Punk Rock Flea Market

I've been thinking and talking about this for while and I am doing it. I just book a 1/2 table of this season's R5 Punk Rock Flea Market to try to sell some art at. :) Hopefully it goes well, time to get my ass in gear and get sellable work together (and made).
The Flea Market is open on Sat. Dec. 19th and Sun. Dec 20th from 10am-5pm both days at the Starlight Ballroom in Philly. I'll have a table on Sunday.

Venus (Human) Trap

In going through stuff on my hard drive yesterday, I came across a drawing of a 'Venus Human Trap' I did in high school. Ended up messing with the image a bit in photoshop. As weird as it is, I'm considering putting in on a tee shirt.

Artist: Jen Stark

Thank you again Stumble Upon, for you not only help be procrastinate but help me discover wonderful artist so I don't feel as bad about it. In today's adventures, it brought me to 100 Extraordinary Example of Paper Art which featured artist Jen Stark.
Below are some of her drawings and a sculptural cut paper piece. Her work is amazing. Check out her website for more colorful representations of the universe!

stuff and things

watercolor; looks quite different now because i have drawn over top of it. update when its done

watercolor, going to be drawn into

another thick experiment in using my hands, gesture, etc

finally got around the developing and printing some Holga photos and am now painting into them

Thinking a lot about Daoism as the 'empty vessel'; think the imagry of the text can lend nicely to a painting. Still in progress...needs less rainbow

Discovery

Crit #2 + Wall Disaster + Baby Vomit = Awesome

Here are 2 of the 3 paintings I put into crit this week, with m write up about them.

The third 8’x4’ canvas (on horribly warped stretchers) is continuing this idea of flow, emotion, and spontaneity in a more compositionally focused way. Starting out with a thick layer of modeling paste, the vertical composition formed to represent a sort of emergence from flowing, linear waves to explosion, voluminous clouds. Starting with the red, blue, yellow still seemed like a simple starting point and easier knowing I would soon cover it. The use of thin, liquid paint and allowing it to drip lends to the free form idea of the Dao I was considering in the last painting. As far as color goes, I am working on dark on the bottom to light at the top transition however my color choices are not completely resolved yet. This painting is not yet complete.

The second painting (roughly 4’x4’ on canvas, stapled to the wall) represents process of both paint and mind. Bringing the element of thick paint into this allow for a more three dimensional experience with the painting. Starting out with the usual red, blue, yellow I quickly became sick of the ‘pretty colors’ and the lack of focal point in the painting. Thinking about Daoism and grapping with the general concept of existence, new things began to emerge. According to Daoist thought, the world is made of an infinite number of events that are constantly interfering with each other to make up the world; each process cannot be perfect due to this constant interference, however it can come as close to perfection as possible. In order to achieve this, one must basically ‘go with the flow’ such that they can almost effortlessly move through the world with minimum interference. Feelings of frustration lead to each step of the painting feeling contrived and forced, so I established myself a center in the painting (possibly both compositionally and ontologically) and flowed from there. It became more important to do what felt right in terms of moving paint around then to think about color, application, and composition choice. By doing this, I found that those choices became easier to make or practically made themselves. The use of thinner paint allowed for a loose, freer feeling as the painting reacted with itself more than with my hand/brush. The tighter, more controlled lines that I cannot seem to let go of help the viewer in finding a path through out the painting.

And while taking that one off the wall, I discovered it stuck to the wall. I had to peel it off and take some dry wall with it:

'It looks like a Magic card' says Ben

too bad its too cool to be a Magic card

Chunang Tzu: Basic Writings

"There is a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is not yet beginning to be a not beginning to be a beginning. There is being. There is nonbeing. There is not yet beginning to be nonbeing. There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be nonbeing. Suddenly there is being and nonbeing. But between this being and nonbeing, I don't really know which is being and which is nonbeing. Now I have just said something. But I don't know whether what I have said has really said something or whether it hasn't said something." -p.38

Tao Te Ching

Chapter 25
There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.

It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.

The Tao is great.
The universe is great.
Earth is great.
Man is great.
These are the four great powers.

Man follows the earth.
Earth follow the universe.
The universe follow the Tao.
The Tao allows only itself.

Chapter 34
The great Tao flows everywhere.
All things are born from it,
yet it doesn't create them.
It pours itself into its work,
yet it makes no claim.
It nourishes infinite worlds,
yet it doesn't hold on to them.
Since it is merged with all things
and hidden in their hearts,
it can be called humble.
Since all things vanish into it
and it alone endures,
it can be called great.
It isn't aware of its greatness;
thus it is truly great.