Change Studies at KD’s Backyard Gardens
There is a curiosity-inspiring little community growing in the fenced-in yard next to 11th St.’s Victory Grill. Between that historic venue and the nearby trailer eateries which buffer old East 11th from the monstrously modern new orange-balconied development, is Kenny Dorham’s backyard, a fantastic place to take in some blues or soul music, tend to some plots, or to have a healthy garden-to-plate meal with kind new friends.
I made a post on the Austin Time Exchange Network a few months back, offering my services as a photographer to do a time-lapse sequence of a project or place. Kesten Broughton, proprietor of SunFarmKitchens, a (partially) solar-powered food trailer, has been spearheading the community garden projects and hosting Fambly Dinner once a week, and he took me up on the offer. So far I have been out there 3 times, and it has been a good learning experience for me to observe the changes and try and figure out the best way to capture it on camera. Some of the work-in-progress below:
sunflowers, 5/7/12
sunflowers, 5/16/12
sunflowers, 6/21/12
— _____ — _______ — ______ —
center garden, 5/7/12
center garden, 5/16/12
center garden, 6/21/12
— _____ — _______ — ______ —
haybed, 5/7/12
haybed, 5/16/12
haybed-turned-food, 6/21/12
— _____ — _______ — ______ —
mural side, 5/7/12
mural side, 5/16/12
mural side, 6/21/12
— _____ — _______ — ______ —
This last time I was there, there was a lot of stuff growing all around, so I have a lot of extra pictures which do not show an evolution. See those and more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/70127061@N07/sets/
Gang of 6: The Wreck Center Does Its Thang
Grady Roper, Enoch Rios, Michael White, Holly Brown and myself. Mike’s piece was an interactive sound collage. February 2012…
We had fun hanging the show til 3 in the morning. We found ways to connect the bodies of work at their meeting points, like Enoch’s photo of the mermaid arms connects to Holly’s photo of the arms + ice cream on dirt. Etcetera…
Favorite Chad documentary pics Of late…
photo by Chad Hopper
photo by Chad Hopper
photo by Chad Hopper
photo by Chad Hopper
Not knowing where to start…
One month ago tonight:
this photo taken by Stephanie Bonham :
And this was the end — 
Sean actually got some good documentation with his fancy camera and made a mini-documentary about it. You can watch it on vimeo. Thanks, Sean!
LAST (Odd) Saturday…
Gee-willickers, TIME is constant. tick-tock. Keeps on moving, just like this wind, here. (I live in the “Blackland Heights” neighborhood of East Austin, atop a hill with an almost constant breeze from the South. Across the street, just downhill a little to the South, is an elementary school. Behind us are the backyards of neighbors, some with shady trees and dense weeds, some with hard-worked garden rows, protected by solid fence. There used to be orchards here, some say… ) Anyway,
Here is our Documentation of APRIL 9th, 2011 (minus a video of a new musical instrument, which is coming soon…):
After Luke (our Participant #1 in the Social art Experiment which is “Odd Saturdays”) tinkered awhile to invent a fantastic use for glass bottles, he spent a lil time in the Studio, tidying up and doodling with the special treasures.
the objects in the studio have personalities and prefer sitting next to their friends
This guy's Surprised To Be Alive.
a pirate... (w/reflection)
An Albert Einstein cyborg.
Chad came out for awhile and SORTED. He managed to pop open some deep pockets of time-accumulation, and then he took some scientific-ish shots of these details:
As it was already a hot day, salad with hard-boiled egg and cran-rasp. spritzers were had by all.
In the afternoon, SIGN-PAINTING was undertaken as a serious motion to advance the cause of RE-aRT. Unfortunately for Luke (or fortunately, if he’s into action-adventure scenarios), the master list of JOBS changed
after he had already begun painting. The term palimpsest was discussed. The list continued to change long after Luke had to journey forth into the rest of his day.
...work-in-progress...
I enjoyed the day very much. I became re-aware of how much work there is to do, which is invigorating. And I made this picture:
** )_( ** =_= ** `+` in other news, CURRENTS is updated w/the current PRESS RELEASES. cHeck it oUT.
(check back later for video updates)
Art From the Streets
Well, the 18th Annual Art From the Streets art sale is coming up really soon — Nov. 6th (12-5) and 7th (9-5) — so I thought I’d share this beautiful piece that I purchased there a few years back:
signed Michael S. Moore
I am still not tired of looking at it, so I would say it’s definitely part of my permanent art collection.
You really should check this event out if you’ve never been before. In the past it was inside ARCH, but now it will be a block over, at St. David’s Trinity Center, @ 7th & Trinity. There is sure to be an overwhelming amount of artwork to look at and choose from, starting at $20, with the proceeds going directly to the homeless artists. If you go to the link you can read bios from some of the artists and learn about the program. Mark the calendar!
the Cadillac of worms, she says
Because there is so much going on right now that I am befuddled, I am giving you a non-sequitor title, c/o my dear friend Laura Cyan Anderson.
Art shows! Co-Lab this Saturday; Cheer Up Charlies (East 6th @ Waller) all June; Thunderbird (Koenig) in July: these are all collaborations with Chad Hopper.
At CUC you will find a small installation of a whole bunch of stuff all under the heart-shaped letters which spell out “DNA ERA”. We worked hard in there on a hot day without A.C., so go look at it. It’s kind of like going to the zoo, only it’s a bread factory. In it I express my love for nets, lamps and physics.
The Co-Lab show is an experiment in rules (and the flip-side of that, freedom). It is well explained on the Project blog (link above), so read that if you want to know more. Or, just show up to Co-Lab on Saturday eve if you can.
Finally, July’s coffeeshop show will probably just be a bunch of framed art/collages. I have a surplus of old stuff, but plenty of material to make new ones, too- ahem- art collectors! Take note. Art is important to have in your house. It helps loosen the brain in those odd moments between mundane bits of life, etcetera.
So, enough with words, here are some pictures:
April showers
Thanks to a computer angel from the Austin Time Exchange Network, we are back in action!
This is a picture about the love in my home, and also about Spring allergies and birds.
Oh boy– I just watched the Science of Sleep, so I am looking forward to dreamland.
*Dear Michel Gondry, I will be your slave. Please call me about your next project. Thanks!*
..What’s New.?
Doesn’t the word New look really weird when you stare at it for 3 seconds?
There are people outside my house wearing mirrors on a Friday night.
We (my honey + me) have a New office.
(it’s much more fun to rearrange the furniture when your furniture is just make-shift parts & pieces.)
It’s ARIES time!
I have a New way of showing you things, as my old way has died (and yet to be restored completely).
Here (hear):
Let me Show You:
Though I don’t have Photoshop at the moment, I Do have my SCANNER/
/ // / / // / (CAL|BRAT|NG)/ // / // / // -=
((and feedback screams from another room, another house…))
Now, here’s Something From the Past:
Scan #2: two Old photos, of the traditional sense. [yes I have a thing or two to learn about preventing dust speck-age;]
Top photo from IT’S ABOUT TIME (l_m_n_l 4:2008); bottom from TURNING POINTS (Co-Lab 12:2008). The nice thing about physical object photos (vs. digital files) is how they can end up in shuffled stacks, and then two will get together like this and share a harmonious moment.
more soon!
Zine-y bean
Yes! I love crossing things off the list.
This is a special sneaky peek (note: best set list ever, center) at what has gone into the production of the latest Night Viking & Friends album, Side Sauce. Inside a tidy vinyl sleeve, you get a b+w version of this “map”, with a collaborative crazy collage on the back, PLUS full-color front+back covers, and 31 TRACKS of awesome/inane sonic boom. I said BOOM.
Aww, look how slick they are!
Oh right! and back to that subject that I mentioned in the title, Ziney-zines. This project gave me a good vision and a process that I can use to accomplish my goals for The Lost Art (of)’s recordings.
[At some point a while back, I decided to make a February/Valentines’ mix this year, both to honor the Chi-do tradition* that has been dormant for some years, and to have a “gift” available for my audience at SVT on 2-14. Then– I added on to that ambition a desire to create xerox-copied booklets as accompaniment to the Recordings — to house extra stories, to indulge my urges to explain, to save honorable intentions from un-crossed off lists, and, of course, to design. Lovefully…]
Cutting and pasting is fun! Email me to order Side Sauce or to pre-order the February Mix.
*It’s a long story…
Remnants/Memories from “…Time”
Ahh, how Time does gallop, and the wind does blow…
There were a lot of little details.
And different contributors.
And, hey, these apples are still for sale!
I was once in High School
More from the slide-sorting process…
Still Life
I found these images that I made in high school — not ones that I think about much, but interesting to reflect back on, as they represent some of my variety…
The one with the binary code and heart diagram– I remember having an inspiration and then following up on it. I think I was listening to too much Nine Inch Nails and writing pretttty tortured poetry at that time. I like the weaving technique and “symbol-rich graphic design”.
Next up we have an Art 2 assignment from Mr. (Gary) Borreman’s class. He was a really cool teacher: treated his students like real people, worthy of trust and responsibility.
I took his class as a freshman, although he unfortunately got fired in the middle of the year for something. I can’t quite remember, but it was basically fearful parent backlash against his liberal teaching style or a view he may have expressed. Our second assignment in his class that year was to think about what happens when/after we die, and to make a piece about it. Having experienced the death of my father already at age 9, I had already found a metaphor I was comfortable with, which came from the Baha’i Faith, and which is illustrated here:
This last one is a little random. I didn’t spend much time on it, either in planning or in executing, and I painted from a photograph of Isadora Duncan.
But I do like her little smile; and I do believe that I had a painting breakthrough while making this. Plus, one of my mother’s friends from when I was a child used to say that I was Isadora reincarnated. So it could be a past-life portrait– who knows.
Installation Inspirations
While I was time traveling back to 2000 (see 3 posts ago), I thought about who really shined the light on “installation art” for me. Only two influences really stand out:
First, Yayoi Kusama, whose art I had the immense pleasure of experiencing at MoMA in 1998 (“Love Forever” retrospective exhibit). This piece, as well as the boat covered in squishy things and wall-sized infinity net paintings, really impressed me. She communicated immensity of vision, absurd humor, and powerful focused energy.
After the show, I bought a book about her and learned that in addition to her dot-covered sculptures, paintings and installations, she also staged Happenings, designed clothes, and wrote novels!
Another absolutely astounding artist whom I met while in Western Mass is Karen Dolmanisth. I don’t even know how my-boyfriend-at-the-time became acquainted with her, but he took me to her studio one evening for some occasion, and I felt like I had entered another world, where everything mundane was made magically beautiful. Nails, corn, dresses, glass, sticks… everything was collected and seemed to wear an air of “play”. Later we got to see those materials installed in an old spice warehouse in the big city, where she performed a ritual/dance in collaboration with live music.
Her material choices and way of evoking the spiritual felt so natural to me (in resonance) that only in hindsight could I see them distinctly for what they are, a unique artistic voice. She has continued to produce great work since then, which you can see more of on her website.
Since that time I have encountered many more artists working in this medium, for whom I will save a future post. Oh, but how will I find the words to convey that electric jolt, the body-brain experience of synaesthetic fusion that comes from a space inspirationally transformed? I guess the word is “thrill”.
Thank you, artists!
Synaesthetic Breakfast 