feather2pixels

This Friday, Bay Area collectors will do battle in a grueling game of wits that will leave only one standing.  Having slayed his or her opponents, a lucky and no doubt skilled individual will emerge as the new master of this shiny new screenprint on trash.

That’s right, it’s time for the America SCORES Inspired Art Poetry Party and Art Auction.

America SCORES is an after-school program that combines soccer and poetry like so many Ronaldo strikes from midfield.  The auction benefits their programming and in a twist I like, sees each art piece matched with a kid poem.

I got excited about my kid poem by Xitlaly Martinez, which offers a compelling new level of meaning to this particular image.  In the print, an unusually placed couple (on the right edge of the frame) is intently snapping photos of something they see in the SF Botanical Gardens.   I’m not sure exactly what this couple is seeing and I enjoy that sense of mystery.  Xitlaly’s poem fleshes out a back story and I very much like the way the juxtaposition offers the act of seeing as something personal, sacred, and unknowable.

I See You

by Xitlaly Martinez, E.R. Taylor Elementary
2010

I See You
Inside my heart I see you
Up in the sky I see you
Shining in the sunlight I see you
Sparking with the stars I see you.
In love I see you.
In happiness I see you.
In my beauty I see you.
So when I see you I see a school teacher helping me out.
When I see you I see a lion
ess and strong on the outside.
When I see you I see a loving and caring person on the inside.
Everywhere I am anywhere I am I see you.
Right now I see you

At the time, the idea of submitting an absurdly cheap piece to an otherwise respectable art show seemed interesting and fun.

I guess this pitiful letter received two months later pretty much brings my brilliant idea full circle.

To the piece of shit who tagged my art at CELLspace last Thursday night:

I couldn’t help but find myself wondering if you consider yourself some kind of artist.  If so, you have a lot to learn about personal standards.   I’m not sure if the stickers you planted all over my screen prints represent your strongest work, but they really weren’t ready for the garden show.

Or maybe felt tipped marker just isn’t your medium.  Either that or you need to cut down on the caffeine before you hit the studio–any cokehead can make neater lines than these.

Maybe I am wrong.  It could be that you are more into the ruining other people’s art angle.  On that count, you’ve come up pretty short too, and this is coming from a dude who’s 5’6”.  I mean, stickers?

Is everything you do this half-assed?

This pretty much says, “I wanted to be a badass who doesn’t give a fuck about the rules, but I didn’t quite have the balls to execute a proper tag.”  You should have just printed some business cards at Kinko’s and taped them to the door.

Anyway, the irony is that some good graffiti would have probably improved the art.  Instead we get this.

On location at the Fox Theater:

[flv:weird_al.flv 640 480]

It’s midterm season.

I thought this stack of gambling-enabled Dynamics tests was beautiful enough to photograph.

OK The image for the Cowboys and Indians pieces is ready.  I printed out the exposure mask from on two 11×17 inch sheets, which will be joined to burn the screen.  This will be a two layer print and this is the top layer.  From the western sand dunes:

After I print the image on the 4 quilts I sewed out of 1970’s Italian comix, the final pieces might look something like the following artist’s conception of the artist’s conception.

On second thought, I hope not. That kind of looks stupid.

Look! I completed a 10 day project of retroactively tagging and categorizing all every feather2pixel blog post written in the last 5 years.

Try clicking on one!

That old stuff gets really embarrassing but I stand by it.

Also–Please notice the tag cloud located on the feather2pixel sidebar.

hat is that. My tenure as a CELLspace studio artist ended on a clear Halloween night, as Tommy helped me transport the last of my junk to the new studio four block away.

I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for CELL.  I learned to screenprint there and it’s a place where I met many great individuals.  And even if it is a place where people could take over your workspace if you went on vacation for too long or someone could accidentally schedule a roller skating party in the middle of your art show, I am glad I got to work here.  Thanks CELLspace.

Some highlights:

• I get my key (1/21/08)
• 2011 Open Studios (10/3/11)
• 2010 Open Studios (10/20/2010)
• 2009 Open Studios (10/19/2011)
• I Christen the members studio (3/24/2011)
• NV Surly guest DJ’s (1/29/2011)
• Valencia to Vermont printing wraps (1/26/2010)
• I screen print my first postcards (2/25/2007)

T