Ritual ideas relativety
Only buildings no people prophecy
Timeslide place to hide nudge reality
Foresight minds wide magic imagery

Space guy fell from the sky
Scratched my head and wondered why
Time slide into time
Across international dateline
Scientist eats bubblegum
Hall of fame baseball
Senators a Hoodlum
Big chiefs in the hall
Ritual ideas relativety
Only buildings no people prophecy
Timeslide place to hide nudge reality
Foresight minds wide magic imagery

Lyrics from “E=MC2″ by Big Audio Dynamite

Bucky ROYGBIV by Matthew Day Jackson, 2007

Matthew Day Jackson, now playing at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center (May 8th-July 12th, 2009), sets fire to the place.  He knows we know he knows, and he goes there.  For example, in Lonesome Soldier (2008) one is instantly reminded of Charles Ray’s Plank Piece (1973), which was a humanized performance riff on Richard Serra’s Prop (1968), but Jackson’s is not a sheet of lead, or his own body, but rather a felt space man, oh Beuys!  We are in the presence of greatness, all the time.  But, at times it feels a little bit like the Leonardo DiCaprio / Claire Danes version of Romeo and Juliet, in that Jackson brings guns instead of swords, or carbon fiber instead of marble; but is it still Brancusi?  I guess as much as that movie was Shakespeare.  We know, the permission for this work was hard fought, it takes guts to place a Hemi drag racing motor on rod power pyramids (like my parents picked-up at the crystal-hopped new age store when I was a kid) as Jackson does in Heart of Prometheus (2009).  There are themes here (racing, space chasing, atom bombing, geodesics, so on), but I can’t help thinking Jackson’s meta-story is getting thick like another Matthew, Barney.  This is not bad, and in fact maybe the saving grace of Jackson’s work, his earnest sincerity.  For no matter how many layers of great artists (and thinkers, and, and, and) he can stack like a Dagwood, I believe Matthew Day Jackson believes in this work.  And faith goes along way here, even tangled in the miasma of testosterone-fulled modernism on fucking atomic-powered Red Bull.

Go see it before it comes down, and check out Duncan Campbell’s film Bernadette in the other gallery, but bring a hoody it’s cold in there.

Chariot II-I Like America and America Likes Me by Matthew Day Jackson, 2008

P.S. I thought about just leaving the B.A.D. lyric quote as the review, I heard it on the radio on the way home, and thought it summed up the exhibition well.  But, ElPezCore would have none of it!

Last night in Lowell, MA - Something was happening at 119 Gallery, there was cooking smoke, a belly dancer, porn from the advent of moving image, and fuck-an-A, ART!  I cruised by the opening of Seduce Me curated by Setheyny Pen, and featuring the work of: Ebenezer Archer Kling, Anthony Palocci Jr, Christopher Eastwood, Hali Vik, Christine Tuccelli, and Timothy Goguen. And was pleasantly surprised to find an elegant show of thoughtful work by a crew of smart young artists.  Concurrently, was “Improvised Comfort Device (food) (Superhero Action)” a performance by relative old-timer, Jim Jeffers: “as a piece [sic] offering to swine 40 pounds of chicken will be grilled and eaten” (from a flyer at the event).  Where, Jeffers dressed in a red jump suit, and partially covered by a blue tarp strung off the back of a hatch-back, grilled chicken and served it up to the tentative audience.

Standing out were the tightly crafted 40’s (40 oz. beer bottles) with sexy lesbian silhouettes, both clearly celebratory but evoking some sad alcoholic fantasy of lesbian prosthetic copulation, black & white and cracking, by Timothy Goguen.  Also, Ebenezer Archer Kling’s drawings, abstracting images pulled from ukiyo-e Japanese erotica, are quirky, smart, and delightful.  Jeffers, who was not on the bill for Seduce Me, must have crashed the party, but at least he brought beer and chicken…fucking good chicken, served on a blue blanket (like my little brother sucked his thumb through until he was twelve), evidently these “Improvised Comfort Devices” are a series, can’t wait to see what’s next!
(Jeffers, has a solo exhibition coming up a UMass Lowell this Fall: http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Art/galleries/university-gallery.htm)

Check out Seduce Me curated by Setheyny Pen, at 119 Gallery up now until July 11th, 2009, worth the trip to Lowell, MA!
(and check out the kick-ass Cambodian restaurant on the corner by the gallery, so good).

The rejection letter is commonplace for most of us in the Arts, and for that matter Academia. We compete in an ever-expanding market, with an ever-contracting supply. The stuff we produce is marginally quantifiable and highly speculative; as artists can take many positions with vastly different levels of cultural esteem, acceptance, or even understanding – and as academics, educators or researchers we are phantasms to laypeople, and subjects for dissection by peer-review and collegial probing by the anointed. Our job, my job is to be creative, but not ‘creative’ like the team that came up with, “I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!” or the Manhattan Project, or is it? As Artist-Academics we are obligated to find in the world a mode of expression both new and fresh, but fitting within the ‘norms’ or normative forces of hegemonic institutionalization present in keeping a paying gig at the university.

So, as I have defined my job—i.e., make creative research (a.k.a. art), find esteem for it, and keep it understandable by peers, both interdisciplinary and intergenerational—as difficult. Now imagine you have to quantify and qualify this job in the form of multiple-page documents, slides, CDs, DVDs, copy laser copies, letters of reference, websites, word of mouth, and so. One could do a continual hustle just in the documentation and explanation of all the creation and academic protocols, not mention actually making art or teaching. And the reaction, after all this sound and fury, is what? A letter; nice on bond or laid paper with thoughtful logo, neatly typed, and signed by hand—preferably in blue. Maybe I am trying to find the Art in rejection, or at least the professionalism, implying a level of respect, a nod to the time and effort on one’s part in putting all this shit together, proof of your humanity, or at least tangibility—you have an address, on the earth. Now we have another form, the e-mail rejection. It is fast, clean, better than the phone call, no need to hear the faux cheer and understanding, and doesn’t cost your institution the 44¢ of the letter. E-mail is nicely informal, an extra level of coolness in a business filled with ice, coated in the mostly fictional face of creative fertility, academic rigor, and warm nurturing education. We are in just that, business, slow, arty farty, warm and fuzzy, business, so bring on the e-mail rejections just make sure they contain at least a few emoticons. And for my part I will just make a .pdf head shot, and put my artist talk on Youtube and just forward links to everyone on the committees in massive cc’ed e-mail myself.

Community Intersections Tangent Interests Environments and Situations
(C.I.T.I.E.S.): A Drawing of Monumental Scale

by Prof. Stephen Mishol and Prof. Jim Jeffers
Art Department, UMass Lowell

Everyday we travel through the history of the Merrimack: old mill towns, red brick walls, bridges, smokeless smoke stacks, and canals – shaped by the flow of this river, Lawrence, Lowell, and Nashua have persevered as living artifacts. We propose an artwork on the ground of these three cities, focusing on a site of historical loss in each, which takes the viewer / participant on an unexpected journey through experience, perception, and digital artifact.

As artists we have been exploring urban space for years: Mishol, through Painting and Drawing; and Jeffers, through Video, Performance, and Web-Art.

We propose finding one site in each of these three cites, lost to history, and in grand form create drawings on the ground, that in profound fashion illuminate the space for engaged participant and casual viewer alike. As these drawings are being performed for live audience, the signal would feed to a remote exhibition of multi channel video, and recorded for a lasting visual record on a permanent website. The performance / drawings themselves would be created with only ephemeral permanence out of non-toxic materials, utilizing drawing equipment of the type and scale of an athletic field.
(Please see the attached appendix of images of our related work)

We feel deeply that this proposed artwork is a contemporary exploration of the ties we have to the Merrimack valley as artists and educators living and working in Lowell.

We will be utilizing the skills of UMass Lowell Art majors or any interested undergraduate students in this endeavor in joint faculty-student research, as a project of this scale will require at least 15-20 individuals to realize.

Finding places, and revealing spaces, new ways of looking and thinking about our everyday experience is philosophically underpinning both our respective creative research models. Bringing to bear an intermedia approach to an artwork, while presenting a problem solvable only with the resources of undergraduate student participation, and community involvement is an ideal for both of us as contemporary artists and educators.

Budget:

Materials:
3 field chalk lining machines $1200.00
*purchase would allow
re-presentation of the piece
Chalk, in 50lbs quantities, in various colors $1000.00

Video Production Costs:
Videography and wireless feed costs $800.00
3 Scissor Lifts (“cherry pickers”) rentals $800.00
*to allow for aerial video
Dedicated digital archive system / website costs $1500.00

Artist and Crew Costs: $2000.00
Including research time,
Transportation, framing, conventional art materials

Dear Sarah,

Rabbits are great, very clean, litter box trainable.  Logan (our male) we got as a bunny, 8 weeks old, and he chews everything; so, molding gone, no power cords can be left unattended, buttons on remote controls, so on, must be kept safe, but, he might outgrow this.  Uma we adopted, she over a year old, and that is the way to go because getting a rabbit fixed is 10 times the cost of the cute baby bunny from a breeder or pet store, while adoption was only $70 bucks and Uma came sans reproductivity.  Adopting also gave us the chance to take Uma home for a few weeks and see how she fit into the family before committing. Uma does not chew, but is a tad shy (but far less than when we brought her home) and is not as trustworthy with not peeing on the  carpet if her litter box is too far away.  Logan is ours and we are his.  Uma is ours but we are still gaining her trust before we are 100% hers.  Logan is 3.5 pounds and Uma is 5 pounds.  Logan can easily be caught and picked-up, moved and handled without much fuss, Uma is not as easily handled.  Logan will only sit or lay down for petting when he wants it.  Uma, if she is out on the main carpet (their carpet in front of their cage) she will sit and be pet pretty much without limit.  Neither are “cuddly” like a dog and some cats.  Both are super cute, and as rex rabbits are about the softest creatures to the touch on earth (or at least among rabbits).  Rabbits are more like horses than dogs or cats in terms of manner and food likes.  Logan and Uma will play, mostly with things in their way (which they throw) or dangly things like towels, or draw strings and pant legs.  Logan, if in the mood, can reduce a phone book to confetti in a day.  Rabbits like to dig.  Their nails have to be trimmed and with Uma and Logan this ordeal requires long tough sleeves on your shirt and a firm grip on a slick squirming bunny.  They need run around time or they get fat.  They eat a lot of hay and quite a bit of fresh veggies (a couple of cups a day between the two of them).  I think Uma and Logan are pretty active, she lost about a half pound since we brought her home.

In Short, they are great and I would not trade them.  But, they need constant attention, so if we go out of town we have to broad them.

check this out to see Uma before we adopted her:http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/adoption/2008.shtml 

Logan and Jean 'playing'

Uma being a rabbit

Originally submitted at Sierra Trading Post

Closeouts . Smart-looking, trim and comfortable, the Timbuk2 Track daypack offers tough ballistic nylon, a laptop section with full 360-degree padding, pockets for your MP3 player, cell phone and more. Thickly cushioned laptop compartment sits at back for balance and stability. Center section has a…

Timbuk2 Track Daypack
Nice Mid-Sized Bag 

4out of 5

Pros: Comfortable, Highly Adjustable, Good padding, Easy To Load, Large capacity, LightweightBest Uses: Traveling with a computerDescribe Yourself: Casual AdventurerWhat Is Your Gear Style: Comfort Driven

I have owned many Timbuk2 bags. One had seam issues. However, after repairing that backpack myself it took on a two week+ trip to Poland, The Czech Rep. and Germany like a trooper. I hope this bag works out. I like being able to remove my computer at the airport without having to open the whole bag, and the padded handle is great.

(legalese)

Dear Editor:

After going through my sixth advising period as a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, once again I am left curious and perplexed by the narrow tracks laid down before our students in their navigation of the general education requirements.  I think back to my own undergraduate experience at the University of California – Santa Cruz (yes indeed, one of the oft sited schools of the UC system of which our former Chancellor William Hogan, more than once in my presence, held up as the model for the UMass system), and the ease with which I completed my general education.  Starting first as a Physics major, I completed three quarters of Physics for majors, and three quarters of Calculus for science majors, and then switching to Art, taking Drawing I, Drawing II, Drawing III, five quarters of Art History, all of which ‘counted’ toward my general education requirements as either major.  So, I ask myself, why does the University of Massachusetts Lowell think it must require a Bachelor of Fine Arts major to choose from a very narrow set of courses in Arts and Humanities (AH) for two more AH on top of: two Drawing courses, three Art Foundation courses, two Art History courses, and four Aesthetics and Critical Studies courses, which count for what?  In all fairness, my understanding is our majors do have to take one less AH than other majors.  What I am driving at is the lack of choice our students have in exploring their own paths in becoming generally and liberally educated.  I do not know of another Bachelor of Fine Arts program in which students are required to take three science courses, two with lab.  I am not saying this is a bad thing for some students, like myself as an undergraduate.  But, narrow course offerings and the time intensive nature of Art courses (six contact hours per course per week) means almost all our majors have the same science courses, and if I have a student who is apt with computers (which I have many) and wants to take a programming course, we would have to petition the Gen Ed credit in the very unlikely event the student could even take such a course.  Frankly, our students think the general education program is a set of unrelated courses which will have little to no baring on their lives, as much as I try to convince them otherwise.

Now that I have stated a broad impression of the general education curriculum at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, I want to get specific and take on two irksome points which keep me up at night wondering who my colleagues really are in other fields on the General Education Committee. 

First, Drawing, can you believe drawing is not a general education course, and after repeated submissions to the General Education Committee at the University of Massachusetts Lowell this semester was denied that status?  I cannot!  I have degrees from three different universities, all in the top 100 in the nation (which, with the exciting new hire of Provost Abdelal is now a stated goal for UML), and I have taught at no less than three other universities in the top 100, all of which have drawing as part of their general education curriculum; in fact UMass Amherst has drawing in their general education curriculum.  Why don’t we?  I take personal exception to the exclusion of drawing as worthy of a general education course, as I consider drawing as the basis of my research practice and see it as the foundation of Art and Design, as well as, as an essential communication mode for almost every natural science, engineering, and mathematical expression.  Drawing, since the first pigment was applied to cave walls, has served as the basis of visual communication, which lead to pictograms, to ideograms, to hieroglyphs, eventually to alphabets and literacy.  But, this is not an evolution of replacement; try building a bridge with text-based instructions only.  The importance and essential nature of drawing has not changed in 30,000 years, but its efficacy and application has resulted in quantum leaps in almost every area dealing with the physical world, as well as, the fantastic, creative, expressive and imaginative worlds, how many other fields of study in the university can claim likewise?  Drawing is more than a skill, it changes and strengthens natural world observation, encourages problem solving with kinesthetic input, and unleashes fantasy and creativity in a low-stakes environment; think of Frank Gehry or Antoni Gaudí without their initial architectural risks taking shape in the form of drawing, it would not happen!  I could go on, but I think you get the idea: drawing is at the core of so much, why can’t we see that fact at UML?

Second, is the exclusion of major course work from courses ‘counting’ toward general education requirements.  This is an issue of choice for our majors in Art, who currently have no free elective courses in the 120 (usually 122) units they need to graduate.  Meaning, while at the University of Massachusetts Lowell students graduating with a BFA in Fine Art or Design, have only courses offered in our department (choices of which seem to dwindle with each semester), or perfunctory general education courses from the narrow list heretofore mentioned.  Again, I know there are great courses in the general education catalog, and I helped write some the grants funding this new and very exciting interdisciplinary course work which is taking our faculty into other areas.  If general education courses in the major counted, our students would have at least two free electives.  Allowing them, for example, to take two business / management courses, which, as artist and designers—who are almost always self-employed at some stage in their careers—would be very helpful, and relevant.  At present our students cannot do this.  I know this is also a matter for internal discourse with my colleagues in the Art Department, and at NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) the body who accredits our department, as well. 

Many people complain, so I will offer up one idea (there are many, just googling ‘general education’ is a wild ride) to help this problem.  Leave the general education requirements the same except for these changes: give all 100 and 200 level courses in all departments a general education code letter, and allow departments and individual instructors to determine criteria for who is allowed to take the course (this assumes all courses in the university are at a college level and draw there foundation from some greater general and educative discipline!); let arts and humanities majors take at least one less science with a lab and replace it with another general education course in any area, our students might surprise us; and let majors satisfy general education requirements within their majors—they will still need to take 120 credits to graduate—but with this new openness could come a whole host of minors, even the never-seen-at-UML BFA in Design with a minor in Business Administration!  Finally, disband the General Education Committee—or at least impose reasonable term limits—without the cumbersome course review process, and with all reasonable introductory courses transferring from the community colleges, and other four-year institutions, with a general education equivalent already on the books at UML: Introduction to Life Science at UNH would just automatically count as a Gen Ed, because Introduction to Life Science at UML would be a Gen Ed (without having to have the chair of Biology sign-off on it)!  Think of it, a university where engineers and artists actually get general education credit for their major course work, so they could perchance take an Ethics class, or Political Science course, which might just help them to become interesting people and participatory citizens.  It seems for far too long at the University of Massachusetts Lowell we have been treating our students, not to a liberal arts model, but to a focus on proprietary majors and disjointed general education.  I see light entering the tunnel, and I have nothing but confidence in both Provost Abdelal, and Chancellor Meehan as leaders and innovators who will address issues like General Education reform, and infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Sincerely,

Prof. Jim Jeffers

Assistant Professor of Art and Design

Art Department

University of Massachusetts Lowell

I just put the beta version of the newest fantabiography.com site up for internet checks before I go to full production.  It is weird how much a place can seep into you and cloud your senses.  I am shedding that shit, and once again starting to make the things I want (and need) to articulate contemporary experience.
Just some thoughts about liberty, I guess.
Sine Corpus {without body}   

Tomorrow is my birthday. My mother always made a very big deal about this day. She was very proud of me, and I think herself, for my birth. I was three weeks late, and when my aunt asked who I looked like my father replied, “Genghis Khan!” I will be in my 36th year. I am always struck by the numbers, and joys. I wish my parents were still around to see what I have managed to do with my 36 years. I am very thankful for all the blessings I have accrued: my wife Jean; my art; and my friends.

The English Beat and RX Bandits at the Somerville Theater.Really it should be, Dave Wakeling with awesome band of guys who play Beat and General Public songs, but DWWABoGWPB&GPS is a clumsy acronym.I was born at a very exciting and hard time. I remember vividly the first time I heard The Clash on some countdown show hosted by Casey Kasem. And I remember my friend Aron buying Special Beat Serviceon vinyl and sporting me a tape with its own special skip from the record. But, I was too young to have seen my favorite bands in the flesh, as I was growing up they were growing apart. Joe Strummer is dead, but Dave Wakeling is very much alive or so it would seem from his near two hour set at the Somerville Theater last night. He seems to have melted a bit, getting slightly shorter and wider since last I saw him in San Diego, but nonetheless, The Beat were there to play. His new band “The English Beat” (as far as I could tell he was the only original member) were first rate, and with the exception of one false start while the bassist was getting tuned up the set was tight. The crowd, even encumbered by fixed seats (which sucked), were with Dave and dancing the whole gig–the one exception (of course) was this older guy looking like the Colonel and his three boys, who had the seats in front of us, who barely moved, and Jean (my wife) speculated after the show, “I wonder how that happened, they didn’t seem be there for either band.” Which brings me to the RX Bandits, the opening act. Now I like eclectic, but RX could use some focus, some good ideas, but mostly muddy: hippy-ska-Police-like-meets-At-The-Drive-In-Greatfully-Deaded, “yeah our songs all do kinda seem like the same song.” Okay, this does seem like a feat, and they did have some really-in-to-the-band fans who danced, but maybe a re-tool, and less Tool might be in order, to make the little skin headed mod down in front kick-up his doc’s to them.All and all, it was great to see and hear, and made a great start to my traditional two weeks of birthday festivities.