Dimensions Vary

Guess I ought to write something since my friend Morse linked to me. So here goes…

The art car/car art magnetic sign painting project is on hold while I try to figure out what’s what with sign contractors and plastic transparencies. While I have every confidence that there is a solution, I have no idea what the solution will be at present.

My colleague Josie’s show opened this week with a pile o’ smiles and not a little weirdness. Says I to another colleague: “This is some deeply weird shit.” Replied she: “How deep? How weird?” Well, there's a motion-activated tinker-toy-like contraption that makes tiny Frederick Remington cowpokes bounce and dance on dowel rods to begin with. The artist in question is Max Kazemzadeh. Also in the show is a designer named Danielle Aubert whose Microsoft Excel drawings look considerably more beautiful than anything I've made in that medium. And then there's Anne Eastman whose videos are lovely, but whose photo, Foucault's Furniture, is a current object of my desire, even if it's not part of the show.

There’s a somewhat unsatisfactory Web cam for the show here, but be warned that it's dark and unresponsive unless the gallery is open. Look for it to update mostly between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. (CST) weekdays. That I've arranged to have Andy Holtin's cardboard surveillance cameras Webcast -- via a tiny wireless device and via the support of a phalanx of nerds who found it "interesting" -- makes me feel like I'm part of the project myself. At least tonight it does.

Local girl scores

A former student of mine, Christy Crosson, has been awarded an internship at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. Christy was a joy in class, and it's a pleasure to see her get a gig this sweet. The pay is tiny, but the contacts and general cachet will be hard to beat.

Art Car/Car Art

My friend, who calls himself Morse, has announced an art project here.

So I will, too. Nothing if not competitive.

I made this painting some time back.


It's 20 x 16 inches. I've begun working with a sign contractor here in Cow Hill to produce an edition of magnetic car signs (the kind you see on a plumber's truck, say, or on a van for a mom-and-pop office supply store) based on the painting or one like it.

The plan is to produce as many car-magnet paintings as I can afford and give them away on the condition that anyone who gets one has to display it on his/her car for a month. Call it a traveling show.

Art and remoulade

Friday night, we attended an opening reception for Pix2 at UT-Dallas. John Pomara, who teaches there, invited art critics in the DFW Metroplex to select one artist each for inclusion in the show. I chose Josie Durkin, the new sculptor at my university. Her work is wonderful. Here's what I wrote about her for the show's brochure:

"I became a fan of Josephine Durkin’s work when I first saw it a couple of years ago. Formally inventive and courageously beautiful (you have to be brave to make things so ravishing), her work is also informed by a web of human/social associations. Consider those rocking chairs: They’re made from laser-cut and folded digital photographs (patent pending – really). Chairs conform to our bodies to one degree or another. Their contours and proportions reflect the articulation of our bones. So it’s not a stretch to read Josie’s arrangement in social terms with the chairs metonymically standing in for a crowd of people, an audience for the (blowhard?) fan before them. Little fans of a big fan, they rock and nod agreement to the asymmetrical power relationship implied by the work’s relative proportions and by the unilateral transmission of energy. I’ve been in that situation, and I’ll bet you have, too."

It's great to see Josie getting some local attention. Of course, inclusion in a university gallery group show isn't as significant as her solo show up in Wichita's Ulrich Museum. I plan to head up there to check it out in March.

After the opening, we drove to Big Shucks for dinner. A dozen oysters on the half shell, some ceviche, cole slaw, and really good fried calamari, which came with (mirabile dictu!) remoulade, also very good.