a great sadness overtakes me...

to use and be used...

the momentary sensation replaces the human connection...

those who love you are an imposition...

is this the way you would live your life?


do you love more the pleasure you give yourself or the kindness you share with others? do you care what toll that pleasure takes on those around you?

what will be the meaning of your life?

who are you?

I thought I knew you but I don't. you're capable of things I never would have believed.

Sans compassion pour ton famille... Tu est cruel a les gens qui t'adorer... pour quoi? mais tu embrasse les gens du moment...

sans reason...

in answer to your question...

"will it stand...?" You bet. Here's the finished piece outside CIA's Future Center in the "courtyard"... When it stood, (not weakly, but very securely...) a case of beer was lost...

There are some much more stunning pictures of the piece... (the piece isn't crooked... the camera isn't level... my photography) however they keep loading sideways... I'm not as tech savy as I should be so I don't know how to fix it. I think eventually they'll be posted on CIA's website (www.cia.edu)

Assistants on the project included:

Benjamin Rodriguez, jr (benrodjr.com)
Katie Loesel
Derek Gelvin
Jeremy Felice

Search them on the web. I know that Katie, Ben and Slate have websites. (I hope I spelled Katie's last name right. Sometimes it helps to add "art" to the search.)

Again it was tremendous fun working with the young people. (I intentionally didn't include photos with them simply because this is a private blog.) They were so committed...!

what we did for summer vaction...

this past week Chuck, Kevin and I worked on the Cleveland Institute of Art's Precollege program. The theme this year was Art + Earth... We worked with a group of 24 really cool young people... who, to a great extent... really threw themselves into the project that the program was based on and also spent time on drawing, etc. The youngest was a very mature fourteen year-old and the oldest was a nineteen year-old deeply devoted to drawing...

While other things not so fun were going on in our private life,...

Working with the young people in this program was very satisfying... It was great to see their committment and accom-plishments.

The project was a cast/rammed earth project that the students designed and built with help from great folks like Derek, Slate, and Jeremy... They worked their butts off... Katie (who you see in some of the pictures) helped me with the drawing part of the program.

Posted photos are of in progress work...More photos of the actual finished piece are to come...

attachment and the end of the term...

I hate the end of term... I have post-partum or something... I always think about what else I should have taught them... and then there's the grading... It is always a delicate balance.. and then when one sometimes has to write down the "bad" grade... I hate it...

I hope my students find joy in the lives and pursuits they've chosen. I get so attached to them. Yes this is the cause of all suffering, isn't it, attachment... but then what joy when they graduate and they succeed...

Go forth and conquer... live with joy and wild abandon...

(That's right... I'm a complete geek.)

Happy Mother's Day to Carey's Mom...Karen...

Pictures of Carey wishing his mom a happy mother's day and saying hello to everyone.

drive by...

Dear beloved all,

I have “discovered” Drive By Truckers (for those out of the loop – music). I remember, Anna, sitting in a one room apartment that was crammed so full of recording equipment that there was only a shelf for its resident to sleep on…

Being here has given me a different perspective… It has been a long time coming. I remember sitting in “joe”… and I remember a group of people coming in and I said something scathing to my companions concerning how “they” were dressed and even uttered the word “red neck.” Mr. Giles gave me a cold eye and said, “Lane, how can you say something like that? How can you be so cruel?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lane, those are your people. They are from the same place you are. Who are you to be a snob to them?”

Ouch. – but thanks again Mr. Giles.

You cannot be inside from the outside. You cannot reject what made you without rejecting some part of yourself. You cannot hold your own in contempt without self-loathing.

… and so thanks Mr. Hood, et. al. for “Outfit”, “Decoration Day” – and your ability to be authentic without pretension – You guys rock!

Ciao babies…

spring...

I can't get used to the Spring here... five years and it's still blowing my mind. Everyone keeps talking about how beautiful the weather is... and during the day it is... at night though... April 30 (yes I remember what day this is) and last night I froze my butt off.

But the flowers are beautiful. So much color. I bought a reel driven (old fashioned -- no gas) mower... and I'm actually doing yard work. I'm sure the neighbors think I'm nuts but I'm channeling my grandmother...

As always, send good thoughts and I will send them to you all as well.

tut, tut, tut!

Arrrrggggghhhh!!!!

Hey, where's my Tutenstein?

Please send positive energy... sometimes forces conspire to create a trap of negative karmic energy...

pie anyone?

Carey had an assignment back in the fall to make a "chemical" pie using Ritz crackers. It wasn't too bad... (apples would have been better ... but hey, he needed the credit.)

Guest blog by Carey!

Happy birthday Mom!

you say it's your birthday...

Hey it's my birthday... I'm watching Tutenstein, hanging out with one of the furry ones and playing with my computer.

I love Tutenstein because Tut reminds me of one of my favorite people... Like her, he's kinda of gross (into creepy, rotting things that really should be relegated to the underworld). He's/she's bossy, sometimes blunt, deeply tender and kind hearted -- they love to a fault ... oh yeah, and they both make me smile...

Happy Birthday Ms. CTG.

For the folks in T-town -- kisses -- and here are some more pics of Carey... He's working on his sugar palace with his project partner. He was talking to Chris on the phone while they worked.

Happy Birthday to KST as well...

a picture made by me...

If you who haven't seen my work lately this is what it looks like... (I'm also doing video)...

Yes this blog is really sloppy and not very focused... but for those of you who haven't guessed, it's an empty white room for me to fill up with my randomness...

Carey...

Here are some bad pictures of Carey... forgive the red eyes... I will upload some better pics later...

the freedom of space waiting to be filled...

Sometimes I just need the joy of filling up the blank space... It is for me an absolute freedom... it is my space to fill as I see fit... it is infinite with possibilities... that practice keeps me sane... so I hope that the fates will allow me this luxury from time to time and understand that it is what keeps me...

art theory...

I have a friend who doesn't believe that there can be something called "art theory..." ah, but it is like any discipline... we have our terms... our jargon. In art it just means an idea of what art can or should be... Everyone has an art theory... an idea of what art can or should be... It is usually that which we call "good" or "bad" or even that which we say is NOT... The problem with "good" is that it carries this moral implication...

It is an interesting exercise to consider what you require for something to be good...

what becomes a legend most...

Ok CT... the best cat...

in love with fur...

selfesteem...

we all secretly believe we are superior...

It is easier sometimes not to test this.

dreaming...

Dreams are the human mind absent the matrix of civilization. The mind operates through association and metaphor – the womb of art – this is the reason we, as a species have so rarely been without it – the image, the ritual, the act - art - a world of magic and spontaneous transmissions is our natural state.


An animal sees the human and associates sensory experience with that image. I stream together a series of images and words because my mind wants to dwell upon the sensory significance of those images and words. Our waking selves filter and order, and repress these associations as dictated by the systems of interpretation and response that our culture and more intimately, our families have embedded within us.