May 16, 2012
thinking about pedestals – pedestal sculptures – pedestal sculpture paintings
| Tags: pedestal sculpture paintings, pedestal sculptures, pedestals
One Size Does Not Fit All
May 11, 2012
It was the only hat in the store I wanted. It was the only hat in the store I needed. It was a model hat near the custom embroidery section used to help exemplify for customers different font sizes and type attributes created by their machine.
The “Assistant Manager” said it wasn’t for sale and WHY would I even want it, alluding to its ugliness, but I was quick to mention the ol’ Beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder trick. “But this is not a design!” she added, of which I then proclaimed her to be censoring me.
They charge by design and this is the one I wanted. She was refusing to sell it. She had to call another manager. He must have asked her why, too, as she said bewilderingly, “I don’t know why.”
They finally agreed to make a replica as the original was too tight — nickel-and-diming me for every separate color, outline, and text; but in the end, it was worth it. Frankly, it wasn’t much more expensive than their regular professional team baseball caps.
When I had gone to retrieve my order, the original clerk was leaving and a new employee was finishing up the hat for me. He raised it in his hand calling out to another co-worker, “Check it out! Look what he made!” She yelled back, “WHY!??” He replied without hesitation, “Cuz he’s gonna be the only one with yet!”
This might be true, but it is not just about being the only one with the hat. It is about seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. I saw it as a real-life, real-time art exchange w/out the ever so daunting Art (with a capital A). We didn’t talk about art directly, but that’s what was happening. They were perplexed. I was hyped.
| Tags: hat, lids, providence
Meme Project — Studio Foundations
May 8, 2012
That is correct. I gave my Studio Foundations course an assignment to make an internet meme. Here’s a few from the project below.
All in all, looking back, they were really great. Throughout the semester, a regular thread that kept poking back into conversations is the ever so monumental question: WHAT IS ART??? Let’s not worry about what is art. Don’t make art, let’s just make something interesting. Let’s try our hand at a meme. Plus, it was a great way to intro Adobe Photoshop.
Thomas Kinkade — Vigo Intervention
April 29, 2012
What the hell…went ahead and made a Kinkade/Vigo .gif. You remember Vigo from Ghostbusters, no?
INSTALLED: Home Depot
April 3, 2012
UPDATE: Went back several days later and the painting was still there…but, on the floor. Doh!
Yeah, I re-hung it.
Against the Law to Have Just Juan, installed and left at Home Depot, 387 Charles Street, Providence, Rhode Island (2012).
It would have been a nice lil’ project to install a painting in each of the sheds they have on display, send out a press release, hold a reception..the works. I suppose there’s always Lowe’s.
7 months later @ Women and Infants Hospital
March 24, 2012
My painting titled, Past 0ld Friends R Better n d Left, was originally installed in the 6th floor waiting-room at the Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, on the day my wife was being released from the birth of our second baby boy.
Recently she went to visit a dear friend of hers who just gave birth to her own son. My wife remembered the painting I had placed and was curious if it was still there. Her photograph documents the artwork’s installation as lasting an impressive eight months. Wow! It’s hard to believe it’s still there. I say it’s staying forever.
BULL and RAM: group show
February 4, 2012
Bull and Ram is a migrating curatorial project run by artists Yevgeniya Baras and Eve Lateiner.
“Mythografia” opening Saturday February 25th 7-9pm
– 270 Lafayette st. Suite 612, New York, NY
JOANNE GREENBAUM
MICHAEL BERRYHILL
KEITH ALLYN SPENCER
PAUL DEMURO
JACKIE GENDEL
Joseph Campbell defined myths as having four basic functions: (1) the Mystical Function—experiencing the awe of the universe; (2) the Cosmological Function—explaining the shape of the universe; (3) the Sociological Function—supporting and validating a certain social order; and (4) the Pedagogical Function—how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.
When visiting the studios of the five artists included in this exhibition, JOANNE GREENBAUM, MICHAEL BERRYHILL, KEITH ALLYN SPENCER, PAUL DEMURO, JACKIE GENDEL, we began looking at each of them as a collector of myths, the narratives that combine to form their artistic world. Some of the works appear more as environments within which a myth takes place. In others, the work is the actor, a character within that myth. There is a story being told, recorded, and channeled through these artists, all of whom are participating in the tradition of storytelling that is mythografia. Myth here is a guiding principle of the artistic process.
To encounter Joanne Greenbaum’s ceramic pieces is to meet unique characters co-living together and creating an exhilarating conversation. It is interesting to look at these sculptures in relation to Joanne’s paintings as the ceramic pieces become the characters from her paintings materialized in 3D. The surface quality varies from a slight touch to appearing pinched, from mattness to brilliant smoothness. They are punctured, bent, twisted, leaning, beings. Grouping them becomes a task of considering their personalities. The narrative is continuously rewritten depending on which sculptures are positioned together; they bring out certain traits in each other, provoke each other, co depend, overpower, and embody.
Some of Michael Berryhill’s drawings are blueprints for later paintings or sculptures, but more importantly they act as a place for him to freely record ideas without censoring the self, to tell the story of his thoughts and the various places he travels in his mind. The intimate nature of these drawings allows viewers to feel like they are peaking behind the curtain, given access to the space where the creator tests the seeds for different narratives. There is a spiritual vibrancy to his work and a mystery that makes us want to learn more about what the forms represent and who might be lurking outside the frame. The gardens, mythical creatures, heads, draped garments and flowers are painted with such care and consideration for material. Michael gently layers the canvas with pigment building up history. Upon close observation each canvas is an archeological dig but the digging is gentle. The paintings feel imbued with wisdom. They have been around for a while. They are aged and found paintings but converse with the rigor of today.
Keith Allyn Spencer’s paintings function in a similar way to Greenbaum’s ceramics, offering the viewer an array of characters with different personalities. However, Spencer’s materials hold their own personal connections that tell us about his environment and the people in his life. Spencer sometimes uses his son’s clothing as a canvas on which to paint, and old paint on the studio floor sometimes makes its way onto the surface. These items give the viewer a direct connection to the myth of the artist in his studio and in his private life. While not technically necessary to the work, these tools give the work a distinct presence. Keith’s pieces sum into a story; the paintings rely on each other, melting into a communal presence, humming together. They are soiled, worn, humorous on one hand and strictly formal on the other. They dance between these two modes of being.
The paintings of Paul DeMuro have a celebratory energy in the richness of the paint and the scale of the canvas. The patterns are reminiscent of tapestry, which has a mythology of its own. One wonders about the derivation of these patterns and the seductive quality of the artist’s hand. The patterns are interrupted with an array of personal symbols and codes tightly woven from thickly applied paint. Paul’s paintings are operas, dark, dramatic, voluptuous paintings of sculptural nature but firmly remaining paintings. Hands, Hearts, Stripes compose these sign-like overly present painting creatures.
Jackie Gendel’s paintings converse explicitly and imaginatively with the long history of painting. By referencing images from old master works, Gendel translates the original narrative into a new version all her own. At times she processes the same story numerously, each canvas exposing to us a slightly different angle of the same scene. She may zoom in on characters or show them swallowed by their abundant environment. Being in room full of Jackie’s works is like hearing one narrative at different volumes, in different languages, and told backwards and forewords simultaneously. The viewer is swallowed by the story and seduced by the stuff of paint.
INSTALLED: SpeeDee Oil Change
January 14, 2012
Control S A Means Of Social Sin installed and left at SpeeDee Oil Change, 985 North Main Street Providence, RI.
You might notice that the way the painting was originally photographed and the way it was recently installed at SpeeDee differ by 180 degrees. This wasn’t caused by nervous jitters. Switching the orientation was intentional beforehand. I actually couldn’t stand this painting and was more than willing to let it go, BUT, since flipping it, I’m a lil’ sad that we’ve parted ways. That slight up-side-down shift has made it completely anew for me. It’s as if the painting went for rehabilitation and came out a new person, the same person, but a new 10 pound chubbier, skin glowing, hair done person — the person we knew before all the drugs, prostitution, robbing, gambling with their own life, no regard for their loved ones constantly worrying if he/she is dead or in prison, bad attitude, eye rolling, beer chugging, vodka guzzling, throat clearing, booger-eyed, DUIs, drunk stumbling and tumbling.
Installed: Savers
January 7, 2012
Can N0ise B Hostile installed and left at Savers, 1925 Pawtucket Ave East Providence, RI. They have quite an exhibit continuously on view and I can’t say that my work exactly stands out in the bunch. Most often I’d prefer to actually install the paintings on the wall somewhere within the location via a thumbtack or a pre-existing nail/screw, but the ease of just plopping the work alongside all the others for sale was enticing to me. It’s been nice seeing the conversations that may occur between the neighboring works.
Can N0ise B Hostile, oil, cotton, discarded weave, wood, staples, 2011, 5.434382″ x 4 1/111″
| Tags: installation, intervention, savers, shopdropping
Product Review: Trimaco Heavy Weight Canvas
January 4, 2012
There are some materials that I find very, very, very useful and believe they deserve some celebratory recognition. I look forward to reviewing other top-notch products in the near future.
Thank you
| Tags: product reviews
Barbaric S Torture @ Oliver Francis Gallery – Dallas, TX
December 21, 2011
NOW! THAT’S WHAT I CALL ART: VOL 1
Oliver Francis Gallery — Dallas, TX, up thru Dec. 24
The painting is FREE as a gift w/ any $$ amount given towards UNICEF — inquiry with the gallery.
(photos courtesy of Oliver Francis Gallery…thanks Oliver Francis!)
INSTALLED: Hillside Family and Community Medicine
December 9, 2011
Smoke Time S A Gigantic Leisure Screen installed and left at the office of Dr.Sperber in the Hillside Family and Community Medicine located at 727 East Avenue, Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Exhibit: “Rocket to Nowhere”
November 7, 2011
ROCKET TO NOWHERE
>>
>>
Opening
——-
Nov. 11th 6-9PM
more info @ amigospublishing.com
Lila Jarzombek, Untitled, 2010, Mixed media on canvas, 27 x 25.5 inches
Jeff Hale, Untitled, 2011. Oil on canvas, 16 x 21.25 inches
Keith Allyn Spencer, Randall Cunningham, oil paint, my son’s old underwear (“Thomas and Friends” edition), studio filth, staples, discarded art bits/wood, size: 10″ tall — more or less (two parts), 2011
INSTALLED: Burlington Coat Factory
October 16, 2011
According 2 0perable Laws d W0rld Operates was installed today at Burlington Coat Factory in Rumford, Rhode Island. Besides the seemingly great deals and name-brand clothing, their customer service was faaantastic!!
According 2 0perable Laws d W0rld Operates installed and left at Burlington Coat Factory 60 Newport Avenue, Rumford, Rhode Island. Materials: canvas, discarded wood parts from a stretcher making workshop, Brown University painting studios floor grime/paint residue, filth, 2011, 49/7″ x 5 1/98″
INSTALLED: Ben & Jerry’s
August 20, 2011
Installed and left This S Ur Brain This S Ur Brain On Drugs at Providence’s Ben & Jerry’s located at 237 Meeting Street.
INSTALLED: East Side Pediatrics, Providence
August 19, 2011
Installed and left Da Idea Of Oppression S Used 2 Obscure Transcendence at East Side Pediatrics located at 154 Waterman St # 3 in Providence, Rhode Island. My sons’ pediatrician works there — fine, fine people.
Da Idea Of Oppression S Used 2 Obscure Transcendence
Da Idea Of Oppression S Used 2 Obscure Transcendence, oil, green chile burlap potato sack, wood, staples, 2011, 415/16″ x 4 13/16″
INSTALLED: United States Post Office
August 18, 2011
Installed and left Consuela Jimenez at the United States Post Office branch located at 24 Corliss St # 100.
I had been meaning to install a painting here for a while since my family and I frequent this branch quite often, but I always hesitated for some reason or another (too many customers around, lingering employees, and paranoia). 
This time around seemed perfect as I was about to exit the building; however, as soon as I placed the painting, I realized that a front/help desk postal worker was watching me the whole time from a convex security mirror. I skipped out before photographing the installation. A confrontation in here, federal property, worried me a bit. Maybe they’d be concern it was a bomb or something so I preferred not to take the extra second to take the pic and find out. I bolted. 
BUT Then, I went back the next day to see if I could luckily grab a pic still and there it was, in the same place I had left it. I couldn’t believe it. Maybe she hadn’t noticed or maybe she didn’t care.
Not originally getting the photo bummed me out and made me realize it is not completely just about the gesture as I had always convinced myself. The documentation is fairly important, too. For one, it’s proof of the act and two, I enjoy looking back and reminiscing about the moment. Don’t get me wrong, the photo document is not the art…or maybe it is, whatever. If I can get a photo of it, I will; but, I won’t be hiring a professional photographer any time soon.
INSTALLED: Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island
August 10, 2011
Past 0ld Friends R Better n d Left was installed and left at Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island’s 6th floor family waiting room. I’ll never be able to gain access to this area to see how long it remained for as it is restricted to those visiting family or friends who have just delivered their beautiful (or ugly) babies. I’ve gotta a hunch it’ll be there for a while. It looked Goood in there!
Past 0ld Friends R Better n d Left, oil, old wooden bits and pieces, discarded art fragments, paint residue, staples, 2011, 28/2″ x 6.5493″
INSTALLED: Providence Children’s Museum
August 10, 2011
“Keep and Clean Your Dirty Sex Fights” — Kevin Tocino installed and left at the Providence Children’s Museum Coming to Rhode Island exhibit.
(installation view)
“Keep and Clean Your Dirty Sex Fights” — Kevin Tocino, oil, ink, gamsol scum, clorox bleach, canvas, found wood, staples, 2011, 8″ x 4.556663239389298383929238292300329834282920320323293289320032932893203429239832932040432932093203293420903293290320″
Introducing Baby Dimas
August 7, 2011
We just had our second baby, yeah!!!
Se llama Dimas Juan. He weighed in at 8lbs 13oz at 11:01 in the morning of August 5th — 10 fingers, 10 toes, great health, and we’re mucho mucho lucky to have him.
“Dimas” comes from my wife’s grandmother’s brother who died when he was just a boy and “Juan” comes from my mother’s grandfather.
Dimas is a grump, a thumb-sucker, alien-like (as all newborns are), and beyond beautiful. I advise you all to run out and have babies if you can. They’ll make you completely scared and utterly joyful at the same time.
Our first born, Ethan, has been super excited and has already started picking on his lil bro: squeezing his head, poking his eye, yelling in his ear, among other and many-more-to-come nuisances.
We r excited and just wanted to share our joy w/ u all. Thnx b to God/the universe/the powers that be for giving us such awesomeness.
REJECTED: HousEART proposal
August 2, 2011
The HousEART Project, a Smith Hill Community Development Corporation initiative, denied my project proposal as pictured above in a digital mockup. Their website describes HousEART as “… a community-wide transformative art project. It connects artists with neighborhood volunteers in order to bring life and color to foreclosed, vacant houses…” Their “call for artists” specs granted those awarded a $400 stipend and one or two assistants from the local neighborhood to help each artist. Not bad, eh?
Long story short, my project would have consisted of site-specific paintings, looking much like what my current work is now, garnished around the facade of the foreclosed building. They would have been placed anywhere but locations that may be used for exterior decoration (hence, almost anywhere I wanted, but I gotta give myself some boundaries). The paintings would have remained to run parallel with the structure’s neglect, becoming a marker for change or a lack thereof. Their eventual and hopeful complete removal would have signaled a move toward positive development of the property and neighborhood. Yeahhhh!!
It was worth a shot. Can’t get ‘em all. What’s good news w/out bad news? Right? Right!
Proof Positive of Negative Results: “Life S Like a Bowl of Cherries, U Never No What U Gonna Get”
August 1, 2011
A month after the painting was installed outside the front of an abandoned house I realized it was finally gone; however, as I slowly drove by, I could barely make out a pinkish hue coming off the floor of the front porch. There it lie, tossed aside, my first proof of a negative encounter between the painting and public viewer.
Life S Like a Bowl of Cherries, U Never No What U Gonna Get
All of the overgrown weeds, bushes, and collected trash and debris had been removed. Someone apparently came to clean up the property, but why not toss the painting in the trash with the other garbage?
Maybe it was a slight nod by the workman for me to re-install it if I ever returned or maybe it was a gesture of disapproval. ???
Nonetheless, this is the only second painting I have left outside and I’m starting to believe they resonate more with a traditional graffiti agenda than the ones I leave inside public places which I feel associate with a populist/gift economy agenda. Although, I have no idea if the paintings I’ve installed inside public venues are actually regarded as a gift from those who encounter them, or as a nuisance quickly tossed in the garbage.
I haven’t decided if I will reposition, replace it with a different painting, leave it there on the floor, or just forget about the whole thing.
…to be continued…
INSTALLED: Center for Obstetrics & Gynecology
July 20, 2011
Installed and left Old Man Sweater at the Center for Obstetrics & Gynecology located at 297 Promenade Street, Providence, Rhode Island.
Leaving these works in places = graffiti? No!
Leaving these works in places = shop-drop? No!
Leaving these works in places = shameless self-promotion? No! (there’s no contact info/name anywhere on piece)
Leaving these works in places = gift? Yesss!
(Old Man Sweater, oil, wood, staples, and my favorite sweater ever, 9 3/4″ x 6 15/16″, 2011)
‘Small Crowd’ mentions
July 5, 2011
A little review was written up on our Small Crowd: RISD MFA ’11 Painting show at Mixed Greens at ART FAG CITY:
http://www.artfagcity.com/2011/07/01/getting-what-you-pay-for-risd-mfas-at-mixed-greens/
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Also, at New American Paintings>Blog:
‘Small Crowd’ opens via Mixed Greens
June 17, 2011
Check out some more installation shots of our Mixed Greens show at:
http://www.mixedgreens.com/exhibitions.php
runs thru JULY 8, 2011
Mixed Greens — 531 west 26th street, 1st floor — new york, ny 10001 — tel: 212 331 8888
Photographs = © 2011 Etienne Frossard All rights reserved
how to make a painting about painting
May 1, 2011
I’ve taken some advice from a group of very respectful individuals and have created my first “how to” video, as if there needs to be more out there; BUT, I assure you there are currently none with the instructional insight which I have so generously provided today.
Mixed Greens
April 17, 2011
Small Crowd: Introducing RISD MFA Painting 2011
June 16–July 8, 2011
Opening: Thursday, June 16, 6-8pm
Anna Plesset
Collin Hatton
Corydon Cowansage
Field Kallop
Katie Bell
Keith Allyn Spencer
Mike Schreiber
Nell Painter
MIXED GREENS
531 WEST 26TH STREET, FIRST FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10001
TEL: 212 331 8888
FAX: 212 343 2134
TOLL FREE: 866 647 3367
INFO@MIXEDGREENS.COM
GALLERY HOURS
Monday through Friday from 10am to 6pm, Saturday from 11am to 6pm, and by appointment.
RISD Thesis Exhibition
April 17, 2011
RISD Thesis Exhibition
Graduate student work across 16 disciplines to be featured in showcase of more than 170 RISD artists and designers.
May 19 – June 4, 2010
Opening reception May 19, 6-8pm
open daily 12-5pm
Hall C of the Convention Center in downcity Providence aka Tha Dunk
We Care A Lot
April 17, 2011
We Care A Lot
Anna Plesset Anthony Giannini Arthur Pen~a Astrid Toha Bruce WilhelmCollin Hatton Corydon Cowansage Field Kallop Francisco Moreno Hilary Doyle Katie Bell Keith Allyn Spencer Kimo Nelson Michelle Rawlings
Mike Schreiber Nell Painter Page Whitmore Rachel Klinghoffer
April 22 – May 11
RISD Graduate Painting Department
opening reception April 21st, 7-9pm
Sol Koffler Gallery
Rhode Island School of Design
Center for Integrative Technologies, 1st floor
169 Weybosset Street
Providence, RI
upcoming
"CHALLENGE FOR A CIVILIZED SOCIETY (working title)"September 6th - October 7th 2012
Craig Smith Dermody
Sam Keller
Keith Allyn SpencerBOOK
From 2006-2008 my wife and I operated an art space in El Paso, Texas called Space Available (SpAG). At the end of our run we created a catalog of all contributing artists. (Free pdf or buy paperback)
