"Urban Cliff, Airy Space, Great View"

"Urban Cliff, Airy Space, Great View" photo by Doug Millison

"We architects are celebrated as heroes -- but humiliation is part of our daily lives."

 http://artinfo.com/news/story/interview-with-star-architect-rem-koolhaas-were-building-assembly-line-cities-and-buildings

Koolhaas: That's our dirty secret. We architects are celebrated as heroes -- but humiliation is part of our daily lives. The biggest part of our work for competitions and bid invitations disappears automatically. No other profession would accept such conditions. But you can't look at these designs as waste. They're ideas; they will survive in books.
SPIEGEL: A few years ago, you unveiled a spectacular design for a science museum here in HafenCity, the so-called Science Center. It still hasn't been built.
Koolhaas: I haven't heard anything about it in a long time.
SPIEGEL: How long did you work on the design?
Koolhaas: Maybe three years.
SPIEGEL: And then?
Koolhaas: Then, we suddenly stopped hearing anything. We couldn't reach anybody anymore. The last thing we heard was that a young woman was trying to turn our design for a museum into a residential building.
SPIEGEL: Is that sort of thing normal?
Koolhaas: Very typical. You get to a point where you have nothing to say to each other anymore. The funding is frozen, the project is in a holding pattern, and both sides gradually lose interest.

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Alice's mumms on the breakfast table in sunbeam reflected by neighbor's window onto the breakfast table

late afternoon light, hallway shadow

photo by Doug Millison

Final prep for Junkyard Knife 2011 at SFCurators Salon, Madrone Studios, San Francisco, 28 October 2011

photo by Michael Sun

Sunset, living room.

Photo by Doug Millison

The view from our house, photo by JS

Photo by JS

"Halloween Working Table" by Doug Millison JUNKYARD KNIFE 2011 SFCurators Salon, 28 October 2011, at Madrone Studios, Mission District, San Francisco

Halloween Working Table by Doug Millison JUNKYARD KNIFE 2011 SFCurators Salon, 28 October 2011, at Madrone Studios, Mission District, San Francisco

"Doug Millison" photo by JS

"Doug Millison" photo by Jiri Szeppan, AJS Gallery, Brussels, Belgium http://jiriszeppangallery.blogspot.com/

San Francisco, October 2011, photo by JS

San Francisco, October 2011, photo by Jiri Szeppan

October 28, 7 p.m. "Curation & Art" at SFCurators Salon, Madrone Studios

Red door in SFs Mission District photo by Doug Millison

Please join us October 28, 7 p.m., in San Francisco's colorful Mission District for "Curation & Art" with artist & gallerist Jiri Szeppan, AJS Gallery, Brussels & Doug Millison, Junkyard Knife. Mind-boggling art, stimulating talk with curators & Web professionals on the cutting edge at Madrone Studios, 1417 15th St. More details at http://JunkyardKnife.com

What about the people?

Please join us on October 28! SFCurators Salon presents"Curation & Art" with artist and gallerist Jiri Szeppan of AJS Gallery, Brussels and Doug Millison, Junkyard Knife

"Curation & Art" with artist  and gallerist JS of  Brussels and Doug Millison, Junkyard Knife, El Cerrito. Immerse yourself in mind-boggling art, stimulating talk with curators & Web professionals on the cutting edge at Madrone Studios, 1417 15th St. in San Francisco's Mission District. This event is free. 

JS combines the most personal expressions -- drawings, calligraphy, photography, collage -- with the most common materials gleaned at the Brussels flea market. As a curator, he handles all details of exhibits, solo and with visiting artists, and traveling shows. In his own fine art practice he curates elements from memory, imagination to produce a profusion of artist books, paintings, sculpture, digital movies, and art installations/interventions. 

"Curation & Our Art" includes a preview of The Concrete Jungle Book, a hybrid graphic novel in the form of a scrapbook, a project co-authored by Doug Millison, plus the world premiere public screening of the novel's animated trailer video produced by NYLON Films of London & New York, HD video and this screening courtesy of TCJB co-author Steve Porter and the trailer's producer, Annette Porter. 

Fancy, festive, holiday-aware, creative dress encouraged with door prizes + the usual fun as we mix and mingle with light refreshments & beverages. 

Door prizes include signed original The Concrete Jungle Book art work, and wine.

 

Happy Birthday, Alice!

So glad you were born this day, that you survived growing up so far away, so you could become my partner in life, companion, friend, and wife.  Where would I be without you? A wonderful woman, mother, nurse, daughter, sister, human being. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALICE!

Curation & Our Art: an illustrated encounter with JS, Brusssels & Doug Millison, Junkyard Knife, SF Bay Area, feature presentation at SFCurators Salon, 28 Oct 2011

JS combines the most personal expressions -- drawings, calligraphy, photography, collage -- with the most common materials gleaned at the Brussels flea market, in his series of artist books. 

The talk centers on the way J curates AJS Gallery exhibits in the context of the ongoing curation of memory, imagination, and artistic creation -- illustrated with images from his books, letterpress printing, paintings, objects, BESITOS digital movies, installations, and other works.

Doug will focus on The Concrete Jungle Book, a hybrid graphic novel wherein the protagonist and nominal author of the book curates his own comics, prose narration, and collage in a scrapbook that recreates the story of his life from age 8 to 18. 

The presentation includes the world premiere public screening of the animated trailer video for The Concrete Jungle Book produced by NYLON Films, video and this screening courtesy of TCJB co-author Steve Porter and the trailer's producer, Annette Porter.

The presentation  also examines J's artistic response to The Concrete Jungle Book and at the JUNKYARD KNIFE collaboration that began with the two-man show curated by J at AJS Gallery in November 2010.  

Curation & Our Art takes place at the SFCurators Salon, 7 pm,  28 October 2011

Including original art works & posters on display by JSz and Doug Millison, plus multiple video projections on 18' tall seamless white walls at Madrone Studios, 1517 15th St., San Francisco 94103 http://MadroneStudios.com, in the Mission District near 16th St. BART 

Contact Doug Millison on Twitter http://twitter.com/dougmillison, on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/dougmillison for more information or to get on the guest list.

We the People, not We the Corporations

"Doug Millison: I am the 99 percent" photo by Doug Millison

We the People, not We the Corporations. Liberation aside, what's it mean for all of us who have to work for them, craft their messages, sell their stuff?

The #OccupyWallStreet movement signals a sea change in the attitude towards corporations, the investment community that sustains them, and the relevant regulatory and governmental infrastructure.

Even if this protest wave should fail to create significant structural change, the growing perception that corporations lie at the root of current woes, means new challenges for companies, employees, and the brands that for consumers represent the daily face of so many corporations.

I've been spending a lot of time in recent months closely watching brands on the Web and in social media. Some few years ago, I co-authored a book called Firebrands: Building Brand Loyalty in the Internet Age. What does #OccupyWallStreet mean for corporate strategies and business tactics that rely on public confidence and trust in their brands?

Expect a nauseating wave of brand messages designed to reinforce the notion that corporations and their products, services, and CEOs have our best interests at heart. Some reactionary companies will instead target the anti-OccupyWallStreet crowd and seek to reassure them that their brands will rescue them from worrying social turbulence.

The companies that back up their claims with concrete steps that help them regain public confidence, will best withstand the coming years of blame and litigation that seem certain to follow the past decade's excesses.

Personally, socially, #OccupyWallStreet feels liberating. I don't know for sure what expectations might in fact be unrealistic. I'm ready for #OccupySanFrancisco. 

Yet I know that stronger protest waves have been channeled into the two-party system in the past. Whether that happens or not, it seems clear to me that this activist wave is here to stay…and their anti-corporate messages. 

I expect that the younger folk among us, just now coming of age, will find ways to use technology to help corporations change their ways, so they can serve society instead of raping the Earth and its inhabitants, human and nonhuman. That's my hope.

We are the 99 percent

"Curation & Our Art' an illlustrated encounter with JS, Brussels & Yours Truly

JS combines the most personal expressions -- drawings, calligraphy, photography, collage -- with the most common materials gleaned at the Brussels flea market, in his series of artist books. We'll talk about the way J curates gallery exhibits in the context of the ongoing curation of memory, imagination, and artistic creation in his books, letterpress, paintings, objects,  digital movies, installations, and other works. I'll touch on THE CONCRETE JUNGLE BOOK, a novel wherein the protagonist and nominal author of the book collects his own comics, prose narration, and collage in a scrapbook that recreates the story of his life from age 8 to 18. We'll look at J's artistic response to TCJB and at the JUNKYARD KNIFE collaboration we began with the two-man show curated by J  in November 2010.  SFCurators Salon 28 October 2011 - 7 pm, at Madrone Studios in San Francisco's Mission District. Special thanks to Jody Radzik for polishing the design of this flyer.

This holiday shopping season, support local and independent artists, designers, and crafters!

Welcome to my garden! (click the photo to see a larger version)

"Welcome to my garden" photo by Doug Millison

Indian Summer

All of the ancient world, in a bookcase or two

Here, then, is 1,400 years of human culture, all the texts that survive from one of the greatest civilizations human beings have ever built -- and it can all fit in a bookcase or two. To capture all the fugitive texts of the ancient world, some of which survived the Dark Ages in just a single moldering copy in some monastic library, and turn them into affordable, clear, sturdy, accurate books, is one of the greatest accomplishments of modern scholarship -- and one of the most democratic.

September 7, 2011
The Other Socrates

By Adam Kirsch

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Reviews-Essays/The-Other-Socrates/ba-p/5621

God's warning to Texans if they send Perry to the White House

When cucumbers make music

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/16392/ronald-van-der-meijs-parthenocarp.html

'parthenocarp' by dutch artist ronald van der meijs is a large-scale musical instrument whose sound is affected by the growth of growing cucumber plants.
the work consists of three sound cabinets, each with its own steel string suspended over a small black wheel sunken into the top face. these cables are connected at one end to an electric drill and at the other to a metal cage housing a living cucumber plant; a mechanical teflon 'finger' against the string changes position depending on the length of the vegetables as they grow. thus each cabinet, functioning something like a mechanical hurdy-gurdy,
plays a tone that mutates slightly over the course of the exhibition, relative to the cucumbers' growth. The installation is representative of the transformation of the urban zone of overstad in alkmaar, netherlands,
which has shifted from a farming region to an industrial area to now a modern downtown center, 'a slow urban transformation process', van der meijs reflects, 'not only associated with changes in the built environment  but also include the surrounded noise, the skepticism and opposition from residents and political opposition parties.'  likewise, the 'combined sound of the [parthenocarp] system transforms very slowly during the exhibition,
and is subject to a variety of harmony and discord

"Illustration Vol. 1" by JS

"Illustration Vol. 1" by JS

A shadow boxer is lost without the sun.

Watson's Journey to the West

"Curation as a Work of Art" the Junkyard Knife 2011 presentation at October meeting of SF Curators Salon

"book 122 inside" detail of a hand-made artist book by Jiri Szeppan, AJS Gallery, 57 rue Charles Meert, 1030 Brussels, Belgium http://jiriszeppangallery.blogspot.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiri-szeppan/

"Curation as a Work of Art" is the topic of the JUNKYARD KNIFE 2011 presentation we're putting together for the October meeting of SF CURATORS SALON (http://www.facebook.com/groups/SFCurators).

Jiri Szeppan will discuss:

• Collecting materials at the Brussels flea market for use in his  and-made artist books, BESITOS digital movies, and mixed-media painting, and the role curation plays in these art works.
• How his art is informed by his work at CINEMATEK, Brussels' film archive (like Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley - films for scholars to research, plus film screenings for the public).
• Curating art shows and  events at  AJS Gallery, 57 rue Charles Meert, 1030 Brussels, Belgium

Doug will talk about curation as content in THE CONCRETE JUNGLE BOOK, the graphic novel presented he has co-authored with Steve Porter and Srayla Tip. The novel is presented in the form of a scrapbook created and curated (in print and online) by a young cartoonist, tattoo designer/inker and writer; to be published this Fall.

Links:
blog http://JunkyardKnife.com
AJS Gallery brochure http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiri-szeppan/sets/72157624657911478/
Jiri's art, shows, press coverage http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiri-szeppan/collections/
SF Curators Salon http://www.facebook.com/groups/SFCurators 
Jiri's AJS Gallery blog: http://jiriszeppangallery.blogspot.com/  
http://DougMillison.com
http://www.facebook.com/TheConcreteJungleBook

summer vegetables

Beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, squash in Alice's garden

Goodbye, old Falconspace Studio. Hello, new!

Goodbye, Falconspace Studio

Moving out of Falconspace Studio. Where Porter and I first started talking about the project that became THE CONCRETE JUNGLE BOOK, where Tip and I storyboarded and revised the TCJB comics pages, where I made the scrapbook pages and laid out the book in InDesign; hoping the creative streak continues in the new space.

Collage with found poems slide show; click images for more versions & info at Flickr.com

"Independence Day"

You know who you are,
but you do not know me.
You will know a few of the dark moments.
We will share them before I learn not to trust you any longer.
You will stitch them together
into a black bag
and try to stuff me in.

But, I won’t go in.
I do not fit
in your black bag.
You do not know
me.

"Full Color vs. Black & White" photo by Doug Millison

 

Garden in my chair at the breakfast table, shooting from the deck through the glass door into the dining room (single exposure)

"Garden in my chair" photo by Doug Millison

Strings of the fuschia harp, under a cloudy sky this morning

Strings of the fuschia harp, under a cloudy sky this morning

Garden reflections

Garden reflections in the dining room glass door

impatiens & ivy

front yard reflections

…50-50, more or less…

Found on the internets

"At the dinner table"

"At the dinner table" photo by Doug Millison

Cool video

Extremities from Eli Stonberg on Vimeo.

Geranium, azalea, rhododendron, bottle brush

Ready to dine?

"Ready to Dine?" photo by Doug Millison

New-look kitchen: faucet

New-look kitchen is in the house

in the shady garden

Granite for a new kitchen countertop

From our friend Gabi's Senior Recital, music of power and beauty!

Washington, DC shop window reflections, April 2011

Warning Labels" from the RUBE Project

Watson's flowers for Alice on Mother's Day

Silicon Valley Jungle

There's a whole crowd of entrepreneurs out here who live the pirate dream - steal anything of  value, repackage it and sell to the next biggest fool.  Whatever they can get away with, in the end all they care about is the Ferrari, private-label wines & etc., doesn't seem to matter who they crush on the way up.  I'm determined to get back what has been stolen from me - I should be getting paid to help run the business that's built on the work I did in 2009, or at least get paid for the value my work has created for Zenergo aka Activnet investors.

Rest in peace, Elizabeth Taylor. End of an era.