[No] One [Is an] Eyeland

I’ve just been announced as one of the winners of One Eyeland Awards | World’s Top Mobile Photographers! My 2014 photo On the Boardwalk won Bronze, and my 2015 photo Spiral and 2017 photo Singing Sands are Finalists. All shot on my iPhone 5s, of course. You can view more of my mobile photography here.

Pivoting to showing off the work of other artists: The open call for my new zine, LAMINATOR, has been included in Artwork Archive’s monthly “Best Artist Opportunities” list!

And here’s a sneak peek at one of the submissions I’ve gotten so far. I usually don’t share art until after the application deadline (which is Monday!), but I couldn’t resist. Happy Halloween!

Oil painting by Kelly Eden,
a contemporary artist in Los Angeles, CA

Submit to Artists on the Lam’s inaugural zine here, where you can also sign up for pre-orders!

Steam

This year, I’m celebrating the 10th anniversary of Artists on the Lam! (It was on June 6, 2011, that I published my first blog post here!) Get excited for all sorts of fun stuff (online, of course). Including… DECAHEDRON. Stay tuned!

This week: I’m proud to announce that I’ve been invited to speak at the Leonardo LASER Talk “Resilience: From Cells to the Human Experience” this Friday (February 26), 6-7pm CST, on Zoom. A program that combines art and science—my kind of event. Attend if you’re free!

Another announcement: The launch of my Shop! Purchase original handmade drawings and paintings by yours truly. (In the past I handled art sales via email, which I can still do. Choose whichever method is more convenient for you!) I also have a Redbubble shop where you can purchase prints (and tons of other products like stickers, mugs, and more) of my original photography (all taken on my iPhone 5s, which has been hanging on for dear life).

Fun stuff in the form of short clips: In addition to other social media channels, I’m on TikTok now too; say hello if you’re over there! And here’s a voicemail message I left Sixty Inches from Center that they turned into an entire animated video; it’s amazing and I love it.

And if you’d like to hear a magical little story: Here’s a short thread about a coyote at my door.

Outside the 7-Eleven

So I’m walking down Milwaukee Avenue late at night and this guy stops me. “Excuse me, darling. Do you like Ghetto Art?” He’s wearing a newsboy cap, a suit jacket, and a rosary. (I’ll later learn that he goes by Sir Gerald, and he hails from Las Vegas, and he’s here with his mom. She’s standing a few feet away with a flower in her hair, and later she’ll tell me I’m “too cute” and ask me if I’m Korean. Nope.) “Yes!” I answer enthusiastically (because that’s the only way you should answer a question like that). He shuffles through a stack of illustrations he’s made. The first one is allegedly a drawing of Beyoncé, captioned with “Bootylicious,” except bootylicious is, like, totally spelled wrong (there’s definitely at least one extra “s” in there). “You can make a donation of any amount,” he begins, but I cut him off and go, “Actually, how about we trade? I’ll give you my art for your art.” He hesitates at first, but I hand him a piece of a large interactive project I’m starting and will continue for one year. He takes it, looks at it, and, although he was already amicable before, his demeanor changes. He’s beaming. He looks me in the eye and, smiling, says, “This… is powerful. Thank you.”

Art, guys. Art.

Like a Wong Kar Wai movie // except less color saturated

Greetings from Hong Kong! The beautiful big city where people treat you like you’re family. Probably because they really are your family. (My dad’s side of the clan greeted me at the airport yesterday with fruit, biscuits, umbrellas, and an Octopus Card.) (The MTR is arguably the best subway system ever, but just the fact that its card is called an Octopus already means all’s right with the world.) How do you like the new header?

This is a quick post—before I head to the ART HK Vernissage—to say that I’ll be posting the following soon:

• Photos and words from Shanghai, a.k.a. Graffiti Heaven (well I made that up but really it is) (teaser below); and

 

• A post about art’s intersection with class. (Class as in rich vs. poor. And while I’m on that topic, let it be known that all VIP events and activities, including access to the fair itself, are free. I find that ironic.)

In the meantime…

• Are you following me on Twitter? You should! I’ve been microblogging about this trip.

• In case you missed them, here are my last two trip-related posts: photos and words from Beijing and my musings on identity and culture.

“How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”

“A fish.” (Thank you, Carrie McGath.)

More behind-the-scenes previews of Exquisite Corpse artwork (find past sneak peeks here, here, here, and not there but here):

A piece by Robin Rios and Derail Howery:

Image courtesy of Robin Rios, 2011.

Werewolves? Vampires? A post-apocalyptic showdown between Adam and Eve? This is not your mother’s hairdresser’s lover’s dog walker’s dealer’s nanny’s chessboard.

The final version of this piece by Brittany Majka, Carrie McGath, and Jennifer Moore:

Image courtesy of Jennifer Moore, 2011.

I never would’ve expected it to take such a direction, and I love that. See more photos—including other exquisite corpses—and read about the process at Jennifer’s very informative blog, where there are a few NSFW images (although still much classier than the Marilyn Monroe behemoth she, Brittany, and Carrie [rightfully] mock).

A work in progress by Jessica Drogosz, to be added to by Avisheh Mohsenin and Jes Standefer:

Image courtesy of Jessica Drogosz, 2011.

Philadelphia-based artist Becket Flannery (whom I interviewed for my first Sixty Inches From Center article) and New York-based artist Tucker Rae-Grant are organizing their collaborations around the idea of bait and trap, “both in the sense of how painting operates as a trap, how the surface is a kind of bait and the frame is a kind of trap, [and] also the ways in which paintings and art objects can be tactical.”

Diane Ponder, Lorraine Grandinetti working on behalf of the late Frank Grandinetti, and Patricia Biesen are keeping their individual images unknown to each other until the opening reception, where they will unveil their final piece. Similarly, Deirdre Fox, Jessie Winslow, and Zachary Trebellas “would like to maintain the mystery for now.” The images and videos I’ve seen so far from both groups, however, are making it very hard for me to not share them with you (Patricia even stated, “I’ve just created one of the most unique paintings of my entire career for this event”), but fortunately (or unfortunately), I [think I] have willpower.

And Cassie Hamrick and Veronica Stein are working on a series of pillows that will be displayed on couches and chairs they’ve found throughout the exhibition space. Guests will be able to touch and interact with these pieces. Art: it comes in furniture form too.

And that’s not even all the artists.

Basically, this is going to be one hell of a show.