We hope to see you there!

-Jessica

A story about an artist, told by a writer and a photographer, all boyhood friends of mine whom I am so happy to see are using their talents to bring beautiful things into the world. Through Kevin Bouldin’s vivid words and Daniel Collin’s communicative images, I was able to catch up with an old friend from boy scouts, Ethan Swiggart. His is a classic tale of lemons and lemonade. I feel so proud to know these guys. I hope you will head over to Nashville Public Radio‘s web site and check it out.

-Adam

Last weekend we got a nice group of art-loving friends together and headed down to Seoul’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which is located in the Seoul Grand Park complex. Another friend had been raving about the Peppermint Candy exhibit she had seen there, and we wanted to be sure to see it before it closes on February 15th.

This was our first visit to the Seoul MOCA, and we were thoroughly impressed. If you haven’t made a trip there yet, do yourself a favor and go. Preferably before February 7th, when Kang Ik-Joong’s year-long exhibition, Multiple/Dialogue ∞, will be coming down. It really should not be missed.

“Multiple/Dialogue ∞” is a stunning, prolific and multi-layered body of work filling the massive space of the MOCA’s spiral-shaped Rampcore Gallery from top to bottom. Comprised of over 60,000 of Kang’s ’3×3 inch’ works, the barrage of imagery and textures performs several, simultaneous functions, as the title, Multiple/Dialogue ∞, suggests. First, Multiple/Dialogue ∞ is a comprehensive retrospective of Kang’s prodigious output of work dating back to the early 1980′s. Second, it serves as an homage to Kang’s artistic mentor Nam June Paik, with the sensory-overload of Kang’s 60,000 images echoing the same effect created by Paik’s famous video pieces that flash and vibrate with a flood of endless visual content. Lastly, Multiple/Dialogue ∞ is meant to reinvent and give new life to Paik’s towering work, ‘The More the Better,’ that dominates the center of the Rampcore Gallery. Indeed, “The More the Better” seems to have been Kang’s motto, as evidenced in his mind-blowing volume of work.

I was completely in awe of this exhibition, it is nothing short of a multi-sensory delight.

Also very excellent was the Peppermint Candy exhibition. It was originally assembled to serve as the first, full-scale introduction of Korean contemporary art for the South American audience, and was shown in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Santiago, Chile before coming back home to the MOCA. Evidently, it was very well received there and it is easy to see why. The exhibition, which is broken into three sections, ‘Made in Korea,’ ‘New Ghost Town,’ and ‘Plastic Paradise.’ and traces various threads of development in Korean contemporary art since 1980, such as nationalism, the rise of capitalism, problems of consumption and commoditization of culture, and the challenges of Korea’s incredibly rapid urbanization. The show was really well curated in this regard, with these sub-sections of the exhibit helping to illuminate the overarching issues and motifs that have captured the attention of Korean artists during the last three decades.

In addition to these special exhibitions, there is an excellent permanent collection as well that highlights some of the best 2d, sculpture and photography produced in the last century. Of special note is the gorgeous collection of works on hanji (traditional Korean paper) that is not to be missed.

In short, go to the MOCA and see these excellent shows. We had an absolutely delightful afternoon there, and I can assure you that you will not be disappointed.

-Adam

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read our interview with Amy on Lullaby Link.

Thanks, Amy! It’s been a pleasure working with you.

-Jessica

An elegant, simple idea: Our friend Youngdoo from Seoul has recently begun posting weekly photo diptychs with her friend who goes by fiftyfootshadows. Their concept is simple. Weekly, they each choose a photo, place them side-by-side and let the interesting juxtapositions and serendipities arise. I love the collaborative idea, and I love the beautiful diptychs.

Check out their site, Our Window.

-Jessica

I know abstract, modern art isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it hasn’t always been mine. There’s still a lot of stuff I don’t get (like the “film” upstairs in the permanent collection of a clown screaming “NOOOO!!!” over and over… huh?), but I’m getting a lot more out of abstract modern art, the more I see. I thought I’d share some of my observations about the Twombly exhibit and why I thought it was so engaging.

First of all, I love people who won’t be pigeonholed. Just as it’s impossible to fully define ourselves by the work that we do (I’m a lawyer, I’m a teacher, I’m a fireman), I think it’s an injustice for a creative to have to say only, I’m a painter, I’m a sculptor, I’m a guitarist.

Cy Twobly’s exhibit includes sculpture; photography; and paintings on paper, board, canvas, with acrylic, tempera, oil, mixed media; with highly abstract pieces composed of blobs and drips, slightly more figurative floral pieces, and abstractions of text as form. He even scrawled poetry onto a couple of pieces, including an ancient haiku about a samurai. It’s diverse stuff.

As we were approaching the exit, a man near us shook his head, laughed and said about Twombly’s work, “He had fun doin’ it!” He clearly did.

Love from Chicago,

-Jessica

Jessica and I have been loyal listeners of Chicago Public Radio’s, “This American Life,” for years now and are continually amazed at the creative and engaging way the show communicates stories that matter. So, I was particularly intrigued to see the following video posted on another favorite creative pathway guidebook of mine, Scott Hansen’s ISO50 blog:

“The first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good — it’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase and a lot of people at that point quit.”

I think that this video should be a part of the mandatory curriculum at every arts school. Scratch that, every school. I know that this pain and fear caused by making inevitably inferior, initial work has been the single greatest struggle along my way as a maker of art.

“And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. We knew that it didn’t have the special thing that we wanted it to have and the thing to do is — everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if you’re going through it right now, if you’re just getting out of that phase or if you’re just starting off and you’re entering into that phase, you’ve got to know it’s totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.”

So, I say this to you (but also, and mainly to me): Keep your great taste. Just be kind to yourself and keep making, despite it.

-Adam

I love how Amber sees things. I think her eye is distinctly feminine. I’m not sure if she would take that as a compliment or not, but I really mean it to be. I think her photos are soft, perceptive, sympathetic and beautiful.

Accompanying her photos, Amber is writing about her process as well as interesting details surrounding he circumstances of the photos. So far there are only a hand-full of posts with several photos each, so you can really take it all in.

Amber’s most recent post begins:

when i started taking photos, i was mostly intrigued by capturing moments of strangers.  street photography i guess.  i think it served me for a while, maybe helped me find a connection to people while i felt myself a stranger (living alone in asia.)  now though, i find it rather separates me from people.  and i feel exploitative in some way.  so, instead i’ve been asking permission.  that opens up something new, but something more exciting is to have people i don’t know well pose for me…

If you have a chance, visit Amber Hill’s photo blog. It’s lovely.

-Jessica

*Photos by Amber Hill

First, the name Laughing Tree comes from Adam’s and my surname Lofbomm. Lofbomm is an originally German name that has been changed several times over the generations so much so that the original spelling and meaning are lost to us, but our best guess (and the meaning that we like the best) is that lof=laugh and bomm=baum=tree.

It’s a good name for us and what we’re trying to create, for several reasons. Laughter is a pretty obvious one: it suggests lightheartedness, joy, mirth, pleasure, openness and ease. A tree is something alive, organic, growing, reaching and beautiful with deep roots and many branches. A tree is home for many other living organisms. That’s what we want to be as Laughing Tree.

And what are we doing here with this site? Well, our big dream is community. Physical community, ongoing dialogue and collaboration with artists and creatives who appreciate and add to the beauty around us. This site is a first step, an online dialogue that we hope to bring into the physical realm as soon and often as possible.

We have a couple of products that we’ve created and want to get out to the world, namely our Laughing Tree Lullabies CD, fine art photographs (to be available online soon), as well as some ideas in the works like illustrated books, short films and more. But the products are just one branch of Laughing Tree.

We’re going to be using this blog more and more to initiate a dialogue about creativity, music, arts– beauty in general. We want to dialogue about what other creatives are doing, how to foster more creativity in our lives, how to raise children up in a creative environment, and what good we can do with our creative minds and projects. These are not things that we know a lot about yet, but they’re things we’re interested in, and we’ll want as much interaction from you as possible, so we can all learn and grow.

So, what do you think? Are you up for a dialogue?

Laughing Tree– art for your eyes and ears. What can we create together?

-Jessica

We visited our friend Beth Gilmore who curates Twist Art Gallery on the second level of the Arcade. It’s a great space with monthly shows and a boutique space in the second room.

Beth invited us to put some of our Laughing Three Lullabies CDs in the boutique, and they’re going to hang several of Adam’s photos from around Asia. We’re honored to be included in such a great space, located in such a prime spot of the Nashville art community.

If you’re in Nashville, make sure you check out Twist Art Gallery in the 5th Avenue Arcade… A great time to go will be on the first Saturday evening of October for the monthly art crawl.

Thanks, Beth!

-Jessica