Aphex Twin and Exquisite Corpses.

So I'm going to divide each post up into...well a new post. I feel like that makes a lot more sense and doesnt make me feel as neurotic about myself, it'll also let me talk about other things besides this music thing.
Been going through Aphex Twin pretty well. Was walking around the city today running errand with Drukqs which was awesome. Lots of energy in that album with enough slow spaces to keep it balanced. Right now, I'm on Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Disc 1). Just got to Cliffs which is one of my all time favorites. Just discovered how awesome Actium is though. When I find a new song from this challenge that I enjoy I snag it and throw it onto a playlist. So, Actium definitely went onto a playlist.
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Recent Albums:
Come To Daddy EP
Donkey Rhubarb
Drukqs
I Care Because You Do
Richard D. James Album
Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Disc 1)

Upcoming Albums:
Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Disc 2)
Ventolin
Windowlicker
26 Mixes For Cash (Disc 1 & 2)

And after that, I'll be done with Aphex Twin until I revisit him in the P's for Polygon Window!

It's kind of sad seeing what little progress I've made so far...especially looking at the scroll bar on the side of my iTunes. Its weird thinking that I wont be able to choose what I listen to until maybe February of 2011. I'm pretty happy with my restriction on myself though, it makes for an interesting next few months. I've also learned how much music affects my mood. I've been wanting to change what I'm listening to a lot mainly today because I was doing a lot of work today and I needed something fast, but it's been nice to have to deal with whats playing and its interesting how it changes my input to a project. Which brings me to my next topic of discussion.

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Finals are coming up for us SAIC students. I'm working with abstracted female figures a la Joan Miro's pastel drawings of the late 1920s and 1930s.

Joan Miro Pastel Drawing

 I chose female figures because at some point this semester I was walking through the Art Institute of Chicago looking in the European 1900s-1950s galleries and I saw a few Miro pastel drawings. That day, I was on lunch break from a class called "Drawing Materials & Techniques" in which we were using pastels that day. I had never really liked pastels and I liked them even less when I had to go to the local art store, Blick, and buy 12 pastels for like 30 bucks or some shit. But, after seeing these Miro pastels, I was drawn to them for some reason. His technical prowess with the medium gave me tons of motivation to learn the medium. I think the reason I identified with these drawings so much is that well, I'm a male and women are both good and bad to me. They're both loving and scary. In Miro's drawings, he depicts women as monsters almost. Once I started drawing them myself, I was able to show them a huge amount of attention and respect while also depicting them as monstrous creatures. This, I think was the initial reason I was drawn to the Miro's in the first place and I am very happy that I've been able to translate this feeling into my own work. Objects have been coming up in my sketches as well, like props for the figures. At times I will make a figure hold something like a fishing pole and this signals to me that I am thinking about Sirens and the qualities that Sirens have compared to women I deal with in my everyday life. Sometimes, I depict multiple heads for a single figure which then demand extra limbs. Within these extra limbs, I'll place objects like a briefcase or eating utensils, this adds meaning to the figures and allows me to move the audience's perception of the drawing with a well thought out title. Sometimes I will title the piece as, for example, "Husband and Wife" when there are extra limbs. In the finished drawings, I've been using abstract collage elements inspired by Kurt Schwitters and late Mattise (to be continued...)

Kurt Schwitters collage.

So my friend that wanted me to send her some snail mail...well she's also an artist. So I've decided to start a mail art project. The surrealists back in the day would make exquisite corpses

"3 Lovers" An Exquisite Corpse by I believe Breton, Miro, and....Picabia I think? I'm not sure. Shame on me.

I've always been fascinated by exquisite corpses. Lots of teachers at SAIC think they're lame because  everybody had to do one in high school or something like that. I disagree. Sure people did them in high school, but thats because at that point its a sort of community building exercise that makes you interact with the class. The surrealists would do them also as community building exercises, but they'd be drunk in bars and talking about the fate of the Arts and of Technology. Now thats awesome. I've been very interested in the communities that formed around Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Neo-Dadaism for a while and I think exquisite corpses are part of why they had such close groups. So with my friend who's wanting to send snail mail, I'm going to send her part of an exquisite corpse and hopefully she'll send it back to me completed. I'm spicing up the format a little though, I've already laid a wash on the paper that she'll have to draw over and hopefully use as a midtone for her own drawing. I'm using water media first and then going to draw on top of that so it should end up looking like a very worked, finished drawing. I'm using gouache, water color, ink, and conte crayon and probably pen later on. (I'm waiting for it to dry right now). Im wanting to collage some things on to it, but I left my glue at school >_<. I'll just acrylic paint it on. I never use that shit anymore anyway. Too bad I dont have any watercolor paper. After seeing my friend's work, she's been doing lots of abstractions with water based media, so I have a feeling she'll want to use watercolor. OH YEAH Can you believe that stamps were fucking 8 dollars at cvs? wtf man? No wonder nobody sends snail mail anymore. Jesus Christ. Also! I went to the post office to try and buy stamps and...guess what, they didnt sell any. Maybe I just went to a branch for packages only, I mean it was a pretty small place on 5 S. Wabash so maybe its just them...but come on! You're a fucking post office you should be selling stamps. So I went to cvs and got some Fat Tire and some stamps in total for like 18 bucks. ugh. so fucking annoying. Oh well, the amount of stamps I have will probably last me long after I get out of college. Pretty weird.

oh my god....aphex twin ambient works putting me the fuck to sleep. I'll post some of my work soon. For now, I have to just post this shit and get up and do something. Can't...fall...asleep.