busted!

as i was driving into flagstaff today, i passed j r's house and noticed horses standing around the house by the cowboys.  i thought "...what a great image of the horses standing by the  wheat pasted images of cowboys.  i'm going to photograph it."  it took me a few minutes to get off the highway and over to the house.  

i noticed a group of horse standing really close to the pictures.  initially i thought they were taking advantage of the shade but then i noticed they were licking the pictures!  ah ha!  no wonder the image of stephanie looks so ratty.  she's been licked to death (as the cowboys are about to be).  those silly horses probably think "hey, this flour and sugar mixture is great and we don't even have to bend over for it."

buffed by horse saliva.  and wheat paste artists in cities think they have it rough.

roy manygoats

i apologize up front to anyone who has spent any quality time reading this blog.  you know that i get excited about releasing photos and stories and will do it as soon as i come back from an installation, exhausted (like now).  i'll do an initial release and this will think about what i wrote for the next two days and will go back and edit the original piece several times.  i know.  i should just wait until i get the final edit that i want and then release it.  but i get excited.


like today, i went back to j r's house.  (not the french dude who won this year's ted prize and whose installations continue to inspire me.)  it's where i pasted step in december when it was starting to get bad at work.  i really needed to release the energy of step's smile into the ether at that time.  when i talked with j r about 8 to 10 months ago about pasting on his house, he reminded me that i used to take care of his dad many years ago and that i'd originally met him (j r), in about 1995 when i used to photograph guys practicing bull riding at the secody camp near white mesa arch.   he was one of the bull riders.  yeah, he was a badass with a really gentle spirit.  so i went back through some of those negatives and found this photo of a bull rider typing his gloves while his friend watches.   i don't know if one of these guys is j r.


towards the end of pasting them up i saw an older model bmw driving on the dirt road to the house.  i assumed it was a white, street art appreciating tourist in route to monument valley or moab.  


i started loading my ladder into my car (which i fell off again today)!  an older navajo man approached me.  he was a tall, slim, traditional looking man wearing a cowboy hat.  he immediately walked over to the house to look at what i'd done without shaking hands first.  i thought that was odd.  he asked if those were paintings i put on the house.  he said he'd been watching me through field glasses from his trailer about 1/2 mile away.  he came over to check it out because someone had stolen j r's windows years ago and he wanted  to make sure i wasn't harming the house.


i told him who i am and that i'd talked with j r.  the older man said he liked the pictures and that they're so clear.  i extended my hand.  he said he's roy manygoats.  he told me of how he'd been living in flagstaff for about 20 years but was ready to move back to the reservation to live simply out here.  


i told him that i really like his older model bmw.  


he said,  "...you know.  i got that free."  


i said, "...what?!"


he said, "...yeah, one of my daughter's co-workers gave that to her.  there was a problem with the alternator."  he proceded to tell me how he did something or the other and then did this, this and a little of that before it started running again.  (roy used all the technical terms to describe how he got the car running again.  being totally car illiterate, it all sounded like mandarin to me.)  he said he really likes the car to.

before parting, roy told me again how much he liked the pictures.  i told him to tell j r hello for me.

community building collaboration

bb + the dogs

  

bruno mauro of ampersand international arts in dogpatch knew i've been exploring the idea of using art to build community through my wheat pasting project on the navajo nation .  he was kind enough to literally offer me his home (after consulting with his wife, surma), to pursue the idea of community building using his home as a canvas.

in exploring this idea here, bruno suggested i meet patricia parker and her mother who have lived in dogpatch in their current house for 50 years or so.  both patricia and her mom attended irving m. scott school (built in the 1890s and is the oldest standing public school in san francisco).  they know and they are dogpatch history.  

imogen doumani lives across the street from the gallery and from pat.  she represents the youthful vibe coming into the neighborhood.  bb the beagle is representing those who give the area its name.  

the piece is composed of regular bond paper from fedex/kinko's adhered to the wall with wheat paste i made.  it's susceptible to the elements and will go away with time.  my hope is that the conversations and community building started with this project will continue long after the piece is down.

to dogpatch with love.

ampersands international arts show

pat

pat + imogen

bb in dogpatch

ampersands international arts

1001 tennessee avenue

san francisco, ca

dogpatch 

rocking ampersand

more to come...

bb, morning light

i'm in san francisco now giving the city mad love.  i give thanks that the installation is going well.  it's incredible to see the way the piece i'm putting up is bringing people from the neighborhood who have never talked to one another together.  in the meantime, i wanted to get one last photo up of bb in morning light.  

stay tuned...