Canus Sockinibblia

One of the last blog entries I posted before Natural Selection opened in Portland last fall was about some dessert plates I own with fictitious plants on them. Talking about those plates sparked a curiosity about the missing plate from my set, so I embarked on the journey to find it. I googled the name of the plates I did have, hoping that one of them would come up on eBay and I could find the one I didn't have, you follow?

To my surprise, my search revealed the source of the artwork itself--none other than Edward Lear! (I can't believe that Sigma neglected to credit the artist on these plates. Shame!) My literary childhood favorites included Lear's Owl and the Pussycat, so I was excited to discover that among his prolific output of verse, he did a series of drawings of fictional plant with silly botanical names. The image shown here is called "Manypeeplia upsidedownia"

I have long wanted to do an art show for an audience outside of an art gallery, and am now embarking on a new project for which I hope to find a new venue, such as a children's museum or a botanical garden (many of which are hosting foliage-friendly art shows as part of their living attractions) I decided to start on this body of work for the Wire we Here show and so here's my first offspring:

It's called "Canus Sockinibblia," a tribute to my dog's penchant for chewing the toes off of Christian's socks. I absolutely loved working on a purely silly piece that incorporated a lot of the things I learned from Natural Selection.

Wire we Here? is at the Museo Gallery on Whidbey Island, WA. Opening reception is First Saturday, March 7, 2009 from 5-7 pm. I will be also doing a gallery talk on Sunday at 11:30am at Museo.

lo-tech wi-fi

One of my favorite wire-inspired artists of all time is Arthur Ganson. I heard him talk at a SNAG Conference years ago, and still haven't stopped showing his movies to people. Click here to see his website, or here to hear his TED talk. But I highly recommend buying the dvd where you can see over three dozen of his amazing works over and over again.

Maira's Back!

The New York Times has run another of Maira Kalman's lovely illustrated journeys--this time it's a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. I'm especially fond of the part where she talks about how she'd love to visit MoMA with him, imagining how he'd react to artists like Frida Kahlo and Fred Sandback. Click here to see the entire article.

p.s. isn't the internet great???

Vik Muniz @ TED

About a month ago, I posted a video of the talk by Brazilian artist Vik Muniz was one of the suggested starting points for the artists included in the Wire we Here? show at Museo Gallery. Click here to watch it again, if only to get in the mood for the work I'm about to show you in a future blog posting. This also reminds me....I need to catch up on my TED Talks videos. I heard about Bill Gates' mosquito release stunt a few weeks ago, but I know there's a whole lot more that this amazing annual lecture series has to offer.

Learning Curve

One of the artists participating in the Wire we Here show is Robbie Cribbs, brother of KeKe. He made a sweet little piece for the show, where he first created music using wire, and then animated the wire drawings. This image is the Wire-rezonator, used to make the music. He recorded 30 minutes where he "bent, twisted, scraped, taped, pulled and so on." Then Cribbs harvested his favorite sound bytes, sampled them on his keyboard so he could start composing. Click here to see the movie.

Wire we here?

Hey beautiful people! The next batch of posts will revolve around a group show I was asked to participate in that was organized by KéKé Cribbs, an amazing glass artist from the Seattle area. It's called "Wire we Here?" and will be at the Museo Gallery next month. Here's the theme for the show, in Cribbs' own words:

"Wire we Here?" was created as a theme, inviting artists to use wire and mixed media in the spirit of Alexander Calder's Wire Circus, and using the TED talk by Vik Muniz as departure points of inspiration. In a direct reaction to a tightened art market which appears to be affecting creativity at it's very roots, "Wire we Here?" has challenged artists to use wire, mixed media, color and humor to revive a feeling of playfulness within the studio atmosphere.

Sounds right up my alley, eh? I am not only thrilled to be included in the roster of artists, but am taking the opportunity to embark on my next big body of work, which is so exciting. Stay tuned for details as I finish up my first piece this week.

tonight and this weekend

(click on either image to see them larger)

no comment.

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I keep meaning to note the recent passing of one of the pioneers of sound installation, Max Neuhaus. Noted for his interpretations of other more famous artists who favored sound and other atonalities over melody, like Stockhausen and Cage, he also had a fascinating body of solo work. I am particularly fond of the one where he installed penny whistles in a swimming pool. The audience couldn't hear the piece without physically being in the water themselves. Even more fascinating is that Neuhaus was actually asked to design a more humane and safer set of sounds for emergency vehicles, based on his understanding of aural technology and psychology. Click here to read his NYT obit.

Minister of Arts and Culture

There's been some murmurs in the art community about whether Portland Mayor Sam Adams would actually walk his talk about Creative Capacity and other issues we heard plenty about when he was a mere Commissioner. Recently, Adams appointed Jennifer Yocom as City Hall's new "Arts Policy Director." Despite the fact that there's nothing in the city budget to support her efforts yet, this is a great step forward for Portland. (...and probably not too bad a move to get the art community behind him in the next four months because we're a chatty bunch.) Click here to read the Oregonian interview with Yocom.

more ice art....

Although we still had snowflakes on Portland's valley floor as late as yesterday, I see those colorful bulbs and buds sneaking up on us.....gotta get these chilly blog entries out of my system in the next 35 days, so here goes.....Look at University of Wisconsin art student Hongtao Zhou's project: "Ice & Snow Furniture Raised From Lake Mendota." Syas Zhou: "They connect the lake, the land, the air and the people and complete a life cycle with minimum environmental impact."




Thanks to Tom Loeser for the link, via Core 77 and designboom.
for more info contact: lifeisfurniture@gmail.com

somebunny loves you!

More work from the brain of Belgian designer Frank Tjepkema, who made the artificial grass I posted last week. This brooch is constructed with the word love, written in all the possible ways there are to say 'I love you.'


If this is a day that instills bitterness in you, this next piece, also by Tjepkema, might be more appropriate. Using the titanium hammer, the heart is meant to be cracked. A layer of rubber, hidden inside the porcelain heart, keeps the shape intact, even after the heart is broken. (But here's the real heartbreaker: this piece will set you back $2640! Available at Moss.)

Am I Blue? Hell yeah!

Hey Beautiful Portlanders! Did you know that it's time for the 2009 Portland Jazz Festival and this year, it's a special celebration. In honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, this year’s festival features a kaleidoscopic look at current, past Blue Note artists and an extensive overview of the label’s influence in the evolution of American music—through live music, as well as visual exhibitions of albums, documentary films, panel discussions, and intimate conversations with jazz giants, insiders and operators, and historians and critics.

This weekend, there's an intriguing talk about the artistic side of this seminal label. Jazz writer-artist Tim DuRoche will moderate a discussion on the signature graphic design of Blue Note Records. Featuring Blue Note Records’ Grammy-winning producer and archivist Michael Cuscuna; author Ashley Kahn, author of the forthcoming history of the label, Somethin’ Else, typographer/designer Adam McIsaac of Pinch, and LA Times/Santa Barbara Independent jazz critic Josef Woodard.

The panel time-travels from the label’s beginnings in the late 1930s to its heyday at the midcentury mark—with special attention paid to the work of designer Reid Miles. Miles’ 1950s-1960s seminal designs (a profoundly influential blend of modernist type and moody photography) established the label’s trademark connections between sight, sound and sensual cool and elevated the Blue Note album cover to the level of urbane object of desire, a signifier of hip.

Somethin' Else:
The Graphic Design of Blue Note RecordsSunday, February 15
12:00 pm
Free admission
Brunish Hall
Portland Center for the Performing Arts (1111 SW Broadway)

Happy 200th Birthday, Mr. Darwin!

....and since it's also the 150th anniversary of his "Origin of Species," there's been so much great media coverage lately. Click here and here, here and here, but after being a bit shocked at the plethora of proselytizing billboards I saw over my holiday road trip, I decided that this tidbit from the Associated Press requires the full Bunny with an Artblog treatment:

Secularist group buying billboards to honor Darwin

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A secularist group is observing the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin with billboards that urge people to "Evolve Beyond Belief." The Freedom From Religion Foundation placed "Praise Darwin" billboards in Grand Junction; Dayton, Tenn.; Dover, Pa.; and Whitehall, Ohio. They feature stained-glass designs and a picture of the evolutionary theorist born on Feb. 12, 1809. The Tennessee and Pennsylvania towns had landmark court cases about the teaching of evolution. In Grand Junction, the foundation has complained about prayers in county meetings. The organization has battled Whitehall over nativity displays. The Wisconsin-based foundation is made up of agnostics and atheists opposed to government displays of religion.

tertium non data

Mike Holmes turned me onto this fascinating work by Gulnur Ozdaglar Guvenc when I was still down in S.F. and I keep meaning to show you, dear reader... It reminds me of a great piece I saw years ago by Portland artist Brad Adkins. Guvenc is able to push her forms one step further using the same materials, but more techniques.

Guvenc explains that the forms are created from used PET (plastic) bottles, a soldering gun, and an alcohol burner. (I hope she wears a respirator!!) She pierces the holes one by one until these gorgeous forms are achieved, creating everything from functional bowls and lamps to jewelry.




tertium non data translated from latin means: the third is not given. it is an alchemic term which refers to the process of combining two disparate elements to create a new, third element. the process of transformation is a mystery - an unknown...

Click here to read her blog


Click here to purchase her work online.

(and click any of the images to see them larger, especially this last one!!)

Art on Alberta is looking for some art angels!

Hello beautiful People!

When I'm not blogging, my other community service act is serving as President of Art on Alberta You may recall I mentioned it recently when we were mentioned in an article about this neighborhood in the New York Times. I would like to invite you dear readers to help support our work for the arts community on Alberta Street. We are an all-volunteer organization who serves the Alberta Arts District in Northeast Portland, OR. Our big annual event is coming up on May 16th--Art Hop. This year we are featuring the work of Thelma Johnson Streat, the first African American artist to be collected by the Museum of Modern Art. Ms. Streat went to Pacific Northwest College of Art when it was affiliated with the Portland Art Museum, and her family still lives in the area. Art on Alberta has an amazing opportunity to show over 50 of her original works from the private collection of the Johnson family at this year's Art Hop. In order to pay for this event we have applied for many grants. We got all but one which puts us a little behind the mark.


Here is where you can help. Become a member of Art on Alberta. There are 3 membership levels to fit all budgets. The most affordable is to become a Friend of Art on Alberta, it’s just $20. At this level, you become eligible to have a show in our gallery during the Last Thursday art walk. (Please make a note of it on the member application.) We also have an electronic newsletter that is published quarterly, and you can be on the list to learn exactly what we've been up to.

If you own a business, you might consider becoming a Business Member. Business members get to have a link to their website from ours, which gets hundreds of hits each month, especially during the summer season. You also get the opportunity to list an art related event on our monthly Last Thursday art map that is distributed online and up and down Alberta Street. This member level is $50.

If you’re feeling super blessed and generous, why not become a Community Builder. You will receive special recognition on our website along with all the aforementioned goodies, plus you get to feel really really good about yourself for helping a local non-profit art organization. All this for a mere $100.

Membership forms are available by clicking here. I am hoping that in the next few days we will have a Paypal account so memberships can easily be handled online, but that's still in the works. (Did I mention this is an all-volunteer organization?) I will link it here when it's available. Don’t forget, your membership dues are tax-deductible!

If you'd like to see what you're getting into before plunking down your hard-earned cash, we're having our annual meeting in a few weeks if you are in the Portland Area. Details below.....(click on it to make it larger!)

oooh that smell!

This interesting article from the New York Times about the smell of fenugreek wafting through the city inspired me to complete a blog entry I started almost a month ago. It was initiated by an interview I heard on NPR's Talk of the Nation about pheromones, and subsequently reading a New Yorker book review on The Art Instinct by Denis Dutton. The thesis of his book: "why did no art form develop to exploit smell, as music does hearing?"

I immediately recalled the most odorific show I ever saw, when PICA brought artist William Pope.L to town and his hot dog map of the United States became a more, shall I say, moving exhibition by the end of its 8+ week run. It was an awe-inspring and effective way for him to convey messages about race relations in America, but I felt sorry for the poor folks working at the front desk not too far away.

I guess Dutton is still correct in that there is no "movement," per se, that centers around smell, but I did a quick Google search of the phrase "art smell" came up with one interesting result.

Sissel Tolaas is apparently known as "the world's preeminent odor artist," according to an article in Wired Magazine. This dutch artist has graduate degrees in chemistry, art, and language, plus an undergraduate degree in math. Her show the FEAR of Smell — the Smell of FEAR at MIT's List Visual Arts Center took collected sweat from men when they were in situations that evoked fear, and created a special paint that microencapsullated the scent molecules. When visitors touched the exhibit walls, microscopic capsules broke, releasing scents into the air. To read more about this show and Tolaas' work, click here.

love by bike

Hey Beautiful People! If you're in the Portland area, don't miss this amazing deal on a heartfelt courier to deliver the message of LOVE to the valentine of your choice. At this price, you don't need to limit yourself to anyone you're...ahem...intimate with. Not to mention, you're supporting a great local cause: Siren Nation. For $5, (I told you it was amazing!) you can send your sweetie a special card designed by local artist Rebel Cricket, along with vegan chocolates! On February 12, 13, and 14th, the Siren Nation cupids will take Portland by storm on their bikes delivering these valentines.

The deadline for ordering valentines is February 7th, by 3 pm, so don't delay! Click here to order online via their secure Paypal account, or go to any of these order stations around town:

In Other Words Bookstore (8 B NE Killingsworth St)
North Portland Bikeworks (3951 N. Mississippi Ave.)
Community Cycling Center (1700 NE Alberta St.)
Veloshop (211 SW 9th Ave)

how green is your grass?

Artificial plant by Frank Tjepkema. The leaves are arranged on a thin rubber mat, so one can change the shape at will. (This piece is part of the permanent collection of the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.)