(and they need not be authorized)

I have been very interested in the idea of where creativity comes from these days. It is the bain of the artist's existence that they must come up with something that not only fills their desperate need to create, but also speaks to others as well. This task is super challenging, and causes no end to the stress of the artist. 

In an academic setting I have learned that as an artist, you do not sit around and "wait for inspiration" as I used to believe. The creation process happens through daily hard work. But so much of the time, when I come up with something really good, I actually have no idea where it comes from. It's almost like magic, and in times when I'm a little blocked, I ask myself where my creativity has gone. 

Joshua Michie

The idea that the individual of the artist is not actually responsible for the "genius" of creativity, was first presented to me in the wonderful TED talk by Elisabeth Gilbert. She brings up all the historical ways that people felt about genius and all of them are very reassuring to me. This is a talk that I would love to be able to apply to my practice, although my current cultural views don't quite allow for it yet.

I just finished reading the last chapter of Divine Horsemen: Living Gods Haiti by Maya Deren, where she discusses the Voudoun religion and their perspectives on life. This excerpt on the "loa" (what they call the possession from their gods) is particularly interesting to me.

"Explain that it is the "imagination" which makes him capable of conceiving beyond the reality which he knows, and that this is compounded of memories. Speak of "idealism" as source of his willingness to undergo ordeal on behalf of creative, non-material achievement. Insist that in forgoing immediate reward he seeks historical position. Add, even, that such values are engendered by the influence of father, the love of mother, the praise of men. List all those intellectual and moral qualities- vision, inspiration, imagination- which most distinguish the poet, the philosopher, the scientist; catalogue them, nme them, count and differentiate and "explain" their origins, their operation, mechanisms and motivations. The Haitian will not dispute you. When you have finished he might shrug his shoulders, saying simply, in Creole: "All that, we call 'to have loa'"
(Page 249, McPherson)

It goes on to say that all of these attributes come from their gods, and that "the major value of the loa is their very transcendence, so they cannot be, simultaneously, identified with man." (Pg 249)

And what I listen to today as I TRY an knock my own genius back into my skull:

Isn't it interesting how many relationship videos have to do with cars and summer?

One of my goals recently has been to take as many photographs as possible of my body responding to space. It's a good exercise as most of my work revolves around performance, and the most common way I document that is through photography.

I'm in Whiterock today, and that means I get to be on the beach which has always been one of my favorite inspiration spaces. I found this AMAZING shelter that somebody made, and I spent the morning taking photographs in it. Naked, in the FREEZING cold I might add. Not very comfortable, but worth it.

And, what I listen to as I work today-

Spring (viii)

Our cat is up the tree again; I hear her cry

over the lonely tattering of prayer flags

worn to transparency by the wind. I try

tempting her down with heart minced the way

she likes it, still warm from the gutted 

body of the deer. I build a bridge

from our roof to the end of her branch

so she can pad across and I can rescue her.

But no, it's as if she clings to the high

dying hemlock because she has

something she wants me to see.

Later, with the moon rising I climb back

onto our roof with my flashlight, her eyes

two shiny plum pits summoning me. She

is happy now that I have come to just sit

patiently and watch from this height

the river empty into the sea.

-Susan Musgrave

(Origami Dove, 

McCelland & Stewart, 2011)

Bonobo - 'Cirrus' (Official Video) from Ninja Tune on Vimeo.

Kathryn Macnaughton

I thought I would show you a little bit of my progress on my family project box. It's finally a box! It seems so much smaller than all the work I've put into it so far, but then I realized that there's enough glass in it that if I spread it out it would make a 5 foot stain glass window. 

If you want to see the origins of the project, you can go here.

Eventually this object will be shown on a light box, probably in the middle of a larger sculptural object that it illuminates. I'm shooting for having it ready to propose for the Art Mur show on March 20. We'll see if I make it! 

I have over 40 samples and counting, and still getting contributions. It's been such a beautiful process having people I love donate a bit of themselves into this project.

Shelf number 2!

I obviously haven't cleaned this yet, it's still covered in guck, but I just couldn't wait to show you! 

One other thing that I started doing was making wearables out of the microscope slides, giving some of my own biological samples back to people I love who wanted them. This is the one that I wear, my longest friend in the world and also my first donatie. 

What I'm listening to today as I work-

http://dirtygracemusic.bandcamp.com/

Today in the paper-making class I help teach we got to do the coolest thing- Paper Marbling! It's a technique used in paper-making where you put pigment on top of thickened water and then print with the pigment onto paper. The pigment doesn't mix and so you get these really beautiful natural textures. 

It's just like being a kid again- putting paint in water, swirling it all around, and getting something awesome out of it! 

Here are some of the results we got. They turned out a little psychedelic, but still lovely!  

What I'm listening to today:

It's few and far between that I see painted portraiture that I'm totally in love with, but these paintings from Soey Milk are haunting, weird, and absolutely wonderful!

What I'm listening to today-

Still working on the family project. Want to see the initial blog- here

Stain glass takes FOREVER (and it's expensive), but so pretty!!

What I'm listening to as I work:

Mamihlapinatapei- The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.

 

                         

carnal disposition from erin groenenboom on Vimeo.

Todays real vampires have a little in common with the early folkloric vampires. They tend to be pale rather than dislike sunlight, and hunger for blood is actually closer to the literary vampires invented in the 19th century. However, it seems that the idea of the real vampire serves just as much of a purpose as the early vampire did, although interestingly those benefiting are now perhaps themselves rather than the general community. Nobody in the past actually identified as a vampires in the way that they do today. In the past people were perceived as vampires by others, whereas now people identify as vampires themselves.

Body modification artist Maria Jose Cristerna

Different elements of Vampire culture

There are many different elements within current vampire culture, the distinctions between the groups are sometimes blurred, people may be part of more than one group, and many resist simple categorisation. However, the following rough classification may be useful for anyone unfamiliar with this area:

Vampire Fans
Vampire fans are people who are attracted to legend of the vampire. They may focus interest on particular fictional representations of vampire culture (for example, Anne Rice’s vampire books, Dracula, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), or more broadly on all vampire-related material. Some fans of vampire culture engage with existing fictions by drawing on them to create their own material, for example the web authors of slash fiction based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Bite Me magazine caters for those who are general vampire fans and enthusiasts. Lifestyle vampyres are a group of fans who incorporate vampire imagery into their lifestyle and dress.

Vampire role-players
Vampire role-players are those who take part on role-playing games based on vampire culture, such as Vampire: the masquerade. There are numerous website devoted to vampire role-play including discussion and chat sites where people take part in character and sites where games can actually take place. Alternatively, vampire role-players may take part in table-top games or live-actions role-play where they wear costumes and physically act out the part pf their character.

Blood fetishists

Blood fetishists (known as blood play or hematolagnia) ractice blood drinking and/or bloodletting individually or at organised events. There are websites and magazines dealing with how to do this consensually, for example Bloodstone magazine.

Real vapires
Real vampires are those who feel that they actually are vampires. These can be divided into blood feeders who crave blood and psychic feeders who feed on the life force or psychic energy of other people. Some are both blood and psychic feeders, and some are so called elder vampires, who claim to have an extraordinarily long lifespan or to be immortal. Being a real vampire may also involve having pale skin and/or an aversion to sunlight. There are also those who are not vampires themselves, but believe in the existence of modern day vampires and write about this.

Vampire culture: Sanguinarium

The Sanguinarium is a network of individuals, organisations and nightclubs who share a like-minded approach to the vampire culture, aesthetic and scene. The goal is to bring to life vision of the Vampire Connection as founded in Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, which is a network of vampire bars and safe houses in which vampires can be open about who they are; a voluntary standard of common sense, etiquette and ideals for the vampire culture. Many vampires are members of an active club scene and these clubs are a very important part of the vampire’s culture.
Vampire subculture consists of family-like substuctures that were first formed around nightclubs events. Places where vampires gather are known as havens and often, to gain access to these establishments, vampires must wear a symbol that identifies them as part of the vampire culture, for example a specially made silve ankh. Such items also allow vampires them feel more like a vampire.

subcultureslist.com

More:

http://www.darknessembraced.com

Blood Read: The Vampire As Metaphor in Contemporary Culture

And of course, vampire culture just wouldn't be complete without all the cheesy stuff surrounding it like this:

Vampire - Music Video from Fernando Quevedo on Vimeo.


What I'm listening to today:

A good friend of mine decided to start a new project that I think is pretty awesome! See, as many of us have, he's spent his fair share of years in the academic system, learning about learning. Now, on the other side of his last degree, he's realized that with all of the knowledge he's acquired, he wasn't taught how to actually DO anything.

So, he's decided to create a proactive blogging project, that not only teaches people how to get shit done, but also tracks his own tangible progress with things like music, drawing, breakdancing, cooking,  photography and exercise.

thedailybetter.com

Dimitry Vorsin

  

The Deep End from Jake Fried on Vimeo.

These following are to be understood in two ways.

I Saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail,
I saw a Blazing Comet, drop down hail,
I saw a Cloud, with Ivy circled round,
I saw a sturdy Oak, creep on the ground,
I saw a Pismire, swallow up a Whale,
I saw a raging Sea, brim full of Ale,
I saw a Venice Glass, Sixteen foot deep,
I saw a well, full of mens tears that weep,
I saw their eyes, all in a flame of fire,
I saw a House, as big as the Moon and higher,
I saw the Sun, even in the midst of night,
I saw the man, that saw this wondrous sight.

Anonymous (before 1665)

Dan Hillier

Dmitry Vorsain

What I'm listening to today:

Jacques Greene - (Baby I Don't Know) What You Want from Jacques Greene on Vimeo.

I have a couple of friends who just started a music collaboration, their first live performance was at my birthday last month, and they finally recorded for reals. They're so great and you should listen to them!

Check them out at:

http://magmaticmtl.tumblr.com/

Or if you prefer soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/itshissy/sets/magmatic

"The common defining feature in Mäkipää‘s works is a laconic notion of the physical order of reality, referring to the structural elements that shape our lives. They deal with the infrastructure we take for granted, the fabric that makes the world go around – trivia such as buses creeping from one stop to the next, mechanical water closets propelling your faeces to places unknown, trucks delivering your favourite buns to the bakery around the corner … Tea Mäkipää is no doubt fascinated by, if not obsessed with, these all-pervading yet strangely invisible structures of everyday life – structures we fail to notice until they become dysfunctional."  "Hard Talk. Critical Reflections on the Work of Tea Mäkipää" by Mika Hannula

"World of Plenty"
 

"Parasite" 

"Atlantis" 

http://www.tea-makipaa.eu/

Tea Mäkipää: All Day Symphony from eins78 on Vimeo.


What I'm listening to today:

Culture jamming, a name coined in 1984, is a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements and artists to disrupt or subvert media culture and mainstream cultural institutions. Wikipedia

Companies like Adbusters have been doing ad commentary for a long time, but many artists use the technique of appropriating and changing cultural imagery to create cultural commentary, like this work of Jason Freeny.

Another artist that I mentioned a few blog posts ago is the work of Vermibus, who, if you didn't look at the first time around, you should definitely check out. That post can be found here.

And of course, you can't forget the greats like Banksy, who revolutionized graffiti culture and comes up with images that constantly move me to the core of my being. 

One of the most amazing things about information right now, is that all of these images are so accessible that artists can now use things from virtually anywhere to put together something new. It's not just visual arts, music does this all the time. 

One artist who's gotten famous for their culture jammed music is the producer Pogo, who has made his career off of making music entirely based on samples from movies. 

An artist who my partner just showed me the other day is named Kutiman. He makes songs entirely out of YouTube videos and they are WONDERFUL. If you don't watch anything else in this post, you should at least watch this video. I cannot imagine how much time he spends going through YouTube videos for samples! 

And finally, there's always the option of taking bad music videos with beautiful images and putting them to something else, like this appropriation of Justin Bieber with Dr. Steel.

Just so you can see the original (and you do NOT have to watch it all):

And the truly awesome version:

It is SNOWING in Montreal today. Over two feet of snow has appeared outside my window in the last four hours, which means I am not going ANYWHERE today. Instead, I get to sit on the internet and discover new artists I didn't know existed! 

Like this lovely artist, Anne Sofie Madsen. Actually a fashion designer, however, I much prefer her sketches for her clothes than her collection. 

http://www.annesofiemadsen.com/

What I'm listening to today:

Rube Goldberg Machine- a contraption, invention, device or apparatus that is deliberately over-engineered to perform a simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg. (1883- 1970)

Melvin the Mini Machine from HEYHEYHEY on Vimeo.

OKGo - Rube Goldberg Machine from sphsengineering on Vimeo.