Julia Childs said ““The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” This goes the same for making art, making visual art and the art of cooking are very, very similar. Both use primaries in their making, visual art the primary colors, red, green, blue, yellow, black, white, cooking, bitterness, saltiness, sourness, sweetness, Umami (savory). A blend or harmony or disharmony of these selections can make all the difference in the world in how one communicates their creation. We can get into all sorts of subtle nuances as well in our creation of food or visual art, what we choose to put into our creation is just as important as what we don’t put into our creation, foods, like visual images carry a cultural and political significance to them just as an image of a clock melting or a a lily pond can be loaded with signs and signifier.
I have been taking this approach to making my artwork and to my cooking, taking great care to find the proper ingredients to make food or collage. Cooking, like art, the medium is the message. How we prepare, what we prepare, how we consume, is deeply interwoven into the fabric of our entire planet. Do we buy factory raised meat, do we buy organic, do we boil, do we fry, or do we use oils or acrylics? To be bake or do we use a wok, do we photograph or do we sculpt, you get the picture. But in the end it comes down to what we are trying to communicate, I sometimes like to make an elegant dish of vegetables and meat, slow cooked and carefully deciding on the spices and how to create sauces, I also like to sometimes indulge in hot wings or greasy hamburger and fries. When it comes to art, I try to keep my palate just as diverse, consuming some classics and appreciating on the same level paint by numbers, but in the end I want quality, I don’t want to eat a 99 cent McDonalds hamburger and I don’t want to consume art that doesn’t provide nourishment. You are what you eat.
Have I told you about apples ? if not I will tell you again. When i was 22 I decided I wanted to get rid of the meaning of apple, so I bought like 30 pounds of apples and in the middle of the night I went to a lake and threw all of the apples into the lake. Sadly the apples landed amongst a gaggle of geese and the geese took the air making a terrific noise in this quiet neighborhood. Lights of all the homes around the lake turned on and I kept throwing the apples into the lake, one apple after another yelling at the top of my lungs. It cured me of giving meaning to anything, including being considerate of people sleeping near a lake.
Unprofitable servants. There were unprofitable servants, they were unprofitable servants, and their master never thanked them for what was asked of them… they have done what was asked of them to do. Which of those who have servants have asked their servants to come and sit down with you after they have labored for you? But instead you will say, make me my supper, bring me my bread, clean this house. After you are finished eating and drinking you will say to your servant, it is ok, now sit and eat and drink and rest. Unprofitable servants.
I can’t stop thinking about Gertrude Stein today, I was thinking about her quite a bit last night while I was working on a collaborative video project with two LA area artists. First let me say that working online with other artists is like working online with other artists, if you are making art with artists online you are making art online and if you are online making art you are online making art, making online art or online making art. Either way or which ever way you look at it making art or online making art or being online and making art online or making you essentially are making art. So if you are making art online you are for certain making art while online if you’re online making art you are most likely making art online.
Cycles or being in a cycle or making things that cycle back into another cycle is something that I am really concerning this new video with. It came to me while I was in the showering, showering in the shower I thought about how I was in the shower showering and if I was not in the shower I would be in the shower again at some point or another, it’s a bit of an annoyance to me that some of the best ideas come to me while showering or to be more apt while showering the best ideas come to me. The Devil must have decided to come into the shower and interrupt me with ideas while in the shower, the devil could not come into my head while I am sitting in my studio working, instead I am in the showering and the devil decides to interrupt me while in the shower showering. Which brings me to my newest brand of soap that I recently purchased that I really love that this soap I purchased has on the bottle that I purchased that reads Classic Masculine Scent, right on the bottle of soap that I purchased, what does that mean anyway ? Classic masculine scent, some other masculine scents are not classic, I am interested in knowing what the soap that is not classically masculine smells like, the new hip urban scent, what does that smell like? Smells like bullshit to me. Showering has its moments where it provides insights like the soap that one is washing ones self with and washing of with soap provides insights into the moments that one is showering with. It came to me while I was in the shower the other day while I was showering in the shower that if I was not showering I would at some point or another be in the shower at some point using a classic masculine scent at some point showering with a scent that is class and masculine.
So I am making a video about cycles about things coming back into things, about time that does not really become new but really time becomes something that once was because it’s the same thing as it was before but at a different time. Moments are like that, they become a translucent tick, not the kind of the body, but the kind that attaches themselves to the body, ticks sucking, who knows what they suck but they suck something, that tick is not time itself, but rather what the tick sucks is what nurtures it and makes it time. So sucking time is what a tick does and a tick is time and sucking time is what makes a tick time. Why is the tick translucent? Have you ever seen time? I haven’t but I have seen things that let me know that a translucent tick is about sucking time. That is what the video about, how things grow and decay and then become new things all the time, growing off time, really when we say we are aging we are just saying that time is transforming us into something new, a tick of time has attached itself to us in a way and what we see as decay is really just changing into something new or to put it another way we are changing into something new as the tick of time attaches itself to us.
In 2009 the New Museum put together an incredible show called Younger Than Jesus</em>, that show looked at the work of artists under the age of 33. The idea of the show was to examine artists work at the beginning of their careers. Here in Denver at Robischon Gallery did the same show called it EVEN Younger Than Jesus, I don’t recall a nod to the title of the ground breaking show in New York in the local media, I am sure that the folks at that fine gallery were aware of the YTJ show at the New Museum. But the work in that show was fun to see, not on the same level as the work I saw in New York.
That being said, some folks in Boston have put together a fantastic show called the Boston Young Contemporaries, rather looking at age as a determining factor for the stage of an artist in their career, this show looked at the work and if they were in an MFA program. Tim Winn is an artist whose work is featured in the show, Tim Winn is in his 40’s, a former restaurant owner who jumped into an MFA program and dove into making some fantastic wild and wonderful drawings, sculpture work that is funny and creepy all at once. Does his age have anything to do with the intensity of his work or where he is at in his career?
What makes an artist emerging? What are they emerging from, what makes them young, because I think the age of an artist is not relevant, more concern should be put upon what the artist is communicating is the communication effective.
I think as a visual artist I am just beginning, I just turned 41 on July 18th, I had never thought about being an artist seriously until I turned 30, but I had always made things ( or rather things had manifest themselves through me ). I got a divorce in 2008 while in my first year of MFA school, from 2008 till 2010 it was the hardest time of my adult life, but I kept making things, I kept making everyday, and I feel like it won’t be until I reach my 60’s that I really start hitting my stride, to really start working with a rich vocabulary to communicate my ideas. I have so much that I want to say with my work, so much that I want to share with others, so much I want to leave behind when I die. Emerging happens everyday, as long as we are still breathing there is hope.
Emergence can be said to arise from fundamental entities, so it might be said that an emergent artist arises from a more established artist, that the work is mimetic or reductive of another artist’s work. Emergent properties require emergent attributes. Do such things exist? In calling an artist emergent are we reducing that artist to attributes of other artists work or other attributes related to that work, be historical or medium based ? The use of the word emergence to describe an artist whose work is unknown has been overly simplified to suggest that the only attribute to really consider is age, which seems to me frivolous, shallow and quite short sided. As a culture we value youth, there is mythology that is held up out of a desire, I believe, for monetary gain, to constantly find the newest new thing.
The Boston Young Contemporaries show I am not sure how their curatorial processed worked in regards to selection, but it can be said that their choice of artists the age of artist was not taken into account, the word young means where that artists is in their career, which in the end I think is far more interesting then the age of the artist.
This weekend I watched a couple of interviews with puppeteer, video artist, painter, Illustrator, and set designer Wayne White. For the past few years I have been rather obsessed with Wayne Whites work, mainly because he drew inspiration for a large installation he did at Rice of a giant George Jones puppet head, which he claimed was “the largest George Jones Puppet head ever created” That’s quite a an accomplishment, I don’t think anyone has ever built a giant puppet head of George Jones and I don’t think anyone will anytime soon.
Wayne White’s use of country music for his inspiration for this puppet head was of interest to me, as I had steeped myself in a healthy diet of country music and honky-tonks and really set to work to create work based upon this amazing musical genre. What I really like about White’s tribute to one of country music’s legends is that he made something that was not drenched in country music visual cues and clichés, instead he worked with the lyrics of George’s song “I’m ragged, but I’m right!” using the lyric “Well I got big electric fan to keep me cool while I sleep” Wayne thought about the time in Texas before air conditioning and all of the luxuries we have now, the past of Texas has a history to it and the lack of amenities is intertwined in Texas history, it’s also something that is intertwined into the hard living life of a country musician. So White decided to build a giant puppet head of George Jones and put a giant fan inside the head so when the mouth was opened up a COOL BREEZE came out and cooled the room.
Loads of contemporary artists are taking inspiration from contemporary rock music or electronic and making work that reflects the culture of those genres of music currently. What country music speaks to and is vital to being American and an American artist is about traveling a road less traveled. While country music is a populist music, there is a certain snobby attitude about the music from many, that somehow they are above the music or that the music lacks intelligence or that it’s for uneducated beer swilling rednecks. All of those assertions in some sense are based on fact, but it should be remembered in the early days of country music recording, with artists like Carter Family, this was the music of the masses, they sold over 300,000 albums by 1930, while Jazz and big band music did outsell country albums, it was mainly because of economics, the have and the have nots, many of those living in rural areas could not afford to buy albums during the great depression, radio and live performances was the typical way that many consumed the music. Most Americans were living in rural areas, and played many of the instruments that were featured on the recordings, so in a way the recordings and the music were a reflection of their way of life. What is missing from most of the criticism I hear from people about country music is a genuine understanding of the genre, lack of understanding of the harmonies, the chords, the instruments, the arrangements. While it’s not really my objective to make converts to country music in writing this, I would suggest that one spend some time exploring the rich history and life of country music.
That being said, I sincerely love and have a deep appreciation for country music, country music was my theme music when I lived in my VW van and trucked across the country, learning what I could about video art and the way the old universe tumbled and twirled. I made a lot of video and collage work based on country tunes that resonated with me while living on the road. Hank Williams; Lost Highway, became a video I made called Doghead 606, George Jones; She Thinks I Still Care, became, Hourex, Buck Owens; Cryin Time, became, I like my eggs with DDT. For me, country music is about transcendence, the lyrics speak of knowing ones self and shortcomings and even knowing that you are not moving past them or are stuck within them. In making these videos I wanted to make work that not directly about the songs, but more about how I saw America and the world as a result of these songs. I drove around the country reading a ton of contemporary America poetry, and listening to old country music, stopping off and sleeping in Wal-mart parking lots, talking to people at truck stops and rest stops and really doing my best to try and stave off depression while at the same time keep an open mind to possibilities. I started my journey at the beginning of the great recession in 2008 and finished it up in late 2009, finally settling down and getting an apartment. It was there once I had a job and place to cook, that I started taking a look back my journey and taking a look at how country music really impacted American culture.
Maybe it’s just living in Colorado, but to me living in little old Denver seeing rock music and electronic music seems almost out of place with the space, it feels contrived, almost pretend, that the music doesn’t really resonate with physical place. To give an example I cannot tell you how funny it is to go to a Gothic nightclub in Denver and see all the kids in the middle of summer dressed in leather trench coats and mascara dancing around to industrial music from the late 80’s and early 90’s. It seems so out of place, Denver is so happy and so a place of possibility and a place were one almost has to be in a place of authenticity of the environment. True it’s always sunny, but the weather also changes from one moment to the next, you have to be on your toes with your wardrobe here, layers people, layers. But part of the culture of living in the west is the lack of “Culture” with a capital C, we have to make our own culture here, which is also a western attitude, we have to show those big city slickers that we have just as much of a life and just as much culture as they do in Chicago and New York City. It’s this DIY attitude that is really western, really country, really cowboy, really the authenticity of the west. Not dressing up like people in NYC and London in the 1980’s in horrible night clubs. Go out and make something, make it your own, look at what others are doing outside of our bubble and look at how it works within our bubble and make it better and make it our own. That is what country music is about, so yes, kids with laptops are country musicians, when they are mixing beats and creating new music, they are taking something and re-working the texture of the electronic landscape to make it new and fresh. Video and digital media artists are doing the same thing working with what is out there in the world, re-working it and making it new and fresh, throwing away the stodgy all academic notions of culture and creating a new culture.
Living in the American west I should be aware of my history of the music and culture that I came from and use those attitudes to help enhance my work. It’s so amazing driving across the plains of Colorado and seeing all the barbed wire fences and cattle, the truck stops, the tiny towns where a job putting together irrigation equipment at 9 bucks an hour is a DAMN GOOD JOB. This kind of thing is what has become important to me in my work, I read it in the poems I read, in the people I talk to, and in the music I hear, in the artwork I see. I really do want to be a cowboy in so many ways.
I read something today that went like this: “Humans are participants among other participants, not godlike entities upon which everything else depends and which bring everything else into existence.” I think this about sums up the general thesis of the film Tree of Life, upon which I am still obsessing. The film starts with a woman learning of the death of her son, what then follows is her praying to God that she dies so that she can be with her dead son. The film then takes you on a magnificent visionary journey through the creating of the universe starting at the big bang and then back again to the lives of the family in West Texas. What we are immersed in before we learn about the lives of the humans in Texas, is just how small we really are. I could not help but walk away from the film feeling that all of my worries and fears and hopes and dreams are really nothing that I am just part of a giant universe, and it’s really my place as a human to just live and live humbly and simply.
I recall a summer in 1987, when I was in South Dakota and I saw a pool of turtles, the pool had so many turtles in it that they were all crawling over each other trying their best to get scarps of veggies that tourist bought to feed them. The colors, green and yellow shells and bits of carrots floating in between the bodies of the turtles, the water dark with algae growing on the sides and the bottom, the light glistening off the water and the turtle backs.
Yugen: subtly profound grace, not obvious;
These types of experiences like Tree of Life are about subtly profound grace, experiences that cannot be describes with words. To experience a profound mysterious sense of the universe, we have felt it, had the experience where we understand, but yet we lack the ability to fully articulate that experience. The beauty of Yugen at this high level in Tree of Life is how it works from the obvious to the subtle, giving us the banal, while at the same time overloading us with what we cannot begin to comprehend. The size and age of the universe is something our minds cannot comprehend, yet we can comprehend the slamming of a door, the anger at a family member, or can we? Yugen penetrates through the limitations of self, sparks off bits of transcendence, but not quite enough to fully comprehend the mystery the grace the subtle. What we find when we experience this grace we begin to grasp Yugen is what Malick does in Tree of Life so effortlessly, he gives us the profound tranquil loneliness, the realization that death can appear at any moment and grace. Yugen is at the essence of Malick’s throughout the film, pushing the characters to moments of death and pain, and constantly reinforcing the loneliness that is in Malick’s work the heart of his ontology.
Yugen is a Chinese word broken up Yu and Gen both relate to dyeing something black, but the word evolved to mean something profound, so deeply profound that we cannot comprehend. The word was transmitted to the Japanese and was a key element in Japanese No plays. Western culture lacks a true translation of this word, which is why I believe that Malick’s Tree of Life has been referred to as “sucking balls”. Western culture does not have a vocabulary to really understand what the film does ( not attempt, DOES). Rarely do you see a film that impacts an audience in such a deep in moving way as Tree of Life does, throughout the film you can hear people crying and reacting to the film.
“Humans are participants among other participants, not godlike entities upon which everything else depends and which bring everything else into existence.”
