It's Like a Bathtub in Here

I seem to remember taking some photos at Lee's screening, but I'm pretty sure this wasn't one of them. I'll get around to that later - I just wanted to direct your attention to this outstanding recent experimental graphic narrative on John Higham's blog. Not Obscure is always worth checking out for John's richly rewarding take on life on earth (particularly in a tiny Inuit village in Nunavut), but once in a while he drops one of his mind-bending art or literary gems in the mix, adding a whole other dimension. Case in point being The Adventures of Jack in Dreamland. "Enjoy"

Towards a Hier Good

"Click image to enlarge"

Thursday, March 26, 2009
6:00pm - 11:00pm
Screenings at 6, 7:30, & 9
Gayle & Ed Roski MFA Gallery
Graduate Fine Arts Building (IFT)
3001 S. Flower St.
Los Angeles, CA 90007
(Entrance on 30th St. between Flower St. and Figueroa St.)

Hi Good is Coming Down Fast

Thursday night marks the debut screenings of Lee Lynch's new film project (and one night only thesis exhibit for his MFA candidacy at USC) "Ned's Draw or the Murder of Hi Good" screening at 6, 7:30, and 9 PM at the USC Roski Graduate Fine Arts Gallery, 3001 South Flower (just east of Figueroa) LA 9007. Followers of this blog will be aware of my lengthy involvement with this project - in fact my very first posting relates to it. I was on the shoot in January, up near Chico, and got hundreds of documentary photos plus 12 hours of 'making of' video footage. Here's a handful. I'll try and post another selection over the next day or two.

I Was a Twentysomething Painting Pachyderm

Here's something from 1987 or so that I thought was lost in the mists of time (AKA the molds of the garden shed) but turned up during research for my forthcoming website www.dougharvey.la

I've always been fond of elephants, but I forgot how far back my interest in them as visual artists went. For the LA Weekly's 2003 List Issue I wrote:

"Sometime in the early '80s, a Syracuse zookeeper named David Gucwa gave a paintbrush to the African elephant Siri and a new branch of non-human art history was born. A few years later, Ruby, an elephant at the Phoenix zoo, became a media sensation with her prodigious output of vibrant works. Realizing the fund-raising potential, zoos across America began shelling out for art supplies. Russian artists Komar and Melamid were inspired to open a school for unemployed Thai elephants to learn painting — a story outlined in their 2000 book When Elephants Paint. These sarcastic foreigners have more than a little invested in ridiculing Modernism, but the good their patronage has done is undeniable — sanctuaries in Thailand, India and Bali now support themselves with work by dozens of elephant artists sold through online galleries at www.soarts.com and www.novica.com. The Balinese sanctuary has been suffering the tourist gap since those discos blew up, and may be assisted directly at baliadventuretours.com. Look for the link to the Have-a-Art Appeal."

Read the rest of Doug Harvey's Favorite Non-Human Artwork here. Those links may be obsolete, but a good place to start looking is www.elephantart.com

The Things in the Kitchen

Things have been pretty hectic what with the puppies and teaching a painting class and disposing of all my old art but I should plug this since I'm in it: L.A. collectors Sirje and Michael Gold have curated the art auction segment of the annual fundraising event WIDE ANGLE for the University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach, pairing "thirty established artists with thirty artists whose works have been less accessible for Southern California audiences". I'm the latter, paired with Roger Herman. For my piece, I actually took Roger's woodcut kitchen image, flipped it horizontal, and then found all the entities hiding in his composition. There was a preview (and the silent auction of some paired works began) on March 12th at the SmogShoppe in Culver City, but the live auction itself is at the UAM (CSULB, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840-8401) on the 21st in conjunction with a Salle/Armitage shindig. The art will be viewable at the UAM from March 18th through the 20th from 12 to 5 PM. More info here. Above: Kitchen Below: Chien TK (Dog is Coming)

Bonus Art Tip: Chloe actually ate the buff titanium oilstick I used on my painting, and I called the ASPCA poison hotline, and they said that it was OK, and it was.

S'more Paintings

There's been a recent surge of shows by painters who were included in last January's Third Annual LA Weekly Biennial: Some Paintings, and I was hoping to write a roundup piece for the Weekly. Unfortunately, scheduling it was too much of a nightmare, so I'll just use this forum to alert the world to the following current, upcoming, and missed opportunities to catch up on the LA painting scene. Above, Chloe experiences a Dutcherific thought bubble embolism at LAVC's Intuitive Eye: The Diana Zlotnick Collection, which also includes this c. 1960 work by mysterious SP participant Michael Oledart, as well as pieces by Adrian de la Pena, Llyn Foulkes, and Michael Arata.

Mark Dutcher's work is also the subject of a typically spectacular solo show called Havilah at Steve Turner Gallery through March 21. Below: Total Eclipse, 2009


Brad Eberhard's solo debut As Different as Twins is up under the auspices of Thomas Solomon Gallery at Cottage Home through March 14th. Below: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 2009

Tomory Dodge's latest ACME show After Forever is also up through the 14th. Below: Stars, 2009 

Llyn Foulkes, Charles Irvin, and Victoria Reynolds are all featured in Ali Subotnick's Nine Lives: Visionary Artists from LA exhibit at the Hammer Museum, up through May 31. Foulkes: The Lost Frontier, 1997-2005; Irvin: Untitled, 2008; Reynolds: Flight of the Reindeer, 2003







There's also a bunch of shows that have come down, but can still be digi-seen online, including Esther Pearl Watson at Billy Shire, John Kilduff at Jancar, Lisa Adams at Lawrence Asher, Monique Prieto at ACME, Michael Arata at Woodbury University, Constance Mallinson at Angles, David Korty at Michael Kohn, and Kaz Oshiro at Rosamund Felsen. You can understand how I had a little trouble getting organazized! And I'm sure there's a couple I've forgotten - I thought I saw something about an Annie Lapin installation in Pasadena, but it ain't googlin'.

Oh well. Watson: Washing My Hair in the Tub, 2008; Kilduff, Internet TV Collaboration #5, 2008; Adams: After the Deluge, 2008; Prieto: Tomorrow Morning, 2008; Arata: Nigel negotiating Obstacle Course, 2008; Mallinson: Decaying Olympia, 2008; Korty: Untitled (Magazine Stand), 2008; Oshiro: Untitled corner Piece (Turquoise), 2008.