dayton is not in ohio

If you’re reading this I know you must all be concerned for our well being right now…

I’m just kidding, but it WAS a little scary to get shaken awake.

Karen, the California girl, thought: Earthquake, and went right back to sleep.

Dayton thought:

1. Plane crash in the neighborhood 2. Bulldozer crushing house 3. Tornado 4. Apocalypse 5. Earthquake 6. Factory exploding 7. Nuke in NYC 8. Obese intruder

Actually, I was dreaming, and I began to notice shaking that was pulling me out of my sleep… I remember thinking that Karen was shaking the bed in her sleep, and I was just about to tell her to stop, when suddenly I realized OH-MY-WORD-THE-ENTIRE-HOUSE-IS-SHAKING-BACK-AND-FORTH!!!! The house is old, so everything was creaking, and and the doors and appliances were shaking back and forth. It was noisy.

Karen is sleeping again. Although, the earthquake being near Louisville caused her to quip before going back to sleep about God’s judgement on the Presbyterian Church. She also thought about the apocalypse, but to her that was a scary thought. I was thinking “Apocalypse. Awesome!” And remembering the last verse of “It is well with my soul.”

This is actually my second earthquake, the first being while I was in Azusa, CA two years ago, but I was outside and didn’t feel a thing. I felt gypped. Well now I can say I’ve felt one.

I can truly say that the MOST interesting thing about this thing is how many people have called the TV station and mentioned that the first thing they thought was: Ghost. I’m not kidding. I did have the quick thought that maybe Haley Joel Osment was the one shaking the bed, though.

And what does this have to do with art? Well, take a guess what I just heard has to undergo inspection this morning… All of the cranes in downtown Chicago! Good thing, but there’s one structure that didn’t make it:

Here’s a slideshow of images from the opening.

It’s go time for my MFA project. I start the construction for my thesis show this afternoon. I’m going to be pretty much completely consumed by that until Wednesday. A fair share of that time has to be spent waiting for drywall joint compound and paint to dry.

The main problem is how to simulate the smashed wall effect in my maquette. The walls are plywood, and you can’t just smash plywood. Basically what I’m doing is sawing out two rectangular cross-sections of the walls. They are built like two-sided stage flats, with plywood over 1 x 3 poplar frames. Then I’m drywalling over the entire walls, so that they look normal, but have the hidden gap that I’ve sawed. Then I smash the drywall, which is very smashable and creates lots of good debris.

Here’s what the final arrangement looks like, with the tower coming to rest in from of a large window:

There’s a good reason for my infrequent posting lately. In addition to making plans and preparations for my MFA project, I’ve been hard at work curating a small show at Alogon Gallery here in Chicago.

The show is titled The Strange Place, a reference to School of the Art Institute art history professor James Elkins‘ book, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art. In a nutshell, the show presents the artwork of eight Christians in a venue that is not religiously affiliated. Considering the discourse surrounding ‘religion and contemporary art,’ my goal was simply to bring the two spheres together, not in an abstract sense, but in a concrete instance. It’s not meant to be understood as a solution to the very complex dynamics of the relationship, or even as a proposition, but simply as an intersection and point of reference in the ongoing conversation.

I’ve invited three people to write essays responding to the show, and to each other: Elkins, Kevin Hamilton, asst. professor of new media and painting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Daniel Siedell, asst. professor of art and art history at the University of Nebraska Omaha.

The artists in the show are: Wayne Adams, Keith Crowley, Mark Dixon, Rubens Ghenov, Tim Gierschick, Rob Matthews, Alert Pedulla, Gene Schmidt, and Ben Volta.

Here’s a really good piece by Daniel Siedell if you’d like to read a take on this intersection of religion and contemporary art from a very thoughtful Christian perspective. This nails it for me.

It seems that almost every person whose blog I read has made a pledge to post weekly on some topic. Fifty-two is hot. It’s a great idea and here are some places to go for a weekly dose of art:

Tim Gierschick - Tim is a Philadelphia artist and he’s putting up a post a week on a different work of art at his place of work, The Barnes Foundation. Tim is great with words, so it won’t hurt to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the… umm… dictionary.

Rob Matthews - Rob is also a Philly artist and is posting each week on a new album. Rob knows everything about music, and it doesn’t hurt to have an encyclopedic knowledge of indie music when reading. But even if you’re like me and know nothing, he’s entertaining. He also likes a little gossip, and I probably shouldn’t say this… [Dayton politely covers his mouth with his hand and coughs] SOLOSHOWINCHELSEAINSEPTEMBER… Excuse me.

Matthew Fisher - Matthew is an artist based in Brooklyn (I think)… he’s covering a different painter each week - and avoiding New York artists right now, so read it now while it’s still good. Matthew operates on Rob Matthews’ Matthews the Younger blog team, which also includes Rob’s wife Tracy, and Houston based artist Robyn O’Neil.

Wayne Adams - Also based in - “no sleep ’till” - Brooklyn, Wayne doesn’t really have an official “fifty-two” post on something pledge, but he does maintain a ‘weekly’ pledge… and usually comes through. He’s had a lot of really insightful posts lately. Really can’t think of a good way to make fun of him.

I know… I know… You’re thinking what all of the fan mail has been saying: When are you gonna start a weekly theme-post Dayton?

Well, wait no longer! But mine comes with some significant qualifications, so don’t uncork the Champagne until I read you the fine print. I’ve identified a common thread among the above-mentioned bloggers: 1) No one is in grad school. 2) No one has kids. I just can’t promise a weekly post. But I have made another weekly goal that I promise to write about, and if all goes well, then maybe I’ll pull off the fifty-two week pickup.

My goal is to attend at least one show opening every week this year. There’s always at least one. I was frighteningly close to being forced to attend a vanity gallery opening of ‘contemporary fine art horse paintings’ this coming Friday, but was saved by two others. Within the next couple of days I will catch up by blogging on what I saw last weekend, which was great overall. This goal relates to my recent confession.
So check back soon for more…