Taxidermy

Saw an interesting lecture today by a writer/cultural historian named Rachel Poliquin about the history of taxidermy and its legacy in contemporary art.  She’s curated an exhibit that just opened in Vancouver, where the museum has had sitting in its basement a collection of old taxidermy that no one wanted to see for 50 years.  [...]

Asterios Polyp

Strongly recommend this new graphic novel, David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp.  It’s being hailed as a landmark of the genre, and I agree — it strikes me as among the best graphic novels I’ve read, along with the likes of Maus, Charles Burns’ Black Hole, Ghost World, Persepolis, Jimmy Corrigan, and I’m not sure what else [...]

Perfect Game Paintings

In all the to-do about Mark Buehle of the White Sox’s perfect game (assisted by Dewayne Wise’s amazing 9th-inning catch), I was amused by one detail.  It’s apparently traditional for the pitcher of a perfect game to treat or honor his teammates in some way:
Buehrle is ordering special wine bottles for all of the White [...]

Pin the Tail on the Cat

The girls and Sarah volunteered to make the Pin the Tail on the Cat for Keith’s 5th birthday party.  Or Pin the Tail on the Pot Luck as they referred to it.  I thought it was pretty great.
Btw, I finally bought myself a snapshot camera, so prepare for a new visual emphasis on Moonraking.  Sarah [...]

Visit to Louisville

We took an economical, two day one night spring break trip to Louisville.  Stayed in the historic Galt Hotel on the riverfront which in the 19th century hosted such guests as “Jefferson Davis, Stephen Douglas, Edwin Booth, Charles Dickens, P.T. Barnum, Tom Thumb, and presidents Lincoln, Grant, Taylor, Hayes and Buchanan.”  And now us.  We [...]

Jello Sculpture Art or Not?

Sarah discovered this t.v. show Art or Not? which is on the Ovation channel, whatever that is.
It’s entertaining, although there’s something about the premise that is a little bit corny — I mean, the question isn’t really whether the jello sculpture, say, is art (what else would it be?), but whether it’s crappy art or [...]

Painting Crate

My extremely handy wife Sarah made this totally cool crate to ship two of her big paintings in. I’ve created a category called D.I.Y. but it should really be called My Wife Does it Herself because I rarely do it myself, although sometimes I help a little bit. Like if she has to [...]

Gap Whitney Museum artist edition t-shirts

Gap Whitney Museum artist edition t-shirts: by Kenny Scharf, Barbara Kruger, Chuck Close, Kiki Smith, etc., and Sarah Sze.
It’s a weird feeling to have someone you know from childhood design a t-shirt for the Gap and appear as a model for it in the ads.
Why couldn’t Barbara Kruger appear in her own ad?
I wonder if [...]

two photos from MFA show

If you click on the second photo to get a larger image, you can actually get a good look at “Umwelt” (the bat painting)

Sarah’s MFA show!

Sarah’s thesis show [not images, just an ad] is up! The reception was on Friday night. She was one of 7 MFA Fine Arts students in the show, along with two photographers, a metal-worker, ceramacist, sculptor.
I think her paintings are fantastic — beautiful, strange, complex — and the show seems to be a [...]