disposable camera summer!

I finally got some summertime pictures developed. Some of these are from Less Miserable, some from ACRE, some from Kate's house in Detroit, and a few are from points in between.

more after the jump...

mother mother ocean!

For the month of December I am living in Philly and working on a play that my pal Dawn wrote. It is called Mother Mother Ocean, and we are taking the play on a tour of Philadelphia December 19th-21st!

South Philly/Magic Pictures 12/19
 
West Philly/Wolf Cycles 12/20

Center City/Goldilocks Gallery 12/21

holiday art stuff!

I have some prints in the Booklyn Pop-Up Shop this month, and some older paintings in a curated Holday Auction that Jason put together. So stoked!

haven art auction!

I made a new piece for the Haven Art Auction. Go to it and buy stuff because the Haven is the most rad! Oh, and in addition to the auction, there will be a pop-up shop, too. 

This scan is a little funny -- the colors are off -- but here is my contribution:

chicago opening!

I am in a group show at LVL3, a gallery in Chicago. The show is called Infinite Jamz, and I made some new drawings for it. The canned food color spectrum that Kate and I made this summer is also in the show. I have a few pictures below, but for more (of the installation and opening), go HERE and HERE!

barebones!

For the last half of October, I was in the choir for a huge Halloween pageant put on by BareBones in Minneapolis. This year's spectacle was called Chicka-Boom, and it included giant puppets, a full band, circus performers, and lots of kids in cute costumes. The whole production was really beautiful, both as a show and as a community event. Over a thousand people came to each of the 5 performances. Sisters' Camelot provided delicious (and free!) hot food and there was music to cap off each night.

acre show in chicago!

INFINITE JAMZ

new works by BIFF BOLEN, PATRICK COSTELLO,

CHRIS DUNCAN, & MAC KATTER

November 10 - December 16, 2012

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 10, 6-10pm

Open Hours: Sundays, 1-4pm

and by appointment

LVL3

1542 N. Milwaukee Ave, 3rd Floor

  

LVL3 hosts an opening reception on Saturday, November 10, 2012 from 6-10pm at 1542 N. Milwaukee Ave, 3rd Floor, Chicago, IL. ACRE and LVL3 are proud to present INFINITE JAMZ, the next installment in ACRE's year-long series of exhibitions by 2012 ACRE summer residents.

INFINITE JAMZ is a group shows comprised of four artists from the 2012 Summer ACRE Residency program. Infinite Jamz explores relationships of light and color amongst various systems of support. Biff Bolen uses paint to address the speed of his rapid attention span. Patrick Costello’s interests in his community inspires patterns combined with natural tones from the environment. Chris Duncan ponders perception in his portrayals of geometric abstractions. Mac Katter explores image-mediated experiences and the psychological perceptions of advertising. All four artists consider their ever-changing impressions through different methods of expression.

___________________________________________________________

BIFF BOLEN was born in Sumter S.C. He holds a B.A. from Newberry College in Newberry, S.C. and an MFA from the University of South Florida. He currently lives in Marfa Tx.

More information about Biff Bolen can be found at biffbolen.com.

PATRICK COSTELLO makes a lot of visual and performance-based art projects. He also grows vegetables, preserves food, rides his bike, and eats lots of greens. He claims Charlottesville, Virginia, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, as his hometown. His visual art is inspired by geometric quilts and textile patterns, planting seeds, and canning food. Patrick's art has been shown internationally, including at Space 1026 in Philadelphia, PA, Booklyn Art Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, and Trance Pop Gallery in Kyoto, Japan.

More information about Patrick Costello can be found at ptackcostello.blogspot.com.

CHRIS DUNCAN employs the use of color, repetition, accumulation, sound and reflections, along with a wide variety of materials(tape, crayons, string, rocks) to ponder ideas of perception and transcendence, in both conceptual and physical forms. Often in flux between the overwhelming and minimal, Duncan's work is a constant balancing act of positive or negative, loud or quite, light or dark...etc. Duncan holds an BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, is a 2013 MFA candidate at Stanford University, and has shown nationally and internationally with frequency. His work is in the collections of Berkeley Art Museum, SFMOMA, the Kemper Art Museum, and the editions he has published under the moniker LAND AND SEA(his publication company he runs with his wife) have recently been acquired by the NYMoMA. Chris is based in Oakland California.

MAC KATTER is an artist working and living in California. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

More information about Mac Katter can be found at mackatter.zzl.org.

LVL3 is an exhibition space in Chicago, IL. LVL3 is dedicated in supporting collaborative work and group shows of all mediums to foster connections between emerging and established artists. 

More information about LVL3 can be found at lvl3gallery.com.

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibition) was founded in 2010 with the ambition to provide the arts community with an affordable, cooperative, and dialogue-oriented residency program. The residency itself takes place each summer in rural southwest Wisconsin and brings together artists from across disciplines and levels of experience to create a regenerative community of cultural producers. Over the course of the following year ACRE endeavors to further support its residents by providing venues for exhibitions, idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects.

More information about ACRE can be found at www.acreresidency.org.

rabbit on tour!

The Rabbit tour was incredible! We did 16 shows in the Midwest and down the east coast. We performed at warehouses, art spaces, the backyard of a mansion, and in the woods at an Earth First climb camp. Somewhere in there, we all went to my sister's wedding in Virginia Beach, the City Museum in Saint Louis, and the Museum of Natural History in NYC.
Here are some pictures, taken by the extremely talented Maggie Stein at our Charlottesville show:

rabbit: an original tragedy!

I have been in MPLS since the beginning of the month working on another d.i.y. theater production! Rehearsals are going really well -- it is going to be SO GOOD. I am super stoked to take it on tour!

Here is some information:

Eternal Cult presents

RABBIT: An Original Rabbit Tragedy

What does it mean to fail deeply and totally at every goal you’ve ever had? How can we keep going after terrible things happen? Why can’t we just get what we want? With the help of an opera singing Greek chorus, “Rabbit” follows a modern tragic hero, a cottontail rabbit named Jonathan, as he struggles against a run of very bad luck. After he is snatched away from his wife and family by a giant hawk, his odyssey to return home is a near constant struggle against forces both natural and supernatural. Is it fate? Is it a path? Is there meaning? Or is all of it just a bunch of random crappiness raining down upon him? Upon us all?

Written by Jon Mac Cole and Savannah Reich.

Directed by Jon Mac Cole, Savannah Reich and Christopher Allen.

Original music by Anna Young.

Set design and construction by Emma Alamo.

Costume design by Patrick Costello and Flora Mahaffy.

Poster by Michael McConnell.

Starring: Jon Mac Cole, Patrick Costello, Flora Mahaffy, James Jordan, Savannah Reich, and Anna Young.

Tentative tour: 

Sat 22- Minneapolis, MN

Sun 23- Minneapolis, MN

Mon 24- Milwaukee, WI

Tues 25- Chicago, IL

Weds 26- Muskegon, MI

Thurs 27- Detroit, MI

Fri 28- Athens, OH

Sat 29- Pittsburgh, PA         

Mon 1- New York, NY           

Tues 2- Philadelphia, PA                       

Weds 3-Baltimore, MD           

Thurs 4- Baltimore, MD           

Fri 5- Charlottesville, VA

Sun 7- Chapel Hill, NC

Mon 8- Asheville, NC

Weds 10- Kansas City, MO

Thurs 11- Minneapolis, MN

Friday 12- Minneapolis, MN

make space!

I haven't been making much (finished) work on paper for the last couple of months, but I hope to get back to that again sometime soon. I miss making images, but it has also been fun to spend the summer traveling and getting back into performance/other mediums for making things. 

I am so stoked that some of my drawings and paintings were featured on Make Space recently! I met Lynette and Etta at ACRE, and they are both really lovely.

Read the feature on my work HERE.

acre!

From August 1-12, I was at ACRE, an artist residency outside of Steuben, Wisconsin. It was great! I met so many good folks, went swimming, danced a lot, ate amazing food, and collaborated with Ellen Nielsen. Ellen and I began a video project where we were dressed up as butterflies, exploring themes that come up in both of our art practices (with lots of silliness and laughing). It is going to be awesome once we get it edited!

shirt collaboration!

I forgot to write about this nice collaboration i did with Sean a couple of months ago. Sean is a Brooklyn-based writer/photographer/stylist. We met when we both lived in Charlottesville, and we decided to make something together before we both moved. Sean offered to have a garment made from the fabric that I printed years ago at the Fabric Workshop. Here are the results, modeled by Sean himself (the shirt is still under construction in these pictures):

And here is Sean's blog post about the collab. The whole project turned out pretty great!

penland!

Right after Less Miserable finished, I went down to Penland, NC to take a 2-week course on alternative methods of woodcarving at Penland School of Crafts. We used chainsaws to start pieces and then finished them with angle grinders, dynafiles, and power sanders. I made a bowl in the shape of a butt. (A bowel?) (Thanks Maureen!)

Aside from the above image, I don't have any pictures of the bowl or of anything else at Penland, because I still haven't gotten my disposable camera developed. I will do another post with those. Penland was awesome and magical, and my (fun!) work study position was really crucial in making it all happen. I went swimming in mountain rivers full of mica, shared scotch and grapefruit juice cocktails with Paulis Berensohn and my friend Zee, and met so many wonderful, talented people. Summer 2012: making art with awesome people in the woods!

after the play!

(The pictures I have posted are all pretty much by Jori, an awesome awesome person from Providence. Here is her Flickr!)

I wanted to post a couple of bits of writing that people did about Less Miserable:

-a nice review HERE

-and here is the body of a super sweet email to the cast:

So I got to see the show in Providence, even though I'm from Philly, and before the show those of us in the audience were having all kinds of reunions--some of my favorite Philly people and others that I've met in New Orleans or Maine or elsewhere over the years. In the totally packed warehouse, I had a sense of being amongst extended family even though I only knew a handful of the hundred or so folks there.

My friend Emily said after the show, "Wow, I was coming prepared to be forgiving. But that was amazing." 

Not only did y'all pull off a difficult piece of theater with masterful aplomb--y'all were also casting a deeper spell. Being in the audience was like being part of a ritual--being offered something magical from our community, for our community. To see what you all pulled off reminded me of all the things we are able to do collectively that we often get too pessimistic to try for, or fail to celebrate when we do them. It filled me with love for all of us in the creative, radical struggle--and hope for what we can still accomplish and discover ourselves capable of.

Y'all gave us a huge gift. I've been thinking of moving on from Philly and worried about losing my amazing community there; seeing Less Miserable reminded me of how broad our community really is--how many of us there are. It also did what I think DIY art needs to do: astound, astonish, and inspire us with what we can pull off in unorthodox manners, collectively, for the love of it.

I used to do theater a long time ago and I remember the let-down of after the play, going back to normal life...I can't imagine what it feels like for each of you individually to have been part of something so magical and now be back in some other identity, but I want you to know from someone who saw what you all worked so hard on--and I could see people working against their strengths, taking huge risks, exerting tremendous amounts of energy, and making us all love you and cry for you--that what you offered us was transformative and important. As important as all the work we put into fighting the system and caring for our friends. Art like this provides a forum for us to become who we are collectively through sharing experiences of joy and grief. Where else would I get to cry publicly with hundreds of people about the injustice of the world, about our dead friends, about failed love--all the pieces of our own stories that the play reflects back to us?

Thanks for casting that spell for us. With mad respect,

best month ever!

I am sitting in an airport waiting for a ride (thanks Andrew!) to Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Andrew and I are both taking a woodworking class there that involves chainsaws. I am so excited. A few hours ago, I was helping strike our last Less Miserable show in Philadelphia. The past month has been completely amazing and transformative. Pooping in buckets! Singing everyday! Skinny dipping! Living in the woods! Making a musical! Going on my first tour! Seeing old friends and making new ones! All good things.

a quick internet trip!

While I am in town for a minute before another rehearsal, I thought I would post a link to pictures of an art show I am in this month. It is called Patterns of Behavior and it is at Booklyn Art Gallery in Greenpoint. The show is curated by Aimee Lusty, and she is awesome. Check it out if you are in the neighborhood! 

CHECK IT HERE 

summer funtimes!

Well, I have left Charlottesville and I am now in the woods of Vermont for the month of June. I am camping with a bunch of nice folks on a big wooded piece of property, and we are putting together a musical. It is called Less Miserable. I made the promotional posters, which you can see above. I am also going to be doing quite a bit of singing in the play! We have been working on this for weeks now and I can assure you that it is going to be completely awesome. I guess that is what happens when you have so many super talented punks working on one project 12 hours a day for a month! Come see it if you can! Here is the press release:

For the entire month of June 2012, over seventy underground artists from around the country have converged in the woods of northern Vermont to mount a monumentally ambitious and unabashedly DIY adaptation Victor Hugo’s epic novel about post-Napoleonic France. This operatic take on Hugo’s sweeping narrative comes complete with badass musical arrangements, a 20’ diameter revolving stage, and a cast, crew, and set requiring 3 veggie-oil school buses for transportation. After opening in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, the production will tour for one week along the I-95 corridor.

Celebrate US Independence Day by remembering the failed Parisian rebellion of 1832! Save the dates!

July 2:  Providence, RI (The Steel Yard, 27 Sims Ave)

July 3&4: Brooklyn, NY (Bobby Redd Project Space, 626 Bushwick Ave.)

July 5: Baltimore, MD (The Bell Foundry, 1539 N. Calvert St.)

July 6&7: Philadelphia, PA (The Beaumont Warehouse, 50^th St. & Beaumont Ave.)

ALL SHOWS BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 8PM AND RUN APPROXIMATELY 3 HOURS, INCLUDING AN INTERMISSION.

This production is directed by Donna Sellinger (of Wham City and The Missoula Oblongata), with orchestration and musical direction by Stephen Cooper (of Kagel Nacht  and Cloud Becomes Your Hand). Vocal direction by Anna Young. Set design and  construction captained by members of The Miss Rockaway Armada and Minneapolis-based  artist Mitchell Dose. Costume design by Leslie Rogers.

Our cast and crew include opera singers from Kansas City, urban farmers from Philadelphia, immigrant rights activists from Tucson, punk musicians from Portland, comedians from Baltimore, kinetic sculptors from Minneapolis and LA, radio personalities from New Orleans, and many, many more. 

During intermission, audience members can peruse an extensive bazaar of art, music, and crafts made by the artists involved. Look for specially commissioned prints by famed artist Erik Ruin, made specifically for this production!

For more information, e-mail: FriendsOfTheABCCafe@gmail.com

To view our blog, which will be updated periodically with photos and video of the process, visit: http://www.friendsoftheabccafe.blogspot.com/

summertime's a comin'!

baby fig!

I propagated a fig tree on the last weekend of my Permaculture Design Course, and it is doing so well. It has one tiny leaf now!

it's been a long time!

I have not posted on this for far too long! It has been a busy couple of months. Tomorrow will mark the end of a Permaculture Design Course I have been taking, and I have been busy gearing up for another season with C'ville Foodscapes. I have also been filling out applications and making plans. We will see what happens.

I did a little art show with Thomas Dean at The Shuckster (my house's dining room), and it opened yesterday. I printed some wallpaper and made a new print that I am pretty excited about. It is a combination letterpress screenprint! Check out more pictures of the installation here.

getting ready for next month!

Bake 'n Bike is coming up soon!