SUMZINE Magazine, Issue 2

Sumzine issue 2 is currently in production, but the process of production to newsstands for a relatively new publication never comes cheap. I am very excited to join a group of talented, creative, and intelligent people in contributing to a magazine that shines light on a slow, but very important fashion movement adding numbers to the industry's Richter scale: slow fashion and scaling back from the hyper-consumerist model that's created to destroy. Founded by my lovely friend Jamie Ortega, issue 2 boasts interview and content from NYC's creative movers and shakers. Please visit the Kickstarter page to learn about the magazine, content in production, and exactly where your donations will go in the making of issue 2. Please give up a day or two of your coffee money for this amazing publication.

In Conversation: David Lynch With Paul Holdengräber

Image from my very own Instagram account. Out of respect for the venue and hosts of the night, I obliged to the no photo policy - while some had no shame

The conversation between David Lynch and Paul Holdengräber could have happened within any setting: at a coffee shop while the two look at photos and listen to music with a shared iPad, in the comforts of the interviewer's Fort Greene apartment, or conversing in front of a Francis Bacon painting hanging at the Museum of Modern Art. The talk came off as two acquaintances awkwardly observing surrounding, sounds, and personal interest to pass the time, but this isn't the first time the Live from the New York Public Library director and multi-disciplinary artist came together to, well, essentially bounce off words and emotions. In 2012, Holdengräber did a public interview with Lynch at the Grand Palais in Paris.

I quite enjoyed the event, especially Holdengräber patient approach to interviewing that eschews from the information-seeking tradition. He mines with words until water hits, then lets the action of the water speak for itself. The water, in this case, is Lynch: a walking fascination and seeker of beauty, even in its ugliest presentation. 

Discovering fire and smoke were child revelations that he still enjoys looking at to this day. He finds diners the perfect place to sink into the darkest thoughts, then return to the smell of comfort food, chrome furniture, and stimulating color scheme. Lynch loves looking into a neighbor's window as an escape into another world, and he has a thing for focusing on peculiar features, finding their beauty. (On the latter, the two looked at pictures of hairy nose illustrations, provocatively portraying human behavior.) And subways are still scary to him, it just feels him with fear. I also found my eyes following the rise and fall of his fingers when he twirls them upwards to stress a point. It was slow and like watching a feather ascend.

Lynch: an embodiment of great ideas and showing the world a way to find beauty and emotion in everything around you. To him, a finished work of art shouldn't come with words because "it is what it is." So, he is what he is.

Mike Kelly Retrospect at MoMA PS1

I was fortunate enough to catch the Mike Kelley retrospect at PS1 during a quick visit to NYC (a place I've quickly made my home, until a force misaligned the cosmos and pulled me back to Ohio for I guess the stagnant era of my life - but that's another tale to later tell).  Housing over 250 of Kelley's works throughout his art career up until he took his own life in 2012, this is the biggest solo exhibit to date of the late artist. I've been anticipating this show since walking to the M lines from the René Magritte exhibit at MoMA (another fantastic show), during which I saw the Ahh... Youth piece encased and lit in a glass adspace.

Of the pop culture artists in the past century, Kelley strikes me as a personal favorite. Going through his adult years in the SoCal punk scene in which he has both contributed to and was inspired by, the artist's works seem to have been conceived in dreams behind a stack of comics he carried past his childhood and abandoned finds he picked up as life passes through storefronts and streets. He's not reminiscing on wonders and curiosities of the past, but rather deconstructing and reexamining objects and concepts that earmarked his life. It's often cited that his odd complementary pairings of visuals, audios, and various media tend to create discomfort, but one shouldn't get too shapeshifted over a more adulterated look at puppet shows, play space, school banners, and the life and landscapes of Krypton.

Looking at Kelley's works made me want to extend a hand to my own memories and see what all that was means to me now. Guess that explains what I'm doing in the photo above, with number two being provoking museum security to roll their eyes at my peculiar approach to viewing art.

I HIGHLY recommend checking out his show before it ends on February 2nd. I also highly recommend going alone (which I often do on museum excursions) or with one person (if you have no choice because a) you can't shake the individual off, or b) he/she is paying or has a museum pass that grants them a +1) because the retrospect takes up the entire museum and features videos that go from 7 minute shorts to the "Day Is Done" feature film in the MoMA PS1 dome. I add this caution as learning from a grave mistake I've made: not realizing the exhibit took up the entire museum and attending on the 2 hours I could afford before leaving town.