A great deal of thanks goes out to the many people who helped me while I was in Europe this time through.  In Madrid, Chilean artist Alvaro Rojas Sastre and Spanish artist Francisco “Monte” Reina as always made my life very pleasant despite the blistering heat.  Also caught up with Spanish artist Lola Guerrera and saw her amazing new project Delight in My Garden.

I owe a great deal of thanks to artist Charles Freger of  P.O.C. for helping me find help with my video projects in Paris.  French artist/student Pierre Mahieu was extremely helpful in executing the video projects and in helping me find what I needed in the city.  And, former Columbia College student, Lee Hoagland helped me immensely on the last day of shooting.  At 24 Lee has been very successful as a photojournalist and is moving to Abu Dhabi next month to work for a media agency over there.  Best of luck, Lee!

During my last days in Paris it was a pleasure to also catch up with Italian video artist Piero Steinle.  He is about to embark on a project for the Centre Pompidou in Paris and seems to be doing very well these days.

While I was away, my public video installation in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood was launched with the help of Johalla Projects who were kind enough to represent me at the opening night of WPB Make Believe.  The videos are running well but there are still many improvements to be made.  The installation can be seen at 1448 N. Milwaukee Ave..  The video projections are best viewed in the evening hours or under cloudy conditions.  They get overpowered by direct sun in the morning and afternoon.  The exhibition is up until October so expect visual and technical improvements in the coming weeks as I work through the issues of a medium I’ve never worked in before.

In two weeks I will be attending the ACRE Residency in Wisconsin where I will be working on building my first art objects/sculptures.  I still have a fair amount of research to do in terms of fabrication but I’m confident that I will finish the residency with at least one piece completed.  I have 3D renderings of the sculptures posted in my Structures project.

Lastly, if anyone is in Switzerland in September, I will be participating in Festival Images in Vevey where pieces from The Untitled Project and Floating Logos will be displayed on outdoor advertising displays around the city.  I’m very excited about this exhibition but will probably not get there myself as my wife will be 8 months pregnant by that time.

Summer 2010 is an extremely busy one with travel, teaching, public art projects, a residency and a baby on the way in November.  I will be teaching in Madrid the week of July 5 at EFTI school for photography.  The following week I will be in Paris working on photo and video material for the Pulse project.  Many thanks to Rachelle Friesen for lending me her Canon HD camcorder so I can execute a dual camera video piece while I’m there.

During the first half of August I will be attending the first ACRE Residency in Southwestern Wisconsin.  My ten days there will be spent in their wood shop working on sculptures for the new Structures project.  I don’t know exactly how long these things will take to make but I hope to complete at least one and make significant progress on a second.  I’m still learning about the ins and outs of fluorescent lighting.

All the while, my three assistants, Kim, Alice and Ilwon, have been working on finishing more Chinese pieces for The Untitled Project.  Currently there are three completed that are now posted on the website.  Ultimately, there will be 12-15 pieces in that chapter of the project which I’m hoping to finish out by the end of the year.

There are two public art projects coming up this summer if you are near Chicago or Vevey, Switzerland.  I will have a video installation piece in an empty store front in the WPB Make Believe exhibition in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago.  I will post documentation of the piece as soon as it gets installed but you can see a rendering of the idea on my Public Art page.  The exhibition starts around the middle of July and runs until October.

I am also participating in Festival Images in Vevey, Switzerland.  The organizers will be displaying pieces from Floating Logos and The Untitled Project outdoors on public advertising displays.  The exhibit is up during the month of September.

Now that my website is easier to use and update, thanks to the talented Ian Whitmore, I will probably be updating this page more often in the future.

I am happy to have a flurry of exhibition activity this Winter. A piece from The Untitled Project will appear in a group exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago early next month until the end of May. There is also an exhibition in Llieda, Spain and a proposed solo exhibition in Barcelona later this year.

The next few months will be spent working on completing more of the Chinese work for The Untitled Project. The goal is to complete this project in order to create more time for my newer project ideas.

Yes, the website still needs a serious update. That is also on the agenda for the Winter.