Random Thoughts On: Soap Operas, Trojan Viruses, and Conceptual Art

I never thought my secret addiction to soap operas would land me in a world of trouble, but last night it did. You see, I’m a huge fan of General Hospital (GH). I started watching it as a kid with my grandmother, and now that she’s passed, it’s a nice way for me to remember her by carrying on the tradition of watching. At least that’s what I tell my self so I won’t feel so bad about my guilty pleasure.

Recently, one of my favorite soap actors, Sarah Brown, was written off GH in a way that I found very unsatisfying. I became determined to find out the “real” reason for Brown’s hasty departure. In doing so, I visited a lot of blogs, soap boards, and various sites. In doing so, I inadvertently picked up a Trojan virus that launched several Internet Explorer windows automatically. My antivirus software was unable to delete the virus, so I thought I’d work around the problem by uninstalling Internet Explorer 8. I went to the Microsoft support website, and was able to follow their somewhat arcane instructions. The problem was because of my operating system, I couldn’t really uninstall IE; I could only downgrade from IE8 to IE7. I found it absolutely unreasonable that I couldn’t remove IE using the Add/Remove programs option in the Control Panel. So now I became determined to find a hack that would enable me to uninstall IE.

I visited countless geeky, tech sites and tried dozens of unfruitful fixes. I learned more about my computer (and my dogged determination) than I bargained for. (Like my operating system has no true Administrator super-user account). In the end I was not able to uninstall IE7, but I was able to disable the IE pop-ups by using my anti-virus software to designate IE as an untrusted application. All in all it was an inelegant but successful hack.

And now I return to what I should really be doing: reading Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972.

P.S. Other lesson learned: My antivirus software says Actress Sarah Brown’s website (www.sarahbrown.net/) has a Trojan Clicker virus. I strongly advise you not to visit her website until it is removed. Viruslist.com says the following about Trojan Clicker viruses:

“This family of Trojans redirects victim machines to specified websites or other Internet resources. Clickers either send the necessary commands to the browser or replace system files where standard Internet urls are stored (e.g. the ‘hosts’ file in MS Windows).

Clickers are used:

• To raise the hit-count of a specific site for advertising purposes
• To organize a DoS attack on a specified server or site
• To lead the victim to an infected resource where the machine will be attacked by other malware (viruses or Trojans)”

 

Letter to MORMO, a most uncooperative object

found metal that I plan to use as jewelry

Dear MORMO (mysterious, odd, rusted metal object):

I found you last spring, lying on the side walk, and I immediately connected with you. I felt drawn to your rusty patina and odd shape. I felt I could make a piece of art jewelry from you. It is not odd for me to find an object on the ground and feel that way about it. But I do believe it is odd that you are resisting my attempts to turn you into an art object.

As you know, dear Mormo, some artist’s processes are analytical–they think out their work in advance. They do studies before they commit to doing their final piece. And other artists, such as myself, use a process that is intuitive. They connect to their materials, and follow their inner voice to complete their work. I am trying to connect with you, but you’re acting a bit cagey. I’d appreciate it if you’d cut it out and cooperate with me.

This past weekend, I walked into my studio, and you caught my eye. I picked you up and tried to imagine how you would lie in a finished neck piece. Because, as you well know, the relationship between jewelry and the body is vitally important. I played around with several positions, and when a placed you vertically on my collarbone, I instinctively knew that’s where you belong. Excitedly, I began drilling. And that is where the trouble began. My poor little drill is having difficulty piercing your thickness. I’ve been drilling now for 10 minutes and my drill is hot. And I can tell that I haven’t reached the half-way point. I’m stopping now, but I hope you will be more cooperative tomorrow.

Thank you,

Alexis

Random Thoughts On: the Visual Poetics of Conceptual Art Jewelry

I am recovering from a bout of the flu, and today was my first day back at work. It is evening. It’s dark outside. My mind should be quieting down, getting ready to sleep. My body is tired, but my mind is buzzing with activity. So many thoughts are racing through my mind so quickly, I can only get a faint sense of what I am thinking. I am excited, and so very tired.

Where to begin? With book lust: I am perusing amazon.com for more art jewelry books. My Wish List is gigantic. I am visually gorging myself with so many images of interesting jewelry. I am making lists and lists of books that I covet. I fantasize about winning the lottery (although how this would happen is a mystery as I do not play the lottery because I don’t like the odds) and purchasing everything on my Wish List in one fell swoop. Sometimes when a book description is particularly juicy, stimulating, desirous, I will search for it at my public library. If they have it, I will check it out, and if it’s good, I will buy it from Amazon.

Next on to layered thoughts. This morning, on my way downtown, I saw this rather schizophrenic message scribbled on a bus stop. What stood out to me was the phrase “layers of idea”. Immediately it clarified an assortment of fragmented ideas that have been resonating with me: from Bruce Metcalf’s recent article in Metalsmith magazine on CAD/RP and Stanley Lechtzin to F. David Peat’s essay, The Alchemy of Creativity: Art, Consciousness and Embodiment, to my writings on David Bohm in my graduate thesis.

Random Thoughts On: Confusion, Clarity, and Making a Life in the Arts

It’s been a few months since I wrote my last blog post. During that time I was doing a lot of painful, difficult, and necessary soul searching. I’ve been confused about what direction I wanted to take my art practice. I felt like I had to make a choice between making mass-produced fashion jewelry for profit or making one-of-a-kind conceptual jewelry that might be exhibited in galleries and museums but might not produce enough money for me to make a living from my art. And that’s all I want to do–that’s all most artists want to do–make a living from their art. Making mass-produced, machine-made jewelry goes against my personal ethics, but then so does starving.

I went to an art school that was typical of most art schools in that it was long on theory and short on teaching the business of art. Some where along the way I internalized the message that a real artist is willing to make any necessary sacrifice for her art–even if it means starving for her art. As a person who has made a decent living in the public and private sector, the idea of being a starving artist is not appealing in any way. I felt like if I had to choose between maintaining my artistic integrity (but being poor) and working for a decent salary in a non-creative field, I’d choose money (a non-creative career) over a life in the arts.

This decision made me deeply unhappy. I couldn’t imagine a life without making art. I fell into a deep depression. I researched alternative therapies for depression, and used a combination of exercise, diet, vitamins and aromatherapy. I started mixing essential oils, and found them very effective. The depression lifted, and for a while I entertained starting an aromatherapy business. But that didn’t sit right with me either.

I decided to stop struggling, to stop trying to make a decision, and to just be still, and let the answer present itself to me. The answer presented itself in the form of

Call for Entries – 16th Annual YWCA Rags Guild Benefit

16th Annual Benefit: Juried Show and Sale of Wearable Art

The YWCA RAGS Guild announces a call for entries for its 16th annual juried wearable art show and sale. The show will take place March 11–14, 2010, at Mercedes-Benz of Tacoma, WA. Open to all artists working in all media of wearable art—garments, fashion accessories, and jewelry. Two entry types with nonrefundable fees:

• Gallery - competition of one-of-a-kind artist made pieces ($15 per entry, up to three entries)
• Marketplace – boutique-style sale ($35 entry fee)

All initial entries are juried by digital images. Accepted gallery entries are judged for award from actual works in late February 2010. Cash prizes to gallery winners in garments, accessories/jewelry, and best of show. As a benefit for domestic violence programs of the YWCA Pierce County, RAGS retains 33% of sales in Marketplace; 40% of sales in Gallery.

Deadline for submitting digital images is December 10, 2009. For prospectus and entry information, visit www.YWCApiercecounty.org (click on RAGS), or send an SASE to Artist Coordinator, YWCA RAGS Guild, 405 Broadway, Tacoma, WA 98402. For more information, call the RAGS hotline at 253-272-4181, ext. 352.

Contemporary Craft in Northwest Museums

Four Curators Discuss Contemporary Craft in Northwest Museums

Sunday, August 23, 2009, 1 pm

Several museums in the Northwest have made a commitment to collecting and exhibiting works in ceramic, fiber, clay, metal, and wood. Curators from those institutions, Stefano Catalani from Bellevue Arts Museum, Rock Hushka from Tacoma Art Museum, Kathleen Moles from the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, and Namita Wiggers from the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, will each talk about the significance of craft in their collections and exhibition programming. They will then come together for a discussion of their varying approaches. This program is co-sponsored by the Seattle Metals Guild. The cost is $15; $10 for Tacoma Art Museum and Seattle Metals Guild Members and includes museum admission. For advance tickets, email Education@TacomaArtMuseum.org or call 253.722.2455.

New beads from lint

lint beads

Most people clean out the dryer’s lint trap without giving it another thought, but lately I kept cleaning out the trap and finding myself fascinated with the color and texture of the lint. Why is it that no matter what color clothes you dry (with the exception of white clothes) you get grey lint? Why is the lint so soft? Could I use this lint somehow in jewelry making? These were the questions that kept coming to me as I would clean out the lint trap. This went on for about a month until one day I decided to do a little experiment and see if I could make a bead out of the lint.

I gathered together my bead making materials and set about hand forming the bead. Slowly the bead formed and I set it aside to dry then drilled holes once the beads were dried. I think the result looks like a cross between charcoal wool and industrial felt. Of the eight beads I hand formed, only two came out perfectly, which is all I need. I have plans to make earrings from these beads, hopefully with raw diamonds and sterling silver. It should be interesting.

Right now my art practice is limited to bead making until I’m able to gather more resources, but in the meantime I’m experimenting with the bead form as widely as I can. My approach to experimentation in the studio and my way of viewing my art studio as a creative laboratory was largely shaped by the artist Jaq Chartier in the book about her work called Testing: Jaq Chartier by Marquand Books, a Seattle-based publisher. I feel that my experiments have largely been successful, and even those that have not been successful, have served in helping me to refine my production standards.

Ever since I started reading about Takeshi Murakami’s exacting standards, I’ve found that the quality of my work has improved. I am striving for perfection while knowing that not only is perfection impossible but according to the standards of wabi-sabi philosophy (which shapes my own aesthetics), it’s not even desirable. But I love the tension of desiring and rejecting perfection. I feel that somewhere in the interstices of that desire and rejection is the potential for really good work.

rEvolution: 105 Years of Jewelry and Metalsmithing

(rEvolution): 105 Years of Jewelry & Metalsmithing at the University of the Arts
First Floor Galleries

An exhibition of work by the many artists who have helped guide the Jewelry/Metals Program at the University of the Arts and its predecessor institutions, the Philadelphia College of Art and the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Arts.

Curated by Sharon Church and Rod McCormick, the exhibition is part of the The Art & Design @ 50 celebration at the University of the Arts. For more information visit Philadelphia Art Alliance.

Metal Urge – Tacoma, WA

Metal-Urge is a summer-long event in Tacoma, WA that galvanizes the community around a city-wide celebration metal arts. The community event features 23 venues exhibiting the work of over 100 artists whose metal work includes jewelry, sculpture, vessels, hardware, home décor, enamel, and artifacts. Presented June 6 – September 20. Metal Urge coincides with the Tacoma Art Museum’s exhibitions “Ornament as Art” and “Loud Bones”.  Included are artist workshops, lectures, museum and gallery exhibitions, artist receptions, and a free community festival July 31st at the museum and Tollefson Plaza at 1701 Pacific Avenue . For more information and maps of locations, go to www.tacomaculture.org.

Johnny Swing’s Nickel Couch

Johnny Swing's Nickel Couch, 2008

I recently renewed my membership to the Society of North American Goldsmiths, and I was patiently waiting for my subscription to SNAG’s Metalsmith magazine to kick in when it hit me: why wait for the magazine when I can stroll down to the bookstore and score a magazine? Instant gratification is the American way after all. I scored my magazine, and I can honestly say that this was one time when impatience paid off.

First let me thank the folks at Barnes and Noble for placing Metalsmith in the art section rather than the crafts section. Because I feel that while metalsmithing and it’s related arts (particularly jewelry making) are situated firmly between the realm of fine art and fine craft, if you read Metalsmith, it reads like an art magazine and many of the artists featured approach the craft of metalsmithing with the same conceptual process as artists. Maybe it’s me, but one of the things I love about metal work is its ambiguity: is it art, craft, or design?

That’s exactly what I thought when I saw Johnny Swing’s Nickle Couch. My first reaction when I saw the couch was swift and visceral. I thought, damn, that is one sexy couch. It undulates and curves sinuously like a sleek tongue darting flirtatiously. Solidly constructed of nearly 7,000 nickles held together with 35,000 welds on a steel truss, it weighs in at a hefty 125 pounds but it ups the cool factor of your domicile immeasurably. But I think the true genius of the Nickel Couch is its elevation of the simple nickel coin to an art form. Who else but an artist would look at a jar of nickels and think, I can make art from that?