PEARLS before swine

For those of you kids who don't know, I just got a show at COFFEHOUSE NW here in Portland....

I usually write off coffeeshop shows....perhaps a bit of snobbery, but I've seen to much bad and overpriced art in them...and also bought into the notion too much that valid art is only seen in galleries....But with my embarking upon finally trying to establish myself in the art community (upon arriving in NYC) I started to question even galleries as really "fertile" places to present work: The whole notion that this is the only acceptable model for artists....to slave away on work and then you get to hang it on four walls and wait for the fish to bite....and the people who visit tend to be artists or those who love them....just seems short of the mark somehow.
I don't want to trivialize or thumb my nose at other peoples' accomplishments, but it just seems a shame that alot of good art is hidden away from where it might play a more active role with the larger community.
I am, finding myself more interested in site specific work....or public art and I am excitied to see where this may lead in the future of my own personal work.
BUT, for now, I am working on this show. I saw this big wall, from the street on Burnside, and started thinking about implementing a large wall paper cut-out "mural" and this got me going, and a whole show has grown up around the idea....
I am thinking about ellaborating on a smaller piece (more on that later), and trying to come up with a cohesive theme...and have started thinking about fables and fairytales...both my own personal mythology, and the larger cultural one.

This morning I started thinking about that great PIETER BRUEGEL painting in which he depicted a whole slew of NETHERLAND PROVERBS (of the time), some of which are still in use to this day.....My dad had a reproduction of this painting in his office, and I used to stare at it all the time, trying to figure out what all these odd people were doing....it looks like a gaggle of nutters from the local looneybin have escaped and wrecked havoc upon some small unsuspecting hamlet....animals run wild...nothing is as it seems...and others simply seem to cower in the safety of their houses from this surreal onslaught

So I looked it up on WIKI...and they have a detailed explanation of what is going on in that painting...finally a small part of my perplexing youth has evaporated and I can breathe a sigh of relief....

CHECK IT HERE.....and stay tuned for more developements in this project and the show, sometime in SEPTEMBER....