getting ready for 'county fair'

it's crunch time weekend.  my solo show at artlink in ft. wayne gets installed on tuesday.  i finished the final painting for it today.  now all i have to do is everything else.  there is still a lot of little detail work to finish out, like shooting slides, getting lights for the light boxes, and making sure everything is mechanically 'good enough' to be workable by the audience.  i still have to make a few small works that will act as memorabilia for the show.  and i'll be renting a truck to haul it all there and of course cleaning everything.

we have a few things planned for this show.  we are installing county fair again, with a few changes (probably the least additions to the show ever).  it's gone from madison, wi, to chicago, to elizabethtown, ky, now it's on to ft. wayne and it's got a couple of more midwestern stops in the coming year+.  i'm also showing a new series of stenciled assemblage paintings.  and a secret, special *hush hush* installation for the day of the opening.

i'm exited about showing county fair as always, but this is the first time i'll be showing it along with other series and bodies of work.  i'm really excited about the series of paintings i've been working.  since i've been out of clay since november, painting is what i've really been gravitating toward.  i've developed a pretty unique style of assemblage and stencil work over the past few years, and this series, i feel, is my best.  each piece in the series has so many layers to narrative.  and i feel like they comment pointedly on a lot of cultural issues.  i'm using graffiti techniques and have been working on a lot of public art.  i feel that graffiti and street art is the new form of pop art.  warhol knew it, that's why he sought out the likes of keith haring and jean-micheal basquait.  and because of that, i'm using a lot of pop culture ideas.  i'm not so much using pop images or celebrity culture images, but rather, trying to comment on the nature of culture and its 'popness.'