Burnout Paradise

I went to California this past week for the College Arts Association Annual Conference in Los Angeles. I rented a ford mustang convertible which smelled like the beach and cigarettes. I drove it around once with the top down just to get my money's worth. I felt like I was playing Burnout Paradise and wanted to smash through billboards off sweet jumps of ended highways. But I used to hate California and I enjoyed it this past time. It's like a giant Houston with palm trees and hills. I digress though, since this entry is about the CAA conference itself.

Of course it was a very academic exercise and since I've been reading "Hop on Pop" and saying "bye-bye" to bath toys, it was nice to sit and listen to adult conversation. Surprisingly there were lots of lectures about the online community and how it fits in the art world, whether it was making art online in second life or how to use facebook for promotion of your artwork. This "technoart" discussion is really funny to me. People are still desperately trying to define and figure out this thing called "the internet" and still having difficulty navigating it physically and mentally. To me, its like any medium or tool, use it to further an idea. I feel like grandiose expectations are just that, grandiose, and since it is such a collective endeavor and god let's hope it stays that way, let it exist and change and write its own history. And the fact that some artists haven't figured out the ability to use it for promotional means leaves me baffled.

I also attended a seminar for a friend that wasn't able to make it. The seminars were pricey, $45 a piece, while the lectures were included in your ticket purchase. The woman leading the seminar had some good things to say in terms of grant writing, but most of it was common sense I my opinion. Some of the websites she thought well of were The Foundation Center and Creative Capital organization. I was a participant here in Houston with the Creative Capital workshop a few years back and it never fails to prove to be one of the most useful experiences of learning towards my art career. If one ever gets the chance to do anything with this organization, DO IT.

Some other highlights were lectures based on artist collaborations with their children (ie Sally Mann), which was really uncomfortable and fascinating to me. I learned about haptic art in the digital realm and kitsch in the 1960's, and saw some interesting presentations under the subject of "Stealth Art" which lead to a great discussion on commercial value of art and art making.

So I had fun even though people looked at me funny when I said I was there but not interviewing for a position with a university. I thought it was a good little break from mommying and got me pretty energized about academic viewpoints in art, which I normally detest. I highly recommend it to anyone but go ahead and skip the convertible since next year is in Chicago.

For Seth

I saw this at a war print show at the MFAH and thought of you. The rest of the show was a little boring.

Too Legit

I'm way way busier than I imagined I would be before getting into this whole grad school thing, so my posting has dropped on the 'ol line chart to zero. However, I thought I'd share my biggest revelation since moving out to California: nobody that I've met gives a shit about what is going on in Texas.  Nobody has ever heard of Trenton Doyle Hancock, Okay Mountain or the Texas Biennial.  This shocked me.  I tell everyone to go to Texas and discover these things they are missing. They usually just blink and say something like "Huh. Sounds cool. Going to the Hammer opening this weekend?" I suppose the point of this relates to a post I read on Glasstire (too lazy to look for the link) about focusing on our own yards and not being so concerned that the Los Angeles' and New Yorks next door notice. They don't. I don't think they care. At all. Be happy with what you've got and build on it even more. You're doing a good job.

Disturbance of Distance video

Here's a video of Eleanor Williams, curator of the exhibition "Disturbance of Distance," talking about the artists and how the show was put together. It's all on location at Box 13 Artspace in Houston, TX. Box 13 is a great space and is really invigorating Houston with quality shows and it's all artist run!

Yes We Did

Weekly art thoughts 2

So we only got around to seeing one show this week. It was an exhibition by an artist from Texas who was living in New York and I believe is living in Houston again, Susie Rosmarin at Texas Gallery (go to their website for images). I don't have much to say about Susie's paintings except it makes my eyes hurt but is technically quite a feat in the op art way. She also has a bunch of photography of sunsets, which was jarring against the super tightly painted semi-grided canvases. The only correlation I could come up with was color studies? Whatever. She's a big deal in the painting world, and rightly so, for these things look crazy labor intensive. For me however, they are really formal and kinda boring.

However, since I didn't get to see a lot of art I do want to talk about the gallery a bit. Now, Texas gallery is a little different than most galleries because of its weird location in a ritzy River Oaks shopping center but quietly tucked in the back so you have to know it to find it. I think galleries are really indentified here in Houston by location, but come to think of it, most cities function that way. Anyway, it is totally old school and very involved with art types like Robert Rauschenburg and Dave Hickey which gives them major cred. Fredericka Hunter, the part owner/director with Ian Glennie, also does an amazing DVD series called ArtPixthat if you've never seen or heard of before, shame. The space is a shot gun with an entrance gallery, one larger main exhibition, and a room with offices and rotating stock in back. The shows are always well considered and nicely edited for viewing. Its a little like a New York gallery where if they don't know you or are on the phone, they ignore you, but hey, that's why there's a buzzer on the front door, to make you feel like you just got let into an exclusive club. Its nice, and I very much respect Fredericka and Ian for being great trail-blazers and influences in this city.

We can figure this out, we went to college.

Grad school is keeping me busier than I had anticipated. I'm teaching two sections a week and reading Deleuze's Cinema 1 and Bergsonism at the same time. Both have provided me with some significant insights into our perception of the moving image and the use of montage. They're both difficult, heady, and abstract texts that require reading and re-reading. Calling them "dense" is a significant understatement. I will agree with my professor, that if you're at all engaged in the production of still or moving images they open a significant critical dialogue with both practices. After this post I will go back to reading the same page over and over for ten minutes.

A second year grad told me yesterday "you have to choose between being a good student, or getting your work made." I still haven't decided which side I'm on. I have also learned that Wikipedia is a total failure when it comes to philosophy and critical theory.

I am glad I am doing this.