by my friend Super Claudia - she also took care of my children when needed and that was a relief (we got very organized that week!).


Great Paint!

It was great to use the Mythic paint to paint the wall. It is totally "green" and odorless, it goes way beyond California requirements for paint safety. The color is great. But still, the wall needed three coats. That paint is quite expensive but definitely worth it.


work in progress


The installation once done

I went back to the San Diego Art Institute several times after the installation was done. Some doubts of course. Needed to see the wall again. It is very new for me.


Sketch for the installation (March 2009)

Months ago, knowing that I had that specific wall at the San Diego Art Institute, I made several drawings of the installation: the painting on the wall and the small paintings around. Finding the exact scale between the painting on the wall and the wall itself was already a challenge, then finding the scale between the painting on the wall and the small paintings.


"Here It's Peace", my solo show at the SDAI in June 2008
I have the same space this year


"Here It's Peace", my solo show at the SDAI in June 2008
This year I let these walls completely blank.

I knew after my first solo show at the SDAI last year, "Here it's Peace", that I wanted to change the scale of the work I would be presenting for this show. And I did! I am very happy about that. There is a really big difference between the way I used the space last year and this year. And even if there are flaws, I like the path I took for "C'est La Vie", it is new for me, I challenged myself, I had to solve different problems and that was thrilling!


With the class

I took my son's Kindergarten class to see the show and we had a good time!


On the cover of the San Diego City Beat:
A Time to Heal (#4)
digital print, 2008, 24"x24"
limited edition of 5

I had the pleasure of seeing the very nice cover of the San Diego City Beat with one of my digital images on it, from the "A time To Heal" series (2008). In the same issue, Katherine Sweetman wrote "Lust for Life", an article I like very much about my work and the show. She came one day to my house and we had a good time talking. She was taking notes on her laptop. It was a beautiful day, a lot of the paintings were on the deck outside, some were on the floor inside. It was kind of a mess but it was nice to see them kind of all together.

I was thrilled that there is a link to the City Beat's article in Art As Authority's blog with the reproduction of the cover!

My friend and writer/designer Jane LaMotte wrote an essay about "C'est La Vie". She wrote one last year for my solo show "Here it's Peace" at the San Diego Art Institute. She is a dear friend but I can still be objective, both essays are really interesting!

Time with the children too. Went to see "Up" which I really liked, especially the beginning, the life fast-forwarded. About the things which count and the choices we make along the (not so long) way.


Territories Series / Connections (#1) 2009, 4"x4", acrylic on wood panel

Time on the beach too, taking pictures of people while the kids were in the waves, boogie-boarding. Some people are aware, some are not. I love to take pictures on the beach, it gives me images of beautiful silhouettes I use in my work all the time.

After having taken pictures of the show, designed and printed pages to make a small portfolio to display at the SDAI, went to Kinko's to get some photocopied postcards, and get the City Beat article laminated, ordered some more postcards on internet, took time to make - and messed up with - an event guest list on Facebook, sent some personalized emails...
I am finally done!

The show is open and the opening reception is this Friday!

C'est La Vie
San Diego Art Institute / Museum of the Living Artist
Opening reception Friday, June 12, from 6 to 8pm.
1439 El Prado
San Diego CA 92101
(619) 236-0011 contact Debbie Wells: dwells@mola-sdai.org

Working on "C'est la Vie", my solo show at the SDAI

my outdoor studio, the deck!

I almost did not talk yet about my upcoming show "C'est la Vie" at the San Diego Art Institute in my blog. It's because I do not want to show too much before the show is all installed! But I worked on more than 30 new pieces that I am very excited about.

I still have a lot to do because this time I decided to paint the wall directly and I only have 4 days to do so between the end of the current show at the SDAI and the opening of mine...
I am starting this Sunday night.

Opening of the show: Friday June 5.
Opening reception: Friday, June 12.

Movers and Shakers II / The portrait I made of Lynn Susholtz, director of Art Produce Gallery

Lynn Susholtz, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 6x[24"x24"] - total size 78"x51"

Organized by The San Diego Visual Arts Network (SDVAN), "Movers and Shakers" phase II was launched today on the SDVAN website. The new series of portraits will be exhibited in January 2010 at Art Expressions Gallery in Clairemont, San Diego.

I painted a portrait of Lynn Susholtz, the director of Art Produce Gallery. By now the people who read my blog know that I like her energy and all the things she does for the community! So it was a pleasure for me to work on her portrait.

In the past year, I took a lot of photos at Art Produce during the openings and with my children I attended art classes Lynn teaches at the recreation center in North Park. So I had a lot of images to work and play with. I also needed photos of her, so one morning we had a photo shoot which took place inside the gallery, in her work space and outside on the parking lot, in front of a mural. In the background, I stamped texts Lynn wrote and quotes she uses in her website(s).

Iphone drawing on the cover of The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Voices: Mapping the Hood / A Multi-media Interactive Collaborative Installation @ Art Produce Gallery

Voices: Mapping the Hood @ Art Produce Gallery
A Multi-media Interactive Collaborative Installation May 17 - June 28, 2009

"Stone Paper Scissors, Eveoke Dance Theatre, TranscenDance Youth Arts Project, North Park Main Street, and the Cultural Worker have collaborated to create Art @ the Core: Building Community whose goal is to increase access, engagement, and participation in the civic process through community cultural development. Envisioned as an interactive collage, the installation is a giant pop-up book that tells a story you can walk through and contribute to. The idea was to physically, metaphorically, and cognitively “Map the Hood” with all our various collaborating partners, architecture students, professional artists, children, teens, and community members."


When one enters the gallery, one can see the wall with all the photos of the people who participated in the exchange.

I am happy to have participated in this adventure. I really like the idea of interactive and collaborative installation. I went there during the North Park Festival. A lot of people already exchanged gifts: there were a lot of photos on the wall. To participate you must give an object. Then you can take one. Someone takes your picture and put it on the wall. you put your name in a book next to the name of the person who offered the gift you are taking. One of my painting was gone, the other one was not yet on the wall (all the objects are not on the wall at the same time, the wall is re-filled regularly!















my participation - two 4x4" paintings



I found a toy truck "Champagne Mercier Epernay"! - that's the gift I chose!
Jim Erwing: "Enjoy this toy from Belgium/France.
A gift from my daughter in remembrance of my toy car/truck
collecti9n from my boyhood."


Richard: "Goldfish"


Scott Thomas: "Pine Cone from Sea Ranch"


Lea Dennis: "Fragment from bar @ Commonwealth Cafe"









Rodrigo: "I'm heard when I speak the truth. To be heard
is to be acknowledged and recognized as a human."





"My voice is unique, makes my heart beat.
The sweet soound of my voice will be
heard in eternity
My voice needs to share truth
That has been suppressed by
those that view people
by stereotypes
My voice is important in our
community because it knows
plenty of people
The more is shared
the easier community
can happen."
Rebecca

Voices: Mapping the Hood
A Multi-media Interactive Collaborative Installation
May 17 - June 28, 2009
Art Produce Gallery
Art at the Core

Notes (in Encinitas, CA)

Skyping Jennifer: Jennifer Rockage @ The Garage

Jennifer Rockage, on Skype in the garage gallery,
Saturday night during the opening of the show.

The art of Jennifer Rockage
May 15, 2009 at the Garage, from 6 to 10pm.
While the work of Jennifer Rockage was displayed in the gallery, it was possible to talk to her on Skype. She was in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she works and lives. Four hours ahead of us.

Jennifer Rockage: "I am interested in what happens when text is removed from its original context and placed in a fine art realm. The text used in my work is found language that I overhear and text I am collecting from public places. Repetition, chance and visual alteration are used as metaphors for how spoken and remembered language can be manipulated over time. Recently my work has consisted of printed lists, paper shreddings, installations and sound."


Larry Caveney and Richard Gleaves, Jennifer Rockage on Skype


Richard Gleaves in conversation with Jennifer Rockage.
(The notecards are on the wall behind)




The notecards





Jennifer Rockage: "The phrases on the notecards were overheard by me in public. I took out the main words in them and gave them to instructors to hand to their students. So a lot of the people who were filling them out were undergraduates at West Virginia University. each student filled out about two so there were quite a few students involved. I wanted to see how the meaning would change as I took a phrase from public and took out some of the words and then placed it back into a public setting. I have been thinking about doing something similar to this over the summer but with a larger, more diverse group."


one of the shopping lists


Art you can touch and play with:
the pencils can be thrown at the target on the wall.

I like the low-key aspect of Rockage's work, the fact that one piece is interactive, that some pieces are made with found things (shopping lists, shredded papers), and that Jennifer Rockage was there via Internet.

The Garage
4141 Alabama Street #4,
San Diego, CA 92104
contact: deapseal2@aol.com

Note (at school)

Altermodernism / Video Interview: curator Nicolas Bourriaud

A revigorating concept! I love this!
Nicolas Bourriaud: "Altermodern is the cultural answer to what alter-globalisation is, a cluster of singular and local answers to globalisation."



"Nicolas Bourriaud,art theorist and co-founder of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, has coined the term "Altermodern" to describe how artists are responding to the globalised culture we live in.
Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009 at Tate Britain was the culmination of a year of events discussing this idea and has just closed."A new modernity is emerging, reconfigured to an age of globalisation – understood in its economic, political and cultural aspects: an altermodern culture.


Off Voice Fly Tip by Bob and Roberta Smith 2009
Courtesy the artist and Hales Gallery. Photo: Tate Photography

Altermodern Manifesto

A new modernity is emerging, reconfigured to an age of globalisation – understood in its economic, political and cultural aspects: an altermodern culture Increased communication, travel and migration are affecting the way we live.

Our daily lives consist of journeys in a chaotic and teeming universe.

Multiculturalism and identity is being overtaken by creolisation: Artists are now starting from a globalised state of culture.

This new universalism is based on translations, subtitling and generalised dubbing.

Today's art explores the bonds that text and image, time and space, weave between themselves.

Artists are responding to a new globalised perception. They traverse a cultural landscape saturated with signs and create new pathways between multiple formats of expression and communication.

The Tate Triennial 2009 at Tate Britain presents a collective discussion around this premise that postmodernism is coming to an end, and we are experiencing the emergence of a global altermodernity."

Also read: "Altermodern" in Wikipedia.

Art Run to L.A. part two / Bergamot Station: Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Richard Heller Gallery, Samuel Freeman

Zadok Ben David: "Blackfield" / Shoshana Wayne Gallery / (April 4 - May 16, 2009)
yes, I know, it's closed already, I am late to post this!

Surprising/beautiful/poetic/soothing/ephemeral/delicate installation by Zadok Ben David at Shoshana Wayne. Thousands of small drawings of plants (laser cut metal pieces) are displayed vertically on a surface sifted with light colored fine sand.

We saw people coming and staying. It was a place where one could meditate. The field is not so black once one walks to the end of the room and looks back. Then the plants come alive and the rainbow like colors make the whole field vibrate.


Is "Blackfield" a dead forest?




The view from the side of the installation...


and the view when one arrives on the other side...


Is "Blackfield" an explosion of life in the middle of the desert?


Jean Lowe / Rosamund Felsen Gallery / (April 18, May 16, 2009)
It was very interesting to see the collages of photographs that Jean Lowe makes prior to paint each piece. It explains how she constructs the space between the museum views and the big box retailer photos she takes.
The books she presented on the shelves (that she also made) are darkly hilarious and it was a pleasure to take the time to discover each of them. I love the energy which emanates from her work.





Girl Boy. 2008
Collaged photographs, 18 ¼ x 22 ½", matted and framed


Girl Boy. 2008 Enamel on panel, 75 x 95"



Tite Grip. 2009
Enamel on panel, 95 ½ x 72"


Overstock! 2009 Enamel on panel, 95 ½ x 84"


Clearance (Baby Dolls). 2009 Enamel on panel, 95 ½ x 75"




Bric-a-Brac. 2009 Enamel on panel, 95 ½ x 72"


Cloister Bookshelf- Double & Single. 2009
Acrylic on cardboard and wood with gold leaf.


Books: enamel on papier mâché - each one is for sale









Camille Seaman:"The Last Iceberg" / Richard Heller Gallery / May 2 - May 30, 2009








Jeremy Thomas: "Cotton Modules" / Samuel Freeman / (April 4 - May 9, 2009)

Art Run L.A. part one: "3 Solo Projects: Jessica Rath / Carrie Ungerman / Lynn Aldrich at OTIS college of Art and Design

Jessica Rath, Tree Peel, 2008, gallons of latex.

I went to L.A. for an excellent art run. I enjoyed the drive, the conversation and the shows. First we went to the Otis College of Art and Design / Ben Maltz Gallery (my first visit there) to see "3 Solo Projects: Lynn Aldrich // Jessica Rath // Carrie Ungerman". It was graduation day, it was crowded outside with students and parents, the air filled with laughs.

Inside the gallery it was very quiet. Rath's weird looking tree was standing alone in the middle of the first space. Was it a real tree, if yes, was it dead? When I got closer I touched it and it was soft. Then I saw the stitches, all over, it has been stitched to reconstruct the form of the tree. Looking at its base, I could see now that it was hollow, and there was a metallic structure underneath it to sustain it. On the surface of the trunk, one could see pieces of the bark of the tree which was enclosed in the latex. Strange piece, it looks heavy and it is not, it is empty. I felt like I was in the future (decades, more?) and I was looking at the last tree on earth!









Lynn Aldrich, Silver Lining (2009) [in front] and Desert Spring (2007)
[in back] Galvanized gutter parts and downspouts,
alkyd enamel, dimension variable

In the second space, Aldrich's gutter parts and downspouts are extremely organized, either coming out from the floor or coming down from the ceiling (one can actually walk underneath that one and get an interesting perspective). I could not help thinking about a giant organ - and I was almost waiting for some noise or some music (which never came).


Lynn Aldrich, Silver Lining (2009) - from underneath


Carrie Ungerman, Untitled, 2008, plastic, Mylar.

And then there were Ungerman's mountains. A journey to the center of the Earth? To the Ali Baba's cave? To a monstrously beautiful landfill? The mountains are Shiny and fluffy and tall and fragile and very large. A structure I wanted immediately to explore, it is made for that, you can walk around and discover different views. The Mylar has certainly been cut while still rolled and then unrolled and displayed carefully. One thing I particularly like: if you blow air, the Mylar moves a little. And you can play to see how the structure reacts. The structure underneath the Mylar is made of bags full of recycled water bottles. It is not hidden: in various places you can see it very well. So the whole structure is really light, although it takes a huge space. There is no way it can be twice the same if displayed in another space, which is great.


Carrie Ungerman, Untitled, 2008 (detail)

And then we headed to Bergamot Station for the second part of our art run!

"3 Solo Projects: Lynn Aldrich // Jessica Rath // Carrie Ungerman"
April 18 - June 13, 2009
Otis College of Art and Design / Ben Maltz Gallery
9045 Lincoln Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90045

Inspiring People: Jill Bolte Taylor, neurological researcher. Please listen to this 40mn program!

I listened to an amazing program yesterday on NPR. An interview of Jill Bolte Taylor by Terry Gross. I already heard that interview a few months ago and I was thrilled to hear it again yesterday.

Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke years ago, and as a Neurological researcher, she was able to analyse what was happening as it was happening. It took years for her to heal but eventually she completely recovered. The stroke happened in the left part of her brain and she experienced what it is to live with the right hemisphere taking over. It changed her forever. Her bestselling memoir My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey is published in paperback this month.

listen to the interview here

"Voices: Mapping The Hood" @ Art Produce Gallery / Sunday is the North Park Festival

"Voices: Mapping the Hood"
A multi-media interactive installation
May 17-June 28
Opens Sunday May 17
10am- 6pm
In conjunction with the North Park Arts Festival

North Park Arts Festival Sunday, May 17, from 10 to 6pm.

Art Produce Gallery
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92104

Art@theCore

Working on my upcoming solo show "C'est la Vie" at the SDAI

It is amazing to work on the deck outside of the house. This canyon is a little heaven. Always changing, depending on what flowers are blooming, always busy with birds. My neighbor's cat comes every day to check if there are some interesting lizards to chase.

The series of paintings which will be exhibited at the San Diego Art Institute in June is almost done. I am still working on a few a them. They are all square, have different sizes and depths. I still have to do a large painting on the wall of the gallery. I will have four days to complete the work. It hope it will be enough! It is a monochrome painting, with quite a few silhouettes in it. In the last issue of the magazine "Dwell", I found an interesting article about "green" paints with beautiful qualities and I will use one of them to paint the wall.

This time I worked specifically for the space of the gallery. I have a lot of photos from my last year's solo show and it helped me figure out something completely different this time.

We'll see how it goes but the contrast between the colored series of small square paintings and the large monochrome painting in the background should be interesting.

C'est la Vie / Michele Guieu Solo show
San Diego Art Institute (SDAI)
June 5 - July 12, 2009
Opening reception June 12, from 6 to 8

Notes (at Boomer's)

A few more days to see "Process Art (Dead Man Don't Make Sculpture)" at the entrance of the MCASD La Jolla

My son in front of "Process Art (Dead Man Don't Make Sculpture)"
Bronze
87 x 58 x 41 inches

At the end of May, "Process Art (Dead Man Don't Make Sculptures)" by Nathan Maubry will leave the MCASD La Jolla to be shown at the Hammer Museum in L.A. The MCASD and the Hammer purchased the sculpture together last year.
Nathan Maubry lives and works in Culver City.

This is a surprising and weird version of "The Thinker" (the sculpture was made from a cast of Rodin's sculpture offered for sale on eBay by a California foundry). When one arrives at the museum of contemporary art on Prospect avenue, one sees the back of it and then one turns around and sees the large crazy looking/halloween-like mask covering the face.

That thinker may have think a little bit too much!





MCASD
The Hammer

Notes (at the San Diego zoo)

Thomas Hirschhorn: Poor Tuning at kurimanzutto and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City

I stumbled upon this document about Thomas Hirschhorn's show "Poor Tuning" in Mexico City, which just ended. I would have love to see it!


Thomas Hirschhorn
Poor Tuning
march 14 – may 9, 2008
Kurimanzutto
gob. Rafael Rebollar 94, col. San Miguel
Chapultepec 11850,
Mexico City
info@kurimanzutto.com

The Infinity Lab presents "NineTransient Things" at Voz Alta Project

I've been wanted to go for a while to Voz Alta Project in Barrio Logan. Saturday I decided that going to see the last work by the The Infinity Lab was the good occasion. I was attracted by the title of the show and I also read strange things about that group of artists which made me want to know more. The Infinity Lab is run by three loco doctors: Dr. Cuddles With Cats, Dr. Niku and Dr. Hueso. I checked out some of their videos online, on their YouTube channel. Their work, strangely, seems to me at the same time pretty serious and rather silly - well, I guess, in that sense it is very Dada. In their videos, the doctors of the Infinity Lab always appear with masks and costumes, so it is impossible to recognize them. Dr Cuddles with Cats: "Adopting a different costume can change the way you interact with the world, and the way the world interacts with you".


The Infinity Lab: Dr. Niku, Dr. Hueso and Dr. Cuddles With Cats,
with their costumes: hats, sunglasses and masks,
holding their props and wearing red.
San Diego City Beat - cover- August 2008

I like that the three doctors have a mysterious identity. The "Lab" concept offers them endless possibilities to experiment in various directions. They seem to have a good time doing what they are doing which is great. Also there is an aspect of their work which is irreverent, I like that.
Check out that video: "Blue Chip Special #4: The Infinity Lab does Jeff Koons. Special Guest Performer: Dr. La Bone. Jeff Koons oversees the creation of the sacred cow."



So, the show! Nice place, nice vibe. The three doctors were there, but totally incognito!
DJ Dan Camacho was operating in the back room.


DJ Dan Camacho


"Mask"


"Gloves"

On the walls are displayed nine 3' square drawings on paper made with exclusively Crayola crayons. The nine transient things are: "Peppermint" (the cat), "Bone", "Ms. Meatcow", "Ears", "Hat", "Antennae", "Mask", "Glasses" and "Gloves".

But the very first ones I see on the right are the mask and the gloves. In the midst of the swine flu hysteria (Saturday, May 2, was right at the pick of it), I cannot not make the link with what is going on. I am very interested in artwork related to "here and now", so this sends a good signal about how perceptive the doctors of the Infinity Lab are - although they made the work before the "outbreak". But it is around, in our subconsciousness. The fear of contamination, the need for protection.


From left to right: antennae, mask and glasses.


Peppermint


Hat


Ms Meatcow

On the left end of the room are hanging the three objects, symbols of the three doctors: The cat, "Peppermint", is Dr. Cuddles with Cats', the cow, Ms. Meatcow, is Dr. Niku's and the bone is Dr. Hueso's.


"Peppermint", Ms. Meatcow and the bone

On the right end of the gallery, an 18mn video runs on a loop.



I watch the video about Peppermint, Ms. Meatcow and Bone going from California to New York and back. They are overlaid on different pictures of the places they go to (Las Vegas, the desert, Texas, Mount Rushmore...). Along the way the trio finds and takes the 6 other transient things (the ears, the hat, the antennae, the mask, the glasses and the gloves). For example they find the mask in New York at Ground Zero.



Next to the video, there is a triangle shaped shelf with, on top of it: Crayola crayons boxes, Crayola crayons protective papers in a jar and Crayola crayons shavings in another one.
Dr. Cuddles with Cats: "There's this artist, Haim Steinbach, who makes shelves, and we made a parody shelf. In the animation, the characters: Peppermint, Ms Meatcow, and Bone go to New York and they find Haim and they trade all the things they found on their journey and themselves for the shelf. The same shelf in the animation is [here] in the gallery."


"Blue Chip Haim Steinbach Special."

If you missed the opening reception, go to the closing one - DJ Dan Camacho will be there again.

Closing Reception: Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 7pm -11pm
Exhibit dates: May 2-May 16th.
For more information:
vozaltaproject.org or myspace.com/theinfinitylab
The Infinity Lab
The Infinity Lab / YouTube



Voz Alta Project
Neighborhood: Barrio Logan
1754 National Ave
(between Sigsbee St & Beardsley St)
San Diego, CA 92113
(619) 230-1869

"Clowns, Ventriloquists and Businessmen" @ Art Produce Gallery

"Clowns, Ventriloquists and Businessmen"
Student work from Visual Arts and Performing Arts Academy of Hoover High School
(San Diego).

One Night Only / Artist Reception
Saturday, May 9, from 6 to 9pm

Art Produce Gallery
neighborhood: North Park
3139 University Avenue
San Diego
(619) 584 4448
The gallery is open 7am - 4:30 pm everyday
through Caffe Carpe Diem

Irene Abraham: Points of Reference @ 4 Walls Gallery

Bored Circuit #1

Irene Abraham: Points of Reference
presented by 4 Walls Gallery and Larry Caveney (The Garage).
May 9 to June 10
Reception: Saturday, May 9, from 6 to 9, at 4 Walls Gallery.

4 Walls Gallery
3813 Ray Street
San Diego
619-501-0879

Michele Guieu/Eric Meyer/Ivan Sigg: collaborative mail art

I sent my envelope to Eric (San Diego - Paris).



Eric transformed it and sent it to Ivan Sigg (Paris - Paris)...



Who transformed it too and sent it back to me (Paris - San Diego)!

Thank you Eric and Ivan for this exciting collaborative work made "just because". I love this and I hope we'll do that again soon!

Daniel Ruanova: Defend Security / Videos of the Talk

I took some videos of Daniel Ruanova's talk at Seminal Projects in March 2009. It was on the occasion of his show "Defend Security: Constructs of a People Fearing Society". Daniel lives and works in Tijuana.









Daniel Ruanova

Seminal Projects
2040 India Street
Little Italy
San Diego, CA 92101
619 696 9699

Notes (on Kettner Blvd)