The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

“Representation, Reforestation” Was Selected For The DC Urban Forest Project
|| 3/4/2010 || 2:48 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

I’m looking forward to finding out where my “tree” will be “planted” in downtown DC. I should know sometime next month!

My Urban Tree Project Submission: Representation, Reforestation

From the AIGA DC Website: AIGA DC would like to thank the Washington DC community for contributing over 400 submissions to be judged for The Urban Forest Project Washington DC. We are excited to share with you the 100 artists whose artwork was selected to be exhibited this spring on street banners. In addition to the professional artists, the work of AIGA DC’s mentoring teams and the Corcoran College of Art and Designs students* will be included.

Please look for additional information regarding the exhibition date, online gallery and reception in a couple of months. In the meantime visit ufp-dc.com to see where the banners will be exhibited.

WINNING PROFESSIONAL DESIGNERS AND ARTISTS
Sandy Adams
Antonio Alcala
Milagros Arrisueno
Julia Ames
Ioana Balasa
Sarah Hitchcock Becker
Ed Bisese
Nancy Bratton
Jessica Blair Buchanan
Bryan Byczek
Craig Cahoon
Sarah Chamberlain
Danielle
Dominique Chirinciuc
Ryan Clennan
Ryan Cooley
Adriana Cordero
Cecilia Cortes-Earle
MIchael Crossett
Daniel Delli-Colli
Tara Detchemendy
Alex Diaz
Eileen Doughty
Ilfigenija Dupras
Alessandra Marie Echeverri
Lauren Emeritz
Jo Fleming
Liani Foster
Lara Fredrickson
Rachel Freedman
Doug Fuller
Alia Faith
Nathan Gomez
Francheska Guerrero
Nicole Hamam
Robin Harris
Rania Hassan
Sean Hennessy
Richard Lee Heffner
Allen Hopper
Marcie Wolf Hubbard
Alicia Jager
Ann Kerns
Minki Kim
Ethel Kessler
Phyllis Klein
Galen Lawson
Marni Lawson
Sara Lin
Patti Look
Betsy Martin
Jessica Menk
Jamie Mitchell
Kudirat B. Momoh
Phil Napala
Catherine Nichols
Phil Napala
Katie O’Brien
Julian Oh
Nicole Parente-Lopez
Michelle Thomas
Hillary Reilly
Elizabeth Renomeron
Jessica Reynolds
Karen Rose
Kerri Sarembock
Erika Satlof
Monica Servaites
Shikha Savdas
Nikolas Schiller
Alex Schultz
Carolyn Sewell
Lindsey Smith
Marri Stanback
Greg Stein
Randall Stoltzfus
Rachel Stone
Hermano Talastas
Shelby Tanase
Angela Terry
Julee Dickerson Thompson
George Travez
Joe Velasquez
Sarah Joy Verville
John Wehmann
Jessica Witmer

AIGA DC MENTORING TEAMS
William Jones + Erin Green
Dezae Precia + Nicole Hamam
Demetria Williams + Jane deBruijn

*Not listed are the selected Corcoran Art + Design students

THE JURORS
Sam Shelton, Kinetik
Jim Darling, Useful Studios
Rachel Dickerson, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
Monica Lear, Urban Forestry Administration, DDOT
Linda Harper, Director of Cultural Tourism DC

ABOUT THIS PROJECT
This spring, The Urban Forest Project, a global public arts and environmental initiative, will plant 100 street banners designed by local designers and students in the downtown Washington DC. Each banner will use the form of, or metaphor for, a tree to make powerful visual statements about the environment. Together they’ll create a forest of thoughtful images in the heart of the nation’s capitol. Once the banners come down from the light poles, the artwork will be repurposed into tote bags for purchase. Proceeds from the sales of the tote bags will go to non-profit environmental efforts that will aid Washington DC in being a cleaner, greener and more sustainable city.

This project, conceived by Worldstudio, is being presented in Washington, DC by the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), in collaboration with the Corcoran College of Art and Design, AIGA DC and Downtown DC Business Improvement District. Seed funding for the project was provided through a grant from the USDA Forest Service with corporate sponsorship being sought to support implementation.

+Visit the DC Urban Forest Project Website

“Welcome to my room” – A YouTube video showing my outdoor photo installation for Fotoweek DC
|| 11/5/2009 || 3:23 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

This short video documents my temporary photo installation called “Welcome to my room.” for FotoweekDC 2009. The installation consists of about 24 random photographs that I had doubles of in my archives. They were stapled to the temporary wooden walkway on the west side of 14th Street near the intersection of T Street, NW, Washington, DC. The building for which the temporary walkway was constructed will become the chain department store called Room & Board. So welcome to my Room, I hope you are not Bored. Please add your own photos to the walkway and make the room ours. Send me photos of your additions.

UPDATE – I’m pleased to say that in the week since I installed the photographs, they’ve all been removed. Every other day I walked by the exhibit to see how many were remaining, which were mixing with the leaves on the sidewalk, and by yesterday they were all in the urban ether. The installation was never meant to be permanent nor really even a serious photographic exhibit, just an experiment, and since the photographs were all duplicate photos from 1992-2002, their sacrifice totally was worth it!

The Mural Non-Controversy: From Edgewood to the Edge of the World Vs. ANC Commissioner Marshall Phillips
|| 8/28/2009 || 6:04 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

watch video on YouTube

Last Sunday there was a great article in the Washington Post about the just-completed mural in DC called From Edgewood to the Edge of the World. My good friend DECOY participated in the construction of the mural (and is shown in the video above), so when I originally saw the video clip on TV, I laughed out loud and decided to save the video. I originally attempted to embed the video about the story here on this blog, but was unable to do so properly, so I uploaded the video to YouTube. After I posted the video on Facebook, I decided to e-mail the popular street art blog Wooster Collective, who had posted a call to artists a couple weeks ago. The following day they posted the video under the headline “Stupidity in Washington, DC.”

The joke of this story is that there really is no controversy. Rather its one ANC commissioner, who doesn’t have much appreciation for art, trying to make a fuss about a unique cultural attraction in his neighborhood. I think it was the Redskins reference that really got me laughing. The team isn’t even located in Washington, DC! I sincerely hope someone makes a stencil of the Redskins logo and adds it to the mural. Not to comply with his request, per se, but to just make a point about the transient nature of street art. Since the artists approached him before the mural was even started, he had the opportunity to participate in the painting of the mural. So for him to complain about it lacking local relevance is in poor taste. But then again, he’s wearing a neon green jumpsuit, and from the looks of it(?), has his beard dyed grey. I’m curious about what he hangs on the walls of home.

As a side note— I really really really dislike the blatant racism exhibited by some YouTube users. The video has been viewed about 2,000 times since I uploaded it and I’ve already had to delete some racially charged comments. This is not the first time I’ve had to deal with this type of digital bigotry. The YouTube video of George Bush getting booed at Obama’s inauguration had quite a bit of hate speech. So what gives? I am debating if I should just turn off comments on all the videos I upload so I don’t have to be the intolerance nanny.

Welcome to DC, we have no vote, we have no voice.
|| 1/17/2009 || 3:07 pm || Comments Off on Welcome to DC, we have no vote, we have no voice. || ||

I spotted these prints by “Hear Our Voice” outside of the Convention Center today. They all mention something about DC’s lack of representation in Congress. My favorite one features Michelle Obama and says “Michelle Obama rocks the mic. DC has no mic.” Read more about these posters here.

A Thank You Note to Muntazer al-Zaidi outside Busboys & Poets
|| 12/15/2008 || 3:17 pm || 2 Comments Rendered || ||

Close up of my thank you note attached to The Empty Shoes of War by Alison Flensburg

Yesterday President George W. Bush was nearly beaned by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi (his first name is also sometimes spelled Montaser, Muntada, Muntather, or Muthathi). Before throwing his second shoe at the president who oversaw the invasion of his country and subsequent deaths of over million Iraqis, he said “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” In case you missed it, here’s the video:

On a very cold morning in February of 2007 I coordinated the amplified soundsystem at Code Pink‘s “Walk In Their Shoes” press conference on the National Mall. The centerpiece of the press conference was the unveiling of The Empty Shoes of War by Alison Flensburg (right). It’s a large plexiglass box filled with donated shoes from Americans from all over the country. On each shoe contains the name of an Iraqi civilian who has been killed by George W. Bush’s illegal war & occupation of Iraq.

Not soon after the Walk In Their Shoes press conference, the memorial was placed on display outside of Busboys & Poets, an independent bookstore & restaurant located on the corner of V & 14th street in Northwest, Washington, DC (about 5 blocks from my house). The placement of the memorial is significant because the owner of Busboys & Poets, Andy Shallal, is an Iraqi-American from Baghdad and has been against the war before it started.

Last night I was reminded of the shoes in the memorial and conceived the idea of putting up a small guerrilla thank you note as a way to publicly thank al-Zaidi for doing something millions of people around the world would love to do if they were given the opportunity.

My thank you note attached to The Empty Shoes of War by Alison Flensburg

#UPDATE# – 15/15/08 – 4pm
After the photos below I’ve added the text of a press release related to a demonstration taking place at the White House on Wednesday.

Below are some of the photos I took before putting up the note:

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One Third Representation Flyer Posted Outside of Busboys & Poets
|| 10/21/2008 || 11:25 am || Comments Off on One Third Representation Flyer Posted Outside of Busboys & Poets || ||

Photograph of the One-Third Representation Flyer outside of Busboys and Poets

In August of this year, I posted the newest 1/3 representation graphic that had been sent my way. Last night I was at Busboys & Poets, a restaurant off U Street in Washington, DC, and I saw that someone had posted the flyer up on the electric box. Curiously, I am told that the owner of Busboys & Poets is on the board of directors of DC Vote, which is the DC-based non-profit that is behind 1/3 representation in Congress. Maybe this flyer was directed at him? I hope so. I also wonder if the flyer has been placed anywhere else in the city? Anyways, the photograph is taken in such a way that its difficult to read the flyer, so click here in case you are interested in reading the text of the flyer.

Related D.C. Colonist Entries:

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Stickering Shepard Fairey’s “The Duality of Humanity” in Washington, DC
|| 10/17/2008 || 2:51 pm || Comments Off on Stickering Shepard Fairey’s “The Duality of Humanity” in Washington, DC || ||

Stickering Shepard Fairey's The Duality of Humanity in Washington, DC with I LOVE VANDALISM

Early Friday morning I left my house with a sticker with the one intention of placing a sticker on the poster of street artist Shepard Fairey‘s “The Duality of Humanity” which has been stuck up all around this country, from Denver to San Francisco and now, not far from my house in Washington, DC.

It was literally a tongue in cheek action because the sticker was temporary and message was humorous: I <3 Vandalism. I had obtained the sticker from a random street art book a friend gave me for my birthday. The reason behind doing this was two-fold. First is that some forms of street art is vandalism. The other, more important issue, is that Fairey’s street art is merely stylish propaganda, which deserves to be defaced over time, like all street art.

It’s really the Barack Obama poster that gets to me. In my opinion, there is nothing revolutionary about Barack Obama’s character. Nothing. He stands for the status quo. It might be progress that he might becomes president. But when placed in the context of revolutionary ideals and presidential aspirations, this street art becomes explicit Democratic party propaganda and thereby subverts his entire message.

Moreover, its gimmicky— have an acclaimed street artist come to town, put up some large prints that depict ironic pseudo-revolutionary memes on derelict property, have a gallery opening to sell it to rich folk who keep the duality alive, and put up Barack Obama posters on the side. I get it and it sells well. Yet political art should have a larger message that is defiant of the status quo. To embrace the partisan, lesser of the two evilism, might be a Duality of Humanity, but its politically feeble-minded and artistically weak, but it sure is nice propaganda.

Detail of Shepard Fairey's The Duality of Humanity in Washington, DC

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A Ziploc Bag of Leftovers Overlooked
|| 8/9/2008 || 6:48 pm || Comments Off on A Ziploc Bag of Leftovers Overlooked || ||

The video above shows Thursday night’s dinner in a gallon ZiplocÂ® bag with the text “You are here” left outside of the “Quart Bag” group art exhibit at the Civilian Art Projects. It was supposed to compliment my piece as locationally humorous street art. I only wish I would have taken more quality video to put this together, but I overlooked that technicality myself. Woops.

Check the photos from Friday night here, here, and here.

Meet SloMo the Statehood Snail
|| 6/11/2006 || 10:44 am || Comments Off on Meet SloMo the Statehood Snail || ||

I am really happy with how this turned out. I took the DC outline and placed it over the Photoshop preset shape of a snail. The shelless snail now carries the weight of city so great they won’t let it be a state. I added my synthetic signature of ®’s as the Statehood Snails’ eyes. I’ve printed up about 15 these little buggers. When I put them up I want to use some chalk to show the snail’s trail up to the location (lampost) it stopped at. This will add a cute dimension to SloMo’s style.

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2 Tone Stencils of Washington, DC
|| 6/10/2006 || 11:34 pm || Comments Off on 2 Tone Stencils of Washington, DC || ||

So I’ve been on a kick lately with making stencils. I’m not making the spray paint style of stencils (although I could) rather I’ve been making ones specifically designed for wheatpasting. I’m keeping the cartographic theme alive in these stencils by using the DC outline that I acquired for the DC GIS and adding new elements.

My first is the “Statehood North Star”

I’ve printed up about 10 of these and cut them out….

Related Design Entries:

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Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: