May, 2010

My good friend Alex reading from Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire over a montage of his photos from Canyonlands National Park.

Almost finished with my last painting for The Big Bang, my show at Beep Beep Gallery. Next Sunday Maria & I will be driving down the east coast, camping out & just taking our time before we arrive in Atlanta. I plan on documenting the entire trip, including the drive there & back, the installation & opening of my show, the wedding of my good friend Sat Kirpal Garcia, and everything that happens in between.
Lately my days have been overcast with an ever-present grief over this horrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I’m always lamenting over nature’s plight in some form or another, but now I find myself feeling more & more powerless, angry for being part of the problem, ashamed of being human. I can talk about sending money, trying to volunteer with the clean-up, doing SOMETHING, but it all comes down to actions versus words, & I’m unwilling to take action. My lifestyle hasn’t changed, and I haven’t made sacrifices that could result in my existence being less of a burden on this planet. I grasp for some shreds of hope, but my pessimism is repeatedly reinforced with each new display of mankind’s destructive nature.
This evening I walked around the neighborhood under streaks of moonlit clouds that played as a backdrop to an eerily Blade Runner-esque blimp emblazoned with a massive video screen showing sports clips. I was accompanied on my walk by a gentle midnight breeze that made me feel as if I wasn’t in the middle of this monster city, but rather some tiny coastal town somewhere further south, not unlike Sarasota, FL. Now I sit in my studio apartment, in front of my open windows, listening to the strangely soothing rumble of traffic & trains crossing the Williamsburg Bridge, and I know that I am very lucky to have the life that I have, and I feel terrible about it.

HEALTH “We are Water” from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

Another great video directed by Eric Wareheim from Tim & Eric Awesome Show.
I leave for Atlanta in 1 week. Still finishing my last piece. Will post more show info soon…

Crazy chandelier at Montauk Yacht Club, Montauk, L.I.
Also just found out Frank Frazetta has died. he was possibly the best known fantasy artist of all time. R.I.P. Frank. May Crom welcome you to the afterlife.

Fog rolling in, Montauk, L.I.

Camp Hero, Montauk, L.I.

Decommissioned & turned over to the U.S Parks Department in 1984, conspiracy theories still haunt Camp Hero. Searching it on the internet turns up accusations of “top secret, ultra-classified research and experimentation (much of which falls under the umbrella of the code-named Phoenix Project) in quantum and particle physics (black hole simulation), super-powerful electrical fields, weather control, psychotronics (interfacing mind and machine), genetics, particle beam technology, and electronic and drug- based mind control”. There are numerous articles claiming a massive underground facility still exists on the site, & that the there is still top-secret activity being conducted under Camp Hero State Park. Pretty spooky stuff if you’re into the idea of our government being behind some shady shit. The idea to make Camp Hero a state park was allegedly to reduce the suspicions of the public in regards to the camp’s past use & rumors of experimentation. There’s still a massive AN/FPS-35 radar tower that is fenced off, the only remaining radar of it’s kind, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

I thought Camp Hero had some relation to the Montauk Monster (above), but there doesn’t seem to be any mention of animal experimentation at Camp Hero. Plum Island, another mysterious conspiracy magnet located to the North of Montauk & East of Orient Point, seems to be the source of any government created monsters (at least in the Long Island area). We had driven to the Eastern-most point of Montauk to see the famed Montauk Point Lighthouse, but the fog was too thick & I couldn’t get any good pictures. Heading back West, I was drawn to a side-road that had obviously fallen into disrepair, which lead us to the closed-off Northern entrance to Camp Hero. Maria pulled over & I cautiously walked about 50 feet down the damp road to get some pics of the abandoned gate, all the while trying to ignore the dark emptiness of the decaying guardhouse window. The rapidly materializing fog didn’t help, nor did the all-encompassing feeling of isolation of this one particular spot. I felt much better back in the car as we headed to our cozy beachside room at the Montauk Yacht Club. Later we searched Camp Hero on the internet & were surprised to find a plethora of information both factual & conspiratorial. Some of the stories & info are here, here, & here. Had I known the camp’s history before our visit, I might have been able to gather enough confidence to jump the fence & do some real exploring. I hope to return to Montauk in the future & to get a closer view of that radar tower & possibly get inside a structure or two, all while keeping myself from mysteriously disappearing into thin air.

Maria took me to Montauk, L.I. for my birthday. The weather was insanely sporadic, raining one second, sunny the next, foggy the next. A beautiful, isolated place.

Just found this awesome website of one of my favorite artists, Caspar David Friedrich. The site contains his complete works. I strive to have even a fraction of the skill this man had, a true master. Below are some of my favorites:

Capuchin Friar By The Sea, date unknown

Morning in the Riesengebirge, 1810-11

Drifting Clouds, 1820

Evening, date unknown

Black Tower 7- acrylic on panel, 5″x5″