This American Knife

Sorry I have not been active.  You guys definitely make me wish I was active.  Here is my new movie trailer.  I don't know if you all saw it. I  think you should all be listening to Holiday Road by Lindsey Buckingham. It makes me feel like I'm doing so much even if I just sit here writing you all. It also reminds me of Chevy Chase.  I love you all.

in progress. (part twow.)

A View of the Boundary Between All Things from the Peak of Mount Traros Pondengara: A Compleat Map of the Discovered Universes, A Partial Chronology of the Artist, and a Spell for Self-Emanating Joy
2'2" x 2'6" pen, blood, and cyanoacrylate on craft paper


about another two weeks worth of work. may be speeding up. or i may be retarded.

photos by my room mate tara.

Lacma/ Machine Project

Two weekends ago the La County Museum of art (Lacma), (another place I’m lucky enough to work at) collaborated with Machine Project http://machineproject.net/, a small little LA gem of an art gallery/ community hub that supports alternative art media and projects. The day long event was called Field Guide.
Hundreds of artists, organizations, and volunteers contributed to the transformation and rethinking of the huge Lacma campus and its encyclopedic museum
collection. Musicians were planted in the elevators, galleries, hallways and the Serra pieces. Kinetic sculptures were put into conversation with paintings. A speed metal guitarist rocked out for a minute on the hour throughout the day, there was a murder mystery challenge with clues planted around the museum, ambient haircuts( artists would play guitars and synthesizers while hair stylists cut museum patrons hair free of charge), a walking pepper can man, a painting recreated in flowers, and a dance party to cheer up “the loneliest gallery” ( the contemporary photography gallery, which is tucked away into a corner of the museum that not much foot traffic goes through), in addition to hundreds of other interesting things that you can check out on machine projects website, or Lacma's blog http://lacma.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/qa-with-machine-projects-mark-allen/.
The project is yet another success for Michael Govan (director of Lacma, formally from Dia Art Foundation) and Charlotte Cotton, head curator of photography (formally from the Tate Modern). I’m consistently surprised by the exciting and intelligent choices they have made to update the museum and re-think the museum model in order to integrate it into the community and assert itself as a cultural power. It’s really neat to see as the museum changes and also the unique challenges and opportunities Los Angeles museums have.
So basically I’m saying..
COME TO VISIT LA!



Ambient haircuts!

Holly Veseky's flower recreation of Sam Francis' "toward dissapearance"

Botanical version on right, oil version on left

massages in a ceramic gallery.

Rocking out on the roof of the museum.

Bass player in Tony Smith's "Smoke".


Music in the Serra.

Pepper box man.

Sister Corita

I work at a place called the Corita Art Center http://corita.org/which is a small non profit gallery that oversees the work of Corita Kent, aka Sister Corita. Corita was a nun artist, most well known for her pop art images of the 1960s. She was regarded as figurehead for the reformation of the church and was even on the cover of Newsweek . Her prints subverted commercial imagery and slogans in order to speak about social, political, and religious issues. Some speculate that her Mary's day celebrations, which were big happenings at her college, Immaculate Heart, inspired parts of the summer of love in 1969. Immaculate Heart College hosted luminaries like Buckminster Fuller, Alfred Hitchcock and Ray and Charles Eames, and Corita was known for her demanding and unconventional teaching techniques.
In short, she was pretty damn awesome.
Corita lived in a community of radical nuns who all eventually decided to leave the order due to pressure from the conservative Los Angeles archdiocese, and now I get to work with some of them. These women were real rebels, despite their religious titles back in the day and they remain smart, interesting, and fiesty.
There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Corita's work, some of the most recent shows were at SF Moma, PS1 and lots or international museums and galleries that would take too much effort for me to spell correctly. Things are pretty busy.
It would have been Corita's 90th birthday this month( she died of cancer in the 80's) so this weekend we had a celebration and Aaron Rose, curato, write, art man extraodinare, and Director of Beautiful Losers http://www.beautifullosers.com/ , began interviewing members of the community who knew Corita. I'm really excited to see what comes of the footage and the exhibition Aaron is mounting in February!

Not really art, but awesome.

This weekend was early Thanksgiving at Thurmont. Below are the "family" pictures.

[american gothic]

[smiley]

[kooky spooky and chinese]

more coinage

Eat 'Em Up-Beat 'Em Up, Oil on Canvas, 24" x 20"

in progress

A View of the Boundary Between All Things from the Peak of Mount Traros Pondengara: A Compleat Map of the Discovered Universes, A Partial Chronology of the Artist, and a Spell for Self-Emanating Joy
2'2" x 2'6" pen on craft paper

it's been about three weeks of six to twelve hour nights. i'm a tenth done, maybe less.
see you in awhile.

UPDATE: the brown spots are krazy glue left over from working on a sculpture on the paper, previous to the drawing. it's what drew me to the specific sheet.

pictures care of zach. bad care of me.

Memories and the City: Yesterday's News

So I already did a post just talking about Dan's piece in the show, but I had mentioned here that I wanted to maybe talk about some other stuff in it and I never really went into detail at all about my pieces. So...


This is a detail shot of a section of the piece I was calling In Light of Current Events, but I think I'd rather call it Yesterday's News. Pithy titles aside, I just want to post some pictures of the pieces. In the floor part (the detail above) I used a variation of a technique I talked about earlier here, only instead of using paint to extract the images I poured plaster into a mold which I lined with newspaper. When the plaster dried, the newspaper stuck to it and after I demolded each piece I peeled off the paper and was left with images - so these are sort of like a transfer fresco. Anyways, the wall pieces are on cardboard, each section, comprised of 8"x8" squares is about 32"x64." The floor section is of roughly the same dimensions.

holy flippin flip

Two great things I discovered today:

For those who don't know, thats the legendary Ralph Stanley, who recently took on an even greater significance than usual because of his efforts to win over voters of southwest Virginia for Obama. Check this sweet radio ad:

also, you can see now why Obama won, with a brain trust like this...

Thanks to Richard for the heads up on the photo.

touch it

Dan pointed out to me that if you go to dibbledibble.blogspot.com, you find another blog, detailing the life of a young family that recently had their first child, but which can be kind of surreally funny when you're expecting to get this website. especially when the music comes in.

check it quickly. i'll wait.





ok, so in honor of that, I'm posting this recording which was made by happenstance, several weeks ago when my friend Robbie was in town and we were recording music over at Dani's house. enjoy.

play me loud

greetings citizens,

welcome to the new america!

here is a mix i made last night, i had to start over like five times so you should really take the time to download it, even if it takes half an hour, throw it on your itunes and turn it up really loud.

this one is mostly 4 x 4 and dubstep followed by a few old house jams from the crates.

i hope to be putting together mixtapes regularly, focusing on different genres and themes, if you clowns have any ideas please shoot them my way!

ps: our website, www.neonmonster.com, is now up and fully functional, so please pay it a visit and buy some shit. i will probably post a discount code on here soon for friends and family, cuz we love you so so much.

heres the mix, enjoy!!!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ckstdm

Some works on paper.

All are acrylic and ink on construction paper, 12"x18"


Also - RIP Miriam Makeba. This seems appropriate. Download it!

PENCIL

pencil by the gza, off the last album, pro tools.
there's no chorus and rza kills it kills it kills it for the last 2 minutes straight.
i am dumbfounded every time i hear this just following the logic of his flow, it's amazing so here's the lyrics too. i was only going to put rza's but that's not fair so here's the whole track.
i fixed what i found wrong, but lemme know if i missed somethin'

[GZA]
The echo chamber enhance the flow wit the block party
Keep an MC head spinning like Dark Bacardi
This B.A.C. is 2.3
Now the liver's damaged, but his lungs are joint free
So inhale, exhale, breathe and get well
Kick something live stop chirping like Nextel
I'm All In Together, a swordsman forever
I paint the town red, with many heads are severed
R-A-W, I still bring trouble to
Throw your raps in the sleephold, quick to snuggle you
Dart heat your breastplate, meet ya death date
Rook down a E4, look, it's checkmate
No other way to describe a catastrophe
The plan was drawing blood and displayed it graphically
Direct order, hit the border, then slaughter
Horrific torture, by prolific authors
Shape and mold MC's, like I'm playing the skelly top
It's getting 'hot in here' like the single that Nelly dropped
So take ya clothes off, the track is so soft
A little rock'll turn 'em into Ivan Koloff
Why do the Gods make MC's study from
Thirty five, and fifty year, then try to become
Under the study with the sword above the head
So he would keep in mind under the open pledge

[Masta Killa]
Fierce glisten, something so sharp
Piercing, swords cling, the vigilante intimate
Close combat, this is MC'ing at it's best
But there is no contest, sent I'm this
Speaking of a test, this and try to question this
He so different with the swiftness, godfather civilization
Shell casing, universal nation
Could he be the one predicted, presidential sent in
Old school soul to war us, be the growlest
Asiatic artic flow is so frigid

[RZA]
Is it, the Zig Zag, I'mma pay you a visit
Some may mistake me as an old wise wizard
World, I'm not the same
I go somewhere, don't remember how I came
Is it the weed, the hash or the 'caine?
Or the Digi being stained on my brain
Appear from a cloud of smoke, the voter's on choke
If surrounded, seven men drop from one stroke
Even if my feet was shackled down and one handcuffed
To defeat me, ten demons wouldn't be enough
I sleep in the lion's den, without the steel iron
Ascended like Wu, so coming down from Mt. Zion
Superlogical this, superlogical that
Digital, take it back with superlogical rap
Have a shootout, at midnight, the see who's quicker
Forty four colt jolt, all you seen was the flicker
You distressed like the damsal, lost like little hansel
A flame couldn't generate the heat of a candle
Me, I be a Killa Bee, keeping auxilery
Ol' play the desert e, shoot ten millime'
Faster than millipede, you try to end the sea
Your body being found in the neighbor yard artillery
A black blind governor, a rich white mayor
Man, this whole city ain't got a prayer
Bobby has invaded, now the whole town's slated
Your decapitated head is being took and out paraded
Up and down the avenue, I drive a shatterproof
Benz, and all my men's are tattle proof
My mic is a dyke, my life is a light
A Day to God is a Thousand Years, how long is a night?
You get trapped in my shadow of dark, hark, who goes there?
Power-U smells like carp, don't put your nose there
Drop you to a tank of sharks, your wound's bleeding
And it's been two weeks since they had their last feeding
Ain't nothing but bones, we grind into sand
And spread it out, over 20 acres of land
Some call me Steels, cuz it's hard to bend me
C-Cypher Pigs, can't apprehend me
In a no smoking zone, I smoke bones of hash
Niggas see me, then I disappear in the flash
Next time I'm spotted, I got the fatter wallet
Moving with a click that stick like dry porrage
Someone's been sitting in my chair, who goes there?
To sub zero cold, your words can't flow here
Glaciers of ice, plus layers of spice
Say your prayers at night, 'fore you touch that mic

blah blah blah blah

"blah blah blah blah," election coverage (newsprint) and acrylic on panel, 8"x10"

crazy architecture

check out where my painting was in "HEAVY Corner", the most recent exhibit at CAA curated by the lovely Kristin Calabrese.the gallery space is in the 2nd floor lounge. those stairs were fun with a 12ft painting above your head...
the painting is actually hung flush with the edge of the wall "transit", 9' x 12', oil on canvas
these were my other 8 pieces in the back room of the show. all oil on canvas and around 2ft max

IV and TRICK

The scans are the terrible. sorry.

the images are about a foot square, give or take.
pen on craft paper.

-eli.