It's all the same, Two Days, Two Weeks......

In just two days, Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes have seen the white light coming from the wand; the inevitable spell, Avada Kedavra, has caught two more. In better words, they fell off the red wagon. [too soon?]

In just two days, I packed up all my stuff , minus some clothes and thing in use. I've been hanging blankets and sheets around the boxes, acting like I am still 10 years old. Forts are the coolest, bro!

In just two weeks, I will be working my last shift at the Exchange in Elyria. Moving on to open the Exchange in Chicago. I will be saying goodbye to old friends, and hello to new ones.

How sentimental of me?

In other news, those darn veg'ans are taking over. I was browsing through newspaper ads at work and noticed that Giant Eagle had vegetarian delectables on sale. 'Buy one get one free' the sign said, 'Just in time for those last summer cookouts and Holidays.' Needless to say, I used my jagged boxcutter to trim the small ad out, and hung it up on the bulletin board in back. I'm going to miss having to explain what veganism actually means. I like it when people get confused. 'What are you some weird pagan or something,' is what someone actually said to me once. Why yes sir, yes I am. And proud of it.

Stay Cool Kids.

igotbored

igotbored
Originally uploaded by lonesomeohio

i got bored this evening and decided to brush up on my illustrator skills. i am going to be teaching/tutoring illustrator and photoshop in the fall so in my idle time i am going to try to work on it. figured i'd share it. nothing amazing but hey, got start somewhere.

6 days

i recently drove across country to move to my new digs to complete my masters degree. on this trip i also began a television journey that i had no idea would effect me as closely as it did. it's been a long time since i've felt a connection to a television show, this one really wrapped me up. like any other series on dvd it's a slow go at the beginning. but quickly i caught on to the subtleties and inside jokes of the family i was starting to feel a part of. the balanced perspectives allowed me to put myself in their shoes, each character within their own story line. on a micro scale the various people on the show are essentially dealing with the issues that all americans do. resistance to and fear of, death. only because the funeral home is the real central character does deatha also play a sort of satirical role, proving that death while obviously fatal can also be humorous. just like everything else in life, there's sad and happy, amazing and depressing. i've kept a vague stance within my writing so far because i don't want to give away any part of the story. the series that i finished in about 6 days was six feet under. i know, i know it's pretty late. about 3 years late. i knew that i would get totally into it so i've been waiting for the right time. and recently was for sure the right time. it felt like watching a really long, really enjoyable movie. i urge all of you guys to watch it. it was for sure the best time i have ever devoted to television. it also has undoubtedly the most poingant ending of a series i have ever been witness to. everything ends.

There's no extra in the Exchange.

The Exchange signed the lease for the new store located at (Give or take a few 10's):

1560 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60622

Wicker Park Area; South of W. North Ave (or so says the paper in front of me).

That's approximately 1.7 miles or 6 minutes driving for Danielle and Aaron; You know I am mainly putting this up here for you, and my thoughts as well.

Being the obsessive compulsive person I am, I Google Mapped the street view and let's just say, I ain't' complaining.

Antithesis

Making a book on anxiety since it is so prevalent in my life nowadays.

One Cent Life

(fig. 1) Sam Francis, pages 104-105. Color

 lithograph on paper, (1 Cent Life), 1964.

 The explosive energy of Sam Francis’s primary

 color showers the ground of Walasse Ting’s poem

 Black Stone.

In 1964, artist and poet Walasse Ting published a pioneering illustrated book of poetry entitled One Cent Life, which brought together artists of divergent approaches and backgrounds, many of whom would soon dominate the contemporary art scene. Twenty-eight artists illustrated the pages of the volume with sixty-two original lithographs, working with Ting to harmoniously meld western artistic movements, from Abstract Expressionism to American Pop Art, with the poet's eastern-infused English verse.[i] Ryerson Library holds a copy of the regular edition (number 1348 in an edition of 2000), which features a hand-printed cover by participating artists Pierre Alechinsky and Roy Lichtenstein. One hundred special editions were also released on handmade paper and signed by individual artists.[ii]

In many ways the book reflects Ting's circuitous artistic trajectory. Born in China in 1929, he traveled to Paris in 1952, where he met Alechinsky and the founders of the CoBrA group, Karl Appel and Asger Jorn. In 1956 Ting settled in New York City and befriended the Abstract Expressionist artist Sam Francis and two emerging Pop artists, Claus Oldenburg, and Tom Wesselmann.[iii] Such global explorations and the discovery of creative counterparts inspired him to publish a book encompassing diverse artistic movements and artists from around the western world. Ting began this undertaking by writing the poems that would later be illustrated by fellow artists in One Cent Life.[iv] He recounted the genesis of the compilation:

I wrote 61 poems in ’61 in a small room like black coffin, inside room only salami, whiskey, sexy photographs from Times Square. No Bible, no cookbook, no telephone book, no checkbook. Short Two fingers typing, talking about World & garbage, You and I, Egg and Earth.[v]

The collective aspect of the project took physical shape when Ting's and Francis's friends around the globe began creating lithographs in response to the poet’s seedy and erotic poetry. Francis, who acted as editor for the volume, also provided funding to purchase the seventeen tons of paper needed, and the Swiss art dealer E. W. Kornfeld printed the editions.[vi]

One Cent Life makes the reader a witness to the inspirations and interactions of the artists brought together by the project. Artistic approaches representing various movements appear and blend with each successive page. While most of the lithographs glow with the intense, unmixed colors associated with the CoBrA group of the 1950s,[vii] the book also exudes the aggressive energy of Abstract Expressionism in the work of Francis (fig. 1) and of Joan Mitchell, both of whom had previously illustrated another of Ting's poetic compilations Fresh Air School.[viii] Roy Lichtenstein, on the other hand, created his first self-proclaimed Pop Art images after working with Jim Dine, Oldenburg, and Andy Warhol on the project. The emergence of Pop Art is also evident in the ways many images incorporate reproductions of advertisements, postcards, and postage stamps.[ix] One Cent Life captures these developments through wide-ranging examples of the era's great innovators and provides a window onto the vibrant origins of overlapping movements and their creators, all inspired by the vision of the artist and poet Walasse Ting.

Written by Danielle N. Kramer

Edited by Diane Miliotes


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[i] Mary Lee Corlett, The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonne 1948-1993 (New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1994), 20-21. The complete list of participating artists includes Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Enrico Baj, Alan Davie, Jim Dine, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Sam Francis, Robert Indiana, Alfred Jensen, Asger Jorn, Allan Kaprow, Alfred Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Kiki O.K., Claes Oldenburg, Mel Ramos, Robert Rauschenberg, Reinhoud, Jean-Paul Riopelle, James Rosenquist, Antonio Saura, Kimber Smith, K.R.H. Sonderberg, Walasse Ting, Bram Van Velde, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann.

[ii] Walasse Ting, One Cent Life, regular ed. (New York: Klipstein & Kornfeld, Berne, 1964). 

[iii] A. F. Page, “An Action Painting,” Bulletin of The Detroit Institute of Arts 39, 1 (1959-60): 12.

[iv] Wake Forest University, Print Collection, One Cent Life, www.wfu.edu/art/pc/pc-ting.html (accessed November 29, 2007).

[v] Walasse Ting, “Near 1 Cent Life,” Art News 65, 3 (May 1966): 67.

[vi] Ting, “Near 1 Cent Life,” 38; Ting, One Cent Life, regular ed. 1964, tp.

[vii] Willemijn Stokvis, Cobra: An International Movement in Art After the Second World War (New York: Rizzoli, 1988): 20.

[viii] Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Fresh Air School, (Pittsburgh: The Institute, 1972).

[ix] Corlett, Prints of Lichtenstein, 20-21.

I see everyone tires of this already.

Oh well.  The above is an article I wrote for The Art Institute of Chicago highlighting items in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries.  If you find a copy of One Cent Life near you, I advise you take a look.  If that sounds unreasonable but you are still curious, click on this link to see other prints from the book.

One Cent Life Portfolio