Sam Moss

        This month Sam Moss launched a blog which chronicles his most recent visual project, daily drawings which he has titled Imagined Faces. He states that though the "imagined" aspect is not a rule, the drawings (which he often does "on the cusp of sleep") typically turn out this way. He scans the drawings directly out of his sketchbook.
        The faces remind me of a combination of Ray Johnson's work and Ken Kesey's sketches in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (though this may be off the mark as I haven't seen the book in a while and google books has removed ONLY the pages with illustrations). Johnson for the composition and Kesey for the style.
        The fact that he is so close to sleep is possibly responsible for some of the stranger aspects of the drawings, as just before and just after sleep are generally considered to be the times when the creative and subconscious are most readily accessible. Little bits of other information (sometimes less immediately obvious) find their way into the portraits, giving them a strange transitory movement. Some of the drawings feel like they could be imprints of the artist's mind, with floating shapes, images and text all mashed into the same plane as the figures. It is difficult to speak for them because their language is very visual.
        The works very clearly represent Moss' artistic style, which can be seen in his other visual work (mainly drawing and collage) as well. While I imagine he would identify foremost as a musician, Moss is also a visual artist, a sizable sampling of which can be seen on his website alongside his music.

Imagined Faces
Moss' website




images: imagined-faces.blogspot.com

InsideOut

        InsideOut is the School of the Museum of Fine Arts' annual sale. It is the largest fundraising event for the school (at least 50% of all sales go to the student scholarship fund) and with thousands of works, it is possibly the largest art sale in New England. The artwork comes from students, faculty, alumni and associated artists; ranging from smfa freshman to contemporary greats such as alumni Nan Goldin and the Starn twins and associated artists Chuck Close and Kiki Smith. There are paintings, drawings, photographs, video installations, jewelry, sculpture, ceramics... the list goes on. Work is reasonably priced, and is a great opportunity to add to or even start your art collection. People have come back and stated that they purchased student work at a low price, and the student has now become well known and pricey.
        Not only is it a great opportunity to buy art, but as I mentioned it does help out the school, which is especially important right now. It is also a fun and casual atmosphere, and you may even get a chance to speak to many of the artists. Tonight is the opening, so if you can make it you ought to! It is also open through Sunday the 22nd, I have posted the hours below. (The two show pictures I've posted are from the set-up week! It looks much nicer now!)

Weds, Nov 18, 12–8 pm (opening celebration – 5–8 PM)
Thurs, Nov 19, 12–8 pm
Fri, Nov 20, 12–6 pm
Sat, Nov 21, 12–6 pm
Sun, Nov 22, 12–6 pm

More details at the SMFA website
Online gallery of some of the student and faculty work
On facebook



        And I have a line of jewelry in the show so hey, if you're looking for some cool original and wearable work for a nice price... here's a preview of all 12 of my pieces...!


images: daylynn richards & facebook.com/insideoutsmfa

Ahmed Abdalla

        This past Thursday I had the pleasure of attending Ahmed Abdalla's opening for his show Melody and Witness, which is currently up at GASP Arts in Brookline, MA. Abdalla's statement for the show reads as follows;

        In melody and witness, there is anxiety about what is happening and what might never happen. There is frustration, sometimes, with the impossibility of communication.
        Humility and arrogance, power and greed, guilt, redemption, forgiveness, ambiguity, paradox and contradiction are all present in this art event."

        This "art event" (described by Abdalla as something that lies between theater and fine art - his background is in both stage design and fine arts) incorporates elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, video projection, sound and light, culminating in a wildly powerful installation. He has effectively controlled every aspect of the experience within the space, and the effect is overwhelming.
        The viewer enters through the street entrance to the gallery, and is immediately confronted by a small space, a temporary wall covered in pencil marks, and a curtain to the left. Entering into the actual gallery, it is dark. The lights are set up to alternate between two overhead bulbs, darkness, and lighting underneath a table that is set up, with a large glass of oil and tar set next to a slab of special type of tar that has the appearance of both wax and charcoal. Small beads (I'm unclear on what they actually were) cover the ground, Abdalla explained that he hoped visitors would step on them and feel that they had done something wrong (something that I certainly felt before having the discussion with him about it). The second smaller room is pitch black, aside from a video projection into a pedestal sink, a man's hands scrubbing to get almost gold brown oil of his hands under running water.
        By nature of the piece, it really must be experienced (and I encourage anyone in the Boston area to do so) to understand the true power of it. Abdalla has extreme mastery over experiential language; his political and emotional message can almost be sensed without explanation or text.

Information on visiting the art event Melody and Witness:

GASP Arts
362-4 Boylston Street
Brookline, MA 02445
617.418.4308

The gallery is open Thursday - Saturday 11am-5pm and is less than two blocks from the Green D line Brookline Hills stop.




images: taken by me, c. Ahmed Abdalla Melody and Witness

Reed + Rader

Back to normal posting from my 2 week hiatus! Midterms are over and I am ready to go.

        And of course I am back with something bizarre and fascinating. I usually try not to post more than four images, but since these were just so amazing, and because I've been gone for two weeks, I possibly went a little overboard. But I'm not apologizing, because as I said, the images are amazing.
        Reed + Rader is made up of fashion (photography/ video/ installation/ graphics) duo Pamela Reed and Matther Rader. What initially attracted me to their work was the strange feel and unconventional look. Two minutes into their website I was hooked.
        I can not tell you much about the artists themselves, other than that they are 26 and live in New York. Their website also states that they "enjoy cats, stuffed animals, nintendo, pizza, robots, deli sandwiches and computing on the internet". I imagine that they are fun to be around. What I can speak to is their work.
        While all of their work is very different, it is all distinctively theirs. Looking through their website, I began to notice that images were moving (a startling discovery at first), sometimes animated very subtly (a blink or breath). While many of their photographs and videos are simply set up to be strange and other-worldly, many of them have also had some sort of outside intervention, whether that be drawing strange sci-fi additions over the photos, collage, photo manipulations, and animation. While I am always excited to see anything different going on in fashion advertisement, their work is particularly interesting because it also speaks to other things, such as technology, medium and contemporary culture. Their work very successfully resides in both the worlds of fashion and art, and comments on both.

I know I always say this, but you really, seriously, need to look at their website. I couldn't post the moving images or their videos here, and there is just so much more on the website that I wish I could've posted. All of it really.

their website -so many amazing things here
their blog meowzas -has a complete list of their other projects and sites (flickr, youtube etc) on the links page






images: reedandrader.com
(last one is a video still)