Dissemblings

New work by Pulled Resources

2009-08-13T00:16:00.005-05:00

Here are a few photos of a piece we did in Geneseo, NY at SUNY-Geneseo.

On some land Dan bought was a small wooden shack. It had collapsed some time back and had been part of a grouping of structures and part of the lands prior life. It was oddly shaped (unconventional).

We decided to create and effigy of the building, showing the original scale and placement of the only window and door to the best of our ability.

Inside that effigy, we dissembled, compressed, and stacked the materials used to construct the piece, as well as the original contents left inside.

Poor planning at the pump

2009-08-13T00:09:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of images of a gas station sign in Hermitage, TN (the home of Andrew Jackson, a person who exemplifies not fully considering one's actions)

2009-02-26T00:39:00.004-06:00

Here is my new t-shirt design. Identify Lincoln.

Shirt can be viewed/bought here.

2009-02-19T00:19:00.003-06:00

Some new odd building of various flavors from my recent trip to Western New York.

2009-02-18T23:51:00.005-06:00

A student bought these policemen from "the Dollar Tree next to Walmart"

The Chinese make the best toys.

"Whats up with those pants, and their lack of bone structure? Why's that dude so skinny?"

2009-02-06T11:52:00.002-06:00

Just another failure in manhood...an excessively neck oriented beard.

Rediscover the magic.

2008-12-29T23:25:00.004-06:00

Don't get no better.

These are a few sketches from a recently uncovered sketchbook, circa age 11. I see the talent. Boom-wow!

New work for Pulled Resources

2008-10-26T19:40:00.004-05:00

Here are a few images on our recent project in the Todd Gallery at Middle Tennessee State University. Knowing that we had a designated and oddly formed space, we decided to tap into the unending supply of cardboard from the University Center located just east of the Todd Art Building. With this material we constructed the structure of a typical suburban home.

Also make sure to check out the ever-changing www.pulledresources.org

New comic....egg

2008-10-15T10:26:00.003-05:00

I know what you're asking yourself. What kind of name is Egg for....anything? It's a name not fit for man nor beast. Maybe. Maybe you're right. But for a book? Well, you'll have to read to find out.

To find out more click here.

You'll be able to get Egg no. 1 for your very own by one of two ingenious methods:

Go to Comixpress.com and order twelve copies (it's not up quite yet, but soon--I'll keep you posted).
Come meet me at the Alternative Press Expo here in San Francisco in a few weeks and I'll gladly sell you one.

Interstate geography #2

2008-05-20T19:06:00.002-05:00

The legend of Monte Romaima has inspired books, movies, and legendary tales of cryptozoology. This inaccessible, and therefore unaltered landscape, was believed to hold species that had become extinct elsewhere in the world. Now, throughout the Sunbelt, homages to this mystic local can be seen in equally unaccessible locations, like this one in Nashville, TN.

An exercise in semiotics

2008-05-20T19:04:00.005-05:00

Sometimes the right interpretation, and therefor meaning, of a sign is based on the grander context of its use.

Subdivision name generator

2008-04-12T20:33:00.005-05:00

Although this could be expanded...its tragically true.

First, follow the directions to generate 25 random names for possible subdivisions

Second, pick any two word option from the list and put it into Google, preferably with quotation marks. Guarantee a real subdivision pops up.

You can move in today.

Sustainable mining reclamation....

2008-04-12T19:51:00.013-05:00

The problem with most design projects is their impracticality. This design by University of Kentucky architecture students and the Center for Sustainable Cities provides a solution to many environmental concerns surrounding strip mines as well as deep mines along Appalachian hilltops .
The problem with this design (more info found here) is a fundamental, LeCorbusier-like, disconnect between the architectural students and the community's needs. I grew up in a small, outmoded coal town in Southwest Virginia and nobody I remember would have chosen to live in apartment style buildings. It's a community of proud farm owners and nature lovers (self proclaimed and problematic I know), citizens who want houses that are private and the ability to do what they want with their land. Often that land has been passed down for generations.

Christopher Alexander describes good design as "the goodness of fit" between form and context. The tenancies of most people I knew in my home town, and the type of clients this proposal would target, would fall under the idea of "context", anything that puts a force on the "form".

Most towns were founded in strategic places throughout the world, be it proximity to a river for travel or sustenance or at a certain valley along a trading route. Coincidentally, most mines have an inverse relationship to convenience and comfort. Most deep mines in SWVA were out of the way, remote. (Although stripmines are smaller, more common and more often located close to homes and town centers.)

The final argument in this story centers on the the lack of a need for a new town design in a region without much economical future. No one would trade in their hometown for progress. Just look at the arguments generated around the idea of school consolidation in Wise County Virginia.

Here is a quote to from the above article to exemplify the self preservation and self identity localized in the community you live in:

"Peggy Jordan-Austin of St. Paul said towns stripped of their high schools would shrivel and die and asked the board to “preserve the town of St. Paul.” Ann Gregory of St. Paul, a former member of the board, urged board members to hold public hearings on the issue in all six communities."

Ze frank explains Las Vegas.

2008-04-04T18:07:00.006-05:00

I'm no sports racer but I do think this is an accurate and intelligent account of Las Vegas and the idea of the context of place.

Also make sure to check out the entries from the next two days as his stay in Vegas continues.

"Newfangled" tree house design.

2008-04-04T17:58:00.004-05:00

Not only is he good with his hands ..he's a snappy dresser too.

His name is Mark Madson, and his motto is that "I'm 48 years old, with the body of a 24 year old, and the imagination of a 12 year old that has not realized the boundaries of reality!"

Here is the link to his website describing the treehouse and some other interests.

American chestnuts used to restore strip mines in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky...

2008-04-01T12:03:00.007-05:00

PIONEER, Tenn. (AP) — In a double-barreled approach to environmental restoration, Appalachian mountains scarred by strip-mining are being planted with American chestnut trees, a species that has been all but wiped out in the U.S. by a...

July, 1970, somewhere in Pennsylvania perhaps

2008-03-13T19:58:00.008-05:00

This is a compilation of two slides I bought at a flea market in Pittsburgh. Something about its iconic 1970's late 1960's feel I find fascinating.

Its suburban banality.

Generic vs. Specific

2008-01-30T02:24:00.001-06:00

These pieces by Julian Opie were part of the Public Art Fund in NYC. I keep coming back to them when I think of work I've seen lately that I really like. Made from Plywood, Paint, Vinyl, and Aluminum, they depict models of architectural standards. Iconic in shape but lacking the details needed to portray any certainty to what these models might be of, they exist in a hypothetical space allowing the viewer to supplement the work. Getting us to project ourselves and our experiences on to them.

In the September 2005 issue of Sculpture Magazine, Opie refers to this "balancing act" between the generic building and the specific, saying that it is key to his work.

Umberto Eco wrote that architecture served a primary (denotative) function - functional object - and a secondary (connotative) function - symbolic object. Some buildings are more primary while others more secondary. For the most part, these "buildings" are aesthetic objects and therefore symbolic. They represent a stylistic and functional generic, "skyscraper", "church", "house". They are iconic. In parallel they also serve as functional objects but in this case there function is to promote a connotative read. They exist to promote these generics. Unlike "real" architecture Opie's buildings have collapsed Eco's hierarchy by constructing a cyclical relationship between the primary and secondary function of what his artwork represents.

Now I understand that I have perhaps an unfit (maybe unfair) comparison between Architecture and Art but there is a reason. By creating a miniature, Opie has created an object with no denotative read. It is not a church or an office building but we describe it in these terms. We in fact can not describe the physical object without projecting another object (architecture) onto it. This allows for the cyclical structure and the reason for this comparison. By substituting a model for an actual building, Opie has now created a powerful art object where one stands as a substitute for the other, therefor absorbing its semiotic structure and distorting what information it displays.

Recent drawing

2008-01-28T02:36:00.001-06:00

I've been working on these forms in a sculptural way for the past year, I thought I'd try them in a 2d format also.

8.5" x 10" Graphite on Gessoed board

Not the best documentation. Subtle pencil drawings never look as good in photographs as they do in person.

Antony Gormley's work

2008-01-27T23:46:00.000-06:00

There are two recent pieces I'd like to share. I've always enjoyed Antony Gormley's work, but these are my favorite. They are both from a show at the Hayward Gallery in London last fall.
ALLOTMENT II 1996
Reinforced concrete
300 life-size elements derived from the dimensions of local inhabitants of Malmö aged 1.5 - 80 years (see more here) (read more about it here)

SPACE STATION 2007
Cor-Ten Mild Steel

To read more about Space Station, look at the blog Art Comments. Thier photos and descriptions of the show are excellent.

You can also look at the Hayward Gallery's dedicated site here. (follow the Antony Gormley link)

The last photo of Space Station was linked from mapsadasical (found here). Thanks

"As the crow flies" no longer valid

2008-01-27T21:33:00.001-06:00

Follow the link below to find out more. Because its less taxing on the bird, scientists now believe birds take visual cues like roads to find there way between destinations. "Researchers have cracked the puzzle of how pigeons find their way home: they just follow the main roads..."(link)

What to do with empty Wal-marts

2008-01-26T17:57:00.000-06:00

Here is a link to an interesting post about how abandoned Wal-mart buildings could be (re)used.

Religious office building on top of a house

2008-01-23T01:04:00.001-06:00

I have no idea what this building is. There is no obvious signage. I just can't get away from the heterogeneous design, especially that house shape on the corner.

Video about the ReBuilding Center

2008-01-22T22:53:00.001-06:00

genesis and growth of the ReBuilding Center in Portland, Oregon

Two recent drawing, focusing on subtle oddities in architecture

2008-01-20T22:09:00.000-06:00

Designed to resemble traditional landscape portraits, these drawings highlight inconsistencies that contradict what the viewer expects to see.

Drawing #1, graphite on paper 24x30

Drawing #2 (detail), graphite on paper, 24x30