Ghosts of Halloween Past and Future

Well it’s Halloween again, and despite the fact that it’s one of my most favorite holidays, I’ve opted to dress up in costumes at home this year rather than brave the cold chaos outside. My husband and I set up a photo studio in our apartment and took some pics of our impressive costumes. Here’s a few of them here:

Lilik models as an Underwear Terrorist

Me as Betty the Bedrudged

Last year I actually went to a Halloween party, the theme of which was Dictators & Natural Disasters. I ended up dressing up as a Dick Tator, and carrying around a suitcase full of hot tator tots ready to eat. Here’s the pic (unfortunately we didn’t set up the photo studio last year, so it’s not the best, but it’ll give you the idea, anyway :

Dick Tator

And then there’s next year… What might I dress up as next year? Here are a few ideas I’m pondering:

The Black Belt Sanitary Napkin

The Hula Dancer

Yip-Yips (with one other person)

Three Little Pigs & a Wolf (with 3 other people)

Giving Birth to a Husband Costume (?!)

Wow. I don’t think I can top that one. Impressive! And weird.

Happy Halloween to those of you celebrating!

Image Links

http://www.wtfcostumes.com/type/scary/index.php?page=5 (WTF Costumes)

http://www.hilariousheadlines.com/5-funny-halloween-costumes.html (5 Funny Halloween Costumes)

http://www.marthastewart.com/274618/your-best-halloween-costumes/@center/276965/halloween (Your Best Halloween Costumes)

http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2011/10/effin-creepy-vintage-halloween-costumes.html (Effin’ Creepy Vintage Halloween Costumes of the Day)

http://www.coolest-party-ideas.com/halloween-costume-party-pictures.html (Coolest Halloween Costume Party Pictures)

Art with Googly Eyes

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of googly eyes. Working on my thesis project for grad school, which will be a lo-fi horror film and live performance titled Red Blob Massacre, I’m all about giving my Red Blob character googly eyes. There’s something about googly eyes that adds a bit of humor to any situation. Googly eyes have a DIY feel to them, you can buy them for cheap at any local JoAnn Fabrics or other art store, and they turn anything into a character. What more could you want?!

Here are several examples I discovered of the creative use of googly eyes:

Baby Googly Eyes

Googly Eye Breakfast

Googly Fashion

Googly Veggies

Googly Framed

Street Art Googly

Googly Googly Monster

Googly Face

Blue Monster Googly

Googly Eyes on a Rock

And I can’t make this blog post featuring googly eyes without including some of the work by my amazing husband, who is a painter and artist:

I have to say that googly eyes in his artwork are my favorite out of all of them. And that’s not just because he’s my husband!! To check out more of his work, visit his website(s): http://swidyoa.com/home.html, http://www.impressionphotography.com/swa/index.html and Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Biantu.

On another note, in the creation of this blog post I realized that my amazing blog post ideas are far from original. There are several googly eye posters out there!! For more interesting googly eye sightings, visit here: http://googlyeyewatch.blogspot.com/.

 

Image Links:

http://www.googlieyes.net/2010/11/my-first-post/ (GoogliEyes)

http://hilobrow.com/2010/09/02/merit-badge-2/ (Hilo Brow)

http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2011/10/fashion-diy-louboutin-googly-eye-slingbacks/ (Dollar Store Crafts)

http://www.thebandfrom.com/indoor-gardening-tips/2009/03/ (Indoor Gardening Tips)

http://artsandcraftss.com/tag/craft-googly-eyes/ (Art Sand Craftss)

http://ny.racked.com/archives/2011/03/30/mr_googly_eyes_replaces_lady_gaga_in_nolita.php (Mr. Googly Eyes Replaces Lady Gaga in Nolita)

http://www.wijom.com/Monster_Paintings.php (Wijom!)

http://www.art.uiowa.edu/gradimages/gradarchive.php?artist=Krueger,%20Adam%20C. (School of Art & Art History, University of Iowa)

http://www.makingthingsmove.com/2011/09/the-blue-monster/ (Making Things Move)

http://googlyeyewatch.blogspot.com/2008/05/nina-katchadourian-loves-googly-eyes.html ( Nina Katchadourian loves googly eyes )

Die Tomato, Die!!!

Last night I performed a piece, Die Tomato, Die!!! at the Performance Laboratory, which is a bi-monthly performance event I co-curate at the Contemporary Art Institute Detroit. The theme for this month was Death.

I performed Die Tomato, Die!!! for the first time last April in a seminar in grad school, then titled Tomato Smashing. Here are some pictures from that performance:

It was a successful performance, and I made a lot of discoveries by doing it. One of them was that smashing tomatoes with a hammer was more difficult than I thought (they roll off the table, especially if they’re not ripe enough). Another, that the juice sprays everywhere, including on the audience, who in that particular space space (an empty studio space) was in close proximity. As they were sprayed with squirts of tomato juice, my peers grabbed a plastic sheet on the floor that just happened to be there, and used it to protect themselves from the bursts. There were plenty of  yelps and squeaks as I worked away with my hammer. It was hard to be serious even though I was trying to be- I really didn’t know what would happen, and everything was unfolding in the moment.

The performance was aimed to be an exploration of the RED BLOB, which has been a theme I’ve been experimenting with in my work over the past year. I’ve done all kinds of experiments around the idea of what the red blob might represent, without wanting to define it too specifically as one particular thing. In the tomato smashing context, the tomato represents food and cooking (and a female doing it), there is something quite gorey about it as it is smashed, and it has an interesting context in a performance, especially with me, as the performer, smashing it. Usually it’s the audience members who throw the tomato at the performer…

So, with all these things in mind, I recreated this performance last night at the Performance Laboratory for The Death Show. And it went really well! In the context of death and horror (two other themes I’m working a lot with right now), I wanted to continue with the seriousness of the piece, choosing atmospheric ‘scary’ background music. I chose a costume that was a bit more ‘glamorous’ than the previous one, and was a red color just a bit deeper than the tomatoes, but would be partially hidden behind my white apron. I also added a timer, that I set to 10 minutes long, which is the duration limit for each piece at the Performance Lab. I added rubber gloves, which accentuated the horror effect and made a lot of people laugh in nervous anticipation. And lastly, I handed out plastic bags to the audience members in the first row, who were in close proximity to my table. Oh, the anticipation!!!! AND, I waited to enter for added suspense- just the audience staring at those shiny red tomatoes and a hammer with plastic bags on their laps, waiting for something to happen….

Here are pictures from the performance:

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I have to say, this is definitely one of the most satisfying performances I’ve ever done in my entire life. There is something so incredibly liberating about covering an audience in tomato juice. And even though it was a serious piece, there was a lot of laughter, a lot of participation, and a continuous dialogue between me and the audience. This is still a work-in-progress, and I plan on continuing to develop it for more future performances. I feel so thankful to have the Performance Laboratory as a continuous forum to try things out and experiment. I couldn’t have asked for a more willing and accepting audience, one willing to get covered in tomato juice for the sake of good and experimental art. I don’t know if this would happen everywhere… it would certainly have to depend on the context, and the space that I performed it in.

You can read a review of the Performance Laboratory’s Death Show on the Midwest Theater Review: http://midwesttheatre.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/detroits-performance-laboratory-journey-to-the-interdisciplinary-fringe-a-review-by-edmund-lingan/

For more info about the Performance Laboratory, please visit our facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Performance-Laboratory/139602749441643. I co-curate this event with collaborator Carrie Morris. It takes place at the Contemporary Art Institute Detroit (CAID) every other month, featuring short works by artists and performers that explore what performance is, and what it can be.

Death, hibernation, rebirth and growth

I’ve been meaning to write a post about death for the last couple of days. It just seems that death is everywhere right now. October, is all about death. Which is a good thing to put attention to once in a while, you know? A little ODE to DEATH. A little hello, how are you. A little acknowledgement that- oh yeah, death exists. Everywhere, all the time. Just as life exists, death exists too. And in October in particular this year, it seems to be significantly present.

First and foremost is the way the leaves on all the trees are dying. This is the time when free-spirtited, sunny, hot summer transitions to cold, intense, icy winter. Here are a few recent photos of the trees and dying leaves around my neighborhood:

The amazing thing about this time of year is that even though everything seems to be dying, it’s incredibly beautiful. There’s a change taking place in the environment that is not only visible externally, but also felt internally. I know that this time of year can be hard for a lot of people. It certainly has been for me- a lot of questioning, inner turmoil and struggle taking place. And yet… it seems like it’s a good thing, despite the fact that in moments it can be very challenging. Even though it’s just the beginning of a long, SNOWY winter. BUT- and there is a but- there is always rebirth on the other side. All those leaves will bloom again, things will grow back fresh and new, and we will appreciate it all once more as if discovering it for the first time. And that’s what I appreciate about changing seasons- it’s an opportunity to get in touch with a cycle within our own selves that reflects the environment around us- a cycle of death, hibernation, rebirth, and growth.

Other things about death this month- well obviously Halloween. It’s like suddenly everyone is obsessed with the morbid. Part of Halloween is about dressing up in something completely out of the ordinary, while the other part is about celebrating the imminent death that lurks behind every corner. Our own little ZOMBIE world. As a tribute, I’ve found a lovely zombie animation from vimeo:

zombie! by animation block

And then, of course, we can’t ignore the recent death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Obviously, this is a huge victory for the people of Libya who for 42 years suffered under a man who “warped his country with his idiosyncratic vision of autocratic rule.” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/20/gadhafi-was-a-brutal-unpredictable-leader-killed-b/ Washington Times). I am very happy for this new (and surely challenging) phase in Libya’s history post-Gadhafi. And yet- is any death a celebration? There’s nothing wrong with fictionalized zombie movies and the imagination of horror, but when the real thing is played over and over on the television screen, no matter how important it is for so many people, there is an element of disturbance that goes with it. What if Gadhafi had lived, and had to pay for his atrocities in another way? Would not that have perhaps been even better? In the same way that the death of Osama Bin Laden was celebrated this past May, there is something fundamentally wrong with celebrating any person’s death, no matter how atrocious they were. I can’t say what is right or wrong in this situation, and I don’t in any way want to undermine the importance to the Libyan people in this moment of rebirth from a very long and dark period in their history. But… I wish there was another way to heal wounds besides death in this situation- it just seems like a never ending cycle.

In the end, it all comes  back to that cycle I described in the beginning of this post. A continuous cycle of death, hibernation, rebirth and growth. Internally, externally, and for people and communities all over the world. We can only hope for the best in every situation, and remember that death, in its essence, is meant to remind us of our own precious lives, and to be thankful for them. Perhaps the best death there is is the imagined death- the death that becomes a means of artistic exploration and acknowledges with a light heart that in the very end, despite everything, we’re all going to die.

On second thought, food IS art.

So after I wrote my blog post yesterday about how I was much more inclined to cook up some food than make some art, I realized that I had neglected the fact that food, indeed, is a bona fide ART FORM. In the context of yesterday, food was more about EATING for me than making anything artistic. However, I agree that food in itself can be an awesome outlet for artistic expression.

In lieu of that, today’s blog post is dedicated specifically to the amazing ART of FOOD. Included below are some impressive food art examples:

Artist Carmen Wong’s pizza in a pill, part of her artwork Tactile Dinner Car, an immersive interdisciplinary art and food experience:

For more information about Tactile Dinners, visit this website: http://www.banishedproductions.org/portfolio/tactile-dinner-long-view-gallery/, along with a review: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/14/AR2010051405170.html.

La Figa Visions of Food & Form by Chef Tiberio Simone with photography by Matt Freedman:

Tiberio is a friend of mine from Seattle and has been working on his La Figa book project for several years. Born in Southern Italy, Tiberio runs his own catering business La Figa Catering, wowing arts and public audiences alike with his amazingly delicious food creations and artistic sensual food visions. Find out more about his book here: http://www.lafigaproject.com/the-book, along with his catering company: http://lafigacatering.com/home.html.

Food Fight: An abridged history of American-centric warfare, from WWII to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict:

Not only is this video an excellent combination of food and stop motion animation, it also provides a breakdown of the actual battles portrayed in it. For the breakdown, visit the creator’s website: http://www.touristpictures.com/foodfight/index.htm (tourist pictures). AND, stay tuned for more stop motion and food amazement down below.

Here are a few more images of the ways that food has been artistically manipulated:

And lastly, I can’t go without including the work of one of my favorite artists of all time, Jan Svankmajer, who amazingly explores the themes of food and consumption in most of his work:

Jan Svankmajer: Food, Part 1 (1992)

Jan Svankmajer: Food, Part 2 (1992)

I LOVE Jan Svankmajer’s work. It’s absolutely amazing. I could watch his Food videos over and over again.

And that, my friends, is my blob post dedication to the ART of FOOD.

Image Links:

http://eyelevel.si.edu/2011/09/luce-center-pizza-in-a-pill.html (Luce Center: Pizza in a Pill?)

http://kate-campbell.blogspot.com/2011/08/food-as-form-decorating-human-body.html (Food As Form: Decorating the Human Body)

http://www.worldoffemale.com/food-as-art/ (Food as art)

http://weirdspy.com/food-art/ (Food Art)

http://www.digitalbusstop.com/greatfood-art/ (Great Food Art)

http://www.deepfun.com/2004/03/edible-art-and-aesthetics-of-fun.html (Edible Art and the Aesthetics of Fun)

When cooking seems more artistic than actually making artistic work.

Perhaps it’s the change of seasons. Or, perhaps it’s because I’m about to get my period. Or… perhaps it’s just that I’m tired of art this week. Either way, I’m much more inclined to throw a sheet of cookies in the oven, stir-fry up some black beans with onion and bell pepper and stuff them in a taco shell, and in general focus on food and cooking more than spending tedious time trying to figure out what the hell I’m trying to say with art. Because the fact is, I just want to eat. And I want to smell things cooking. And I want to see the finished product of those mouth-watering coconut cookies that offer instant gratification with a nice hot cup of chai and a lingering sweet taste in my mouth. Yum. Thank goodness for food when art-making feels laborious. Here are some good (and interesting) cooking instructional videos I found online, in case you want to do the same.

Great Depression Cooking with Clara: Baked Apples. YUM.

Cooking with Dog: Ichigo Daifuku (Strawberry Daifuku)

Cooking for Krishna: Vegetable Spring Rolls and Peanut Dipping Sauce

Mouth watering now. Must digest, and then cook again.

How to artfully make your dog look like an idiot.

I think I’m more excited about dressing my adorable chihuahua Jay Jay up for Halloween this year than I am for myself. There’s just something about dressing a dog up in a silly costume that is absolutely HILARIOUS. And the funny thing is, I never thought I’d be much of a dog dresser until I had a dog of my own.

Jay Jay in his favorite mohawk hoodie sweatshirt.

I grew up with chihuahuas. And I was exposed from an early age to the art of dog dressing. Chihuahua dressing, in particular. My Mom was so good at dressing up our miniature chihuahuas Edna and Lucy and taking photos of them that she won several awards at the County Fair for them. Here are a few of her best dressed dog pics:

Edna Mae as Santa Claus.

Lucy Potter.

Lucy sporting her trendy gray hoodie!

If I ever were to make an Etsy or online craft business of my own, it would be a dog clothing business. Because dog clothing: 1) takes less fabric than regular people clothing, which means it costs less to make; 2) offers lots of room for creativity in finding all the many ways you can make your dog and other people’s dogs look ridiculous; and 3) can be sold for high prices. People are suckers for anything ‘dog’. I mean, come on, look at all the puppy calendars. Look at the dog bags. Look at the dog car stickers. Look at the dog psychics and dog masseuses. Look at everything ‘dog’, and then tell me that a dog clothing business is not a marketable endeavor. PLUS, look at the PRICES for dog paraphernalia. You can charge twice as much for a dog jacket as you can for a human one. And do you know why? Because there are way more human jackets than there are dog jackets in the world. In other words, the market is still in need of creative dog clothing innovators.

Anyway, in my search for dog Halloween costume ideas, here are a few memorable dog costume examples that I’ve discovered on the internet in the process:

The Star Wars Costume.

The Big-Eared Sailor.

The Teddy Bear.

The Michael Jackson.

The Dinosaur.

The Darth Vader.

The Clown.

The Scuba Diver.

The Incredible Hulk.

The Dog in Drag.

The Captain Hook.

The Grandma.

The Chia Pet!

The…. Lady in Braids. (poor dog!)

Have to stop.. posting dog costumes. I could do this all day! Now, to seek the most original costume idea for Jay Jay… What are some of your favorite dog costumes? Please share!!

Image Links

http://impressionphotography.com/ (My amazing mother’s photography website!)

http://www.neatorama.com/2011/10/07/at-at-dog-costume/ (AT-AT Dog Costume)

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/darling-diy-dog-costumes-258668 (Darling DIY Dog Costumes)

http://boisegoodnews.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/good-pet-costume-contest/ (Good pet costume contest!)

http://extrememichaeljackson.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/dogs-dressed-as-michael-jackson/ (Dogs Dressed as Michael Jackson)

http://i-brain-zombies.blogspot.com/2011/09/doggie-dinos.html (doggie dinos!)

http://candysdailydandy.blogspot.com/2010/05/snoop-jingle-jing.html (Snoop Jingle Jing)

http://www.family-vacation-getaways-at-los-angeles-theme-parks.com/Halloween-Costume-Prize-Winners.html (Halloween Costume Prize Winners)

http://catronfashion.com/Dog_Costumes.htm (Dog Costumes)

http://wiresmash.com/funny/very-cute-halloween-dog-costumes/ (Very Cute Halloween Dog Costumes)

Fake teeth baby pacifiers: PURE ART.

When I have a kid, he/she will definitely be wearing one of these:

 

Image Links

http://unapologeticallymundane.com/2011/02/04/donut-hole-babies/ (Donut Hole Babies)

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=109;t=000460 (Baby teeth!)

http://www.incrediblethings.com/lists/18-weird-products-for-kids/ (18 Weird Products for Kids)

http://aprilleflye.blogspot.com/2011/03/top-15-craziest-weirdest-baby-pacifiers.html (April Leflye)

http://superpunch.blogspot.com/2011/01/lil-vampire-baby-pacifier.html (Super Punch)

http://whiteningforteeth.net/billy-bob-teeth-pacifier (billy bob teeth pacifier)

A few of my favorite songs growing up

The Bangles: Eternal Flame (1986)

I remember having a crush on a boy in 1st grade and singing this song to him. The Bangles were awesome. Even though I didn’t know their band name at the time, their music ruled my world. Other favorites included Walk Like an Egyptian and Manic Monday. After splitting in 1996, this rockin’ girl band got back together in 1998, and apparently just launched a new album on Sept. 27, 2011 titled Sweetheart of the Sun.

Arrested Development: Tennessee (1992)

I used to love Arrested Development. I still remember the tape and its cover, which I fondly brought with me everywhere:

Now when you type Arrested Development into Google, you come up with more info about the t.v. show than the band. Apparently they’re still playing music, and are located in Atlanta, Georgia. My favorite memories of listening to Arrested Development was with my Dad in his car on the way to dropping me off at school.

En Vogue: Giving Him Something He Can Feel (1992)

This was the soundtrack to life in 7th grade. This was the song me and my girlfriends listened to while dreaming about cute boys and trying to figure out what puberty meant. At this point, my dream was to star in the school talent show singing this song. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t, but at that time, it seemed like the coolest thing to do ever.

Apparently, En Vogue reunited in 2008 and is back on the scene! I’m keeping my eyes out for the divas’ newest single I’ll Cry Later.

Radiohead: Creep (1993)

Radiohead was the first alternative rock band that I started getting into, in the 7th/8th grade. I was more of the R&B type until then. In fact, I didn’t even know who Nirvana was until the day everyone in junior high was mourning Kurt Cobain’s death. Creep symbolized my transition into the grunge scene, and was an important song for me at that time.

As I’m sure you all know, Radiohead is still alive and well. I’m a big fan of their music to this day.

That’s all I’ve got for today, but this blog post will be continued, with more tunes from childhood coming soon!!

Time tics away in blog world

Hi folks,

I’ve been attempting to come up with something creative to write for the last hour or so, but for the life of me I just can’t think of anything witty to say. I’m curious to learn how other famous bloggers manage to channel their creative blog juices over and over again…. Certainly the world wide web is a source of inspiration- all the info and prompts one could ever want are an instant click away. But…. for some reason, none of them are really catching my fancy tonight.

And so I sit and stare at this empty blog post..

Tic, toc. Tic, toc. Tic, toc.

Time is passing by as I write. I don’t often read how long it takes other bloggers to write a post. If you were getting paid to write a blog post, how many hours would you be clocking in by the week?

And yet, this blogging thing is not about the job, necessarily. It’s about… sharing ideas with the world.

Even if those ideas are sometimes… a bit on the slow side. Slyly waiting underneath the rug for the right time to reveal themselves.

And so time keeps ticking. Waiting for the next blog post inspiration.

Until then, I will continue to artfully clock my time in anticipation.