JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

While in Art Basel over the weekend I happened upon a number of wonderful new works by young emerging contemporary talents.  I’ll be attempting to share them here over the coming weeks.  Hidenori Ishii is one such talent.  Hidenori moved from Japan to the U.S. at the age 18 to study environmental science, but soon transitioned his focus to fine art.  Clockwise from left to right, Anchor State, Dissolved Reflection, 12 p.m.,  and 12 a.m. All of the above works were produced in 2009.

Friend of the Night - Oil & acrylic on linen - 46 x 72 in. - 2009

In regards to his work, Hidenori says this, “My work suggests integrated psychological and environmental systems that allude to a self-contained biosphere built on a lifetime of collected idiosyncrasies. Following constellations reminiscent of the realization and the submerged mind, I rigidly depict the structure of fantasy.

I believer Painting is where actuality and possibility meet with one’s intention. As a landfill utilizes the progresses of nature over a long period of time, I’m interested in the visual and symbolic dialogue of and between man’s intentions and natures inevitabilities. Using a combination of patterns both from nature and man-made, my paintings suggest transformations, erosions, and constructions of improbable environments.  Through its evident execution, my work creates a space where submerged human or natural potentials are rendered visible over time.

This created space, based on a disconnected experience of landscape, operates as an environment where I can search for clarification of self psychological articulation in the face of an ambiguous cultural identity.”

Tomorrow evening when you’re making your first Friday rounds, be sure to check out the festivities at IndyInk. The Gift of Getting show touts a great lineup of local artists, contains no art over $100, and promotes the noble concept of giving local art as Christmas gifts. How can you lose?! So if you’re in the greater Denver area, get there early and get first crack. You can even take your newly purchased treasures with you. Suck on that baby Jesus.

Mentioned the ‘We Live in Public‘ film earlier this year. It’s been making the global rounds and is finally coming to Starz Film Center next week. Film’s director, Ondi Timoner, will be in town to participate in screening.

Special DocNight Presentation Thursday, December 3 – 7pm
Exclusive Denver Engagement continues December 4 – 10

It’s going to be a good one and encourage as many folks to check it out. Very relevant and thought provoking, might even scare you some too…

My partners and I consider ourselves lucky to call Alvin Gregorio a friend. He’s a multi-talented and special man. Husband, Father, teacher, friend, and artist, are some of the titles which could be used to describe Alvin. However, none alone, nor even the collective group really do Alvin justice. He’s one of those unique individuals where the whole is truly much greater than the sum of its parts. And, tonight you can gain a sense of what I mean. Alvin will be engaging in some candid artist-driven dialogue this evening at 8pm – live via podcast on The Untitled Art Show.  It’s Untitled Art Show episode #44 and sure to be a stand out.  Alvin’s next exhibition is on the 20th of November at Vertigo Art Space.

Our pals over at illiterate Magazine just got a new gallery spot at 82 S. Broadway! And to celebrate the opening of their new place they’ve assembled over 25 of Colorado’s best to create original works exploring the world of imaginative monsters as inspired by Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are.  Some of the artists participating include Matt Furie, Max Kauffman, Moeh, Gumby, Ian Millard, Adam Reker, Yancy Crawford, Thinkmule, Deadly Daisy, Chris Huth, Andrew Hoffman, Delton, Whitney Wells, Mike Gallegos, Mike Graves, Carl Bork, Karen Watkins, Allie Pohl, Matt Doubek, Sandi Callistro, Andi Todaro, Sander Lindeke, Rachel Paton, Brittany Gould, Milton Milvon Croissant III.  The show is on Friday, November 6, and is being curated by Max Kauffman – it’ll be good.

Preview of work by Andrew Hoffman – 20″ x 24″ oil on canvas

The Bicycle Film Festival is coming to Denver this week, and I’m stoked to participating in the Joyride Art Show, which is part of the festival. The roster has a healthy line-up consisting of local/national/international artists. Opening reception is this Thursday 7:00 – 11:00PM at Lisa Kowalski Gallery :: 2762 Walnut St.

Swing over to the BFF website to get more info on the festival program, film show times, & other cycle-centric activities throughout the week and across the city.

When looking at Minnesota artist, Gregory Euclide’s sculptural landscapes, his rural Wisconsin upbringing and passionate connection to nature makes perfect sense. Euclide’s thorough understanding of his surroundings and deep respect for the environment is at once apparent in his work. In his upcoming exhibition on Friday, October 23rd at Denver’s David B. Smith Gallery, Euclide pushes his discontent with traditional 2d landscapes to a whole new level. I’m particularly intrigued by Euclide’s ongoing interpretation of the juxtaposition between our idealized or imagined rendition of nature and the very real nature within which we live, as explored through his medium. If you can appreciate nature and all it’s grandeur and are interested in experiencing some wonderfully conceived and executed contemporary art, you should attend Gregory’s exhibition at David B. Smith Gallery this Friday evening.

Our friend Chris Cox of Changethethought™ (CTT) has been up to his usual designerly hustle.  Chris was recently invited to participate in part of North East England’s annual design festival.  Chris will be in Sunderland, England exhibiting at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art.  The show entitled, Think Tank pairs leading international designers with Britain’s leading think tanks in a collaborative effort to imagine how the Brits might create a better nation.  Quite brilliant.  Extra high, high-5s from my partners and I to Mr. Cox.

NOTE: The above image is not to my knowledge part of the aforementioned exhibition. It is an older poster design of Chris’s that I’ve always reaped a great deal of enjoyment from.  I think it speaks to the inherent value of integrating an individual such as Chris into an exhibition with goals as lofty as those of Think Tank.

Scot has taken his game to new levels. I’ve seen what’s in store, and it’s serious. On October 17th at Andenken Gallery we’ll witness Lefavor in all his glory as he emerges from the darkness and enters the light.

My friend Jesse Horton of Rogue Studios is a very unique and inspirational individual. He’s what I would call a near perfectly balanced renaissance waterman.  Half renaissance man, half waterman and 100% multi-talented. Jesse is currently in American Samoa where he is preparing to journey from Southern Polynesia to Hawaii aboard a double-hulled vaka, a primitive polynesian sailboat.  The journey is multi-dimensional.  Jesse and crew will be navigating celestially, in the ancient polynesian manner (without compass or GPS) and along their journey will be striving to not only come into contact with, but to bring attention to the critical conditions and dangers our ocean’s great whales are facing.

On September 30th, just three days ago, Jesse survived a near 2 minute magnitude 8 earthquake resulting in a tsunami.  Jesse was residing near Pago Pago harbor, on the island of Tutuila where the tsunami hit the hardest.  In between volunteering at the hospital Jesse managed to take some photos.  Here’s a couple of excerpts from our  recent communication, “Today we had an earthquake that lasted well over 2 minutes long and registered at nearly an 8.  In Pago Pago harbor the island was hit the hardest, and there was a significant loss of life.” and “I spent some time in the ER at the hospital helping out and was quite overwhelmed. I think most of the staff were, as nothing like this has ever happened here.  I managed to take some pictures this afternoon, and hope that they convey the feelings I experienced today.  It was as close as I can imagine it is like to be in a war zone.”  You can see some of Jesse’s pics below, and more here.

When the AIGA approached us to design and construct the award for the (Re)designAwards 09 we were equally excited and slightly dumbfounded.  We’ve always been a bit left of the AIGA, but for no reason in particular.  Perhaps it was due to creating our own free democratic creative network via the web?  In all likelihood our disconnect from the AIGA was a function of the self-taught nature of our studio.  It seems like it’s in design or art school that most designers, particularly graphic get involved with the AIGA.  Either in school or through their more agency-like employers.  Having neither gone to art or design school, or being previously employed by any sort of “agency” or more traditional firm we just weren’t all that familiar.  Subsequently we found the opportunity intriguing, challenging, and a chance to experiment a bit.  And anytime we get the bug to build and fabricate we lean on our pal Kristian Kluver (you can see more of Kluver’s fabrication work here).

We knew right from the start that we didn’t want to make 26 trophies bound for the landfill.  We wanted to keep our footprint small.  Afterall, the (Re)designAwards are focused on honoring sustainable and socially responsible work – two ideals we value highly. We set out to craft an award that was in sync with the values established and reinforced by the (Re)design Awards.  We got off to a good start with lots of ideas.  We quickly narrowed down our options to the idea of a hand-carved forest of individual native conifers stuffed with helathy seed and the notion of an easy to replicate chair or stool.  We determined immediately that either option would be built from all reclaimed materials.  The only real constraint we had was that each award needed to fit in a 12″ x 12″ x 5.5″ standard rate USPS box.

From there we strove to create a sustainable and replicable process, once again to minimize the total  footprint of awards creation project.  We decided the hand-carved forest was just too material heavy and labor intensive.  To create our forest in the aesthetic envisioned without the use of adhesive would be tricky.  And, we didn’t want to use glue.  We ruled it out and opted for the chair.  Enter Kluver.  The “chair” quickly became a stool out of necessity.  We weren’t going to get a chair into our required USPS box.  Settling on a valuable and usable object felt much more appropriate.  We knew we weren’t just wasting time and materials.

We went through a number of stool designs but none felt quite right.  It wasn’t until the idea of producing a truly flatpack design arose that things fell into place.  Kluver honed in the flatpack concept, we made some tweaks, dialed in the dimensions, collected our materials, set the type and AIGA (Re)design logomark in preparation for laser-engraving by our pals over at laser tag cartel and got busy.  Kristian created an uber-efficient production process, replicating individual panels in sequence, the 26 laser ready panels were dropped off, lasered, returned, and each stool was boxed for AIGA pickup.  We hope all the winners enjoy their new flatpack stools!!!

We’ve teamed up with Super Ordinary and Quick Left to form the ultimate mustache growing design / build machine. Meet SuperQuick13. We’ll be competing in the ‘Mustache 4 Cash‘ fundraiser to raise money for Byrne Urban Scholars and Colorado Youth at Risk (more info here). Over the month of September, our team will be growing super sweet mustaches. There is a 2 week run up period (which we’re in now), so we’ll be living with these ’staches for 6 weeks. As for you, all your have to do is pick a ’stache you like or think needs some help and chip in some money. Just click the ‘$’ by your favorite grower. Do it. Do it now. It’s for the kids.

Please spread the word, tell your friends / family / coworkers.
www.superquick13.com