Art For Obama 2008 Benefit Auction

Oh, did you hear the banks are failing? Stock Market crashing? At least this blogging thing is free and can keep all of the un-employed photographers amused while they surf the net. Maybe a new president can help this situation? It would be nice to see what Barack Obama could do.
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The bidding starts Wednesday October 1st at 5pm.
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Buy some art from these luminaries and move things in a positive direction!

More in at http://www.artforobama.net/

Self Google

photograph by Chase Allgood

Digging deep into the art of Self Googling this weekend...

It was nice to have Tony Fouhse acknowledge Thomas Broening and I in his "10 +" list on An Art Buyer...it's always nice to know you are not invisible. Reading that TB's "cockrocking" phrase has spread north into Canada was a real good sign for the power of photography and our national spirit. TB's blog is something I read every single day, but I always felt that his readers were kinda mean-spirited or something. Were they really all tech oriented dudes who subscribe to View Camera Magazine? And they always seemed so willing to take a stab at him over the smallest thing. It always seemed to me that my readers all had master's degrees at the very least. I don't have a master's degree in anything, but my readers all do seem to be smarter than me. For whatever reason, they all seem to be on their best behavior. Rarely is there a full on attack.

These are pleasures and terrors of Self-Googling. One of the most flattering thing I found Self Googling was this, by photographer Chase Allgood, back in July. I think it is a great photograph, and of course I am flattered by the reference. It is titled "Psychic Break".

Isaac Leung / Lingnan University

On Friday Isaac Leung from the Lingnan University Department of Cultural Studies in Hong Kong flew to the states, arrived in San Francisco, rode BART to the El Cerrito Plaza Station and took a cab to my office in El Sobrante. He's working on his thesis. Somehow I figured into his project with the publication of "Sex Machines : Photographs and Interviews" that came out in 2006. It seemed like he had recieved some sort of funding for this research.

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Before he booked the flight I got nervous and wrote him a note: Look, I need to be frank with you before you spend all of this time and energy coming out here. I'm simply this suburban-Dad type of guy who did this project on a subculture. I'm not part of any sexual scene out here. I have no machines. I'm a photographer and this is simply a project I did.

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He seemed to understand and here he is, at my front door, smiling and gracious as he pays the turban-wearing cab driver and unloads his camera and gear into my house. His thesis? The title is "Queering Sex Machines: The Cultural Formation of Non-Normative Sexualities and Contemporary Technosexual Practices. "

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As an interviewer, he's a pro and had done his homework. His questions were spot-on and made me think; he seemed to know all the characters in the book. With some apology, he asked the following question that really was a keeper. My only hope is that I remembered it correctly:

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IL: So with the technological advances that are being made concerning the future of sex robots, are you optimistic about the future?

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TA: The future of what?

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IL: Optimistic about the future of our civilization. Do you feel that humans will continue to have sex with each other even when faced with a potentially perfect sex robot?

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TA: Oh, I dunno. Do I really need to answer that?

Lost Continent at Todd/ Browning in LA

Just got this snapshot from the gallery director...there were four other artists in the show. The gallery promises to send some other shots so we can see the show in it's entirety....

The show is up until October 4th.

Home Made Money

Late Afternoon

Late afternoon is when the electronic noises start. The sounds of an electric train accelerating and leaving the station, the sounds of an engine shifting into high gear, the beeping of a garbage truck when it is backing up. The sounds of a hydraulic lifting mechanism. The beeping of a microwave oven, but very, very loud.

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TA: Can you make those noises any softer please?

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EA: No, I can't. That is the the volume that the machine creates. It can not be turned down.

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TA: Oh.

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The electronic noises have been around since he was three. Later that year came the robotic voice: the voice that sounds as if it is a recorded message being spoken through a faulty static-filled public address system. Flat monotone, metallic sounding but still vocal, it is not a robot voice as much as a recorded anouncement, stated clearly and slowly. It usually begins with "May I have your attention please. All passengers..." and always ends with the words "Thank You" stated through the static.

Pebble Beach / Snow White

Snow White Discovers The Cottage by Thomas Kinkade, 24 x 36

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Every now and then you come across a curve ball that surprises you...out of nowhere...just when you thought you had made up your mind on an artist. I spent the weekend working on a project for StoryWorldwide set in Carmel, CA. The area is packed with art galleries of every sort...galleries on both sides of the street...galleries specializing in sculpture, landscapes, dancing sculptures, every niche you can imagine. To my uneducated eye it all looked like schlock- the stuff you'd find decorating a large hotel lobby or corporate building.

Ha, ha, ha...hey, lets go check out the Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery. Ahhh...I hate that guy's stuff. OMG...it is all so bad...and packed with people...!

Kincade's work has always been a reference point for me....I've never known why. I think that sometimes one just shouldn't ignore something that has achieved mass success...because there just might be something there. With Kincade, I never saw it, always mocked it. But this weekend I saw the above image " Snow White Discovers The Cottage , 24 x 36 " and just was moved by it. It's cartoony, its humorous, and sincere all at the same time. Epic in the way that all of Kinkade's work tries to be epic...and then there is this Disney character practically cut and pasted into the space. Here is what Kincade has to say:

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...the prince's castle where Snow White will eventually discover happiness looms majestically in the distance, while a foaming waterfall and fanciful animals remind us that she is at peace with all of nature.

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Does this statement help it or hurt it? Is it a sales pitch? I dunno...probably all of the above. For whatever reason, it all seems to carry a punch for me and it just feels good to look at it. Sometimes art can live in both worlds, sometimes it can really speak to everyone...though maybe for different reasons. We don't need to pretend we are too cool here....we can admit we haven't seen everything. Art sometimes delivers the goods despite itself. Click on the shot above, see it big, and see what you think...

TA photographing Pebble Beach / 17 Mile Drive 9/19/8