Further Dispatches from NC

Here's a picture of Kim, myself and the facilities guy (or as I like to say "the guy who I'd be if I worked there") getting everything set up for the portraits that Alyssa shot of the Art*o*Mat-ers.

The image was shot by Mary K, the web designer for Art*o*Mat and you can view her other pictures from the swap meet here.

Elin, an artist from upstate NY has some good coverage of Art*o*Mat goings-on at her blog will.love.logic

More from North Carolina

It's true.


This is also true-- she smiles when she sleeps.



True too that this is the biggest comb I've ever found.

Art*o*Mat 10th Anniversary Swap Meet!

I was Alyssa Salomon's assistant while she shot portraits of almost all the Art*o*Mat artists who came to the 10th Year Anniversary Swap Meet at SECCA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

What an incredible, positive success is Clark Whittington's Art*o*Mat. What an incredible, positive success is Clark Whittington.

Don't know it? Check it out here. Make a prototype, send it in and begin your career as a vended artist. Who knows, you might make it into the Whitney.

I'll write more soon.

What I Know

Stephen and Susan are good friends...(*)

Jon Felton got married...

Kristin and Todd moved to Korea...

and Josh will join them in a month, or so.

* Picture by Susan or Stephen

Makin' Me Proud

Ed, a former student of mine, a staunch believer in western Maryland and especially Frostburg, and (although he won't admit its inevitability) future mayor of his hometown. Some of my fondest memories of teaching involve arguments between Ed and spoiled kids from Montgomery County who hated Frostburg. I would allow the arguments to become heated, to last as long as they needed to, secretly waiting for Ed to deliver the zinger that would send the pretentious pricks reeling and feeling out of place. Standing next to Ed in this picture are Wade and Debbie Clark-- two excellent people who became friends, and sometime confidants of mine when I'd shop for my photo supplies.

DeWitt buys camera store

From the Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Edward DeWitt of Frostburg has purchased Clark’s Camera Centre from owner Wade Clark and plans to open the store as DeWitt Camera Centre in mid-August.

The business began more than 70 years ago as the hobby of original owner S. Louis Curl, who with his wife began making black and white prints from their own film in the early 1930s. There were no full-time photo stores, and having quality prints made was not easy.

Using the basement of their home as a darkroom, the Curls’ operation grew, and a few outlets were established elsewhere in Cumberland. They had two fixed locations before purchasing the vacant former First Federal Savings and Loan building in 1955 at 56 N. Centre St., which still is the site of the camera shop.

In 1972, Frank “Spike” Clark and two of his four children moved to Cumberland from Pearl River, N.Y., and bought the shop from the Curls. Their son Wade took over the business in 1990, bought it in 1993 and has run it with his wife, Debby.

DeWitt is a native of Frostburg and has been involved with photography since 2001, when he took his first class at Frostburg State University. He graduated from FSU in 2003 and attended the Ohio Institute of Photography in Dayton.

Clark’s stocks cameras, lenses, accessories and darkroom supplies, and film processing and printing is done on site. It offers repairs on all cameras and accessories and accepts special orders for equipment.

DeWitt plans to add an upstairs photography studio, a gallery for local photographers and photography classes for novices and experts. Business hours will be extended and the store will be open on weekends. For more information, call (301) 724-0393.

Where the Wall Was Swimming Pool Blue

As was planned, I painted over my work in DC this past weekend. Overall all I think the installation went well. I got a ton of feedback (including a tranny who was ready to protest my painting over it until she learned that I was the artist.) Although feeling vulnerable is never really comfortable, making myself available as an artist is what I want to be doing and I view this experience as street as studio, not street art.

Interesting too are the following images and text that were posted around the work:





Are they saying we don't need city-wide art projects, love is all we need? Does anyone recognize the lighthouse graphic?

I'm Talking (to Chris and You)

It's funny to me that people on occasion call and email for advice, or God forbid, ask me to take pictures for them because I can be a really bad photographer.

Too bad for Chris Freeman in this instance. There he was, visiting from Tennessee, doing a dern good job at singing "Eat" at Ipanema the other night when my lazy ass shot this terrible picture from a bar stool. Chris, I owe you an apology, and to pay you back I order everyone who reads this to buy your new, and excellent album The Robins Eat Like Me Now . It's worth much more than the $5 he's charging, plus there's a much better picture I took of him inside.

This is one of my favorite Chris Freeman pictures. This was taken when Kim, Todd and I lived on Patterson.

Can't get enough? More Chris Freeman here and here and he's also on MySpace w/ two different bands but the site wouldn't load so too bad-- find it yourself.

Today we walked from our apartment to the newly renovated State Capitol to go on the tour that they offer. We're pretty major Thomas Jefferson fans these days (here's why) so it only makes sense that we're finally making the effort to investigate the buildings he designed. Unfortunately, our guide was obsessed with Robert E. Lee (imagine that!) so we left disappointed with our tour's lack of anything Jeffersonian (except maybe our snack on the front lawn of dried chick peas and oranges).

It's a little more than 4.5 miles to the Capitol and on our way back we took a different route and found the 24/7 gallery on Grace between 2nd and 3rd. This re-purposed puzzle is pretty great.


I've been photographing all the clumps of hair I've been coming across the past few months (I guess they're extensions??) We saw a few today and this is maybe the second largest clump I've ever come across (that didn't have a head attached to it). Maybe I've been in Richmond too long, but it seems weird to have something so personal just lying on the sidewalk... kind of like the condoms you see or the combs. It's a voodoo thing for me, I'm sure.

(Nyrds)

Have you seen American Splendor? Pronounce the title of this post the way that Toby Radloff (real life Harvey Pekar's friend played by an actor in the movie) pronounces "nerds" when he mentions the movie "Revenge of the Nerds" (in the movie) and you've got the reference.

Anyway, on our walk home from the beer store tonight (since going to Portland we both really like beers that are hoppy enough to taste like grapefruit and we found a good one here) we both spotted a couple of... visages that we wanted to photograph, and since we're always up for a little friendly competition, we each took photos of the subjects and are presenting them to you to be the judges. Who did the best job in their picture taking? (We've already decided b/t ourselves.) I'll post the pictures here w/ the author's name beneath, and if you would be so kind as to vote it would be greatly appreciated.**

Thanks!

Picture #1: Bamboo

Kim



Michael

Picture #2: Money Plant

Kim

Michael

**Nobody wins anything more than knowing that they've interacted, taken part, made their voice heard, been a part of something maybe not so remarkable, but maybe something about something-- or something like that.

Fan Club: Kate

So here is something good-- this picture was made by my friend Kate, and although I'm not sure she intended it as such, I think it's one of the most artlessly artful images I've seen in a long time (I put it in a frame and rescued it from her coffee table). Kate and I both grew up in Marlton, a suburb of Washington, DC. Kate went to the magnet art school in Prince George's County, began college as a painter and ended up a bad ass photographer (a la Eggleston + Co.) Kate helped me install my work for SiteProjects, and along with Todd is one of the mere two reasons for living in (or near) DC.

What's Up.

Well, I apologize for not posting in over 15 days... there are excuses, none of which are applicable so I won't start but I will say that I have been thinking about you, and hoping that you realized you could find samples of Some Monastery on MySpace, and trusting that you've been checking-in with Chris Freeman so you know about this and this.

The above pictures illustrate the good things that I've been up to-- not all of them mind you, and this list is edited and idealized rendition of the past 16 days, but it's not wholly untrue or even too exclusively skewed towards the positive. My days have been filled with trips to the James River, they have been spent obsessing over crape myrtles like this one on Allen Ave. in the Fan near my work, and I did finally buy a ukulele, and damn if I haven't been playing it all day between intimate interactions with my co-habitator, a nap, popcorn, a chocolate milkshake, and the New York Times. The ukulele marks the beginning of a new era-- and is the first stringed instrument I've tried to play. I have always shied away from the guitar-- it's such a guy instrument, so Joe Perry, so Satriani, so Eddie Van Halen, so Jimmy Page. To be glib and inflammatory, simple and stupid, it's such a penis. I must say that I'm happy that the penis I've bought myself is so little and cute.

There are new plans! I'll be plunking away, singing My Sweetheart's The Man in The Moon while Kimberly plays along on the accordion. But that will come later, right now I've got to figure out how to change chords and build up some callouses. But even that will have to wait until we're back from the river-- we have a sun to watch set.

Brad Walker: Welcome to the Symmetry

Brad Walker (do a Google image search-- there are lots of Brad Walkers out there) has been up to his old hi-jinks and has some interesting things for you to check out. The first is his most recent album. He records under the moniker Some Monastery and the new album is by far the most mature, and cohesive record so far. This is also the 16th album in 6 years so there's a lot to compare it to, and there's been a lot in terms of varying quality over the years.

On the album's page on his website (which has a beautiful flash animation of images similar to the cover), Brad writes that the album was influenced by Thurston Moore's solo album "Psychic Hearts" and you can hear it in the tunings for the songs and in the tone of instrumentation. Brad also channels Kim Gordon quite a bit on this album and knowing that he is one of the rare male rockers who listens to more music made by women than men, this makes sense and makes the music that much more appealing. With that said, the songs are idiosyncratic enough to not be a complete rip-off of Moore's album and works as more of an homage. Brad has always been up front about his influences (2005's Plagiarism et al. is a covers record) and this helps in a world of people trying to convince you that they are the real deal, tres unique, that on the day they were born the mould was broken and the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true.

Brad's lyrics have always been a good mystery. Reading them over them while listening, I wonder who this person is that wrote this music. Each album is a glimpse into the interior world of someone I know really well. With this said, WTtS is more straight forward than past albums. On the track "Lazy Polymer" he sings in a mumble-y whisper rap:

when I saw you last you were jottin' down notes
about your do's and don'ts and that's such a joke
why finish what you start just to say
that you've finished what you've started

And on the high-hat driven (it's kind of like punk disco!) and meta "Monsoon Season", the protagonist is wishing they could confront someone directly, wishing that he could just speak his mind instead of following the protocol of the public sphere, and being limited by their timidity:

I'd like to be brutally honest
at every second of every waking moment
but I am afraid that it would all be too real
but wouldn't it be nice to be so lucky free

The album has 10 tracks and as seems to be the trend these days, is short and sweet. It clocks in at only 34 minutes-- the right amount of time to make me want more. I'm not sure how you buy the album but you can contact him at bradalanwalker2000@yahoo.com or wait until the album is on iTunes where it should be shortly. For now you can go here and listen to samples.

So, if that weren't enough, Brad also has an online zine that he makes called Majuscle. His most recent issue is called A Mess of Pictures and is outtakes from his family's photo albums. For the zine he paired seemingly unrelated images together. It's an interesting example of the filler that is probably in most albums.



And finally, Brad is also the artist with whom I'm doing a yearlong project called SAMETIME 7:15 with.

For the Lack Of Words, 14th and T Streets NW DC

Well, at least not my words...

From the Washington Post (click to enlarge)

Good Week

1. The Bopst Show celebrated it's 5th anniversary at Millie's this past Sunday with excellent food, bands and people. The line up was BBQ pork, chili, collards, corn, rolls, cole slaw... the Two Man Gentleman Band (old-timey), The Session Rockers (Dub Reggae band from Hampton), Kim, Michelle, Geoff, Ward, Lisa, Chris and many people I don't know but whom I recognize from other events there. Amazing as always. Bopst knows how to deliver and was in fine form. More of his radio personality came through than he usually allows in person and while he gave away CDs he espoused truths that are daily squashed beneath the grinding gears of corporate radio. As he says on his show, the Bopst show is musical penicillin in a world trying to give you audio syphilis. If you're still not listening, you're still not getting it.

Listen here between 1-4pm Monday-Friday.

There a couple of good articles about the anniversary here and here. Read this one first, Bopst wrote it.


2. This building near the corner of Meadow and Broad, across from Pleasants Hardware and Sauer's has been tagged with another super soaker tag (I'm guessing that's what people use to do this.) Crazy huge meaninglessness that nonetheless does not make me feel completely despondent. If you work really hard you can make wolf86! sound like Wolfowitz and you can think that this is some clever commentary on the fallen (yet not sufficiently shamed) World Bank President.

3. Dinner with a group of artists, one of whom has an installation in the lobby of the Hirshorn right now.

4. And finally, I head to DC tomorrow to begin installing my work for SiteProjects DC. I'm really looking forward to it, and will post many pictures here when I return. If you can make it to the opening on Friday it's being held at the Black Cat (on 14th Street) and runs from 7-9. The curator is doing a Site Tour at 8. See you there?

Rockin' the Chocolate City

Anonymous III opens tomorrow night at Flashpoint Gallery at 916 G Street NW, Washington DC, 20001. As mentioned in the previous post, there were 10 curators who each chose 9 artists to be involved in the show. Go here for a list of artist/curators and wonder why Martin Bromirski isn't on this list. My curator (benefactor?) was Travis Fullerton... (it's good to have friends in high places) and now that he's a full-timer at the VMFA I imagine I'll be getting a call from John Ravenal any day now.

Here's the piece I submitted. It's an excerpt from mine and Brad's project SAMETIME -- it's sexy and I paid a shit-ton to have it framed because I think the project (and Brad) is/are amazing and that the work deserves it. I work a gruelling 40+ hours per week and there have to be many good things that come out of that. The piece is wheat pasted thermal prints on paper and represents three days of the project. On the back of the piece is a key that includes the dates, captions, and author of each image. Like on the website, Brad's images are on the left and mine are on the right.

It's an interesting mix of artists and I'm disappointed that I'll miss the opening but I have my reasons... here's the main one:

I'm in another WPA/C organized show this month called SiteProjects DC. I'm installing a 25 foot, 200 image, wheat-pasted piece called For the Lack of Words on a building at 14th and T street in NW DC. It should be good. I'm headed to DC in the middle of next week to install my work and will stay there until Saturday. There's an opening for the installation at the Black Cat from 7-9 and Welmoed Laanstra, the curator, is giving a walking tour of the installation from 8-9. Here's a picture of the site, pre-Michael:


I'll be sure to post a post-Michael picture. Welmoed Laanstra, is an independent DC based curator who was responsible for bringing Yoko Ono to DC for her Imagine Peace project a couple of months ago. I did a reactionary piece called Imagine Piece. Maybe I'll post it when I have the time. Working with Welmoed has been good- she's down to earth, generous, and practical.

Here's the other reason I'm not going to the opening:

Not to be too macabre, but I have a serious fear of being killed in a car accident and have been drving on I-95 too often these days. I know I'm not the only one, but I'm continually imagining my death when I'm on the highway. There's only so much I can take.

Here's What I Think Brave and Smart Looks Like:

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., June 3 — Jack Kevorkian, the former pathologist once known as Doctor Death, says he will never again counsel a terminally ill person on how to die. But eight years behind bars and a strict list of promises to gain parole have done nothing to mellow the blunt, passionate, combative advocate for physician-assisted suicide.

...“I said I won’t do it again,” he said, “and it’s not even worth doing again by me because it’d be counterproductive to what I’m fighting for. It’s up to others. If you people don’t want that right, then don’t do it. Then let your government trample all over you. If you don’t want to do it, it’s all right by me, but you don’t get me talking about it and going back to that thing called prison.”

Entire article here.

A Few Highlights from the Weekend (or all the signs in Frostburg that say Frostburg that I came across over the course of the weekend)