Did you see one? Tell me!
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Did you see one? Tell me!
43
Forty-third series: See Me Tell Me Shifts: 36 Views of the Ruins of Zuccotti, ed. 100
This is the fourth of my See Me Tell Me Shifts series. The shifts are based on the thin, simple, summer dresses worn by fashionable New York women. The imagery for this newest series are the views of the now empty Zuccotti Square, the site of the small village of the Occupy Wall Street Movement that existed from September 17-November 15, 2011 until it was erased from existence. Each dress is made from 7 to 4 inch long piece of Japanese rice paper cut in the shape of a sundress. On the front is one of the 36 views of the empty square in homage to the great ukigo-e printmaker Hiroshige. The string sash has a face bead that refers to the human microphone employed by the protestors and the word “occupy” in letter beads. On the back are images of botanical rhizomes, symbolic of the social media networks that spread the word of the Occupy movement around the world. Included is a small plastic bag full a grass seed, a type of rhizome that symbolizes the growth and spread of the movement. This series was commissioned by Revolt Magazine. 25 of the works will be given away by the magazine and the rest will be placed out in the world.
Did you see one or add one to your collection? Tell me about it.
Did you see one or add one to your collection? Tell me about it.
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Forty-second series: Subway Tokens, ed. 100
Carry this token in your pocket or bag next to your metro card and you will always get a seat on the subway, your train will arrive on time, and the interesting person sitting across from you will look up from their book and into your eyes.
This is the third of my bound series. Wrapping, binding and tying is a method used by outsider and visionary artists as well artists of the Congo and ancient Egypt. The string, rope, thread, ribbon, as well as the charms and trinkets threaded in and among the windings attract and concentrate spiritual energy within the object empowering it to fulfill an intended purpose. In this case extra magic was added with the images of my fellow subway riders. While sitting across from them I was inspired to photograph some of the more beatific and make them into art. For this series I applied their faces to the tokens as “saints of the subway” in the mode of Byzantine icons. Each amulet consists of beads, buttons, sequins, and other various objects invested in plaster wrapped in string, floss, and wire with bells at the ends of the dangling strands. Their edition numbers are written on the verso and they are placed in a 2 x 3 ½ inch poly bag with the title of the series and the QR code on the back. This series was commissioned by RevoltMagazine. 25 of the works will be given away by the magazine and the rest will be placed out in the world.
Did you see one? Tell me about it?
41
Forty-first Series: Blue Sky Windows, edition 100
The worst part of winter is upon us. To offset the depression and vitamin D deficiency this time of year brings, I created a few works to remind us of the azure skies of October and the upcoming cerulean firmaments of spring. Armed with little plastic boxes, photographs of cloudy blue skies, some with an occasional a bird or two, polymer resin and a little Turrell influence I created 100 works. They are hung by red string and inside is either sand from the beaches we all wish we were on, clear bubble beads to suggest foamy lightness, fallen star sequins, or a few other little treats. (Don’t open these boxes. They are glued shut.) They will be placed in mid January through the end of February, high up in the subways, attached with a bright ART sticker.
Did you see one? Tell me!
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Fortieth series, SeeMeTellMe Snowflakes
To celebrate the holidays I am borrowing the wonderful show flake images of Wilson Alwyn "Snowflake" Bentley (1865-1931). A self educated farmer, Bentley attracted world attention with his photomicrography, most notably his extensive work with snow crystals. He adapted a microscope to a bellows camera, caught flakes on a background of black velvet, and became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. He would photograph more than 5000 snowflakes during his lifetime. These works will consist of a
2 x 1 x ½ inch clear box, a clear sticker of one of Bentley’s images, a bit of glitter, a battery, and a red, green, or blue LED. The works will be placed in New York and Louisville until from December 16-January 4, 2011.
Did you see one or take one home for your collection? Tell me about it.
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Thirty-ninth series: Subway Monarchs, ed. 50
I missed the seeing the Monarch butterflies this year. They are usually the harbingers of fall, along with morning glories and trilling cicadas. But for some reason I didn’t get to see as many as I would have liked. So I decided to bring a few of them back. The works consist of xerox images, gold wire, silver glitter, a magnet, and the seemetellme labels. They will be placed in the subway from early December through late January.
Did you see one? Tell me all about it.
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Thirty-eighth series:
See Me Tell Me Replacements, nos. 1-10
For this series I "borrowing" three inch square sections of media from the posters in the subway. Then in the studio I embellish them with new elements - papers, beads, glitter, sequins, text, and LEDs. Then I return the works to their original location. These works will be placed throughout December, 2011.
Did you see one? Tell me about it.
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Thirty-seventh series: See Me Tell Me Treats, ed. 20
This is just a little series to celebrate Halloween. Took little spooky added a little vanitas, and tied them all together into a mini boutonniere for you. I will be placing these works from October 25 through 31 in New York City.
Special Project - FACES OF MANHATTAN - 2011
It was my great pleasure to present a lecture titled “Street Art and Me” on Thursday, Sept. 29 in Manhattan, Kansas at Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art. The lecture focused on street art, the seemetellme series, and the use of social media to engage artwork collectors. The event was co-sponsored by the department of history, the College of Education and the Women's Studies Department. The seemetellme project was a source of inspiration for History in a Bag, a project developed by K-State's Heather McCrea, associate professor of history, as a teaching tool for her spring 2011 history course.
After the lecture I conducted a workshop on the seemetellme process. The participants took photographs of themselves “JR style” after the great Parisian photograffer which I printed out in long strips. Additionally they were asked to bring a few small items of their own to the workshop that related to them personally - a snippet of a newspaper, stamps, special papers, xeroxes of other images, feathers, hot peppers, string, beads, etc. I provided the magnet backed boxes. Then for about 2 hours we glued, and punched, and sewed, and collaged, and wrote notes to the people of the big apple (NYC) from those in the little apple (Manhattan, KS). About 40 works titled FACES OF MANHATTAN were created. The workshop artists kept one work for themselves and gave me one to put out into the streets of my Manhattan in the coming weeks.
My thanks for the success of this lecture and project go to my great long time friend Heather McCrea and my wonderful new friends, Cyndi Danner-Kuhn and Kathrine Walker Schlageck.
Special Project - Exquisite Corpse Festival - 2011
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