getting comfortable with being out of balance

i have always thought that this is one of the most beautiful videos ever made.

Rosie's Vintage Wallpaper

As you may know, I have a fondness for vintage furniture, fabric, accessories, toys, and just junk in general. So you can imagine how excited i got when i came across this website: http://www.rosiesvintagewallpaper.com. Because one never knows when one might need a sample of shiny silver & pink velour flower patterned wallpaper (and they sell sample packs!!) oh, the simple pleasures.

Blitzen Trapper-Fur

pretty song, cool video. If all goes well i plan on taking a low tech video class for two weeks at ox bow this summer. This video gave me some ideas about simple ways to make video using still images.

Guillermo Gomez-Pena "Chicano cyber punk performace artist"

I attended Guillermo Gomez Pena's spoken word performance at the university of chicago on Tuesday Feb. 17. He is a poetic, powerful and captivating speaker that left me inspired.

Most of his artistic and intellectual work concerns the interface between North and South (Mexico and the U.S.), border culture and the politics of the brown body. His original interdisciplinary arts projects and books explore borders, physical, cultural and otherwise, between his two countries and between the mainstream U.S. and the various Latino cultures: the U.S.-Mexico border itself, immigration, cross-cultural and hybrid identities, and the confrontation and misunderstandings between cultures, languages and races. His artwork and literature also explore the politics of language, the side effects of globalization, "extreme culture" and new technologies from a Latino perspective

Succumb To The Power That Is Cuteness

assignment # 63 make an encouraging banner

from the Learning to Love You More project.

Learning to Love You More is both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher.Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience.
Since Learning To Love You More is also an ever-changing series of exhibitions, screenings and radio broadcasts presented all over the world, participant's documentation is also their submission for possible inclusion in one of these presentations. Past presentations have taken place at venues that include The Whitney Museum in NYC, Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, Aurora Picture Show in Houston, TX, The Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, WA, the Wattis Institute in San Francisco CA, among others.Since LTLYM inception in 2002 over 8000 people have participated in the project.

oh you really are...

my first experience with the You-are-beautiful project began on a relocation cross country road trip from Muncie, Indiana to Portland, Oregon in 2001. Me, my partner, and a friend (who prefers to be anonymous) plastered you are beautiful stickers in bathroom stalls, motel lobbies, gas pumps, rest stops, bowling alleys, road signs, toll booths, phone booths, and wherever else we could sneak them. It was a memorable trip for many reasons, (my car dying, Laramie Wyoming, hot tubs, mountains, kitty escapes, prairies, ice storms, belligerent drunkenness, cowboys&strippers) but perhaps most fun was the feeling like i was on some covert cross country mission to spread a little love through a positive message.

you are beautiful

www.you-are-beautiful.com

So what started as a sticker campaign grew to be a series of collaborative art installations all over the US and eventually spread internationally. One of the things I find most appealing about this project is its simplicity. Although the movement was initially started by an individual, it is owned by no one, no one profits, it belongs and is shaped by whoever participates. The installations are a form of street art and usually involve carefully finding an abandoned building that is public enough to be seen but not so public as to arouse suspicions during the installations. I participated in two public installations; on an abandoned warehouse in downtown Portland and one commissioned piece on State street in downtown Chicago.

Here is some info about a project i am currently involved in:

The Vet Art Project, www.vetartproject.com creates opportunities for veterans to work in collaboration with artists from all disciplines to create new art about war for public performance and viewing. The goals of the Vet Art Project are to support our veterans, create stronger voices among our veterans, provide new opportunities for artists, and offer a venue to hear the voices of our veterans and artists and foster discussions about how war affects us all. The Vet Art Project is based on the belief that we must talk of war to think of peace, and an understanding that it is our veterans who will lead the way.

The Vet Art Project culminates on Monday, February 23, 2009 with a free public performance and display of new art created during the project. Performance time is 7:30 p.m. in the Studio Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan and Randolph.