Revelation Is More Perilous Than Revolution (Film version)

By photographer Dan Busta. See the full image here.



Here is the Film version of Revelation Is More Perilous Than Revolution –

Maybe less is more? more natural color?

A production take on Loud, in collaboration with Artist Michelle Jane Lee. I originally wanted to do a totally obnoxious set with all color squares and then I remember looking at Michelle’s work at an artshow in the Brewery. I then approached her to work directly with me in a set collaboration, she agreed. In Michelle’s work all of her colored squares represent letters of the alphabet. Check out more at http://www.michellejanelee.com/

Daisy Sonobe

"I'm loving it!"

Specter's ad project is making even a fast food fanatic like me want to throw up a little in my mouth. Which means, damn good work!







I'm not a big follower of street/graffiti art but I can respect and admire really great works that come out of this medium. If you're into it though definitely check out Wooster Collective they pretty much always get it right as far as filtering through the mass and featuring well worth artists and pieces. I've been going to their site for a few years now and this blog made me really respect the graffiti world. Also check out Specter's website. Along with other street art projects he's got some fantastic illustrations as well.

Random Art I like post

I respected the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres but I was personally indifferent to them when I was first exposed to him. Much of conceptually driven art though I respected and understood the value and importance of, the little emo me couldn't enjoy it outside of its purely academic and art historical relevance. This was the case (even though his pieces are very personal, deeply emotional, at the time I did not relate to or quite grasp the meaning behind them unfortunately) until I saw his piece, "Untitled" (Perfect Lovers), at MoMA.



After seeing this piece, and being completely moved by it, upon returning home I bought two identical clocks and put them on the wall of my studio (my very own Gonzalez-Torres!) Perfectly synchronized. However as days passed I noticed the second hand of one lagging behind. Then as more time passed the difference had spilled into the minute hand. Then I recalled the clocks at MoMa, though very close, the second hands were still off by a tiny, tiny bit.

At that moment I realized, what the piece really symbolized. And, I loved it even more. This piece and Gonzalez-Torres you could say was the bridge from my then somewhat ignorant self to appreciating and really understanding well executed conceptual art.

Now I have an urge to go to The Art Institute and get me a piece of candy...

John Casey

I came across some of John Casey's drawings before and thought they were great. Today I stumbled upon his new drawings while I was browsing through Drawn. Also for the first time saw his sculptures and I love them!











John Casey website

Gavin Nolan

Our Madonna is not Functioning




Detail (holy shit amazing painter!!!)



The Ambassador



I Kill Everything I Fuck

Jiha Moon

Beautiful, beautiful paintings by Jiha Moon.







Jiha Moon website

Sketches

Sketches for my next paintings, for the series to be called "Babydoll." I could go into what Babydoll represents, or you can just figure it out, or put a meaning to it that you want. I'm cool with that. I will say though we've all got Babydoll in our lives and the way we deal with it, the way it affects us, is as different as each one of us are.



"Robin, a dog and Babydoll (Nightwood)"


detail




"Anaïs was a good friend of mine"
(with Babydoll on her back)


detail

Zeng Fanzhi

I am completely in love with paintings of Zeng Fanzhi, particularly of the mask series. It seems like he has many different styles and is not afraid to explore all of them through his paintings. In fact they vary so much that you would not know that it was done by one artist. This shows curiosity and openness to growth and change which is such an admirable quality. His need is not only to create, to stick to what he "knows" but to explore, to be fearless, to be fluid.

Again though, my favorite style of his is in his mask pieces.









On an exciting personal front, I will be setting up a studio for myself, finally, within the next few weeks (after not having a place for a whole month!) I am very excited and happy to say I am filled with ideas, sketches, creativity, energy. I've spent months now absorbing, being inspired, soaking in, developing in other ways than actively creating, now it's time for my hands to do a bit of work since my eyes, mind and dreams have been working hella hard (I don't know where hella came from, but I like it.)

Henry Miller wrote my artist/life statement and didn’t tell me til now. Bastard. I love you.

Learning to Ride, 2006

"And as the train stops, I put my foot down and my foot has put a deep big hole in the dream... I have gained nothing by the enlargements of my world: on the contrary, I have lost. I want to become more and more childish and to pass beyond childhood in the opposite direction. I want to go exactly contrary to the normal line of development, pass into a super-infantile realm of being which will be absolutely crazy and chaotic but not crazy and chaotic as the world about me. I want to pass the responsibility of fatherhood to the irresponsibility of the anarchic man who cannot be coerced nor wheedled nor cajoled nor bribed nor traduced. I want to take my guide as Oberon the night rider who under the spread of his black wings eliminated both the beauty and the horror of the past: I want to flee towards a perpetual dawn with a swiftness and relentlessness that leaves no room for remorse, regret of repentance. I want to outstrip the inventive man who is a curse to the earth in order to stand once again before an impassable deep which not even the strongest wigs will enable be to treverse. Even if I must become a wild and natural park inhabited only by idle dreamers, I must not stop to rest here in the ordered fatuity of responsible adult life. I must do this in remembrance of a life beyond all comparison with the life which was promised me, in remembrance of the life of a child who was strangled and stifled by the mutual consent of those who had surrendered. Everything which the fathers and the mothers created I disown. I am going back to a world even smaller than the old Hellenic world, going back to a world which I can always touch with outstretched arms, the world of what I know and see and recognize from moment to moment. Any other world is meaningless to me and alien to me and hostile to me. In retroversing the first bright world which I knew as a child I wish not to rest there but to muscle back to a still brighter world from which I must have escaped. What this world looks like I do not know, now am I sure that I will find it, but it is my world and nothing else intrigues me."

-Henry Miller

Leopold Rabus

Check out a lot more of his pieces on his website at a much larger size, really amazing.

Leopold Rabus website (at Gelerie Adler)

Food for thought

I have been losing sleep the past few nights. Why? I can't seem to shake off all these food thoughts, ideas, recipes coming to my head. For no reason, or for a reason, whatever it is of my passions, food seems to be the one tugging at my heart the most right now. They first come in vaguely. Like a simple, common food pairing or a dish. Then it starts to morph a little bit. A little change here, a little exotic twist there. Then the visualization comes in. The colors, the layers, final "look" and the plating- placement, cherry balsamic reduction swirl there, a dab of green herb sauce for accent... Once it starts, I just can't stop.

I've also been indulging in discovering and snooping around different food recipe blogs. Usually jumping from a blog I like to another recommended on it. As Picasso said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." And seeing as cooking is art, let us steal and improve upon our knowledge so we can do better and dream bigger and always cook scrumpdiliciously. Being an aesthetics lover and nut I tend to only love sites that have good recipes, but also great over all design and great photos. Here are some of my favorite ones (Yumsugar is the one I go to regularly. Not necessarily a blog, it's just a really fun food site.)

Cream Puffs in Venice
Rice and Noodles
Seven Spoons
YumSugar

This obsessing over food does mean I have been neglecting my other loves. Of my top three- art, travelling, and food seeing as I just did some travelling out into beautiful Santa Barbara county, CA this past weekend (which also involved WINE TASTING) I am only neglecting art. Which, really is the worst one to neglect. Good news though, I just bought 2 yds of canvas today. I have less than two weeks before I leave for Chicago (well plus roadtrip days) which means I have only that time, really less than, to paint something on it. This means lots of fun, tons of painting and being happy. Also I have a few "people in LA" drawings I'd like to start on soon. I will post some fresh art ASAP. That's a promise.

Anyway, here is a really fun recipe I'm going to try out ASAP.


Red Velvet Cake Balls

1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

Bakerella (for more photos and other recipes)

What is Art?- from Creature Comforts

Pretty amazing. (I love the printmaking dog and the little bit at the 5 minute mark.)



“I’ve thought about this for years. My definition of art is anything that anyone creates that invokes a reaction from someone else, even an animal. That’s art. Art’s also a friend of mine, a Mexican guy, nice guy.”

Creature Comforts website

Hush now...

Black Nielson- Love Song To Chan Marshall

I absolutely loved this song and the video when I first heard/saw it. The band, Black Nielson, has been broken up since 2005 so the band itself I suppose is no longer very relevant. However, could a "Love Song To Chan Marshall" ever be irrelevant?

I am not sure what it is about my recent rekindled obsession with Chan Marshall. I could always cite one of my favorite quotes, "beauty inspires obsession." I guess it was the dream. She was a complete bitch in it to me, which well a girl likes. I guess it's seeing her soon (although had it not been the dream I would not have bought the tickets.) I guess it's, needing something like her. Something that tugs, that moves, that puzzles, that intrigues, that punches your half asleep Passion right in the face and says "hey, you see this?" "Yeah, wake up." It's that whole fine line between 'do you want this person or do you really just want to be this person?' My answer obviously is both.


Cat Power- Lost Someone (Live)

I think painting any sort of celebrity or a famous person (some could argue Chan is or is not, but she clearly is a known person) is very embarrassing (yes, painting political figures was painful hence.) Which is a shame. Really I just want to paint her and give it to her before the show so she would love me forever. (Dork!)

Ian Francis

I learned about Ian Francis a bit over a year ago. Came upon a really cool section of his website where you can see the process of how one painting is done. From beginning to end. I definitely dig the contrast of tight and lose work within the same piece. My work certainly is not nearly as good or like his, but that's something I always make sure to do in all my pieces as well. Something about a "finished" look that really bugs the fuck out of me. It seems too forced. There should be breathing room. You know? A thing alive, is never perfect.






Ian Francis website

step by step painting

Jeffrey Todd Smith

Because I never make work like this...



Everything U Fuck Turns 2 Math, 2007
ink and gouache on paper 16" x 20"



I Could Look at Myself in Your Eyes Forever, 2007
ink and gouache on paper 24" x 30"



Fecal Face interview

Places You'll Go

James Jean





Tropical Toxic (blog of Asaf and Tomer)

Chicken or the Egg

I was compelled to write a sort of an essay after somewhat randomly contemplating the relationship of Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and June Miller tonight. Then watching this clip from the movie "Henry and June" and especially hearing the lines "You just want experience. You're a writer. You make love to whatever you need" got me in that special place and made me want to touch upon a subject I often ponder around and about-




This is a very powerful scene from the movie “Henry and June," the point in which their respectably established roles all at once are played out, stripped, swapped, dropped, exposed, switched, regained, etc, etc. Everyone is honest, lying, the victim, the manipulator, and all of these conflicting emotions are actually being felt genuinely. How is this possible? The only answer is that it just seems to be the nature of the artist and the muse relationship.

Artist and muse dynamic has always been something I’ve been intrigued by. It is an intricate and delicate relationship that never is simply what it seems to be, what it ought to be- one that inspires and one that is inspired, then both benefit, grow, and compliment one another with the most beautiful and satisfying results (consistently and continuously) may it be a piece of art work, song, poem, or a book.

The lines often are blurred. The role, also. Is it that the artist takes because he/she is in power and the muse gives because he/she gives up power. Or the artist relays because he/she is powerless while the muse is powerful and controls. Could it ever be equal? A partnership? As with most things in life balance seems to be the most difficult thing to find in this relationship. And when a product (painting, song, poem, or story) is presented is it to satisfy only the artist, only the muse, ideally both but how easily is this achieved? Is it possible? The artist is selfish to portray and steal from the muse what he/she only wishes to while the muse is vain and self-important expecting to be portrayed as his/her fantasy self. For both to be satisfied the process seems masturbatory for both parties and if both are dissatisfied, completely volatile and destructive and even worse, wasteful.

Ultimately I believe that since it is the artist who has the creative power with it, also holds the responsibility. But the artist temperament often gives little room for maintaining full control. Is it then always one the master and the other the slave where neither ever stays as one and the role changes without clear boundaries that can ever be set? At any moment the power can shift, there never seems to be stability. But this may be what drives it. Those that create and those that want to be at the heart of it, perhaps can not exist in stability or wish to.

The relationships of Henry, Anais, and June is especially interesting and telling of the confusing nature of the artist-muse relationship because the two artists (writers) perceive the same muse, June, in two very different perspectives which lead to a creation of two very different literary characters. All the while Henry and Anais also are powerless to June under different circumstances leading up to and after the creative process. June's expectations and needs too vary for the two. And through out it all there are no clear boundaries or sensibility in the dynamic that at times is explosive creatively and beautifully while at other times explosive in the ugliest ways.


Recommended reads-

Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
Henry and June Anais Nin

Henry Miller Wikipedia
Anais Nin Wikipedia
June Miller Wikipedia

Places You'll Go

Fecal Face is a website I've been going to for awhile and I check often. Unfortunately the updates on the New Feature (my favorite) section are not as frequent as I check up but thankfully there's always something to explore on the site. They have really good artist interviews that ask in depth to light hearted questions which I think often let you really understand the artist better than anything else. The content is mostly artists, art in the Bay Area, but it also includes other parts of California.

On a side note, I've few times typed in fecalmatter.com instead of fecalface.com. Thankfully I always caught my mistake before hitting enter. Repeat, thankfully. I've yet to have the guts to see what the other site is, which I'm sure exists. Let me know if anyone finds out.

Right now the New Feature is a dialogue with front man of Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh, on art, music, and of course, Devo!



"So much of the world is petty and nondescript and repulsive; people are angry and garish, frightened and obsessed with triviality. But then sometimes, rarely, things happen and events push us to be better than we were before. Some of us can look at the world and see what's wrong and what's right. Or even just see the essential absurdity and arbitrariness of all of it. And what do you do when you can no longer ignore the absurdity? You point it out. You make fun of it. And maybe things will be slightly less absurd and ugly than they were before."

Fecal Face website

Intro- a day late better than never

The Council
oil on canvas
36 x 36

Hello.

My name is Michelle Jane Fonda-Lee (Yes, Michele Lee like the actress, but with two 'L's AND Jane Fonda like the actress, activist, the BARBARELLA... ella... ella... eh... eh...) I like giraff toys among many other things. I like a lot of things. Especially fun things. And tasty things. Most of all, beautiful things.

Now for "proof" of my usefulness. I made it for my last show. It sums something up I suppose. I don't have the pieces documented yet but when they are returned to me I will document and share. And why will I get them back? Because no one bought them. DAMN IT. In time. Remember kids, there's no shame in making money doing what you love. But there is shame in making money doing what you hate. Or just as bad if not worse, doing what you're indifferent about. Go make yourself useful- be passionate (the rest will follow)


EDUCATION

2005 Yale University, Yale/Norfolk Art Residency (Summer)
2006 School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL

EXHIBITIONS

2005 Yale Norfolk Gallery, Norfolk, CT
2006 Tulip Gallery, Chicago, IL
2007 Queerfest Midwest, Chicago, IL
2007 Lasso Gallery, Chicago, IL

ARTIST STATEMENT

Painting, creating for me is a way to remember, to relearn, to retrace steps. Not to digress but to progress. Contradictory this may seem but I have discovered a world to tap into and to explore in a place expected to have been left behind. When it comes to emotion, expressing feeling there is much to be relearned after years of being programmed to be otherwise, desensitized and censored of what is deemed for a respectable adult as raw immaturity. But it's my belief that it is necessary and none less desirable as we mature. It's a quality we all once had, and the simplest and most sensible way to regain is by rediscovering innocence. And in painting, both through the process and the painting itself I engage in this dialogue. Imagery and memories from childhood are used to express from very personal to broader issues affecting and encompassing today's world. Every piece is an attempt to approach an issue with an innocent heart from the past along with an experienced mind of today.