The Intention of Making Something is the better form of recycling

When the laser cutter is running, I'm not just paying attention to what it's cutting, but also to the pieces that will be left behind.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been hoarding the machine's scraps with the Intention of Making Something. I have a lot of stuff in the studio that fits in the Intention of Making Something category. On Sunday I took a break from the business of running a studio and dedicated some time to the Making Something part of the Intention. What a wonderful project this was.

Thank you laser cutter and clients that don't care about scraps. I plan on doing a whole lot more of this. I've been collecting the smaller pieces in glass jars but saving some bigger pieces too. The top shelf of the flat file is also stocked with scraps—with the Intention of Making Something.

little bits and pieces

Being a collage artist I guess it makes sense that I've been keeping all the scraps from the laser cutting jobs at Somewhere Something. I have a hard time throwing stuff away. My work is about reappropriation, using leftovers, previously used or published material. But typically I'm a hoarder of paper, not pieces of wood or acrylic.

The piles of little miscellaneous basswood bits and plastic scraps are growing. 

I'm going to use them in a project, I swear. In fact it will be my newest art project challenge: just use the scraps.

In the meantime, if you want to do some laser cutting, come in. And leave your scraps.

art, Aperol, and appreciation

I'm still glowing (and yawning) from Saturday night's wonderful open at Keystone Art Space, the warehouse of our new studio. 

Hundreds of people came through. And a lucky 40 or so walked out wearing one of the "get SOME" necklaces I made. 

It is immensely gratifying to have so many people enjoying the space, lingering, asking questions, sipping Aperol spritz, nibbling. 

For the first couple of hours my amazing mother and I played host and later my Somewhere Something partners Jason and Biayna arrived from another successful opening their student's had work in— "2D3D" at WUHO Gallery.

Our studio seemed particularly hopping with activity. And if I have any regret from the night, it is that I didn't get to do much exploring of our neighbor's studios. We were just too busy! Another regret: not taking more photographs. Oh, and those last few sips of whiskey.

The necklaces were a huge hit. I'm already scheming about what I'll be making next. When I first started creating the chains for the laser cut text I realized I desperately needed a jewelry making lesson. Luckily, there is an amazing artist in the building who is a pro (and my namesake), Sasha Bell. She gave me a quickie how to.

There's nothing like a party to get you decorate. I had a few days of furious framing and placing art around the space. Back here working on Monday I was delighted to open the doors and see everything in its place.

It will evolve over time, but for now I'm loving the arrangement of work.

There's talk of another open studios in 3 months. Stay tuned.

recap

My screenshot habit continues, with gusto (and I have a bloated Dropbox to prove it).

I like this one of @msgluck's Instagram pic in particular because:

a. the picture is of the black room in Night Gallery, a space designed by Peter Zellner (that's his gesturing had in the lower right) and the room makes me swoon

b. my boyfriend (and partner at Somewhere Something) Jason King has a cute stripey sweater on paired perfectly with red kicks

c. my talented new friend Joelle Coopererider is beautiful standing next to him—I'm so pleased to be her studio neighbor at Keystone Art Space

d. the Billy Shire table we are standing around is a fantastic centerpiece and so L.A.—the whole show "Made in Space" is a wonderful tribute to this city I love—go see it

e. the event was thrown by deLab and introduced by the charming Marissa Gluck—they are doing such cool, educational things

Follow @msgluck on Insta—she's in Rome right now and her pictures are wonderful and envy inducing.

art mall

Last night I checked out the second floor of Pacific Design Center's blue building for their semi-regular open house. It's a kind of shopping mall type of experience gallery stroll that I always enjoy. It was particularly lively this time around, with a rather fancy crowd checking out the shows and each other. A few snaps:

I'm a big fan of a crowded, bright wall of art, so the display at Here is Elsewhere put a smile on my face. The individual paintings almost don't matter, but it is awfully fun.

Not all of the galleries' shows sang to me, but boy did the kids dig these two pieces above. "Do not touch" seemed nearly impossible to the little ones in attendance.

This was fantastic display—a large wall painted white with rough holes of various shapes cut into it at different heights. When peeked into each hole revealed a miniature wonderland. How these little worlds were created was on view too, behind the big white wall. So great. 

I consistently love what is going on at Young Projects. For this opening the galleries featured 3D works with a playful title: "Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space." Hard to take a picture of, but imagine this white lumpy stuff jumping out at you. (The shadows are me and Jason King, another third of Somewhere Something team.)

Atmospheric installations at Another Year in LA and Art Merge Lab. In both cases the galleries became dreamy, otherworldly spaces showcasing the artwork.

The Hudson Linc space is one of my favorites of the PDC galleries. I like how the space doesn't conceal its former self—the neon lights overhead and messy concrete floor below. The "Beyond Minimalism" show is really good—bright, playful, tactile.

Another art-filled night in LA. See you next round, PDC and you pretty art people.

bookish

This week my mama drove up from her new digs in La Quinta (southeast of Palm Springs) for a quickie visit to check out my digs at Keystone (Eastside of Los Angeles).

We had a great time that included a field trip to The Last Bookstore, my new favorite bookstore ever. The space is magnificent, taking up the ground and upper floor of an old Citizen's National Bank on busy downtown corner. The people who work there are helpful and kind and the upstairs is a big giant book inspired art project where all the books are only a dollar. 

The LA Times recently did a feature on the shop, which prompted my mama's quest to go there when she visited and I am so pleased she did. What fun we had. 

The place seriously challenged my "book restriction." A few of the pulpy titles I really wanted, but held back on are pictured below. My pretty mama is pictured to the left. 

noises off

New studio—the view from my space looking out into the communal one of our Somewhere Something space at Keystone Fine Art Space. 

Being part of a community of artists was a big draw for moving to Keystone. The energy of others creating, seeing what is being done, sharing resources—all of this is immensely desirable.

Funnily enough, what I didn't consider was how all that activity and making would effect how I work. I've been creating in isolation, for years. The noises I would hear are occasional dog barks, birds, maybe a UPS truck—the home studios I've occupied over the last decade have been quiet and isolated. Being in a warehouse with 40 some studios and sharing my own with my two business partners is an entirely new experience. 

The sound of a saw, the pitter patter of a dog, a dude skateboarding down the hall, studio neighbors walking by and dropping by. The noise from the busy street outside, carts being wheeled about inside. Compared to my other studio environments, it's a ruckus in here. And I love it. Change is good. Being amongst others busy making is good.

And I did bring a bit creature comfort from home: the pup.

bonus: it's excellent for catch

Moving in has begun at the new studio space after a couple of months of demo and build out. Completely love being at Keystone, the new home of Somewhere Something and my art studio. (Catch more pics on Insta and Facebook.) It's going to be an exciting, creative, busy year. Bring it.

practicing restraint

I was interviewed this week on The Collage Workbook's website and one of the things I confess is that I have put myself on "paper restriction," meaning I do not allow myself to acquire any additional paper products to add to my bulging collection. Because I hoard paper.

The restriction doesn't mean I stop looking though. In fact, my eye seems to seek it out. Yesterday on my daily walk with the pup I spied a piece of torn notebook paper upside down in an alley. I reached down and turned it over. I really wanted to take it with me. I took a picture instead.

And I've been thinking about the paper ever since. Is it still there?

(One of my prized pieces of paper ephemera is from an alley: a  hand-written 1969 diary. In 2004 I started posting on my blog entries from it, and eventually did so with daily regularity under the title "1969: The Year of Perry Mason." Here's January 26, 1969.)

this week: fantastic

Wednesday morning I was going through my daily internet routine with a strong cup of coffee close at hand and rubbed my blurry eyes when a familiar image was on my screen. I couldn't believe it—my collage and a blurb about me was on the front page of Juxtapoz's website.

Needless to say, I am thrilled and grateful. The love has been coming all week via text, my inbox, Facebook page, Twitter, Tumblr. Social media, I love you. A big thank you to Juxtapoz for making my week and inspiring me to get collaging. Which I did, that very morning. The output is here.

Out and About

A few snaps from another great weekend in L.A. These aren't dupes of what I've already posted on my Instagram or my Facebook page (even though I kind of wanted to post those too because there are some cuties).

Started off all healthy like (and as you will soon read, ended oppositely): I discovered a great new health food store, Full o' Life in Burbank. (Whole Foods is currently being boycotted in this house because of the lame-ass remarks it's CEO made about Obama, universal healthcare, and climate change while promoting his book.) When I got home a cooked up an amazing thick soup of kale, white beans, and chicken breast. It simmered for 6 hours and was delicious.

Saturday afternoon I took a field trip to the Westside for Art Los Angeles Contemporary. I really enjoyed the fair—fresh work, small size, inspiring. The little kid pictured below was extremely concerned as to why one of the cigarettes was lying on the ground and not standing up. Irritated Mom was having none of it.

I especially loved the work of Thomas Dozol at Jack Hanley (below, left) and Matthew Stone at The Hole (below, right). Great to see a Kevin Appel piece too, one of my favorite local artists. 

Later we headed deep downtown for the opening party at Night Gallery. The space is fantastic. And: it is next to a gigantic titty bar with the greatest name: Dames 'n Games Topless Sport Bar & Grill. I mean really—how great is that. Night Gallery seems to be a bit of lightening rod in the L.A. art scene—there have been some strong opinions in my feeds, especially in response to a big piece in the LA Weekly. I really enjoyed our time there. (And the tequila too, which I am pictured with here. That sculpture totally tried to steal my drink.) I loved the spray painted windows by Yunhee Min.

We then headed back to Silver Lake through the best tunnel in downtown L.A. and stopped at the jam packed new joint in the 'hood: The Black Cat. The place is great—so happy it's in the neighborhood. The interior styling is wonderful with tons of art hung salon style and perfect light fixtures.

This morning we stopped by the new studio space and the progress is inspiring. I think we'll be able to begin moving in next weekend. Thrilled.

I lied about not posting duplicate pictures, but it's worth posting this pic of the front of Oooga Boogaagain because I'm pretty sure I want to own every single thing in this store. And the building the store inhabits. Go here, pronto. (And buy me something.)

Finally, we stopped by The Pie Hole which not only has an excellent name, but makes excellent pies. While waiting for the Mac 'n' Cheese pie and Steak 'n' Ale pie (yes, you heard me right) I glanced down at the newspaper on the counter. My horoscope: also excellent. Go Scorpio! (And: go get a manicure.)

 Although the weekend isn't finished yet, I have a feeling the rest of it is going to be spent right where I am: on the couch! Time to chill.

get out there

That kid in the pink Uggs really wanted to throw herself at the wall of sponges at Hudson Linc, I could tell. Such restraint.

I saw her again later when she came into the fantastic Michael Haussman show at Young Projects and declared loudly in the dark room "Daddy, those people are naked!" It's true, they were. "Gravity" is an intense, emotive installation featuring nude people jumping on trampolines, super slo-mo, life-sized, and strange.

The Design Lab nights at Pacific Design Center make for an odd, shopping mall-like gallery stroll. I always enjoy—and also feel a little puzzled by it. On the second floor of the lurking blue building of PDC is a mix of empty and darkened show rooms and then galleries full of people and art drinking cheap wine out of little plastics cups. The gallerist are friendly and accessible—they want to chat about the art. No steely and silent gallerina's sitting behind big white desks here. People are nice. (Well, mostly. I mean it is L.A. and sure enough there was that one gallery owner who sneers and ignores. Next.) And often the work is really good. 

pleasure principal

Leaning: this week's collage output; leaning against a couple of the previous year's collage output.

Pleased with the progress of my creative fitness resolution, even if they're not all successes.

Pleased with the progress of my physical fitness resolution too. FitMix is still kicking my ass, but said ass is much less sore the second week than first. 

White Out

I'm making progress in my New Year's creative workout challenge: Prompt #2 of The Collage Workbook: "make a collage using various shades of white only."

As I mentioned in a previous post, I actually do this all the time and really enjoy it. Many of my collages begin with cuts and tears from the blank edges of magazines and books that are various shades of white and beige—I use them as a background to build upon.

For this prompt I decided to do a few different collages: two completely different than my usual work, but first, a reprise of the prose series I did a couple of years ago. I love the obsessive, zen-like process of making these type of collages.

As is my way, for the first collage I gave myself an added restriction: the small slices that make up this collage are from just 2 pages of Interview magazine and are a black and white photograph of Kate Moss. And if you know me, you know that Kate is often my muse.

Here are some process shots for "fresh," and check out the other two collages I made for "White Out" over at The Collage Workbook photo album on my Facebook page.

not my type

(Alternate title: What happens when a hugely successful company doesn't have an in-house designer.)

The image of the little girl with the baguette is staged: it's of the award-winning photographer Stephen Rothfeld's child, and was part of the series of images for the cookbook "Nancy Silverton's Breads From La Brea Bakery."

I was there for the photo-shoot that day, way back when I was Campanile / La Brea Bakery co-owner Manfred Krankl's assistant. It's a sweet image that everyone on staff fell in love with.

Sadly, and oddly, on the croissant label the picture of girl and her bread has been stretched. But that's not the worst of it. Some ugly type has been lazily slapped onto image with no visual hierarchy, the colors of the bakery's iconic logo have been altered, and an oversized border has been put around the whole thing—it's just bad, bad, bad.

I have a long critique about this croissant label. It made me so upset that I couldn't even eat one. Oh how the mighty have fallen, I kept muttering to myself.

My boyfriend happily ate them all over a couple of days and exclaimed they were delicious. Perfectly flaky pastry trumps design.

getting fit in the new year

I decided to add some discipline to my process as the new year kicks in. Not to say I'm not disciplined—I regularly give my self tasks, restrictions, and obstructions when working. It's an important part of my practice. But I also enjoy it when someone else cracks the whip—having a task-master is an effective motivator.

It makes me think of exercise. I do it on my own, sure, but if I'm in a class I tend to work harder, or at least in a way that is more efficient. I always learn something new, work my muscles in a different way. (It also explains why my ass is so sore right now. If you live in L.A., try FitMix on La Brea/Melrose. Oh my.) I'm going to do the same in my creating.

First up in my art exercise plan is to complete in order, the 50 prompts of Randel Plowman's The Collage Workbook. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'm a fan of Randel's and really admire his get-to-it-ness in creation.

I completed Prompt #1 yesterday, the first day of the year. "Five 5-minute Collages," created one right after the other. It was fun and I must say made me a little nervous. My hands didn't stop moving and I couldn't spend too much time considering each placement of paper— and that's the point. Check out my output over on my Facebook art page. I dig them. And, funnily enough I realized when I was done I had made a family. I'll be adding to the album as I continue through the book.

I'm looking forward to Prompt #2: "White Out," making collages using only various shades of white. Love it. One of my all time favorite collages is just that, appropriately titled NOTHING. (Check out the whole series here.)

part deux (already)?

The build-out has begun at the new studio space and first things first: the floor. Stripping, cleaning, and then it will be sealed in a gloss, showing off the years of wear and making that went on before we had the space.

And by the first round of cleaning, it seems there has been a lot of that. The final floor will have a patina of faded paint, a few divots, and mysterious marks.

While the dirty work is going on, the Somewhere Something crew and I have temporarily commandeered a neighboring office in the "quiet part" of the Keystone Art Space complex to finish up the design. And just to be in the building—we're all anxious to start occupying the space.

Our studio straddles two parts of Keystone and as such, has two entrances; one from the warehouse where all the creative studios are and one from what was the office building attached to the warehouse. The office building is in the process of being converted into a gallery, a classroom, five smallish offices (about 350 square feet), and our space. 

The four smaller offices are boxy, light filled rooms which line the hallway on the way to our studio. Almost as if the management planned it, after spending a couple of days working in the office that we share a wall with, we want to claim it too. Let the (second wave of) planning begin?

input output update

Although I said in the previous post I probably wouldn't be making anything new until next year, that is ba-lo-ney. As if I could help myself.

In fact, after checking the mail today I am especially excited about beginning the exercises of Randel Plowman's beautiful book The Collage Workbook. I've been following Randel's impressive collage output for years over at his A Collage A Day blog.

My own collage making began in earnestness in 2006, the same year I started clicking over to Randel's Blogspot. There is no doubt in my mind that I was influenced by his tremendous output, not so much by its content (our styles are different), but rather the act of simply MAKING.

I'm happy to be influenced once again, this time by the 50 prompts in Randel's book. No doubt some of the work will end up posted here, on my art Facebook page, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. 

And speaking of the "etc"— with all the flap over Instagram's new Terms and Conditions, I've renewed my interest in Flickr. I downloaded the new app to my phone, took a couple of test shots and like the interface and filters. Today I uploaded 167 pictures (!) of my collage work and have begun populating my feed with friends and creative image makers. Shall we be contacts? Feel free to like, friend, connect, whatever the Flickr lingo is.

I still really enjoy Instagram, but first with its spat with Twitter (no more quick preview) and then the ToC, I've found myself posting and looking less. Be nice to your user base, or you will lose them. Duh. 

Fresh visuals, everywhere. And now, elsewhere too.

a bright (and messy) future

Although I still plan on seeing a lot of art these last few weeks of the year, I think my studio time is going to be spent purging, organizing, and prepping for the studio move rather than actually making. It's going to be, um, messy. There is much to sort through.

If you're curious about the new studio space and how it will evolve from this to something gorgeously designed, follow the progress of the Somewhere Something build-out at our Facebook page and on our Tumblr: Someblr.

It's an exciting, busy time. And, so it seems, my collage creative output may be done for the year.

It ended prettily: inspired by all that Miami talk in my feeds for a solid week of art fairs updates, last week I pieced together a 11 x 14 collage of flamingoes and luxury, "Birds of Winter" (see it here). I had fun making this collage. (Although I think I always say that. I just have fun making things, period. Even if it begins with a struggle, there is joy.)

Okay. Now: what to do with those stacks on stacks and scraps and tubes and brushes and jars and blades and bits and whatnot...

Phallic follies

Is there anyone in Los Angeles this week? My feeds are all MIAMI, MIAMI, MIAMI. If you happen to be in town, there's an intriguing show at Charlie James Gallery. (Charlie himself is in Miami though.)

Helen Rebekah Garber's paintings are dense and appear obsessively created. They are thick with paint and their surfaces recall stained glass: colorful underpainting peeking through white top layers causing shapes to emerge. Their outlines come from below the surface. More often than not the canvases depict imagery which is phallic in shape and monumental in scale—but with all that white and sly coloring barely showing beneath they struck me as either repressed or teasing. Perhaps both?

Get yourself to Chinatown and decide for yourself. But do it quick—the show comes down December 8.