TAYLOR McKIMENS – PARTY ON !!
MIKE KELLEY – R.I.P.
TAYLOR McKIMENS will be showing a new painting, a portrait of artist MIKE KELLEY, which he made especially for this show, a solo show of work by TOM SANFORD, which contains a group show curated by Tom Sanford, as well.
the group show is an assortment of artists … “making portraits of important figures that have died during 2012.”
TOM SANFORD – ‘100 LITTLE DEATHS’ – OPENING NEW YEARS EVE MON DEC 31 / 6-9 PM
the show runs DEC 31, 2012 – FEB 9, 2013.
BRAVINLEE PROGRAMS – 526 W 26th ST #211 – CHELSEA, NYC
more info on the show: TOM SANFORD – ‘100 LITTLE DEATHS’
remember TOM SANFORD ?
he’s the guy who did that eerie ‘dead-on’ painting of . . . WHITNEY HOUSTON in her last bath … for that way crazy … FREIGHT+VOLUME SUMMER SHOW: ‘THE DOUBLE DIRTY DOZEN’ – rated XXXXX !!
see: THE DOUBLE DIRTY DOZEN
PORTRAIT OF RECENTLY DECEASED (2012) MIKE KELLEY – BY TAYLOR McKIMENS. IMAGE COURTESY of the artist.
~TAYLOR McKIMENS . . . PARTY ON !! OPENING NEW YEARS EVE !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 30th, 2012, 4:46pm
there’s ‘BRANDING’, and then there’s . . . . BRANDING !!
for the past year, as DUKE RILEY tells it:
Sully, Annie and myself have been the proprietors of a speakeasy called ROTGUT.
When we got together and decided to open a bar — a cheap place for our friends to hang out and drink on the low-down, occasionally do art, screen films and have bands play, we had no idea that this experiment would catch on and grow as it has.
We’re at 113 Franklin St, GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN – behind the wheelchair ramp.
Membership cards are $20 and come with 5 complimentary drinks (meaning, it’s dirt cheap!).
Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights after 11pm
We’re planning to extend the nights to Sundays for the month of January, for those of you who haven’t been down, and regulars who want more time.
And we’re taking suggestions for any final performances people might want to see there.
We will also have some ROTGUT memorabilia for you sentimental fools.
Anyone who has left their undergarments in the corner over the past year, this is the last month to pick ’em up.
DUKE RILEY.
see: DUKE RILEY
see: facebook.com/dukeriley
continues ….
~DUKE RILEY . . . PARTY ON !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 30th, 2012, 4:22pm
MY SO-CALLED CRAFTY LIFE !! GOES SWEET – on XMAS !!
so, of course in the middle of ‘trending’ the new season as a purely ‘graphic’ one – wouldn’t you know – a little hands-on folksy ‘crafts’ site out of NORTH CAROLINA – pops up on the radar.
well, I guess that’s what you get, when you start googling for vintage Christmas ornaments, and snowy Christmas card scenes.
though I think what really attracted me to this site – was not so much the ‘how-to’, as the cheery and simplistic, and (very authentic) vintage-originated graphics/dynamics . . . of the projects, of the craft imagery, and of . . . the over-all website design.
no, everything does not begin and end . . . . in Brooklyn !!
it’s also an interesting ‘end-run’ on the graphic ‘gentrification’ or generic secularization of Christmas, from baby Jesus in a cradle surrounded by the 3 wise men – to … ‘can-do’ toy trains, gaily wrapped presents, and jolly ole SANTA, himself !!
that secularization/illustration/design evolution, the hijacking (/) of Christmas, is an interesting story – waiting to be told. it doesn’t fit that neatly into simply … a spiritual vs commercial definition, that’s for sure.
back to the site itself, MY SO CALLED CRAFTY LIFE – can also be seen – as an interesting window into … Americana.
and how one other artist/crafter/blogger lives, to tell her tale and – share her world. if you look closely enough, little clues, of all kinds – pop up.
it’s as American – as apple pie. and Christmas. or should we make that . . . XMAS !!
check out: MY SO-CALLED CRAFTY LIFE … by ASHLEE
that seems to be: ASHLEE PARK, out of FUQUAY-VARINA, NORTH CAROLINA, according to the ETSY SHOP/PAGE
from: MY SO CALLED CRAFT LIFE – a hand-made CHRISTMAS BOWL – made with VINTAGE CHRISTMAS CARDS:
ALL IMAGES C/O MY SO CALLED CRAFTY LIFE
~XMAS CRAFTIN’ & BRANDING . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 30th, 2012, 3:44pm
Chingle bells, chingle bells . . .
FILE UNDER: DESIGN . . . CHINGLISH, or what ?!!
you know, ‘Chinglish’ – a kind of mangled English – most commonly encountered when reading a how-to-manual accompanying a cheap made-in-China product.
SO: just to show how ‘locked-in’ accurate – those centuries-old ‘celestial’ astronomer/astrologer ‘brandings’ were, across once greatly separated and very diverse patches of culture, and . . . how well their [very complicated] information . . . traveled through the ages . . .
consider this 2012 Christmas ornament, found in a local 99 cent store !!
ok. so it’s a great color – scarlet red, even though it’s made of thin, but hard plastic, and it’s nicely reflective, too. and, YES !! the white glittery ornamentation – is hand-painted !! the whole deal, 2 for 1 dollar – !! – approximates ‘real’ vintage Xmas ornaments – pretty nicely. but, there’s something mighty weird about it, no ?
something is definitely – OFF.
what the hell . . is that FERN-LIKE ‘flower’ or tropical tree-like shape – ablowin’ . . . in the snowy wind ?
I guess this is what – they were really, or originally going after . . . snow-covered Christmas tress !!
. . . rising out of the snow-covered ground, but having never experienced the reality, or just somebody dropped the ball design-wise ? the Chinese factory-worker artisans switched, as in inverted – the organic orientation, and put them – upside-down !!
Chingle bells, or what !!
yep, something got lost in the translation.
PHOTO: antique Christmas ornaments c/o Vintage Christmas Ornaments
these are the exact type of antique Christmas ball ornaments – that the Chinese 99 cent marketers were hoping to emulate. Made of shiny glass, they have hand-painted snowy glittery white scenes, greetings & details. I think I even have one or two with that exact snowy Christmas tree scene, but not exactly on hand. they are pretty common, or were. too bad there aren’t any in the collection pictured, above.
what an interesting graphic mix-up.
the implications re the transmission of ‘garbled’ multi-cultural info – in today’s global/babel world is apparently wide-open, you can only respect the ancients – for the strength and accuracy of their art, ‘branding’ & informational graphics.
PHOTOS & ARTWORK: NANCY SMITH, unless otherwise noted.
~LOST in TRANSLATION . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 29th, 2012, 9:30pm
JUPITER – PERSONIFIED !! image via Astrology on the Web
sweet info / communication / graphic design logo !! or what ?!!
talk about ‘BRANDING’ !!
JUPITER OVER MANHATTAN . . . .
well that does bring some other thoughts to mind, esp about cameras.
it’s funny, as in INTENSE (!!) . . .
if you think on it. the contrast between the kind of information early man picked up about JUPITER, that distant tiny bright orb they saw up in the sky . . . and the way they went on to classify its influence on them, which in turn – lead them in fact to . . . ‘deify’ it.
VS . . . the purely ‘pictorial’ information we get from that contemporary NASA composite photograph transmitted from space – in real time.
as to the question of the ‘greater’ force – i.e. the force behind the ‘ultimate’ design project – the night sky and the universe.
get this: the PLANET, SATURN itself – was/is the GREATER FORCE. it’s as simple as that.
I know it’s still hard for us to understand that a huge ball of ‘smoke’ and ‘light’- as opposed to an old man with a long beard or a beautiful damsel siren, or even a fire-breathing dragon – can be a ‘greater’ force. and that’s exactly why the early people ‘personified ‘ it.
and yes, that falls under: ART.
painting, sculpture, graphic design, logos, pictorial codes, maps, etc. etc.
the planet transmitted a powerful kind of ‘influence’ that drove civilization, just as surely as our mighty sun, sends warmth and drives agriculture, which in turn feeds, and nourishes us.
SATURN and its ‘impulse’ and perceived effect & interpretation of that affect – nourished us, intellectually – in the push towards advanced knowledge and evolution.
yep. it’s hard, even today, or esp today (!!) to get your head around that kind of ‘power’ transmission – it is so beyond our own 3-D existence – and that’s probably why – !! – the early peoples, and esp the Greeks, personified the planets, and the other heavenly bodies – as ‘GODS’ . . . .
in our own ‘image’. (also know as … the beginnings of ART !!, duh.)
like I said, talk about – the power of design branding !!
not to forget: informational graphics.
which is really quite amazing when we think on it, the knowledge they had of the planets and their inherent ‘powers’ – except to note how much more silent the world was once, and how bonded to the physical aspects of the earth and sky – our early ancestors – were.
so I guess the bigger question is: is there an even greater power, or master designer … behind the ‘planets’, an overall architect .. of the universe ?
IT’S SUPER INTENSE – to contrast that flow and ‘expression’ of ‘celestial’ power and information – to the technical triumph, (and, in way scale-back of intuited/experienced charted information) … of our contemporary world to being able to actually go up there – and actually photograph it !!
and then you realize at once – how absolutely ‘realist’ and yet inversely limited . . . the pictorial image really . . . is.
on some level, you really have to have had previous experience or detailed definition/knowledge of what is photographed – to be able to fully comprehend the ‘captured’ image.
I mean, just what does that incredible 2000 NASA composite photo of SATURN actually say, as in . . . . ‘reveal’,
esp with regard to the planet’s ‘powers’ or even its nightly journey.
or even, at base – that it rolls around in ‘space’. or even that it’s h-u-g-e.
our sense of its scale, does NOT come from the photograph per se – but from our previous knowledge.
in fact on some level, the photograph ‘denies’ the life force or ‘power’ of the subject. in case, the planetary sphere – where are the clues to its huge – centuries old documented spirit-existence ?
it brings to mind, just why those earth & sky bonded North American Indians were afraid of the photograph – it ‘stole’ the spirit, the life force of the photographer’s sitter. the photograph in its one dimensional ‘capture of ‘reality’ finds only the outer ‘image’ or physical plane . . By its very primal nature it – in fact DENIES the ‘hidden’ or inner life force aka the spiritual planes.
that’s why we, the art world so value photographers who can capture the inner aspect, such as WALKER EVANS, or even today … GREGORY CREWDSON.
and yes, you can file that under: ART.
SO, IT SEEMS, the more our modern super technology … ‘fact’ analyses the big planet … the more its spirit and powers … are minimalized at best, and downright denied at worst.
good-bye world as we knew it. maybe that’s what the Mayans meant about the end of the world /
yep, for sure. it’s hard to look at that photograph of a big ball of gases – and see “GOD”.
but WHOA !!
imagine the reverse scenario. instead of a big ball of yellow and gray swirling fumes – the space cameras had sent back an image of huge lone bearded guy floating all alone way up in space – in a kind of Christmas snowy snow-falling glass globe – ?
would we get it better, then.
I mean with all our centuries of religious imagery, maybe that would be more acceptable, but mighty w-e-i-r-d.
I mean do we really expect our ‘gods’ to be human in form ?
we are NOT supposed to.
most ancient religions are absolutely against portraying ‘god’ in a graven human form.
what do we expect ?
that out greater forces will be human-looking, just floating disconnected out there in infinite space.
????
I’m still waiting for the first ‘vocal’ recordings, from space. I do know from the Science pages – that they have finally admitted (!!) there are traces of ‘alien’ biology – in all of our DNA, from primordial micro creatures all the way up the food chain. I mean do we really think it’s going to come back as: a bearded man saying … ‘HELLO EARTHLINGS’ ???
more like, an alien from STAR WARS, how about JAR JAR !!
and he be saying . . . “WHERE ARE YOU ? HOLD ON, ON THE WAY TO HELP YOU ESCAPE” – !!
LISTEN TO: JUPITER …. NASA VOYAGER RECORDING
~JUPITER, PERSONIFIED . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 28th, 2012, 11:30am
and oh yeah – that bright orb of light you can see shining clearly by the side of the almost full winter moon over the city, at night – these past few days – that’s JUPITER !!
JUPITER, the ruler of the ancient gods, aka ZEUS . . .
“is a giant self-illuminating planet . . . a massive force, he radiates more energy than he receives”.
the bearer of good luck, “the greater fortune, law-giver, cosmic joker, healer and ruler of the higher mind. . . . Jupiter as he was known by the Romans, was called Zeus by the ancient Greeks. Zeus also became deus (God) in Latin, but the origins of the name are from Sanskrit … Jupiter was Dyaus-pitar” or – “Sky Father” – the original creator.”
“JUPITER governs joy, luck and well-being”.
source: ROB TILLET – astrologycom.com
so all you gritty big city dwellers – take heart. contentment rules – but … don’t blink, and don’t get big-headed !!
NOTE: PHOTO OF JUPITER – A TRUE-COLOR SIMULATED VIEW – COMPOSED OF 4 IMAGES TAKEN BY NASA’S CASSINI SPACECRAFT on DEC 7, 2000.
see: source/WIKIPEDIA
there’s cameras, and then .. there’s … cameras !!
we live in a great age of cameras.
we also live in a great age of design. graphic, and otherwise . . . as in ‘celestial’ – the night sky perhaps, the biggest design project, ever ?
hey, there’s design and then .. there’s … design !!
p.s.
design is often defined or explained as “visual communication” (!!).
just saying, connect the dots . . . for – yourself.
p.p.s.
it’s not just the cameras. it’s also a great age for the sharing of those photos.
we live in a great age of photo sharing, and info sharing. coincidence ?
I think, not.
as big as the night sky ?
I guess, yes.
so, the web is the inverse of the sky ?
DIY vs. DIVINE.
LOCAL vs. GREATER ?
DEC in NYC.
CODE ? REALITY ? DIMENSIONS OF REALITY ? PINPOINTS. DOTS. CONNECTING THE DOTS ON MULTI-LEVELS. MULTI-PLATFORMS.
LENA is the new LUNA ? forget CARRIE, who’s Carrie.
I guess the big question is … who is/define: the greater ?
I mean, imagine if there was no (celestial) sky, like there once was … no (internet) web.
looking up, has always meant getting carried … away. by behavioral information ?
navigation. by the stars.
it.s a mulit-platform kinda thing . . .
~and, JUPITER SHINES OVERHEAD !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 26th, 2012, 7:21pm
it started to snow heavy, but then it turned … to rain ?
but one thing’s for sure – the city’s love affair with home girl LENA – continues to burn strong !!
the ad campaign for the new season of ‘GIRLS’ – just went up on (mostly non-functional !!) payphones thru-out the city, or at least – for sure in Chelsea !!
LENA’S says: I RESOLVE NOT TO LET GUYS TREAT MY HEART LIKE MONKEY MEAT.
of course, JEMIMA has the f-u-n-n-i-e-s-t / and truest !! – last words !!
I RESOLVE TO NOT FLIRT WITH MY BOSS.
on the BOY side of things we have: CALL OF DUTY ?!!
the game of choice of the Newton Town School MASSACRE SHOOTER – so I’m not sure what that all means .. about the males in this town, (“it’s just the demographic” ???), but apparently the ‘GIRLS’ – aren’t far off on calling .. their social skills.
at any rate, one other thing’s for sure, just a casual stroll in this high-octane town is a high-end graphics design showcase, at every turn – any which way you look.
the COCA-COLA ‘SANTA’ campaign this year – was particularly sweet . . .
love how that COKE bottle is nestled – in the bow.
you gotta give it to the pros – they earn their dough.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. NEW YORK CITY, DEC 2012.
the payphone street ad photos – via iPhone
the ‘Santa’ pix – via a sweet little CANON POINT & SHOOT/ELPH
~MEANWHILE, back in NYC . . . LENA RULES !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 26th, 2012, 6:09pm
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL . . .
PHOTO BY: KATE CERIGO, WISCONSIN. DEC 22, 2012
via iPhone
~MERRY CHRISTMAS . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 24th, 2012, 10:05am
to all my friends, from KATE CERIGO . . .
There’s a big snow blizzard, here … today !!
PHOTO BY: KATE CERIGO, WISCONSIN. DEC 20, 2012
(taken with an iPhone bye the way…)
POSTED TO ARTLOVERSNEWYORK BY KATE CERIGIO. DEC 22, 2012/9:14PM
~GREETINGS from .. WISCONSIN . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 22nd, 2012, 9:14pm
DAN CASSARO INVITES YOU TO:
FIFTY AND FIFTY – THE STATE MOTTOS PROJECT
A CURATED PROJECT BY DAN CASSARO
FIFTY LEADING DESIGNERS AND ILLUSTRATORS REIMAGINE THEIR HOME STATE’S MOTTO
OPENS TUES DEC 18, 2012 / 7-10 PM
the show runs thru FEB 1, 2013
ACE HOTEL – 20 W. 29th ST – CHELSEA, NYC
see: FIFTY AND FIFTY
while you are there, don’t miss: DAN CASSARO’S OWN (STUDIO) PAGE – YOUNG JERKS (!!)
see: the work/gallery
& to see: the complete list of FIFTY FIFTY contributors/the show roster
~FIFTY AND FIFTY … OPENING TODAY / TUES DEC 18 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 18th, 2012, 1:31am
