Thoughts About Art From A Few Hours At The Osaka Art Museum

Thoughts about art from a few hours at the Osaka Art Museum

Art ideas - something above you that you can't reach. - collages of others' found objects from a particular time, place - something partially concealed/hard to see all of - elevate the everyday - make/modify the old: change its historical trajectory - make your own textures, scan, work w/ - found historical objects lying around (arrow heads, railroad spikes) ←recreate? I'm responding most to 3D works. I don't care about gratuitous penises in art. They're always awkward/gross. I wanna level up at art. I want to see what lies inside of me. I want to get that out. ← I'm thinking more and more about renting a studio at Water Street Studios and spending a few months there focusing on experimenting, making work.  11am, mid exhibition: I love art. I can't think of anything I love more at this moment. Does anything give me stronger, deeper feelings than this? I love what it gives us. 淀川テクニック's garbage pieces　amazing

I’m currently working on part of to my I Identify With project, this time asking participants what groups they feel they don’t identify with that they’ve been lumped into by others. My intent is to create a positive counterpoint to these external categorizations; I feel that showing the negative side of things will help highlight the positive. 

For more information visit the project site.

My friend Kari and I had photo shoot today near my house. These and a ton more of new (old) clothes are for sale on my Etsy shop, Mymyzayzay.

After spending June and July of 2012 taking hundreds of photographs throughout Chicago’s south side, I began to print and place those photos on the north side.  I determine the placement by Chicago’s systematic address system, thus an image of 3500 S. Halsted would be placed at 3500 N. Halsted and so on. I then take an image of the north side location and combine the two into a diptych. I learned so much about the south side by exploring it for this project. Though I can’t pretend to understand the lives of those who live on there, I understand now just how many misconceptions and assumptions I’d had about their neighborhoods before seeing things for myself. Warnings from roommates, friends, and the press had caused me to paint the south side as largely poor and dangerous. However, much of it proved to be, at least on the surface, perfectly safe. Middle class areas abounded and even poorer areas were never totally impoverished. Even amongst hardship, people seemed to be striving hard to keep their lives together and make things work.  I've always been unsettled by the idea that the majority of Chicagoans ignore and never experience the deep beauty, suffering, and humanity of the city’s south side. So, coming back to this project after two years in Japan, I'm excited to continue inserting the south side into the everyday lives of north siders.  To see other south side photos click here. 

Some bold paint and tape design I discovered at a boxing gym while on a walk yesterday in Kumamoto City. I love how it was applied to architecture, framing, and signage. I couldn't get enough of it.

A recent photo shoot with my friend Ian for my Etsy shop, MYMYZAYZAY