News

Another Test

2009-07-12T17:10:00.001-04:00

-- Post From My iPhone

No Motive

2009-07-08T17:34:00.000-04:00

Video from Cheekwood Art and Gardens in Nashville.

YouTube Video

Riding the Trolley in Chattanooga

2009-06-20T10:37:00.000-04:00

Article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press

2009-05-03T00:26:00.004-04:00

Great article in the Chattanooga paper about my latest work. In the article it mentions me watching the videos in the chamber, however the videos were played on VCR's outside the chamber and their magnetic radiation was beamed into the chamber using satellite dishes. Click the image below to download the pdf.

5,000 Coffee Stirrers

2009-05-02T22:22:00.001-04:00

I have been burned out on conceptual ideas lately and have been playing with purely tactile, repetitious, sensory experiments...or lots of coffee stirrers, sometimes melted together with a heat gun and spray painted different colors.

Times Square

2009-03-12T11:25:00.000-04:00

Revelations from Felix Gonzalez-Torres

2009-03-11T09:08:00.001-04:00

This week I am in New York City showing my students the sights, sounds
and for better or for worse the smells. We visited the MOMA on Monday
and found ourselves looking at one of Felix Gonzalez-Torres' stacks of
printed paper on the floor. From previous experience I knew that it
was part of the work to take one of these sheets even though I was
surrounded by the untouchables. Everyone around me was bent over
looking at the work but as tradition dictates, none were touching. As
I bent over to grab one of these sheets a feeling of complete
apprehension and excitement was present. As I held it in my hand there
was this almost euphoric feeling. As quickly as that feeling came, it
passed. I almost immediately felt let down and now wondered if I
should put the sheet of paper back so I would not have to carry it
with me. This was a major work of art, that was mine to keep, but I
wanted nothing to do with it. I folded it as much as I could and
pushed it into my pocket. I wondered how these feelings and actions
relate to the art world but also to this system of consumption we live
in. Is art just one more thing to consume? It was an almost sexual
experience; the build up, the climax, and then the going back to the
everyday once it's over.

621 Gallery Opening

2009-03-06T23:08:00.001-05:00

Well over a couple thousand at the opening, my biggest yet. 30 Days of Green Peas, Solid Gold!, and Super Powers are all in the show which is up until the end of March.

621 Gallery Opening Friday

2009-03-04T21:51:00.001-05:00

621 Gallery Opening in 2 weeks

2009-02-22T14:55:00.001-05:00

In March, The 621 Gallery presents Spit it Out!, an exhibition revealing the narrative elements of pop-art, deconstruction, and contemporary invention. Alan Skees reacts to current events in a playful, yet critical manner using large-scale two-dimensional graphic art. Ivan Fortushniak exposes the history of paintings by creating distressed surfaces via unconventional methods. Mark Mcleod manipulates truth by incorporating myth and fiction into authentic narrative illustrations.

Glitter Chariot will be performing “All That Heaven Will Allow”, featuring Ryan Berg, Chuck Carbia, Kelly Boehmer, Danielle Shockley, and Lexi Braun. This new performance brings sweet and tragic melodrama together with fantastic characters and sentimental song, completing a fiercely tender yet gruesome and unfortunate story of love. This retelling of the story of Ernie and Bert is thrust into a lovers’ triangle where the love of romance isn’t destroyed; the love of friendship is. Friends in need of each other are faced with the need to continue in the wake of brutal death. Memories of a past imagined (Germany, Kirshner’s Rock Concert, Sesame Street) run rampant, and the tenuousness of their bond is destroyed.

Ryan Steele
in The Nan Boynton Memorial Gallery
Opening First Friday March 6th, 6-9 pm
March 6th-27th, 2009

Ryan Steele explores the history of useful spaces through his photographs. Steele’s work reveals the expectations and inherent details of interior spaces, documenting facts and unearthing lived experiences.

Video Editing, Thank goodness for dual monitors.

2009-02-22T14:47:00.001-05:00

Installation

2009-01-19T18:24:00.001-05:00

Almost ready to start filming.

Found a great space

2009-01-12T21:03:00.001-05:00

I originally planned to install the chamber in my living room, so I would have a close connection between the performance and my life, but our ceiling fan was in the way. I then installed it in my studio, which has 12 foot ceilings, but I could not back up far enough to get a good shot. I called around and was graciously allowed to use the Old Woolen Mill in Cleveland. It looks like this space is going to work perfect. My goal is to start filming this weekend.

More Pics, Hope to be Installing Soon

2009-01-05T14:37:00.001-05:00

Decided on the outside.

2008-12-18T20:03:00.001-05:00

I could not figure out what I wanted to cover the outside of my chamber with. It seems really trendy over the past year to polyurethane osb or particle board and call it done. I don't like trendy. I thought of aluminum foil on the outside, paint, putting textures underneath the foil, all kinds of things. I have started to run out of money for this project and tried looking around in the studio for an abundance of free material. Low and behold a huge stack of styrofoam. After some cutting and routing I found a perfect shape that will make the outside of the chamber look like the inside of a padded room. How fitting.

What was I thinking?

2008-12-15T07:27:00.001-05:00

Most of the chamber is now covered in aluminum foil...over 250 square feet. I did not realize how difficult it would be to get into the tiny cracks; the commercials make it look so easy.

More Updates

2008-12-06T14:27:00.001-05:00

So the idea behind the super powers chamber is the fact that VHS tapes use magnetic tape to record video and audio. Therefore, if I did indeed have super powers as a kid, there must be some residual power left on the magnetic tapes. The chamber I am building will collect and concentrate the magnetic radiation. Hopefully this will allow me to reclaim these powers I have lost or have suppressed. The images below show the chamber in progress. I am now lining the entire inside with a special type of Aluminum Sheet.

Here we go again.

2008-11-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

This year I am after another hard drive (that will make 7) and a
sliding compound mitre saw from Sears. Wish me luck.

The Top

2008-11-25T21:29:00.001-05:00

My Super Powers Inducing Chamber Octagonal top. This took quite some
time to get all the right angles but it finally came together. It is
much heavier than I thought it would be which makes me a liitle
nervous since it will be above my head for three days.

Octogan from Below

2008-11-22T23:04:00.001-05:00

Finished this at 7 this morning. I am now working on the sides.

Taking Shape

2008-11-22T23:01:00.001-05:00

Super Power Inducing Chamber

2008-11-16T16:21:00.000-05:00

My in-progress chamber for collecting and concentrating magnetic
radiation believed to be associated with reacquiring super powers.

What a nut

2008-11-03T21:28:00.002-05:00

After giving Maegan a bath tonight I laid her on the changing table to get her ready for bed. I did not know she would be placing a long distance phone call on her, wait for it, foot. She pulled her foot all the way back to her ear and proceeded to say "hello?, helloooooo." What a great life.

More Work in Progress

2008-10-26T19:49:00.002-04:00

Still working on my superheroes project...many more images to come.

CSCC Faculty and Family Picnic

2008-10-05T18:20:00.001-04:00

Cleveland State had a faculty and family picnic today at Bendabout
Farms; a 3800 acre managed hunting and fishing preserve. The weather,
the company and the food were all great.