By Bom.k

By Bom.k
Originally uploaded by vitostreet

Vitostreet is one of my newer contacts on Flickr. He lives in Paris and finds some of the most amazing street art to photograph, as can be seen in the photo here.

If you have a few minutes, go through his photos and explore a bit...

spencer and imler

Spencer and Imler

Lorica 6 diptych, photo assemblage, 15 x 30 inches

This morning I recieved an email from former studio-mates, Deborah Imler and Allen Spencer, announcing their new website. Deb and Allen shared my work space two years ago, but moved on to another space nearby that was more suited to their need for a cleaner, dust-free work area.

They work collaboratively on beautiful photo assemblages that are made up mainly of carefully cut and arranged pieces of 35mm photographs. The photo images start off as building facades, interiors, and other surfaces and re-imagined as geometric photo abstractions that allude to their sources but lead to other places altogether.

Spencer and Imler.com

new painting

Clusterchroma, 2008, acrylic on panel, 24" x 24"

One of a few new paintings I've been working on lately. The colors might be slightly more saturated in this photo, but not by much. I've been into playing around with more intense colors and patterns recently. This might be a reaction to some paintings I did last year where I used a lot of 'all over' light tones atop some richer colors, like Plume:

I liked how Plume and others like it turned out, but currently I'm more interested in pushing myself out of a certain color comfort zone I created for myself.

There might be more images posted later in the week.

No to boycott?

I agree with what Edward Winkleman has to say about the idea of boycotting the upcoming Olympics. Despite those who might think about the Olympics being ,"... one big festering boil of marketing, politics and kitsch...", as one respondent to Winklemans's post put it, taking away the opportunity for those athletes who want to compete and might not have another chance four years from now is incredibly short-sighted.

altered images

top: Burnout(sky), 2008, altered photocollage, 12" x 12"
bottom: ...and the sound goes BOOM!, 2008, altered photocollage, 10" x 23"

top: Infinite Boundary(detail), 2008, altered photocollage, 20" x 20"
bottom: Night Static, 2008, altered photocollage, 12" x 12"

A new, ongoing series of 'altered photos' I've been working on. I first mentioned them back here.

While working on these, I've had time to think about what personal photographs can mean for us in regards to how we self-identify; how parts of our identities and memories are reinforced by images of where we've been, what we looked like x years ago, who was in our lives, etc...

I've been literally erasing some photos (see above detail of Infinite Boundaries) and severely distorting others, like Night Static, also above. What has occurred to me through this process has been the physical and partial 'erasing' of a memory. The two photos that comprise Night Static are copies of one image that was taken in 2005 from the fire escape that sits outside of my studio window. It was a Saturday night and I was facing north, looking up 3rd Street. I was also trying to get a handle on taking night time photos with my old film camera. The shots wound up being very blurry and unusable to me at the time as photographs, so I stashed them away.

I only remember that because of having found the photos. If I hadn't, the memory of that particular instant on that particular night would have most been filed away into the deep recesses of my mind, most likely not to be found again. It wasn't an event that commanded a lot of attention or memory space, so to speak. So, if I had totally obliterated the image, would that even have even occured for me after a whlie? If I hadn't found the photo, would I even be thinking about it now? Probably not.

Now, with my personal history attached to it and my 'interventions' on them, the shots have begun to take on another life and history altogether in my mind. Who knows what kind of meanings and interpretations Night Static might have for other people viewing them.

wall rubbing

Surface Patterns, 2008, graphite on paper, 30" x 40"

I was in the mood for some 'direct' art interaction, so out came the graphite sticks and a big piece of paper tacked to the wall.

This is one of those 'happy accidents' that happen once in a while. It was going to look a lot different had I followed my original idea. The alternating darker stripes would have been partially covered by some looping 'netting' forms in paint or ink.

However, once I started rubbing the graphite onto the paper, I noticed how the imperfections of the wall, mainly paint spatters and lumps, created the surface texture you see here. So, instead of just filling in the alternate vertical stripes, I covered the entire paper.

Stepping back, I noticed the slight appearance of wrinkled fabric the drawing was taking on and wound up doing several smaller pieces similar to this, only without the patterns. Don't know what might happen with them, but we'll see.

The time needed for art

Place: looking out

Quoted from a post on wondercabinet:

"For the artist, any artist, poet, painter, musician, time in plenty and an abundance of ideas are the necessary basics of creativity. By dreaming and idleness and then by intense self-discipline does the artist live. The artists cannot perform between 9 and 6, 5 days a week, or if she sometimes does, she cannot guarantee to do so. Money culture hates that. It must know what it is getting, when it is getting it, and how much it will cost. The most tyrannical of patrons never demanded from their protogees what the market now demands of artists; if you can't sell your work regularly and quickly, you can either starve or do something else. The time that art needs, which may not be a long time, but which has to be its own time, is anathema to a money culture. Money confuses time with itself. That is part of its unreality."

- From Art Objects, Jeanette Winterson

A tough but true reality of today's art world. Time for ideas to develop is in especially short supply in the ever-quickening market-driven side of the art world.

One way around it is to opt out of the market side altogether, make what you want when you want to, work another job and make peace with that.

There is a middle ground there. A place where I suspect most of us creatives inhabit. We work jobs which don't take much from us creatively, keep fairly regular studio hours, might be lucky enough to work with a good gallerist or two, if we're lucky, manage to get grants when possible and do whatever we can to make sure that our art gets the time it needs to develop.

Attempting to keep up with the demands of the art market is deadly to the artist and to art: the artist burns out and winds up making things that don't satisfy them and the art isn't as strong as it could be. These conditions might push some to greater limits of creativity, but does good art result from the frenzy-inducing schedule of say, the fashion industry? No, I don't think so.

'Bikes' video

Video I just found on MySpace while browsing though and clearing out some 'friend' requests. It's not often that I find a good collision of two of my favorite past-times-music and cycling and this does it for me. The artist is Jamil Kayin and the music is from his self-produced cd titled, Days. I'm listening to some cuts from the cd on Jamil's MySpace page and enjoying my continuing aimless wanderings on the interwbs for the night...

Oddments, pt. 2

left-Oddment: Flats II, right-Oddment: Yellow Above



left-Oddments: Flats III, right-Oddments: Yellow Sill



left-Oddment: Trio, right: Oddment: Streaks


left-Oddment: Piletop, right- Oddment: Yellow Arrangement