Determination Pants

Aram - 8/23/11

2012-02-11T20:35:00.000-08:00

The Continuing Saga of the UFCK Photo Project: the Aram

With four or five or six photo shoots under my belt, the summer months of 2011 were a frenzy of logistical emails and postings. In the beginning of the year, when the project funding was announced, I made plans to travel during the early summer, around the fourth of July.

Then, I bought a house. It was a good step towards normal, adult, decorum, but that ordeal set me back several weeks, and before I knew it, the end of August, Labor Day, and the beginning of my academic year were all staring me in the face and I had to get on the road for the project.

More emails. More planning. More spreadsheets. I used maps and the Internet to try to figure out the best routes to take. I would be shipping my equipment to my parents' house in Michigan, fly out of Boise, pick up and go. By mid-August, I had a crude plan in place to follow a big loop from Michigan through Chicago, down to Tennessee, back up through the DC area to New York before heading home through Philadelphia.

Sorting through the schedules of almost two dozen people was one thing. Stepping off a plane and meeting someone you'd never met before was another. The first person on my list of subjects, and the main focus of the entire project from its inception, was Aram.

Let me tell you a little bit about Aram.

He's a character. A relatively normal character, but a character nonetheless. On ufck.org he is easily the the site's most recognizable members, both because of his appearance and his personality. His loves include the Beatles, vinyl records, the University of Michigan (and especially its Marching Band), Michigan beer, soul music, playing on a vintage baseball team, his Armenian heritage, and his academic studies, among others.

For whatever reason–most likely because Aram has been around ufck.org since its inception and the inception of its predecessors, which has resulted in a more extensive reputation than someone just joining the boards–Aram gets picked on. A lot. Oftentimes, it's in good fun, and he takes it in jest. It's schoolyard teasing among friends. Sometimes, though, it's, well, rougher than that. He's opinionated, sure, but his opinions resonate across this online community oftentimes like wildfire. He's different, and I knew that before I even met him in person. He's emotional, which rarely serves one well in an online forum as sarcastic and caustic as ufck.org can be. But his specific emotions somehow help him stay afloat and keep a level head through all of the derision and nitpicking.

His penchant for oddball comments, photogenic tendencies–which lend themselves quite well to an almost innumerable catalog of animated .gif images–and general demeanor and reputation as this sort of online forum celebrity were what initiated this project in the first place. In my eyes, he was this walking, living, breathing meme, and I had to investigate what it was that made Aram the Aram.

Because I had shipped my photographic equipment to my parents' house, it put the camera out of reach when I landed at Detroit Metro Airport. So I split my photo shoot with Aram into two parts: the first would be a sit-down visit where we talked about anything and everything pertaining to the message board. Then I would return the following day for the photo shoot once I had my gear with me.

This means that I spent the better part of a day traveling from Oregon to Detroit, picked up my luggage and my rental car, and was driving to a stranger's house to sit and chat about who-knows-what. For the first time in my photographic life, I was nervous, and it had nothing to do with standing in front of a classroom of strangers.

I had a notebook, a tape recorder, and a water bottle. No plan, no questions, no getaway plan if Aram turned homicidal and started throwing vintage 45's at me.

Aram answered the door in a Fat Possum Records t-shirt. If that doesn't say anything about what kind of guy Aram is, then this blog post–and maybe the entire photo project–is a giant waste of time.º

My conversation with Aram, and the photo shoot the next day, went almost too well to describe.* He was jovial and welcoming and more than willing to talk. He had a hard time believing his life–or online life–was somehow worthy of interest from an artist, let alone photographic documentation. We met for over an hour and a half that first day, and I learned about Aram's fascination with the city of Detroit, how he managed to survive a year-long grad school program in Chicago (and what he was actually studying), and what he was doing back home in his parents' basement.

The following day we continued the conversation while shooting and over lunch. Aram recounted, as best he could remember, his hilarious and eventful night at his first State Champion concert, why he wanted to take a trip to Israel, and what the deal is with his giant beard.

It turns out that Aram is a normal guy like he insists all the time online. The difference between him and many of the other people who post at ufck.org is that he rarely holds back. He's truthful to his ideals in a way that sets off a lot of people. Hence, the poking fun, the comments.

Aram is probably the person that is most comfortable being himself when he's online. And it's strange, since this whole project started with him and how we're all different–we have to be, right?–online compared to our real lives. For Aram, there isn't really a line between those two worlds for him. He's a bit younger, he's been posting online since he was in high school. (I, for instance, didn't discover the world of online message boards until I was a junior in college.)

While the story about Aram and our visit could go on and on (and will; see the footnote below), the fact that it was my first stop on a long photographic journey was, in retrospect, one of the best things about the entire project. Everyone who agreed to be photographed was more than cordial and welcoming, sure, but there was something about Aram's demeanorª–and the fact of knowing there are people like him out there–that makes me realize that this project has merit, whether or not the in-depth stories of the characters involved ever get told.

º Aram is by no means an indie music expert, but the fact that he was wearing a Fat Possum Records shirt–celebrating the small record label operating out of Water Valley (Oxford), Mississippi says loads about his personality.

* For a more elaborate story on my conversation with Aram, please stay tuned to this specific webpage on the ufck.org photo project site.

ª He would be the first to comment: tl;dr

All In: The GOP Primary Race

2012-02-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

So the candidates have been squaring off in debate after debate after debate. There were 18 debates before the first GOP primary in Iowa on January 3.

Up until Tuesday night, the paint swatches were simple in that I had video footage from which to sample flesh tones. Everything was operating to the tune of one debate per primary. Tuesday night threw a wrench in the proceedings, in that there were three primaries being held with no debates in between.

I had to scrounge. In this new TRIPLE SWATCH™ from the GOP Primary Paint Swatch Series©, color selections come from Nevada Caucus results images, NY Times results page thumbnail images, and, in the case of Missouri, high school yearbook photos of the candidates.

Because of the increasing paucity of debates, the palettes are increasing and will become more variegated as the race continues. Expect colors from alma maters, house photos, automobile images (if I can ever find a pic of whatever Rick Santorum drives), and more.

Like some of the more stubborn candidates, I've gone all in with this project. In the weeks to come–I can't even think about Super Tuesday right now: 10 primaries in one night on March 6–this project will grow into something I didn't even begin imagine when it all started. I'm optimistic about the results.

Nevada Caucus: Hey Ladies!

2012-02-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

The latest Paint Swatch from the 2012 GOP Primary Series© comes from Nevada, that hotbed of scandal and sex and ho-hum election results. (Mitt Romney won again! Yay!)

Because there wasn't a debate between the most recent primary and this one, colors are taken from images of each candidate's wife's skin tone.

The array of colors from the entire process is starting to form an interesting–if not bland–spectrum. Colors deepen or desaturate but the general monochrome is there on nearly every swatch.

Upcoming elections pose the same problem as the Nevada contest; there are no debates scheduled until the candidates meet in Arizona on February 22nd. Until then, new and interesting ways of representing the candidates' fleshy tones will have to be sought. Stay tuned.

Sunday Art #4

2012-02-02T13:49:00.001-08:00

I'm back of the regularly scheduled art schnide with this piece I did for good friend and La Grande-ite Gregory Rawlins. He approached me a few weeks ago to do a poster for his upcoming concert at Union's LG Brewskis pub.

Lots of pen and ink on paper I found in a stack near the west wall of the studio. If you'd like a high quality version for printing, please let me know. I'm sure Greg would love extra hands hanging them around town.

Once Again, Florida Messes Up

2012-02-01T09:07:00.000-08:00

After a week in which Newt's campaign seemed to be running on endless energy, with babble about moon colonies and free stuffed animals for everyone in America, Floridians decided to ignore the awesome and choose cyborg-esque Mitt Romney in their GOP Primary election last night.

Lame.

Things were beginning to get interesting, with debates deteriorating to petty accusations between Mitt and Newt while the seemingly real politicians–Rick Santorum and Ron Paul–stood idly by and watched the circus.

This official Florida GOP™ Primary Paint Swatch© features Newt at his pinkest yet, thanks to the cameras of NBC; colors for this swatch were taken from their coverage of the debate on January 23rd.

In other random news, my good buddy Kieran Johnson has been ramping up his photographic output, and his work hasn't looked better. Check out his blog here. You can follow him on Twitter, too, just like you can follow me, if you like.

Photos from Long Ago

2012-01-26T16:28:00.000-08:00

In October of 2011, the Art Center at the Old Library hosted its annual Grande Ronde Artists’ Studio Tour. I found myself in a “booth” at the Art Center itself with fellow artists Susan Murrell and Jaime Gustavson. The crowds were light and I wandered around the Art Center–an old Carnegie Foundation library–with my 4x5 camera and a couple of packages of Fuji Instant film.

I had sort of forgotten about the images until I opened a drawer in the desk and there they were. I had never gotten around to scanning them, so I thought I'd put them on a secret webpage for people to see. You can access that page by clicking here.

Sunday Art #3 (and a half)

2012-01-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

If you don't think that these GOP Primary Paint Swatches are hilarious,* you should check out Newt Gingrich's South Carolina Primary victory speech. He never misses a beat, dropping references to Barack Obama's "left wing friends in San Francisco" and how we're headed towards an "Alinksy/European socialist" regime. Pretty good stuff.

The South Carolina GOP Primary Paint Swatch™colors come from screen captures from last Thursday's Fox News debate in Charleston.

Now Newt's campaign will pick up its jowls and head down to Florida, where they'll try to upset ol' Mittens once more. If he does, it'll certainly make the next few months very interesting.

Also attached, and accompanying this swatch in the Sunday Art category, is a quick sketch of the poster I've started for the upcoming Greg Rawlins concert in Union, Oregon. I've never transposed something from a tiny pen sketch (about 3" high) to a large (11"x17") poster size, so this will be quite the experiment.

* It's totally fine if you don't think they're hilarious. They're not really that funny. I just needed a comparison for Newt's bombastic speech-making.

Sunday Art #2

2012-01-21T16:14:00.000-08:00

Never fear, my friends: the Sunday Art train keeps a rollin' on. I hadn't forgotten about this drawing I finished earlier this week (and started last week), I just didn't have a scanner within reach to get it uploaded to the web.

I've been on a stratification kick lately when I'm doodling, and I figured to put some more effort into a more polished version of what I've been doing in meetings.

I suppose this qualifies as a regular Saturday blog post, but I might chime in later tonight if the mood strikes.

This week I'll upload some sketches I'm working on for a concert poster. A good friend wants me to draw one up for a local show, so that's the project for the next week or so.

Also, stay tuned for a new paint swatch from the South Carolina GOP primaries, taking place today.

Strangers Pick the Best of 2011

2012-01-14T19:01:00.000-08:00

Each December, the users of the online forum ufck.org submit their votes for the best albums of the previous year. All of the submitted lists are tallied by some dear soul who has the time to assign point values to each record.

My relationship with the UFCK folks has changed quite a bit over the last year. The UFCK Photo Project was a big step for me integrating myself into the community and becoming a regular. In the past, the only claim to fame I had was the occasional animated .gif I would throw together in Photoshop.

I submitted a list of albums this year for the first time. By no means a music expert, I scrolled through iTunes in the hopes I had listened to some new music during 2011. I had. Nothing extensive, to be sure, but there was enough variety that I culled together my favorites from among the critically acclaimed to the less-so.

Several things happened during this year's UFCK top 25 voting. State Champion, a relatively unknown (save for UFCK.org) rock band from Louisville, took top prize. I met frontman Ryan Davis during my photo trip, and photographed him for the project, despite his never having been a member of the message board. (Though the band has been fodder for many a fantastic board experience.) Enough nice things cannot be said about him, especially considering I met up with him at his place at 9am, while he and his girlfriend were getting ready to head up to Kings Island for the day.

To access the list of UFCK's top 25 albums of 2011, go here. What you'll find is a mix of eclectic and fantastic music. With each entry on the list you'll also find a custom blurb written by a member of the forum. Sometimes the blurbs are ironic, sometimes they are clever. Other times, they are simply a litany of inside jokes that any outsider (or boarder with fewer than 50,000 posts) would fail to understand. The blurbs are usually more descriptive of the person who wrote them than of the record they're describing.

Take a look and you'll learn about UFCK, some new music, and the lives of people who take their music very, very seriously*.

And you'll also have a chance to download, print, and enjoy your very own State Champion Activity Book. Happy coloring!

* This blog does not endorse Dave's Rawk Blog, its opinions, or any of its absurdity. It is worth experiencing at least once, though.

Keeping the Ball Rolling

2012-01-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

It's all but over for the republicans running against Mitt Romney. He cruised to victory in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, and if he's able to secure a win in South Carolina, it will most likely be a Romney/Obama election (plus, you know, the other guys) come November.

At left you'll find the next installment in the GOP Primary Paint Swatch© Series 2012™. The pasty skin tones in this New Hampshire set come from an ABC News photo from the debate last weekend. As with the Iowa swatch, the NH file is 300dpi and ready for printing in order to get that perfect Rick Perry shade for that bookshelf you've been promising you'd build for your children. Or whatever.

Collect them all! Coming up next is the South Carolina edition of the GOP Primary Paint Swatch© Series 2012™.

And remember to click to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/meisenhower

Sunday Art #1

2012-01-08T23:11:00.000-08:00

In keeping with my previous post about making art on Sundays–and in the face of much procrastination of working on syllabi and what not for the start of winter term tomorrow–I've finishing something that I thought would fit this category.

This will be an ongoing project in conjunction with the presidential election. For those not in the know, four years ago I was working on my master's thesis, a project that addressed mass media, photography, and journalism through the story of a fictional third party candidate.

Something struck me during the brief stints I spent viewing the Republican debate in New Hampshire last night, and I came up with this. Right now this new "project" is in its infancy, even though it appears that it's Mitt's nomination to lose.

The tones in this swatch were taken from official candidate photographs. Most color samples came from averaging an area of pixels in the forehead of each candidate. Numbers are the votes each candidate received, in tens of thousands.

At 300 dpi, the swatch is ready for printing on any thick card stock. With custom color matching available at places like Lowes and Home Depot, now you can paint your entire den with a good shade of Santorum.

More swatches will follow each official state primary, time permitting. Right now the best concept I have going is to use a group photo from an ABC News story from the New Hampshire debates last night. Maybe I'll have to set up the old tripod in front of the television for the next one.

Because of the project from 2008 (which was actually more like 2007-2009), I thought I had tired of elections and politics. But I think the tight race for the spot on the red side of November's card will actually make me pay some attention, even if it's only to mock the candidates, the media, or politics in general. At least it's got my creative juices flowing, as opposed to Santorum juices.

One Week In (And a Day Late)

2012-01-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

With the new year, I've decided to add some regulation to my ever-increasing daily life.

After one week of cavalier behavior, and with the end of vacation, I've devised the following schedule that I hope to stick with as much as possible. The new schedule should increase my productivity as both an educator and artist as much of the regulation involves making stuff or getting stuff in order. Below is the schedule I've concocted, no doubt subject to change.

Saturdays - Blog posting. So consider this yesterday's blog post.*
Sundays - Art making. That basement studio gets lonely most of the time. (This also parallels with my book-a-day project from a few years ago.)
Mondays - Music. Haven't opened the guitar case in ages. (Halloween, to be exact.)
Tuesdays - School. All day. Prep work, meetings, paperwork, you name it.
Wednesdays - Catch-up day; whatever I've missed or let slip the previous days gets made up here.
Thursdays - A free day to relax
Fridays - Cleaning. Studio, house, office, classrooms, cars, laundry, self, etc.

I've also been using Twitter much more. And I'm always hoping more people I know will join the conversation. It's a great way to catch artist calls that pass by CAA, Facebook, and the other usual outlets. Twitter name is meisenhower.

* What a stupid blog post to start the year. Seriously. Please email your complaints to me instead of posting public comments here.

New Year's Eve Memories (Then and Now)

2011-12-31T20:01:00.000-08:00

Two years ago tonight I was in Michigan, celebrating the holidays with family and friends. I had flow back to Michigan after three months at my new job in Oregon to reunite with those I had left. I spent the three days after Christmas in Grand Rapids with good friends, an alternative to driving through the thick snow to the Upper Peninsula; family illnesses (my grandmother was in hospice and my friend's uncle was in the hospital) made us think twice about the long trip. Instead of white outs, frozen lake races, whiskey, cribbage, and chili, my friends and I settled for the three latter festivities.

My flight back to Oregon was supposed to be on December 30th. I was to be routed from Grand Rapids to Chicago to Boise. There was a problem: weather. Planes were getting in late to Chicago, which meant I would be delayed to Boise. Rather than spend the night in the airport in Grand Rapids, I elected to go back with my friends for a final, impromptu night.

This meant that I arrived in Boise not on the 30th, with time to travel home (Oregon) for New Year's festivities, but on the 31st. After a brief bomb scare in the Boise Airport, I paid close to attention to Trip Check and airport monitors that showed the weather. I-84, my main route to get home, was open, but was in poor conditions. Rather than risk injury, crashing my car into the side of a mountain on New Year's Eve, I formulated a plan.

The Fairfield Suites courtesy van picked me up around 10pm to take me to my car and the hotel. The shuttle driver was a younger guy, so I asked him what he recommended a stranger in Boise do to ring in the new year.

"Tell you what," the guy said to me after I explained my situation. "Book your room for tonight and tell the front desk I said I'd take you downtown. They'll page me and I'll come pick you up."

I trusted this Cory Feldman-type character was as good a person to trust as any in Boise, Idaho's largest city, so I obliged. He picked me up in the shuttle around 10:45pm and we headed towards downtown.

Cory explained to me my options: there was a strip of bars on the main drag, and for a cover fee of something like $25, you could get into all of them if you wanted. I told him I wanted free. He told me my best option was a place called Mulligans, on Main between 9th and 10th street.

Having just left Grand Rapids, Michigan, which happens to have a doppelgänger business called Mulligan's, I figured I couldn't go wrong.

I showed up to find a packed bar, your typical college town bar, with televisions showing Rihanna singing her latest single. After a few minutes, I made my way through the crowd and grabbed a drink at the bar.

Standing in line at Mulligans, a bar 170 miles from where I lived, I figured I had two options. The first was to finish my beer just after midnight, let out a small yelp as the ball dropped, and grab a cab a few minutes later to sleep before my three-hour trip home the next day, New Year's Day.

The second option, and the more unlikely and unappealing one, was to lower my inhibitions and make some new friends. Sort of like cold calling for jobs in the phone book, I figured now was as good a time as any to meet some new people in a "faraway" town.

While grabbing beer, I noticed a particularly cheerful-looking group of people at a table near the bar. Some of them reminded me of the people I had left behind in Michigan. What was the worst that could happen? Was New Year's Eve, with Carson Daly on TV, the night I was most likely to be accosted or murdered by some strangers in downtown Boise?

Of course not.

So, after grabbing my pint of Moose Drool, I moseyed over to this table of twentysomethings and sort of stood there like some lame-o until the conversation dwindled to a din.

And this is what I said (really).

"Hi. My name is Mike. I'm from Oregon and I'm stuck in Boise tonight for New Year's Eve because my planes were delayed and I-84 is in crappy condition. Can I be your friend for tonight?"

As pathetic and ridiculous as that sounds, and as it sounded then, since I fully expected them to laugh at me simply because of how stupid and out of place I looked, there was a resounding "SURE!" from the table.

It was so silly it felt like I was in the middle of some Richard Curtis movie. I had the most absurdly fun New Year's of my life, simply because I had no idea who any of the people I was with were.

There was something really special about spending such a celebratory evening with complete strangers.

I sit here now, with this party about to start, and every New Year's Eve I think about the people whose names I can't remember who might be at Mulligans tonight, or any night for that matter. I don't care what they're up to; I only hope they're doing well.

So much of my life recently has been about strangers. This past summer's photo project was entirely dependent upon strangers. How that project mirrored my evening with strangers in Boise in 2009 isn't lost on me as I write this. If people who are strangers weren't, at their cores, nice people, then the photo project and my night in Boise would have been complete letdowns.

And every day I interact with people that I've never met. And those that I've met, whether it's through where I live, what I do, or the work I've made, I barely know. Even moving to a new neighborhood has brought new people into my life.

That's what I reflect upon as we all enter 2012. New Year's Eve can be a great time whether you're with strangers or those closest to you. And I hope to have a bit of both tonight as 2011 draws to a close.

wazzoo & Danner - 3/20/11

2011-12-01T19:29:00.001-08:00

Oh, it was so long ago....

It's been almost nine months since I ventured into the greater Seattle area to begin the UFCK photo project. And it's been too long since posting about anything on this blog. And with applications in for both funding to continue the project and a potential exhibition of this work, it's high time I start recounting the stories that accompany these images. Both of these shots took place on the same day during spring break.

I met up with wazzoo (top photo) at his home. My notes describe the house as "a box house." I nearly died making a left turn onto a nearby street, as I had to venture into one of Seattle's hillier areas. (It was an almost completely blind left turn.)

Wazzoo was very quiet and subdued. No music. No noises. I set up my equipment and we made very basic small talk: studies in college, job-related stuff, the photo project.

It wasn't until I - for one reason or another - brought up basketball that wazzoo really piped up. Huge Seattle Sonics fan. Like many people from the area, wazzoo's sentimental streak nearly begins and ends with the loss of the Sonics and their move to Oklahoma City.

From there, the conversation moved to the city and what I had done since I arrived. Wazzoo was full of recommendations for places to visit, from good dinners to nightlife hotspots, which, admittedly, I never followed through on because my quick trip (4 photo shoots) was enough to wear me out by the end of each day.

After a quick late lunch it was out to Woodinville, a suburb in the Seattle/Redmond area. Danner (left) came out onto his balcony to welcome me. After offering me a beer - Danner is a bit of a beer nut - I set up my camera.

Danner was talkative and easily excited. He donned Liverpool gear and we chatted soccer for quite a bit. Liverpool FC is Danner's club of choice, and part of his extensive traveling résumé includes a trip to England to take in a match. UFCK's soccer thread is his sort of home away from home; we never really had crossed paths that often on the boards; his email regarding a potential photo shoot was the most surprising one I received.

Soccer and NCAA basketball were on the television as we talked quite a bit about Danner's journey to the Pacific Northwest. He interned in Dallas for the PGA Tour and has traveled to Spain, Liverpool (twice), and London. He showed a bit of interest in my 4x5 camera and recounted the story of losing his nearly-new Canon Rebel xSi on a plane to Chicago; he left it in the overhead bin and never heard about it again.

Sometimes stuff like that happens.

That long weekend in Seattle in March was the start of this whole project. It would be five months until I stepped behind the camera again for another UFCK photo shoot.

slipereypete - 3/19/11

2011-10-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Following the success of the photo shoot with Seattle-ite Kzoo, I ventured into unknown territory. Kzoo was the only boarder on ufck.org I had met whose photo I would take for this project. slipereypete was the second shoot on that day.

The northwest side of Seattle is highly residential, and very hilly. Lots of up and down in the car with photo equipment in the back. I found the place reasonably well - in that I only drove past it once - and made my way up.

The environment was something like an upscale bachelor pad: the olive green leather sofa, stack of art books, and intricately carved coffee table contrasted nicely with the giant flatscreen television and folding table stacked to the brim with records. We listened to Yellow Ostrich's The Mistress* as we chatted. NCAA tournament basketball and the Vancouver Whitecaps MLS debut game were switched between on the television.

slipereypete's apartment afforded great views of the city as well as great light. Our conversation was lively and insightful, and our best conversation points focused on the board and its structure and communal nature.

"Life is usually convex," slipereypete said towards the end of our meeting. "People tend to travel in different directions, doing different things, going to different places. UFCK is concave: people all collect in one place."

A large presence in ufck.org's soccer thread - and naturally a huge Sounders supporter - meeting slipereypete was a great shoot in the sense that it gave me consolation in knowing other people thought of the social experience of a website like ufck.org in the same way I was. There's something to it besides people all talking to one another.

"Everyone else on UFCK cares about all of the stuff you like that no one else gives a shit about," he said. That's the community that I had really plunged myself into.

But I never got around to asking him where his screen name came from.

* The lead singer behind Yellow Ostrich - Alex - also posts regularly on ufck.org. They're moving up in the world these days, opening shows for Ra Ra Riot and making appearances on NPR and the like. Unfortunately, Alex and his bandmates were on a very different travel schedule from mine during the project, and I wasn't able to line up a photo shoot with them. Check them out anyway and buy Yellow Mistress on super-cool yellow vinyl.

Kzoo - 3/19/11

2011-10-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

This is where it all started. The UFCK Photo Project got underway with one of only three boarders I had previously met. It was a cool, March Seattle day. I'm driving around residential neighborhoods with eighty pounds of photo equipment in the trunk of my car, my school has given me money to work on this project, and I have no idea how it's going to go.

I first met Kzoo back in November of 2009, when I was in Seattle for an SPE Northwest regional conference. I told him I was going to be in town, and we stopped somewhere in the Capital Hill district to grab a drink. He had a cold. He called me "Matt." It was a little weird. But our Michigan connection kept the awkward silences to a minimum.

I parked my car near Kzoo's place and he came out to the sidewalk and offered to help carry my gear.

The place was arranged in such a way as to make photographing anything with a view camera and lights a complicated mess. But I powered through. Even when I discovered that I had traveled five and a half hours from home without power cables for my lights, Kzoo found an extra computer cable that worked just fine.

The art on the walls was done by relatives of Kzoo's absent roommate. Kzoo moved the couch pillows "for a better look." He wore his narwhal shirt. He put on music: Magnolia Electric Company's self-titled final album. After the needle passed through side two, he threw on Neil Young's "Everyone Knows This is Nowhere."

Kzoo was personable and just talkative enough to not interfere with my setup. As it was my first shoot, the entire process took much longer than later shoots that happened in August.

Pictured here is an instant proof from the shoot. The exterior window behind him made the lighting awkward, though this far removed from March, the exact details of the shoot escape my memory. I know the strobe is somewhere off to the right, aimed through this translucent Japanese-style screen thing.

Kzoo is one of the guys from the board that would probably get along with anyone, whether they were invading his space to take his picture, or meeting up at Linda's* for a beer.

* This may not actually be the place we went. But it's close.

[text] Project Website [/text]

2011-10-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, finally.

There are some parts of this that aren't complete. I still have to write the essay I've been promising myself for the last six weeks. The webpages still show titles as "text" and nothing more. (Thanks, iWeb!) But I can't sit on the whole shebang when only small portions aren't fully realized.

So, here it is: the UFCK Photo Project website, in all its glory. Replete with photos. And links. And essays. Essays about life on the Internet. About being friends with strangers. About technological marvels. About getting drunk and passing out at a State Champion show. There's plenty missing, from the photo of the "SWEENEY" license plate I took while driving through Virginia to the slobber from the dog that tried to eat my tripod.

But when someone asks me what I was up to this summer, it was this. From a proposal for the project compiled last November to the first shots this past March, the circle has been large, interesting, and rewarding as it's come around again.

Proposals for exhibitions are now in the works. More later.

(And, if you didn't click on the link above, you can get to the site by following the link here.)

Realest Dream Ever

2011-09-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

I've had dreams that felt real before. Many of them. Once, Bono acted like he was my friend and gave me a styrofoam cooler. Once I got that cooler loaded into the minivan I was driving, the whole thing blew up. Another time some woman I didn't even know converted me to Judaism on the side of a New York City subway platform just by touching me on the forehead.

Whether it was the allergy medication I was on, or the Ny-Quil I downed before bed to induce a good night's sleep (it didn't work, by the way; the allergies won out), last night's dream was easily the most serious and real I've had in a long while.

The exact details are a bit sketchy, but the gist of it goes like this: Matt Damon was my doctor. I must have been complaining about headaches or something, because I was in an exam room with Dr Damon and he was holding up x-rays of my head.

And in the most serious tone I've ever heard or seen from the Academy Award-winning actor, he says, "I wish I could say I have good news. What you've got is an inoperable brain tumor. I'd guess you've got about 10 more good years in you."

It hit me like a ton of bricks. There were other parts of the dream, like some random scene where members of my family (only they weren't my real family) were sorting through crystal glassware and deciding who gets it. (This may or may not have had anything to do with my terminal illness.)

But having to face my own mortality, even in the dream-addled haze of allergy medicine, was something else. It was, to say the least, quite the trip.

As far as I know - and apart from the allergies - I am in good health and should have more than "about 10 more good years" in me.

The Intro to the Project

2011-09-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a story about how they came to the boards. I was in college, when Napster was booming and changing what most people thought about music, when I discovered the boards. In the time since, the boards have changed what I think about community and communication. Admittedly, I stumbled upon the boards because of being a fan of Dave Matthews Band(1), and perusing the boards allowed the opportunity to trade compact discs of live concerts. These days, Napster is gone, trading live shows through the mail is gone, and the board’s love of Dave Matthews Band is gone as well.

The message board was a place for discussing specific and random topics, from current movies and television shows to what to grow in a backyard garden(2). There was a social element to the boards as well, with the casual participant picking up on circles of friends, people that knew each other from college or high school days(3).

My personal perception of what an Internet message board is changed in 2004. I was a college graduate and had to ride my bicycle to the local library for Internet access. I would casually participate on the boards, chiming in mostly in threads that dealt with the Detroit Tigers or philosophical arguments. I regularly visited two boards at that time: the flowery and hippie-ish amidreaming.org (aka AMI) and the harsher, cynical, harder-edged anyoneseenthebridge.com(4). I was posting regularly on the former and only reading on the latter.

One day “The Bridge,” as it was called, disappeared. The site stopped working, and there was a small exodus of Bridge users to AMI. The story about the Bridge’s shutdown appeared in a thread on AMI. The story involved two people who were romantically linked to each other and technologically linked to The Bridge. Once the two of them split up, petty arguments and the spread of incriminating digital photos led to The Bridge’s demise. It was a strange case of cross-pollination that shifted what I thought about that in which I was participating; the people involved became real. There was no longer that veil of anonymity that I assumed existed with any Internet website. The community abruptly closed for a short time(5).

Then The Bridge reopened under a new domain name. New people were put in charge, and in mid-2004, registration for new users at UFCK.org became public. I signed up in March of 2005.

Now I approach UFCK (née The Bridge) from a different standpoint. My participation has increased from the days when I was only reading the thoughts of other people. I have developed my own online personality and have become “a voice” in the small community that loses members every month(6). My 10,000 posts over the course of the last six years(7) have covered everything from Tigers trades to this photography project.

The project sprang from my interest in my board “colleagues” as well as growing notions that constructed personalities exist all over the Internet. Certainly, I know that I use different language and a different demeanor when I email my parents versus when I email an old college buddy. The same goes for in-person interactions. But there is something intriguing about the electronic barrier that is in place on a website like UFCK.org that permits people to speak as freely as they like about anything they like.

In reality the interactions between boarders online and boarders offline is quite different. I have firsthand experience of that from the portrait sessions that have happened since. Cordial is not a nice enough word I use to express my gratitude towards the subjects in this project. I personally would have a hard time granting intimate access to someone I have never met just so they could take my picture(8).

Ultimately, what I am hoping to accomplish with this project is not to shed light on the physical appearances of people who possibly have remained secret on the Internet for a half decade or more(9). Instead, I hope the captured images will shed light instead on what it means to exist as a constructed personality both online and on film. Instead of illuminating viewers and exposing these UFCK subjects to the world, the photographs really perpetuate some of the mysteries behind the people with whom we interact with electronically everyday(10).

^{1. I will still admit to liking the DMB to this day. So don’t even start with the ridicule.}

^{2. There are also plenty of threads that exist solely to bash someone within the community. Sometimes, it’s deserved, and the forum will gang up on a member that has been nothing but mean to other people. Other times, it’s to poke fun of someone because they posted a photo of themselves wearing archaic church gowns on Facebook.}

^{3. See endnote number 2. It’s easier to get people together to make poke fun or harass another user when the person making the thread has several other friends that post regularly.}

^{4. Both silly website names are derived from lyrics of Dave Matthews Band songs.}

^{5. I was recently reminded by one of my photo subjects that there was a “crossover” board called Omeletteville. I had completely forgotten about that place, most likely because it required an invitation to register, and I didn't get one.}

^{6. As of my writing this, there are a few users championing a sort of “End of Days” for the board, which may take place at the end of this calendar year.}

^{7. An average of 4.45 posts per day.}

^{8. This is a terrible position for a photographer to take or, even more so, admit. To try to alleviate this aversion to my own photograph and make some sort of peace with my other subjects, I shot a self-portrait for the project and it will appear as anonymously in context with the others as I can personally make it.}

^{9. The web predecessor of both UFCK and The Bridge, DMBml, dates back to prior to 2001.}

^{10. Pick me up, love.}

The (ongoing) UFCK Photo Project

2011-09-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Oregon after a long trip to the east side of the country. 2,300 miles later, I've come back with over 50 sheets of 4x5 film that need to be processed. In the meantime, and until I buy a dust mask capable of filtering out that much C-41 chemistry, I post here to give people some background and begin what is sure to be a complex journey through the photographs from the past two weeks.

Back in March, I posted images from shoots I did in Seattle. Those subjects were strangers who I only know from their presence on the Internet message board UFCK.org. (More on the board, its origins, and my place in the community coming later.) This community of posters includes people of all ages and backgrounds.

Several of these wonderful souls agreed to be photographed, and so I took off on a ten-day trip that yielded many great experiences. I am forever in debt to the people that I got to meet and photograph.

It will be a while until the images are developed, scanned, and printed. The entire project will take up the better part of the next year, when I hope to embark on a shorter trip along the west coast to gather more portraits and stories. Everything will culminate in a book, which I will be sure to post about here.

Until then, the gallery of instant proofs is available for viewing here. Enjoy.

I Love LA

2011-05-30T21:00:00.001-07:00

I think it was last year that I entered a piece of mine into a show at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art. It was something like a mail-in show or the like, where an artist sends a file and the gallery prints the work and hangs it all up on the wall, salon style.

LACDA's upcoming show, "Top 40," an international juried show, will feature forty pieces by artists using digital methods for creating their work. A recent piece of mine, Metal Bird (Bummer), will be among those included.

The show opens June 9th and runs through July 2nd. You can see the works of everyone selected for the show here.

Hallelujah: It All Comes Crashing Down Upon Us

2011-05-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

Times are strange. Sometimes, events dictate the behavior of artists. Rarely, artists dictate the events. Unless those events are art-related.

I've never worked this way before. View camera, black and white, tilt/swing thingamajigs, drawings, constructed sets. Never done it. It was a trying experience, both in expression and execution.

The execution is that outlined above. Drawing and then piecing the parts together to create this surreal arena.

The expression is less definable and more sporadic as the reality of the situation for artists out here becomes clearer. Things happen. People might disappear. Every once in a while, the ones that disappear are supposed to disappear; they move on to bigger and better things. Usually, though, reality has a way of choosing its victims in this random way that makes eerily logical sense.

Times are strange. Let's move on.

New Project

2011-03-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

This is how the conversation always starts when I have to talk about my newest photo project:

"There's this website..."

And then someone asks who these people are. And I say, "Well, I 'know' these people... from the Internet."

Which is sort of true. I do know these people. But not as friends. They're e-acquaintances. Some more than others. And that's kind of the point of the project.

The website in question is an Internet forum I discovered years ago as an undergrad. The original incarnation of the website centered on music discussion and tape trading in the days before FTP and widespread mp3 files.

The latest incarnation of the site is more general in nature. Topics of discussion still include music, but politics, television, pop culture, video games, and food are also more prominent in the mix.

This project will consist of portraits of posters from this website. With the help of a generous stipend from Eastern Oregon's Faculty Scholars program, I will travel the country this summer photographing my fellow Internet posters. The idea is to uncover the "real" person behind the Internet persona, though anonymity still overrides each image since most viewers will have no idea at whom they're looking.

With widespread digital interaction taking place every day, from Facebook to MySpace to Twitter to Internet message boards to online education, personalities are becoming more and more niched and fictional.

In the past, my work focused on fictional personalities that I had constructed and created to seem real. Now my work shifts focus to real people and their self-made fictional personalities. And with the added barrier of the portrait - which can be as fictional as a user's Internet identity - these subjects might just take on an even larger fictional role.

Photo Everywhere

2011-03-16T11:09:00.001-07:00

The C-41 train keeps rolling, as another roll of 120 film came out successful. An image from the dentist's office is picture at left.

Last weekend was the SPE National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference is always a great way to catch up with friends, see some great work, experience a new city, and take in some amazing presentations by nationally notable photographers.

SPE presentations included Brian Ulrich, Kelli Connell, Abe Morell, and Bea Nettles. There are too many other people to make mention of, but a great time was assumedly had by all.

This weekend marks the beginning of my latest project. I'll be traveling to Seattle and meeting with some people for portraits. The new group of images will address public/private/online personas, as well as what it means to interact with people you've never met. This link has something to do with the project, but is really just posted here for fun.

Jobos and C-41

2011-02-24T11:11:00.001-08:00

What happens when you throw caution to the wind and buy a Jobo CPE-2 film processor on eBay?

You force yourself to learn what it actually takes to process color film on your own. No Rite-Aid, no Allied Photo, no bumbling photo department worker that doesn't know you can run 120 film through that processor that normally develops 35mm.

This new toy and its complicated chemistry that goes bad if you look at it the wrong way for five seconds has reinvigorated my interest in shooting film. After a semi-shady Craigslist deal in Portland last week, I have everything necessary to process 12 (TWELVE!) sheets of color 4x5 film on my own. It's terrifying and exciting.

This summer I'll embark on a University-supported travel/photography adventure that will either fail miserably or succeed in somewhat mediocre fashion. Either way, I'll be running that Jobo and the 4x5 as much as I can. More later.

Determination Pants: Origins

2011-02-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

Because there was a bit of inquiry from fellow photographer Brian Steele, and because this story hasn't been recounted nearly enough times for it to have become annoying, I feel compelled to recount the origins of "determination pants." (When you haven't made new work in a couple weeks, you've got to get something out on the Internet, don't you?)

The story begins with a pair of sweatpants and ends on the streets of downtown Detroit.

I was a sophomore in college and had just gotten back to campus after a break. It might have been winter break. It might have been spring break. It might have just been a long weekend.

While I was away from campus, I had picked up a new pair of sweatpants. One of the glories of going to college, I had been told in high school, was that you could wake up and wear sweats to your classes. I hadn't found that to be true on a widespread level, but I still needed a new pair of sweats.

They came from Champs Sports. They were grey. And they had a navy blue and yellow stripe trim down the sides.

And the first time I tried them on, they didn't fit right. There was elastic at the bottom and it didn't sit comfortably around my ankles. I didn't like it at all.

It was that moment, and in realizing I could change those sweatpants, that my life took a turn. Up to that point, I had assumed a level of trust that the manufacturers of products had made products the way they were supposed to be. That is, if something was made a certain way, it was that way because it was supposed to be that way. You don't put stickers on your laptop. You don't repaint your guitar. That sort of thing.

It was because of those sweatpants that I realized I could do something about products that weren't perfectly suited to my tastes. I could change them. But only if I really felt the conviction to do so. Because, in my mind, to customize a product by altering it took a level of determination that I previously hadn't possessed. (I had even approached the notion of changing my computer desktop wallpaper with a bit of trepidation, for crying out loud.)

So I took action with those sweatpants. I took a pair of scissors and I cut off the elastic at the bottom of each leg. They subsequently became my determination pants.

There have been lots of "determination" products since then, from hats to shorts to my car because I replaced the spark plugs myself. But nothing has eclipsed those sweats and what they meant to my life.

Story postscript: I wore those sweats for the last time on October 23, 2005 when I ran the Detroit Marathon. They were part of my warmup outfit that came off just before the race started. All clothes left behind at the start of the race are collected and donated to locals in need. The original Determination Pants were dropped at the race's starting line near Comerica Park and haven't been seen since.

In Sickness and In Health...

2011-01-26T11:46:00.001-08:00

The drawing bug reared its head again last night. I finished this bad boy up this morning.

If you've never had conjunctivitis, and would like to know what it's like to look like a werewolf when you teach Photojournalism students about Philip Jones Griffiths, come on over and I can give it to you.

(You can have my PJG Powerpoint presentation too, if you like.)

Coming in 2011

2011-01-02T23:03:00.001-08:00

There's new work on the horizon. Coming soon in 2011 will be my newest group of images. Titled Make Your Own Home, the work will combine photographs and fairy tale illustrations. Is that trite? Maybe so. But, at this moment in time, I don't care.

The entire thing won't create a story, per se, but characters will show up more than once across the group of images. Jack, from Jack and the Beanstalk, and Snow White, with a few dwarves, I'm sure, will make appearances.

Here's a sneak peek at what things might look like, complete with something new: white text on black. All of the imagery is courtesy film strips once again.

Julekalender - 24 Dec.: The End (Belated)

2010-12-31T08:58:00.000-08:00

The end of the project. It came and went so fast. I missed drawing something on the 25th, though there were plenty of family distractions to not have me worry about it too much.

I purchased a brand new set of Micron pens to work on the last three drawings. My old pens were all on their way out. Split tips, missing tips, low ink. The new ones worked quite well on the Rives heavyweight paper I used.

Many thanks to everyone that followed along as I tried this little experiment. Scans should appear in a book soon. Look for it next holiday season. It'll make a perfect stocking stuffer. Any input on future projects, drawing- or whatever-related, is much appreciated.

Here's to much more art being produced in 2011.

Julekalender - 22/23 Dec. (Belated)

2010-12-31T08:49:00.001-08:00

This diptych evolved as the first drawing (the one on the left, the 22nd) was finishing up. The second drawing was done on Festivus.

Julekalender - 21 Dec. (Belated)

2010-12-31T08:46:00.000-08:00

Julekalender - 20 Dec.

2010-12-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

The final Julekalender drawing done in Oregon. In honor of the supposed lunar eclipse (it's cloudy here), here's an ambiguous diagram that looks like it tells you something important, but really doesn't.

West Coast Biennial Show

2010-12-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

Good news, everyone!

I just received word about the West Coast Biennial show happening next year down in Redding, CA.

Pretty excited to get this work into a show, especially with the faculty show coming up soon at school.

These works, motorbicycles, and LEMON PIE are from Sketches I, and can be seen in book form here or digital form here. They were both selected for the exhibition.

Julekalender - 19 Dec.

2010-12-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

A few things about the Julekalender project:

1. I'm leaving town tomorrow.

2. I won't have access to a scanner for a while.

3. Because of items 1 and 2, there will be a slight disruption of the frequency of posting these images.

The drawings will still get made, they just might not show up every day. They might come in batches. They might be shoddy digital photos and not nice scans.

But you'll see the drawings in the end. And there have been rumblings around the home office here that drawings might continue beyond Christmas day. So stay tuned, I guess.

Julekalender - 18 Dec.

2010-12-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

It was seven years ago. It was just a normal night in Ann Arbor, until I misinterpreted the layout of a regular sidewalk, and I was launched into the air when my bike brakes locked up.

The mayhem that ensued included finding out my roommate had been in a car accident that same day, getting into the ER to have x-rays, a cast, and 9 stitches in my chin, and figuring out how I was going to make it with one hand free for a couple of weeks.

This map is a brief visual summary of what happened that night, minus my roommate's car accident. This drawing has unlocked the following achievements:

- Largest drawing (9" x 12")

- Longest drawing (3+ hours)

- First drawing first planned on another piece of paper

- First drawing outlined first in pencil

A first-hand account of what happened that night (12/18/2003) can be found by clicking here. Please note this was from back in my emailing days of not capitalizing letters. Entire email was written with one hand. Names have been erased to protect the innocent.

*Warning: File above is higher resolution than normal. May take a while to load on slower connections.

Julekalender - 17 Dec.

2010-12-18T10:16:00.001-08:00

Two things:

1. It snowed last night. And it makes everything look nicer outside. It had been getting to that mid-December-cold-but-not-snowy-and-everything-kind-of-looks-covered-in-soot look that kind of annoys people. So, the snow is a good thing.

2. Yesterday (the 17th) marked the birth of a good friend's new baby, and this drawing has nothing to do with that. It just so happened that I had an idea for a cake being struck by lightning. Nothing more. I swear.

Julekalender - 16 Dec.

2010-12-17T11:50:00.001-08:00

Oh no! Those balloons are about to be cut loose by those scissors. Watch out balloons!

Julekalender - 15 Dec.

2010-12-16T11:38:00.001-08:00

I've had two potatoes sitting around in my vegetable bowl for a long time. They were supposed to go into a recipe I was going to make a couple weeks ago. But I ended up getting a couple new potatoes and didn't use the original ones.

Last night, feeling a bit hungry in the later evening after dinner, I decided to slice up those older potatoes and see what they'd do roasted in the oven.

They turned out great. A little olive oil, some seasoning, baked a bit on each side, and it was like I was at a cool little restaurant where you can watch tv and draw.

So I ate my french fries and drew a picture relating to that notion. Where the handbag and slime ideas came from, I'll probably never know. But you need a place to keep your extra fries, right?

Julekalender - 14 Dec.

2010-12-15T10:42:00.001-08:00

Rushed. Sloppy. Haphazard. In honor of the half birthday of Flag Day. Happy half birthday, Flag Day!

Julekalender - 13 Dec.

2010-12-14T09:58:00.001-08:00

Quite possibly inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow's appearance on Conan last night. She had an electrical gadget near the bathtub in The Royal Tenenbaums. Hey, tenenbaum is a holiday thing too! (Sort of.)

Julekalender - 12 Dec.

2010-12-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

A rough and stormy night called for a rough and stormy drawing. It's funny how some of these look best viewed full size on actual paper, but others look nicer when they shrink on the computer.

This one is one of the latter variety.

I have a sink full of dishes that is now calling my name.

Julekalender - 11 Dec.

2010-12-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

More more more. Working on a humorous look at the holidays. Whatever. It's supposed to be a joke.

I'm thinking that when I'm through with the drawings, they'll all go into a new Blurb book. That would be fun, right?

Julekalender - 10 Dec.

2010-12-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

Longest drawing so far. Probably a good two hours or more. Had to look up "wooden scaffolding" on the web for reference material.

Easily my favorite. I think I'll come back to this subject again before this is all said and done.

The Insanity Continues

2010-12-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

Last night's dream:

I took a break from whatever it was I was doing to go use the bathroom. While in the bathroom, I noticed that I was uncharacteristically congested in my sinuses.

I lean over the counter to look closer in the mirror. There's a small, red object coming out of my nose. I give it a tug. Out comes a medium-sized maroon, mesh football practice jersey. Out of my nose. Removing the jersey cleared up the congestion nicely.

Then, as I'm still standing at the mirror, I notice this blemish on the side of my nose. It's ready to pop. So I give it a good pop, and out comes this insect, which then flies around the bathroom for a while.

Then I woke up.

Julekalender - 9 Dec.

2010-12-10T07:38:00.001-08:00

End-of-the-term revelry-inspired drawing. Note: the martini cannon is not a real thing.

First Proof Printed

2010-12-09T17:50:00.001-08:00

The first image from my newest body of work The Our Father EP just came off the printer. There are some new things with this group of images (a few of which will make their way into the upcoming faculty exhibition at EOU), and I was just running a print to check color and texture on the handwritten elements. They look good. There will be much more coming soon.

I have a handle on the printing corrections for the new printer, and it's been making recent printing a breeze. The newest works will show up in a Blurb book sooner or later too. But until then, it's back to the computer.

Was Sammy Davis, Jr. Murdered?

2010-12-09T15:46:00.000-08:00

This cold I've got has me taking NyQuil before bed. It helps to minimize my coughing so I can fall asleep.

The side effects are the dreams the NyQuil gives me. We won't get into the one the other night that involved Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss (and Dr. Pepper) nakedly wandering into my room.

Last night was a real trip. I found out that Sammy Davis, Jr. was murdered and his body was being kept in a tomb. He had been mummified and a girl who may or may not have been Alison Brie led me to the tomb for a reason that I'm forgetting at the moment.

So Sammy Davis, Jr's mummified corpse is in this large room that was padded with tons of red pillows. And you could climb up there and look at him if you liked. So I did. He was interred alongside some other female movie star that I'm also forgetting at the moment.

The whole thing made me think - upon waking - that maybe Sammy Davis had been murdered. Turns out it's not true. He died from throat cancer in 1990 at the age of 64.

Julekalender - 8 Dec.

2010-12-09T00:07:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, you just have to speak the truth. And sometimes the truth is that all of the things are going in the same direction.

Incidentally, I find that I'm doing many of these nightly drawings while watching Conan on television. The drawings have nothing to do with anything I'm watching, but it's funny to look back on some of them and remember not what I was thinking about while I was drawing, but what was on the show I was watching.

Like the Kardashians. They're terrible. And their interview on Conan was about as big a trainwreck as I've seen on recent late-night television. (And I saw Harrison Ford's pseudo[?]-stoned appearance on Conan.) And all I remember is their stupid tangents and not why I drew a calendar and a thoughtful fish on December 2nd.

And I've started several sentences with "and."

Julekalender - 7 Dec.

2010-12-08T10:18:00.001-08:00

Hanukkah is almost over. So there's that. And then vacation will be here. Vacation's a good thing. So is Hanukkah. So is sunshine. Today we have all three.

Julekalender - 6 Dec.

2010-12-07T20:14:00.000-08:00

I wish that there was a giant dispenser of nog. At school. All the time. It'd be heaven.

Julekalender - 5 Dec.

2010-12-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

Ah, the first cold of the holiday season. Not the outside cold type of cold. The head variety. Small drawing to accommodate the lethargy of lying on the couch while your sinuses do their thing. Better to be ill now than in a few weeks when your time is truly free.

(It's supposed to be an ice pack.)

Julekalender - 4 Dec.

2010-12-04T16:40:00.001-08:00

Julekalender - 3 Dec.

2010-12-04T16:34:00.000-08:00

#3 from late last night.

Julekalender - 2 Dec.

2010-12-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas carp. Hanukkah halibut. Kwanzaa koi. Diwali danio. Festivus flounder. Solstice sole. Yuletide yellowfin.

Ok, I'm done. More tomorrow.

I've also decided all of the pieces for Julekalender will be drawings. I don't draw enough. So that's what I'm going to do.

Julekalender - 1 Dec.

2010-12-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Tune in every day for a new piece. This will go on until 24 December. Not every piece will be holiday themed, but I'll get to some eventually.

Julekalender

2010-11-29T22:19:00.000-08:00

While looking into the history of the Advent Calendar, I stumbled upon a blurb about Advent Calendar-styled television shows in Scandinavian countries. What a revelation. The shows are usually holiday-themed, no doubt.

I've devised a similar project to rekindle the creative juices this holiday season. Starting December 1st, I'll create a piece that I'll post right here. Sometimes it might be a drawing. Sometimes it might be a collage. Or a photo. Or a food sculpture.

But it'll be something. And there'll be a new one each day, from the 1st to the 24th.* So, stay tuned, I guess.

* Images from the 21st-24th might be delayed as I'll be away from a scanner and computer during that time.

More New Work

2010-11-15T23:05:00.000-08:00

"Bummer," from the upcoming EP Our Father.

Final pieces from this series will be on view at EOU's biennial faculty show in the Nightingale Gallery.

Our Father will also appear in book form, in my Blurb bookstore. Yay.

BUY MY BOOK! BUY MY BOOK!

2010-09-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

After self-publishing (one copy) of Sketches in May of last year, I decided to throw the files online and publish it again, this time with Blurb. Blurb worked wonders for my John Hubbard thesis book and helped me snag a spot in a show in New York.

Now, both Sketches and Sketches II are available through my Blurb bookstore. They're tiny little things, and aren't too expensive. I just got the test pressings in the mail and they look pretty good.

And, with a collective finger-crossing propelling my destiny, the two Sketches books and the Hubbard book will make their way to New York in the hopes they'll be selected for a photobook exhibition. Wish me luck.

All three books are available for purchase and preview at my Blurb bookstore site.

PS. Copyright apologies to the creators of The Critic, and to John Shaw, who is the only person I know that will get the joke.

Artist Statement #3

2010-09-01T23:39:00.001-07:00

There is a slew of photographers whose artist statement says something to the effect of "I take photographs of the beautiful things/moments other people don't see."

That's mean. That's a mean thing to say. Why say that?

Capturing a moment (and is that even possible?) no one else sees and then (presumably) showing it in photo form to the person (or people) that have missed it eliminates the chance of said person (or people) witnessing that moment for themselves. It cheapens the moment. It deprives people from looking for things for themselves. It insults the average viewer by insinuating that they missed something, the way you feel when you miss the comb hidden in the tree in the puzzle in Highlights.

A statement like this also defers ownership and responsibility on the part of the photographer. The modernists all photographed their subjects because they thought the subjects were beautiful and they were personally moved by that beauty. The postmodernists photographed their subjects because they had things to say about photography itself.

The contemporary photographer is let off the hook by making a sweeping, bland statement about their photographic vision. It doesn't say anything substantial; it merely says that they have a keener eye than the average person and that makes them a little bit more important. And that's something that should be assumed of any photographer any time they frame something and put it on a wall for someone else to see.

I don't want to be told that you're witnessing a secret reality that can only be seen through your lens. That's ridiculous. I want to know what it is about you that makes you take these photos. With that knowledge, I'll be more inclined to understand what it is about myself that makes me appreciate them.

Or, if I can't figure that out, it'll make me want to go make some of my own work.

Artist Statement #2

2010-07-17T22:05:00.001-07:00

Art cannot change the world.

There was a time when it probably could, like Fountain or Guernica or Raft of the Medusa or David or the Sistine Chapel ceiling or photos from Vietnam or the moon or whatever. But we've evolved past that. Long past that. Postmodernists probably feared changing the world, and we've probably moved past them too (though they're still out there, lurking in the shadows).

Art still has meaning in it, but art only touches people on personal levels these days. There's no overwhelming consensus on Joseph Kosuth or Kiki Smith* or Banksy. A Family of Man-style exhibit could go over well in certain contexts (provided there were enough famous photographs in the show to draw big enough crowds), but overall responses would sound more like "Wait, that's supposed to be me? That's not me!" than "Oh my gosh! We're, like, all the same! Hugs!"

Famous works of art have an easier time changing art nowadays than changing the world. And even changing art is a difficult task, considering art changes all the time or not at all, depending on who you ask.

There's too much individualism in movements and actual works for any singular person or piece to change the world.

That's not a bad thing. Not in the least. The bad thing is the people who are kidding themselves by thinking that their work - or anyone's work - is going to change the entire world.

* Kiki Smith is German. Did you know that? I did not.

More From Art Camp, Day 5-ish

2010-07-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Much more progress on the new book front. The printer I ordered was on its way to Grand Rapids by mistake, but has now been rerouted and will be here shortly. Then printing will begin.

Next week, Art Camp will focus on the production of physical books made on the typewriter.

In the meantime, enjoy another sneak peek from Sketches, Vol. II.

Sneak Preview

2010-07-13T15:06:00.001-07:00

Art Camp* began today. These sketches have been sitting on my computer for more than a few months and it was high time I get a move on and do some work. They follow in the footsteps of Sketches (Vol. 1), which I finished and turned into a small book in May of 2009. I can't believe that was over a year ago.

These new scans come from the same filmstrips and will ultimately end up as collages in a similar book.

A sneak preview of one of the images can be viewed by clicking the small image above.

Images from Sketches (Vol. 1) can be viewed by clicking here.

* "Art Camp" is my feeble attempt to sequester myself from outside distractions in an attempt to get my art-making on the right track for the rest of the summer. The only other activities I will engage in will be eating, sleeping, the occasional shower, and maybe some tennis.

And I Made Something

2010-04-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

Last term was a train wreck in about 30 different ways.

But, as a great philosopher once said, "don't dwell on the past. Always move forward."

And on March 29th, the spirit moved one Oregon photographer to take an exceptionally boring image. Everything starts somewhere, though, right?

Artist Statement #1

2010-04-06T22:20:00.001-07:00

A recent lecturing artist I saw reiterated the idioms for creating good art work when in a pinch:

1. Make it big. If not, then...
2. Make it red. If not, then...
3. Make 1,000 of them

These are all gimmicks. They're things to get people to pay attention to work that otherwise wouldn't merit attention. We've all done it. At least I know I have. Maybe minus the red part. I've never really been a fan.

Gimmicks are abundant in photography. Selective coloring, hand coloring, printing the leaders, soft focus, cross processing, the unsharp mask, the image macro, and the granddaddy of them all: HDR.

But all photographers miss the one major thing inherent to their medium: photography itself is a gimmick.

Photography alleviated painters, drawers, and printmakers of the "need" to work representationally. Photography was a novelty, albeit a cosmically amazing one, when it was first invented.

Thus photography's relegation to the backseat of the artistic merit bandwagon.

Photography is an even bigger gimmick now, when anyone can pick up a cheap digital SLR, throw a high pass filter on their work, get a million hits on Flickr, and rake in a few decent paychecks on Smugmug.

But rather than get caught up in the fickle fight to rescue photography from its gimmickry, we should embrace it. Let photography do what it does, and let's not worry about what all of those painters and drawers think.

Now go and make some LOLcats.

Philadelphia (And Other Updates)

2010-03-01T10:32:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, I'll leave Oregon for the first time since January for sunny Philadelphia and the Society for Photographic Education's National Conference. Hopeful highlights: food, friends, and presentations that had better be good.

The end of March will see some of my work in two shows in New York's Climate Gallery. Book pieces. Small ones.

An overhaul of my website will take place once the conference and this hectic term are at an end.

A Real Life Artist

2010-02-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

Word came down from the heavens Friday that the postcard I submitted to Postcards from the Edge, a show in New York's ZieherSmith Gallery, was purchased for the astronomical price of $75. (Note: all postcards were sold for the same price.)

You can click on the above link and find the Flickr group of un-purchased postcards if you want one for yourself. It supports a good cause.

My image is below.

Famous in Chi-town

2009-11-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

Ext., book number 3 in the Book-in-a-day series, was accepted into notBig, a juried show in southern Chicago. notBig opens on December 11th at the Logsdon 1909 Gallery on South Halstead and runs until January 2nd of next year.

This selection follows right on the heels of a piece that was recently in a show in Los Angeles. Had it been a juried show, I would have posted about it. Seeing as it was unjuried, I decided to keep it mum.

Ext. is a collection of text messages from my old cellular phone, typed out in chronological order. The messages from friends and family date as far back as 2006, when I started graduate school.

Select scans from the book are posted below. The book's cover is not pictured, as it is covered in plain, old tan library buckram cloth. Nothing special.

Saying goodbye to a friend

2009-11-03T16:06:00.000-08:00

Today we pay our respects to Petey, who passed away tragically this afternoon from mysterious causes. I first met Petey this morning as I was leaving to go to work. He was perched on my front lawn, under the gutter spout, letting drops of water fall onto his face.

One of my neighbors left some cashews out for Petey. When I returned this afternoon, Petey had moved on to a better world.

Petey, a Steller's Jay, may leave behind a Mrs Jay or some baby Jays, though they were not seen in the vicinity. Funeral services were held at 3:10 pm, when Petey was buried near the creek next to fallen plums that matched the color of his feathers.

And cousin? Business is a-boomin'

2009-11-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

Halloween has come and gone. And it wasn't until I was smearing foundation and lipstick on my neck to make a lynching scar that I realized I like the whole idea of dressing up. My Lt. Aldo Raine costume went over pretty well, kept me nice and warm, allowed me to freely ride my bike around town, and gave me an excuse to make a knife out of wood, cardboard, and duct tape.

And, spend un-quality time playing in Photoshop, ripping off poster ideas from the movie. It's what I do: copy things.

Anniversary

2009-10-27T12:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday marked the two-week anniversary of truly learning subjunctive tense. Funny how it took me this long to learn a common part of everyday language.

In grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in dependent clauses to express wishes, commands, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or statements that are contrary to fact at present. It is sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood, as it often follows a conjunction. The details of subjunctive use vary from language to language.

So, you'd say things like, "if I were a painter, I'd probably die from lead poisoning." Even though "were" isn't the proper tense for the subject, "I," you use "were" to indicate that what you're talking about hasn't happened.

Book #1

2009-10-26T21:59:00.001-07:00

Imposter Syndrome: A Letter to the Artist by the Artist is the first book in the Book-in-a-day series. It was created on 27 September 2009, and measures approximately 4.25" wide and 5.5" high. It runs approximately 30 pages.

All of the books in this series are this dimension, making each one a "volume" of sorts.

Select scans from the book are posted below.

Book-in-a-day

2009-10-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

The influx of art in Oregon began a month ago with the creation of the Book-in-a-day series. Each book has to be completed in less than 24 hours. All but one has worked out so far.

Scans of covers and select pages will be posted soon. A summary of the book content:

Book 1: A letter to the artist by the artist

Book 2: The path. A book about choices.

Book 3: A book about friends.

Book 4: The theme is death.

Today marks the start of Book 5.

There Is Nothing To See Here

2009-09-26T21:34:00.001-07:00

I know no one reads this. And that's why it's here. I've got time, and I need to make something. And it begins with the same feeble attempt at commitment that I've tried a thousand times.