Did you miss me? It’s good to be back home again. Hello to any NEW folks out there in DIGITAL LAND (William Gibson called it “Cyberspace,” but we’ll forgive him.) If this is your first encounter with my rambling shenanigans and primitivist artworkia, don’t take anything you are about to encounter TOO seriously. Just go with it. (Once you’ve reached Consciousness Level 13, it ALL becomes serious, but for now, just have fun…)
For the last two weeks, my wife, Mariah, and I have been trapsing across four different states, driving and walking and flying our way around Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada. We spent the first half of the vacation driving to San Francisco and back. Then we took a day to wash our clothes, grabbed our younger daughter, and flew out of Portland, Oregon, off to Sin City (Las Vegas.) We spent five days in the scorching heat, noise, and debauchery before finally returning to the cool, calm, and comforting Pacific Northwest.
During our adventures we visited museums, art galleries, bookstores (including CITY LIGHTS!), comic shops, restaurants (FUCKING EXPENSIVE!!!), casinos (we don’t actually gamble, but the flashing lights are cool), and even a very nice pool. (It was perfect for ME because I tend to burn to death in even moderate sunshine, and this pool had a faux-cave area with a waterfall feature where I spent most of my time in the shade! I got to float around in the water but didn’t combust!)
One overpowering THING that I was confronted with, HEAD ON, during this entire trip was the rampant, crass, disgusting (in my view), pointless consumerism. All flash and no substance. There were LINES to get into certain branded retail shops, and in one of the art galleries I visited, the curator (or clerk or whatever) suddenly lost interest in our conversation when he realized I wasn’t going to buy a $1,000.00 unsigned Miro lithograph. A thousand bucks IS actually a decent price for a Miro, even unsigned, and if I were a wealthy feller I might have considered purchasing it! However, if you are the type of person who is only interested in art or design or creativity because of the MONEY, then you’re missing the entire fucking point of ART, and I feel a sense of profound sorrow that these entirely materialistic folks are so intimately involved in the ART WORLD. Well, maybe I’m not feeling sorrow, but a Holy Fool ain’t supposed to feel RAGE, (I’m too goddam enlightened, unfortunately), so sorrow is how I would describe my emotional state when I see works meant to inspire wonder or create connection to something DEEPER—but all most people seem to do is reduced the work to a fucking dollar sign… It’s bullshit—and one of the reasons that I’m enjoying my experiences in DIGITAL LAND. There is a COMMUNITY to be found there, and it’s incredibly easy to make and share NFTs and pdf zines and make direct contact with other creative types through social media—with people who appreciate these works for MORE than their monetary value.
BUT now we’re home again—THANK BOB! We both agree that we’re going to avoid ever taking TWO vacations back-to-back any time soon. In fact, I personally, would be happy just not going back to Vegas OR San Francisco at all! (Too big, too many people, too expensive, too much of pain trying to get anywhere, too…much…) Mariah and I loved Ashland, Oregon, though, (where we stayed the first night), and I’d be perfectly happy to visit there again any time. Honestly, I think our trips to the coast in Oregon and Washington are still my favorite vacation destinations…
This isn’t to say we had a bad time on this trip. We saw City Lights bookstore (as a fan of Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, visiting this store was one of my life goals), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, watched a live performance by Criss Angel, and spotted a million cool, weird, off-beat things. (I’ll be making a couple different travel zines so I can share a bunch of the photos I took!) Both Mariah and I came away from the experience inspired and ready to get back to work. (I also wrote and drew and read a bunch while we were vacating, and I’ll be sharing that stuff, either as posts or zines or NFTs, in the near future!) I’ve also reconfigured my understanding of what social media IS and how it can be used (for things like archiving and connecting—connecting with other people AND connecting various works to each other.)
So that’s it! We’re back home and ready to get rolling! Keep an eye out for lots of new work over the next couple of weeks!!!
LATER!
P.S.: [For fun, here’s a piece I drew today that shows an example of that “connecting” I mentioned above. A friend of mine posted an image of the morning sun (affected by the local wildfires), and I made a digital drawing OVER her image and shared it as a comment under her post! It’s simple, but it IS a form of connecting!]
—Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT FOLKS WHO ARE JUST MAKING STUFF BECAUSE THEY LOVE IT!!!
The point… Is there a point? I’m just doing a digital collage—testing embedding images from an online image repository… They’ve shown up in the preview, so I’m guessing they will show up in published post, too! (Right?)
Nothing in the universe could prepare us for all that fun stuff that we’ll never get to see because it’s happening so far away that the light from the stars near the party haven’t even reached Earth yet!
[“Break All the Rules (004)” digital montage / collage by me from mixed media and photography.]
—Unlike a “normal” drawing made on a napkin or on the back of a receipt pulled off the floor of a car, which will most likely be tossed into the trash once completed, I will often take my simple drawings (of a ghost or bunny or snake or monster), photograph them with my phone, add digital colors and freakish manipulations, then TOKENIZE these bits of ephemera as NFTs on a blockchain, giving the pieces an importance beyond just being a scribble on a piece of recycled trash. (That was a long sentence.)
—I’m lucky in that I’ve found a little audience. (And, YES, my ghost on a napkin doodle did SELL for a couple of bux! Thanks @stellabelle !!!)
—Tokenizing artwork (as opposed to just tossing the drawing into a box or taping it into my notebook—I still do that, but only AFTER I’ve created the digital version)—gives me an online “portfolio” or gallery where folks (who are not in possession of the boxes and notebooks where my physical drawings often end up) can scroll through these sketches and cartoons and have a laugh. (It’s a public service! Ha!)
—I tend to prefer the ABUNDUNCE philosophy. (This is a somewhat controversial stance, but one upheld by some truly brilliant folks, like the fantastic community at dada.NYC!) Instead of making a very few works of art and charging “boutique” prices for them, I prefer to make hundreds of pieces and only charge a little bit for them. Instead of GALLERY pricing (and, yes, I used to sell my paintings in a gallery in Olympia, Washington, but gave up on that racket when the gallery closed), I see myself as a creator of novelty items, more like bubblegum cards or Pez dispensers or comic magazines or felt voodoo dollies. Low cost entertainment with a nod and a wink. And I’m not trying to be self-deprecating. I find great value in CULTURAL ARTIFACTS like these. Toys and comics and novelties provide HUGE amounts of joy, when they land in the right hands.
—My art is autobiographical, whimsical, physical (most of it starts as actual ink or paint or crayon on cardboard or scrap paper), aesthetic, momentary, absurdist… I draw and paint and take photographs and sculpt with words. Each piece is a scrap of my persona—a partial manifestation of RFY—a shard of the mask. Normally, each of these shards would end up in a journal or a box or buried in a pile hidden away in a closet or the garage… At BEST, I might stuff a couple pieces of cardboard and a note in an envelop and mail them to some unsuspecting victim—so that THEY can put them in a box and stuff them in the closet! HA! However, with blockchain tokenization and IPFS hosting, there is a GREATER likelihood that these fragments and shards will outlive me.
—(Who doesn’t want their objects-of-self-expression to outlive their physical body??? Imagine what the world would be like if everything that a person created somehow dissolved or disappeared as soon as they died… But for most folks, their personal artifacts: photos, journals, scrap-books, scribbles and sketches, etc., all of that stuff often ends up in the trash—landfill—when they die. A lot of MY stuff—my words and images—are housed on various blockchains, now… Not EXACTLY permanent, but better than landfill! That’s pretty cool.)
—For the most part, between blogging on Hive and selling artwork through NFT Showroom, I make enough credits to pay for minting new artwork and to buy work from other creators (if I’m feeling TOO rich.) I especially like to buy work from new artists who are just moving into the space. I try to help encourage folks, regardless of their training or skill level, to express themselves. Not only is RAW art cool to me, but if I have ONE MAIN MISSION on this plain of existence, it’s to convince every human to understand that we define ourselves by what we CREATE. Individual expression is the creation of the SELF. (End “psycho-cognition” mode…)
—I had a collector / curator contact me last night through Instaglam who asked why I have most of my “best” artwork on NFT Showroom when all of the big time collectors buy from Ethereum based platforms, like Rarible. I’ve sold several pieces thru Rarible AND thru MakersPlace—but the GAS FEES and glitchiness of Rarible have cost me hundreds of dollars in fees over the last few years—and as for MakersPlace, they have been very supportive of my artwork (since 2018!), even covering gas fees for me—but as such, it can take a while for my creations to publish, as the company waits for low gas fees to make publishing my work worth the credits. I currently have a piece of artwork that’s been finished and trying to publish since Dec. 14th, 2020… That’s too long.
—So why do I prefer NFT Showroom?? It’s fast. (Three second block times on the Hive chain.) It’s very inexpensive—only 5 Hive to mint a 1 of 1 piece. (Hive is converted to swap.hive with the click of a button in the NFT Showroom wallet. This has to be done so the credits work on the Hive-Engine layer two platform—and NO, I don’t know how any of this WORKS, I just know that it’s easy.) I can make as many pieces as I want. (I have a good amount of Hive at my fingertips after two years of constant blogging.) And I can charge a very low price point to sell my work—which goes with my philosophy of keeping art accessible to entry level collectors and dabblers. I want to let as many NON-whales into the game as I can. LAST, but certainly not least, the NFT Showroom community and devs are nauseatingly nice, helpful, accessible, and fun. (The Discord for the group is a riot!) The EXPERIENCE on this platform is 100x better than any other that I’ve used.
—And, yes, I’ve been told that I need to raise my prices—but that assumes I’m making ART to convert it into money…and FUCK THAT! I make my junk (my ART PRANKS, my TRASH POETRY, my NON-STORIES) because I love the feeling of making something funny or interesting. I like making other folks smile and laugh (and sometimes cringe… I get spooky on occasion.) I’m in this for the EXPERIENCE, and frankly, the experience on NFT Showroom and with the accompanying community is superior. They’re more fun, and I’m more into fun than I am into making gobs of dough… (Unless that dough becomes a donut. I love me some donuts…) Simple…
—Richard F. Yates (Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT FOLKS WHO ARE JUST MAKING STUFF BECAUSE THEY LOVE IT!!!
Lightning strikes illuminating a decrepit, old manor house, vines climbing up the trellises and drainpipes, and an eerie organ playing from somewhere inside. Two lamps, which barely seem to cough forth a sickly, brown-yellow light, are stuck to either side of the porch by what seems like a hundred years’ worth of cobwebs. You walk closer, double checking the invitation, hoping that the address on the gate, half a mile back down the driveway, was wrong…but you know it wasn’t…
As you approach the first step, you hear a rust-encrusted handle clack loose, and a door with ancient hinges creaks in arthritic agony.
Another flash of lightning reveals a hunchback, one eye squinked almost shut, a grey beard with wild hairs jutting out at strange angles, teeth almost as yellow as the light oozing from the lamps, and a molding, old Greek sailor’s cap stuck to his larger-than-comfortable head… He limps from the door, smiling grotesquely, and waves a gnarled, crinkled hand while holding a candelabra with what’s left of the other…
“Ah… You’ve arrived… Excellent… The MASTER is particularly proud of his…COLLECTION…and he’s asked me to give you a tour. Unfortunately he’s flown…I mean, he’s driven into the village…to get a bite to eat, but I’m sure he’ll be back before morning… Come this way,” the hunchback says, and beckons you towards the dark, gaping door…
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
HEY FOLKS!!! Welcome to the guided tour of my GALLERY, also called
**THE HAUNTED HONEYCOMB!!!**
(Cuz, you know—HIVE… I think I’m funny…but I’m old, and senility makes LOTS of things funny!!! Ha!)
BELOW, in the dunge… I mean *basement* of that creepy old manor house, you will find an arcane collection of ecstatic expressions, created by the MASTER HIMSELF (a certified HOLY FOOL)—(“Master of WHAT?” I hear you asking…don’t think I can’t HEAR you just because you didn’t say it out loud!!!) These wondrous works are all AVAILABLE you for or some other EAGER COLLECTOR to acquire…for a PRICE… Muh ha ha ha haaaaaa! (And they’re ABSOLUTEDLY NOT HAUNTED! Well….maybe a little haunted…)
[Editor’s note: Prices and availability subject to change. And the MASTER is crazy, so at any moment, he might decide to add a ZERO to the end of all of his prices, and then you’ll wish you’d bought BEFORE he snapped and went all CAPITALIST-INCLINED!!! In addition, the MASTER’s BRIDE demands sacrifice!!! And the MASTER delivers for the MISTRESS!!!]
The HAUNTED HONEYCOMB Gallery is built in the quaint NFTShowroom Village, which was constructed over the ruins of the Hive-Engine Empire, which itself sprang from the ancient remains of the great HIVE-PRIME civilization that existed before either of the Great Floods (and a few Ice-Ages, as well…) If you are descended from HIVE-BLOOD (and you can still reckon your ACCOUNTS) then you should automatically find acceptance in NFTShowroom Village! If you have questions about any of this, feel free to ask. If NONE of this makes sense, try visiting HERE!!!
“Maybe the NEXT time you come by, I’ll take you on a tour of our LOST SOULS WING, where the MASTER holds a number of bound ENTITIES that he finds amusing… But not now. The sun is rising…and I hear wings… You should go! QUICKLY!!!!! AND DON’T LOOK BACK UNTIL YOU REACH THE ROAD!!!!”
—Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT FOLKS WHO ARE JUST MAKING STUFF BECAUSE THEY LOVE IT!!!
NON-COM-ARTS 