Back from vacation

Back from a little vacation and battling a virus that put Grant on his back for 3 days. I'm slowly recovering, moving from bed to couch and back again.

The above picture is Ben Godward's piece, titled "Convenience Warhead" which will be making an appearance in Pocket Utopia's FAAN show. Please adopt this beautiful piece, it needs a home.

A 2-hour Oasis

Every once in awhile an opportunity presents itself, and I think that's what creativity is-an opportunity. Today, a new babysitter is upstairs and I am in a very quiet basement spot, not next to the dryers, but out in an anteroom, on the other side of the dryers, next to a window where I have a slight internet connection. No one is around but me in freespace. I'm just typing, thinking, and working on Pocket Utopia's next show.

The next show will be the 5th official and 7th in a series of trying out my post-studio practice in a relational aesthetic way at a nicely renovated old storefront in Bushwick. This place provides other artists an opportunity to show their work and speak about their ideas. Together, for maybe a 2-year period, after that that project will probably change, us artists are looking at other pocket utopias, discussing art-world issues, art-making, and community. Pocket Utopia is primarily funded through an editions program where established artists (defined as artists that have gallery representation) contribute their time and creative energy in producing and creating a limited edition silk screen-type print or Gocco.

Pocket Utopia is a salon space and social sculpture. It is not a gallery. It's more like a salon and studio space. There's no phone in the space, no backroom, no frontdesk. There is a place for artists to work, I call it a "post-studio residency program," and it's basically a table with a chair. Artists using the space to make work get a key and can work there whenever they want, like a studio. We have monthly salons called "Excuse me, you have art in your teeth." At the salons, relevant art issues are discussed and food is served. The next salon will be about money and art.

The space, like this blog, is about art-making. Whether online, in a space, or in an anteroom, I am out there making work. I guess I should go start my laundry now.

The photo above, of the laundry room bookshelf, was inspired by my fondness for Nina Katchadourian's sorted books pieces.

Away from downtown and down in the basement and off to the upper east side

Friday night found me gratefully drawing on a bench at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the European Galleries. I've filled so many sketchbooks that now I just have file folders filed with my preferred and beloved graph papers and newspapers. I'm still working on my "unstraight" line drawings on the cover photos from the New York Times everyday and realized tonight that my craved and taped up rulers really need to be redone. My line in getting tired and I need to change it up. So tomorrow I'll lay out all my rulers, remove their taped up edges and re-tape them up to interesting effect, I hope. I haven't reworked my lines since August, so it is definitely time.

After awhile at The Met tonight, I heard a security guard's voice ask, "Can I peek?" I looked up to welcome the security guard's view and once again my "freespace" became social space and we discussed work and being creative and inspired, and I definitely was.

A perch that is a pocket utopia

I have photographed and worked in this spot on my living room floor so many times that I've decided to make a perch of a pocket utopia out of it.

Freespace is a state of mind.

Down in the basement working tonight. Lots of people doing laundry. Earlier this week I worked down at 60 Wall Street. Lots of "down-under" working. I need to work "up" somewhere. Lots of people in both places nagging, stumbling, playing backgammon or drying clothes.

On a conference table at garden-level I spread out and worked on my New York Times cover-photo drawings. The conference table is at Grant's school. The table faces an ideal Greenwich Village garden. I can work there quietly for a couple of hours. It's an interesting and very viable "freespace." It's not my space and I have learned to coexist in it.

Before "freespace," I would walk into another person's studio, home, office, or workspace and immediately think about how I could alter and use it. I'd make mental notes about possible changes.

Today, the secretary at Grant's school offered me coffee and I was grateful to sit while Grant and his schoolmates rumbled above me. The only change happened on paper and only my state of mind was altered.

Freespace is a state of mind.

Down in the basement working tonight. Lots of people doing laundry. Earlier this week I worked down at 60 Wall Street. Lots of "down-under" working. I need to work "up" somewhere. Lots of people in both places nagging, stumbling, playing backgammon or drying clothes.

On a conference table at garden-level I spread out and worked on My New York Times cover-photo drawings. The conference table is at Grant's school. The table faces an ideal Greenwich Village garden. I can work there quietly for a couple of hours. It's an interesting and very viable "freespace." It's not my space and I have learned to coexist in it.

Before "freespace," I would walk into another person's studio, home, office, or workspace and immediately think about how I could alter and use it. I'd make mental notes about possible changes.

Today, the secretary at Grant's school offered me coffee and I was grateful to sit while Grant and his schoolmates rumbled above me. The only change happened on paper and only my state of mind was altered.

RISD students visit my basement laundry room freespace

Friday afternoon found me running between Grant's school and the basement in my multiple efforts of post-studio mom, artist and gallery/salon director. Everything coalesced into one art form momentarily for a few students from RISD.