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.)

Tony Oursler:

(I showed this video to my students the other day. It was made at the Armory Fair last winter.)

Kirk Varnedoe on Picasso and Matisse:

(I'm astonished that I found my all-time favorite TV episode on You-Tube recently.)

Photo credit: New York Times

My local "Oz":

"I have a very simple definition of an artist: The artist is someone who pays attention and reports back. A good artist pays close attention and knows how to report back. I teach a course called "Looking and Listening." The class and I practice paying attention. I take them to many different places, often for a full day, and we look and listen. Sometimes we go to an oil field in the Central Valley, or to a mountaintop to watch the sky brighten as the sun begins to rise, or to a homeless neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles, or to the port at Long Beach. We gradually learn that our looking and listening are coded by our own prejudices and learn to see and hear more clearly. And learn more about what we do see."
--James Benning (from an interview in September's Art Forum)

Buy my videos! (click here)

Of interest to only about 6 people on this planet right now, but its my rather satisfying work of art tonight:

Shannon Sullivan at Piante (Eureka, CA)

"Puff Print", 2007, clay, resin and plexiglass. (My colleague's solo show will run from October 5 to October 30--go if you're in northern California.)

Jesse Wiedel at the Showcave (Los Angeles)

Opening reception: October 6--go if you're in LA.

"Never underestimate the amount of resentment and hostility we harbor toward artists. It springs largely from envy. They can behave quite badly, but mainly they operate with a kind of freedom and courage that other people don’t risk or enjoy. And it can lead to wondrous things."
--Roberta Smith on Christoph Büchel's "non-exhibition" at MassMoCA

The Peruvian Mystery Crater

My boss Justine--gotta love her:

My frantic life right now played out in charts and graphs:


Fascinating reading I tell ya...

"The Fall Season" at Jack the Pelican Presents, New York (click here)

(Robert Yarber was my professor and hero back in the day.)

The new band that's sweeping the nation: "Tortillas on Rye"


(So far, their repertoire includes "Road Runner" by Johnathon Richmond, "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple, and "We're a Happy Family" by the Ramones.)

Marina Moevs at Koplin Del Rio (Los Angeles) (click here)

(I was in a show with her several years back; she's a terrific painter.)

Tomato Music @ Machine Project this Friday August 31, 8pm (click here)

(From my collection)
Robert Gutierrez:

Shoshana Dentz:

Alex Jackson:

"In pragmatic terms, art is a privileged zone of gratuitous activity, with boundaries maintained by the agreements of the vested authorities."

(I love Peter Schjeldahl's concision.)

Smoke near Buttonwillow, CA:

Osman Khan at LA Louver

("Networth", 2004, credit card machine, software, projector, and computer.) You swipe your credit card in the machine provided, whereupon your name is Googled and then (presumably) is projected onto the screen. The screen generates a hierarchy of all who have swiped (along with some certifiably famous names thrown in) so that you can see how you measure up in cyberspace. I dutifully swiped, but waited and waited for my name to appear. I did, however, spot a few friends' names on the screen.

Art for Humans (click here)

My video "Bay Dredge" will be featured at this screening; go if you're in LA:

The new haircut:

Anri Sala at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland

Dammi i Colori, 2003, video, 14 minutes:




"In this video, Anri Sala meditates upon the newly painted, brightly colored facades lining the dilapidated streetscapes of Tirana, Albania. An embodiment of social and political change, the presence of these colors marks the dissolution of communism and the resurgence of individual expression in unusual ways." (The video also indicates that the mayor of Tirana is a painter.)

Lake Erie Water Snake:


(A rare species that lives near the Davis-Besse power plant.)