I printed bumper stickers for a show in Houston(see previous post) and kept some for myself so I pasted one on my way to work this morning at 6:46am. I pasted two others around Pilsen and must photograph them before they are removed.
I came across these two also this morning and was fascinated by the form, color and texture.
If by any chance you are in Houston this friday, check out this show that I am in.
miguel cortez ------------------
Vine Street Studios 1113 Vine St Houston, TX 77002 Fluid Geometry and Word! Opening Friday May 19, 6-8 PM
Fluid Geometry refers to work that uses geometric design as pictorial base. Unlike pure minimalists, these artists use geometric forms merely as building blocks in order to expand their vision of concreteness and precision into an investigation of hybrid concepts and structures.
Artists: John Adelman Harvey Bott Wade Carter Garland Fielder Mike Hollis Mick Johnson Arielle Masson Jusin Quinn
Word! uses the physicality of letter design and its linguistic connotation as a point of departure for the exploration of everyday language ñ both symbolic and pictorial. This exhibition within an exhibition is conceived as a variation of the main theme of Fluid Geometry. Thus, presenting the orderly sequence of written language as a geometric archetype.
Artists: Art Prostitute (Dallas) William Betts Todd Camplin (Dallas) Miguel Cortez (Chicago) Michael Henderson (Huntsville) Skeez 181 Deb Sokolow (Chicago) Frances Trotter (Austin) Peter Tucker (Austin)
Fluid Geometry and Word! are the 2nd exhibition of the FOCUS series at Vine Street Studios.
Exhibition continues through June 24, 2006 Work on view Monday through Friday 10AM - 5PM
“ENTORNO: grass grows greener on the other side” is an exhibition of Chicago based visual artists, community activists and scholars focused on the idea of “environment,” using Chicago’s landscape and its resident communities as the central theme. The city of Chicago has been going through rapid urban renewal fostered by huge promises to change the city for the betterment of its residents. In reality the persistent issues of displacement, economic class segregation, racism and ageism have come into sharper focus as a result of these renewed initiatives. This exhibition examines how visual artists, community activists and scholars look into their own communities and through their expression, critique the city government’s reactions to these crucial concerns.
Located in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, Polvo is an alternative space operated by the Polvo Art Collective. This exhibition includes work by the following participants: D. Denenge Akpem, AREA Chicago, Amy Castaneda, Citizenship and Voter Training School (CIVITAS), Miguel Cortez, Anida Yoeu Esguerra, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Jesus Macarena-Avila, Naomi Martinez, Mess Hall, PERRO (Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization), Pilsen Ayuda, Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa, Bernard Williams.
This show will run until May 20. Polvo is located at 1458 W. 18th St 1R and is open Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. or by appointment. For more information, call (773) 344-1940 or visit www.polvo.org
I visited my parents for most of saturday afternoon, so I had to close Polvo for the day. Above is my cute son Xul eating ravioli. My father who in the past 5 years or so has discovered his creativity...and writes poems now, wrote a very heartfelt poem for my mother. My younger sister Roxanne(below) read it to my mother.
I walked to Prospectus Gallery, which is 3 blocks away from me to attend my friend Mark Nelson's opening. On the way I took these 2 shots.
Prospectus is a commercial gallery that recently reopened and a lot of the work they show is very 2d and not very challenging. Mark has done wonderful installations in the past and to see his paintings is different, and he is great at it also...there were just too many. All were too close together.I felt bombarded visually and that took away from the work.
Today myself, Elvia and our son Xul attended Michael Piazza's funeral to pay our respects to a colleage and close friend of many years. Elvia went over to the mic and did a wonderful speech. She is great and I also have great respect for Michael and was looking forward to seeing him at the next Polvo opening since it includes Rebecca Wolfram, an artist who was also part of the Axe Street Arena collective during the 1980s. He was also going to help out with Elizam Escobar's(another axe st arena artist) show in June. His death came as a shock to us. I could not believe it when Mirtes Zwierzinski emailed me the news. I saw him a month ago and never expected him to die so soon.
But since I love some pop culture, all this sadness reminded me of the final episode of the tv show "six feet under" and I remember the last 6 minutes. It is one of the best endings for a tv series; you see the future of the characters and the year and circumstance in which they die...awesome....sorry for that reference...i just had that damn Sia song in my mind all day.... The picture above and below is of our travel back to Chicago from the suburbs.
trash conversation digital print, dimensions variable miguel cortez, 2006
This print is about the dreaded monotonous conversations when one is in a long term relationship. The repetitiveness of everyday life. Stop it and talk about something else, damn it!
Recycle your ideas limited edition of 25 bumper stickers miguel cortez, 2006
Recycling is used to describe a series of activities that includes collecting recyclable materials that would otherwise be considered waste, sorting and processing recyclables into raw materials and manufacturing the raw materials into either making the same product(closed loop) or new products(open loop). An example of open-loop recycling is using plastic bottles to make pipes. Artists use these processes all the time. Some come up with an idea and create work using a certain style/media and repeat this for a long time to please his/her commercial gallery/collectors(this is closed loop recycling).While others may gather old ideas, twist and turn them, throw them up in the air and some new concept pops up(open loop recycling).
Fellow artist and friend Michael Piazza died this past weekend. Michael had apparently been experiencing some health problems recently, but as someone without health insurance, he put off doing anything too expensive about it. A long-time heavy smoker, he had been experiencing pains in his chest. Over the weekend, he apparently began feeling bad, but resisted attempts to take him to the emergency room. His wife Laura found him dead on Sunday morning. He was 50 years old.
By Michael Martinez Tribune staff reporter Published May 1, 2006, 2:51 PM CDT
LOS ANGELES -- From Chicago to Los Angeles, New York to New Orleans, and Miami to Denver, hundreds of thousands of predominantly Hispanic immigrants walked off their jobs, skipped school and demonstrated with friends and family members in a nationwide show of solidarity for immigration reform today.
The so-called "Day Without Immigrants" was intended as a nationwide boycott to demonstrate the importance of immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, to the nation's workforce and its economy. It sparked divisions among Americans, debate on talk radio and even a split among the organizations sponsoring it, many of whom were divided over whether it might cause a backlash against immigrants across the country.
An estimated 300,000 people had gathered by early afternoon in Chicago and hundreds of thousands more were expected later at rallies in New York City and Los Angeles. Smaller rallies were planned in 50 other cities, even in such far-flung places as Connecticut and South Dakota.
"We are the backbone of what America is, legal or illegal, it doesn't matter,'' said Melanie Lugo, who was among thousands attending a rally in Denver with her husband and their 3rd-grade daughter. "We butter each other's bread. They need us as much as we need them.''
Authorities were beefing up patrols, many businesses voluntarily closed, and hundreds of protestors began gathering hours early this morning in downtown Los Angeles for what organizers hope will be the nation's largest demonstration against anti-immigrant legislation. A similar rally drew 500,000 in March, the largest turnout of any city that month.
In fact, demonstrators will be holding two marches in Los Angeles today, the other beginning in the afternoon in the heavily Latino neighborhood of MacArthur Park. To be led by several local officials including Cardinal Roger Mahony, those demonstrators will walk down L.A.'s grandest course, Wilshire Boulevard.
In addition to many undocumented immigrants who expected to boycott their jobs to go to demonstrations across the nation, many high school students in Los Angeles also didn't show up to their classrooms, despite officials' threats of citing and punishing them for truancy.
Throughout the United States, the day is meant to be a moment of walkouts, boycotts and political expression. The daylong events have been called by some "A Day Without Immigrants," inspired partly by the film "A Day Without A Mexican." The rallies aim to put pressure on Congress as the Senate and House struggle to pass immigration legislation this year.
May 1st, International Workers' Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in most countries. The United States of America and Canada are among the exceptions. This despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the USA, linked to the battle for the eight-hour day, and the Chicago anarchists.
Join immigrants and supporters to make Monday, May 1, 2006 a national "day without an immigrant" Anti-immigrant politicians and hatemongers call immigrants "a drain on society" - they try to pass repressive legislation like HR 4437 and encourage groups like the racist "Minutemen". But immigrants contribute billions to the economy and receive few benefits in return. We will settle for nothing less than full amnesty and dignity for the millions of undocumented workers presently in the United States. Let's show the government, corporations and racist politicians that a powerful, united peoples' movement has the power to win Civil Rights, workers' rights and make history. No business as usual on May 1!
in Chicago: May 1st Immigrant Worker Justice March Monday, May 1, 2006, 10am. Starts at Union Park (Lake/Ashland) Ends at Grant Park
Step 1: Strapping a small video camera to a subject's forehead and having him/her walk around the block. The camera records from their perspective what they look at and how they interact with the situation. This is repeated with more subjects of various heights.
Step 2: Using digital video software to edit and placing all scenes on one screen in grid format(total of 16 scenes playing simoultaneously and looped, 4 rows by 4 columns). By editing and doing some scenes shorter that the others, each scene will not take place at the same time so each timeline will be slightly different.
Step 3: Projecting the final video onto a huge screen or using a large monitor. Another option is to do an installation of various monitors, stacking them and each playing one video.
Several years ago I did a digital print dealing with "empathy" and I imagined what a couple in the past(circa early 1900s) would be thinking about on certain days and I then recorded the imaginary thoughts along with old photographs to create a print. Well for this project I will be working with the present and people that I know using digital video to record their experiences at a certain time and location. We live inside these shells(bodies) and I am curious to experience at least visually how it would be to be inside another body and seeing the world from another person's eyes.
I spent some much needed time with my family today. We celebrated 2 birthdays: my younger sister Roxanne and my 7 year old nephew Jaime. The weather was excellent, sunny and in the 70s...good enough to be out in the yard cooking! see more pics here
I was in this art show organized by Jesus Macarena-Avila of Polvo and it was a huge success considering it was on a thursday afternoon. We had Amistad Car Club members bring their low rider cars and do a show right in front of the gallery. I also ran into people that i have not seen in many years; a blast from the past! All of the artwork shown is of very high quality and these artists are some of the best artists of latino origin doing awesome contemporary work. Several curators from the MCA(Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago) were there, so it was cool that they made the time to check out the show.
this is my latest series. I do a lot of abstract work aside from any new media junk. It sometimes feels good to just sit down to use conventional materials. I guess i am a modernist at heart.
