desktop glance

The Life of Mahomet

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

next to my computer i keep three books. it's not because i have to refer to them often, but just because i like them. i wish more of the world treated all objects as if they contained inherent value; it is a little more transparent in the case of a book but all objects are repositories of memory (and thus, cultural value). Sure, this is a craftsman's point of view. Chicken or the egg? Maybe I became a craftsman because this is so.

Pigeon Wings

I'll bury the photo I'm really here to post under a bunch of text; it's not for the faint of heart. Meanwhile, here's the latest info on Pandora's Trunk. It's going to be a real beaut of a show.

All of the details are falling into place for Pandora’s February 3rd show! Our fashion line-up includes everything from a little neat to a lot of weird, and we are cramming artists in the door faster than you can say ‘free booze’! The home team (http://mediumreality.com) will be bringing you two fresh sculptures from the seafloor and the city streets, as well as a pair of diptych panels that premiered with drying paint at Anon Salon’s New Year’s Eve freakfest. Miranda Caroligne (http://mirandacaroligne.com) and Bad Unkl Sista (http://badunklsista.com/) were there too, along with our last-minute sculpture surprise from local artists Katie Sutherland and Marcus Guillard (http://marcusguillard.com).

Premiering this time at Pandora’s Trunk - our DIY clothing modification station! Bring that ill-fitting old t-shirt or just dive into our bins; we’ll be bringing you free and at-cost t-shirts, pants, patches, and scraps to root through. There will be scissors, pins, and a sewing machine - and if those sound like scary torture devices to you fear not, we will help you to use them. You’ll have to sign in blood not to sue us if they turn on you, though. Some people are just cursed.

Pandora's Trunk
A bi-monthly eclectic arts showcase & designer sample sale
February 3^rd - featuring works from recycled and reclaimed materials
pandorastrunk.com

Saturday Feb. 3rd 1-7pm
free admission - live music - free drinks
916 Natoma st SoMa SF
(between Mission & Howard, 10th & 11th)

Featured indie artist - Alicia Bainbridge Escott

Working in expressive monochromatics recalling the kinetic landscapes of Northwestern painter James Lavadour, Alicia’s pocket-sized paintings are made on polystyrene, or #6 plastic. This plastic is very common but not recyclable; the work seeks to educate people about which plastics can and cannot be recycled.

Fashion & Accessories designers, working in reclaimed textiles:

Miranda Caroligne - http://www.mirandacaroligne.com
Medium Reality - http://mediumreality.com
Bad Unkl Sista - http://badunklsista.com

Miss Velvet Cream - http://missvelvetcream.com/

Homey Grown - http://www.homeygrown.org/

Siya Nara Clothing - http://www.myspace.com/siya_nara

Doctor Popular - (maybe if we are lucky he will yo-yo like he does on his website. All he has agreed to do is sell his hats made of recycled ties. Bring your puppydog eyes and we’ll see what we can get…) http://doctorpopular.com/

Shannon Riley - armlets and other brightly colored body warmers.

Other creations in the key of re-thought:

19 Moons - jewelry made with old typewriter keys and other reclaimed bits - http://www.19moons.com

Recover your thoughts - blank books made of reclaimed books and publishing scraps - http://www.recoveryourthoughts.com/

Joan R. Rogers - a venerated east coast printmaker has mailed us a little west coast exclusive - art notebooks from the scraps of a whole career’s worth of art prints.

Bike parts revisited - there will be too many people working in this medium to list them all. Rest assured that the sheer number of innovative uses for old bike parts that we will find and display for you will boggle your mind, and stir even the hatin’est heart.

Edible Love - decadent microbusiness chocolate truffles from our resident chocolatier are good for you on all levels. Don’t eat a whole box, though you’ll be tempted. The overdose will make it hard for you to enjoy our licensed masseuse or live musicians.

Enjoyed the show last time but not sure if you can make it this time around? Word of mouth is the most valuable promotions we can get. Help us and your friends out by hooking us up with each other! Please take a moment to forward this email to any friends you think may be interested in the show. You can also show them (or print out for yourself) our flyer which contains a tiny map:

http://pandorastrunk.com/pandorastrunkfeb3rd.jpg

and now the guts:

marin hike

We took the second exit after crossing the bridge north and yet this hiking trip in marin felt like we were miles from anywhere. maybe it was the coyote that we saw.

Forlorn Mannequin Heads

hopefully you can make out the fly sitting on the hat in this shot. i love it.

Lobster Process

This is my trash lobster. The shell belonged to a lobster that I ate; the restaurant was kind enough to run it through their dishwasher for me. The legs are made up of found objects and scraps of rusted wire. I aim to finish this piece in time for February 3rd's Pandora's Trunk along with an already finished mermaidy companion piece.

12 Days of Cochina

This is the 10' square canvas painting I did for Theatre Rhino's production of Marga Gomez's '12 Days of Cochina'. The painting is of an imaginary land called Hoville, which looks remarkably like the famous San Francisco houses along Alamo Square, only covered in snow and with a giant Seussical mountain behind.

I was at Theatre Rhino striking the show this week when Marga Gomez came in and I got to meet her. She checked me out thoroughly and introduced herself suavely. I was wrestling with the dog when she came in and introduced myself all flushed and stammering from behind his furry brown butt. Ah, well.

Cabinets & a trip

Over Christmas, i renovated my studio a little bit. there is now a comfortable lounging area in my workspace, a good computer workspace, and everything is consolidated a little bit more in where/how it is stored (i have a lot of things to store.)


i built two sets of cabinets. in the photo you can see all of the stuff heaped up that has to go into them. it's a shame that just building them hasn't made me organized.

here is a composite of my office. If you click through to flickr you can read notes on the image.

Also, I have gotten a free trip to Israel from a group called Birthright Israel. They offer them to anyone who fits a certain age range and is vaguely jewish and has never been to Israel. It's a ten-day trip - I'll be leaving from NewYork on March 28th. They don't tell us exactly what our itinerary will be, but they do plan all of it for us, so I am left feeling like I just need to wait, and do nothing, to get ready for the trip. It's a weird feeling.

Anon Salon Paintings

These are the two diptychs i did for Anon Salon's Sea of Dreams New Year's Eve. The pair above is called 'Cities are easier to dream on from above' and below is a detail from the over-8-ft-long 'Driving fast at night through the quiet countryside'.
Sea of Dreams was a really expensive burning man style party in a huge, two-block-long exhibition center. There was huge inflatable art hung from the ceiling, strange sculptures scattered about the space, numerous stages full of strangely garbed performers, and some really top-notch crowd-watching. It was an especially strange mix of characters because, in addition to the varied burning man crowd, there were a ton of people who came to see String Cheese Incident, the headliners. I had never really heard their music and high hopes for music made with actual instruments but it sounded pretty bland to me. A whole block's worth of people seemed to be enjoying it just fine without me.