The Log Deck in Weaverville, CA:






(It was particularly spectacular when I drove by it this year on account of all the downed wood from last summer's fires.)

"To simplify something accurately, you've got to understand it deeply."

--Thomas Friedman

Stills from Deborah Stratman's O'ER THE LAND
(2008, 51:40 minutes, 16mm Film):





SYNOPSIS: A meditation on the milieu of elevated threat which addresses national identity, gun culture, wilderness, consumption, patriotism and the possibility of personal transcendence. Of particular interest are the ways Americans have come to understand freedom and the increasingly technological reiterations of manifest destiny.

While channeling our national psyche, the film is interrupted by the story of Col. William Rankin who in 1959, was forced to eject from his F8U fighter jet at 48,000 feet without a pressure suit, only to get trapped for 45 minutes in the up and down drafts of a massive thunderstorm. Remarkably, he survived. Rankin's story represents a non-material, metaphysical kind of freedom. He was vomited up by his own jet, that American icon of progress and strength, but violent purging does not necessarily lead to reassessment or redirection.

This film is concerned with the sudden, simple, thorough ways that events can separate us from the system of things, and place us in a kind of limbo. Like when we fall. Or cross a border. Or get shot. Or saved. The film forces together culturally acceptable icons of heroic national tradition with the suggestion of unacceptable historical consequences, so that seemingly benign locations become zones of moral angst.

Camera, Edit, Sound Design: Deborah Stratman
Music: Maryane Amacher, Kevin Drumm, Steve Rowell, Lustmord

He insisted on a "Donut Cake" this year:

Jenny Dubnau and Elena Sisto at the Bucheon Gallery:



Sidney Brown and Sheila Cohen, whom I adore:

(I re-found my mind in San Francisco this weekend.)

"One does not love one's children just because they are one's children but because of the friendship formed while raising them."

--Gabriel García Márquez

"I am learning all the time. My tombstone will be my diploma."
--Eartha Kitt

The Big Brown Clouds in China (click here)

Chris Burden's Exposing the Foundations of the Museum:





(When I was in LA this weekend, I was thrilled to see this iconic piece of conceptual art reinstalled at the Geffen. It also rocked my world way back in 1986--the only other time its been exhibited.)

My favorite Charlie Roberts watercolor at the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica:

(I can relate.)

Marco Brambilla's rolling and writhing video extravaganza at the Christopher Grimes Gallery in Santa Monica:

Robbie Conal lectured about his work today at the Track 16 gallery in Santa Monica:




(His iconic "Men Without Lips" images rocked my world when I was an art student in the 80's.)

Tony Labat's video Day Labor: Mapping the Outside:

Marco Rios' installation Vanishing Intent:

Pato Hebert's installation Text Messaging: 1000 Points of Might:

(A few highlights from the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum today. In general, the sculpture, installation and video was better than the painting in this show.)

Barack Obama won the election because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens.

(On the eve of the election, this detail of a painting by Jim Torok is worth reposting.)

Some excerpts from the Center for Land Use Interpretation's photo-essay on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in this month's Artforum: