Mariah Robertson

Here is some work by an artist I'm really excited about right now. Her name is Mariah Robertson. I've posted three of my favorites here, "Bedroom Light", "100 Suns", "Galaxy Porchlights", and "Pool Water". To see more of her work you can check her website: http://www.m-a-r-i-a-h.com/
I admire the unrestrained colors, the lurid, poisonous looking pools and the images she does that look like amateur astronomy are evocative and funny at the same time. The psychedelic aspect of the work reminds me of the early Lucas Samaras images that I love, but this work is fresh and cheeky in a completely new way.

Forest for the Trees

I went to a marathon speeding dating event last night at Manhattan club called Duvet. I met thirty five men in a series of three minute dates. By the end I felt as if I was working for the Census Bureau.
I met Christopher the fireman, Amir from France via Chicago, Evans the electrical engineer, Joseph who teaches at an ivy league college, plays the tuba and does side work as an Abe Lincoln look-alike.
There was Juan from Colombia, bespectacled Laxman the "double engineer", the musician Lee, James with dreads and reflective sunglasses, David the Akita owner, blonde Nick from Ohio, Jar who loves oatmeal cookies, Koko the wrestler, Lucian the high school teacher, Daniel the guidance counselor, Brian who likes to order around the interns, Scott the lawyer from Virginia, Alastiar the ivy league professor, Ari the anesthesiologist, Neil the high school principal, and many more.
The variety and level of specificity was stunning. I was overwhelmed. I will select no one from this event to see again. I feel like I'm watching entire subway cars filled with available men going by, and I just don't care. I think this will be the last time I try an experiment like this.
This photo of mine shows tree shapes in sugar, made a few years back.

Rice

I started thinking about rice after being very impressed by a recent piece by my artist friend Cadence Giersbach that was modeled loosely on a nesting doll. My mother had a Russian nesting doll that could be opened and opened all the way to the very last one that was so tiny you could barely open it with your fingers, and inside that last doll was a grain of rice.
Also I remember seeing rice featured in a talismanic way in elaborate Chinese embroideries, at the center of lots of heavy detailed borders there was a simple group of rice grains.
The photo started out as a triple exposure, with the cup, a thimble and then a grain of rice under that- shot in layers. But after toiling over this I realized something simpler might also work- I will be seeing the film in a few days. This is a scan of a polaroid test I made during the shoot on Sunday.

The Corona

This image was taken over the Soviet Union by the Corona, our nation's first spy satellite that operated between 1960 to 1972. Rolls of film unspooled behind the Corona's camera lens to make highly detailed images many meters long. This image is a small portion of a very long roll of film- in all the film taken by the Corona measured some 2.1 million feet. The National Reconnaissance Office declassified this material in 1995 and now most of the high resolution images are available through the US Geological Survey. This photo shows Ramenskoye, Russia, where there is an airfield- you can see it next to the Moskva river, the biggest geometrical form in the landscape. The images from Corona were edited for sensitive intelligence, and then the data was used for making thousands of maps for military and civilian use.

Tiny Hats are Huge

On Friday I found myself reading a list online called 10 Genius Beauty Tips. Number 9 was what to do if you see your ex with his new girlfriend in the supermarket and you aren't wearing any makeup. This is what I learned: I should quickly duck aside, pinch my cheeks to get them pink and flushed, bite my own lips and kind of slobber on them to produce a sheeny pout, then flip my hair several times, really enthusiastically to produce a sexy "bed head" effect. Then waltz up and say hello.

This was all very helpful as I had to meet my ex's new girlfriend on Saturday and be brave and pretend everything was normal in front of my three year old... Here is an alternate list: Slap yourself silly. Pull out some hair to make yours eyes really bright and shiny and cheeks flushed and hair chicly asymmetrical. Ask homeless man and bored homeboy to chase you the entire way there so you will look really skinny and desired when you arrive. Try screaming while being chased as this will produce a sexy throaty sounding voice. Then waltz up and say hello.
It worked great! I even found a cute little hat to cover the bald spot afterwards.

Note: This photo is not mine, nor do I know who it belongs to