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  • Projects
    • a harras
    • Angkor Wat
    • AURA
    • The Animal Book
    • the immeasurable fold
    • Jordan’s Journey
    • Just One More
    • muse
    • seaside magic
    • Springtime in Byzantium
  • Portfolio
    • Design
    • Drawing
    • Exhibition
    • Music
    • Performance
    • Photography
    • Video
      • All videos
    • Writing
  • Blog
    • Studio News
    • Behind-the-Scenes
    • Conversations
    • Roundups
    • Showcases
    • Notes from luke kurtis
  • Shop
    • Artists’ Books
    • Poetry Books
    • little books
    • Zines
    • Music
    • Postcards and Prints
    • Wears and Wares
    • etc.
  • About
    • Artists
    • Press Room
    • Bibliography
    • Submissions
  • Contact
    • Mailing List

Jonathan David Smyth Studio Visit

  • 15 Oct 2018/
  • Posted By : luke kurtis/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under: Behind-the-Scenes

Jonathan David Smyth talks about his Just One More project and his practice in general.

Video interview and editing: luke kurtis
Music: “everlasting” from electronic quartets by luke kurtis

About the Just One More book:

Introduction by Michelle Dunn Marsh
Conversation with the artist by Dana Stirling
Design by luke kurtis
Published by bd-studios.com


Michael Tice Studio Visit

  • 21 Aug 2018/
  • Posted By : luke kurtis/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under: Behind-the-Scenes

Michael Tice looks back on over four decades of art-making.

Video interview and editing: luke kurtis

About the Retrospective book:

Introduction by Philip Mullen
Design by luke kurtis
Published by bd-studios.com


convergence and skillful fear (or, how to find armadillo)

  • 22 Nov 2016/
  • Posted By : luke kurtis/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under: Behind-the-Scenes

convergence

Understanding the difference between skillful vs unskillful fear is an important Buddhist concept. I’ve been thinking about this in very personal terms. When I did my convergence installation earlier this year, I had to face some fears. The piece is installed in the middle of the woods. To fully experience the piece, you must visit in the dark of night with no lights. That can be a somewhat scary thing, especially with the constant sounds of the forest and all the animals around you. But I pushed myself forward to do this with skillful fear. I remember sitting there under cover of darkness, the convergence orbs glowing nearby, hearing the snaps and cracks of animals and birds all around. I even heard the snorting of deer who dashed away as soon as they detected my presence. My heart raced at these encounters with skillful fear, helping me ultimately get more in touch with my love for these animals and nature at large.

I captured one of the encounters on video when I heard something moving towards me. It turned out to be an armadillo! I had never seen an armadillo in Georgia before. When I showed the footage to my parents, they were amazed as in their almost-70 years of living there, they also had never seen an armadillo. I guess it takes a New York artist working in the woods—and a bit of skillful fear—to bring them out!

No matter what your fears may be, I encourage you to practice skillful fear. Use your fear as a tool to uncover more productive feelings within—not as a weapon in defense.

 


The Language of History in 9/11 Memorial Museum

  • 11 Sep 2016/
  • Posted By : luke kurtis/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under: Behind-the-Scenes

9/11 is forever etched in my mind. It’s a day that forever changed the course of history. But it’s also a day of intense personal experience for me as a young New Yorker. It was only natural that I would communicate about that experience through my writing and art. In 2014 I collected a tightly curated selection of that work for The Language of History exhibition at NYPL Jefferson Market Library. I also published a book by the same name to expand upon that show. But both the show and the book were tightly curated. My archive contained so much more that remained unseen and unpublished.

In 2015, when the 9/11 Memorial Museum expressed interest in my archive, I decided to prepare something totally unique and original just for the occasion. I designed a special anodized aluminum limited edition box to house original photographic prints from this body of work as well as a copy of The Language of History book. While the original book contained only 26 photographs, this special I’m set expands the total number to 129.

The purpose of the box is archival in nature. Many of these photos are not necessarily aesthetically pleasing or even good photographs in a technical sense. But they do document a very specific time and place and cover an aspect of the 9/11 tragedy—the local experience from Greenwich Village—in a way I’ve never seen done before. It’s hard to remember how back in 2001 we didn’t have cell phone cameras documenting events all around us, so that fact that I created all these photos is more unique than it might sound. My intent is to commit these personal images to the narrative preserved by the 9/11 Memorial Museum so that our larger collective history can remember the quiet stories of those dark days us New Yorkers experienced so many years ago.


the woods are watching, video diary parts 1 & 2

  • 15 Sep 2015/
  • Posted By : luke kurtis/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under: Behind-the-Scenes

I’ve released two short video diary clips leading up to a more formal video which I’ll be releasing about the woods are watching, a brand new work that I am very excited about. Tune in to Michael Harren’s podcast this Thursday, 17 September, to learn about the work. In the meantime, watch these two clips and subscribe to my YouTube channel—it really helps if you subscribe—so you don’t miss the new video when it comes out!

UPDATE: The full video is out now!


journey meditation walk

  • 24 Jun 2015/
  • Posted By : luke kurtis/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under: Behind-the-Scenes

I first performed my journey meditation walk in 2011. I was deeply enmeshed in the Jordan’s Journey project at the time and the meditation walk video was a one-off creative experiment that I did while I was working on the Jordan’s Journey videos. In fact, the meditation walk video clip ended up being part of that trailer. I sat aside the footage and in 2012 first created the standalone journey video both as documentation of the original performance and as original video art.

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INTERSECTION large print proofs

  • 31 Jan 2014/
  • Posted By : luke kurtis/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under: Behind-the-Scenes

Going into the INTERSECTION exhibition for Massillon Museum, I knew it was going to be lots of hard work. Even before I conceived of doing the Kickstarter to help me get through it all, I had already put in months of work on developing the show and all the things that revolve around it.

But where so much of that work was digitally (and brain) based, things have moved head on into the physical plane now! I feel like the show is manifesting, bit by bit, right before my eyes. And never more-so than when I went to pick up the proofs for the two large pieces I made–with the help of my Kickstarter supporters–specifically for this show.

As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words… so rather than write about it, I’m going to show you. In video.

A huge thanks goes out to my collaborator, Michael Harren. I love his music for this video!


Featured products
  • Train to Providence Train to Providence $20.00
  • Vigil Vigil $20.00
  • Springtime in Byzantium Springtime in Byzantium $20.00
  • Architecture and Mortality Architecture and Mortality $30.00
  • The Girl Who Wasn't and Is The Girl Who Wasn't and Is $20.00

bd-studios.com is the art and publishing studio by luke kurtis. We publish artists’ and poetry books, organize exhibitions and performances, and more. We perform creative experiments and transform them into bold works of art. Learn more about what we do. Support our work at the Shop.

From the blog
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    Somewhere between Hungary and Japan (or, the update I meant to write last year) May 19,2025
  • A poetry album 23 years in the making August 18,2023
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