Category: purposes and ponderances

August 1, 2013

Tomato Worms and Other Crazy Stuff in the Life of an Artist

GODZILLA in the Garden

I am not a veteran gardener. I am sort of a half-hearted one, to be truthful. I have had lots of support from friends and from the great folks from Stark Fresh, however, so I took on a new adventure this year, seeing as though I have a yard for the first time in a long time.

I had no idea of all the different things you have to worry about when gardening. And I certainly had no idea that GODZILLA would show up in my small little group of container gardens!

I had a little bit of fun, posting about this critter, now identified as a Tomato Hornworm, on my Facebook page. I got lots of comments. Some folks admired the 4″ long creature, but most, like me, considered him a monster.

Lets face it. He devoured the better part of my pepper plant in less than 2 hours. And to beat all, he just left parts of peppers hanging, as if going through someone else’s box of chocolates and leaving a bunch half eaten.

He was too big to smush, so, on the advise of some of my more genteel Facebook friends, I relocated him to the abandoned house across the street. Good riddance GODZILLA.

One less genteel friend suggested that I tear him in two. Ugh! I did not want to touch the thing, nor did I want to take the chance that it would haunt me in another life.

Others jokingly suggested that I move. And that brings me to what this post is REALLY about.

It is not because of GODZILLA in the Garden. But I do have to move. AGAIN.

If you follow me in social media, or if you follow this blog, you know that I moved to my present home in March of this year because of a great opportunity offered to me in an Artist Residency. It remains a great opportunity. But my home, it turns out, was not the best house to move into.

I won’t say much, as there may be legalities involved. It is, however a matter of public record that my home has been deemed unsafe for human occupation due to lead hazards by the Canton City Health Department. I therefore, must move.

I am currently in an urgent search for a new home within the boundaries of the neighborhood designated for my Artist Residency. It is not an easy search, as there are few rentals in the boundaries. That is part of what makes it an attractive neighborhood for development, ironically.

I have not wanted to post about this. I wanted to wait until the situation was resolved. It is just taking longer than I would have liked.

And I am not good with accepting things that stay unresolved for an inordinate amount of time.

This situation has affected me deeply, and is part of why I have not posted much on this blog of late. It is really hard to keep a positive face to the world when things are crumbling in the most basic arena of your life – your home.

And if I can’t be positive, I don’t want to write.

There will be much to write about this later when I can look back on it and say it was just another one of my adventures. I look forward to that day. In the meantime, I am going to try harder to find the humor in the struggle, as I was able to do today with my GODZILLA in the Garden.

Wherever I move to, though, GODZILLA in the Garden is NOT welcome to follow.

Stay tuned…

June 3, 2013

The Boulevards: Artist Residency Update

Around the county, a number of disasters have socked Americans in the gut in recent weeks. Whether it was the mighty force of nature hitting Oklahoma with violent tornadoes, the negligence of forethought with a fertilizer plant exploding and leveling the small town of West, TX, or the terror of extremists bombing the Boston Marathon, our collective expressions of horror have been uttered all too often of late.

We could call it the “Spring of Aghast”.

Although it in no way approaches the horrific nature of the aforementioned disasters, a small taste of the “Spring of Aghast” has touched my own community of The Boulevards where I am engaged as an Artist in Residence.

On Wednesday, May 29, 2013, we discovered that last year’s Boulevards’ art project had been vandalized at the hands of someone who apparently attempted to steal the very well anchored pieces.

Unable to simply pull them out, the thief broke 2 of the painted houses and knocked over others as they attempted to pull out the deep posts anchoring them. One of the broken houses was taken, but the others were still in place.

Like Moore, OK, West, TX, and Boston, MA, The Boulevards is a quality community that is full of good people. It is a safe neighborhood that is characterized by people who take pride in their homes and community.

It is not at all defined by this unfortunate act perpetrated by a goofball. In fact, we suspect that this was done by someone outside of the area.

Our motto is truthful: “The Boulevards: A Community of Creative People Who Care About Their Community”.

When disaster strikes, or when fools destroy the creative works of proud people, the first human response is emotional pain. It hurts and we can’t escape from the reality that our world has been assaulted.

After adjusting to the new realities of vulnerability and destruction, however, the next human response is to get creating and building, fixing what was broken and renewing our human commitment to creativity.

Not only do we fix-up what was broken, we make it better, and we allow our pride to drive us to doing more creative works that perhaps we would not have been previously inspired to do.

So to the goofball thief hoarding a broken green house in his or her home, I hope you are enjoying it. You won’t be able to share it with others, as everyone knows where it came from, and it has been reported to the police as stolen property.

Your little stunt has emboldened Boulevards residents to become more involved instead of scaring them into resignation.

We won’t waste our time trying to find you, as we have better things to do. Try it again, though, and you will be caught, as extra security will accompany future projects.

And there will be future projects – lots of them! I have been meeting with residents and we are making big plans for this year’s project. Stay tuned – designs and plans will be announced soon!

Follow activities in The Boulevards at our new blog and website!

May 27, 2013

Art, branding and being stupid about it all: Abercrombie & Fitch

Paradoxes, Purposes and Ponderances is a series of articles written by Artist BZTAT commenting on current events and culture.

You have no doubt read about the latest Abercrombie & Fitch controversy, or maybe you have seen people lamenting and gnashing Facebook teeth about it. Maybe you saw Ellen Degeneres’ televised A&F smackdown, or have read celebrity tweets admonishing the allegedly “cool” clothing brand.

At the heart of the controversy is a Salon article about the company’s CEO Mike Jeffries, that, in fact, was published in 2006. It is not clear why the article has re-emerged in 2013, but one particular quote from Jeffries has stirred many to cry foul in the present:

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

Many people see Jeffries’ statement as a direct and insensitive slight towards individuals who are too large to fit into A&F clothes.

No one chooses to be overweight or larger than size 10, which is the apparent limit to “coolness” according to Jeffries, self-appointed arbiter of “cool”. Many people make food choices that may lead to extra girth (myself included), but no one decides that they want to be heavy.

So, if we ascribe to Jeffries’ definition of “cool”, there are “haves” and there are “have nots”, and one will always be inferior to the other.

Obviously, Jeffries’ candid statement of belief has some people up in arms.

Some have sought to get A&F to change, insisting that they make larger sizes. Some have implored people to donate A&F clothing to homeless people in order to trash the brand’s promotion of their vision of “coolness”.

A&F and Jeffries have defended the brand, however, and they have shown no desire to change. Should they change?

I don’t think they “should”. They are under no obligation to stop being idiots. We are also under no obligation to buy their product.

When Jeffries took over the struggling company in 1992, he rebuilt it in the way that an artist approaches a creative work. He created an imaginary world, inventing ideals that fed perceptions of emotionally immature adolescents looking for self outside of their own being. Using artful photography, A&F pushed ideals of youth, attractiveness and sexuality into a youthful consciousness, implying that only certain individuals that fit the ideal were worthy.

Digital art by BZTAT

If the A&F images and fashion designs had been displayed on gallery walls, they may have been heralded as an amazingly creative concept and an interesting aesthetic.

When art coerces people to change their individual mindsets about themselves, AND when people are manipulated by art into purchasing products in order to feed a false collective mindset – that is another thing entirely.

Art and commerce rely on tapping into an existing mindset, though, to be successful. Collective and individual mindsets change.

Jeffries apparently has not gotten the memo – our collective mindset is not as elitist now as he once presumed it was.

It is no longer “cool” to put others down in order to put yourself ahead. It used to be cool to be exclusionary, but now? DUDE! That’s SO yesterday.

Diversity is Cool-Art by BZTAT

Today’s cool kids care and treat others with respect. They are self assured and they base their sense of self in their talents, skills, and openness to diverse perspectives.

Their sexuality and appearance are part of who they are, not all of who they are, and they have no interest in the false ideals that are promoted by Abercrombie & Fitch.

The new cool kids may find the A&F imagery interesting on a gallery wall, but their purchasing power will not follow.

Those whom A&F considers “cool” are seen in modern culture to be insecure bigots and snobs. Not exactly the sort of brand identity that sells overpriced clothing.

Mr. Jeffries – you overreached in both art and business. Recent reports of your demise in stock and sales declines make you look so uncool.

I don’t think you should change. I think you should lay in the bed of ruin you have made for yourself.

“Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp (1912)

It was an interesting experiment to see how gullible people can be, but then, so was Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain”.