A Little Bit More!

The musical explorations of Surly's viola alongside electronic elements will continue at this last show of the season. Fashion trunk sale du jour, of COURSE! Get yourself some goodies before it's too late!

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"


winter trunk show
Wednesday Dec 17th
6pm - 10pm
the Bus Stop Gallery
135 Dore St


featuring:

Bad Unkl Sista
Callibug Designs
Cotton Candie
Dida Jewelry
Domini
Faernworks
Fati Beloved
Ghetto Goldilocks
Gibbous
Interplanetary Craft
Jasmine Zorlu Millinery
Kayo Anime Clothing
Kittinhawk
Kiyumi Jewelry
Medium Reality
Minerva's Antenna
Orelafay Metalwork and Jewelry Design
Palace
Tamo Design
Tooth Gems Refinery
Venus and Velvet



with music by:

Pym and Surly
F'kir Elderfae
and guests!

plus:

snacks, refreshments, living art, hot pants, and you.

Pandora's Trunk announces Success in all endeavors!!

Last night Pandora's Trunk presented Visual Vaudeville & Built Burlesque at Brava Theater Center to resounding cheers, thunderous applause, and the clickety flash of cameras. Hooray!

Kyle Hailey (wetribe.com) wins the prize for super speedy photographer guy of the evening. Here is a photo that he took of Bad Unkl Sista performing the beautiful dream sequence. You can see more of his photos of our show here. Updates coming soon on dates for our cabaret series at Climate Theater this spring, Feb-March-April. Clowns in April!!

Visual Vaudeville December 4th 6-11pm

Coming up this Thursday is the biggest, baddest show ever produced by Pandora's Trunk! We're doing a full runway show with live music in a gorgeous space, with a theatrical twist - the designs and models will tell a narrative story! We debuted this compelling format in cabaret style at Climate Theater to great success, and are excited to bring the show to the next level. Check out the ever-changing Conspirators page on our website to get a glimpse of some of the artists that you will be able to meet on Thursday.

Pandora's Trunk & Brava Theatre present
Visual Vaudeville & Built Burlesque

Thursday December 4th 6-11pm
Floor Show at 8 & 10pm
2781 24th St (at York near Bryant) SF
FREE admission

Storytime Runway Show
Holiday Design & Craft Sale
Live Music and Entertainment
Refreshments

flyer

Pandora is taking over this enormously gorgeous vaudeville theater and filling it with built burlesque - the freshest indie craft and design will be presented by its makers in the historic lobby. The beautifully restored theater itself will be a house of performance delights, with live music acts opening for an innovative narrative fashion presentation: a storytime runway show at 8 & 10 pm.
Pandora is bringing you a fashion show turned on its head, a costumed storytime in high style. Drag performers and captured princesses mix with bad banker men and jeweled birds, set to viola and saw music. Check out a fully produced stage show, performed to live music, and meet and greet with the clothing and costume geniuses behind it all. Buy the fashions that you see onstage off the rack, fresh from each designer's hot little hands.
Fashion designers in the floor show will include local design & performance powerhouses Bad Unkl Sista, Miss Velvet Cream, Medium Reality, Ghetto Goldilocks, and many more!! Wine by Patz & Hall, beer by Lagunitas.

pandorastrunk.com

Cabaret De(con)structiv - total success!

The cabaret show this weekend was a fantastic success! People came and watched the show, clapped and loved it. Everyone involved had a great time, and amazing friends kept appearing to solve problems almost before they could happen. We are already in discussion with the venue for a series of three dates this spring, you can be sure we are going to do that again!



check here for more images etc, and keep us on your mind!! Coming up we have our holiday blowout event at Brava Theater on Thursday, December 4th. I have been in steady communication with the theater and all the designers, and everybody is getting on board! it's going to be an amazing show. Stay tuned to the Pandora's Trunk website to find out details on all of the artists involved... that web update will be coming in the next few days!

It is a busy and crazy time but man I kind of love it! I hope you are all doing well!

New Urban Exploration Photos: SF Bayview

I went photo-strolling this morning with some friends and got to see some spooky-silent grey and beautifully decrepit parts of town. Beautifully toxic too, I am sure.

Check out more photos here, and stay tuned for another post about Cabaret De(con)structiv, our amazing success last weekend!

Cabaret De(con)structiv Nov 22nd 1-5pm

This event is really shaping up! Chatting with all the different artists involved is really reinvigorating my creative energy! Everyone has so many great ideas, it's making me really excited to carry them out. That's good, because it's a lot of work!! Come and see what we're working on! We're making sangria :)


Pandora's Trunk presents
Cabaret De(con)structiv

Climate Theater * 285 9th St at Folsom SF
1-5 pm, Saturday, November 22nd
Free Admission * Live Performance * Free Refreshments

Cabaret De(con)structiv is a fashion show turned on its head, a costumed storytime in cabaret style. Drag performers and captured princesses mix with bad banker men and jeweled birds, set to viola and saw music. Check out a fully produced stage show, performed to live music, and meet and greet with the clothing and costume geniuses behind it all. Buy the fashions that you see onstage off the rack, fresh from each designer's hot little hands.

pandorastrunk.com

De(con)structiv is really coming together!!!

Whew. After having to - very unexpectedly - temporarily relocate Medium Reality Studios, I was stricken with The Flu. It's become a pattern: anytime something super stressful happens to me, when it's over, I get sick. This spring I kept the flu at bay with vitamin C but wasn't as successful this fall, ending up laid up in bed for almost a week. I am on the mend, though, and my new studiomates have been very kind in putting up with my pathetic attempts to get work done while hacking like a victim of the Black Plague. Charming, I know. Now that my head, and lungs, are clearing, I am able to put some thought to November 22nd's Pandora's Trunk. Eeek! That's pretty soon. The event is coming together in fits and starts, although I do sorely miss the previous week. The violist called me today and I sent her the script to take a look at so that she can maybe get a chance to, oh, practice the music she will use for the show? She is very relaxed about the time situation and is prepared to wing it a little! Bless my friends and their indulgence of my crazy visions. A few days ago someone emailed me asking to help manage december's show. Yes please! Now I just gotta get butts in the door to see what everyone's been busting ass on!!

While you are waiting, on tenterhooks, to hear more about the show, check out this awesome director lady's post about a tie I sent her... sending product through the mail reminds me of glue sticks and zines and high school. I try to come off as more sophisticated now but it's the same basic itch being scratched, don't kid yourself.

Putting together a show like nobody's ever done before

What a funny feeling! Innovation is always dangerous, both to the status quo and to the innovator. So much could go wrong! You have to keep explaining what you are doing!

November 22nd Pandora's Trunk is going to be amazing. We are producing a runway show like nothing you've ever seen before - it's not just a series of talented designers, it's also a storytime fable narrated by a spooky awesome drag performer. December 4th will be that, x10.

Come on over!!



Pandora's Trunk presents
Cabaret De(con)structiv

1-5 pm, Saturday, November 22nd
Free Admission * Live Performance * Free Refreshments

Cabaret De(con)structiv is a fashion show turned on its head, a costumed storytime in cabaret style. Drag performers and captured princesses mix with bad banker men and jeweled birds, set to live viola and saw music. Check out a fully produced stage show, performed to live music, and meet and greet with the clothing and costume geniuses behind it all. Buy the fashions that you see onstage off the rack, fresh from each designer's hot little hands.

http://pandorastrunk.com/images/flyers/pandorastrunk_fall08season_forweb.jpg

Van Orlax: urban vinyl

We are putting on a production of Friends, by Kobo Abe, at Brava Theatre. It opens November 6th. I am the set designer. The play, written as a commentary on society's control of the individual, is being presented as an absurdist take on gentrification and the present times. The main character is a grown man with a toy collection. Today I met with our wonderful props artists at Kid Robot in the upper Haight and we looked at toys, threw around ideas, and picked a bunch of things out! We bought this one (and a bunch of others... we each went home on the bus or skateboard with arms teeming). It is 20" tall. Here is another color scheme of the same sculpture:

Van Orlax

Lineup confirmed for Pandora's Trunk this Saturday!

Pandora's Trunk
Oct 25th, 2-8pm

Music & Performance


3-3:45 Diana McCullough - variously saw, guitar, vocals

5-5:45 Diana McCullough - variously saw, guitar, vocals

6-7 Jesse Roadkill - audience interaction accordion clowning

7-7:30 Diana McCullough - variously saw, guitar, vocals

Art & Design


Medium Reality

Reconstructed Menswear


Bad Unkl Sista

Mistake Media Amazingness

Miss Velvet Cream

Neo-Archaic Madness x2

Paper Organics Jewelry

One of a Kind Wearable Sculpture

Ghetto Goldilocks

Reconstructed Sweater Ragamuffin

E-Star Hats

Hats and Headpieces for All Occasions

Recover Your Thoughts

Blank Books made from Recycled Materials

Pallas Ravae

Romantic Found Object Jewelry

Minerva's Antennae

Tribal Clothing, Costume, and Adornments

Kelsey's Creations

Confections Dripping with Lace

+++ More artists, info, and images coming soon for October 25th.

Hobo Hyphy Location Photo Shoot

This photo shoot was quick and dirty and fantastic, climbing all over the rickety piers. I wish the photos showed me trailing desperately behind with a wheeled suitcase full of shirts.
All these photos were taken at 5th Ave Marina in Oakland. It's ragged and dirty and coming apart - the opposite of South Beach, where I usually go sailing. I love it there and was thrilled to see these sneak peek photos from the shoot.
It was hard to manage the different aspects of the location - it's amazing the difference in location shoots and studio shoots, both in what has to go in and how it can come out. I don't think any clothes got ruined on location - although i did put iron marks on two of them rushing to get ready. Doh!
View the rest of the photos.

RevellRay Photography
Medium Reality Clothing

October 25th and Full Season Card

Pandora is ready to drop this weekend! We have a confirmed lineup of awesome performers, playing the saw, accordion, and guitar, singing, dancing, and even a little clowning. We have an entire season planned of unprecedented design entertainment. All we need is you.

As always any help telling your awesome friends about our awesome free party is super appreciated! Looking forward to seeing you all and showing you what we have been up to!
*******************



Pandora's Trunk
Indie Arts and Fashion: sale, salon, and performance!

October 25th, Saturday, from 2-8pm
BUS stop, 135 Dore off Folsom at 10th
http://pandorastrunk.com

free admission
live music
free drinks

As the sun orbits away from the center of our city, keep the chill out of your bones with a brand new warm jacket and a story told by the visionary who made it! This fall and winter Pandora's Trunk is opening anew, letting loose a wandering group of designers. Like minstrels or troubadours, they are traveling from venue to venue with trunks and bins loaded full of clothing and secrets in equal measure. Events this fall will take indie arts to a whole new level, blending fashion runway, storytelling, drag performers, accordionists, chanteuses, clowns, musicians, fine art, functional objects. Indie arts producers will also be demonstrating, interacting, and showing their work.

Engaging performers, live music, free refreshments, indie arts & fashion sale. These shall be our watchwords. Check out the website to keep up to date on
artists, performers, and mayhem.

And while you're at it check the rest of Pandora's winter season:

November 22nd, Saturday, from 1-5pm
Climate Theatre 285 9th @ Folsom
Come and hear the makings of our tale at Cabaret De(con)structiv. Climate Theatre is giving us a cross between a runway and a cabaret stage. We'll look inside your pants and tell you where they came from... telling a story using our ideas and our artifacts.

December 4th, Thursday, from 6-11pm
Brava Theatre 2781 24th @ York near Bryant
Watch the magic of our whole splendid story! We will settle into a luxuriant restored vaudeville theatre, using its gilded proscenium to frame a fully produced fashion design storytale.

Announcing Pandora's Fall Season!

I worked hard to put together all three shows for this season! I will officially release all the information soon, there is just one last event time to set and then all three shows are totally booked and at least sketched in, and the season promo materials can go to print. I feel so fancy!

Now I need to somehow post all this information to the pandora's trunk website. Alice Lin, my awesome web designer, made me a website and showed me how to update it, because i think i can i think i can! we'll see how I do!

Later today I have a production meeting for Friends, a play we are producing in November at Brava Theatre. I finished the design, let's hope they like it! I will try to post some scans of those drawings.

Chillin until Pandora's Trunk returns

This awesome event is tonight. Check below or at Chillin's website for more info. Also, take note! Pandora's crawling out of her own trunk this fall for some awesome dates. October 25th we'll be doing a sale in a warehouse venue south of market, and December 4th we'll be producing a holiday sale and runway spectacular at Brava's swanky restored vaudeville theatre. get in touch to get involved, thinkers, artists, musicians, makers... bored people. we want you!

Chillin' Productions bring you:

Over 50 FASHION DESIGNERS!!!

Live Music by:
Little Yellow Perfect (www.littleyellowperfect.com)

DJ's
DJ Felina (www.djfelina.com)
Rondo Brothers (www.rondobrothers.com)
Russell Vargas (www.myspace.com/russellvargas)
Dave Madix (www.kingkeymusic.com)
DJ SCHATZ (www.chillinproductions.com)

Visuals by:
www.amovertone.com

Art exhibit by:
Captain And Commander
New Works By Henry Lewis and Keli Reule
(www.111minnagallery.com)

* 944 Magazine will launch it's first addition of their Arts and Culture
Issue! (www.944.com)*

When: Saturday October 4, 2008
8:00pm-2:00am
Where: 111 Minna Gallery (www.111minnagallery.com)
$6 at the door
Must be 21+ ID

For more info go to:
www.chillinproductions.com


Also Check out our favorite t-shirt blogg
www.tcritic.com

Thank you to our great sponsors:
944 Magazine (www.944.com)
SF Weekly (www.sfweekly.com)
UNSCENE urban navigator (www.unscene.com)
SF Station (www.sfstation.com)
Yelp (www.yelp.com)
Nitevive (www.nitevibe.com)
Vanderkitten (www.vanderkitten.com)
Breast Cancer Emergency Fund (www.bcef-sf.org)
This Old Bag (http://tob.bcef-sf.org)
AIDS Emergency Fund (www.aef-sf.org)
Ipling (www.ipling.com)
LatinLounge.tv (www.LatinLounge.tv)
111 Minna Gallery (www.111minnagallery.com)
Spork Restaurant (sporksf.com)
Addiction Hair Salon (www.addictionhairsalon.com)
Lucid Beauty (www.lucidbeauty.com)
Hair Play (www.hairplay.com)
Access Institute for psychological services (www.accessinst.org)
The Innovative Fashion Council of San Francisco (www.ifcsf.com)
Style Industry (www.styleindustry.com)
Mosio (www.mosio.com)
Ladybrille (www.ladybrille.com)
Legend Magazine (www.legendmag.net)
Red Poppy Art House (www.redpoppyarthouse.org)
Mars Bar (www.marsbarsf.com)
Ovahere (www.ovahere.com)
Thread Show (www.threadshow.com)
RAG (www.ragsf.com)
Stitch Lounge (www.stitchlounge.com)
Dirtyhertz (www.dirtyhertz.com)
Primo Promotes (www.primopromotes.com)
Nofu ( www.nofu.com)
House of Dolores Moore
Hope Flight Foundation (www.hopeflightfoundation.org)
Nomadika (www.nomadika.com)
Fashionbliss (www.fashionbliss.com)
Jules Beauty (www.julesmakeupsf.com)
Blowfish Sushi (www.blowfishsushi.com)
Little Yellow Perfect (www.littleyellowperfect.com)
Porcelynne (www.porcelynne.com)
Ibarra Knight Photography (www.ibarraknight.com)
Monavie (www.monavie.com/%5F/controller.html)

Here are the designers involved in the October 4 show:

1. Tucky Mama (www.tuckymama.com)
2. Gytha Mander - www.gythamander.com
3. REVL - www.REVL.net
4. Booty Boutique www.bootyboutique.com
5. SAAZ DESIGNS (www.SAAZDESIGNS.com)
6. "Recover Your Thoughts" (www.recoveryourthoughts.com)
7. Heathen ( www.myspace.com/wearheathen)
8. Life Clothing
9. La Plata, designed by Madlene (www.laplatadesigns.com)
10. Vanessa Salazar (http://thedb.com/vanessa_salazar)
11. Integrity Fashions (www.integrityfashions.com)
12. Kucoon (www.kucoondesigns.com)
13. RH: Original (www.cavecreation.com) (www.unique-gift-art.com)
14. Cara Lyndon Designs (www.caralyndon.com)
15. Mad February (www.madfebruary.com)
16. Invisible Hero Industrie (www./myspace.com/invisibleheroindustries)
17. Slutz Get Jealous(www.slutzgetjealous.com )
18. Medium Reality (www.mediumreality.com)
19. Solsis (www.solsis.net)
?20. OdileOdette (www.odileodette.com)
21. Revel Industries (www.revelindustries.net)
22. Tessa Kemp Jewelry (www.tessakemp.com)
23. O'Lover Hats (www.oloverhats.com)
24. Mison (www.misonlee.com)
25. Strydye (www.strydye.com)
26. Taryn Lin Design (www.tarynlin.etsy.com)
27. Amanda Lynn (www.myspace.com/amandalynnpaintings)
28. Flame Angel Design (www.flameangeldesign.com)
29. Sondra Osuchowski (www.funkyandfabulous.com)
30. Silvana Danies (www.silvanadanies.com)
31. Kevin Harris ( www.kevinharristextile.com)
32. Callou (www.callou.com)
33. Maducca (www.maducca.com)
34. Rajput Designs
35. IBISS (www.ibiboutique.com)
36. Beth Bloom designs (www.bethbloomdesigns.com)
37. Gypsies and Lords ( www.gypsiesandlords.com)
38. Kaatje design www.kaatjedesign.net
39. Spiritjoy Designs (www.kayasattva.com)
40. Threads by Cho-Cho (www.threadsbycho-cho.com)
41. Sophistafunk Hats
42. Honeycomb Jewelry (www.honeycombjewelry.com)
43. fuffy j (www.fuffyj.com)
44. Harlequin (www.harlequinfeltworks.com)
45. Mikobella Designs (Http://gallery.mac.com/tabella1)
46. Lynn Eye Style (www.Lynneyestyle)
47. Mixerfriendly (www.mixerfreindly.com)
48. Engracia Jewelry
49. Pink Voodoo Jewelry
50. Artefacture (www.artefacture.com)
51. 2.7.9 Designs
52. Tenacious Little Monkey (www.tenaciouslittlemonkey.com)
53. Taste O' Brazil (www.tasteobrazil.com)
54. Bound
55. REPLIKA (www.replikawear.com)
56. Palm Creations (www.palmcreations4u.com)
57. Monica Chey
58. 1228 (www.twelvetwentyeight.com)
59. Faze Apparel (www.fazeapparel.com)
60. Lady Bird SF ( www.ladybirdsf.com)
61. Liliana Swearingen

Back to Schoolish

This time of year is always for fresh beginnings, i think. Time to really buckle down and start a new year at ... well, what are you up to? Tell me all about it! Medium Reality is trucking along, showing clothes and gearing up for an event-packed fun-filled fall and winter season!

If you are looking for a retail clothes experience check out Resident Apparel Gallery, a co-op in Hayes Valley where Medium Reality is the newest member! You can browse and buy local artisan works to your heart's content.

If what you are looking for is a more heart-to-heart experience, or simply feel a burning need for clothes still warm from the sewing machine, check out these upcoming sale events. They are always so much fun for me, a chance to meet my audience and get feedback on what i am doing right and wrong! Please come out and let me know what works and doesn't work for you - I really do listen and use your advice in my work!!

Coming up:

Truffala Trunk
THIS Wednesday Sept 24th 6-10pm
BUS stop gallery
135 Dore (off folsom at 8th)
San Francisco

Chillin
Saturday October 4th 8pm-2am
111 Minna
San Francisco

Check out my paintings at Cafe International while you still can!

Article about the iceberg

I just found this awesome little article about the construction of the iceberg. I was really shocked at how much putting it together was like garment construction. Click through to my flickr sculpture set to see more images of the installation and read more details about it!

Wired Blog!

I don't really think of myself as a 'burning man fashion designer' although there is a way in which that does describe me. This wired blog mention and photo of medium reality (at the very end of the article) is pretty sweet regardless.

Also check out the new Pandora's Trunk website! Pandora's Trunk is once again an event, an all-new and badder than ever showcase of indie arts masters of all kinds. There will be four shows this winter, and keep your ears open to find out about the hot-ass venues we will be at! The event will be at a new venue every time.

Portrait & Landscape - Aug 2nd opening

I am really proud of the show that Alfonso and I hung last week at Cafe International. It was touch and go for a while but our disparate work is hung together in a way that makes coherent sense and is pleasing to the eye. I love hanging out at Cafe International, have a great relationship with the owner, and LOVE the two musicians who were awesome enough to play for us! I hope you can make it.



Portrait & Landscape - art opening at Cafe International
508 Haight St @ Fillmore

New and recent works by

Alfonso Kellenberger &
Rachel Lyra Hospodar

Opening Reception Saturday August 2nd 7-10pm

featuring John Arns on sitar &
Sandra B on guitar

promo shots for christmas wholesaling

it's funny but so crucial to think about christmas right now.

these shots came out great, massive thanks due to the awesome photographer (chuck revell, revellray) and model (larkin donley, also a photog).

Pandora Opening 7/11/08

Paintorama mama

Lately I have been focusing on finding ways to have other people help me produce the clothes so that I have time to paint. It's been working, although the learning curve for managing people in ever-new environments can sometimes distract from focusing on creative and intensive work like painting. I've been making it, though... and produced two runway segments in the last month to boot. a photo shoot later today ought to make it possible for me to share those clothes with you... meanwhile, check out the paintings I hung at Mars Bar last month



and the piece I am desperately trying to finish in time to hang at Cafe International in two weeks!



more images of this painting are available here.

Re-Cover-Ry

Whew. Craft Con was a blast. We are slowly posting wrap-ups and ongoing information on the website, still working out what happens next. Upcoming is Maker Faire, where Autumn (one of my main honchos on the project) is going to be presenting the Crafting Green information she shared at Craft Con. Since she's coming back, Lz and EJ (the weebley force behind Your Mom's from the Pittsburgh area) are too so we're going to represent Craft Con at Maker Faire, tabling and even I believe presenting onstage about the project. Maker Faire is May 3 and 4 and I hope to see you there, either when I am wearing my Craft Con hat or when I switch to Pandora's Trunk organizer. Whew.

Meanwhile, this weekend I am taking part in Alchemy, sure to be a rockin good time.

~aLchemy~
http://www.false-profit.com/2008/04/26/alchemy/
Saturday, April 26th
9pm-2am
CELLspace
$15
full bar

featuring...

-Styles of Magic fashion show by Missing Piece at 10pm
-Phantoccino, a magic show by Keith Boudreau
-Art Gallery by Will Chase Arts
-Alchemical Afforestation, an interactive steel sculpture by Shira Loa -Digital Paint Mash-Up by Dangermarc
-Pyrocardium, a heartbeat-powered candelabra by False Profit Labs
-Web of (de)Construction, a live textile piece by Medium Reality
-Identity Tapestry by Mary Corey March
-Flame Tree Building Workshop by False Profit Labs
-Phoenix Aviary, a reactive video installation
-Writing Photos, an intersection of writing and photography
-Altered Paintings, reworking thrift-store finds
-Interactive Lights & Magnets, Photo Booth, Lego Robots, origami, and more.

--------------------------------------------------

San Francisco – Activity erupted the floor of the Stock Exchange and the Artsy Index soared as False Profit, LLC and Missing Piece announced the second incarnation of Alchemy. This flood of activity, however, was not the usual buying and selling.

Several men in business casual were spotted making origami while a large circle of traders watched a walk-off between representatives from several Fortune 500s. Easels sprouted up in the atrium while fortunes built on towers of Legos rose and fell. One bewildered Exchange administrator was heard shouting, "Ok. Who here brought the arc welder?!" It was the most activity the Exchange has ever seen.

"My mind is melting like a Dali clock," observed one trader, overwhelmed by the unprecedented rise in the Artsy Index. "So I guess that's what I'll be painting at Alchemy."

When asked to describe Alchemy, Stephanie Tholand, Lead Structural Engineer at False Profit, LLC offered this explanation: "It's really a collaboration built atop a series of collaborations which are themselves collaborations. I assure you, it's quite unstable and vulnerable to unexpected quakes of artistry."

Some people are indeed expecting the unexpected: "I've heard the Missing Piece fashion show is basically magic," said an anonymous source from deep within the fashion industry.

Both False Profit, LLC and Missing Piece declined to comment on the details of Alchemy, citing the impossibility of predicting what the attendees will do.

Alchemy, an interactive art event, is commencing on April 26th at
CELLspace in San Francisco and a great flurry of artiness is expected.

http://www.false-profit.com/2008/04/26/alchemy/

Here Goes Nothin

We're over budget (hellloooo, credit cards), I've been sleeping 4 hours a night, it's too late for me to get my dry cleaning done, and I think I've already committed to doing this again next year. Am I crazy? Probably. Come see!

Craft Con and Pandora's Trunk present
Saturday, April 5 8-11:30pm

Crafty Style Gala

Urban Art Farm SF
1345A 17th St @ Connecticut
MUNI 19/22/T
http://craftcon.org/gala

Live Music - Cake and Sake - Live Art
$4 formalwear or costume / $7 general admission



Live art and fashion construction by Onerary and Architect G from Pandora’s Trunk

Magical realist paintings by Alfonso Kellenberger

Live ambient soundscapes quartet with Mika Pontecorvo
electric cello, guitar/flute, electronics/percussion and drums

Photobooth (play dress-up)

DIY craft station (make yer own souvenirs)

Food and drink

Meet n Greet indie artists from nationwide
Savvy indie artists and artisans from all over the country are visiting in town to attend Craft Con, http://craftcon.org, a business development conference for the craft community. The Crafty Style Gala is an opportunity for San Francisco's unique local arts scene to meet the nationwide leaders of the recent craft resurgence and show them what is unique about our culture!
http://craftcon.org/gala

Craft Con: one week

I said the phrase out loud two different times today before I believed it "The conference is in one week". The second time, when I let myself realize it was true, my voice went a little hoarse for a second. It is getting close and things are coming together beautifully in places and falling apart all over the place elsewhere, although that second part is amazingly diminishing. Tonight I massaged and trimmed the budgets and spreadsheet columns to a place where, with the people who are already registered, if i put my thumb over what is left in the contingency budget (not much at this point) the numbers match and the project breaks even. Let's have a happy moment of silence for that one; its not the end but I can sleep a little at night. Well, it's 2:30am but i will go to sleep soon i am pretty sure.

Not everyone who has committed to pay and come will do the former or the latter but I figured out a way to leave registration open for much of next week so hopefully we will get a few new people in to tip the scales back again. Making and arranging budgets is not as cut-and-dried as people would think. It's really interesting to me to take the budget management skills i learned in school for lumber and steel and welding and apply them to a myriad of different kinds of projects... everything seems to track. Biggest baddest rule demonstrated in this project? The less you know the bigger a margin for error you leave yourself. Thankfully i got that one right... so far.

Craft Con o Rama

Craft Con is less than two weeks away now and the hours are just evaporating out from under me! I feel like a juggler, and if I only drop every third ball I have to think I'm doing ok. I've been fielding very interesting phone calls lately, from faythe levine to the american craft council... and that's just today!

Here you can read on etsy's blog about Craft Con. Hopefully the word has spread far enough that the numbers in my spreadsheet are accurate. This in a lot of ways has been a far riskier proposition financially than any of my previous endeavors... with my phone number in the hands of the vendors and much of the event resting uneasy on the backs of volunteers... it's nearly that time, though, close enough to the culmination of such a large project that it feels like jumping off a cliff with your eyes closed. when you open them you'll be there, for better or worse.

Swept Away

We're two weeks out now, wow that was fast! Tons of interest in Craft Con, the business development conference for the craft community that I am hosting here in San Francisco April 4-6. Everything is coming together and falling apart at the usual rates, I don't know why I am surprised each time by both things occurring. Having a few good level heads to work with makes almost all problems go away. Well, diminish in importance.

I just got a phone call from Velvet Da Vinci and am all excited now about the high vs low craft debate coming to roost at our conference. Maybe you didn't know about this divide? as if it weren't enough for 'fine art people' and 'craftspeople' to be split from each other, there is a divide also between fine craftspeople and uppity internet crafters who yes, sometimes use hot glue guns. some of them.

Me and (oh god, uh... Mike?) from VdV had a great conversation about the ways that good (and bad) things can be found everywhere you look and the way that hacker-craft can enable fine-craft in all sorts of awesome ways.

March with a Vengeance!

Spring has come upon Mediumrealityland full force! Craft Con is less than a month away but in between now and then I'll be putting on a runway show. Opel's 5th anniversary was a barrel of fun last year; I am looking forward to this one. My work has evolved a lot over a year.

The Hare and the Hounds went really well; by the time I stopped by the show my map had been purchased and my hidden piece found! It was really fun to make something map-oriented and kind of intentionally ephemeral for this concept show... I hope I get invited to do more things like it. This spring is bringing a renewed focus for me on my career as a painter. Not that I have the fashion world all figured out but I feel a little bit more comfortable there and am freeing up some time to focus on neglected areas. Spring cleaning my studio, too. I've got lots of things squirreled away that I don't see any need for anytime soon. It's a fine line between expert recycler and those people who die in musty apartments surrounded by yellowing bundles of newspapers.

Defense of something

A rare political post here... I was walking the dog today and came to demonstrations outside of the state building. Today was a hearing on the gay marriage issue here in California; it's been bouncing around in the court system since 2004 when that smart (and slimy) man Newsom made/exploited a loophole in marriage law and got a bunch of gays married. Don't misunderstand me, i am alllll in favor of gay marriage. I think that he made the move as a political act but I'll take what I can get.
I was led to the demonstrations today by a pickup doing loops around Civic Center with rickety aftermarket wooden sidewalls all tarted up with bible verses and dire warnings. "The truth seems like hate to those who hate the truth."

At the state building the crowd was small and tepid. Mostly trucked-in bible thumpers with god-love and god-fear signs that were a little bit well-worn. A giant yellow banner declaring "sodomy is sin" which, when I was walking up, appeared for a moment to say "sodomy is in". There were a few signs which i wanted to string together in silent conversation with each other. First, the one quoting MLK Jr saying "Christianity sets for a system of absolute moral values" then "stop ignorance homosexuality is not a choice" then "moral wrongs cannot equal civil rights" then "your religion is not my government".

I tried to explain to an englishman the difference between marriage and domestic partnership. i stuck my tongue out at the eastern european men from sacramento who had come out for jesus. There was a jolly effeminate brown man on a bicycle who went down the line of them, asking questions and demanding to see the passages of the bible they were quoting.

Creepiest was the smiling grey-haired grandma in an understated black outfit with a sign simply declaring marriage = 1 man + 1 woman. A few kids walked up to her to ask what was going on and she began explaining her sign and the crowd. After a few minutes the girl grabbed both guys and declaring "i hope they make the right decision" over her shoulder they all fled giggling. A MUNI bus roared by with a cell phone ad on the side. The series of ads is all about how this new kind of phone can let you say more; the ads consist of a first half that says something simple, the second a complex concept. this particular bus said "wassup" and "support gay marriage".

It's Aliiiiive!

Craft Con is a business development conference for the craft community. That's our tagline. i say it a lot. i write a lot of emails and make a lot of phone calls, because that's what this planning job is all about. I have felt recently a little like a cheerleader, helping people who are quite literally spread across the globe to figure out what tasks they want to do and ways to do them. We've done most of the planning to date live in full view on a wiki. Yesterday I was handed the reins to our website, being made and made pretty and most importantly made gloriously functional by Autumn in St Louis, who I met last year at Craft Congress 2007.

I started plugging in bits of text written by various helpers, editing language to be more uniform and cramming different bits together to help make different statements. Now it's a website, viola! What an amazing and humbling experience. Thanks everyone, from australia to england, new york to los angeles. Autumn of course says it's not done, and going to look even more fabulous, and be even more gloriously functional. I might plotz.

February Report

This had been a head down, ploughing through sort of month. Pandora's Trunk is standing up; it's been really amazing to watch the group of artists that we brought together take initiative and leadership. The community feeling is pretty amazing. It's been shaky in a lot of ways too, since we are building an organization from the ground up in a pretty organic fashion... totally on the fly. I wish I had more time to spend at the library, and a bunch of money to spend on consultants. Heh. I suppose if I had that bunch of money I'd spend it on employees and contractors.

Amidst all of that trying to focus anew on myself as an artist. It's hard to be a businessperson also; it usually feels like one or the other. Business has been winning.

The photo above was included in a guide to San Francisco - go me!
Schmap Guide

Sampler Interview

Belatedly, oh dear reader. This interview happened to me as I was on my way out of town and I am now shocked to notice I never properly linked it. So much has happened since then, in Samplertown, Medium Reality, and Pandoraland, that it almost feels like finding a time capsule. The latest update from HGTV (remember when I filmed in November of 06?) looks like July. What a time capsule that will be!

Medium Reality visits Samplerland

Art, Business, and Marketing (the place where they meet)

I have been working a lot lately, hunkering down and shoveling out old messes, while also trying to strike a balance in my life between work and, well, anything else at all. Over New Year's I went camping in a place called Slab City; it wasn't really like anywhere I've ever been before.

Craft Con, the business networking conference for the craft community that I am hosting here in SF this april, is making slow but steady progress. We have a venue and that means we have dates... working on getting the money. I recently read this article in the new york times about the conference that happened last year, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that one of the unattributed quotes was me! I found a friend blogging about the article and left her the following response which, on further reflection, i thought was content-worthy enough for you, dear starved readers of this sporadic publication.

I have been making a living as an artist and craftsperson for two years now. There are some people who are able to simply click with their audience and the work that they produce sells like hotcakes regardless of price or setting - these people are mostly i think making work whose target demographic is themselves. There are people like me and (i suspect) your mom who aren't necessarily making work for themselves as a target customer - and then it becomes a little harder to a)find your audience b) gauge their price range c) make a community connection with them. The idea of building community works to sell any kind of art, as a great deal of the art- and craft-buying public really loves to feel a connection with the person who has made the work - this humanity, after all, is a lot of what they are paying that 'handmade' premium for.

The business sense of how to market your work, how to identify and find your audience, and how to become a sustainable commercial enterprise is usually not discussed in the craft circles of our generation - except for the internet! Everyone loves to market on the internet! Craft Con, the conference I am throwing here in SF this april, seeks to address these issues. Last year 50 crafters got together in pittsburgh and *didn't* talk about knitting - we talked about marketing and health insurance. It's hard to make a living making things outside of a factory setting, because that is not the prevailing mode of our culture. It's not impossible though, it just means there are fewer total opportunities. I sold two paintings out of my store just this weekend. I think success is about a)quality of goods b)access to market. Representation just means that you don't have to do any of that pesky marketing stuff.