what did we celebrate

it's halloween today. while i myself have no...real excitement in dressing up, prancing around and joining the crazy throngs of people that will flood the streets of manhattan tonight...i must say it's quite the affair for a good number of this city's population.

this is my thinking concerning parsons students in particular celebrating halloween: either you go all out with the costume or you do nothing at all. there is no in between half attempt.

ANDY GOLUB
(all images from site)

one article of news surrounding the festivities that did catch my eye was that the artist (body painter) andy golub will be painting a number of topless women for the 36th annual new york halloween parade for the third year running. they will ride around in two vehicles also painted by the artist and will apparently look like "surreal characters" (melodika) - and he's been doing this body painting in public spaces throughout new york since 2006! it'd be pretty interesting to catch him in action. not that i would volunteer to be one of his canvases...




anyway: happy halloween for those of you keen on dressing up and eating candy.
(the latter of which i am also a fan of...)

what did we EXHIBIT: AMY CASEY

detail of beginning drawing for painting

gravity 15 x 22 2008

AMY CASEY

much love for these houses painted by cleveland, ohio based painter amy casey. born in 1976 in erie, pennsylvania one of a set of twins, she says of her own entrance into art that

"My middle school counselor pushed me into art classes because i was waffling without direction and he probably wanted to go to lunch early. My chance encounter with his longing for a pbj led me to the local school for performing and visual arts with two great mentors"

as a result, she studied at the cleveland institute of art and now has a residency at Zygote press and is represented by Zg gallery in chicago (which is where i discovered and fell in love with these wonderfully whimsical paintings of houses and apartments and imaginary cities or places or lives. her paintings talk about the unstable state of things, about the sky turning inside out and about disasters of all sorts. standing in front of her paintings you feel this slight vertigo, some amount of awe and a tenuousness you can't put your finger on. she also definitely has an eye for composition and color palettes and all the paintings are gloriously detailed and patiently thought out.

rigging 28.5 x 41.5 2008

waiting place 32.5 x 41 2009

"my paintings reflect my view of the nervous state of affairs the world seems to be in. Inspired by natural and unnatural disasters, personal fiascos and the never-ending stream of bad news coming in fromt he media, the world inside my paintings has been turned (sometimes literally) upside down. The ground has crumbled underneath them and the sky is falling. In the wake of this, my created world bands together to come up with coping plans. This lets me explore ideas of anxiety and vulnerability, community and the illusions of safety. I am fascinated by the resilence of life...."

keeping it together 36 x 50 2009

tangle 22 x 30 2009

more links: artist statement resume painting gallery blog