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.