As some of you know, Scott and I will be away for christmas, we will be in Fabulous Sayulita, Mexico. We have rented the top half of a villa. It's apartment, really. I tried to get something really authentic, but all I could get is a relatively new construction. Click on the "pictures" link. It's currently 81 degrees there, according to the Weather Channel. I can hardly wait.

I see London

Uh, Mr President, I see france

Studio.....

Lately, I have been doing mostly prep work on the panels. I am trying to get a rich, deep surface, with lots of layers of paint. It is way harder than I thought it would be. I don't know why, but I am surprised every single time at how much time it takes and how much work it is.




It is easy to find landscapes in the rubbed and sanded surfaces. This can be distracting, but it's fun.



I have been gathering pictures for color and subject reference.


I like this little tableau, it's on top of the TV, so of course I see it alot.


Drawing to think--I need to to more of this.

Documentation of the Stolen Election

Steal Your Election
Documenting what could be the highest crime in the history of our country

Satan Resigns

komo news | Attorney General John Ashcroft Resigns:
"Ashcroft, in a five-page, handwritten letter to Bush, said, 'The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."

Wha-aa-a?

I think Rudy Giuliani wants his job. My prediction.

Installation shots of "Between Reprieves" Scott's show at Gallery 110

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Who voted for whom?

States listed in descending order of average IQ

" Between Repreves" at Gallery 110

My wonderful husband, Scott Mansfield, has an opening tonight at Gallery 110, at 110 South Washington Street in lovely Pioneer Square. You may think I am biased, but this show looks excellent.


This is the piece on the card








Really Super Honesty

Scott and I were going to the store and saw this truck......

Work

We have finally rolled out the website. The whole team has been working on it for over two years, and I joined the team about a year ago. So, here it is: Capital Improvement Program (CIP) I think it looks great. AND on top of that I get a new cube:

Note the window. (right now spare furniture is being stored in it)

This is the view. Perfect for watching the junkies.

I also won the costume contest yesterday. I was a Flying Zebra princess. I just had this stuff laying around the cube, threw it together, and viola. (yes I did too have this stuff just laying around)

art is a verb

I got an email update from Hamlett Dobbins today, a great guy I went to grad school with. Easily, of all the people I went to school with, I respect and admire Hamlett most of all. Not only are his paintings beautiful, evocative, enigmatic, suggestive, personal, inclusive, and compelling, he paints with an easy virtuosity I would envy if I could get past the feeling of wonder they evoke in me as a painter. His website, art is a verb has tons of images of his work. There are new images of his posted on the 'Paintings' and 'Studio Views'. And, as a bonus, he has an entire section dedicated to his visits to other artist's studios. I really like looking at the other people's studios; it helps me to feel less like I am working in a vacuum, and lets me daydream about having a real studio of my own.

On another note, I got the November 'Harpers' in the mail the other day, and there is this wonderful article in it by Mark Slouka, titled " Quitting the Paint Factory -- On the virtues of idleness". (the paint factory referred to is industrial, not artistic) As a bonus, it is illustrated by Brad Yeo. His illustrations look like they are wood block prints, but these days who knows, it could be illustrator. Method of construction aside, they are beautifully designed and compelling. Anyway, back to the article -- It basically examines the obsession with work and how even hobbies and leisure activities are measured by ones work.

"Leisure is permissible, we understand, because is costs money; idleness is not, because it doesn't. Leisure is focused; whatever thinking it requires is absorbed by a certain task: sinking that putt, making that cast, watching that flat-screen TV. Idleness is unconstrained, anarchic. Leisure--particularly if it involves some kind of high-priced technology--is as American as a Fourth of July barbecue. Idleness, on the other hand, has a bad attitude. It doesn't shave, it's not a member of the team, it doesn't play well with others. It thinks too much, as my High School coach used to say. So it has to be ostracized. "

I am just getting into the studio in earnest, for my show coming up in April. It has been hard, because I have had niggling thoughts of "what are you doing, no wants to buy one of these" and "what a stupid, expensive waste of time." This article has struck just the right cord with me, appealed to my rebellious nature, and has me itching to make a bunch more of those little pictures that no one but me wants to take home.

Air America is in Seattle

Hello dear reader , Sorry for going dark there for a while, Personal reasons, bla, bla.

So, this news is too important to keep to myself, Air America is now in Seattle! AM 1090. I don't have a radio at work, so I will still have to listen via RealPlayer while there, but all you devoted readers (...) out there, tune in right now! If you don't have a radio either, here's the link to listen on line.

p.s. I'll have some images up on New Work soon, I promise

I can't escape.

I AM 55% TORTURED ARTIST! Art is significant in my life, people are scum but I have the capicity to deal with it. Give it a few more years and I will either forget about art or hate the world. Take the TORTURED ARTIST test at Fuali.com

Grr

Ok, so I wrote a whole big entry for today, way longer than I usually do, and when i clicked the "publish" button, it hung there, and then deleted the post. I'm just going to paraphrase. I got the new McSweeney's Quarterly It's edited by Chris Ware. (Make sure you keep clicking the "more chris ware" hotlink for more .gifs.) Bla bla, yeah whatever. I had a nice little blurb on this, but to no avail. I really appreciated CW's essay on Phillip Guston.

McSweeny's Internet Tendancy Today's Dispatch be sure to check out the Daily Reason to Dispatch Bush.

Bumbershoot

SO, I am finally in a Bumbershoot show, (this piece) but I must say my enthusiasm for it has been seriously dampeded. I have to deal with a local curator who will remain nameless. He is the most horrible, sad, snotty person I have encountered since middle school in a small town in Texas. He was literally verbally abusive to me, screaming in the middle of the opening, because I was eight minutes late. Now, in the rest of the art world, eight minutes late is a half an hour early. And to top it all off, I can't say or do anything, because this is such a podunk town, that not only would he review my next show for the sole purpose of a nuclear pan, but he would condemn every show I am involved with -- for god only knows how long. And he is basically the only reviewer in town. So tomorrow I have to gallery sit with this charming individual for four hours. I can hardly contain my glee.

Newt Gingrich's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president

Anyone who knows me knows I love a good rant (just ask me sometime about the normalizaton of millitary uniforms in fashion-- do you think Hitler would have been half as popular with the kids if Hugo Boss hadn't designed the uniforms? ). And I have to say Garrison Kellior has a great one in the middle of his excellent essay for the August 26th In These Times
"We're not in Lake Woebegone Anymore"

Here's the best passage, if your'e in a hurry:

"The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous."

excellent.

new paintings

Howdy my ever faithful reader, I have a few new paintings at New Work
Here's a sample:

This one is tentatively called ok1. I don't know why.

The Squirrel scott found.

So, we are the proud parents of a squirrel. Right now the plan is to raise him until he's old enough to take care of himself. But then agan, Maybe Not.

This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow: August 08, 2004 - August 14, 2004 Archives

This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow: August 08, 2004 - August 14, 2004 Archives: "As long as we're re-examining the 1960s, looking for signs of character, trying to decide if a man who volunteered for combat and was decorated five times was more or less courageous than a guy who didn't even show up for his own medical exam... here's George W. Bush during his college days, hitting a fellow sportsman in the face."

I am becoming incapable of tolerating let alone understanding anyone who can look me in the eye and say " I'm voting for George Bush". I immediately intensely loathe that person, knowing they admire this horrid lying bully. I am reminded of the cretinous creatures masquerading as human beings I encountered in Iowa Park Texas, when I lived there. Calling them cretins insults cretins. They are proof of evil in this world, and I hope all those Christians out there are right, just so they all can fry in hell for eternity.

Henri Cartier-Bresson Dies at 96

Henri Cartier-Bresson was the father of photojournalism. I always say photography is cheating, but this guy was pretty good.

Top Ten

Ok, so today on Carolyn's blog Dangerous Chunky she links to ArtJournal asking the impossible question: "Who is your Top Ten, and with one word, Why?" So in no particular order:

• Kerry james marshal -- honesty


• Diebenkorn -- space


• Cranach the Elder -- contranst


• Phillip Corbet -- Shameless self-promotion


• Louise Bourgeois -- Strength


• chuck close -- paint


• Odd Nerdrum -- odd


• Balthus -- f'ed up


• Fioretino Rosso (and all the other mannerists) -- fabulous wierdness


• Leonardo da Vinci -- duh

This one was not necessary

so I am deleting this post. It was just mean.

Here comes the Sun

It's that time again, Solstice, which means only one thing, the Republic of Freemont's Solstice Parade.


According to the PI:
"The parade will follow a new route this year -- the longest ever -- and begins with an entrance through a grand archway. Sponsored by the Fremont Arts Council, the longer route will allow the hordes of visitors to spread out more, allowing for better views."

Hm, I'll believe that when I see it, as hordes descend on Freemont

Here's a map of the new route.

I can hardly wait!

Ray Charles Died Today at 73

Many folks, even here in Seattle don't realize that Ray Charles sort of got his start in Seattle, where he met Quincy Jones, and also where in 1948 he formed the first black group to have a sponsored TV show in the Pacific Northwest, the McSon Trio.

The BBC has set up a page where people can send a little tribute to the memory of Ray Charles. Many of them are quite touching, and they are from all over the world-- of course the UK, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, the Canary Islands, and this one from daftjack, South Africa:
"I remember travelling 200 miles from Manchester to London just to buy a Ray Charles record (in the 60s). I would still have gone had it been a thousand. Great singer, great voice, great man. The heavenly choir will have some competition tonight."

Ray Charles was truly a great American: optimistic, hard working, and sincere.

I will refrain from sullying his memory by comparing him to Ronald Regan; a man who began his political life being an FBI informant for the McCarthy Committee, and ended it with the blood of Nicaragua, Guatemala and Grenada on his hands, not to mention arming the Mujahdeen in Afganistan....wait I said I wasn't going to bring all that up.

David Sedaris is on KUOW today

Today at 2:00, David Sedaris will be on KUOW to promote his new book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. and I plan on reading it despite this horrifying review:

"Sedaris is the J.K. Rowling of American humor writers....This summer release is not recommended for beach reading. Laughing so hard will cause everything to jiggle." Colleen Kruse, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Ahem. Thankfully, Mary Brenan, the Seattle Times book reviewer also liked it.

I am a geek

I was reading my favorite gurly mag, the fabulous BUSTMagazine, that my equally fabulous friend Laura Nooney introduced me to, (she just made producer! Yay Laura!) when I noticed a little ad for SEW FAST SEW EASY! they offer ON LINE sewing classes -- and offer super cute patterns, including this great 1/4 circle skirt! I need this skirt. really. Here are pictures of real people wearing it. I get paid tomorrow -- I can hardly wait!

FOUND Magazine

A friend of mine, Jay Rothschild, alerted me to the fact that the amazing FOUND Magazine folks are going to be in Seattle next week. It seems they will be performing on 6/9 at Elliott Bay at 7:30 and & at 6/10 U Bookstore at 7.

We went to montana this last weekend, and they have the best flea-markets in the world.

Going on a roadtrip

Scott and I are going on a roadtrip. we don't know where we're going -- just east basically. Weather is expected to be so-so, and we thought about staying home, but we never do anything but work on the house. Those pictures are old, we have done even yet more work since then. Specifically, scott replaced the beam in the living room, so we no longer have a scratching post holding up the ceiling.
Good Lord, we could use a break.

Boy, there's some cool stuff out there

I love the internet. Really. With all the crap and spam and crashing, sometimes I wonder if it is all worth it. Then someone forwards me a link to David Shrigley and I realise yes, I will keep pushing the little lever, because sometimes the electrode directly connected to my pleasure center gives a spark. And the thing with cool sites is they usually have links to other cool sites; and the next thing you know, you have been watching excellent little animations and thinking "I could do that" but the fact remains, YOU DIDN"T, and why don't you get your butt in the studio already, huh?

Coffee and Cigarettes

Went to see Coffee and Cigarettes on sunday with Kelly and Daryl. It was really great -- I especially liked the one with Alfred Molina. Besides, coffee and cigarettes hold a warm place in my heart.

Kurt Vonnegut

Another famous U of I former resident, Kurt Vonnegut, has a piece on the In these Times website.

I have always appreciated Mr. Vonnegut's perspectives, and this is no excepton:

"For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere."

His Article, Cold Turkey jumps around a little, it is mostly a collection of salient observations. But brilliant, nonetheless.

More Guston

Things have really picked up at work, so there has been no blog time (which has never been very much time...). I am still enamored with Philip Guston, currently reading Night Studio by Musa Mayer, his daughter. This inside view, slightly removed, is fascinating.

Guston was a huge influence at the University of Iowa, where I went to grad school, because he was a visiting artist there for two years, in 1941-42. Even now, those two years reverberate through the program. Most notably, through a fellow U of I grad alumni, Hamlett Dobbins. There was this other guy named Gary Kormarin who muscled his way into a visiting artist gig at U of I with a 30-year old letter of recommendation from Guston.

It's strange, when I was there, I could hardly care less about Guston; and now that I'm nearly six years out of grad school, I'd give my eye teeth to look at the Guston collection the museum there has.

Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs

Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs I don't have any time today, I am super busy, what with that crappy virus yesterday. So, enjoy the Drudge Retort instead.

Woo Hoo! Our new Car!

We bought a new car (to us) it is a 2002 Kia Rio Cinco, in Blueberry! I will be taking my lunch to work for the rest of my life. I am so excited, I think we will just drive around all weekend.

The Office

Ok, so Scott and I watched the first season of The Office and you should too. The first and second seasons are out right now, and available at Scarecrow video! This show is brutal genus.

Make sure you aren't taking a drink

when you go Here. I nearly had Diet Coke come out my nose.

This weekend I went to Lisa's house, I'll have pictures soon. So, Watch This Space.

Air America

I want to make sure everyone knows that Air America, the Liberal Talk Radio Network is on the air or at least on line. Which is how I have to listen to it, because it is not on the air in Seattle. Go figure. But make sure you tune in or listen on line, we gotta support this thing. And besides, Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo both have daily shows that are great.

As long as we are on the subject, there are lots of good progressive radio programs in Seattle. the one I listen to most often, (because it is on every day) is Democracy Now! on KBCS FM 91.3. On Saturdays and Sundays at the ungodly hour(s) 6:00 to 9:00am KEXP airs Mind Over Matters.

Phillip Guston

Phillip Guston on Drawing

I have been reading the new biography of Guston by Ross Feld " Guston in Time". At first the pun ( just in time ) sort of bugged me, but as I read it, I realized that the pun was an apt one. Feld uses Guston's letters and his own narration to emphasise Guston's desire to represent time by using space (pictorialism) to look inward, rather than seeing signs and gestures as proof of sincere inwardness, lke the French structurealists, and deconstructualists. I am not saying it very well so I will quote a bit of the book:

Catherine Pickstock is quoted: " ...Because the individual is all there is, and so paradoxically the individual is the universal; to the extent that there is nothing 'beyond' the individual."

" For Guston, however, there was plenty beyond ("...then you move into the next," he writes, " like a strange and new clock, warping time into becoming a frightening new other place, a land in which there is no rock and no 'nothing') -- and in calling forth his strange, funky imagery in order to "re-present" them, he insisted on seeing those things ( and himself) change." ( p. 76, "Guston in time" by Ross Feld)

As usual the Archive has a great mini biography -- scroll to the bottom for image links.

link to the Obstruction to Drawing Group

I can't tell you how much I hate professional sports. Not only was the baseball stadium rammed down our throats, even though we voted against it TWICE, not only do our poor confused children mistake overpaid, over prividleged, steriod popping players for HEROES, not only are millions of tax dollars spent and deferred on luring and keeping sports teams in town, not only do the horrid suburb dwelling, buzz cut wastes of oxygen descend on the city in hordes on game days, BUT EVERY TIME THERE IS A HOME GAME ON TUESDAYS, IT STARTS AT 7:00, EXACTLY THE SAME TIME AS THE DRAWING SESSIONS!!!! (Schedule of the Enemy) so drawing only meets when the hypocritical brainwashed hordes do not.

Life drawing

I have Life drawing sessions in G110 every tuesday, and this tuesday the model didn't show. We all stood around and chatted, and that was fun, but I am finally feeling the disappointment of not drawing this week. I am surprised and pleased that this habit has become ingrained so quickly. I am a lousy drawer, if truth be told, but find it really, well, delightful. So anyway, I really missed drawing this week. And with baseball season, I am thinking of only having it every other tuesday, because "the game" (barf) starts on tuesdays the same time as the drawing session. So parking is impossible, and costs $15 when you can find a place. ( sigh ) I am worried that it will fall off the radar if it is only every other week.....

King County Reusable Building Materials Exchange

King County Reusable Building Materials Exchangeis my newest favoritest site. Need Dirt? come and get it! want some french doors? there here and may be free!! It is sort of like Craigslist without the perverts.

First Thursday

Wow, I had so much fun last night, I went to the opening of one of my undergrad painting professors, Cindy Krieble, and then went out with friends for a beer, something I haven't done for months. I need to get out more and do something besides draw.

What I have seen today

Today my computer was down for most of the morning. So I figured I might as well take a walk. This is a some of the stuff I saw.
Right off the bat, walking out of the lobby of my building, I saw an asian man standing bang in the middle of the lobby, clutching a Fex Ex box to his chest, and saluting the flag in the corner. He was wearing a light blue windbreaker, and a little hat, kind of like the kind the Italian fascists wore. People were walking in and out of the lobby, and the guy held his ground, saluting for at least as long as it took me to get to the door. Maybe he had been a castaway or something

The other thing I saw, was a business-type-guy sitting in a barber chair reading Playboy. The barber was a particularly unhappy looking middle-aged woman, standing behind him driving an electric clipper over his head. These people were smack in the center of a huge picture window.

Ok, I'm going to see if this works for me. I have tried to keep diaries before, on line and off, and have never been successful. but we'll see. This is what i have found today.