yo mama!

phoenix

2012-01-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

it was a rough weekend in phoenix. i'd been a little worried about getting up on an unsactioned wall on roosevelt in light of it's exposure. however, when i got to phoenix and talked with breeze about another beautiful red wall i spotted on roosevelt, he mentioned that when lalo hit the front of the wall, it was an unsanctioned hit. he just went at it. inspired by that, i hit the wall.

it took me about 45 minutes to get up; maybe a bit longer. no hassels with the installation. i went back the next day to cover the wall with a coat of polyurethane.

that's lalo's boom box on the front side of the building. i submitted images of this installation to bsa and got this back "...the images of the "film strip" are not too clear. they really don't represent your best work which is usually very strong with an immaculate sense of placement." i was bummed to get that. i'd just gotten up on an illegal wall in downtown phoenix and got no love from bsa.

then yesterday, i went to get up on a wall phoenix king, lalo told me about at roosevelt avenue and 7th avenue. he thought the wall was cool because another wheat paster, nomas, (who said i'd never get up on the wall at the hive), had a wheat paste up there and the owner of the building was cool with it. the first thing i noticed when i got to the wall was that the piece by nomas had been buffed. the wall was totally clean. i could see where his piece had been painted over. not a good sign. but it was a beautiful day in phoenix. it'd rained the night before. the air was clear and a little crisp. it'd rained the night before. i thought i'd do a fun installation and enjoy the day. i started getting up...

my thinking was that i'd fill this wall with images of different sizes of bubblehead jamaal. i got to this point when breeze arrived. we hung out and talked for about 20 minutes. it occurred to me that i should either finish the piece or pack up. about that time breeze said "...oh, oh. here comes the police." boom! there he was. a single officer got out of his squad car and approached me asking "...is this your building?"

"no," i said.

"do you know who owns this building?" again, i said "...no."

"then what are you doing putting graffiti up on it?"

"well, it's still wet. i can take it down." (i have to thank blek le rat for that one. i read in his book that he'd frequently say that to police when caught wheat pasting in paris.)

the officer said, ok. take it down. i asked if i could photograph the piece before buffing it. he said, "...yeah, but hurry up. it's drying." i really wanted to ask him to stand in front of the piece.

another squad car with 2 other officers arrived while i was removing the piece. in the end, they were cool about it saying that it would be okay to put the piece up if i knew the building owner. i got my id back from the officer before he departed. breeze lightened the moment by telling that his girlfriend was in their car crashed out totally oblivious to everything that had just gone on. this experience gave the installation on roosevelt and it's rejection by bsa perspective in that i was happy to have just gotten up.

my other installation from last weekend was on 16th street. the store owner walked out while i was putting this up and dug it.

i had the brilliant idea of running the u2 lyrics that accompany this piece through google translator and translating it into spanish since i was going to install it in the barrio. the u2 lyric goes

"we scorch the earth; set fire to the sky

we stoop so low to reach so high."

this is what mr. googles gave me:

"que quemar la tierra, prendieron fuego al cielo

que caer tan bajo para llegar tan alto."

not being a spanish speaking person, i was told by a spanish speaking woman leaving the store that what i wrote made no sense. that comment summarized wheat pasting phoenix last weekend. we live and learn.

art of the rural

2012-01-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

i love art of the rural. thanks matt!

return to the scene of the rhyme

2011-12-31T01:49:00.000-08:00

it's 11:37 p.m. and roosters are cackling. it must be hawaii. jamaal and i spent new year's here 2 years ago with my good friend kevin johnson. i knew things were looking up because on new year's day and the first day of the new decade, i stood up on a surf board for the first time in my life. it wasn't long and it wasn't pretty but there i was.

jamaal suggested we return to the scene of the rhyme again this year. so once more, we're crashing on kevin's floor enjoying the kindness of friends and the warmth of the island.

meanwhile, inspired by mentalgassi, i started playing around with inflatable, sculptural wheat pasting. this little project has now become kind of a flat stanley goes to kauai adventure but this time around it jamaal bubble head...

view from kevin's balcony

mahaulepu 1

mahaulepu 2

uncle kevin + jamaal

god complex

(i saw the film "another earth" last night; loved it. this photo reminds me of that.)

one sees a lot of chickens everywhere in kauai

spouting horn, kauai

japanese tourists

and speaking of japan, check me: street style, japan.

happy new year!

rain dance...

2011-12-18T21:38:00.000-08:00

it never fails. whenever i do a big installation, it rains. such was the case last week and this weekend in phoenix. so after a week, stephanie's photo on the billboard, the collab with breeze, is already starting to come down. one week later. that hurts. steve, julia's husband and partner in managing the hive, said he'd try to paste her back up. i left some wheat paste with him that had started to turn sour. yum.

meanwhile, i met niba yesterday. he's a photographer who is based in tucson, i think. it was one of those moments when virtual reality becomes real and you meet someone from your social networking sites. in truth, i thought niba, also known as "dead now" on twitter was a woman. o well. instead, he's a great guy with 2 beautiful children. here are some of his images from yesterday's installation. thanks niba!

shout out to the british two tone movement

with miguel

kicking it with breeze

clubbing

thanks to erin gramzinski for the video!

images from the opening of "rezolution" show at the hive

2011-12-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

pra meu irmao, zito

2011-12-18T08:47:00.000-08:00

a little less than a year ago raul zito of sao paulo, brazil downloaded one of my photos of jamaal flying and pasted it in brazil. i was too stoked. well today, i finally got around to paying him back in downtown phoenix.

here's one of the 3 photos zito sent to me. the thing i love about this image is the guy on the left hand side of the train who is clearly taken with something happening outside. i love the relaxed intensity of the guy centrally in the image and i like the way the woman's hand runs along the inferior margin of the image as she gently grasp the pole.

so, here's what i did with this image in phoenix.

this piece was done as a collaboration with thomas "breeze" marcus.

meanwhile, here is what did zito with the image of mine he downloaded...

koyaanisqatsi - a guided tour

2011-12-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

image courtesy of niba

Koyaanisqatsi (pronunciation: /koʊjɑːnɪsˈkɑːtsiː/)^[1] also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio

koyaanisqatsi is the theme for my contribution to this show. i chose to represent several things i see as being life out of balance or crazy life.

j.b., the man in the photo above is a friend and a patient. he was 92 when i photographed him last year. when i first saw him, he was wearing a winter hat with ear flaps. the front of the hat read "navajo pride." because he'd recently had eye surgery, he was wearing shades that he picked up at a gas station upon leaving the surgical center. he reminded me of rammelzee.

i spent some time with him at his home. in fact, i was there the day he got back onto his favorite mule after not doing so for a year because of another injury.

i came to glimpse j.b.'s wisdom and from my perspective of being in the same spot on the rez for 24.5 years, i see how what he has to offer is at risk of getting lost with the youth. so j. b., with his head askew and ear to the ground to hear what's coming next, represents life out of balance, or crazy life - traditions being lost.

meanwhile, getting the image up on this wall was a big challenge for me. i'd scouted the wall a few times and had a sense of what it had to offer if i got it right. then i started hearing from friends in phoenix that there was essentially a running bet that:

a. i couldn't effectively wheat paste the wall and
b. "whatever i do will look like shit."

so, i took it as a bit of a personal challenge to getting something up i'd be happy with. after 2 ass busting days, when i pasted the final piece, i stepped back, saw it in it's entirety for the first time and laughed.

memorial for a roadside stand

my very first pasting less than a day after i put it up already coming off the wall.

june 14, 2009

anyone who knows anything about my wheat pasting project has some sense of my relationship with the roadside vendors. i love those guys. they spend a lot of long, hot days hoping someone will stop and buy something. when i first started pasting, i knew that i wanted the pieces to be seen by people from the road since western agency gets a lot of traffic between lake powell, zion, the north or south rims of the grand canyon, monument valley and flagstaff. many of the initial roadside stands i started out using were abandoned stands that hadn't been used for a couple seasons. i watched the decline as i drove between inscription house and flagstaff. so i put my pieces there.

i had the experience with a fellow (i later learned to be named hugo hernandez) of stopping by as he was rebuilding an abandoned stand. he said that someone had put pictures of code talkers on the wall of the stand and so many tourists were stopping to take pictures that he decided to start using his stand again. i told him i put the photos there and he thanked me and asked for more on the other side. that was cool. he later let me paste his house that he's had construction stalled on for the last 7 years. hugo was the first person to mention in 2009 that pretty soon all these stands will have to come down. i didn't know what he was talking about. he said yeah, adot has said all the roadside vendors have to clear the right of way.

so, after not thinking about this for some time, it surprised me over 2 years later when a woman who manages the bead stands by "the cut" outside page and at navajo bridge, told me that arizona department of transportation has told all the roadside vendors that they're a distraction and an accident risk. they all have to clear the right of way and have the stands down by 2014. as i understand it, adot is going to make designated vending stations like the one they have at navajo bridge. This will consolidate the activity and create less of a road hazard. after 25 years as a fixture on the northern arizona landscape, chief yellowhorse ("friendly indians behind you"), is gone.

a way of life is slowly shifting; lives and livelihoods will be impacted. people won't be allowed to sell burritos or navajo tacos from their vehicles any more.

langston hugh's poem "dreams" is dedicated to the roadside vendors:

hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die

life is a broken-wing bird that cannot fly.

the people speak

i'd been talking with my buddy + fellow photographer, activist, q, about doing street art to raise awareness around the use of reclaimed waste water on the peaks. it's like, we've got the means to craft the message about the desecration of a sacred space and a method for disseminating that message, let's use it.

then one day while driving to flagstaff it hit me. i wanted to use images of elders to express how they felt about the situation. then, whatever they said, i'd excerpt a bit to write on their faces. now, what elders do i know who will let me do that? photographer, artist, activist, sam minkler was the first person i thought of. i called him by antelope hills, just north of town, and less than 2 hours later we'd knocked his session out.

sam said "...faces are sacred. faces are beautiful. we walk on the face of the earth. the mountain is a beautiful, sacred place that needs to be protected. in beauty i walk."

sam, not wanting to wash the words off his face.

(stencil by ryan allison.)

artist + dj, rey cantil sat down with activists klee benally and his wife, princess. rey jotted down some of their initial thoughts before they settled on expressing "...what we do to the mountain, we do to ourselves."

stephanie jackson (aka "step," "no drama"), has been working with me on the wheat pasting project for the last 2 years. i've known her since she was 8. now she's a grad student at nau in climate change solutions and guides trips down the san juan and the mighty colorado with grand canyon youth. as an assistant and friend, she rocks! when asked how she felt about using reclaimed waste water to make snow, step chose to address a plethora of ills confronting us. she said "...i am the change. industrialization, pollution, drought, water, air, earth, fake snow, co2."

step at the hive

the beautiful thing about that weekend was how this group of people came together on a moment's notice as artists, activists and concerned citizens to pool our resources and to make a collective shout at the machine.

image courtesy of niba

jetsonorama for 350.org

to preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of co2 in the atmosphere from it's current level of 392 parts per million (ppm) to below the tipping point of 350 ppm. it's an uphill battle to go back downhill. link to my blog posting about 360.org...

i know why the caged bird sings

my last piece for koyaanisqatsi is of stephanie, my assistant, laughing her head off at the sky. i titled this piece "i know why the caged bird sings" after the poem by maya angelou.

this piece is a collaboration with breeze. what can i say? he rocked it. i first put this image up a year ago on the navajo nation just outside tuba city. it was a relatively mild december day.

december 2010

i'd had an especially brutal period at work and needed to put a positive vibe out into the ether. it's this vibe that represents my hope for this life out of balance.

a free bird leaps on the back of the wind

and floats downstream till the current ends

and dips his wing in the orange suns rays

and dares to claim the sky.

but a bird that stalks down his narrow cage

can seldom see through his bars of rage.

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his mouth to sing.

the caged bird sings with a fearful trill

of things unknown but longed for still

and his tune is heard on the distant hill

for the caged bird sings of freedom.

the free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

but a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

the caged bird sings with a fearful trill

of things unknown but longed for still

and his tune is heard on the distant hill

for the caged bird sings of freedom.

maya angelou

peace.

photo courtesy of stephen helffrich

additional resources:

Indigenous Action Media
(IAM) was founded on August 25th, 2001 to provide strategic media support and action to directly address issues impacting Indigenous communities.
indigenous action media

is a registered non profit organization founded
in 2011 by world famous graffiti artist BNE. We
are a global movement dedicated to bringing
clean, safe water, and sanitation to people living
in extreme poverty.

bne water

350.org

To preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere from its current level of 392 parts per million ("ppm")to below 350 ppm. But 350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet. 350.org

recent interviews:

don't panic online

grist.org

kqed.org

installations for the hive, phx az (12.09 - 12.!!)

2011-12-11T20:40:00.001-08:00

brooklyn street art shout out (12.12.11)

photo by steven helffrich

after a 2 month break from making wheat paste and doing installations, i just finished a great week in phoenix installing work for the show opening this friday at the hive. it'd been too long without smelling wheat paste. i got to meet some of the kings of the local scene including lalo cata and got to collaborate with breeze. i'm hoping to get more work up there this weekend.

the image of jb on the rock wall was a most satisfying challenge. it took me 2 full days to get him up. i really didn't know if it'd work but am really happy with the outcome. now we'll see how well everything holds up as phoenix is getting showers today. all the work got straight wheat paste with no protective coating.

yowsa.

peace.

fair day

2011-10-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

unurth.com

i got to austin's rope zone around 6:40 a.m. it was dark still. a few cowboys were already at the rodeo grounds having spent the night in their horse trailers. no one stirred. i started the installations on the outhouses using my car headlights and witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises i'd seen in a while.

one of the first people to come stumbling out of his trailer was fred. he said he was from idaho and was contracted to be the announcer for the rodeo. he ambled on into the outhouse. when he came out he said "...where else would you find a black guy applying wallpaper to the outside of an outhouse at 7 in the morning at a rodeo on an indian reservation? only in america." i liked fred.

austin and his crew arrived about 8 a.m. though i've talked to him several times about pasting the announcer's stand, i hadn't seen him since this time last year.

step + sam on the outhouses. i didn't stick around long enough to notice whether people picked up the male + female outhouse options. i guess in the end, it didn't really matter.

everybody loves a parade

one of the highlights for me at the tuba city fair parade is the navajo nation marching band. i love them. i'm not sure what year they were formed. (i'll google it later. actually, i just googled it and couldn't find the answer. more on this later.) the thing that strikes me about them is that it feels like a real community - there's young people and older people making music representing the navajo nation together. i love their "uniforms" and their passion for what they do.

this year i finally talked a bit with one of the majorettes as she was warming up. i mentioned that i first started coming to the parade about 20 years ago and that i'd seen her performing with the band in years past. i told her i was happy she was still out representing. i think she said her name is laura begay and that this is her 30th year as a majorette. like fred would ask - where else are you going to find a majorette who's still at it 30 years down the road? here's to laura begay. you go girl!

as happens in all dynamic communities, older people pass on what they know to the next generation. laura said she's been passing her skills on...

it's weird. i don't know why i get weepy eyed looking at these images from yesterday. the thing that struck me as i was taking the photos was people making private moments public as they did their make up and got their hair together. looking at the photos now, i'm struck by people's sense of pride and their trust to let a total stranger who started the morning wallpapering outhouses come into their lives to capture their private moments.

until next year...

video clip of a parade participant warming up the crowd

western agency! represent!

2011-10-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

well, it's that time of year again. indigenous people's day weekend 2011 has come to a close and next weekend is the western agency fair in tuba city. between the marching bands, carnaval rides, song + dance competition, the last yeibichee dance of the season and various rodeos, it's going to be big!

my friend, austin mix (who says he's distantly related to the legendary cowpoke, tom mix), has a roping arena he calls "the roping zone." i got work up there last year in time for the tuba city fair. however, he told me that he really wanted a picture of a roper on the announcer's stand since his area is just a roping area. one of my co-workers (marilyn jordan) asked her 15 year old cowboy son (craigen, junior), if he'd been into getting his picture on the stand. fortunately, he was.

thanks cj.

the people speak

2011-10-02T18:15:00.000-07:00

i asked several friends what their feelings are about the sacred mountain slated to receive artificial snow made from reclaimed waste water. with the help of raechel running, stephanie jackson and rey cantil, their words were written or painted onto their faces and the final images were wheat pasted.

collage photo by john running

activist klee benally (lead singer + guitarist of the punk band, blackfire), and his wife said "what we do to the mountain, we do to ourselves."

northern arizona university climate change solutions grad student, stephanie jackson said "i am the change." she identified the things she'd like to change "...industrialization, pollution, drought." she went on to identify "earth, air, water, fake snow, co2" as areas of concern.

sam minkler - navajo traditionalist, nau professor (and former member of the techno-traditional 90s band, lunar drive), said "...faces are sacred; faces are beautiful. we walk on the face of the earth. the peaks are a beautiful and sacred place that need to be protected." borrowing from a traditional, navajo prayer, he concluded by saying "...in beauty i walk."

local flagstaff resident, john running asked of his neighbors to "...consider the san francisco peaks are sacred to natives + nonnatives."

meanwhile...

flagstaff born, chiapas, mexico based photographer + artist, raechel running is telling y'all to keep it real - the snow + everything else.

navajo dude passing by who swore shonto is black and not navajo.

navajo painter, shonto begay spoke from the perspective of the san francisco peaks. his full comment was:

"long after you're gone, i'll be here.

i am earth, i am fire,

i am air, i am forever.

the peaks, respect."

saving the peaks; the people speak (2)

2011-10-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

in flagstaff, az there is an effort on the part of the navajo and hopi tribes to not use reclaimed waste water on a local ski resort, the snowbowl. thirteen surrounding tribes hold the san francisco peaks, where the ski area is to be, a sacred mountain. the tribes believe that deities within their respective comoslogies reside there. to use reclaimed waste water is considered a desecration in a place where indigenous people go regularly to pray, collect herbs and to be in the presence of the holy ones.

protests have been ongoing since clear cutting the alpine forest began in may of this year. they've occurred primarily at the mountain. of late, artists have begun creating work around this issue. two young navajo artists were recently arrested in downtown flagstaff for doing a series of thoughtful installations. they made an alter from corn stalks and wrote incantations to protect the san francisco peaks in mud on the sides of buildings and on the sidewalk.

all photos by the artist

flagstaff writer and nurturing spirit, liz moser composed an ode in response to the arrests...

two young diné wrote mud love letters to the mountain on flagstaff sidewalks and walls.

they set up corn stalk altars, pale green corn rising up from dark earth.

a cop caught the artists with a bucket of mud and arrested them for criminal damage.

the two worlds pull further and further apart.

water, earth and corn are not parts of a living circle.

they are criminal damage bearing witness is disorderly conduct.

mountain love is a misdemeanor.

the two worlds pull further and further apart.

we are still free to choose where we will stand.

the alternative is annihilation.

meanwhile, in this age of dwindling water resources, many ski resorts use a mixture of reclaimed waste water and potable water to make artificial snow. reclaimed water is commonly used on golf courses as well. the snowbowl is slated to be the only resort in the world to use 100% reclaimed waste water to make snow. as construction continues, a lawsuit centering on the human health effects of using reclaimed waste water to make artificial snow is currently under appeal in the 9th circuit court in san francisco. this same court has ruled previously in favor of snowbowl. local activist groups will make one final oral argument before a final decision is made by the end of this month. hence, time is of the essence.

for the city of flagstaff and local businesses, the issue is commerce. for local tribes and the mountain's nonnative supporters, the issue is the protection of sacred sites. it's become a contentious issue that's divided the town.

flagstaff is a college town and is 2 hours away from phoenix, the 5th largest metropolis in the u.s. phoenicians, college students and some flagstaff locals frequent the ski resort. the city government predicts that the city will make millions of dollars each winter from having predictable and consistent snow while not acknowledging the contribution to commerce made by surrounding indigenous tribes. it's been long predicted by edward abbey and others that future conflicts in the southwest will be over water + water rights. the battle has begun.

for more information in the fight to not ski the pee, check:

www.truesnow.org
www.indigenous-action.org

there's a plethora of great bumper stickers addressing this issue as well. my favorite besides "don't ski the pee" is "flagstaff's snowbowl - serving effluent to the affluent."

more to come...

huffington post shout out!

2011-09-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/street-artist-sheds-light_n_976651.html#s370094

thank you brooklyn street art! i love you more every day!

brooklyn street art

2011-09-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/

jetsonorama for 350.org

2011-09-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

let me start by giving a shout out to henry chalfant. it was henry who recommended me to 350.org as a potential street artist to take part in their campaign to raise awareness around co2 emissions and climate change. this campaign officially kicks off 09.24.11.

i started getting ready for this project about 6 weeks ago. thanks goes to friend and co-worker rena yazzie and her brother who provided a big, beautiful lump of coal from the kayenta mine. thanks to josey and jameson for letting me photograph their adorable 5 month old daughter, j. c.

it's been an insightful period for me. if the navajo people and coal were to declare their relationship status on facebook, they'd have to chose the "it's complicated" option. i informally interviewed 16 co-workers and asked them to share with me the first thing that comes to mind when i say "coal." everyone i talked with was raised on the reservation. they all identified coal as a cheap source of fuel, especially for the elders. it's readily available to all tribal members. by way of comparison, a pick up truck full of wood costs $200.00. that same pick up truck loaded with coal would cost only $60.00 and the coal would burn longer.

everyone in my small sample identified respiratory problems associated with burning coal in the home. everyone acknowledged that the coal mined on the reservation is used to generate energy off the reservation for surrounding megalopolises such as denver, phoenix, albuquerque, las vegas and l.a. they found this arrangement to be problematic. it should be noted that the navajo nation has the largest coal mining operation in the southwest and one of the largest operations in the world.

the reservation is home to 170,000 people who live in an area that is 27,500 square miles. it's larger than 10 individual states within the u.s. over half of the population lives below the usa defined poverty line despite having land that is rich in coal, natural gas, uranium and water. the unemployment rate is 40%. mining operations on the reservation provide work for a small segment of the population who are able to realize a middle class lifestyle for their families. however, the cost to the families who burn coal in their homes and to the environment is great.

interestingly, only 1 of the 16 people i interviewed identified co2 emissions associated with coal burning as a contributing factor to climate change. again, it's a complicated relationship.

collaboration in flagstaff with rey cantil who did the text around the lump of coal (which is a metaphorical black cloud over the head of future generations if we keep burning fossil fuels). the text comes from u2 and says:

"we scorch the earth, set fire to the sky

we stoop so low to reach so high."

behind tat-fu, flagstaff

cow springs trading post

old red lake trading post

gray mountain

coal train abutment near cow springs

jc with her parents, jameson + josey

jc with her mom + deaf dog

350.org

2011-09-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

http://earth.350.org/street-art/

stay tuned. there's a lot more 350.org work coming over the next week.

peace.

saving the peaks; the people speak

2011-09-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

klee benally + princess

john running

sam minkler

stephanie jackson

the san francisco peaks in flagstaff, az are sacred to 13 surrounding indigenous, sovereign nations. the sanctity of the peaks is being threatened by the local ski resort and the u.s. department of agriculture who have plans to use reclaimed wastewater for snow making. construction of the pipeline has already begun.

i asked friends and activists what they thought about what's happening with the peaks. their thoughts were then written on their faces. wheat pastes and the complete story to follow. in the meantime, check:

www.truesnow.org

www.indigenousaction.org

keep the faith people.

blue train

2011-09-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

thank god i'm almost done with the 350.org project. it's been rewarding and insightful but i'm ready to move on. it's been a long 3 weeks getting work up.

sensing it was time to get up, i awoke at 4 a.m. (although i set the alarm on my phone last night, i ended up leaving it in another room.) i made coffee, collected 3 day old wheat paste from the garage and set off in darkness to my destination 20 miles away. in the cloud-heavy, humid morning chill and darkness, i used my headlight to do an installation on a coal train bridge abutment going as high as i could above the graffiti. school buses and 18 wheelers were the only traffic, passing sporadically. their headlights would momentarily flash on the spot where i was working prompting me to turn off the headlight and freeze in position on the ladder.

the coal train bridge passes over a small wash. because of the recent end of the monsoon season rains, the wash was quite muddy making stabilizing the ladder tricky. and the mud! i've mud everywhere. i can't believe i once thought getting off white upholstery in my car was ever a good idea. there's nothing worse than the combination of clay-like mud mixed with funky smelling, old wheat paste which is now stuck on each of the rungs of my 16 foot extension ladder.

yes, it was a good morning. (photos to follow.)

go figure

2011-08-29T21:38:00.000-07:00

while pasting in cameron recently, i met chris. i also met ty begaii who is a young graffiti artist in the cameron community. he and i connected through 2 women from the cameron community who stopped by cow springs when i was pasting over there recently. anyway, turns out i know ty's dad pretty well from the inscription house community. ty hung out with chris and me as i was doing the installation above before heading off to work at a bead stand just outside the grand canyon national park, south rim.

anyone who has driven through cameron regularly over the past 2 years has witnessed the cat and mouse game between the graffiti writers and the buff monster who paints over graffiti within days of it going up. there was an article in the navajo times within the past year about an anglo guy, a lawyer i think, from flagstaff who comes out regularly and buffs graffiti. i've been happy he's never touched any of my photos. as i was driving to gray mountain sunday to prepare the tanks for my next piece, i got an email from ty that read:

"...hey! i see the drunk guy. ha! he's painting over the graffiti. hopefully he doesn't remember my ride."

who knew?

on a positive note, i saw marina recently. http://speakingloudandsayingnothing.blogspot.com/2011/03/marina.html

her man is out of jail in flagstaff and they're happily expecting.

and that's the way we roll...

bsa shout out!

2011-08-21T16:01:00.003-07:00

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=23687

two by ten

2011-08-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

one of the things I love about this project is the absolute unpredictable nature of the situations it facilitates. when I left my house at 8 this morning and drove an hour + 10 minutes to cameron, i thought i'd be pasting by myself while listening to whatever i desired on my ipod. because i didn't get much sleep last night, my energy was low. upon arriving on site, i slowly went about the process of getting everything set up. the right music this morning felt like terence blanchard "choices."

before i even started pasting this navajo guy got out of a pick up truck with an 18 pack of budweiser and approached me saying "...you can't stay here. you've got to leave," before bursting out into laughter saying "...naw - i'm just fucking with you." little did i know that i'd chosen his drinking spot to do an installation.

he said his name is chris. because he felt i looked like a reggie, that was what he called me for the next 2.5 hours. chris said he wondered who did this "art shit" so he was happy to find out it was reggie. he and his wife had been up all night gambling at a casino some 2 hours away. apparently she'd gotten paid yesterday and off they went. though trained as an engineer, chris can't find work around cameron so he spends his time at home while his wife works as a dental assistant in tuba city. his not working and drinking is a source stress with his wife and in-laws.

things didn't go as they'd hoped at cliff castle casino. since it was his wife's money, chris used what little he had at the bar trying to seduce the young, pretty apache bartender while his wife was seduced by lady luck. it didn't go well for his wife. she lost over $400.00 and bitched at chris on the all too long drive home for letting her lose her paycheck gambling. attempting to escape her vitriol, he retreated to his favorite drinking spot at 9 in the morning with an 18 pack of bud only to find reggie.

for the next several hours i heard about him appearing as an extra in "midnight run" with robert deniro (whom he identified as an intellectual lightweight - "there's a reason people go into acting," he said), italian tourists who camped close to his home who said he was too handsome to be navajo, problems with his wife and her family, and the plethora of women who want to sleep with him. (somehow he didn't see a connection between the latter 2.) it was one of the most entertaining installations i've ever done. he believes the moon landing was a fake because if they did it once, why didn't they keep going back? "why go to the moon only once?" chris dislikes republicans and sees them as greedy obstructionists who care only for themselves. "the thought of actually having a black president is driving them nuts." he wanted to hear black sabbath rather than the hip hop mix i played, though that didn't stop him from dancing.

"if anybody ever gives you any shit, send them to me. i've got your back," he said. and happy as a fly in fresh wheat paste (having had 2 buds by 10 a.m.), i told him that reggie had his back as well. we toasted, drank to our chance meeting and acknowledged that we made one another's morning.

grandma's outhouse (for diego)

2011-08-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

i still get an erection (piloerection that is - goose bumps or chicken flesh), whenever i go out to do an unsanctioned (illegal), installation. i never know whether i'll get the full on hater vibe or acceptance of the piece. on the rez, it's generally the latter.

i'd spotted this outhouse along 89 north on the road to the north rim of the grand canyon about a year ago. today was the day i went for it. there are no houses around and the roadside stand nearby hadn't been used for a couple years. i figured - do it and ask forgiveness later. i had an opportunity to do just that.

the day was overcast and the wind was stronger than i realized. it came in gusts. getting the first strip of paper up was a bitch. it got blown off the wall 2 times. by this point the paper had absorbed enough paste and was so wet that i feared it'd tear as i was trying to get it up a 3rd time. however, success; i got it up. while working on the second strip i realized that i'd been so engaged in what i was doing that i didn't see or hear a pickup truck pull up. the driver asked "...so what's it gonna be?" (what a great opening line.)

"grandma mary reese," i replied. i launched into my spiel about living on the rez 24 years, being a doctor at inscription house health center, what the project is about and emphasizing that the pieces are temporary. then i asked him if he owns the outhouse. he said he does. nervously, i apologized for not asking first saying i wasn't sure who to ask since there are no houses nearby.

he said his name was bruce nez and acknowledged that he'd not used his roadside stand for a couple years. but since i was putting art up on his outhouse, he was going to start using the nearby stand again and asked if i'd hook him up with some sheep on that. i told him i would. bruce said he'd seen other examples of my work around and thought it was something sponsored by the tribe. i asked what he thought about an old, black man putting the art up. "not who you expected, was it?' he thought it was cool.

the thing i love about the outhouse installation is making 3 dimensions look like one and that the outhouse is still fully ventilated. this is an important feature for an outhouse.

so yeah, the mary reese on the outhouse piece is dedicated to diego rivera. he's been an inspiration for some time - since i was doing the urban guerrilla art assault project in flagstaff in the 90s. the cool thing about this piece is that like diego's work it celebrates the every person (living on the rez), but it goes a step further and carries a seed for promoting economic growth and viability for bruce should he start using his stand again.

roadside vendor's stand at cedar ridge. while installing here a woman named annie stopped by. her stall is a couple stalls down from this one. she wants sheep as well. sheep is life.

mary reese on 89 north

sell out...

2011-08-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

mary reese at night (fully schlacked)

hmmm. i've been having a bit of a philosophical dilemma of late. the pieces that i put up using just wheat paste have been coming down pretty quickly. that's not true of all the pieces but, by and large, the bigger the piece put up with just wheat paste, the faster it comes down.

on the one hand, i'm not getting funded to do the project and fedex/kinko's hasn't been running specials like they did when i first started doing this where oversized black and white prints were 1/2 off. on the other hand, the conceptual nature of the project explores the ephemeral nature of life and letting go. i've been experimenting with using polyurethane over the past several weeks and i have to say, the pieces are staying up nicely even during the monsoon season here in northern arizona. so, the pieces are still ephemeral, just less so.

so, that's where things are now. my son will already have to attend a public college when he becomes of age since i've spent his college tuition money on this project. at least now i won't be spending as much of it...

meanwhile...

2011-08-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

thanks to katie, eric, chester + juanita who stopped by and who gave kate mytty + moi love today!

flip the script

2011-07-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

i just got an email from a friend in boston who is a photographer. she said something to the effect that the navajo are lucky for my gift. in truth, i'm lucky to be here having this experience receiving the gift of acceptance from this community.

i had an incredible 2 days of pasting yesterday and today. it seemed the conversations with people in the community and those passing through who stopped to give a shout out were deeper + different from previous interactions.

at black mesa junction i ran into my son's cousin sister, jaye. i hadn't seen her since 2001. she was having a rough day yesterday. she said that she'd been drinking and had gotten into a fight with her sister. jaye was visiting from farmington and will be heading back soon. she was excited to see me again and to see the picture of jamaal flying across the top of the old tire store.

i got unsolicited feedback from 2 people at black mesa junction that they thought that the image of the old man washing his face with the coyote standing nearby (which they thought was a wolf), represented a skin walker or a shape shifter. their interpretation of this piece wasn't good. i didn't help the situation by including a flying human in the mural. again, the question arises of artistic freedom, introducing new iconography while trying to be culturally sensitive. so far, the verdict is that yote and i failed on this one.

jaye, after the fight

nate, karen's foot + daisy

step with party dog (who got a red bandana yesterday from the locals)

meanwhile, the vibe at cow springs today was totally cool. i met a lot of great, great people and got to hang out with shonto begay + ed singer. thanks for the love y'all.

peace.

kqed (san francisco) shout out!

2011-07-18T11:14:00.001-07:00

http://www.kqed.org/arts/visualarts/article.jsp?essid=61151

black mesa with yote (+ addy)

2011-07-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

yote's coyote

mae's evolution since march

mural 1

mural 2

too crazy that yote has this on his calf and i got asked by luaka bop to play with their company logo which is essentially this tattoo.

http://speakingloudandsayingnothing.blogspot.com/2011/06/stop-making-sense.html

stephanie couldn't make it. she was just getting off the river. we thought of you! xo

more images from santa fe

2011-07-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

arriving in santa fe

step's leg as canvas for a long trip

love train

jamaal with crown

mary reese on canyon road

stephanie and vanessa installing

vanessa wilde

grandma's new bike

2011-07-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

okay. i give thanks for a safe return to the rez after a week of craziness + serendipity in santa fe. thanks to the santa feans in the house.

no drama + i got our last piece up yesterday. she's such a sweetheart. after taking the train from albuquerque to flagstaff last weekend so she could hike youth out of the grand canyon for her job, she drove back to santa fe for the axle contemporary opening friday. she also spent mid week working with students on art projects. then no drama helped me hang "grandma's new bike" for vanessa wilde's "kaleidospoke" show at cca. we did that yesterday then drove around town looking for vulnerable walls last night.

like i said, no drama is such a sweetheart. she takes it on herself to look after me and to just be there like only someone who understands me can be. thanks partner.

art of the rural shout out

2011-07-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

http://theruralsite.blogspot.com/2011/07/saturday-portfolio-jetsonorama.html

bum rushing canyon road

2011-07-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

mary before leaving the dumpsters at photo eye

mary in her new home on canyon road

mary at the rail yard

"as the world turns," step panel

"as the world turns," drum major panel

art remembers when there were beaches on the colorado

it's been a good week in santa fe. i give thanks. as it turns out, the installation i did monday night at the photo eye bookstore and gallery on the wall by the dumpsters wasn't trashed after all! the photo eye people had arranged for the wall to be transferred to a gallery on canyon road. the owner of the gallery on canyon road was going to use it inside her gallery. however, when she saw the piece i placed on it monday night, she decided to use it outdoors. i've not meet the gallery owner yet but heard from the photo eye people that she might be open to me doing another piece on the panel. so, last evening i went back to the panel with a bucket of red paint and did "art remembers when there were beaches on the colorado." i hope she likes that piece as well. (and that's the unlikely series of events that led to me getting to show work on canyon road.)

the opening for the axle contemporary show is this evening. the installation i did for the van is titled "as the world turns."

more to come...

santa fe by night

2011-07-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

mary reese at photo eye gallery + bookstore

(it appeared the gallery was trashing one of their display walls. how fortuitous.)

major taylor outside monroe gallery

love train (santa fe)

2011-07-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

my long time friend, lucy boulanger, came out to help.

serendipity strikes! bruce strumminger (pictured above with me), used to work at a hospital 3 hours away from the small clinic on the navajo nation where i work. in 2006 or so he left that hospital to direct a centers for disease control aids testing and treatment program in abidjan, cote d'ivoire.

he was aware of my photography and arranged for me to come to cote d'ivoire in 2007 for 2 weeks to shoot a photoessay on the aids outreach work they were doing around the city. i shot the image on the train of aids orphans playing ring around the rosey on my last day in abidjan.

unbeknownst to either bruce or myself, we are both in santa fe this week and will be staying with mutual friends. i've not seen him since leaving cote d'ivoire in 2007. you can imagine his suprise upon seeing the piece i'd chosen for the train.

in route to santa fe...

2011-07-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

in route to santa fe step and i stopped to put a small piece up. it was around 2:30 p.m. and 101 degrees. we were glad it was a small piece.

no drama/jetsonorama luaka bop flg. 2

2011-06-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

no drama = stefunny jaxsun

jetsonorama = moi

luaka bop (rules!) - http://luakabop.com/bloggo/a-little-history/

flg 2 = 2nd set of photos from the flagstaff, az installation

peace.

luaka bop in flagstaff

2011-06-25T23:03:00.000-07:00

jetsonorama + no drama had an incredible day in flagstaff today.

no drama

the first 4 photos were by step (no drama). the next several were by me; then there's her self portrait and this last photo is by me.

peace.

stop making sense

2011-06-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

anybody who knows me knows how much i love david byrne as a musician, cultural ambassador who introduced the music of tropicalia to those of us north of the equator, as a cycling advocate and as an artist. i remember sitting in a theater watching "stop making sense" on a big screen when it came out in 1984. the theater had dolby surround sound (a big deal back then). i was in bliss watching my favorite art band funk it's way through the film starting with psycho killer.

in 1987 when i moved to the navajo nation i used to park in front of my tv and play bongos along with steve scales on my vhs copy of the movie. "i lost my shape trying to act casual. if i don't stop, i might end up in the hospital."

one of my favorite reads last year was byrne's "bicycle diaries."

so yeah, i was super stoked when gaia recommended me as a public artist to participate in a project to reinterpret the logo for david byrne's record company. three other street artists, including gaia (http://www.gaiastreetart.com/), were chosen for the initial phase of this meme campaign.

here's what byrne said about the logo some time ago...

Many times I have been asked about the symbolism of the Luaka Bop logo. It has been described variously as a leaf, a spade and a heart. None of these are strictly correct.

The logo, whose use is granted through an agreement that is subject to certain conditions, is a rather obscure Masonic symbol linked at various times to the Trinity of the Illuminati and to the Egyptian Knights of Templar. The Knights were guardians of the secrets of harmony. Hence the obvious and appropriate connection to music. But their concept of harmony was much greater and ranging than our own- not only encompassing the harmony of the spheres, of the heavens, but the harmony of inner fluids and dynamic forces- and in the case of the Egyptian Knights these were ruled by the dead. The Knights believed that the dead are the custodians of the present day, and that no harmony can be true and lasting without their assistance.

Today, the symbol exists as a vessel for music, text and image, through which it’s members communicate to the population at large, Alan Greenspan and occasionally Jaques Chirac.

The eye of the Luaka Bop log is the eye of Vilaç Trimegistes, the Balkan alchemist who gave his eyes to his work, and who was the first to uncover the secrets of the Egyptian Knights. The shape and purportion of the Eye of Vilaç is in a mathematical relationship to the vessel, or “heart”. The heart being considered a vessel not only for the blood, but for the dead. The rays, “thorns” or nails that line and protect the vessel were incorporated during the middle ages, an addition that was deemed necessary in lieu of the then power of the Papacy."

http://luakabop.com/bloggo/a-little-history/

stay tuned. i'll be getting more images of my and the other street artists work up soon. in the meantime, i'm cross eyed and painless.

gaia! i've got mad love for you brother. thank you! i owe you one.

courage + inspiration

2011-06-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

it doesn't happen everyday but sometimes i hear stories from patients so profound and poignant that i'm moved to tears. i met a woman today who is severely deformed from rheumatoid arthritis. she told me that she'd had over 40 operations on her hands and feet in order to maintain the ability to perform routine, daily chores around the house (called "activities of daily living" in the medical world).

the pain from her illness is great. yet, she had the most cheerful disposition of anyone i've ever met. she told me that she's been walking about 2 miles per day in hopes of walking 300 miles next summer. her goal is to walk from the western side of the navajo nation to the tribal offices in window rock where she hopes to have an audience with the tribal legislature regarding land rights. with determination and faith she moves forward one step at a time.

deshaun's stepdad

2011-06-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

deshaun's stepdad stopped by cow springs this afternoon to say hey. he reported that deshaun is enjoying his new skateboard. his visit and news made a perfect evening even better.

the ebb + flow of it all...

2011-06-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

i really like it when i look through my negatives or in this case, lightroom files and come across an image i'd forgotten about but it strikes me now in a fresh way. this is what happened with this image of owen. (what an afternoon with those guys!) i love the very focused, very inquisitive look on his face. his attention is rapt!

so, i'm feeling a little low. i had an incredible week with no drama + mighty mytty. they took really good care of me and we got some good work up. now no drama is back in flagstaff getting ready for river trips and mighty mytty is back east.

they were with me when deshaun broke his skateboard last week. well, i got a new one from him this past weekend and this evening went to deliver it. even though i knew where his trailer is, i had trouble finding the right series of roads to get me there (even though it's a stone's throw from the old trading post). he heard me pull up and came to the door. initially, he was going to close the door and go back inside but i was able to get his attention before closing the door.

he came out. i said "...i've got something for you." (he had no idea we'd planned to get him a new skateboard.) the look on his face when i gave him a new, still in plastic, tony hawk board was as genuine as owen looks rapt. for some reason, i'd expected him to be really subdued and to not show any emotion. he extended his hand and said "thank you" from his heart.

as i was fiddling with my now broken camera to take his photo with the board, his mom walked out. it occurred to me that i'd done this all wrong. i should have gone to one of his parents first, introduced myself and told them why i was giving their child presents. all the mom knew was that there was some strange black man in their yard who'd given her son a skateboard and who was now trying to take his picture but the strange man's camera wouldn't work.

so i took the time to do what i should have done in the beginning. though awkward, i think deshaun's mom believed the story of our meeting and why i was giving him a skateboard.

o well. we live and we learn...

addendum (06.23.11)

it was all good. (see the post above about deshaun's stepdad who stopped by while i was putting this up!)

grandma's new bike

2011-06-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

race across america starts tomorrow on the west coast. they always come through the navajo nation. i think the first riders will start coming through by thursday. and to think, the first rider will have taken 7 days to race 3000 miles across the country. http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/raam2.php?N_webcat_id=7 it's insane!

stephanie (aka "step"), and i decided her street art name will be "no drama." so now when we paste together, we're "no drama, jetsonorama" or "jetsonorama, no drama." anyway, she and i put this piece up in big wind today on j.r.'s house outside tuba city for the race across america riders. they'll start filtering by it in 2 days. we're thinking about you all!

peace.

goodbye kate mytty

2011-06-13T00:41:00.000-07:00

lorenzo of bitter springs, is rocking more flavor this year. it was lorenzo's mom's stand i painted red and put sheep on last summer.

step in bitter springs

running back to check out her first installation by herself which happened to be of herself.

sara busting a move

step with kate + kara

kate with sara

splatteration

i had a really good week. kate mytty came out from the east coast (m.i.t.), to hang and to kick some ideas around. where o where did the time go?

tudo bem! me happy towards the end of a great day with great people. thanks y'all!

stuff of late...

2011-06-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

jetsonorama + yote

89 north near the moenkopi wash

06.03.11

step cleaning up after helping to bust the installation

old red lake trading post

06.07.11

old cow springs trading post

06.07.11

old cow springs trading post

06.07.11

images from the week

2011-06-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

taking deshaun home

my friend, ken wine, sent this photo of pat in tatters. i'd wondered how this installation was holding up and had hoped she was in better shape. i don't know what the weather has been like since i put her up. maybe san francisco has had a lot more rain like they did in march.

i had an interesting email exchange with hank schroy who is living in rio with his family for couple years. he hooked up raul zito recently when zito and his crew of street art friends went to rio. i asked hank what zito uses for his photos in brazil as that's an environment that gets a lot of rain. apparently, he has access to large buckets of glue similar to elmer's. hmmm.

cow springs trading post (with step + kate mytty)

2011-06-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

yeah. it was another gorgeous day on the rez. while installing at cow springs, we met a local youth named deshaun. his skateboard broke while he was showing us a trick. we're going to get him another one but he doesn't know that yet. thanks for the love deshaun. back at you.

bicas

2011-06-05T00:10:00.000-07:00

the photo being used as the header comes from kylie walzak. she's my friend whom i met years ago in flagstaff before. she worked at new frontiers, the natural food store, that was originally on south milton. this was just before she left for west africa to work for the peace corps. when she returned in the early 00's (?), she moved to tucson and got involved with bicas. http://bicas.org/

kylie first invited me to wheat paste on their big wall in the bicas yard in 2009. that was still during my first year of the project when i was just starting to experiment with going big. their wall is about 20 feet tall. the piece i put up was 16 feet from top to bottom. yote got frustrated with me because it took all day saturday to get my pieces up. he started getting his birds up as the sun was setting saturday and said to me that i need to figure out how to get my pieces up quicker. it hurt when he said it, but it was that comment that lead to me figuring how how to do hugo's house (a 16 foot installation by myself for the first time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yypWrtQUQ8). so, thanks yote.

step and i went to bicas for the first time with yote in january 2010 for mlk,jr weekend. we got invited back this year and though yote planned to come, step + i had to represent.

this year we went in february. as happened in 2010, a big winter rain storm came in the day after we left. in fact, tucson had record levels of rain between january and march of 2010. my piece got hammered starting the day after i put it up. i was surprised to see it hanging in there as well as it was in light of the weather. it's a south facing wall too. i'd expect the piece to get beaten down.

anyway, this past february big heavy clouds started rolling in making for a most dramatic sunset. i've always loved kylie's picture from that day and finally got around to using it for a header. better late than never.

memorial day installations

2011-06-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

party dog at cow springs trading post

sheep for sale

bryson with his nephew, owen

the begishies

2011-05-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

mae begishie at gray mountain

jim begishie in cameron

Incredible fucking day. I awoke at 4:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. i'd been jonsing to get work up on the tanks at gray mountain after prepping the shit out of them a week ago. But yesterday and Saturday we had gale force winds up to 50 miles an hour wreaking all sorts of havoc here. in fact, we were without power for about 5 hours yesterday. so there i was in the kitchen at 5 a.m. this morning making wheat paste.

anyway, i got to the tanks before the wind reached full velocity. fortunately it didn't get as bad as it was the previous 2 days. however, it gusted enough to blow my ladder over a couple times (without me on it). i've just got to say it and toot my own horn; it takes skill to get big sheets of paper onto a curvilinear surface 12 feet off the ground on a windy day. that's all i'm saying.

regardless, it was yet another beautiful day in northern arizona. exhausted + thankful, i head to bed with hopes of hitting it again tomorrow.

pizza furiosa

2011-05-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

step - my first and best assistant, friend ever! she was with yote + me when we first pasted as a crew in october 2009 at:

i. black mesa junction (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS7KhSdz3Mk),

ii. bitter springs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRltQIMJ70Q)

iii. gray mountain (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg4CkiEGp3M)

love ya girl! xo

spike haired woman in a city of thieves

2011-05-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

i always thought that was one of my best titles. it came from the 1992 - 93 bike expedition i did with 4 other guys from the top of africa to the bottom. (africatrek bicycle journey through africa i don't get any money from that.) when we cycled through central african republic, the "africa on a shoe string/lonely planet" guide book described bangui, the capital of c.a.r., as "...a city of thieves." i saw this woman as we were cycling out of the country and she became for me "spike haired woman in a city of thieves." i still love her hair.

spike haired woman in a city of thieves

bangui, central african republic (03.93)

even though "la auberge" where we stayed with peace corps volunteers had razor wire around the top of a fence with broken glass bottles embedded in the cement at the top of the wall, a dog and a sentinel with a bow and arrow (an older man who frequently slept through the night), our tents still got robbed. granted, it was raining cats and dogs during the night when the robbery occured. i lost my cycling shoes which i'd left outside our tent and ended up buying a funky pair of yellow, canvas/plasticky, high top tennis shoes made in china. in retrospect, maybe the robbery was a blessing.

anyway, i spent all day saturday and sunday last weekend prepping the tanks at gray mountain. i thought i'd prep the tanks, paint them and get my piece up on saturday. i didn't get as far as i thought after working 5 and 1/2 hours. i drove the 75 minutes back to gray mountain sunday thinking i'd finish scrapping 2 years of paper and paint off of the tanks, paint them and get my piece up. after working 6 hours i still didn't get up!

gray mountain in blue

i did get up in flagstaff on saturday however. all was not lost...

peace.

the moment the idea struck...

2011-05-17T13:55:00.001-07:00

a friend in flagstaff will be opening a new restaurant soon called pizza furioso. he gave me an opportunity to do an installation which i 'm working on now. i sent him the mock up, he dug it and boom, i'm getting it together.

the piece will be interesting for me in a couple different ways. it'll be the first installation i've done that evolved out of doing a mock up of superimposing two photos to see how they might work together. it has the potential to be a strong piece and that excites me.

while i was cutting the gulls out, i noticed the stencil pattern that remained in the paper on the floor and thought it'd be cool to capture that and figured out a way to do that i've not seen used before. (actually, i take that back. faux reel uses this technique.) regardless, i'm excited to see where this will go. i just wanted to document when and how this idea came to me with this entry.

meanwhile, i've got mad love for these folks doing the tenderloin national forest project. they started doing this the same year i started working on the rez in 1987.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02TIDKBztgw

peace.

busted!

2011-04-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

as i was driving into flagstaff today, i passed j r's house and noticed horses standing around the house by the cowboys. i thought "...what a great image of the horses standing by the wheat pasted images of cowboys. i'm going to photograph it." it took me a few minutes to get off the highway and over to the house.

i noticed a group of horse standing really close to the pictures. initially i thought they were taking advantage of the shade but then i noticed they were licking the pictures! ah ha! no wonder the image of stephanie looks so ratty. she's been licked to death (as the cowboys are about to be). those silly horses probably think "hey, this flour and sugar mixture is great and we don't even have to bend over for it."

buffed by horse saliva. and wheat paste artists in cities think they have it rough.

roy manygoats

2011-04-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

i apologize up front to anyone who has spent any quality time reading this blog. you know that i get excited about releasing photos and stories and will do it as soon as i come back from an installation, exhausted (like now). i'll do an initial release and this will think about what i wrote for the next two days and will go back and edit the original piece several times. i know. i should just wait until i get the final edit that i want and then release it. but i get excited.

like today, i went back to j r's house. (not the french dude who won this year's ted prize and whose installations continue to inspire me.) it's where i pasted step in december when it was starting to get bad at work. i really needed to release the energy of step's smile into the ether at that time. when i talked with j r about 8 to 10 months ago about pasting on his house, he reminded me that i used to take care of his dad many years ago and that i'd originally met him (j r), in about 1995 when i used to photograph guys practicing bull riding at the secody camp near white mesa arch. he was one of the bull riders. yeah, he was a badass with a really gentle spirit. so i went back through some of those negatives and found this photo of a bull rider typing his gloves while his friend watches. i don't know if one of these guys is j r.

towards the end of pasting them up i saw an older model bmw driving on the dirt road to the house. i assumed it was a white, street art appreciating tourist in route to monument valley or moab.

i started loading my ladder into my car (which i fell off again today)! an older navajo man approached me. he was a tall, slim, traditional looking man wearing a cowboy hat. he immediately walked over to the house to look at what i'd done without shaking hands first. i thought that was odd. he asked if those were paintings i put on the house. he said he'd been watching me through field glasses from his trailer about 1/2 mile away. he came over to check it out because someone had stolen j r's windows years ago and he wanted to make sure i wasn't harming the house.

i told him who i am and that i'd talked with j r. the older man said he liked the pictures and that they're so clear. i extended my hand. he said he's roy manygoats. he told me of how he'd been living in flagstaff for about 20 years but was ready to move back to the reservation to live simply out here.

i told him that i really like his older model bmw.

he said, "...you know. i got that free."

i said, "...what?!"

he said, "...yeah, one of my daughter's co-workers gave that to her. there was a problem with the alternator." he proceded to tell me how he did something or the other and then did this, this and a little of that before it started running again. (roy used all the technical terms to describe how he got the car running again. being totally car illiterate, it all sounded like mandarin to me.) he said he really likes the car to.

before parting, roy told me again how much he liked the pictures. i told him to tell j r hello for me.

community building collaboration

2011-04-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

bb + the dogs

bruno mauro of ampersand international arts in dogpatch knew i've been exploring the idea of using art to build community through my wheat pasting project on the navajo nation . he was kind enough to literally offer me his home (after consulting with his wife, surma), to pursue the idea of community building using his home as a canvas.

in exploring this idea here, bruno suggested i meet patricia parker and her mother who have lived in dogpatch in their current house for 50 years or so. both patricia and her mom attended irving m. scott school (built in the 1890s and is the oldest standing public school in san francisco). they know and they are dogpatch history.

imogen doumani lives across the street from the gallery and from pat. she represents the youthful vibe coming into the neighborhood. bb the beagle is representing those who give the area its name.

the piece is composed of regular bond paper from fedex/kinko's adhered to the wall with wheat paste i made. it's susceptible to the elements and will go away with time. my hope is that the conversations and community building started with this project will continue long after the piece is down.

to dogpatch with love.

ampersands international arts show

2011-04-08T01:15:00.000-07:00

pat

pat + imogen

bb in dogpatch

ampersands international arts

1001 tennessee avenue

san francisco, ca

dogpatch

rocking ampersand

2011-04-06T01:00:00.001-07:00

more to come...

bb, morning light

2011-04-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

i'm in san francisco now giving the city mad love. i give thanks that the installation is going well. it's incredible to see the way the piece i'm putting up is bringing people from the neighborhood who have never talked to one another together. in the meantime, i wanted to get one last photo up of bb in morning light.

stay tuned...