ELF PROJECT WRAP and bit more info

Now that the Little Fockers movie has finished generating income I can officially wrap up the ELF Project.

There will be an encore if Meet the Mother Focker is released in the near future.

Actually it doesn't have to be anytime soon since the ELF Project idea started in 2004.

I might as well begin at the inception of the idea.

In 2004 I was standing at the corner of Lincoln and Montana in the 90403 zip code when a bus pulled up directly in front of me. On the side of the bus, at eye level, was a giant billboard advertisement of the sequel to Meet the Parents, which was a hit movie in 2000 starting Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro. The sequel was called Meet the Fockers.

The Fockers part of the ad was 24 inches from my face and printed in bold red print on a stark white background. My immediate thought was.....if I had a can of white spray paint in my hand the top of the O on the Fockers would be covered and that bus would be driving down the street promoting a new movie called.....
MEET THE FUCKERS.

The thought turned into a plan and I started calculating how many buses I could do within a short period of time. I then realized that there were bus stop benches and billboards and that MEET THE FUCKERS could be spread all over town.

In 2004 I was involved in my ARTCEPS publishing company so time was at a premium and the idea simply left by the same door that all other non-materializing ideas leave.....it's either a side door or a back door or a trap door.....still not quite sure which is which and where is where and who went where or why.

And to be honest I've never been one who advocates property damage, which could be a sign of old age or maturity or fear....again not really sure of the motivational factors behind doing or not doing something that could be considered illegal. But spray painting buses just didn't rest comfortably in my personal integrity meter so Meet the Fuckers never saw the light of day.

Over the next few years I managed to bungle my publishing business and had to get a job. Going from person in charge to person on puppet string was quite hard and I stressed myself into some physical problems. Of course it didn't help that I was working for a micro-managing ego-maniac who actually used to use the expression...."I don't like to micro-manage."

Just how deep and detailed a micro-managing philosophy can go is any one's guess.

The term probably didn't even appear until the early 90's.

And boy have I gotten off point.

Back to the ELF Project, if you are still with me.

After I stopped working for Micro Man in 2006 I decided that it was time to focus on my artwork.

Since the 80's I've always spent some time creating designs with a FLOW concept in mind.
In the 80's I was pouring my designs because the flow worked better and the designs had more freedom.

Then in the early 90's I had my Puzzle period which had it's moments....both high and low.

Then February 4 1994 came and Sean went.

AND THEN.......NEO-ILLUMINATION entered my life. It didn't start out with a name but for the next five or six years I would receive a summary statement from some deep spot of my pineal gland, or someplace much deeper, and would write it down on a large piece of art paper or canvas and then create a design around the words. My initial piece took four years to finish.

The summary statements kept coming and I kept writing them down and after awhile I started developing a new sense of flow with my art and decided to create images and then add the statements later.

THAT WAS A HUGE CHANGE OF DIRECTION.

From 1993 to 2002 I was Vice-President of a art company whose main clientele was the furniture industry. I handled the sales force and designed most of the product line. In 1995 I took 10 small original NEO-ILLUMINATION pieces and one large piece to our trade show in North Carolina, along with our normal product line. I sold most of the small items and the one large piece, that I wished I had kept track of. A designer bought it for a environmental law firm in Tennessee but I didn't record the destination.

Even though I was receiving incredible universal insights I was oblivious to certain aspects of how to control and distribute my personal artwork.

The lost of a teenage son can alter the structure of an individual.....and that alteration can last until the end of time. My ending is not quite clear but I would like to know that I've left some sense of style....and my artwork appears to be the most visible sense I have.

The artwork that I've been doing in the last 4 years seems to be much better than anything I've done before.

I know one thing for sure.......it's much prettier.

Pretty is just an odd word when talking about art.....but pretty is pretty.....and it doesn't matter if it's a pretty face or a pretty picture........

Pretty is pretty.

It's a statement when it's done right.

If continual flow and structure are involved then pretty can look intriguing.

I think my artwork is intriguing. It's not suppose to make one think or wonder or question.

It's simply there to enjoy.

THE DESIGNS THAT WERE INTENDED TO HOUSE THE NEO-ILLUMINATIONS HAVE BECOME LANDLORDS OF THEIR OWN PROPERTY.

I'm not sure if there isn't a whole lot of guilt due to ignoring Neo-Illuminations in the new designs....
......but I'm fairly certain that the NEO-ILLUMINATION messages have their own life force and don't really need visual distractions.

I would like to think that my artwork is more than a visual distraction.

I would like to think that......

BUT........

THAT'S WHAT IT MIGHT BE AND THAT'S WHY IT IS JUST SIMPLY....

PRETTY.

You might be asking yourself what the hell does this have to do with the Little Fockers and my ELF Project?

I shall explain......hopefully.

I think The Universe decided that I could use a good laugh after everything I've been through in the last few years.

About nine months ago I bought some very cool white artist tape. I use it to secure images to the boards I work on. In July I went to the $6 show at the AMC ( any movie before noon) and the first preview they showed was a new film that would be opening at Christmas time.
It was called.........

The Little Fockers

At that moment, in that theater, I simply thought about my previous idea in 2004 and then the word TAPE appeared in my frontal vortex and I knew what I would be doing for a few weeks in December.

I had to wait and see what colors the ads were before finding the right tape. Once I saw that it was the same....red lettering on white background....I simply went to Home Depot and bought a few rolls of white duct tape.....and waited for the ads to appear.

The actual name of the project did not appear until my friend Jay from Chicago told me it needed to have a name. I originally called it Little Fuckers Everywhere but that just sounded too crass......then it hit me......it's Christmas time and The ELF Project just simply worked best. Everywhere Little Fuckers was born.

I realized after a few days of changing the O's to U's that I should have made a documentary. The trouble is I couldn't get anyone else interested. I tried to have a photographer I know shoot me as I created Little Fuckers on the side of buses and bus stops and billboards, but she wasn't interested. I have no pictures of me doing the taping. But I took plenty of pictures afterwards.

I learned a whole lot about a whole bunch of different people during and after this project.

Certain people that I knew would think it was funny.....didn't. And certain people who I was positive would call the police....laughed their asses off.

My 91 year dad laughed a little bit but kept telling me I would get arrested.


Arrested for TAPING?

OBVIOUSLY THE CENTER POINT
OF THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE
IS THE WORD

FUCK

Hypocrisy ran amok during this endeavor.

Certain people who use the word hourly didn't think that it was funny.

THAT TO ME.....IS FUNNY....and odd.

THE WORD IS PART OF OUR FUCKING LANGUAGE. IT'S NOT AN OCCASIONAL WORD USED RARELY. IT'S A WORD THAT IS FUCKING USED EVERY SINGLE FUCKING MINUTE OF THE DAY.

EVERYWHERE

BY
MEN
WOMEN
AND
CHILDREN


After all........it is just a word.......four letters.....and letters that don't spell anything really bad like the words........Death, War, Genocide, Hate, Rape, Hunger, Cancer and Disease.

THE CREATORS OF THE THREE FILMS KNEW FROM THE OUTSET THAT EVERY TIME ANYBODY HEARD THE WORD FOCKER THEY WOULD THINK FUCKER AND YET.................... THAT'S FUNNY.

I GUESS OBVIOUS IS NOT FUNNY

UNLESS IT IS

THE PICTURES THAT SHOW MY ELF PROJECT ARE FUNNY TO MOST OF THE PEOPLE.
AT LEAST 80% OF THE PEOPLE WHO SEE THE PICTURES LAUGH. MAYBE LATER THEY WISHED THEY HADN'T....BUT THEY DO AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS.

THE INITIAL VIEWING OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS OR THE ACTUAL VIEWING OF A BUS OR A BUS STOP IS THE MOMENT THAT COUNTS.

I've stood at corners and watched people start laughing as they looked at a bus stop that promotes Robert DeNiro in The Little Fuckers. I've sat on a bus stop and pointed out Ben Stiller next to The Little Fuckers and watched hot chicks laugh. I've had bus drivers say that's the funniest thing they ever seen.

The beauty of tape is that anyone who didn't like it could instantly remove the tape.

NO PROPERTY DAMAGE.

I even had Catholic guilt one night so strong that I had a dream which made me get up the next day and go remove a bunch of tape from bus stops ads. A few days later I settled down and put it back on....but those nuns from kindergarten to 9th grade were complete in their trauma classes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If those nuns had stuck that wooden ruler up my ass instead of whacking me across the face....I'd be rolling in the papal bucks.

Street art is now a genre. How that Street Art is performed is immaterial.

Whether you like it or not.

Damaging property with spray paint might be one of the basic elements of Street Art but I don't think that is even remotely true.

The idea is to......Create a moment.......whether it be serious or funny.

Art is not just something you hang on your wall if you are an artist. Besides the stuff that gets hung, it's a statement and it's a statement that usually applies or responds to something happening in society.

I made a statement in the month of December in response to the creator's of the FOCKER name.
They made millions of dollars by being subtle.

Was it subtle?

I made nothing for creating The ELF Project and after watching the movie I think I made more people laugh then they did.

I'm getting ready to have an art show within the next few months and I've been told that the ELF Project should not be part of it. I've taken that into consideration and have decided that the 78 pictures I have, should stand alone and not distract from my actual work.

Maybe sometime in the fucking future I will have a separate show and just invite certain fucking friends.

In the meantime.....I can't believe you read this whole fucking explanation.

You are so fucked up!

But thanks.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the ELF Project 2011

Michael Timothy McAlevey