The Domestic Male

Howling winds on this day of war remembrance

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:49:00 -0700

I'm briefly surfing the web today to decipher how to can and sell my homemade hot sauces. The wind is roaring outside; normal for a Kansas City afternoon. Some art of mine is going up on walls this week for an upcoming show. All around it's a good day.

On this Memorial day I'm reflecting on war in art, highlighted by a NYTimes article today; a theme also coinciding with my upcoming show. This Friday June 3rd in Kansas City will be my opening at Cara and Cabezas Contemporary, what I consider my first real show in Kansas City. I'll be accompanying an artist named Victor Cartagena; we both work in the print medium so it should be a great show in that regard. My small contribution of work is an intimate series of 8 etchings called Reasons' Monsters. These prints adopt Francisco Goya's Disasters of War series and re-set them during today's contemporary wars. As I realized today, when I created this series we were only fighting two wars, though it's three now...right? Does Libya count? What about our campaigns in Pakistan and elsewhere? Anyway, it's normalcy in the U.S. to be fighting somewhere else in the world.

Mostly I wanted to let people know that these prints will finally be on display, and if you're in KC stop by to see them on Friday if you can (they're also open on Saturdays or by appointment). Believe it or not, the drawings from this series, and the smaller set of prints have not seen many gallery walls. I've tried many times, and been rejected. As art goes, it brings up unsettling subject matter. Like Botero's Abu Ghraib works, or Otto Dix's images of atrocities, these pieces strike at the heart of the ongoing cycle of human conflict, tying contemporary events to historical similarities. Here's a quote from the press release,

"By conflating Goya's compositions with images from our current media, Naughton connects our present to the past, showing that history does repeat itself. Like Goya’s original etchings, Naughton’s series reflects things real and imagined. His creative responses differ little from our media, both being removed and only representation."

Here's the facebook invite if you're interested in coming.

Revolution Red

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:48:00 -0700

I spend many of my days running a fine art print shop called INKubator PRESS. It's an amazing space with an unrivaled location in Kansas City's art district. I work with a huge number of artists these days, both in collaboration and as a service provider. One of these artists, Eric Lindquist (pressman at Hammer Press) works pretty closely with me and he always quotes a professor he had who had outlawed making prints in black and red. It's a print cliche going back to Soviet, Chinese and Socialist poster works. Constructivism used it too. It's a simple formula using the white of paper, red ink for emphasis and black ink for graphic layout. I'm guilty of using this; most printmakers are.

The thing is, it's a beautiful and effective formula. Shepherd Fairey's work uses it over and over with great effect. Other well known artists too. On one side, printmakers can disavow it and not use it, while others use it with the authority provided by the history of prints on paper. Artists set out to do something new, but often the newness stems from scraps and shards of things from our collective past. We recontextualize the paths of our lives and research only to bring forth new-ish derivations, which hopefully some day contribute to the creations made by future generations of artists. It's a great chaotic cycle.

Alas, this post isn't intended to talk about art, but more importantly my daily consumption and newfound love for the creation of....that's right, hot sauce. I love it. I'm a glutton for the endorphine rushes provided by my collection of red-chile condiments. What I recently set out to do was deconstruct my favorites and land on a recipe of my own. I've gotten pretty close. The reviews thus far are fantastic. I think the latest Batch #3 is my best work yet, and yes, it's called "Revolution Red". I thought it was fitting and as things are still in turmoil in many parts of the world. It seems poignant that the thing offering zest to my meals should be named for the process through which worlds are transformed. Most food to me is better after a splash of red. Revolutions re-write the maps of many cultures and civilizations including our own. Here's my recipe so far for you to try it. Read the whole recipe first for pointers and suggestions at the end.

Revolution Red
Batch #3

Ingredients:

120 chile de arbol peppers (chile japonaise also work just the same)
2 garlic cloves

Smash the garlic cloves and throw in a 1 qt sauce pan with the chiles. Add water to cover. Boil the peppers in the large sauce pot for 30-45 minutes. Stir every five or ten minutes as they tend to float and thus some will cook and others not.

Allow to cool and drain the liquid. It's bitter and not tasty in the final sauce so do not keep the cooking liquid.

1 1/2 c. water (add more for the consistency you like)
2-3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp corriander powder
2-4 tbsp extra hot chile powder
1/2 c. white vinegar (I use Hunts. Cheap brands seem more acidic and crappy)
1 tsp cayanne chile powder
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp mexican oregano (crumble it up in your hand before adding it to release the flavor)
1 fresh garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp honey

Place cooked and drained chiles in your food processor. (If you used some bigger peppers, make sure to remove stems which can't be good to eat) Pulse them a few times. Add all the other ingredients and pulse the crap out of it until you have a smooth sauce. In the end, it's a smooth mixture, but the seeds and skins of the chiles is left in the sauce as the pulp. You may want a thinner or thicker mix, which relies on the amount of water you add. My best batch had 2 c. water. When it comes to salt, vinegar and water, the amounts can vary. The other spices add little flavorful assets, but can be altered or traded out for flavors you like.

If you want to use other peppers:

Go for it! Mix and match, but know that this recipe is formulated for chile de arbol. I eat the seeds and skin in this one just fine, but other chiles aren't as tasty this way and need to be separated from the liquid which is below. Chipotle chiles make a completely different sauce, as do others. I've tried dried pasilla peppers, New Mexico hatch chiles, and others. Hit up your local Mexican mercado and I bet they have giant bins of great chiles you could try.

You can also run the whole mix through a food mill or cheese cloth, and have a completely different consistency. I would not add nearly as much liquid if you do this as the body of the sauce won't be as good with no pulp. I'll post my Batch #1 recipe which is more of a thick sauce made from different chiles and way more vinegar.

If you have success with this batch, just know that it's the tip of the hotsauce-berg. There are so many spin offs. Think scotch bonnets, mango sweetness, asian spices, and even flavored vinegar concoctions. If you try this out, let me know how it goes. What is your take on it, and what did you do the same or different?

Try it as a marinade, try (sesame oil, soy sauce, chinese chile sauce, hoisen, garlic, ginger, and revolution red) an asian derived sauce for dumplings. Make it a bbq sauce. Make it a pizza sauce. Red chile hummus. Eat it on everything and live with the satisfaction that you can always make more.

Good luck to you.

Nick

Art won't replace the power of people, but it helps

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Tue, 1 Feb 2011 09:46:00 -0800

Egyptian revolution in 2011

With the revolution in Egypt at the forefront of many minds, I'm returning to an interview I did while in Boston a few weeks ago. I met with a freelance journalist and activist Dan Feder one night and told him about my project for "Work". I went into my reasons, my inspiration, and my thoughts on doing political art. Mostly he asked me for my motivations, and he also talked to Anabel Vázquez the curator and then the article came out the following day. Notably it's in spanish, written for an immigrant audience in the Boston area and to the people involved at La Galleria at Villa Victoria.

I'm aware of some of Dan's work in the past, he formerly wrote for The Narco News Bulletin which presents journalism on many topics related to injustice, the corruption involved within our government, the war on drugs, and political movements in central and south America and the world. I have read only a few pieces, but it's powerful stuff. Here's one link to an article by Dan in 2005 detailing research that uncovered the complicity of the CIA in funneling U.S. drug profits to fund a "contra army to spend the entire decade terrorizing the Nicaraguan people and their Sandinista government." Seeing what Dan wrote about, I can only imagine his reaction to my work, which is left-leaning but hardly revolutionary, and he asked my curator this question (strange he didn't ask me), "Do you think Naughton's type of work can replace popular activism?". At least it was something along those lines. For some time I have dealt with that issue wondering about the efficacy of art and it's power to sway people, governments or popular opinions. My conclusion has always been that my work is a part of a continuum of action and that it plays one part along side investigative journalism, protest rallies, community activism and mass media attention. Each segment of the whole does one part in getting ideas to the masses, and I don't see one having greater impact over others. Protests happen and the media doesn't cover them. Articles are written but not distributed nationally by major news carriers. Art shows are staged, and only a certain audience takes in the work. My conclusion is that raising the visibility of human rights issues is a collective effort and we all contribute in our own way.

Today on NPR I listened to a story about the musician Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes who held an activist concert responding to Nebraska immigration issues. He was reacting to a small town effort to alienate and force out immigrants who have moved to Fremont, NE to take jobs at meat packing plants. The law, which passed last summer, made it illegal to hire or rent to illegal immigrants in Fremont. Surely the legislation will be subject to court battles with the ACLU, and the concert that Oberst held was a benefit raising money to donate to that cause. Again it's an effort by an artist to use their voice to spread word about a human rights issue. The part of the interview with Oberst was the questions directed at the concert goers. NPR made the case that those in attendance at the show were there for their love of indie rock, and not for their support of the cause. This result shows how the powerful can utilize their influence despite the contrasting motivations of their adoring consumer followers. If only more of our rich and famous upper crust would use the great powers that they have in mobilizing people towards important causes. Actions in favor of human rights will probably never be a mainstream struggle, but the work of a few can make a difference.

Fernando Botero with one painting from the series Abu Ghraib

My thoughts relate this story to the works of Francisco de Goya, Woody Guthrie, Kathe Kollwitz, Bob Dylan, Elizabeth Catlet, Judy Chicago, Fernando Botero and countless others. Artists have long used their creative voices to speak out, their medium serving as a megaphone to address injustice in any number of ways. Does this effort have any effect in the end? Do we live in a more just world than the world our grandparents knew? Has some injustice simply moved from one part of the world to another? Ultimately it's hard to say, but the fabric of how the world works is constantly changing as we can see in Tunisia and today in Egypt. Are these revolutions something we should support, after all the U.S. empowers many of the dictators who are seeing their grasp on their regime slipping. It's possible that we will lose favor in parts of the world if revolutions create vacuums of power that are filled with anti-U.S. governments. Time will tell, but in the end it seems that gradually our nation will continue to fall from dominance. The influence of our empire will fade only to be replaced by another nation that will exhaust itself to maintain its hold on the power that ultimately destroys from within. Thoughts or reactions?

If you pay me, I'll ignore your ideology

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:54:00 -0800

When I had arrived at YJ's snack bar last night I met Carmen Moreno and Lee Piechocki. We were there to talk about art, but before the discussion began we checked my blood sugar, and the good news is...I'm not a diabetic! A random and welcome discovery (not that I was really worried). They are currently meeting with potential contributors about a grant funded publication they are curating called ASP/SPA/PAS. If you want to check out what it's all about, check out their blog.

I've been thinking about my idea for a few weeks now, mulling it over while driving cross country recently. My idea began as thoughts on art and systems of power (if you know my work you're not surprised by this). I'm talking about the art market, commerce, but also sustainability; the ethics of how an artist is sustainable, and how economic conditions today effect the creative class. Especially interesting is the intricate web of relationships that we artists have to navigate through. These could be the chats with potential buyers, ranting with other like-minded broke creatives over rum drinks, or relationships that we forge with non-profits and granting organizations. These potential financial systems may only meet us through the written paragraphs we submit in applications. They know our work by a series of 20 digital representations with accompanying image information such as size and descriptive terms. If we are lucky, not to say it isn't often deserved, the deciding committee will deem our ideas worthy to receive money, and that we are recognized for our hard work with sustenance to continue making and doing things for a short time.

The discussion with Lee and Carmen began to weave its way towards a form of this investigation that might deal more directly with Kansas City. I love the idea of reigning in my interest in this subject to reflect directly on the grant that is making this publication possible, ie. a Rocket Grant partially funded by the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation. Local relevance will help me understand the dynamics of the scene I'm not rooted in, the players, and where the money trail leads. I can't say how the final form will reflect my findings, but it could be a flow chart, a website, interviews, and a huge paper trail. How on earth do journalists do this type of investigation? I'm sure that not all the findings will be pretty, that politics will be revealed beneath the positive philanthropy taking place in KC, but I'm thrilled to have found a project that aligns with my ideals, and something that will take new form and relevance in future work I'll do while living here. I'll be posting more of my research here and if anyone has suggestions on artists or writers to look at for this work (Haacke, social practice artists, or thinkers in any field) do let me know.

Transfer iPhone voice memos to computer

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:50:00 -0800

So as I've been travelling, I have found voice recording to be a super useful tool in recording my thoughts while driving or it can also serve to create bootlegs of insane underground experimental jazz metal. I'll post those soon after giving them a quick edit. So as it happens, iTunes won't allow for me to transfer these audio files and since they are sticks in the mud in allowing people to use the device as they wish I had to search for a workaround to retrieve my files off of my iPhone. I found this program for my computer called iPhone Explorer and it seems like the way to go. FInally a way to search files and transfer things to and from the phone. Why Apple chooses to not allow us to access our device as a portable drive in any normal way I will never know but I'm happy that there are people out there designing ways to use our phones as we see fit. If you dig the program, throw a little money to the dev team as it helps keep people doing things like this.

What the hell do comedians know about art anyway?

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:31:00 -0800

WTF, the podcast, features Mark Maron's comedic talents. I'm familiar with Maron from over the years seeing his work on TV and apparently his career has found new life online with this great podcast where he interviews comedians of all types from Bob Odenkirk to Robin Williams and everyone in between. Williams, as I found out, was a pretty crazy guy back in the day and he swears like he's from my home town which is refreshing.

Maron begins his podcast by unloading his quick-witted mind on air, talking about Ikea, art, coffee, rodents, whatever really. His thoughts on art were interesting and honest, and when first hearing them during my drive towards Boston last week, I was interested in what he was saying. Over time however, my motivation to respond has waned and now I'm unsure if my initial reactions were that compelling after all. Still, he hits on subjects that at times can be relevant to anyone, and for someone just looking for interesting/hilarious off the cuff conversations, WTF is worth a look. It's ranked #1 on iTunes and it's free!

Cheryl and Nick make Green Curry

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:31:00 -0800

The market rate for political expression

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 07:45:00 -0800

Naughton, Nicholas "One day in the rose garden", collage, 2010.

I met an artist named Rollin Bemish yesterday. This post isn't about him, but he did lay the tracks for what I'm thinking about now, and with thoughts plunging ahead, I thought I would jot down some ideas and links for y'all to check out. He is in Kansas City for his show at La Esquina called "a glimpse within". It's a group show, with some interesting work I have to say. It's a group show curated by Caleb Taylor that includes painting, collage, illustration, video, and the sculpture is quite nice. Undulating waves of reeds swaying from side to side over and over. Just the mechanical structure is something to see.

Anyway, Rollin approached my work with a different style than I've had in recent studio visits. It's nice to have a more academic studio visit from time to time. I felt a bit self conscious about calling my work political, especially socialist (the bomb that he dropped on me), but I was happy that he reminded me of the current call for artists for the 2011 Berlin Biennale. As I've been reading, the curator Artur Zmijewski is known for his theory of politics and art, something I love to mull over, especially his idea about 'duty and rebellion'. I've had quite a few conversations with people this week about selling art, about taking a commercial approach in art practice, and the various pros or cons relating to that choice. I'm also constantly considering my socially motivated art objects in the context of a market. Of course, the predominant direction of a lot of contemporary artists is towards the new media, towards experienced based art, or towards collectiveness and sustainability. All of these modes of working subvert the capitalist art model, or simply do not adhere to a structure that allows for the work to be easily confined within the commodity distinction. Challenging the system for the sake of doing so isn't that interesting, but work that's honest that does that can be astoundingly good, and much of it is completely ephemeral. It's not that artists are always searching to defy commercialism, we contribute to the larger conversation and over time this evolves beyond our current systemic boundaries, though it has been proven over time that collectors and institutions will find a way to monetize just about any object or experience. A great example is the collection of performance art, or the acquisition of the '@' symbol at MOMA. Pretty soon the smell of a fart will be bought and sold, or a twitter account will be collected and stored for posterity. Piero Manzoni already sold a can of his shit, so anything is possible.

The curator Zmijewski says this of Duty and Rebellion...

...Grzegorz Kowalski and Maryla Sitkowska mounted [an exhibition title] on the centenary of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw: Duty and Rebellion. Even though the exhibition concerned the academy as an institution, its title was indicative of a split present within art. A split that allows art to „work for” the state and the national economy, to serve society as a shaper of environments, producer of visual information systems, designer of interiors and industrial goods, in short – to do its duty. On the other hand, art is kept from lapsing into dependence on the authorities by its rebelliousness, because it insistently challenges the taboo, nurtures dreams, proliferates freedom, and produces social knowledge, (art can be said to be an open university of knowledge). Art constantly offers and denies its services to the powers that be. In doing its duty it usually does not cross a certain line marked out by shame.

It really falls in line with many of my conversations; the perceived back and forth seesawing of our activities as artists. On one hand, I have to eat and if I have an inkling of what might sell, or my work is received well in a certain gallery or market-driven space, than I should probably pursue it to continue making and doing what I love. On the other hand, I want to make challenging expressions that are not bound to the restrictions of the white cube. Ideas that ride on the fringe of art and its overlaps with other fields like science, music, and philosophy. Maybe collaboration or collective expression is a goal of this direction, but the main issue is that making work about experience alone is something that isn't going to pay my bills or allow for me to continue making things. I have to then spend more time hustling at a job to support this need to create outside of a commercial art system. With less energy, output is down, thus the quantities of ideas will be less explored, or the monumental scales that I crave to achieve will not be brought to fruition.

I've realized that over time, it's not pertinent to continue on in this direction unless one has a job that can truly support the luxury of non-commercial creation. I see it as a task of making what one wants to make, sellable or not, and being organized in finding the way to doing it sustainably. Art is a business after all.

The indeterminate value of propaganda and art

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Sun, 8 Aug 2010 19:19:00 -0700

I've come to realize a few things lately. It's true that a French press makes one of the better cups of coffee that I've had in a while. While i do not yet have a verdict of Parisi coffee vs. KC Roasters, i think that either bean made as a home brew will prove the result of that.
Also, fresh/frozen green chile will always be better than canned. No questions there, even when it's 9 months old!
As for art, I've realized that art imagery relating to war is always propaganda. I err on the side of powerful depictions, soldiers, bodies, grizzly realities, though not too grizzly. Other artists have gone that same route, Botero with Abu Ghraib, Goya and the Franco Prussian War, or Picasso with his masterpiece Guernica. The Chapman Brothers, Kathe Kollwitz, and Otto Dix as well. But then I thought about those images, mothers searching through bodies, torture, humiliation, and horrors manifest in the form of action figurines, and it seemed to me that we are all as guilty of spinning information as the governments who spin the opposite side of a conflict.
Picture a military TV commercial or recruitment brochure, full of excitement, optimism, or positivity, and consider the nature of that propaganda and how staged it is and how it glosses over huge portions of the reality of war. Sure you can be a military doctor like the one in a photograph, but you'll be in a tent or room with screaming bloody colleagues, doing what you can to save their lives, or maybe just their limbs. My imagined visual of this is just that, imagined. My depiction of horror is just that, a depiction of horror. I often wonder if my depiction of a wounded soldier is any better than that of an actor in a military brochure, and on a virtual level I think I've come to see them as equal. Neither tells a complete idea and neither could possibly do justice to he reality that few of us will ever understand since we may never see war up close.
Check out Arundhati Roy and an article she wrote in the early days about the war on terror. I heard it yesterday in my car. I sat in my car for 20 minutes listening to it, unable to open the door to go into my apartment. I cried, I thought, and I felt helpless. It angered me, but then I thought more people should hear it. I can't name what station it was on, but I'm sure it's not hard to find.
And as for the coffee, I suppose my taste buds are different than yours, but I prefer the warmer softer Roasters. As with an image it is in the eye of the beholder.
N

Second thoughts on Green Chorizo: Part II

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 06:45:00 -0700

Over time I've eaten less meat, and this hasn't been out of a concerted effort, but more of an organic development. I grew up in Iowa after all, and meat was anything but scarce. The fact that I was two generations away from a lineage of butchers made the staple of animal protein even more prevalent. Knives were sharpened by hand near the butcher block which is a solid cross section of an old growth tree almost four feet across. Out on my own, my cooking often revolved around meat, usually chicken, which I got very good at, especially preparing on the grill. Subtle was the change, though, that meat began to appear less. My pasta sauces began to lack any sausage or chicken, letting vegetables take the center stage in a recipe. Pasta itself has dwindled to almost no presence in my diet. Again, this was not due to any effort to omit it, pasta just got replaced first by white rice and later by brown rice and quinoa.

So with all of those realizations in mind, I approached this subject of making my own chorizo. I love the idea of green chorizo, and it's a flavor combination that I haven't had, at least not in that form. My devotion to simplicity in my kitchen set up has kept me from owning a meat grinder as I am staunchly against owning specialized items like that. My habits hardly warrant something that only has one function. Storage is an issue, but also I can be realistic that I really only need a certain number of staple utensils or tools to prepare everything I will ever eat, though I wouldn't mine having a tortilla press, so it's not a rock hard rule. So I'm limited to store bought ground pork, which I found rather gross, super fatty, and really not tasty in any way. After trying to eat some of this pork in various dishes, I just couldn't bring myself to eat it, so I've been left with this recipe for green chorizo that may be left unprepared. What I turned to was one of my staple grains, quinoa, and I discovered a salad that was rather tasty, and it's resemblance to dip only made it more popular with other Mexican styled dishes.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Tomatillo salsa (see previous post)
1 batch quinoa prepared (1 cup dry cooked in 2 cups water)
1/3 cucumber
2 fresh tomatoes
2 green onions chopped
1/4 chopped red onion
1 avocado chopped
1/3 cup crumbled queso fresco
Salt and pepper

*You could also add fresh cooked corn off the cob, beans, edamame, other fresh herbs, or even grilled veggies, chicken, or tofu.

This is simple to prepare, as it's basically chopped up veggies mixed into cooked quinoa. To speed it up, when the grain was done I spread it out on a baking sheet and put it in the freezer while I prepared other ingredients. It cooled in about 15 minutes with a stir every 5 minutes or so. The cheese I added last so it didn't get too lost in the mixing. The dressing was essentially a salsa, so the whole dish had a tangy full-of-cilantro flavor. Very nice with a bean salad, warm tortillas, or grilled vegetables. We dined on this at a back alley barbecue in downtown Kansas City, highrise towers and bad graffiti all around us. I might be living in a very concrete heavy place, but it was nice to see that we weren't deprived of summer flavors and good times.

One last tip in case you have plans to make this and keep it. The veggies, especially cucumber, can be a bit fragile in the presence of lime juice or vinegar over time, so it might be better to use squash or other sturdier options as you might find mushy cucumber just a day away from when you prepared this. You could always keep the ingredients separate and make it to order, or just encourage your friends to chow down at a barbecue so you don't have leftovers. It works for a night, but plans can change and there's no reason it can't be enjoyed for days.

Second thoughts on Green Chorizo

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 08:34:00 -0700

I keep thinking about Rick Bayless, his really good cooking show, and how it reminds me of my work. I don't know a lot about Rick, but his depiction of Mexican culture on his cooking show raises the food and the people to a new level of respect. It falls in line with foodie fresh culture today, "eat local" and all that. From my experience across the border, it seems more a norm to eat what you have on hand, to eat fresh foods, and to eat local. It's crazy that we need a movement in the U.S. to bring this type of food culture about when in so many parts of the globe it's a regular part of life. Think about the salsa bar at a taco joint, and you'll see a perfect sign of this style of eating. Where we might have thought of it as a condiment bar, I think it is a sign of something more than that.

I'm not going to delve into a speech about the China Study, or about vegetarianism, I just love the salsa bar. When I have a taco in front of me and a choice of delicious toppings, a myriad of daily made salsas, green and red, and veggies I might miss on a daily basis like chopped radishes, or marinated parboiled jalapenos, I feel grounded. So this is what brought me to my recipe for today. A really REALLY simple and super good salsa using tomatillos that makes up the base for the Bayless Green Chorizo. I think it does fine on it's own, and it kills anything that comes in a jar, many brands of which I think ruin the profile of tomatillos for me and people everywhere by misrepresenting this tangy little green tomato.

Ingredients:

4 green tomatillos
4 seeded roasted green chiles
1 jalapeno, seeded
1 clove garlic
3 green onions
1 bunch cilantro
1 juice of lime
1/4 cup olive oil
salt
1 tsp mexican oregano

It's simple really. Just throw all these things in your food processor. Fresh, nothing cooked, and blend well. The cilantro doesn't need to be pruned especially well, just grab the leafy top of the bunch, twist it off, and throw it in. I chopped stuff up a bit, but it's probably not necessary.

This stuff is so tangy and good, I could eat it every day. And my next recipe is something I whipped up since I bought ground pork and it kind of grossed me out. I made a salad using this as a dressing, and it really rocked my world. So I'll get to that next, but in the meantime, enjoy this one with some chips or scorched tortillas.

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:06:00 -0700

I've been researching Green Chile Chorizo, a recipe originating in Toluca, Mexico so I have read. I want to pair a red, green and white chorizo for a project/tasting coming up. The white recipe may be elusive, since there aren't many white meats, but we'll see. As I've been postponing more and more this cooking venture I've thought a lot about what my last post detailed. I feel it's all based in my inner dialog as an artist, but this attitude also reigns prominently in the art world at large as well.

This argument addresses IMHO art with intention versus making "consensus-friendly decoration", as the Guardian blogger Jonathan Jones puts it. I think that might be the case. I am reminded of what some friends said once, that..."the audience for artists is other artists." In my last post I mentioned Damien Hirst, the quintessential famous wealthy successful artist. I noticed today that he held an actual show of paintings done with his own hand and critics tore him apart. It was partly that he showed his work next to works by master painters, and partly that the guy just doesn't have the talent to make technically skilled art. He even said of his own color spin paintings that they were "basically meaningless." Maybe collectors don't care, but then it's obvious that an investment in art is not in meaningful expression, but in a commodity no different from a credit default swap. It turns out that skill does matter in some cases.

This brings me to other aspects of art as commodity like Jeff Koon's recently unveiled art car.

This is a real car, I think. I actually don't know, but I saw a picture of him sitting on the real thing. Yes he's rich, and yes his work is vapid. These works, Koons' and Hirst's, are signs of how strongly object and commodity are still held together, and how empty they are despite the dollar value. I hear not that MOMA is now collecting performance much like you collect a painting. They collect the instructions on what it is and then re-stage the performance when they like. How strange is that? Something that is temporal by nature is forced to become a commodity. Then they can sell it, even though it's essentially non-existent other than when it took place. It's like the shower you took today becoming art and then someone selling the idea that you took a shower to someone else. Then they pay a young sexy New Yorker to take a shower in the same circumstances and call it equal to the shower you took. Maybe there's some inherent genetic predisposition by humans to need to associate monetary value to each and every thing, but I don't know that I get this compulsion.

Now our art world is blogging/tweeting heavily about a new TV show called Work of Art, which is basically a competition by artists to one-up each other and get a big bag of money for their efforts, and maybe for being a good artist. It's so strange that this is what they claim will bring appreciation of art to the masses, making artists perform akin to fear factor or iron chef. Why not make artists cook against one another and then be forced to eat all the food before running an obstacle course? It makes about as much sense as the real show.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, nor am I sure where to go with art in general. It's not to avoid objects for the sake of it, but more to think about what an expression is at its core and why we need objects to convey that expression. Art objects are great, and you'll see that in my apartment that I surround myself by them. I just like to think about these conundrums, and the daily occurrences in the art world. When I read about ideas about reformulating art in society both within and without capitalism, like in the new e-flux journal 17, it really gets my gears going. This makes me wonder about all this stuff we make and what we do with it. What the value of this stuff is, and what the purpose of over-valued stuff is too. I need to get a few tomatillos and I'm going to make some Green Chorizo, inspired by Rick Bayless. That is something I can put a fork in, tell it's done, and then eat knowing that I enjoyed it because taste-buds lie way less than art does.

Resisting Dematerialisation with Chorizo and Arizona Ice Tea

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Tue, 8 Jun 2010 11:43:00 -0700

Over the weekend I spoke with my brother about the direction that my art might partially be moving towards involving potentially performative or interactive aspects of cooking along with more typical art objects. As seen in Marina Abramovic's MOMA retrospective "The Artist is Present", performance is finally blowing up after years of occurring but never becoming mainstream (and I hate to be the one to exemplify this show along with EVERY other art blogger). Just look at the abundance of college art curricula that don't even address performance as a practice. Its specialization, tending more towards theater and dance, have left it in a limbo that many avoid grappling with, and the preponderance of bad performance art hasn't probably helped either.

Abramovic claims that performance art edges on theater, but that it is real rather than pretend. Here's a post-show interview that is kind of interesting. I'm all for it really, despite the fact that I have rarely if ever seen performance art in person. There's an excitement to it; towards it's bold and courageous display in front of audiences who may or may not even understand what is taking place. People probably have trouble with interpreting lots of art, visual, audible, or performance, but that's not the point. I'm eluding to this renewed push for relational art, where experience is the conveyance of meaning, not objectification in a white walled space. Either way is a perfectly fine way of expressing yourself, but there's a growing trend here that I feel compelled to address, and one that ties to many things going on around me.

Art and life is curiously redirecting culture towards limited edition commercial object making (much of traditional art making, ie. prints, paintings, sculptures, etc.) versus the visual and audio culture that we readily consume becoming more and more ubiquitous and available in infinite reproductions on the web. Curiously I see it tying into the financial meltdown, art pricing, and the new wave of young artists finding their way out of school into the marketplace. What I've seen in Kansas City is a young push to capitalize on commodity, to make a screen printing business in basements, or to create objects gallery ready and with that certain glossy presentation that says too clearly that they are completely comfortable with art objects as collector fodder. It seems that art and consumer culture are vying to become one, and it's apparent as well in Hirst's huge self-purposed auction or in Murakami's hand bags. Art is simply business, and ideas can sometimes be subverted in the name of the sellable.

I saw an article from The Telegraph today about an upstart book-on-vinyl production operation. It seemed like a gimmick at best, but note the printed fine art object combined with the irrelevant collector technology. How many times can one listen to an audiobook anyway? When it was done in the past, there weren't cassettes or libraries full of CD's that you can borrow once and return. This is what they claim is the purpose of this,

The Underwood discs, scheduled to appear twice a year, represents part of the growing resistance to the dematerialisation of art. By emphasising tactility, scarcity (each issue is limited to 1,000 copies) and physical beauty, it offers something that can’t be digitally replicated.

Is there truly a "resistance to the dematerialisation of art"? With all innovation there is resistance to some degree. What is the value of continuing to make art objects? Lately I was in a gallery opening and people seemed equally invested in the experience of drinking free beer as much as they were in the art-gazing. What about the value of said objects? When the economy is down, and people can't buy art, should producers of art alter their approach to fit the economic realities? This I haven't seen, and its obviously represented by the multi-thousands-of-dollars that a young person's paintings are marked at here in Kansas City. Artists were taught in recent years a pricing model that isn't relevant anymore in the wake of the financial collapse. People aren't buying art, so should we still be pursuing the showing practice of white walled high-priced art displays? I'm not saying everyone should be producing limited edition stereographs of urban eccentric naked young people (if you want to pursue that idea, you can have it!), but what are we in the art game for? There are angles to pursue to make money, and there are ideas to demonstrate through our actions as artists whatever our practice, and when we go one way in an effort to demonstrate the other, these confused efforts only result in art that doesn't say what it intends, and thus isn't as valuable as something made for more commercial reasons. Is this making any sense?

So I guess where I come to is a place where making food as art has potential to satisfy all parts of the issues that I have addressed. I can offer an experience through eating, something that to me is the most relevant and ubiquitous of all experiences besides death and sex. And if I like I can commodify this approach, but neither arm of this will interfere with the other, I hope.

As for the overpriced art being pumped out across the globe, I hope that part of the education system that guided these artists into the art world has prepared them for the reality of having to fight to survive in a system that pays less and less and supports less of the most valuable expressions being made today.

Sometimes you just need a grilled cheese

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Fri, 4 Jun 2010 21:00:00 -0700

Yep. Does that count as carbo-loading?

Miga so Hungry

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Fri, 4 Jun 2010 07:45:00 -0700

Breakfast is mui importante. With a great deal on my mind today, it's good to have foods that I can fall back on. This weekend is a huge barrage of events including a big art delivery to a gallery in Des Moines, IA, tonight is the big Kansas City First Friday art walk for which I have to hang out all night and talk to people, and on Sunday the Pigman Triathlon is happening, for which I can only hope I'm prepared. I've trained, so I know I'll finish, though my time might not be the greatest. With all of that, it's better for me to just eat what I have, something easy, and today that meal was migas. Migas are many things traditionally, usually leftover bread or tortilla cooked together with egg, pork, or whatever else is lying around. I choose to make a taco version, still keeping with the ingredients, but a bit easier to eat. Mine included eggs, chile, and whatever I had leftover which was a sad looking green onion, some zucchini, and a lump of turkey. Corn tortillas last amazing long in the fridge, so those I try to always have on hand for just such occasions as this.

It's easy really. Chop everything up. Fry up your ingredients starting with peppers, then zucchini, and then the turkey mostly to warm up. When those are looking tasty, crack in a couple eggs and add the green onion. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until done. These days I've begun to cut out the egg yolks. One yolk for two eggs. I read this thing about the naked cowboy guitar guy in New York and he only eats egg whites. He stands around flexing and playing music all day in his underwear and apparently he doesn't eat yolks. FYI I've also cut out half and half for my coffee in favor of 2% milk. If you make gradual shifts you don't even know the difference. Sorry for the healthy talk, but I'm training for a race! Maybe I wouldn't mind a side job playing guitar naked.

Anyway, throw the mixture on some heated tortillas with a bit of cheese. I toast my corn tortillas over the gas flame of my stove which gives nice little char marks, and firms up the little guys so they don't break on me when I'm eating. No fat is required either, so I don't have to dirty up another pan or eat extra butter or oil. Splash with some hot sauce, keep the bottle close because you'll probably want more as you go, and enjoy! It's a filling meal, but when you have too much to do and never enough time to eat, it's worth starting the day with a belly full of damn good tacos.

Taking stock of the domestic life

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:37:00 -0700

Today is memorial day, and I thought it would be proper to say that I would never have this glorious domestic life if not for the sacrifices of our troops. I might have my reservations with most wars today, but if not for those who came before me and their choices to protect this country, I might not be able to choose to live the life I live. Choosing to be an artist is a dubious financial decision as it is! It's a big thing to offer up your life in the name of what you believe in, and that to me is awe inspiring. We should all reflect on that as we eat our steel-cut oats this morning. Oats with a splash of milk, cranberries, and raisins. No sugar, lest you offset your blood sugar for the day! Sorry, I read too much about food. Have a great day everyone!

And seriously, just look at the sheer joy on Oscar's face as he eats that chip! LOL!!!!!!

Pizza 51

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:38:00 -0700

Ah, the artist life. When things go right, we are surrounded by art, artists, and damn good food. It's a craft thing. I have a high appreciation for things done well, for artistry in the kitchen and in the studio.

Today I met up with a couple people whom I only recently met here in Kansas City, Bob and Anna Atkins. Bob is a letterpress printer with his operation Skylab Letterpress, and Anna works for Hallmark as a designer. Talk about fascinating people, and we had what was probably the biggest slice of pizza I have ever seen. Pizza 51 is an old gas station, something I've found is a consistent sign of a good restaurant in KC. I paid $5.75 for a slice of pizza, with five hand picked toppings, and I couldn't nearly finish it in one meal. We're talking a slice the size of my head, and my huge Irish/Belgian head would make an unrivaled meal if equated in portion size!

The talk was great as we meandered from food to local corporate powerhouse Hallmark (which is probably interesting enough for a blog post unto itself), and of course we talked about printmaking. It's nice being around artists after my hectic year of travel, unemployment, and my exodus in Iowa. I have to say all parts of the past year were great. I traveled through India with my best friend, I got back into a kitchen, I signed on for a triathlon that's happening officially 7 days from today, and after all of it I'm here with a job at a print shop with nothing but open road ahead of me. It could only get better if I eeked out a source for health insurance. But then you can't have everything, but you can find ways to keep life good, prosperous and full of potential. So I've got that going for me, which is sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Slanging dental care products ala Costco

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:39:00 -0700

I currently work two jobs, so my time as home is limited, thus my domesticity is becoming a more focused affair; quicker, dirtier. Back to the impromptu ways that I love! I'll pass on a few lessons learned since coming here to Kansas City.

1) Costco is insane and no I don't need 10 toothbrushes. Can one become a dealer in supplies such as toothbrushes and Mach III razors? Perhaps that can be my backup plan since teaching is ridiculous to even consider.

2) When making lunch on the go, Quinoa is great as a sub for rice in beans and rice.

Prep a batch of Quinoa. Add fresh garlic and onion while it's hot, olive oil, and salt and pepper. This is your base and you can eat it all week.
Use some chopped up chipotles to your tolerance level. For me that's about three perbowl of food. This level of spicy consumption is attainable by you too, if you so wish.
When you're making your to-go bowl of food, add the Quinoa mix and the chiles. Toss in whatever you have: spinach leaves, zucchini, cucumber, bell peppers, cheese.
Final addition: Black beans straight out of the can, rinsed quickly. Again I owe it to Costco for coercing me to buy way too much of one thing. I have like 10 cans, and these with the rest of this mix makes for a great little meal, and it's simple.
Eat with chips, tortillas, some hot sauce, sour cream if you're into the dairy cow emulsions.

3) Yogurt on the go is a great thing, also from Costco, I have a gallon or so to work on. Just make sure to seal your tupperware, or the yogurt liquid can spill out all over your calendar and sketchbook and leave you with this funky mess that isn't really possible to clean since it's inside your backpack.

Yep, if you're in need of 7 pounds of nuts, it's the place to go.

Nyerding out/Eating yogurt

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:59:00 -0700

O' say is that beef?

With banana in hand, my late night dinner in the print shop, I'm contemplating prints, food, interactive art, etc. It's a new direction for me personally, but I think it has to be a part of this new venture of mine. Recently I've started as Director of INKubator Press in Kansas City, MO. The funny thing is, I'm unsure about my future in prints. I know that whenever I leave it, I always come back and do it more than before and there are a lot of things to explore here in our shop.

I suppose that what I was thinking about was how can prints function in the art world today, and by that I'm wondering about the art world trends towards performance art, social practice, interactive art, experiential happenings, etc. Within that world, how does printmaking function? It's a question I haven't answered for myself, and in reality I hardly practice things like that, but maybe that's where this love for food could channel.

Is there a future in edible delights of a political nature? Could our family dream of someday opening a taco cart come to fruition at an art gallery? Am I capable of moving beyond impromptu cooking and actually be able to create recipes for contemplation and consumption? Hmmm...I think this post has generated something to consider. Whether you're into art or not, what do you readers think?

Love handles just not big enough to handle?

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Thu, 6 May 2010 14:31:00 -0700

So I just updated my site within the depths of Blogger, and hopefully keystrokes of cooking goodness will begin to reach a few people out there. Following apparently doesn't do jack, so I added a few emails to a list, and there's an email subscribe link as well as the means to add to a google reader, which I highly recommend if you use iGoogle. I keep up on a lot of blogs now, and you can too. So keep up with my latest turmoil over the hot stove, and let me know what you think!

The Domestic Male

Case in Point

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Thu, 6 May 2010 08:16:00 -0700

If you want the start of this, see the previous post.

So I followed a link on a blog, and came upon this trended site based on men cooking. Man Tested Recipes is the name, and yes the lead ingredients include meat, pasta, bacon, beans, beer, butter, cheese and chocolate. This is funny to me, as it describes a good portion of my palette, but it's also funny because combinations of these foods in large portions also leads to man boobs.

What is also terribly ironic is that my next recipe, a whopper I'm preparing based on a meal the other night, includes chiles, beer, meat, and a grill. I suppose you can't get around it, but I swear that I'm not choosing my materials or methods based on masculine prejudice. I just like flame seared asparagus. I lived in New Mexico, so my stash of chiles is straight from fields near my old house. (Man I miss running on those dusty irrigation canals.) Even with justification, my trends do lean towards the man-proven recipe direction, but I'll chalk it up to a genetic predisposition. At some point hundreds of thousands of years ago, humans discovered and tamed fire. The next thing was naturally some grilled critters that previously weren't nearly as tasty, and grilling was born. I'm thankful for that innovation, and you don't have to be a man or woman to appreciate that.

Nomenclature

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Thu, 6 May 2010 07:39:00 -0700

A domestic male might be someone who has cleaned his car...once. Yes, one time in the past four or five years. I'm an artist, and I travel a lot, and I don't have a lot of time to vacuum upholstery. That's my story. When I finally cleaned it, I kicked its ass!

He might do dishes or fold an errant blanket. For sure he'll cook up a storm for the most random of occasions, especially for a movie party where people will eat their fill of chipotle salsa and piles of various meats. With all of this domesticity comes a way of life, and with that a language to describe it.

Cooking is an amazing skill to have, and it doesn't make a man less masculine. On the contrary, it's becoming more and more common for men to cook. Now I'm not saying that a man who cooks has to be using insane spices, beer and pork in every other recipe as stated on Aldenteblog. I could care less about testosterone-related ingredient choices. But I'm saying that a man can be sensitive, whip up a mean Quinoa, and relax at night reading a scholarly article on the contemporary nature of printed multiples. (Sorry for the print nerd reference.) I'm not worried to say that a squirrel I saw was cute, but when it popped into my head my first thought was, "Aw, what a badass little guy!" That's where I'm coming from. Now I'm going to go make a spicy egg sandwich!

In the running for the most terribly numb day of my life

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Tue, 4 May 2010 19:36:00 -0700

I just did the dishes. I didn't wash that tea cup.

Signed,

The Domestic Male

Ass Burning Green Beans

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Tue, 4 May 2010 15:08:00 -0700

Green beans. Spicy, kickass ginger garlic flavor, and some green topped radishes sliced thin. A bit of orange juice and soy sauce make for a great background for this highlight of early summer. Add spice as you like. I like chile bean sauce.

No excuses when you're trying to live.

nnaughton@artsincubatorkc.org (nico_cucaracha) — Mon, 3 May 2010 20:33:00 -0700

Yeah, sometimes I just eat a gas station corn dog.