Michele Hubacek

June 22 - October 5, 2008, Laguna Art Museum

“In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor is an exhibition that presents the work of 150 artists and posits that there has been a huge, but unacknowledged art movement taking place in this country for the last 40 years. Since 1994, this ground swelling of lowbrow, surrealistic, pop, figurative, narrative work has coalesced and found a voice in the pages of Juxtapoz magazine published in San Francisco. This rag has become the most widely read art magazine in the US. It is an influencing force on the aspiring artists of Generation Y and the Millennials, who are now enrolling in art schools in numbers never seen before” (Laguna Art Museum).

First off there is a ton of work in the show, you can tell just entering the first small gallery space that it was going to be packed. There are quite a few fantastic pieces and some that beg question, “Is this low brow?” or “How does this fit into the curators vision?”, “What is the connection between this artist and that one?”

My personal list of faves just goes on and on, I took pages of notes and discussed different works with a very knowledgeable docent as well as an art critic there to review the show. I was able to only take two shots as photography is not allowed, however when the same docent who asked I put my camera away saw me taking notes, asked if I was writing a paper, she said they let students some times take a few photos. Good thing to keep in mind.

So my list in order of my notes,

Sandow Birk’s L.A. Drive By on black velvet is awesome, I took a bad photo but could find no images of this work online. I am such a huge fan of his work, and the more I see it the more I enjoy it. Not only is his work done well but the constant references of pop culture mixed with art historical reference warms my art geek heart.  With this blending he puts together this high culture of what is termed fine art like Jacques-Louie David’s Death of Marat and turns it into Death of Manuel making it for a whole new audience. The great thing about his work is the fact that you don’t have to get all the little art references to understand it, it just so good.

Slyvia Ji is a very tight painter and I love the images she’s been creating. They have this sort of art nouveau,  goth, surreal thing going on. She is a young artist, probably one of the youngest in the exhibition and she can definitely hold her own with the big boys. Her lines flow so easy and and her color palates are beautiful. This work is in the show, titled Dona Dolorosa.

The inclusion of Irving Norman was great, his modernist surreal work always intrigues me especially when I consider the time period in which he doing this type of imagery. This work is large scale and there are so many small details that you have to see this one in person. Titled The Palace, 1959

The room is which this is displayed is large with very high ceilings and the works on the walls are large scale. There were a few pieces there that really caught my eye.

Todd Schorr’s Ape Worship is huge and features a huge gold frame with a giant skull on it.  His work is absolutely great, the detail is mind boggling to me. I enjoy his work and for me he is a classic low brow artist like Robert Williams.

Also there was a nice sculpture by Stanislav Szukalski, Defense, 1916. I was not familiar with his work and after a quick search I saw some of his other works, this guy is awesome. Also after looking at his other works and reading his bio, he fits nicely into this show.

There is so much more work in the show it would take me pages to discuss it all. Some other highlights were Greg Gibbs The R. Biggs Memorial Museum and Dan Goodsell loaned some nifty books and records that had lots of great artwork on them from Jim Flora. The were a couple Murakamis and a Dalek, they didn’t really fit in the exhibition for me and I wonder if the curator felt the same way because they were placed in art location hell, next to the bathroom.

My only disappointment was the R. Crumb, it was visually a little boring. I love Crumb, I mean I really love his work,  I love that he has a fetish for big strong women and wants to climb all over them. I was hoping to see something from the early days maybe a nice thick chick in some awkward position being dominated by the scrawny runt. Oh well, that’s me.

All in all its a good show, there is a lot of work and you will get what I call art overload when you just see to much. It’s a nice mix of younger and older artist, established artist mixed with some newer artist. I think it is a well put together exhibition that reflects just what Juxtapoz magizine is all about.

I had a very California day recently. The kind of day where I am glad I still live in L.A. and appreciate the beautiful Pacific Ocean I have the privilege of looking at everyday. My day started with a hour long drive to the O.C. via the 405 at a slow pace. We ate classic California fast food, burgers, rings and chili fries washing it down with a cold Pepsi while sitting at a roadside burger joint on Pacific Coast Highway. We looked at art that blossomed out of the California car culture and the hot rod scene, many of the works were from artists who were from or had lived in California. Then we drove up the coast back to L.A. on P.C.H., the weather was perfect as we cruised along the surf listening to the Beach Boys and the Pixies. That night we saw a  documentary about the The Wrecking Crew, the studio musicians that helped to build that wall of sound. And then while waiting in line with our friend Bret at the Silent Movie Theater Jason Schwartzman came out of the first showing and spoke with Brett and shook his hand, they have known each other since high school. However I was totally star stuck and just stared at him like a jerk and got weak in the knees.

When we got in the car after the movie it dawned on me how leisurely and nice our day was and how Californian our day was. Driving on the 405, burgers, low brow, driving the coast, movies about a sound from California, viewed in an independent theater operated by friends and seeing a celebrity.

I wonder if I really could live somewhere else. I think about it, all sorts of places all over the globe but this place can sometimes be so perfect.

And in honor of The Wrecking Crew

In 1983 a classic little film was released that would lay the foundation for all my future travel philosophies, National Lampoon’s Vacation. Filled with such wisdom as “Everything isn’t like home. If everything were like home, there would be no reason for leaving home” and “Why aren’t we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.”

Clark W. Griswold is my personal hero. All he wants is to spend time with his family and have a good time, he is the classic dad figure to me. Along the way he is tempted by a super-model, visits his wife’s trashy family and looses his mind trying to achieve his dreams of a family vacation.

As I have gotten older and become a road tripper myself I appreciate even more the Griswold’s misadventures. When they get lost in Saint Louis now I can identify, I too have been lost there. Marshall and I still talk about what a crazy bombed out neighborhood we had discovered while trying to see the arch.  As the Griswolds explore the magic that is Dodge City I am reminded of Marshall, Jake and myself driving across the vast flat land of Kansas and how I set a video camera on the dash filming the road for approximately 20 minutes while nothing happened so as to convey to the viewer at home just how empty Kansas is.

So while googleing the phrase “Family Truckster” I discovered this beauty last month. (Side note, why would I Google Famliy Truckster, well I am always on the lookout for a model or a toy of the car so every few months I do a search.)

“You think you hate it now, wait till you drive it.”

This is so beautiful I can hardly stand it!

So I found this master machine at S1Tech.com. What I gleaned from the many forum posts about the truckster is that the original 1984 Ford LTD Wagon only cost $700 bucks and was in great shape with only  97,000 miles on it. The creator of the metallic pea wonder is from Independence, MO. I will be making a trip to Kansas City soon and hope I can see this in person.

I can’t tell you how happy just looking at this makes me. I come from generations of mechanics and car geeks, I have been to all sorts of car shows, swap meets, races and secret parties of off road vehicles in the hills of Ventura. I know what it is go to the salvage yard and find the perfect part or thumb through the Auto Trader looking for a cheap Scout International to cannibalize for bits and pieces.  This car is just too cool. I want one, if only to recreate this scene.

Marshall is barely on his way to Thailand and I’m already missing my BFF. Who’s going to eat my leftovers or disgust me while we are eating? Who is going to get in the way of my pictures? Who am I going to watch Miami Vice with and who else will appreciate the percussion synth magic that is Phil Collins?

Last year when he went to Thailand I discovered this cool little Internet tool Flight Stats.

This cool site offers all sorts of statistics and lets you know exactly where the flight is. In this shot you can see the Marshall has just left LAX and flew over San Pedro on his way to Japan.

Here you can see all the little details like speed and altitude. The only downside is that it will only really offer a visual tracking of domestic flights or flight within American or Canadian airspace.

I lost visual for a bit when the plane started heading away from San Francisco. I kept the page open and when the plane came back into American airspace I could see it again. Here he is about to cross the Bearing Sea.

At this point he is now closer to Japan and passed the halfway point.  This website will also send you emails and text messages to let you know that your tracked flight has landed. When Marshall left Narita for Bangkok it was the middle of the night for me so I had it send me a text to tell me when the craft landed and it was nice to wake up and see that plane landed ok.

Also this is great for picking someone up at the airport. I find I am waiting less because I check the site and know pretty close to the actual landing time and plan my drive accordingly. Yes, I’m that much of a nerd, it is the Clark W. Griswold that lives deep in my soul.

Well I’m off to water the tomatoes and play with the dog!

I finally finished this embroidery piece I have been working on for months. It’s not that it is so labor intensive, it’s that I’m lazy or sometimes just to busy. Anyway I feel so good about it, I haven’t finished a project in a long time, I feel like a little weight has been lifted. This work is on display in a group show at Angels Gate Cultural Center this weekend.

I was inspired by Jacques Louis David’s work and this is one of my favorite paintings. I love the message it is attempting to display, power, carrying on through the storm, up the mountain, the strength of Napoleon. However I love even more the reality of the scene, when this happened Napoleon was riding a mule and the weather was fine.

So I’m on to next piece now, hopefully won’t take me as long.

Caution, academic nerd rant ahead.

Recently I have been working as a teachers assistant for one of my art history professors and one my jobs is to enter students grades into the grade book. Sounds simple, and it is but after going through all these papers (a couple hundred) I have noticed a complete lack of respect for the MLA format.

The MLA or Modern Language Association is: “The style recommended by the association for preparing scholarly manuscripts and student research papers concerns itself with the mechanics of writing, such as punctuation, quotation, and documentation of sources. MLA style has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for nearly half a century.”

Over the last three years the very simple rules that make up MLA have been carved into that little corner of my brain where I keep things like knowing how to swim and never forgetting how to ride a bike. It has become natural for me to layout all my papers: 12 point font in Times New Roman, double spaced with 1 inch border, my name in upper left corner, next line professors name, next line name of class, next line date, also last name with page number in the upper right hand corner 1/2 inch from the top.

This seems easy to me but as I go though the papers at least 75% of the papers have at least 2 or 3 things wrong with the style. What drives me nuts is that not only does this professor explain the basics she gives you a handout with an example, she is the first professor who taught it to me so these damn kids have no excuse.

Now I never understood how important it was to use until I started going through papers that don’t follow the format. The work looks sloppy when you use a silly font, or have 3 inch margins on each side or no double spacing which makes reading so much text that is all bunched up irritating and confusing to read. If the name is not in the right place I have to dig through the paper to figure out who the student is. And don’t even get me started on the Works Cited page and the bibliography page.

Anyway I know this is a stupid thing to complain about but I feel like today I finally got it. I am so glad I took the ten minutes 3 years ago to understand the MLA handouts, I even purchased the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and reference it every time I write a paper. Well in thinking about this blog post I wanted to investigate the history of this format and wow did I hit nerd gold.

Turns out the Modern Language Association is like a giant club, they have a president and a rather long and wordy (har har) constitution and even a convention in San Francisco (I bet the Scrabble games are fierce when language geeks get boozed up). They have pie charts and graphs regarding how many languages are spoken in the United States and the levels of enrollment in foreign language classes. Unfortunately you need to be a member to read their news letters and go through most of the website but needless to say they’re awesome and I’m sure they feel my nerd frustration.

www.mla.org

“Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!”  That sounds easy enough, but what do I want to blog about? I feel this tremendous pressure to make it interesting and entertaining, will my sense of humor come through, will I come off as a stick in the mud and uptight or just a complete dork? What if no one ever reads this, worse yet what if they do and then depend on me for commentary, information, opinions, I’m a slacker, it could be weeks between posts. Hmm… I’m willing to take the risk I guess, most likely  I’ll post about art, food, travel, living in Los Angeles, television, books I’m reading and life as a 30 year old college student.