Artist Stamps from Cascadia Art Post

Yesterday was a very good mail day.  Three envelopes and an incredible collection of artist stamps from Jack Lattemann at Cascadia Art Post.  These are part of collaborative series where we sent Jack tickets and other ephemera.  The MUNI transfer and old Fast Pass came from me of course. There was a long postal delay, but it was well worth the wait. 

A Book of Dreams - The Sketchbook Project

In 2021 I filled up book for the The Sketchbook Project  hosted by the Brooklyn Art Library.   Sadly, 7,000 sketch books did not survive a fire when they were being moved to a new location (mine was okay).  You can visit the library in St. Petersburg, Florida.
 
You also view my book in the digital library here. 

A Catalog of Collage Objects

Like any collage artist, I run the risk of becoming a hoarder.  When you make collage, you are always on the hunt for objects to use.  Boxes of collage fodder begin to fill up and then, when are you going to get around to using it all? MUNI passes going back to your 1990 arrival in San Francisco, Czech matchbox labels, vintage cigarette cards purchased in New Zealand 25 years back, fortune cookie fortunes from years of lunch specials. It all just keeps accumulating. 

My collage work has evolved.   Nowadays I tend to make my own material by painting paper, cutting and reassembling.  I really have little reason to save these things anymore.  In an effort to thin out the hoard I have been creating artist books and then purging, recycling, donating and giving away the rest.  

My latest effort is a A Catalog of Collage Objects  where each pair of pages is dedicated to 19 different ephemeral objects.  Some of the highlights are show here.

Part 4: If you save it long enough you might use it in a collage

Scraps old and new have ended up in the Layout Scrapbook.  As an artist, people give me things I might use, and a collection of metro tickets from around the world finally gets used.  

If you give me a box of Niederegger Marzipan, I’ll be sure to recycle the foil wrappers.  The remains of a copy of Avant Garde, a short-lived magazine from the 1960s, are in the book after lingering in the family’s attic for decades).  

Go through boxes and find photos of young cousins eating ice cream (he now has five of his own children).  The polka twins are really one young lad who is now becoming a star down in Los Angeles and that punk with the goats is still rocking up in Portland.  You will never forget a trip to Mexico when you think about dairy products and Supradol (the best name ever for a painkiller).  

On the back cover of the book we get an illustration of Allen Hurlburt himself.  And finally, honk if you know Ken Budka.

San Francisco Smalls

MUNI Mandala, mixed media on canvas, 8”x8”, 2013

San Francisco Smalls is the new show at Glama-Rama Salon & Gallery.    

The opening reception is this Saturday, January 13 from 7:30 to 9:00 pm (304 Valencia Street, San Francisco).  I only have one piece in the show, but, if I do say so myself, it is a good one.  My MUNIMandala made from old Fast Passes will be shown for the first time.  Come and have a look.  The show runs through April 7, 2018.

In the Wind

Market Street Dunes

mixed media photo collage on board, 14”x11”

It might be hard to imagine massive dunes at the corner of Van Ness and Market in San Francisco.  But, before the City was laid out and spread westwards from Yerba Buena Cove, that is exactly what you have found.  The wind whips across San Francisco as it has done for millennia.  Blowing through what is now Golden Gate Park, funneling between Lone Mountain and Buena Vista and pouring down the Panhandle just like the traffic on Oak Street.  The dunes are gone, but the intersection remains a very windy spot.  The tall buildings only amplify the wind tunnel. The humble donut shop building that looks like it was plucked out of a non-descript Tokyo neighborhood is slated to go.  It will be replaced by another skyscraper.  If we ever make San Francisco car free, we might consider bringing back the sand and letting the dunes pile back up.

Ninth Avenue Heath

Ninth Avenue Heath

mixed media photo collage on board, 14”x11”

Ninth and Irving reimagined before the N-Judah rolled through — back to the days before San Francisco, when it was dunes, and big tall grass where the Inner Sunset now is.

Later this year the Time Travel Photos will be presented in a new show at San Francisco’s Glama-Rama Salon and Gallery.  The show runs from October 11 to November 27, 2016.  Mark your calendar for the opening reception on Saturday, October 15 at 7:30 pm.