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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

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 spent 90% of my time in Thailand in Bang Saen, mostly in the neighborhoods along Long Hard Bang Saen Road, between the main coastal highway and Burapha University. Being a college town I expected to see some street art, and I did find it, but not much. On my last trip to Thailand, I was on the lookout for street art of any type, and I hardly saw any, even in Bangkok proper. I’ve heard rumors about multi-story ghost buildings in Bangkok filled with graffiti, but I haven’t seen if those are true, yet…

I don’t think there’s a lot of street art in Thailand because what can compete with the visual chaos and action of any urban Thai street. 90% of what I saw was amateurish and I only saw big pieces, like the ones here, on ruined buildings. I didn’t see anything bigger than a sloppy tag on anything that wasn’t already a ruin. Either penalties are too high to make the risk worthwhile, or there’s a general respect for private property that is lacking in the States. It’s also worth noting that spray paint is on sale everywhere. If you’re in Thailand and are looking to spray paint on something I recommend the ATM brand, particularly the automotive colours. Oh, and buy a lot, as Thai cans contain a really lackluster supply of paint. They also have really unreliable flow rates, and sputter a lot, no matter what you do. Sometimes even fresh cans barely want to spray.

On to the pics.

Above - An adorable throw up. This was spotted at a ruined two story building along the highway. I walked a few miles along the highway one morning and this piece, and the one below were the only graffiti I saw the whole time.

Above - Some pretty loose stuff going on here, and hat looks like an aborted white version of the piece above. This area of the building faced the street. There was a ton of great wall space in this ruin and an adjacent ruin, and they were both pretty much untouched. Note the Western bombs, with Thai script signatures. Thai script sometimes looks a bit like Bizarro English - you think you can read it, and see strange words in it, but you can’t, and I found the Thai signatures to be way, way more interesting than the bombs.

Above - This may or may not be actual street art. It was on the wall of someone’s home in an alley. Not sure what’s going on here, but it’s not good work by any means.

Above - This image, the tag at the top of this post, and all those that follow were all seen at the same ruined restaurant/nightclub near the University. I’m fond of this piece, both for its cyclopean nature and it’s rectangularity.

Above - Squared face.

Above - Another bomb.

Above - This image and the two that follow were the only really proficient pieces I saw in Thailand. Not sure if they’re the product of a local or of a traveler.

Above - Someone came along and went over the faces, but I kind of like the effect here.

Above - This had an unfinished quality, but was very well painted. This seemed very LA to me for some reason.

Technorati Tags: street art, graffiti, Thailand, Bang Saen

So, after a long day of sightseeing, rain dodging and chow eating, fellow artist Ian Song and I wander up to the Goddess of Mercy shrine on Ko Loy, a tiny island linked to Siracha (home of the sauce!) by a causeway, and we see a fellow standing in front of the above, and there’s a recorded voice blessing him. There’s a whole row of like two dozen of these, all waiting for the monetary attentions of the faithful public.

So the object above is a coin operated blessing robot, something that I had no idea existed until earlier today. I’m not a particularly religious man, but do robot blessings count? I’d love to hear the theological reasoning behind this. Not because I’m critical, but because it’s probably an interesting bit of reasoning.

Technorati Tags: Buddhism, coin op, coin operated, robot, religion, Thailand, Ko Loy, Siracha, I had no idea, shrine

I suppose it’s no surprise, that in what must be the center of the street food universe, I discover the Thai version of the danger dog, a quadruple threat of bacon wrapped beauty. All this within minutes walk from my room in the Dr. Sanoh Unakoon Condominium at Burapha University. The school year just started and there are all kinds of festivities going on, including a street fair where I got my skewery love on. And if you can’t tell from the greasy, messed up hair, it’s sweltery as all hell here!

And nothing goes better with a skewer of fat wrapped fat and a sack full of Isaan=style pork sausage than a styrofoam tray of quail eggs. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I like the Thai approach to eggs. You can eat eggs on the street, eggs for breakfast and omelettes over beer at midnight. It’s egg-tastic! Cholesterol FTW!

Technorati Tags: eggs, fried eggs, Thai food, street food, junk food, danger dog, bacon wrapped hot dog, meat, sausage

I wish I was young like this guy, that I met on Monkey Mountain here in Bang Saen. I’m feeling both old and tired today. It’s hot, and I have a gazillion photos to process and things to say, but I need a nap. So I guess I’m just sharing some monkey action here. The opening was awesome, but no monkeys came.

Technorati Tags: monkey, Thailand, Bang Saen, Monkey Mountain

The Chonburi International Art Exhibition opens, at the Eastern Center for Art and Culture at Burapha University. Featuring work by a slew of Chonburi-based artists, and nine American artists, including myself, Edith Abeyta, Betsy Lohrer Hall, H. Mathis, Merry-Beth Noble, Sal Randolph, S. Ian Song, Matthew Thomas and Hague Williams. I’ve spent much of the past week either flying here or working on making it happen. Installing art here has been an experience, and a real blast at times, especially when the hurdles are behind you.

Reception is from 4-6, there will be dancers, and possibly this piano player that we saw last night at a beachfront bar, who does amazing covers of English language songs. It’s also the beginning of the school year here (more on that later), and there are various performances and even fireworks going on, or so I’ve heard. Two days ago I heard an amazingly disorganized marching band practicing outside the gallery, and I have this desperate hope that they will show up, crowd into my installation, and at my request, play their awesome, de(con)structionist version of Europe’s The Final Countdown. I can already hear it in my head, or maybe I’m still just loopy from all the paint fumes.

At Top - A taste of my (now completed) installation, Year of the Comet.Technorati Tags: Edith Abeyta, H. Mathis, Merry-Beth Noble, Sal Randolph, S. Ian Song, Matthew Thomas, Hague Williams, Year of the Comet, Buapha University, Eastern Center for Art and Culture, art opening, opening reception, Chonburi International Art Exhibition

Sometimes I think 80% of my profession boils down to painting white walls whiter. It’s the most regular and unchanging aspect of gallery work, the quietest time, and somehow always seems like a change of season to me, when everything is potential and new.

It hadn’t occurred to me that on some level, I’m basically building a gallery wall for my work. There’s a weird mix of my professional and personal practice going on here. It’s funny, too. I feel really egotistical with these big panels, like I’m pretending to be a serious painter, but all I’m doing is building a fake, cheap as Hollywood, wall to do a cheap, disposable painting on. I like to think of my wall pieces as transitory and somehow banal, but this giant panel makes me feel like I’m pretending to be a painter, when all I’m really trying to do is to be a Home Depot-school installation artist.

It’s worth noting here that acrylic bucket paint in Thailand is weirdly thick, almost a bit like pudding, but once it’s on the roller it behaves pretty much normally.

Technorati Tags: painting, painter, Year of the Comet, Eastern Center for Art and Culture, whitening, artist, Chonburi International Art Exhibition

One of the awesome-ist things I’ve eaten on this trip was the above, fried quail (or quail-looking, anyways) eggs, served in a foam box and eaten with a skewer. They were fried just past over easy, in a big, circular takoyaki pan. Delicious, with a little spice, but nothing other than the pure flavour of the delicious egg to make them magical.

I saw these being sold at the Chonburi Night Market, and I had to have them. It was like love at first sight - pure food magnetism filling my soul. This is what food is all about. My mission on this Earth is to find things like this, eat them and love them.

Technorati Tags: food, food porn, eggs, fried eggs, Chonburi night market, Chonburi, delicious

I cannot explain how much fell into place when Pongsak said that Jessada had arrive with the panels for my work. I’m familiar with Thai construction, it’s precise, but I’ve seen buildings made out of little more than compacted sand here. I’ve seen wood that’s more like a “foamed wood pulp and glue solid.” Oh, and Pongsak always walks like that, he’s highly influenced by the silly walks work of John Cleese.

Above - So that’s my completed working area. 488 cm x 300 cm, and composed of six panels. I’m not quite sure how we’re going to mount these to the wall. I’d like to strap them all together with lumber in the back into one unit and suspend the whole object. Or bolt them together with strapping of some kind. I’m not sure.

I don’t have detail shots here, but I can’t explain how well made these panels are. They overlap, and the seams are near perfect. The framer put a lot of thought into how they would fit together precisely. They’re super-lightweight, probably weighing about 10% of what they would if I made them back in the states. This whole arrangement cost about $90 and was delivered in two days. In the US that would be impossible. I raise a fat shot glass of elephant whiskey to Thai working methods.

Now all I’ve got to do is actually paint the thing. Another object that apparently doesn’t exist here is plastic sheeting, like the kind you would buy at home depot. And I haven’t seen anything resembling a large tarp yet, either. So we’re using some kind of roll paper to protect the gallery from my paint splatter, but I’m still unclear as to what exactly is arriving.

Above - I’m using fluorescent tubes in my piece, and apparently you cannot buy anything resembling a fluoresent light fixture with an attached plug, so I’m wiring the lights by hand. I just did some similar wiring for a piece at Angels Gate, and the easy to wire male plugs in Thailand are way better designed than the ones we have in the states.

Getting into the imporance and aesthetics of fluorescent lighting in Thailand is a whole other post. I’m so excited to be working with fluorescent lighting on this piece. I’ve wanted to do work with fluoresent tubes since my first trip here.

Above - We went to this giant pottery/spirit house/painted plaster fantastic animal warehouse on the highway to get some big pots for my piece. It was literally a pottery barn, as in a giant, metal framed barn, about 2 acres in size containing pottery. Together, these were only 400 Baht, or just over $10. Those are Ian’s feet and my new camera+laptop bag keeping them from bumping.

Technorati Tags: Thailand, Chonburi International Art Exhibition, art, contemporary art, process, art supplies, pottery, panels