Thank You, Betsy Lewis!

A few weeks back, Betsy Lewis of KERA (Dallas' own PBS/NPR media affiliate) stopped by my garage to shoot some video footage of my creative space. Today, at around 4:00 PM my eyes bulged out of my skull and my heart filled with excitement (could have been the Dunn Bros. dark roast coffee) when the lovely Ms. Lewis sent me a text message notifying me that the video was live on the Art and Seek blog.

Dedicated to cultural advocacy in North Texas, KERA and Art and Seek are strong community pillars, ornately decorated by the local arts scene. Thanks to folks like Betsy Lewis, this mission can be witnessed day in and day out on Channel 13, 90.1 FM, kera.org and artandseek.org. She and the rest of our wonderful public broadcasting staff are taking to the streets, galleries, theaters and lecture halls to ensure cultural awareness in our neck of the woods.

For the love of brevity, I appreciate that.

For the love of North Texas (and maybe for the sake of my ego), check out Betsy's post and see my mug in video form right here.

P.S. I had been slacking on submitting the information for our upcoming Dunn Bros. Teeth and Tongue closing reception / art show roundup to the Art and Seek events calendar, but someone went above and beyond by creating this event for us. Thanks for picking up my slack.

Steal These Images!

Then place them wherever you please.

Verses from The Vernal Equinox

In an attempt to uniquely and fancily celebrate the arrival of the allergy filled spring season, my friends and I put together a Vernal Equinox party this weekend. With hostess skills shining brightly, a well dressed Faye organized a wine contest and a spring, poetry and wine related trivia quiz. To ensure commitment to the "finer things" theme, we requested that our guests bring either a bottle of wine or an original poem. Donning fancier than normal clothing, we participated in these activities and ended up collectively consuming about 10 bottles of wine when all was said and done. 

Needless to say, every single moment of the evening was absurd. Jon's poem entailed hilarious personalized quatrains written to Zac, Nick and myself. Calling for a toast our ludicrous creation, Nick's piece probably should have been read to preface our folly. 

Originally written on 4 old business cards and 2.5 wide sticky notes, my poem was only slightly offensive. In honor of les printemps, I present my nonsense in a more archival format...

After months and months of shivering, 

delivering frigid turds from a frosty colored manhole

I now wake up with aqueous transmissions,

ubiquitously flowing to and fro.

Oh, what a delight that I might not have to thaw my bowls,

as spring has come 

and defrosted my belly's food crumb.

Spring was near, now she is here. 

Hear! Hear!

Hear what? 

We have nothing to hear but hear itself. 

Hear the swallow sing songs of how he shat on an elf. 

Flowers are blooming and Christmas is over. 

I only wish I didn't eat this poisonous clover. 

We've done daylight savings time, 

but I can barely breathe, much less pantomime.

Oh, these pants of mine, these pants of mine.

I must unzip these pants of mine (unzips pants)

Whether it's the warmer weather

or this lac-ed plant feather

This is where I draw the line.

As pollens fill the air 

like microscopic dragons in a boundless lair

I and my allergies agree to sneeze. 

Away! Damned poisons of St. Patrick, I expell thee.

Out!  Green rot, I beseech ye.

Spring was near, spring is here.

Hear! Hear! 

Listen to the buzz of bees and burgeoning leaves.

Spring was near, spring is here. 

Hear! Hear! Hear! Hear!

Here, here. Her ear is swollen, swollen shut.

Mother nature is an ungodly slut.

skatebearding with dylan hollingsworth.

Today, my homie Dylan Hollingsworth and I set out to bring the skatebearded creatures from my latest series to life. I'm about to head down to Kettle Art where Dylan and I both have pieces up for the Birds vs. Skulls show tonight, so this is just a sneak peek at what went down today. Garage sales, flour paste, and grape drank was involved, so prepare yourselves. Also, this is just a quick note to say thank you for doing what you do, Dylan. You inspire me.

birds vs. skulls vs. beards vs. birdskulls vs. blogs

I've completely slacked lately on updating ye olde blog, and I've justified it (in my own head) by considering my recent twitter activity to be condensed alternatives. For that, I apologize. The good news is that I've been busy working on new art, art projects and working from my new editorial post at work. (You might notice an AP style implementation occurring here. <---particularly here...single spaces after periods.)

Cara and I are in the midst of working on the closing reception for the current Dunn Bros installation. We haven't consumed our whiskey quota just yet, but there's no need to fret. We'll do our damndest to make APRIL 4th (PUT THIS DATE IN YOUR CALENDAR) an asskicktacular event for the ages. Although this is the same night as the second day for the Deep Ellum Arts festival, there's no reason why you can't do both.

Speaking of Deep Ellum, I've been working like a crazy ass on new work for Kettle Art's Birds vs. Skulls show coming up this saturday. My neighbor was gracious enough to lend me some air-hardening sculpting material, so I decided to experiment with these pieces.

Check out the work in progress.

I Suck at Music...But MC MOLEMAN is Wicked!

My roommates think I've officially gone insane after this weekend. Since around Wednesday last week I had been working on what I originally intended to be a Countryesque musical sequel to "Molemen Have Hearts, Too." I was inspired to continue using the "Chuck the Mole" character I created for Mission #1 in Operation Unicrog, and I figured his hickish qualities would translate beautifully in to music for Mission #3 (Create a song/rap and make a music video).

Alas, my complete lack of musical talent and experience got the best of me and I made the mistake of writing the song and recording it, without any natural rhythmic ability mind you, before my friends (real musicians) could work on it. Despite the efforts of my talented homies, Zac Cadwalader of Halcyon Nights and Amber Farris of Somebody's Darling, I had laid such a poor foundation that the project was doomed from the get-go.

I resolved to come back to the Countryesque style at a later time so I wouldn't muddy my friends' names with the horrifying pile of antimusic I made and turned to Garageband loops to change the project's direction.

And that should explain what you are about to see below.

Be on the lookout for a fuller, bigger and better production in the near future.



Special thanks to:

Amber, Zac, Jon, Faye and Matt for your guidance, time, support, and acting skillz.