The 52 Project: Week After Week of Riffing

Take a look at the 52 Project. It’s created by Chrissy Deiger and Brian Ralph Short as a venue for artists to speak to each other; to make things that would not have occurred otherwise occur; to mix media so that it melts, stumbles, smolders, erupts; to both interrupt and prolong the creative process; to enjoy the multitude of ways we have to communicate with each other, to make meaning, to insist and react and be still.

Each week for a year a different artist riffs on the art that was posted the week before. Mine’s up now, called “Work Chair.” Check out the guy before me, week 26. He did a dumpster dive, on video, and resurrected a chair (the one I drew below), on the fly.

"Work Chair"

Now get to it. Go do your work, fearlessly.

American Parody: Gothic Gets a Makeover

 

"American Gothic" by Grant Wood

 

Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” has got to be the most parodied painting in the world. Must be the appeal of tweaking an icon, over and over and over….

I like parody. I’d rather see parody with purpose, but ever since I was a kid and discovered Wacky Packages, the idea of transforming a well known visual into something new has had major appeal to me. Even for no reason at all, it’s kind of fun. It mesmerizes people… trips up the brain for just a second, if it’s done well.

It took a while for the painting to achieve icon status. Painted 1930, Wood entered it into a competition in the Art Institute of Chicago. It earned a bronze medal (plus a $300 prize for the artist), and the Institute bought the painting. Backlash arrived like a fist in the face when Iowans (the painting was set in the Hawkeye State) felt that Wood was mocking them as grim, bloodless rubes. Wood insisted he wasn’t, but many assumed his work was part of a trend toward caricaturing rural American life as old-fashioned, repressed, backward. The artist denied this charge, aligning himself during the depression with Midwest artists like John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton, who celebrated the tough, straightforward American spirit in their works.

Parodies of the painting started popping up soon, from the serious to the the frivolous. Here’s a slew of ‘em for you.

 

Gordon Parks (1942)

 

Hometown Art Show

Walker Public Library

They say you can’t go home again. Who’s they? I don’t know… Faulkner? Thomas Wolfe? Somebody like that, probably. Then again, I think Dylan (Bob, not Thomas) said “Whattaya mean ya can’t? Of course ya can,” though I don’t see him hanging around Hibbing, Minnesota very much.

Anyways (as they say on “Deadwood,” repeatedly), I went back earlier this month to the place I lived till I was 18; my hometown, North Muskegon, Michigan, population 3,901. August – especially a hot, sooty New York August – is reason enough to visit the west coast of Michigan (the big lake was running a temp of 75 degrees all month, making for perfect dippin’), but I had another: an art show at the Walker Memorial Library, where I had probably checked out a couple hundred books in my day (“Periwinkle Jones” and “Mr. Mergatroid” stand out as faves).

What’s with all the parentheses?? I’ll cool it for a while, I promise. My mind is like a Habitrail © of diverting thoughts today.

Okay, so: I “went home again” for a show earlier this month. Shipped a few paintings in early, and brought a few on the plane. Installed the show on the 10th with help from my wife Colleen and my sister Tracy. Opening night was Friday the 13th, the very same evening as the Taste of the Northside, out in the park, and a classic car show on Ruddiman Drive, in front of the library. A busy night in NM.

Colleen, Tracy, tools

As with all shows, there’s a period of anxiety leading up to the opening. Artists are often a worrisome, self-critical lot, and I guess I’m not different. Will anyone show up?, Is my stuff any good?, etc. Well, people did show, and for that I’m grateful. Thanks to a well-written article in the Muskegon Chronicle by my NM classmate and friend Mollie Vento and some help from other dear friends, we had a good little crowd. Among the visitors: my dad’s old tennis buddy, my third grade teacher, my oldest friend’s dad and wife, a bunch of classmates, other teachers, and even my old principal, who summers in the area. It was a reunion. It was nice to be home again.

Lots o' kids, appropriate since the show was in the children's book section

With Lee Hiller, Jeff Kessler, John Campione

with Barbara Beaton, visiting from Ann Arbor

With Lee, Amy Conn Tenney and Colleen

Big 'cat hats,' big red dog

Connoisseurs of Fine Art

Colleen's "Wish Painting" was unveiled at the show

At my mom's memorial gazebo the next day

With new painting called "home", featuring North Muskegon in the heart

“Triple Kiwi”, day 8 of 30 birds in a month

"Triple Kiwi"

Right, we’ve been watching “Flight of the Conchords” lately, so I’ve got Kiwi on the brain. By that logic, a raptor might be due, thanks to a recent marathon intake of “Battlestar Galactica.” Hey, you get it or you don’t. Glay-vin! Bur-HOY!

An original piece every day, and yes, they’re for sale. And they’re affordable: $99, which includes free first-class shipping. You can order on my Etsy store by clicking here. Check this blog every day (or the Etsy store) to see the new one. Each one will be 5″ by 7″ on sturdy illustration board.

Any birds you’d like to see painted? Let me know! Recent suggestions include an the dodo, a jive turkey, a blue-footed boobie, terns, herons and egrets.

Yesterday’s bird: “American Eagle Tired of His Image”

Live from Grand Rapids …

1978, John's ArtPrize Entry

My painting has officially taken its place among the more than 1,200 works on display all around Grand Rapids, Mich. this week.

I arrived in Grand Rapids this afternoon and got a pleasant surprise — the Ottawa Tavern gave me premium wall placement for 1978, so more people are likely to see it. It’s even visible from the sidewalk through the Ottawa’s windows.

I’ll be taking part in ArtPrize events for most of the next few days. If you would like to know what I’m up to, you can check me out on Twitter. My wife/marketing consultant has peer pressured me into tweeting and this seems like the perfect time to really give it a try with the stream-of-consciousness updates.

If you want to see what other people are saying about ArtPrize on Twitter, check out this search. You’ll see a lot of excited comments like:

nicknelson Good morning. Just got to work. There is a palpable feeling of excitement in the air for #artprize in GR. It’s pretty amazing.

mindyjean @ArtPrize starts today and the excitement is in the air! Two thumbs up Grand Rapids! #MichiganAwesome

peopledesign Amazing start to @artprize. It was giddy at the opening reception.

How to vote in ArtPrize, nice ‘n easy like

A guest post from the wife of the artist, Colleen Newvine Tebeau:

The organizers of ArtPrize are giving art fans lots of ways to weigh in on who should win recognition and cash in the art contest this month in Grand Rapids.

Maybe it’s because of all those choices that I find the rules a little hard to follow. In case I’m not the only one easily confused, here’s my run at it.

To help an artist win ArtPrize, you must do two things:

1. Register to vote in person at a registration venue in Grand Rapids, Mich.
2. Vote

That’s easy, right?

** First, the registration: **

As the ArtPrize voting rules page states:

• Anyone 16 years of age or older who registers in person at the ArtPrize event can vote.
• You cannot vote without registering at the event.
• There will be no charge for voter registration.
• Attendees will be required to present a valid government issued ID in person at a registration station
• ID can be drivers license, other state ID or passport
• There will be voter registration stations throughout the city September 23-October 7

So in order to vote, you must physically go to one of the ArtPrize registration stations anytime between Sept. 23 and Oct. 7. You can find a list here on the ArtPrize site. It helpfully includes the hours of each location.

Optionally, you can pre-register. Organizers say it will save you time at the registration site. Instead of having to provide your details there, you can just show your ID and activate your voting status.

You can vote without pre-registering but you can’t vote without registering. Got it?

** Second step: voting **

All voting is electronic. No hanging chads, no folded pieces of paper in a shoe box. Top prize is $250,000 and ArtPrize is not fooling around. Deloitte & Touche, the accounting firm, designed the voting process.

Like in the old days in Chicago, you get to vote multiple times in this election. There is a first round where you can vote for as many artists as you like, then a second round where you choose your favorite from among 10 finalists.

Voting runs Sept. 23-30 for the first round. You can vote up or down on each artist but only the up votes will count in selecting the finalists.

Voting for finalists runs Oct. 1-7. If you were registered to vote for round one, you are still registered to vote again.

How do you vote? You have many choices. You can use one or all in the first round to advance as many artists as you want. Second round, choose the one that works best for you.

* Online: Anytime after you’re registered to vote, sign in to your account on artprize.org, search for an artist and start voting.

* Mobile Browser: Mobile browser offers a simplified version of artprize.org on your mobile phone at m.artprize.org. Sign in, record your vote in the text box and type the artist’s voting code into the box to vote up or down. You can find artist codes by searching for the artist on artprize.org — John’s is 3276.

* iPhone app: Go to the iTunes store and download the ArtPrize app. Sign in to the app and search artists by name to vote for them.

* Text Message (SMS): Register your mobile phone number with ArtPrize, either online at artprize.org or in person when you register.

Once your voter status is activated, you’ll receive a text message with a unique code. Text that code back to 878787 to validate your phone and then you’re ready to vote “up” or “down.”
Send all votes to 878787; text the word “vote” plus the numeric code displayed near the artwork (i.e., “vote 55551”)

With all the voting taking place electronically, some of our far-away friends have expressed interest in casting their ballot for John long distance. Sadly, unless you want to buy a plane ticket, you can cross your fingers and encourage other people to vote but you can’t help choose the winner.

1978, John's ArtPrize Entry

While we’d love every vote we can get, I like the ArtPrize system because:

• Instead of just testing which of the 1,200 artists has the most friends, it means people have to physically see at least some of the art on display all around Grand Rapids. In addition to winning, I think all these creative folks would love as many people to see their work as possible.
• It cuts down on the chance for cheating. If you didn’t have to physically go, every artist could just create 100 fake gmail accounts to forge 100 votes and the whole system would cave in.
• It’s fantastic to think about the energy and excitement of having more than 1,000 artists urge everyone they know to come to Grand Rapids.

Now that we have that all cleared up, head to the Ottawa Tavern at Ottawa and Pearl to see not only John’s art but also:

Stephanie Timmerman Schlatter
Natalie Villarreal
Florence Denham
Tom Phares
Anna Timmerman
William Johnson
Loretta Shumate-Pierre
Bud Kibby
Lynn Anderson
David Guthrie
Kevin Wentworth
Marlan Cotner
Hannah Lukasiewicz
James Jursinic
Betsy Brelinski
Laurel J Prafke
Ginny Keegan
Colette Gee
Levi Goven
Seth Wehner
Jennifer Rentschler
Gregory Oberle
J Toffic

John & Yoko & Political Performance Art

Two of our all-time favorite New Yorkers and their best known piece of political performance art: the 4oth anniversary of the Bed-In for Peace, covered by NPR here.

My version:

(original in the Grabel Collection of New York)

"La Paix et L'Amour" (John and Yoko)

Luv from NYC to Rhode Island, and Back

Ahhh... DEL'S.

I’m a beach boy. I grew up near the clean, wide, sandy shores of Lake Michigan, and out here on the east coast, I’ve found a slice o’ heaven on earth called Block Island, part of Rhode Island, which isn’t actually an island, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

What we’re talking about is summer and the beach, and when you put those two together anywhere in Rhode Island, there’s sure to be Del’s frozen lemonade. To quote RI’s own Petah Griffin: “It freakin’ rocks.” I did a painting saying as much (now hanging at Dizzy’s in Brooklyn… which also freakin’ rocks), and put it up in my Etsy store, where it was spotted by Courtney Anderson of Rhode Island Monthly. She gave the painting a little bit of love here in a recent post.

Thanks, Courtney. I owe you a Del’s.

How Chuck Close Redefined His Art and Came Back Stronger

Chuck Close painted like no one else ever quite had. His gigantic, hyper-realist portraits (based on extreme close-ups he’d taken in his studio) were almost indistinguishable from photographic enlargements.

Close and his painting of Philip Glass

His was a work about process, and he did it tremendously well for a couple decades. Then he couldn’t anymore. He could barely move. But he reinvented his process and did some of the best work of his career. Colleen Newvine tells the story here on her blog Newvine Growing.

Is it Art or Just a Swipe?

The graffiti-artist-turned-icon-maker Shepard Fairey has been under scrutiny the past several weeks when it was discovered that the photo upon which he based his famous Obama poster was originally taken by an Associated Press photographer.

Is it fair use? Open source? An old-fashioned swipe? That’s to be decided.