Museum of velvet paintings.
An interview and tour of the Velveteria in Portland on CBS Sunday Morning
Visit the Velveteria website.
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I was just poking around the Ace Gallery website, looking for new (to me) artists and I found the stunning work of Tara Donovan. She creates installations using everyday materials like elmer’s glue, buttons, toothpicks, paper plates, and styrofoam cups. Most of her work has an elegant, organic, sensual feel.
Tara Donovan is currently represented by Pace Wildenstein Gallery in New York and the Stephen Freidman Gallery in London.
The leash walking thing is really driving me nuts. It takes her so long to calm down enough to see that we are in practice mode. I understand she needs to do some sniffing, but she needs to be able to pay attention to me at least for a couple minutes at a time. If I can get her to heel, she breaks away as soon as I treat her. I have to do lots of turning around and corrections. I probably look like a crazy woman. That’s ok I guess, I’ll be crazy looking if I have to. Monday night we went to the Lucky Lab and she was great. I can’t believe she actually looks forward to sitting at a pub and watching us drink beer. She still gets lots of treats or she gets restless but she gets a little better every week. Tuesday I had a Dr. appointment in the morning and she was all excited to go to day care. I didn’t check my phone until 2 and I discovered a voicemail from 11am. Mississippi had gotten into another fight. It wasn’t serious but she was kicked out and had been waiting for me in the bad doggy kennel to pick her up. I feel really bad that I hadn’t checked my phone for three hours. I was too wrapped up in personal crap to remember I had a phone. She was nuts when I picked her up, she yanked at her leash and was all wild-eyed and crazy. Yesterday she stayed home with me. She did ok for most of the day but did lots of her usual barking at everything that moves. I tried to take her on a lunchtime walk and we were both completely frustrated. She is definitely testing us to see who is boss. I feel so bad that she doesn’t have a good outlet for exercise. I tried to take her to North Clackamas park in the early evening. She pulled all the way from the car to the fence and we did about a billion turn arounds, trying to get her to stop pulling. Inside the park she did ok. I tried to get her to fetch but she wasn’t interested. She was playing pretty nice with the other dogs. Then another dog showed up that looked almost exactly like her. His name is Nate and his ears are a little different, he has small bits of white on the ends of his paws but other than that they are the same build, same weight. Mississippi took an interest in him right away. She was barking and chasing him. Another dog didn’t like it and things started to escalate. I decided it was time to leave and had a frustrating time trying to get her away from the action. I finally just ran away, calling her to me and she came. I need to remember that when she’s in a tussle like that, I should call her away from it, instead of trying to get in and grab her. If she’s stressed, she’ll usually come to me for protection. At least I want to believe that. She’s obviously going through some sort of crazy teenage angst right now. I’m thinking of Exorcising her. I need to remember that she probably needs lots of love right now. I wish she’d show me a little love. Aren’t dogs supposed to unconditionally love you? I think she hates me right now. Tom keeps reminding me that we’ve only had her 5 months and that she came to us with issues that are just going to take time. It just feels so nice when things are going well, these bad periods can be so frustrating. Art Crank is looking for poster submissions for it’s 2009 poster show in Portland, Oregon in October 2009. Here is some footage from last year: Here are the specs for the Portland show: Theme: Poster Size: Poster Quantities: Poster Prices: Format: Media: Poster Sales: Key Dates: Inquiries can go directly to me (Charles Youel, Director and Curator) at charles@artcrankpostershow.com. Just some ramblings about life… I just got off the phone with my product manager. It seems my contract job is like the energizer bunny. What started out in July 2008 as a 6 month contract appears to have morphed into a potentially very long term gig. I keep thinking I may be nearing the end of my contract and then bang, I get handed several more months of work. It’s great to have a solid job. I don’t like worrying about money. I like the feeling of being able to pay off my student loans in a timely manner. I like the idea of being able to afford to buy a house one day. As far as jobs measure up, this one is good, the people are good, the work is a good fit for me. It’s actually probably the mellowest, most reasonable job I’ve ever had. That’s kind of funny. I remember when climbing the ladder was important to me. Work used to be everything to me. Now I just want a reasonable job that I can take some pride in. Life outside of work is more important to me now. My only problems with my job now is my need for social interaction. I don’t think large amounts of time in isolation are all that good for me. But then again, I could work at Tom’s office every day if I wanted to. I choose to stay around the house for Mississippi and so I can get things done around here during slower times. So I suppose the isolation is partially self inflicted. I hate admitting that to Tom. He’s going to say I told you so. And to be honest, I complain about the isolation from working at home but it’s the thing I am most afraid of loosing if I were to lose my job. Today’s conference call was just another reminder that I need to better balance ‘work’ and art. I am always going to have to share my art practice with a full time job which may or may not be artistically engaging. This is my life, this is me, time to learn how to accept it. It means things may happen more slowly than I want them to but I think the trade off is worth it. I just sometimes wish my life could be more simple. I’ve been taking a lot of time off since we moved. Last night I chose to watch a movie when I should have been painting. I have a September 1st deadline and I’m behind. It’s so typical of me to procrastinate and it’s why I need deadlines I suppose. I will get it done, but it’ll probably be in a state of panic. It’s ok though, maybe panic helps my paintings. This is who I am, this is how I operate. For better or worse, this is my life. Panic and procrastination, lazy denial and feverish work. I awkwardly balance my day job with my art practices. I try to fit more into my day that I can handle physically or emotionally. The scales tip in one direction or the other depending on the week or month. I set goals, some of them I don’t meet. I just keep trying. I keep pushing that boulder up the hill. Last week I got an opportunity to write for a Portland Art site. I have been stalling, mulling over what to write first. I should know better. I should jump in and get it done. Yes there are other deadlines, there are always other deadlines, other work, other personal projects I’d like to be doing. I guess it’s not one boulder but many. So typical of me, In thinking about this concept of multiple boulders, I started daydreaming about inventing a multi-boulder pusher machine. It made me want to start another project about inventions. Maybe drawings of conceptual inventions that would make your life easier and fix your problems. This is why there are so many boulders, I always have to start something new, despite all the other things waiting to be finished. Last night I wanted to start making daily drawings that were hand written newspaper articles, or start a Barney Frank fan club. God I love Barney Frank. I start more things than I finish, but I finish a lot of stuff too. That’s ok, it’s what I do. Gotta go with the flow, feed the beast, make progress in whatever I’m doing at the time. I’ll try to meet deadlines and I’ll embrace any new ideas that pop into my head. I’ll write them down so I always have a running list of things to keep me out of trouble. You’re special. Happy birthday, Tom Once again Tiny Showcase has made me feel like I’m not doing enough with my life by showcasing the amazing work on Owen Gatley as their limited edition print of the week. 100 prints of Owen’s work will be available for sale on TinyShowcase.com tonight starting at 7:30 Eastern. A short film by Luke Jinks and Owen Gatley: A Record Of Life from Owen Gatley on Vimeo. See more of Owen’s amazing work on his blog.
From Exclaim:
Poor Mississippi hasn’t been getting the star status she deserves on this blog. She’s been doing so great, there’s just less to talk about. It seems every week she gets better and better. We continue to take her on her weekly outing to the Lucky Lab. Last week we sat next to a table full of kids. I had to keep her on a short leash but she was very nice, just sniffing a little girl’s shirt and letting the girl pet her. She settled right in this week at the pub. She’s recognizing when she is supposed to settle in and stay put. Yesterday we took her on the longest car trip to date. We drove to McMinnville, went to a park, had some lunch outside at DQ and headed back. McMinnville is a little over an hour from Portland. She did great in the car. She only whined a little bit. We’re realizing she’s ready for more public appearances. I think she likes just being with us wherever we go, even if there’s not a lot of doggy fun for her. We may be ready to try a whole meal out with her. We still don’t feel comfortable taking her off leash. She’s too reactionary. If we ran into a cat or even another dog, she could potentially take off and not listen to our calls. She also loves kids and wants to be right in their face, it makes me very nervous because if a little kid starts to run from her, she’d probably chase after them, thinking it was time to play. So off leash at a regular park or place with small kids is just not going to happen right now. I wonder how long it will take before we can let her off her leash outside of fenced dog parks. She might just need to get older and more mellow. We wish she could hang out on the front stoop with us, just like the neighbors do with their dogs. She has a strong need to “protect” her territory so she barks like crazy at people, dogs and cats that get near our house.
She’s staying out of my garden more than she used to, although in this picture she is eating a very hot pepper she has just stolen from the garden. The lattice around my most productive part of the garden has really helped too. She’s developed a new habit in the garden that I really appreciate. She’s taken to finding the giant slugs. She carries them to the center of the yard and she then proceeds to roll on them. It’s kind of gross and very curious but I guess she likes the scent of slug. Whatever it is, I appreciate that she’s finding the big mamas and squashing them. It’s been a pretty brutal battle between me and the slugs since we moved her. We rarely have to close the bedroom doors now. Occasionally she’ll grab a pair of socks or a shoe and wave them in front of us when we aren’t paying her enough attention, but now instead of playing keep away, she’ll just go crawl under the dining room table or in her crate and drop the item. I make sure she gets plenty of positive attention when she does this because it really beats her tearing our belongings up. She hasn’t gotten in any scuffles at day care lately. For a while it was happening once a week. I get so nervous about it. Lately I’ve been swamped with work so life just hasn’t been as much fun for her. I’m surprized she doesn’t have more temper tantrums. I’ve been having some of my own, feeling trapped in my office. Believe me Mississippi, I’d rather be at the dog park too, but we gotta pay then rent, kid. I’m sorry things can be so boring sometimes. Today we are taking her on a hike somewhere, I need to look through our dog friendly Portland book and find a nice trail for us. Next weekend we have friends coming from out of town. I can’t wait to show her off. She’s such an amazing dog. The art website 20×200 is showcasing a limited edition print from Portland artist Kate Bingaman-Burt. Kate is obsessed with her own consumption and catalogs each item she purchases through crisp black and white drawings. Each individual object often includes a little snippet of what she’s thinking or why she made her purchase. consumed goods range from tea infusers to mai tais to airline baggage fees. The print includes a huge array of objects consumed in April, May, June and July of this year. The poster was printed as an edition of just 10 and they are $1000 each.
This makes me want to start up my old project of drawing everything I ate. Visit 20×200 for more info. Happy Tuesday A new bar and music venue has just opened up in our neighborhood. I’m declaring it the best bar on the planet. Why is it so cool? It’s in an old mortuary. There is a beautiful outdoor patio. There are little rooms and nucs with couches and chrystal chandeliers. They were playing Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs when we walked in. The art was good. There’s a beautiful pool table outside. All the furniture is lovely vintage. They have good wine and local beer. They have Karaoke on Wednesdays. Lots of good bands are on the line-up. Mondays are going to be open mic nights. We were so excited to be there, we kept drinking beers because we didn’t want to leave. I can’t believe what an amazing neighborhood we’ve landed in. Speaking of karaoke, that’s where I’ll be Wednesday night. Care to join us? You couldn’t ask for a better karaoke stage. I feel spoiled just thinking about it.
The Woods Remember, Wednesday is Karaoke night. See you there? The deadline for the National Plastic Quilt Project is soon approaching! Here’s the scoop on the project: From last year’s event: I Keep a folder of bookmarks with artists in it that I am interested in and want to learn more about. Yesterday I reached into my random grab bag and pulled out Kako Ueda, a New York based artist who makes larger than life, intricate cutout images in paper. Kako’s work merges elements of nature, humans and human internal bodily systems, and sometimes describe a sense of time or mortality. The work shows an interconnectedness between these elements and the fragile medium of paper, enhances the viewers sensations of tenuousness. The pieces are delicate and ornamental and remind me of Japanese or Indian textile designs.
Kako Ueda’s work in currently on view at: Kako will be in a group show from October 2009 until April 2010 at: You can see more of her work online and read her statement at kakoueda.com
I know the following video is super dark. It’s in a bar and our dog is black, what can I do? It’s footage of Mississippi at the Lucky Lab Brew Pub in SE Portland. As you can hear, there is lots of commotion in the background, dogs freaking out, food being delivered, people laughing. Mississippi did so well. She sat for a good part of our pints and was uber charming to everyone. I was distracted by someone who was talking to me and she seized the opportunity to jump up onto the bench of our neighboring pub goers. Um, embarrassing! But anyway, we love our weekly beer and I think we’ll make it a regular thing. She is really starting to pick up on the whole sit-quietly-in-public-places thing. Her attention span still only lasts about as long as it takes us to drink one pint but I think soon we’ll be able to get completely sauced without her making a fuss! Kidding! If you told me four months ago that I would soon be enjoying beers in public places with my crazy dog, I would have laughed. It’s pretty amazing to me how far she has come. We just need to keep exposing her to new places and situations. I think Tricia at Rockin’ Roxy’s is planning a leash walking class soon with her dog trainer sister. I’m going to sign up for that and look into the agility class at Happy Go Lucky. Thanks Gail at Happy Go Lucky for a great class. On my quest to eat 365 apples in the year 2009. I’m finally caught up and might even be one or two ahead of schedule.
We had a lovely weekend in Seattle and saw some great art. We just visited the huge art building at 3rd and Washington. All of the following were on view there. If I was having any doubts about painting being a potent enough medium, they are gone now. Such incredible work all over the place. Paintings and Wall Sculptures by Patricia Hagen and Punch Gallery.
Cristin Ford
Talk about Stunning…
Also at Garde Rail Gallery — Holly Farrell
Mr. Hooper at Garde Rail Gallery. Bill Miller at Garde Rail Gallery. Lise Graham at SOIL Gallery Loved, loved loved Cabel Griffith’s large acrylic paintings at SOIL Gallery
Julie Alpert at SOIL gallery.
Cynthia Camlin at Monarch Studio And I think my favorite of the day was…
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