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Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Big stuff for Chiplis to move – foto Smith
Took one hundred eleven pieces of art by Mother Dwarf, Cat, Lady K and myself down to Mastroianni Gallery this morning . . . Chiplis took two loads of large stuff which no way would have fit in the car unless I held it on the roof with one hand while shifting gear with the other steering in-between with my knee hoping I didn’t get caught or art broke (which I have done more than once in my younger youth). Thank you sire.
Chiplis with pickup – foto Smith
Started hanging maybe 11, put up sixty-four pieces over seven wall segments, repacked 2pm, brought back forty-seven due to lack of space.
That my friends is one fast hanging. There were three of us and I discovered gallery owner Steve Mastroianni is one of the fastest hangers I’ve seen.
It was fun watching him hang because he has no emotional baggage with the pieces, simply saw esthetics, need, form, color, size, function. Makes a more interesting show with three making decisions.
Steve Mastroianni & Lady K – foto Smith
I’d say what’s hanging is 10% Cat, 15% Mother Dwarf, 25% Lady K, and 50% me. Which is sort of fair because I’ve been doing it the longest and Cat the shortest, and I did teach all three and have the most product by far.
Oldest piece 1969, newest 2011 . . . the 44 year 4 Smith 4th dimensional family art show, the only one around.
Our place looks bigger because the art’s gone, so I hung what we brought back plus a few more on the empty nails. Art R Us.
Opening’s a week from tomorrow and runs seven weeks through March 31, with two Friday Art Walk openings (Feb 10, March 9) and a 4-feature poetry reading with open mic Saturday March 3.
Here’s a quick snap of show . . . I’ll shoot better tomorrow when I return to repair moving nicks and make label list . . . maybe do a quick video and post it.
(Most folk don;t realize that without counting the actual making of the art, art shows require choosing, repairing, packing, moving, unpacking, hanging, repacking leftovers, repairing again, and then bass ackwards it all when it’s over.)
Much more but here’s a taste – fotos Smith
Posted in Art, Photography | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Paper Work by Mother Dwarf, 2003, 9″ x 13″ – foto Smith
This is why I like to recite poetry to music.
Bye Buy (from 2005) > reverbnation.com/play_now/song_8051284.
The obscure final four lines refer to:
1) – Tantalus thirsty and hungry standing trapped chest deep in a lake in hell with low-hanging grapes over his head — every time he reaches for the grapes they rise out of reach; each time he bends down to drink from the lake it lowers out of reach.
2) – Sisyphus eternally rolling the same rock up the same hill over and over forever.
3) – Dirt burning = Hell soil.
Bye Buy
The Man keeps knocking
Down my front door
Wants to sell me some
Sorta social spore
Says grits & groceries
Ain’t enough
In the modern life
You need much more stuff
Made me want to crow
And flap my thing
Chase the hole
Outside wedding ring
So I cut my hair
De-furred my face
Gave the Man a chance
To show a better place
Where the air was clear
The water free
The fair folk there
Accepting me
But when they pursed my lips
To kiss an ugly place
The Man above unzipped below
I said sorry sir I gotta go
Get out of my face
You can keep your fairs
Your free fatted Fraus
The lure of your lair
Is lacking in now
I’ll take the stair
It’s quicker somehow
Cleaner too
Thanks to no you
You can unstab my back
Cuz you’ll need your knife
Rat back to the pack
That leads your life
It’s hit the road Jack
Be ass & back
Or tap tap taps brutal bell
I bye buy’s black burden
I lay down your load
You ain’t no at
For this gone cat
As for is
You’re due your due
You can go to Hell
Be your own fondue
Drink dropping lake
Eat rising grape
Work rolling rock returning
Dirt burning
— Smith, 2005
More musical stuff at reverbnation.com/mutantsmith.
My Fair Lady, 1996, 15″ x 12″ – collage & fotos Smith
Posted in Art, Music, Photography, Poetry | No Comments »
Monday, January 16th, 2012
1999 by Lady K – foto Smith
For a 10-foto preview (with BIG fotos) of our February/March 4-Smiths family art show, check out the gallery’s blog: mastroianniarts.com/2012/01/11/sacred-pulp-two-dead-smiths-two-live-smiths/
4th Dimensional Family Art Show
Sacred Pulp
Two Dead Smiths, Two Live Smiths
featuring
Mother Dwarf Smith, 1926 – 2005
Cat Smith, 1957 – 1987
Lady K. Smith, 1972 – ?
Steven B. Smith, 1946 – ?
February 10 – March 31, 2012
Mastroianni Arts
mastroianniarts.com
Poetry reading Saturday March 3rd 2-4pm
with
Kate Sopko, Cavana Faithwalker, Lady K & Smith
Plus music and open mic
Show will include two Tremont Friday Art Walk openings on
February 10 & March 9, 2012
Plus March 3 poetry reading
Trapped by Mother Dwarf – foto Smith
The Good Ship Alas by Cat – foto Smith
Vampires on the Beach by Smith – foto Smith
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Friday, January 13th, 2012
Spill center – foto Smith
Wheel Deal
There’s something wrong with this world
I mean I wash the dishes
and more dirty dishes appear
I clean the cat box
of clayed shit and clumped piss
and more’s magically there
every day I defecate
yet defecate the next
dedicated to rerelease I guess
I eat in morning
noon evening in-between
again and again
I drink water piss it out drink it in
again and again
in never ending script
get up
run the rat wheel
walk the rat wheel
sit the rat wheel
be the rat wheel
resolve to better
revolve to fail
it gets cold I put on sweater
it gets hot I put on sweat
is there a seek in cycle
or learning in loop
something actually done
accomplished
improved
or are they just waiting for me to see the light
I’ve already seen in previous scene
done played
paid
replayed
repaid
is this but screen test
or something real
I mean what’s the deal?
— Smith, 1.13.2012
What gives? – foto by Smith
of art by Bruno Casiano in Brandt Gallery 12.2011
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Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
The collages and words below are by Lady K . . . she created them for the Occupy Cleveland Daily Digest which she posts every other day at OccupyCleveland.com.
Venusians – collage by Lady K
Collage riffing on the idea of revolution being implemented in a peaceful way–army of “Venusians” as opposed to “Martians,” as Mars has been associated in our myths with war whereas Venus with love. Hopefully we can retrofit our myths, though.
Peace Be – collage by Lady K
Person scaling the Free Stamp. The words “FREE” are upside-down and backwards on the stamp. This particular crop seems to indicate the word, “be” and also the peace sign.
Peace Sign Language – collage by Lady K
Sign language for peace, my husband’s sun avatar and my mirror. Spell for comfort and warmth (albeit not global warming).
Perpetual Dreaming Organic Be I – collage by Lady K
Collage of advent candles, moon, sky and hiker in green woods. Was thinking about use of resources on this planet vs. creature comforts–the fire seems to both burn the atmosphere and also offers hope of renewal. The hiker is starting on a platform of cloud through a path into the forest which goes to the moon. The advent season is a season of hope. Also wondering about the antigravitiness of it all.
Prayer For Cold Winters – collage by Lady K
Collage of midnight sun, polar bear family, and prayer poem to keep habitats intact for these creatures of the cold.
Push Environmentalism and I – collage by Lady K
The word “Push” is from a door on Carnegie Avenue next to Aladdin’s Baking Company. The “Push” pops out of the page, pushing local purchase and economy with an eye towards keeping the globe safer. We can keep the globe safer by stopping so much shipping, so much international trade–this will sustain us better. But we need to sustain ourselve sustainably. Much money is to be made in this, and the use of the color green is meant to allude to not only money but making sure we are environmentally-oriented (albeit not by creating so much greenhouse gas). The peace sign is used to kind of counter the spread out hands and the concept of push–to show that it is a peaceful push rather than an aggressive push popping out of the page.
Sparrow Song for Earth – collage by Lady K
Collage of sign language that means “ant,” sparrow, shadow of myself on paint-spattered steps and earth. Sparrow is singing to Earth–sparrow is a sign of the song of God. Bone heart after Smith’s having written a poem about his secret name. Skeleton hand in head unknown and curious–would like to think of it as the ability to build infrastructure from thought–shadow. My womb will be barren as well so this photo is also about transcendence–how to transcend being barren. The bird’s beak is pointing in the same direction as the opening of the legs, but if the legs were fingers coming from a hand they’d sing “peace.” Mother Earth calls us to breed but we can sing songs for its fecundity as well–and fecundity does not have to directly translate into literal birth. Also playing with the ideas of rebirthing Earth and what this means. Paint spatters symbolize cosmos, stars as well, concrete steps symbolize the utility of concrete measurement in spiritual times. Also wanted to utilize the idea of ant on a couple levels; first being that it is important have more of an altruistic worker-mindset and focus on solving immediate problems for Mother Earth; second, the word play on aunt and ant and how that plays into my personal context & compensation since I am not having literal children; third, the idea of using mass mind to solve problems.
Ether – collage by Lady K
Collage of photos taken on Train Ave. I like the multiple levels of transcendence- diving through a window through a puddle on a road on the ground into ether.
Field and __ject – collage by Lady K
Meditation on context, subject, object, field, happiness, concern, black, white, gray, color, face, 100, .01, activism.
Heart heart Heart heart – collage by Lady K
Original digital collage inspired by Tinman song by Trenchcoat Manifesto. Was thinking our movement needed to think about its heart–in terms delineating too much from not enough–how does one tell? Also was thinking something about syncopation but can’t remember the context. Am interested in the symbolism of the words “Trenchcoat Manifesto” in terms of the slacker generation and unburdening ourselves of apathy and regaining heart.
Monad – collage by Lady K
For me the zebra first calls to mind my husband, the agent of chaos. He used a zebra in one of his most excellent collages, “e=mc2,” and also has a collage called “self centered,” so the name “Self Portrait” reminds me of this.
The name “Self Portrait” also reminds me of the oneness of everyone and I like the thought of looking at the collage and realizing that I am Self Portrait.
Zebras are also symbolic of how to hold dichotomies within the whole, and sometimes they are symbolic of the ability to blend in. The colors black and white also make me think of my husband as he is an ex-prisoner and uses the colors black and white in dichotomic yet integrative ways in many of his speculative photo compositions and samples of reality.
The zebra in this is spray painted on a train, which makes it fine art. It is standing under a rainbow of a single band of white, which is all colors.
Choices and Being I – collage by Lady K
Choices and Being. Chimpanzee contemplating death. We share 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees. We have called ourselves omnivores but we do have the choice to stop eating so many of our fellow animals. So very much eating our fellow animals causes much destruction to the environment in terms of additional plants to raise the animals that are raised for slaughter. It is much more efficient to obtain protein from plants rather than our fellow animals. In addition, the fertilizer required to grow the plants to feed the fellow animals for consumption is hurting our ecosystem–not only our water–the production of use and fertilizer also creates more greenhouse gas production, so it hurts the air as well. Let’s stop hurting our air, water and fellow animals on such a large scale.
Posted in Art, Lady | 3 Comments »
Saturday, December 3rd, 2011
Marilyn poster at Razor’s Edge Salon & Spa, highly modified – foto Smith
Marilyn Monroe, 1926 – 1962
Yon black crow hunched against
The yellow asphalt line somewhere
On Route 36 interstate north
Is but a breath of my fancy
An inevitable pigment of my integration
One final fiction
Old crow’s dead
Died gestalt
Motherless mind sewage
Black cold magpie
Could be raven
Platinum yellow ozling
Mother Mary mug pie
Young mudded girl
Inflected in random pools
Of rainbow auto oil
On yellow lined highways
The dead black crow
Hunched against 36
— Smith, 1973
Back then, three of my main metaphors for America were Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley, with Elvis & Nixon yet alive and Marilyn eleven year gone. Now they’re all the undead who refuse to die.
The Marilyn fotos below are from my collaged book Pockets (8.5″ x 10″ x 2.5″, 1974-75). I’ll blog more Pockets soon, done back in some fun days/daze.
(Who needs a present when you have a rich past?)
Posted in Art, Poetry, Publications | No Comments »
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
Light Lucifer Lost, 2001 – assemblage by Smith
Light Lucifer Lost
O listen now thou mad, thou meek
Receive and mourn these words oblique
Hear me – for I, Lucifer, speak
God’s impotent envy me from heaven hurled
Manwards toward this god forsaken world
Where you in reward were Eden expelled
And I, once majestic, upon my belly felled
So I reigned in hell in favor a god
Forever, until upon me science trod
Then even from hell was I disbelieved
And from formal evil my duty relieved
Now no heaven holds atomic aplomb
Nor profits in neutered gamma ray tomb
Knowing crucified wish is unworkable womb.
— Smith, 1989
I went looking for this poem online and found instead an art show from 2006 I was in which I’d forgotten about that included a piece with the same name. Didn’t realize it was posted online. The fotos here are from that site, taken maybe by Chiplis (I think I recognize his hair in the mirror) or maybe poet Marcus Bales.
V I S P O !
Blends & Bridges
An International Survey of Contemporary Visual Poetry and Related Art
Curated by Bob Grumman, Wendy Collin Sorin, and John Byrum
April 1 – 30, 2006
Gallery 324,
The Galleria at Erieview
1301 East Ninth Street,
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
Marcus Bales, Impresario
Here’s the original link bigbridge.org/bgcatalog66.htm.
Mom & Dad, 1997 – assemblage by Smith
Of Human Bondage, 1998 -assemblage by Smith
Voodoo Lounge, 1968 – collage by Smith
Food for Thought, 2004 – assemblage by Smith
Posted in Art, Poetry | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 28th, 2011
Face place 1 of sculpture by Cat Smith
A few faces about the place.
Face place 2 of sculpture by Mother Dwarf Smith
Face place 3 collage by Lady K
Prey Has No Name
We fish with human face
such depths of want
and need
heart drum beat
to pulse blood hope
in womb warm wonder
Lying lizard in the sun
in spring full breadth
of coiled light
our brain bridged push
mute witness
for those who died
in black and white
before elective gray
— Smith, 2005
Posted in Art, Photography, Poetry | 1 Comment »
Sunday, November 27th, 2011
Cover foto by Jerry Mann
For a week in March 2000, everywhere I went in Cleveland I saw my face staring back at me from newspaper boxes, coffee house counters, internet cafes, diners, paraphernalia shops. It was the week after I turned 54 and I was the cover story for the Free Times, a weekly newspaper.
SURREAL THING – Collector & artist Steven Smith bares all blared from the cover as I posed in my Amish beard behind a hanging eyeball, maybe 40 pounds heavier than I am now.
I always thought that was about the time I was going to become famous because things were looking good from 1997 when I started being collected and met Meat Beat Manifesto and 2001 when I made the cover; but it’s been downhill pretty much fame-wise since, but a much improved uphill life inner growth wise.
Peter Ball, my musician collaborator, found this copy while cleaning out his attic and gave it to me a couple months ago and I’ve been debating ever since whether to blog it or not because on one hand it’s pretty cool to be a cover story, but on the other it’s a blatant me-ego-me-pat-myself-on-back thing.
Well, ego won. Big surprise.
The first third of the article is interesting; and so I think is the last third. And I love the last line: “My life,” he says, “is more interesting than I am.”
I’ve posted fotos of the paper version because the online story looks totally different.
here’s the article – Surreal Thing.
from the Free Times, March 2000
Posted in Art, ArtCrimes, Bio | 1 Comment »
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