Despite the fact that fashion has moved on, there are people stuck in 1998 who still dress like ravers. Despite the fact that fashion has moved on, there are people stuck in 2008 who still dress like hipsters. With the explosion of hipster jokes, it’s been proven that the style is a formula just like anything else. That it isn’t a statement about personal, but rather a means for people to identify with/as themselves/others. By subscribing to a fashion-lifestyle formula, voila! One’s potential to connect socially is greatly enhanced. Superficiality is a boost to the ego.

Music-driven fashion is the longest-lasting, specifically neo-flappers, hippies, kickers, metal heads, hip hop, ravers, goths, hipsters, etc., their trends rising and falling — andfossilizing, for some — over the course of a approximately a decade. What styles of music are in their formative phases now that will be the next big fashion-lifestyle movement? My two decades of being in touch with pop culture as experienced in the U.S. are waning, so anything I could guess at is rather uneducated. Musical artists like Lady Gaga and similar are exports from the fashion world rather than vice versa. Perhaps this means that consumers will become luxury brand-conscious again, only not in a flashy way as seen in the 00′s, but a sort of revised 80′s-90′s preppiness. Yes, it looks like influences are mixing and matching everything under the sun, but the label won’t be on your ass, it’ll only be visible only to those who are in the know. Thanks in part to brand-blogger partnerships, sponsorships and collaborations, the human billboards of the future have arrived and walk amongst us. Will they continue to be groomed as eventual traditional models? Or will the human or brand influence be maximized in ways yet to be determined? It speaks to the current larger socio-political struggles between humanization and monetization. Music-driven fashion-lifestyles from developing countries are what might be (or I’m sure already are) really interesting.

Of interest*:

• Field Guide To the Urban Hipster (2003)
• Hipster jokes & memes
  LAFTH
  Stuff Hipsters Hate
  Unhappy Hipsters
  Dads are the Original Hipsters
• Sorry I Missed Your Party raver posts
• The Vice Fashion Trend Report 2012
  Music Aficionados
  Fashion Kids
  Real People

*nowhere near a complete list, just trying to finish this damn post I started 6+ months ago during the hipster identity crisis of 2011.

Participant responses from Pop Up Spaces' Downtown Scavenger Hunt, Tucson, 2009

Finally got around to archiving content from past projects today. One of the main reasons I started Tu Scene is because I wanted to provide a record of a growing visual art scene to serve as a source artists could reference for any press as well as an informal study of the ingredients and conditions necessary for art/artists to thrive and its general effect on the public quality of life of a major city.

Pop Up Spaces and The Daily Noodle were collaborations that had their place in time but dissipated as things do.

Unfortunately I wrongly assumed that the images would be included when I exported the content from the old sites (d’oh!), so instead I provided links from each site to relevant photos on my Flickr.

"Red Tide" painted by my bro-in-law Santos Díaz. Unfortunately I didn't get a closeup of the trompe l'oeil water droplets, which he described the painting technique he came up with to me at Christmas. exactly what you WOULDN'T want on your car at a show! ha -- amazing idea!

Creativity is a form of expertise.

– Syracuse University popular culture historian Robert J. Thompson in “No sympathy for the creative class” by Scott Timberg on Salon.com

“Serious art makes people uncomfortable – and during these times, we don’t need more discomfort.”

–Peter Plagens [see previous comments re: Jerry Saltz on Thomas Kinkade on my tumblr]

As the wealthy and middle/working class go through their bitter divorce, back to their time-dishonored places, we shall see artists who make any sort of wages from their practice, in general, go back to supporting and serving as the articulator and validator of traditional power structures for whomever has money and power, whether it’s the 1% or 99%. We shall see the return of ateliers and schools, and perhaps the term “artist” shall garner “respect” once again, as people who are workers, rather than dreamers. Cases in which one or two guys and a producer/business partner do all the “dreaming.” But that’s OK because their dreams are not weird or anything, and they have a sect of artisan workers willing to execute everything for them.

The artist as dis-interpreter, beginning and ending there, is only a century-old concept, and died in the 1960′s. If you think you think you are going to revive this, well, godspeed, little doodle. The artist as scientist is contemporary [sorry, I know there are way better examples, he just came to mind instantly as I was an avid reader of Vogue in the 90s]. The artist as food-producer is especially cutting edge. And yet we feel, after centuries [in the West], that we have come into our own. Should Leonardo have been a farmer? Would he have made great strides in food production had he exercised his creativity there? It ultimately all goes back to artist as designer, designer as artist.

I think what makes people, rich or working, really uncomfortable with artists is the fact that that we can do their jobs — any job, whether butcher, baker, or candlestick-maker — just as well, with passion, humanity, and innovation. It flows both ways; yet I don’t feel threatened by Joe the Plumber learning how to use InDesign or throw pottery. Digital publishing and pottery are useful crafts that allow for personal expressive fulfullment. So why the hell are these people so upset that artists can become experts at landscaping, accounting, running retail businesses, investment banking, making delicious food, computer science, chemistry, house cleaning, car mechanics, etc…i.e. the original entrepreneur? What makes them so uncomfortable?

• article supplied via
• check out more photos from the Traditionals Car Club 3rd Annual Pachanga at Weslaco City Park on my Flickr. this was my 1st lowrider event and it was awesome!

This thrifted wool Banana Republic blazer has been languishing in my closet since I purchased it over a year ago to wear to work. It’s classy and well made, but rather boring. The pleated vent in the back and slightly ruched shoulders are more reminiscent of an early 80s suit, adding to the dated look, so I decided to edge it up with some leather. All I could find was pebbled vinyl, but it still worked out great and gave just the effect I wanted.

Blazer before

Blazer before

Blazer before

Junk mail works great for cutting templates

Tracing lapel template

Left lapel template

IMG 4379

Right lapel template

Measuring elbow patch template

Measuring elbow patch template

Measuring elbow patch template

Measuring elbow patch template

Elbow patch template

Placing template

Cutting patches

Cut patches

Lapel patch

Elbow patches after

Blazer after

Lapels after

Next up is a pair of ubiquitous early-noughties pointy-toe heels. I saw a pair in my Tumblr (or was it Facebook?) feed a few days ago  (or was it weeks? — see, that’s the time distortion I’ve been experiencing lately) of metallic pointy heels with a dangling fringe of chains which gave me the idea. I’ve been searching in vain for the image I stole this treatment from, but now I can’t find it!

Before

Affix with Liquid Nails & clamp

Seal edge of fringe with super glue

After

After

I also updated another pair of half-decade-old sandals with more fringe…

Before

Measuring fringe

Clamp for 24 hours

Affix with Liquid Nails

After

After

Cut the sparkly fake rhinestone strap off some vintage clear heels…

Heck, why not make some crazy earrings or a necklace out of the leftover straps?

Cut the sleeves off a $4.00 vintage dress — great pastel floral print, but dowdy shape. Ready for Easter!

I bought this silk dress with Middle Eastern-style sequins at a Savers 50% off sale a couple of years ago. The fitting rooms were of course overrun, so I eyeballed the size. It looked about right, although I wondered why it was deadstock. When I got home and put it on, I realized why : it wa severely misshapen. Now I’m thinking I must’ve temporarily lost my mind when I first did that, because all it needed was about 6 inches taken off the straps; the horrible fit was just exacerbated by my own short torsoed-ness. No need to show the “before” on this one!

Didn’t get a chance to ombre dye anything (waiting to acquire one or two more pieces to make it worth my while), but I gave the lower part of my hair a light wash of bronze.

Finally, here’s a cutout vintage denim jacket inspired by these sick dancer costumes in a 1989 Malcolm McLaren vogue performance.

The perfect layer for the hot Texas summer pressing upon us. Love the Watch L.A. (“watchale” — ha!) label on the lower back. I originally wanted to leave the cuffs attached to the jacket by the seams, but it just didn’t work out so I completely removed the what remained of the sleeves.

Next on my to-do list: collars, shirtless sleeves, and sleeveless shirts… more stuff for summer!

Totems
Graphite on paper
February 2012

Over the past few months, I’ve felt compelled to transfer particular objects between sculpture, photography, and drawing/painting. Relating an image through one medium alone doesn’t seem to be enough. It’s not really a calculated exploration or statement, just a compulsion. It took being forced to write an artist’s statement about my recent drawings, that  I’ve come to realize they are (surprise) self-portraits in a sense. More on that later though.

Lately I’ve also noticed many artists testing these same waters to the point that it could be called a trend, with the goal of justifying the significance of an image by reproducing it in quantity and across various media. Benjamin wrote that art becomes less meaningful as it’s reproduced. Now that the work is stripped of its original meaning, this movement seems to be searching for meaning in the reproduction itself. An intriguing vacuum.

Anyway, this is a new piece you can check out along with a second drawing TBC at Pump Project next month. I believe the opening is on March 3.

A couple of events happening around Tucson this weekend got me to thinking about the dimensions of cities and art.

• Mercury Portal at Monterey Court
• The Boneyard Project at Pima Air & Space Museum

***
For me, smaller cities, towns and rural areas, by providing more space, physically, mentally and alternative uses thereof of all of the above, allow for/force interesting art to happen.  I notice big cities, while full of perfectly lovely people, tend to get hung up on trendiness. Allow me to disparage Austin for a sec: let’s see, what do we have going on art-wise this week? A couple of printmaking (silkscreen, to be specific) shows, an zine release party on the street art tip; on the highbrow side, some lectures at the University, a commercial gallery show with a tome of a press release, and an installation-performance about the end of the world at an old house.

The installation-performance and apocalyptic theme have been “trending” over the course of the last year or so (but thinking back to those paintings I saw at arthouse in ’06/’07 or thereabouts — can’t find the info online). I think this is because one’s understanding of space in the city is so rigidly compartmentalized: exit ramp, median, lamppost, sidewalk, yard, office park, cool neighborhood, ghetto neighborhood, rich part of town. The destructive nature of this type of art satisfies the urge to break out of this utilitarian framework, to wrenchingly twist it past recognition in order to self-consciously surprise. While this is healthy and interesting and wonderful, it seems to me a bit like unrequited love. The cement does not give back, it merely reflects.

Lacking these utilities and dedicated facilities, smaller cities and rural areas allow artistically-minded inhabitants to make their mark on the environment — and for it to make its impact felt in reciprocation. I’m not talking about some sort of hippie utopia, just the everyday-ness of living in a place where everything is subtracted. There is a perception that things must happen in order for a place to be happening. What would happen if something didn’t happen?

***
As I’ve gotten older, my art has turned outward towards experiencing my environment, away from the introspection of growing up, something probably everyone goes through. I feel obligated a to make a detailed drawing of my next-door neighbor’s plastic-encased vegetable garden.

My dream is to be crank in the country, not a cog in a city.

Assistants:

Set-up from a month ago, Thanksgiving weekend. Yes, these are the same painted sticks from this piece. I was disappointed that the weather wasn’t gloomy, so I waited till I came back to visit for Christmas, and it was perfectly drizzly and chilly.

No, this isn’t an homage to William Hundley, just something I felt like I had to do.