My friend and studio-mate Christopher dela Pole and I have been investing heavily in letterpress technology lately. We’ve both got the itch to make some new, dare I say, amazing text art projects in the very near future. One of our Ebay treasures has arrived today: this beautiful 72pt Sans Serif font. I can’t wait to get some ink on these…

Josef Albers. Shielded from Homage to the Square: Ten Works by Josef Albers. 1962

I am searching for inspiration this morning. Luckily, I didn’t have to look too far. Checkout this brief video about printmaker Karen Kunc’s work. I was exceptionally lucky to be an undergrad at the University of Nebraska and to be given the opportunity to both take classes with her and study abroad under her guidance. Her work is amazing and I have one of her small intaglio prints from my archives on display in my home. She has definitely influenced me – from my love of “printedness” to the way I see and understand the spatial properties of my surroundings.

Karen Kunc Print

From Printeresting.org

From Ex - Posed © ASBJØRN HOLLERUD

One of the great things about the post-MFA world is watching how far all of my colleagues have been able to travel in the last year. Printmaker, photographer, and friend David Stordahl has been living and working in Norway since January. Through him I have been introduced to the outstanding work of Asbjørn Hollerud. His portfolio site can be viewed HERE.

I am particularly interested in his MA work: EX – POSED. He describes the project:

For the exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall, I exhibited 108 colorful silkscreen printed stainless steel plates next to a small monitor displaying Japanese commercials from the 1980′s. The printed part of the installation started from a photograph I shot of a rusted wall on a trip to Japan. I got a micro macro experience at the moment I photographed the wall. Visually it was as if I was flying high above the ground and at the same time I was close up against the wall. The finished photograph was then turned into a very rough half tone pattern. A small pixelated half tone fragment was taken out of the image. This fragment went through a long journey back and forth between the analogue and digital processes. In the end the fragment was enlarged and printed in different color combinations.

A small monitor played a loop of romantic Japanese commercials with American pop icons. Michael Jackson is in a commercial for a scooter named “Love”. Andy Warhol says the primary colors in Japanese while holding a tv monitor and come to the conclusion that “it is beautiful”. Mike Tyson is in a “super strong” hybrid with Toyota trucks. Eddie Murphy is nuts about the new “sexy” Toyota sportscar. An Isuzu commercial shows cars dancing in rows as if it was a human ballet.

The remixing, blending, and collisions of personal identity and mass-mediated image keep pulling me back to his project. I think his work expresses the need to play, explore, and recreate from the images that, on some level, have created our own identity. On a more personal note, I have memories of my own childhood… and a very embarrassing video tape of me signing various commercials from the 1980s. Does anyone else remember the “Molly McButter” jingle?

Actually Evening in Brooklyn... But Today Feels This Good

All mornings are not created equal. This morning in particular has been exceptionally sublime… for reasons that usually go unnoticed. Listening to someone take a shower… putting the perfect amount of butter on a slice of baguette. These are the things that are outweighing all the stress, chaos, and financial burdens that have been pulling me under. On this fine, sunny Friday, I woke up, showered (ignoring my newly bald head) and decided to linger around Curtis’ place for breakfast. Absolutely perfect.

To make things even better, my first email of the day was a message informing me my friend and colleague Eireann had blogged about my work and linked to my Etsy store. Eireann is an incredibly talented visual artist, poet, writer, printmaker, and conversation partner. I remember sitting on the curb outside of the art building @ the U of M during my first weeks of grad school with her.  I had just finished my first “real” critique with a faculty member and was completely thrashed… Eireann and I started discussing what makes art a place for possibility, not just a place for production. Looking back, that conversation was one of the things that now offsets all my student loan debt (another being… running around the winding streets of Istanbul @ 1:00 AM with two German girls looking for lemon soda and vodkas).

Check out Eireann’s portfolio and site here: http://www.ohbara.com/
Her blog is also great! http://www.ohbara.com/weblog.html