1,000th Post: Stream of Consciousness on 5 hours of sleep

1000 entries.
Is this meaningful?
Perhaps as I am still here.
I have contemplated ending this blog many times, yet I continue.
The perfect final post awaits whenever that time arises.
Often I wonder if this is a worthy contribution to the myriad of information online.
It is my only outlet to think about art when times are most stressful.
Self-serving.
Audience of 13.5.
The "Blog" folder on my desk contains 49 items.
Sometimes I think I will stop when all are posted, fully realizing that there is always
one
more
thing
to
say.

Ed Ruscha, O.K., 1982

27 Months Later...

My response to Arline Conradt's cat scrapbook is complete!

Size: 17" x 14" x 2.5"
Number of Pages: 176
Number of Cats: 3770

Arline Conradt's original scrapbook:
Size: 16" x 14" x 3.5"
Number of Pages: 310
Number of Cats: 3770

Post-its from my response:
Most number of cats on one page: 355
Least number of cats on one page: 1

Post-its from Arline's cat scrapbook:
Most number of cats on one page: 90
Least number of cats on one page: 1

Number of glue sticks it took to adhere my response: 7

Examples of individual pages (above and below)

After spending six days gluing 2200 cats, I added an addendum (perhaps foolishly). Here it is in its entirety. The numbers featured here are not part of the 3770.

Mock-up installation photographs of my response in front of Arline Conradt's cat scrapbook transformed into wallpaper.

Videos I streamed & rented on Netflix while gluing: Zero Dark Thirty, Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present, Detropia, Into the Abyss, Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, Roman Holiday, Our City Dreams, A Small Act, Crips & Bloods: Made in America, Moving Midway, Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap, Elegy, The Rape of Europa, The Gates, and three Wholphin DVDs.

Next up: updating the website and collecting 25 more cat claws. I can see the light at the end of the very long tunnel. Thanks to everyone that helped me accumulate cats the last two years.

Favorite Artworks: Vito Acconci's "Estimation" 1970

Vito Acconci, Estimation, 1970
Choose a distant point: photograph it: estimate steps required to reach it.


I saw this piece at an exhibition of photographs from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2002. At first I laughed but I was instantly reminded that I do similar activities (but neglect to make art about them). In any case, this photographic grid serves as a marker for not overlooking the mundane (art about walking); not being afraid to show obsessive counting tendencies (and providing visual proof); and owning up to the fact that text will always play an important role in my art (though Acconci's writing is far neater).

I often wondered if the actual steps meant touching the tree. I like to imagine Acconci interacting with it - like shaking hands with a stranger. It's good to set rules for oneself in making a work of art, however, it's equally important to break them. Acconci's grid makes me want to step outside and break some rules, however, I better wait until the wind chill factor is above -10º F.