I never realized how boring hammers were until I created one of my own.
Yawn.
This kind of manual labor device is basically obsolete anyway.
Kids in 20 years will look at this object and have trouble naming it, I suppose.
But whatever. It won't be that big of a deal.
Advancement of civilization is good for us all.
Let's just hope we hit the nail on the head.
I had a hand last week in organizing a groupshow at the gallery where I make my artwork in Brooklyn
It was an open call, via Craigslist, for art submissions of all media.
When we decided to try this, we didn't know if it would work, but went ahead anyway.
I am pleased to admit that the response was overwhelming.
Who would have thunk that New York City would be so full of artists eager to intermingle and hang their work.
And, unlike the galleries across the East River in Manhattan, we didn't pretend to know billionaires.
When the evening was through, nearly 2 dozen works of art were sold, commission free, to people attending the event.
I put in a few of my smaller works from recent years.
A Mac-10 Submachine gun, in progress, made from chopped money.
An iBook inset with a mosaic depicting a heart.
And from my Cardgame Project, the Ace of Spades.
The gamble paid off. They came in droves.
And it will only get better. 
The methods were crude; I simply drilled holes and poked wires through them.
The imagery was simple: a nest and an egg. I created it upon returning from a trip to Japan.
The nest is American Pennies, the egg Japanese Yen.
I think it's a metaphor for our relationship with Japan...
...the specific details of which are open for individual interpretation.
Not long ago, our countries were sworn enemies, determined to destroy or conquer one another at any expense.
After we leveled Tokyo, they rebuilt it in the image of our own metropolis, but with one major difference:
they're much better at cooperating with each other than we will ever be.
The decades following the war saw Japan providing us with an accelerated advancement of electronic technology, sown from the seeds of our impressive atomic bombardment.
What I could never figure out was if America built the nest and Japan was the egg, who would the bird be?
China? Russia? Iran? Venus?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Itadakimasu!
Holding all the cards in one's life is obviously not possible.
Making artwork requires freedom, and that can only come from funding.
Rising to the top of any circle involves a certain amount of persistence, as well as talent and luck.
It seems these days so many artists have achieved glory simply by learning to bluff.
In the artworld, the dealers seem to hold all the cards, while the artists are offered as ante.
This Card project represents for me more than anything an idea about how to escape the traditional method of selling art, to set up a steady income over a set period of time, and to broaden my exposure to a larger group of people than the gallery world would allow me to reach.
In addition, I wanted to make buying and selling artwork fun, by turning collectors into competitors.
We all have been dealt a different hand in life, and the art card is not one we all draw.
Making art for me is no longer a choice, but rather an inescapable inevitability.
I enjoy the patterns I see unfolding, in art as in life.
And I figure it's only a matter of time before somehow the choices I've made suddenly make sense.
Look to see a massive surge in the promotion of this monumental project in the coming months.
Check this blog often to see progress updates.
And be sure to visit the weekly auctions on Ebay to see how I'm doing.
My eventual goal? Some years from now, if "Name a Famous Artist" is a survey question on Family Feud, I want to beat Picasso by 20 or more votes.
Survey Says!?!
