I will be away from my desk...

...until the end of the month. Feel free to peruse my gallery and favorites, to +fav and comment, pro and con, and to nominate me for my first DD in my absence.

All the Best,
james119

For Life, Liberty, Love and Levity.

I am the founder and curator of:

and a member of:

New Quest for Clients

I have had great satisfaction as an artist over the years, getting my work published in interesting magazines and newspapers, posters and the covers of some very cool books. I've also edited a very cool book, created a very cool calendar and had a book of my old black and white collages published.

However, the only satisfying art I've done that actually helped pay the rent has been the CD covers, of which I've done around three dozen, the majority for Bill Laswell's Axiom label. These jobs have dried-up in the last few years, and I've decided it is time to find some new clients in this field. I have a list of a thousand or so independent labels to plow through, but I wonder if any of you can suggest a few that might be particularly good matches for my work.

Here's a small sample of covers I've done. There are some larger images in my gallery, in the folder "Published Work". As always, thanks in advance. I'll will try to be helpful to you when I can.


_____________________________________________

A Bit of Free Association/Brainstorming Requested Feb 18, 2008

So, I'm trying to come up with a brilliant logo for a new hip, progressive Seattle news and culture Web site, and the title I've been given to work with is The Seattle Needler, referring to that iconic landmark of Seattle, The Space Needle (from the 1962 World's Fair) and the idea of needling the powers-that-be, being a thorn in their side, goading and pestering until the truth comes out. See thumbnail below for latest attempt. I'm a little bit stuck (pun intended), and I'd appreciate any critiques, suggestions, wild ideas, etc. I'm working on spec for a couple of old acquaintances who I'd like to see succeed in this endeavor. There may be a job in it for me down the road, but that isn't a certainty.



Any help would be appreciated.

_______________________________________________

Clean Slate (Jan. 7, 2008)

Just thought I'd get rid of all the old news: We are a week into the new year, People who want calendars probably have them. The Dream Book Contest at ends today. I deliver my piece to the Seattle Art Museum today. My new Web site is up and just needs a whole lot of tweaking. I've been hanging out here for almost two years now (and still no DD), and I'm not leaving, but this year I'm going to get some of my art out into the real world, too. More to come.

For Life, Liberty, Love and Levity.

I am the founder and curator of:

and a member of:

200 +Favs

...for my piece Literature 1. Funny how these things happen. That is about four times as many as I've gotten for any other piece, and yet it certainly isn't my best work ever. At least I don't think so, and yet it has managed to get linked and mentioned far more widely than any other. Wish it could tell me how that happened.
________________________________________

Clean Slate (Jan. 7, 2008)

Just thought I'd get rid of all the old news: We are a week into the new year, People who want calendars probably have them. The Dream Book Contest at ends today. I deliver my piece to the Seattle Art Museum today. My new Web site is up and just needs a whole lot of tweaking. I've been hanging out here for almost two years now (and still no DD), and I'm not leaving, but this year I'm going to get some of my art out into the real world, too. More to come.

For Life, Liberty, Love and Levity.

I am the founder and curator of:

and a member of:

The Real World. Ouch!

Here's wishing you all the very best in 2008!

I've been malingering in cyberspace a bit too long, I guess. I have this straightforward idea of how I'm framing my piece that I have to hang next week, so I took my prints into the local frame-it-yourself-on-the-cheap shop and explained exactly what I wanted to do. It is going to cost a small fortune! Guess it has been a while since I did this. Oh well, I'll just bite the bullet and spend the money, since this is going to be the first symbolic act of my year of coming out, getting my work into the real world in real time. I wish myself, and all of you, success.
________________________________________ ___

16th Annual Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints

A perfect gift for Christmas, Solstice and the New Year, the 2008 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints (created by James Koehnline) is a wall calendar of radical saints and sheroes, with artwork by yours truly, and text by the Autonomedia Collective. This calendar has a 16 year tradition of coming out too late to be properly distributed. I just got my supply today.

Hundreds of radical cultural and political heroes are celebrated here, along with the animating ideas that continue to guide this project — a reprieve from the 500-year-long sentence to life-at-hard-labor that the European colonization of the "New World" and the ensuing devastations of the rest of the world has represented. It is increasingly clear — in the early years of this new millennium — that the Planetary Work Machine will not rule forever! Celebrate with this calendar on which every day is a holiday! A picture for every day, and a whole book's worth of text. Also included is Autonomedia's current catalog of great books, including a new one from my old partner-in-crime, Hakim Bey.
ISBN# 978-1-57027-198-4 : price US$9.95, plus US$3.00 domestic Priority shipping, US$4.00 international shipping : 32 pages, 16 x 12 inches. Payment options include check, money order, PayPal, or credit card via PayPal Email Invoice. Note me to order, or Buy Now via PayPal here> [link]

See sample of interior here:
See a list of this year's (2007) saints here: [link]



In the same spirit as my history book, GONE TO CROATAN: THE ORIGINS OF DROP-OUT CULTURE IN NORTH AMERICA [link]
and the inspiration for my friend Dave Brown's extensive online calendar, THE DAILY BLEED [link]
________________________________________ _

I will be Hung in a Major Museum!
For what Crime Against Art, you ask? Nov. 30, 2007

Those of you who follow my ramblings will know that while I am figuring out what I'm going to do when I grow up (hey, I'm only 51), I am making pocket change guarding the art at the Seattle Art Museum. No, they aren't really going to hang me. They've decided to throw us a bone and have a staff art exhibit in a public, but little used hallway of the museum. Still, what the hell, it is going on my resume! And, hey, there's always the miniscule chance that Mimi (Mimi Gardner Gates, Director of the Museum and step-mother of Microsoft Bill) or one of the big donors will take notice. Anyway, the show is January to March of 2008, so I'm using it as the symbolic start of the year when I finally start getting my art out in the world, and not only here at dA. I also will start off the new year with a new personal/professional Web site -- and trying to find a job that actually pays the rent and puts food on the table. Wish me luck.
________________________________________ ___

DREAM BOOK CONTEST Nov. 11, 2007
Check out the new Contest at
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LOST BOOK CLUB AND MUSEUM Now Accepting Members October 31, 2007



My new club has a new avatar and a new club ID, and is now officially accepting members in two divisions, Lost Book Donors and Lost Book Scouts. I had the idea for scouts because I feel certain there are wonderful exhibits for the museum out there in the dA universe, but I simply don't have the time to devote in order to find them. I thought maybe some of you would help.

The club is still new and largely unknown, but shaping up into an interesting one, I think.

Special thanks to for spreading the word, and to for his gorgeous calligraphy that graces the new avatar and club ID.
________________________________________ ____

Little Toy I Made in 2001 and Forgot About October 24, 2007

Made in a Shockwave class six years ago, it has been online all this time with no links to it from anywhere, and I forgot all about it. I'm sure this is just too amateurish and primitive for most of you, but it was a triumph of code-writing for a novice like me - and it still amuses me. Just move your cursor around within the image. You'll figure it out in about two seconds, but you might find it amusing, too: [link]
________________________________________ ____

Three Cheers for Hunter Logan / Links on Steve Kurtz Case October 22, 2007

Firstly, my dA friend and former co-moderator of The Surreal Arts Club, Hunter Logan has graciously volunteered to redesign my Web site as a portfolio piece as he moves toward going into the Web design business. This is a great relief to me, as I have little talent for writing code and an overhaul is long overdue. Thank you, Hunter.

Secondly, Below I plugged the film Strange Culture, but I think the Steve Kurtz Case - an artist-activist being prosecuted/persecuted as a "bioterrorist" by the U.S. government, as a part of its permanent war of terror against terror - is an important story that everyone should know about, especially artists, and so I am posting a few links to the facts of the case here:

Wikipedia Entry on the case: [link]
Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund: [link]
Washington Post article: [link]
Steve Kurtz Waiting, a short video on YouTube: [link]
________________________________________ _______

A new film by Lynn Hershman Leeson: STRANGE CULTURE October 21, 2007

As a member of the Autonomedia Publishing Collective which publishes the work of the Critical Art Ensemble, and which was ordered to hand over all records and emails to the government because of this case (we didn't), I have a special interest in the case of Steve Kurtz, and I really want to see (and perhaps organize a showing of) this documentary film about his ordeal, which still drags on. Take a look at the Web site for the film, [link] and if you don't know about this, look it up. Maybe I can get the Seattle Art Museum to show the film. I'll have to look into that.

________________________________________ _________

Looking for Advice as I Consider the Redesign of My Website October 21, 2007

I have been neglecting my Web domain since I arrived here nearly two years ago. I need to get back to it and do what I can to make it an effective marketing tool for selling prints and finding freelance clients for CD covers, book covers, Web graphics, etc., etc...

I would be most grateful for any helpful suggestions from this community as I proceed.

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts and experience. I will gladly do the same for you.
________________________________________ __________

Lost Book Club & Museum looking for Exhibits September 21, 2007

I have started a new club [link]

and I would love to have feedback on it - comments, criticism and suggestions.
I would especially appreciate suggestions of pieces for my gallery that you have come across, lost among the millions of deviations here. I have begun the search myself, but it is a daunting task.
Eventually I hope that some of you will submit works specifically created for the museum, but I'll have to grow this thing for awhile before I can hope for that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

________________________________________ __________

Stepping Down at Surreal Arts Club September 20, 2007

I have stepped-down as co-moderator of the Surreal Arts Club . I did have it in the back of my mind when I started fishing for co-moderators. I found five and that dwindled to two, and now Hunter, who has given it a lot of energy, is thinking about moving on as well. It is still one of the more interesting club galleries in the dA universe, and it is still popular, so I am glad to know it will continue in the capable hands of , and newest addition .
________________________________________ __________________________________

Prints of most of my work are available. See my Web site: [link]

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF:

My ever-popular, seizure-inducing Animated Wallpapers: [link]
(click NEXT button in upper left corner to cycle through the whole collection).

My Chaos Chronometer: [link]
At one frame per second it takes twelve days to repeat the same collage. There are only eighty image elements, but they combine in over a million ways before repeating. One day soon I'm going to solicit the collaboration of some of my amazing dA friends to create a far better version of this device. I did this five years ago, and it was only meant as a prototype. I just never got back to it.

Anti-Clocks [link] [link] [link]

CHAOS NEVER DIED: [link]
A little animation I did with one of my favorite Hakim Bey poems. The visuals are a bit dated, and its a low-quality file, but I still like my reading and soundtrack.

For Life, Liberty, Love and Levity.

I am the founder and curator of:

and a member of:

Attempting to Write "About the Artist" October 26, 2007

Hunter asked me for an About the Artist page for the Website redesign he’s doing for me. I’ve never been any good at explaining myself (hence I remain vague in my middle age), so I started making some notes, beginning with a list of my phases as an artist since around age 14, when I started thinking of myself as an artist. The list was longer than I expected. I share it, not as a brag – I know that if I had remained focused on a few things I might have truly mastered them – but just because it surprised me. Here it is, more or less in order:

Ink and pencil drawing, ink and watercolor painting, linoleum block printing using floor tiles and a jack-knife, sound collage using multiple cheap tape recorders, cassette and reel-to-reel, accidental poetry using cut-up texts thrown into a hat, Polaroid photography using multiple exposures, modeling clay creatures, papier mache masks, acrylic painting, assemblage (my room as work of art), paper lithography, 8mm stop-action animated films using claymation techniques, animated sand paintings, and diverse experiments involving vibration and fluid dynamics, 16mm cel animation, optical printing, oil painting, airbrush painting, free-form music/sound/spoken word collage live on the radio (WZRD Chicago), on tape and on stage (the band was called The Burden of Friendship), industrial noise “happenings” (read all-night-parties) at a derelict steel pipe factory (these were called gatherings of the North Shore Industrial League), cut-and-paste black-and-white collage (over 1000), correspondence art, including initiating, curating, hosting and documenting international shows, creating-writing-illustrating-editing-publishing zines as well as contributing art to scores of them, etchings, aquatints, monoprints (by the hundreds), experimental paper marbling techniques, creating unusual calendars (The Mad Farmers’ Almanack and The Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints, now in its 16th edition), helping run a radical gallery and performance space (The Axe Street Arena), color collage (dozens of book covers, scores of magazine illustrations, nearly 30 CD covers for Bill Laswell’s Axiom label and others), editing an anthology of forgotten American history (Gone to Croatan), publishing a book of my collages (Magpie Reveries), etc.

In 1995 I transitioned to digital work, doing digital paint and collage with PhotoShop 3. Since then I have worked in 3D still and animated work, tiled animated GIF wallpapers, digital sound collage, interactive Flash and Shockwave toys, etc. I am currently producing digital mixed media works combining photography, 3D imagery and digital paint techniques. The digital list is short because just a few programs and a bunch of third party plug-ins offer a nearly infinite toolbox for experimentation. I often miss the tactile nature of traditional media, and the smell of paint, printers ink and solvents, and so I take a little break from my computer, but I keep coming back to try something new.

Next Installment: Influences, Associations and Collaborations
________________________________________ ____

Little Toy I Made in 2001 and Forgot About October 24, 2007

Made in a Shockwave class six years ago, it has been online all this time with no links to it from anywhere, and I forgot all about it. I'm sure this is just too amateurish and primitive for most of you, but it was a triumph of code-writing for a novice like me - and it still amuses me. Just move your cursor around within the image. You'll figure it out in about two seconds, but you might find it amusing, too: [link]
________________________________________ ____

Three Cheers for Hunter Logan / Links on Steve Kurtz Case October 22, 2007

Firstly, my dA friend and former co-moderator of The Surreal Arts Club, Hunter Logan has graciously volunteered to redesign my Web site as a portfolio piece as he moves toward going into the Web design business. This is a great relief to me, as I have little talent for writing code and an overhaul is long overdue. Thank you, Hunter.

Secondly, Below I plugged the film Strange Culture, but I think the Steve Kurtz Case - an artist-activist being prosecuted/persecuted as a "bioterrorist" by the U.S. government, as a part of its permanent war of terror against terror - is an important story that everyone should know about, especially artists, and so I am posting a few links to the facts of the case here:

Wikipedia Entry on the case: [link]
Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund: [link]
Washington Post article: [link]
Steve Kurtz Waiting, a short video on YouTube: [link]
________________________________________ _______

A new film by Lynn Hershman Leeson: STRANGE CULTURE October 21, 2007

As a member of the Autonomedia Publishing Collective which publishes the work of the Critical Art Ensemble, and which was ordered to hand over all records and emails to the government because of this case (we didn't), I have a special interest in the case of Steve Kurtz, and I really want to see (and perhaps organize a showing of) this documentary film about his ordeal, which still drags on. Take a look at the Web site for the film, [link] and if you don't know about this, look it up. Maybe I can get the Seattle Art Museum to show the film. I'll have to look into that.

________________________________________ _________

Looking for Advice as I Consider the Redesign of My Website October 21, 2007

I have been neglecting my Web domain since I arrived here nearly two years ago. I need to get back to it and do what I can to make it an effective marketing tool for selling prints and finding freelance clients for CD covers, book covers, Web graphics, etc., etc...

I would be most grateful for any helpful suggestions from this community as I proceed.

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts and experience. I will gladly do the same for you.
________________________________________ __________

Lost Book Club & Museum looking for Exhibits September 21, 2007

I have started a new club [link]

and I would love to have feedback on it - comments, criticism and suggestions.
I would especially appreciate suggestions of pieces for my gallery that you have come across, lost among the millions of deviations here. I have begun the search myself, but it is a daunting task.
Eventually I hope that some of you will submit works specifically created for the museum, but I'll have to grow this thing for awhile before I can hope for that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

________________________________________ __________

Stepping Down at Surreal Arts Club September 20, 2007

I have stepped-down as co-moderator of the Surreal Arts Club . I did have it in the back of my mind when I started fishing for co-moderators. I found five and that dwindled to two, and now Hunter, who has given it a lot of energy, is thinking about moving on as well. It is still one of the more interesting club galleries in the dA universe, and it is still popular, so I am glad to know it will continue in the capable hands of , and newest addition .
________________________________________ __________________________________

Prints of most of my work are available. See my Web site: [link]

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF:

My ever-popular, seizure-inducing Animated Wallpapers: [link]
(click NEXT button in upper left corner to cycle through the whole collection).

My Terror Threat Index Illustrated: [link]

My Chaos Chronometer: [link]
At one frame per second it takes twelve days to repeat the same collage. There are only eighty image elements, but they combine in over a million ways before repeating. One day soon I'm going to solicit the collaboration of some of my amazing dA friends to create a far better version of this device. I did this five years ago, and it was only meant as a prototype. I just never got back to it.

Anti-Clocks [link] [link] [link]

Interview: [link]
An interview I did with Mundovibes, an online music magazine, about my CD covers for Axiom Records.

CHAOS NEVER DIED: [link]
A little animation I did with one of my favorite Hakim Bey poems. The visuals are a bit dated, and its a low-quality file, but I still like my reading and soundtrack.

For Life, Liberty, Love and Levity.

I am a mere member of ,
Wise Sage and Chief Adviser to
and a member of
and