70 Degrees in Fort Point

Above, see a picture from last Thursday of the Fort Point Channel. 71 degrees. Is it possible Fort Point is the best place in the world to live? OK, tied for first with Key West, Cape Cod, Montana, and South Lake Tahoe.

Hope everyone is enjoying the spring.

Images from Reference Point

Above, see a slide show of some images from Reference Point. This is likely the end of the photos until the show is over, as it is difficult to get cameras in the Courthouse. But, I wanted to give a few detailed shots of the paintings, without ruining the show for those who are on their way to see it.

We are in the process of scheduling a reception for the show, and I should know more in the next few weeks. I will keep everyone posted as I know more.

Included in the slideshow are some shots of the poetry broadsides that I created for this show. “Broadsides” is probably the wrong description— but they are combinations of some of my poems and collage that seemed to work well together.

Each is 6” x 12” and uses maps and a version of one of my poems. “Chicago,” “Blue,” and “Missoula,” are included in the show and turned out pretty amazing.

And to all those who have visited the show already and have emailed with such great response, thank you so much. I am glad so many people have enjoyed it a week in. The response has been stellar.

Catch-up On Eidsvig Randomness

So, yes, the blog hiatus is over, as evidenced by the pictures of Reference Point, now showing at the Moakley Federal Courthouse… as well as photos of those paintings in progress… with more shots of the Reference Point show to come later today.

But, yes, I recognize that this doesn’t settle up completely on an overdue account. Where are the irreverent comments on day-to-day studio living? Where are the random observations on popular culture and art? What have you been doing for the past 2 months besides painting?

So, here is a little catch-up on life behind the scenes:

MIRRORS AND MODEL CONSUMER

In prepping for some of the pieces for the Reference Point show I was scouring magazines for inspiration. For “Choppy Chop” I was looking for some ideas about a couple, at dinner, with some glamour or atmosphere obvious in the picture. I scoured bookstores, pouring through every magazine.

Here is the weird part: all the food magazines have no people in them, only images of food neatly presented on plates. The kitchen and remodeling magazines and the restaurant/travel magazines are the same. You see pretty tables set up, or the expanse of an empty restaurant… but no actual people. And I am talking about literally hundreds of magazines I went through.

French magazines, British magazines, Bon Appetite, Italian Cuisine, etc., etc. Image after image after image of beautiful food with no one to eat it. After a while it got sad, or spooky. Like a ghost town of gourmet food and fine dining with me the only voyeur into this world as I flipped through the pages of magazines.

And the women’s magazines and fashion magazines were no better. Being early spring all the double-edition extra-big fashion issues are out and as I flipped through Vogue, Elle, and what not (yes, the notion of being seen flipping furiously through page after page, issue after issue of women’s fashion magazines did make me feel like I was doing something wrong or was some sort of deviant) the exact opposite occurred from the food and design magazines.

Now it was page after page of people… many at clubs or restaurants, standing near tables… without a morsel of food in sight. It made a little more sense to me than the food magazines. With the food or kitchens you would think conveying the message “look people are happy eating this,” or look, people are happy sitting and laughing in this remodeled kitchen,” would be good. But with the fashion magazines I was sure the editors were saying “don’t give them any ideas about eating.” Or, “great photos Jim, but take out the plate of oranges. Our styles aren’t meant to mix with people who eat.”

So, plates of food with no one to eat it, or collections of people who are trapped in some dream world where they are being starved to death in punishment for their beauty.

Here is a line of poetry for you: "Plates of people with no one to eat, or collections of food trapped in a dream world." Ahh, the absolute poetry of dyslexia.

Anyhow, lots of internet searching later and I found some inspiration... which is a whole other story. To all you parents out there, be very wary. The most innocent words like “couple, Japanese restaurant,” can produce some racy results on a Google image search.

All of this is just a long segue into talk of the Model Consumer series I started this past summer. See the following posts for some info:

http://617midway.blogspot.com/2007/11/gulu-gulu-meet-artists-night.html

http://617midway.blogspot.com/2007/08/in-progress-model-consumer-and-matisse.html

What was interesting in looking through all these magazines is how often the device of a model taking a photo of themselves is used in the media all of a sudden. Take a look at the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue for example, or just walk through a magazine aisle and you are likely to see a take-off on this idea used as a cover, or for a major section of the magazine. And no, I am not suggesting I had this idea first or some crazy thing like that— it is just interesting how these ideas seem to bubble up at the same time. Here you are seeing mass culture (i.e. people taking photos of themselves for internet sites, or with their phone cams) influencing professional photography and art, rather than vice versa. And it is pretty great. More and more of this is on its way.

LITERARY GENIUS AND ALEXIE

One other thing I have been doing over the past few months, besides creepily scanning women’s fashion magazines in bookstores, is reading, reading, reading. Had to catch up on my Christmas reading— Don Rickles autobiography, Picasso, Abraham Lincoln (“Team of Rivals,” which was really good)— and also on some reading I have been needing to get to for a while.

I posted on Sherman Alexie’s book “Flight” after I attended a reading of his last year.

See:

http://617midway.blogspot.com/2007/06/sherman-alexie-coke-commercials-and.html

and I finally got to the book this past month. Now, I was thinking I was semi-genius (again) when I caught some connection between “Flight” and Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five.” I was expecting Cal Berkeley’s Literature Department to compete with Harvard’s in an attempt to be the first to give me an honorary PhD. So, it was humbling when I opened up the first page of Alexie’s book and saw:

“’Po-tee-weet?’ Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five.”

Not only did someone else notice this connection, Alexie himself acknowledged it in his epigraph. And clearly intended it. I guess it is back to the drawing board for genius status in Literary Criticism.

PICASSO

Put “The Mystery of Picasso” on your Netflix queue. I have been looking for this movie for forever... I saw some bits of it in a class at MassArt on my magical mystery tour of colleges years ago and every time I tried to buy it it was in the hundreds of dollars for a dvd or vhs. And needless to say it wasn’t at Hub Video here in Southie.

But you can get it on DVD through Netflix and it is extraordinary to actually watch Picasso paint. Some isn’t so exciting, sure, but to watch his mind work as he paints an image and changes it from a fish to a rooster and back again… or to see a bull appear through black lines and red, throwing a matador in the air… is to see greatness navigating lines on a page. Check it out

COUNTING CROWS

And what would a return to blog babbling be without some mention of music and music videos?

I was downtown last week (2 weeks ago?) and walked into Newbury comics, remembering the new Counting Crows album was due out. I finally, embarrassed, asked the guy at the counter.

“Yeah, it came out today. We sold out in 2 hours.”

2 hours? The Counting Crows? And I was embarrassed that I was going to buy their new album? Are they a mega group? Is my embarrassment the vestiges of a Naughty by Nature, NWA, Public Enemy fan who scanned by Mr. Jones on VH1 (back when music channels showed music)? I have no idea. But I got my hands on the album. It is pretty good. Above, see a live video for “Los Angeles.” Sure, it’s no “Anna Begins,” but what is?

And that, my friends, is your catch-up on Eidsvig randomness….

Reference Point: Artist's Statement

Above, see a shot from the show at the Moakley Federal Courthouse running now through the end of June. Below, find my Artist's Statement from this show.

REFERENCE POINT

Created over the past two years, these works search the highly impersonal world of the mass media for embedded meaning, intimate response, and collective biography. Through traditional painting and collage techniques, each piece uses layering-- layered meaning, layered content, or both-- to reconsider ordinary objects from pop culture.

Ranging from restaurant menus to Driver's Licenses; comic book pictures to baseball cards; automobile repair manuals to clothing catalogs, these pieces use images we normally take for granted, placed in a different context with new perspective

What is more intimate or revealing than showing a friend your Driver's License photo? Or more emotionally charged than the memory of an airplane ride?

Reference Point explores the intersection of the personal and the impersonal, and invites each person to consider the weight of emotions an everyday image may hold.

New Yorker this Week – April 7

Just a brief note not to miss this week’s New Yorker which has an article on Frank O’Hara. The picture above is from their website NewYorker.com

And this only days after I had finally titled “Meditations on a Balcony,” one of my new pieces; the title being very influenced by O’Hara’s famous book “Meditations in an Emergency” (which was almost the title of the painting as well). Although “Meditations in Black and White,” or the always favorite “The Marriage of Reason and Squalor” were in the running as well.

Below, see the poem “To The Harbormaster,” from O’Hara’s book “Meditations in an Emergency.”

TO THE HARBORMASTER

I wanted to be sure to reach you;

though my ship was on the way it got caught

in some moorings. I am always tying up

and then deciding to depart. In storms and

at sunset, with the metallic coils of the tide

around my fathomless arms, I am unable

to understand the forms of my vanity

or I am hard alee with my Polish rudder

in my hand and the sun sinking. To

you I offer my hull and the tattered cordage

of my will. The terrible channels where

the wind drives me against the brown lips

of the reeds are not all behind me. Yet

I trust the sanity of my vessel; and

if it sinks it may well be in answer

to the reasoning of the eternal voices,

the waves which have kept me from reaching you.

What’s the Reference Point?

So, a few questions on the title for the show of my new work at the Moakley Federal Courthouse.

Basically, why “Reference Point” as a title?

Besides the obvious, referring to cultural references through collage, and biographical references in relationship to these; or using “points” or “dots” as collage features, the title seemed to work perfectly in ways beyond that.

Ideas for "Point" Like: Direct, Indicate, Meaning, Purpose, Dot, etc.... And for "Reference" like: Refer To, Draw From, Measure, Use, etc.

Anyhow, I looked them up. It may not help, but it is pretty interesting. There are definitely ties to each piece in the show, and the theme of the collective.

Here are some sample definitions of “reference” from Dictionary.com:

1. an act or instance of referring.
2. a mention; allusion.
3. something for which a name or designation stands; denotation.
4. a direction in a book or writing to some other book, passage, etc.
5. a book, passage, etc., to which one is directed.
6. material contained in a footnote or bibliography, or referred to by a reference mark.
7. use or recourse for purposes of information: a library for public reference.
8. a person to whom one refers for testimony as to one's character, abilities, etc.
9. a statement, usually written, as to a person's character, abilities, etc.
10. relation, regard, or respect: all persons, without reference to age.
–verb (used with object)

11. to furnish (a book, dissertation, etc.) with references: Each new volume is thoroughly referenced.
12. to arrange (notes, data, etc.) for easy reference: Statistical data is referenced in the glossary.
13. to refer to: to reference a file.

And here are some sample definitions of “point” from Dictionary.com:

verb
1. indicate a place, direction, person, or thing; either spatially or figuratively; "I showed the customer the glove section"; "He pointed to the empty parking space"; "he indicated his opponents" [syn: indicate]
2. be oriented; "The weather vane points North"; "the dancers toes pointed outward" [syn: orient]
3. direct into a position for use; "point a gun"; "He charged his weapon at me" [syn: charge]
4. direct the course; determine the direction of travelling
5. be a signal for or a symptom of; "These symptoms indicate a serious illness"; "Her behavior points to a severe neurosis"; "The economic indicators signal that the euro is undervalued" [syn: bespeak]
6. mark with diacritics; "point the letter"
7. mark (a psalm text) to indicate the points at which the music changes
8. be positionable in a specified manner; "The gun points with ease"
9. intend (something) to move towards a certain goal; "He aimed his fists towards his opponent's face"; "criticism directed at her superior"; "direct your anger towards others, not towards yourself" [syn: target]
10. indicate the presence of (game) by standing and pointing with the muzzle; "the dog pointed the dead duck"
11. give a point to; "The candles are tapered" [syn: sharpen]
12. repair the joints of bricks; "point a chimney"

Noun:
1. A sharp or tapered end: the point of a knife; the point of the antenna.
2. An object having a sharp or tapered end: a stone projectile point.
3. A tapering extension of land projecting into water; a peninsula, cape, or promontory.
4. A mark formed by or as if by a sharp end.
5. A mark or dot used in printing or writing for punctuation, especially a period.
6. A decimal point.
7. One of the protruding marks used in certain methods of writing and printing for the blind.
8. Mathematics
a. A dimensionless geometric object having no properties except location.
b. An element in a geometrically described set.
c. A place or locality considered with regard to its position: connections to Chicago and points west.
d. A narrowly particularized and localized position or place; a spot: The troops halted at a point roughly 1,000 yards from the river.
e. Any of the 32 equal divisions marked at the circumference of a mariner's compass card that indicate direction.
f. A distinct condition or degree: finally reached the point of exhaustion.
g. The interval of time immediately before a given occurrence; the verge: on the point of resignation; at the point of death.
h. The act or an instance of pointing.
i. The stiff and attentive stance taken by a hunting dog.
j. A reconnaissance or patrol unit that moves ahead of an advance party or guard, or that follows a rear guard.
k. The position occupied by such a unit or guard: A team of Rangers were walking point at the outset of the operation.

point·ed, point·ing, points v. tr.
1. To direct or aim: point a weapon. See Synonyms at aim.
2. To bring (something) to notice: pointed out an error in their reasoning.
3. To indicate the position or direction of: pointed out the oldest buildings on the skyline.
4. To sharpen (a pencil, for example); provide with a point.
5. To separate with decimal points: pointing off the hundredths place in a column of figures.
6. To mark (text) with points; punctuate.
7. Linguistics To mark (a consonant) with a vowel point.
8. To give emphasis to; stress: comments that simply point up flawed reasoning.
9. To indicate the presence and position of (game) by standing immobile and directing the muzzle toward it. Used of a hunting dog.
10. To fill and finish the joints of (masonry) with cement or mortar.

v. intr.
1. To direct attention or indicate position with or as if with the finger.
2. To turn the mind or thought in a particular direction or to a particular conclusion: All indications point to an early spring.
3. To be turned or faced in a given direction; aim.
4. To indicate the presence and position of game. Used of a hunting dog.
5. Nautical To sail close to the wind.

New Work in Progress

So, the blog hiatus is over and the new show is on display at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston. To catch up, please see some photos above of recent work in progress: "Flight Path," "Meditations from a Balcony," "Choppy Chop," and "Self-Portrait with Dodge Caravan."

"Flight," "Choppy," and "Self-Portrait," are each 4 feet by 6 feet (48" x 72") and "Meditations" is 36" by 48"

Each is acrylic with collage, and each is included in the new show titled "Reference Point" at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston which runs through June of 2008.

Hope you enjoy the new work.

Blog Hiatus

Yes, I have been O.O.C. (out of commission, not out of control) for a few weeks, and I am extending the blog hiatus for a few more (make it a month).

I am working on new pieces for my upcoming show at the Boston Federal Courthouse that starts on April 1 and runs through the end of June. I am going to keep these works in process under wraps until the show begins (and will likely post some pics of work in progress after the show goes up in April).

So, happy March everyone (and remember, beware the Eids of March), and I'll see you in April...