Hey don't be a jerk...

this New Year. People remember that shit.

Be safe and Happy New Year! <3 YR

Merry Christmas!

So, this will be my last post seriously involving miami. I was waiting for Seth to post about Miami, since i didnt want to be a post hog, but now that its Christmas, its time. As Santa is finishing delivering gifts to children around the world, i am delivering Santa from Miami. For some reason the first picture i took of art while in miami was of santa being eaten by a polar bear. and then i started to notice everytime there was a santa in the artwork. It seems like such an odd subject for contemporary art, but then again, who doesnt love santa, a big, jolly fat man who breaks into your house and brings you gifts one night a year. in the spirit of full disclosure, i'm kind of a freak about christmas. i love christmas music, and own way more cheesy christmas movies than anyone in their rightful mind probably should. my house is totally decked out for the holidays, and my tree makes me super happy. so this blog makes sense for me. It seems that most if the images of santa are perverse when used in a contemporary art setting. And as i think about it i am reminded of creepy Paul McCarthy video. In fact, Paul McCarthy may be the leader in weird, creepy Santa art. Therefore, it is fitting that even at Art Basel there was an example of santa art, and it was by McCarthy. He is now mass producing chocolate "Santa with Butt Plug," which you can buy to take home and enjoy. He's done this same image as giant outdoor sculpture, which i think is amazing. At first you're just thinking, oh, its santa holding a christmas tree, but then the christmas tree starts to looks suspicious. good times. I have a friend who works for Paul McCarthy in LA. and he described mccarthy as a discheveled santa type figure, and yes he does kind of look like him.Of course i've always thought of Baldessari as Santa (well, or the abominable snowman.) As the final image from my santas from miami i give you a portrait of an artist as Santa. At the Margulies Collection they had portraits of artists, and for some reason Spencer Sweeney was dressed as Santa Claus in his. So, thats it for Santa in Miami, not alot, but then again, probably more than i would have expected. While we were in miami though, it was Chanukah, and my friend Bari happens to be jewish. So we got a menorah, and celebrated the festival of lights and tried to play the dreidel game, though seth was convinced it played more like spin the bottle. There is a large jewish population in South Beach, and i dont think i've ever seem so many menorahs, and rv's full of jewish men spreading Chanukah joy. I hope everyone out there has a wonderful holiday season, weather you believe in Santa or not.

copycats

well...at least we are less pretentious about it in Texas.

Friendzgiving Northeastern style

thanks Laura for pointing this out!

good or bad...

this is some of the shit from miami that made me happy. since i dont know the names of all the the artists i am opting not to include any of the names. i sadly dont pay that much attention to names, i should probably work on that in the future, in case i want to follow up in what they are doing. i think there is actually at least one piece from each of the art fairs i went to, so i guess they were all worth going to, at least since i didnt really have to pay to get into any of them. i think my favorite thing from miami was the Margulies Collection, its a definite must see, plus you can sit down and watch the entire 30 minutes of The Way Things Go, and who doesnt want to do that.

*update: since jenny wanted me to at least list the people i knew from these images, i have now linked the photos to websites and info about their work if i could find it. I started out with the people i knew, like Bari Ziperstein and Eric Zimmerman, and then even did some searching for some of the people i didn't know. So now all but six of the images have links. Yay for the interwebs!

food and food related art

from the trip to miami. as most vacations are centered around food, where you're going to eat, when you're going to eat, and what you're going to eat, interspersed with activities in between the meals, i decided to keep a photo journal and write a blog about the meals i had in miami. not all of the meals were documented. some have before and after shots, showing how much i could and couldnt eat. some were taken in the middle of eating, when i remembered. the hotel we were staying in had a kitchen with a full sized fridge and a stove. we had great plans to cook in the hotel and save money, but everytime the guy lit the pilot loght on the stove the room smelled like gas, so we gave up. but i did have cereal every morning, which saved me serious money i'm sure. food was ridiculously expensive in south beach. the highlights of the trip were a veggie/vegan place called the orange carrot, or something like that, and this sushi place called moshi moshi. the sushi place was so good and affordable we went there 3 times, and told everyone else to go there as well. There are a few pics of my drinks, i didn't do as much drinking as i wanted, but did manage to get in a few good binges. I also took some pics of food related art. because i love food. One last note is that i completely fell in love with gelato. i think i had it like 5 times, with a different flavor everytime. can somebody tell me where to get some good gelato in Houston?

my second favorite photo.

bienvenido a miami

so, the trip to miami was quite an experience. i can't remember loving and hating a vacation so much. there was a shit ton of art, a ridiculous amount of drinking, crazy expensive food, insane amounts of walking, and trips to the ocean at 3am. now that i am home and getting over the cold that brought me down at the end of the week, mostly the good times are what i remember. and i am going to blog more extensively later, but for now i just want to share my favorite image from the week. i dont think i've ever seen seth so happy as he was with the the vagina shell in this shot. (the vagina shell deserves a whole post of its own).

Thanksgiving is DEAD

Long live Christmas!