Make it Handmade

The holidays have me thinking a lot about how important handmade objects are in my life and handmade do it yourself lifestyles are in the context of the environmental crisis we face today. Seeing cheaply made plastics (and more) from oer seas bought and exchanged as welcome gifts got me doing a lot of thinking
this online resource still makes me feel hopeful....

CRAFTIVISM

read lovingly...

if you missed the news or unfortunate lack of progress from Copenhagen recently catch up with it at democracy now

Dec. 19

Cannibals – sustainable art

video link here

"Pammela Springfield asks that all her gallery artists be a gas tank away from the door and show only work created in the past year. In this way the art at Cannibals is always local and fresh. The art is also “recycled” in the most expansive definition of the term – art from re-purposed materials that were headed for the landfill, but also recycled images that our conscious minds would like to forget. Pammela eloquently reminds us of why we need these unsettling images and the artists who make them."

Cannibals: 518 Northwest 21st Avenue, Portland, OR

(via – and video by – Will Leurs at Taylor Street Studio).

BONFIRE

Nothing like it.

My friend Beth would never toot her own horn...

So I'll do it for her...

Beth is part of the JustSeeds Collective. (not yet member but was invited earlier this year to show work on their website). They just did a sweet interview with her. You can read it here.

If you don't know Beth, it's a good introduction to what she's doing and what and how she thinks.

I'm really lucky to know and work with her. Also proud as can be that she's getting recognition for her work. You can read more about Beth and her work on her lovely website.

I don't think I have many aspirations...

(but then I find something I think is worth posting in not one but 2 places...)

But then i see something like this...



(via Wooster)

...and then I think "I'm not getting any younger and I need to quit wasting my time..."

Building alternative worlds and sharing them seems like a perfectly reasonable and meaningful vocation...

fall

watch?

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Colors

Click to Play

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

o r i o n

It is time for the Orionid Meteor Showers! Science nerds say last night was meant to be the best night for the showers but it looks like tonight might be okay too.

I made this connect the dots of orion last week in the letterpress studio. (the actual print doesn't have the lines)

Conversion Van

Adam and Justin hacked Thor's old Econoline to make the Core Student Limo for the Friday night show...


watch if you wanna


I did the soundtrack (2mins 50secs to get the whole audio experience...)

Powered by Podbean.com

It all rocked a little bit...

CORE SHOW 2009

This Friday the Penland School of Crafts presents CORE SHOW 2009!
Come see new work by Christina Boy, Jessica Heikes, Marianne Dages, Wes Stitt, Joshua Kuensting, Leah Frost, Beth Schaible, Jason Burnett, and Mark Warren at the Northlight Building from 700-1000 pm. Snacks and such.
The show continues Saturday and Sunday.

Found Art, Gallery Ready

If I could make and patina something like this, I think I'd be pretty pleased...

(found and photographed scrap metal, unaltered)

A well presented argument for DIY

I subscribe to and agree with this line of thinking. Twice this week I've been in conversations regarding the paths and ways a maker can show and sell their work, and how there is a distinctly hierarchical system in place that presumes the only way an artist can be "successful" is to participate in that system. My thinking is that one should define success on their own terms, and act on that definition. The existing paradigm will never be changed otherwise.

DIY: make your own show. Or something like that. It seems to me that can be both personal and scalable. Flattening the playing field would benefit both makers and those that might be inclined to buy their work. And provide much more variety of venues and presentation.

article: Hazel Dooney- The Ka-Boom of the System

It's something to ponder...

These people have the right idea...

The Antagonist Art Movement

The Antagonist Art Movement - For Dummies from Anthony Ferraro on Vimeo.

(via Wooster)
Make your own shows, and help others make their shows. It's an honorable enterprise.

The Painter and the Bowerbird

Artist Mary Jo McConnell's inspirational relationship with the magnificent Vogelkop Bowerbird of West Papua New Guinea.

Found Artist

C. Ryder Cooley

Astonishing that one person can do so much. I don't know whether to be inspired or depressed...

I think I'll pick inspired...

News Flash

Dateline: Somewhere in the NC highlands, Aug 3, 2009

Our own Beth Schaible has had her work added onto the Just Seeds website! A very big deal for a very good person who is an exceptionally talented artist. The current work shown was done in collaboration with friend Irma Alba.

From the Just Seeds website: "Justseeds/Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative is a decentralized community of artists who have banded together to both sell their work online in a central location and to collaborate with and support each other and social movements."

More about Just Seeds here.

Big ups to Beth! Your friends are so proud of you!

House Show at Justin's 7.31.09

Click to Play

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

We Did Another House Show at Justin's...

It was a nice night, a good many people came. The sound sculpture I made worked and was pretty well received, and there were a good many sweet pieces of work displayed. Thanks to Justin for flipping his house into the Burnpile Gallery once again!

A couple of snapshots here:

Bruce Conkle

Bruce Conkle from Kevin Forrest on Vimeo.

A short and lovely documentary about Portland, Oregon based artist Bruce Conkle made by Robert D’Esposito and Kevin Forrest.

Originally blogged at the ever wonderful DVblog.

hello friends & strangers...
thanks to kippy i (beth) have a blog now too.
this is the link
it's nothin' fancy but it does get updated with news and notions.

Our friend Kim makes stuff...

(that's the artist herself, hard at work...)

The following is an unsolicited endorsement:

Best pizza in western NC, period. Wed-Sat 4-9, Sun 11-7. Takeouts too. Pizza and salad, what else do you need? (except cold brews, and she has that too) Great prices. Family affair- Kim chefs it up, daughters serve it up, and partner Tom is the maitre d' working the counter. 828.765.4583. What? You haven't been yet? Whatcha waiting for???

Joanie 4 Jackie

Joanie 4 Jackie from Miranda July on Vimeo.

Joanie 4 Jackie is an all girl video chainletter created by Miranda July, now archived at Bard College.

ShoeStringer DIY Community Psychiatry Services

ShoeStringers Margaret, Beth and Mark bring the help to where it is most desperately needed, in honor of Margaret's birthday.

P E N L A N D . G L A S S

this picture is the view looking into a piece of justin turcotte glass.

Tomorrow, that is Friday July 10th, stop by Justin Turcotte's gallery to see glass by all of Penland's finest. 700ish-?ish.

M A R G A R

today is the fabulous margaret cogswell's birthday. she's lovely and amazing and if you aren't familiar with her work you can find some things online here. check her out and wish her a happy birthday.

Justin's House Show

Click to Play

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

I think this is wonder-full...

Miranda July.

Not many people see the world like she does. I'm glad she shows us some of it. I find it encouraging.

The Hallway from The Hallway on Vimeo.

I watch this and I think "gee, I wish I had thought to do that..."

Simple, lovely, challenging, thoughtful and irreverent. Never underestimate the power of a sharpie.

...

Today's inaction will reap
tomorrow's nightmares.

In Bb 2.0

"In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls.

The videos can be played simultaneously -- the soundtracks will work together, and the mix can be adjusted with the individual volume sliders..." Wonderful.

Brilliant!

I love Improv Everywhere!

Beth's show

Click to Play

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

A show of sorts

DIY Gallery

Make stuff? Want to show it? No gallery? No problem!

Justin and Beth and friends doing it the Shoestring way. Lots of fixtures and fittings scavenged from the burn pile. Lovely artworks installed, the place looked great. Justin's answer when asked what is usually in this space: "A futon and dog hair".

Make your own shows. Yep.

I'm lucky to have such sharp and talented friends. This was a superb effort and inspires me to do more.


Click to Play

Video music clip from Kelli Rudick's "No One Knows You're Foreign"

F R I D A Y the 1 7th

If you are in the Penland area tomorrow night (april 17th) make sure to swing by the house of justin turcotte for a gallery opening of sorts. The show will feature the work of Adam Whitney, Beth Schaible, Betsy DeWitt, Jon Shearin, Justin Turcotte, and Rachel Garceau.

730ish...

The Penland Resident Artists will also be having an open house around 700.

It's supposed to be beautiful weather so no excuses.

PWAV :: Poets Without a Voice

Collaborative poem by Jan Bruce, who is Jan McLaughlin and Bruce Weber.

Rant about the academy and its death grip on literature.

Formats available:MP3 Audio (.mp3), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Tags: florida, poems, poets, lenny, dellarocca, stacie, kiner, jan, mclaughlin, jonathan, rose, bruce, weber, collaboration

A dark and snowy night, part 2

How lucky were we?


Click to Play

Click to Play

Click to Play

Click to Play

Kelli Rudick

Liz Isenberg

Glenna Van Nostrand

Incredible talents. Great artists. Awesome and wonderfully nice people. Inspiring and humbling. I hope our paths cross again, sooner than later.

Look at their sites, go to their shows, buy their music. Support alternative music/media/art. These ladies are doing it on a shoestring and show us the way and what is possible...

It was a dark and snowy night...

and a small group of ShoeStringers and friends got to witness something pretty awesome, an original live music performance scored to an original short film. This is the art I make in my head. Here's a little teaser, more to come as soon as editing is done.

(Thanks to Kelli, Mark and Wes!)


Click to Play

Pork Warren performance clip

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

The Wisdom of Hugh...

If this isn't all over the interwebs by now, it should be...

(from gapingvoid.com)

I don't agree with everything he says all the time, I can say this with confidence:  read.  A fine example of what ShoeStringing could be...

Hugh MacLeod, accept no substitutes...

A family of books

Well, that's how I see them, anyways...

Friend of ShoeStringers Wes makes wonderful stuff.  This past week, he altered some books.  They're very crisply done.  I love the repetitiveness of each page in each volume being handled in the same manner, like a meditation.  I started to see them gathered round and it made me think of some kind of bibliographic family reunion.

Volcanoes of Iceland

I made a book about volcanoes. It's one of a kind, letterpress printed on handmade paper that was dyed with black walnuts. I'm going to make a box for it too. I read a lot of books about folklore and mythology and I'm especially fond of Scandinavian folklore. My press name, Huldra Press, comes from it. I love the odd details of folklore and the fact that these stories exist in so many forms. So in a roundabout way, this book came out of that interest. Out of an imaginary geography of a place I like to think about.

I really like the idea and work behind this...

A great video mixing at least 4 distinct media and handcrafting to create a guerilla monument:


Writers Bench from Miss Tint on Vimeo.

read the whole article on Wooster.

"Outsider" Artist Shows His Work

"...if we only use 11% of our brains, then we have 89% left to discover ourselves." – Greg Milne aka G-Rock, a local DTES resident and new “Outsider” artist.

This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a Nokia N95 mobile cameraphone. "April is passionate and skilled in making Nokia films by exploring mobile media production through the camera lens of a cellphone."

Immobilité

A new work by Mark Amerika, considered the first-ever feature-length mobile phone art film.

(Video interview with Mark Amerika about the making of the film here.)

Notes with a Camera (i)Phone

Walking Clermont-Ferrand with the QuadCamera iphone app.

Inside/Outside

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Shoestringer artist Jan McLaughlin reads Inside/Outside as Jan Bruce, the collaborative poetry entity between herself and the poet Bruce Weber. Fabulous.

A Kiss for Oscar

“Respect the memory of Oscar Wilde and do not deface this tomb. It is protected by law as an historic monument and was restored in 1992.” Sign on Oscar Wilde’s tomb.

Sometimes defacement can be a beautiful thing.

An Accordion in Brooklyn

My amateurish response to Mr. Croma's beautiful jewel...


Click to Play

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

A Trumpet in Montparnasse

If music be the food of love...

This Week in The Penland Letterpress Studio

Democracy Now

In efforts to feel reconnected with the outside world i've been listening to the news via Amy Goodman and the rest of the gang at Democracy Now. It's community based free speech radio from the ground up.

The broadcast airs monday through friday at 800 but you can listen to the broadcast anytime at www.democracynow.org

Joining a Movement

(cross posted from JMS, cause you know, it's just that exciting!)

I found a couple of great flyers at Printed Matter in NYC last week, bought them for myself and a friend. Good words that spoke clearly and truly what I consistently think and feel about making stuff, and points and purposes. So of course I have to figure out "who are these people that are so eloquent and insightful, and able to present their ideas in such a desirable format, while making it economically and socially accessible???" (because I ask myself these sorts of questions a lot...)

So clickity click and wa-la, discovery!

Impractical Labor

Laboring Impractically

it's like stumbling upon a warm cottage and cozy fire with soup on when you've been wandering in the bleak wilderness of consumerism and commercialism...

Sara's Pots

Click to Play

Sara Sanders ceramics

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Sara Sanders makes these exquisite little pots up in NYC. They are small, paper thin, with the sweetest decoration you'd ever wish to see on clay. Extremely fine work, multiple firings. These small beauties make you happy to see and hold. The smaller ones are around 1 inch in diameter, the largest a shade less than 2.5 inches across. Jewels, I tell you...

Phil's Boat

Click to Play

installation at David Krut Projects, NYC

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

This is the boat the Phil Sanders built. Well, the half of a boat. By hand, from found materials. Along with the coins (cast and fired porcelain, mason stained). And the hand-sewn money bag. And the prints and etched lead on the wall. And the multiple edition sandbox, frame and another hand-sewn bag, which I suspect holds some treasure. Phil knows how to make stuff. Wait till you hear about his next big project!

Sunday morning reading

Cause this seems served best with a slow start, some coffee or tea, a bagel or toast and homemade jam...

"When I was A Very Small Boy"

pointed at by Keri Smith

Polaroids

I added some new polaroids to my website. Click on the link to color work to see more.

One of the kinds of videos I'd love to make...

Watch it all the way through. Powerful stuff. I saw it first here.

Thank you Google Reader.




Now, let's get to work!

Sound and Color in Bb

Sound and Color in Bb from Evan Rattenbury on Vimeo.

"These are my grandparents home movies animated to the plucking of a thumb piano. Kind of an experiment in motion and sound."

Thought I'd share something special.

Evan Rattenbury is a film/video student of a friend of mine in Michigan. I find this utterly beautiful.

Today's reading:

A snippet from gapingvoid.  Worth reading the whole entry, this is a good example of one man's effort to get his stuff out there on his own terms, and a good explanation of why that's a fine idea.  I say, join the movement, DIY (and help each other).  We'll all be better off for it. 

(click the image to make it bigger and stuff...)

sentimental analogue

Maybe it was the photobooth pictures, or the pile of polaroids I recently unearthed while reorganizing my studio, but I have been thinking about photography more than I have in awhile. I haven't taken photographs seriously in over a year. I imagine that this is because the things that I found so pleasurable about it are no longer available to me. These are, in order of sentimentality, walking around new parts of a city, Philadelphia specifically, the smell of the color darkroom, the lack of control inherent to polaroid and cheap old cameras. And I guess I am posting this also because this time of year, I am sorely missing Philadelphia, and I thought I'd share some images of it.