Photo by Bryce Ward
We are teaming up with Dennis McNett and friends to have a massive costumed bike ride this Friday at 5:30, starting on the North Oval of the university. The art school is having a costumed iron pour party starting around 4, so we are going to have our ride and meet up with them afterwards for a ridiculous parade through Norman and public dragon slaying.
The facebook event page is here.
The printmaking badass of the world, Dennis McNett, is the visiting artist at the University of Oklahoma for the next few days. With the help of some students and faculty, Dennis will be (in his own words) “building a dragon, parading it around the oval on your campus, destroying it with homemade battle axes and swords, and then possibly burning it when we are finished.” And he’ll probably get kicked out of Norman in the process. Not sure how this got past the administration, but I can’t wait for it to happen.
Check out some of Dennis’ work in the Lightwell Gallery this week, and come out for the parade on Friday. Here are some photos of his work as well as a video of a similar parade in New York a few years back.
Sethy is one of those people who somehow seem to be able to shape the creative atmosphere of Norman. Maybe that’s because he’s involved with just about everything. You can find his music work here, here, here, and here. And some of his printmaking here. Oh yeah, and one of his bands is playing HallOPOLIS on Halloween. You should go.
Where are you from?
Norman, currently.
What do you do?
Um, a little bit of a lot of things and probably not enough of one single thing. I’ve been working on fixing that lately. I play music. Bass in Student Film, bass in Umbrellas, drums in Toil and Trouble, as well as sing and play guitar in Gentle Ghost. I also have been known to go on tour playing with bands that hire me. I do freelance design work and collaborative art endeavors with my lifelong friend Timothy Ryan Elliott. We do a lot of screen printing. I also enjoy cooking and baking with a sweet girl named Becky.
Who or what do you use for inspiration?
I wish I had some sort of control over that. Mostly it’s derived from dreams. I often have dream experience where I accept them as reality until a bear or a tornado shows up. I am also quite inspired by my loved ones. I know I would be in a much darker place without the light of their love illuminating my path.
What artists do you respect right now?
Right now and forever more: Jared Flaming. Chase Pagan. Charlie Hall. Beau Jennings. Timothy Ryan Elliott.
What are you sick of?
I’m sick of not being the patient man I want to be.
What music are you listening to recently?
Phoenix, Grizzly Bear, David Bazan, Big Star, Camera Obscura.
What is your first creative memory?
Wow, what a fun question. I remember drawing pictures of dinosaurs and water-coloring them with my mom. I was so amazed at how legitimate her Brontosaurus looked. I was probably four. She still amazes me to this day.
What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
Pad Thai on Boyd, spicy basil noodles with tofu. For drinks, at home with friends.
Anything else?
Thanks to you Tate, for so successfully starting and maintaining this great blog.
Send a photo of your workspace to theapachehouse@gmail.com to add to the collection.
Davis Industries
The man with everyone’s favorite last name is calling all humans to participate in his Self Ethnography Project. Study your own habits for one week, submit them anonymously, and David will sketch a recreation of what he believes you should look like based solely on your habits. Do it here.
I know you all have been just looking for an excuse to stop by Reese’s new beadery, and that’s why we are sponsoring his grand opening cocktail party. Stop by this Friday and check out his beautiful jewelry selection, or just hang out with all your friends that will already be there.
There will also be door prizes from Birdie, Gray Owl Coffee, Tim and Sethy’s beautiful screen prints, Pistachio, and Reese’s own jewelry line Tallgrass. Music by Toddy J Solo (from Evangelicals) and Brine Webb. I really don’t know why you wouldn’t go to this.
Recap. Drinks, jewelry, local art, free stuff, music, me, you. See you there.
Trent seems to divide his time between Norman and the West Coast, and he usually doesn’t tell anybody where he is going to be. If you see him one day, he’ll probably be gone the next. I guess it makes sense, in a way, that his low-fi black and white photography somehow manages to be chaotic and cohesive at the same time. Too bad he doesn’t have a website. That’s just what happens when you are oldschool.
Where are you from?
The open road…. I have spent most of my life looking through a car window from when I was two weeks old to 24 years. But the place I recognize most as my “home” is Oakland. I am who I am cause of that area.
What do you do?
Photographer and vagabond extraordinaire.
Who or what do you use for inspiration?
Pretty much the ruthlessness and the hagardness that living a life this way brings to your everyday life.
What artists do you respect right now?
Man I have such a weird taste in shit right now… I’m really digging this dude Wayne Martin Belger. He’s this crazy ass dude who builds his own cameras then uses them for the series he’s working on. Like one is a 500 year old Tibetan skull, then another is about HIV and he uses HIV + blood as a number 27 filter so every image has been influenced by HIV. That shit is EPIC! I’m digging some of the old masters right now too mostly Gustav Dore. Dude is tight. Locally in Norman: Old Curtis Jones for sure. Dude is way more sick than people think. He’s such a good incubator for local artists more than anyone even knows, he’ll go the distance for you if you commit. And some asian dude, I dont know his name though. You’ll know if you see his stuff though for sure. OHHHH and last but definitely the most important is DJ RED lite….RICK DEAN!
What are you sick of?
I don’t think you have enough space for this one. As it goes I’m just a curmudgeon. I know what I like and I know what I don’t like. That’s the thing that people don’t understand, you don’t have to like everything. If I’m a dick for knowing what I like and respect, than fuck it, that’s what I am. Life is way too short to sit around and try to please everybody. People who squander the gifts that they were given are really annoying too. You know what, I’m gonna turn a negative into a positive cause space ships don’t come equipped with rear view mirrors they dip! Everything is tight.
What music are you listening to recently?
Damn a lot of New Order and a shit ton of old rap, Biggie, 2pac, Ice Cube, and then sprinkled with a little old soul, Mo-town, Four Tops, Temptations, and the Crystals. Ohhhh and I almost forgot DJ RED lite.
What is your first creative memory?
I think the first creative memory I had was probably so long ago I can’t remember. Being that I saw the world through a picture frame since the time I opened my eyes. But the most influential was probably the bay area, just being able to walk around and see these pieces of beautiful art that aren’t in galleries. Made by artists who aren’t out to make it big, there out to tell you there story what there thinking and how there feeling. I have more respect for people on the walls of the world then who are on the confined walls of art society.
What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
Damn, see the food one is easy but the drank one is hard…..Food T-CAB. The one and only Taco Cabana. Me and the best people in the world would go there and just Zerp, man…I’m talking relax, get crazy, all in one sitting. The food is super good but what makes it the best spot is definitely the late night people that work there, and the patrons since they’re all my friends, and the fact that you can’t get it in San Francisco….. ummmm drank, anywhere, whit booh is pouring.
Anything else?
yeah…. NEEDLES HAS GOT NEEDS.
and I’m analog so these fotos might look like shit on your computer….ummmm
FILM POR VIDA
Thanks, ruby, matt, RD, and Elliott Eckley. Without you guys I couldn’t have done it.
