Erin Washington

Erin happened to be in town visiting for this round. I think she fared a little better this time. Other than the fact that I look slightly pissed off (which I think is mostly due to the hot pink bathroom), this one isn’t bad. Bonus points for including a reference to my sponsorship by Columbia Sportswear, manufacturer of active outdoor apparel and footwear.

Maria Vergara

I’m still trying to place the emotion conveyed through the expression on my face and can’t. The teardrop tatoo below my right eye makes me think that I’ve lost one of my bro’s in jail. The enigmatic emotional content of Maria’s portrait still doesn’t quite trump her last attempt although I am glad she included my forehead mole.

Sam Bittman

Another of Sam’s Neo German Expressionist portraits. I can’t tell if I have a beard (which I can’t grow) or some kind of rash. Either way, my skin is much more clear.

Up until now the portraits have all been drawn relatively well and representative of each artists stylistic tendencies. Erin, Maria and Sam have all drawn me in Sharpie on bar napkin in the passt. Now we come to the part of the programstarring the newbies.

Kozue Hasegawa

I should chalk up this sub par attempt at Kozue’s unfamiliarity with the medium, but like Sharpie on bar napkin, I’m not that forgiving. The only indication that this might be me is the forehead mole, EXCEPT THAT IT’S PINK!!!! The hair’s too long and not combed right, my eyebrows aren’t like that at all and I think I might be wearing braces. Kozue either needs to drink much more or much less before she tries this again.

Sam Jaffee

is this supposed to be a villain from a Little LuLu comic?

Sam Jaffe’s boyfriend Michael

Teenaged Asian crime fighter? Right on!

A little Crown Royal porn for all the Black Tooth Grin enthusiasts out there. I particularly like the purple Crown Royal bag in the shape of a Christmas stocking.

My car, parked in the driveway of my parents house, about 12 hours after arriving. Gotta love lake effect snow (although I wish I’d brought my ski clothes).

The second show is “New Directions ‘08″ at the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, NY which was juried by Asher Miller who’s a curator of 19th century, Modern and Contemporary art at the Met. The piece selected is “14206-3130 (I)” which I showed at the SAIC’s Graduate Exhibition this past spring. Unfortunately due to geographical constraints I’m not goin to see either show.

Finally, later today I’ll finish moving out of the giant loft I lived in for the last year to better insulated and closer to the CTA Blue Line three bedroom apartment. Moving is a pain, but standing on the corner at 2:30 am in February waiting for a bus to take me to a house that I can only afford to heat to 55 degrees is worse. I’ll post photos of everything if and when I get around to them.

Mike Nudelman

Regrettably one of the key signifiers from the last round is still present, the dreaded upper lip stubble, although here it looks more like a rash. In any case, I was freshly shaven that morning and doubt my upper lip stubble was quite this apparent. I think Nudelman’s just being a dick.

Lindsey Hook

Last time aroung Lindsey made me look like I drove a kid toucher van. This time it takes her three tries to get a good likeness. Let’s see how she fared…

I’m not sure who Lindsey was looking at when she drew this, but I think he was sitting in a booth across the bar.

This one is a little bit better. The hair is closer and I have a chin, but why do I look like the spawn of Zach Braff and Matias Cuevas?

This one is by far Lindsey’s best attempt - if I was Woody Allen circa 1966.

Jon Gardner

This must be the jowl-y beatnik cousin of the jowl-y farmer Jon drew last time. I’d also like to point out the unconventional placement of the artist’s signature which seems to imply that this is a picture of Jon Gardner rather than a picture by Jon Gardner.

That does it for the people that have drawn me before. Now on to some fresh perspectives.

Jaime Henderson

There’s also a new signifier on the block: my forehead and lower lip moles. At least there’s no stubble. But, like everything she does, Jaime approached this project with sincerity and enthusiasam and I think the results show. Which is more than I can say for

Jaime’s Boyfriend Patrick

After mumbling something about being an Art and Technology student, Patrick whipped up this little number leaving little doubt as to what he thought of the project. I’m just glad Nudelman received top billing in the dedication.

Tim Bergstrom

I think Tim was molested by Bart Simpson as a youngster.

Nick Cueva

This is a pretty fresh take on the sharpie-on-bar-napkin portrait. I can’t really comment on the likeness since it got a little bit crushed in my bag, but I like the chances it takes. And from a post-bacc no less! Mark my words, this kid’s going places.

Sam Bittman

Even though this looks nothing like me, we’re way overdue for a revival of German Expressionism.

What is this, Nosferatu the Sun God? That doesn’t make any sense. What’s interesting about this attempt is that Sam only drew half of my portrait and allowed the Sharpie to bleed through the napkin to complete the image.

I know Sam did three versions, but I’m not sure if this one’s hers or not. I think it is. This is what happens when you take two weeks to scan these in and then make the snarky comments. It’s all pretty much gonna go downhill from this point anyway.

Nora

Regrettably I don’t know Nora’s last name so I can’t properly attribute it. Lucky for me she signed it so at least I got the first name. Not sure what’s up with the “Is all about me…!!!” inscription. Is that supposed to represent my thoughts? Is it the artist projecting their own hopes and desires? What’s the tone? So many questions.

Unknown

The rest of these are either unsigned or I can’t remember who did them and the signatures aren’t any help to me at this late date. If anyone wants to claim these let me know and I’ll make sure you receive credit where credit is due.

About all I can say about this one is there’s no upper lip stubble. Maybe that’s because whoever drew it doesn’t know who I am?

Man, where the hell did that chin come from? Next time I want to know what I’d look like as a new romantic I’ll refer to this.

I can’t believe I even bothered to scan this one let alone posted it and commented upon it, curse my obsessive compulsive completeist tendencies.

At least I can sleep well knowing that Mort Drucker’s job security isn’t being threatened.

Not only did I not know that Mike Judge went to SAIC, I didn’t know he came out to Exchequer with us that night! He got a pretty good likeness of me too, right down to the t-shirt. I do love the Jonas Brothers. In fact I’ve been a fan since their first album which was back when they were making slightly baroque Beatles-esque pop and not the catchy lite disco for which they are better known today. As soon as I’m famous this one is totally going up on eBay.

How did this picture of Pablo get in here?

My band, Fuck Shit City, made a record. This is it. Double A side, recorded over two evenings at Phantom Manor Recording and mastered at Chicago Mastering Service it features the soon to be hit singles “Fuck Shit Moon” and “Spirits”. Quantities are limited and this is sure to be a collectors item so get yours today!

• Cedar Walton: The Electric Boogaloo -Luckily this has nothing to do with bad movies about breakdancing from the 80s.
• Herbie Nichols: The Third World - From Blue Note’s mid 70’s re-issue series.
• Spirit: The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
• Lynyrd Skynyrd: Street Survivors - With the original cover of the band standing in front of some burning buildings that was pulled from stores after the plane crash.
• Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition
• Jethro Tull: Benefit
• The Doobie Brothers: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits - Purchased solely because of the title in the hopes it would live up to it. It doesn’t.
• Sir Victor Uwaifo: Guitar-Boy Superstar 1970-76 - Another great comp from Soundway.

Icee concession at the Erie County Fair 2008

Pictures I took of this year’s Erie County Fair. I hadn’t been since I was a kid. It hasn’t changed much from what I remember. This is the first time I ever went to the midway at night, which is much different than being there in the middle of the afternoon. I intentionally tried to keep fair-goers out of a lot of these, so it didn’t seem this deserted despite the fact my dad kept commenting on how there were less people than the year before.

This photo is the one flickr ‘chose’ as the lead image when it scrambled the order when I uploaded them. It’s as good as any I suppose. The rest of the set on flickr.

Both the gallery guide and the signage at the entrance declared the second floor to be “Closed For Installation”, yet the contents of the that gallery were clearly visible beyond roped off area:

There were a few pieces on display, but the room was mostly filled with crates which preumably contained more work. Additional signage said something to the effect that the crates in that room were soon to be shipped to various museums around the world for Warhol related shows, or had recently arrived back at the museum.

Was this the Warhol Foundation touting it’s importance as the repository for one of the 20th century’s most important visual artists? Institutional process laid bare for public consumption? A clever negotiation of the tropes of exhibition design? Probably it was all of that.

But what I liked most was that all of the crates were emblazoned with a stencil based on Warhol’s Self-Portrait in Fright Wig:

It reminds me of the way bands stencil their logo on their gear so they can tell what’s theirs backstage.

Saw this hanging in Perry’s Deli on Franklin Street the other day.