Slowly but not so surely all the time

So here are some things. Some of them are a little on the old side.

This is a drawing I had in both the MirrOrrM show and the Fat City Wildcat II launch (both at the White House).

And this is a print that I made that was in the Fat City Wildcat II launch as well as Milk Thistle at Function 13.

Drawing for 'I Like What I Know' at the White House, curated by Lyndsey Cope.

Here is a picture of my painting from 99 Red Balloons at Canteen Gallery in Ottawa (see if you can spot mine).

Side note: Canteen is unfortunately closing its doors. Inaas, the owner, is going to keep pursuing artistic projects, but is giving up the Gallery/Store space. I'm sorry to hear that! You were a great addition to the marketplace art community and you will be missed!

Ok last but not least: here are some images of my piece for Ghost Hole II.
I made a print on japanese paper and then kind of dyed them and tore them up and made a little shrine around this cow skull that my friend Richard gave me (a hand - me - down from his old roomate and our mutual friend Michelle, who was going to use it for a photo project but instead decided to go teach english in Thailand).

Here's the drawing:

Here's the Skull:

Oh and here's some images of the installation. One with flash, the others without.

The last one is me. I asked Brandon to take a photo of me next to my art, but instead he just took a photo of me in front of it. Nice job, jerk.

I have spent the past few hours editing a new print, very similar to the one for Ghost Hole, on photoshop and it feels like my brain is bleeding. Or maybe I just think that's what is happening to my brain because that is what looks like what is happening in part of the drawing. And do you know what? I spend most of these hours (its around like 4 or 5 now) without listening to any music.

Today my prof was talking about art brut and how it was a term originally used to describe art created by mental patients. Then we watched a movie about a paranoid schizophrenic man who was from the UK but moved to New York to be a painter on the streets (not like live on the street but just take a easel out to the sidewalk and paint things). One of the experts, who was a former curator at MOMA (do you like how I don't remember ANYONE'S name?) talks about how outsider art often does not evolve because the works mostly have a similar repetitive quality to them that helps the artist sort of retain their sanity, like the repetitiveness is something calming to hold onto in the the midst of their madness. So I started thinking about the kind of art I make, and the kind of art many many people I know make and I pretty much concluded that we're all nuts.

Also, is it wrong that I really didn't like this guy's art? It had some qualities that I could appreciate for sure, and since he is 'self taught' and all (but I would argue that no one is really self taught/an outsider blabla) but on the whole I was all like this is not something that I like to look at all that much. Is that incredibly insensitive or not PC or something? Sometimes I just want to be a formalist about things and be all like 'I don't think the way that thing looks is good and that is that.'

I had a thought during my insane photoshop hours today that I would like it very much if artist statements were sometimes just a series of adjectives. Not for everyone, but for some people I think that would suit their work very nicely.

Here are the ones I came up with for my drawing today:
-gross, slimy, hairy, sharp, cold, stoney, moist, warm (it can be both things), silly, hard, squishy, slithery, tight, loose, soft, twisty.

I don't think this is coming out quite like I want it to, but its a nice idea and I will get better at this. Sometimes I just don't like writing out a full sentence, and I'm sure plenty of people feel the same way.

I'll post the print when its finished. Also, things are looking up since the last time I posted. I just get frustrated and discouraged and I think I am my own worst enemy most of the time. Which is just silly, because I have to live with myself until I die and I can't keep doing that forever.

XO