Here is New York

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Dana

On the left is a raw sketch for a new interactive map I made based on New York City, its home now on my projects page). I had the idea of creating a map in this vein for awhile — the original title was much less SFW — and cranked it out on an unusually productive Sunday afternoon. To be fair, I left out a lot of the admittedly good stuff about New York in order to keep the integrity of the thesis, including my cousin Laura’s amazing studio in Williamsburg, the view from the top of the Museum of Art and Design, and the unfortunately-named Burp Castle which is a bar where the bartender shushes you if you talk too loudly, which I so wish bartenders everywhere would do. But overall, I think it’s safe to say that the city hasn’t quite embraced me with open arms. (On a side note, I am pleased that the two projects whose ideas I blatantly swiped both resulted in pleasant receptions from their original creators.)

I’m working on a similar map of DC now, but am finding that writing up the little blurbs is far more difficult. If you hate a city, it’s easy to find you have lots of things to say. If you like a place — or at least don’t find it maddeningly cruel on a daily basis — it’s too easy for all of your comments to sound gushy and dull. But stay tuned.

Please stop ruining Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Dana

I have a soft spot for Valentine’s Day, which always seemed like a holiday that should be a cheerful celebration of the drugstore brand of love (“LUV”), expressed solely by heart-shaped candy and cute teddy bears stitched with bad puns. (The fact that the holiday somehow morphed into something weighty enough to inspire ‘anti-Valentine’s Day’ parties just makes me sad. For a day, let’s ignore betrayal and heartbreak and all of the other complications love usually entails, shall we? Let’s all just give each other Reeses’s Peanut Butter Cups in the shape of a heart and call it day.)

So, even though a part of me thinks that if your Valentine’s Day gifts are NOT purchased at a CVS, you have probably tried too hard, I’m making my own style of Valentine’s Day cards. Also, because my printer just broke, they are each now Limited Edition by default. I’ll be selling them at The Fridge (and giving them to friends with candy scotch-taped to the envelopes, natch) but if you’re reading this and would like one, send me a message and I may have a comp or two.

Reading and Resolutions

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Dana

The other day I stumbled on an article on Slate, “My New Year’s Resolution: Read a Book Every Day” wherein the writer, Jeff Ryan, resolves to read a book every day in 2012. And then he actually he does it (audiobooks, comics and short books were the secret, apparently). On paper it’s certainly an impressive achievement, but my main takeaway from the piece–other than that Internet commenters seem unfairly dismissive of audiobooks–was mostly amazement that someone could, in adulthood, approach the task of reading as would a fourth grader trying to win his class a pizza party.

I’m not saying that Ryan necessarily shouldn’t be reading books with a number goal in mind; it must have been satisfying to polish off Book No. 366 and overall probably a better use of his time than skimming articles online or playing videogames (the two activities he curbed in order to reach his book-a-day goal). But his piece overlooked one of the best perks of growing up and being out of a classroom setting, namely that it really doesn’t matter how many books you’ve read, or even which ones. Because no one else cares. Once you move beyond assignments or quizzes or trying to impress people (which never works anyhow, and mostly just makes you insufferable), it’s a pleasure done solely for its own sake, and if you would like to be challenged or enlightened or comforted or fed a tale about vampires, there is a book that will suit each one of those perfectly reasonable desires. “Reading for enjoyment is what we should all be doing,” Nick Hornby once pointed out. “Because here’s something no one else will tell you: if you don’t read the classics, or the novel that won this year’s Booker Prize, then nothing bad will happen to you; more importantly, nothing good will happen to you if you do.”

A few days before New Year I started listening to Half Empty by David Rakoff, the second chapter of which wound up being the right thing to hear at the right time; he captured the strain of being an artist and an unhappy person at the exact moment I was feeling both of those things, and needed someone more articulate than myself to phrase it right for me. Which is the whole point of reading, at least for me.

On Sketchbooks

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Dana

I remember one afternoon during the Blended installation I stepped out to buy some art supplies, and realized, while biking to Utrecht, that I had left my sketchbook lying on the warehouse floor. Just asking to be perused or stolen, if any other artists were inclined to pick it up. I panicked momentarily. What was it about those notebooks that compel us to capture every tiny snippet thought that goes through our heads?

Of course, my sketchbook was waiting for me untouched when I returned, which should not have been a surprise. As anyone who has ever blogged or saw a friend’s eyes glaze over in the middle of an anecdote knows, the contents of your head are never quite so interesting to other people as they are to you. Sketchbooks tend to be fetishized in the art community, seen as containing the raw honesty that can sometimes be absent from finished pieces, and I will never turn down a chance to poke through other artists’ sketchbooks (if they let me).

But it is often forgotten that they also contain a load of crap you would never dream of inflicting on the world. They’re a holding ground for scribbles, unfinished to-do lists, boring thoughts, bad ideas–or worse, no ideas–and drawings that belie the fact you have a degree in illustration.

And they take on lives and personalities of their own. My current sketchbook, a moleskin with too-thin paper (I’m very picky) feels like an entity I’ve been fighting with the last several months. Sometimes it’s been a fun ride–other times it’s been a physical manifestation of every single limitation I have as an artist. (To a normal person, this probably sounds like a highly melodramatic way of characterizing what is essentially a collection of blank paper, but hopefully at least a few other artists out there are nodding their heads.)

Still, there are occasionally a few examples of sketches that might not be good per se, but still strike me as important. For those curious I’ve interspersed a few acceptable examples of my current sketchbook here, and I post raw stuff on my tumblr site on a semi-regular basis. Right now most of them are based on a little story I’m working on called, “The Bachelor Cat” which I finally figured out how to end this weekend.

Drawing Residency and the Centipede’s Dilemma

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Dana

I was very pleased to be invited to participate in Eames Armstrong’s Drawing Residency last night. I wasn’t sure what to expect–’show up and draw’ was the gist of the invite–but as it turned out it was exactly what I’d want out of any residency–namely a venue to draw, drink beer and have thoughtful conversations. The fact that all of this occurred on Philippa’s lovely roofdeck on an uncharacteristically not-muggy August evening was an added bonus.

A variety of materials were provided for the residency, but I tackled some small pieces I’d been carrying in my sketchbook, that I’d been working on in fits and starts. And I used my own pens since when it comes to my art, I am about as much as a prissy prima donna as they come. “I can’t draw that. It doesn’t interest me. I’ll only use this material and this pen, thank you very much. And this nice paper.” And so forth. This can either be constued as choosing the path of least resistance or having artistic integrity, I’m not sure which.

On a related note I was pleased to find the Wikipedia page for centipede syndrome, from which I suffer tremendously when it comes to my art. Specifically it’s called, The Centipede’s Dilemma, which occurs “when a normally automatic or unconscious activity is disrupted by consciousness of it or reflection on it.” Or as the original story goes, a centipede is asked how it walks by some other creature, and then, once it mulls over the question, finds itself unable to move.

Though I appreciate having an official diagnosis, for the most part being afflicted with the centipede syndrome is incredibly annoying. It would be far more useful to have the ability to, (to paraphrase Homer Simpson) draw something that ‘looks like the way it looks like’ or provide satisfying answers when people ask me questions about my work. Though at the same time, it’s a good way to appreciate how marvelous and complex the human mind is, that you can allow a part of your brain that seems to have nothing to do with you to call the shots and create things.

Anyway, an exhibit with some of the work displayed from the Residency will be up at Aether Art Projects and open next Friday. More details and pictures to be come soon, but it should be a good show.

Manifesto, schmanifesto

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Dana

Latest wheatpasting effort. Here you can read about my methodology and download a copy.

The Why of Wheatpasting

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Dana

Today I was wheatpasting on the white 14th street strip walkway when a man got out of his car, said hello, and asked me what I was doing.

“Wheatpasting,” I told him.

“Why?” he asked.

Photo by Philippa PB Hughes

It’s a perfectly fair question, just not an enjoyable one to answer; similar to when someone points to a section of one of my drawings and asks, “what’s that?” I can’t begrudge the curiosity, even if the answer is long and requires me to explain how I draw in the first place. Unfortunately, there’s no good reason to be wheatpasting, other than, I felt like it, or more specifically, I had created a drawing that seemed particularly wheatpaste appropriate and there was no reason not to do it. I didn’t have a call to action, or a band I was trying to promote; it was pure art for art’s sake, if you’re the sort of person who classifies wheatpasting as art.

So I told him that I liked the idea of taking a single drawing and seeing it in various contexts, and that the section of the wall I’d been pasting was one that was probably was overlooked and I wanted to activate the space, and I had an image on hand that seemed to fit the area well, and that technique-wise, yeah it was better to be pasting in the morning when fewer people are around but of course it’s hard to get up that early. He was friendly, but didn’t seem completely satisfied—as though there had to be some other motive I wasn’t revealing. But I guess that’s the risk with asking why, as anyone whose interacted with a toddler knows. Eventually, you hit the end of the line, sometimes sooner rather than later.

Anyway, more details for the curious: the piece above was inspired by a quote I saw in the London Times Style magazine about various coffee drinkers (not a Dana original, sadly, though I wish it was). The drawing is composed of the sketch on the right, and you can see it around 14th street before the next torrential rain fall or someone else decides to cover it up.

Sketchbook Update

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Dana

I am constantly impressed by artists whose sketchbooks don’t look at though their brain barfed all over their Moleskine pages. I just got a new one–keeping track of coasters and bits of Stonehedge paper was becoming too much of a hassle–and so far it’s been addicting, but also very…messy. I know that’s the point and all, but still I’m surprised at how often these drawings will to lead to more visual problems than they solve.

Anyway, a few samples below. For inspiration I’ve been looking at the utterly fantastic sketchbooks of Juana Medina and Wendy MacNaughton and the folks at the Sketchnote Army to see if I can learn a thing or two.

Advice overload

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Dana

Is it just me, or does it seem as though there’s a proliferation of Good Advice being offered these days? Don’t get me wrong, I love advice. If I’m running short on time when reading the paper, I skip straight to Carolyn Hax; I have Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist top ten list taped over my desk at work (along with Bruce J. MacLennan’s Programming Principles, which is a nice counterbalance). I appreciate that everyone has something useful to offer you, even if it’s a lead by negative example or cautionary tale. I even offer it myself, at least when it comes to matters on which I feel qualified to offer an opinion.

But it’s gotten to be–dare I say?–a bit much. All roads seem to lead to some sort of TED talk, or a “you’re doing it wrong” themed article, or a “Top Ten Ways You Can Do Something Better Than the Way You Are Currently Doing It by A Self-Proclaimed Expert on the Subject.” Perhaps it’s a sign we are all furiously looking for reassurance that we’re living our lives in the right way, or that advice has gone the way of politics; you just find the people whose opinions you already agree with, and can thus pat yourself on the back for doing the right thing.

The other day, however, I stumbled across Cal Newport’s Study Hacks, which I’ve found useful, particularly the Craftsman Manifesto. It went to the heart of an issue that were always nagging the back of my mind, as someone who deplores simplistic “follow your passion” advice which is all that seems to be offered in the art world, who hated being a student but loves learning things, and struggles with the nagging suspicion that in order to be good at something, you can’t rely on flow alone, which can easily lead to not sufficiently challenging yourself. I wish I had a copy of his books when I was a student, too. Probably would’ve saved me a bit of anguish.

Travel notes

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Dana

I spent the ten days after Thanksgiving traveling throughout Barcelona, Avignon, and Paris with my mom. It was my first visit to Barcelona, and I was curious to see the Gaudi buildings, since the dripping architectural stuctures in my drawings have been compared to him (okay, one guy said that, one time, but I took it to heart). We went to the Sagrada Familia on a Monday in November, already swarming with fellow tourists at 10:00 AM, but as the guidebooks tell you, nothing prepares you for the impact of seeing it for the first time. That thing is not only huge, it’s…bizarre, but wonderfully so, because it’s not how a church is supposed to look.

It reminded me of a cartoonist I once heard giving a presentation, talking about how he never was able to finish panels. “I just need to add more stuff,” was how he put it. And I knew exactly what he meant. A lot of artists don’t know when to say when, which I don’t mean as a criticism, but as the highest possible compliment. It’s the kind of obsessiveness that gives you thinks like the Sagrada Familia, or Chris Ware cartoons, or anything else that requires devoting oneself, full-throttle, to some sort of grand artistic cause, regardless of whether or not it’s sensible.

The images below are the four small drawings I did while I was traveling (mostly in cafes, or on the train while looking at the countryside and listening to the new Steve Jobs autobiography, which I highly recommend). I also have high quality prints of works available at the Pleasant Plains, which has a closing party this Tuesday, if you still have last minute Christmas shopping.

Unthoughtful

Art and writing by Dana Jeri Maier

Category Archives: musings