CITY MUD

Just completed a great series of ceramic throwing classes at city mud (down the hill from our house). Emily & Kyle who own/operate the studio are easy and excellent to work with on all levels. Below are a couple of examples of my first pots in about 35 years. Looking forward to doing more in the future.

Hot Dog Diary - Graphic Novel by Nathan Tolzmann

My lovely wife Emily, for my birthday, gave me this newly published labor of love from our good friend Nathan. It is the beautifully drawn chronicle of a bike trip from the NW coast to Chicago Nathan made 20 yrs. ago with his good friend Matt. The biking took about 4 months and the graphic novel took almost 4yrs. to complete.

The teaser is…there’s a fun cameo of me in it that was kind of exciting to discover.

2 additional things: a) find the book here b) and/or go here to see more of some of Nathan’s art

Art by Bill Hinz

These prints remind me a bit of murmurations (schools of fish or flocks of birds that all move together as if a large organism). More here on But Does it Float

Time Cover by Artist JR

This powerful piece was unfolded by about 100 people in Lviv, Ukraine yesterday. The image of the girl is from about a month ago. The girl and her mother have since fled to Poland.

Salt Series 3 by Photographer Tom Hegen

For this series, many of Hegen’s stunning aerial photographs were taken from a helicopter above Utah’s Salt Lake flats. These abstracts remind me of Richard Diebenkorn paintings (bottom image below), who magically exposes the underlying geometries and structures of our world. More of Hegen’s work here.

Richard Diebenkorn painting from the 1960s

Dee Dwyer - Artist

“Art, to me, is “Life.” I use photography as a form of art. It is a way to stop time and reflect on a moment that can possibly shift history going forward. As a person who’s witnessed and experienced struggle, I am naturally drawn to its core. While out creating photographs, I spend time trying to understand human experiences. This is essential to my process. I create photographs that capture people in their element. My goal is to show all aspects of human life with the primary focus being humanity. I'm fascinated with photographing the "Misunderstood”. I hope that my work will clarify many misconceptions of which the world has dumped on people that aren’t socially accepted into society and who are economically disadvantaged.”

-Dee Dwyer

More here.

photo: Tone Mobley

From her Dirt Bikers Lifestyle series

Fallen Sky by Sarah Sze at the Storm King Art Center (NY)

This lovely site specific sculpture was shared with me over the weekend by the even lovelier Virginia Rogers. There’s something surprisingly simple and simultaneously complex about this piece. Look forward to seeing it the next time I’m close to the Hudson Valley. Read more and/or listen to artist talk about this work here.

Ai Weiwei - Activist and Artist (b. Aug. 28, 1957)

After Ai Weiwei’s father's poetry in the late 50’s distressed the Chinese government, he and his family were sent to a labor camp when Ai was one - where they would spend the next 16 years surviving brutal conditions. Only after Mao's death in 1976, would his family returned to Beijing where he helped form his first arts collective.

Between 1981-1993, Ai studied English and Art in the US. When he returned to China, he was an outspoken critic of the corrupt government. His work often incorporates themes of global refugee crisis, government surveillance, political prisoners and freedom of speech. His ideas and actions have led him to be arrested and harshly detained multiple times by the Chinese authorities.

When asked if he is ever scared for his life (for his actions), he responded, he is more scared of doing nothing.

See an elegant interview he gives here with Trevor Noah.

14,000 salvaged Refugee life vests wrap the columns of Berlin’s Konzerthaus (Concert House)