The Pure Gaze and the hack amateur

I am pretty far from the pure gaze quality of Agnes Martin, Margaret Thatcher Projects, Gary Hume, Vanessa Beescroft..not necessarily because I engage abjection..just because I AM..

Process..program etc

I am gessoeing alot of newsprint..The New York Times to be exact..for some reason it HAS to be the New York Times..maybe it's symbolism as the STANDARD..of something..a class cache..trying to have alot of sheets prepared before I start a single drawing. That way I can REALLY get into the project, without stopping at my usual dilletante level.

Went to a lumber store on Quay Street in Greenpoint to buy some lumber strips. Two 3" by 1" by 10' and two 3" by 1" by 8'..only cost about 8 bucks. I want to experiment with making my own frames in that cockeyed Basquiat style..with the x and y axes overlapping like a cross. Yes I'm a gonna paint! The key thing is finding suitable surfaces. I will call them about masonite panels too.

Quality..I think about Leonardo Drew, Alexis Rockman, Brenda Zlamany, Damien Loeb..people I have met whose approach to quality in the work they do is exemplary to me..where I am on the other end of the spectrum in terms of transience and superficiality..I with I could have that unassailable integrity in my pieces.

The point

I am unemployed..not true.. I am employed in the service to my true vision..the trick is to admit it and give it muscle and reality..to impress myself on the spirit of my generation..to matter in the arts..but from here? My generation is the "art school" generation..the cadre of MFA's from Yale, RISD, CalArts..etc who transformed Williamsburg, Chelsea, the East End of London into the happening scenes of the last 20 years..and I..an attendent lord standing on the sidelines...in LIC..ready to deliver some kinda "YAWP"..or "squeek"..outside of the committed MFA track..hacking away at derivatives and doodles..

My Contemporaries_ Warren Neidich

I dropped out..responding to the "Basquiat-Amateur Genius Myth" most of my contemporaries continued their studies and achieved much more than I. I met Warren during Biblo's days back in late 90's..he had his own spread on Van Dam and turned it into a gallery called "Spot". He and I kinda liked each other as we were both really into writers like Heidegger, Bourdieu etc..but Warren was serious and had something to show where as I was a lost cause to some degree.

Let's Begin

Facebook IS what I wanted the blog experiment to be but now I am back to the blog to use IT like I want. I started this blog AS-IF it would be a way of reaching out to my friends and larger community..facebook has achieved THAT goal..but the "web-log"..let's begin with where we ARE..I started this blog..Dada-to Prada..back in I think..2005 or 6..not sure..I was in DC..the big goal was to make it back to NYC..which I kinda though t was near impossible..I found a job with a corporate travel company..moved to Bushwick then LIC and voila..now I'm laid off and confronted with what I want...24 hours of studio time and sufficient unemployment checks..but OK..the next level..many of my friends are very supportive but AS-IS..I am a nobody in the REAL field of cultural production..the project is to confront the situation and change it. I am an autodidact..dropped out of RISD..drifted thru the artscene in the 80's, 90's and 00's...now I am approaching middle age ready to take a stand..what is ART for Christopher Lee..my fellow black artists..Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Leonardo Drew, Chris Offili, Renee Cox, Gary Simmons..took responsibility for their identities where I spent my young adult years lost in a "pink-wash" fantasy..the Hamptons, Wildwood, Reston..etc..what positiion will I assume..I am an amateur living in LIC with a roommate..I dabble, delay, avoid and fiddle..what am I REALLY here for? What will my real impact be? I just mounted a group show in an off the Radar LIC gallery..www.licweb.com..Artomat..Zeitgeist 2009..next stop is more gallery trolling "The Drawing Center" and Chelsea..what I need is to start some serious pieces right away.

Project Kiele

Amateur to Overture

I have a show coming up that I curated called "Zeitgeist 2009" it's a modest exhibition in LIC. It won't make history or put me on the map. It's from the viewpoint of the REAL players " a salon of the refused"..but it's where I am at and a needed gesture in the progress of events. I do think it will be very well attended and boost the gallery's status.

I am thinking of where to go next. I am toying with a big political statement.. The grand idea or just the exploration of abstract themes..it's all up there on the canvas..