LA Pics

So, I'm back from LA. It was a good time.

This thing scared and confused me. It's on top of a pharmacy. Nothing says drugs like a hobo-clown with a woman's body.
We were supposed to watch these little guys race, but I got really into Wii Tennis and made us late. So, no racing.Double, Double Animal Style. Diner. Old guys.
And here's the show!
I just want to leave you with this. It plays over and over in my mind. I hope it does the same for you.

Going to LA!!

I've got myself all packed and ready to go to LA. I put together a website and am working on a business card, so I look all sorts of professional. The website is a little shaky (for some reason buttons disappear in Safari and things tend to float around funny in everything else), but it's getting there.

Check it out! www.aaronhitchcock.com Tell me what you think.

When we land in LA I'm going to watch turtle racing. I'm told it's fun, but doesn't it sound like watching paint dry or the grass grow? There is betting involved. Oh, dear.

Sneak-Peak

It's been awhile. I know. But I just finished some great pieces that are going out to LA today for a show opening up on Nov. 17th at Black Maria Gallery. The Show is called "Skip the Mall." I will be representing Baby Gap. Go see it if you are in LA, otherwise- bask in the glow of your computer screen. Enjoy!


"Blues for Little Boys."

"We Used to La, La, La, Love Ya"
"And That's What You Get"

Ice-Cream @ Barometer

This Saturday was the opening of Barometer's Ice-Cream show. Great opening. Lot's of fun folks and ice-cream. I ate bacon ice-cream topped with syrup. It was surprisingly good. There was also some cheddar and jalapeno ice-cream and rosemary ice-cream. The work was outstanding. There were some great paintings, cross-stitch, crocheted ice-cream cozies, an ice-cream chandelier and some of Jenna Wainwright's jewelry. It's all good fun and it's up through November, so go check it out.

"Loose Lips a Lifetime on the Hips"


"Good-bye Sprinkles" *sold

What the F have I Been Up to

If you were to gauge my life by my blog you would think I were dead or under the power of a magic sleeping spell, waiting to be freed by the single kiss of a good knight, who in this story is played by a girl and not a guy, because this is my fantasy and not your little sister's.

I finished this drawing for my friend Jenny, for no other reason than she rules. I also have two pieces in a ice-cream themed group show at Barometer this weekend. I'll post images of my work later this week as a teaser. The show is Saturday from 6-9pm. Come, look, love, be loved.

Self-Portrait, all done.

This is what two days away from work gets me. I hope I never have to go back. Painting all day is much much much much much much much much more fun. I need to get something to rest my palette on though, other than my skinny girl arms.

It's me again

I took the day off work and went back to my self-portrait. I scrapped the first one and started a new one. I think I might be sick tomorrow and work on it more. Hopefully that'll finish it. The picture has some glares, but I think you get the idea; I'm full of myself. I think the wife beater is a much needed alteration. I'm also thinking the background needs to be a not-so subtle pink.

Holy famous People!!

I'm terribly sorry about my Kentucy Derby picks. Who would have thought I couldn't pick horses?

I'm even more sorry that I forgot to bring my camera to work today. Why? Well, it's the annual Costume Institute Party of the Year. Hooray for gala events on Mondays.

I saw Naomi Campbell and some other Victoria's Secret model, whose name I don't know and google hasn't figured out how to search for faces yet so, I'm still at a loss. I would describe her as tall and also pretty.

I heard Jennifer Hudson was doing a sound test in The American Wing court which is decked out in all these crazy, motley colors and the Great Hall is covered in roses and has a giant birdcage with four live peacocks in it. The plates for the dinner are going for $5000, although that might just be the entrance fee. It's all for a good cause and it's probably tax deductible, but drinks are extra.

It makes the Greek and Roman opening look like a dinner at Denny's. Man, why aren't there Denny's in the city? Also, while I'm talking about old posts, I went to the Cooper Hewitt yesterday with my friend Peyton and you know what? They had that cool Labbit stool on view.

Run horse, RUN!!!

Firstly, I don't know aaaanything about horse racing, much less The Triple Crown. But I do like acting like I know a thing or two about things I do not know a thing or two about. So, I'm making some picks for the Derby today.

1. Nobiz like Shobiz
2. Imawildandcrazyguy
3. Curlin

I would also like to give a shout-out to all the people who come up with horse names. Seabiscuit? Hello? Is that some sort of poop joke? It sounds like slang for when you don't feel like going to your beach house, so you just wander out in the ocean. Am I wrong? Tell me I'm wrong.

Happy Cinco de Mayo. Anybody know what we're celebrating other than half-price margaritas?

Mudawna and Keed

So, my friend Peyton sent me a posting from CL Philly. A guy wanted a helmet painted up. Which would be great but I have no time or know-how, outside of work. So, I doodled this at work. I thought it was funny. It's a trailer-park madonna and child.

Going Green

Boy is that a phrase you hear/see all the time. On the sides of buses, in the subway, in magazines, news reports and campaign pledges. You know where you don't see it? Email.

You say that sounds absurd? Well, I don't.

Sure, hybrid cars are quite chic these days. Recycling is cool, any 2nd Grader will tell you that. Heck, I even saw a short piece on the news last night about a beer company that has gone green (remind me to buy stock in them or get drunk on them, whichever). But no one thinks about email. Why should you? Well, if you work in an office or possibly like printing out emails to track purchases you might start taking this into consideration.

I work in an office and every time I'm sent a receipt by email I have to print it out then file the thing. But you know what happens? Two sheets of paper. Everything I need to know on one, then another sheet of paper that says, "thanks" or simply has the URL. What's the deal with this? Yea, I put it in the recycle bin or the scrap paper heap, but that's ridiculous.

Orbitz, Amazon, you name it. They do it. Why hasn't someone fixed this? Can we pass this message around? Give me my email receipt as ONE page. Sure I could say, only print the first page, in my print options. But I don't want to!! We have a hybrid cars, but you can't give me an email confirmation that only occupies one sheet of paper? It's stupid. I mean, I use Outlook. Isn't that that the standard? Jeez. Way to save the planet.

I mean, if I had my way I wouldn't print anything out. Unfortunately, I don't have it my way and I work for a mindless bureaucracy.

Seriously, can we start some sort of campaign? Who wants to hand out leaflets with me?

day 2, electric boogaloo

this is day two. i got tired.

Back to Where I Started

I realize my readership is waning. Did I have a readership? Am I just kidding myself? Who knows. At any rate, I've applied for a few grants and the deadlines are looming. I also found out that I was short a month worth of full-time classes to be eligible for the grants. So, guess I'm going back to the Art Students League for a month. I know that didn't sound excited, but I am.

I hope to finish two paintings by the time the deadline rolls around. This is the beginning of a self-portrait. I'm wearing my favorite hat and yea, I wear v-necks.

Monday at the Met

I've been waiting to use that title for so long. I was really hoping it would be for studies I did of work on view at the Met but, what're you gonna do? Maybe next week you'll see a study of Canova's Perseus with the Head of Medusa. It's kind of tall so it'll probably being looking directly up Perseus' nose.
There's so much opening at the Met recently. Tomorrow, the roof garden opens up for the summer. The installation this year is a group of huge sculptures by Frank Stella. I love the look of these sculptures against that skyline. It's a great view from the roof deck. So, it's hard to look bad up there. Last year's installation didn't really play with the skyline quite as well. Don't get me wrong, I was a big fan of Cai Guo-Giang's installation. It was just more about concept than pure esthetics to me. If you missed Cai Guo-Giang's show there's going to be a retrospective of his work at the Guggenheim in '08. I'm sure it'll be explosive (har har). If you didn't follow the link to see his work, that joke doesn't make sense.

Back to Stella- Now, if you think that the work on the roof garden is a little too stark or industrial, you can go to the Kimmelman Galleries and see some friggin color. I felt like I walked into an exploded comic book.

A Good Laugh

I promise to put more work up here soon, but until then you get something else.

So, my girlfriend got me a subscription to McSweeney's for this past Christmas. If you're ever stuck with something to get a special someone, I think this is a great gift. If they're not pleased with it, transfer it into your own name and then break up with the jerk. They're probably not worth your time and energy.

The great thing about this quarterly is that they give you a heads up when they're about to ship you the journal (I don't generally subscribe to literary quarterlies, does this generally happen?). Which is great! And each journal is different. Last one I got was three separate, little journals magnetically bound into a leather case. So brilliant!!

I got my email today, informing me that my new journal was on its merry way. Which inspired me to read their on-line goodness. I found this-CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS VISITS ST. MARGARET'S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG WOMEN, WHERE HE DISCOVERS LITTLE GIRLS AREN'T FUNNY, EITHER. It made me think of you.

God, I wish I were British... er, lived in England

I just came across this link on boingboing.com, which is becoming more and more my soul place to read the news, find out about technology and look at ridiculous things. The little entry is about cameras in the UK. If you didn't know, the UK employs cameras all over the place (George Orwell, what?). These new cameras are a step up though. Check it out.

I know some people might see it as an invasion of privacy, but I disagree. God willing they'll load these things onto the NYC subway faster than you can spit (on the floor of the subway). I'd love it if some raspy voice came out of no where with, "Quit cutting your toe nails on the subway!!! Who raised you?" Or what if the eagle-eyed surveillance crone would cry out, "Put your damn head phones on!! No one wants to listen to the soundtrack to your PSP!!"

Aside from the obvious littering, there's a whole host of social faux pas-es this thing could clean up. Maybe I'm becoming a disgruntled, old goat quicker than I think. Or maybe I think people could wait to get to the top of the subway stairs before lighting their cigarettes. Cripes, maybe my standards are too high.

Wasn't this blog meant to be about art? Eh, art imitates life... or vice versa.

A Bit of a Soapbox

I apologize for this break in my usually congenial blog, but times are tough and things need to be said, by me to you. After the events on Monday I think my views on gun control have taken a really abrupt turn. I grew up in Virginia and I know quite a few people who own guns, who shoot guns and who hunt with guns- both friends and family. Although I've never been all too interested in guns I never thought I should take the right to bare arms away from anyone who was. Living in a free society holds many contradictions. Just because I don't believe you should have a gun doesn't mean you are not allowed to hold a differing opinion.

A person can be a vegetarian AND be ProChoice. You could see that as a contradiction or you might not, it depends on your beliefs really. Here in America we're allowed to have differing view points and as long as yours don't step on other people, that's fine. We have an obligation to put up with and respect differing opinions so that our opinions and beliefs can have room. You give a little, you get a lot. Really you do. But I think it's time to seriously reevaluate gun legislation. I realize that if the populace was a well-armed populace it would be able to defend itself against crazies with guns. On the other hand, if we gave up our rights to guns and maybe made gun laws a lot more stringent we wouldn't need guns to protect ourselves. Make sense? No? You're a sportsman and should be allowed to follow your passion. Then, let's put it a different way.

No other sport offers it's participant a piece of equipment, that when used in the manner it was originally intended, the ability to kill innocent people. If you are truly a sportsman, with an honest to God passion why would you be opposed to stict gun laws? You respect your gun don't you? You realize their potential? That's why you like them, right? They are deadly and are a means of destruction. There is no gun built with the intent of creating anything but harm. If there was an outbreak of hockey stick-related mass murders, would we make hockey sticks harder to get? Probably. Did you know that full faced ski-masks are illegal? Because, they are.

So, you think that people will kill without guns? Of course they will. But, you know what they won't do without guns? They will NOT go on a killing spree. A knife wielding maniac can't do what happened in Virgina Tech. A man with a chainsaw will not be able to sit in a clock tower and be able to rain bullets on unsuspecting people. These things happen and continue to happen. Something needs to change. Does you passion for guns matter more to you than your family and the safety of millions? What's to stop someone from coming into your children's school and taking them from you? Do you suggest we arm elementary school teachers and teach them marksmanship? What's to stop someone from coming into your office and shooting you where you sit, reading this slightly inflammatory blog? Gun in your desk? Good idea.

Something needs to change. What is wrong with us that we cling to this right so desperately even in the face of so many events that say it's wrong? Why does empirical evidence not even phase us? I think it's time the gun lobby step down. It's time for the NRA to hear that what they're doing is actually absurd.

Lilya, my volunteer was in today. She kept asking me why Virginia let's people buy guns so easily. She asked why people were allowed to buy hand guns. "You can't hunt with that? Why do you need that?" I had no answer. I have no answer. Do you?

A small afterthought

I almost forgot about this-

The attention to detail in this torso fragment is astounding. Stylized happy trail?

Also, I love my new camera. You'll love it too, as I will be posting lots of pictures on the blog.

G&R Reunion Tour!!

So, last night was one of the many opening receptions for the new and improved Greek and Roman wing at the Metropolitan Museum. It was a fancy gala event to start off what looks to be a season filled with over crowded museums and small children putting gum on old things, besides their grandparents.

If you get a chance to go and see the new wing, you should. It's beautiful. Who am I talking to here? Mom? Dad? Does anyone read this thing? Anyways, here are some pictures from the event.

There were all sorts of or-dervs. There was roast beef that I later found out was veal, then someone told me was lamb. There were veal meatballs that were ACTUALLY veal, shrimp, some sort of carrpachio in a martini glass, lots of cheese and then a full bar. My girlfriend was happy with that. She likes the champagne.

The wing officially opens to the public this Friday, but chances are you (or even YOU) know me and could stop by earlier this week if you wanted. Just drop me a line, come meet me for lunch. Or don't. You can always wait to see it with the rest of the masses. Chances are it will be REAL crowded in the coming months. And something about that space makes me think there's going to be more than a few people touching, bumping and possibly knocking over some herculeses.

this is hercules/herackles/me after a bath and lion slaughtering.

Buy me this!!!

Dear Santa,

I realize it's a little early in the season to be asking for presents, but I think I've been pretty good for the last 3 or 4 months and I deserve this.

Sincerely,
Aaron With-Angel-Wings

-----

As you, my faithful reader, may or may not know I kind of have this problem buying stuff from Kidrobot. Mostly Dunnies, but also those Koo-Koo, Kozik labbits and mongers. I don't know what it is, but I can't help it. I'll post some pictures of my collection.

If I ever bought this, this is what would happen- I would bask in its glow for like two days, watching TV while sitting on it, though probably less cool than the model in the picture, then I'd come to terms with the fact it's not all that comfortable and put a plant on top. Which is great, but then it becomes an incredibly expensive plant stand. A really awesome plant stand, but still a plant stand.

In conclusion, why doesn't Kidrobot and Mr. Kozik make a Chia Labbit? Seriously. Get on that.

More Fing-Genius

So, I posted some images to the website finally. Only problem is, now I really want to do a redesign. The more I work with it, the more ideas I get. It's going to be the website of purgatory or something. I know it.

Check it out, again- www.fing-genius.com

Hot Fuzz=Best Action Movie of All Time.

I would've come up with some snappy movie critic-esque title for this post, but that's just not my groove, man. Lay off.

So, last night I went to a free screening of Hot Fuzz. Two words- Best Movieever!!!! It has all the key ingredients of a great cop movie: shooting two guns while flying through the air, shooting a gun while driving a car, and uh... drop kicks to old ladies? It's got mystery, intrigue, ultra-violence and the kind of comedy a guy like me can really understand- slapstick.

It's by the guys who made Shaun of the Dead. So, imagine that with cops and no zombies. Also it has Bill Nighy, but he was in Shaun of the Dead too. Hmmmm, just put that together. Weird.

If you aren't completely satisfied with Hot Fuzz as THE action movie to beat for the summer, well, I guess there's always Transformers and TMNT and Spiderman 3, but definitely NOT Fantastic Four 2. That has stinker reflected all over the Silver Surfer's retarded shiny butt. What you think TMNT is stupid? F you. Those guys raised me and I WILL go see the movie. Maybe tonight. By myself. Drunk.

Drawings!!

So I finally got around to photographing some drawings to put on my website. I'll be posting them pretty soon. Until then, here's a sneak peak.

Greatest Artist I Never Heard of

I just replaced the wallpaper on my desktop. It used to be an orangutan baby cuddling with a tiger cub. I thought it was incredibly saccharine and kind of made me laugh, but so many people at work were ACTUALLY struck by how adorable it was and kept stopping to tell me so. It made me uncomfortable and made me realize my irony wasn't being noticed and my appearance of manliness was at stake. This is what I changed it to-

It's an 18th Century French drawing by Michel-Francois Dandre-Bardon, titled An Allegory Comparing Music and Poetry. You really can't get the full effect of it here. So, I highly recommend you go see it. It's a recent aquisition at the Met in Prints and Drawings. Something about the swirling figures, the expressions on all their faces and the fact that, this guy could draw!! makes it one of my new favorite pieces. It's inspired me to drop my classes and start working on my own. Excited? Me too. Stay tuned, you're probaby gonna see some awesome popping up here. I might go so far as to say it'll be FING AWESOME... i mean fing genius. Hey, mom! You reading this blog yet? Leave a comment. I'm your son!

Holy movie, Batman!!

I want to see "The Host" so bad I could pee. Just FYI.

FING GENIUS!!!!

Hey Kids!!

I know you've been waiting for it- my website!! It doesn't have any pictures on it quite yet and... to tell the truth the images are little more fuzzy than I would have liked, but it's still there and YOU can look at it.

It started as one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on and ended in a frustrating few days of screaming and kicking and yelling and cursing and... what ever. It's up. It will go through a series of upgrades until it's the greatest thing in the world. But, until then I give you the greatest website-in-the-world, beta.

www.fing-genius.com

St. Patrick's Eve

On the verge of St. Patrick's day, something struck me; Are all holidays that are these nationalistic holidays based on drinking? I mean, St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo or... Bastille Day? If I go to some other country do I get an America Day where I get blasted on Budweiser? Or would America Day just be a day filled with effigies of Dubya and the like? Anyway, I WILL wear green tomorrow, but only because I don't want people pinching me.

Is there an Italian day? Just curious. I could go for a glass of red.

More Sketchbook

These are drawings from a little book of Fabriano paper. They're last week's entries. Vote on your favorite. The winner gets to be on my website. Which would have been up today, except I'm not the web-genius I think I am. Do you know what a crushing blow that is? Huge. Not only that, but I'm broker than the Berlin Wall.

On the bright side, I have my favorite volunteer in today AND she made me lunch. Meatballs. Apparently I'm too skinny and she's worried. What? I thought skinny was the new black?

What's on for Tonight? The Shins at Madison Square Garden. I'd write up some sort of review but I'm sure it'd just be like, I love the Shins, Boy the Shins are swell and that kind of thing.

Oh, yea. Drawings-

Sketchbook

I've gotten quite a few sketchbooks over the years. My friend Mike gave me a green one that I take pretty much everywhere and my friend Peyton gave me one (either that or I stole it clepto-style from somewhere) of really nice fabriano, colored paper. These are a couple drawings from the old green one. I've been filling the fabriano one up too. Unfortunately I don't have it on hand. So, for my viewing public, all two or possibly three of you, enjoy.

Finally Fountain

So, I'm still getting used to blogging and working it into my day. Rather than giving you a full review of Fountain NY I'll just post my pictures. Hope you like them. It was a good time and a great show. I saw old friends and new work by artists I like. I even came across works by Heiko Muller. He's an artist I found while trolling the Internet and decided I needed to own one of his works. Now he's everywhere I look.

Anyways, pictures-

These are the boys from CaplaKesting Fine Art. I used to work for them and they helped put this wonderful show together. Dave Kesting on the Left and John Leo on the right.

Travis Lindquist, Colin Burns, David Hochbaum (larry to ricky) are always available to pose in front of their work and endorse soda. Aside from their solo work, they do collaborative work as the Goldmine Shithouse. This is an example of their work, I think. That's what they told me. Why would they lie? Next we have Brian Leo and Colin Burns, again. I forgot the guy's name on the left, sorry about that.


And finally- My wonderful girlfriend and her friend Jeff, he likes to overshadow her.
I wish I could give you a full run-down of works and maybe even a brief review, but is that really what you go to openings for? No. They're parties with art. Next one I'm going to? Thursday the 8th at the Met. Gaudi to Dali. Come back. I'll regale with more good times. Then I'll tell you how much I love Gaudi and also Dali.

Go-Go Guggenheim!

Sorry for the long hiatus. It's not right for a new blogger to take a week off, but life is busy for me and time tends to run away. I work an 8 hour day, study painting every day for 5 hours (give or take) at the Art Students League and then, I'm young. I want to go out and have a good time. As my father constantly points out to me, I'm burning my candle at both ends. Eh, burn away.

This week has been especially busy. I've been at a three day conference called, "Contemporary Photography: Digital Prints." We learned, discussed and had free coffee, bagels and muffins. It was nice to get away from my desk and learn a thing or twelve about printing processes both digital and analog. The conference culminated last night with a reception, gallery visit and panel discussion at the Guggenheim (fancy, I know).

The evening started with some delightful finger sandwiches, nuts, olives (no place to put my pits, thank you very little!!) and a some wine. We weren't allowed to view the show of Spanish paintings thats on view right now, but we were allowed to see two other exhbitions that were much more pertinent to our conference: The Hugo Boss Prize and Family Pictures.

I'm not going to talk about the Hugo Boss Prize. It was four pieces total and I was really only interested in one.

Family Pictures, on the other hand, was amazing. For people who like contemporary photography you are probably familiar with the names in the show. For people who don't like contemporary photography or just aren't familiar, go. If you've uttered the phrase, "Who cares?" or "I can take a picture!" GO!! And also- you may be able to push the shutter button on your Kodak EasyShare900T, but you can NOT make pictures like these.

One of my favorite pieces was Catherine Opie's self-portrait. In it she's nursing a child. She sits against a deep red, fabric background. Across her breasts are scars that read, "pervert." It has an overt look of a Madonna and Child mixed with a reformed criminal. It was also pointed out to me that the child looked a little old for breast feeding. It wasn't something that I thought of right away, I'm just putting it out there. There's another Catherine Opie in the Guggenheim's collection, another Self-Portrait, which is very different. I thought it made for interesting comparison.

Another work that really struck me was Gillian Wearing's "Self-Portrait at Three Years Old." At first it looks like a picture of a sad, doll faced little girl. She stares at you with an oddly penetrating, almost glaring stare. On closer inspection her eyes aren't a little girl's. It's a mask. It starts to feel like a huge copy of Linda Blair's first grade, class picture. All this in an electric orange frame. Love it.

The rest of the show is pretty great. With artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Loretta Lux, Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Struth to name a few, it's hard to go wrong.

After all that we had a panel discussion with the curator of Family Pictures, Jennifer Blessing and two artists; Vic Muniz and Collier Shore. ; I'm now a Vic Muniz fan. Seriously. He drew pictures with sugar and chocolate and string and wire, but not all at once. Great.

In conclusion, go see Family Pictures at the Guggenheim. Something I thought about during a conference on archival properties of prints is, although we put so much stock in our technological advancements and although these photos have the feel of a permanent record, they're far from it. They are far more fragile and ephemeral than, say, those dusty old paintings. A photo may be able to capture a specific moment, but they may not be able stay around a heck of lot longer than that. Also, don't ask me about printers, I know too much now and come back tomorrow. I've neglected to post a bunch of pictures from Fountain.

Opera Glasses and sore... butts

Last night I went and saw The Magic Flute at the Met. It was long and kind of boring. I know, not a very sparkling or thoughtful criticism, but that's what I got. I was expecting this opulent spectacle (it's a Julie Taymor production) but what I got was something that I thought looked like a David Copperfield stage with some kites thrown in for color. It also made me think of all those little stories that they had in early Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior games. With the quirky little characters that march around "acting out" the worst storyline you've ever heard. Yea, Magic Flute makes no sense. None.

BUT!!! Tonight I'm going to Fountain- check it out http://www.fountainexhibit.com/ Tomorrow I hope to have some pictures.

Oh, and speaking of- here's a picture of some cranes. I thought I'd post them before we got too far from the Chinese New Year. What? I don't have a drawing of a pig.

The Very First Post

I just came back from a PA ski weekend and I'm feeling pretty good. So good I thought I'd finally get around to making a website and starting a blog. I got back Monday night, so that's a lot since it's only Wednesday morning.

The goal of this blog is to share my sketches, and thoughts, progresses and struggles. I find myself incredibly entertaining. So, I thought everyone else would too.

Quickly, about me- I work in an Art Museum and I study at the Art Students League almost every day. I try to squeeze in as much life as possible between those two things. Shows, bars, friends and the like. Life is good. I live in NYC, I have a wonderful girlfriend and... haven't been beaten up in almost 18 years. I think that's a pretty good streak.

I thought I'd start the blog with a sketch I did of myself in a window of a train on the way back to NY from where I grew up in Virginia. It's properly moody and has all the ear marks of a good place to start. Please stop by again, leave me comments and enjoy!