So I’m working on this painting (still, due in LA on Saturday, Lord have mercy!) and I’m putting on the finishing little bits which in this case are the stitches holding my Franken-critter together. This means that for the last day or two I’ve been studying pictures of medical sutures. Which. Are. Really. Revolting. I’m not sure I’ll be eating anything for a while. But what’s kinda blowing my mind is that each stitch seems to be individually tied off and I’m curious why they have to do that since it seems like a huge pain (in every possible way).
See how each little stitch has its own knot?
Couldn’t you use a curved needle and do a running stitch? Anyway, I’m not going to do that in this painting, it’ll be too visually confusing with all the fur so I’m just going to paint a nice, sloppy running stitch. I’ll post a pic when I’m done. (If anybody out there wants to illuminate this issue about why we sew people up like this, feel free to comment.)
Why does it seem like there’s such a tight link between music and art? Many artists I know are also musicians and vice versa — Rob Zombie was in my dorm at Parsons (though he had a different name then), and three of the Talking Heads all hooked up at the Rhode Island School of Design. I can’t really claim any musical skills (on certain days I’m not even sure I can claim artistic skills) but I like to wail away on my ukulele and discovered through Rock Band that I absolutely love playing drums.
I do listen to a lot of music when I’m painting (books-on-CD and podcasts too). Been finding some great bands lately through RadioDavidByrne, including this week’s favorite: the Swedish electronica of Fever Ray. which is Karin Dreijer Andersson’s solo project (she’s usually to be found in the duo The Knife with her brother).
Cover art by Martin “Mander” Ander — looks like scratchboard to me. That used to be my medium a long time ago — if you ever see an old copy of a Japanese seafood cookbook called “An Ocean of Flavor”, illustrating that was my first “big job” out of art school. I got several thousand dollars to do 70 scratchboard illos of various kinds of sea life and food prep, hung out at a lot of sushi restaurants and had a total blast. And with the money I ran off to Italy for a month, which is where I realized I didn’t want to be an illustrator anymore — I just wanted to paint my own stuff. You just cannot predict where your life will lead you.
Anyway, if you’ve been enjoying the Grizzly Bears (and it seems like everyone is these days), you might wanna check this out too. I don’t really think “electronica” when I listen to it, but decide for yourself –
Once upon a time two guys living in Cleveland, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, came up with one of the most iconic of all superhero comic characters, Superman. Desperate to break into comics, they sold the rights for $130. Years later they sued but failed to regain control of the last son of Krypton. When the Superman movie was coming out in the late 70s, DC finally succumbed to public pressure and gave the two a pension and credit. But what happened during those many years in between? Joe Shuster, justifiably bitter, got seriously pervy.
The crazy thing is we’d never even know about it if someone hadn’t found all this work in a junk box at a used bookseller’s stall — a rare heap of “Nights of Horror,” a comic so sleezy it was sold under the counter until banned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Experts in the field were able to tell it was Shuster’s work and the results have been bound up and published as “Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster.”
The popular theory is that Shuster’s characters look like Superman, Lois Lane and friends as an act of wrathful revenge. Nice little write up in the Library Journal right here.
In other news of the perverse, Ron English, R. Sikoryak and myself will be presenting a panel at San Diego Comic-Con this summer entitled “Pop Perversity: Parody in Comics & Art.” Going to be some serious fun — hope you have tickets ’cause the con is totally sold out! More details as we get closer to the date. (I’ll also be signing books — I think it’s 3pm on Friday at the Chronicle Books booth. I’ll check that as we get closer to the date.)
A couples weeks ago we were visiting a community garden (I was visiting; Marcos and Nico were trailing behind me as somewhat unwilling companions, one saying what I’m sure the other was also thinking: ”This is borrrring!”). As we rounded a long planting bed I saw a particularly brazen hoard of snails, a brawny pack of brown shells wilding all over a lovely fava bean plant. Of course I plucked them all off and crushed them under my sneaker, because this is what anyone who has ever grown anything and found snails gobbling up the tender results of their labor does — we deal out instant snail death. I turned around all pleased with myself, my good deed done for the day, to find Nico and Marcos standing with their jaws hanging open. They were staring at me like I’d just dumped a nest of baby sparrows onto the dirt and ground them underfoot. ”They’re SNAILS!” I said — because as far as I was concerned that pretty much explained everything. But I’m not sure either of them has looked at me the same way since.
If you’re looking to see something in a new way yourself, head on over to the Roxie Theater this Saturday, June 13th at 4:30pm for the San Francisco premiere screening of “New Brow: Contemporary Underground Art.” This fab documentary is being show as part of the San Francisco United film festival, and you can snag some tickets right here.
What’s it all about? The populist art movement that’s been called Pop Surrealism and/or Low Brow, all the stuff that burbled up out of underground comix, punk music, hotrod street culture, Kustum culture, Street Art, Graffiti, Graphic Design, Tattoo, Surf Culture, Tiki Culture and other California sub-cultures. The film is filled with first hand accounts from the artists, galleries and collectors who started and continue this “new american art movement.”
The film has all the usual suspects in it, including me (though I may have to go get popcorn when that part comes up because watching myself on film is 10,000 times worse than hearing my voice on the answering machine).
If you’re in the East Bay next weekend, make sure to stop by Eclectix Gallery on Saturday, June 20th between 6-8pm. Not only is it the closing party for the “All Gurlz” show, not only will I be there signing books, but some folks from the Insect Discovery Lab will be there with a “hands on” display of bugs including African Millipedes, Lubber Grasshoppers, Darkling Beetles, Walking Sticks, Hissing Cockroaches and more. (I will hopefully be encased in some kind of bug-proof plexiglass cubicle through which you can pass me bug-free books to sign. I fucking hate giant bugs I’m not so into the “hands on” aspect of the insect world, thank-you-very-much.)
Signing, Closing Party and Horrific Bug Display: Saturday, June 20th, 6-8pm, Eclectix Gallery & Store, 10082 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530. Come support a local woman-run business and have some fun to boot!
Check out this gorgeous little book! “Zoodiac” is a handmade by Michael Wertz and Carolee Wheeler and depicts the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. Each page is a two color silkscreen with letterpress by the artists, as well as silkscreened and letterpressed covers. Printed at Inky Oxnard Studios, Oakland and the San Francisco Center for the Book. Edition of 100 books, signed and numbered. Hurry up and get one right here!
The road to hell really is paved with good intentions. (It sounds better in Italian: “La via per l’inferno è lastricata di buone intenzioni.”) I still haven’t downloaded my shots from the opening. Don’t even ask what I’ve been doing — I have no idea! I run around all day like a chicken with its head cut off but at the end of the day I don’t feel like I have a lot to show for it. (Turns out a head might be useful.)
photo by Josh Keppel
So thank goodness for folks like Josh Keppel, who posted a veritable heap of photos from the opening on the Bay Area NBC site. You’ll practically feel like you were there while you’re looking at all the great shots he took. And if you were there, you can play Where’s Waldo looking for yourself!
Actually now I don’t feel compelled to even bother with my own pics — Josh’s are much better. And reliving the evening through these images is helping me not feel as blue about the show coming down this week. If you haven’t seen it, zoom on by, this is your laaaast chance!
“Into the Woodz” is closing next week (oh no, here come the post-show blues!) so this is your last chance to check out the work live and in person, or if you’re too far away or can’t make it over (hey, we’re all leading busy 21st century lives) you can peep the work right here at the gallery’s website.
If you’re anywhere near the Bay Area, don’t miss the Maker Faire this weekend, “the world’s largest DIY festival.” (I’ll try to find some snaps from last year to post later.)
The popular theory is that Shuster’s characters look like Superman, Lois Lane and friends as an act of wrathful revenge. Nice little write up in the Library Journal 
