Request for you all

ok so I am doing this video project where I basically interview all the people who come in. I would like to ask a variety of questions… they can be about anything… and I would like to have you all help me. Submit me a question that I should ask the artists for this project. I would really appreciate it!

The concert and after, Part Two of 25 days.

Although more artists have been coming in, and I could go on listing the days (which I will in away), I am getting bored with that format and believe it would be more appropriate to treat this time period differently from the first 15 days, mainly because it is. 

The concerts were a hit. I had fun, you had fun (if you went), the musicians had fun.  The first night, day 16, Roger L. Lewis, Tryone Storm himself, put together one heck of a show. I would say that this storm was kinda like el nino; it wasnt crazy like a tornado, all of the players have been around since 2002 , it was calm and warm, and only a select number of people really knew it was going on.  It was great! Jake Bellows and Dan McCarthy both played acoustic sets. We all sat around and looked at these people like we were sitting around a fire  (maybe with our grandpa). Then Tryone Storm lulled us to bed with some smooth tunes while people added to a mosaic set up outside. Pat Geske taped the whole thing and there will be a screening of this at the gallery each night it is open.

The next night Craig Dee was in charge of putting together a show. This show was basically the evil (like wicked evil- fun evil) twin of the first. The shows, were on the surface similar, but complete opposites inside. We had a barbeque, some people ate, more people didnt (they of course did do a heathy- maybe not the best word- amount of drinking). And then there was the rock. Street Lethal started it off bringing us back to the glory of Weezer, you know the pre-dude-supported days when actual nerds who like Atari (not just ironically) listened to these guys. This was the most highly supported band of the night (I think everyone wanted to see Walters back up on stage, he informed me he had not played since 2003). Then Dim Light and This Bike is a Pipe Bomb (Florida) played. I really liked those cats from Florida, both musically and as solid people, I guess it just goes to show that the state is not JUST god’s waiting room. Then Vverevolf Grehv (Dapose) closed it out with some sinister (remember the good kind of evil) tunes. All and all the concert nights were pretty sweet and made the parking lot look like the night’s sky with star spangled cigarette buds. All forgotten now because of the cleansing Monday rain (and a shitty broom).

 

25 Days of Building

Ok guys you have to be patient with this blog. First one. So this blog is going to give you the run down on what has been happening here at the Empty Room for the past 9 days ( some time to assure you that I don’t just sit in the room eating the muffins I take from Blue line Coffee).

So the whole project is broken up into days– each day a new artist.

Day 1– I was technically the first artist. Since all of the work is supposed to be collaborative I decided to build the space as my contribution (A cop out I know). I put it together it looks like this:

Day 2– Katherine Flynn, the brave cat that she is, was the first artist. We focused on starting two things. The first thing we did was start on a painting/ drawing . The inks came out and we started in. Have you ever made a painting or drawing with someone? I mean side by side making one image together– it is comically tough. There was a strange tension as we naturally started working on our own areas, afraid to let her dots mix with my lines. When we stopped and evaluated we decided the only right thing to do was force a mixing, I drew on her territory and she on mine. The second thing we did was come up with an idea for a light fixture and then build it. We built the center into an abstract nest of dried star-gazer lily stems. Nice. 

Day 3: Michelle Mixan-Lopez. Michelle and I met at Dillards at the Crossroads Mall some years back, are distaste for the man (who really just was a sinking company that is now a giant empty building I believe) and awkwardness in multiple social situations brought us together. She is a great photographer and graduated with a degree in such in Austin Texas. So she was artist 2. We came up with some ideas all surrounding the idea of social interaction and the metaphors we could extract from the strange situations that are relationships. The main idea thats  we started brain storming about was based off of an idea Michelle had been pushing around for some time: the image of raveling and unraveling. Like a sweater, one string pulled can take apart the whole structure, relating this to some of the  unpleasantries of the human species we began to brain storm ideas on how to represent these sorts of things. The project “Sheep’s Clothing” was thus born. We are going to find an old clothing rack- preferably in the style of old department-store-circular racks, and adorn it with outfits each representing a type of interaction. Then we will have the rack and its outfits as the manifestation of different types of social realities. We will do a series of photographs with these outfits. 

Day 4 and 5: Josh Hebbert and Abbie Dietz. My dear Josh. We recently shared some glory together this April when we put together a wonderful thesis show at the Gallery at Bancroft (10th and Bancroft). During that time we worked out a language of working together and building in various ways.  He brought with him a remarkable Abbie, who is best described as from the world but probably more often said to be from Philadelphia. It was great to start working with them both. We spent our first day together catching up and working out ideas. abstractly: we filled the room with creations, more literally we had a long conversation ( perhaps more appropriately a ramble-athon) about America, gender, and art, and the only record of these are our somewhat myopic memories. Great night. The conversations held thick in the air, condensed, and now we have day 5.

Day 5: Josh, Abbie, and I have work to do. The morning shift. It begins like the night before plucking at ideas and going on rhetoric rampages till two ideas got enough substance to land. First we decided to build a horizontally suspended dream catcher. So real dream catchers earn their place above the bedposts of many a people due to they’re filtering effects. As we sleep they are supposed to let through the positive thoughts and snag those nightmarish bits of information swirling in our minds. So for our project we hope to represent this. Through the whole of the catcher are where the goods come through, this is where we decided to put some real growth. In the sculpture you will be able to see a patch of grass that we will grow and tend in the space. Real live building! The second idea we had was to represent a topic through a sculpture that resembled a topographic map. Josh had been working on his own with plywood cut outs that formed landscapes in this way. We all thought it was brilliant and went to town on it with our minds. What we thought of was that the topographical map is sort of like the offspring of 2-d and 3-d images. It straddles the line between the two. By forming sculptures by stacking very flat planes , you have areas that are two demensional (the planes), and a final area that is three dimensional (the sculpture).  So we wanted to have an idea that lived up to these symbolic possibilities: a topic that seems easily understood represented in  the two dimensional, and is mistakenly put together as such where people think they have a complex understanding but unfortunately do it in a very simple way (probably any topic would work here- we are cocky humans). We are still brainstorming on where this will lead. Excitement!

Day 6: Eric Erskins. So there’s this kid Eric Erskins. And he has just come back from this trip to Europe and his little mouth will not stop rattling the praises of the great Amsterdam. So we made a spectacular drawing of his experiences there. It was a very fluid experience. He described what he felt there. He picked out what colors he felt there (not a misprint- he was just ‘inspired’ if you will during his trip). And we looked at the city. What happened from there was this spider-like drawing webbing the window-framed canals of the great city. This spawn of two brains is called Neder- the word for north in dutch. 

Day 7: Amy Nelson. Amy is an instructor, my old instructor and mentor in fact, at Omaha’s own Creighton University. She just as importantly is a very inspiring artist. ceramics and drawing are her main way of working but parameters are not necessary- she is an artist through and through. She had been to the space prior to her day to give me some supplies (generous as always, if you see some creepy body part pieces- made out of clay of course- they are just one of many of her wonderful contributions). She brought her class by, and they looked at some videos- including this doll-like woman attached as a puppet to a field of dead mice. hmm. Then she started a drawing that interprets the space we are working in that has since been added to.

Day 8: Nic Graves. Nic is a good friend of mine from the days of high-school. Also a member of the world, he came into the space from New York where he lived in many public spots( the subway I think was his norm). In order to afford the grand city. He and I have been pen pals for most of his adventurous days, thus it only seemed natural for him to be a part of this through correspondence. Well, thats how I invited him to be involved. But he showed up in the flesh and has been a valuable addition ever sense. Right away he started in on an oil painting, a color study that led to a warrior head. I helped with chalk, and we had our first piece. He and Zach, an artist also invited to the space, started to build a fire place. I am happy to see them warming up the space. Feels like home!

Day 9: Ben McQuillan . Ok so the night before, all chagrined by the lack of people in the space (many people could only come to the first shift of building), this strange ominous presence appeared to me almost as an apparition, speaking directly about the emptiness of the space. This figure kept on explaining that he was expecting this world he entered to have more growth, more life, more pieces, and more people…. This redheaded prophet was Ben and although he left me in a nightmarish state, he redeemed my sense of hope (so much so that I think this mood he left me with was a primer for his shift) the next day, day 9, by coming in and creating some great pieces. And ever sense the space has been moving a long quickly. Although I have known Ben for about a year and have had many mind bending conversations with him on the various subjects of our worlds (including art — hence the invitation) I had never really seen any of his work. Lets just say I was right to trust him. The first piece we did in the space was a portrait of me writing, him and Eric drew me while I typed away about them. What happened was an angry faced semi-sureal portrait of a writer and a short blip about a wife being mad at her ex husband for being cold to her at a impromptu dinner party. 

Day 10: Mindy Leahy.  So its basically a Slowdown party these days (I worked with both Mindy and Ben at the Slowdown in the same complex as this project but of course right?:Omaha) and I am glad for it, Mindy came in with the same spunk as Ben. Both went to work right away and were excited to do so. On our idea board (which is simply a piece of Plexiglas taped to the wall) we have been pushing around this idea of doing a stop motion film or at least a picture book. We are one step closer thanks to Mindy’s ability to make  creatures. These creatures she is working on now are equipped with a wire skeleton that we can move around and create some pretty crazy scenes with. So hopefully come September 28 and 29th there will be a stop motion video for everyone to enjoy!

Day 11: Stephen Osberg. Ok so Steve knows a lot about a lot of things. Making coffee, food information, bike information, environmental issues, and I think there is some engineering under his belt. The relevancy of this? Well, he is planning on making-with the help of all us builders-some sort of moving piece that is human-powered, bike-helped. We will see if the brains can match the brawn. 

 

 

Day 12: Bridget O’Donnell. Bridget is soon to graduate Creighton with a B.F.A, where she will have her thesis show at the Market at Bancroft St. She is a photographer by trade, and an over all artist by mere existence. This particular day she took some photos of Josh and Abbie’s last day in the space (I miss them already!!) and started some work on crocheting little holders for Amy’s pills (this sounds odd but is completely literal, no hidden meaning-by me at least- here). She had these printed and ready for the space’s Monster (Almost) Weekend. If you went, they were displayed all over the walls. Wonderful to have her aboard!

 

 

Day 13: Derek Pressnall. Many may know this sprightly lad from his work in Omaha in a number of fronts, most famously in the bands Tilly and the Wall and Flower’s forever, but did you also know that he can turn an ordinary house-hold object like a snowman decorative panel into a moving snake? Neither did I until last Tuesday. Magic! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 14: Hayden Bushnell. Hayden walked right into this one. So one night Steve was designing some crazy moving sculpture (that not surprisingly included a bike) and in comes Hayden to see the space and what was going on. It was quickly apparent that she should be part of the space. And now she is! the first project we have started on together was fueled by a conversation about splitting. Eric, Haden, and I went out onto the picnic table outside of the space and began brain storming, our goal was to all have a conversation with some sort of theme and then each make a piece that reflected what we heard from each other. The conversation began with talk of Cotart’s syndrome, an odd syndrome were a disconnect in a certain part of the brain causes one to think that  they are dead. Then we started talking about cells, and about parasites, and about other mental disorders, and we were on our way to making some super sci-fi pictures that may put us on some government watch lists (if only we were so lucky!). Science!

 

Day 15: Christina Bailey. I would say that Christina is also a member of the world, and that is probably the best way to describe her. Creative basically in every step, what will come of her presence only  Nostradamus may be able to clue us in on (to bad he is dead). All I know is that so far she has started some project where a deck of cards have been attached to loose-leaf paper, not counting the ones she has very deliberately given out. I got the jack of hearts. Someone stole some money from her this weekend and there is a jack of spades with their name on it! 

 

Day 16: MONSTER (ALMOST) WEEKEND!!!! Roger L. Lewis. Dude! Tyrone Storm totally put together this monster night ….