Leaving Music Behind

After much consideration, I have decided to leave my band, Armed With Teeth. I feel awful for saying goodbye to Lucas, Casey, and Brandon, because it has been wonderful creating with them, but it is time I focused all my creative energy into my visual art endeavors. Music will always play an important role in my life. Unfortunately, I just don't feel I can focus on the creation of music right now. I am eternally grateful for the friendship and brotherhood we have shared over the years, and I look forward to us sharing many more.

Disjecta's Re-re-re-re-re-re-opening

Well, I'll be damned. Disjecta is finally presenting a new exhibition, after an extremely long absence, at their new digs on Interstate. The show, Immaterialized is curated by Igloo co-founder Damien Gilley, and opens with a reception on Saturday, July 19, 6-9pm. You better go see it, because who knows, Disjecta might pull another vanishing act next month. Would anybody care to accompany me to the opening?

Art Writing to be Ashamed Of

Martin Creed has a rather interesting exhibition up at the Tate Britain. Find out more about it here. It features athletes, sprinting through the museum as fast as possible. Read this awful article in The Times about the piece. The article literally has a yes or no section, questioning "Is it art?" Some real shite art writing.

Also, tonight I went and had drinks with Timothy Scott Dalbow. He is a a painter I have enjoyed for quite some time, and one of the first things he said to me [via MySpace] was that he normally hates recent art school graduates, so I was intrigued. He ended the night with saying, "You're a good egg." That was somewhat comforting to hear, and I always find this level of honesty and candor rather heartwarming. He asked me to be involved with an installation he is a part of at New American Art Union, in NAAU's bathroom. It was an installation originally started by Rose McCormick, in which she asked another artist to add something to the installation and then that artist asked another artist to add something (and so on and so forth). So Mr. Dalbow asked me. Around mid-August, you should be able to see my contribution to the NAAU bathroom. Should be fun.

Incomplete Cubes, Incomplete Boards

I have been keeping myself busy in the studio and at my day job. Which would explain the lack of communication with others. Above is a piece, titled Incomplete Cube 1, I have been tinkering with for a while. These are my own crude, blue-collar, clumsy responses to Sol LeWitt's Incomplete Open Cubes.

I also started work on painting a skateboard for the COMPLETE Skate organization. It is essentially an after school program that "builds youth resiliency through skateboarding." Scott Wayne Indiana recommended me to them, and I also just figured out that TJ Norris is doing one for them too! The format of the board just screams for me to go back to my gold patterns and cover the board with them.

Couple more things. I stopped in and saw Jacqueline Ehlis' show at NAAU. It is a very tight show, with many little surprises along the way. I also saw Victor Maldonado's new show at Froelick Gallery. Let's just say I am extremely proud to have studied under him at PNCA. His paintings have become even more subtle, yet even more politically and socially subversive and aggressive. They are some beautiful Formalized iconographic clusterfucks. Go see the shows!

Order of Operations

Fellow Portland artist Mia Nolting put together a small book/zine about geometry, titled Order of Operations. She put a couple of my Natural Selection pieces in the book. You can view the pages of the book digitally at the Order of Operations website.

Order of Operations Contributors: Jackie Holmstrom, Bryan Dalton, Calvin Carl, Chris Mullins, David Horvitz, Mia Nolting, Rachael Cate, Jason Traeger, Jennifer Parks, John Sisley, Justin Bland, Morgan Ritter, Lindsay Kennedy, Liz Meyer, Matthew Bowers, Ben Mulkey, Nathan Moss, Liam Drain, Ryan Alexander-Tanner, Sara Bystrom, Danielle Miles, Serenity Ibsen, Jason Hoffman, and Rashel Peddersen.

My Car Just Got Stolen AGAIN!

...and in less than 3 hours, I got it back. Here's the story:

I was at work. Working a little late, and I heard a car door slam outside my offices, and a car speed away. I went outside and my car was gone.

My friend Amanda came and picked me up from my work and took me for a drink at a bar. I drank a whiskey and Coke, and then we decided to leave.

I decided to go to her house with her, just so I was with someone in case the cops found my car, and I needed to go pick it up.

As we were driving back to Amanda's house, we just happened to drive by MY car being driven the other direction by some crackhead. Amanda flipped a bitch, and started speeding after the guy, who was doing about 50mph on a 25mph street. We chased after him, and watched him pick up a girl and another guy. We then followed him to a small consignment store here in Vancouver, where he parked the car in the parking lot. I watched them walk around to the backside of the building, and by then I had already been on the phone with the cops, and in a minute or two, cops pulled up and arrested the two guys and one girl.

And the sweetest part about the story. I found a small handpicked bouquet of flowers sitting on my passenger seat. Here they are:

So now I am sitting here, enjoy a nice cold beer and attempting to calm my nerves. So this is the third time my little Toyota Camry has been stolen, and returned to me in the same day.

Amanda and I are now accepting job opportunities as professional vigilantes.

Life Update

Well, I graduated from PNCA. My thesis artwork is on view until June 14, and is located upstairs in the main PNCA building. Go check it out.

Tomorrow, I am traveling up to Canada, and I am going HERE. A nice vacation with some fishing (even though I don't really like fishing) care of my boss at work.

My brother got married to a beautiful girl he has dated for nearly 8 years. It was an amazing wedding, and I was nearly crying my eyes out all night, because I was so ecstatic for my brother to get married. Photo by Sean Flanigan.

Stopped by Western Bridge is Seattle and saw my absolute favorite artwork by Martin Creed.

Spent my birthday at Sassy's with lots of friends. I stayed up all night and threw up in a friend's toilet.

And to finish off my crazy life as of lately, this morning my 1991 Toyota Camry was stolen from my apartment. And this afternoon, the police found it, and I got it back, minus a car stereo.

See you all when I get back from Canada. Email me your address, and maybe I will send you a postcard. calvin@calvinrosscarl.com