http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/ en-us Copyright 2008 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:23:13 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Christopher MacDonald in front of his work On Friday I took the train to Milwaukee to see MIAD to see their senior thesis show. My buddies Chris and Boris, BoBo, were in the show. Both of them were my studio mates in New York and Chris came down for my thesis. I don't know why I don't go to Milwaukee more often. As you might recall I drove up earlier this semester. I would take the train over again. It's only $21 each way and they run about every hour. BoBo It was sortof weird being in a different art school. It was much more commercially driven than SAIC. I have become so used to being a super conceptual environment. I went up with Adrien Moens (sp?) who did the NYSP with us all but also attends SAIC. We stopped at a place called the Milwaukee Public Market. It was really awesome. I wish Chicago had something like it downtown. It is an indoor market with mostly fresh foods and is on the cheap side. I scored a jar of fresh Strawberry Jam. It's really good too even though the label is in Comic Sans. Boo Urns. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/04/miad.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/04/miad.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:23:13 -0600 So I didn't see Aretha Franklin this past weekend. While Lauren and I were getting directions we found out that Aretha had actually canceled. Boo Urns. So we didn't go to Pittsburgh. I had to de-install the BFA show which wasn't too bad. The photo above is an installation shot. I showed some of the same work from my NYSP show in December. I also had a small book that had some information about the project. Next week I'm going up to Milwaukee to see some of my studio mates bfa show. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/04/_so_i_didnt_see.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/04/_so_i_didnt_see.html Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:26:29 -0600 Emily Davidson and Pammy Pam Norrish ( I love these two ) sitting in Wicker Park after arriving in Chicago. Okay. I really don't have any valid excuse for not updating. Forgive me. I guesse I should recap the past couple of weeks. First off the BFA show is over. Thank God. It was great. I know I should post some photos as Rachel has requested but I don't have any pics without my family in them. I am going to G2 this week so I promise to post some this week. The opening, although long, was really great. My family and Lauren's mom came plus some of my studio mates. Pam and Emily, pictured above, came the day before so we were able to hang out and catch up. We went to the MCA and caught the Karen Kalimnik show which I still don't really have an opinion on. I have almost a month left of school which is a great feeling. This week however will probably be the most hectic. I have a bunch of homework due plus proposals for finals and then there is fellowship application I have to finish by the 4th. I am also giving two talks about the Underground Railroad project that I have been working on for the past school year. I'm heading to Pittsburgh this coming weekend to catch Aretha Franklin which I can't wait to see...I'll be posting some pics this week plus some highlights of my Pittsburgh trip. Have a good week]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/03/_emily_davidson_and_pammy.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/03/_emily_davidson_and_pammy.html Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:07:04 -0600 Alagon's latest show "Only Blue Dear Lonely American". Noelle Mason, Justin Cooper and Benjamin Bellas all did pieces they performed when I saw them in Boston last semester. I also had a chance to check out In>Time 08 at the Cultural Center. Well I probably won't post until the bfa show is over. In the meantime check out the Bad at Sports blog. I should be posting there often but have been falling behind on that as well. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/03/ive_been_a_tad_bit.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/03/ive_been_a_tad_bit.html Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:27:53 -0600 I don't know if i have ever mentioned this on the blog before but I love comic books. I was a huge comic fan when I was a kid. I used to attend conventions with my sister all the way up until I was 18. I stopped reading them though and in the past year I started to pick up on where I left off. Anyways, I really like a series that ended recently called Y the Last Man. It is written by Brian K Vaughn who writes for lost and Pia Guerra who is an artist. Over the summer I sent Pia a letter requesting a drawing of Ampersand who is a monkey in the series. On the envelope I drew my favorite ape Dr. Zaius of Planet of the Apes. As Months went by I forgot about it until yesterday I received a padded envelope in the mail from her. Not only did she send a drawing of Ampersand but also drew Dr. Z on the back of the envelope.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/monkey_love.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/monkey_love.html Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:59:16 -0600 Entrance to Phil Collins installation I had a great time in Dallas. CAA was fun and a bit overwhelming. I wish I had more time to so I could've seen more of the conference. I can not thank the school enough for making the trip possible. Attendees of the conference were granted free admission into some of the museums in Dallas. Lauren and I were able to catch Phil Collins video installation entitled The World Won't Listen at the Dallas Museum of Art. The World Won't Listen "Filmed in Colombia, Turkey, and Indonesia, the video trilogy features fans of the influential British indie-rock band The Smiths performing karaoke versions of tracks from their 1987 compilation album The World Won’t Listen. Along with the first-ever public presentation of Collins’ completed trilogy, the Dallas exhibition will also include a series of works based on letters that Morrissey, the band’s iconic lead singer, wrote as a teenager to London music weeklies" I wasn't crazy about the installation but I did enjoy some aspects of it. Three rooms were sectioned for each video and one could walk around to see all of them as the people performed the songs. I was able to check out some work by Cosima Von Bonin who I blogged about back in January. They also had Felix Gonzalez Torres' Perfect Lovers which was really...I guess I'll use the word touching. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/texas_roundup.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/texas_roundup.html Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:59:05 -0600 Yesterday Lauren and I went with SAIC alum Amber Hawk Swanson and her girlfriend Sam to the Sixth Floor Museum. Since I arrived in Dallas I have been kicking around the idea of going to the museum, but the $13.50 entrance fee really put me off. It just seemed really steep to visit a former book depository. But I came around when Amber and Sam expressed interest. If you have not heard of the Sixth Floor Museum then I should let you know that it is the location in which Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy. The museum was really worth the $13.50. As soon as you get out of the elevator it is sort of a whirlwind of information from JFK being elected to him being assassinated to conspiracy theories. It was a really intense. Being able to stand in the location where Oswald was was really hard to fathom. There was an exhibition on the seventh floor of home movies that people had taken of that fateful day. In a smaller closed off room they played the Abraham Zapruder film which shows the entire assassination and was pretty graphic. I felt really overwhelmed when I left the museum from both the footage and just thinking about all of the theories that are out there.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/the_sixth_floor_museum.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/the_sixth_floor_museum.html Sat, 23 Feb 2008 08:46:39 -0600 The location of where Martin Luther King was assassinated. While Lauren and I headed out to Dallas we stopped by the National Civil Rights Museum. I had been there once when I was 16 and really enjoyed it. The museum is built where Martin Luther King was shot. The kept the facade of the motel and two rooms intact. One was where King usually stayed and the other was the location in which he stayed as he prepared for his speech just before his assassination. I really enjoy the museum as a while because it deal with so much information in a really visual way. There are many installation based rooms of people doing sit ins and even a burnt bus. I am currently taking a class called Black Power Fantasies with Stanford Carpenter which is probably my favorite academic class this year. We are studying the black power movement and the black panthers and I was really puzzled by how little information they chose to present. Both where happening at the same with common goals and yet there really was almost no information being given except a wall in a hallway. But all and all I had a fun time and seeing where MLK was killed and being able to see how the movement struggled for equality was really powerful.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/mamphis_ii.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/mamphis_ii.html Sat, 23 Feb 2008 08:24:47 -0600 Were staying at a Days Inn that is not only across the street from Graceland but also has a guitar shaped pool. One of the reasons we decided to stop over in Memphis was to visit Miranda Powell who 's studio was right next to mine in New York. Miranda goes to the Memphis College of Art and had us meet her at Huey's. They are consistently rated as rated one of the top burgers in the nation and they did not disappoint. We then went to Sun Studios which is famous for recording Elvis' first single plus many other acts including Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. The tour was actually really good and it was only $10 compared to the $30 it costs to tour Graceland. If your in the area and want to visit a Rock & Roll landmark this is the place. While waiting for tour to begin at Sun Lauren and I decided to walk around the neighborhood. We stumbled on the Hostess factory. I practically died and went to heaven. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/memphis_day_i.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/memphis_day_i.html Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:11:34 -0600 New hat (left) Old hat (right) If you know me you probably have not seen the top of my head. For the past two years I have worn my 1977 throwback Pittsburgh Pirates hat everyday. I have literally not gone outside without it. But as you can tell it is so dirty that I had to buy a new one. It's going to take a bit of time but I guess I'm going to have to get used to it.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/farewell_old_friend.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/farewell_old_friend.html Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:51:06 -0600 I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day, and if your not into the Hallmark holiday then I hope you a fine day as well. I am in the middle of packing my suitcase for my trip down to Dallas this week. I am going to CAA with Lauren and luckily I won a grant (which I mentioned earlier) which will cover all of my basic fees of hotel, transportation, and the conference. I'll post several times while I'm down there with updates of the events and I'll probably go to a few museums. I have to admit that I am rather excited, not for the fair but to go to a warmer location for a little bit. Stay warm Chicago. http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/its_really_hard_to_not_overpac.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/its_really_hard_to_not_overpac.html Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:56:12 -0600 I just got back from a day trip up to Milwaukee to visit two of my former NYSP studio mates. Milwaukee is only an hour and a half away and although it is very accessible via Amtrak I was lucky enough to have Lauren drive me up there. We met up with Chris and Boris at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and walked over to the Milwaukee Museum of art. On our drive up I kept telling Lauren about how I was pretty impressed with the museum's permanent collection. Last time I was up there was to see the Gregor Schneider show, Currents 33, which I must was very disturbing. But while I was there I was really taken with Robert Gober's Untitled suitcase piece and Tony Oursler's MMPI (Self-Portrait in Yellow). This time around I saw their Kehinde Wiley piece, which it appears every museum must have one at the moment. I enjoyed the piece but it definantley did not knock my socks off. The piece however was next to a painting by Jose Lerma. (Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this piece) If your not familiar with his glob like paintings you should take a look. I missed his lecture last year when he came to SAIC but Bad At Sports interviewed him around the same week and I was able to catch that interview. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/mam.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/02/mam.html Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:43:39 -0600 Robert Smithson's widow Nancy Holt sent a letter out today to notify people that his masterwork Spiral Jetty is in jeopardy of being destroyed due to oil drilling. Here is Holt's full letter and a way for people to voice their concerns. Yesterday I received an urgent email from Lynn DeFreitas, Director of Friends of the Great Salt Lake, telling me of plans for drilling oil in the Salt Lake near Spiral Jetty. See Attachments. The deadline for protest is [today] Wednesday, at 5PM. Of course, DIA has been informed and are meeting about it today. I have been told by Lynn that the oil wells will not be above the water, but that means some kind of industrial complex of pipes and pumps beneath the water and on the shore. The operation would require roads for oil tank trucks, cranes, pumps etc. which produce noise and will severely alter the wild, natural place. If you want to send a letter of protest to save the beautiful, natural Utah environment around the Spiral Jetty from oil drilling, the emails or calls of protest go to Jonathan Jemming 801-537-9023 jjemming@utah.gov. Please refer to Application # 8853. Every letter makes a big difference, they do take a lot of notice and know that publicity may follow. Since the Spiral Jetty has global significance, emails from foreign countries would be of special value. They try to slip these drilling contracts under the radar, that’s why we found out so late, not through notification, but from a watchdog lawyer at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the group that alerted me to the land leasing for oil and gas near Sun Tunnels last May. Thank you for your consideration of this serious environmental matter.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/01/spiral_jetty_may_be_in_danger.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/01/spiral_jetty_may_be_in_danger.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:57:51 -0600 Maybelle, my roommate's friends dog So my final semester has commenced and I must say that I have been under a bit more stress than originally anticipated. I expected myself to have my schedule solid months ago but today I have finalized the classes I am taking. Today I had my first day of Black Power Fantasies with Stanford Carpenter that looks like it is going be great. There is a lot of reading in that coarse, (for next week we need to have 170 pages done) but it's a small class and he is trying to tailor some of it to our interests. I'm also taking the Wandering Uterus with Terri Kapsalis which I have only heard good things about and thought I should take it before I graduated. I am doing an independent study with Aimee Beaubien who is one of my top two favorite professors at the school. She teaches in the photo department and is really invested in her students. I just signed up for a Comic book of the Silver Age class and I must say that this class is probably the class I am looking most to. Other than school I have the BFA show approaching quickly but I have my mind on other things. As my friends know I really want a dog. ( Now wanting a dog is not really trumping my thoughts on the BFA show but I think of it a lot) I've been on the French Bulldog Rescue Network and I must say that the dogs are so cute. Plus the network is really impressive with their attempts of matching up the right dog with the right owner. But I'm just not ready for a dog. I couldn't be there for it and I couldn't afford one either. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/01/final_semester_fbrn.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/01/final_semester_fbrn.html Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:47:59 -0600 CAA in February. I am looking forward to checking out some lectures that will be going on down in Dallas. In April I am going to go see Aretha Franklin in concert in Pittsburgh. This trip is a birthday gift from Lauren and I must say that I can't wait to see Aretha in person. The last thing I hope to do before graduating is make it out to New York with some of my former studio mates to see the Whitney Biennial. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/01/long_time_no_talkie.html http://blogs.targetx.com/saic/Meg/2008/01/long_time_no_talkie.html Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:11:16 -0600