art and ghosts

1. Into the Wallpaper 1, 2. Penny Farthing, 3. The Writer

the inner workings of animals

ghost patrol on flickr

for a short time only let it be known that i was here

A SIMPLE GESTURE, A JOURNEY, A MEETING PLACE. ~by david horvitz



PLEASE MAIL ME AN EMPTY ENVELOPE.

PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME ON THE BACK OF THE ENVELOPE AND THE PLACE IT IS BEING MAILED FROM.

THIS IS ABOUT A CONVERGENCE.

THIS IS ABOUT A MEETING PLACE.

THIS IS ABOUT A DISTANCE.

I WANT YOU TO SEND ME NOTHING BECAUSE I THINK THAT WOULD BE POETIC. AND, IF YOU SEND ME NOTHING IT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING EXCEPT A DISTANCE. ALL IT IS IS THE GAP FROM YOU TO ME, AND THE BRIDGING OF THAT GAP. THE ENVELOPE WILL HAVE CONNECTED TWO POINTS. AT ITS POINT OF ARRIVAL IT WILL HAVE ARRIVED WITH OTHERS WHO HAVE JOURNEYED TO THE SAME DESTINATION FROM DIFFERENT POINTS OF DEPARTURE. THAT IS WHY THIS IS ALSO A MEETING PLACE.

DAVID HORVITZ
99 VERNON AVE #1
BROOKLYN, NY 11206



IDEALLY, I WISH TO BUY A REALLY BIG PO BOX AT A POST OFFICE IN NEW YORK. I WOULD NEVER TAKE THE ENVELOPES OUT. I WOULD LEAVE THEM IN THERE. THEY WOULD PILE UP AND STAY AT THEIR MEETING PLACE FOR YEARS AND YEARS. I WOULD LET PEOPLE BORROW THE KEY SO THEY COULD LOOK AT THEM. BIG PO BOXES COST $326 FOR 6 MONTHS. I CAN'T AFFORD THAT RIGHT NOW. SO, FOR NOW, THEY WILL JUST MEET AT MY HOUSE AND I WILL KEEP THEM IN A SHOE BOX. WHEN I GET THE MONEY, I WILL FIND A PERMANENT MEETING PLACE. ONCE THAT HAPPENS, YOU WILL HAVE TO SEND ANOTHER ENVELOPE TO THERE! SO PLEASE COME BACK TO THIS PAGE, ONCE I FIND THE FUNDS THE PO BOX WILL BE BOUGHT RIGHT AWAY AND THE ADDRESS WILL BE POSTED HERE.


i found out about david horvitz through raul at heading east. his "things for sale that i will mail you" project asks readers to send specific amounts of money so that he can spend it doing specific and rather fleeting tasks. such as this one:

"If you give me $75 I will go see a psychic and ask them for advice on my life. I will send you a write up of what happened and documentary photographs. If you give me $1,689 I will go see a psychic, ask them where in the whole world I should go to, and then I will go there. I will mail you documentation of this from where ever it is I go to. If you give me $9,999 I will go see a psychic and ask them where I SHOULD NOT go to in the whole world. I will then go there and mail you documentation of it from there. (note: I took out the tape recording part because I have found that some don't like to have their sessions recorded)

For each purchase I will go to different psychics."

neither/both

jeanne quinn.

amy earles' paper dolls

today, some amy earles. i have ordered the one with the bear.
go here to see the entire set on flickr.

"i vacillate between two styles, two worlds, two attitudes toward life..."

"... if i could succeed in analyzing them, i think i would be able to shake off all these doubts.
characteristics of the first type are: discipline, ruggedness, reserve, restraint, exclusivity, profundity. the effect does not lie on the surface; a first look leaves one cold, but gradually something is revealed to the beholder, by delayed action, as it were. these are probably the essential characteristics of ancient greek and roman art.
the characteristics of the other type, then, are diametrically opposed... anything supernatural, gigantic, dionysian, intoxicated, enraptured, dynamic. the effect is direct, abrupt, casting an immediate spell, imprisoning one, "bedazzling the senses," overwhelming...
given my strong propensity in painting as in life for the rococo, wouldn't the best antidote be to impose the most rigid discipline on myself? but the result would be stylized, sacral art, that other pitfall...
everything should merge into one great current. mysticism, the primitive, the most recent, greece, gothic-all the elements must be drawn upon." ~from oskar schlemmer's diary, september 1915

oh my cavalier

more beauties here.

"if you are sufficiently tenacious and interested, you can accomplish what you want to accomplish in this world." ~alice neel

you can see the trailer here to get a taste.

chandelier made from things that washed up on the beach

stuart haygarth calls it his "tide chandelier".

"...that the uncertainty principle is a manifestation of the observer effect."

maira kalman's book "the principles of uncertainty" is a visual treasure. it is deeply satisfying in the way only illustrated books can be, the way illustrated books are satisfying to children, this is the way that 'the principles of uncertainty' is satisfying to me, as it must be to other childlike adults.






it makes you feel a certain wild permission to write a book this instant and start painting the world as it pours through your retinas.

similarity of the subject

this is mesmerizing. and apparently quite large.
thanks, scott.

the architecture of paperbacks

thomas allen.
via a cup of jo.

oh my

"girl in a bee dress"



















"something to do"

















"woman with a stone skirt"

















"optimist's dress"








maggie taylor knocks my socks off. thank you so much, sean.

thanks olivia cronk

for telling me about amy cutler.











"giraffe maypole"















"dinner party"











and my favorite, "mending tigers"

a finely tuned inner world

well, the joseph cornell exhibit at SF MOMA was as inspiring and evocative as i could have hoped. i floated through the gallery rather than walked, increasingly intoxicated by each piece. i saw the real constructions behind the representations i had seen in books, and i met new works of which i hadn't been aware existed. i made my little contacts with a kindred soul. i felt resentful that photographs were forbidden. then, when one of the guards saw me writing in my notebook with a pen, she made me put it away and gave me one of those eraserless half pencils they always give you to fill out forms with. i hate writing with those pencils. they are the stingiest of writing instruments.

one of the works of cornell that i had never seen or heard of was a compilation of his "Goop Joe's Poultry Pages," a charming series of collaged newsletters that he constructed and sent during the early thirties to his sister who had a poultry farm. follow the link to see more of them. the one to the left concerns a watermelon-eating contest. included are "quotes" invented by cornell from the alleged participants. this from the first prize winner, mr p. warts montgomery bildge: "of course there seems to be a lot of glory and tinsel fame connected with winning a watermelon contest, folks, but when i think of the hours my wife will spend with the vacuum cleaner getting the seeds out of my ears, i cannot help but say like the prophet of old; "all is vanity."

"the windows are normally independent of one another, although you may pass back and forth from one view to the other..."

"...this absurd interdependence is like a lark at break of day." ~barbara guest





"absurd interdependence". that so encapsulates what obsesses me, the kind of accidental interdependence of things that brings me the strangest solace whenever i encounter it in the world.



brilliant photo by sassy artz on flickr.

makes me think somehow of monet's haystacks

with their circular life you can visit five places in italy for 24 hours at a time as quickly or as slowly as you please. its rather mesmerizing.

thanks to tiny gigantic.

landscapes by Rotterdam photographer Gerco de Ruijter

here.

we enjoy dressing up as birds

for your infinite pleasure, marc johns on flickr.