I have started a freelance project this week that has forced me to get back to playing around with my Adobe programs. It is really satisfying learning new tricks, even if it’s just a 3 second effect of wheels spinning in time with a bicycle. I feel like a wizard.

This week I have spent my morning commute to work reading a book called 33 Artists in 3 Acts. So far I have read about Jeff Koons (I am not particularly fond of his work) and Ai Weiwei- his piece Sunflower Seeds speaks to me on a deeper level.

(Side note: I have only just kicked a 15 year addiction to sunflower seeds. I used to buy a bag of Frito Lay Sunflower Seeds daily until about 10 years ago when they were discontinued in Canada- probably for the exorbitant amount of salt they contained. I have been known to go into US convenience stores and buy out their supply of Frito Lay Sunflower Seeds. I have confused many US convenience store employees)

The sunflower seeds in this piece are actually hand made and porcelain.

I particularly like a chapter with Gabriel Orozco. I enjoy his analysis on Warhol, Koons and on himself:

“Warhol was a transvestite. It’s not the same as being fake. Warhol was trying to produce cheap production systems. Koons is exactly opposite. It’s expensive and very expensive. I would say one is a Pop artists and the other is a capitalist artist.”

On his own work he says:

“I try – it is not easy and I fail constantly- but I try to be a realist in my work. There is humor, but I’m not flirting with the art world or engaging with the frivolity of the market. Perhaps I’m real because I am not playing games in terms of manipulation or cynicism. Perhaps I’m real because I grow from my work. My work is in between the entertainment industry, big market powers, the spectacularization of political demonstration. It offers, I hope, some moments of intimacy with reality,”

+       +       +

 

+       +       +

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love podcasts. I have always been a really big fan of the Pete Holmes podcast ‘You Made it Weird’ (admittedly I have not listened to in some time). This week I did listen to the Jay Duplass episode-  great for many reasons. They talked about going through the malaise of life, religion and circumcision.

Here is a link:

https://nerdist.com/you-made-it-weird-400-jay-duplass/

Since it is kind of the Jesus weekend, I want to post this quote that was mentioned on the podcast:

 

 

In the spirit of show and tell, this is a book I found in Sao Paulo, featuring my favourite installation artist Olafur Eliasson. He was a featured artist at the International Contemporary Art Festival SESC Videobrasil in 2011 (also I have officially decided that it is hammock weather).

My Playlists

I have been making playlists since I was a child. As a kid I wasn’t allowed to listen to ‘secular music’ so my first rebellion was music. I would tape songs off of the radio and then listen to them at night when it I should have been sleeping, over and over again.

Growing up, our family would do a 10-11 hour road trip to Chicago to see my family/cousins about twice a year. My cousins are like sisters that I only get to see a few times a year so I have always equated the US with great memories. Here is a picture of us at Christmas. I’m the one front and centre looking like a real BETCH.

Around the age of 12 I started taking the role of ‘road trip DJ that nobody asked for’ very seriously. After the car was packed and seats were called and after my Mother had passed back the first round of homemade chocolate chip cookies and double checked that every one had gone to the washroom- I would diligently pass my meticulously thought out (stereo burned) CD to the front of the car.

Is it strange that I see it as some kind of auditory collage? Well that is how I see it. I almost obsessively think about how each song compliments the other, if it makes sense as one composition. I hope you listen and that you find songs that you love and songs that push you a little out of your comfort zone.

30 Minute Playlist – I Wish I Was a Camera