KUAZ’s Mark McLemore interviewed me about Tu Scene and my art for the excellent radio magazine, Arizona Spotlight. The show airs today on 89.1FM today here in Tucson at 8:30am, 6pm, and Saturday at 7pm. Tune in at those times or listen online here.

Bad Art Workshop and Open Call for Art
Wednesday, June 17, 5-8+pm
Tooley’s
278 E. Congress (5th & Congress)

Artists from pros to dabblers are welcome to create or drop off works for a lighthearted bad art installation at Bad Fest, happening at The Rialto on June 19 (keep reading below for more on that), and to be part of a show at Tooley’s in the very near future. Your favorite art blogger, me, Rachelle Díaz, will be hosting this informal workshop on Wednesday evening at Tooley’s.

What is “bad art”? you ask. While one person’s trash is another person’s Picasso, whether you think something is so bad it’s good, or just plain awful, there are some generally accepted threads. For media, think: glitter, velvet painting, macaroni, bean and popcorn collages construction paper, pipe cleaners, string art, and just about any kind of paint. For motifs, think: clowns, unicorns, cock-eyed still lifes and portraits, celebrities, cute overload, overused hipster designs (deer antlers, skulls, scrolls, personified inanimate objects, birds, telephone wires), Bob Ross, tiki bars, abstract expressionism, paint-by-number, kitsch… Still not inspired? Check out The Museum of Bad Art and Portland’s Velvetaria.

Come have some laughs, share ideas, and bring your own art-making materials including scissors, glue, paper, etc. Delicious caffeine and food are available for purchase from Tooley’s. You may also bring in your own personal beer and wine, but let’s keep it respectable folks — please at least buy a cookie or something.

If you have a completed piece you’d like to contribute, whether it’s your own work or something you picked up at a thrift store, you can also drop off art at Tooley’s during this time on Wednesday evening. Unframed works on paper or fabric (unstretched canvas, linen, any other fabric) only. We cannot puncture the walls of the Rialto with nails or tacks, so everything must be displayed for a few hours with masking tape.

For more information about the bad art workshop and art submissions, contact me at tuscene@yahoo.com.

Now, on to…

Bad Fest
Friday, June 19
The Rialto Theatre
318 E. Broadway
Fundraiser benefiting The Screening Room
$5-$40 donation at door (tiered pricing below)

Bad Fest is an edgy, multimedia social with live music from five local bands, video projections and audience participation pivoting on the word “bad,” as in “so bad, it’s good.” Simultaneous moving images such as from bad movies, classic movies, music videos and montages of locally produced independent films will be projected on the theater walls.

This event will helps raise the $10,000 needed for a new marquee to light up The Screening Room at 127 E. Congress. Support independent film and have a good time doing it! Bad Fest has been created in the spirit of local arts support for local musicians and artists, as a summer party at a great venue, for a great mission, with a great volunteer base.

See the Bad Art Show curated by Tu Scene’s Rachelle Díaz, installation by Natalie Nguyen, special appearances by bad characters and more. Hairstyles and fashion in bad taste are especially encouraged.

Five of Tucson’s most talented musical acts who’ve generously committed to perform are:

• 7pm: Marianne Dissard
• 8pm: Jimmy Carr’s Awkward Moment
• 9pm: Calle Debauche
• 10pm: Monster Pussy
• 11pm: Flagrante Delicto

6:30-9pm Entrance Packages:

• Bad Attitude: $15
• Bad Company : $25 per couple, includes 1 Bad Fest t-shirt*
• Bad Ass: $40 per couple, includes 2 Bad Fest t-shirts*

9pm-11pm Entrance Packages:

• Bad Cat $5
• Bad Dog: $10 includes Bad Fest t-shirt*

*T-shirts are $12 inside the theatre.

For more information about Bad Fest, contact David Aguirre at 792-4503 or dinnerwareartspace@gmail.com.

(needs some photoshop tweaking, not a very good photo)
Acrylic on wood
June 2009
part of the Staring at Screens series

Heard this on NPR yesterday: As TV Changes To Digital, White Noise Fades Away
A familiar sight and sound is disappearing as digital TV takes over from analog: television snow and the “white noise” that accompanies it. (related commentary)

Original photo:

Just realized I hadn’t posted the original photos for this new series. Artist statement for this project is here and here.

Colored pencil and acrylic on wood
May 2009
part of the Staring at Screens series

Colored pencil on wood
May 2009
part of the Staring at Screens series

in researching this project the word “colorspace” popped into my head. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this term before in my cluster of thoughts. since I work for a digital printing company full time as a graphic designer, “colorspace” enters my vocabulary all the time in discussing CMYK, RGB and Pantone colors. Each has totally different quirks and foibles in what we see on screen vs what the design software reads (e.g. Adobe) vs what the print driver reads vs what the printer itself reads vs what we see produced. This is about how that image we see on screen, the digital eye of the machine (interpreter [screen]/producer[printer], and what we see physically, is altered in that process, particularly through digital photography: translation of images seen by the human eye into pixels, 1s and 0s, and that mutation of form and message through television, movies, and internet presences such as personal websites, image/video sharing and social networking sites. It begins and ends with The Eye. Consciousness of the Self and how it is reproduced in these media, as well as ubiquitous Unseen Eyes, digital and human, viewing, interpreting, reproducing the Self, infinitely, obscurely. In drawing and painting images produced by machines, I am attempting to reclaim natural vision. Let us take our understanding of “The Work Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” a step further, or in another direction (whatever your preference), and look at our present circumstances in “The Self in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”

The first painting in my Staring at Screens series is down, several more to go.

Acrylic on canvas
2009

Here is the original photo, doctored in Photoshop for exposure/saturation to create the painting:

My digital camera has been dying a slow death since the summer of 2008. Finally, back in March 2009 I couldn’t get it to come up at all (I have since purchased a new one); it would only take blurry pictures that look like analog television signals. But it kind of works out because I already had an idea to work with a series of images exactly like this and was wondering how I’d find source material without a TV set.

This project is about un-pixelating the screens we stare at all day: computer (including internet, email, video, social media), cell phone, TV, bank ATMs, post office, touch screens credit card payment at the grocery store/convenience store/big box stores, etc. The addiction, the relief one feels when pulling the eyes away, the awareness of ubiquity. It’s akin to what I mentally dubbed in Texas “air conditioned bliss.” It’s the same feeling, only visually, that you get when you step into hot, hot summer-baked air and bright sun outside from working in a cool, even chilly, climate and light-controlled building all day long. It’s about the invigoration resulting from discomfort, or from a mere change from “comfort” and “stability” stepping into uncontrollable elements.

More vintage and hand up-cycled pieces in my online bodega if you haven’t been lately.

Summer of Love t-shirt only $18 +shipping

Also, always super-floored to be chosen as a wardrobe_remix(er) o’ the week. Be sure to check out the rest of Tricia’s (aka Bits and Bobbins) ever-thought-provoking blog.