we rode to the Raczkowski's way out on Long Island, the weather was perfect.
Things got wild quick
The hills were alive, this bowl of chili was not
and back to Brooklyn in colder weather
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Samhain
we rode to the Raczkowski's way out on Long Island, the weather was perfect.Things got wild quickThe hills were alive, this bowl of chili was notand back to Brooklyn in colder weather
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Lester's laws
Lester Van Winkle's just about my favorite teacher of all time. One time he gave me really good tickets to a Yankees/Orioles game but I think it might've been because he knew I would wear my Red Sox cap to the game and get sqooshed by angry New Yorkers (a fate I narrowly avoided). But of course I'm kidding, he didn't love what I made or said but he wouldn't have knowingly sicked all those angry fans on me. So seriously, I love him and the hell he gave me during my time in Virginia. I'll be playing catch up with "that woman working hard in a cold Chicago basement with no windows", and I have Lester to thank for it.
Anyhoos- here's "Lester's Laws" courtesy of the devine Ms. Connie Brown--->
The following I circulate at popular request and with serious misgivings that they might be “mistook.” These advisories or faux-rules were first instituted in 1974. They were applied to a class of sophomores whose insistence on repetitious inanities, like solutions and non-thinking was awe inspiring. Out of desperation these notions were circulated to insure some modest degree of creativity, or possibly a small revolution in a class of really comfortable underachievers. Although I intended them only as beginners’ guidelines, they have become known as Lester’s Laws. These “Laws” have been widely circulated at popular request and which edition this is, is not known.
1. Do not arrive on time for this class. Be early and appear busy. Punctuality
and thrift precede cleanliness in the eyes of “You Know Who.”
2. Have ideas in your work. Mere personal expression is unavoidable, highly
overrated, and can be sloppily self-indulgent.
3. If you have no ideas, check your pulse.
4. If you have an idea (one) you are in trouble.
5. If you steal ideas, cover your tracks. Be the master thief. Do the perfect
crime. Or don’t. Be a postmodern, deconstructivist, conceptual
appropriationist. Plagiarism is in fashion. Fashion is vicious and violent>
6. Remember that in our game an idea is no better than its articulation.
7. Speak up in critiques. Ye shall be known by your words.
8. In critiques do not say, “I like.” For obvious reasons, like you’re talking mostly
About yourself . . . or whatever.
9. If you believe that criticism is only personal opinion, quit school now. Save
your money. Personal opinions are absolutely free and in infinite supply on
street.
10. Beware of art jargon. No one knows what words like balance and rhythm
mean.
11. Believe me, there is nothing negative about space. The constructivists considered space a tangible material.
12. Never let your story be more interesting than your art.
13. Never explain your choices by what you did not want. What you did not want or intend is an infinite set.
14. Do not let American industry make the color, surface, image, proportional or scale choices in your work.
15. High tech, avant-garde or expensive traditional materials will not improve bad ideas.
16. Simple repetition never doesn’t work. Repetition, like contrast, is a visual phenomenon, not a conceptual issue.
17. Do not make things the same size without good reason. MODERN REVISION: No, do not make things the same size.
18. Do not center or divide things in the middle. The middle is such a swell place; it should always be reserved for special occasions.
19. Do not use obvious proportion ratios. 1:1, 2:1, 2:4 etc.
20. Avoid bilateral symmetry and 90 degree angles. (See special occasions.)
21. Do not arrange things that “lead” your eye in a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, cube, cone, etc.
22. If you want to use black, white, or gray, see me first.
23. Always make primary colors secondary choices.
24. Give color significant jobs to do in your work.
25. Paint all carvings, particularly stone carvings.
26. Find significant terminations for three-dimensional lines.
27. Always radically modify or rectify found objects.
28. Remove source references from found objects.
29. Make weird things. It is an artist’s job to do so.
30. Remember that all things in the same context relate. Any further similarities, connections, parallels, vectors, or threads only compound an already existing relationship.
31. The only thing worse than a bad piece of sculpture is a big, bad piece of sculpture. Even worse is a big, bad, red piece of sculpture.
32. Trust your instincts. Trust your intuition. They are your best tools.
photo courtesy of vcusculpture.com
Anyhoos- here's "Lester's Laws" courtesy of the devine Ms. Connie Brown--->
The following I circulate at popular request and with serious misgivings that they might be “mistook.” These advisories or faux-rules were first instituted in 1974. They were applied to a class of sophomores whose insistence on repetitious inanities, like solutions and non-thinking was awe inspiring. Out of desperation these notions were circulated to insure some modest degree of creativity, or possibly a small revolution in a class of really comfortable underachievers. Although I intended them only as beginners’ guidelines, they have become known as Lester’s Laws. These “Laws” have been widely circulated at popular request and which edition this is, is not known.
1. Do not arrive on time for this class. Be early and appear busy. Punctuality
and thrift precede cleanliness in the eyes of “You Know Who.”
2. Have ideas in your work. Mere personal expression is unavoidable, highly
overrated, and can be sloppily self-indulgent.
3. If you have no ideas, check your pulse.
4. If you have an idea (one) you are in trouble.
5. If you steal ideas, cover your tracks. Be the master thief. Do the perfect
crime. Or don’t. Be a postmodern, deconstructivist, conceptual
appropriationist. Plagiarism is in fashion. Fashion is vicious and violent>
6. Remember that in our game an idea is no better than its articulation.
7. Speak up in critiques. Ye shall be known by your words.
8. In critiques do not say, “I like.” For obvious reasons, like you’re talking mostly
About yourself . . . or whatever.
9. If you believe that criticism is only personal opinion, quit school now. Save
your money. Personal opinions are absolutely free and in infinite supply on
street.
10. Beware of art jargon. No one knows what words like balance and rhythm
mean.
11. Believe me, there is nothing negative about space. The constructivists considered space a tangible material.
12. Never let your story be more interesting than your art.
13. Never explain your choices by what you did not want. What you did not want or intend is an infinite set.
14. Do not let American industry make the color, surface, image, proportional or scale choices in your work.
15. High tech, avant-garde or expensive traditional materials will not improve bad ideas.
16. Simple repetition never doesn’t work. Repetition, like contrast, is a visual phenomenon, not a conceptual issue.
17. Do not make things the same size without good reason. MODERN REVISION: No, do not make things the same size.
18. Do not center or divide things in the middle. The middle is such a swell place; it should always be reserved for special occasions.
19. Do not use obvious proportion ratios. 1:1, 2:1, 2:4 etc.
20. Avoid bilateral symmetry and 90 degree angles. (See special occasions.)
21. Do not arrange things that “lead” your eye in a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, cube, cone, etc.
22. If you want to use black, white, or gray, see me first.
23. Always make primary colors secondary choices.
24. Give color significant jobs to do in your work.
25. Paint all carvings, particularly stone carvings.
26. Find significant terminations for three-dimensional lines.
27. Always radically modify or rectify found objects.
28. Remove source references from found objects.
29. Make weird things. It is an artist’s job to do so.
30. Remember that all things in the same context relate. Any further similarities, connections, parallels, vectors, or threads only compound an already existing relationship.
31. The only thing worse than a bad piece of sculpture is a big, bad piece of sculpture. Even worse is a big, bad, red piece of sculpture.
32. Trust your instincts. Trust your intuition. They are your best tools.
photo courtesy of vcusculpture.com
Sunday, October 19, 2008
LED DIP
Night Swimming from Kai Vierstra on Vimeo.
Bored at work?, turn lights down, grab some headlamps and go for a light swim. Please
Monday, October 13, 2008
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Meridith's art in the L.E.S. (let 'em sleep)
September 18th saw the opening of Beauty's Burden at the Educational Alliance Gallery. It was curated by David Gibson and Jennifer Junkermeier and it's really good, and not just because it's got Meridith Pingree in it. It's also got Bethany Bristow, Bonnie Collura, Gabert Farrar, Limor Gasko, Scott Kiernan, Karen Marston, John O'Brien, Sono Osato, Richard Schort, & Fumiko Toda. There's going to be an artist's talk on Sunday the 4th (tomorrow) at 2 pm. The Gallery's located at 197 East Broadway (a few blocks up from the Manhattan bridge). It should be interesting as they'll be tackling the subject of beauty in contemporary art, a tough one for sure. Get out there and support Meridith, Beauty, Art, & Obama.
Monday, September 29, 2008
More cops on the bridge pictures
This time they were on the Williamsburg bridge. I think their ploy for the evening was to try to get the bikers to topple from seizures caused by their light assault weapons. Otherwise they were very nice.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Digging Machines
My mother's son's brother's daughter's brother is a sandfort building phenomenon. I mostly drink beach sodas and watch the magic happen.--link that boat fort video again, I love it.
Monday, September 22, 2008
two hands & Stamford
The bird whisperer
tonight (slipping on a nut)
and Stamford Skatepark (courtesy of Concrete Disciples)
Stamford skatepark roll around from Kai Vierstra on Vimeo.
tonight (slipping on a nut)
and Stamford Skatepark (courtesy of Concrete Disciples)
Stamford skatepark roll around from Kai Vierstra on Vimeo.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
bloggervescence
Tom Moody wrote about me yesterday-
"The slow cracking of the wood in the video is aesthetically satisfying, like the popping of bubble wrap, but ominous. I like the piece's encapsulation of horrific forces into almost-pure form. The shape seems to have been determined entirely by factors other than the artist's design: an imagined civic architect's ideal plans twisted and rended by catastrophe "in the field." It's straight-up entropy--once broken the structural integrity is gone. Compare Steve Parrino's bashed-in monochromes and Jason Middlebrook's post-apocalyptic Bilbao. Or Gehry if all the "implied torque" in his buildings actually tore them apart."
It was his "implied torque" bit that really had me smiling. It brought back memories of a brief critique I had with Amie McNeel where she referred to a particularly floppy (but tough looking) element within one of my sculptures as having an "implied tension". She wanted to not only see it, she wanted to feel it when she touched the thing, which she would invariably do. It meant a lot to me back then, and so much more now. The difference between something that was implied and something that could demonstrate and be it's implication has become central to how I think about and make art.
Anyways, it was really nice of Mr. Moody to take the time to find my work and give it some thought, so in liu of a comment over on his blog (which is impossible as comments are disabled), I would like to say thanks. Thanks
"The slow cracking of the wood in the video is aesthetically satisfying, like the popping of bubble wrap, but ominous. I like the piece's encapsulation of horrific forces into almost-pure form. The shape seems to have been determined entirely by factors other than the artist's design: an imagined civic architect's ideal plans twisted and rended by catastrophe "in the field." It's straight-up entropy--once broken the structural integrity is gone. Compare Steve Parrino's bashed-in monochromes and Jason Middlebrook's post-apocalyptic Bilbao. Or Gehry if all the "implied torque" in his buildings actually tore them apart."
It was his "implied torque" bit that really had me smiling. It brought back memories of a brief critique I had with Amie McNeel where she referred to a particularly floppy (but tough looking) element within one of my sculptures as having an "implied tension". She wanted to not only see it, she wanted to feel it when she touched the thing, which she would invariably do. It meant a lot to me back then, and so much more now. The difference between something that was implied and something that could demonstrate and be it's implication has become central to how I think about and make art.
Anyways, it was really nice of Mr. Moody to take the time to find my work and give it some thought, so in liu of a comment over on his blog (which is impossible as comments are disabled), I would like to say thanks. Thanks
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Monday, September 08, 2008
Derick Melander
The nicest guy anywhere, Derick Melander, and his opening that was the night before my birthday this spring- May 3rd, at the Repetti Gallery. It was called "The One and the Many" and included another friend and good person, Penelope Umbrico. It was awesome but I didn't put up any pictures because I was so self-absorbed with my whole birthday thing. Anyways, I've been emailing Derick the photos I took and I thought I would share one with you now.
it was taken right before his last piece of clothing went up on the wall.
that's his shoe sculpture on the ground, check out
his site for the crazy wall
of clothes at the
entrance.
it was taken right before his last piece of clothing went up on the wall. that's his shoe sculpture on the ground, check out
his site for the crazy wall
of clothes at the
entrance.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Monday, September 01, 2008
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