The Sporozoan Shrine will be on display at Lafamilia Gallery at 117 Prefontaine Pl S Seattle beginning June 3rd – opening reception June 3rd 6-9. The Shrine is a menagerie of work stemming from and revolving around The Sporozoan Cavities suite of Intaglio prints.

The Sporozoan Swarm is a modular work of art, made up of torn and cut Intaglio and Lithographic prints combined with drawing, with a projected 500,000 components. These components break down from The Swarm into many small clusters and migrate around the world. The Swarms component structure allows it to ebb and flow through spaces in a fluid way, wrapping around doorways and shifting through corners: it suggests the fluid dynamics of life. Small Clusters of The Swarm are installed in places that are not typically seen as “art viewing spaces,” allowing the greatest number of viewers the space to commune with the piece, free of sterile pretense, or limited access. This way of viewing makes the work become more a part of the viewer’s multifaceted memory, rather than a one-dimensional ornament. 

A great deal of site specific or time limited work relies on photography to allow viewers to witness and “own” the art. With The Sporozoan Swarm, the owner of the work or “The Keeper” of a Cluster becomes part of the larger whole of the interconnected world-wide installation. And while viewers are able to see photographs of my installations all over the world, providing a macro perspective, they are also able to install a piece of the whole on their wall using their own aesthetic, their own voice.

These Keepers become aesthetic partners when they decide how Clusters or individual pieces of The Swarm should be displayed. The Keepers physically touch, interact with, and hang the same pieces that I have printed, torn and drawn, contributing to the evolution of the whole. By handling the work they make it a less precious, more tangible, common grounded thing. The element of many small pieces available to people all over the world connects The Keepers to me and to the large-scale public installations of The Swarm I create. The Sporozoan Swarm acts as a binder of all of its Clusters and Keepers by connecting them through its on-line locating map and its serendipitous collective experience.

Art can change our world. Just let it be a part of your life.

Sweetie Boutique has asked me to stay on for another month. This will give all of you who weren’t able to come last month another chance. It also allows me to be more prepared. I will be showing new Swarm Containers, at least one Trophy and two prints from The Sporozoan Cavities suite and of course the two installs in the display windows.

Come out say hello and check out the work. West Seattle should be hopping.

It is a great story. My friend John Petzinger emailed me to say he saw an ad on craigslist looking for artists. I replied to the ad and heard back, almost immediately, from Sense Nail Spa in the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. The salon had looked at images of work from Sweetie Boutique and B of A and asked if I would like to show some work in their space and of course I said yes. This happened so fast from the time John sent me the ad to the time I was showing them my work was only about 24 hours. I took in a couple Swarm Containers. When I got there Robert, the manager asked me if I could do an installation on their main wall behind the front desk. He told me there was a neurological conference arriving the next day and that over the next week about 10,000 neurological professionals from around the world would be coming through and hoped I could install it the next day: Friday.

Zanne was in China. I frantically inquired with Izzy’s main play date friends and all of them came back and said “sorry…..” It was too short notice. I called John. “Hey remember that ad you sent me…” It turned out John came to help me on Friday and Izzy went to run errands with his wife. Thank you so much you two. John took great shots of The Swarm going up and was a great help in prepping pieces for me. I ran out of steam just about the time the salon was closing and all parties involved decided I should finish on Saturday. Izzy would spend the afternoon with John and I would finish.

The Swarm wrapped its way through a corner and another and then around to the other side of the wall. It is not decorative, it does not blend in, it does command the space and grab attention both inside The Salon and through the glass windows. If you live in Seattle you should try to see one of the four installs that are currently up. They are all listed in this post.

Art can change your world.

It may not look it but the map has changed drastically. Seven new Keepers in the past two weeks. Check it out and play with it. It is a pretty cool little tool.

The Sporozoan Swarm now resides in three countries and eight states. It wants to double that in the next month. Become a Keeper of The Sporozoan Swarm and add to its proliferation.

My work space/dining table is now covered with Sporozoan Swarm Containers as I put about 10 of them together. As I am doing this I am once again reminded of how I thought my 175 square foot studio in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn was so small. I made great use of that space and was able to make about 10 or 15 drawings that were about 4 feet by six feet in size.

Here I am working off my table to make the building blocks of huge pieces and using the walls of banks and boutiques to create my larger work. It is an exciting and terrifying process as I watch the primary focus of my art shift from the making of large solitary objects to the creation of thousands of tiny pieces that ebb and flow finding temporary locales in which to exist.

It is in this excitement and fear that I am finding a passion I cannot ever remember having: one of almost giddy elation. This work has rejuvenated me, my work and the excitement of people with regards to my work. Making work to exist in public spaces for only a short period of time feeds into my idea of serendipitous experience producing memories with grand meaning.

Art can change your world just allow yourself to see it.

My first Sporozoan Swarm subscription has been delivered. It was purchased as a gift. I personally find buying art as a gift a tough thing to do unless you know that the person on the receiving end knows the artist and likes their work. In this case the receiving individual did not know me, in fact the buyer didn’t even know me, she found me on Etsy. She gave her friend a three month subscription to The Swarm and this was the response when the gift was opened: “The reaction was as follows: confusion, followed by intrigue, followed by delight!”

It is exciting to get a note like this emailed to you from a complete stranger who has given your art work to another complete stranger.

Art is a part of our lives and it should be even more a part of our lives. It is for this reason that I love showing my work in all sorts of settings. I do not believe art should be relegated to gallery and museum walls, rather I want to see it all around us. The two Sporozoan Swarm’s installations I have at Sweetie Boutique are in two large display windows. They are visible to passers by and customers of the store: they are public art and like the install at Bank of America they are site and time specific. All three will come down within two months.

If you are in Seattle try to stop by and see these pieces and if you do please tell Karen or Joanna at Sweetie and Shanon at BOA thank you for showing them. If we want businesses to continue to show work that may ask them to go a little outside their comfort level than we have to show support for it.

I finished the Bank of America project and although at first I was not very happy with it I have now begun to feel better. Installing this type of work with customers in the lobby is not at all easy. Normally when making a piece of this scale I will spend hours sitting and thinking about it. This was not an option on this install as I could only work while the bank was open and in between hours when Izzy was at school.

It is also an interesting experience to have so many people watch while you are creating a piece like this. I have always been one to not want anyone to see my work in progress even in the studio so this was a challenge for me. It is not like performing The Spore Box on the street, at least with that the piece is already finished and I am simply creating ritual around it.

The Sporozoan Swarm has proven it self to be the most versatile of all my work. I also feel that it is showing its ability to speak to the greatest variety of the public I have ever been able to reach. While hanging this piece I spoke with other artists, business men, moms with their kids, veterans and a few others that I couldn’t easily figure out. The common thread for all of them was they were drawn into the piece for all sorts of reasons and all of them left excited by it.

Art can change our world.

I have begun installing The Sporozoan Swarm in the lobby of The Bank of America in West Seattle. The scale of the wall is completely different than that at Edie’s Shoe Store. For this install I wanted to allow The Swarm to form an image, rather than just cluster together on the wall. I really didn’t know what the form I wanted to do was but I did know I wanted it to be some sort of vortex shape (more on this when I am done).

Installing a piece like this while the bank is open is not easy, customers are coming and going and needing to use the table in front of the wall that the piece is hanging on. It is interesting to see the piece take shape while on lookers make comments, ask questions and give advice. Ultimately its progress and evolution are partially dependent on these interactions and the installation it self becomes a performance.