We're on Vacation

Alright, so, in spite of the difficulties finding supplies in Morocco, I have managed to make one collage.
This one is called We're on Vacation. The writing on it says in Arabic, Nahhnu Fii 'Otla, or as some would type it, Na7nu Fii 36la, being that there are no English equivalents for some Arabic letters, certain numbers are used in their place in typing. As you've probably already guessed, it translates into "we're on vacation". My favorite aspect of it is the color scheme. The use of the gradients of green gives it a sickly, clinical feel. Well, that's how I feel, at least.
Due my difficulties finding supplies, I had to make it using glue sticks and a boxcutter. I have not given up my search for rubber cement and a quality x-acto knife, but didn't feel like waiting until I found them. I am definitely surprised at how well it came out, considering that I didn't have those supplies. I still have yet to put any finish on it, however, and am skeptical that I will find anything of the caliber of Mod Podge, here. As for the pictures, I still haven't found a solid used bookstore, where I can get plenty cheap books full of plenty of images. However, I did manage to find a decent used book market in the medina in Casablanca. I took advantage of it for the few days I was there, but, unfortunately HQ is nowhere near Casa, so I am going to have to find an alternative, soon. Anyway, at the market I grabbed a good stack of old Arabic magazines for around 30 dirhams. That's somewhere around being equivalent to $3! Among the magazines, were a couple old Fatah propaganda magazines. I felt bad cutting those ones up, since those were great historical documents, even if it is not considered to be a very positive history. No less, I bit the bullet and took a razor to them. The marching children in the background were actually being trained to become child fighters for Fatah, in the article I took it from. I thought the lady up front was not supposed to be anyone in particular, but was informed by a friend that she is famous Lebanese singer and ex-queen. I find this odd, since I found her picture in an ad for al-'Araqiyya Airlines, an old Iraqi airline. Also, as far as I know there isn't a royal family in Lebanon and hasn't been for a long time. There is, however a queen of the Strawberry Festival in Lebanon, Maine.

Shots from the Delta of Venus show

It's been quite a while since I've updated this thing. Hopefully people haven't forgotten about it. I haven't been doing too much collaging, lately. I had a pretty busy/lazy summer and didn't get much done and have been living in Morocco for the last few months. I'm going to school there in a small town between Fes and Meknes and won't be back in the States until late spring. It's fairly difficult finding a steady stream of used books and other necessary collaging supplies, so I have managed to continue to maintain my state of relative inactivity in this arena, but am trying hard to resolve it. There is one nearly finished piece waiting to be completed, back home. Possibly, the most sacrilegious one yet, but it will have to keep waiting until I get back.
All that aside, the collage showing at the Delta of Venus in Davis this summer went well. I had plenty of positve feedback from it, though didn't manage to sell any of them. I suppose that would be my own fault for not pricing them, but, nonetheless, it went well. As you can see, above are some long overdue pictures of the show. My collages are mixed amongst the works of the other artists there, but are easy to spot as they are the ones precariously mounted on whatever flat surfaces I could find.
In other news, in spite of being on another continent, I have recently agreed to have "the Future is a Machine..." raffled off at the Gearhead Records 1 year anniversary show in Woodland, Ca. Gearhead is a punk rock record label that has been around for about 8 years now, possibly most well known for putting out such bands as, the Hives, the Hellacopters, New Bomb Turks, the Rock N Roll Soldiers and Riverboat Gamblers, but has plenty of other great bands worth checking out as well. They have also opened up their first record store in the fine city of Woodland about a year ago, which is what the festival was celebrating. Unfortunately the festival already passed (Nov. 8th) and I apologize for not informing people sooner, but if you are a resident of the greater Sacramento area and are tired of the lack of good punk record stores, I strongly recommend stopping by the store sometime. The people are friendly and helpful and the shop could always use your support to keep running. As if supporting Gearhead, itself, wasn't already reason enough for the donation of my collage, all the benefits from the auction went to the Woodland Sexual and Domestic Violence Center . Certainly a worthy cause.

Enraptured

Wow, three entries in a period of 24 hours. Not too bad if I say so myself.
Here's my latest work. I named it "Enraptured", because as you can see the central figure of the image is being raptured away or at least that appears to be what is happening. Actually, the girl being engulfed in the green flames came from a collage I made a while agao. I was quite dissatisfied with it. In fact, that was the only collage I've tossed, yet, however I found the raptured girl to be too rad to toss, so I saved it and it is now on this collage. The girl came from the cover of an issue of Slug N Lettuce and the flame is composed of various green images out of a Home and Garden magazine. It is hard to tell in this image of the collage (my camera only takes blurry, grainy pictures and I don't have a scanner.), but in the upper right hand corner is a bunch of mischievous angels blocking out the sun and in the lower left hand corner is my favorite part of the collage:

This image is even more grainy, but what's going on is the pope, with a rad little devil hovering above him, is dragging (or maybe even eating) a dude that is severed in two, possibly by the pope himself. Blood is spilling everywhere and two doves are drowning in it. I think this should be the focal point of the collage, but the raptured girl is hogging the spotlight.

Little Collages

Here are some more collages I gave away on my fundraiser show a few weeks ago. I intended on posting them earlier, but didn't scan them until minutes before the show itself. These are smaller ones that I made quite a while ago, actually. I made them over stickers with the original intent of sticking then around town, but I found myself in need of more collages for the fundraiser, so I stuck them to some cardboard and put a mean coat of finish over them. The finish I used for them was Mod Podge glossy, which I have heard about, but had never used until then and I will say that I am quite impressed. That stuff can make anything look beautiful.

My First Art Show!

It's been a couple weeks since I last posted anything here. I'll try not to let that happen too much, so as not to let the blog stagnate. However, I do have a good reason for my absence and it is because I have been busy. "Busy with what?" you may ask. Well, I have been busy with many things, but in particular I have been getting ready for my first showing. That's right, a bunch of my collages are up on display for the internet free public to observe. They are up on display at a local restaurant called the Delta of Venus , which has always been supportive art and music in Davis. Along with my collages, there also collages by a couple artists from Santa Cruz, whose names I cannot remember, and another local collager named Pxl. They will be up for about a month, so if you are around Davis, California within the next month, I recommend you stop by the Delta and take a look and if you make it there in the morning, definitely order a breakfast there. I've found that the best cure for a hangover is vomiting, biking in the rain in a t-shirt and getting a Delta of Venus breakfast. It works everytime. We may also be hosting some sort of dance party near the end of the showing. I'll post more info on that, later, along with some pictures of the showing.
As for my portion of the showing, I have put seven of my collages up there (Infanticide, EXTERMINATIONTHRUPROCREATION, the Brutal Death art, CEREBRALCIRCUMCISIONINCISION, UC Daeefus, Do Cavemen Dream of Electric Sheep? and the Future is a Machine). With the exception of "the Future is a Machine" and the Brutal Death artwork, they are all for sale at negotiable prices. I put a lot of effort into mounting them in the most precarious fashions possible. I acquired various cutting boards, paintings, clipboards and planks, which I have painted over and glued my collages on top. Since the collages are themselves made precariously on the backs of cardboard boxes, getting oll of them to stay flat was a challenge, with any amount of glue. For the few that I couldn't get to stay flat, I utilized the help of a staplegun, so the collages are not all in mint form anymore, but I personally like the touch the staples add to them.

Fundraiser, Yet Again.

You would think that I have done enough hyping for the KDVS fundraiser 2008, but I'm not. As part of fundraiser listeners will be able to pledge for the station and in turn will receive various gifts including: music packages, DJ services, t-shirts, books, etc. All donations are tax deductable. The fundraiser will be starting tomorrow or tonight at midnight, depending on how you look at it and will end on Sunday the 27th. You will be able to donate via phone or online.
On top of the various premiums you can recieve when you pledge, many dj's have special premiums for their show. On my fundraiser show (Saturday, April 26 from 9:00-11:00pm) this year I'm going to be giving away some collages that I have made. There are six collages, one large one and four small. The large one (along with the premium of their choice) will go to the first person to pledge $100 on my show and smaller ones will go to the first five people to pledge $50. Also (and without my prior knowledge), for a $50 pledge anytime during the fundraiser (as long as it is still available), you can get the original copy of the collage I did for the spring KDViationS cover art.

This collage up here, is the large of the six. I don't have a name for it yet, but as you can see, the picture has two neanderthals angrily throwing rocks at the city. The city being a representation of big cities in general. My initial concept for this picture was to have one neanderthal in the big city attacking another while thinking about the capitalist character type. The implication is that the one neanderthal wants to be the successful businessman and to get there he is going to have to kill the other with a rock.
I will probably get around to posting the smaller collages later.

KDViationS Complete Issue

There's not much to say here. The Spring issue of KDviationS is online. You can download a pdf of it at the link in the headline or go to www.kdvs.org and find it there. You can also find hard copies of this KDViationS for free throughout Davis, Sacramento and the San Francisco bay area. On page 9 there is a gnarly article by yours truely as well as many other interesting articles by many other interesting members of the KDVS staff.

Do Cavemen Dream of Electric Sheep?

Lately I have been on somewhat of an inspiration slump and haven't been able to come up with any collages for the last couple weeks. I finally conquered this slump yesterday by going to the thriftstore and picking up some more books. I found a book on the vietnam war, early man, Toledo and a guide book to camping. This collage is the end result. However, I still may have some changes I want to make on it (that hill in the background is looking pretty barren), so be expecting a slightly modified version of this in the future. Enjoy!

KDViationS Spring 2008 Final Draft

Here is the final version (though it is still lacking the headlines and various other word processed elements done in photoshop) of the cover for the Spring '08 issue of KDViationS. They ended up keeping the title that I painted on, which I am happy about, unfortunately it does not come with 3D glasses, so you cannot enjoy it fully. a PDF of the entire issue should be up on the KDVS website soon, so you will be able to enjoy my doodles and article and well many other splendid doodles and articles online.
This issue of KDViationS, as with all Spring issues, coincides with KDVS' upcoming annual fundraiser. The fundraiser will be taking place from April 21-27, during which you will be able to call in our go onto our fundraiser website, which is not up yet and pledge a donation. In return for your donations you will be able to choose from a selection of gifts, including, but not limited to, music packages, t-shirts, books, dvds, gift certicates and even your own show for a day. As community radio station, KDVS receives little funding and your support is greatly needed.
The theme for this year's fundraiser is "hand-crafted radio". Not necessarily in those exact words, but the general concept of hand-crafted, hand-made, home-made, do-it-yourself (or with your friends) radio. This theme explains the various hands (which I found in a plumbing book) doing various tasks in the background.

KDViationS Spring 2008

In Davis, there is a local freeform radio station called KDVS. It's widely considered to be one of the better freeform stations in the world, boasting the second largest music library in California. The first of which, being the library of Doctor Demento. Of course, I have a bit of a bias on this subject, since I myself am a dj and have a punk show (entitled Trotsky and the Crimson Airwaves) at KDVS, which can be heard every Saturday night from 9-11 if you are in the greater Sacramento area and can be streamed online if you are not.
Alright, enough of this shameless self promotion. KDVS puts out a quarterly publication entitled KDViationS which features a programming guide, music reviews, interviews with bands and so on and so forth. This quarter (spring 2008) I did the cover art for it, which is the above image. However this image is only a rough draft of sorts, there are two more, neater versions of it, which I will post later along with a pdf of the KDViation (many of which can be view or downloaded from the KDVS website). One being this same collage with the title painted across the top and the other being the version with all of the headlines (my hand painted title may be in it or they may have put in their own title on Photoshop) on it and the image neatened up in Photoshop (I had the liberty of not needing to be too cautious with this one, knowing that they were going to clean it up anyway. For example that smiley face in the background won't be on the final copy). I'd like to note that this image is actually a scanned copy of the collage, as opposed to the others, which are all digital photos. Also, in this upcoming KDViationS, which I believe may actually be leaving the presses later today, I have dope article on the theory and practice of mixtaping. Check it out.

EXTERMINATIONTHRUPROCREATION

This is not one of my best in my opinion, but maybe I am my own worst critic. I'll also say that the title for this one is pretty cheesy as well. Get over it. Unfortunately it is not made better by the blurry photo. The monolith at the center is dividing the utopia from the dystopia or maybe it is segueing the utopia into the dystopia. I don't know. It's up to you. By the time I was nearly finished with it I realized that the monolith was way too one dimensional in contrast with the rest of the image, so to help it blend or at least look less out of place, I once again too my friend's roommate's nail polish and used it to outline the monolith.

The Future is a Machine...

This one is a homage to one of my favorite bands, Filth. Filth was a hardcore punk band from the East Bay in late eighties and early nineties, initially featuring members of Crimpshrine, Isocracy and the Vagrants. They were highly influencial in many subgenres of punk such as crust, thrash and streetpunk. Filth put out three records in their career, the Live the Chaos 7 inch, the Shit Split LP with Blatz and the This is Why We Drink split 7 inch with Submachine. Life is Abuse Records has reissued both the Shit Split and Live the Chaos.
The title of this collage and the message on it make up the chorus their song "You Are Shit" from the Shit Split, which goes: The future is a machine... You are shit!
I hope you enjoy the chaotic images of destruction along with the bodies, used condoms and needles spread across the ground. Eventually, I plan on making another which I will call "You Are Shit". I hope you can guess what it will say on the collage.

Here's a sample of Filth's brilliance. This song is called Today's Lesson (not You Are Shit) and is off of their split with Blatz, which was originally released on Lookout Records and has since been reissued by Life is Abuse.

Filth-Today's Lesson

UC Daeefus

This is one of the few collages that I have been unable to think up a name for. I'll come up with something someday, but as of now it is only an image with no title to define it. It is hard to tell in this picture of it, but the image at the center is an eye with somesort of peppermint laser/path (I call it the "candycane railroad") and a stoked kid running away from it (possibly some sort of representation of myself. I don't know.). In the lower right hand corner there is an image of a boy spacing out at a computer, but it got cut off in this picture of it, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Around the eye is the motto of the University of California, Davis. The main reason I put that there, is because it is supposedly illegal to use the UC Davis logo in such a manner. I'm sure they'll get over it.

CEREBRALCIRCUMCISIONINCISION

As I make each collage, I feel the need to give it a name. In the case of this one, I named it "Cerebralcircumcisionincision". The name has nothing to do with the collage itself, I just find alliteration funny. While making this one, I was faced with a problem similar to the one I dealt with when making the camo in "Infanticide". I had plenty of black and white pictures of water to make up the stagnant ocean in the forground, however they were all too small. If I just glued them all together, it would look too inconsistent and the outlines would be too clear. To solve this, I cut up all the pictures of water and, once again, mixed them up and glued them together in a consistent manner. That is about all there is to be said about this one.

Brutal Death

This one is supposed to be the insert/fold out poster for the upcoming LP by Brutal Death, a grind band from Concord, Ca, whose guitarist frequently crashes on the couch of my apartment. Unfortunately, the album won't be coming out for a while, since they haven't even started recording it yet, but it could be out by the time you read this. Brutal Death is a key part of the Bay Area hardcore scene and features members of Warkrime, Migraine, Short Circuit and more. They do not have a website or Myspace, however I think you may be able to find footage of them on Youtube. They have so far put out one 7 inch and have been featured on the Short Fast & Loud #17: Teen Beat Comp and the California Thrash Demolition Comp.
As for the collage itself, on the left side you can disgruntled workers sorting through piles bodies and garbage, which one assumes is somehow connected to the conveyer belt dispensing hotdogs and the enthusiastic kid enjoying one of the hotdogs. In the background there is mess of intimidating industrial machinery. Most of the images were taken out of a Child Craft book from the 1970's, except for a few, which I think I got out of a book on the Holocaust. Since almost the entire image is black and white, it was initially hard to tell the background from the forground. To solve this problem, I took some of my friend's nail polish and painted it around the edges of the forground.
Friends have compared my collage style to the album artwork of bands such as Napalm Death, Dystopia, Discharge and Crass. I think those influences are most apparent in this collage.

Infanticide

This one I call "Infanticide" for reasons that I hope are quite clear. I pretty much thought of the slogan first and then made a collage to go along with the message. The words are, once again, done in whiteout. The background and children were taken from a book on Latin American indigenous culture. The bodies on the ground I found in a first aid book and the rest are from various magazines and childrens books. The military guy on the left was a challenge. I wasn't able to find a large enough picture of a soldier or even a camo outfit, so I cut out an image of a guy that was about the size I want and I found various pictures of people wearing camo and cut them up, mixed them up and glued them over his clothes to create a uniform. By the way, I don't know if you can tell, but the girl in the front is wearing a suicide bomber vest. Sweet! As for the canvas, when I started making this one, I was unable to find a sheet of paper big enough for this one, so I dug through my friend's recycling (I almost never collage in my own home.) and found a Cheerios box, which I cut up and used. Since then I have only used the cardboard containers of various food stuffs and other thick, flat, paper based surfaces for my collages.
Like the two critiques on religion, this one has a fairly clear message behind it. Most of my other collages do not have much of an actual message behind them. I often start making a collage with a particular message in mind, but as I progress the message gets more and more abstract and convoluted. However, I do often intentionally use loaded imagery, so whether or not there is an intended message behind the collage, people will try to find one. Whatever you think the collage means is what it means. Now that I have bestowed this secret upon you, don't let it prevent you from trying to interpret any of my collages.

Black Construction Paper Critiques on Religion

These are two collages that I made a while ago. The top one is called "Blackconstructionpapercritiqueonreligion" and the second one is titled "Blackconstructionpapercritiqueonreligiononion". These are both made on black construction paper and, unlike most of my collages, use images printed off of the internet (this is a technique I tend to look down on, since part of the challenge of making collages is digging through books and magazines to find the images you need). All of the writing on them is done in whiteout.
Before I started taking collaging a little more seriously I would never use glue and would strictly use scotch tape to hold everything down. I enjoyed the fact that when I made copies the flyers I made, people could still see the outlines of the tape. In the case of this first collage (I don't feel like retyping the title) I chose to go overboard with the tape even going so far to layer tape over all of the words. I found that the tape gives the image a rad glow effect and makes the words appear to radiate out of it. The hand is a printed off copy of the Our Father and Hail Mary cut out in the shape of a hand. The rosary is made of green thread that I stole from my roommate adn images of pennies, quarters, nickels and dimes.
By the time I got around to the second one, which I made after finally learning of the miracles one can accomplish with rubber cement, is not entirely reliant on scotch tape. However, I still use it some tape, which I covered the dollar with to once again give it a janky glow effect.
I got the ideas for these two collages when I was reading an article by Naomi Klein Harper's entitled "Disaster Capitalism". In the article, Naomi Klein discussed the outsourcing of government functions to independen, profit interested companies (the most clear example of this would be the use of Blackwater mercenaries in place of the police in New Orleans) and how these companies are taking advantage of disasters, natural and man made, as business opportunities. I'm not going to go into much more detail on the article, however she has put out a book on it called "The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism". After reading that article I thought about how much of the religious right seems to believe that all these disasters in the world are "God's will" or even the rapture and that all they need to do to gain salvation and avoid these disasters themselves is get rich at other people's expense and have a quick getaway and that is where I got the idea to make these collages.
One of the key concepts of Christianity is that Christ "died to save us from our sins" or "debts" (I have heard it said both ways). In the second collage I use that concept, except play with the word "debt" by applying it the modern idea of monetary debt and show the dollar as being representative of Christ, who one hand is "sacrificing" to the other.