Balloonatic

I was thinking about using balloons in my next sculpture project, but it looks like I've been beaten to the punch.  Jason Hackenwerth work is pretty damn awesome.  Luckily, this isn't the form or style I had in mind for my own project.

 

Photos borrowed from designboom.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/scpr

Urban Outfitters Solo Show

My solo show at Urban Outfitters is up!  Reception next Friday, and the show will be up for all of February.   Hope to see you there!

 

"Foundation"

Altered book sculpture.  No adhesives. 

Spin off of "Do It Yourself" altered book:

D. Shockles

Daniel and I went up the 1 yesterday.  California has been pretty intent on trying out this whole "winter" thing lately, but it cleared up this weekend for a brief & beautiful respite.  The ocean was exhibiting its glorious fury though, and it was quite a spectacle from up on the overlooking cliff.  He shot with film so I'll have to try and be patient for those.  :)

 

Sculpture Freaks

Sculpture class is wonderful.  Everyone plays and chats and collaborates and gets dirty.  Really, really dirty.

David is making rings out of a deer skull.  They're so rad it might even be worth inhaling the bone dust--perhaps the foulest smell on the face of the planet.  Think burnt Chinese food meets shower drain mold.

Folly: a folly?

MOCA at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood has only one exhibit on at the moment: FOLLY—THE VIEW FROM NOWHERE.  According to MOCA's website, "follies are autonomous structures that might serve as memorials, meeting points, or observation towers; typically, they serve no function at all."

In brief: an exhibit dedicated to architectural failures.  Hilarious?  Yes.  Entertaining?  Yes.  A failure in itself?  Well... I don't want to be rude...

Featured designs include a Texas replica of the Eiffel Tower (which boasts a ten-gallon hat at the top!), a huge building shaped like an elephant, and Iowa's version of the leaning tower of Pisa.  Buildings and designs from around the world and throughout history were photographed but left unframed along the wall, which seemed a bit half-hearted for such an esteemed establishment.

There was also a constructed folly in the center of the room--a large white staircase which led to a "lookout" of panoramic cityscape photographs.  A sign instructed us to enter the folly at our own risk.  Enjoyable but useless: I left feeling amused, albeit slightly confused. 

A Crumb-y Day

Yesterday I went to the Hammer museum in Westwood to see Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis.  It was really exciting, not because it was such a fantastic work of art--certainly, I don't think its his most interesting-- but because I got to see bits of his process in the final outcome.  They displayed each original page, framed chronologically on the wall.  What a thrill to see his drawings in real life--he made plenty of mistakes, used whiteout to erase and draw parts, hand lettered every frame beautifully but with inevitable flaws, and worked meticulously on one idea for years.  That's what blew me away.  He also did tons of visual research and collaborated and had other people compile and collect archives of visual research for him--he didn't go it alone.  He worked as neatly as possible, and created a system for the completion of this insanely ambitious project.  Very respectable, even if he's utterly and completely off his rocker. Watch this film about his life for learning purposes or pure entertainment.

Heat Waves in A Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield were also at the Hammer.  My first impression was much less than satisfactory, but his work is so expansive, there's certainly something in his collection to tickle everyone's fancy.  Some of his massive watercolours are really breathtaking... his use of color is so unique and unexpected, and convey light in an inexplicable way.  Again, more than I liked his paintings though, I enjoyed discovering about how he worked and his life.  He chronicled his life and work meticulously on huge handbound journals, was mortified of death, thought of his work as a wallpaper artist as "hack" work, and doodled on every scrap of paper he ever touched.  I like how open he was to experimentation, and how loose he was in a lot of his work, allowing natural development and not constraining himself to strict depictions of his subjects.