I am showing 2 small pieces in La Villita this weekend for the Arts Festival at a show called Little Village Has Character, curated by Naomi Martinez.  Come check it out- there are several open studios and galleries open this weekend, and I am doing an artist talk on Sunday, too. 

Nostalgia Takes a Smoke Break, 2012

I'm with Stupid, 2012

The FMEL had an incredible program.  Check it out!

Organizers asked me to take a boom box and alter it, and by doing that, I would be part of a show at Co-Prosperity Sphere where sound artists from Mexico would make the sound that would come out of our sculptures.  The collaboration was taken one step further when Stephanie Manriquez came to get my work and then took it to the hair salon, where it was curled, styled, braided and accessorized.  It's called Free Pussy Riot. It was like an exquisite corpse!   Love that. 

This time last year, Charlie "Sonorama" Garcia was installing 10 speakers in my overgrown zucchini patch.  It was an environmental sound piece by Jalisco artist Yair Lopez.  100s of people came by during Pilsen Open Studios and experienced this.  Sounds included ladies talking, geese, goats, dirt roads crunching, and my tiny Chicago yard was transported, along with all my visitors, to a tiny town.  I wonder what it was like for the people on the other side of our privacy fence. 

Stephanie and Charlie and the whole FMEL operation, wow--keep an eye on them!  They make it happen. 

I have 5 pieces on exhibition in the First Annual Continental Biennale of Contemporary Native Arts at the National Museum of Popular Cultures in Coyoacan, Mexico City from August 9th till October 14th, 2012.  If you are in DF, come check it out.  I am not in the catalog or on the website.  More on this when I get back from the opening...

Edited to add:the show was great!

From El Dia newspaper. 

This year, I participated in the annual Michigan Mud conference!  I did 2 demonstrations and I exhibited new work in the invitational show.  It was the first time I have presented as a professional ceramist, rather than a sculptor or artist in general, and showing a video as an influence to a clay project was well received!  I called myself a Feral Ceramist.  ha. 

Skill Party! is the result of a series of workshops exploring the space between the artist, teacher, and student, and the interaction between these modes.  It is a participatory project in which the process is as much the work as is the outcome. 

We are artists learning to become teachers, education researchers, and socially engaged activists working in public schools. Collaboration, participation, and social engagement are core values in guiding our explorations.  The work in the show includes collaborative art works, documentation from workshops, individual art work, and classroom work with young students.  

For more information, visit our tumblr.

Kindred Visions is an exhibition of local artists of color who address similar conceptual, aesthetic, and/or cultural issues in their artistic production.  Spanning a range of practice, including documentary photography, sculpture, painting, and installation, Kindred Visions seeks to explore webs of artistic kinship beyond race/ethnicity.

¡Action Figures!

Opening: 

Friday, October 14, 2011 - 6:00pm - 10:00pm

Pilsen Open Studios Hours:

Saturday October 15, 12 – 8pm

Sunday, October 16, 12 - 6pm

Charcko and Alfredo Arcos, Erik Howard, ManosBuckius Collaborative,

Andres Hernandez, Charles Fairbanks, Wes Wilson, Naomi Martinez, Eric J. Garcia,

Antonio Martinez and Juan Compean, Saul Aguirre, Diana Solis, Nuco,

Daniel Pugh, Cara Levine and Cassie Thornton, Elvia Rodriguez, Eric Warner, Michael Flynn,

Carrie Morris, Paloma Martinez-Cruz, Adrienne Vetter, and Eric Howard/Detroit Inspire

Cobalt Studios

1950 W. 21st Street



Guest Curator: Miguel Cortez from Antena

Opening Friday August 12 from 6pm-10pm
August 12-28, 2011

"If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses."
- Lenny Bruce

Contemporary art is too serious sometimes. This show will focus on the lightheartedness and humor in art. Most of us are part of the system and work 40+ hours a week and by the weekend we just want to unwind and be entertained. Then this show is just for you. These artists use irony, goofiness, satire, and sarcasm in their work.