New Year's advice from the New York Times:
Over the past decade and a half, psychologists have studied how regrets — large and small, recent and distant — affect people’s mental well-being. They have shown, convincingly though not surprisingly, that ruminating on paths not taken is an emotionally corrosive exercise.

The Most Wanted Song (click here)

The Most Unwanted Song (click here)

(One of my Most Wanted--an irresistible classic.)

My father-in-law's juvenilia, c. 1930's:

A funny story for art professors who've finally finished their grading:

When my husband worked in the registrar's office of the San Francisco Art Institute back in the 80's, visiting artist Mark Pauline (of Survival Research Laboratories fame) came in with his grade roster at the end of the semester. It was partially burnt and saturated with grease. My husband noticed, though, that there weren't any grades on the document. He dutifully informed Mark that he had to put grades in those little boxes. Mark looked at him incredulously and said "but I don't know who the hell these people are." My husband told Mark that these were his students, and that he had to give them grades. Mark walked out of the office muttering to himself, then returned 5 minutes later with the grade roster in hand. My husband looked down the list and saw them: B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B.

Dream Addictive Laboratory's Atmospheric Pollution (click here)

"For those of us in the global community attentive to the disastrous effects of climate change, the overwhelming concern of the last few years has been merely getting the world's super powers, most notably the anti-Kyoto Protocol Bush administration, to acknowledge that the problem exists. While recent developments have been promising on that front, the specifics of climate change often get lost in the fight. Hence why Dream Addictive Laboratory's recent virtual environment project, Atmospheric Pollution is so stimulating. The Tijuana, Mexico based artists Carmen Gonzalez and Leslie Garcia have created an interactive data visualization of the earth and the "anthropogenic contaminants issued to our atmosphere." The project breaks down the various layers of atmosphere and visitors can click on pollutants such as Carbon Monoxide and Sulfur Dioxide to see their interaction with the ozone. While the God's eye view design may seem too simplistic for such a complex economic and political issue, this attribute is the project's primary strength. Looking at the issue from such a data-centric and all encompassing angle, it depicts the notion of nations exchanging emission and carbon credits and other such industry based solutions as absurd. While the US bears the brunt of responsibility, Atmospheric Pollution is an informative reminder that it is a global crisis. As environmental coalition spokesman Tony Juniper noted at a recent UN climate conference in Bali "The United States is behaving like passengers in first class in a jumbo jet, thinking a catastrophe in economy class won't affect them. If we go down, we go down together." --David Michael Perez

Mom: "Fried? You want your peanut butter sandwich Fried?"

Kid: "Mama! That's the way Elvis ate them!"

Some more cool life drawings from my student René:

Life drawings by Daniel, my resolutely outsider student:

The Bucheon booth (Aqua Wynwood, Miami):

Simon Evans at the Jack Hanley booth (Art Basel Miami):

Me and the Anish Kapoor at the main fair:

Patrick Jacobs at Pierogi (Miami):


(Pierogi, Ronald Feldman, and the Hales Gallery had an incredibly thoughtful exhibition in the Wynwood District at this fair.)

Jim Torok at Pierogi (Miami):

A detail of this painting:

Detail of a Chris Johansen at NADA Miami:

(This is the kind of stuff my grandmother would always tell me.)

Jeni Spota at the Sister booth (NADA Miami):


(Giotto's Dream)

Bill Smith at the PPOW booth (Pulse Miami):

Bill Smith at the PPOW booth (Pulse Miami):

SIMPARCH's "Drum 'n' Basin" (click here)

Aqua Art Miami (click here)

These are paintings of houses made from garage doors near Tijuana. You can see them in Miami (with the Bucheon gallery) next week!

Some amusing phrases gleaned from a day painting with CSPAN:

"Petro-Authoritarianism"
"Social Odium"
"Verbal Maladicta"
"Latte-Sipping Sushi-Eating Godless Atheists" (That's me for sure!)

And this one from Christopher Hitchens on god:
"A Celestial Dictatorship that couples compulsory love with compulsory fear."

And this quote attributed to George Washington:
"Its wonderful how much we can do if we are always doing something."

Screen Test:

(This is somewhat archival footage, but I might revisit this theme at some point.)

SIMPARCH'S "The Taking of Leisure Mountain"

I could certainly use some leisure after this rather challenging semester ends...

My kid's party on Sunday:

For my postmodernists, who just took their final exam:

"It reminds us that while art and money may have been inextricably entwined throughout most of history, art’s real value is not measured in strings of zeros, high-priced materials or bravura skill, but in communication, experience, economy of means (the true beauty) and the inspired disturbance of all status quos."
--Roberta Smith on the Lawrence Weiner retrospective currently at the Whitney Museum.

Edward Burtynsky at Robert Koch, San Francisco:













(I couldn't get the colors right with my camera and Photoshop, unfortunately. This guy is one of my long-standing heroes.)

Two students with the collaborative installation "Murmurs" at the Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco:

My students with Lincoln Schatz' "Cube" at the Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco:

My students and I with a Josiah McElheny and a Cornelia Parker, de Young Museum, San Francisco:

Jessica Stockholder in LA last month:




(I'll show these to the students tomorrow night.)