Photo suite 159 --dis/embarkation

On a recent cruise we got on and off different vessels in many ways:

from a port taxi to a mooring platform

from the platform to the ship

at a dock -- usually the gangway goes up to the ship

sometimes it goes down

from the ship onto zodiac boats

from the zodiacs onto a boat ramp

from a floating platform onto the zodiac

Crabby again -- Andy Warhol version

I'm usually a big fan of Andy Warhol because I think he was instrumental in several of the big themes of contemporary art that I love -- multiples, grids, images from low culture, carrying his camera everywhere.  But I was annoyed to read in the New York Times this week about a body of his work that I had not been aware of.

These are called the "unstitched-stitched photographs" or "sewn photographs," in which Warhol chose a photo, made four, six or eight prints of it, and "hired a woman" to sew them together.  According to the Times, "at the time of Warhol's death, a stack of the photos was found next to a sewing machine, waiting to be stitched.  Recently, the Warhol Foundation's board decided that the best disposition was to have them stitched as Warhol intended, by the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia."

This account yanked my chain.

First, it always annoys me when artists decided that some form of needlework is just what the doctor ordered for their pieces, so instead of figuring out how to do said needlework, they have their girlfriend, wife or mother do it for them.  At least Warhol paid somebody to do the dirty work, unlike, I suspect, Claes Oldenburg (wife), Faith Ringgold (mom) and a lot of others I could name.

Second, now that Warhol is dead and Seriously Famous, they decided that sewing the photos together is So Important that it takes a Seriously Important institution to do it, not just some anonymous woman.  One might argue that "as Warhol intended" was to use an anonymous woman, not a Seriously Important institution (although the Fabric Workshop was founded just as Warhol was beginning this series, he didn't see fit to use them for these works). Why not just hire some unemployed garment worker to do the job?

Sign of the week

Photo suite 158 -- cars with credentials

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Sign of the week

Daily art -- last year, this year

For the last two years my daily art project has been collage, and for the last several weeks I've been agonizing over how to define my project for 2015.  In some ways I was ready to be done with collage; I lost my enthusiasm toward the end of summer and only a redefinition of the rules gave me a boost and got me through the year.  So I wanted to be sure that however I defined this year's project, it would be sufficiently different that I wouldn't start going stale before the daffodils appear.

I toyed with the idea of having no rules at all, just a uniform size so that I could attach all the pieces into a calendar-like array.  I've been drawn more and more to text in my art, so I toyed with various ideas for using found poetry or similar approaches.  I toyed with the idea of doing calligraphy every day.   It wasn't until 2 am on New Year's Day, as I was not sleeping and thinking about art, that I finally decided:

* I will still call it collage, although I might occasionally permit a day with just painting, printing, writing or drawing.

* Each piece will be 4 x 6".

* Each piece will include a word or phrase cut from that day's newspaper (or if no newspaper is available, some other printed material acquired or found that day.

* Each piece will include the date, preferably cut out of the newspaper.

So here's the first day's collage:

Everything I've done in 2014 is now up on my Daily Art website if you want to look at it.