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| 30.5 x 46.5 x 2 cm I found this in Lois' basement when I was helping her move boxes. I would give it back to the New York Transit Authority, but that font, those stripes... too handsome to relenquish. |
PROPERTY OF NYC TRANSIT AUTHORITY BAG
HOW TO PAINT AND FINISH WOODWORK
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| 8.6 x 12.6 cm My wife bought this for me in a second hand shop in Hillsborough, Oregon. It is demarcated as the little blue book number 1073. I wonder how many books of those one-thousand seventy three books are actually blue. |
YANKEES TICKET STUB, MAY 22, 2002
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| 8 x 5 x .1 cm I have been to like a hundred Yankee games in my life. For some reason, whenever I attend a contest versus the Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees lose. My 29th birthday was no exception, thank you very much, Canadia. |
BOX OF GLASS TOOLS
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| 23.8 x 34.4 x 4.8 cm Aaron gave me this in 2009. I have no idea what it is for. It appears to be a bespoke case housing glass tools of some sort, and it looks like it is a hundred years old. The whole kit looks so beautiful and useless notion that I almost think this was created by some steam punk art student in 2007. |
LITTLE RED BOOK
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| 6 x 8.7 x 1.6 cm My father-in-law Frank was a Maoist when he was younger. He has 3 things to show for it: 1. cool ephemera (like this lil' red book he gave me) 2. dissolution with the Cultural Revolution 3. A son-in-law who loves to herald the merits of the free market, usually while imbibing on delicious Oregon wine, just to bust his chops. |
HOQUIAM OR ABERDEEN (TOY CHICKEN)
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| 4 x 2 x 3.5 cm When Daryl and I drove across this great country of ours, we procured two toy chickens, naming one Hoquiam and the other Aberdeen after the sad sister cities just south of Seattle in Washington State. At times, we would speak through these characters. Ultimately we created a contest of who could paint the bleaker first person picture through the voice of our respective chickens. I do not know if this is Hoquiam or Aberdeen, and I do not remember who of Daryl or I assumed which name. I think I was Aberdeen. |
HALF A FARM CARD
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| 5 x 4.5 x .1 cm The first place I was ever issued a card was The Farm Creative and Production. It was a ma & pa production company, literally, run by John and Sharon. Half of me thinks that I could have sought bigger seas in which to swim, made it further in this business. The other half looks back at the crazy shit I was given responsibility for in my early twenties and thinks it was the best grad school ever. The whole of me is better for knowing John and Sharon. |
PHOTOGRAPHS COVER, SHAWANO, WIS.
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| 21.5 x 14.4 cm Ahh, numbers and time. On august 6th, 1955, my mother received a photo album and she was but eleven. Three days ago, my youngest turned 2. Today, my grandmother would have been 100. But I digress. Dates of relatable human occurrence don't fit into an organic structure, just the constructed one we have created to cradle the passage of moons. By the time you read this, the examples here will be moot. We will have moved on. |
WOOD FROM TOTALLY STICK YOUR HEAD INSIDE THIS HOLE
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| 8 x 8 x 1 cm I had an art show in September of 2010 at the Pavel Zoubok Gallery in New York City. It was called 'Totally Stick Your Head Inside this Hole.' The centerpiece was a big machine that featured an ornate hole through which you stuck your head, activating the creation of a very small un-fabulous hole. John and Phil of Hecho, Inc helped me make the machine. John and Phil of Hecho, Inc,--actually all of the people at Hecho, Inc-- are truly wonderful human beings. |
CAMP DUDLEY
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| 64 x 64 x .5 cm I spent 6 summers at Camp Dudley in Westport, New York. Among its countless attributes was the mandate that every kid get on stage at least once a summer; and once on stage, the weirder the better. At 12, I donned dress and performed the Star Spangled banner while doing a handstand, a feat that took several attempts. When I finally did nail it, the performance was genuinely and audaciously applauded by 500 fellow humans. At 12, that's wicked cool. At the end of the day, this place has provided my deepest moral well. Well, next to my Mother, Father, and Benjamin Franklin Hawkeye Pierce, of course. |
OLD PNEUMATIC TUBE
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| 7 in diameter x 27.4 cm Aaron gave me this in 2009. I believe it is from a bank, one of those tube systems, the kind that pre-dates our current internet tube system. When I opened it up, it smelled pretty rank inside. And no, I have absolutely no explanation for my olfactorial curiosities regarding the inside of an old tube. |
WEDGE ART
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| 23.7 x 22.2 x 3 cm I made some art. It didn't work out. This is what I have left over. I am fond of it, what with my propensity for being fond of wood and all. |
SCHOOL DAYS DESK
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| 26 x 26.5 x 9.5 cm I found this on the street around 2002. I loved the patina of the chalk board. I laid down a hundred plans for what image it might host. Without touching it, this object became overworked, like a drawing you kill the shadows on. Subsequently, it lay dormant, but with enough "work" projected upon it that it couldn't be discarded, a pitiful state to subject an object to. |
I CAN WRITE ON THIS IF I WANT TO DRAWING
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| 21.1 x 27.7 cm I directed a PSA about domestic violence awareness in like 1997. We had some kids on the set, so we gave them markers and paper to draw. While I love the drawing of the face, sure, the meta quality of the written statement proclaiming writing rights is still something that blows my mind. |
NOKIA PHONE
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| 4.4 x 10.5 x 1.8 cm It was 2002, I was doing a construction job and my phone died. So I went out and bought this one, started using it pretty much immediately to order drywall, etc. Remember when they used to warn you not to initiate usage of your phone before the battery was fully charged because that would limit the capacity of the cell? That used to be true. This thing never held a charge past 2pm.. |
HANDMADE BUSINESS CARD
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| 6 x 9 x .3 cm When I left college in 1995 I handmade all my business cards. I also listed my title as one who makes 'animated films', which is kind of like advertising that you are pretty pumped about being a dick. |
DAVID WELLS PERFECT GAME FRONT PAGE NY TIMES
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| 17 x 25.5 cm Listen, this is what baseball is about: run it out, throw hard, slide with abandon, work hard and long and slow if necessary, always think, never think, guffaw like a hick but quantify like a philosopher, spit, never dance like some end-zone shit head, make eye contact, don't back down but oh christ-never ever be a meathead, embrace dirt and be honest. Above all, run it out. |
WOOD HANDLE
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| 2 x 10.2 x 4.4 cm This handle belonged to a stereoscope, that glasses-with-a-handle looking thing created in the late 1800's. You'd slide a card into one side, look through the glasses and the image would appear 3D. I think it was invented by James Cameron's great-great grandfather. |
INVISIBLE EYES AND HOOKS
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| 10.8 x 6.3 cm I don't know what you are talking about. I don't see anything. |
WOOD VENEER SAMPLES
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| 2.7 x 4 x 3.4 cm Tis is a tiny wood veneer sample that Alex Perfidio gave me. I think I am spelling his name wrong. Alex is a very good carpenter and fond of referring to things as cute, even if they are large and wooden. This is small and wooden, and actually quite cute. |
SCRABBLE JR. BOARD PIECE
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| 11.2 x 13.5 cm I love orange. I admit, I am fond of things that are both adjectives and nouns. That's not the deal here, though. Orange is just my favorite color. |
WEDDING CHICKENS
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| 7.5 x 3 x 2.5 cm My wife and I were married in relatively unconventional form. At the conclusion of the ceremony, we were crowned and sashed, labeled 'HUSBAND' and 'WIFE', and made our way through an applauding mass of friends of family. It was a wonderful and heady moment. The man who introduced Adrianna and I took it upon himself to introduce the weirdness to our ceremony; Richard Egan donned a cape and some sort of hunchback persona, tugged at our coattails as we made our exit, and presented us with these two tiny chickens. A grunt escaped his lips, that particular character's manner of ordainment. |
BILLY'S BACK POSTCARD
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| 9.2 x 14 cm So here's the setup: You are George Steinbrenner and it's 1983. The Yankees haven't won a World Series since 1977. So what you do is re-hire Billy Martin, the man you've hired and fired twice in 8 years. You hope that the alcohol fueled hate-rages between the two of you are somehow subdued by the humorous visual-pun postcard you put in the 1983 Yankees Yearbook with the caption 'Billy's Back'. Here's the outcome: It doesn't work. None of it. |
ULSTER TICKET STUB
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| 14 x 8 x .1 cm There is a very large breakfast served in Ireland called a fry. It has a few variations, but the staples are sausages, bacon, eggs, potato bread, a pancake and soda bread. Depending on where you are in Ireland, there also may be baked beans, blood pudding, mushrooms, and perhaps a tomato. If you go the Northern Ireland, it is called an Ulster Fry. I went to this rugby match in Belfast, which is in province of Ulster. They were playing the team from the province of Leinster. I started a chant to the tune of Camptown Races that went, 'Leinster doesn't have a fry, doo-da, doo-da...' It was well received by the local crowd, though Ulster ultimately lost, and I still don't really understand what the hell is going on in Rugby. |
MICHAEL PREMO HOSPITAL ID CARD
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| 19 x 2 x .1 cm This was on my wrist when Frieda was born. She was only zero at the time. |
HOUSE OF POON MENU
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| 21.5 x 35.7 cm When someone dies, you are supposed to be sad. When my grandfather George Johanek died in 1999, we all did the right thing; we were sad. With grief comes the need to find respite from it, often in humor. Enter the need to eat. The evening after his funeral, the immediate family was to reunite in one of the hotel suites. We would pick up some Chinese food, reminisce or not, relax, watch TV and/or cry. My sister and my cousins and I went to find some dinner, and this is the menu from the place we found. There is part of me that has yet to stop laughing. |
NUMBER 5 AND CHINESE SLEEVE
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| 20.7 x 20.7 cm So I bought this awesome Japanese baseball jersey. I took it to the tailor to have it taken up, since it was really long. What they did, though, was take the whole bottom hemline up equally. I suppose I should have been more clear, but I ended up with a shirt that had side slits halfway up to my armpits. Pretty flappy. |
FINAL SEASON YANKEES TICKET
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| 4.5 x 16 x .1 cm Frieda's first game, accompanied by me, Adrianna, Jonny and Rich. We sat in the bleachers, and though Tampa Bay won, it was a wonderful day at the park. Except for the fact that Tampa Bay won. |
CARLSBAD POSTCARD
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| 9 x 14 x .1 cm For some time now, I've spent a week every summer in Carlsbad, California with my Father's side of the family. There really isn't anything exciting to say about this postcard of the Carlsbad Inn, where he has a timeshare. Actually, there really isn't anything exciting about the time spent out there. Instead, it is pretty much just perfect. |
TRIP ACROSS AMERICA SPECULATIVE MAP
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| 15 x 10 cm In 1998, Daryl and I drove across the country. We wanted to shape our trip, give ourselves an objective. We decided to find people who risk their lives for a living. I would take their photographs; Daryl would interview them. We went to West Virginia to interview coal miners, then to New Orleans to find of-shore oil rig workers, then to Washington to talk to loggers. This map is a bar room illustration of dates and path. It also includes the part where we bet $7000 on black in Vegas and walk away, twice as rich in a single fell swoop. That part didn't really transpire accordingly. |
BOLEX PAILLARD HANDLE
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| 5.5 x 16.5 x 11.7 cm Bolex makes 16mm cameras. I learned to shoot animation and live action on a Bolex. The live action part was kind of tough, because the cameras are driven by a hand cranked motor, and ultimately, you only get like 26 seconds continuous run time out of a full hand crank. This here is a handle/trigger mechanism you can attach to the Bolex. It makes those 26 seconds all that much more comfortable. |
HURLEYS
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| 94 x 15 x 2 cm Rory came to visit in 2002. He brought these hurleys from Belfast. I'm sorry Rory. They never even saw an open field. |
SINGLE PAPER LOG BRIQUETTE MAKER
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| 25.5 x 14.5 x 10 cm In the studio that Aaron, Oliver and I shared, we had a wood-burning stove. It was a rather ingenious device that Aaron's dad made. The two problems were that wood cost like a million dollars and the place was insulated as well as a pair of flip-flops. Suzanne bought us this thing; it is a briquette maker. You put water in a bucket, then shred your extra paper into strips that sit in the water for like a week. Then you take that pulp and squish it into a brick with this machine, which needs to dry for a week or two. We made one brick. |
HOTEL MAP FROM SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE
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| 33.3 x 21.5 cm In 1993 I studied in Mexico. I spent 7 weeks filling a sketchbook. 2 of those weeks were spent in San Miguel de Allende. It felt like we were there for a year or for just 2 minutes, and that feels like a hundred years ago, but also just last week. All of this is predictable banter about the passage of time and humanities strange dual-comprehension tendency. If you can think of how to make linear time feel less folded, I'm all ears. |
SUPERSTAR CHOCOLATE WAFER WRAPPER
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| 16 x 10 cm Indonesia is awesome. Even the chocolate bars are confused western references. |
TWO NY AQUARIUM TICKETS
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| 11.5 x 5 x .1 cm When Frieda was about 1-and-a-half, I took her to the New York Aquarium. She ran around terrified and exhilarated at the site of these living shapes that floated by, through some sort of blueish medium, mere inches from her face. |
VOLVO SEAT BELT STRAP
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| 4.9 x 11 x .2 cm Everything in a Volvo is designed well. Even if you rip out its seat belts and discover a label intended only for the eyes of those information-oriented folks who might dissect a car for some insurance purpose, you will find things handsomely displayed. |
GOMPY'S PARTS BOX
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| 31.5 x 14 x 14.7 cm My Grandfather was an engineer, a railroad man. He taught me how to work with my hands. There are several hundred tiny parts in this box. He put them all there. They each had a use, they each had a purpose. |
FRUIT CUP
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| 5.5 x 5.5 x 6.0 cm I went to art school. Part of the application process was to complete several arduous drawings. My mother let me stay home one week to work on my application. She would leave for work and trust that I would stay home, continue toward the completion of my application. One morning, before she left, she entered my room and placed this fruit cup on the edge of my drawing table. She didn't say anything; I didn't look up. Over time, its seal gave way to the pressures of jostling or botulism, its contents spilled, its labeled stained. But I kept this fruit cup as an emblem of both my mother's trust in me and care for me. Any attempt at articulating my gratitude would certainly fall short; yet have been uttered words that offer due diligence to the eternal task that is Motherhood, so I will simply say this: I am nourished. Thanks Mom. |
TONY ART
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| 20 x 16.5 x 4.2 cm I made a film about a car that was passed around our Family. It was called Family Car, about our Tony. I interviewed my family, the people that owned it, my uncle who bought it. I also made a bunch of animation. This is from one animated sequence I made out of screen printed images of Tony himself. |
MOUNTED BAVARIAN NAPKIN
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| 10.2 x 10.2 x 2 cm My brother-in-law Court and I travelled to Germany with Oliver and Ryan for part of the 2006 World Cup. We rented a camper van, ate copious amounts of sausage and drank copiouser amounts of bier. Somewhere in there was soccer. This is a napkin from Bavaria. |
MACK PATCH
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| 8 x 7.4 cm This was on the back on my Yankees hats for so many years, it might as well have been an non-functioning third ear. |
FOOTBALL PLAYER WATCH
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20 x 3 x 1 cm I remember this watch from when I was about 5. For two years I waited for that guy to stop pump-faking and finally pass the damn ball. By the time I was seven, it became clear that he was never going to commit. |
BLACK FIST
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| 12 x 5.5 x 3 cm My old landlord Alex makes ceramic hands. This is a small mold from one series. Clay Power. |
OLSON PL-53 NO.47 PANEL LAMPS
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| 10 x 14.4 cm I've said this before during this project. I will say it again. We are currently worse designers than we used to be. |
AMERICA LETTER OPENER
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| 21 x 5 x 5 cm My wife bought me this. It is a Liberty Bell letter opener, or a dull knife that says 'America' on it, depending on how you look at it. |
UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COUPON BOOK
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| 6.6 x 12.6 x .5 cm My wife is from the Northwest. She bought this for me to use as an everyday pad, one that I could carry with me. It is old, and the glue that binds the pages would not endure the wear of a back pocket, so I did not use it. I did keep it, though, because my wife gave it to me. She is from the Northwest. |
PAGE 128 OF THE STANDARD FIRST AID THEORY AND SKILLS GUIDE
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| 22 x 11cm All these men, helping each other, they are so dapper. Look at the tucked in shirts; look at the hair. Oh, and the lines on the shoes... |
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