Back at SFO headed to JFK...Traveling and Watching.

So here I sit, back at SFO. 9 months ago I was literally sitting in the same part fo the same terminal getting ready to embark on my amazing trip to Japan.The photo above is from "Bright on Time" with my buddy Kyok Chan.  It is now 8:24 PST and I will be flying into JFK at 7:50 EST should everything go according to plan.  I just ate some sushi, forwent the fries and burger, no soda but instead green tea, and here I sit not wasting my time staring off into space nor blankly looking at instagram.  And to think all of this was in no way possible less than three years ago. Why?

Three years ago I couldn't even get to the airport without being loaded on any number of alcoholic beverages and an array drugs.  I couldn't sit in the airport, nor on the plane without ingesting a continuos flow of booze to numb the inherent fear that I lived in and keep the detox in all of its demonic glory far far away.  I never honestly knew that there was a different "way to fly" back then, and more importantly didn't understand that this was not a way to live but rather a way to die.

This is from Twist's Mid Career Survey at BAM.

So now here I sit, typing to you the reader, thinking about my first steps when I arrive in the city that raised me.  Mike's Coffee Shop or John's Donut?  How will I react to the cold?  Where will I stay tomorrow night, Pete's house or Mikey's?  The issues needing solutions that arise today are in no way even close to ones I once faced, and amazingly enough every single decision I make now brings me further along in a life that I could have never imagined.  The life I live today is truly beyond my wildest dreams and I sometimes have to stop and breath it in to make sure I am not dreaming.

That's my dog Sammie Doodle in North Carolina at the homestead

Tonight D Young V, Hugh Leeman, and Eddie Colla have a spectacular group show at 111 Minna.  A triumph in its own right because 111 Minna does not play when it comes to their art shows.  They are fortunate to be there and 111 Minna is fortunate to have them.  Chris Burch just had his show in St. Louis open a couple weeks ago and big ups to him and all of the Screwed Arts Crew.  Also Mike Giant is having a spectacular opening tonight at Fecal Face Gallery, and I wish I could be there to meet him and hang with John and Rachel and everyone there.  Lots of amazing things happening, but I am so blessed and so grateful to go home and show Brooklyn that I am ready and willing to give back something great to its history of art and culture.  BRIC here I come, Eric Araujo and I are going to make a truly memorable installation piece.  This year is really off with a bang and I hope to see everyone I know doing like a Raekwon and "Striving for Perfection".

Over and Out!  -John Felix Arnold III 02/07/2014

It's insane that this picture is from REAL LIFE!!!! This is the in the 2KM long Okuno-in graveyard on Koyasan Mountain in Japan.  These are statues that pray for the sould of dead children.  This place is magic.  Life is amazing.

Work For SF MOMA June 8th...

 

I stand before you today to tell all of you how excited it makes me to say this.  If you have been following my sparse internet presence as of late, you have heard hints here and there of the news that I am going to be featured in the SFMOMA in downtown San Francisco.  The SFMOMA Artist Gallery (their more contemporary and larger artist representation wing located at Ft. Mason) is in charge of curating the windows that face Minna St. and Natoma St. on the sides of the Museum itself in Downtown San Francisco.  After making a personal goal years ago to myself of getting my work featured in these windows someday, it is happening.  I have them for a year, and the first installment in a four part saga that runs from June 2013-June 2014 begins this June 8th.   Beyond my wildest dreams this has become a reality.

This above shot is from my Birthday Performance Art Show at LeQuivive Gallery in Oakland January 16, 2013.

I will be running my programming in the three window bay units on Minna St. and using the Natoma side here and there as a background for performance work and possibly for intimate special engagements and explorations in new installation environments from the world of Unstoppable Tomorrow.  The three pieces for the first installment of the Minna St. windows are complete.  I may add some smaller relics and mixed media pieces to the windows as the date moves closer, but for now, these are the pieces.   Two are brand new, and both as of yet un-named fully, and the third is in fact from July 2011.  It is called Event Elation and has only been shown once here in the Bay Area (it was out of my grasp for a year due to unforeseen issues with a curator but is now happily back in my hands).  So without further adieux here are images of these 8'x4' Mixed Media on Wood Panel Pieces!!!!

"Found in Darkness" @ Book & Job Gallery : Friday Nov. 9 : 2012

Christopher Burch and I descended on the new Book & Job Gallery on Wednesday, November 7th to begin our install of our Fall 2012 two man show "Found in Darkness".  Exploring our own personal mythologies that comprise the focus of our work we embarked on this show in August of this year. Examining respective narrative architectures and linear framework, we began creating installations that reflect real environments within our imaginary worlds, both dealing with different reflections of contemporary issues of social problems, race, the environment, and a proposed future of humanity in our own tales.

We were able to create a conversation through our mixed media forays that not only blended and melded together well in the space but also pushed one another's practice to a new level of intricacy.  Chris dealing with his modern day reinterpretation of the Br'er Rabbit Folk Mythos and myself dealing with all the legends and myths of the world of "Unstoppable Tomorrow" that I have created, we embraced the Book & Job Gallery with energy, drive, thought, and a sense of community and challenge.  Our drawings and paintings spoke well with one another as our installation works tied the environment together into a dialogue of two strong minded individuals exploring their own tangible realities in this world together through imagination and practice.

Guy Culver also helped organize a wonderful show of musical talent.  Chris Danko of Religious Girls performed an awesome piano solo.  Then Guy Culver and his drummer Ringo performed their punk influenced, electronic, synth heavy, hard hitting electro fuck fest of beats, noise, and beautiful screamo moments of chaos as Laughters.

Carson Lancaster, the man behind Book & Job Gallery, did a great job of orchestrating the evening and the install and was a pleasure to work with as well!!! I recommend working with him to any other artist that may be interested in contacting Book & Job.  All in all it has been a great experience.  Thanks again to Chris for inviting me to be a part of Book & Job and creating yet another killer show with me. -Felix

Friday, November 9 : "Found in Darkness" @ Book & Job Gallery : Christopher Burch & John Felix Anrold III

So here it is.  My last show of the year.  And what a year it has been.  In brief, Christopher Burch and myself will be exploring our own narrative mythologies that run through out our respective bodies of work, coming together at the Book & Job Gallery in San Francisco to allow them to create a conversation within the space.  Paintings, drawings, sculpture, mixed media, and collaborative installation work will bring the viewer on a journey through the space that illustrates how past and present allow us to construct our own mythological tales that will continue to evolve well into the future.  I am very excited to work with Chris again, especially after he just did a major project in St Louis and is in zone, exploring his vision.  Myself coming back from a bit of downtime after "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and then Japan, am really looking forward to finishing off the year on a strong, a bit smaller, and more refined tip. This is great way for me to put a solid and concise close on 2012, which has been a monumental year, and give a little bit of forecast for things to come!  The show opens Friday, November 9th from 7-11pm at the Book & Job Gallery which is located at 831 Geary St. in San Francisco.  See you there. - John Felix Arnold III

Stand Tall III @ Old Crow : Saturday : 09/22/2012 : Oakland, CA

Another truly epic show is about to commence at the legendary Old Crow Tattoo & Gallery in Oakland, CA.  The Lineup is insane.  This is the third installment of the now renowned Stand Tall series from Old Crow curator Terry Addison.  Myself, Poesia, Renos, D Young V, Christopher Burch, Bunnie Reis, Chor Boogie, Apex, and many many more.  Stand Tall has become an important showcase of established and emerging talent in the Bay Area, and this time Japanther will also be coming back to do a Shadow Puppet Performance!!!  Be There, it is going to get crazy.  Here is the flyer and a detail of the piece I have in the show. -JFA III

Onwards to the East Coast : Fresh New Wheels on the Tar Mac

Sometimes I haveta use this blog to just speak my damn mind, cause its like a bubblin pot of gumbo ready get eating and savored and shit, and analyzed and rethought.  This has been a pretty amazing ride in a short amount of time entering 2012.  I haveta say life has thrown more at me, good and bad, than almost any other time in my life, but the amazing part seems to be this new found ability to cope, handle, stay on task, and move forward positively instead of falling back into old habits.

Sometimes I agree with the phrase youth is wasted on the young, but right now I don't because I am not that old and because I am glad I did all (almost all lol still have those selective "what ifs" for sure that I know I will hold onto for a long time) the things I have done and walked through all of the fire as well as ice cream cake I have in my life.  This show coming up in New York (Eat Peter to Feed Paul @ Littlefield)  and the show I just had in SF (The Love of All Above @ Queens Nails) are really a grounds for me to give appreciation to both places for really nurturing me through some of the best and hardest times I have ever known.  SF was a good foundation for me to lose it, in everyway (shit got dark yo lol) then rebuild, and New York was a beautiful pot luck of inspiration, temptation, and trial and error that I get to thankfully go give back to now with a good head, and right fit mind on my shoulders.  In other words I am ready to fucking rock this show in New York, not in a overblown big headed way, in a thoughtful, right step, calm and collected, do it well and go hard sort of way.  I asked God (my god at least) to please help me get back there someday when I first moved to the Bay, and now after years of becoming a much more "fit to live" person, it is all happening.

I know a lot of people who are very close to me right now that are going through some tough times, very tough times, myself included to a certain degree, and I want to make this trip and this show an experience that demonstrates how appreciative I am for my life and those around me that make it amazing.  We are all in this together, and we have to do all of this together, there is no other way to truly make things amazing. Self will only gets one so far. Building with others and living in love, or at least appreciating the little things and the big ones and always trying to make others know they are appreciated is what makes movements and creates change on a massive scale.  I am coming home New York, get ready because it is a whole different approach to getting on that tar mac this time.  Much Love to Everyone, they know who they are! NGO!  John Felix Arnold III

"Christopher Burch 'Somethings ..are (In) the Way of Things'" @ The Luggage Store Annex/ Tenderloin National Forest : SF : CA

Opening Reception Friday February 24th 7-10 pm and Saturday February 25th 4-6PM  The Luggage Store Annex/ Tenderloin National Forest : 509 Ellis St. SF : CA

Tonight is going to be pretty epic as I gather my spirits and do one last thing before leaving the Bay Area for two weeks.  A show that I have been waiting to see for years is happening here in San Francisco tonight.  Christopher Burch, long time friend, peer, and straight up amazing artist and personality, whom is coming to NYC to show with myself in a week, has a groundbreaking opening tonight here in San Francisco.  The culmination of two months in the Tenderloin National Forest Artist in Residence Program will be presented at the Luggage Store Annex with dance performances, and other festivities tonight and tomorrow night.  I am very fortunate to be heading back to the east coast later tonight and not have to miss this amazing happening.  Burch's art is a testament to the intellect, skill, creativity, craft, compassion, and inspiring nature of a historically explosive line of artists here in the Bay Area and I recommend to anyone that has not been following his work to begin doing so now.

Tenderloin National Forest Luggage Store Annex

Christopher Burch “Somethings ..are (In) the Way of Things”

Christopher Burch’s visual works  combine drawing, painting, flocked damask wallpaper, hand painted silver serving trays, and sculpture to create a haughntinlgy surreal full scale site specific installations. The results are conflating landscapes in which historical, socio-economic and political forces that have shaped and continue to shape American racial geographies, teeter on the edge of madness.Something in the Way of Things, written by Amiri Baraka in 2008, is a disturbingly subtle and dark social commentary probing an existential crisis within the African American experience due to the inability to fully synthesize historical and contemporary racial tensions and realties .  Memory and testimony (ultimately language itself) become metaphors for seeing or the inability to see. Baraka exposes, that the borders between visibility (to see, to articulate ones experiences) and invisibility (to not see, to not be able to articulate ones experiences) are at times schizophrenic. Burch’s project  for the TNF A.I.R residency is entitled “Somethings ..are (In) the Way of Things”. During the months of January 2012 and February 2012 Burch will build a full scale, on site,  installatioon/environment re-interpreting Amiris Baraka’s poem “Something in the Way of Things.” Accompanying the installation of work within the Luggage Store Annex,  the residency will also incorporate  literary performances and dance pieces held in the Tenderloin National Forest itself. These performances and recitals will address various personal interpretations of the poem “Something In the Way of Things.” (Hours: Daily 12-5, closed Mondays)

Thursday, March 1st : John Felix Arnold III, Christopher Burch, Ninjasonik, and Ken South Rock Present "Eat Peter to Feed Paul" @ Littlefield : Brooklyn : NY

So I am officially flying to New York on February 23rd to get ready for my latest artistic endeavor, "Eat Peter to Feed Paul".  One of the sickest artists I know and have the privilege of working with and also being good friends with, namely Christopher Burch (who is currently doing a residency with the Luggage Store), is joining forces with me to storm my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn, NY.  We are coming to the amazing venue known as Littlefield in the Gowanus neighborhood ot the Kings County Burrough, and we will be joined by amazing musical talent from long times friends and musical collaborators Ninjasonik and Ken South Rock (whom I am going on tour with in Japan in the summer)  This is my first posting about this on my blog, so know that you will be seeing a lot more material and progress once I am on my way.  Keep in touch;)  Below is a link to the Official Press Release and a Brief Description of the show and concept behind it.  I'm ready for Pizza, Pastrami, and Yakitori Taisho! It's on.

Eat Peter to Feed Paul PRESS RELEASE

PRESS EVENT INFO

“Eat Peter to Feed Paul” @ Littlefield : Brooklyn : NY

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

New Works by John Felix Arnold III & Christopher Burch : Live Performances by Ninjasonik & Ken South Rock

Art Opening Reception 6-9 with Food and DJs Reverend McFly and Chaz-O : Free

Performances from Ninjasonik and Ken South Rock : 9-12 : $10 Pre-sale/$12 at the Door : 21+

Art Show runs from March1st-31st

Littlefield is located @ 622 Degraw St. btw 3rd & 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY : 11217 : ph (718) 855-3388

For more info and for tickets please visit http://littlefieldnyc.com

Thursday, March 1st, 2012 Littlefield is proud to present “Eat Peter to Feed Paul”, a two man show by Bay Area based artists John Felix Arnold III & Christopher Burch that will feature musical performances and collaborations from New York based bands Ninjasonik and Ken South Rock.  It is the two visual artist’s first show in New York together and promises not to be forgotten.  For Arnold this is a bit of a homecoming, marking his second time showing in New York since he moved to the Bay from Brooklyn in 2006, and for Burch, being from St. Louis originally, this a new opportunity to branch out closer to his roots.  The two will be exhibiting new drawings and mixed media works in their respective styles.  The works deal with the changing role of human beings within a high paced technology saturated society where we are rapidly losing our grasp of anything reflecting a spiritual way of being and many are quickly becoming “self sacrificing parasites” within their own circles of living without even realizing it.  They will also be composing an installation within the art space to guide the viewers through the show reflecting the push and pull and intensity of the present world we live in, using found objects to cut the space up into different frequencies of comfort and un-comfortability while viewing the 2-D work. After the show reception musical cohorts and collaborators Ken South Rock and Ninjasonik will be performing live in Littlefield’s amazing theatre/ music hall space with a live painting collaboration from the two Bay Area artists as a full on art and music explosion.  These two amazing forces of musical energy will bring the audience to climactic celebration of being alive through their powerful styles and relentless sound.  The subject matter of their audio tour de force is extremely relevant to our present day existence and inspires a lust for life that that really brings a conscious ear to an energy that society needs to be impregnated by.

http://littlefieldnyc.com

http://felixthethirdrock.com

http://giantkillerz.tumblr.com

http://ninjasonikmusic.com

http://kensouthrock.com

http://www.facebook.com/events/153773094740166/