Paris – IT IN Place

Digital Doubleyouing.

alex — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 17:36:16 +0000

While not as fun as drawing in a cafe in Paris, Double You and I are starting to play with the notion of digitally collaborating. This may lead to a series of limited edition digital prints with an international crew of artists… or maybe we’ll just have to go back to Paris:

Festival Pocket Films

alex — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:47:18 +0000

There should be words, but I have none at the moment.

You You and Me en Paris

alex — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:48:22 +0000

Enlighten Me

alex — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:09:47 +0000

Here is my lamp for the Enlighten Show out in L.A. It was made from moleskin collages I did in Paris with UU.

Tornado Design Hosts Art Exhibition Titled Enlighten!
One Night of Light
Over 85 limited-edition artist lamps for sale to help support Inner-City Arts

Los Angeles, CA — September 28, 2009 – Tornado Design will host an exclusive one-night art show
called Enlighten! One Night of Light at the Helms Bakery Building in Culver City from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m
on Saturday, November 21st. Enlighten! is an innovative group exhibition of table lamps featuring printed
shades with artwork by an eclectic roster of over 85 fine artists and illustrators working together to
support arts education for children in Los Angeles. Each artist’s lamp design will be sold in a limited
edition available for one night only. The lamps can be previewed and pre-ordered on the website at
www.enlightenshow.com. The event is free.

Al Quattrocchi and Jeff Smith, co-owners and creative directors of the Los Angeles-based graphic design
studio Tornado Design, curated the exhibition. “Enlighten! is a fun and unique way to bring our artistic
community together. This event will raise some money to help support Inner-City Arts, an organization
planting the seeds of creativity in young artists of the future.” says Quattrocchi. “Whether you are a
participating artist or a patron of the arts, supporting events like Enlighten! will make a difference for
many underprivileged kids!”

A portion of all sales will benefit Inner-City Arts, an organization offering opportunities for at-risk
children from Los Angeles schools to build artistic self-expression, enhancing their ability to perform
both creatively and academically in challenging environments. The lamps are produced by Lamp-In-ABox
in Culver City, California. Owner Daniel Cytrynowicz believes, “A table or desk lamp should reflect
our personal taste, desires and lifestyle, similar to all the other accessories that surround us.”
Participating artists include Lou Beach, Alex Beard, Sandow Birk, Calef Brown, Dave Burke, Jimmy C,
Sarajo Frieden, Tom Fritz, Makoto Kobayashi, Lili Lakich, Joel Nakamura, Saelee Oh, Martha Rich, Paul
Rogers, Souther Salazar, Bwana Spoons, James Victore, Keith Weesner and dozens more. Music will be
provided by The Icy Hot Trio and catering provided by Louise’s Trattoria.

Enlighten! One Night of Light will take place at Helms Bakery Building, 8723 Washington Blvd., Culver
City, California on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Free parking provided directly

across the street. For more information regarding the event or Tornado Design, contact Al Q or Jeff Smith
at info@tornadodesign.la or 310-202-1020, or visit the website at www.enlightenshow.com.

Greetings From England

alex — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:44:25 +0000

A heart stencil from the found Left Bank Paris card. UU wishing the ugly American a happy birthday from London.

Nevermore

alex — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:32:24 +0000

Thoughts on Pere LaChaise and Jim and the ancient Greeks.

The Man Who Fell To Earth

alex — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:49:49 +0000

A storm system roared across Manhattan and left a strange Pernod colored sky in its wake. I ran home to try and catch the sunset. It was one of those sort of Spielberg skies where you think maybe the saucers will emerge and land on Flatbush Ave.

Lady Bug

alex — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:42:26 +0000

I’ve had some weird experiences lately. The day before I left for Paris, I went out to Connecticut to spend the day with my mom and at some point during an old fashioned/nostalgic pick nick, a ladybug landed on my red sweater. My mother told me it was a good omen. Now it is true that I lived most of my life with an illustration hung by my bed near my head (imagined by the illustrator Etienne Delliserte) popping out of the black on red spotted carapace of a ladybug. When I was in Paris wandering the chaos streets of Bellville I fellinto an all night alimentation oriental store and bought a pack of Marllboro (they had that and lights and it was an emergency) and then I realized I’d lost my little lighter so I bought a bic and the Chinese man handed me what: Lady bug with horse shoes. He smiled at me and I realized he was the guy I’d been buying snacks and beer and wine from the day before… I was home! Talk about luck. If not for that lighter, I never would have noticed and maybe just kept walking in the blurr of Paris streets. Then the night before I left … or in the end didn’t leave… a second ladybug landed on my red sweater. I said, “I hope this is a good omen”… and maybe missing my flight was the best thing that happened as it gave me back a day and sense of months.

Yesterday I ran into John Kole… the Grande American from Hub. I haven’t seen him in five or seven years I can’t recall. I dragged him back to Frost street and we talked about old times in Paris. Encore fois pour deux K. etc. He makes restaurants and clubs now. He’s doing well, but I miss his paintings.

Les Chiens Parisean

alex — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:48:56 +0000

a video response from Monsieur Charlie et Madame Claire.

Je Ne Sais Plus Ou J'habite

alex — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:05:07 +0000

Buildings are falling down like cards all over Brooklyn. This was Myrtle street disaster I fell upon cutting through Pratt yesterday, but the French translator sent me a synch version of Polyethylene Bag. Still the modus operendi seems homeless… what do they call it again in France? I cant remember. Watch the vid again.

Beautiful From Behind

alex — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:48:34 +0000

A fell upon a well shod woman as I flipped along the arcades by the louvre. Her shoes echoed under the stone in the lonely night there, but when I passed her alas, she had a sort of funny face… a hook of a nose like a Falcon or an Italian queen I saw once at the Ufuzzi. It reminds me of the nostalgia I’m feeling now. I’m having these strange intensely real dreams that are filled with mundane detail of trying to accomplish rather banal tasks: where in life I’m painting and writing and drinking wine and eating and crying at some fever pitch. When I sleep, I’m getting paper clips and trying to mail a letter.

Talk To Charlie

alex — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:06:19 +0000

Paris Bends

alex — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:44:17 +0000

I revisted this old photocollage from 11years ago while sitting at the Sauvignon with UU (video here)from flickr. The old one used one of those photobooths from the Garre St. Lazarre. I always found the whole Amelie photobooth story quite a souvenire as I was obsessed with those booths and Montmartre. The video is just all the stuff off my pocket cameras and none of the HD stuff. I will probably marry some of the low and highrez images, but for now this is a very crude pockumentary.

Paris Underground Skin

alex — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:48:05 +0000

First two collages made with U U at Café Sauvignon on the left bank. We were tearing up maps and The Little Prince.

Le Retour de Monsieur Alex

alex — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:28:41 +0000

There is a lot of media to go through now. Drawings and video and timelapses. Etc. Not certain how to procede… and there is laundry. So here is a drawing of me by U U a flicker friend I met with in Paris and spent the day jamming collage in cafés and walking around the Rive Gauche. He has some great photos and vids of our day together so follow his link. I think it’s funny that the Ricard snap has a picture of Kubrick’s ear…not the sense organ you think of when and if you think about Kubrick, but I digress. A timer shot of us at the Café Sun Ra (chosen for it’s Jazz cred name and the Bizarre snaggle toothed gangster/Bond villain looking Maitre De).

Trouble in Purgatory

alex — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:50:35 +0000

Well I’m back on the couch and or pulling vampire all nighters at the studio. This year is like last year and like the decade before that. They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting different results… Guess I know some crazy people… but joy joy the cog has arisen Christ/Phoenix-like from the blood and ashes. Viva La Cog!

Polyethylene Paris

alex — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:04:22 +0000

I just found out that my little film Polyethylene Bag is going to be shown at the Pocket Film Festival in Paris at the newly renovatedForum Des Images. I’m thinking I should go! I had to transcribe the dialogue so they could make a subtitled translation. It was interesting for me to see the words written down… as I usually improvise them off the top of my head. This way I can see the structure of my own stream of conciousness. Here is the text:

I had a really strange experience the other night.
I happened to have my camera with me, so there is something of a record.
Although, this isn’t the record of the other night, this is the record of the day after,
But I’m making no sense.
I was coming back from the bar.
I’d been out at the new Galapagos Space in Dumbo
And I was a little beery and a little weary
And then the F train turned miraculously into like the C train and swung off into the middle of nowhere Brooklyn and it took me an hour and half to get home,
But that’s not the strange part, here’s the strange part:
I came upon a guy who maybe he was homeless I couldn’t really tell,
But it had been threatening to rain all night
And somehow he’d managed to pass out inside a plastic bag.
To keep himself dry I suppose,
But aaaah it seemed tremendously unsafe
And a kind of infantile way to die and sort of sad.
So in a small act of human charity,
I cut a couple of air holes into the bag
Just so, you know, he wouldn’t die on the way home,
Or if he was homeless,
Just so he wouldn’t die on the way.

My friend brought me a souvenir of Japan. I said, oh look Kate you’ve brought me back infinity. Nice trick. But Japanese money sure is pretty and it looks like steel wheels and they have a Pocket Festival Japan too… Hmmmmm.

Walking on Carousel

alex — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:31:27 +0000

A new Paris painting and an old Coney Island video (now in HD).

Rim

alex — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:54:40 +0000

I’ve finished the first four spokes and the hub of the wheel. Now I am working on all the periphery stories: the rim? Of Hub…. goes well. I think it’s a nice idea to sit on a story for a decade… you get a good sense of what matters and what doesn’t. Here is a video from about two years ago. I thought I’d upload it again, now that I know how to make it look good.

Math Homework

alex — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:38:19 +0000

Draw a circle.

I found this sheet of math equations in the street while walking the dog around the block. It reminded me that later drafts of my “frist novel” were titled: To Walk A Circle. It was more or less about walking around all those etoilles they have in Paris that get you so lost sometimes and there is no grid by which to dead reckon your way home. Instead you go from L’Opera and walk for thirty minutes and somehow end up exatly again at L’Opera. Last time I was in Paris, I had one entire foot (my gimpy right one) turn into an enormous blister… the whole foot, one blister. For the next week I hobbled around Paris like Ratso Rizzo: Je promenne ICI! I thought it was a grand metaphor for life. Now it sounds a little pretentious, but it does explain Arc Along the Watchtower as a title too.

Paris Pairs

alex — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:03:50 +0000

Yesterday, I think I mentioned, that I’ve started greeting the day by trying to write prose accounts of my Paris Hub stories. These are little tales of manic madness and mad men of Paris I’ve been letting leak out in drips and drams of distilled essence for the last ten years. Oddly enough an e-mail for a contest to win a free trip to Paris showed up in my Inbox right after I hit save on the first installment (the Hub itself). I won’t give you the details of the contest, as frankly you’d be competition, but it seemed rather magical… several people forwarded it to me as well and I had to thank them but explain that I’d entered moments after the announcement. The first time I ever got to live in Paris was with my folks for a month. We’d gone out to taste Indian food in Greenwich Village for the first time. It was an odd and mysterious cuisine to my suburban sixteen year old palette. At the end of the meal I announced that we should go to Paris (both my older brothers were in college, so for the first time I had them to myself and thought we should make a sort of party of it). With two kids in college, it was probably not a good time for them to take a vacation… who could afford it? In a strange coincidance; the next morning a family friend called offering us to trade houses with the minister of the American Cathedral of Paris for a month in the summer. We got to live on the Avenue George V. Omens Oh man. Sometimes they work.

Maps and Legends

alex — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:45:52 +0000

Here is a drawing I did last week at Frost Street and an old collage from Paris about a decade ago. It’s made out of the sex club cards they hand you all up and down the Piagalle and a few found images and some drawings I made and some rose petals and some blood red ink. I call it Nooky Money. Too see a larger size press: here. Below is another in a series of Hub maps I’ve been drawing while actually writing a prose version of all my Hub stories. Why is it that Paris is the only place I ever like writing about?

SacrÃ© Fridge

alex — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:38:57 +0000

I started a new fridge door drawing/movie. Might as well start at the start: SacrÃ© Couer. It’s kind of raw and fucked up and will no doubt change, but I wanted to keep this as a souvenir.