WIP : new painting progress

Initial State

Second State

Even with its obvious phallic significance, the snake remains a highly charged symbol.  Inspired by Caravaggio's Head of Medusa, a work pregnant with sexual content and German Anselm Kiefer's more ambiguous use of the serpent in a number of large paintings, this work in progress reflects my interest in the collision of transgressive imagery and text. With a snippet of text borrowed from William Burroughs discussing the american "dream," the snake suggests the temptation inherent in this collective illusion and its potential suffocating result...and it all began with entrails.

Caravaggio Head of Medusa (detail)

MACHINATIONS : pulp logic monotron-e

Based on the Korg Monotron disposable mini-synth, the Pulp Logic Monotron-E, a eurorack version of said synth, far exceeds my somewhat stunted expectations. With CV inputs and a reset input, this device can be modulated beyond recognition!...and it's FUN. The filter section sounds great and the oscillator is fat! Available at Control in Brooklyn, NY.

Euro Improv...NO GUITARS!

LIBRARY : fire in the belly

Fire in the Belly : The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz by Cynthia Carr goes to great lengths to  provide the reader with a gritty picture of New York City in the 80's, a city in the harsh grip of poverty, drugs, violence and AIDS. Before gentrification and the lock-step conformity of Disney, the city portrayed here is SCARY, but the creative spirit of the players in this drama is inspiring, born of a blighted city...and DW's art, both sexual and political AND poetic was a forceful reminder for those who would rather forget about the rights and pain of those persons who inhabit a nether world outside the experience of the nuclear family, perhaps the result of that unit.  I could not help but smile, reading about the city and artists that informed my artistic development, Ms. Carr painting a vibrant picture of a time before Facebook when the time's energy was palpable, not simply a cyber-illusion.

MACHINATIONS : rebel technology stoicheia

In the hope of creating evolving noises, that is, compelling sounds that offer a myriad of expressive potentials, my credit cards quickly makes an appearance. The Rebel Technology sequencer sends out triggers that can be utilized in concert with almost any other module, creating patterns OR anti-patterns!
...Gee, what fun!!! Drum modules, oscillators, and filters BEWARE!

Στοιχεῖα is a dual Euclidean Sequencer. It algorithmically generates rhythmic sequences from an input trigger signal. The name (Στοιχεῖα, Stoicheia, or Elements) comes from the title of Euclid’s book Elements in which the algorithm was first described.

Getting Chaotic

Received the Elby Designs CHAOTICA yesterday. This is a very deep module, both literally and in terms of its sonic usage. Threatening to devour my system with wild loopy organic sputtering, the CHAOTICA certainly means business!

Elby Chaotica

Good Bad Art vs. Bad VERY Bad Art

As a visual artist who passionately engages in the process, both conceptual and physical, of art-making meant to be TRANSFORMATIVE and poetic, my eyes where drawn to an article in a local newspaper celebrating the "work" of a local artist. To the casual observer, that is, just about everyone, the drawings reproduced and described in the article as "exhibit-ready were ART. It is curious that even unintentionally very poorly drawn work can be celebrated as ART. In the case of the Madonna and Child above, awkward execution and mark-making that is obviously without expressive intention is simply the product of a sensibility NEVER held to any critical analysis. Are those "hot-dog" fingers the result of a meaningful conceptual strategy? Does this "artist" deserve the moniker?...perhaps in sunday painting groups that serve as groups of mutual self-service and therapy!


Peter Saul, on the other hand, is a very fine artist whose work is transformative, conceptually questioning and UGLY AS HELL! The Last Judgement(1993) can be read as offensive diatribe that takes on the the equally ugly aspects of the Roman Catholic Church and shoves them in our collective denying faces. Saul, a impulsive moralist, gives us a cyclops God and Virgin Mary painted in garish colors describes in cartoon-like form that is not beatific but are MONSTROUS CREATURES purged of any spiritual allusions. They are rightfully scary! Saul's work is purposeful and expressive, not the product of an amateur sensibility that serves a stunted idea of the beautiful that is vapid and insulting to those seeking art that provides the potential for epiphany.