Art & Process

So I’ve been busy. What else is new? I found out that my Nashville gallery had an artist that pulled out of a solo show and I’m filling the slot, so now I have 2 back-to-back solo shows in the fall. They are actually flying me in for the reception, so that is going to be super fantastical! There are a few people I’ll get to meet in the area that I’ve known over the internet, and a couple that I’ve known from Los Angeles. I’m hoping my aunt, and really only living relative I have, will be able to drive up from Birmingham to see me. I’m only going to be there for 2 days. A regular “business trip.”

You can read about the show here. It’s called Goodbye, Mrs. Beasley. I’m exhibition both new work and a few pieces from 2008, but it’s all new to Nashville. I have to still produce about 6 more pieces for the show by August, and that’s not counting all the work I have yet to complete for my George Billis show! I have my work cut out for me!

This past week I have been trading off between 2 paintings: the 9 foot triptych and a 30 x 30 inch painting on linen, both for the LA show. Meanwhile, I’ve started my new assistant Sophie on some special handmade invitations that I’m sending out to a few critics and museum curators for the show. So far, Sophie is working out very well and she is going to be helping me install the drawing show I’m in that opens this weekend at George Billis Gallery called On | Paper. It’s a group show of about 10 artists. I’m installing about 50 pieces from the Journal Project and a few new pieces I created on my desert retreat. Once Sophie gets her website up and running, I’ll link her to my blog here because she is actually a wonderful artist in her own right. She’s a hard working 21 year old from Holland and I can hardly believe she somehow found me. I don’t want to speak too soon, but she might be the perfect assistant for me.

I’ve got 4 weeks left at Moppet. It’s going to be a little strange moving out. Every day, I take a small box of stuff home with me, only to find that I kind of need it back at the studio. But this had been happening when I’ve been at the studio. It seems there is always something I need from home when I’m at the studio. Once I’m back at home, this will never happen again! Something to look forward to.

The day after the opening at George Billis, I have to mention that there is a one day only show that I have a piece in at Yolanda Gonzalez’s studio (Ma Art Space) in Alhambra called STUFT. It’s a show of handmade sewn creatures and I am finally showing a little guy I once made called Barnacle Jim.

Oh, Happy Independence day! It’s been 34 years since the Bicentennial. That makes me feel old!

What is Scribbles in a Sandstorm?

* An illustrated account of the birth of Dan
* A flurry of artistic output from a secluded desert outpost
* What the Joshua Trees were pointing at all along
* A celebration of printing and bookmaking
* An accordion whose music is ecstatically visual

Chance Press is very excited to announce the publication of Scribbles in a Sandstorm, a collaborative project with Los Angeles-based artist Carol Es. We have known Carol for a couple years now, although we were hesitant to approach her about working together until we were confident enough in our own abilities to do her incredible work justice. We have been working quietly for the past few months planning the ins and outs of the project, and Carol has been furiously creating some of the most consciousness-bending art your eyes will ever see. The result will be unlike anything you have seen from Chance Press, and it will further cement Carol Es’s status as an artist of the highest order.

Scribbles in a Sandstorm is no mere art book, with some images printed on each page and bound in snappy covers. Here, the art is the book, which contains a removable spine, enabling the accordion-folded text block to unfold and display a 40″ color-printed panorama. Then, on the flipside, is your instant Carol Es art collection, where tipped-in you’ll find a Gocco print, a letterpress print, and a giclee print on watercolor paper, as well as a bound-in excerpt from Carol’s sketchbook, and a signed original sketch. No expense is being spared in the construction of the book, which features boutique paper-backed bookcloth, papers from Moab, Canson, Arches, and Rives, and printing using archival Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks. Because of the time and expense involved in producing each copy, the edition will be strictly limited to 30 copies, of which six deluxe copies will also include a folder containing signed copies of each print, suitable for framing.

This is a new venture for Chance Press – not every book we publish from now on will be this elaborate, but we are very excited to enter the rarefied realm of “artist books” that will complement our other small press offerings. To support this project, we are hoping to pre-sell ten copies of the book to collectors who believe in what we’re doing and want to ensure the lowest possible edition number. As a special bonus, anyone who pre-orders a copy will receive one of ten prints of an image titled “The Birth of Dan” from Carol’s sketchbook on Moab Entrada Rag paper, housed in a custom-made cloth-covered folder. These prints will not be available once the book is released – the ONLY way to get one is to preorder a copy.

Preorder pricing for the deluxe edition of six copies is $250, and the slightly-less-deluxe edition is $150. (If we end up charging more for the book when it is released, you will still receive the book at the price you paid.) We are only accepting ten preorders, and otherwise, the book will be available for purchase when it is released, which we anticipate will be around January or February 2011. You can preorder either edition, or both editions, if you are so inclined and would like to receive two prints.

You can send money via PayPal to books (at) chancepress (dot) com; questions about this book can be directed to this email as well.