FLUX.

Ann Hirsch at Somerville Open Studios 2010

                                            MAY 1st + 2nd, Sat - Sun., 12-6

“The Ecstasy of Pigs”
mixed media automaton, 2007

(it moves!)

I met Ann Hirsch in 2008 at the Somerville Open Studios when the original Flux was a series of thoughts firing around in the synapses of my brain. Her work instantly caught my eye because it really is..-searches adjective bank-  amazing.

There are no other words.  The innovative projects she created stood apart from much of the traditional pottery/jewelry/watercolors of lighthouses in adjacent studios and were the clearly the lovechild of an insanely creative and talented mind. 

“Is This It? Is This It? Is This …”
mixed media automaton, 2006

(also moves!)

When Ann isn’t making endearingly-creepy animatronic pigeon hybrids, she dabbles in the realm of art restoration, portraiture, dioramas, and commercial sculpture work. 

Signers of the Constitution for the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PA
Thomas Mifflin, For Studio E.I.S.
Life-size, 2002

Be sure to check out all of her projects.

This year, Ann’s work will again be shown at the Somerville Open Studios where more than 100 artists are opening their studios at Vernon Street alone (a new record) with 350 artists participating city-wide.

There will be free parking behind the building and a free trolley service available to help get around.

Ann’s work can be found at location #67 on the Somerville Open Studios Map and Studio #16 on the Vernon Street Map once you get to the building. 

For more information, check out the official website.

Maybe Live in Paris

Maybe live in Paris with him. Maybe spend your days in another bright loft with your cats and your fruit, your quiet piles of books, your gazes out the window at people punctuating sidewalks below. Maybe give up your mildly wild life. Maybe learn French for real this time and teach French people yoga. Glean an appropriate playlist, give up trying to articulate your half-formed ideas of Bigger Than in a tongue not your own, resort to the language of your hands pressing suggestions on their cotton-covered skins. Or target Americans and Brits, the asana addicts on holiday or those who’ve wandered to the same city also in the hope of making a change, becoming refined and intimidating in that arrogant expat way. Learn to stop cringing at the fog of Gauloises smoke. On your nights alone, stride the streets unnoticed like you did back in England and when strange men say strange things, give them that blank look like you speak no language at all, perhaps have never even heard human speech. Live in your loneliness as it cracks with each sunrise. Then wake to throw open windows in your runaway studio.

Making Biscuits vs Wannadies

About a year ago I made the most amazing youtube mash-up discovery

Step 1: Queue up the cat video on mute.

Step 2: Queue up Wannadies-“You and Me Song” full sound.

Step 3: Click play on both videos at the same time.

Step 4: Direct your attention to the cat video.  Feel free to full-screen.

Am I right?? Can I consider this a foray in video-editing to justify its presence on my site?

Should I just accept it’s a Friday before a much needed three day weekend and I’m sleepy and easily amused?

//Yes & Yes.

A Carnival of Brutalized Delights

In perusing my usual photo-dump sites I came across Epoch Organic, a series by Chad Wys on Behance. 

I thought this body of work was interesting not because of applied technical skill by any means, but as someone who is constantly scrolling through web imagery, it takes a certain something to make me pause/ears perk.  Wys’ pieces caused me to take notice first in an alarming way, like a panicky I-want-to-run-and-get-windex-and-buff-that-victorian bust kind of thing and then..

..an appreciation that his work could make me feel that way.  I find it interesting when something other than Saw(I-VII), the word ‘pus’, and sitting through extended sex scenes couch-bound with your parents can make you feel a bit..uncomfortable.

Um Dad, can you pass the Jujubes™?

I can’t help but think of Banksy’s Crude Oils exhibit.  As well-worn as his name might be on the art scene, he exhibited a series of “modified” artworks -taking his own spin on some of the classics.

Vettriano

Monet

Hopper

While his message seems a bit more subliminal/political than Wys’ , I think both are able to poke a bit of fun at the notion of “art”, and also the perceived worth of artwork. 

On that note, art appraisal is definitely an arena I need to learn more about.  I will always have my own thoughts on value and what I deem “reasonable”, but appraising work is such a dynamic-artform in itself.

• How do you appraise a new artist on the scene? At what point does their reputation warrant a higher asking price?

• How do time/labor/materials factor into the $ equation?

• How to avoid over inflation(see also: HYPE) so you don’t put off potential buyers?

• Valuing a print/multiple series(applies to silkscreens, vintage posters, etc)?  Is having a lower production number(1 of 5 as opposed to 1 of 500) a device used to establish or direct perceived worth?

• Is it better for an emerging artist to have more accessible art to get their name out and pieces on walls?  Or just go for the jugular with an extravagant entrance onto the scene at the risk of not selling a damn thing?

• I’m sure there could be a modern day Yves Klein waiting in the wings, would a painting like International Klein Blue(IKB) fly now?  I imagine it might, but I would like to pick the brain of the person who would purchase a recent field painting.

• Does painting a raccoon in a pile of garbage as a nature study fetch a different price than the same painting representing the plight of the middle class worker/corporate greed/the ‘masks’ people wear/ oppression/The assassination of JFK/ELEKTRA COMPLEX/etc etc?

• What about the more abstract/conceptual facets of modern art?  Glass. On a shelf. Half full(I’m feeling optimistic today) of water. Deep.  Thousands of dollars.  Why?   How to appraise?  Would there have to be a famous name attached like when people on ebay bid-up a tissue Justin Timberlake discarded? 

I’ve never put these inquiries down, how cathartic.  

Alors, I must get back to figuring out how to tastefully work the monster from Skifree into my most recent thriftstore purchase, a pastoral painting in a gaudy cherub ridden frame.

Penthouse in Beacon Hill here I come.

Stay sweet.

The new (aspiring) marchand-mercier on the block

Why, hello—Flux is back! 

Cue fanfare.

End fanfare.

I have decided to ditch the weekly art event updates(which for those of you unfamiliar, was the original site’s primary focus) and keep things easy, breezy, and bloggy.

When I originally launched Flux, my intention was never to become a virtual yellow pages, and believe I can do more “good” in a less-structured streamofconsciousness format like this.  Much better than getting bogged down on Sundays trying to seek out upcoming attractions for the week.  I’ll leave all that data mining to the free weeklies and event websites.  But if your friend/grandmother/mail-order bride is in town and you need some ideas, shoot me a line and I will be happy to help.

While I currently dwell in the Finance realm, I am taking itty inchworm steps towards owning and operating my own commercial art gallery/event space.  The more I can be connected to what’s going on in the art world, the better equipped I will feel in undertaking such a serious emotional/financial/labor-of-love intensive business venture.   

Just so you know, things are really going places now that my father and I scrawled an incoherent spatial layout design of my gallery on a cocktail napkin last Thanksgiving after a couple of pints and a vat of sweet potatoes. Again, itty inchworm steps?

I may not be able to rid the world of its ailments with Flux, but maybe I can share with you some article, picture, insight, or video of a scuba-diving kitten that inspires you to do big thangs.

You’re the best.