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Sorry art readers about the massive lack of art related posts, and that this isn’t necessarily art related, but I’ve been hammered at work and everywhere else.  But Evel Knievel, the greatest symbol America has ever known, a man made of courage and bones and engines and steel pins is dead at 69.  Something magic has passed from this world.

Technorati Tags: Evel Knievel, daredevil, RIP, death

Two days of sandwiches.  I’m tempted to make some kind of chart/diagram listing all of the turkey sandwich possibilities.

Above - Enter the Croissant - Yesterday’s Sandwich.  It’s not enough that Granny’s Donuts makes the best croissants in Pedro (which isn’t exactly a tough market, croissant-wise) or  that the building is slowly transforming into a mini-mall, but when those croissants form the foundation of a leftover sandwich, it’s the highlight of my home cooking year.  The heirloom tomatoes are gone, so that red up there is a far cry from a real tomato, but it’s good, regardless.

Above - Today’s Sandwich - Another day, another sandwich.  That’s a wide swath of giblet gravy and giblet dressing.  The savory giblets, augmented by the salty/smoky bacon layer hiding at the bottom of this sandwich gave this whole baby a complex and really rich flavour.  Too good.

Technorati Tags: food, food porn, Thanksgiving, leftovers, sandwich, eating, turkey sandwich

My indulgence continues.

Above - Turkey for breakfast, turkey for dinner - I truly want for little else right now, except maybe for a hot tub to eat my sandwiches in.  This sandwich was cold, with no potatoes, but otherwise, much like the last.

Above - No greater pleasure.

Technorati Tags: food, food porn, Thanksgiving, leftovers, sandwich, eating, turkey sandwich

Last night, we ate turkey, we drank mead, I ate until I burst.  But Thanksgiving isn’t about giving thanks in reference to the pity feast given to some starving, lost Euros, it’s about the joy of leftovers, about the pleasure of not being able to decide just what kind of sandwich you want - what bread, which gravy, hot or cold?

So here we go.  How long will the leftovers last?  When will I have to switch from white meat to dark meat?  Should I make another turkey or more mashed potatoes?  Above are the ingredients for my first sandwich - giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, turkey, buttermilk bread, mayonnaise and Hitler’s Mother’s Cornbread Dressing (old family recipe).

Above - The Sandwich Itself - a massive gut-buster, hot and
steaming.  I reheat all of my “heatables” (dressing, turkey, gravy and
potatoes) in an oven at 500 degrees, wrapped in foil.  We didn’t spend
almost 24 hours cooking the perfect turkey to ruin it in the microwave.  I like to leave the bread un-toasted, so that it has the flexibility to stretch around the sandwich as I eat it.  Damn this was good.  I’ve got some leftover bacon for tomorrow’s (or later today’s) sandwich…

Technorati Tags: leftovers, Thanksgiving, sandwich, food porn, food, I ate this, ingredients

I have a new food addiction.  Collar.  I’ve long been flirting with collar, but only in the past two weeks has it blown out into a full-fledged obsession.  It started with a really excellent Sea Bass at Iccho, my favourite izakaya, in Torrance, and last night, followed by Yellowtail, also at Iccho, and last night moved from flirtation to hard core passion with Salmon at Tampopo in Tokai Plaza in Gardena.  I just can’t get enough of that succulent, hard-to-get flesh.  I can’t decide which of the three collars I’ve eaten recently I like the best - the Yellowtail was solid and fishy, the Sea Bass, flaky and delicious when dipped in a little soy and the Salmon (seen above, which I had with a decent Chirashi) was fatty with just enough broil on the skin to make things interesting.

Eating collar re-invigorates my discovery in the past year that the head of most animals is where the real treats are.  Sure, I’ve been sucking the heads and brains out of defenseless shellfish for years, but only recently have I discovered something my grandmother knew all along - the head of the fish is the best and most fun part to eat.  When I was a kid, over at her apartment, she would always be making lunch from the head of some whitefish while we ate the plain old fillet.  That crafty lady wasn’t just being thrifty by eating the head, she was keeping the best part to herself!

Technorati Tags: Japanese food, Chirashi, collar, Salmon collar, fish, Iccho, Tampopo, food, food porn, things I’m obsessed with, obsession,

Tomorrow is ground zero for the unveiling of Salty: Three Tales of Sorrow.  It’s been an extremely long and delicate process over the last several weeks, preparing to install Salty, as well as my AGCC shows, and doing all the daily stuff, too, but it’s worth it.  I have trouble thinking of an exhibition that I have been more excited about working on in a long time.  Anyways, I ramble.

So tomorrow at 1 PM in the El Camino College Art Gallery, Edith Abeyta and I will be taking part in a discussion about the show and her work.  There will be door prizes!  Try and stump the artist!  Heckle us!  Hope to see you there.

For those that dislike “serious art talk” or just work during the day, there’s also an evening reception, from 7-9 PM.  I’ve been watching/helping Michele make teeny-weenie cakes and homemade ice cream for the past 24 hours, so you know the chow is going to be mind blowing. Join us.

Directions to the College are here, and parking on campus is $2.

Technorati Tags: Edith Abeyta, Marshall Astor, Salty, Salty: Three Tales of Sorrow, El Camino College, El Camino College Art Gallery, ECC, art opening, opening reception, art exhibition, solo show, artist talk

I’m cross-posting this from the AGCC blog. I’m going to bed tonight an especially happy little curator, looking very much forward to two shows that I’m obscenely proud of.

We finished hanging Benicia Gantner & Kim Schoenstadt today, and I’m in a deep state of curatorial satisfaction.  When you bring together two artists, who don’t know one another, who live in different cities, on the premise that there’s the potential for a real and meaningful conversation between their work, you entertain a potential for failure, or less catastrophically, disappointment.  Even more so when the key works in the exhibition are new and site specific.  You literally don’t know what you’re going to get.  So entering the gallery this morning, and seeing Benicia’s completed vinyl wall drawings, a wave of pleasure passed over me.  It works.  Everything just looks so good together.

Seeing Benicia and Kim’s works together, I’m unable to stop finding commonalities and meaningful contrasts.  Kim’s work is starkly archiectural, composed of shapes and elements either wholly man-made or mediated by human action. Even the plants are mediated and controlled, the flora of landscaping, divorced from any wild natures. Her whole contribution to the exhibition a room-scale, site-specific work (seen below), which surrounds and focuses the viewer.

In contrast, Benicia’s contribution to the exhibition is a pair of site-specific vinyl on wall pieces and 13 vinyl on panel pieces. They explode with the chaos of nature, biomorphic shapes roiling and flowing together, the horizon lines and the composition of landscape suggests the fantasy of worldbuilding.  There is a sense of out-of-control growth and expansion in her works, of a world unmediated by the ordering of human action that Kim’s work so bluntly portrays.

I could go on, and I probably will later, but I’m really excited to see the viewer reaction when the show is opened to the public tomorrow (Opening at 2PM, Saturday, November 17).  Also opening is Printmaker in Residence: Dirk Hagner.  Dirk’s woodcut portraits are masterful, and I feel that their focus on figure is an excellent paring to Benicia and Kim’s work.

Above - Restoration Selections (East, West, South), by Kim Schoenstadt.

Above - Hyperblossom.1, by Benicia Gantner.

My work is done.  All that’s left is for the gallery to do lights, labels and finish hanging the hankies from Cry Me A River, which I think should be done by the time I write this.  It’s beautiful, one of the most amazing things I’ve had the privilege to help make happen.  As I have to get over to Angels Gate in like 20 minutes and finish hanging the two shows that I have opening tomorrow, I’ll keep this short.  As usual, all photos are in the Salty: Three Tales of Sorrow Flickr Set.

Before we get onto the photos, I’d like to re-mention that Edith and I will be having a discussion/artist’s talk in the gallery on Tuesday, November 20, at 1PM.  Not 100% sure what’s going to happen, but door prizes or food may be involved.  If you want to come, but can’t make the talk, there’s a reception starting at 7 PM in the gallery, ice cream will be served.  Parking on campus is $2, there’s lots of it and here’s the college’s directions and such.

Above - Edith Abeyta Tying a Knot on Cry Me A River - I have an obsession with artists’ hands in general, especially artists who “work with their hands”, like Edith does.  I’ve also developed a bit of an obsession with the actions of hands while tying knots, as well as peoples’ faces while involved in that action.

Above - Hankies from Cry Me A River - I cannot get enough of looking up at and through these hankies.  The colours and light remind me so much of the beauty of the woven roof that Edith constructed for her Contemplating Apocalypse piece.

Above - Heart Follows Bird - people will be able to write wishes on paper, curl it up into a little ball and try and throw it into the Sumo mugs.

Above - Detail of the Sumo Cup Pedestals from Heart Follows Bird - My favourite part of this whole piece, other than the deck, and the used car lot style flags is the wrapped block of cheap clay used to weight the pedestals.

Above - ECC Gallery Director Susanna Meiers - Big props to Susanna for making all of this possible, for everything.  Over a decade ago, Susanna gave me my first job installing at El Camino, and she took me under her wing, letting me get the knowhow I needed working with installation artists on special projects.  It’s that experience of working closely with artists on demanding projects that is at the core of my passion as a curator, artist and gallery director.

That’s the last I’ll see of the show until I come in to do the discussion/artist talk with Edith on Tuesday.  I’d love to see you there.

Technorati Tags: Edith Abeyta, Susanna Meiers, Salty, Salty: Three Tales of Sorrow, knot, tying, Heart Follows Bird, Cry Me A River, installation art, art, art gallery, art exhibition, sumo, mugs, handkerchiefs, hankies, artist

Again, I’m on the move, but I wanted to make mention here that I have two openings at Angels Gate on Saturday at 2 PM.

Benicia Gantner & Kim Schoenstadt is coming along in an awesome way.  Kim’s work (seen above, in progress) is finished and everyone’s talking about it.  I’m really glad that I finally got to work with her.  Benicia arrived at the gallery yesterday, and the work is laid out and ready to be hung tomorrow.  Benicia started working on her vinyl-based wall drawings, and I know that tomorrow morning, when I return to my office at the Center, I’m going to be blown away by what is emerging.  Provided I can get everything hung and done in time, I’m going to be one happy curator.

Printmaker in Residence: Dirk Hagner is the first exhibition in our Downstairs Gallery, focusing on one of our new printmaking residencies.  I fell in love with Dirk’s woodcut portraits the minute he brought them into my office, and I had to have him work at the Center.  These are great big woodcuts, and Dirk has a hand and a talent that imbues the linework with real feeling, capturing the nature of the subject.  To see what I mean, check out the link to Dirk’s website.  He really has a talent for capturing the intensity of his subjects.

Technorati Tags: AGCC, Angels Gate, Angels Gate Cultural Center, Dirk Hagner, Kim Schoenstadt, Benicia Gantner, art, art opening, art exhibtion, installation, site specific, printmaking, woodcut, Cesar Chavez

Like yesterday, I gotta run, so I’ll keep this short.  I stopped by the gallery last night to take a peek at the progress.  Things are really coming together, finishing up.  The checkmarks on Edith’s list way outnumber the blank boxes.  Everything should be finished tonight, and the show will get lit and labeled tomorrow. That’s good, because the show opens to the public on Monday, with an artist talk in the gallery on Tuesday, the 20th, between Edith and myself at 1 PM, followed by the opening reception at 7PM. More photos, including a ton of images of Cry Me A River in progress are in the Flickr set.

Above - Cry Me A River, Almost Done - That’s the tireless Pirkko DeBarr on that ladder, soldiering away, hanging a river of multicoloured vintage handkerchiefs.

Above - Handkerchief Porn - Looking up through the handkerchiefs of Cry Me A River.

Above - Marie Antoinette’s Bed from 280 - Complete and ready for prison comfort!

Above - Bird Name Flags for Heart Follows Bird - ready for hanging, like used car lot flags.

Above - The Salty: Three Tales of Sorrow Merchandising Shelf - Exactly what it sounds like, people are already trying to raid it.

Above - Cast Ceramic Bones from the Merchandising Shelf - Sometimes I think that these are my favourite elements in the installation, and they look beautiful in that little satin lined basket.

Technorati Tags: Salty: Three Tales of Sorrow, Edith Abeyta, Pirkko DeBarr, bones, Marie Antoinette, Cry Me A River, Heart Follows Bird, merchandising, art, installation art, process, art installation, El Camino, El Camino College, ECC, El Camino College Art Gallery, art exhibition