News

Can you fricken believe that I am STILL sick?? I can’t either. I am going absolutely insane. Every time I think I’m getting better, it’s like it’s two steps backward. Overall, however, I AM getting better. If I compare it to how I was doing weeks ago, I am better for sure. I just don’t have the energy I want to have. I’m tried and run down. I am still coughing a bit, but nothing like I was. So I guess really, I should shut up and stop complaining.

I guess you can say I have been making a lot of plans, but not creating anything physical. I am on the computer here and there, doing a bit of sketching in the ole moleskin sketchbook, but nothing very substantial. Those etching plates are sitting in my garage just waiting to be scraped into. The hard ground was applied on one of my good days. I don’t think I can deal with the ferric chloride dip until I’m 100% healthy. So that artists’ book is on hold.

Something nifty though is that Bottle of Smoke Press produced these really cool bookmarks for me, which will now come free in my artists books. I am also offering a small edition of them that will be signed and numbered (just 30 of them) for 4 bucks, and that includes shipping!

 

Also, in addition to winning the logo contest for the National Arts and Disability Center, I just so happen to be awarded a small grant from them to help fund my contribution to The Fiction Project for the Brooklyn Museum’s library. My book is called Inside/Outside and i will be creating it in Joshua Tree National Park from this house. This is a fusion of text and visual art that will be available online and also be traveling in exhibition across the USA.

Tomorrow, artist Arzu Arda Kosar is coming to pick out work for a group show she is curating at 18th Street in May. It includes three artists from Los Angeles and three from Turkey. She is curating this show from another artist who helped curate the Istanbul Biennial. I am very excited to be in this show.

Then Saturday I get to see my good friends from Chance Press, Jordan and Justine Hurder, who are coming down from El Cerrito in Northern Cali. It’s always wonderful to see them.

Plus this week I still have to ship off an All Done But None for a book show I am participating in in Denver.

So I am keeping somewhat busy, even though I am “taking it easy.”

I won the logo design contest for the National Arts & Disability Center.

….and yes, still sick, but very much recovered.

If case you were not aware, Dan has his own Facebook page. If you haven’t been there, you should go there and “Like” him. he really needs to be liked. He’s insecure like that.

Also, there is a discussion section about whether or not Dan is an existentialist. I guess it’s not all that interesting, but it’s there if you’d like to partake in the discussion. That is, if you feel so inclined.

I have been having thought of, get this, making a small comic book about Dan. Of course, it will come after this other ambitious project of my artist book, Houses, but I’d like to do a cheap comic book about Dan and all the places he likes to go and the things he likes to do because he is quite interesting. The more I spend time with him and the more I get to know him, I find him fascinating. I think other people will find him interesting too.

I was talking about my 5-year plan before and I thought about how top secret they were. Then I thought again about how stupid that was. Why do artists keep their shit so secret? Are my ideas so great that people are going to steal them? Yeah right. Fuck that. If people want to take my ideas, great. Let them. They’re not going to. They’re really not all that great to begin with. Secondly, if they were to take them, they wouldn’t be executed the same way anyway.

So here’s how my 2011-2016 plan is scribbled in my moleskin notebook. I’ll go over some of the items to explain. Some are brought over from 2010.

Land a NYC gallery

Build a paper drum set
This will be actual size and made out of manila pattern paper. Then I think I will pour paint on top of it. Haven’t decided yet.

The Brief Case Project
This is a metal briefcase that contains original, miniature paintings of large scale paintings that travel with me like a salesman.

Ethereal Research Labs
An Editions project of soft sculptures in Erlenmeyer flasks that are tagged as scientific specimens.

Win another big grant

Mount 2 solos shows and 1 solo museum show

Get a painting in a museum collection

Land a Berlin gallery

Sell a painting for at least $10k

Do an artist’s residency for at least a month at Yaddo, MacDowell, or Millay

Create 2 new bodies or work
The first one consisting of mainly coffee stains on raw canvas, colored underpaint, black and brown thick covered oil paint with scraffito design scratchings revealing the color underneath and embroidered outlines. The edges will be penciled notations.

Make 3 new artists’ book editions

Have the 1st draft of the novel completed
I have been working on a novel for a while now. Very slow going, but I guess you’d call it creative non-fiction. It’s the full story of my life and all the people in it and it’s unapologetic.

Do a large embroidery on a hospital gown

Finish the Picklebird database
Picklebird is my database of all the art and books I have collected in my entire lifetime (the good stuff anyway). I intend to make it an online public collection.

Create a short animated film about my family

Build an interactive character blog
This is something that will be released with my novel, but I will be working on it beforehand. It is basically a site with a multi blog section and interactive functions that the user can have with my illustrated and animated family members.

So There you have it. That’s the plan. Fingers and toes crossed.