Curating the Burning Man Show...

I've alluded to this a few times here, and activities around making this show happen at the SRJC are really ramping up.

Bringing Back the Fire:
Art & Community at
Burning Man & Beyond
... will open February 21/22 at the new JC Gallery.

It's been... alternately exciting, challenging, frustrating, and exciting. So many things I would do differently if I had known then what I know now... but I know the fun part is coming up!!

Now the show has it's own blog!
(photo above, steve fritz: Celtic Forest by Laura Kimpton & Co.)

more at last-- from Stephen Niccolls

Ever since I received the card for his latest show (Five Painters Painting, at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York)-- I've been looking forward to seeing images from the show.

Here's one of Stephen's paintings-- see his blog for more, and click here for installation shots of the show.

in keeping with our 'mission statement'

...I bring you studio views. Unfortunately, not mine, these are some shots I found via flickr (I will probably be the last artist to figure out how to work flickr, more on that later) from the studio of Scott Waterman. He appears to be SF or Bay Area based.

You can see why I like them.

Your Life in Typography

Once again, found via D. Sharp Journal. From the Typophile Film Festival.

more ... smalls

Yes, here are more of these small pieces I'm doing, in part to keep things going through a very short-attention-span time of year.

Art Fairs: Miami

Perhaps you've heard of the explosion in the popularity of Art Fairs.
You go to one city, and art from galleries all over the world has been brought to that one place (for one week). First there were a few big fairs, and then smaller fairs sprang up in the same cities at the same time-- alternative fairs. Now, in Miami, 24 fairs go on at once. Art is shown in hotel rooms, shipping containers, under circus tents, in convention centers, and even in shower stalls.
I was once at the fair in SF, once at one in NY. But most of what I know about their current popularity, I know from Joanne Mattera's Blog, from whence these photos come. Go on over there for her full report.
She goes to Miami-- so you don't have to!

(and keep scrolling-- it goes on for quite a while)

Art...what is it again?

via SFGirlbybay.

"Headgames" Heads Out

...to a museum showing in Santa Cruz!
(click to enlarge a little; original painting 8 feet by 12 feet, and includes a spinning wheel at bottom, not attached here. phot: Don Jackson)

In 2005, after having attended Burning Man for 4 years, Tony decided it was time to become a fully participating artist. A local group called Easel Park, at that same time, came up with a plan to bring a gallery of huge paintings on huge easels out into the desert. The 'theme' for Burning Man that year was Psyche, and the painting we now call Headgames was born. Covered with hundreds of drawings (representing thoughts? memories? the unconscious?) beneath the outlines of a phrenology chart, it was a collaborative process (mostly the two of us, but with some drawing contributions from the amazing Chris Hataway's sketchbooks, our friends Michael, Claire, and more) and the genesis of the working method that would lead to the following years much larger piece.

Anyhoo, because of the 'Art of Burning Man' exhibition I alluded to earlier, I've been in touch with a curator at the Santa Cruz Museum, working on a similarly-themed show, and now this painting will be appearing there. So, yesterday found us on a 6-hour round trip drive (on a beautiful day!) to deliver this to their lovely facilities.

(update: it was unclear how it would get hung when we left there-- a 12 tall painting in a space with exactly 12 foot wall height, and no room to pivot the assembled pieces into place-- but we've since had confirmation that they were able to manage it, and that it looks great, so we look forward to seeing it installed when we go down for the opening next Friday)

M. Lowe Show

If you should find yourself in Berkeley over this holiday season-- up in the North Shattuck vicinity of Chez Panisse--
I have a small selection of large paintings on view at the very fine jewelry store, M.Lowe & Company. The space is newly redesigned, with a more open, elegant feeling & these four paintings, along with a couple of small pieces are on display there. I'll have to get back there with a camera to shoot the installation one day. (two large tree paintings, seen here during Open Studios).

After dropping off the work on Friday, we were off to SF to a fundraiser for the Flaming Lotus Girls. This Burning Man troupe makes the most amazing fire-sculpture installations. We're trying to get them to display some pieces at the upcoming 'Art of Burning Man' themed show that I'm curating for the junior college where I teach. I haven't really mentioned that show here, yet, but it's something that I've been spending a lot of time with, and I'll be giving you a full report soon!
This piece is called "Angel of the Apocalypse" and represents a huge bird emering from the floor. The remote-controlled robotic spheres-- called collectively 'swarm,'-- are something else, and were fascinating to watch. Below is the 'Angel' in action in 2005 (photo by Tom Pedergast)