a new zine (parallel) project and the beginning of organized chio

well, not exactly new as i've been wanting to get back into zine-making for a while. i look at my calendar and see a very empty december which means little income but tons of possibility in terms of time for creative work.

my new zine will be dedicated to artists who work in museums as educators. being one of them i feel there is a lack of space for exchange of ideas and dialogue about how our work informs our practice and viceversa. i have made zines for a while but i also haven't made any for a while and it's about time i start a new one.

i need to get in the shower and get ready to go out, more to come on this soon but i wanted to post this now to start my zine's process of becoming tangible. my tentative name is 'what do you see here?' which is the quintessential first question we ask our various groups/audiences when engaging them in looking at artworks but i have a feeling it will change...

as for organized chio, i'm working on that too. i've been too impulsive and all over the place with my practice for more than a year now. i need discipline and to set clear goals for myself; again, december is the perfect month for this. having this blog will help me procrastinate less/do more/see results.

i'm back

i was off duty for a while, and am behind in my object responses. i started with the lipstick stained receipt response tonight but it's not in a photographic stage yet. instead i'm posting two photos of a little box i finished today and posted on my etsy page http://www.chioflores.etsy.com the photos i uploaded to etsy are clearer thasn these two, i really need a new camera; that's one of the gifts i may get myself for christmas. if i don't get it this christmas than next year for sure.

i picked up object 5 today but since I'm behind with object 4 responses I won't post a photo of it yet, it's actually two objects i found two blocks apart from each other, more to come.

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what i did today

the internet connection is pretty bad right now, i have been trying to post for a while and it has been frustrating so now i'm cranky.

i'm still responding to the postcard but here's object 4: a receipt with lipstick stains found on the 1st avenue L train platform at 9:30 p.m. on saturday, november 21st. i had seen another object before this one that i wanted, a mannequin's body lying in the street but it was too awkward to hold on to and i'm naturally clumsy so i could have killed someone with that obejct so i let it go. by the time i got to the train station i was somewhat upset i had no object with me but i sat down to wait for the train next to a girl who looked and acted weird in a difficult to describe kind of way. it was mostly her energy and dress that made her weird. i immediately saw there was a receipt on the bench and it caught my eye because it had lipstick stains on it. i think it might have been the girl's because she was applying make up. i hesitated but picked it up to the girl's dismay, she stared at me and kept doing so as i produced a zip loc bag from my bag and proceeded to place the receipt in it. the girl gave me a last look of horror and stood up and left me sitting by myself. i was the weird one in her eyes.

oh yes, i also made pizza for lunch, it was so pretty i am posting it here; two shots: before it went in the oven and right after it came out. it was delicious.

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more postcard responses

i did a first quick sketch of a self portrait with a snail using coffee and ink, some color pencils for the snail. i'm also attaching photos i took of me right before i made the sketch and right after i did it because i want to compare them with the drawings and have them as reference.

tomorrow there will be more of this before i post object 4.

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response to the postcard


the postcard response began as rectangles, i was basically just looking at the shape of the object, i used coffee because the object gave me the idea of time, something brownish/fading. then g read what i had written about rescuing the postcard in my previous post and was struck by how much i wanted to give it a home. he made me realize how much i need a home and that took me to the snail carrying it's own little house, i feel i do that. and i'm loving the snail and have been doing research about it, it's a peculiar little hermaphrodite animal. these are the initial responses but i see a lot more possibility in this, i plan to make a self portrait with snails...

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object 3: postcard

date: october 1987

from: the adirondack museum, blue mountain lake, new york 12812

to: elizabeth hock in hoboken, new jersey

text:

wed 1:00 p.m.

hi little red,

i've taken a break from my ride at the museum. stayed at a motel last night. i was very tired and hadn't had a shower since friday. it was a good move 'cause it rained last nite. today it has threatened to rain but hasn't. the weather has been great and my new gear is wonderful! we will have to come up here together in the winter, its beautiful. i miss you sweet potatoe :) love, nick.

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i think it's pretty obvious why i bought that postcard, it speaks to me and makes me so sad because it was an object that must have brought happiness to this girl elizabeth only 22 years ago. she must be in her 40s so i wonder why and how the postcard ended in junk. i wish i could trace its history, but how? the only thing i can do is respond to it. i bought it to rescue it from its abandonment, to adopt it/give it a new home. i also bought it because due to my circumstances i can relate to it, i see myself writing similar things, not in postcards but in e-mails. i kind of wish it was objects like postcards though, my e-mails won't even end in a store like junk, they will end in the ether and no one will be able to rescue them from their abandonment.

 

probably no art will happen today...

...because I'm working and i'm also not feeling well so as soon as i'm back home i'll get in bed. i had the roughest night, with fever and very weird symptoms, i have no idea what's wrong with me but it's beginning to get scary. i thought of my artwork in between the fever and waking up. i feel that's how i spent the whole night, had feverish sleep and then woke up from weird dreams, then went back to feverish sleep.

i'm also enveloped in sadness, maybe everything is related. i'm hoping to be able to respond to object 3 over the weekend. i also have a new box i bought at junk (i feel i'm pimping them) that i may use to exorcize my sadness. i'll try to post a photo of it later.

i'm really curious to know who reads this blog, the counts have gone up. i have very silent and mysterious readers...