This is from the Wooster Collective website. It is noted without comment, so I think I'll do the same. The artist is the mysteriously named Mija. I've been unable to find any other info on the artist.

http://www.woostercollective.com

You might notice that my current paintings are noted as being on "board". What this means specifically is 3/4" plywood usually mohagany faced.

Thought I should clear that up.

Officially I’ve been rejected from the show in New York I alluded to earlier. So with that in mind I finished 4 paintings this weekend that had been languishing and started 2 others including a larger piece - It’s not as big as say a well known German neo-expressionist painter might make, however its bigger than the bulk of what I’ve been doing over the last few months.

Of the four newly finished paintings – there are two that I like quite a bit, “Surfacing” (see below) is something I knocked out in a very quick period of time and just feels right to leave it alone. The other is called “Kubrick” at first it was titled “HAL 9000” but it really wasn’t hard edged enough for me to stay with it, besides the new title is just better. I will get an image of “Kubrick” up as soon as the paint dries enough for me to photograph it.

In other studio news, I have 6 other paintings in some form of incompleteness, with a major one (9 to 12 panels) that is basically screaming at me to get started, so there is still a lot to do.

I apologize for the mediocre quality of the images of my work on the site – this is all going to change in the next few days or week – please bear with me on that.

Most of my paintings right now are 20” x 16” and believe it or not are the same size as Warhol’s soup cans. I stumbled over this ridiculous factoid while reading “Made in the USA” by Sidra Stich this weekend. “Made in the USA” is the catalog of the show by the same name that I saw at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1987.

It was the first time that I saw a few artists in enough depth to start to really understand what they were doing, I really got interested in Ray Johnson after this show (by the way see the movie “How to Draw a Bunny” – it’s even on Netfilx) and while Johnson is a riddle it was still great to be able to start seeing what he did.

I remember the show as being great – and it was. As I looked at the catalog, almost twenty years later, its interesting to see that “America” as we know it from popular images is no longer “America”. I had written a nice little line that tied this all up in a bow but have decided not to. It was a little too “Pollyanna” even for me.

Especially for me.

O.K. I’m in. Two of my images are currently hanging in the Condon Hodgson Art Gallery in Frederick. Both of these are from the “Last Great Seaside Slum” project. I was away on business so I missed the opening, however I’m going to visit the gallery later this week and will report. I still have not heard about a show I’ve been short listed for in New York – so maybe this will be a big week (then again maybe not).

By the way - the show runs through September 8, 2005.

I plan on showing two peices at the DCAC 1460 Wall Show. Opening is on July 29th, 7 -9 pm, 2438 18th Street NW. This runs through September 4th, 2005.

Matthew Collings writes in his Diary column that artists have to start getting serious. I won’t try to retype his article – because I blow at typing - however he is starting to form a relationship between the abandonment of “Modernism”, the rise of “Post-Modernism” (as working toward fixing “modernism’s” errors), and a return to a “New Modernism” (my name) to get rid of the new errors that have developed or should I say festered since the acceptance of “Post Modernism”. It’s literally three paragraphs of what some may think is throw away writing, however it hit a chord with me. Your mileage may vary.

Art on Paper covers a whole bunch of artists letters this issue but the one which really got to me was the letter Sol LeWitt wrote to Eva Hesse in 1965. I don’t know if anyone is terribly familiar with the pop musician Andrew WK, however his take on life and art is always ultra – “just do it with positive vibes and the world will see your sincerity and respond accordingly”. Funny enough (to me) this is basically what LeWitt wrote to Hesse in 1965. I’m not lowering LeWitt in my critical thoughts, because I love most of what he does – however I never would have thought this letter would come from him in a million years. I guess I’ve always thought of him as being much more oblique than that.

Surprising in a good way.

According to the Keith Haring Foundation, The “Pop Shop”, Keith Haring’s commercial venture for the last 20 years will be closed this September. Online sales will stop in July (this has already happened). I’ve always liked Haring and have always loved the “Pop Shop” concept – This is a shame, but evidently it has been losing money since it opened. I believe that the foundation feels the need to be working on keeping KH’s art and social concerns moving forward and if its purely a financial decision maybe someone could step forward and help underwrite costs or even move it somewhere, that said – to see it move to Williamsburg would break my heart.

So I've been thinking about artists who are interesting to me and have guided me through formative times in my art viewing, so below is a list - really a begining of a list as this changes almost daily or hourly.

Neal Jenny: in particular "the bad paintings"
Anselm Keifer: While attending the Greman expressionist show at the Corcoran in 1985, Bernard Welt leans over my shoulder after looking at a painting covered with hay and says "Thats what I call color field painting."
Jasper Johns: Say what you will about his later work and his "canonization" of being the best post-war painter ever, it's probably true.
Ed Ruscha: How can anyone be as cool as his work?
Robert Mangold: his precision and color work is amazing
Robert Ryman: his simple engineering or re-enginerring of the painting continues to be interesting to me - I'm less concerned about the reductive qualities of the work as I am the possiblities of where else he could possibly take this work.
Stuart Davis: Because there are days where I think he is responible for any new approach to painting in the last 50 years.
Gene Davis: Because he was local, because he made some really smart paintings that are quoted still.

However one thing that most of these artists share is a simplicity and power to the work they do - I wouldn't dare call them minimalists (except for the ones that are) but they share (for the most part) a stripped down approach to subject matter and presentation.

One last thing - this comes from Pitchfork - even though its about the "new" indie rock it could almost be about painting and street art as well.

"This decade's indie-kid rhetoric is all about excitement, all about fun, all about fierce. The season's buzz tour pairs M.I.A. with LCD Soundsystem, scrappy globo-pop with the kind of rock disco that tries awfully hard to blow fuses. The venues they don't hit will play host to a new wave of stylish guitar bands, playing stylish uptempo pop, decamping to stylish afterparties. Bloggers will chatter about glittery chart hits, rock kids will buy vintage metal t-shirts and act like heshers, eggheads will rave about the latest in spazzed-out noise, and everyone will keep talking about dancing, right down to the punks. Yeah, there are more exceptions than there are examples-- when aren't there, dude?-- but the vibe is all there: We keep talking like we want action, like we want something explosive."

Deadline tools for artists - just an overview of web sites that might be of help to other artists.

Sculptors as "flat artists" - This will be a story about Richard Serra prints, Jon Van Alstine drawings and Robert Stackhouse watercolors.

A brief review of John Haskell's book "I am not Jackson Pollock".

So please stay tuned...

It’s official. It’s not like giving birth (congrats, Karen) or anything.

In other news
Dropped off the Last Great Seaside Slum photos for the Frederick Camera Club show this summer – It was really nice – the images were very warmly received by the 5 or 6 people running the drop off process. It was nice to be asked a question about the work

“Are these colors manipulated with a computer at all? – the colors are really strong.”
“No, it’s true straight forward photography – although I use camera that’s practically a toy, so that could have something to do with it”
“Seriously?”
“Promise, it’s a Lomo…”

Anyway I should hear back pretty soon about that show and one in New York in a week or so…

BTW – Happy Birthday Marty.

All right I’ve been doing a lot of thinking around Spiral Jetty.

The first time I traveled over the Salt Lake, I desperately was looking for it – I never knew it was taking a break. I only knew it by the 10 or 12 photographs that seem to appear in every art text (see earlier post). I expected it to be earthy and brown sitting on top of the salt lake. Now it reminds me of one of JG Ballard’s early science fiction novels – taught, quiet, a little bit oblique, but worth thinking about. Please don’t confuse this with what passes for Science fiction today (soap opera dialog, with updated westerns for plot ideas – yes there are a few good ones – please don’t respond about the state of sci-fi today).

I’ve never been to the art site. I don’t even want to go to Salt Lake City. However between science fiction, the artwork, and the surrounding dominant religion, the site probably resonates really strongly culturally. I can almost see it becoming a “power vortex” for time travel. Please don’t misunderstand my sarcasm for belittlement. As science fiction movies today have become a bastion of special effects and CGI animation, Spiral Jetty is just the opposite.

In fact I love the “new” Spiral Jetty even more. Its come back (after decades of being submerged) – covered or should I say encrusted with salt.

The perfect preservative.

UPDATE: The lake is rising again according to posts all over the net, so it seems like the artwork might be going away (or at least playing hide and seek) for awhile.