There is an unsettling conflict between old and new that this project produces, which is more action than the act of. It is always about language, but to use language to identify itself? To document, the act of securing evidence, seem contrary. To talk about the talking, feels uncomfortably redundant, if not, nonsensical. The project runs the risk of becoming chatty.

Disruption. I sway between guilt and jubilation. I have entered this area that has been claimed and remained relatively "untouched" and have made my mark upon it. It is graffiti. To those that stumble across it , it must be inexplicable. It defies convention. It grates the rules of the graffiti writer/artist. The mark is deliberate, but with no apparent end than to mark. This goes against all the rules of engagement. As a tagger/graf writer it is about the mark, but the mark is a self-proclamation, quickly scrawled in secercy. This is a defiant act. It proclaims, "I am here and I am here for the duration!" It is beyond a challenge; it is a declaration.
It is as if nature itself has risen with pickax in hand against an insult and declared war.

Integrating my work, using humor, into an area that is highly contested and defended. I attempt to signify my respect for their work my singling out works I admire.

First step in the reconstruction of this slope. I am constructing a tiered sections that will house a series of manure and mud reliefs on the facing side. The steps will extend up the slope and occupy the "V"

open space. The steps will be functional steps enabling park visitors to traverse this slope. Below, the concrete pillar, which must have been a support beam is a densely inscribed piece. In some respects it can be considered a Rosetta Stone. It is densely written upon. The concentration of colors and lines make for an almost incomprehensible web. I entered the fray by generalizing the existing marks and signatures. This was met with immediate reaction as the blocked areas of blue, yellow and white were encrusted overnight with markers. Tomorrow I will add more colors and shape. Perhaps I will obliterate everything and start over fresh with a completely different piece and wait to see how that is received.

A 30'x150' concrete slab dominates as the compass rose of the project. I see this as the hub of everything I imagine. All radiate from here and in effect returns to. This is my Rome. Someone I greatly admire remarked that this was my Walden Pond. I will have to revisit Thoreau. But who knows.There may be an element of the romantic naturalist attempting to inhale only what's is good and clean and saintly, but I wouldn't give that too much weight.
This is what inhabits the surface now. Street art. Pure. Undiluted. Crass. A conglomerate of low end self promotion, adolescent sexual ramblings and nonsensical blurts, that when you're as high as a monkey evrything is as funny as Hot Cheetos for breakfast.

These are examples of a redesign/redistribution of materials in an urban open space. The space is used by area residents and their dogs, the homeless, alcoholics, the discontent, late night drug users, and a "lover's lane" or ficky-ficky spot of sorts, tagging social networks and possibly neighborhood gang members and one obsessive reorganizer, me. This area is a true multi-use area that is segregated by specific use. Dog trails, cyclists urban hikers, hideouts speckle the space.

This is my pulpit, classroom, studio, battlefield, laboratory.

Deceased 3/5/11

I have appropriated an abandoned foundation on which to develop a mural fashioned in oil stick on an acrylic paint base. The area is commonly used as a "hang out" and tag space. In essence it is a giant ongoing conferencing session, with various tag crews signifying their presence. I have decided, in addition to my other forms of communications in the area, to join this one as well. It is a very direct form of discourse that comes replete with many risks beyond what traditional artists may take. Again it is a give and take atmosphere, and if I inject myself in this arena and come with unrealistic preconceived notions, personal learned luggage handed down by my education and any ideas I may have about artistic permanance, I am going to be sadly frustrated from the get go. This is about true dialogue at its most ancient and creative level. I am sure prehistoric rock paintings discovered about the world are no more than this. Passing conversations to anonymous others reassuring each other that they are not alone.

This photo is part of a series of gates and fences that I am constructeing from redistributed branches . My intention is to benignly alter the terrian and the sensibilities of all that encounter them. My considerations does not stop at human interaction, but considers the natural inhabitants as well. Only chance encounters, as with my "beast" object that is now the habitat of several squirrels and field mice, are the means to supply me with any data as to interactions with the objects with and the "other".