VB Assignment: The Inevitability of Not Meeting Ed Ruscha

Photo by Doug Highland

VB Assignment: Handshakes

Document every single handshake until I meet Ed Ruscha.











Almost...

Postcard Collective Summer Exchange Submission: Case Study #001

I'm really excited about this one! It is an ongoing series (one of these days I'll do a blogpost about how many "ongoing series" I have - hence the new subtitle of this website). It might be the theme of several more Postcard Collective submissions to come. Some of the strongest postcards in the Collective concentrate on one concept but I've been all over the place as I've used it to brainstorm ideas in progress so there isn't a connection (Marilyn Monroe, Lists, and now this). The image was taken at the Downtown Travel Lodge in Monterey, California. More covered artwork in hotel rooms will take place in Italy! It's too fun not to do it.

X-Ray of the Day

David Maisel's History's Shadow GM3

Artist statement here.

VB Assignment: Motel Antics

Once upon a time I read this:



That passage was immediately filed away into the "try someday" mental list of things to photograph. What better location than to begin in California and continue in Italy? It was easier to transport pins this time around though as you can tell, unless you move the curtains, it's camouflaged from the front.





More motel antics in tomorrow's post about my summer submission to the Postcard Collective.

Days 45 & 46: Progress

Many hours of my life were devoted to this (and it's just 20 pages of Venice!). Still working on Florence tonight.



Reserving tickets left and right to the Doge's Palace in Venice and the Ufizzi in Florence. How could one not want to take this tour (the only guided thing I'm purchasing anywhere):

"This follows in the footsteps of the most important (or infamous) leaders of Venice. On their trips through the palace, these men wouldn’t use the public doors and stairways, they would slip through hidden passageways and concealed doors: somehow appropriate in this smoke-and-mirrors city where mask and illusion are so popular and where subterfuge was always an essential element of the politics. Take the Itinerari Segreti and you discover these hidden passages, also the administrative offices of the men who ran the Venice of medieval and Renaissance times. You’ll even visit the city gaol, and the very cell from which notorious lover Giacomo Casanova made his escape in 1775."

Yesterday: 7 hours
Today: 8.5 hours

VB Assignment: Dougnuts

Photograph every doughnut I see that is easily accessible. I didn't see many doughnuts the entire trip (the fortune cookie factory wasn't even a close second). I was never on the side of town near the airport in LA to visit Randy's Donuts and I had been there before so it was fine that I didn't go this time. I need to figure out why I like to photograph this genre of food but don't necessarily care about eating them.


Randy's Donuts, 3 July 2003

San Francisco offered many options in terms of combination doughnut/chicken eateries but that was the rainiest day of my visit and the camera stayed hidden in my bag due to the weather (plus I was secretly repulsed). It's either the doughnuts from 826LA supposedly from 1985 or ...



...doughnuts from one block down the street behind a window that hasn't been cleaned since 1985.



This portion of the VB assignment ended in failure. I didn't even capture enough to make a grid. I am wondering what my doughnut options will be in Italy? Ha. Here's to photographing every single margherita pizza I consume instead.

VB Assignment: Swimming Pools

Photograph every single swimming pool that I see that is easily accessible. It is sheer coincidence that it numbers NINE! The grid format is in ode to John Baldessari. Of course the two most enticing are the two that there was no chance of entry: Top Left (cabana pool at the Hotel Del Coronado) and Bottom Right (Madonna Inn).

More Swimming Pools from Arch Daily

"Every single..." swimming pool began earlier this summer from all the pools posted on ArchDaily. Here are all the ones since 1st June 2011.


(Coolest name ever for a house: House of the Flight of the Birds), Portugal, 1 June


Calvia, Spain, 1 June


Barcelona, 2 June


Moab, Utah, 3 June


East Hampton, 3rd June


East Hampton #2 (because I couldn't decide between the two), 3 June


Istanbul, 10 June


Poland, 15 June


Portugal, 16th June


Morocco, 16 June


Bangkok, 23 June


Piemonte, Italy, 2 July


Long Island, NY, 11 July

What I've gathered from all of this is that Spain and Portugal have a lot of private swimming pools worthy of trespassing! I think I will go with House of the Flight of the Birds as the winner though I would have taken pains to remove the hose from the pool for a major architectural photoshoot. East Hampton is a close second.

Days 43 & 44: Progress

Yesterday: 8.25 hours
Today: 10.25 hours

I read all of this (not more than 50 pages each):



while printing all of these:



I'm discovering that there is a reason why there is a large gap in my art history knowledge (missing post-Byzantine to early 1800s). All of this Renaissance art is beginning to look the same! Sorry to all the art historians out there reading this blog. I'll be a good artist/researcher/tourist and will see some of this work but my love for art definitely lies from 1850-present.

VB Assignment: Braydee's Key

VB Assignment: The every single factor ... in the manner of Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari... Photograph every doughnut and swimming pool I see and try Braydee’s key at every place I am staying.

My quest to find home in California with Braydee's key ended in failure (as most things I tried last month were bound to do).* Before the trip, I thought about sending her key off in a grand fashion - hurling it into the sea or building it a small styrofoam pie to float away in the Pacific. None of these options were appropriate (if it had been my key that would have been a different story). It returned to Muncie and its rightful owner after residing on my kitchen table for a week. The best part of its tour of the Pacific coast is that it gave me several ideas on how to contend with the ring of keys I recently found from the house on Stewart Island that my family no longer owns. Throw that into the growing pile of what to work on this fall.


San Marcos, California


Los Angeles, California


San Luis Obispo, California


Monterey, California

*Failure to find home, failure to meet Ed Ruscha, and failure to find a keyhole any size that would hold Braydee's into place just for the photograph.



This image is not part of the sequence though I should have brought the flash... a low light/shallow depth of field photograph of how I left it on Braydee's front porch two days ago. Ironically, the key didn't even come close to fitting in her lock so I failed at taking the photograph of it not resting in my hand.

"A Tale of Obsession: David C. Nolan and Marilyn Monroe" Artist Statement

This is a portrait of David C. Nolan whose name and address is stamped across Marilyn Monroe’s body in every image. Until recently, these photographs were stored in my family’s safety deposit box, acquired for $5 at an antique store in the 1980s. The dealer was a friend of my father’s who revealed a woman brought them to the shop after discovering them at a recycling center in Boise, Idaho.

The story behind the man who owned them is unknown, though for several years, it was believed that he was the photographer, but the true creators are Earl Theisen, Bert Riesfeld, and countless others who photographed films like The Seven Year Itch for publicity. Others are convinced David C. Nolan was a publicist, as the backs of the images contain quotes and vital information, although, these are not typical statements and remain unattributed.

After editing and combining both sides of the photographs, I noticed details that were not apparent earlier. (DEAD) is written by a man who has aged significantly and has become unsteady. There are small, penciled dots along the back margins enabling Nolan to write in a straight line. Despite the perfection he strives to maintain, there are several spelling and grammatical errors.

In July 2011, I visited 104 Webster Street. It is now divided into a duplex and is one of the shabbiest houses surrounded by gentrification. I can only assume David C. Nolan was a lonely man whose obsessive behavior became evident while labeling his Marilyn Monroe collection. There is sadness in this activity that isn’t dissimilar from the life of the actress portrayed in these photographs.

Swimming Pools on My Mind

This has to be one of the most glorious swimming pools in Venice Beach, California.



From 9th June ArchDaily

Days 38 - 42: Progress

After recovering from illness #8 of the year (no exaggeration), I am back on track researching Italy like a madwoman: meeting with people to brainstorm logistics, reading guidebooks & brushing up on Renaissance art, perusing the itinerary, museum hours, etc. This week, I spent 27 hours on this alone and I haven't even made a dent! I keep returning to Martin Parr's photographs of tourists making every effort not to look like this:


Martin Parr, Kalkan, Turkey, 1987-94

I'm still working on that plus this weekend will be filled with gathering the artwork that will make the trip in my suitcase across the Atlantic. Time is moving along!

Sara Shoemaker Lind's Photographs of "Nine Fake Cakes..."

Last year I asked the Nine Fake Cakes and Nine Bodies of Water postcard recipients to photograph what they did with the cards after receiving them. Part of this summer's stipend is to work on a self-published book featuring these images, the outtakes, and elements of the performance itself. When I was in San Francisco last week, Sara gave me these images. The water looks so beautiful, I feel compelled to hop in the inflatable swimming pool right now.







I will be working on that book in September. Yup... that's the plan. The best part is that I will be able to add a chapter from Venice, Italy. Coming soon....