Gibberings
Dad told me never to use XTREE when he wasn’t in the room.
October 13, 2008 ~ 01:28:38 AM * -07:00ST
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Log # 487
The Vacuum Traffic Controller
Finally final, the largest work so far, the Vacuum Traffic Controller showed well at the Anachrotechnofetishism show.
About a year ago, I called my father and told him I had started a gigantic painting. I described it briefly, sent him sketches, and called it the Vacuum Traffic Controller, an obvious play on “air traffic controller”, and meant to convey his status as the departure/arrival coordinator for a large space station. My father did not see space in the piece, and assumed instead I was referring to the vacuum-tube trains that ran briefly in the 1800s.
“A TUBE, A CAR, A REVOLVING FAN!”
1866— 1868
Atmospheric railways in EnglandThe idea of pneumatic tubes and railways can be traced back to the English inventor George Medhurst. He proposed using pneumatic tubes to carry letters and packages in a pamphlet published in 1810, and two years later he proposed details of larger railway tubes to carry passengers and freight. In the mid 1820s another English inventor, John Vallance, built a tube on his property at Brighton, 8 feet in diameter and 150 feet long, in which a passenger car ran at two miles per hour. Medhurst had realized as early as 1812 that passengers might not want to ride inside a tube. The darkness and the exposure to tube pressure would make a journey unpleasant. In a last pamphlet in 1827 he proposed what would become known as the atmospheric railway. In this system a small pneumatic tube was built along an ordinary railway track, and a piston inside the tube would pull an attached train running on the rails.1 The ultimately successful alternative of pulling trains behind steam locomotives was under development during the same years by many inventors, culminating in George Stephenson’s engine Rocket, which proved its worth at the Rainhill Trials in 1829, two years after Medhurst proposed the atmospheric railway.
Fearing to roll it, I lashed the piece to the roof of my car, just prior to the eight hundred northerly miles to Seattle. About twenty miles out, there were horrible noises above me. I pulled over and found a crumpled horror: the stretcher bars had splintered and collapsed, leaving the canvas rumpled, and a horrible pain in my innards. I stuffed the painting into my trunk, out of time and options, and grimaced the whole way to Seattle.
The decision was of course made before the abandonment of atmospheric working on the London and Croydon. The South Devon was the last and longest atmospheric railway built, intended to run 52 miles from Exeter to Plymouth, and completed and operated for about fifteen miles. The railway used much larger tubes than the London and Croydon, fifteen inches, requiring more powerful pumping engines, which however managed to convey trains at similar speeds over 60 miles per hour. The tubes were once again the principal problem. The salt air hardened the leather flaps, and the tallow applied to soften the leather only attracted rats to gnaw on it. Altogether the atmospheric system proved to be more than twice as expensive to operate as steam locomotives.3
The day of the show, I ripped up the stretchers and stained them with Asphaltum oil paint, using them as makeshift hangers. They went up wet on the eggshell gallery walls.
The Controller himself displays characteristics of friends, all science-minded jades, who can, and have, worn similar outfits, with similar expressions, in similar states of vague, sepia washes from wistful industrial mistscapes. The artist sees these faces skimming under the tortured surfaces of the piece, and wonders what she’s trying to tell herself.
But it’s a gigantic goddamned painting. And that’s really the most important thing.
The Vacuum-Traffic Controller is currently available for purchase at the Suite 100 Gallery.
Beach Pneumatic [Columbia]
by
Eliza Gauger on September 17th, 2008 ~ 04:16:17 PM
Slotted into Artwork, Paintings, Seattle, Steampunk |
1 Comment »
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Log # 472
Bitches Don’t Know Bout My Art Shows
Friends, Countrymen;
In a few days I will be retracing the path of thousands of ancient conastogas, puttering up Shasta and down Grant’s, charring and grimacing under the Oregon blaze, just to get to you.
It’s very rare that I show my art publicly. After last time, when an angry mob showed up early with torches and pitchforks and ate all the cubical cheese, I had really lost hope in the Seattle art scene. I tried showing down here in the Bay Area, where I now reside, but had to take down early due to hippies protesting a yeti that had climbed one of the campus trees.
It is for this reason that I would be terribly obliged if only you’d find some way to drop in at either one of the art shows I’m launching this weekend.
Anachrotechnofetishism - artifacts by pioneers of american steampunk
Long before the age of the internet, and well before the cold efficiency of the assembly line, existed fantastic and terrible machines, run on hope, sweat, and steam. It was a time in which form and function lived in sin, and everyman was a revolutionary.
These are 13 American artists united by broad geography and narrow aesthetic.
Marrying narrative and nostalgia to design and technology, they imagine the triumphs of the past overriding the failures of the present to create from the ruins and detritus a dazzling future-perfect.
Starring me and twelve other retropostapocalypticians, including Molly Porkshanks and Jake von Slatt, this show will feature insane amounts of designer teas and chocolates, a full set of my fine art prints, and a half-dozen original oil paintings that I have never shown in public, including Shine, Rustbutton Brass, the City, Afterglow, Twilight in the Roachfields (What I Did On My Summer Vacation), and most ridiculous of all, the Vacuum Traffic Controller: a 40 x 66″ collossus that I hope will dominate the room with his deep, slightly furrowed gaze.
2222 2nd Ave
Seattle, WA
September 12th thru October 3rd
Opening reception September, 12th, 6:00PM - 10:00PM
Featuring Datamancer, David S. Dowling, Eliza Gauger, Jake von Slatt, Libby Bulloff, Magpie Killjoy, missmonster, Molly “Porkshanks” Friedrich, Molly Mitchell, Quentin Ziplash, Rachel “Ratchet” Olson, Steven Archer, Suzanne Rachel Forbes
…and the Lonely Bastard
The second show is a solo venture, and will launch on Saturday the 13th. This is a much more low-key affair, and I’m hoping my friends can show up and say hello before I have to tear ass back down to the Yay. The flagship painting, an original oil on a 24 x 24″ circular board, is the Cardiographer: dark, slick, and glowing, a portrait of a ghost-muse spinning a pulse out from ectoplasm. Co-stars include brand new (as of yesterday) 12 x 12″ Flee, a silvered landscape with robot on the lam; the ever-popular Bat Smax, an extremely adorable collaboration with my partner in rape-and-pillage, Jhonen Vasquez; the complete set of original sketches for the Bee Commission (monsters, demons, and vespid whores); and a full host of fine art prints, including many that won’t be shown at the steampunk show because they simply are not steampunk. And of course, refreshments will be served. Which is really the only reason to show up to an art opening in the first place.
400 North 43rd Street
Seattle, WA 98103
4pm - 7pm
No need to RSVP, I’ll just be happy to see you. And did I forget to mention? Free stickers for everyone, pirated directly from the US Post Office!
PS: if any Seattle folk have some rusty chain lying around, I’d like to borrow it.
by
Eliza Gauger on September 7th, 2008 ~ 11:52:38 PM
Slotted into Artwork, Demons, Etsy, Not My Artwork, Paintings, Seattle, Sketches, Space, Steampunk, The Bee Commission, Unhallowed Metropolis |
4 Comments »
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Log # 335
New on Etsy: Hoard
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10008213
The Aristocrats of the Metropolis care for nothing more than years, making dynasties obsolete as they persevere into one decade after another, buoyed by “rejuvenation treatments” that leave them dusty and raw.
As the years tick on, their delicately-bred brains tend towards eccentricity, and clutter.
Illustration from Unhallowed Metropolis (www.newdarkage.net)
Printed on heavyweight, archival, matte paper. Signed by the artist.
8.5 x 11″ & 5 x 7″ available.
by
Eliza Gauger on March 4th, 2008 ~ 04:40:55 AM
Slotted into Artwork, Etsy, Photography, Steampunk, Unhallowed Metropolis |
No Comments »
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Log # 226
New on Etsy: Toxine
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7565107
“I attended a large comprehensive in Notting Hill. Staring at my book, flushed and intent, I’d discern, not a line of algebra or a spelling exercise, but a confusion of limbs lit by a shaft of light from the eaves. Dressed for her first ball, her blood-red gown was emblematic of her martyrdom. The lips too, and fingernails long as a mandarin’s, were incarnadined, so her body seemed one sensuous wound. But her eyes were not those of a victim. They were murderous. Green, and made of a luminous enamel, they glowed catlike in the gloom. She smelled of cat, her perfume the musty, electric scent of damp streets and brief couplings. A choker, half-obscured by inky locks, proclaimed her name. It would appear in my school books, on my desktop, on playground walls; and I would taste it upon my tongue as I ran home each evening to the sanctuary of the attic, to the hours between supper and bed. Toxine, Toxine, Toxine.”
“Toxine” by Richard Calder: http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/toxine/
Printed on deliciously thick and fluffy archival matte paper with jewel-toned inks, hermetically sealed in cardboard, signed, numbered, shipped with a hand-crafted artist trading card.
8.5 x 11″
by
Eliza Gauger on October 24th, 2007 ~ 04:09:18 AM
Slotted into Artwork, Etsy, Steampunk |
No Comments »
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Log # 224
New on Etsy: Mourner Models a Monocle
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7551287
The Mourners are an elite sect of guardians-for-hire. Installed next to the recently-deceased by bereaved families, these stylish women watch for signs of reanimation in the corpse. The usual vigil lasts three days, during which the Mourners are not seen to eat, drink, sleep, or stir. At the first groan, burble or blink, the bedside valkyrie looses her kukri and beheads the beast.
Digital illustration from steampunk horror RPG, Unhallowed Metropolis. www.newdarkage.net
Printed on heavyweight, archival, matte paper. Signed and numbered by the artist.
8.5 x 11″
Model is Nicci Vega.
by
Eliza Gauger on October 22nd, 2007 ~ 11:28:43 PM
Slotted into Artwork, Etsy, Steampunk, Unhallowed Metropolis |
No Comments »
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Log # 222
New on Etsy: Unhallowed Metropolis’ Whores
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7537608
The Metropolis has much to offer those gentlemen (and ladies, and not-so-gentle men) who can brave the back-alleys and boudoirs. Every conceivable pleasure and perversion is on the table (or under it). You need only reach out, and pay.
Models: Malaria, San, Wendy
Photographer: Robert Brown (original photograph)
This scintillating photograph of Unhallowed’s three grimy graces is lovingly sneezed onto pure white archival paper, then signed and numbered and delivered to you by a soft breeze.
All shipments include a unique, handcrafted 2.5 x 3.5″ art trading card.
8.5 x 11″
by
Eliza Gauger on October 22nd, 2007 ~ 01:25:58 AM
Slotted into Artwork, Etsy, Steampunk, Unhallowed Metropolis |
No Comments »
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Log # 220
New on Etsy: Unhallowed Metropolis’ Psychic
(detail of full-length portrait)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7525082
A Victorian vogue for occultism has deepened into a reliable background hum in the Metropolis, and practitioners of the ghostly arts are commonplace.
Printed on powder-smooth matte white archival sheets, then signed, numbered, and mailed in a protective prepuce.
A hand-drawn ACEO is included with every purchase! See previous art cards sent in Etsy orders here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eliza/sets/72157602578102357/
8.5 x 11″
by
Eliza Gauger on October 21st, 2007 ~ 06:05:27 AM
Slotted into Artwork, Etsy, Steampunk, Unhallowed Metropolis |
No Comments »
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Log # 219
New on Etsy: Unhallowed Metropolis’ Dhampir
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7508772
Talk about beauty and the beast. He’s both.
Half vampire, half human, all right? The Dhampir is ideally suited to tracking his full-blooded half-brothers through the Metropolis. Once he finds his client, it is for the rapier to decide.
Printed by magical laser goblins onto archival matte heavywhite paper, then blushingly signed, numbered, and mailed in a protective coating of acidic mucus.
8.5 x 11″
