New Tropes taking on a life of their own.

As you know I have been working on a series of Tropes at Dieu Donné Papermill...large works in handmade paper.  All painting done with pigmented pulp—cotton, linen and trash pulp.

Susan Shaw 2016  60" x 40" Trope 005 (green deer) cotton, linen and trash pulp







©susanshaw2016

Je Suis Charlie

The comic world is a small one and Kurt knew some of those killed. It is so very sad. As a tribute, I have made a poster in the style of those I saw during the 1968 student protests in Paris. With hope for a better world, la lutte continue!

Jet Lag

I think I am going to be too jet lagged to post this Tuesday so I will just share some of my snaps from the last time I was in Rome plus the foot that I'm sure inspired Philip Guston and my two favorite paintings I did in Rome. And Rome is worth how many words?  Oh, just one. Bellissima!

Tom Sachs: Nugget Playing Cards

Tom Sachs is known for recreating iconic artifacts in actual size out of the unexpected. Among his pieces have been the Apollo Lunar Module constructed out of plywood,  a Chanel chain saw, a blue whale made of foamcore and a cardboard Glock. Most of them are expensive. This truly unique deck of cards is a catalogue of all of them with descriptions for each, and is just about the only way you can own every piece he's made unless you are insanely rich (call us if you're insanely rich). They are limited to a run of 666. Who do you give it to? Poor aesthetes, high-minded gamblers, devil worshipers...

 O.K. I bought a deck. It was so cool. I was trying to figure out a way to display it. It seemed too stuffy to mount each card with with hinges on a piece of archival board. So then I thought about plastic baseball card sleeves, so you could keep from getting your greasy mitts all over them. But then...I discovered wall hanging, opening and closing, display cases for special baseball cards. Wow! They came in oak or black but that didn't seem in the spirit of Tom Sachs. So I called the company up and asked them if they would send me an unstained, unpainted one.  I'm a painter. Why not paint it myself? What color? Safety Orange, of course. When it came, the interior was made of plywood, oh joy, oh rapture. So I put on my Official Tom Sachs Fan Club Hat, covered the plywood interior and sprayed away. It's going to be swell. A place to keep my cards, display my cards, take out my cards, put all my cards on the table and play with them too.

How much is a deck? 20 bucks, plus shipping. Where to get it. Tom Sachs web store.  It's swell!

 


   

Subway Series

No, not Yankees and Mets but a series of maps and a story. In my days as a graphic designer, I worked on maps. Specifically the New York City Transit Maps when I worked for Michael Hertz Associates. I did Manhattan, Staten Island and Queens bus maps, guide-a-rides at the bus stops, Express busses, and was a junior designer on the New York City Subway map, working with the always interesting Nobu Sirasi. The impetus for this blog is that The Museum of Modern Art recently sent a notice celebrating their new gift shop products designed by Massimo Vignelli and they included his Subway map on the page. Seeing it lauded gets my dander up. I really dislike this map. In the interest of design, I agree it is good looking but in the interest of the user, it is incorrect! It can get you lost in a New York Minute.

Vignelli's map has subway lines that run only in straight lines with 90° or 45° turns. This causes geographic errors —on  the West Side of Manhattan, Broadway is seemingly misplaced. It shows as west of Amsterdam Avenue when it should be east. It drifts toward West End Avenue near 72nd Street, where it should intersect with Amsterdam. It passes West End Avenue north of it's endpoint creating several blocks of fictitious Upper West Side real estate, the Broadway line crosses the Eighth Avenue line not at 42nd Street, but at Columbus Circle, Bowling Green is not actually above Rector Street,  and these  are only a few of the map's geographic errors. According to the New York Times, Vignelli said, “Of course I know Central Park is rectangular and not square, Of course I know the park is green, and not gray. Who cares? You want to go from Point A to Point B, period. The only thing you are interested in is the spaghetti.” ...“On purpose we rejected any visual reference to nature or landmarks." Vignelli further defended his design by pointing out that diagrammatic representation is common practice.”

I worked on the map after his. It is not so pretty but it does a great job.  In fact, a version of it is in use today. A lot of work went into the planning. Helped by

Dr. Arlene L. Bronzaft, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Lehman College and Dr. Stephen B. Dobrow, the editor of transportation newsletter Notes from the Underground and an Associate Professor teaching urban systems at Fairleigh Dickinson University, a committee focused on the relationship between transportation within a city and an understanding of the city’s geography, and they asked actual New Yorkers. Michael Hertz, my former boss, was contracted by the MTA to execute the new  ideas. The new map featured subway lines that bend and turn along with New York City —a hybrid of the graphic and the geographic.. This is important because I think we have the most complicated system in the world —a result of being first and of the conglomeration of competing transit companies/lines.  MoMA may not think it's good design, but our map is an early successful exercise in user interface —the mantra of the modern world and it works!

But since this an "art" blog,  here is some for you, created on the Subway. You have to work fast or take the local to Coney Island. Artwork by Josh Bayer, Kurt Hoss, and Tony Serio.

By Josh Bayer

By Kurt Hoss

By Tony Serio

Andy Again..Andy Warhol

The other day I was reminded of Andy's photograph, "Two Cakes and a Gun." I walked into my own kitchen and saw my cake and evidently my gun. The fact that mine is plastic makes it Andy Warhol redux.

Well, it's not cake but it's certainly eating.

A Belated Fourth of July

I had a wonderful Fourth of July. The police directed and redirected us so that a normal fifteen minute trip took an hour and a half. It was raining. We missed the parade and saw only the last three floats. Being the eternal optimist, I went out looking for photographic opportunity. Perhaps channeling Robert Frank's The Americans, a book indelibly burned into my brain, I took these photos.

Managing Disaster

A few years ago I bought a little model of the Unabomber's cabin from a series that contained buildings like the Texas Book Depository and Ford's Theater.  They were made by Constantin and Laurene Leon Boym.  I bought it because it was a difficult time in my life and I wanted to be able hold disaster in the palm of my hand. I thought it would make things more manageable. 

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the Museum of Art and Design to see NYC Makers, the MAD Biennial saw some of the little buildings on display. Including an alternate series: Eighteen Buildings (from the Missing Monuments Series) I guess the moral of the story is that art conquers all. Ars Vincit omnia!

Photo of he Missing Monuments Series by Eva Heyd.

everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything

This blog title was the title of a really wonderful Douglas Coupland show I saw at the Vancouver Art Gallery. His work addresses Canadian culture, language, and the presence of technology in modern life. He also has a whopping sense of humor. Some of my favorite works are made with what we might call upcycled or recycled materials. This is a foreign concept in northern Canada where everything is used and reused in a variety of ways—it is just business as usual. Go Canada!