New Sincerity is now Non Solo.

http://nonsoloshows.wordpress.com/

And we are coming to your town!

G is for GODZILLA!

I'm going to be doing a talk on my art at Binghamton University next Wednesday. This is a daunting/exciting event. Currently putting the finishing touches on the images, writing notes, talking to friends, etc. Talking definitely helps "talks" come together.

A lovely byproduct of this process was a cleanup/collection of all of the images of Godzilla I have on my computer. This guy (picture above) was definitely from a bar in Williamsburg, though at the moment, I cannot recall which one...I think Iona?

Been thinking about Dana Schutz a lot today, and her fearless use of invention in paintings. Did not know she also grew up in Michigan. Looked at her years ago (my first introduction to her work was the face-eaters) and I was not interested. I think I judged her on one image.

How naive. Her work is fantastic, honest, inventive, brave, and brilliant in color and composition. I like her idea that it is ok to destroy something she's invented because it's simply her invention and if she wants her invention to come back to life that's ok too.

It's nice to invent something to destroy:

Favourite Sons- Pistols & Girls from Insound on Vimeo.

Void

Void 16"x24" oil on canvas 2006. sold 2010. Thx M.

BANZAI!!! This Saturday November 6!

Show/Extravaganza I am involved with November 6:

Muffinhead and Eric Schmalenberger present: BANZAI!!!!!! A night of art + performance kaleidoscopic adventure. Sat November 6th 2010 @ Red Lotus Room, 893 Bergen Street, Brooklyn Footage from May BANZAI!!!!! 2010 Video shot and edited by Sarah Stuve

BANZAI!!!!! from WonderPuss Octopus on Vimeo.

Also Listed under "Perfect Weekend: November 5-7" In Time Out New York: http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/this-week-in-new-york/282663/your-perfect-weekend-november-5–7?page=0%2C1

October 17th Art Opening in D.C.

Curated by Eloise Corr Danch (www.eloisecorrdanch.com) and David Zuckerman, group show "I've Gone Looking For that Feeling Everywhere" opens Sunday October 17th at 6th and I Synagogue in Washington D.C.

Current Events! Group show THIS FRIDAY! OCTOBER 1!

Glide is a group show at Yes! Gallery in Greenpoint Brooklyn that I am going to be a part of this Friday. The opening is from 7-10pm. Pratt Alumni Susan Ross will be in this show as well. Susan, Monique Ford (another Pratt Alum) and I will also be hosting open studios on our floor in Greenpoint this weekend.

Address and times: 236 Greenpoint Avenue, 4th floor. Saturday Oct. 2 from 12-5pm and Sunday Oct. 3 from 12-5pm. My personal studio is #11.

My friend Eloise Corr Danch (http://eloisecorrdanch.com/) organized a group show at 6th and I Synagogue (http://www.sixthandi.org/EventDetails.aspx?evcatID=1&evSubCatID=2) in DC entitled: I've Been Looking for that Feeling Everywhere. The opening for this will be at 3pm October 17th. I am excited about this show because it is covering a wide array of media, and I have never been to DC. The woman spearheading this project of hosting art exhibits in the Synagogue is hoping this will be the first of many. I am hoping to talk to her about a collaborative project: New Sincerity.

New Sincerity is a project launched by Margaret Coleman. Our first show will be at Brooklyn Fireproof in November in conjunction with Beta Spaces (http://artsinbushwick.org/beta2010/) Here is the statement:

NEW SINCERITY: NY/MN

An exhibition of emerging New York and Minneapolis based artists

Margaret Coleman

Stephen Eakin

Heather Garland

Yasamin Keshtkar

Kevin Loecke

Lacey Prpic-Hedtke

Anna Marie Shogren

Bonnie Kaye Whitfield

In the last half century, irony has been a staple of the postmodern ethos. Examples are easy to find in the works of major artists

like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and arguably the most popular artist of recent times, Andy Warhol. A sense of sarcasm, façade, and

seeming (though often deceptive) lack of depth or connection to the hand-crafted is the way to create meaning for many of these artists

and their contemporaries. However, other artists work with a different kind of imagery, and have continued to make work that seeks a

sense of directness, and is after notions of truth. Often engaging honest and personal sensibilities, the post-ironic wants to imbue its

artwork with a new way of sincerity, and an idea of meaning that reflects concerns with how our rapidly changing cultural landscape is

affecting each of us individually.

The artists in this traveling exhibition come from different backgrounds and work in an array of mediums. While the work may

appear varied, a new sincerity, or post-ironic perspective is evident in each artist’s approach, and is the common thread in the curating of

this exhibition. Some of these artists choose to reject postmodernism and irony completely, striving toward work that is simply earnest

and sincere, while others work their way through irony to find themselves in a new type of sincerity. For example, the work of Kevin

Loecke and Stephen Eakin directly reflects their personal stories and outlooks, utilizing a high sensitivity to aesthetics and craft, with a

highly personal sensibility in their content. Heather Garland and Yasamin Keshtkar take a slightly different but nonetheless personal

approach, routing their childhood and upbringing through the lens of painting’s recent history in search of an intimate connection with the

viewer.

The artists in this show have decided to embark on an extended experiment; to remain in conversation with one another while

their work tours galleries around the U.S. over the next year. While the show will always feature the same eight artists, it can change, art

pieces can be replaced, openings can become performances or remain static according to venue and location, but the work will revolve

around the idea of sincerity in the art world. Artists from the show will act as liaisons for the entire group in many cases, and will

cooperate with traditional galleries as well as less traditional venues.

sketch Book 2004-07

Something fun I found while working on my "official" website.

A review including some work I had in a group show at Arch Bushwick:

http://hyperallergic.com/6936/bushwick-open-studios-fauvist-tattoo/

Cat Sitting

Summer 2009

A few images from Thesis Show, More to come...

Broadcast, oil on canvas, 46 1/2"x 48"

30, oil on canvas with poplar frame, 21 1/2"x 17 1/2"

O Hai-O/Shitstorm, oil on canvas with poplar frame 21 1/2"x 17 1/2"

all images copyright Heather Elizabeth Garland 2010.

Photo Credit Cary Whittier: www.carywhittier.com

Group Show at Arch Collective: Friday May 21st.

Hey all, I'm going to be in a group show at Arch Bushwick this Friday May 21st. Details:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119935704706553&ref=mf

Happy weekend--

H

Update: Hyperallergic wrote about my piece here: http://hyperallergic.com/6936/bushwick-open-studios-fauvist-tattoo/

oh thank heaven

For time alone in my studio. And graduate school. I love this studio, and this time, this place. This struggle. Thank God I was allowed this. I wonder sometimes how this all comes about. And then I remind myself that this comes about from hard work.

I come from a working class family. My father just retired from General Motors last year and my mother continues to work for the USPS, where I will be going in Brooklyn to mail off my postcards for my graduate thesis show this Monday.

I have lived in New York for 6 years. I have been able to do this because of my various jobs in the food and beverage service industry, something I am hesitantly grateful for. I was hungry enough to make it work, and stupid enough to not realize the obstacles it was presenting for me. I didn't realize the toll it took on my health and mentality. As long as it paid the bills with a bit left over for my art studio (how did I do that and still have time to use it?) and a bit of food and leisure I was stoked.

I am approaching the end of my graduate school career though, and noticing that I have NOT MISSED serving cocktails to fratty waste-oids on the weekends for change, and that frankly, I am really close to being too old for that noise.

I want to make art as exclusively as possible. I am going to continue to work at my bar job, because I am broke and because it's the best one I've had, and maybe someday I'll be promoted to bartender and only have to work 3 days a week (DREAM). I am also going to be an artist's assistant starting in september for pay, and interning *not for pay* at A.I.R. gallery which I am actually really stoked about because of the learning opportunities it will afford me.

I've had a lot of red wine tonight. I am looking forward (with positive anxiety) to my thesis show and the new experiences laid out for the rest of the year. Wish me well, I wish you the same. Steady along she goes...

p.s. this painting went missing last summer from Pratt Institute's storage at Canoneer Court, if any one knows anything about this, please let me know...I've kinda let it go by this point, but miss it a little when I see it.

Thank you Cyrilla

For bringing this poem to my attention. A few weeks ago our class came to my studio for a visit. One of my paintings made her think of Frank O'Hara's short book of poetry: Lunch Poems. I had this book, so I went home and read a few selections over my lunch break.

I did not, however, read this poem which Cyrilla read in our class a few weeks later in reference to my work. This was a special gift.

Song

Is it dirty

does it look dirty

that's what you think of in the city

does it just seem dirty

that's what you think of in the city

you don't refuse to breathe do you

someone comes along with a very bad character

he seems attractive, is he really. yes. very

he's attractive as his character is bad. is it. yes

that's what you think of in the city

run your finger along your no-moss mind

that's not a thought that's soot

and you take a lot of dirt off someone

is the character less bad. no. it improves constantly

you don't refuse to breathe do you

--Frank O' Hara 1959

Right on Dave Hickey...

"Beyond the hegemony of corporate and institutional consensus, however, beyond the purview of uncannily lifelike blockbusters like Jurassic Park and the Whitney Biennial, everything that grows in the domain of culture, that acquires constituencies and enters the realm of public esteem, does so through the accumulation of participatory investment by people who show up. No painting is ever sold nor essay written nor band booked nor exhibition scheduled that is not the consequence of previous social interaction, of gossip, body language, fashion dish, and telephone chatter--nothing transpires that does not float upon the ephemeral substrata of "word of mouth"--on the validation of schmooze."

--Dave Hickey

"Romancing the Looky-Loos" from AIR GUITAR

Jeffrey Lewis Says Everything Will Be Ok.

It is Time For Stormy Weather

Time Bomb

come with us/no thanks.

desire vs. safety

desire

documentary

fleeing the fire

water and air

hot mess

longing

marching from one uncertainty to another

superstar

the casualties of fucking and fighting

rockets red glare

vanishing bride

time marches along.

Icing

Girly, girly, girly, girl.

Pink Fang.

Slit.

Slut.

Cunt.

Get over it.

Lover Anyway.

My Favorite Things

Thesis show at Pratt Institute May 10-14. Opening Reception Monday May 10th from 5-9