Mr Hop the Scissor
An art blog by Chris Moss
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Adult Contemporary Coasters are here!
For the last two years I have been working on and off again with digital images of older paintings. Really I've been doing this for much longer but that's beside the point. These new "paintings" are filling up my hard drive. Occasionally I'll share the images on twitter or facebook or tumblr but they've always remained "working drawings", things I make that don't exist as anything but little notes to myself. Proof, I guess, that I'm still working, but I never really thought about showing them, not in a gallery at least.
I like a lot of things. I mean when I was a kid I always liked the section of the hardware store where they kept the twopenny nails. That hardware store used to have a huge container of nails, several containers really, all different types of fasteners, you just had to reach in and grab as many as you wanted. I liked grabbing a bunch and letting them fall out of my hands into the container as if it were gold instead of galvanized steel. I liked the part of that store that sold rope too, giant spools of rope. I can't say if those buckets and spools are why I work serially but I do remember always liking a lot of things. Things in great quantity, long series of paintings followed by even longer series of digital rearrangements of those paintings are somehow satisfying. I suppose it's a compulsion to compete with the efficiency of manufacture.
You might remember I made a doormat a few years ago, sales of that venture went so well I have decided to once again step into the world of manufactured "editions" (I still have all of them, get at me, they're now old stock, available at a steep discount!). Which brings me to the point of this post. I've started a line of drink coasters, the first of which are available for sale below. I've called the series of images Adult Contemporary for reasons that remain mysterious even to me.
The coasters are double sided, with a different image on each side, four images in total. They are offset printed using vegetable based inks on heavy weight pulp board manufactured, I'm told, from managed forests in the EU (that means for every tree they cut down another gets planted). They are available in packages of 8 and each package will also include an original drawing on a coaster. All coasters are highly absorbent and reusable, if you'd like to read more about them you can on the manufacturer's website.
Adult Contemporary coasters are available in packs of 8 plus one drawing for $15.00, and come in a windowed gift box. Please select the shipping option in the drop down menu if you need me to ship your coasters. Get yours today.
Monday, June 10, 2013
New Digitally Manupulated Photographs.
Christopher Moss Amnesia Haze II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss Aurora Indica II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss Ayatollah II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss BC Blue Cheese II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss Betazoid II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss Betazoid II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss Big Buddah Cheese II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss Black Domina II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss Blueberry Northern Lights II, 2013 |
Christopher Moss Blue God II, 2013 |
Friday, November 16, 2012
I'll trade you some art for some hurricane relief funding.
Hey, I've been thinking a lot lately about how miserable life would be for me if a hurricane were to come wash away everything I own. I don't think it would matter much how good life was for me before if I had to start all over from scratch. Add to that the insult, the lack of response, the ignorance of a city that pretty much got right back to business as usual in just over a week and I think I'd be downright despondent.
There are many, many people out there in the Rockaways, in Coney Island, in Breezy Point, and on Staten Island, to name just a few of the New York (not to mention New Jersey) places still struggling to recover from Hurricane Sandy. Maybe you've noticed, or read about it.
I'm fine, I was barely affected by the storm, but I know a lot of people were. For those people who are not fine and who won't be fine for a long time I want to help. One of the fastest moving and quickly reacting groups who continue to help people recover is called Occupy Sandy. I don't know them and I don't think they have time to notice me, but I'm deeply impressed by their grass roots response. It seems their help came faster, has been more helpful and is better organized than any other more established agency. I'd like to donate to them in a big way, they're directing relief on the ground by listening to what people need and updating the public to what can be done via their website.
I don't want to keep you here forever, reading this blog post and not doing anything so I'll get to the point. As incentive to help I'll be donating all of the proceeds from the sale of my paintings and drawings through this page. I'll be updating this as things sell, when something is purchased I'll post another, starting with these, just click the buy now button below each painting and I'll accept your payment via paypal, pack up your painting, send it to you and donate the payment through their "wedding registry". Each of the paintings are offered at full retail value ($500.00 is pretty cheap as far as art goes, have you seen the auction results at Christie's and Sothoby's recently?). I totally understand if you can't donate that much, which is why I also have drawings for $40.00 too. I also understand if you don't want an artwork in exchange for a donation, in which case I'd recommend you donate here.
Lastly, if you'd prefer not to donate through paypal but you'd still like to buy a painting for hurricane relief you can contact me by email here.
UPDATE: the first drawing has sold, I will be updating this page as quickly as I can but these are first come first served. In the event you've purchased something that has already been sold to someone else I will contact you regarding a replacement. I'm sure we can work something out.
UPDATE 2: Thank you for your support, the sale is now over. If you donated you will be happy to know that almost $800.00 went to hurricane relief, a small but nonetheless helpful amount I could not have raised without all of your help. Thanks again.
SOLD
SOLD
SOLD
SOLD
SOLD
There are many, many people out there in the Rockaways, in Coney Island, in Breezy Point, and on Staten Island, to name just a few of the New York (not to mention New Jersey) places still struggling to recover from Hurricane Sandy. Maybe you've noticed, or read about it.
I'm fine, I was barely affected by the storm, but I know a lot of people were. For those people who are not fine and who won't be fine for a long time I want to help. One of the fastest moving and quickly reacting groups who continue to help people recover is called Occupy Sandy. I don't know them and I don't think they have time to notice me, but I'm deeply impressed by their grass roots response. It seems their help came faster, has been more helpful and is better organized than any other more established agency. I'd like to donate to them in a big way, they're directing relief on the ground by listening to what people need and updating the public to what can be done via their website.
I don't want to keep you here forever, reading this blog post and not doing anything so I'll get to the point. As incentive to help I'll be donating all of the proceeds from the sale of my paintings and drawings through this page. I'll be updating this as things sell, when something is purchased I'll post another, starting with these, just click the buy now button below each painting and I'll accept your payment via paypal, pack up your painting, send it to you and donate the payment through their "wedding registry". Each of the paintings are offered at full retail value ($500.00 is pretty cheap as far as art goes, have you seen the auction results at Christie's and Sothoby's recently?). I totally understand if you can't donate that much, which is why I also have drawings for $40.00 too. I also understand if you don't want an artwork in exchange for a donation, in which case I'd recommend you donate here.
Lastly, if you'd prefer not to donate through paypal but you'd still like to buy a painting for hurricane relief you can contact me by email here.
UPDATE: the first drawing has sold, I will be updating this page as quickly as I can but these are first come first served. In the event you've purchased something that has already been sold to someone else I will contact you regarding a replacement. I'm sure we can work something out.
UPDATE 2: Thank you for your support, the sale is now over. If you donated you will be happy to know that almost $800.00 went to hurricane relief, a small but nonetheless helpful amount I could not have raised without all of your help. Thanks again.
Ayatollah, 2011, acrylic on masonite, 10 x 10 inches |
Blue God, 2011, acrylic on masonite, 10 x 10 inches |
Bubble Gum, 2011, acrylic on masonite, 10 x 10 inches |
Candy Graham, 2011, acrylic on masonite, 10 x10 inches |
Drawing 9, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 13, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 19, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 20, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 1, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 14, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 2, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 4, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 7, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 21, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 11, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 8, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 22, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 12, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 15, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 3, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 16, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 17, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 5, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 6, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Drawing 18, 2012, ink on paper, 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches |
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Mr. Hop the Scissor's Origin Story
As it turns out this space is a monthly for me, I don't move at the pace of the internet, and really I'm not a blogger, I simply have a blog that I tell some of you about. I've sat on this post since January it was intended to be a response to Sharron Buttler's post on her blog Two Coats of Paint about an MFA final crit she sat in on. I've been thinking about the relative value of an MFA since 2006 when I was sent my first bill from Brooklyn College for that particular degree and I sent Sharon some comments about what I thought about the experience. This is a version of the same things I sent her with pics I thought would be helpful.
In 2003 I moved to New York with the specific intention of attending a fairly cheap graduate school in pursuit of an MFA degree. As it turns out I got into my second choice school, Brooklyn College (Hunter was first on my list). I thought I was a pretty hot shit, if modest, painter and I spent my first year at Brooklyn making competent modernist figurative paintings. My heroes at the time were New York School second generation painters like Louisa Mathiasdottir, Leland Bell and Paul Georges. In turn their heroes were also my heroes, the first generation ab-ex painters DeKooning and Hoffman but also figurative painters like Balthus, Derain, Matisse, Bonnard. I was making paintings just like they did, and I was at grad school trying to figure out how to make paintings like that matter to the world, it was a stance I took against the last 50 years of art history, but I was fine with that, I was a “rebel” in the sense that I was rejecting contemporary mores.
I found some support for my beliefs at BC, Archie Rand and Patricia Cronin were hugely supportive. I liked Archie especially, he really understood what I understood about how important these artists really were. He was respectful, even reverent, in my studio. At the same time I was studying with Elizabeth Murray and William T. Williams. I'd met occasional resistance from both of them in personal studio crits but nothing I couldn't handle, I knew how to argue for an ideal beauty, I knew how to argue against how stupid and wrong minimalism and conceptual art were, I had moral high ground to stand on.
I spent my second year at BC making what are probably the worst, ugliest paintings I've ever made, but I was making them as a free person, I discovered I was really good at making bad paintings, I was good at having bad ideas and I was really good at ugly. I had never let myself do that, I'd never really let go, I'd never let myself into my work in the way I did that semester, and the results were horrifying.
I spent a lot of time in my second
semester reading artforum from the 70's, I figured I'd go to at least
one of the sources of the rhetoric I was hearing. I read Don Judd's
reviews in Arts magazine, the ones he wrote about the scene around
him. I discovered young Jerry Salz's paintings were heavily
influenced by Jasper Johns. I realized why he had quit making art and began writing. I began actually liking a lot of stuff
I'd rejected before, not just liking it but thinking critically about
why it was made and why it might be important.
Boats, c. 2003, approximately 10 x 12 inches |
In 2003 I moved to New York with the specific intention of attending a fairly cheap graduate school in pursuit of an MFA degree. As it turns out I got into my second choice school, Brooklyn College (Hunter was first on my list). I thought I was a pretty hot shit, if modest, painter and I spent my first year at Brooklyn making competent modernist figurative paintings. My heroes at the time were New York School second generation painters like Louisa Mathiasdottir, Leland Bell and Paul Georges. In turn their heroes were also my heroes, the first generation ab-ex painters DeKooning and Hoffman but also figurative painters like Balthus, Derain, Matisse, Bonnard. I was making paintings just like they did, and I was at grad school trying to figure out how to make paintings like that matter to the world, it was a stance I took against the last 50 years of art history, but I was fine with that, I was a “rebel” in the sense that I was rejecting contemporary mores.
Untitled, 2004, 24 x 19 inches |
I found some support for my beliefs at BC, Archie Rand and Patricia Cronin were hugely supportive. I liked Archie especially, he really understood what I understood about how important these artists really were. He was respectful, even reverent, in my studio. At the same time I was studying with Elizabeth Murray and William T. Williams. I'd met occasional resistance from both of them in personal studio crits but nothing I couldn't handle, I knew how to argue for an ideal beauty, I knew how to argue against how stupid and wrong minimalism and conceptual art were, I had moral high ground to stand on.
Bed, 2005, 24 x 36 inches |
At the end of my first year I was
confused but confident I was right, and it was with that confidence
that I walked into my first year critique. Armed with some fairly
large new paintings and tons upon tons of studies and small
watercolors I was there to prove my worth as a painter, if not by
quality at least by sheer volume. I was prolific, like Picasso, ya
know? I made a lot of stuff, just look at my stream of semen, look at
how well I paint! Look, will you? And if you don't see how great this
particular bowl of apples is please look again, you have no IDEA how
hard I worked on that pile of fruit, and it's grand, isn't it?
The critique was vaguely praising, nice this, good touch here, lovely color, nice palette knife work there, etc.
And then, the last person to speak finally spoke. Elizabeth Murray, who I'd grown to respect for an abundant amount of reasons and who had recently suffered through an unimaginably grueling session of chemo therapy on what turned out to be one of her last days with us on this planet but who also somehow felt well enough that day to crit me and my classmates, said:
Untitled (after Caravaggio's Flagellation), 2004, 24 x 19 inches |
The critique was vaguely praising, nice this, good touch here, lovely color, nice palette knife work there, etc.
And then, the last person to speak finally spoke. Elizabeth Murray, who I'd grown to respect for an abundant amount of reasons and who had recently suffered through an unimaginably grueling session of chemo therapy on what turned out to be one of her last days with us on this planet but who also somehow felt well enough that day to crit me and my classmates, said:
“Your work is inane”.
Which was a pretty easy thing to brush
off, I mean the whole rest of the room pretty much told me I was the
genius I knew I was so fuck her. Right?
And then it was suddenly summer and I
had what seemed like eons of time off from the pressures of grad
school. I had one more crit with a visiting artist that summer, Kara
Walker, who couldn't figure out why I liked dead white guys any more
than I could explain what it was about art that I was so in love
with.
I felt awful, and worse, out of touch. That moment of that day killed something in me that needed to be killed. I went home and cried.
[ed. you can't feel bad for me here, I was an incredibly naive person, unaware of my own naivete, thinking it was some kind of secret knowledge.]
I felt awful, and worse, out of touch. That moment of that day killed something in me that needed to be killed. I went home and cried.
[ed. you can't feel bad for me here, I was an incredibly naive person, unaware of my own naivete, thinking it was some kind of secret knowledge.]
Untitled, 2005, 19 x 24 inches |
I spent that summer making lots of
paintings, reams upon reams of paintings on paper. And I thought
all of that work was shit; horrible, awful, terrible things, an
amazing amount of paintings, a whole new portfolio. Paintings I spat on, paintings I pissed on, paintings made from
soap bubbles and ink, cartoon paintings, stuff I'd never made before. It was an awful summer of awkward growth.
Untitled, 2005, 19 x 24 inches |
Untitled, 2005, 19 x 24 inches |
I spent my second year at BC making what are probably the worst, ugliest paintings I've ever made, but I was making them as a free person, I discovered I was really good at making bad paintings, I was good at having bad ideas and I was really good at ugly. I had never let myself do that, I'd never really let go, I'd never let myself into my work in the way I did that semester, and the results were horrifying.
Quadripples, 2006, 18 x 24 inches |
So I just made ugly art for a few
years. I remember my second year crit was nearly silent. Quite a few
of the undergrad faculty who sit in on the crits couldn't figure out
what had happened, or why. I had murdered something precious, my own
“taste” I guess, whatever it was that was preventing me from
speaking from my own experience. Fear was part of that thing I'd just
killed, fear of making a bad painting, fear of saying the wrong
thing, etc. The thing was I didn't even recognize my defense
mechanism as fear, I was proud of that mechanism, or at least I had been.
Untitled, 2006, 48 x 56 inches |
Dancing in the Show Tonight, 2006, 48 x 48 inches |
Dickheads, 2006, 48 x 48 inches |
Best of all, for my own work, I did get
comfortable with making ugly things, and those ugly things became
less ugly to me, because I'd made them and I had discovered a way of owning the things I'd been afraid to make. Making work became a way of
working through having my ass handed to me by
Elizabeth Murray. I never want another person to tell me that my work
doesn't need to exist, and I'll likely never have the opportunity to
have someone tell me that again in my life. But that's what grad
school is for.
Untitled, 2006, 48 x 48 inches |
I remember saying one thing in that
final crit, when the notion that the new paintings were less than
pretty came about I remember answering “yes, and I should have been
making paintings like this years ago”.
70 paintings titled individually, the work as a whole has no title, 2011 - 2012, 10 x 10 inches each (excepting the one that's 10 x 12 inches) photo by Sharon Butler. |
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