snapshots from miami

Photo from #Rank just about says it all. Oh Art Basel Miami, why do you try to suck me soulless and skeeve me out so....

The one, the only, Doug McQueen helps to keep the soul intact.


Last week I showed you images of the great thanksgiving aluminum pour upstate. Here you can see some (albeit crappy) images of the finished product, installed at Priska Juschka's booth at Pulse Miami. I'll post better images of this soon and we're still processing the photos from the upstate pour which i will post later in the week.



75lbs of Aluminum! yikes!

I don't care about your lame Art party or who is going to be there. I'll be at the beach.


Flying out of Miami pretty much feels like this. Glad to be back in the studio. Back to work.

DIY Thanksgiving foundry

photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

Well..... I'm tired. We just spent the week upstate working our fingers to the bone and pouring aluminum. We have a ton of photos to share from our incredible week, but since we got back late last night and I have to be on a plane for Miami in a couple hours, all I have time for is a sneak peek. An amazing, amazing week...... more to come.

photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie
Allison Hester, Matt Crane, Bathtub, and Jade.

photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie
This one is on its way to Miami. I hope they let me on the plane with it.


photo by Kitty Joe Sainte Marie
Hey, what are you all looking at? David Strauss, Allison Hester, Jade, and the incredible Matt Crane.

A very, very special thank you to all of my friends that helped me out; Matt Crane, Bathtub, Allison Hester, Xavier Smith, David Strauss, Nora Gomez, Alberto, Dara, and the lovely Miss Kitty Joe.
You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for all the hard work and great times!
More photos soon.....

in progress...

I have a STUDIO!!!!

... at least for a little while. With generous funding from the McNay, i've been able to rent some space at Jonathan Schipper's shop on Kingsland. I'm starting production now for a February installation at the McNay. It feels good to be in a shop again!
The fat king in progress (he will end up looking a little bit like this or this) with the armatures for the "eye poke" dudes behind. These two will end up being cast in aluminum.


The hockey rink that keeps on giving. Salvaged foam from what used to be the ice rink attached to the Queens Museum. Soon to be carved!


brain room.


thug room.


And away we go.....

"rarr, rarr, like a dungeon dragon"

"Study for 'Between Here & There' room 2, version 2"
14"x12"
Graphite, charcoal, prisma color, and ink on paper

This is another study of an element of an installation I'm exhibiting at the McNay Museum in San Antonio in February. I'm beginning production in October. It will be totally new territory for me working with metal casting and mechanics (the two figures alternately poke each other in the eye and the tools will move vertically). Anxiously excited......

P.S.
When one is unable to think of a good title for a blog post, it's best to dig into forgotten Busta Rhymes lyrics that are vaguely applicable.

The surprisingly precarious underbelly.

New Drawing.

'The Underbelly'
32"x20" Graphite, charcoal, prisma color, and ink on paper.

detail. 'The Underbelly'

detail. 'The Underbelly'

I'm still not sure what to think of these things. They're fun to make, tricky to see and really hard to photograph.... More soon!

August is slow.

August is slow. Slow at work. Slow in the brain. Slow at everything. Here's what I've been up to:

#1 nerd with giant jar of tea. not urine. Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

On the mornings that Kitty Joe and I don't have work, (which seem to be most mornings lately as the company i freelance for is dead slow and Kitty Joe works noon to 10pm most days) we have been going to park at 8 am with giant jars of ice tea to brainstorm and work out the details of an upcoming project. I guess you could say that it is less of a project and more of a "create-your-own-get-out-of-this-soul-sucking-city-dream-art-artist-residency-project-thing". I don't want to give away too many details as of yet, so let's just say we've been dreaming and working on it for awhile now and the reality of it just gets farther and farther away. It's not the large and complicated build the project will require or the vast amount of art work and writing that will be made during the project's duration that is daunting, the trouble is looking down the pipeline at trying to find funding, the seemingly endless amounts of letter writing, elbow rubbing, explaining and all of that organizational shit that i so dearly hate.
But you gotta do what you gotta do... even if it never pans out. So be it.

#2
Lutheran Church of the Messiah on Russell St in Greenpoint. Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

James Case Leal is my hero. I haven't hung out with James since we met in Cuba over a year ago so it was great to meet up with with him recently and see what he's been up to. And, HOLY SHIT (no pun intended) it is amazing!!! He's been preparing an exhibition at the Lutheran church across the street from McGolrick park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. James knows the Minister from around the neighborhood and because Sunday service is held in the basement during the summer months due to the over heated sanctuary, the congregation has agreed to let him build an installation in the sanctuary over the course of 6 weeks. I got to see it in progress and it looks unbelievably amazing! If it is not the best show the fall opening season has to offer I'll be surprised. No gallery representation, minimal funding, help from friends and community... Quality DIY with really impressive results. And he has two kids! It will be open to the Public the last week of September. I'll keep you posted on the specifics...

#3
Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

Sailing with Duke Riley. It seems like the conversations between Duke and I lately have been dominated by bitching about how we've both been stuck indoors most of the summer and how much it sucks. Cabin fever in the summer is stupid. But he finally had a break in his insane schedule and invited Kitty Joe, Lara Allen and I out to the 26' sailboat he has stashed on the East River. It's easy to get stuck in ruts in this city and finding ways and time to look at things differently can be hard to come by. Sailing down the East River to Hoffman Island, just past the Verrazano, was just the break I needed. And aside from getting stuck on some rocks off the island and having to run away from the harbor police, it was really peaceful experience. Absolutely incredible.

Duke, on what is left of the dock at Hoffman Island. The Verrazano Bridge in the distance. Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

HOUSE WARNING

I have work in group show opening next week with some old friends of mine from Dresden. The exhibition runs from August 2nd through October 7th at the Hopkins Hall Gallery at Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio. With an opening reception on the 13th.
Melissa Vogley-Woods and Tina Beifuss have put together an excellent show, I highly recommend checking it out!



Here's the drawing that will be in the show.
'World's Highest Standard of Living'. It's roughly 3'x4' and is graphite, oil, ink and prisma color on paper. I'm a little bummed about the images, but it's a really difficult piece to photograph without picking up a lot of reflection. So it goes. I hope you enjoy.





Detail 'World's Highest Standard of Living'.

Detail 'World's Highest Standard of Living'.


Detail 'World's Highest Standard of Living'.

“What are roots and how long have we had them? If our species has existed for
a couple of million years, what is its history? Our remote ancestors followed the
game, moved with the food supply, and fled from evil weather, from ice and the
changing seasons. Then after millenia beyond thinking they domesticated some
animals so that they lived with their food supply. Then of necessity they followed
the grass that fed their flocks in endless wanderings. Only when agriculture
came into practice—and that’s not very long ago in terms of the whole history—
did a place achieve meaning and value and permanence. But land is a tangible,
and tangibles have a way of getting into few hands. Thus it was that one man
wanted ownership of land and at the same time wanted servitude because
someone had to work it. Roots were in the ownership of land, in tangible and
immovable possessions. In this view, we are a restless species with a very short
history of roots, and those not widely distributed. Perhaps we have overrated
roots as a psychic need. Maybe the greater the urge, the deeper and more
ancient is the need, the will, the hunger to be somewhere else. “
--John Steinbeck
‘Travels With Charley’, 1962

Of Sound Mind and Content Heart........

up on Rambpuillet.
Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

A week in the San Juan Mountains will cure what ails ya'.
I don't really know how to explain it... words simply fail.

Hike into Blue.
Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

My nephew Elliot and I at Old Blue.
Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

The hike into Blue from the campground (above). After tearing my ACL a while back, this was my first solid week without the brace. I'd be damned if i was going to wear that stupid contraption up there. Maybe i'm being stubborn, but we played it safe and my knee held up fine and only really buckled once. It's getting stronger! No more robo-leg for me.... I hope.

Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie
A nice 12" Rainbow and some Brookies. Good day at Blue and the best fish i've ever eaten.

Elliot Townsend and the lovely Miss Ste-Marie on Blue
Photo by me.

Old Timers. My Pops and Jackson.
Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

My brothers family; Kip, Foster, Elliot, Arden and Elizabeth Townsend.
Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

Pine cone baseball, a Lake City tradition. Foster and Pops.
Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

POPS!!!!
Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

True love in the land i truly love. I miss it already.

Photo by Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie

Kitty Joe should have some more amazing photos up on the web soon! I'm finishing up a drawing for a group show that opens in August and should have some images of it later in week.
Until then i bid you a farewell.
bye.

GONE FISHIN'

Lake San Cristobal. 2007

Way back in the not so distant past, on one of those rare occasions when I sold some work and Kitty Joe and I had some money that we could spend on things other than rice and beans and rent, we had the fortunate wherewithal to purchase plane tickets to meet my Pops and Brother to go fishing in the mountains. This is a place that my family frequented every summer when i was a kid. I was last able to make it there 3 years ago and was reminded how important to me this place is. The closest thing to heaven i know. Great fishin' too.
Pop Townsend's weary feet. 2007

The ever fruitful banks of Old Blue. 2007

We'll be back in a couple weeks.... rested, full of fish and with some new drawings!
GONE FISHIN'