Here’s the new one for The Beautiful Ones.  It will be in the Gallery Project show coming up, along with several other drawings (some of which haven’t been shown before) and the new big painting…which isn’t exactly finished yet.  Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow…

I have a show coming up at Gallery Project in Ann Arbor curated by three other artists, one of whom is my good friend and colleague at EMU, Jennifer Locke.  The show is called The Spring 2010 Collection (aka Fashion Show), and thus all of the work is about issues surrounding fashion, from a more cynical look at consumer culture, to a positive look at DIY and preloved movements.  The work in my series The Beautiful Ones, falls somewhere in between these two areas.  In 2007, I made a painting that had t-shirts that people could purchase and wear–something affordable to take away from the gallery-going experience–which was akin to being able to purchase band merch at a rock show.  In short, my painting could have groupies.  The goal was to allow people to be in a sort of performative dialog with the work.  The painting is “about” this sort of indie hipster culture, and also propagates it as well.  So, I had originally conceived of making two paintings and up until recently, just had the one.  This show was the perfect opportunity to realize the other.  They are both based on small drawings I did in France in 2007.  Below are some images of the piece in progress.  Progress continues.

Here are two images of the t-shirt designs (printed by VGKids), one or both of which will be sewn into the surface of the painting.  They are printed on American Apparel Classic Girl and Standard American styles in the color natural and made from organic cotton.  I have sizes ranging from small to XL in both unisex and women’s shirts.  If you’re interested in a shirt, just email me with your size, style, and design preference.  They cost $15, but there’s a free shirt for anyone who is willing to come to the opening sporting the shirt and who stays for at least a half hour.  Let me know (by commenting on this post) if you want to participate, so that I can get you a shirt before the show.  I have already hired a bunch of my students, so it should be a lot of fun!

Here’s the info for the show.

What: The 2010 Collection (Fashion Show)

Where:  Gallery Project, 215 South Fourth Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

When: Opening Friday December 11, 2009, 6-9 p.m. Show runs from Dec 9 – Jan 11.

Gallery hours are:

Fall/Winter hours:

Tue -Thu, noon-6

Fri -Saturday, noon-9

Sun, noon to 4

If I’ve been remiss in blogging, it’s only because I’ve been blogging.  I’ve been helping Mark with Irreverent Vegan a lot lately.  There’s so much food-related stuff to do this time of year, what with putting the gardens to bed, buying up boatloads of tomatoes at the farmer’s market for canning, making pesto from end-of-season basil, etc.  Mark made swoon-worthy pesto and tomato pasta and baked green tomatoes last night.  Check out our action on that blog and let us know what you think.

So, some stuff has been happening on the art front as well.  Mark and I stretched this monster last week:

Though sadly it was a rainy day when we stretched it and the humidity affected it.  It was tight as a drum when I left the studio last Thursday.  When I returned to the studio, it was as wrinkly and saggy as all get-out.  Great sadness ensued.  For me.  Then after about ten minutes of moping, (and since I have a painting due for a show in December) I got my stuff together and started painting on a different canvas.  I altered my Photoshop mock-up to be suited for a vertical rather than a horizontal format and shazam! I’m back in business.  This painting involves big circles, for which I fashioned a very high-tech compass out of a brooch, some string and a sponge brush.  Macgyver,  eat your heart out.

I also co-curated an exhibition at EMU called Contemporary Painting, which I’m really happy with.  More on that later.

And, because our cats have been so dang photogenic lately, a bunch of cat photos.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Apparently a lot can happen in a 36-hour whirlwind trip to Toronto.  We left late Friday morning and returned to Ypsi by 11 p.m. the next night.  The occasion was our friend Simon’s visit to see us this weekend.  He had never been to Toronto and since it’s such a vegan-friendly place, we decided to go and eat everything in sight.  I was lax in my picture taking on Saturday, but I did snap some photos Friday night.

Mark enjoying an avocado mint smoothie at the Calico Cafe

tags and flowers

night spinning

house crying a rainbow

art in a storefront window

In 36 hours we hit up Calico Cafe where we et up beautiful appetizers, dinners, and even had a smoothie, Get Real Cafe for a fantastic vegan brunch of waffles, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, and a tofu scramble plate for champions, Buddha’s Vegetarian Food for GIANT portions of Hong Kong style veggie food that Mark will still be eating for lunches the next few weeks, and Fresh for take-away salads, a chocolate chunk cookie, a divine date bar and smoothies!  Oh the smoothies!  I had a Shamrock shake made out of mint, banana, rice milk, matcha tea, and agave nectar- oh man!

We rode bikes everywhere, which was very handy.  We stopped in an art supply shop, a couple of galleries and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA).  We consumed vinyl and wearable sundries at local Toronto shops: Soundscapes and Rotate This for records and cds and Preloved for reconstructed shorts, shirts and skirts. We also stopped into 69 Vintage, where for once I managed to keep from buying something.  I do have a stunner of a coat from there procured on a previous trip, however.

Not bad for 36 hours eh?

So last night I got to go see this pretty lady:

Neko Case

and her misfit crew including Kelly Hogan and Jon Rauhouse.  It was a marvelous, colorful, complete show.  They blended a lot off of the new album, Middle Cyclone and Blacklisted, which felt wonderfully dark, and played some favorites from The Tigers Have Spoken and Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.  There were a few songs I love that I didn’t hear, but that makes me want to go back and see more shows, which is how it goes.

She played at Crofoot in Pontiac, Michigan, which is an intimate venue with a great set-up and a fantastic sound-system.  We were on the floor in the middle and could see the band pretty well for the whole show.  The balcony is a nice place to be as you can sit at a table while overlooking the floor and stage, but we didn’t get there early enough for that.  We saw Neko play there once before with The New Pornographers.  Okkervil River opened for them on that occasion and that made it an even more awesome show.

But back to last night.  The set was brilliant.  It was simple, but there was a giant screen behind the band projected with images and videos synced to each song they played.  Presiding over the screen was a giant owl wearing a crown.  There were also these primitive-looking gnarly tree banners on either side of the screen.  Of course the lights really enhanced the show as in the song I Wish I Was the Moon where the lights simulated bright moonlight shining on everyone on the floor.  Let me see if I can find a good photo of the set online… hmmm… here’s one from flickr:

thanks Christeena!

This image is from a show in Toronto, but this is pretty much what it looked like last night, but the Crofoot  is much smaller than the venue pictured and we were really close to the band.

In other Neko news, she happens to be a fellow animal lover, so she and her record label ANTI- are donating five dollars to Best Friends Animal Society for every blog that posts the mp3 for the song People Got a Lot of Nerve from Middle Cyclone (which we heard last night, I might add).  So here goes, for the betterment of people and critters alike:

People Got a Lot of Nerve People Got a Lot of Nerve

Download: http://www.anti.com/media/download/708