A Mobius Weekend

Ox and O's performance at Mobius 1/16/10

_ I returned from my trip to Boston and my performance in the Mobius Work in Progress series feeling elated. The Ox and O’s piece was well received and seemed to engage the audience as participants as I had hoped. There is always some trepidation when attempting to encourage the audience in a participatory event. Beyond the “will they participate” jitters lies the wondering if they will engage on the level you intend or horrors… engage in ways not intended or imagined.

Audience participation in Ox and O's at Mobius

_ Mobius, a Boston fixture in the experimental art scene since 1977, is hosting these Works in Progress both to introduce the ongoing work of artists but also to give the audience a chance to discuss intent with an artist mid project. The feedback aspect is of particular importance as we get a sense of how our work is being perceived.
My work on this project, while being essentially worked out here on the blog still has many aspects that I was pleased to have an audience; for the experience of this feedback aspect. Initially thought of as personal symbols, my handstamps developed a game aspect as well as becoming a vehicle to examine identity and the role of choice. At Mobius I decided to present this as a game performance with the audience invited to use 40 of my carved pieces on prepared tic tac toe grids as a collaboration. The audience was simply invited to play with no further instruction and could take the collaboration home at the end of the evening. Three other artist were simultaneously performing their pieces as the audience freely moved about either observing or engaging the artists.

Question and Answer artist discussion after performances

_ After an hour we all regrouped and a question and answer session began.

I had a chance to get some insight as to what people found interesting in this piece. Luckily people did seem to find it interesting... on two levels; both how the game operated in relation to choice and how the stamps were beginning to function in a semiotic sense. The fact that I’m starting to have enough symbols to evoke a nascent vocabulary seems like an avenue for further exploration. One question pertained to whether I would begin using contemporary symbols. This also seems like a great area to explore as there are certainly current events and choices therein that continue to form and change the identity. A further suggestion on future display of audience produced works has led me to consider another video highlighting the play aspect of this piece as people became more adventurous "outside the grid".

Melissa McCarthy and I

_ Adding a great icing to the cake was a chance to meet two artists that up until now I had only known virtually. Melissa McCarthy, (mixed media and Fluxus oriented work) made the trip from New Hampshire to see the performances and it was great to get to know her better. Melissa was able to add great color to the question answer session with her insights. Another friend is Jane Wang, who is a member of Mobius and has an intriguing body of performance and installation works that I first became aware of earlier this fall. Jane shot video during the performances and her clips can give a better sense of the evening than my descriptions. Jane Wang video clips of Work in Progress.

William with Jane Wang; experimental and performance member artist of Mobius

_ So, all in all a great opportunity for me. Two more nights of the Work in Progress are scheduled for the 29th and 3oth of this month. Many thanks to Mobius for that opportunity and their work in presenting cutting edge art for over 30 years. Special thanks to Mobius artists; Margaret Bellafiore, Jed Spears and Joanne Rice as curators and for their efforts to make possible the Work in Progress series. I’m always inspired by artists who can juggle their own work as well as organize efforts on behalf of the arts community in general. Please take a moment to visit the Mobius site to view their biographies and art.

Next !!

_Preparing boxes of handstamps for Mobius exhibit

_This week in the studio I’m working toward putting some parentheses around my Ox and O's work in progress for this weekends exhibit at Mobius in Boston. My current work on hand stamps, choice and identity will be on view Saturday the 16th at 8pm at 725 Harrison Ave. in Boston. I say parentheses because the exhibit is part of the Works in Progress program running at the gallery this month and my work on this idea seems to find new tangents to explore. So I’ve got to wrap a cover around where I am at this particular moment and present what I’ve got. Those that have followed my thinking out loud here have seen the personal mythology symbol stamps and Ox and O's game box. I’ve also produced two videos and an handmade artist accordion book. This weekend I want to explore an aspect of choice that I need an audience for: how our identities are constrained by the choices we are NOT allowed to make.

Collection of personal mythology symbols

_When I think about this game (or life) played with choice I think of the tic tac toe grid as a structure which constrains the freedom of expression and identity. There are many things we are not able to choose; our place of birth, our sex or orientation, our parents or their status and many others. So to further this idea I want to involve others in a dialogue in order to gather material via photos and video for the next phase in this project.

_From the press release: “Simple tic tac toe grids on paper are provided as well as a selection of the artist’s hand-carved symbols. The audience completes the work by playing the game and taking the art home.” So perhaps by next week this will evolve from constraint, choice and personal identity to the interlocking grids that form our social mesh.

At ZieherSmith for Visual AIDS opening

My card is top row just to right of my head

_The windy city title that Chicago bears could be applied to my weekend trip to NYC. Braving the cold was a small price to pay for slipping into the the Big Apple for a couple of shows. The main mission was attending the preview party for the Visual AIDS benefit at ZieherSmith gallery in Chelsea on Friday night. Packed doesn’t begin to describe the gallery as Karen and I arrived around 6:30.

The exhibition consists of postcard-sized works created by artists both well known and not so well known. All the work sells for $75, with the idea that you could pick up a work normally out of ones league; except that the pieces are signed on the backs. So if you’re looking to collect Ed Ruscha or Ida Applebroog you better have a good eye.

preview party at ZieherSmith

_No sales were allowed during the preview and all works were on display, if one could get close enough to see them. A perimeter trip took about an hour with a couple of time outs for refreshment. Karen and I were on the look out for my piece and those of several artist friends that we knew had contributed to the show. I managed to locate mine as well as one by Keith Buchholz.

Center postcard by Keith Buchholz

_Earlier that day we had also faced crowds at MoMA to see the Tim Burton and Bauhaus exhibits. Burton’s was approaching unviewable status because of the number of people allowed in at a time. Still with selected slipping and jostling we were able to see enough to confirm my admiration for Burtons creativity. From his early years growing up in Burbank his sketches and other works on paper show the arc his career would take. Many early ideas eventually find their place in later movies or animations. I hope to get another look before this closes at the end of April.

Entrance to Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA

_The Bauhaus exhibit will only be up until Jan. 25^th so if you haven’t seen it yet…! The exhibit struck me with the feeling that so many of the ideas worked through during its existence seem so integrated in our design sense as to be like the air we breath. It simply is there.. all around us. The implications of the artist commanding the machine and production has now spilled into our information culture although one wonders whether we will ultimately have inexpensive but beautiful information or corporate noise.

Entrance to Bauhaus exhibit

_As a side note I have always loved the work of Paul Klee and to see his puppets right after the Burton models and props once again proves there is nothing new under the sun.

Irons in the Fire

_Mobius flyer for Works in Progress. Anyone Boston bound?

_This year begins full of frenzied work. Good frenzy because it’s always better to have too much art than not enough…right? At least it’s good for my discipline to order priorities and not fly off in too many directions; at least for a month or so.

Mobius, Boston’s premier alternative artist space, is hosting Works in Progress on four dates this January. I’ll be presenting an installation/collaboration on the evening of January 16th. My Work in Progress (WIP) is a continuation of the Ox and O’s game I’ve been working through on this blog. The original hand stamps I started with soon became conflated with images from a personal mythology. My thinking has found a variety of tangents involving choice and the development of identity.

The idea of presenting a WIP is a bit nerve wracking. There’s always the feeling that with a bit more time this particular artistic endeavor will become more clearly defined. Yet an opportunity to get the work out to a larger audience promises to push my idea in new directions. While the details are still coming together, I envision my piece as collaboration with the audience. Partially completed works on paper involving my grids will be available along with a variety of the hand stamps for the audience to “play” with… actually completing the collaboration. The audience then takes the work with them.

I’m also working on re-editing and expanding my Ox and O’s videos in order to provide a visual cue as to how the “game” works.

Work for the Visual AIDS Postcards from the Edge benefit

_The Visual AIDS benefit, Postcards from the Edge has its preview party this Friday night (Jan. 8th). I plan on attending to continue my support for this cause. The show is at ZieherSmith at 516 W 20th, NYC. My piece for that show also involves the choice theme and grid format. My Dec. 10th post has more detail, but in essence while AIDS prevention and treatment has made some advances many countries' programs remain unimplemented or underfunded. The challenge that this disease presents must be faced as infection rates continue to climb faster than those receiving treatment.

Karen at work on template for applique for Dream Rocket quilt panel

Dream Rocket!... Another iron in the studio fire this month. A must do before the end of the month. Luckily I’ve got a start on this with the design and templates for my appliqué made. Probably most of this piece will have to wait until after I finish with my video and props for the Mobius performance. Luckily my wife, Karen, is collaborating on this as her flight time on the sewing machine is far greater.

More than Mail Art !! :

_I’ve received some mail art masterworks!!!

From Corrine Bayraktaroglu of Jafabrit’s Art came a beautiful embroidered piece. This is actually one that caught my eye a while back on her blog. She describes its origins and her associations better than I, so a visit to her blog is definitely in order. The picture doesn’t really do justice to the loose threads that define the features of the figure in the piece. Inventive in its translation from a sketch on paper to an embroidered piece, the threads amplify the loose freedom and power of Corrine’s drawing. Corrine’s note indicates that I can do as I wish with it; use it in an assemblage or frame it..whatever…but yikes; how to improve on it leaves me at a loss.

"Shroud" - Collaboration with Ria Vanden Eynde

But speaking of collaboration leads me to a simple painting on silk that I sent to Ria Vanden Eynde, asking her to do something with it. Her input totally transformed the piece; providing context and a hauntingly arresting work. Her title “Shroud” is also perfect description for how she used the translucency of the silk to provide a veil for her self-portrait.

Ria Vanden Eynde

Her description of her working method is perfect. Visit her Art on the Road blog for more pictures and details about this collaboration. (My meager contribution is the bamboo and iris painting on the silk.)

Now and Then - Art by Mara Thompson

Mara Thompson also sent me one of her pieces and it arrived in the nick of time. Her “Time Management while you Sleep” system is just what I could use right now. Mara’s piece is actually a set of pillowcases that have the words Now and Then.

Art "product" and packaging by Mara Thompson

They were packaged with pictorial instructions as well as a “bonus” memory device for my finger. Mara’s mailart is a perfect Fluxus play on humor and irony in a beautifully conceived “product” format. Also visit her mixed media pieces here.

Thanks to all for the wonderful mail art I've received! I'm already thinking about adding an art annex for exhibiting everything!

A Million Little...Choices

_A Million Little… Choices _ Accordion book submitted to Sketchbook 4 - Evertson©09

_The Art House Co-op’s Sketchbook project opens January 29th in Atlanta and will travel to Brooklyn, LA, St. Louis and Chicago.

This is the Co-ops fourth time out of the gate with exhibiting artist sketchbooks. This version differs in that the sketchbooks become part of a permanent library maintained by Art House.

Inside front cover

The library is intended to be searchable by artist, title or subject. Topics were suggested in the blank moleskin books mailed to participating artists. While artists were free to create in their own style the topics do provide another search option for those visiting the collection.

I received my book in November with a suggested theme of “A Million Little….”

The book gives me the opportunity to explore my ongoing work with game play and the grid in yet another format. Tic tac toe or Noughts and Crosses is simply a basic grid on which a simple child’s game is played.


This blog has documented this work in progress from its beginning as hand carved stamp designs to conveying a simple symbolic language with the designs acting as pictographs intended to represent moods or ideas. I introduced the grid on the blog simply as a way to showcase different stamp designs. My way of thinking evolved so that I began to see the grids as fields where the choices we make in life begin to overlap and form our makeup as individuals.

The sketchbook was made from original drawings that I scanned; I added additional drawings and stamps to the scanned work…and rescanned…redrew…and finishing with handstamps and some cutouts.

Finished book is approx. eight feet unfolded

Art in the Mail

_All the way from Brazil; arriving on Christmas eve came a wonderful surprise from Angela Ferrara. Angela sent an example of her Five Maries game box. Angela has also submitted this piece to Fluxhibition 4. Very nicely made and a beautiful piece of Angela's art for my archive.

Five Maries _ A game box by Angela Ferrara

Um Livro Sobre A Morte at MuBE

_New works will be exhibited in Brazil to coincide with A Book About Death this February

_Finally a post that isn’t about hands or stamps or grids and choice. Not because I’m done riding that train; but there are other projects in the works.

One of these is the artist call for works to compliment the A Book About Death exhibit that will open in São Paulo, Brazil at MuBE, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura this February.
A new blog by Angela Ferrara details information for the call as well as the continuing life of the ABAD project, originated by artist Matthew Rose.
A Book About Death is Um Livro Sobre a Morte in Portuguese and seems to roll off the tongue as it highlights the international contributions of this exhibition.
Ferrara’s blog continues to build on the original ABAD blog with the new works submitted to the project exhibited online as they are received. The blog is nicely done with information about MuBE, the original exhibition of ABAD as well as downloadable poster art. The artist’s works as well as links to their websites and blogs are posted making this a great global networking opportunity.
With many new artists contributing to the MuBE project the range of dialogue and voice continues to expand and refresh the original exhibition. Submissions deadline is January 30, 2010 but be forewarned that regular mail to Brazil can take several weeks.

My submission: No Books for the Dead ©evertson09

Both my original piece for the Emily Harvey exhibit and the second piece I made for the Queens Museum’s Dia de los Muertos exhibit contained a insert with poetry. This latest piece continues the insert tradition while the imagery diverges. Although I’ve long used type, topography and words in my art, it really has only been in the last year or so that I’ve had any confidence or desire to include any “real” writings as part of a work. Thinking that the images needed to stand-alone for the viewers interpretation to work, I avoided the literal use of words in favor of their shape or their use as a compositional element. An element that usually played a rather minor role in the overall effect I wanted in a work. The mail art nature of this project allows me to use the envelope nature of my images to include a “letter”.

Poetry insert to my card ©evertson09

The three pieces I’ve created to date for the ABAD projects involve differing methods of creating the word and image interaction. My original piece began with the writing portion. Afterwards I staged a photograph to accompany the word. In the second piece (for the Queens Museum) I created the image and worked out a poem based on the image. In this piece for MuBE, the image and word creation intermixed and I found myself back and forth as I modified each in tandem.

Sitting in front of the TV and watching death a step removed from its reality is something we live with at an ever-increasing rate. Never mind make believe video game violence; we are exposed to sanitized death at a velocity unimaginable to our generations before. Welcome to virtual death or abstract death. The individual visual and sound bite describing extremely horrific events are sandwiched together; and glossed until the scale of our collective death toll is incomprehensible. A famine, a genocide, a homicide and war casualties can fit easily in the first five minutes of news spilling from the lips of our news anchors.

In our surreal situation, death is not real unless it happens to you on TV; and a significant market share sits back and watches.

And Much Much More..

_Witness - evertson©09 - contribution to Postcards from the Edge

_The 12th annual Postcards from the Edge event will preview January 8th at ZieherSmith in NYC. My contribution to this years benefit is based on my work in progress on games. My Hand ᔓtamps that evolved their pictographs, that led to a game, that led to a video and an internal dialogue concerning choice. My work (above), created to benefit Visual AIDS is based on my progression of thoughts on choice or more to the point; artificial choices that are sometimes placed before us. Since 1988 our response to AIDS has progressed, yet there is much more that remains to be done. World wide infection rates continue to rise faster than those receiving treatment. So while leaders in most countries acknowledge the threat and have national policies, many are not implemented or funded. Some countries continue to stigmatize and the resultant discrimination proves a threat to universal treatment access. My message: accept the choice for treatment and cure.

Visual AIDS was one of the first national initiatives to record the impact of the AIDS pandemic on the artistic community. It brought together the arts and AIDS communities through its renowned national projects DAY WITH(OUT) ART, Night Without Light, and The Ribbon Project.

Some thoughts on my videos about choice from 12/3 and 11/25:

_I use the grid as a metaphor for choice. In my art game of Ox and O’s the outcome is not so much the game as the choice of a mark. The original X and O are marks that signify a separation of me from you; my self from your self. We are two unique identities with our purpose being to block another identity from winning. In OX and O’s the purpose lies in examining the relation of the pictographs chosen for game play.

Now – Why I like Jackson Pollock. We love to categorize and separate things into boxes. We love to create these categories and examine things in isolation. I love to think about symbols and their meanings. I liken these symbols to zip files that unbundle into wonderfully complex fully functioning programs. You can examine these in isolation or you could create myths and allegory. You could pick them up and dash them on the grid. Mix them up, drip into each other, overlap; let them create their own mythologies.

Next..

My winning Nightball ball from '06 with assorted zine pages and t-shirt

_I recently sent Christine Tarintino some wood. Actually it was a partially burned croquet ball in response to her request for artists to submit wood for a mail art/performance event to take place at D’Wildwood Studio in Wendell, Massachusetts. Christine will be constructing a sculpture from the submissions, burn the sculpture and mail ashes to the participants.

My contribution to her fire/totem project consisted of a croquet ball I used in the 2006 Nightball Tournament. It already shows plenty of fire damage already and seemed appropriate. Regular visitors here have heard a bit about Nightball but for everyone else: Nightball is a game, loosely based on croquet, originated by myself and a small group of equally creatively challenged friends. The game is played at night, follows croquet rules except cheating is allowed (encouraged actually) with the only additional rule being don’t get caught. Since the game is played at night all sorts of improvised lighting is used with flaming equipment being a sure crowd pleaser. This annual NightBall performance (over 25 years) also produces a variety of spin offs like t-shirts and zines which I used to carefully pad and protect the ball on it’s trip via mail to Christine.

☛ Hands Around the Web: ☚

Since I've been using hands lately in my work serendipity has led me to many other artists doing interesting "hand" work. One very nice blog I've come across is Seth Apter's Altered Page blog. Seth is a NYC based mixed media artist and photographer who produces wonderful handmade books from his images and found object. I was led to one of his latest creations called Handbook and found his use of texture and image extraordinarily compelling. Seth's blog is also a gateway to other book artists and their techniques. The variety of links to other book artist blogs makes Seth's site a treasure for other bookmakers and mail artists. I corresponded a bit with Seth and sent him a couple of my hands in the hope that he'll be able to use them in a future edition of his Handbooks.

Another great use of hands is the public sculpture Flock of Hands by Olga Ziemska which was installed in Yellow Springs Ohio this fall. I saw this first on jafabrits blog (photo by Corrine Bayraktaroglu) and also some more on a post by Virgil Hervey at the Yellow Springs blog. Olga's sculpture involved the residents of Yellow Springs by soliciting volunteers to have their hands cast and later installed atop poles. The result is very intriguing. Without a doubt this town is doing public spaces right thanks to it's vital artist community.

Mail Art Received:

_In my mail from Jennifer Zoellner were two items I haven't posted but are currently on display here in the studio. One of which is a bit of a mystery as I started with an image by Ria Vanden Eynde, added to it and returned it to her. Now I receive a version with additional art from Jennifer??? How this happens is beyond me but it makes for some big smiles.

Two collage works by Jennifer Zoellner

_My new mail art friend Igor Bartolec of Serbia also posted me some work. Collages and photocopier work that I've been admiring for a week or so and am starting to feel a bit guilty that I haven't made a return by now. This weekend maybe.

Collage and Photocopies - Igor Bartolec

The Choice is You

Ox and O's box with multiple choice grids _ evertson©09

_I spent more time this week exploring the Ox and O's box work in progress. I started thinking about how to expand my thinking from a simple object - the box, to how it could function in a setting where people were actually encouraged to use the stamps. My first thought was how chance occurrences would lead a group to begin using combinations of symbols that would go beyond my personal free associations that create the carvings. The grids of the tic tac toe pattern are beginning to function as decision fields where all sorts of possibilities exist.





The grids as fields also act as personal fields of decision making. As children we learn game play with simple combination games. When our moves are blocked we learn strategies for overcoming obstacles. Of course as adults our decisions are complex and multi-layered.

Ox and O's...the movie

_Drawing from inside cover _ evertson©09

_My hand stamps found their way into my Artifact and Art Box; which contains the "game", Ox and O's. Loosely based on the tic tac toe game or in some countries, Noughts and Crosses; my piece is an assemblage of reflections. This assemblage although an art piece is also a game to be played.

Ox and O's...the movie

_As I carve my stamp hands; as much as I am trying to work out symbolic themes, I often find myself carving pairs of simple opposites. That dualistic thinking led me to "package" the idea as an art game of opposites. Noughts and Crosses appealed to me because of its simplicity as well as its role as an early childhood learning game. Much of the creativity we learn as children is from the result of play. I liked the fact that it becomes easy to develop strategy. With such a rapid learning curve every game soon ends in a draw. Of course, at that point the child learns all the game has to teach and moves on.

_The Ox reference comes not only from both simple word association of ox with x, but also its historical reference to Zen ox herding pictures as metaphors of the spiritual journey.

Ink painting by Gyokusei Jikihara _ 1982

Poem by master Kuoan _ 12th century

_The particular stamps I use in this version of the "game" are the Brush Holding Hand and (the word) Artifact. The creation and the created. An oblique reference to the unique struggle that can arise in artists and other "creatives" between immersion in process and a product. Process/ Result.

Collage_ Samsara V1a_evertson©09

_The interior collage is based on the original art of Ria Vanden Eynde, who inspired me to include a samsara reference to my box. Her original drawing of the grasping hand is shown in the post from November 14th.

_The Ox is a favorite subject of mine. About 10 years ago after a trip to Thailand I did some sketches based on oxen being worked in fields. It was probably during that time I came to realize the aptness of the ox in the herding metaphors.

Ox in Candlelight - evertson©05

Ox's and O's

_Artifact and Art Box containing Ox and O's - ©evertson09

_Ox and O's with the Artifact and Art stamps

©evertson09

_While working through various carvings of my Hand ᔓtamps I knew I wanted to use them as more than a chop or addition to the mail art I exchange with other artists. I used the tic tac graphic to frame some of the designs and this brought to mind using the hands and their carved symbols in a game.

Starting to wrap the binder board frame with book cloth.

This is the construction of the Artifact and Art Box. The box contains my "game" of Ox and O's. The piece measures 4.5 x 11 x 1.5 inches and contains two stamps as well as other art and "game" material.

Box taking shape with an interior drawing

and a formed copper mesh cradle for each hand.

Cover and ox pen drawing. Box interior showing

Hand ᔓtamps, Samsara collage and pull string

for interior compartment.

Raised lettering on cover is created by stretching the

book cloth over hardened glue.

Tic tac toe is a simple child's game that many have played for ages. Using an X or O as a mark, the players take turns trying to achieve a win by making three marks in a row. As children we sometimes develop strategies that enable us to win; until our opponent catches on. The best play ends in a draw. Simple games such as these are combinational games and the simplicity of the rules lead to predictable choices.

Glueing the interior cover drawing

The box contains two of my stamps: A carving of a hand holding a brush; my symbol of art or artist and the carved word Artifact. The game play, of course, is incidental to a speculation on the nature of our work as artists and by extension our production. A constant play occurs between our works as artists in the marketplace versus our role as conveyers of status, information or insight, and who receives it and how access is distributed or obtained.

Inking the game grids

Even art that attempts to negate the status quo of the fashionable leaves behind relics or artifacts that themselves become collectable.

Ox and O's blank grids - "Instruction Sheet" in center

The center interior picture in the box is the collage I made using Ria Vanden Eynde's "Samsara" drawing of a hand grasping toward a ball (pictured in the previous post) as a starting point. Her note to me: "Samsara: because of our continuous grabbing/ reaching for/ holding on to (what we think) will make us happy, we suffer."

Finished box showing interior artwork and Hand ᔓtamps