STOP DECORATING AND START MAKING ART aka. Holiday Update

"Stop decorating and starting making art."

The epiphany popped into my head whilst laying on my back, in the back, of Melissa Turners van, speeding North on I95, away from Miami and rocketing towards Savannah, Georgia. Full of Chipotle and a refreshing lime-topped Corona the sentence and the concept reverberated in my mind:

 STOP DECORATING

~                AND START                ~

MAKING ART

Could I say no to that?

No.

Squiggles and Cross

Dear Interwebz,


It seems as if work comes in flows. Research, then construction, research, then construction. This could also be seen as goofing-off then stressing out, goofing-off then stressing out. However you want to word it, I'm in the flurry of a stressing out/construction period right now and it feels mighty fine. 


This recent work has been about pain, and its striking beauty. There is a rapturous quality to pain, an assurance of reality that is rare to be found in the aloofness of chuckle. Its a strange loop we grow through; remembering how much we know, then being reminded of how little we actually believe.
I'm beginning to see life forming as a calcification; layers upon layers of blood sweat and tears produce a character, a friend, a lover.


I'm headed down to Miami tomorrow morning with my friend Mellisa. To quote her from her website, launchmeintospace.org... 
 "I am trading all of my belongings in a fundraiser as a way to drum up monetary support for an incredible 5 month art and urban planning collaboration opportunity with the city of Copenhagen, Denmark."

So were headed down there early in the AM in her van thats been painted by my neighbor Leonard Miller (a preeminent sign painter in the Savannah Garden), and I'm taking along my friend Stu, a buddy from Alaska who's been going to school in the States.

So that should be fun!
I'll let y'all know how it was. In the mean time enjoy these paintings. I just came up with a signature that I'm really diggin on, so I stamped it on everything I've got. It was liberating.

Also, check out the store. I'm in the process of pricing some more paintings and getting them ready for selling as well. If your interested, give me a shout.

Much Love...

Until It Stops Spinning

Until It Stops Spinning (A spin artists' tale) from Zach Huskins on Vimeo.


And some more photos of spin art, after the jump.

Spin Cycle

"The mission of Emergent Structures is to increase the value and accessibility of building material waste streams through facilitation, collaboration, education, and advocacy."

As such, this Savannah based organization caught my eye at the Re-Fest held some time ago. I signed up for the newsletter and a bit later was notified that they were looking for interesting stories about recycled materials. Spin art being heavy on my mind at the time I decided to see if they would be interested in hosting the story on their blog. And they were!

The results...

Dreamtime Synastry

Last weekend I got together with Chelsea, Matthew, and Matt and we put together a performance peace involving projectors, drawing, and digiridoos. It was an amazing experience, and so much fun to work with such awesome people. I'll be posting the finished project up here soon.

Pirate Fest!

Tybee Island had their second annual day of drinking and booty calling, aka Pirate Fest. Darcy and the Crew (Jon, Sean, and I) made our wretched way out their and gave the whole shindig a kick in its crusty pirate pants. Twas fun...

Rat Brains, Galaxies and Love.

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project.cfm?id=308


We've seen lots of pictures of individual galaxies, the round discs of light and whirpoolic forms. We've been looking at individual players, hugely massive entities that lumber through space, almost like plankton. But this concept of a homogenous mixture of galaxies slowly expanding from a singular point seems to break down under the auspices of being able to see the universe from a different perspective. What we see instead is a network, not chaos.
    This new image of the universe, is really really fascinating. Neurons are the part of the brain that transmit information by using electro-chemical synapse. They see and respond, really quickly, but with little "thought" to what abstract idea they may realizing on a gross scale. I begin to think of a chair, and suddenly millions of cells dance and vibe at the rhythm of "chair" none of them having any actual clue as to what a chair is. The thought is a result of the pattern. The pattern of information. Be it chemicals, marbles, electricity, or an idea, it is the pattern of the transfer that creates a thought.
    So, it would make sense that these galaxies are unaware of what galactic pattern making they are participating in. The flow of information generates consciousness on a  galactic scale, like the one seen above. Instead of chemicals or electricity, we might see a transfer of energy and light. As this light was transfered the patterns would induce a gross awareness, a consciousness.
   This is true in rat brains, our brains, the shape of the galactic network, and also in our individual lives and our relationship to each other and our planet. Our network, our relationships, create a flow of information that transmits ideas and emotions. This data transfer is the foundational synapse of a consciousness on a higher dimension that has only recently been explored by the Occident. The consequences of these facts becoming the paradigms of the new generations can only be affirmations of connectedness and community, as well as patterns and rhythm.

Re-Fest: An Essay

Over the weekend, more than 700 peaceful protestors were arrested on the streets of New York City. As part of Occupation Wall Street, these individuals gathered together behind a collective idea of a world different from the one we see today. A world of community, a world of creativity and awareness and freedom, a world where nature and the spirit of wildness inside all of us is granted relevance and expression.

Over the same weekend, I found myself in the midst of something called "Re-Fest." It took me some time to understand exactly what I was dealing with, where it had come from, and how I was part of it, but I soon found myself almost too excited to maintain a focus on the present as ideas and potentials began to exponentially excite my curiosity and passion. I saw the beginnings of many fertile connections being made, and the energy of the synapse between individuals, co-ops, alliances, and businesses was palpable.

The quiet mumblings of paradigm shifts are becoming conversations that we can all join in on, share and learn from. We are realizing our potential as individuals in a co-creative universe and events such as Re-Fest are only the most primal examples of what is to become. This is not only the future of Savannah, but of the world.

I was surprised by the lack of undergraduate SCAD students at the festival. The reasons for this may be attributed to a few things, but two stand out for me. The perception that Savannah holds of Undergrads and the perception that Undergrads hold of Savannah. A lack of advertising to the undergrad sector on the behalf of the leaders of "Re-Fest" due to the apparent uninterested nature that many undergrads seem to have with the community of Savannah could have emphasized a vicious loop that needs to be broken.

SCAD has the capacity (similar, I would assume, to many colleges) of becoming a universe in its own right that shelters students and insulates them to the tangible "stuff" that is Savannah. Especially at an undergrad level, it is easy to close the loop of your life entirely inside the bubble of SCAD. I feel that this is a loss both to the community and the individual as each has been denied the lessons the other stores.

Re-Fest and the Undergrad could have both strengthened each other. There is a feeling at SCAD that Savannah offers very little future, and what future it does hold is quite old-fashioned. What I took away from Re-Fest was that Savannah holds a unique mix of materials, spirit, and people. There is a slowness to the town that has kept it behind Portland, or San Francisco but I see this staleness not as a curse, but a charm. It allows us, right now, to have a lasting impact on the southern renaissance that I find myself in the midst of. Things are changing, whether we see it or not. We can either resist the change and feel the pain of holding on, or collaborate as a community to create the future we all deserve.

What excited me more than the festival itself was the potential that it created. The unsaid, unseen connections that were made. New York and Savannah may be far apart, but what happened in the two cities is connected by a willingness of individuals to take power over their reality. The New Yorkers have the burden of being the symbol of the collapse of corporate materialism but here in Savannah we have the responsibility and the freedom to create the new paradigms and start the patterns of a collaborative spirituality that can connect all of us.

Spinning: My current web of art, life, and science

This past week has been a time of tremendously productive projects, a cornucopia of ideas for projects to come, a jump-started evolution of personal theories on reality, and a time of clearness, excitement, and growth. Needless to say, it's been a busy week.

I got into Savannah the last lingering days of August and chaos, beautiful chaos, soon ensued. After 4 days of a mad dash to switch houses (which was pulled of 110% successfully) and a period of strange jet-lag induced humidity-inspired transitioning I found myself in the best of all possible scenarios in a room that resembles more of a studio than a place for sleep. My room grew to be arrange circularly amongst the walls. From left to right; door, chair, desk, table, bookshelf, fireplace, bed, boxes, door (repeat). The room is bigger (much bigger) than where I was yesteryear (106 Brady), or the year before that (SCAD Dorms), or the year before that (Idyllwild), and all the 18 years before that as well (99603). The joy of having a large enough room to be able to make stuff, conduct experiments, lounge around and read books, store things, sit in a chair, and have a big desk, is truly grand. Space is important, and in this day and age of ever more virtual realities, its reassuring and grounding to actually have "space" to oneself.

SCAD classes started two weeks ago, but as I am not enrolled in classes this quarter that affected me little. However, the energy of the people around me, as it fell into a rhythm, rubbed off I feel and has allowed me to find my own rhythm at which to do work. This monday really started things off. I'm working on two "art" projects right now: Spin Art, and Allegory of the Seasons. They both contrast and compliment each other very well, and I'm constantly surprised and excited to learn about the limits of both.

I had a desk fan that I took apart the other day and painted each of the blades a primary color. When I put it back together and turned it on they blurred together to create a warm grey. Interesting! So I laid that aside for a week and fumbled around with other doodads and himjims before I realized I could combine elements of my room that were laying around and turn them into something alive and interactive. I grabbed a vinyl record of christmas music I had laying around from last year, shaved the inside hole a millimeter or so bigger, then took off the fan blades and sunk the record onto the fan axle with a dollop of super-effing-hot-glue and set the speed to LO, after it settles down and reaches spinning tranquility you apply paint. The centrifugal force pulls the paint to the edges in the most beautiful, abstract, and unpredictable ways. My room mates and I, and other random drop-ins, have made 26 spinned records so far, each one as different as the next.

This style of making art is one of the most interactive and explorable ideas I've come across in a long time. The other great thing is you can have many people working on the same one. It becomes a group project, a lesson in learning to share your creations. It's mesmerizing, instructive, beautiful, and seductive. And so simple!

My other project is quite the opposite.

The Allegory of the Seasons will be four large masonite panels portraying the shift in seasons we see on planet Earth. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. The concept behind this project is to display the three elements of nature and their relationship to each other. The solid rock of the earth, the ever varied kingdom of plants, and the beauty of man. I am playing with those three elements to create a story of circular progression. A rise, and a fall. A warm, and a cold. A spin.
I built the first panel yesterday (right before it rained), and its a beauty! Today I'll probably start to gesso it and prepping it for the paint. I bought an overhead projector on eBay the other day and I've been drawing designs on lexan with a micron pen and I can project them onto the masonite board to see how everything will fit together. It's been wonderful working so hard to plan everything, from the composition of the background (which will resemble renaissance wallpaper) to the engineering of flowers and their parallels to the human body.

All of this spinning, and cycling has made me think, re-think, and meditate on reality. I am only sure of one thing in life and that is my ignorance, but I've accepted that and realized that I really get a hoot out of coming up with theories of reality. It's my own metaphysical exercises. Anywhoo, the spinning is important. I was writing some stuff down last night and concepts of color, the substances of reality,  the difference between a static volume and a spinning volume... not yet ready to make a blog post about it, but I'll let it fester in the wrinkles of my brain.

Also.... Tonight I'm gonna be in the "Naughty Nautical Nite" singing and dancing. I met Dame Darcy a couple weeks ago and nothings been the same. More on that later...

Blessings to all!

 

  
 

 

 

Lessons I've Learned from Spinning Poi

• You've got to have balls, that's all.
• Don't hit your balls, let them flow.
• It's not a trick, it's a dance.
• When limitations confront tension beauty is created.
• You've got to dodge yourself.
• Have a mirror or a good friend watching to tell you how you're doing. It's difficult to self-critique.
• Let the balls guide you, they already know what to do.
• The more you hit yourself the faster you'll learn.
• Keep a rhythm.
• Don't show off, you'll mess up.
• It's always better a day old.
• When you forget how and you just do, it becomes natural.
• Nothing is difficult, it just takes time.

The Attack as a Catalyst for Real Living

Snakes on a Plane

I'm currently working on a large 42" x 65" oil + acrylic painting for my Life Painting class with Professor Reed. It's an allegorical painting, one that has lots of messages, only to be revealed by long stares and pondering.

      The picture to the left is where this painting stood quite early in the process. Alongside the painting I am also working on a video of the different stages this painting has been through on its journey from blank canvas to layered colors.

    There has been a lot of exploration on this piece. I have overcome thinking of these paintings as being delicate and that has really helped me make bold decisions and not be so tentative about things. I've painted over things, sanded paint away, painted and repainted the same elements many times over. The canvas is much more hardy than paper and can take a great deal more abuse.

On the in-class side of Life Painting we are on day 5 of an 8 day pose that includes two models, standing next to each other. One of them holds an egg, the other a cube, and they share a string between their open hands. I've been working on a glazed painting of them and today at 2 I will be headed up to work on that some more. The in-class paintings, the 2 we've done and the 1 we are working on now,  are turning out pretty well. I am not too excited about their end result but I have learned an amazing amount about approaching the canvas to paint a model, the underlying structure, the importance of line, composition, and anatomy, and the reflectivity of color. I have been unable to make what I have learned really shine in the in-class paintings but all that experimenting is really paying off in the out-of-class Allegorical painting.

I'm also working on some small portraits of the people I'm surrounded by here in Savannah. I painted Kelsea's portrait yesterday, it was quite successful in terms of color mixing. I ended up bringing all the wrong colors down to the house yet I was still able to manage pulling of a nice skin tone that really suited her. I can feel my color mixing skills improve every time I start squeezing tubes of paint. 

It's getting easier to see the world as it is and not how I think it was or should be. And I'm not talking specifically about painting. Improve in one area, improve in all areas. I believe that to be very true. The skills I'm learning in painting that help me differentiate the rivers of shadow and temperature of the lights are seeping into the social qualities of my life. The ability to exaggerate small perceptual changes has been helpful not just for creating an illusion on a canvas but also for interacting with the variety and depth behind

The Dining Room

Yesterday Kelsea and I got quite productive and started hanging up pictures on the wall behind our dinner table. We put up all the paintings I've done that include people, and we were going for an old-fashioned wall full of family photos, but paintings instead. As I paint more I'll hang them up and soon this wall will be too stuffed to fit any more. But here is what it looks like now.

I got to say, it really pulls the room together. :)

Also, I added some photos of the newer paintings and their over in the "Artwork" section of this blog.

On a personal note, things are always interesting. Classes are going really well! I'm taking Life Painting (with my favorite professor, Sandra Reed), Computer Arts Class, and Art History II. Today we covered the 15th century and I'm quite excited for next class when we well be talking about Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.

The spring heat is slowly eating away at the cold here, its a beautiful day, and I'm quite excited for the weekend. I have lots of fun to do this weekend. The awesome part about my fun is that at the end of the weekend it all gets graded! Whodathunkit!