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Opens Wednesday at the Worth Ryder Gallery at Berkeley* and curated by TPG 3 Critic Anuradha Vikram!  “Domestic Disturbance” brings together an intergenerational group of artists from across the United States whose work addresses the difficulties of balancing public and private life. DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE The parameters of work are changing rapidly in our time. The boundary between professional and personal time is no longer clear. Increasingly connected by ubiquitous technology, we are on the clock 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.  For artists, these distinctions have long been blurred. Lived experience has been among the chief concerns of art in the late 20th century. This maxim of art-as-life takes on new dimensions when considered in light of the new telecommuter economy. Each of the artists in Domestic Disturbance employs these strategies in a unique way, applying psychology, performance and humor to work that comments succinctly on the way we live today. DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE – October 7 – 31, 2009 Reception: Wednesday, October 7, 5-8 pm Artists: Abigail Feldman, Emily McLeod, Kara Hearn, Sonya Rapoport, Desirée Holman, Stephanie Syjuco, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy Worth Ryder Gallery University of California, Berkeley 116 Kroeber Hall Berkeley, CA 94720 Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-5 pm Photo credit: Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, I’ll Replace You, 2008. Video. 16:40. Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery, New York. *the gallery is also accepting curatorial proposals: Spring exhibit deadline is October 15th!

We’re proud to announce that the artist for TPG12 is Whitney Lynn!

Fort da 005, 2007 Whitney Lynn is a multi-media artist who explores the messy intersections between political, military, and civilian cultures. Her work has been exhibited at venues such as Exit Art, New York; Southern Exposure, San Francisco; the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA; and the 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA. She is the recipient of travel grants from the College Art Association and the Southeastern College Art Conference and her work has received critical attention from a number of publications including The New York Times, Daily Serving and Style Weekly. Born on an Air Force Base in Williams, AZ, she received her BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University and her MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. Whitney will be exihibiting as part of Southern Exposure’s “Bellwether” exhibition, their inaugural exhibition in their new space on 20th Street in San Francisco’s Mission District.  From the website:

The artists in Bellwether engage in multi-layered speculative projections on our ever shifting and uncertain future. Whether by indulging in their hopeful fantasies or examining their trepidation, the artists provide unique and perhaps unconventional tools and methodologies for envisioning and navigating the unknown. Through anticipation and fear, excitement and anxiety, prediction and instruction, the projects in this exhibition begin to give form to the haziness that lies ahead.

Whitney’s project, Bug Out Location, is a sculptural installation that draws inspiration equally from survivalist subcultures and more left leaning do-it-yourself (DIY) movements.  She will also be hosting a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Survivalist Training Workshop, which will cover survivalist preparation strategies and sustainability techniques in anticipation of economic, environmental, social, and/or governmental collapse. Details:

Bellwether October 17, 2009 – December 12, 2009 Member’s Opening: Friday, October 16, 2009, 8:00 – 10:00 pm Public Opening: Saturday, October 17, 2009, 4:00 – 10:00 pm SoEx’s New Location: 3030 20th Street San Francisco, CA 94110

DIY Survivalist Training Workshop: November 21, 2009 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

TPG11 “Phases of the Moon” is officially sold out!  Thanks to everyone who spread the word and to our subscribers for making this project happen.  We make a limited number of back issues because we want each edition to reflect the size of the group at that time, so the only way to guarantee you won’t miss one is to subscribe.

Helena’s Picks:

Galileo Galilei’s Moon Drawing

First known drawing of the Moon through a Telescope

Michael Light – Created a book, titled Full Moon, of 129 images of the moon culled from the 32,000 images taken during Apollo missions. *note: it looks like he is building a new website… this link may not be active much longer? Astronaut Alan L. Bean was the fourth man to walk on the moon and retired early from NASA to focus full time on making paintings depicting his lunar travels. Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels

Tiny Showcase – Alec Thibodeau Lunar Calendar Poster

The Moon in Contempoary Art:

Wax and Wane by Cassandra C. Jones seen at Baer Ridgeway Gallery in San Francisco

“Wax and Wane is a Snap-Motion Re-Animation made from 900 found photographs placed in order to re-create one full cycle of the moon.  The photographs that are included in Wax and Wane came from around the world and are taken by different photographers, mostly amateur. I collect them from friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, strangers, image banks, photo exchanges, thrift stores, libraries, private collections, want adds, eBay and the public domain archives ofthe US Army, NOAA and NASA.”

Aleksandra Mir‘s “First Woman on the Moon” is part land art, part social commentary, and part performance.  In 1999, inspired by the thirtieth anniversary of JFK’s famous speech leading us to moon exploration, Aleksandra Mir created a lunar landscape on a Dutch beach and documented her exploration, as the first woman on the moon, on video. Chris Thorson’s “Waning” Wikipedia gives us: A Chronicling of the Moon as an inspiration for works of literature, art, and music and The Moon in Mythology

Helena Keeffe was interviewed on August 23rd, 2009 by Oliver Wise and Eleanor Hanson Wise of The Present Group.

Listen:

“Phases of the Moon” is an edition of 50 framed sets of moon phase lapel pins.  Each set is accompanied by a digital widget that displays the current lunar phase and it’s corresponding pin.   The fabric pins were created by applying discharge paste – which removes dye rather than adding ink – and the backing is printed with a placeholder image of each pin.  The frame is designed to be rotated at every full and new moon.  This project was produced in the Summer 2009 by Bay Area artist Helena Keeffe and The Present Group on behalf of The Present Group subscribers. Helena’s proposal was chosen by the current subscribers as part of our yearly “Subscribers Choice” Voting Round.  You may read all the finalists proposals here. Helena Keeffe has developed an art practice based in situations and exchanges, inviting others to engage in a participatory experience and encouraging vulnerability and intimacy where one might otherwise expect a formal authority. Her work typically involves repurposing a familiar format and disrupting the expectations of the viewer. Many of her projects explore ideas of generosity and economics of exchange that function outside standard monetary models. Her projects are inspired by and deal with real-life situations, often celebrating or bringing to light aspects of urban environments that are normally overlooked. The digital widget was designed and programmed by Oliver Wise

This article was pointed out to me by @maryanndevine on Twitter a while back but somehow I missed it. Corwin Christie, writing for Technology in the Arts, has a really good article and has spawned quite a bit of conversation in her comparison of the Google scandal to standard Non-profit arts practices.

Last week I wrote about the indignation I feel when I see a company like Google wanting to use art without financially compensating the artists. The post and ensuing discussion on Facebook generated some interesting feedback, and many people expressed the concern that perhaps artists have set the bar low themselves. This got me thinking about how it is that artists begin accepting less than they are worth–and I think, unfortunately, it is because of the close collaboration that artists have with non-profit arts organizations. And this is much more difficult to get irate about. As I rail against Google for devaluing the work that artists do, I can’t help but think back on the numerous non-profit arts organizations with which I have either been involved or encountered as an artist. Non-profit organizations, those bastions of hope, those doers of good, whose belief in the arts propels us through the darkest hours of our economic crises, are they immune to the tirade I so readily unleashed on Google?

Click here to keep reading on Technology in the Arts

I’m glad to see people talking about this issue.  I too find it an almost impossible conundrum.  But discussion is good.  What about you, the great wide internet world?  Have you found any examples of nonprofits recognizing this issue and changing the way that they do things so that they start paying the artists they show?  Or does the answer lie outside of the non-profit world, in the shall we say, “no-profit” or “not-for-profit” world?  There are people rethinking, but most of what I have seen comes from this latter world.  There will also always people who want to get their work out for free for a time.  It’s like internships.  I never understood all the people who took a year after they finished college to do an internship.  I had to support myself as, I think, most people do once their schooling is finished.

Art is valuable and everyone knows it. But somehow we just think that it should also be free.

I just uploaded some photos and started perusing back a bit.  This photo is of my nephew, Andrew, celebrating the most amazing sandwich that he has just made.  Know what’s in the sandwich? graham crackers, american cheese, farm animal shaped colored sprinkles, and hershey’s chocolate. I mean, you have to agree that it is a pretty amazing sandwich. I want to be this excited about everything.

Sometimes the newest and the most experimental art gets created or exposed through the newest and most experimental organizations, galleries, or alternative arts programs.    Yet, lots of times these really experimental projects and spaces only last a short time because people are doing it out of love, they are pouring their own money and time into it, and are taking a chance to try something new.  Southern Exposure recognizes this.  That’s why they have developed a new funding program for these spaces, organizations, and projects that foster great work.  Their Alternative Exposure Grant has funded and helped out some of the Bay Area’s most prominent alternative spaces and projects (including yours truly).  Though certainly not enough money to create a strong foothold financially, it is enough to allow these spaces to breath a little easier for a short time.  And that, sometimes, is enough to keep them going.  It’s also a vote of confidence that we all sometimes need when we’re feeling down. So as our year as Southern Exposure Grantees comes to a close, I would like to encourage all those with spaces, projects and programs that are new and exciting (or old and exciting) – that show, foster, and encourage the creation of art in the Bay Area – to apply, and to apply again if you don’t (or didn’t) get it the first go round. Here are the details. There is also an information session that is useful at Receiver Gallery: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM Receiver Gallery 1415 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 www.receivergallery.com

Just as David Horvitz’s piece (TPG9) reminded you to take a pause and gaze at the ocean or the sky, Helena Keeffe‘s upcoming edition from The Present Group will help you reconnect with the movements of our astral partner, the moon. In some ways, art serves as a gentle reminder to see the world a little differently every day. Click here to support Helena and three other talented artists in the coming year. Keep your life filled with reminders of the world, the people in it, and their creativity and ideas. Have you noticed what the moon’s been up to lately?

Seems like when you put a whole bunch of really creative people together you get something awesome. From what I can tell: Concieved by W+K‘s creative team: Fabian Berglund and Ida Gronblom, Directed by David Wilson, and Art Directed by Hattie Newman.  I like.

I love it when I don’t think I have any food in the house and then make myself a plate like this.

I have been making these Doughnut Muffins since high school.  They are super delicious and quick and easy to make.  It says in the recipe, “They are done when the edges begin to brown and the centers sink in.”  But my centers never sank.  They still tasted delightful and so it never bothered me much.  But now, to my utter surprise, the centers have started to sink.  I don’t recall doing anything differently, I don’t have any different equipment, they just work right now. I read (along with half the nation) Malcom Gladwell’s, “Outliers” at the beginning of the year.  In it, he asserts the theory that in order to become an expert at something, you have to work at it for 10,000 hours. I don’t think that I’ve spent quite that much time on these muffins, but maybe there is something to be said for there being a threshold of time at which you all of a sudden become better at whatever it is that you are working at.  Maybe it’s a different amount of time for different types of activities.  I don’t know, but somehow it makes me hopeful. Here’s the recipe: Doughnut Muffins 1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1 large egg 1 1/2 cups flour 1/4 tsp nutmeg 2 1/2 tsp baking powder Cream sugar and butter.  Stir in beaten egg. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients.  Do not beat.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. They are done when the edges begin to brown and the centers sink in.

At the home of Stephanie Hanson and Tom Damassa

We’ve been all about the moon here at TPG headquarters in preparation for Helena’s upcoming piece. But at some point we realized that none us really understood what’s going on up there. A couple hours of internet research revealed that the heyday for earth/moon animations was the mid 80s. This animation was useful because it has the view of the moon from earth coupled with the relative positions of the earth and moon in relation to the sun. It also drives home the difference in speeds between the earth’s rotation and the rotation of the moon around the earth. Another fact that was new to me was that the same side of the moon is always facing us. It’s sort of like what would happen if you put a coffee cup on a lazy susan with its handle facing out. As you spun the lazy susan, the handle would remain pointing out. That means that the “Dark side of the moon” is always changing, but the “far side of the moon” is always the same. And technically the “far side of the moon” gets more total sunlight than the side of the moon we see. And then there’s my personal favorite: this incredibly infectious educational hip hop video for remembering the moon phase terminology. “Quarter moon’s a half moon. Half moon’s a quarter moon” If anyone comes across any useful descriptions or videos we’d love to hear about them.

Posted via web from thepresentgroup’s posterous

I just learned about a new attempt at helping artists raise money. Brooklyn based Tracy Candido started Sweet Tooth of the Tiger as “a way to talk with people about dessert,” but it has grown into a new funding model for artists projects. Artist submit for “residencies” where they say what project they’re trying to raise money for. Tracy sets them up with an event where there will be lots of people to buy their goods (we’re talking bake sale – brownies, cupcakes, sugar in all forms) and find out about their project. She meets the artist at the venue, helps out in the selling, takes a small cut of the profit, and interviews the artist for her blog throughout the night. fun!

Spicy Dark Chocolate Ginger Brownies at WORK gallery (Brooklyn, NY) photograph by Tracy Candido About Sweet Tooth of the Tiger: Sweet Tooth of the Tiger is part entrepreneurial/d.i.y. food service project and part participatory art project that uses sugar as a medium and explores eating as social practice. The project takes the form of a bake sale that utilizes the community and public sphere as a place for eating, feeding, and talking with your mouth full. Sweet Tooth is invited by members of its community to set up a bake sale table at awesome events and engage with participants by exchanging baked goods for some money. Hopefully, participants are activated by their sugar high to engage in conversation with other participants, heightening their awareness of their own social position as well as a broadened perspective concerning their present environment.

Posted via web from thepresentgroup’s posterous

I tried to think of what noise a flower would make if it made a noise.   These two are on my windowsill and last for such a short period of time that I thought I would share.

When Gary Taxali gave Google the finger (both in words and pictures) over 200 other illustrators and artists cheered him on.   Taxali wrote a post on Drawger that gained a lot of attention and apparently some legal threats as the post has now been taken down.  The New York Times today has reported on it here: Use Their Work Free? Artists Say No to Google.  And Reuters has an article with a bit more back story: Artists Give Google the Finger Basically, it goes like this.  The economy is down, so people are trying to wring their freelancers for rights and free work.  This is such a common problem.  Don’t people realize that if enough people stop paying for work, eventually there won’t be anyone to do the work.  People have to make money at their work, whether it be illustration, art, architecture, floral design, catering, or any other service or product. People have to hold their ground collectively, otherwise the whole field gets screwed. That’s not so easy to do though.