My Last Blog for sculpture

I can be highly social or live in solitude....both worlds are okay. Now it is time for solitude.

I leave the WSU Art department with one of my favorites. My dad used to cheer me out of bed with the lyrics as a teenager absolutely dreading going to high school filled with asses. Neither dad nor I ever needed anti-depressants....just a little inspirational poem or song would do....something our nation has lost now....enjoy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtnWVvDX6k&feature=related

Final Project

Hopefully, this weekend I will fire up the chain saw and start carving a stump for the final sculpture project. I am very excited to begin and finish this project. It's going to look super bizarre.

Also, going to buy one or two, basic wood chisels. I'm not going to have time to super refine this thing. I actually would prefer a rough look any way.

Here's a funny tongue twister which I would not recommend saying around people you would like to impress:

"I'm not the fig plucker, I'm the fig plucker's son.
But I'll pluck your figs 'til the fig plucker comes!"   Ha, ha, ha!!! Say that three times fast!!!

New Art Music

Oh...I am so excited to take off from school and practice my newly acquired skills and knowledge in the studio...watch out world!! I'm going to be an art Viking raider!!

This is my new painting music...amazing!! A Korean dude in FA 102 introduced me to Deadmau5...so relaxing...God!!! I just love the diversity of this campus!!! Even though I get weird viruses and colds from overseas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK1mLIeXwsQ

Getting Started

When I was in the south, I got drunk with a homeless dude and his friend...they were a white dude and a black dude who played the blues...The best time I have ever had!!!!! Suddenly didn't care about my divorce...ha, ha, ha!!! Enjoy....

When I get the blues gonna give me a rockin chair
When I get the blues gonna give me a rockin chair
When the blues overtake, gonna rock rock away from here
When I get lonesome, I get right on the telephone
When I get lonesome, I get right on the telephone
Call my baby, and tell her Im gonna come back home

Flip, flop and fly
I dont care if I die
Flip, flop and fly
I dont care if I die
Dont ever leave me
Dont ever say goodbye

Give me one last kiss and hold it a long long time
Give me one last kiss and hold it a long long time
I wanna feel that kiss till my head run feels like wine
Here comes by baby, flashing a new gold tooth
Here comes by baby, flashing a new gold tooth
If she shows more, she can rock home with the bacon too

Flip, flop and fly
I dont care if I die
Flip, flop and fly
I dont care if I die
Dont ever leave me
Dont ever say goodbye

Ive got a mississipi bullfrog sitting on a hollow stone
Ive got a mississipi bullfrog sitting on a hollow stone
Ive got to work for this guy - I dont know which way to turn

Flip, flop and fly
I dont care if I die
Flip, flop and fly
I dont care if I die
Dont ever leave me
Dont ever say goodbye

Second, Voluntary Installation Project

So far, the Bar/Code/Beer/Code, fake used, bar of DIal soap installation project is a complete triumph. Nobody seems to care or notice and that would align itself with the current trend of folks listening to their personal, electrical devices and ignoring birds, flowers, trees, grass, rain, global warming, glaciers melting etc..."just another crazy art thing in the art building." But Installation/Collaboration Project 1 was glaringly obvious.  

Yes...the hive mentality has taken root. We have become a school of fishes with relatively little independent thought.  Not likely we'll see an Earnest Hemingway, Henry David Thoreau, Pablo Picasso, or Jackson Pollock from the 25 and younger crowd. In our hive, bees are overloaded with information. In our fish school, every fish is rushing to keep up with the other fishies to get the next, great gadget.


I did find one writing instrument today.

Big Load o' Wood/Soap Installation Project

Here's my big-assed load of hardwood from a tree just cut down. Good Heavens!!! Those pieces were heavier than heck!!! It took me three pickup loads and about 8 hours to get it all home. But I think one of those chunks will made a good sculpture piece for my final project. Now...I need some beer to take away my achey arms pain...and chain saw handling hand numbness.

Also, I'm doing another quick Installation work involving placing fake, plaster casts of a very well used bar of DiAl soap on all the bathroom sinks in the art building. Should have that finished Monday. In addition to that...I'll be placing my Beer Code/Bar Code plaster casting in selected areas in the building, hopefully near authentic bar code things. Tonight I'm gluing my paper Chief Crazy Horse together. Going to paint that later.

Vision Quest

My water bottle collaboration sculpture was a very rewarding and fulfilling project. I know this because I even want to go look at it again.

I am taking a year or two off from school. Originally, I thought of transferring to CCS because tuition is so much cheaper. No...further vision questing revealed it is high time to practice my art. The solitude of the studio beckons.

I have to pay down some of my WSU tuition as well. All around, this is the best decision that can be made. I love the academic environment. It is safe, warm, loving and communal and I can always return for more guidance and inspiration...but it is time to rock and roll again. My stagnation has been obliterated by my art family over the last year at WSU. I wonder if I can re-charge western art in two years or less..."we live in fame or go down in flames!"...ha, ha, ha...from the USAF song!!!

Newest Site Installation Project Complete

Here is the site installation/collaboration project with Than Hyat Maung which I just now finished. I already discussed the water issue before but added some new things like a sailing ship to emphasize that energy uses may have to become more natural. Also, piece of glass under glaciers, on top of rounded pebbles are supposed to reflect hydraulic forces now resulting from melting glaciers which are lifting and sliding large glacial masses into the sea. Loss of so much fresh water may be a future issue. Also tried to unify and balance with shades of blue paints. If you are down, in the depths of a crack in a glacier, the colors are absolutely the most beautiful blues ever.

Site Specific Project Proposal

I consulted Than Hyat Maung...in my imaginary friend/artist world...and we agreed that I should spray paint some boxes white, place them along a wall in the hall. Then place a sign which reads "KNEAD   NEED" and place a bottle of water on each box...because people in an emergency knead/need water more than they need/knead bread. Oh!...and with population increases, the need for fresh water is going to explode!!! 

No Class Today

Well, I am worried about my sculpture instructor...hope he's OK since he didn't make it to class today.

I'm just blogging out of obligation right now. I am happy to report I found three writing instruments. One of them is an old pencil torn in half and badly damaged...but by God...I'm not going to let this pencil feel sorry for itself. It still has lots of good use left in it.

My dad roomed with a dude who lost both legs in WW2. He used to tend bar and the callouses left from his artificial legs were huge. But the old boys who trained him to use them after WW2 did not let him indulge in self-pity and he went on to live an OK life without legs. His determination was an inspiration to my dad and a 16 year old boy. So.... "pencil...your personal life is whatever you want to do...(And old Eric was a drinking man. It was funny to watch him remove his artificial legs while drunk. Dad had to help him sometimes.)...but when it comes time to get your shit done...you better be ready whether you got your bottom half or not!!!"

My new project

Finished my ten bag project. Also made a silicon mold of a fake bar of used Dial soap. Think I'll give it as Christmas gifts next year.

Also, made a plaster mold of Chief Crazy Horse coming out of the mountain block in South Dakota. Got the wax in it and will see the results tomorrow...here's a pic...

The New Direction of Art

This is part two to my earlier blog. This should probably be shared with all my current and former instructors but they're probably getting tired of emails. So I'll leave it to the reader to share with others.

This was fascinating .....

http://www.pbs.org/arts/work/off-book-episode-10-generative-art/

Mattress Factory

I love this artist's attitude, experiences and installation. First of all, he lived the life like a Gonzo journalist...(Oh, by the way, just saw Johnny Depp's new movie The Rum Diaries...totally hilarious and important movie to see...loved it!! Hunter S. Thompson is one of my heroes.)

Anyway...old Than down here is producing positive art. It was great that he and his wife were doing relief work in Burma after a cyclone hit the delta in 2008. The effect upon the viewer, well at least this viewer, is incredible!! The negative space versus positive space provides an interesting asymmetrical balance yet the final composition is harmonious. Also organic shapes of the bread and the hands and their texture almost makes one feel that you a re starving and being handed a very delicious loaf of fresh bread. Bread has sustained humans for centuries...very few people value that today.

I think his experience as a baker was directly involved with the continuity aspect of this installation piece. There are dozens of loaves of bread and as a baker he surely produced dozens of loaves of bread...perhaps a little analogy to Christ feeding the multitudes.

In the Air Force, we conducted dozens of humanitarian missions starting with the Berlin Airlift. (They actually air-dropped candy for German children in Berlin during the airlift. They were called "The Candy Bombers." I feel a personal kinship with Than Htay Maung...Here is his BIO quoted from the mattress factory website.

Oh...and below that is a youtube about the candy bombers...

"Than Htay Maung was born in 1958 in Pathien, Burma. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Khet Mar, City of Asylum/Pittsburgh's writer-in-residence. His installation work, created out of found materials, is politically charged commentary on news and its veracity and dissemination to the public. Whether making an installation about satellite news distribution in Burma or sending SOS bottles filled with commentary down the Irrawaddy River, Than Htay Maung’s work always asks the viewer to question what he or she believes to be the truth. He has previously exhibited in a Gestures exhibition at the Mattress Factory and in New York."


   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAbEQp1DgAg&feature=related