This is kind of like a timeline of influential art works that I've seen. Invocation of my demon brother by Kenneth Anger 1969 [embed width="1000" height="563"]https://youtu.be/SN9rwO0xpmY[/embed] An earlier viewing experience that has stuck with me. It was during an intro to film class in college. Unforgiving in a lot of ways that Scorpio Rising is not. Legend by Candice Breitz 2005 [embed width="1000" height="563"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3HlTouaEU[/embed] I saw the madonna incarnation of this concept at the MFA in Boston and at the time I was mostly doing video work that was trying to address pop music and it’s connection with the viewer/culture at large. So this was obviously very attractive at the time. There’s also just something beautiful about glowing old boxy video monitors. How not to be seen by Hito Teyerl 2013 [embed width="1000" height="563"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbOmXEnluzg[/embed] Saw this during a recent trip to the MOMA in NY. I seem to not have a lot of luck when I go out lately in terms of seeing work that I love. Partly due to not being able to make it out that often. By far my favorite thing I’ve seen in awhile though, probably since seeing the Roe Ethridge show at Andrew Kreps gallery.   And that last picture is from Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. If you can look past its blatant disregard for the Michael Myers storyline and just the whole Halloween universe, you will find a film filled with visual beauty.

These are a few things that I think about a lot. 

1. A YouTube video of an electrocuted squirrel. It’s narrated by an older man and a young boy, who just describe what's happening - repeatedly. Someone (possibly the original uploader, but seems unlikely) decided on 'Dead Things' by Philip Glass as the backing track of the video. This sonic accompaniment immediately elevates the clip beyond being a cell phone video of a dying rodent, and somehow brings it into an eerily reflective, self-aware meditation on death, spectacle, and the whole youtube user experience.

2. I appreciate Twin Peaks on so many different levels, but especially admire how effectively Lynch and Frost created a mini-world, using a relatively small group of repeated motifs and cinematic tools. This particular scene is one of my favorites: two brothers glorifying a childhood memory, with a beautiful dramatic reenactment style flashback akin to unsolved mysteries.

3. Five  years ago. a deer ran through Laguna Beach, and swam out into the ocean to die.

All of these pieces are everything all at once: absurdity, humor, and sadness. I'd like to think that all elements are an intrinsic part of my own work.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/deer-262734-through-beach.html