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The sign is terrible.
Saturday morning: grumpy, busy, not wanting to waste a day I could be using to fulfill orders or fulfill my life, a UK football game at 12:20. Just a few blocks away. We live on a terribly busy road and that road is the main vein to the Football stadium. 7 or 8 Saturdays a year, our “street” becomes a crazy road to nowhere. There have already been two nationally televised Saturdays this season and we’ve been too busy to bother. BUT…
Our neighbors moved out a month ago and their back yard is basically a parking lot. Last year they parked cars in their lot at $20 a car every home football game. I’d go over and talk to them thinking “I could never do that, its humiliating to stand around with a sign and beg people to give you hard dollars for something so silly as a spot to park it”. Yesterday, at 11:00, I put on my Kentucky T-shirt (and vintage hat I bought at Buffalo Exchange in Boulder) and took out my reluctantly painted sign and sold spots.
$180 in 1/2 hour. They actually thanked me!
I spend lots of hours doing some hard labours for little pay. That wasn’t hard and I can’t wait for the next home game! If they win, it means there’s interest. If there’s interest, there’s people that need “spots”. GO CATS!
The “mighty” dollar. One thing that’s cool about that whole deal, yeah it was nice to get some money for nothing, but it really feels like Capitalism in action. A need and a need fulfilled. That’s what this country allows and is known for. If you feel bad taking money for a spot you wouldn’t be using anyway, you’re a sucker that, as Darwin would put it, won’t survive. Here, you see a need, you provide for that need and you succeed (just don’t report it, don’t pay tax on it, oh-no, I’m going to prison in my white collar).
Making dishes doesn’t provide a need that Target can’t fulfill, but when it comes down to Local, or hand-made, or American–we fulfill that. If you can get one or fill your cupboards, its the same. Its one tiny grain of sand in the big U.S. sandbox. Its great to be able to contribute and be a part of it. I guess parking cars of local folks and taking money, which made me feel bad until they thanked me, made me realize that nobody here is forcing anybody to do anything. But this country provides opportunity and that’s good.
I meant “new”, not nude. I’m hoping for a few more pervy purchasers. We’ve added some roadish bikes to our stable for those who do not enjoy a leisure bike and would prefer they’re beverages and foods to be accompanied with a more aggressive riding position. Here, we see the newer, more aggressive bikes on a mug and a tumbler battling it out on a Kentucky trail.
Dovetail thinks about death a little, but not a lot. We have the Freedom series (yes, skulls are so 2003, but we all have skulls, so they’ll never stop being popular) which probably doesn’t really make the person eating/drinking actually think about death. But, in Margaret and my personal work, we both think about death a lot. The body as a vessel for life, or a spirit, or whatever.
Currently, Margaret’s working on a rendition of a sarcophagus, and I’m drawing/carving a lot of architects and they’re buildings decomposing or returning to nature. Looking at and thinking about these things isn’t depressing or gross, it makes us appreciate what we have right now and how crazy nice life and living really is.
Apparently being around all these discussions has made Franny want in on it. This morning at dawn I let her out. The sun came up and I went to let her in and she was laying in the dewy grass all casual and unusual. She’d done battle with and opossum and apparently won. Apparently, because this happened before and the opossum was just playing opossum. Not today, it was still there an hour later. So I had to put down my pen and pick up the shovel. Mercy.
Since coming back from Philadelphia and all that, new habits have been forming and old habits dying. Work is satisfying and plenty. That silly Silica dust is in my beard, nose and lungs and will stay there now, forever.
and I been listening:
Lights album Rites has been fun. Not too serious, called by someone (pitchfork?) “stoner rock”, but I wouldn’t call it that. Its got some jams but it also has some jelly. Mostly though, classical Indian has been uncovered and constant. The Shankar’s (dad and daughter), Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Budhatia Mukherjee and Zakir Hussain. Mostly. Its nice because it’s not linear, it goes and flows and turns into a kind of meditation in the air.
This Morning Mags and me and our neighbor were out looking up at a big dead limb in a tree that had been hanging on up there since winter. We walked away and, crash! It came tumbling down right where we just was. Wowee!
Anyways, things are moving along. If you ordered from us in Philadelphia, rest now–things getting on. THanks!
Jessica Helfand has written a concise essay/article on design and emotions, and to my brain, its a compliment to my thoughts reconciling the Art/Design question. What is Art, what is Design and why define them? I’ve been trying to define them because when I feel like I’m failing at achieving my goals, it helps to step back and define them, then put what I’ve done (work) to the coals of the goals and see what comes out.
In this article, Helfand gives a pretty simple definition of design, that its…”an external representation of something else, joining the manufactured thing to the world of the living”. I’ve read recently that art is a noun to the critic and a verb to the artist. So if I’m constantly trying to define things and categorize and make lists and columns, is this helpful? Am I a critic, or an artist. Or a crafter, designer or poser. I’ve been upset at myself in the past for treating them all as nouns. I don’t get any work done. When I’m defining everything before I do anything, I end up stopping myself from starting. I think its good to be cautious and educated, but it can be stunting if I don’t know where I’m headed.
So far it sounds simple enough. Design is “joining the manufactured thing to the world of the living”, and Art can be joining the spiritual/internal/personal? thing (idea) to the world of the living. Alright: objective/subjective. I move on.
Philly painfully brought back the same problematic formula: Craft/Art. Somehow craft sticks in my craw more than design when it comes to my perceptions of the great “pyramid of power” (in terms of cultural relevance and influence). Art is at the top, design below that, and craft below design. But wait! Craft has neg. connotations but it can be simply defined and empowered too. Craft is something that can be perfected, and that perfection can be repeated. There’s nothing wrong with perfection. To aspire to make “perfect” art is what the artist does, but since art is subjective, only the artist can decide if its “perfect”, or the best they could possibly do. Probably not, because you can always improve on what you did last. So keep making stuff til you get it perfect (you die). But someone that perfects the building of a chair and can repeat can have mucho peace and contentment. Would I? Would You?
Craft too, is simply the use of the tools and medium the artists uses (so, lower case craft). The use of these things can be perfected, or mastered. Does getting a Masters degree make you a master or does working with your tools over and over and over. Once you feel like you’ve mastered your tools and medium (you’re a crafter) you can move on (up on the pyramid) to a designer or artist. You can get a client to tell you what to represent externally to the world or you can listen to the spirit in your soul and represent that. You can help create a new and better world or, you can keep promoting someone else’s agenda. That sounds negative but I don’t mean it like that.
The Shakers made chairs in the form of a chair at its simplest. It showed their subjective thoughts on form (simplicity void of decoration, craft as devotion) within the parameters of craft (perfect and repeatable) but in the same old 4-legged dictionary def. of “chair”. Some say a Shaker chair is art, but its a chair and you can get a “Shaker” chair from Charlie down the road (if he’s a good enough crafter con man). The repeatable doesn’t have a soul (Robot vs. Human). Arne Jacobsen makes a chair but changes the form to something we’ve only seen in nature. He doesn’t craft it, he designs it. Its for the human form. He’s a designer.
Philip Guston learned to paint (mastered his tools/medium/craft),
then stopped listening to the client (gallerists, buyers, professors) and listened to something nobody else could hear.
After the Philly showdown, we head south to visit some of Margaret’s family. On the way down to visit the family (meeting up in S.C.) we decided to camp. The hotels have been much more expensive on this trip than I’d expected, and a few days in a cold room with a T.V. and tiny fridge is enough. We looked up Santee State Park and saw that it looked good. It has trails and lakes and tent camping. It was good. The August heat and humidity of South Carolina could’ve been a whole lot worse. We had a fire at night to ward off the evil mossies, swam in the lake in the early morn, and “hiked” a trail before breaking down camp and leaving.
The lake had a cypress forest in the middle.
I’m looking forward to getting back and getting started on all the new orders. Its a little difficult to enjoy being away when you got work to do. But that’s the point of getting away usually, right? Realizing that work is a good thing, but rest is needed too.
The show is over and we took a day to see Philly. We planned 3 things for the day: The Fabric Workshop Museum, the main Philly Museum, and a Phillies game.
The Fabric workshop is great. The current show is a collaboration btwn the FWM and the New Temporary Contemporary and it represents 4 artists currently living in Philadelphia. Tristin Lowe’s big, inflated felt sperm whale is fun for its size and texture. The permanent collection has some recognizable names (kiki smith, william wegman, felix gonzolez tores…) that don’t usually use fabric as their main med., here have used fabric. And in a separate space, down the street a few doors, a Ryan Trecartin exhibit. Real good.
The Philadelphia Museum is a great, big museum. They have a really impressive collection of stuff that we’re not really into right now. We mainly wanted to see their big collection of Duchamp…all but two small pieces had been sequestered behind a velvet rope for an upcoming “show” featuring Duchamp. Sweet.
We got to the Phillies game early because the Museum disappointed us. Its a new park and its real clean and nice. Our seats were as nose-bleeding as can be, but they were still good seats. Unfortunately, we were sitting in the middle of a section bought out by Drexel University and students were coming and going and shifting and craning and talking about professors and classes (in super nerdy tones with sprinkled “dude”s). We left in the bottom of the 6th.
Reporting live from the floor in Philly. In the Convention Center, in a “booth”, surrounded by “crafters”. This is the last of 3 days and its been going real good. We’ll be coming home with representation in Santa Cruz, Boston, Brooklyn, Philly, Delaware, and a lot more. Check out the featured bike plate at the entrance of the Convention Center (pic. above).
Sitting in a Convention Center is not the best way to see a city, but we’re sticking round another day so’s we can see some (it’s the first time either of us have been to this town). We’re planning to go to the Museum to see DuChamp, the Fabric Workshop to see Ryan Trecartin, and Citizens Bank Park to see the Phillies.
The best thing about this setting so far, is Reading Terminal Market. Its next to the hotel and across from the Convention Center. One of the worst things about being a big business person, all on the road and things, is eating right and keeping that good digestion going. This Terminal market has it all, the only problem is that it closes up at 6.
I got beat up today in the studio. The above photo is one of many puddles the big Dove squeezed out of me today. Oh, I lost it a couple of times. If there was a nanny-cam on JB today and JB was of interest to the public, you could see some funny footy on ET tonight. Maybe someday.
Monday night Deer Tick played in Lexington at Al’s bar. Deer Tick is from Providence, RI and that’s almost enough to give a band a chance because it probably means they went to RISD and that may be enough, though my ears and eyes are leading me to believe that Providence and RISD’s numbered days are done. Poppy sounds have replaced some kind of real energy. Opinion. Plus, poppy doesn’t always mean poopy. There’s a time for everything under heaven. Fort Thunder and scenes like it must move on…
To Lexington. Lexington is not Louisville. Like I said about Bonnie Prince Billy, he disrespected Lexington (favours Louisville), and Lexington doesn’t have much to brag about. Neither does my hometown of Toledo. But, do you really want a lot of art lessons, nice shopping, and a waterfront view to produce your art. Stuff that speaks comes from the gut and the gut doesn’t look like sunny San Diego, it looks like my floor today after punching inanimate objects and cursing to nothing. I’m not going to come up with new great ideas from drinking fine wine. Nossir, bourbon heals them wounds and does them patchins. KY is bourbon country. Land of the most wretched, outcast, independent folks. Welcome to Dovetail. Grab hold of the tail of the great forgiving bird and let it take you home.
In these days of mp3’s and streams and music industry confusion, I am super happy to report a new-found interest in college radio. WRFL, the UK radio station has some good programming. I’d like to talk on some Lexington original music soon, but for now, check out WRFL, and if you have a better station with some good music to stream–lets me know. Sometimes, even the best gets smooth n’ jazzy.
Nobody got burned. At least not literally. At least not yet.
We had a big old time this 4th of July, with an extensive family reunion attached. People came in from all over the place and we all got re-aqua-tinted. Many were at least moderately interested in Dovetail’s goings-on, so we got to give a couple tours of our shanty studio and sold a few things too.
Now that the busy weekend is behind us we are looking ahead to the big show in Philadelphia at the end of the month. The closer it gets the more mailings we get that urge us to get everything ready and make certain all our doves are in a row. It seems that its getting bigger and heavier the closer it gets. I hear such doomsday reports in the news that nobody has any money, just IOU’s, and I get down on it, but then I hear some great things like Young Blood in Atlanta is doing great. And we just got a check from OCMA that wasn’t huge, but it was bigger than usual.
So, we’re going and hoping for the best. That’s independence.
