nothing in particular.

here is another sneak peek at some awards for nothing. i made a huge materials score last night thanks to one of my hosts here in illinois, bruce. bruce makes art out of collections and experience a cling all too familiar to me. but he is currently having some sort of great change of impulse and has been clearing out collections. this task being easier when the materials will be used and loved, he loaded me up with scraps, envelopes, waxed wrappers, handmade papers and more.

i have a tonne to work with now. the last batch was so colourful, too!

and nicholas says my packaging is almost ready, too. now to make sure it collides with me as i move. nomadic life in the modern era takes a fair bit of planning (and luck). feel free to wish me both.

ps - i have recommended dave's book to bruce.

breakage.

one of the most heartbreaking elements of the awards for nothing project is breakage. the experimental nature of the project lends itself to disaster and yet every piece consumes completely one-of-a-kind materials. with so much unknown jamming into my machines, i feel like a potter waiting for the kiln to fire. it's never entirely clear what will emerge. i'm always nervous the result will come out busted.

i like to think these broken pieces pierced their own mylar coatings to maintain their ephemeral natures.

i might leave them in public places.

it's also worth noting that those broken awards are lodged on a stack of new security envelopes given to me by the great bruce burton (no web presence at this time). sorting and slicing through them last night really made me want to revive the project.

final fantasy.

hey, lawrence, kansans, guess what! tonight we will be hopping into the one year anniversary edition of your final fridays as special guests of the fabulous wonder fair shop and gallery. the wonder fair has actually gone through some recent changes - three of its four members moved to kansas city in recent months - and has changed hands. the new owners, meredith and paul, were actually planning on taking this month off from the art evening because the space is in flux and under construction. then we connected.

presenting...for one night only...
the wonder fair / sweetie pie press / misanthrope special company
pop-up staircase gallery and boutique!

peruse crafty goodness! get your unflattering portrait done! purchase amazing pinback button sets designed by artists the world over! meet the new wonder fair brain trust! get mired in ephemera! have fun!

and most importantly, tell your friends. we only know about seven people here.

further nothing.

a little update from tulsa, oklahoma, where we are holed up in a large, strange hotel making things and stocking up for upcoming fairs. i am making lots of progress on the first batch of awards for nothing and wanted to share a few samples with y'all.

from this early batch, materials include wrapping paper, safety certification stickers, clothing labels, thread, gold seal, sheet music, shelf lining, tissue paper, motel coupon books, fringe, rick rack, butcher's twine, seam binding, eye lashes. it is interesting to feel how this project is making me see the things around me differently. the process is certainly teaching me a lot about the cognitive shifts that are possible when perceiving things. it's very illuminating but mostly in a way that i can not articulate yet.

speaking of hotel factories, the pile of scraps and bits below is what i woke up to this morning on my bedside table. the sordid aftermath of an all night craft binge.

doodles.

office supply stores always tempt me. i am a sucker. at the very least, i am glad that these pens are doing their jobs well because i have a bunch of doodling to do. there are some things to make for city of craft and some collaborative projects i am currently working on. after years of working with artists on my commissioned artists button sets project, it is really exciting to be on the other end of the process.

first among the collaborations i am trying to draft up is a design for alexx boisjoli's bottled project. it's heavy to think of a design that will be emblazoned on porcelain, so i am taking the process really seriously - maybe even too seriously. either way, how thrilling!

zine dreams.

tomorrow marks toronto's fourth annual zine dream zine fair. and, oh, how i wish i could be there. it's a great event. if you are in the toronto area, i suggest you go.

it feels like i have had zines all around lately (even though i have not made one yet this year).

some things:

1. zine dream.
2. i made a treasury of favourite book works i found on etsy. so lovely.
3. the wundrkabinet's reading raum installation closed last night at the etsy labs in berlin. by all acounts, it was an unflinching success.
4. some pals i was chilling with in albuqueruqe are currently working on the first ever abq zine fest. they just launched a kickstarter to help, too. they are booking table spots through it and even offer some zine packs for out-of-towners to purchase.
5. toronto's canzine is now accepting sign-ups for tables at their november show and proposals for art rooms. i've already got my table!
6. the 2012 toronto comic arts festival is also accepting applications for sequential book-makers at the moment. i haven't been in town for this event in years but word on the street is that it has grown into quite the concern.

with all this bookish activity rolling around, maybe 2011 really does mark the revenge of print.

good thing i have a tour zine in the works. it has to be out by the end of the year. oh my.

nothing lasts forever (or awards for nothing meets printshop forever).

as those who follow this blog will know, i have more than a passing interest in stuff. why do objects hold such value in our lives? and why do certain objects hold more value than others? why does that value shift from person to person? where is the line between collecting and hoarding? these questions have lead me all over the place and are borne of my earliest days and experiences.

for over a year now, i have been percolating awards for nothing, a button-based gallery project that addresses some of these concerns by illuminating scrappy detritus and converting it into markers of worth. but finding a venue for the project's initial outing has been a challenge. enter printshop forever, a milwaukee-based one-year project of monthly artist editions that matches awards for nothing so much in aches. what's more? cortney thought so, too!

initially, i had envisioned editions of 1000 unique awards for gallery installation, but since printshop forever is an mostly online project that number didn't make sense. at 100 awards, this first release is still going to be the largest release she will deal with this year (thank you, cortney!). 100 is probably a more reasonable edition to start with, anyway. and it's nice to have conditions that force me to be at least mildly reasonable from time to time.

so here i am in albuquerque with a month (and roughly 1500 miles) between me and the launch of the project. i will be driving to milwaukee (with plenty of stops in between) to hand deliver my edition. i am lucky enough to be piggy-backing on an opening at sky high gallery there to release the first awards into the real world. but more about that event soon. for now, i am armed with a porta file that is quickly filling with scraps from portland, arcata, eureka, berkeley, oakland, phoenix and my mother's home in vancouver and the first awards are seeing the light of day...

come with me (or a map of indie north america).

hello folks,

in response to a growing number of requests for touring information and resources, i have started a streamlined project for sharing the network of indie shops, boutiques and galleries i have encountered in my years of touring - the indie map of north america!

this is by no means a comprehensive list of every boutique and gallery out there. instead, it is something of and organically-curated group of places that has mostly sprung from my own experiences. although there are a few places there that i have never visited (and i mean a very few), this map can also serve as a loose vouch from your friend, becky.

hopefully, this will tide y'all over into the full touring resource zine is done at the end of the year.

of course, i strongly welcome your suggestions. feel free to leave tips about your favourite indie haunts in the comments section here. i have painfully few in brooklyn and new york, for instance. and i know the places are out there.

and if you run a space that should be on there, go add yourself to google places. you have to be the business owner to do that, and i get distressed every time i go to look up a favourite shop or space and can not find it. i want to tell people about you!