The New Inspirational Movement

My work is inspired by the psychological impact that mass media- and mass production have on our society. I am especially interested to re-make those mass produced objects that seem no longer relevant to our society and transform them into new realities, changing our memories and our perceptions of them.
Because my work is interactive it gives the viewer an active role on the decision whether to be removed or not from a reality to which they have become accustomed. My work engages them to reflect on our relationship with material and culture.

For the Chicana/0 Biennial I am showing Osiloscopiando from the Recycling Junk series.

I hope you will enjoy it!

Daniela

www.danielast.com

3 Comments »

For the last month or so I have been working on my upcoming installation and exhibition entitled “IN TIE ONE WE TRUST” to be held at the bluedahlia’s Studio gallery, 3435 Cesar Chavez, #315 in San Francisco, and opening on August 19th, 2007, 4 - 9 pm. The exhibition is on view through August 31st by appointment only. For more information call 415.828.4418. Here are photos documenting my progress as i create the installation almost all from scratch and mostly using recycled materials. Thanks to the Sanitary Fill/Norcal Company, the SF Garbage Dump for the Spectator newspaper rack, the fake flowers, the Christmas lights, some of the wood, and most of the spray paint i used. A special thank you also goes out to Paula Goodman and Express Service Signs in Cincinatti for all of her wonderful recycled sticker vinyl scraps. And of course, I want to thank the anonymous donor who made all the copies of the “TIE warning” stickers from the original TIE made so long ago. Thank you. You know who you are, my other hero. A final thanks goes to Julie Blankenship of bluedahlia’s Studio gallery for hosting my show. I love you, Julie!

For months, the parking lot outside my apartment remained empty… preceding the new p.c. raza mural (also now in progress since these photos have been taken) and revamped parking lot, so i decided to make use of the space and spend some time making art outside in the nice weather and the urban landscape.

Continue Reading »

5 Comments »

the following was copied from my myspace blog that i published over there just a few minutes ago…

As the days grow nearer to the June 1st deadline, I’m feeling pretty right on schedule and pleased. I’m feeling like i can get this residency. Here’s my progress as I wait for things to dry. Also note, I’m using the 3 images from the painted doors at Catharine Clark Gallery in my portfolio as well. I feel good how it’s all going to tie together.

American Slot Series: SILVER. (FINISHED a couple weeks ago. Thinking about you know who.)

Stack of finished art for the portfolio and a solo show. Yea!

Continue Reading »

4 Comments »

here’s an except (plus a little extra) from a message that i wrote to crisaida 5.2.07…

“Catharine Clark asked me to paint her roll down doors on her new gallery at 150 minna (directly across from the messenger drop off entrance for the moma on minna) on monday in an email… but i didn’t actually talk to her till yesterday. i went down to meet her at 49 geary yesterday afternoon and we walked over to the new space. she gave me 100 bucks for supplies. i bought some paint. i came home ate dinner, changed clothes, and got all my stuff together and painted all night (began at 8:30 pm, went home @ 12:30 pm & took an hour and a half break and then went back to finish… got home at 4:45 am)… 2 roll down doors. she wanted them done right away for this moma hotsey totsey event going on tonight. santana is playing and they have a tent outside in the minna alley right next to my graffiti. it’s cool. it’s like a dialog between my graf and the moma. someone walking by said i was painting tomato soup in a can and i was really happy cuz they were comparing me to warhol. i was thinking about warhol when i did it. it goes big dice, js throw up, big dice, js throw up, with dots and tags in the background. the dots are stenciled and on the dice are stenciled hearts. i totally pulled it out of my ass cuz i had no time to plan. it was really like doing real graffiti cuz it’s like polished throw ups and it was so spontaneous, except for the permission part.”

here’s the pics…

next came champagne at the gallery and the party at the moma last night. i’ve never drank so much champagne… and good champagne at that. For all of you in SF, go see my doors sooner rather than later. they’re only temporary. they should be up thru May 14th or sometime afterward, until she replaces the roll down doors with glass windows, so that the gallery will look like a real storefront when it opens in June 2.

2 Comments »

First of all i have to say that the question “Can an Anti-Pop and Pro-Pop Artist Collaborate?” is an interesting one. I can’t really think to any artforums, art in americas, juxtaposes, art history classes i have taken, or graduate school seminars in which this topic has ever come up in my own experience. So here, i can put my personal feelings aside and say this is really a revolutionary and pertinent question of our time, one I guess that isis and i will figure out an answer to.

Idea #1. The Really Pop Idea. The Idea I love most of all. The Idea i think you probably won’t like because it is too pop and you already said no to anna nicole… but i can’t stop thinking about her and i don’t want to.

she touches me i away other celebrities don’t… i guess i would think she is more like me than the average celebrity in that she is real…

much more real than stupid paris hilton or britney spears or angelina jolie… despite her boobs that i discovered were fake, she is more real to me… because she worked her way up from nothing, the way madonna did, from poverty. because she was a stripper who broke into modeling… to me to become so much more classic looking than your average hollywood bimbo. she raised a son when she was basically a kid herself on her own… totally respectful. she wasn’t totally skinny… i fucken hate aneroxic models and celebrities… gross. too skinny is bad. anna was 176 lbs when she died. shots of her dancing, just days before she died, practicing for an upcoming trimspa commercial, she looks absolutely beautiful and natural to me. all you skinny girls can kiss anna’s ass cuz she looked all that at 176 lbs… damn!

Continue Reading »

5 Comments »

Before i get into this idea of collaboration, i thought i’d hit up the link to my bebo profile and the photo albums i’m keeping over there. i am kind of beginning to visually categorize everything in my life or trying to. I have 10 albums so far. Each one has a 48 photo limit. It’s great for creating an online portfoilio of all my artwork because i work in so many mediums. it’s fun to divide them all up and make decisions to group certain things together in an effort to decriminalize them (ie. graffiti mixed in with gallery art… he he… is it legal is it not? and who really cares in the end?). Especially after you see my card that i sent to Gavin Newsom… that’s pretty revealing, if anybody even picked up on it. I had already given him my business card at that point anyway. Where do we draw the line on all these things? What is art and what is not?

Part of my art now is collecting news stuff about anna nicole smith… her legacy… her baby. I’m just so into her story… thus, my anna nicole smith rip bebo photo album… which i worked on for a couple hours this afternoon. i had to catch up on that before i wrote down the collaboration idea #1…. the anna nicole idea i had after i saw your recent drawings, isis. to be continued…

anyhow, here’s the bebo link

2 Comments »

Clay Figurine w Nicole’s Necklace: Idea for Collaboration 4-6-2007

Hey Nicole, I wanted to respond to your messages. I’m curious what your ideas are in terms of a collaboration. I thought I might share mine with you…

You: (Thru my observation) I thought a lot of your style: glittery, crafty, decorative?, pop. There’s a sculptural element to your work, working with objects and fashioning them into “creative things”. I have seen your jewelry that you have made for sale. Doing jewelry seemed like a logical step in your art making process….

I remember you talking about a “church” that you go to on Sundays? Do you like religion?

Me: I thought alot about my style: cartoon, classical (old school), anti pop.

I am not a practicing Christian, but I appreciate religion because of it’s ritual and how it gave artists opportunities to interpret it’s stories…Also, I’m going Ancient these days and ancient art was created for ritualistic/spiritual reasons…You, know, jewerly is a very ancient art and has history with religion too…

I feel a kinship between your jewerly and my figurines: they can be modern or they can be ancient. It’s endless!
Us: Perhaps our theme could be religion/spirituality? Would you be interested in creating our own religion(belief system) thru our art? Maybe each cartoon figurine and each piece of jewelry can mean something? Would they be symbolic? Storytelling? What do you think? And what about materials? Clay? Wood? Pewter?

Isis

2 Comments »

I just posted these on myspace in my blog, but i thought the artists of NIM would like to see also. I’m really excited.

“AMERICAN SLOT SERIES: Lucky Horse Shoe and Four Leaf Clover”, Acrylic Enamel, Acrylic Ink, Acrylic Gouache, Glass and Plastic Rhinestones, Glass Beads, Nail Polish, Rhinestone/Tacky Glue, and Fake Fur on Recycled Wood. 16″ x 23″. 2007.

“AMERICAN SLOT SERIES: Dollar Sign with Stars”, Acrylic Enamel, Acrylic Ink, Acrylic Gouache, Glass and Plastic Rhinestones, Glass Beads, Nail Polish, Rhinestone/Tacky Glue, and Fake Fur on Recycled Wood. 16″ x 23″. 2007.

1 Comment »

Oh god, this may not be the best day or time for me to answer this question or your questions [isis] about how i relate myself to Pop Art. I am suffering from a serious clinical depression right now. i have only been up less than 2 hours, but i’ve spent at least a half hour of that time crying my eyes out. The tears have just been coming out very easily. Despite this, i am in HYPER ART FOCUS mode. I was up until 4 am working on art. Pop Art is always on my mind. Pop is just my favorite period of art because it is punk, it rebels against the art that came before it. It is a fairly recent movement considering we are now in 2007. I see the graffiti and installation art movements standing out as my loves also because they rebel against traditional western art (oil on canvas). I love ALL pop artists. I know a ton about warhol and i am fascinated by him. He lived his life as a performance artist, if that helps you to understand some of his off the wall statements better. He was addicted to amphetamines and and also valium for quite a number of years and that’s how he kept his art machine thing (and thus produce so much amazing work… but many/most artists during this period were addicts of some kind… you know, mother’s little helper as the stones say.., mick jagger and warhol were friends incidentally) going. thru all of this, he still lived with his mother in manhattan, collected antiques, and protected her from all the art weirdos in his daily life. he catered to her and treated her like a queen. she never knew any of the insane things he was doing. She never stepped foot into his factory. He didn’t want her to see any of that shit. I don’t think he even wanted her to know he was gay. He never brought any boyfriend’s home, but as far as i read in his diarys and many books, although he wrote MANY love letters to men and dreamed and fell in love with men such as Truman Capote (who thought warhol was a nut), i think he was actually basically closeted and celibate. kinda sad… but it was a different time period and Warhol was neurotic as all hell. All mother Warhola (he shortened his name) knew was he was a famous artist and she treated and cared for her like she was a queen. Warhol’s hair was a wig… infact he had multiple wigs. he was bald in real life. when he was growing up, he was underdeveloped physically and albino and all the kids made fun of him. he was very insecure. he was fairly poor, but thru grants, he attended carnegie mellon university, where i went to school. immediately afterward, he moved to NYC and worked as a successful graphic designer. as soon as he had enough money, he sent for his his mother in pennsylvania (she lived right outside of pittsburgh, near to where i grew up… part of my connection to him) who came to live with him and the rest is history. I plan to teach an art history class on warhol someday. i have such a deep connection.

now, back to your question, how do i fit in to Pop Art? How do i consider myself a Pop Artist? well, despite the fact i’m an art history junkie and i love J.A.D. Ingres, Botticelli, Burne-Jones, Da Vinci, Frida Kahlo, Masami Teraoka (if we are talking contemporary painters), Van Gogh, Monet, Mary Cassatt, and and the list goes on, i would NEVER paint like these any of these artists or create an art piece in their manner. POP is my style. It speaks to me. It is the new of the NEW. The fresh of the FRESH. lines like in a coloring bookand flat patches of color. symbols and fonts. that’s my style. i do installation. i do sewing. i do work sawing and sometimes wood cutting/carving. i do nailing of nails (nailing lace to wood). i do rhinestone glueing. and i paint with nailpolish. This belongs to pop. If/When Lucy Lippard updates her book “Pop Art”, i would/will be in the last chapter… sure you could include me in mixed media (materials) collage books, or books about working with recycled materials, or a book on graffiti, or a book on installation, or a book on the next wave of feminist art, but you MUST also include in the final additional chapter of Lucy Lippard’s “Pop Art” book. that’s where i belong. and i welcome it with open arms. Maybe you will understand this, as much as i love you, love your giant metal sculptures, I love POP ART (the movement) equally. That is a strong love, and is just something we are going to have to deal with as friends. I love you isis. You know that.

“Pop Art” by Lucy Lippard (the Pop Art Bible ), published 1966. Sorry for the worn cover, you can tell i read and carried this book around a lot (bought it in June, 1989).

“Hamburger, Popsicle, Price” by Claes Oldenburg, 1962. This stuffed shit is the shit. It’s almost amazing to me that a dude made this. Enamel paint on canvas stuffed with kapok. Not sure why he used canvas… doesn’t even look like canvas… but i definitely relate. i’m sure claes would love my use of lace and fake fur. we are certainly on the same team!

“Girl with Ball” by Roy Lichtenstein, 1961. Oil on Canvas. Although i do not relate to the medium, i love the subject matter and the handling of the image. I wish i looked like her… he he.

No Comments »

I'll Tell you, I haven't blogged on this site for a bit for several reasons….1.  frustration by things not working smothly.  i still have an unfinished blog about meeting isis and creating graffiti with her for the first time… but couldn't upload the picks for some reason and i just got too mad to keep trying.  but i know new sites are like that, so oh well.  Myspace messes up too.  Maybe I'll finish that blog later when i'm in a better mood.2.  depression.  i have had severe depression for maybe over two weeks now.  i am on a headache medication that makes me sleep 10 - 11 hours a day.  that makes things worse.  i won't get into the depression too much.  i'm NOT suicidal for once which is really good and i blame that on my spiritual work this past year, but i've been crying like crazy… lots of headaches, horrible bleak sadness and i am having a very hard time eating which means i am weak and light headed beacase i usually can't eat until 8 or 9 at night.3.  Isis's hatred for pop art and the "anti-pop art" NIM categorie.  Isis, this is killing me and has been a major source of my sadness.  After working with you for so many years (since 1998), that MANY years of collaboration, i am shocked by your hatred toward the art that i base my artistic indentity on.  At first, i just tried to write it off, but now NIM is coming off as an "anti-pop art" site.  i am saddened to see a blog graced by beautiful ana mendieta's poetic earth body sculptural work given a title "anti-pop art".  i just don't understand where your hatred and anxiety toward pop art come from.  you are so blessed as an artist.  much more blessed than me right now.  you have done so well with your public art commissions.  so what if you can't sell the metal pieces right now.  they will sell in the future.  so what if someone labled you what you are not, or what you do not want to be considered… fuck the press.  your work stands for itself.  but bashing warhol who i have a deep spiritual connection with, is hurtful to me.  bashing pop art is basically bashing my art, art you say you love so much.  i make my own identity.  i am not a master graffiti artist.  i am jocelyn superstar.  superstar as in warhol's "superstar"… get it?  i am a master pop artist.  graffiti to me is a spin off of pop art.  warhol, by the way, loved graffiti.  graffiti was a stage i went through, and yes i mastered what i did, but now that stage is over and i am still what i was before, more than ever, a pop artist.  You will always be a sister to me and i cherish the work we have done together.  I hope there is more to come.  But i needed to get this sadness off my chest.i found this xerox stapled thing from grad school. i'm not sure who gave it to me. it was either from Jan Nunn or Ray Beldner, but it sort of just fell off the shelf at me today.  A Piece of writing from Pop Artist, Claes Oldenburg, whom i love, of course.  This about sums it up.  WORD."I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all, an art given the chance of having a starting point zero.I am for an art that embroils itself with the everyday crap & still comes out on top.I am for an art that imitates the human, that is comic, if necessary, or violent,or whatever is necessary.I am for an art that takes its form from thae lines of life itself, that twist and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself.I am for an artist who vanishes, turning up in a white cap painting signs or hallways.I am for art that comes out of a chimney like black hair and scatters in the sky.I am for art that spills out of an old man's purse when he is bounced off a passing fender.I am for the art out of a doggy's mouth, falling five stories from the roof.I am for the art that a kid licks, after peeling away the wrapper.I am for an art that joggles like everyone's knees, when the bus traverses an excavation.I am for art that is smoked, like a cigarette, smells, like a pair of shoes.I am for art that flaps like a flag, or helps blow nosesw, like a hankerchief.I am for art that is put on and taken off, like pants, which develops holes, like socks, whichs is eaten, like a piece of pie, or abandoned with great contempt, like a piece of shit.I am for art art covered with bandages, I am for art that limps and rolls and runs and jumps.  I am for art that comes in a can or washes up on shore.I am for art that coils and grunts like a wrestler.  I am for art that sheds hair.I am for art you can sit on.  I am for art you can pick your nose with or stub your toes on.I am for art from a pocket, from deep channels of the ear, from the edge of a knife, from the corners of the moth, stuck in the eye or worn on the wrist.I am for art under the skirts, and the art of pinching cockroaches.I am for the art of conversation between the sidewalk and a blind mans metal stick.I am for the art that grows in a pot, that comes down out of theskies at night, like lighting, that hides in clouds and growls. I am for art that is flipped on and off with a switch.I am for art that unfolds like a map, that you can squeeze, like your sweetys aem, or kiss, like a pet dog.  Which expands and squeaks, like an accordion, which you can spill your dinner on, like an old tablecloth.I am for an art that you can hammer with, stitch with, sew with, paste with, file with.I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is.I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street.I am forthe art of the washing machine.  I am for the art of the government check.  I am for the art of the last wras raincoat.I am for the art that comes up in fogs from sewer-holes in winter. I am for the art that splits when you stepon a frozen puddle.  I am for the worms art inside the apple.  I am for the art of sweat that develops between crossed legs.I am for the art of neck-hair and caked tea-cups, for the art between the tines of restaurant forks, for the odor of boiling dishwater.I am for theart art of sailing on Sunday, and the art of red and white gasoline pumps.I am for the art of bright blue factory columns and blinking biscuit signs.I am for the art of cheap plaster and enamel.  I am for the art of worn marble and smashed slate.  I am for the art of rolling cobblestones and sliding sand.  I am for the art of slag and black coal.  I am for the art of dead birds.I am for the art of scratchings in the asphalt, daubing at the walls.  I am for the art of bending and kicking metal and breaking glass, and pulling things apart to make them fall down.I am for the art of punching and skinned knees and sat-on bananas.  I am for the art of kids' smells.  I am for the art of mama-babble.I am for the art of bar-babble, tooth-picking, beerdrinking, egg-salting, in-salting.  I am for the art of the barstool.I am for the art of underwear and the art of taxicabs.  I am for the art of ice-cream cones dropped on concrete.  I am for the majestic art of dog-turds, rising like cathedrals.I am for the blinking art, lighting up the night. I am for art falling, spashing, wiggling, jumping, going on and off.I am for the art of fat truck-tires and black eyes.I am for Kool-art, 7-UP art, Pepsi art, Sunshine art, 39 cents art, 15 cents art, Vatronol art, Dro-bomb art, Vam art, Menthol art, L & M art, Ex-lax art, Venida art, Heaven Hill art, Pamryl art, San-o-med art, Rx art, 9.99 art, Now art, New art, How art, Fire Sale Art, Last Chance Art, Only art, Diamond art, Tomorrow art, Franks art, Ducks art, Meat-o-rama art.I am for the art of bread wet by rain.  I am for the rat's dance between floors.  I am for the art of flies walking on a slick pear in the electric light.  I am for the art of soggy onions and firm green shoots.  I am for theart of clicking among the nuts when the roaches come and go.  I am for the brown sad art of rotting apples.I am for the art of meowls and clatter of cats and for the art of their dumb electric eyes.I am for the white art of refrigerators and their muscular openings and closings.I am for the art of rust and mold.  I am for the art of hearts, funeral hearts or sweetheart hearts, full of nougat.  I am for the art of worn meathooks and singing barrels of red, white, blue and yellow meat.I am for the art of things lost and thrown away, coming home from school.  I am for the art of cock-and-ball trees and flying cows and noiseof rectangles and squares.  I am for the art of crayons and weak grey pencil-lead, and grainy wash and sticky oil paint, and the art of windshield wipers and the art of the finger on a cold window, on dusty steel or in the bubbles on the sides of a bathtub.I am for the art of teddy-bears and guns and decapitatedrabbits, exploded umbrellas, raped beds, chairs with their brown bones broken, burning trees, firecracker ends, chicken bones, pigeon bones and boxes with men sleeping in them.I am for the art of slightly rotten funeral flowers, hung bloddy rabbits and wrinkly yellow chickens, bass drums & tambourines, and plastic phonographs.I am for theart of abandonded boxes, tied like pharaohs.  I am foran art of watertanks and speeding clouds and flapping shades.I am for the U.S. Government Inspected Act, Grade A art, Regular Price art, Yellow Ripe art, Extra Fancy art, Ready-to-art, Best-for-less art, Ready-to-cook art, Fully cleaned art, Spend Less art, Eat Better art, Ham art, pork art, chicken art, tomato art, banana art, apple art, turkey art, cake art, cookie art.add:I am for an art that is combed down, that is hung from each ear, that is laid on the lips and under the eyes, that is shaved from the legs, that is brushed on the teeth, that is fixed on the thighs, that is slipped on the foot.square which becomes blobby."Written by Claes Oldenburg for the catalogue of the exhibition "Environments, Situations, Spaces" at Martha Jackson Gallery, 23 May - 23 June, 1961.  Mantra of Jocelyn Superstar minus the "bloddy rabbit" part, February 1st, 2007.  Thank You Claes Oldenburg.  Bless.  And a gracious thank you to you too, Papa Warhol. 

3 Comments »