How am I not myself?

no longer here...

2009-12-15T12:27:00.002-05:00

But here:

www.rcsayler.com

Studio punched

2009-09-18T15:02:00.001-04:00

Punched in the studio? On the beach?! What a whirlwind!

A short video

2009-09-10T11:50:00.002-04:00

another sampling...

2009-09-07T08:12:00.001-04:00

Something is brewing

2009-08-29T16:18:00.004-04:00

Just keep waiting and looking out the window. It's coming!

Dumbledisc

2009-05-03T16:55:00.008-04:00

Now available: a double disc edition of two short videos by R.C. Sayler. One disc features the title, "Artist Playing in His Studio (and Other Serious Stuff)" and the other disc contains the silly narrative, "A Little Big or, It's Hard Work Being an Artist." This collection can be purchased here.

Another Studio of Another Studio

2009-05-01T17:41:00.003-04:00

P.Y.T.

2009-04-23T18:46:00.000-04:00

Pretty Young Thing
(1st Year Sculpture Grad Show)

about scale

2009-04-03T10:21:00.002-04:00

What is scale? I was sitting on the bus and I noticed the woman sitting next to me was much larger than me. This does not mean she is of a different scale. She is simply larger. Different. She is still a human, just a bigger human. So, if one paint can is small and one is large, it is just that. They are still one in the same. But is it different, is it scale, if they are not of the same material? If they are not alike? If one is an actual paint can and one is painted cardboard to appear as a paint can... one functions as a paint can, the other functions as a representation of a paint can--this shift is scale. A model of rather than a gigantic

mid-term

2009-04-02T12:14:00.003-04:00

A Little Big or,
It's Hard Work Being an Artist

some items of the day

2009-03-21T13:21:00.003-04:00

I found this when I awoke this morning. Melissa was upset that her new magazine had been defaced. I thought it was quite amusing. In fact, I think it's hilarious.

While cleaning out my little tray of junk that I keep by the dinner table (It's where I put my keys, wallet, phone, receipts, etc. when I am finished for the day) I found these:

First, a self-portrait. Second, Russell's version of Netflix which includes an unreleased, pirated copy of Spider-Man 4 (with Black cat). What can I say?

about Another Studio

2009-03-21T11:56:00.003-04:00

this is not that.
this is of that. this is from that.
which?
after/ before
maybe this was first, maybe that was first. (chicken or egg)
in, of
it is in this space. it is of this space.
what is real? what isn't real? what isn't real?
this exists because of this.
dependency, counter-dependency
relationship
reference
circular
"A kōan (IPA: /ˈkoːɑːn/)(公案; Chinese: gōng-àn, Korean: gong'an, Vietnamese: công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition. A famous kōan is: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" (oral tradition attributed to Hakuin Ekaku, 1686-1769, considered a reviver of the kōan tradition in Japan)."

...perhaps

or Studio or Another Studio

2009-03-15T11:08:00.006-04:00

notes:
attempt to replicate/recreate studio objects in miniature. to mimic.
to make a big sculpture with little.
thinking about remaking myself by including miniatures of my own work, but not self-portrait.
not me specifically--the act of remaking something as investigation as affirmation.
to re-present.
Art talking about art, talking about art, talking about art...
(meta)
simulacra
the miniature to act within the actual space
to be real, but tiny
repetition without multiples
...Magrite, "this is not a pipe" / Michel Foucault:
"There are two pipes. Or rather must we not say, two drawings of the same pipe? Or yet a pipe and the drawing of that pipe, or yet again two drawings each representing a different pipe? Or two drawings, one representing a pipe and the other not, or two more drawings yet, of which neigher the one nor the other are or represent pipes? Or yet again, a drawing representing not a pipe at all but another drawing, itself representing a pipe so well that I must ask myself: to what does the sentence written in the painting relate?"

R.C. Sayler's Miniature Art Show

2009-02-27T22:18:00.000-05:00

R.C. Sayler's Miniature Art Show
There'll be some big stuff too

Proposed by Gigi Gatewood for the Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum
Produced by R.C. Sayler in his Gallerie de Refuse

Artists: Elizabeth Ferrill, Jennifer Lee, Noel O'Connell, Luke O'Sullivan, Erin Perry, R.C. Sayler, Steve Silber

(below) R.C. Sayler: BIG LIVING ROOM, OR A LIVING ROOM IN A LIVING ROOM, OR A MINIATURE VIDEO OF "THE ARTIST PLAYING IN HIS STUDIO AND OTHER SERIOUS STUFF"

After hosting Russell's drawing show two weeks prior, I decided that the space would be a great place to host other art shows and a way to present work outside of the tight-collar school gallery system. For the second showing in this space, I chose a show to which I had applied, but the galleries did not accept. I contacted all of the original participants and heard back from half, but then had two outsiders request to be included. It was to be a one-night-only showing and installation took place just hours before showtime. A few snacks and drinks, and plenty of friends, made this an exciting event to organize and participate. Three cheers to all that showed and visited.

Museum of Modern Art, New York

2009-01-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

I purchased a $25 round-trip ticket from school and went to New York City by bus. I walked up 5th Avenue from 14th Street all the way to MoMA (at 53rd and 5th). I spent the entire day seeing actual works that I had only read about in art history classes. Very refreshing.
My particular favorites (click on links to see works):
Matisse, Red Studio
Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel and 3 Standard Stoppages
Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Brancusi, Endless Column
...plus other paintings by Bonnard, Vuillard, and Giacometti.
Afterwards, I walked back down 5th Ave and stopped at Rockefeller Center. Amazingly, I walked past the Empire State Bldg without realizing it (but I do remember seeing construction at one intersection with banners that read, "Empire State Building").

Museum of Fine Art, Boston

2009-01-23T22:30:00.007-05:00

Visited the museum to see an exhibition of work by Rachel Whiteread. By the way, saw many paintings that I have studied in art history classes through the years. Most notably:

John Singer Sargent, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit

John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark

Grad Sculpture show, 1/22

2009-01-22T11:11:00.001-05:00

Images of my work from the Grad Sculpture show title, "We’ve Killed It, Mounted It, And Cut Its Flesh, Just That Your Face May Be Slightly More Kissable.”

Outside of barrel / Inside of barrel

Stairs

More images from the show can be found here. Overall, quite an impressive undertaking for one week.

Recent inquiries

2009-01-10T11:21:00.006-05:00

My current investigations include:

Magritte, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe"
simulacra
Plato's Republic, Theory of Forms
hierarchy / the chicken and the egg / bureaucracy / still life(?)
props, property
parent / child, or infinity (not as ever-expanding, but as continuous loop)
reading Jorge Luis Borge's "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote"
reading Lewis Hyde's "Trickster Makes This World"

a print and a drawing:

Miniature

2008-12-10T23:13:00.011-05:00

This is my final project for first semester.
It's about me playing with my work in my studio, and other serious stuff.

New Work, 12/5

2008-12-05T01:54:00.004-05:00

2008-11-29T23:22:00.000-05:00

Dia:Beacon
a sample of sightings:

Richard Serra --

Dan Flavin --

Donald Judd --

Bruce Nauman --

Michael Heizer --

Imi Knoebel (I liked this particularly)--

Spiderman of many talents...

2008-11-21T17:34:00.001-05:00

Russell makes better drawings than most anybody.
Exhibit A:

NEW NEW YORK YORK, NEW NEW YORK YORK

2008-11-09T20:18:00.006-05:00

Friday, Nov. 7:
visits:
Dieu Donne
Metropolis Magazine
Pentagram
followed by dinner w/ friends of friends
Saturday, Nov. 8:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (saw the Giorgio Morandi show)

The Guggenheim Museum (saw the anyplacewhatever show... boring)and miscellaneous Chelsea galleries where I saw some crumby stuff.

No new works; New drawings

2008-11-01T12:02:00.006-04:00

On Collaboration: What Happens When Artists Work Together

2008-10-21T09:44:00.000-04:00

Poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge and sculptor/painter Richard Tuttle will present a talk and give readings at Brown as part of a residency at the Program in Literary Arts. Their talk, “On Collaboration: What Happens When Artists Work Together,” will take place at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21, in the Crystal Room in Alumnae Hall. The joint reading will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 22, at the McCormack Family Theater, 70 Brown St.

2008-10-17T09:48:00.001-04:00

Also, for this Friday, we're meeting at IKEA in Brooklyn at 12pm. To get there, walk over from the Port Authority to Times Square (7th Ave and 42nd street), where you can pick up the #2 or 3 subway lines south to the Wall Street stop. At Wall Street, walk several blocks to the East to Pier 11, where a free water taxi runs to IKEA every 20 minutes

After IKEA, we'll take the shuttle bus to 4th and 9th, where we'll walk over to the Can Factory at 3rd and 3rd for the start of our meetings there at 2:30-3:
Swayspace
Hable Construction
Analia Segal

A POEM, by Russell

2008-10-13T18:09:00.003-04:00

PEANUTSARSmll

YOUARTAll

ILOVETHE

WAY:YOU

PLAY

translation:

(peanuts are small

you are tall

I love the

way: you

play)

2008-10-03T21:02:00.003-04:00

Schedule:
7am--leave PVD terminal
10:45- arrive NY

11:45 -- visit White Columns
320 W 13th St
New York, NY 10014
talk to Matthew Higgs, Director

1:50 -- Meet at MoMA
11 West 53 Street
with Barry Bergdoll, chief curator of architecture and design
then meet at bleachers of "Burst" house outside with Jeremy Edmiston, architect, principal System Architects

4:30 Visionaire
11 Mercer St
New York, NY 10013

8:30 Bus leaves NYC
12:00 arrive PVD

from the studio

2008-10-02T23:47:00.000-04:00

Most recent work completed since being at RISD:**all objects seen are made

2008-09-19T21:00:00.001-04:00

Schedule:
7am--leave PVD terminal
10:45- arrive NY
11:40 Meet outside Matthew Brannon studio:
315 West 39th St., Suite 706
New York, NY 10018

2:00 Whitney Museum--Buckminster Fuller show
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
New York, NY 10021
meet with Dana Miller, curator

4:15 Material Connexion
127 West 25th St.
New York, NY 10001

6:00 Bus leaves NYC
9:45 arrive PVD

2008-07-07T01:10:00.003-04:00

An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them.
Andy Warhol

2008-05-28T11:16:00.019-04:00

So, basically, it's like this:
In one week, we came up with the idea to have a two-person show. We decided on a title, "Slogan Wanted, or: Clean up on Aisle Seven." Johnny was making image-transfer, propaganda paintings so that's where the Slogan Wanted came from. I decided to make work that would play in theme with clean up... So, I threw together some pallets, remade a flattened asparagas carton (printed and price-marked), remade a Mary Jane candy wrapper, and remade part of a 32ounce styrofoam cup. I built a plywood wall and put up a placard or name card to indicated that the objects are made, not actual. So, in short, it is an installation about considered pieces, things otherwise not cared for. They are meant to fool the eye. The objects are containers of sorts. They are not shown "performing." The placard is another representation of the objects. There is an impossibility about them. I made them.

no title

2008-05-20T11:40:00.001-04:00

This is from Bluebeard, by Kurt Vonnegut:
"...I was obviously born to draw better than most people can. Other people are obviously born to sing and dance or explain the stars in the sky or do magic tricks or be great leaders or athletes, and so on. "I think that could go back to the time when people had to live in small groups of relatives--maybe fifty or a hundred people at the most. And evolution or God or whatever arranged things genetically, to keep the little families going, to cheer them up, so that they could all have somebody to tell stories around the campfire at night, and somebody else to paint pictures on the walls of the caves, and somebody else who wasn't afraid of anything and so on.
"That's what I think. And of course a scheme like that doesn't make sense anymore, because simply moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world's champions.
"The entire planet can get along nicely now ith maybe a dozen champion performers in each area of human giftedness. A moderately gifted person has to keep his or her gifts all bottled up until, in manner of speaking, he or she gets drunk at a wedding and tapdances on the coffee table like Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. We have a name for him or her. We call him or her an 'exhibitionist.'
"How do we reward such an exhibitionis? We say to him or her the next morning, 'Wow! Were you ever drunk last night!'"

Again, again, again

2008-04-06T10:07:00.002-04:00

We'll try this stuff again. C'mon com-pu-ter.
http://www.marriagerecs.com/sound/lookhardagain.mp3
My hands are hurtin' and I keep skirtin' around...

Officially February First--you down with OFF?

2008-02-01T18:15:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, the last day of January was a fine day for making. January proved to be Birdman's highest grossing month with over seven sales--way to go Birdman! Keep it up! I also had my thermos shipped back to me from Indiana--I left it there two weeks ago. Winter's worse storm (this year) (in our town) left 8 inches of snow, stranding some. I managed to make it to work unharmed and impressed.

Here's to another productive month!

January 15

2008-01-15T23:38:00.000-05:00

Last night, I repaired a hole in the bag of a dust collector, an essential component to any woodshop. Tonight, I reassembled the dust collector, repaired the pipes that carry the dust from each tool to the dust collector, and cleaned shop. I feel good about this. Greenville College, I did this for you. Also, I posted a new addition to my etsy.com store--the first posting in a while.

"In the early spring, we have the occasion to receive Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at our feeder. My guess is that they are on their way back north from their winter vacation in the south. Maybe we'll see two or three and often with a female companion (the male has the red-breast, the female is stiped and dusty-colored)."

Yeah, and I cannot stop listening to Led Zeppelin. Seriously.

January 1--the new year

2008-01-01T23:44:00.001-05:00

During the end of December, beginning of January, it is customary to wish one another "Happy New Year." When I contemplated that phrase/wish, it seems to be the most thoughtful, caring wish you can impart on someone. It encompasses "happy birthday" which means "I hope that the anniversary of your birth is happy." And to hope or wish or ask or insist that one has a "happy birthday" is a very thoughtful salutation. In fact, to wish someone "Happy New Year" means that all 365 days of the year are happy for that someone. Can you possibly be more thoughtful or caring than that? Unless, of course, you're being insincere--then it has quite the opposite request!

Nevertheless, I spent the first day of the new year making this/ese (4 of 36):

Recycling, 12/29

2007-12-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

This morning I took the recycling to our local recycling center. It took some ingenuity to manuever the metals and plastics into the small cut-out slots, but I managed. There is no place for cardboard, so we'll have to look elsewhere. There is a sign on the outside of the recycling vault that reads, "Anything left outside the container will be landfilled." So they make it nearly impossible to put your materials in, then they threaten to "landfill" (verb?) your waste if you cannot spend 3 hours positioning it into the pigeon-hole.

We save our recycling until it overflows from the basement up the stairs and out the front door. Sometimes, it hardly fits in the pickup truck. And if it accumulates too much, we call in the father-in-law from Wisconsin to haul it away in his furniture van. He'll travel 685 miles to take our recycling to a smaller community that has a more developed center than ours.

December 26

2007-12-26T22:33:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, when I cannot figure something out or things just won't go my way, I feel like this:

Christmas, 2007

2007-12-25T23:33:00.000-05:00

Never in my life did I think being together with family could be such a joyous occasion. Maybe for the first time I realized sharing laughs with siblings and parents is something to be treasured--or some kind of sentimental thing like that. Boy, did I have a good time.

Christmas Eve Eve Eve, 12/22

2007-12-22T23:47:00.000-05:00

The wind is winding and the rain is raining... I think that is how it goes. I am glad when my family is all here. Hear! Hear!