The Producers: Hilary Goldberg and Michelle Tea tintype

I had the pleasure of making tintypes of Hilary Goldberg and Michelle Tea at Photobooth last night - the co-producers for the movies-version of Michelle's book Valencia. Seeing its premiere at the Castro theater during the Frameline Film Festival last June was such a moving experience of community and celebration - of Michelle's hard work throughout the years, the combined efforts of all the different chapters' directors (including Hilary's mushroom chapter, which was excellent), and of their work as producers in putting the film together and distributing it.... For all the ups and downs of living in San Francisco all these years, it was one of those moments when I was proud to still be here....

Alan and James

75 Years: Selections from the CCSF Photography Dept. at SF Camerawork opens tonight

Honored to be in this show at SF Camerawork – City College of San Francisco was part of the joy and the chaos of being in my 20’s - somehow I became a photographer from showing up to class week after week, sweating from hauling my borrowed lighting/camera equipment on the bus and up the stairs and zoning out in the darkroom....

SF Camerawork (1011 Market Street, 2nd Floor)
Juried by Sandra S. Phillips, Norman Maslov, Richard Koci Hernandez
January 8- February 2, 2014
Kick off party: January 17, 6-8pm

from Alaska - more "Exercises for moving in between"....

This past fall I went back to Alaska for the first time in many years to start a new phase of my ongoing project "Exercises for moving in between". Exploring my relationship to change and place took me to my hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska. Above is a still from a video I made there - a place I returned to day after day, repeating different exercises to see where they would lead.

The state is often romanticized (by artists especially) as the ‘last frontier’, a symbol of natural beauty and extremes. While beautiful, to me the grandeur of this wilderness reminds me instead of mundane moments in adolescence - smoking in birch forests, biking through muddy roads to get to a friend’s house to do nothing, dreaming of ‘seeing the world’ as I scanned the wide open forested valleys through the cracked frozen windshield of a pickup truck. Revisiting these places as an adult, I set up the tightrope (from my previous "exercises" in the project) as a starting point for maneuvering through time, both through the physical act of exerting myself and through the corresponding color photographs and video. This image is one of the places I ended up....

Nate dog

Iceland in San Francisco

I had the pleasure of photographing Úlfur and Rebeka this weekend at Photobooth. To me his name sounded like ulver (Norwegian for wolves), but my senior-citizen-Norwegian (I learned Norwegian around the coffee table from people much older than me) could decipher little else when they were speaking Icelandic.... A beautiful couple both inside and out! Check out Úlfur's music here.

Last Call at Naps in Precita Park - Sunday night 9/1

In February Vero and I found out that Nap was selling his bar Naps 3 on Mission St., and instantly we both knew we wanted to document its last days before it went away....It was kind of a lovefest, Nap and everyone else there were so welcoming. After spending my mornings shooting photos at the Headlands and nights filming at Naps, I would go to sleep with such beautiful images in my head....

Last call at Naps
Sunday, Sept. 1st, 6:45-9:30pm (ours is last and only 10 minutes long...getting there by 8:30/9 is good...)
Precita Park, SF
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema - Under the stars
Come thru!

Owen (a.k.a. Mike Kinsella) tintype shoot at PhotoboothSF

Polyvinyl Records brought in Owen (a.k.a. Mike Kinsella) to Photobooth for a tintype session. They were all super nice and he was a fun photo shoot. Here's the vine video...

Headlands Summer Open House July 29th

http://www.headlands.org/event/summer-open-house/

I couldn't be happier to have a studio out at the Marin Headlands for the next year as part of the graduate fellowship for UC Berkeley. It has always ranked among my top favorite locations in the Bay Area and I feel lucky now to be part of the community there. Since I'm teaching a condensed summer-semester photo class at Berkeley, I haven't had much of a chance to be out there yet, but have tried to make it out one or two times a week, moving things in slowly and trying to include a hike in every trip out there....

If you're around this Sunday, July 29th, stop by for the Summer Open House from 12-5pm!

Carole Murphy and Mitzi Fitzsimmons are my heroes!

I barely have words to describe how much I enjoy the presence of Carole Murphy (Beth Lisick) and Mitzi Fitzsimmons (Tara Jepsen) of the comedy duo Groomed for Success.....would it be possible that we might all one day share Carole's confidence? Hopefully someday....

Streetopia at the Luggage Store!

I was sad that the big opening for Streetopia at the Luggage Store was the same night as the opening for the MFA exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum, but honored to be in both!

Erick Lyle, Chris Johanson and Kal Spelletich, the curators, worked tirelessly to build a dwelling within the gallery with lots of lovely art stuffed into its corners. Streetopia features 132 artists, performers, writers, filmmakers, activists, thinkers, and public policy makers in venues in the heart of the city, to address the show’s themes of Utopian aspiration for the city.

http://streetopiasf.com/about-the-show/

Luggage Store Gallery
May 18 through June 23, 2012
1007 Market Street, near 6th St., San Francisco, CA
Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat 12-5 pm and by appointment

Artist Talks at Berkeley Art Museum

The 42nd Annual University of California, Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition

I'll be speaking with my 6 other classmates at the Berkeley Art Museum about our work in the show.

Sunday, May 20th
3pm - Artist Talks
Berkeley Art Museum

Stop by if you are around!

Here's a short article mentioning the show.....

MFA Exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum Friday May 18th!

Grad school is ending and our final show will open at the Berkeley Art Museum next Friday, May 18th! After the graduation ceremony (where I'll be speaking with my classmate also named Kari), the show will open from 6-8pm, with a party afterwards in the Art Department's sculpture yard for anyone who wants to join...

The 42nd Annual University of California, Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition
May 18, 2012 - June 10, 2012
Berkeley Art Museum

Kari Marboe
Frank Emilio Marquez-Leonard
Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck
Kari Orvik
Amy Rathbone
Jennie Smith
Brett Walker

2626 Bancroft Way (between College and Telegraph)
Directions / Parking
Wednesday – Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Open L@TE Fridays until 9 p.m.; (please check Calendar for specific dates.)


Also, at 3pm on Sunday, May 20th, we will all be giving short artist talks at the museum.

Screening at the PFA today!

I am honored to be screening a short video on my corner store at the PFA today with other filmmakers at Cal! Part of receiving honorable mention for the UC Berkeley Eisner Prize. I also received first prize for the campus Eisner Prize for photo, and have long since spent the prize money on photo materials....On the off chance that anyone reads this and is able to attend...here is the info!
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/eisner_2012

The Eisner Prize is UC Berkeley’s highest award for creativity. This program presents work by this year’s winners in film and video, Rebecca Ramage and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck, along with a diverse sampling of videos from the competition.

Sunday, May 6, 2012 5:00 p.m. 

Works from the Eisner Prize Competition (2009–12). Student filmmakers in person. Student Pick! Recent works by UC Berkeley students, including the winners of the Eisner Prize, the campus’s highest award for creativity. Includes films by Rebecca Ramage, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck, Nathaniel Klein, Kari Orvik, Kyan Krumdieck, Aayushman Indra Pandey, Myles Moscato, Max Tarcher, and Nancy Ledesma. (70 mins)

EG6

I was helping Michael make plates at the EG6 conference in Monterey last month, and got the chance to hear the very familiar voice of NPR's Scott Simon, in person, as he was getting his tintype....
Apparently I use the internet to inform about events that have long since passed....trying to correct that, but here is a photo from 3 weeks ago....

Mark Bradford, Portraiture, Facebook?

After hearing Mark Bradford speak at Yerba Buena this Saturday (and loving it), I was part of a panel this weekend on Facebook and portraiture at Catharine Clark gallery.

Reporting after the fact about this discussion on internet identity - coincides perfectly with a gap in internet service providers as I am switching webhosts and moving my website over to wordpress.....somehow the old site won't reflect the new host and for the first time in 6 years I don't have a website....
Do I still exist without it? Hell yes!

Anyway, this was the panel at Catharine Clark:

Catharine Clark Gallery
Celebrating 21 years
Saturday, March 31, from 4:15 to 6pm
Organized by Catharine Clark and Ken Goldberg

Post your own self-portrait with up to 50 words about why you chose it:
What Would Rembrandt Post? Facebook Page

Panelists:

* Allan de Souza, Artist, Chair, New Genres, SFAI
* Sam Lessin, Facebook, Director of Timeline, Founder of Drop.io
* Patricia Maloney, Art Practical
* Kari Orvik, MFA Candidate, UC Berkeley Art Practice
* Tiffany Shlain, Filmmaker and Founder of the Webby Awards
* Virgil Taylor, Artist

MFA Now 2012 at Root Division opens this Saturday

Have been absorbed in my first few weeks of teaching this semester that I am finally stepping back to focus back on my own work....
If you are in the Mission on Saturday, feel free to stop by this group show at Root Division from 7-10!

MFA Now 2012 Juried Exhibition and Archive Project
OPENING RECEPTION & ARCHIVE RELEASE PARTY: Saturday, February 11, 7-10 pm
3175 17th Street (at South Van Ness)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Exhibition Dates: February 8 - 25, 2012
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 2-6 pm (or by appointment)

Concept / Organizers: Kari Marboe & Claire Colette
Exhibition Juror: Kevin B. Chen, Intersection for the Arts

Artists:
Fatema Abdoolcarim
Ben Bigelow
Susanna Corcoran
Lise Currie
Christine Elfman
Arash Fayez
Sarah Frazier
Robert Gomez
Erin Johnson
Michael Koehle
Kate Nartker
billy ocallaghan
Kari Orvik
Simon Pyle
Michelle Ramin
Neil Rivas
Kent Rodriguez Segura
Dawn Weleski
Margo Wolowiec



http://www.rootdivision.org/021112.html

Combat Paper

About a year ago I saw a video about Combat Paper and thought it was an amazing project, so I was excited this fall when they came to Berkeley.

-Combat Paper conducts papermaking workshops where veterans can use their uniforms worn in combat to create cathartic works of art. The uniforms are cut up, beaten into a pulp and formed into sheets of paper. Veterans use the transformative process of papermaking to reclaim their uniform as art and begin to embrace their experiences in the military.-

At Berkeley they opened up their workshop to anyone who wanted to participate - the vibe was meditative, communal and damn if paper-making isn't a lovely organic process compared to the chemicals used to make tintypes....Here are a few from my photo shoot with Drew.

Graduation

Last Friday I did a special portrait session for the graduates at MNRC, then we all headed out to breakfast. The plates were for them to keep - only one wanted to keep their photo, the others gave their tintype to someone important to them. A lovely morning....

Cousin Al

Alena and I met each other in Guelph, Ontario when we were both 3 years old. I believe I peed on her floor around that time, (actually I know I did...it was an accident already, and a long time ago, and we were having fun, and the bathroom was so far away!) and somehow after numerous moves to faraway places we have still kept in touch and got to be together this past weekend in San Francisco.....