Arizona Adventures

As you all may have noticed, things have been sort of a ghost town here on the Modern Day Bullfight. Between the internship, the thesis, the classes, the job and the personal life, the blog has taken a bit of a backseat. This past weekend, I jetted back for a whirlwind trip to Phoenix. The main reason for the trip was to go to an Alumni Art Show that my former high school art teacher had put together. I decided to take full advantage of the trip and ended up doing the following:

-Seeing "Whip It" with my parents
-Eating pizza multiple times
-Arizona State Fair
-Serious thrift shopping
-Bikini Lounge
-Four Peaks
-Catching up with friends

Here are some notable pics. Note the Chocolate covered bacon sign. It was seen being sold around the fair along with other heinous delights like deep fried Moon Pies and deep fried Snickers. There was rumor of some chocolate covered scorpions but I saw no such thing.

Also at the fair is a collection of neat old photo booths....the classic kind. No digital here. These booths print up a 3 picture strip in lies of the traditional 4 set. They also come with a variety of silly wooden cut outs built into the booth. I will scan the actual strip later, but here are some digital pics from my canon.


And what Phoenix trip would be complete with out a trip to my good friend Cindy's house. A true thrift store partner in crime, you can read about her adventures here. Cindy by far has the coolest house that is the epitome of what I feel to be a perfect Arizona home.

If I had an extra 55 dollars.....

.....I would buy these markers. The architectural set. These chartpak markers are the best. While they have quite an odor, they leave no lines and blend amazingly well into the drawing. I had come across two lonely charkpak markers in my box of tricks here at home and wished I had more than just the blue and green. One day.......

TwitterTwatter

Since when did Twitter become such a reliable and credible source? It seems as if you cant get away from tweets these days. I was reading an article on CNN today regarding the death of a reality tv star's finance. Towards the end of the article, CNN posted the tweets from the grieving wife....verbatim. This is not an isolated incident. I have come across plenty of news articles written in their standard news article format and in the midst somewhere is bad twitter twatter. "OMG so tired2day." "OMgmbd" "need 2 get the word 2 my fanz". You name it, it has been seen in an article somewhere. And probably with out the use of a space bar......

There's a rock in my cereal......

Dogs that look like little old men.......

The bottom one is a breed called a Brussels Griffon. Or an ewok. Whatever you prefer. All I know is that I think they are the cutest things ever. The top one, is a distant cousin known as an Affenpinscher. Also up there in the cute range. I love little dogs with beards and both fulfill that requirement to the max. When I graduate I will hunt rescues high and low to find of of these little guys!!!!

A Thesis.

the wonderful Sophie Calle

self-portrait of Nan Goldin

installation documentation by Miranda July

This year is the year that I am going to be taking on the writing of a very long research project. After much deliberation and advice from the faculty at my university, I have narrowed it down to artists and the therapeutic value of their personal work. However, that is still quite broad. I haven't quite finessed it down further. I need to do some reading about what research approach I want to take. It will however, involve reading biographies, criticism, articles and looking at the work of the selected artists. I plan on looking at the lives of artists and pinpointing what body of work corresponds with significant life events they have experienced. For those of you who know me, you know that Sophie Calle will be among them! Nan Goldin. Perhaps some Diane Arbus...although she is the subject of another thesis from my department. Miranda July. So there narrows it further....rather contemporary female artists and how they use art as a coping mechanism. But the narrowing it down to women frustrates me a bit. I really also want to focus on On Kawara and his art as proof of existence. Argh. This subject, while fascinating, is going to be hard get into a clean, concise, art therapy approved topic to be bound in May of 2010.

Yard Sale Art

As a proponent of collecting things from thrift stores and yard sales, I was immediately interested in checking out the art from Clare Graham. Scrabble tiles, dominoes, rulers, yardsticks and puzzle pieces are all incorporated into his beautiful sculptures. Check out his web site for some more killer images.




http://claregraham.com/