bassline

Trailer for ‘Greenberg’, starring Ben Stiller as a New Yorker who moves to Los Angeles to figure out his life while housesitting for his brother. Stiller goes indie! This actually looks like something worthwhile to watch with Stiller in it. There seems to be just enough here to be funny without everything falling into the usual easy, shallow gags we’re used to seeing him toss out onscreen.

A satire that pokes fun of the nuanced world of the New York contemporary art scene through a pair of competitive brothers, eclectic and self-important music composer Adrian and commercially successful painter Josh. When Chelsea art gallerina and Joshs love interest Madeline attends Adrians concert featuring the sounds of paper-crumpling, glass-breaking and bucket-kicking she commissions him for a gallery performance and a love affair ensues.Further complicating the situation is that Joshs highly commercial art work the financial backbone of the gallery is sold to corporate clients discreetly out of the gallerys back room.

The New York contemporary art scene needs a parody? Really? you could have fooled me...This is like shooting fish in a barrel, but I might go see it anyway...

Sometimes, a quiet Sunday morning isn't what one needs.

I had one of my more vivid dreams last night. Too vivid for my tastes. Throughout this dream, I was being chased by a black Rottweiller through a college campus. No one else seemed to notice me running from this dog, nor the dog. In fact, I don't think they saw me at all. The only way I could keep some distance between myself and the dog was a library. Each time, I'd get in just a few steps ahead of the dog, which would get blocked by a revolving door entrance. The scene would replay itself over and over with small variations of the chase: I'd try to evade the dog through hiding and so forth, but it would always wind up coming in my direction. I'd run into the library and eventually, I'd be outside again playing the same cat-and-mouse game with the dog and each time ending up breathless in the library.

I don't know who was sending the dog after me except that it was a woman. I have no clear image of her nor any idea of why she was sending the dog after me. I guess the good thing is that the dog never caught me, but still, it was annoying being constantly out of breath in my dream...

Important

This was a real unexpected find from today. The cap is from a sample bottle of Steaz Green Tea soda I drank. I like this because it's simple, straightforward and uplifting without being over the top about it. <- (that was kind of funny)

Charles Hobbs

As promised, here are some shots of art I saw on Saturday. I took a few photos of Robert Goodman's show at Seraphin Gallery, the first stop I made on my 'art walk', but they turned out terribly, so here's a link to his page on the gallery's website. Click 'recent works' to see images of his paintings that I saw.

( Charles Hobbs: Puking Up Flowers @ Vox Populi )

( P. Timothy Gierschick, II: Patch and Plot @ Tiger Strikes Asteroid )

( Robert Chambers window installation @ The Temporary Contemporary at the Fabric Workshop and Museum )

The Watch


Roundabout

These are a couple of shots I took while walking around the city yesterday. It was my Saturday off and I needed to get out of the apartment. E wanted to do some straightening up around her desk and work areas and I needed to take advantage of having one of my two Saturdays off a month, so I decided to see some art and take some photos.

Despite being the fourth in a line of gray, cloudy days, it was pretty warm, probably in the upper 60s. Of course, I wore one too many layers, thin ones, but a little too much, anyway. Nevertheless, I had a good day. Managed to get a few good photos and saw some art that I liked. That's a post for tomorrow because I'm too tired now to deal with anything else right now.

Skyline Grey

I took this on the way back into center city from an afternoon of looking at art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with painter friend, Douglas Witmer. It's been cloudy and raining off and on (more "on" than "off") for the past three days or more. Needless to say, I'm over it and it's just the beginning of the real fall weather. I'll take a cold day with sunlight than several with just clouds any day.

One of my co-workers had me in tears with laughter earlier this evening. We had a brief conversation about how some people can't contain their disappointment when things don't go their way when they shop or just with life, in general. At one point, she says, "I don't know what people want, y'know? LIfe is tough...get a helmet!"

That line had me in stitches.

A good, soulful deep house mix I just found this morning. I'm off to work, but I hope everyone has a great Sunday!

So, I did actually get some work done after doing the self portrait yesterday. Before my open studio event earlier this month, I went through a bunch of my works on paper, sorted some out and displayed a lot of them that I haven't exhibited previously. That part was great. The not-so-great part was having to wrangle with the poor storage options I had for these works. There are good archival storage box options out there, but most of them are more expensive than I'm ready to deal with for studio storage.

I was in one of the art supply stores I frequent a couple of months ago looking for archival boxes good for long-term storage. They didn't have any in stock at the time, but the clerk I spoke with suggested using acid-free foam board and archival linen tape to make my own boxes. I thought about it and finally got around to making one this week. My first box (see photos above) measures 24" x 32" x 3" to accommodate the 22" x 30" sized works, like 'Blue Pool' in the second shot. I spent about $32-$34 in materials (acid-free foam board, archival linen tape and white velcro for fasteners) and spent almost three and-a-half hours to assemble it. I expect to improve on that time as I do more of these. The cost of good archival storage boxes in a similar size hovers around the $90-$100+ range. Of course, mine aren't made to last 100 years, but they will still go a long way towards protecting my drawings and other works on paper while in the studio for a long time.

I still need to make about one or two more in the same size as well as a couple of smaller boxes for immediate use. The one above is filled already with works I did this past spring and summer. Making these boxes is a little time-consuming but worth it for me. Now that I have the first one done, I have a better idea of what to expect and hopefully, the next few will be easier to construct.

Self (10.29.09): sans glasses

I've been in the mood to take more self portraits lately, if you haven't noticed. Hey, I'm my own best model: I can take a shot whenever and I don't have any fees attached for my time. I took this yesterday just after arriving at the studio. The bag in my right hand held one of the most delicious veggie burritos I've ever had. I devoured it right after taking this and a few other shots that didn't make the cut. They were the ones where I had my glasses on. The reflections bouncing off of the lenses were impossible to deal with, so off they went. 

 

The Workspace project, by Joseph O. Holmes, is an “ongoing attempt to examine the quasi-private spaces people carve out of their public work lives.”

This is a really great project to check out. It has always been interesting to me to see the semi-public displays of workspaces in places like restaurants, repair shops and other venues.

Video artist, Bill Viola, talking about his piece, Ocean Without A Shore that was installed at the 2007 Venice Biennale. I found this on the Tate's video channel. Viola is one of my favorite contemporary artists. His video work is always really engaging, thoughtful, and just plain beautiful to look at. 

Poster announcing my lecture at West Virginia University. Last Thursday and Friday (Oct. 15-16), I had the honor of being the visiting artist for the latest installation of Concurrent, the traveling exhibition featuring works by Natalie Alper, myself, Diane Simpson, and Larry Webb.

In spite of my ordeal on Friday, I was still able to go ahead with my participation in this past weekend's Philadelphia Open Studio Tours event. My hands were sore, but were bandaged well (thanks to E :) ) and didn't really take away from the proceedings. If anything, they gave me something else to talk to studio visitors about.

The turn-out was pretty good. I had about 43 people come through over Saturday and Sunday, a mix of new and returning visitors. A great number of people considering the volume of other events occurring around the city at the same time. I'm happy when I see old faces but I'm especially glad to see new people come through. That's what POST winds up being about for me; the chance to connect with people unfamiliar with my work who eventually might come out to an exhibition and maybe even become a client.

I took next to no photos during open studios, but I did take some shots of my work in the studio after I'd finished setting up the walls:


Wall of paintings, 2008-2009.


Works on paper, 2002-2009 (left to right)


View of paintings and works on paper before open studio event.

So, towards the end of day two (Sunday), my good friend, KC pulled out his camera and pointed it at me while I was standing in front of my works on paper. I thought he was going to just take a photo, but instead he did a short video. I didn't realize that he was filming until he began asking me questions. Here, have a look:


zSHARE video - Tim Open Studio.wmv.flv

Shared via AddThis

This afternoon, I had my first bike accident in years. I was traveling east on Market Street when I apparently hit a pothole and bit it hard. I say 'apparently' because I don't remember the accident itself that's what I was told once I was in the ambulance. All I know is that I was riding and suddenly, I seemed to have been dreaming. In reality, I was unconscious for a few minutes and the next thing I knew, I was on a stretcher on my way to the hospital.

I'm ok. I just got banged up on the hands, I have a puffy upper lip and a swollen right eyelid. That's it. My helmet had a lot to do with my not having any major head trauma. I'm also lucky that there were no vehicles directly behind me at the time I fell. All I remember is my back tire swinging out from under me and the next thing, I'm in the ambulance.

I called E and my best friend from the hospital and they both arrived within minutes of each other. The doctors did some x-rays and an MRI and those turned out clear, thank goodness. They gave me a tetanus shot, cleaned up my wounds and sent me home.

Unfortunately for E, she became nauseous at the sight of my hand wounds, which were mainly scrapes, but bad enough that they'll take a while to heal. I'm just glad that it wasn't worse that it was. Earlier this evening, E and I walked over to where my bike was locked up (I don't remember locking it up) to survey the damage. It's pretty beat up, but possibly able to be salvaged.

I'm off to take a shower and then bed.

Private Dinner for Five with Sarah Palin - eBay (item 260474255847 end time Sep-18-09 17:27:00 PDT)

$50,807.00 and counting...I'm willing to bet that there are people out there willing to sell their first-born for the chance to have dinner with her.

Red King

THAT IS THE WRONG WAY TO DRINK, CAT. YOU ARE A VERY INEFFICIENT DRINKER!

I wish I could take credit for the text, but I can't. Still, it was so perfect that I had to keep it. Posting cute animal videos/photos isn't my usual thing, but this is the first one that had me laughing so hard in a long while. Maybe I was caught off-guard this morning :D