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The above reliquary supposedly contains the preserved finger bone of Saint John the Baptist, whom we recently saw beheaded and platterized at the behest of dancing girl Salome. It’s hard to imagine that at one point the world’s biggest tourist industry essentially consisted of folks wandering about to visit the supposed remains of deceased saints and martyrs. Thank Cthulhu that we have Disneyland and giant balls of twine to wander about visiting…

Anyways, This object is in the same small room with a rather grim and gory painting of the head of Christ, which upon our last visit to the Nelson-Atkins, Michele overheard a nervous mommy telling her child “That’s not our Jesus!” I love how modern American Christianity occupies a conceptual parallel with Disneyland, where everything has been milquetoasted into passionless meaninglessness. The whole Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition is steeped in blood and gore. It’s almost surprising that the church didn’t build zigguruts in Rome and start shedding blood on the steps. Yeah, that’s your bleeding, gory Jesus, alright.

Back to Saint John the Baptist. Being a popular saint, his bits and pieces are spread all over the globe. According to “ever reliable” Wikipedia, his head is accounted for in no less than six different places, and the rest of him is spread even thinner and further, including this little bit that made its way to Kansas City.

Label here.

Technorati Tags: Saint John the Baptist, Christianity, relic, Saint, bone, finger, Guelph Treasure, Nelson-Atkins Museum

My search for history’s finest depictions of severed heads continues in Kansas City. The Nelson-Atkins only has two severed head paintings on display, although they do have many sculptures that are either missing their heads, or are simply bodiless heads, but those don’t count, of course. Unless they depict a severing or a severed head itself, they don’t make the grade.

Hendrick Trebrugghen - The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, oil on canvas, 1620’s (label) - This painting is all that remains of a larger work, so the composition is artificial. I’ve seen/shot a fair number of images of Saint John the Baptist’s beheading, and this one seems particularly constrained and calm. I think it’s the short, military sword wielded by the executioner, which is simultaneously radiates a sense of praticality of arms and drools thick arterial blood carelessly is what makes the scene seem so motionless, like a snapshot. John’s body, supported by a secondary character, remains kneeling, almost as if it still retained some life, despite the greenish pallor of his bare and dirty feet. Salome, residing in the missing portion of the painting, is unseen in this composition, except for her arm which holds out a platter, awating the deposit of the Saint’s head.

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino) - David With the Head of Goliath, fresco, ca. 1618 (label) - This fresco comes across a little primitive or “sketchy” in person, and the label says that Il Guernico might have doing it as an exercise in mastering the technique of fresco. This painting seems a little primitive and it has confusing depth, so I find it hard to tell if David is being cast as exceptionally small, or if Goliath is simply portrayed as fantastically large. I’ll presume that’s Goliath’s collossal sword that David has used to rather roughly remove the head of Goliath, leaving us with the image of a rather angelic young man astride a pile of gore. The scale of the sword seems to draw all attention and to be what creates all the drama in this painting - it’s either absurd or the manifestation of the degree of unlikelyness in David’s victory.

Technorati Tags: Saint John the Baptist, The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, Hendrick Trebrugghen, painting, fresco, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, beheading, severed head, biblical, art, Il Guernico, Giovannin Francesco Barbieri, David With the Head of Goliath, David and Goliath, David, Goliath

Seen on the highway between Springfield and Branson in Missouri.

Technorati Tags: On the Road, billboard, religion, christianity, Assemblies of God, Missouri

Driving back from the more than excellent RJ’s Bob-B-Que, we rolled up on this, a tiny piece of a huge pair of murals decorating the Foxx Equipment building. Making it better is that Foxx is a beer and beverage equipment supplier. The mechanical backbone of modern Baccanalia, sponsoring lowbrow, psychedelic anthropomorphic, animal-based graffiti art! Nothing could be finer.

Front Mural - Desert Feud - It’s got anthropomorphic animal, old west action! And a giant hamster ball!

Rear Mural - Dinosaurs and Cavemen - It’s got tar pits, cavemen, dinosaurs, flying saucers and a Kilroy! (seen at top)

This search has all the images of the murals. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Foxx Equipment, Kansas City, street art, graffiti, mural, Kilroy Was Here, Kilroy, art

The Gao Brothers (Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang) - Miss Mao - painted fiberglass, 2006 (label)

Chinese, post-pop art is everywhere. If you’re Chinese and you can produce anything big, bright and with a reasonable symbolic relevance, it’s your turn at the art market ATM machine.

Technorati Tags: Gao Brothers, Kemper Museum, fiberglass, sculpture, Miss Mao, Mao, Chairman Mao, red

I’m on the road in Missouri, eating as much BBQ as is humanely possible, and a little bit stuffed and sick from it. I also just spent two days marveling at the joys of the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the Kemper Museum, the National WWI Museum and the Toy and Miniature Museum in glorious, smoky scented and fountain kissed Kansas City. What to do if you’re back in LA? Probably go to Comicon in San Diego, actually, if you can bear the crowds, and you’ve managed to get the stains out of your Pokemon fursuit, yet. Or hit Jay Bee’s House of Fine Bar-B-Que and get the best LA has to offer on the BBQ front. Join me in my smoke ringed paradise…

Back to art. I’d like to recommend one exhibition for my friends in LA, Looky See (.pdf press release here), at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis. A group show featuring lots of excellent folks, featuring Emily de Araújo, Eric Beltz, Barbara Berk, Joe Biel, Sandow Birk, Ann Diener, Roy Dowell, Erin Dunn, Erica Eyres, Iva Gueorguieva, Penelope Gottlieb, Richard Keely and Anna O’Cain, Takehito Koganezawa, Tucker Neel, Claudia Nieto, Aaron Noble, Chris Oatey, Ruby Osorio, Ebony G. Patterson, Ron Santos, Mindy Shapero, Fran Siegel, Coleen Sterritt, Fred Stonehouse, Randal Thurston, Elizabeth Turk and Xawery Wolski. It opens tomorrow, Saturday July 26, and the reception is from 6-8 PM.

At Top: Sneak preview image of Fran Siegel’s installation for Looky See.

Technorati Tags: Emily de Araújo, Eric Beltz, Barbara Berk, Joe Biel, Sandow Birk, Ann Diener, Roy Dowell, Erin Dunn, Erica Eyres, Iva Gueorguieva, Penelope Gottlieb, Richard Keely and Anna O’Cain, Takehito Koganezawa, Tucker Neel, Claudia Nieto, Aaron Noble, Chris Oatey, Ruby Osorio, Ebony G. Patterson, Ron Santos, Mindy Shapero, Fran Siegel, Coleen Sterritt, Fred Stonehouse, Randal Thurston, Elizabeth Turk, Xawery Wolski, Otis, Ben Maltz Gallery, Looky See, LA Art, art, contemporary art

I grew up playing Famicom. Living in a community chock full of shipped over salarymen and their families exposed me to 8-bit joy at an earlier age than most Americans. Although I had lots of non-Japanese friends, a lot of my friends were the “I don’t speak English, but we can play Famicom together” variety. And over endless, foil packed snacks, I was more than happy to oblige. So I don’t know if anyone gets as excited about Famicom related stuff as I do, but I have a serious nostalgia for it. I almost bought a pile of used Famicom equipment at a Thai night market about two weeks ago, even though I could easily Ebay better gear in the states.

My Famicase Exhibition is a a pile of made up Famicom cartridges (Like the one above, which is an awesome image with no explanation). Fantasy games that never were, and never will be, with case designs by artists. I normally don’t go into this kind of thing, but for Famicom, I’ll make an exception. Click the exhibition link to see all the carts.

Above - Burisu-kun - Some things are universal. The game of blowing on game carts to restore their connectivity.

Above - Agriculture! The Game! Get ready for backbreaking, dawn-to-dusk, virtual labor!

Above - AC Adaptor - Where you fight your enemies with a swinging AC adaptor.

Above - and Finally, the “Poland” FC-303 drum machine. Funny, because Korg just announced a synth for the DS.

Thanks to Kotaku for showing me the light.

Technorati Tags: Famicom, Kotaku, My Famicase Exhibition, Cartridge Art, Carts

The season is now officially on! Bring forth more tomato action, good, green Earth! This nicely sliced pile of Lemon Boys and Yellow Pears made their way into a delicious breakfast of chilaquiles.

Technorati Tags: tomatoes, Lemon Boy, Yellow Pear, food porn, food, homegrown

While I was in Thailand, I was asked to donate a piece to Burapha University. Being that the University was such a generous host, there was no way I could refuse, even though I don’t really paint on canvas, ever. I can’t even remember buying a canvas before.

So, a suitable canvas acquired from the local art store, I….

…set up my projector in the condo of the 14th floor University condominium where I was staying, using the condo’s microwave as an impromptu projector stand. Where I…

… crammed myself into the corner of the hallway to trace the image so that I could…

…get my painterly action on…

…in the the Condo’s kitchen, my new studio.

Technorati Tags: Thailand, Chonburi International Art Exhibition, Marshall Astor, painting, projection, Avian Flu Awareness Project, Study

I find this work menacing/playful because of the way the disjunctive perturbation of the negative space contextualize the eloquence of these pieces.

Just follow this link to get your instantaneous Master’s Degree in Art Crapwriting!

Thanks Tyler & C-Monster for showing me the light.

Technorati Tags: artwriting, Tyler Green, C-Monster, bad writing, phrase generator