Cooking rather than eating

I'd rather cook than eat and I'd rather make art than...(fill in the blank). While on the road this summer, I have learned to travel with recipes.

Before going away again, this time to California, I planned and executed an art tour, the first of many to be titled art stumbles, and made room in my studio for a "sitter." Silvina, while I write, sits and works, I'm guessing on the floor of my studio. I also facilitated the listing of new prints on my Esty site by Brece and I'll post one later. My new print pictured above, is titled "a lot with a little." I'd say that "a lot with a little" is my art-making, road-traveling, cooking to satisfaction theme. All prints are $20.00.

There's one recipe I do not leave home without and that is, from Oprah's cookbook, for blueberry buckle. It is a real crowd pleaser, I prefer to make it in a pyrex pie pan. There's also one motto I make art by and that is that the contemporary context for an artist (at least this artist) is contribution. Dig in to the pie and make art that gives.

a blurry-stumble from the first art tour through Bushwick, pictured below showsDeborah Brown's studio

Digging Adam Simon And Jack Tworkov

I'm digging Adam Simon currenty up at Kris Graves Projects in Dumbo and so looking forward to seeing the Jack Tworkov at the UBS Art Gallery.

The Tworkov will have to wait until I return from California. When I get back, it's work in the studio where the world will rearrange itself.

Studio Siting

Silvina Arismendi visited my studio the other night and we've mapped out her work area. Silvina will be "studio sitting," from August 18th through September 1st, making her own studio from the floor and the hallway.

Brece Honeycutt has listed a new Byproduct of her art practice on our Etsy site. Her piece, pictured above, is titled "two sisters--yarn drawing." Byproducts happens in the studio like opportunistic weeds growing in the garden.

I'm reading an Ellsworth Kelly review from a 2002 Brooklyn Rail article and researching Wallace's Steven's Emperor of Ice Cream. I'm trying to create a communique between modernism and an equalitarian futuristic freespace. I want to make something imaginative and sensitive. As Stevens, said, "It takes very little to experience the variety in everything."

Reading Sharon

I ran a social and exhibition space, etc., for 2 years called Pocket Utopia and now I feel like I have a lot of work to do. To begin (between soccer camp, birthday parties, and Lego building), I'm going to read about Sharon Butler's residency experience.

Next, I'm planning, in a hybridization of Pocket Utopia artist residencies and "freespace" art-making, an August art residency for Silvina Arismendi at my studio at the Elizabeth Foundation. We'll celebrate her residency with a small show and cocktail party, making use of the microwave for snacks.

The first (read pilot-project) "Art Stumble" has been organized for this coming Monday night with stops at Deborah Brown's studio and the Laundromat Gallery. Then I'm off to California.

Stumbling

I'm back from the road and stumbling around wondering what happen to my metro card. I wasn't sure what direction to go into today and luckily found myself on a pedestrian-friendly Park Avenue, part of Summer Streets, so I walked downtown from East 68th Street. It turned out I didn't need a metro card.

Along the way, I came upon Tara Donovan on display at Lever House. Her installation is worth walking for and there are some good pictures of the installation process on the Lever House website.

Walking and looking at art inspired me to start organizing other pedestrian-friendly art walks, emphasis on friendly, around Bushwick with stops at Deborah Brown's, Mary Judge's, and Kevin Regan's studios, followed by drinks at Tandem. After a Bushwick Art Stumble part 1, for there will be a part 2, I'll plan a walk through the Lower East Side, with stops at Sal Randolph's studio with a behind the scenes look at the New Museum and a stop at Sunday gallery, and of course libations at Alias.

Then an art walk through Dumbo, beginning with a stop at my favorite gallery there Kris Graves Projects, finishing up with drinks and tacos at Pedros. Of course, I'll plan a walk around the Elizabeth Foundation with drinks and snacks in studio #706. With "Art Stumbings," my "Excuse me, you have art in your teeth" salon goes a walkin.

on the road

I'll be on a road trip for the next fews days, armed with Mark Bittman's 101 Simple Salads for the Season, one dress, sunscreen, and a bottle of Berkshire Mountain Rum. I won't drink and drive. I'll pump the gas and work on memorizing a poem by Maxwell Bodenheim called ironically "Forgetfulness."






above photo by Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times