Day 346

Kelt got this keychain from my friend Tommy from Gonzaga University in Spokane. People are constantly sending him keychains, which is one of the reasons that he likes doing the blog. He's a likable guy with many admirers and not hesitant to tell people that he's popular. Modesty is not one of his strong suits...

Day 295

Vik Muniz, Jorge, from Pictures of Magazines, 2003, chromogenic print, 100 x 72 in.

Sepia Jardim Gramacho landscape with vultures

Photograph by Vik Muniz, courtesy of Vik Muniz Studio

View down onto Irma’s portrait on the floor

Photograph by Vik Muniz, courtesy of Vik Muniz Studio

Marat/Sebastiao–Pictures of Garbage
Photograph by Vik Muniz, courtesy of Vik Muniz Studio

I just watched the documentary Waste Land, which follows artist Vik Muniz to Rio de Janeiro for a collaborative project with the local catadores, a group of workers who spend everyday looking for recyclable materials in the Jardim Gramacho landfill. Muniz is a NYC artist, raised in a working-class family in Brazil, who uses a variety of materials to create photographic portraits. He uses dirt, diamonds, sugar, string, and chocolate syrup, etc., but for this project wanted to use garbage to represent the daily lives of the catadores.

"Can art change people?" At one point Muniz asks this question and it made me reconsider my work. I think art has the potential to change people's lives, even if it's for a short amount of time. It was encouraging to hear a successful artist ask this question and observe his process. With more planning and social collaboration, Kelt and I hope to eventually reach more people with our work.

*Muniz raised about $250,000 from the garbage portraits, which went towards the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho.

Day 218

Sunday, April 24, 2011
Happy Easter!

18 keychains and 2 bobble heads, Colonel Sanders and Gort!
6,024 keychains and 154 bobble heads!

Day 73

GO COUGS!!

Day 72

The Apple Cup is coming up...

Day 67

Celebrity Artist: Tina

Day 43

Andy Warhol, Cambell's Soup Cans, 1962

This year for Halloween I was the sky and Kelt was Andy Warhol. In the last couple of years Kelt has developed an interest for famous people with autism. According to Jennifer Elder's Different Like Me: My Book of Autism Heroes, celebrities such as Warhol, Issac Newton, Lewis Carroll, Einstein, Alan Turing, Immanuel Kant, and Joseph Cornell, etc., all had characteristics that were on the spectrum.

Just like Kelt, Warhol was a collector; when he found something that he liked, such as cookie jars, he would buy as many as possible. He applied this tendency to his art, with repetitive works such as Campbell's Soup Cans and Marilyn.

Day 29

Day 17