34-7th Street, the former home of renowned cocktail lounge Mr. Smith’s.

I will be showcasing Music For Hard Times at Roar Shack Live!, an experimental performance series located at 34-7th Street, the former home of the renowned cocktail lounge Mr. Smith’s (still retaining its cozy charm). This ten-part series, a collaboration between The Living Earth Show and Market Street Arts, will debut with our audiovisual love letter to San Francisco.

Music For Hard Times is composer Danny Clay’s ambient music masterpiece, commissioned and performed live by The Living Earth Show, an SF-based electric guitar and percussion chamber ensemble. Originally conceived as a pandemic-era exploration into musical healing through a unique composing strategy, the project has since evolved into a film and now a multichannel immersive experience. The intimate setting of this venue will enhance the connection between visual art and music.

Dates 

Thursday September 19, 2024

Friday September 20, 2024

Venue: 34 7th St, San Francisco

Tickets: link here

A limited edition box set was released at the 2024 SF Art Book Fair! Lauren Hartman and I presented an hourlong talk alongside the release of our atlas zine that documents the essential watersheds that drain into the SF-San Pablo Bay system. First printing of eighty.

The Forty Creeks Project is a limited edition box set of art objects based on these creeks. It’s a staggeringly complex and beautiful series of urban waterways, lush mountain creeks, salt ponds, and everything in between. (Also: honestly a lot of mud/looking at you South Bay.)

As a May-July 2024 Artist in Residence at Aviário Studio in Ferreira do Zêzere, Portugal, I focused on researching and experimenting with screen printing on ceramic tiles. Over the course of my residency, I developed techniques that resulted in a 100-meter-long permanent installation along the exterior wall of the studio. Using more than 500 hand-printed tiles, I created a series of pieces that explore various tones, patterns, and geometric designs.

Corita Kent | “good For you #2” and “Only You and I Can Help the Sun to Rise Each Morning” | screenprint on paper | 1984

I presented a screenprint workshop at U.C. Santa Cruz in conjunction with Corita: A Sign of Hope, a visual art exhibition showcasing the work of Corita Kent. Kent, a prolific screenprint artist active during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, was often overlooked due to her identity as both a woman and a nun. Today, she is increasingly recognized for her contributions to pop art and social justice. The exhibition, curated by Ziggy Rendler Bregman, opened on April 1 at the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery at UCSC’s Cowell College and closed in May.

During the workshop, students and participants used multiple hands-on silkscreen stations to learn the process and create their own compositions in conversation with Corita’s work. Using staple guns and pliers, participants stretched their finished pieces on stretcher bars, creating their own mini artworks. Satisfying!

Class of 2024 poster (L) and “Benefit to the Acdemy” zine (R) | color laser prints

My second annual faculty zine documents the early history of the Academy using archival material. Documenting the decades of doom, gloom, and all out war was my way of processing/contextualizing the current state of disarray at the school. For example, roughly four percent of merchant mariners who served in World War 2 were killed, a higher casualty rate than that of any of the American military services, and a staggering 733 Merchant Marine ships were sunk.

Also I continued my tradition of making a special edition poster for my senior class, students I’ve worked with for four years.

Music For Hard Times Books 1 & 2 will be performed in their entirety at a classical music show in Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center in NYC. I have been commissioned to mount a live immersive visual program for the entire 17-part performance. Featuring Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School Choir conducted by Valérie Sainte-Agathe.

Date Thursday Feb 8, 2024

Venue: Kaufman Center, NYC

Tickets: link here

Music For Hard Times was created by Living Earth Show, an SF-based electric guitar and percussion chamber ensemble, to answer a fundamental question: “Is it possible for us to use the tools of classical art music to make people feel better?” The work was composed by Danny Clay and this show will feature a completely new instrumentation for a live performance.

I’m excited to announce that paperback copies of my book project from my summer artist residency in Crete have arrived from the printers!  “An Interesting Voyage to Near Europe’s Southermost Point” is an illustrated atlas-travelogue-artistic quest I made over the course of a month in summer 2023.  I decided produce commercially printed copies of the original hand sewed hardcover book. I worked to mimic the feel and variety of the original pages and it came out ????????. I’m so pleased. All the original pages were made on the road using typewriter, office/postal supplies, and pen & ink. Leaf prints from tentpole species are featured throughout.!Limited number of copies available.Special thanks to the individuals who helped me along the way and @mudhouseart .

Original edition of 25 | 116 page full color book | 5.5 x 8.5 inches | 2023

Thank You——————-