the smell of transport

i just transported the last of my paintings that were in storage at my mother-in-law's home. i used to have stacks in multiple homes before getting enough storage on my own. at any rate, i dig the smell of those old paintings with their still drying oils and such .. a true highlight, along with seeing a stack of stuff i had forgotten was created .. cheers out there ..

one of my favorite things ..

picked this up at an estate sale years ago .. i still wonder if it's a real, serious thing or a cooked joke .. i'm opting for reality on this little art gem ..

i dug jacko ...

one more piece of father's day art from the kids ..

puzzling city

Cover Art for Poem Books

I still hold a high regard for my love of writing. Over the years, I have created my own cover for a host of anthologies. If you want to parooze some of my poems, simply click here - cheers ..

painting a palace time lapser

my son's sketch of me for father's day ....

the temple

death of analog performance art

large tree protecting a creek

desert paints in the living room

alive on suicidal cheeseburger

mr. jimbo attikus was gracious enough to welcome me into his community with my own presence and page .. nice work, jimbo, great to have another worthy web home .. click here to view ..

mailbox shit

it used to be that i got lots of shit in my mailbox. now, we constantly have shit all over our mailbox. this pic is just a taste of what the birds do to my mail home .. we may have to crack open a can of white spray paint and end the bathroom stall party ..

assorted folly through the years

father son talk as color blobs

new red sky window pane

random home time lapse look

belton garage art sale day - 5.16.09

art gettin' around with mr. west ..

performance art: crossing the painted creek

farm window painting for miles

etching thoughts

every picture i have taken, thus far, in 2009

my look at europe circa the 2000's in 3 minutes

May 1 Action: Crossroads and Tension

This Friday May 1, I will be in the Crossroads for my group showing at the Haden Lofts. Also, I will be displaying reprints of my Tension envelope photo.paint pieces for the owner of Tension, Bert Berkley, who will be in Grandview Alternative School. Hop on down into the city that night and have a hot dog or 2 .. Cheers ..

Haden Lofts - Crossroads Art District - May '09

.. more hubcap paintin' fun with the kid ..

Tension Envelopes Package: On Site

Mr. David Oliver sent over the 'Tension' photo.paint package hanging in full cheer at Berkowitz Oliver William Shaw and Eisenbrandt LLP. We are going to show this to the owner of Tension here in a week or so at some festivities going down at the Alternative school I work at ..

italian oils in my brother's dojo

Alzheimer's Art Auction Donation

New Pod on My Hub Cap Art for Landfillart.org

hearing the q-tip sound colors

today i'm the artist of the day

http://artistoftheday.blogspot.com/

everything i have produced until now in 10 minutes

the coolest thing ..

About 6 years ago I painted up a set of murals with an ex-girlfriend on a coffee table. I held onto the thing for years and it got a lot of compliments. Well, I got to the point that I wanted to have a clean break from the table and any minglings of the past. So, my lovely wife responded to an ad for a school in the KCMO school district that was looking for furniture for a Read 180 room. It was donated and the kids love it. They sent my wife a huge stack of letters addressed to 'Dr. Dimino'. I always wanted to acquire the monicker 'Dr. Dimino' and both my wife and I got it in the coolest possible way. Click here to take a look at the stack of letters. This has to be one of the coolest gifts my wife could have ever given me .. and the fact that a room full of kids dig it is quite cool .. cheers ..

obamaweeklymarch2709

frozen peach tree morph moment

"the boards"

angry red chair

over the last week, miles (4), has been wanting to switch up the artwork on his walls. the other day, he picked one of my favorites in a cool frame i got at a garage sale last summer. it's affectionately called 'the angry red chair'. this was one of our favorite chairs a roommate and i had in my first apartment in midtown. it was a macho chair and i have no idea where it ended up. but, it has been permanently memorialized in paints and graces the miles wall .. enjoy.

solid zenboy artwork he brought home recently

an old friend immortalized

The other day i went to my hometown for a little journey into my father's old belongings. On the way, I stopped by the quad by City Hall to snap a photo of my best friend that passed when I was only 16 years old. Several years before his death, he was etched onto the side of a wall that will stand for decades to come. Clad in his glove and heat, old Matt Sweeney was the kind of kid that deserved this sort of artistic memorial .. enjoy -

bleed art

i gashed my fingers so many times i thought i would use my colorful liquid in a more appropriate manner ..

the mark summers FAA office of art display

window pane set back

bought a roll of canvass the other day and started daydreaming of ideas to do one more series of window frames .. along the way, i accidentally banged my hand againts the razor i use to cut the canvass .. an odd, freak little smash and now i'm down a peg .. as i mend the deep gash, there are ideas abound and the images will be splashed up on this electronic tote board .. good luck out there, kids ..

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obama goose modern day commentary waltz

city flower morphs

snow on our own mars

real art

so, my late father-in-law got a signed print of obama in the mail the other day and i got it as a gift .. he passsed on 1.31.08 and his last vote cast was for obama in the primaries .. he spent his life fighting for equal rights and he would have been proud to see the results of 11.4.08 - enjoy.

politicalvideodoodling

hunger ragin'

small motions ..

real deal kid art

burning art orbs

swirlin' time lapser

framed watercolors

i've been putting a lot of watercolors behind glass lately .. here's a link to view them all - http://www.joedimino.com/framedwatercolors.htm - cheers ..

we transform .. we morph ..

bird brains

train geese ..

one simple donkey

tiny changes ..

quick american fun

frozen january moments

morph montage

old apology note to me - very artful, eh ..

wandering eye moments .. on tape

art is found everywhere

i picked up this list on the ground while making my jaunt to the local wal-mart .. i wonder if they really need jeans but cannot budget it this month .. or are they merely up in the air about jeans vs. pants? at any rate, this reminded me of a site that profiles notes and musings found on the ground - http://www.foundmagazine.com/ - it's quite delightful .. cheers ..

A Zen Watercolor

My 10-year old Zen threw together a dandy watercolor in school the other day. It didn't get the grade it deserved, but it holds true to my notion that kids should not get firm grades on art. Come on, how can really objectify something as subjective as artwork .. cheers ..

blips and bleeps thus far in '09

hemmingway kicking a can

random holiday fun moments - '08 - '09

st. hotel

rural holiday yard art

random botanical art in our bathroom

the daybirds

doin' some cleanin' on the pc and ran into this old pic of me on a daybirds album cover as the 'photographer' .. the daybirds were the best little pop band to come out of these parts in my collective memory .. smashing kids, they were .. enjoy yer '09, kids ..

Painting from the Time Vault

I recently stumbled upon a painting of my first car, which was a Mercedes Benz 280E. A highly stylized piece from the early days of figuring out how the brush dances over the whiltes .. cheers ..

old man strolling through midtown

painting a lost bird and buddha

jason falkner is a bad arse

vangoghinchicago - needleartvideo

came across an old photo a van gogh viewing in chicago and a video about a needle artist - this man is quite insane - click here to view ..

gallery of trees art auction in parkville, mo on 12.5.08

coolest cat in the entertainment biz

the best art morning recently - 11.5.08

more cowboy/indian plastic art war!

cowboys and indians interact with a hard drive

while moving abouts .. found 1st ever art show in kc star

night painting

porch sunsets all postcard worthy

we love the sunsets on the back missouri porch .. lately, the fall and new time change has infused a nice painting each and every night worthy of a picture ..

Zen Podcast Interview

One of my favorite things is to fiddle with pods with Zen Boy .. we did one last night as a recap of what's been going on lately .. I sold one piece at the recent Muddy's show and have a piece that will be in the upcoming Gallery of Tree's auction in Parkville on December 4th .. click here to listen to the Zen interview and good luck out there ..

Old Interview That Was Never Published for Vintage Computing

I have one of your pieces hanging in my office right now. What sort of parts do you use in these works, and what are your favorite sources?I’m not picky or beholden to certain parts of computers. Mainly, most of my pieces come from outdated or trashed computer components that either companies are getting rid of or that I’m personally getting rid of. My favorite sources are old Apple’s and generally older equipment. I like cracking those heavy pieces open and finding fairly rudimentary elements that were all a part of my Junior High years and my initial understanding of computers.

I notice quite a few components from older computers in many of your works. What draws you to these vintage devices as sources for your art?
These are a bulk of the computer components that folks are getting rid of. The laws of entropy in computer technology befit me very well. In addition, I guess I have acquired an affinity for these old pieces. The sentimentality of my childhood flood through these antiquated pieces that will be displayed for the audience to once again enjoy and appreciate.

How did you get started recycling PC components into artwork? How long have you been doing so?
This all started about 1996 during my first big job after graduating from College (UMKC, B.A. in Communication Studies). The healthcare consulting firm I was working for at the time was throwing away a plethora of computer equipment. So, I decided to scoop them up and crack them open. Initially, I wanted to see what was on the inside and just inspect the architecture of the CPU, keyboard, hard drives, power supplies and such. Then, I realized after my technological archeological dig that these pieces looked completely cool. I think I had some spare wood and good glue to assemble my first piece. From there, the relationship was solidified.

How do you come up with your ideas -- you know, what sort of creative process do you go through? My ideas evolve over the course of weeks gathering a wide range of different computer components. Once I have accumulated enough pieces, I begin laying them out all over the ground. At that point, planning and spontaneity meet and the piece begin to mentally form. From there, I start to assemble that ensemble into the beginnings of a piece of artwork. Do you start with a firm idea in mind of what the end product will look like, or does it grow on its own as you work? All of these pieces of art essentially evolve out of spontaneity versus serious planning. It’s all basically a whimsical activity minced with hard work that produces something worthy of a thought or smile. Are you always working on ideas in the back of your mind, or do you sit down and plan them out? I know the ideas will come, but I do have to hoard as many old computer parts as possible to make the concept a reality. How does your full-time job in IT influence the type of work you put out? My full-time job acts more on my subconscious when I go into creating the pieces that I make. I mean, it’s there in my conscious brain, but the repetitious sight of computers and their innards play on my creative side that produces the art I create.

How do you start a project? I start a project based on the amount of old computer parts that I acquire over a said amount of time. Then, I find a sturdy piece of wood and begin constructing what I would consider cool computer assemblage art.

How do you know when you're finished? I know I’m finished when my gut says my full vision of the work is done. This is a very subjective assessment of my process, but it’s hard to put a finger on the pulse of my creative flow as to when the conclusion happens. It just feels right.

What other artists or pieces have influenced you? I really like the surrealist movement (Salvador Dali), early abstract period (Picasso) and a couple of guys called ‘The Art Guys’. These two fellows used humor throughout cleverly constructed assemblages. In one piece, they actually had 99 bottles of beer across a wall on a ledge and had a little anecdote over each one. Their art influenced my notion of assemblages.

Existential question time -- As an IT professional and an artist, what sort of lessons have you learned about yourself through building these pieces? Both of these crafts and desires of mine have taught me a lot about the construction of a great many things in our world. The time, troubleshooting and planning of an IT related issue or project has taught me a great deal of patience in my art process, as well as my personal life. So, overall, I have learned that there is literally an infinite amount of ways to construct art work as there is to construct computing code or actual PC’s.

How do you get your kids involved in your art? My 8-year old Zen likes to unscrew all the covers and see what’s inside the CPU, Power Supply and such. He’ll strip all my pieces into nice digestible components that can be put into my assemblages. He really enjoys the whole process of tearing the technology apart and seeing the final techno/art assemblage that results. My 2-year old boy, Miles, loves to look at and touch the final pieces of artwork once completed.

Do you ever worry about people not 'getting it' when they view your work?
Naw, I don’t worry about this. The one thing I drive for with my work is a response no matter if it’s someone getting it or another being confused. I have taken my life and made an imprint on theirs. My vision became a reason for them to ponder another facet of this reality that is so vast, cool and fun. I have had many confused looks and perplexed stares at art shows over the years that it’s worthy of a solid chuckle when it happens.

If you were completely free to do any type of art you could think of, what would you do? I would love to go much larger. First, I would love to recreate a version of Max Headroom with all the CPUs and monitors I find. Also, I would like to construct big assemblages of full power supplies, CPU’s, monitors and motherboards into a cool looking robotic concept or UFO kind of thing. Finally, I would love to make these assemblages in a large scale to be placed in schools and government facilities. Essentially, I would like for this work to be placed in institutions where idle time could be used looking at one of my ensembles and would make waiting feel like time well spent.

As you know, I collect PC games and write occasional article for Vintage Computing & Gaming. What are your thoughts on the intersection of art and technology? Have you seen computers or programs that can stand on their own as artistic works? The reason why I do what I do is because I genuinely feel that computing is art. From the design of a custom CPU case to the ingenuity of computer animation, I feel that art is the backbone of anything that is worthy of capturing a huge audience. That said, there are a plethora of quality games that are really complete canvasses that have come to life in a fascinating way via the magic of a programmers ‘0’ and ‘1’ knowledge. The fact that an enormous stack of zero’s and one’s can make something as cool as Sim City is completely fascinating if you really think about it. I think the line of new Mac’s are sleek pieces of artwork, while any number of new computer games that are on the top of gamer’s lists are indeed artwork all on their own.

Do you have an educational background in art? Most of my education was through the public school system in Liberty, Missouri, some classes at UMKC and one course I took about 5 years ago at the KC Art Institute. Other than that, it’s been a process of having good friends in the beginning and a thirst for teaching myself new concepts and patience over the years in the grooming of my artwork.

Do you try to convey a message through your artwork, or do you work more on a purely aesthetic basis? I want people to laugh, smile and be otherwise entertained by my work. If folks can forget their bills or politics for that one brief spate of time while peering into my art construction, then I am a very happy person worthy of the title ‘artist’.

took a break to vote yesterday ..

painting president obama

kids and the paints

paint ball pal

The Loss of a Tree

I had nasty IT meltdowns last week .. in the loss of a massive 500 gig drive, my chances at a tasty autumn tree time lapse went down in hot licks of invisible flame .. i have attached a recent shot as a lament to the massive hunk of nature i tried to get from green to orange .. technology dents the armour as nature wins, kids .. cheers.

Web Enhancements & New DVD

Been busy lately putting together a new DVD compilation of my work, shows and other shots. It came out quite nice. The plan is to send these out to folks involved with the travel project, those that purchase a piece or really want a copy. All the elements are on the newly redesigned http://www.joedimino.com/ - take a look around and enjoy. I added new work, put up new shortcuts and made everything a bit 'less' .. enjoy ..

bip-blop