July 2004 Archives
Whats comming up Next!
The Story of Redford
ego's! AnglosvsHispanic! painting! Refired Expressionism! post-modern-sarcasm vs monkish-modern-purity, obsesions! Desperation! and the Big Bend
well i have got to go take care of my teeth, so i am traveling via alternet 90 to Houston, its a lovely drive, i plan on stopping in Luling. when i was in on the jon one of the roomates has that Carl Sagen book Cosmos, man! I sorta forgot how big everything is, and the time line of all that shit, One of the funny comedy bits i sorta thought of was, when i saw a documentay on what to put into the voyager, (Sagen over saw its contents), as a message to aliens, what would it say about us,. i thought it was funny thinking how evanglical Christian were out crying saying " why wasn't the good news metntioned!?! that should be our message!".
I suppose in a mire 4 billion years nothing will matter, evrything we know will be gone,.
humm,
that was my dads solution to family problems, "listen son, the sun will expaned to burn the earth to a crisp and everything you know will be gone, but that doesn't mater casue you died some 3.9999 billion years before, so get out there and finnish mowing the grass!"
I like excapeism, why should you be obligated to deal with reality, does it really matter if some one is delusional, you may have lead a better life that way.,
Here is a photo of the gigs i put up for raffle for the show , it was great fun, there was a ton of food!, luckly some one broght a barnfan and i set them up next to it and thsy spun like crazy, the people who won them were trilled and i get to install them in a week or so, at there homes. it was a great time
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check out these two sets of work, still missing some photos.
One of the things i realised , when i drove over to Brenham this week, i sometimes stop by this antique store i have a couple of my (wood)Brickwork,chimney pieces, i showed the lady (who owes the store) some photos of the whirlie gig, she thought they were neet, and asked me how much , the one in the gallery is 250, (cheep the gallery said), but the antique store lady said almost in a scoffed, well we cann't sell that here, ! i went on to tell her its a butcher cutting chickens heads off, " ohh noway" i was sorta miffed this is an antique store, real old building tall ceiling, it would look perfect here.,
as i left, i start arguing with myself about how i shouldn't try and sell new stuff in and used store, the problem is i make used stuff, but new. I feel sorry for today's woodworkers, the cost of making any thing out of wood new, and inventive can be moderate but the gadits and time put in , pluse the beurocacy of doing this selling (your craft) forces the woodwork to sell high , just to stay alive. all the importsd have brought high quality "crafts" to is knees by low prices. Once i was in a store in and stared showin these painted chicken hutchs to the ladys they loved them how much i told them at least three hundred, but they said they would only move at about 80, "what the fuck!" i am not really in the wood working biz, i drove away from the store, having to think, listen chicken your like a manufacture, you wouldn't make a new car and simply drive over to the used car lot to sell, cause its the only lot in town, you make your own or look somewhere else" One of the problems with my work or taste in art is i believe in making objects that reflect the rual gore and extreme humor it holds so by that token i like to be displayed in such "non arty " this is where it belongs. , i rember once trying to convice these old ladys at some craft store.
"my those chickens are cute,, but i don't think they fit here" she said
Yea , lady i call this one "chicken dancing around in its own guts", you see this is country ! it belongs here, come on let me display them! please please
ohh noway, would you please leave the store
well i am back, man Brenham is getting hot out there, i ended up buying one of those barnfans worked out nicely, i listen to AC/DC and sweat alot, made two gigs
hey check this out! SACURRENT
an i started hitting these two set of paintings hard, didnt drink to much, i will start posting 1-12 chappel painitngs next
i have a reception , and are going to raffel of one of the gigs i made this week , it should be fun, i am also going to bring down my smoker and smoke some chciken legs and extra,
well, i am going to zip over to Brenham for a couple of days to knock out some whirly gigs, two. this time i am going to shoot up the " Chappell Hill" set of paintings, the last time i went i took my camra but for got the digital card. there are about twelve paintings i am going to post next time, in this set,
And
i got the Swearigen video , WOW, i think the place where it was taped was right down where i am at in Brenham, i reconise the background, Rev J S S is a master abstrctionist, in my opinion, its got me all rauled up to throw another section down on the "chappel hill" set 00-02 ,
when i get a scaner i am gong to transfer some photos i took of the set , paintings i sold , there was one that is the El'Grande of the set i want on this
and check this guys work out
well here it is retruned yet again!
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well i have repaired the thing , practically tore it apart, i think it need a new perpeler, to make it right, i am real motivated by this new woodworking project i have alot of new ideas for whirli gigs, like " crazed drunkend womam and the hanging man and preacher man, and pumpkins its endless when i get started at it,
man its hot , i have to drive down there into San Antonio, the heat can be a litte much, but paint production is goin well this week, i think i can see and end to the pfa set for this sumer , i am getting restless to move somewhere and start anther body of work, hummm
well the whirle gig is down i had to go get it to put it back in the shop , gonna go repair the thing tonight, it lost two blades, i think its the first time i had removed something from a show to repair it,,
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One of my favorite stories , about when i was right out of Highschool was when i spent one evening, being Christmas eve 89, i was over at a friend of mine's house , Nick, he was an artist back then , bigger than i, we were wrapped up in the Giger-goth b.s. making paintings mainly he, i was in to Hellraiser , well that night we started painting in his garrage we graduwated in 88, but were some of the unfortunate fools left behind to do who junior college, he San Jack and i Alvin, at the time i wasn't an art major Nick was, his work at the time was slick angst ridden stuff Giger-Shelie. he listen to Bauhouse and the Cure, i never hear of that music i was in the beginings of my AC/DC coma, but being in Nicks presants you felt embarised to like Jock music so we listend to Bauhouse , which i like now, That night was special to me cause we got really fucken drunk and stayed up all night and walked around the next morning, buzzed and like sick, but in the process we made a bunch of extremely drunk expressionisticly violent art ,. I rember nick throwing the canvas around in this jesture that seemed amuseing now, whipping this rag of a painting on the ground in a fit, while "dark entrys" played, it was alll fun and great in a comical jesture, it seem like this was art in suberbia,
our parents were discused of course, wonder if were we ever going to be adults, junior colege slacker drunks we were..
but cool art drunks and thats the way its going to be,,
i don't know what ever happen to the work, i painted alot that night ,
I Rember sitting around in the wee hours of the morning, buzzzed wondering what kinda of beginging is this, its not cold in Texas in winter ,just cool, sometimes in Houston it can stillbe miseralbe.
Well i am back, the whirly gig show seems to be taking off to a good start, except two of the blads have already flung off the the thing, i am going over to San Antonio, tomorrow and get it and repair the thing, . And i also think i am going to start making more of these things they are fun.,. this painting done last year, is sorta a recape of this set of "neoromatic holiday idea" i started some dozen projects in this vien but put them on back burners as soon as the pfa thing hit, also i got off ebay and quit looking at Halloween art, but this one is the finest from the lot, .
i will be out of my San Marc studio for a while back on Wed, have a reception over in San Antone, and i am goint to shoot up alot of stuff in Brenham
cheers!
this painitng is called "carving pumpkins with women" a romanitic sentimental painting.
this painting i am still working on called "Great Indian BBQ's" i think its the first indian painting i have ever done, i got the idea from playin with all these Idian toys and PFA, i like the idea of these mass slaughter of animals for some tribal party they are about to have. i Rember hearing tales back when i was in grade school about the Karankawa indians around Galveston, i think they were cannibals and rubbed themselves in alligator fat, to wart away the masquitos , they smelt so bad all the other indias kept away form them, i would imagine it must have been absulte hell to live right off the coast of Texas, something like 500 years ago. Jungle tribal paintigs i have always like, or maybe movies like that, there is a whole Horror genra about the cannibal tribes men hunting down adventures, i should do a painting , from Tarzan, the Bo Derek version, i rember seein it when i was a kid that part where they had to prep Bo for some marriage i think and started rubbing her down with some white power all tide up like a horse being washed, it was sorta a tribal black lesbian seen with Bo as this Victorial scaracfisal bride, real sexy!
well we shall see if this thing makes it threw the month, there will be something like twenty up there, i was number 4, they liked it alot cause it started spinning imeditaly and the little man started chopping away(the gadget ) i like making the "chicken head butcher man whirlie gig , i might make another but more structuraly sound, this one is riddled with fuck ups and inconsittants, like the blade, if you notice its broken , i had to take it off cause it was rocking the whole body, and if a really strong wind hits it i am afariad the whole thing will spin out of control! or some gangsta kids might take it , they love Roosters and blood. but Rhoanda asured me nothing will happen,. but paniced when she forgot she left a shovel outside on the wall and ran out there to see it put away, "are you sure nothing going to happen to it? , she said tools may get stolen but art na nana no way this is Texas"
i have had alot of raids on my fence, steeling chicken heads,. i used to get real up set over it but now ahhh who care make another one. Even this gizmo, what ever happen happens, i put a prise tag for 250 , even with stipulaions of having it repaired if sold, (i Must)
I just woke up from a nape but while i was asleep i was think 250 dallars for that thing there is something like 10 bucks worth the materials, what is it ? what am i doing? what am i kidding myself is this a job or something? then i go one to these real neurotic dreams about " Man this is my life , i am going to die soon me and this 20x18 shed with all my paintings. " it seems more terrifing when your asleep, but strangly when your awake , who cares
let the whirlie gig fly!
well, i am in the process of completeing , these paintings , man San Marcos is getting closterphobic i need to get out more, i start whinding down and get distracted , start hannging out,
One thing i think when you get older either you get more neurotic about life of your like "fuck it",,
i think i am falling into the later, i used to be real anxious about everything, , even this masive dental job ahead of me doesn't seem to make me nervious, (well a litttle bit), . but fuck what if i had surgey, ?!? .
One of the things i always liked is that nervious energy, its way better than coffee. Your really astute about things i think its when you don't care is when your in someways turning things off in the world in favor of relaxation, . i rember when i used to smoke weed with Drek i would get myself all worked over shit. that drug was not a relax'int to me it was like my imagination was real or at least i felt that way , its very seductive and cultic-like i can see why Crazy Matt went the way he did,. but one thing about it ,the after effect, is you have sorta a sence of stronger purpose like " thats why i am waking up in the morning!" Anxiety sorta pushs you , i guess under the THC complex you sorta size up you life, i don't do it much more cause its to emotivly exsosting! , even when its offered i am like" i don't know if i want to go threw two hours of self actualization, in which i conclude i am shit and neeed to work harder" ahhh fuck it. but on the flip side of this duality of understanding what challeges you put forth on your self, and the capiblity to put them aside for relaxation or day to day dulldrum" called maturity. you long for a more psychotic time, for me the kinda dreams i like to go to bed with is ones where i am out in this barn in "Noahs land"( this central Texas drive threw animal park my freinds owned) and i am about to unleash the forces of preception apone the canvas amongst all the goats and chickens sitting in the barn eating their cud and fileing there feather, and something like Cartpenter "Halloween" soundtrack is playing in the background. now that tome is a challege!
This painting was done spring 95, it was one of the best at the time, its real big, i stoped this kinda of work (night expressionism) back in 95 but now have reactived it, i pulled this painting out of backstock and restretched it but its to damaged and dirty, , to try and reshow it.
This painting which i have blown off the strechers, was called "Mess of the Devil" , it was to much of the old , real big took alot of time to paint the thing sept- jan , but it doesn't fit in to these new landscapes i am making out in Brenham, it belongs back in the older stuff, i guess in painting, even when you think you have hit something new or want to make something new, or take on a project of something new, your mind might say , "hey whao wait a minute! you never did this right,. so back up dumb ass!"
and check out the Eyes of Tex show, build up i am adding paintings to it all the time, inspired by PFA, and old master paintings.
"Chopping away at an Alexander Landscape" 1995, right out of college (SWT)
John Alexander that is
