Wednesday, November 23, 2022

ONE DOOM

 I first met Brian back in February on 18th St. while working on The Mural of Possible Futures, a mural next to the Bi-Rite commissioned by two of my favorite art patrons.The first day that I started working, he was ill and immoveable. It had been raining for three solid weeks. The garage overhang offered some shelter from the elements and I was relieved that there was some protection to prevent the weather from getting to the paint that would eventually be there. 


When I first spoke to Brian, I said, “Hello,” politely enough not to alarm him. He said “oh, hello,” and attempted to get up but coughed and collapsed back to the cement. I said, “you know buddy, how would you like to stay and or come back every day?” This little kindness caught this poor soul off guard. It had been a while since anyone had had a personal interaction with him that wasn’t contentious.

Over the course of the month as the mural was being drawn out and sketched, then moved towards completion, I came to know Brian better. He had gone to Brown University and had been a chemical biologist and astrophysicist at one point in his life. I had attended RISD myself, which is also in Providence RI, so we reminisced about that hauntingly historic town together. I would learn that he had contracted HIV when he was in his late 20’s which forced him to come out to his family and which resulted in his expulsion from the family as well as graduate school. He, “left for California and never looked back,” he said. Now 48 years old, he was in LA for four years and had been in SF for two. Brian’s story was sad but not unfamiliar. Many street urchins of SF have suffered some tragedy that brought them low and onto the street somehow. 

Each day as worked on the mural I watched San Francisco walk by Brian or stand by the Bi-Rite and wait for their $16 sandwiches. They were either directly tuned out on their phones, or tuned in to their new AirBuds and had become less human and more machine. They ignored Brian and it seemed inevitable and less humane that Brian himself, would be nothing but a white chalk outline on the street mimicking all those Apple iPod ads I used to see on TV.

I reached a good stopping point to the mural on 18th st. and returned to LA to participate in artshows in Los Angeles. I said farewell to Brian and on the last day he brought me and a friend gifts given to him by the thrift shop to use or sell. It was a lovely gesture and something I would not forget.

I departed feeling truly disenchanted with #sadfrancisco. I have become accustomed to the difference between LA and SF by describing it thusly: “Everyone in SF tries to fake being genuine and everyone in LA is genuinely fake.” In my opinion it is still better to be genuine at something. 

I wasn’t in any hurry to return to SF but the money was good, and by all appearances seemed to be legit. A new space called ONEDOME that had opened on Market Street in SF and I was specifically requested to participate with my art.

ONEDOME was, yes it is appropriate to say WAS, a pet project of two Crypto Currency Millionaires who invested $5,400,000 into their own playpen. I never really got their names. ONEDOME was designed to be a fully immersive VR and AR environment, utilizing the latest technologies to entice the crowd. It was “Ready Player One,” the best of the best, the Microsoft HoloLense, Magic Leap, the Wurkz. So I was excited about this ONE. The DOMEless dome, was evidently supposed to mimic the WizDome in LA in its scale and grandeur but had fallen short in its appeal to the sleepy audience of SF it seemed. It was almost immediately apparent that something was up when I arrived in SF. During the three months that ONEDOME had been operating very few if any participants paid to come inside. Tickets started at a hefty $60 but quickly dropped in price to $35.

Sure enough, when I started to prep, days before the scheduled event word got out that ONEDOME would be shutting its doors forever the day after our event. They tried to renege on my contract but were reminded that that is why we had a contract in the first place. The day before the ONEDOME event they laid off %80 of their staff!

The event? Well, believe it or not, it went off without a hitch! Oh boy! It was the great -old-days of San Francisco again with cacoughenous societies and real live weirdos aplenty, bursting from the seams of the Dome itself! So many volunteers, so many living breathing creative folks just playing the game on themselves.

ONEDOME closed its doors to the public on Saturday May 11th. When I went to the venue on Sunday to collect my paintings. I was informed by the skeleton crew that they had forgotten that Facebook and Apple were coming on a tour! Their actual words to me were, “you are not to speak to anyone! And if you can run, you should run! You have 10 minutes!” 

My earlier enthusiasm turned to irritation. But we either allow life to laugh at us, or we choose to laugh with it. Or perhaps it is best to think of all of life, as laughter. Because when we look back its just so funny…Now running with my paintings and trying to find safe storage for the next hours I prepared to depart but I still wasn’t finished… I had to go and see Brian.

When I arrived at the mural Brian was there begging for change as usual from the hapless, indifferent automata that seem to dominate SF these days. 
He was crying to himself.
The first time we met, Brian told me that he, “so wished to see LA again, if not just one more time before the end.” Someone had been kind to him there and he wanted to say thank you.

Perhaps it is because artists feel more emotion. Perhaps, it was only that we shared time together and had reminisced about respective Universities in Providence, RI. Whatever it was that compelled me, I am grateful. I said, “Brian, I am going to LA and this time I am not coming back! So let’s go Brian, let’s get you out of this town.” I gave Brian a ride all the way down to LA so that he could rest in the city of Angels once again. Rest in peace with the knowledge that there is one less lost soul left for dead on your streets, one less set of bones for the children to trip over on their way to church. 

ONEDOME was just another $5.4 million, rookie mistake in the city of Androids from Phillip K. Dick’s novels. It’s not Blade Runner, that’s LA but it still draws its inspiration from the same book.
Do Androids (truly) Dream of Electric Sheep? Well not exactly… Androids only dream of sleep because it is the only thing they can’t do. So sleep well #sadfrancisco, and dream big for all of us. My advice for ONEDOME, try try again, its not your fault that the sheep were counting themselves to sleep. 

I won’t be back to SF I said, but the truth is I am addicted to this city. I can’t stay away for too long, I have too many friends and extended family there. It may be #sadfrancisco right now but it is just going through a serious transformation. In order to completely become whatever it is that it is trying for, which is in my eyes to become just another city like LA or NYC, it has to do away with its previous identity and deny the existence of anything that happened before. Its a shame for all of us, but its not a sham. I hope for the best, I hope to see the gleaming city of the future rise from its weird roots and become the best of its selves. #SadFrancisco needs to become #SanFrancisgo!
Hopefully I’ll be around to see it happen.

Harrison Macdonald Love, is a contributing journalist and artist in SF, NYC, and LA.
His artworks can be found in the collection of the SFMOMA Artist Gallery at Fort Mason in SF. Visit www.harrisonlove.comfor more information.

You can visit The Mural of Possible Futures on 18th St. in San Francisco or see it online at www.brightfuturism.com

Sunday, October 25, 2015

NYC STREET ART


Note: this picture is from the LOVE SPECTRUM collaborative installation between myself and Colin THE WIZARD of San Francisco. Many Thanks Colin!


Sunday, January 27, 2013

Campos de Gutiérrez 2012 Medellin Colombia



El arte de residir en casa

Las residencias artísticas ofrecen a artistas nacionales e internacionales, espacios para crear e interactuar con la ciudad. Proceso de aprendizaje.
Por MÓNICA QUINTERO RESTREPO | Publicado el 11 de octubre de 2012
Llegan a casa, se quedan un tiempo, hacen lo que saben hacer, arte, y luego se van. Quedan la casa y la experiencia.

Las residencias artísticas les ofrecen a creadores de otras latitudes la posibilidad de intercambiar conocimiento y manifestaciones, con el contexto cultural de Medellín. Aquí, tres de ellas.

1. Residencia para estar, crear y mostrar
Campos de Gutiérrez
Quieren que la casa sea reflejo de los tantos años que tiene. Por eso dejaron el altar consagrado por monseñor Builes, un montón de objetos de cuando fue creada y hasta un cuadro de Francisco Antonio Cano. La intención es que cuando los artistas vengan se muestre un aire de esa Colombia de hace 100 años. Porque ellos vienen e interactúan con el lugar y la ciudad y eso les ayuda para su obra. La casa no es para exposición, sino  trabajo. En Campos de Gutiérrez (Santa Elena), en un año, han pasado 14 artistas de 8 países. No solo es estadía. Es trabajo, es producción. Intercambio.

2. El territorio desde el arte y la interacción
Taller Sitio
La idea empezó en 2000, cuando un colectivo de artistas plásticos pensó una propuesta en torno a la apertura de espacios de arte. Poco a poco han ido afinando las intenciones: tienen un lugar abierto al intercambio y reciben artistas para hacer proyectos desde el arte y el territorio. Les ha interesado lo local y su enfoque actual es el barrio Prado Centro. Lo que buscan es hacer resistencia cultural y recuperación patrimonial a través de la interacción y actividades artísticas que involucran la arquitectura y las ideas comunitarias. Su proyecto actual es el centro cultural Plasarte.

3. Artistas que experimentan propuestas
Casa Tres Patios
Querían un espacio de exhibición para propuestas arriesgadas, pero en ese proceso, sin darse cuenta, apareció la posibilidad de convertirse en residencia. La historia de Casa Tres Patios cumple seis años y medio y por su espacio han pasado unos 200 artistas. Los visitantes presentan un proyecto de carácter investigativo o experimental, que incluso se puede transformar y terminar después, y ellos les ofrecen la infraestructura, charlas, talleres y exposición. Hay estancias largas y otras más cortas. La dinámica varía desde las intenciones del artista.
Copyright © EL COLOMBIANO S.A. & CIA. S.C.A.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Finding your stART in NYC - Article by Carol Tan from the Scholastics Art and Writing Awards

http://blog.artandwriting.org/2012/05/09/looking-for-the-start-harrison-loves-first-solo-show/

 LOOKING FOR THE START: SCHOLASTIC AWARDS ALUM HARRISON LOVE’S FIRST SOLO SHOW May 9, 2012 Photo Credit: Iñigo Sesma. 
Taken at Harrison Love's Compressed Culture show at the Greenpoint Gallery on April 6, 2012. 

The art world can be a very daunting place, especially if you’re in New York City. There are surprisingly few places in New York that provide opportunities for young artists to show their work. Even with the resources that are available, exhibiting anywhere in this big city is a hard earned privilege. 

This was no different for artist and illustrator Harrison Love, who won a Scholastic Art & Writing Award in 2004. Looking for the right opportunity to exhibit his work without feeling the bite of a gallery’s commission or percentage was no easy task. After looking for a year, Harrison was starting to become discouraged by the long wait list and huge commission percentage of galleries around the city. Then, in the winter of 2011, there was finally a sign of light at the end of the tunnel. 

From December 13 – 20, Harrison had his work exhibited in the annual open call for artists at The Greenpoint Gallery, an artist-run art and music venue in Brooklyn, NY. There were over 200 paintings in the show from over 30 participating artists. Amongst the staggering collection of artwork, Harrison’s work stood out and was selected to receive a first place prize, a working residency at the gallery, and a solo show in the spring of 2012. Check out our interview with him as well as a slideshow of the opening night of his solo show below! Congratulations on your first solo show in NYC! What was this experience like for you? “I’ve exhibited all over the world, mostly when I was traveling. I just seemed to always find a place for my work. But, when I came to New York, every door was barred and carefully guarded. I didn’t know where to turn. 
After a year, I finally caught my break at The Greenpoint Gallery and was floored by the response! I got lucky.” How is exhibiting in New York different from elsewhere in the world? “It seems like most artists in the city start out exhibiting wherever they can, showing their work in group or salon shows at galleries that take a percentage from the sale of the work. This is the beginning of an uphill battle for young artists. In other parts of the country there are galleries and museums that are easier to access and more welcoming to young professionals. I think it is naïve to start an art career in New York and put all of your eggs in one basket. NYC is a very full and expensive basket.” 

 How has your show at The Greenpoint Gallery changed your work? 
“It is very rare for a young and emerging artist to have a solo show in NYC. It is almost like, now, everyone has seen what I am capable of and is eager to see what will come next. I have drawn the attention of the bigger collectors and galleries, and now, I think that I have more responsibility as an artist than I’ve ever had before.” What advice would you give to young artists looking to get into the art scene in New York City? “Don’t ever be discouraged. Nothing ever works out the way we fantasize. Your career will start slowly, and in a small way. But it will grow as long as you keep learning from each experience and from the other artists you will come in contact with in the process.” To learn more about Harrison Love, visit: www.harrisonlove.com You can also see his current project and support it online at: 
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hlove/pahasqa-nan-the-hidden-way         TAGS: advice, alumni, art, exhibition, interview

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Interview with HLOVE




Facebook Twitter Email
Harrison Love studied with shamans in the Amazon
By Carly DeFilippo
While the Upper East Side may not be the typical neighborhood for an up-and-coming artist, 26-year-old Harrison Love makes the most of his unconventional stomping grounds. He describes the Metropolitan Museum as his “church, a place to seek spiritual guidance” and cites the Frick as one of his favorite collections in the city.
Though he admires the grand masters, Love’s work tends toward abstraction, pulling from a range of influences and styles more similar to the contemporary collection of the Whitney Museum.
Considering his background in illustration, it is surprising to learn that Love’s favorite artwork is not that of high-octane contemporary galleries.
“Current trends in art lend themselves more to entertainment than concept or context,” Love said. “In a sense, artists are producing art that is all sugar, with little to no nutritional value.” He is most interested in the work of socially relevant artists, referencing Ai Wei Wei, or those who challenge the experience of the observer, such as James Turrell, noting that both have managed to balance their popularity with a continued commitment to their artistic mission.
The youngest member of an adventurous family of artists, Love spent much of his childhood in Europe, returning to the Northeast in his teens. But it was only in high school, after winning five Scholastic Gold Key Awards, that he ever considered a serious pursuit of art. Continuing to travel extensively, Love worked in Asia between semesters at the Rhode Island School of Design and eventually set his sights on more uncharted territory.
It was his interest in the “ambiguous origins of our culture’s creative evolution” that inspired Love’s project to research the indigenous tribes of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon. Under the tutelage of shamans, he trained in traditional artistic practices, simultaneously becoming familiar with the plight of the native people. Increasingly disenfranchised and actively uprooted by the South American oil trade, these tribes stand on the brink of destruction.
Their struggle inspired Love to set upon a new artistic mission: to celebrate, preserve and raise awareness about the region’s creative tradition and cultural heritage.
Love’s current book project, Pahasqa Ñan (“The Hidden Way”), is the culmination of his creative research and a grateful homage to the tribes with whom he resided. Multiple methods of brightly-hued illustration relay tales inspired by native folklore, representing both the artist’s perspective that “no one style is relevant or applicable to all subjects” and his range of skill.
Those who attend Love’s upcoming show, Compressing Culture, will witness the convergence of the diverse artistic techniques featured in his book. His research concerning the origin of creativity has led him to develop a style that calls upon the “universal balance of form, shape and line contained within all great paintings.” The result is a rhythmic and dynamic blend of tribal pattern and cubistically influenced abstraction, a style he sustains across mediums and diverse color palettes.
To view Love’s most recent work, visit www.harrisonlove.com. Compressing Culture opens April 9 at the Greenpoint Gallery. For more information, visit www.thegreenpointgallery.com.

1st Place winner at The Greenpoint Gallery Salon Show


My sincere thanks to everyone at The green point Gallery ( www.thegreenpointgallery.com ) for giving me the opportunity to exhibit and for providing artists with the right kind of space and appreciation that so many deserve. Cheers Shawn James!
If you would like to get a better idea of what i submitted visit the Abstract Art link from my main page.
Thank you Everyone!
You have no idea how much I needed this...









Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Interview with HLOVE-The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards 2012



Harrison Love was recently awarded Best in Show at The Greenpoint Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. He will be working in the gallery’s residency program through March and will have his first New York solo exhibition there in April. He is also a participating artist innow on paperthe Alliance for Young Artists & Writers’ annual fundraiser and art auction on March 7th.
In the following interview, Harrison talks about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, his work, and his artistic goals.
What is your connection to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards?
In 2004, during my senior year in high school, I was fortunate enough to earn five different Scholastic Art Awards at both the state (Connecticut) and national levels. You could say that the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards really gave me my start in art.
How did winning a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards affect you?
Before winning a Gold Key award, I had little confidence in my work. I was actually more confident in applying to liberal arts schools at the time. But when I won an American Visions Award as well as a Silver Medal for my Art Portfolio I was really taken by surprise. If I had not become acquainted with such success at that moment in my artistic career, I probably would not have pursued my passion with as much drive.
What are your long-term goals as an artist?
I am a freelance Art Director in New York City. Most recently, I was the Creative Director of Citi Pond at Bryant Park for the 2011 Holiday Season where I was responsible for designing the collateral materials as well as graphic elements for Bryant Park’s ice skating rink. In collaboration with my brother, Mac Love, I was also able to design unique artworks for the Park’s Celsius restaurant. My goal is to continue to design and direct art for event and retail spaces throughout the world. I will also continue to advance my artistic techniques, which foster my creative expertise and design discipline.
When did you first become interested in art?
I became interested in art at a very young age. My mother and father are both artistic and my older brother is an artist as well. Growing up, my passion for art was nurtured and really developed from their inspiration.
What inspires you to make art?
I am continually inspired by the way that we as a society create and digest information. Much of my recent work reflects how I consume data as an artist. My recent work has transitioned into the abstract because I have become increasingly fascinated by what a painting does rather than what it is.
I still utilize my skills as an illustrator of both realism and fantasy, which is the type of work that helped me win my Scholastic awards. I think that as our world becomes increasingly complex, our culture is starting to appreciate simplicity more and more. My recent work reflects my attempt to translate the complex into simplicity as well as the translation of paint into motion and emotion.
What advice can you offer to young artists and writers?
My advice for any young artist and/or writer is to learn to recognize distractions and focus on what you want out of each day. Every day brings a new challenge. The hardest thing about keeping yourself busy as an artist is finding the motivation to begin something new. Learn to self motivate and you will succeed.
Beautiful Later, a Love Brothers' Collaboration at Bryant Park's Celsius at Citi Pond 2011.
***
Harrison Love is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. While attending RISD, he worked in advertising abroad, in Tokyo, Japan and in Shanghai, China. After graduation, he traveled to Peru to study the cultural heritage of the Ashaninka, Warani, and Shipibo tribes of the Eastern Amazonas.  He is currently working on an illustrated book about the mythologies of the Shamanic Cultures he was living with. Proceeds from this book will go to supporting the land rights of these indigenous tribes. To keep up to date on all of Harrison’s artistic efforts, please visit www.harrisonlove.com. You can also connect with him on Facebook!


Monday, January 10, 2011

Rally to Restore Sanity



I just returned to CT from the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington DC. An estimated 215,000+ people were in attendance. We went to the rally early enough to see the stage and hear The Roots open up for the show.
The rally was less political than I think most people were hoping for. There was something in the air for the 20-30ers that this was going to be our generations Woodstock, which I believe was an unfair expectation to begin with. However, the Rally was a complete success, not merely because of Jon Stewarts message at the end of the Rally but primarily for the number of hopeful moderate "SANE" people in attendance. The Rally stood as more of an action than an event, the main thrust of which was targeted at sensationalist media and the demonizing of candidates beliefs in the upcoming election by mainstream media.

"A house divided cannot stand."- Lincoln 

America is a melting pot of ideas and conflicting philosophies. The one message that I came away from the rally believing is that we all need to listen to one another and educate one another about one we hold to be true. This is the only way that we will ever be able to ascertain the "truth" at the heart of every political debate. We need to listen to everyone to understand our nations common interest. We cannot exclude radicals, liberals, independents, republicans, or democrats; we cannot let our "house" be divided by fear.


Monday, August 16, 2010

HLOVE Featured in a New Book , "The Late Work"

HLOVE Featured in a New Book , "The Late Work": "'The Late Work,' is a collection of artwork from several artists creating a dialog on the future of art."

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Art Critic Greg Cook Reviews: "New Life"- at the Spot on Thayer

http://thePhoenix.com/Boston/arts/101012-making-the-rounds/



http://thePhoenix.com/Boston/arts/101012-making-the-rounds/

Making the rounds

New exhibits at the Spot and AS220
By GREG COOK  |  April 21, 2010
ART042310_HamesSeamus_main 
DELICATE LINES Hames’s “Town of Monhegan.”
For some time, the founders of the Spot — Josh Fulford (now technical director), Kevin Blanchette (director of operations), and Nick Cardi (gallery director) — weren’t sure what to call the venue they were creating in a roomy second floor space at 286 Thayer Street. Talking on the phone, they’d say things like, “I’m over at the spot.” Finally they realized they could just call it that.
Part of the difficulty in deciding on a name was the range of activities they aimed to offer. They began with yoga classes in April 2007; that August, they presented their first art show. That fall they brought in Josh Willis (artistic director) and Spogga (music director). These days they also offer comedy, dance classes, poetry slams, and the occasional rock opera. The Spot’s MySpace page announces: “More than just a building, a gallery, a school, a home. It is a Force of Nature. It is an Engine of Kinetic Energy.”
As far as visual art is concerned, you can feel that moxie, though the art itself is still developing. The Spot offers a pair of quirky halls that sprout smaller nooks and crannies. Windows and architectural details divide up the walls and can cramp 2D work, but the large rooms flatter sculptures and installations.
Cranston sculptor Michael Green takes advantage of this, installing an arc of tall wide strips of heavy, ribbed translucent plastic — the sort of stuff they use for loading docks — that cascade down from the ceiling and curl across the floor. A light inside, near the ceiling, makes it shine blue, purple, orange, yellow — echoing the Spot’s funky nightclub vibe. The sculpture looks sort of like a giant plastic jellyfish or a waterfall. In a particularly lovely touch, the sculpture hides a fountain built into the wall behind, and you can hear the unseen water trickling.
ART042310_HLOVE_main 
Through mid-May, Green’s sculptures are paired with prints by Harrison Love. After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree in illustration from RISD in 2008, Love spent a year in Peru, including, he says, four months living with the Shipibo, Warani, and Ashaninca tribes in the Amazon. Now living in Stonington, Connecticut, he is illustrating a book he is writing inspired by the old myths of these tribes. In his linocuts, visionary scenes are rendered in workmanlike compositions. Birds soar over a clearing in a forest. A person perches in a tree filled with birds. Men with spears gaze into the mouth of a large dark cave and the walls inside resemble a pile of rocky skulls.
Green and Love are the focus this month, but works from previous shows linger, like an installation Brooke Mullin Doherty of New Bedford, Massachusetts, put up last year. She fills the ceiling of a lounge-nook at the end of one room with gold fabric that drapes down from a red wire armature. It’s luxurious and consuming, and seems like the frilly gold train of an evening gown grown out of control. New Bedford artist Jeremy Rudd’s sculpture Concentric is a six-foot-tall ball of wooden pieces that seem to interlock like gears. Giselle Corre of Providence turns shallow reliefs of polymer clay into depictions of sunny psychedelic childlike dream gardens.
Meanwhile at AS220’s Main Gallery (115 Empire Street, through April 24), Mary Snowden and Lauraberth Lima offer chickens and risqué vegetables.
ART042310_LBLima_main 
Snowden’s photo-realist paintings of chickens bring out the ruddy details — a Spanish chicken, with its black body, white face, and fleshy red comb and cheeks. The birds could feel more alive, but Snowden nails their threatening alien stare.
Lima makes mixed media montages from photos and magazine fashion shots, sometimes finished off with patterned mask-like drawings on top. Her best work is witty and surprising, likeAnatomy, which shows an arrangement of vegetables, including a twinned carrot that, looked at with the right frame of mind, resemble a pair of orange legs with a root growing between.
While you’re there, check out the back room at AS220’s Project Space (93 Mathewson Street), where Seamus Hames presents a series of small delicate black-and-white pen drawings. With fine lines shaded by hazes of tiny dots and hatching, he envisions folksy cartoony landscapes: a town nestled in a verdant valley or great cliffs rising above an ocean shore and a little boat steadfastly chugging out to sea.  
Read Greg Cook’s blog at gregcookland.com/journal.
  TopicsMuseum And Gallery EntertainmentVisual ArtsArts,  More more >