Something so much better than I could have possibly imagined

For some reason I felt like drawing a skeleton tonight. Maybe it’s because Danny and I were both talking about and looking at skeletons during the Marker Manifesto gallery opening? No matter where the thought came from, I was thinking that I wanted to draw one holding a slice of pizza, with dripping cheese. I started working on it but then I changed my mind and wanted to draw the dude slam dunking a basketball. Just out of curiosity I googled “skeleton slam dunk” and found this gem. My man’s dunking his own head!

I used to get sort of bummed when I’d find out that an idea of mine wasn’t really mine – that it had already been done. Now (at least most of the time), I get psyched. It’s fun to image search something as crazy as a skeleton slam dunk and see how many people have actually thought about it, and then put in the time to make their own image of this imagined event.

In Progress / Messes / Finished

Donezo!

Staining wooden covers, which I'm smart enough to do outdoors.

It’s so easy to be productive when you’re unemployed and living with your parents!

Christmas on My Mind…Already

Dear Grand Rapids,

I’m going to have a show at the DAAC for Christmas! Well, not on Christmas, but sometime around Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day, etc.

Division Avenue Arts Collective - 115 S. Division·Grand Rapids, MI

We’re still working out all of the details, but I’m thinking the “show” is going to be a sort of collaborative-art-making-surprise-filled-holiday-bonanza-potluck. As for the content/concept – it’s going to be a variation on the envelopes project. For the first round of envelopes I prepared everything and sent it out to faraway places, waiting for everyone to finish at their own paces and getting the occasional surprise. This time around I’m changing all of that up: at the start of the DAAC show there won’t be anything on the walls. It’ll start with another stack of prepared envelopes, a table full of art supplies, and (ideally) tons of food. Participants can pick any envelope(s) and start working on whatever they want. The only rule is that it has to be on the wall by midnight. Then: boom, gallery opening. And everyone there is showing their work, there is no “artist” and “audience” because everyone is both.

The more “art world” stuff I see, the more I want to just make fun shit. I think that everyone should feel welcome making art and I want to work on projects that encourage participation. Or maybe I just never finish things and this is a way to just pass it on? Why can’t it be both?

Selling Out

Not really.

But, today I sold my first book! For $25. I’m not exactly getting rich, but I was pretty hyphy.

That is all.

Henry Darger

Spangled Blengins, Boy King Islands

I’d never heard of this guy…

So this is my attempt at a concise version of his biography: Henry Darger spent most of his life working as a janitor. He went to mass every day, but other than spending all of that time in church he was pretty much a loner. A few weeks before he died, his landlords visited his apartment and found his for-some-reason-super-secret life’s work: a 15,000 page book called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. It’s a beautiful and bizarre story that no one will probably ever read the whole way through. He wrote himself into the story, which is cool too. I like that he created a sort of alternate universe as a means of coping with the sad bits of his life. Most people would just be drunk all the time.

Also, it’s super weird to picture him living at this address, at least considering the way Lincoln Park is now.

He’s pretty famous these days, and there’s even this movie!

The Wrath of Andy Rooney

I was watching another video and happened to notice this on the suggestions sidebar. Apparently art has changed over the past fifty years. Also, sculptures continue to be exhibited in public places, and self-described “know-nothing boob” Andy Rooney is pretty irked about both of these things. The quotes are there for a reason, he uses this strange term twice in the first thirty seconds of the video! For those of us with ample free time, I’d suggest watching a few more Rooney rants. There’s just something about the way that old man gets annoyed…

Envelopes Project Take 4!

After – David Bollinger, 2011

I decided that I wanted to send David some stuff after seeing a crazy self-portrait that he painted, where his mustache took up half of his face (in real life it seems pretty under control) and his eyes didn’t match at all. It was great. Then I saw him on Christmas night and he bought us a pitcher to share, and was telling me that everyone should paint, even if it’s bad. David’s also one of those super rare people that doesn’t use facebook, which might seem unrelated but (at least in my mind) says a lot.

Unfortunately, I think this was the last one he’ll be sending me. Hopefully I’m wrong and there’ll be something in my mailbox tomorrow…either way, thanks.

Six New Poems by Dylan Zavagno! / Envelopes Take 3!

pages 1 and 2

pages 3 and 4

pages 5 and 6

The pieces that became these poems (arranged/written/glued by Dylan Zavagno) were the first envelopes that I made for this project. Even though I’ve never been interested in writing poetry, I’ve become fascinated by the process over the past year or two. Out of every creative act, writing seems to have the most level playing-field in a certain sense. Singing takes a certain physical ability – there’s something that someone like, I don’t know…Joanna Newsom does that most of us couldn’t. Even if her voice seems like a bunch of elf-squeaks (I like it), it’s obvious that most people aren’t able to make that type of sound. This extends to other types of art as well, the consideration of abilities and limitations. There are almost always financial limitations as well, and so many ideas can’t be realized because the artist lacks the means to fulfill their plan. It’s great when someone has the money to do something like THIS, but most of us never will.

Poetry became fascinating to me when I realized that none of these limitations were present. No materials have to be used up, it doesn’t have to consume anything or take up space. Also, it’s so weird to think of the fact that it’s just the careful arrangement of short phrases and usually entirely composed of words that I already know…it’s sort of amazing to think about being moved by a reorganization of stuff I’ve already heard and seen.

With this in mind I wanted to make a project that explored these thoughts. I wanted to test them and see if my belief in a sort of alchemic transformation could hold up. Starting the project, I worked from the finished works of others, taking tiny bits and pieces of texts apart (usually old National Geographics) hoping to turn them into something new. My goal was to take something, an article about a trip through a jungle, the fishing villages of a faraway country, or a shipwreck – and begin the process of turning it into something new. I wanted to work toward a full conversion of meaning and see what, if anything was left of the original intent.

I liked this process enough to do another one, and am maybe 24%? 38%? done with a sort of round-two/second version that I’ll post about soonish…

Skate Mental Design-A-Board Contest!

Dear fellow skate-nerds,

I found this today, enter if you want!

I really want to make one just to do it, but I’m not sure what it’ll be yet. My inner thirteen year-old is freaking out right now! Maybe some sort of multi-species skeleton that takes up the whole board? Or two tiny graphics that will be entirely covered by the trucks? Or better yet a top-of-board print completely covered by the grip tape with a blank white bottom?

CAPS LOCK WORTHY KICKFLIP

Another New One! / Thank You Hannah Robertson / Ye

God Defend New Zealand

After annoying everyone at the post office with my mountain of envelopes, it’s nice to see some finished products. It’s also been a nice surprise to learn that everyone else seems to finish stuff way faster than I do. Hannah Robertson sent me this last week, complete with a title: God Defend New Zealand.

If you’d like to see a slightly smaller version of this image, or lurk her blog that I just lurked, CLICK THIS ALL CAPS SECTION.

More. Art. Soon…Probably.