Just a spoonful of sugar...

Rebecca Mir and I are doing a series of workshops called Superhelpfulfragilistic Experientialdosage this spring and summer. We've just put up our kickstarter, which Threewalls is featuring on their curated page. Help us help the world with more articulate artists who can present their ideas without all the jargon. With a small pledge you can reserve your space before the workshop opens to the public or pre-order a copy of the book from the workshop.

(insert metaphor about layers of an onion)

Earlier this fall, I spent some time inhaling freshly chopped onions and then holding tiny vials up to my face to collect the tears. You see, I wanted those tears to be authentic, and they certainly are. Now you too can buy my record along with one of the vials and a custom sleeve from Iceberg and Sorcery.

Iceberg and Sorcery is a collaboration between myself and Rebecca Mir. After years of working together, we decided to put our art and magic into this online emporium. We typed our names into an online anagram generator to come up with the name. Now, this storefront is a place for us and a handful of guest artists, to promote and sell our wares, with a particular focus on artist books, prints, and other designed goods.

Notes from the underground pool.

Dearest Grizzlies and Californians,

As I finished my rave review of the California Hotel on yelp today, I realized I hadn’t sent you guys any postcards. So as a token souvenir here is a brief summary of my stay. I spent the week exploring, tinkering, and eating at every taco joint encountered. In the end, I am leaving the hotel with a slight sunburn, lots of ideas, and a couple of projects (some finished, some not.)

Let me give you the juicy details:

1. I made the bed into a piece, which you could choose to set up for openings and such. The comforter has a quote from Maggie Nelson on the left hand side, “Loneliness is just solitude with problems” and one the right side of the bed there is a pillow with a permanent head indentation. A reminder of my presence.

2. The phone has several messages for all of you. When you arrive please press * twice (sometimes three times if you don’t press hard enough) to turn it on. When you’re finished listening –it’s around 7 minutes total- or if you need to go pee, just press * again to stop it. It’ll pick right back up when you return.

3. I started to create a video of the bed vibrating in morse code. It is not finished yet, but I hope to have it for you before the end of the show. I will mail it to Lauren when done, so that you guys can watch from the comfort of that bed.

4. Saturday’s open hotel time started off slow, but picked up by the end of the night. I made a little time lapse of the event… starting with the three of us watching transformers (most ADD movie ever, not a single shot over 4 seconds long and I have no idea what happened) and ending with us turning off the lights to head towards town.

I'm thrilled to be a part of this show. It's awesome to collaborate with all of you grizzlies, to work through each and every hair-brained scheme with Derya, and to be a part of Lauren's amazing space. Stay tuned for more photos and finished video. Enjoy November, and I’ll see some of you at the closing!

Sincerely,

Casey Droege



A Californian Hotel

The Grizzly Grizzly collective recently invited me to participate in a show with them at Public Fiction (the museum of). "A Californian Hotel" will transform the LA museum into a hotel with a rotating cast of East-coast artists who will perform, create and vacation in the space.

Sarah Kate Burgess, Mike Ellyson, Dennis Matthews, Matthew Alden Price, Mike Richison, Cindy Stockton-Moore, Mary Smull, Josh Weiss and myself will take part in the show, which goes up October 10th and closes on November 26th.

Thanks to the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council for providing me with an Artists Opportunty Grant to cover this project.

Thanks for being awesome.

I mean it. So as a thank you, go ahead and get 15% off on any of my books at Lulu. Just use the coupon code AWESOME305 at checkout to save up to $25 until Sept. 30th.