"Strange Garden", 1/1, 30x42"
Laura from the Art Students League very nicely e-mailed last week that she would like to use an older image of mine that she spied on the Open Press web site for a post card she was putting together. I definitely said yes, the more you get your stuff out there... The post card is to promote classes at the league, and I have one that is registering now for April and May, so that will help.
It's often an eye-opener when someone discovers a picture you've sort of moved on from. Coming up with ideas I want to try is rarely a problem for me, but moving frenetically on to the next, before I've really delved into the first, can be. So Strange Garden (above), the piece Laura noticed, made me wonder if I need to revisit the idea. For one thing, with my focus on negative space this year, it's interesting that she would call attention to a picture with so much of it. Also the print was done on a lithography press, as opposed to an etching press. An etching press rolls on the plate, a litho press scrapes across it, providing a different sort of action on the ink. Here at Squishtoid, where we are very technical minded, we refer to this as Squishmojonic force. Or something like that.
In this case it really worked to my advantage, and you can see the thicker blobs of ink were fortuitously extruded in a very organic, iris-like way that as far as I'm concerned, really makes the image. Anyway, it makes me wonder if I should use a litho press sometimes. I'd been doing some very gothic flower prints for a while that I loved, then bango! couldn't get 'em the way I liked them all of a sudden. I like flowers for their abstract colors and elements. It would be nice to celebrate spring with some new flower prints.
As for the workshop, it runs for 6 weeks and you can get more info here. The League has a revamped web site with online registration, and it's very easy to use. I think we'll have a lot of fun, and we'll cover technical as well as aesthetic issues, so no experience necessary. This one will run 6 weeks, but there are one-day workshops planned for Summer. When it's done, you'll be able to dazzle attractive persons with your knowledge of Squishmojonic forces. Or something like that.
Questions? Leave a comment, or e-mail me.
Poor Mexico. So far from God, and so close to the United States. -Porfirio Diaz, Mexican Dictator.
I predicted as I took my place at the bar, that the USA would fall to the Dutch by either 2-0, or 2-1. The first would be the expected result, given the last game in Amsterdam and their history in Europe, the second more hopeful, reflecting their improvement against traditional powers as in the '09 Confederations Cup victory v. Spain.
They lost 2-1. They looked much better than their last visit, when they were never really in the game, especially in midfield. This time the midfield was effective for long stretches, and the team was able to close the gap in the late going on a nice goal, and even threaten to tie. So there is hope.
It'll be a while before we see any more warm-ups though, so it's all guess work from here. But the lead-up to the World Cup has begun, and it's time to start doing what the Cup is great for- learning about other cultures (though soccer-haters and other xenophobes would not agree).
There is plenty of team-by-team analysis around, but I'm taking my cue from a very fun book from the 2006 Cup, "The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup" (edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey. I searched for this year's equivalent, but alas). It's a very readable book that gathers natives and fans of each team to write something on that nation. Since there are 18 return teams this year, it's still relevant.
Group "A" is a very interesting one with South Africa, the host; France, recent World Champs and hosts; and Uruguay, shockingly (for some) 2 time winners in 1930 and '50. But for purposes of this brief peek, the headliner is arch-rival Mexico.
If Mexico is, as former Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda says in his somewhat mournful piece on the homeland of "Los Tricolores", the richest of the poor nations, at least in futbol, they've always been the poorest of the rich nations. They've hosted twice, and made memorable runs, not least at the 2006 Cup, where they were game before losing on a brilliant Argentina goal.
Now the northern giant threatens hegemony in this vital area, too. Worse, they do it in almost off-hand fashion, with the US' string of victories in crucial matches, such as the 2002 quarterfinals, arousing no passion in the football-hating press and NFL-obsessed public. It seems unfair. Here is ESPN Sports Guy Bill Simmons' impression of a USA v. Mexico match in infamous Azteca Stadium.
Football, in fact, is often not fair, though Mexico can still have the last laugh this year. Though the first game (the opener!) v. the hosts will be tough in terms of the crowd, South Africa really hasn't been playing that well. Uruguay will be game, but their days of regular participation are long gone (their cups came during an economic and soccer heyday as host of a truncated field in the first event, and via an upset of Brazil before that nation's era of domination began). France is also underachieving, notably needing a Thierry Henry handball v. minnows Ireland to even qualify.
Mexico is back in good form, so passion and pride may very well carry them farther than the young US team. Some would like nothing better than to see Los Tri fail, but once the US is out, I always root for them. It only seems fair.
Some "orphans" sit in my drawer at the studio because I don't have time to figure out what to do with them. So I made time for a few on Monday. On the right is the first layer, from last fall some time. Then I did a second drop Monday. Now it's finished, one small task I can cross off the list.
"Disassembled Sonata" 1/1, 21x15"
Interior, 1/1, 15x21" This is also from last Monday. Kind of a test run. It has pencil lines, because I love drawing and have wanted to include it in monotypes for a while. The different colored torn papery-looking elements are chine colle, loosely translated, that means "different colored torn papery process". They are wheat-pasted on to the print by the pressure of the press (5,000 psi, as advertised in our mast head).
It's not a particularly exciting image, but it certainly has me thinking about possibilities for other images.
I 've done a larger, vertical version of the Ridgetop theme. While the photo isn't that good, I'm going to move on to some other ideas, so I decided to wrap up the gray-on-gray/negative space thread for now. The best of these can be found here, in a portfolio with commentary. Be sure to click " Become a Fan", too. I'll post newer work soon.
BTW, in case you out-of-towners are wondering, yes, it HAS been an unusually gray winter here.
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers. -Thomas Pynchon
From the ridge top east of Colorado Springs, CO you get a view overlooking the little upscale city and the Front Range behind it, including Colorado's most iconic "Fourteener", Pike's Peak. It's so close you can seemingly touch it, and the scene rivals any I've seen in the west. But I rarely go there. It is a city that has made itself into a compound for the right wing/anti government /tea bagger movement, a breeding lab for anti-gay hate legislation, anti-tax libertarian fantasies, and religious intolerance. It's a holy center for the Party of No.
On that same ridge top sits Focus on the Family. Their Tebow Superbowl ad caused a controversy which highlights the extent to which the right wing has seized control of the ongoing debates surrounding the culture wars.
Every element in the ad story exemplifies the right's cynical approach to political discourse that dates back to Willie Horton and before, and continues through Swift Boat ads and Health Care lies. Everything about the ad was brilliantly staged. Not just the ad itself, which featured popular jock Tim Tebow, college qb who goes into battle with bible verses painted on his face, in a feel-good tribute to his mom's decision to have him, instead of a medically sound abortion ( I didn't see the ad, but have heard it was fairly bland). Delivered during the climactic game/spectacle of the league that has become the entertainment arm of right wing big media, the ad reinforced gridiron culture's fantasy of fighting American heroes to the millions of Bud Light- and Doritos- buzzed couch muffins who have always lapped it up.
The run-up attracted protests from NOW, allowing right wingers to portray them as censors (CBS, has in fact, refused left wing organizations such as Move-On.org space during the Superbowl, but now says the policy has changed). One rebuttal by a right wing sock puppet even used the words "fair and balanced", thus slipping in a plug for his favored sock puppet advocacy network. The Sports page "journalists", ever hungry for "relevance" to alleviate the grinding boredom of covering American Football, went along for the ride, chastising the perpetually un-savvy NOW, before heading back to their free, NFL-sponsored buffets. Excuse the mixing of sports metaphors, but in every possible way with this ad, Focus hit a home run. Smoke and mirrors for 2.7 mil- cheap!
Meanwhile, what's going on in Focus on the Family's sprawling little upscale home town? Funny you should ask. The supposedly left-dominated media has not noticed, but apparently there's trouble in the compound, and angst in those McMansions.
I'll let this Salon.com post, by writer David Sirota tell the tale. If you've ever wondered what happened to Reagan's "shining city on a hill", Sirota says, "the view isn't pretty".
Yes, the right of reproductive choice is very important to most Americans. But are we being distracted from the basic issue of whether the right wing Libertarian fantasy of no tax/no government/no public safety net even works? The politics of greed have made a crumbling joke of one of Tea Bagger-ism's epicenters. Time to put down the Doritos and start asking each other what we can do to save the nation from the same fate.
"Ridgetops", Monotype, 15x21"
I'll do a larger version Monday. I'll lighten the far ridge, and adjust the scale and distance. I promised myself some more interiors, so I think that'll be next. Nor have I done a "fun" Weekend-type post lately, so I'll work up something of that nature.
