i have been busy stripping altoid tin cans for my 'altoIDs, the curiously strong zine' zine. the paint remover i bought worked great, it's called smart strip, it's really cool because it's not smelly or hazardous.

there's a lot of scrubbing involved but i like doing it, it's meditative to me

i still have several tins to scrub, my goal is to make an edition of 25 zines and show them at maker faire

the finished/stripped tins look weird, like naked. i like that

i'm thinking about silkscreening the letters 'i' and 'd' but i need ink for metal, not sure how toxic that'll be, will start doing some research today.

off i go to keep working on these ladies (they seem feminine to me but i could be wrong...)

these are photos i took of the film 'altiplano', it's a visually striking film made in belgium and peru, it made my heart stop and in many ways feel how much distance new york has put between me and the land i was born and raised in but that i'm so alienated from.

yesterday julie, chris and i we went to bottle beach to make our film. it was a gray and rainy day with very dramatic skies, the perfect one for us. unfortunately we got high tide so we only had about one hour of objects and then the water washed them all away.

here's a link to  a slide show of some photos i took of the shoot, the film won't be ready as soon as i would like it to be:

the amazing thing about this place is that it offers you things to work and create  with

i loved building this little collection for julie to reorganize

then i played with it

i made her a circle of horseshoe crabs and asked her to inhabit it...

..and then activate it...

we found this weird thing which said 'radar' on it

and incorporated it to our hybrid theater of nature and man made objects

then it was placed in the water

and it swam away

we fed the water

and it gave us rusty objects...

the shoot was inspiring and harmonious, a perfect collaboration. hopefully the film will be ready to show in an upcoming film festival in soho.

i will be making some version of body bags with flies as part of this year's howl festival. I have always wanted to do it but never managed to so this is THE year for that. it's going to be fun!

i'm having fun playing in the studio making these cut up poems

magentic monologues

funky pain relief art

broken hipster sketches

i want to get some medicine magazines and other printed matter like menus and flyers where i can get some interesting words, i guess  a visit to junk won't be a bad idea...

this is a zine i'm making for the makers faire inside an altoids tin (tins obtained courtesy of the new museum). it's titled 'altoIDs, the curiously strong zine' and is about identity and new york. it will have drawings and cut up poems, one of which at least will be made by a soon to be announced guest writer i'm collaborating with. the zine will be made as an accordion book and the ribbon to pull the book open will be, as can be seen in the picture, a 'danger' construction ribbon or a yellow 'caution' one (not in the picture).

i bought paint stripper to strip the tin of its identity but it hasn't arrived yet and i'm not sure i will be able to do this but i'll post the results as soon as i test it.

i'm also getting 1"x1" ziplock bags to place an altoid mint inside; the bags will be placed on the inside of the lid with the text: "please eat this mint as you read this zine".

i'm also making a zine on how to make zines for the faire that will have a cover made using recycled paper bags.

i'm having so much fun!

(download)

Click here to download:

altoIDs_zine_sketch.zip (4.82 MB)

i'm, very excited to say i will be participating in this year's maker faire in new york teaching visitors how to make a zine using drawing, collage and simple printmaking techniques. i was invited yesterday by the organizers of this version of the faire, the new york hall of science i have a ton of ideas on how to make this a fun learning experience, this is a good way to combine D.I.Y. with environmentally friendly ways of making zines.

i will upload a more detailed project description as soon as i have it.

i have been thinking of ways to exhibit/share my work without depending on institutions. i find the gallery system very flat and non-exciting plus not very accessible. with that in mind i spent some time in my studio a few days ago looking at my boxes (you can see them in this set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/takeout/sets/72157624695416904/ ) and was also thinking of artist books and how i have always wanted to make one. putting both of those together was natural and i decided to make a DIY made book with my boxes. i contacted a friend of mine, photographer ana de orbegoso to photograph the series. the way i visualize the book is simple: photos of each of the seven boxes, texts written by me and a silkscreened cover. the book will most probably be hand boud or spiral bound. my idea is to print the photos on paper and place them on the book pages using old school black photo corners, not sure how the text will go.

i need to find a place to present the book and the actual boxes, i'm not sure what kind of space i'm looking for. what i do know is that i don't want a white cube.

update: i have been thinking of adding two more boxes to this set,'the wounded box' and 'the box of birth'. i added them to the flickr set to see how much sense they make or not in this series, still pondering/still undecided...

this is my post -it, this has to be done by tuesday or i'll never do it...

http://local-artists.org/users/chio-flores