I just it’s been since October since I last posted. But I suppose being busy with life and family and fixing things around a new house means my focus is focused on other things that need focusing.
My art practice currently feels like it’s drifting from my fingers. I’m struggling with prioritizing it in light of other things that need attention. And typing that last sentence makes me think that it’s not my art practice that is suffering, but rather my ability to let go, and be ok with centering my attention on the needs of life.
I’m not someone who sits around well. If I get focused on a subject or project I tend to maintain a death grip on it until I get exhausted. This is not always a healthy thing, but it’s pretty typical for people with ADD/ADHD. The bigger struggle is what I let myself get locked on to. Often it’s the tasks that are easy, or take fewer decisions, rather than on things that are the most rewarding. This is why “making that bookshelf we need in our living room so we don’t have to buy one” is easier than “I need to make ten decisions on this [artwork project name] that I can’t seem to finish and actually keeps me up at night thinking about it”.
Anyway, none of the above will go away. And the bookshelf is actually pretty dope. I’ll post a pic when it’s done.
In the meantime, here is what I’ve managed to put together since my last post:
Audio Things:
I’ve started creating some videos out of random things I shoot with my phone. The goal is not to edit some kind of narrative film together so much as pull a set of time-based images into one place so I have something to interact with when I make improvisational sound pieces. The first one is down below and I have a few more in the works. I haven’t written much about my music practice here yet, but consider this as your weird introduction.
This video is pretty “stroby” so if you get dizzy at flashing lights and fast motion, it’s ok if you just listen. The track is unreleased. The video is intended to support the music and I think of these video releases as “visualizers”.
I started getting into using guitar pedals, eurorack synth, and cassette tape loops a few years ago when I no longer had space to play drums. I started a project with a friend of mine who was already working with these types of tools and we have a handful of releases under the name Free Static. I’ve dug in pretty deep in learning how to use audio tools in a similar way that I approach visual art-making and it’s been extremely rewarding. The focus is on sound, noise, textures and rhythm rather than on western musical structures or song writing.
In 2020 I release my first album under the name Dead Sharp. You can listen and purchase more of my work here:
Drawings:
I keep making them. They are shifting in tone as the pile grows. I have not had time to sit down and go through them all and re-orient myself to what I’m doing. I’ll try to write about that process as it unfolds.
Physical objects you can own:
I’ve started to add things to a new online shop. I have no idea where this will go but it’s been a goal of mine to figure out the balance of the various aspects of my output. I love a good graphic t-shirt or unlikely statements on a mug or socks. It’s the designer in me that needs to flex these muscles. I also want to figure out what kinds of original vs reproductions of my work can sell online. If you have thoughts or interest about what you’d like to see in my shop, I’d love to hear about it.
The shop: https://getpunched.gumroad.com
There are only a few items there at the moment, and I’ve not connected it to my website yet, but you can check out a couple of paintings for sale and a t-shirt design that came out of doing some design exploration for the album cover of my Dead Sharp release “Young Gathering Snakes”.
Eugene Contemporary Art
Lastly, my long-standing art space project Eugene Contemporary Art has been blowing up. We held a 1-day fundraising event in early October called “ECA $ellz Out!” and had work from all of our member artists up in the space for sale. We made about $5000 in 6 hours. Which feels like some kind of record in Eugene. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself. (Our goal was to net $3000 which we did.)
Since then we launched a new exhibition called “Flower Eaters” that you should really check out before it comes down on Dec 19th.
We’ve written several grants in the last few months that we are waiting to hear about so fingers crossed. Coming up in 2022 we are launching a new experimental music series, bringing back our original residency program, and are working on a handful of new exhibitions, including a drawing show I’m developing with my friend artist Stephanie Parnes. Check out her work, it’s amazing. (Steph - I owe you a phone call!).
If you live in Western Oregon come pay us a visit. You can get on our email list and keep track of our shenanigans here.
Okay. That’s probably good for now. Do me a favor and say hi or ask a question in the comments.