it’s been a while since i’ve posted, but trust that i’ve been really busy working on pieces
for an upcoming show with the beloved john orth. i’ll post some sneak peeks in the weeks to come, but in the meantime, here is the official word:

A message from long-time friends and collaborating artists, George Ferrandi and John Orth:

We invite you to come see “Unsung.” It’s the first official endeavor of our latest enterprise, the collective known as “88′s” and it is opening in Williamsburg at Cinders Gallery on November 14th. (“88′s” is short for “88′s and good numbers”, which is CB lingo for “Best Wishes and Regards.”)

Briefly, about us: George moved to Brooklyn on September 10, 2001 and became a New Yorker the next day. She runs a small business, called Saints Alive, which restores statues for churches. On any given day, her studio is given over in equal parts to the broken bodies of saints and to the less refined, but equally fractured figures of her own making. John splits his time between Gainesville, Florida, where he tends to a succulent garden and a band named Holopaw on the Subpop record label, and Brooklyn, USA where he fleshes out his many creative projects and hangs on the arm of his lovely boyfriend, Alan. On any given day, his house is given over to various whittlings, delicate stippled drawings, and stacks of song lyrics scrawled on Steno pads.

We met in Gainesville, Florida where George was a professor at the University of Florida. Soon after meeting, we organized an exhibit at an old train depot. This was the beginning of over a decade of collaborations which have included several national shows, a traveling circus (Cloudseeding Circus of the Performative Object), a comic strip, and an unfortunate summer haircut. (Sorry, George.)

Our latest collaboration, the 88′s collective, is a celebration of our complimentary sensibilities and our shared interest in delicately adorned pathos, B-movie violence (Is that blood on her dress? Or just glitter?) and small, hypersexualized animals. We’re happy to have 88′s as a conceptual hook on which to hang the many hats of our creative efforts and to present Unsung as the first of those.

The work in Unsung started with conversations concerning the current presidential campaign. Our plea for a massive paradigm shift had us both contemplating what parts of our own psyches could use some serious shifting. We started with the imagery we associate with grass roots revolution – daggers, dynamite, pistols, the felled heads of toppled statues, and the closed eyes of innocents. We then created painted, cast plaster and carved wooden forms that relegate the physical violence of uprising safely to the realm of metaphor, but still speak to a simmering volatility and to the potential for cataclysmic change.

We hope you’ll join us at the opening of Unsung. Until then -

88′s and good numbers,

George and John

88’s presents:
unsung
new work by george ferrandi and john orth

#1. RYAN MULLIGAN

reason #1.

good lord, the level of inventiveness. (how to get from here to there,
what a cardboard tube can be, how to incorporate your life in your work.)

reason #2.

mad skills. the man can seriously draw.

reason #3.

his work is solid evidence of the “personal equals the universal”
theory, so he can make heartbreaking work about his dad’s
funeral, or hilarious drawings about his friends’ favorite
sandwiches, and either way you’re right there with him.

reason #4.

like i said – hilarious.

reason #5.

he’s brilliant – in a “heartful” way. it would serve us all very well if the way
he thinks – about art and about life – entered the greater consciousness.

reason #6. (*lvw category prerequisite)

he’s not a jerk. (in fact he’s a really, really, really good guy.)
(and he’s not bald either, this is his drawing of “the future.”)

get him while he’s hot, world.
rti_mulligan(at)yahoo.com

*lvw is lester van winkle. he is one of my “art parents” and emphasized,
among his many poignant insights into making art, the importance of
not being a jerk.

here is the promised time-lapse video of the mural painting in progress. (video by danny powell.)

danny powell, david “scout” mcqueen, me and *miguel luciano
in front of the finished mural. not pictured are all the artists
who worked on it or cheered us on the first day:

dave herman, bill scanga, grant huang, tamara zahaykevich,
patrick barth, dennis and amanda, kameala, roland pearman,
joy cox, todd crawford, ronnie wright and *jesse james arnold,
if i forgot anyone, please let me know…

it’s been so gratifying to have the windows open and hear people’s
enthusiastic responses as they pass by. or to see the flashes
going off as people take their pictures in front of the image.

*special thanks to jesse and miguel for their help cleaning up the design

lots of great people were involved in the obama mural (finished photos
on the way), including a wonderful videographer, danny powell.
danny recorded every second of the painting, and is working on a
compressed video of the event.

he is also working on a documentary series about artists and their
day jobs, and i’m very proud that he featured me and my work as
the first in the series. it’s called “keeping the lights on” and was
recently picked up by ropeadope.com

the first two parts of the video are already posted, with more to follow.

click here for link to video or to read more about danny

and for the 10th year in a row, i’ll be spending it at an ocean, which
keeps me from taking myself too seriously. (what’s a few decades
compared to the age of the planet? i’m a tiny blip in time.) later
tonight, i’ll be putting the finishing touches on this mural on the front
of my building, where some wedding photos were taken a few weeks
ago (scroll down.)

friday night and yesterday were spent working on this image with a
rotating crew of dear friends. i’ll post the final image in the next few days.

from the Fulton stop off the G Train

when i was um…researching the image for that quick sketch from the last post
(since this site is dedicated to nothing if not the accurate portrayal of anthropomorphic
animal representations), i googled “sock monkey image” and i was humbled
and honored to discover that the top two search results in the entire virtual universe
linked to a very, very dear friend of mine, the unparalleled monika lidman
(and her very, very popular friend, mr. johnson).

but so far this month, there have been 2 visitors to this website who found it by googling:

“how to move your lips for kissing”

i can’t decide if i’d like it better if these were 2 separate people, or 1 person who did it twice…

What ebay seller wraps their items like this before shipping, you wonder?

Who makes opening the mail feel like walking into your surprise party, you ask?

Why, who else but the Chief! Executor! of! the! Exclamation! Mark! Lynda Barry!!!!

and she even (maybe) sends bonus, unpaid for, 100% free gift items with your purchase —
extra monkeys (maybe) and this incredible comic book excerpt from her new book…

i could dedicate a lot of space to the importance of lynda barry, but fortunately,
the new york times did a little while ago. so i just say: thank! you! lynda! barry!,
for being a major force in my young art life…. and continuing to knock my proverbial
socks off with your drawings and stories in my less young art life…
…for all your cat’s eye glasses, hairy legs and brilliant insights. for all your
hair ribbons and cigarettes. for packing a black and white wallop every week
in your comic with all the
funny!
sad!
true!

…and soon i’ll be getting out the ole plastic mini digital camera on which
this blog relies so heavily. of course, spring signifies the resurrection
of lots of other wintered phenomena, most ceremoniously, the onslaught
of wedding season. the city challenges my preconceived suburban notions
about how weddings are supposed to look. in the eight years that i’ve been
living and working here, i never once thought of the facade of this building
as picturesque (i think this has less to do with any romanticism on my part
and more to do with the rat poison sign), but here is a wedding party in
front of my studio backdropping a makeshift blue sky to the contrary gray day.

i think this will wrap up my andros ruminations, at least until i start editing
video. here is a spectacular slow exposure from the beach in front of the
maritime arts and inspiration center. we camped there under the full april moon.

thanks to richard for letting me use his gorgeous images on today and yesterday’s posts.

also thanks to cal, richard, scout and pete for their wonderful company on the trip.

portrait of pete as the top half of a jellyfish in captivity by the esteemed richard smith

portrait of pete as the bottom half of a jellyfish in its natural environment
also by the esteemed richard smith

note:
there are many more of richard’s images, which capture the humble beauty
of andros (and have been spared my dubious captioning) at his website


disclaimer:
i vaguely remember pete saying something very non-specific
(and there are really so many ways to interpret this, who knows what
he really meant?) along the lines of “don’t put this on the website. then
people will think they can come down here and dress me up.”
although, due to its aforementioned vagueness, this can’t really be
directly translated, it could be roughly understood as “buy me guiness.”

part 1: the ruthless villain

part 2: the compassionate victim

catching up on the events and observations from my vacation on andros
island in the bahamas. my good friend, pete, has started an arts center
there. four of us visited for a week to make art, fish, snorkel, and soak
up sun (not necessarily in that order).

before i left for the bahamas, i knew i needed to make a jellyfish.
at least i thought it was a jellyfish. none of the jellyfish pictures
i found looked like the one in my head, so i just went with my gut.
this was my preliminary proposal to my friend, cal:

some initial concerns:

1. shark bait
2. death trap
3. ridiculous
4. that we may have to buy glow sticks for this thing, which might
involve contact with former ravers.

i came to my senses and quickly eliminated #3.
#4 sort of eliminated itself as the project progressed. (occam’s razor)
#s 1 and 2 were actually legitimate concerns.

whenever i’m dealing with something that is potentially dangerous,
i think it is important to have a back-up plan, so i submitted this to
my friend, cal, as well:

i made some minor alterations while i was on the island, including
flashing it out with some scraps of batiked fabric that were local
to the island. i knew i wanted to videotape it underwater, but wasn’t sure where.
we had lots of options, and decided on the day of the shoot that since it was too
windy to sail, that we would take a skiff to one of andros’ amazing blue holes. i’m
working on a video of the underwater shots, which were pretty amazing, but here
is a still photo of the final form on land, featuring myself and good ole cal.
(thanks to scout for taking the picture, to richard for shooting the pending video,
and to pete for driving the boat and supporting this incredibly important research.)

the night we got back to the city, we ran into a friend who told
us that the andros blue holes were home to cryptid animals.
(presumably this is why pete said, in his characteristically
understated way, that “oh, the locals don’t go to the blue holes”.)
we researched when we got home to find that that the blue holes are
believed by some to house the “lusca.” according to wikipedia:

It has been suggested by cryptozoologists that the lusca is a gigantic
octopus, far larger than the known giant octopuses of the genus
Enteroctopus. Many reports of the creature are from the blue holes,
off Andros, an island in the Bahamas… Although the general identification
of the lusca is with the colossal octopus, there are those who disagree.
Others have it as a multi-headed monster…

hmmm… multi-colored flower headed, maybe?

the captain from tintin

bluto

karl

the atheist

um… i don’t want any trouble.

this is the third in a series of postings attempting to catch up on
the events and observations from my vacation on andros
island in the bahamas. my good friend, pete, has started an arts center
there. four of us visited for a week to make art, fish, snorkel, and soak
up sun (not necessarily in that order).

catching up on the events and observations from my vacation on andros
island in the bahamas. my good friend, pete, has started an arts center
there. four of us visited for a week to make art, fish, snorkel, and soak
up sun (not necessarily in that order).

arriving at *the pink house, we were greeted by the reception committee-
3 gorgeous rhode island red chickens that live under the house and in
the yard. i adore them. they purr like kittens when you pet them, and
peck at your feet gently, so it’s more like kissing.

thanks to david “scout” mcqueen for both photos on this posting

every morning, they woke us with all the audio hilarity of a live comedy show.
they chased us maternally to the street as we left for the beach, “did you put
on the spf15? the 8 is not strong enough this far south… put on the 15. …
please… for me?”

and when we came home, they met us with such a finely synchronized and
optimistic waddle, our evening conversation always involved the types of
chicken-keeping that might work in our brooklyn apartment. (pete replaced
all the glass in an old vw bug in his yard with hardware cloth, so the ladies
sleep in retro-glorious style.)

the day we got back to new york, i received the following email from pete:

a chicken was stolen today while annie watched
she took down the cars plate and looked hard at the people
fearing the neighborhood watch
the chicken was returned hours later

i theorized that maybe she wasn’t a revolutionary at all, but
had just gone to get her nails done. but i have to admit, there
is something radical in the yellow of her eyes…

*pete never refers to his house, or any of his belongings, really, with possessive
terminology. he’d never say “just leave those at my place.” it was always referred
to as “the pink house.” this is very much in keeping with pete’s complicated
anarc-hippy philosophies.

i left the u.s. for andros still reeling from what i guess was the flu.
i haven’t been that sick since i was a little kid. fever and coughing
and aching and general (very relative) misery. (if you are at this
time experiencing any genuine discomfort or suffering, please forgive
my ridiculous wimpering. and i hope your life is better soon.)

i’m actually not writing to complain, but to celebrate the
wonders of the green weed that made me feel better. my good
friend, pete, who has founded the maritime arts and inspiration center
on andros, picked some leaves from a “serasee” plant in a
neighbor’s yard and advised me to steep it in hot water.

botanical drawing by Setsuko Murayama

he said i would sweat all night and have very weird dreams and feel
great in the morning. all of this proved to be very true.

here is some information about momordica charantia from what i’m sure is the
surgeon general’s primary botanical reference, the dancehallreggae.com website:

Some consider Serasee to be a sacred plant and thus it should not be
bought or sold, only given. (Something given in return may be accepted,
however.) It should be used in its natural form; nothing should be
isolated or synthesised from it.

This is for informational purposes only. Most of this information is
obtained from oral and traditional sources. No medical claims are made
here. If you have a medical problem you should see your doctor for
treatment. As with any herb, use cautiously, and note any possible
allergic reaction.


one of my serasee dreams

one of sarah sze’s