Post Earth Biotech Induced Invasion Carrots.

After biotechnology got out of hand, nature reacted by ending the ways of life on earth as it was understood. There became a super species of carrot that was known as Post Earth Biotech Induced Invasion Carrots. Quickly, the earth was covered in these carrots! Nothing any scientist could concoct would destroy this super species that their gene splicing had lead to. They had created a monster. The carrots were deadly to the ingestion of humans, while a delicious super food to all other creatures. All the animals began to flourish, particularly rabbits, as the human rule quickly began to fade away. All other food sources started to lose nutrients, because they were a pale comparison to the Invasion Carrot super species. Since the only food source that existed for other animals were the carrots, they too became toxic to the humans. Humans started out by eating all the reserved canned foods they had saved and existed relatively well at first. Eventually food ran out. People turned back into animals, and began to hunt one another. Unfortunately, they were unable to work together to find a solution to this problem, and the blood lust and greed led to their quick demise as a race. The buildings were reclaimed by the earth. Green and blue was again the dominant color of this great land, rather than gray. As the first rain fell once the humans were destroyed, all the animals rejoiced. The worms were all out in the open, slithering in the wet soil. It would have sounded to human ears like a giant breath loosening from their communal chests since the humans had taken rule. Soon the carrots dwindled in number, though still providing strength to the animals as they began to re figure the earth post human. Once the carrot was no longer needed, it became scarce and is now considered extinct. Evolution continued as usual.

The end. (For humans, that is.)

televisiontastic

HI WORLD! Today I ate BK(burger king) oh my oh why! Also, I considered for a moment why our biotech world has become what it is. Modernity has caused our chaos. Fuck you industrial revolution. I mean, I wouldn't be able to post this fancy blog without the progression since the revolution, but I also wouldn't have to worry about global warming, out sourcing of jobs and a shitty economy, atomic bombs, and...television.

Television is America's main source of brainwashing. It's disgusting and addicting. I'm so glad I don't have a television in my apartment. Nevertheless, whenever I'm at my parent's house, the television is on all the time. I can't help but find myself in front of it, transfixed. It hurts. It makes me paint less. I don't even have the urge do anything productive. My mom and I were talking about why there are so many ads on television for erectile dysfunction. I think it's because all the people who need it are the ones who watch too much television. All their stimulation has washed away into the couch seat. As sexy as couch potatoes are, they aren't.

But.. speaking of, you know what is sexy? Grizzly Bear. So sexy. I guess this band is probably getting pretty popular post New Moon soundtrack, oh man. I'm listening to this band a lot these days. As well as Department Of Eagles, which is another project by Daniel Rossen from Grizzly Bear. Check out this video, which was directed by Marcel Dzama, a Canadian artist that I really appreciate. (But I have to say I'm more intrigued by Dzama's drawings, so look him up.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZAKjKC7Gho

Well, back to television. Like I said, brainwashing technique. The thing is, our entire life has been transformed into an outlet for advertisements. Clothing, benches, buses, grocery bags, etc.... I don't see why we need to accentuate that by choosing to watch the strongest source of said advertisements in all our free time. Even when my family is cooking dinner or playing scrabble we have the TV on in the background. The images are still going into our brains, therefore the ads are still subconsciously doing their jobs. With television in my life, I find myself eating more unhealthy foods and having weird cravings. These advertisers are definitely delving into some heavy psychologically altering techniques here.

Dear BK,

I DON'T WANT YOUR FUCKING CHEESE BURGER AND LET'S KEEP IT THAT WAY.

Love, Sarah.

Oh, and also I don't care what you did, Tiger Woods. The same way I don't care what Bill Clinton did. As long as you are hitting balls or attempting to hold down the democratic fort, I'm chill. Do what you have to with your hoochies but stop telling me about it.

The moral of the story is, watch less television. Your brain will thank you.

Christmas or something.

I have a terrible habit of taking a nap at a terribly inopportune time of day, thus making it terribly difficult to sleep when the proper time comes. Terrible.

My family - those are the people with whom I will be spending my next two weeks. I kind of really like my family. Sometimes they can be assholes, but for the most part love love love. I feel bad for people who never had a positive familial influence in their life. It's nice to have that support.

Anyway,

Christmas. My family is technically Jewish on my mother's side. But..my mom still celebrates Christmas even post divorce. Truthfully, I don't think it particularly matters which holiday we are celebrating. My family is not religious, we just appreciate the holidays as a time of year to celebrate each other and maybe buy some stuff.

The capitalists get you whether you're a Jew or a Jesus freak. Or..if you're neither and just like pretty new things in the winter. To a certain extent, I'm okay with that. Christmas is what you make of it as an individual. I get a lot of pleasure out of thinking about very meaningful gifts to express my care for an individual. Sometimes that involves buying things, but mostly I try to create my gifts with my hands. It just seems so much more special that way. And if you're poor you don't have much of a choice anyway.

My dad is dating Scrooge, so they basically don't even celebrate Christmas. I find that very odd. Scrooge's birthday is on Christmas day which I imagine would be pretty annoying as a child. That doesn't mean you should pretend the holiday doesn't exist once you're a (young) adult, just because you're jealous of Jesus. IT'S JESUS' BIRTHDAY TOO MUTHA FUCKA. Can't ya'll sharezy the day?

It's sort of scary that corporations and ad campaigns rule our so called religious practices so much. I mean, this is supposed to be a highly sacred holiday, yet rarely is the focus shifted from explosive-buy-shit at-the-mall diarrhea. Yum. Separation of church and state? How about separation of church and corporations. Although, I guess that's sort of the same thing at this point. Can I get a "bailout"! WOOP WOOP?!


Until next time, texture.

Sweaty Art.

I am painting with powdered pigments lately, and noting how they react with other paints and mediums.

A large part of what art is for me is the creation process itself. I have been watching and documenting the creation of a certain piece that is doing very interesting things.

I first painted the whole canvas with a mixture of gum arabic and a rusty red powdered pigment that I purchased at the Creative Reuse Center in Oakland, California.* This pigment is probably very toxic, and whenever I use this or any other powdered pigment, I make sure to wear a dust mask. On top of the red, I put a mixture of some water with the same red pigment, as well as white powdered milk paint. I'm not sure if milk paint is a very competitive market, but the only brand I've seen or used is by a company called The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company. It's fun stuff. It reacts in very interesting ways, and if you like to experiment with texture, I suggest getting some milk paint.

ANYWAY, long story short, crazy things began to happen! First, it began to bubble...then, it began to sweat. The milk paint formed pores, and from each pore, a tiny droplet of moisture arose. Very interesting. Here is a picture of the sweat.

You'll definitely have to click to get a close up view of this one. I appreciate this because it seems so human to me. Not only is the paint a very fleshy color, but it is having such a humanistic response. I quite like this.

Once the sweat began to evaporate, the paint began to form beautiful cracks like dried mud on the bottom of a riverbed.




As you can see, the outside has dried much faster than the still sweaty center. Once this stage dries, I plan to paint more layers. I just thought I'd share this as is for now.


In other news, I over drafted my bank account today. But that can't break my spirit!

Keep on keepin on, folks.


* I love the Creative Reuse Center. It is heaven for people like me. Stuff you'll find there - most weird craft things that are sort of pointless to the untrained eye, but beautiful and special to folks like you and I.

Well hi there, folks.

My name is Sarah Refvem. I'm 21 years old, I live in Oregon, and I'm a very odd girl with oh so much to learn! I am very passionate about certain things, for example the creation and appreciation of beautiful artwork. I also enjoy the silly things that happen in my daily life and I will thus share those things with you, my lovely and copious fan base. Ha.

Things I collect:

Rocks.
Shells.
Small toys that seem special.
Pretty paper.
Small pieces of something larger.
Porcelain figurines.
Plant matter.
Art supplies (or things that can abstractly be considered art supplies.)
Fabric.
Carved wooden or ceramic sculptures that speak of another time or place.
Oh so many more things.

Lots of people love these things.



Oh, on a side note I also love to play scrabble.


Anyway, I have coined a name for these things that I love. I call them "Tiny Treasures". In 2008 at the North/South Gallery in Oakland, California I organized a group show titled "Tiny Treasures". It was quite successful in my opinion. Here are a few images from the show:










Everything in this room has a significance.


















These treasures belong to Dana Rottler and Jessie Gayle.













This is an image from the opening! Live music played by participating artists Willie Fricke, Ron Feghali, and Alex Fatemi. Neato.



If you want to see more pictures from the show or my art, you can go to my flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarski/

Appreciate and create. Oh, and just wait. Soon I'll tell about my Fancy Fruit project and blow all ya'lls mind.

Sarah