flier talk

 so tomorrow, friday june the 7th, there is an exhibit of a class of things that i have made over the past couple of years. above is a photograph of my installation tools. it's a level, a ruler, a pencil, and  stapler. not shown: a tape measure and a stool. also a piece of foam core. 

 this exhibit is a little different than some others i have done previously, in the material and subject matter, but also not too different when you really think about it. instead of showing drawings that are framed and hung on the wall i am showing black-and-white copies stapled to the wall. but the important part is what you are looking at and the ideas and/or feelings that come up when you look at these things, if any. above you can see the stool i was talking about earlier. also the big fliers that i printed out at kinko's, 3 by 4 foot! 

this is another big one i printed out for the exhibit. what is it with this and how is this any different than what i normally get up to? well, really, it's no different in concept but it's made in a more immediate and casual way and then printed out like a regular flier or resume or something. that's what i like about making these fliers: it's a way to quickly make an idea for an image become real thing, an easy way to put a mystery into the world, or a joke or a poem. i think jokes and poems are as important as more accepted or traditional serious art subjects. so maybe all these come off as insincere or not-well-thought-out but they are in fact the opposite: important and serious and immediate and excited. or at least as anything else is. 

now it's happening that this flier "project" that i started a couple years ago has gotten a small amount of attention and now it's a "thing" and now it's crossing over into my usual art-making, some of the fliers have become drawings and something i might normally make a print of... like these two above. these might as well be big drawings but really they are big blown up xerox prints. is it the same thing? i don't know, probably. anyway: i put all these things up with staples, nothing is framed. because it's not the objects themselves that are precious or valuable, but the feelings, jokes, and ideas that they help make when they go in your eyes and run around your brain for 5 seconds or two hours or however long you let it. i don't think that sounds too self-important, that's the point of making things. 

it all goes into the big basket of stuff that i'll be filling up for the rest of my life. so in a way this exhibit is an attempt to bring what was once a separate project into the fold of the greater project which is everything i make. i'm so grateful for the support of the indianapolis museum of contemporary art, big car and the service center of indianapolis, needles and pens of san francisco, and all the other nice folks who have given me the opportunity to put these things into the world in different ways. 

did you ever read "grapefruit" by yoko ono? her instruction paintings? she pretty much nailed it. this is like my version of "grapefruit" but not as straight-forward because i can't help but put pictures in there  to look at and i'm not literally telling you what to do in your brain so it's not really the same thing at all. mine will be called "side salad". 

i started writing some new songs again and i started using some of those lyrics in drawings. these have that in common. i am trying to make it all one thing: art, music, writing, walking the dog, talking, life things. because really who cares? you can do whatever you want, you should do whatever you want. come see my show tomorrow and we can high five about it.