Picked RAW Peeled: University Heights Arts Open

by Angela Babb Timmons

I had been staring at a blank page for weeks, cursing the paper and typewriter keys – where are the words, where are the words, I kept asking. The infinite white space scared me. I had convinced myself that I needed a concrete direction or at least the smallest grain of a story before I could allow myself to type a single word. I was so afraid of the empty page that I actually stopped writing and decided I would just wait for the muse to find me.

Several days passed and I soon realized the muse never comes knocking; she doesn’t even tap lightly. The muse prefers to be courted, flirted with, seduced. She’s a prissy little thing and she was not interested in the likes of me.

It was Sunday and the University Heights Arts Open was happening. I decided if I couldn’t make art, I would at least go out and observe it. As I walked out the front door, I paused for a moment and asked the muse for the smallest of favors – please teach me something.

LONDON 2011 - PART ONE

My London Trip is Sept 15 to Oct 31, 2011 and I am sharing my art adventures this year on the A* Art Blog. This covers Sept 15 to Sept 26.

This is the beginning of my exploration of the London Design Festival 2011 and there are 200 participants and over 280 events in 25 different design areas. I have plans to go to about a dozen of them as it is quite overwhelming but fascinating. Evidently this is the largest design festival in the world. Hold on to your hats as what follows is just the first day.
 

I started with a lecture by Murray Moss at V&A about digital 3-D printing and examples are scattered through out the Victoria and Albert Museum so it was like a scavenger hunt to see them all, but brilliant and he is one cool old dude. He curated this collection from existing and commissions works and each is set for a reason in its space. It reminds me of what Ruben Ortiz-Torres says he is doing for the Long Beach Museum for Pacific Standard Time. By juxtaposing art works, you provoke new meaning on both. Displaying works of art in a relationships which are not time lined or regional but has to do with the influences is more historical but Moss envisions museums that could be science oriented one day and economic the next. . Moss was very interested in the way that nature can be mathamatised and how that could teach us things about structure in design. New architecture is not so much a referral to older styles (the variation on the box) but wide open to new materials construction in brand new ways. Some of the objects on view could not have been any other way but by 3-D printing.

Picked HONNA: Decade and a Day Ago

by Keikichi Honna

Because of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 there was nothing to watch other than tribute programs. So I was watching cinemas and somehow ended up with cinemas of angry teenagers. Kristen Stewart showed her usual fuck-you-I-don't-give-a-shit attitude. I don't dislike her. On the contrary, I rather like her, but she's so one trick pony that I call her the Kevin Spacy of teenage anguish. (has he ever played any character except an arrogant ass with "I'm smarter than you" attitude?) Anyway, on one scene, she was walking on a bridge, which looked awfully familiar. Indeed it was a bridge on Olentangy River under I-71. I could even see familiar buildings afar. Which brought me back to some memories on that fateful day.

When I saw the second plane hit another tower, I knew it was deliberate. But I was so shocked that it was much later to realize that we had to abandon our plan. We - I and Wiley, had started talking about another Pearl Harbor just a few weeks prior. Well, not exactly another Pearl Harbor attack we were planning, but some event/installation on Dec 7th, which would have been called "Food Fight." Wiley, as an American, would represent allies - allies of wheat, beef, and ketchup. and I, as a Japanese, represent axis - axis of rice, fish, and soy. I might have needed assistance of fermented beverage on "event" part, but I had been fermenting some idea for installation.

Our humble plan was postponed indefinitely, and Wiley exiled to an appendix of Europe. (No, not Italy)

Other angry teens I saw: Tracy Fragment: Admirable acting of Ellen Page made otherwise almost cinematic disaster watchable.  She was bullied, teased, and even called "no tits." No tits!  Had she gone to Columbine, I wouldn't have accused her. Wendy and Lucy: Michelle Williams' presence was sooo real and her troubles were sooo real in this non-drama drama. During the movie I was afraid that something worse would happen on top of all the trouble she'd already had. I wish I could give her hug or cash, or both.

You Saw Art Where? The Dark

by Andrew Printer

One day last week I sat down to gather my pile of promotional material and my thoughts in order to write my weekly arts column when all of a sudden my fan stopped fanning and my computer went kaput. “Perfect!”  I bemoaned and started bitching about the humidity, my puny bedroom air-conditioner (which presumably caused the outage) and my absent boyfriend who typically deals with anything electrical.  When I finally accepted the fact that said boyfriend was in San Francisco I went outside to take care of the problem myself only to realize that it was not a circuit of my house that had blown but the circuit for all of southern California and northern Baja. 

As neighbors flocked to the street to find comfort in numbers I dug into my earthquake preparedness kit (formerly known as the Y2K kit), found my wind-up solar radio (impressive, right?) and learned from LaDona at KoGo of all stations that the power outage could last for hours, perhaps even days. This was my first thought: “But tonight’s Big Brother eviction night! How can this happen?” Subsequent thoughts went like this: “I better find a flashlight because it’s going to get dark soon” and “I should cook things in the fridge that might spoil”, this followed by a whole lot of media fueled alarmism involving looters and terrorism, fear and mayhem.

Daily Art Nag: Richard Hamilton RIP

from the Guardian and Jonathan Jones

Richard Hamilton, the original pop artist, dies at 89
Driven by intellect and political belief, Hamilton created undying icons of the modern world

Richard Hamilton, the most influential British artist of the 20th century, has died aged 89.  In his long, productive life he created the most important and enduring works of any British modern painter.

This may sound a surprising claim. We have our national icons and our pop celebrities. But neither Francis Bacon nor Lucian Freud nor Damien Hirst has shaped modern art as Hamilton did when he put a lolly with the word POP on it in the hand of a muscleman in his 1956 collage, Just What is it that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?

Hamilton has a serious claim to be the inventor of pop art: this collage is a visionary, yet ironic, manifesto for a new art that would be at home in the modern world. For him, in a postwar Britain of austerity measures, pop was a utopian ideal. Big, fast cars were the metal angels of a smooth, beautiful future.

Read more

Daily Art Nag: Jonathan Hobin

thanks to Fabian D'hondt for the link

Jonathan Hobin

Lois Stecker Leaves a Huge Hole in Our Lives

Our own sweet Lois Stecker died this month and she will be so missed. We know she is resting in peace after a fall and short illness. Born in 1919 she was at every event and intrepid to the very end. This is a very sad passing for the SD Visual Arts world.

Picked RAW: "Decade" - Marilyn Mitchell at the Garage

from the press release

Detail from “American”

DECADE
works considering our culture since the events of 9/11

@ The Garage Gallery
9/3/11 – 9/30/11

4141 Alabama St.
San Diego, CA 92104
By appointment - please call Larry Caveney @ 619.549.9687

Twin Towers

Picked HONNA: Power of K

by Keikichi Honna

Kim Kardashian married.  That's old news.  My guess is that I have to suffer mass media's Kim K over saturation, at least for next 1 year or 2.  I can see koming headlines of tabloids at grocery stores.

Kim K Wedding!
Kim K Honeymoon!
Kim K Pregnant!
Kim K First Baby!
Kim K divorce!

A white guy being her husband is a kind of surprise.  But his name is Kris.  Maybe that's the sole reason she married him.  (her sisters - Kloe, Kourtney, Kendal, and Kylie.  Her mom is also Kris)
 
I didn't know K's attraktion was this strong.  But this klan is a disgrace of a whole kongregation of K's.

Drink, Mate, Art

by Patricia Frischer

I am sure everyone has noticed how well attended the events aimed at the younger demographic group are when art is added to the entertainment. TNT at MCASD, Cocktails and Culture at SDMA, A-List at the Athenaeum and Art After Dark at the Oceanside Museum of Art, as well as the numerous vodka companies that hold launches at art gallery, are all opportunities for young adults to mix and mingle.

The really big question is how do we get that same audience to start buying art after they have attended an art show to eat, drink and mate? Suggesting education might be too big of a leap for those addled by alcohol. But the idea is to get them to start looking more closely at the art to develop some sort of choices that might lead to a desire to acquire. Here are two strategies to consider:

• Roll playing: Hand out oodles of fake money and ask the guests to make choices about what art they would buy. A case of vodka goes to anyone who brings out the real thing and makes a purchase.
• Match Making: ask couples to choose art for each other. This would entailed some work in figuring out the what and why. A bottle of vodka goes to the artist whose work is most chosen.

We need every trick in the book to build a healthier art world and that means where events are not only well attended but artists are supported hopefully in a monetary way.

Read another view on this subject from Kevin Freitas

Picked RAW: Adaptable Sites at the Periscope Project

Picked HONNA: Peace on Earth

by Keikichi Honna

I was enjoying reading a book I bought a few weeks back. Silence of a hot summer afternoon was suddenly broken by 3, 4, maybe 5 police cruisers.

Momentarily put the book aside, and eyed on outside. The cruisers were gone, but after a few minutes or so a police helicopter flew in with a loud speaker. Circling around over my place, and called residents' attention. "... a Hispanic male, wearing a white T-shirt and black pants..." Such a precise and exact description - it could be anybody, and everybody. We the inmates burst in laugh "Every Hispanic male wears white T and black pants!" All the resident enjoyed quiet afternoon since there was no one in white T and black pants on the street.

I finished the book. Another peaceful day.

Picked Raw Peeled July: La Jolla Fashion Film Festival

La Jolla Fashion Film Festival by Patricia Frischer

The Fashion Film Festival held for its second year in La Jolla in July 2011 is the brainchild of Fred Sweet who also owns SD Model Management and is a fashion entrepreneur. He certainly should be given credit for recognizing this new genre of film which is still in the birthing process. There was soft porn without any real eroticism. It appears models don’t mind baring breast for art’s sake. There was narrative in the form of film noire, one line jokes, and even poetry. Sometimes we simply saw the kaleidoscope of images which thrills as a psychedelic color fest. At its lowest, some films were self indulgent and corny, but there were a number of highs.

Although none of the films we viewed were blatantly commercial, product placement was certainly apparent. Costume design in traditional theater and cinema gives credit to fashion designers. And in almost all cinema and TV, product placement is riff, working its insidious way into the plot. The best of these films started with a plot and the worst seemed to be looking for one.

One of my dear friends GB Feld is a film critic in Los Angeles. I always remember his criteria for judging film” Did the film have something to say? Did the film maker say it well? Was it worth saying? Too many of these films used Art to create the lie of fashion desirability as the only subject of the film thus begging the question, was it worth saying.

This was a wonderful opportunity for directors from all over the world to meet and exchange ideas. Hearing some of the speak about the delights of being in La Jolla and getting this attention for their efforts was very heartening.

 

 

My top 4 picks from about 40 films:

Move by Dominique Palombo - sheer beauty of movement and rhythm

In Search of Light by Miguel Angel – an artist struggling for his vision and the best use of fashion as a subject equally weighted with the performers.

To the Top by Heidi Hartwig – a model’s revenge

Precious by Monica Menez – pizza as a tool of subversion

Picked HONNA: My Precious

by Keikichi Honna

For house inspection required to refinance, my land lord asked us inmates to clean up entire house. This once in a life time effort brought some interesting find.

A pair of metal thingys I bought at a flea Market in Paris 5 or 6 years ago. Some sort of molds made of iron came along with softer metal female molds. The seller had 5 or 6 more of them - much larger, but I couldn't afford. I had no idea what they were for, nor could I understand what she was explaining about them. They were just beautiful and precious looking metal thing, I had to buy.
Do anyone know what is this?

The inspection was over without any incident, and a thank you note was left by the landlord. Our house is still in good shape.