What? Where? When?

The Whither Vane is temporarily out of order. We apologize for the bewilderment. Cardinal directions are (mostly) accurate, but something has begun nesting in the mechanism... You can still use our signpost to find the Temple, First Aid, etc., and create your own signs to point out your camp, your art, your favorite bit of trash fence. Just...watch out overhead.

Cardinal Directions?

SURVIVAL IS INSUFFICIENT.
(Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven)

“Make your own fuckin’ CBGBs. You don’t need New York. It’s about the people.”

(Patti Smith)

Non-Virtual Arts Festivities (Hopefully) Upcoming!

Some of the Collective intend to show up in-person at a nonvirtual Playa del Fuego Mid-Atlantic BurningMan Regional festival at the end of May. (May 2022, we hope!)

We plan on making art beforehand that can be reassembled on-site. I learned this the hard way when I made the Cabinet of Extinct Curiosities for the 2012 spring PdF -- I think I spent two full days of a 4 1/2 day festival working on the thing. It was really fun but I could have had MORE fun if it had been more pop-up book, less house of cards.

Art grant applications have been submitted! We are waiting to see what happens with that, but at least some of us are going to be there either way (if it happens!) and will make art, make merry, and hopefully not superspread anything but joy.

Mettle

 Filth & I had been talking about learning to weld, and the notion continued to smolder in me... then I happened upon the course listings for The Art League (at the Torpedo Factory), and now I am going to learn how to weld. (Details to follow!)

Also, I got in my application for the DC Arts Center's Sparkplug Collective. I started to type, "so I'm waiting to hear," but I'm not waiting. I've decided to behave as if I am in. Deadlines and shared projects energize me, so I am tapping into that energy as much as I can. Getting my atelier/aerie more organized in the direction of making more art. And making more art.

PONY X and the Magicicada PhoeniX

We built, and burned the thing, and it was sparkly.

Burning here:  @joanarkham

spring [carcass] cleaning

This mouse died quietly (no signs of foul play) in front of the corner china closet in our dining room, in January -- crawling to their final carpet nap almost directly below the fox-skull assemblage. This forced me to conclude that the mouse intended to leave their body to Weird Art.

Off Season, On?

I haven't been making art. It's been winter, and there were Things To Do. Starting to get that itch, though. Equinoctal urges?

I Shaved My Leg.

Far from the most interesting thing that EFAC members have been up to recently, but it is a thing I am personally qualified / cleared to share...

You Have Time For The Things You Make Time For.

Books to create, books to destroy... #efac

A photo posted by Dorothy Hickson (@dorothyjhickson) on Feb 19, 2016 at 7:19am PST

Collectivism is a Tease [Revised post!]

Apparently an Artomatic occurs this autumn after all...

Will EFAC exhibit, in all our glorious collectivity?

It is not yet known. But we are having ideas.

IT IS KNOWN. As it turns out, Artomatic is pretty staunchly anti- that idea. It is all about the individual (unless, I guess, you're a glass school). OK then! I still signed up. There will be new stuff, and it MAY* contain hidden nods to the work of my collectivity-buddies. Come see it! Wilds of Maryland, Oct. 30 - Dec. 12.

--- djh

*spoiler: WILL

Things in the Works

Artomatic may be doing an event this October -- in the wilds of Maryland. Should this take place, I hope to turn up with a small installation and/or to read something from my novel, the Gamma Draft of which is currently tormenting me full-time.

You can help (with the installation, not the novel) by donating old scissors or shears of any kind, hardshell suitcases, a little red wagon and/or a dissecting table (table or wagon could be returned intact at the end).

Meanwhile and unrelatedly, here is a beautiful project Bxiie has in the works: Build Sculpture for ECO-Visions. To help Bxiie out, see details at the link.

More on these and other adventures as they develop.

qotd

Jo Andres: 

"...how ideas come or when they come is when I’m in a soft, calm place, like in an alpha state, coming in and out of sleep. That’s where a lot of things move around; where there is problem solving and I relax my mind. I think it’s really a combination of problem solving and listening to how I feel, a visceral feeling about what’s coming through, an excitement that you can latch onto. I go, “Oh that’s exciting, let’s pursue that.” Sometimes I am inspired by reflecting back and forth with people, but for the most part I feel much more connected to my creative center when I’m alone..."

"The other thing about the creative process is showing up. You have to show up for yourself, whether it’s to a physical space, or to a space in yourself, because the creative energy is always there." (joandres.com) 

Thrifting List

-- old suitcases/briefcases/dr's bags (hard-sided, oldfangled, any condition)

-- a working crockpot

-- all the scissors

-- child's wagon or pull-toy

and find where i stashed all those old notebook-spirals last year

(I'm sorry there are no pictures yet. Here are some pictures that I like.)

Impurity of Motives

As we dance on the edges of our chairs waiting for Artomatic registration to open, here are a few glimpses inside the EFAC abattoir. Wait, I mean atelier. Probably.

High-school essays? Links to pursue?

We want to do ***something*** on this idea:

the myriad physical ailments caused by the Industrial Revolution (black lung, asbestos, mercury poisoning; long hours, child labor, oppressive working conditions; factory and slaughterhouse machine accidents...)

and

psychological ailments caused by the Information Age (depression, anxiety, stress & hypertension; seasonal affective disorder; coughing up Infosmog as we inhale every violent trauma of the world's news and entertainment media... 8-year-olds with eating disorders and video-game addictions... you know, normal everyday stuff we are all used to).

Future historians will view this era as oppressive and damaging to the human psyche.

Preliminary artistic considerations include looking for essays on the Industrial Revolution, educational filmstrips, possibly dioramas of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Whatever you've got that we can pillage, parody, repurpose.

Artistic media have yet to be contemplated... This is a little zygote of a project. (And yes, we are hiring. We are always hiring.)