Commercial Confusion

Carter Kustera has had some of the most interesting career moves of anyone I ever met. He was assistant for a while to a famous painter. They met when Carter bummed a cigarette off him, got the artist to autograph it, then lit up right in front of him and smoked it. He was hired. He's now doing custom portraits for Jonathan Adler along with his own practice. This blurring of the commercial and personal has been going on for a long time. The forerunner was probably Andy Warhol. Andy was forerunner in lot's of other ways too, including the cult of celebrity. With the blurring of all these arenas, an artist has to understand legal, licensing and contracts. Carter broke new ground suing, not on the slippery slope of ideas and copyright, but for" commercial confusion." He won. If Andy were alive, he'd have a field day!

American Romance

New work as american as...a Ford. I have a romance with cars, trucks, dashboards, you name it. My new work is emerging as a continuation of the push pull pictorial plane, this time in the driver's seat. Could this be a hopeful metaphor for my career?

Security Blanket 2

Breaking news you can use... Shepard Fairey is going to be on Charlie Rose tonight.



I stumbled across another security blanket issue in the delightful work of Jerilea Zempel. Her story is a wild and hilarious account of a border stop, where a sketchbook drawing for covering an SUV with crochet turned into a matter of National Security. I'd love to meet her someday—especially because I'd like to be invited to one of her Subversive cookie parties. Below left is an image of cookies from Jerilea's society. Right is Kurt at the recent holidays with a parallel universe cookie by one of the kids.

Some Jobs Take Longer Than Others

Two views looking towards the studio from 15th Street.

September 10, 1891
by C. C. Langill

January 31, 2009
by Kurt Hoss

Son of VSC

This month I was slated to do another residency at the Vermont Studio Center. For various reasons I had to bow out. I was very sad about it, and tried to define some of the things that made VSC special for me so I could see what I could put in place this month while on home ground. The number one special emerged as freely talking art all the time, anytime, like a studio drop-in with beer. Some of my art colleagues live in places like Montana, Ohio, Louisiana, Egypt, etc. so I decided to set up a virtual VSC. Skype and a $29 Macally web cam, and presto — art Show and Tell 24/7. Critical discussions, taunting of my work, materials and procedures demonstrated — I haven't enjoyed anything so much in ages. P.S. This image is of skyping with sculptor Jon Berge, VSC alumni and best bud.

Stranger than Fiction

This famous clip is from the show, What's My Line, and it's truly surreal.



And in the shameless plug department—and neither strange nor surreal—a few friends of mine are performing for one night only!
Sex Machines and Shameless Hussies
at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City
Monday February 2, 7 pm sharp!

The Avian Music program includes new music by Corey Dargel and Raymond Lustig, Conrad Cummings' notorious song cycle based on 1950’s marriage manuals, Joseph Hallman’s piece based on porn star Jenna Jameson, and other songs by Peter Flint. Additionally, world reknowned burlesque performer, Miss Dirty Martini will be making a return appearance with the ensemble as well, including a reconstruction of Sally Rand’s legendary fan dance set to Debussy’s Clair de Lune.

Not to be missed!

Across Media

Last Friday we trekked over to the Joyce to see “Zydeco Zaré,” choreographed by Elisa Monte to a musical score by Jonno Frishberg (we are fans of an earlier group of his, Charivari) that featured Jeff Broussard and the Creole Cowboys as well as fiddler, David Greeley. Zydeco is a lively mixture of Cajun music, blues, R&B, and Juré religious singing of southwest Louisiana. Juré evolved from jurer "to testify." I love Jeff Broussard's music and he is a good guy too. Before the performance we spotted him, lit by streetlight, phoning another friend of ours in Louisiana. I was visually alerted to his presence from across the street because his ever present toothpick glinted in the light.

It was interesting to see the fusion of the two. It made me realize that there is risk in collaboration, because it always takes on a life of its own. It reminds me of the Chinese character for crisis. It is made up of a combination of danger and opportunity. The New York Times was not so kind to the choreography but it made our friends, the musicians, very happy.







The video above is by PHubb