from an article about Botero's Abu Ghraib paintings in The Nation:
"... there can be little doubt that the art of the Baroque was successful in its mission. The art achieved extraordinary precision in the depiction of suffering and hence in the arousal of sympathetic identification. It is often noted that we live in an image-rich culture, and so we do. But most of the images we see are photographs, and their effect can be dulling, if not desensitizing... Photography must be augmented—with text, Susan Sontag proposed—if we are to feel the pain it shows. A picture may be worth a thousand words, as the cliché goes, but a photograph does not speak for itself."
Monday, February 26, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
new work!
check out my flickr account for photos of new work and some studio shots!
This new work is really thinking about creating worlds that are the result of reactionary but very deliberate decision-making. All of the marks are either "building blocks" or "connectors" and each piece grows and evolves to create a unique "place." I think of them as conceptual landscapes or something you might see when peering into a petri dish. What if we were all gods and this is what the world looked like from "above?"
Thursday, February 15, 2007
travel & affect on others
A great excerpt from an independent publisher. I share some of the same ideas about why I feel compelled to make paintings as well as relate some of his thoughts about extension of space and time into the subject matter of my paintings.
Sean Wolf Hill, Time Worm & Counter Culture
All people crave the experience of extension into space. That is why people travel, send letters, write stories, and watch TV or listen to radio. The modern world has given us ways to experience the extension into space, ways tat are more accessible (maybe) than the older routes of meditation, mimetic ritualization, trance induction, hallucination, vision quests and so on. All of these things, including recording and photography & painting, are also mostly extensions into time. Space has become obsolete. That is why I publish. When I send a magazine off, or send my writing, to someone “somewhere else” that person who receives it allows me to re-emerge thru them, to experience the same space they are filling. If this engagement is strong enough, I may also come to life thru them. When this happens, they become my channeller; they carry my life energy into their world. I send to them a seed of myself, product of my vision, sweat, hand-eye coordination and then it germinates in their body or mind and I arise within the. That’s why I publish. Not to push thoughts, although thoughts are surely pushed. Not to make money, which never happens anyway. Not to become known or important, though to some I may be. I publish because of the thrill that happens when someone write back to me and I sense in their letter that I passed through them when the read Time Worm or Counter Culture or other of my books… thru them and out of them, breathed their breath for a while, felt their sensation, shared in their sorrows or good fortune. Mingled with them in a fuller way than if I didn’t publish. I publish for this sensation of in habiting a shared earth where distance in space and time is no obstacle, where there is no wall, no closed system that restricts my travel.
Sean Wolf Hill, Time Worm & Counter Culture
All people crave the experience of extension into space. That is why people travel, send letters, write stories, and watch TV or listen to radio. The modern world has given us ways to experience the extension into space, ways tat are more accessible (maybe) than the older routes of meditation, mimetic ritualization, trance induction, hallucination, vision quests and so on. All of these things, including recording and photography & painting, are also mostly extensions into time. Space has become obsolete. That is why I publish. When I send a magazine off, or send my writing, to someone “somewhere else” that person who receives it allows me to re-emerge thru them, to experience the same space they are filling. If this engagement is strong enough, I may also come to life thru them. When this happens, they become my channeller; they carry my life energy into their world. I send to them a seed of myself, product of my vision, sweat, hand-eye coordination and then it germinates in their body or mind and I arise within the. That’s why I publish. Not to push thoughts, although thoughts are surely pushed. Not to make money, which never happens anyway. Not to become known or important, though to some I may be. I publish because of the thrill that happens when someone write back to me and I sense in their letter that I passed through them when the read Time Worm or Counter Culture or other of my books… thru them and out of them, breathed their breath for a while, felt their sensation, shared in their sorrows or good fortune. Mingled with them in a fuller way than if I didn’t publish. I publish for this sensation of in habiting a shared earth where distance in space and time is no obstacle, where there is no wall, no closed system that restricts my travel.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
new studio!
I have moved into a new space in a different building. I am now in Hooper 2 in the the Grad Center. The space is about double the size of my old space and though I will miss my old neighbors, the new ones are pretty great too. Ryan was here today helping me get settled... he put up shelves, installed lights and new outlets, and bought me that cushy blue chair and a coffee maker. It's great in here now!
things to remember
Making takes time. Evolution takes time. If I am thinking of my work as little worlds that grow and change, the process may take months or years. I have started to think about the work the way I take care of my houseplants... tend to it when need be, appreciate it, ponder it & allow it to grow.
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