Zero Sum #25

Zero Sum #25 started with the etching of the moon - I was thinking that it would be a nice backdrop for some photographs in the Zero Sum box, but as I worked on it I became more and more attached to it as an image on its own. So it became an enormous moon-rise over both Paris and Hot Springs, Arkansas. As this image seemed hopelessly romantic and sentimental, I added the various bits and pieces of text to the bottom of the image to tone it down a bit. But this seemed to only send the image rocketing towards nostalgia on top of romantic and sentimental. So I added the more clinical "Figure 1: the Moon", turning it into a textbook example of how the Moon can be used in a romantic, nostalgic image. In other words, turning the image into a model, consistent with the exploration of models and facsimiles that have become such a part of the Zero Sum portfolio, and mirror the odd model-like quality, with all of its inaccuracies, of the Project itself.

Zero Sum #25 will go up for auction later tonight on eBay, as is the eventual fate of all the Zero Sum artworks. To add a bit of drama to the auction, I should point out that the current Zero Sum balance is over $20 in the red. The auction starts for the measly amount of $8.61 (see the auction for the full reasoning behind that odd number). Usually, if the auction finished with one bid of $8.61, then the Zero Sum Art Project would break even, and the next artwork is made in similar fashion to this one. BUT, with the Zero Sum Art Project participating in an exhibition in the Blogger Show (see the previous post for details), I've piled up $20 in shipping costs to get Zero Sum #24 to the gallery. So this is a do-or-die auction for the Project! If the ZSAP balance remains below -$5.00 for two weeks, the project collapses. Time will tell!!

Zero Sum #24 in the Big Apple

Zero Sum #24 has been shipped off to the Agni Gallery in New York City, as my contribution to the New York component of the Blogger Show. The show opens November 3 and runs through November 30, with an opening reception from 6 - 9 pm on the 3rd. This piece, Zero Sum #24, will be on display for the duration of the show, after which it will go up for auction following the same rules as all of the other Zero Sum pieces. The starting price will include a new expense, though - the 30% of the profits that are earmarked for the gallery.

A much larger and more involved exhibition of the Zero Sum Art Project will be seen in the Pittsburgh component of the Blogger Show at the Digging Pitt Gallery. This show will run from November 10 - January 12, with the opening reception on December 8, from 6 - 9 pm. That's the opening I'll be able to attend, by the way, so I might see you there! During the course of the show I will rotate 32 different pieces in and out of the gallery. Every day the gallery is open after the first week (being Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of any given week) I will have an auction end. Every week during the days the gallery is closed I will swap out the sold work and hang the next pieces. It'll be nuts. But hopefully, it'll be an interesting kind of nuts. All of the work will be sold as part of the Zero Sum Art Project. You can follow it all here or over at my blog for the Fiji Island Mermaid Press, and you'll be able to see the show grow online at the Zero Sum Art Gallery at FIMP.

Zero Sum #23

Here's Zero Sum #23, a collage made up of an etching, acrylic paint, and two vintage postcards. You can see a larger version of the artwork, read a description of some of my content concerns, and even buy the thing, by visiting this auction on eBay, where you'll also learn why the starting bid is only $11.87.

If you surf on over to the Fiji Island Mermaid Press blog, you will find a little animation of the etching proofs that preceded this collage, which is kinda nifty.

But here I just want to direct your attention to something of very little importance or relevance: that postcard with the cherub spilling the coins from a hot air balloon is a Christmas card from 1911. It's a common gripe to hear that we've become far too materialistic concerning Christmas these days. I just want to point out that it's not exactly a recent development. Here's a card from the second decade of the 20th century in which Christmas is celebrated as a time when money rains down from the sky. Let's face it - we've always been greedy and selfish, it's just us.