Drawing detail.

Here is a detail of a drawing -- hopefully I will post the full drawing later. The scanner just wasn't big enough to accomodate, and I didn't feel like getting out the camera. Used rice and water color, pen and graphite. This is from Dec. I think. I started drawing with rice and watercolor, and took the rice off later so that the color would pool around it and create washes. I was thinking about sadness and winter and Persephone, her eating the seeds of the pomegranate (?) in Hades, and locking herself into staying there for a certain number of months. I have to go back and look, but I think it was really Demeter, her mother, who bargained to get her out of there for part of the year. Not sure how this connects to the other stuff, but sometimes disparate work eventually starts to inform the other, so I'm puttin' in out there. I am so happy about this blog, by the way!

additional member?

Hey guys, I was wondering if you guys would be open to another member on the blog . . .my friend Eleanor. I haven't asked her yet, I wanted to run it by you guys and see what you thought. Mori, where are you?

yeah, the city weights

Yeah, the pics do feel very heavy to me. They were taken on a an overcast day (most of them) and printed on gray rives bfk, so that could have something to do with it. Part of it could be that sometimes the city does make me feel heavy. Also, color choice -- muted, washed out. I don't feel like the images want to be light, as far as in the photos, but I do feel that when I start drawing them a lot, they will start to lighten up. The thing I love most is the fabric, which is really a black mesh. I like standing on my roof and seeing it blowing against the scaffolding of the school. They pretty much only work on it at night and in the evenings, I guess so as not to disrupt classes. The hand-drawny looking shapes in colors were monoprint. The graphite y-shaped spiky things were drawn after I printed out the image from the printer onto the monoprints. These pics are kind of what I have been feeling like, on and off lately. Not super light. I vascillate. Place does really determine how we delineate space in our artwork. When I lived in KNoxville, I was making these big open landscape-y drawings, things falling into space. Here, things are much more cramped and urban. I am wondering if the two will collide when I get back to Dallas. More art coming soon!

Oh yeah, and I did go to Blackburn for about 2 hours yesterday -- printed some drypoints -- not great, but it's good to get something on paper and maybe use it later.

a little more

Also, I wanted to say with these new images, I was thinking about images in the city, want to use images from my time here. I have noticed above some doorways and windowsills that there are these little y-shaped spikes, and I think they are to keep the pigeons away. I started using a similiar mark in some of the prints. I also read (In Uncle John's Bathroom Reader), that pigeons mate for life. I was thinking how people think they are gluttonous and a nuisance, when really they are committed and resourceful. I don't know about actually using pigeons in the work, but I was thinking about them (interesting how this ties in with the locusts) and how they are generally considered somewhat pesty and ubiquitous. But I think it really got me that they mate for life. That's cool.

Images loaded from last week

So I think, hope, pray these images loaded. It took me awhile. I had to do them one or two at a time. These are photos I took and then worked a little bit on in photoshop and printed over monoprints that I worked on at Robert Blackburn. Mainly I printed on the ghosts. I am not crazy about them, but love the fabric and scaffolding, so those images could be integrated into drawings and paintings eventually when I get set up in Dallas. I think I have some printer lines. Also the fabric had these orange cords running through it at regular intervals, which, when printed looked like a printer malfunction, so I also painted on top of the images with watercolor.

Oops, it cut off some of the lines of the locust installation.

And Lis, I want to see pics of your prints! Did you print your drypoint at Blackburn the other day? Your photos are interesting-- what are the individual elements on your plates? Is that rice?

Annee, have you started your gold foil eggs?

And, raise your hand if you think Mori should make something. (Mine's up. High).

New Art... Finally.

Yay! We're on!

Sorry I haven't posted anything yet-- I've been making art! First time in a while, so I desperately need your honest feed back. I apologize for the poor quality of the locust photos. I need Photoshop. Boo.

This piece brought in a nice little cash prize. I'm thinking one could make a decent living applying to juried shows in small towns. :) My carpet is littered with pieces of these little guys. Anyhoo, the inspiration came from reading Mark, about John the Baptist. I was fascinated how the earthiest of earthy guys (honey in his veins, bug-munching) was the first to welcome God in flesh, to prepare the way for His message. And we know how (or Annie does) I love telephone wires... you know lines of communication, blah blah... Then, (Lisa will love this) I read how locust are drawn together in times of crisis as they release seratonin (the happy chemical). I love this innate need they have for each other. And I love the how they're gross bugs, but they totally fueled this tres necessary guy, John the Baptist.

I love writing informally like this! Do I make sense?

'Kay, the other pic is of my wasp nest made from the dryer lint that you lovely folks gave me. I think it needs a few more layers/ fine tuning. The balloon is still in it. I'm afraid it shall collapse when I pop it. We'll see...

And here's my statements a/b the nest (I had to submit one for a show entry). I don't like the title, so I'm open to other suggestions.

My most recent work examines how our physical location shapes our concept of home. Thus, I became interested in wasps’ communal process of building a nest in which they gather decaying elements of their surrounding environment to form a shared habitat. I mimicked this process as I collected cast off dryer lint from friends to create a nest. The nest hangs from an electrical cable, referencing technological constructs upon which we depend to maintain relationships. I find this connectedness to both people and locale vital to a sense of home, ephemeral as it may be.

pooh! I have been trying to upload pictures but the blog doesn't seem to be letting me. Maybe I will try again later or tomorrow. I made some art today . . .or tried anyway.

thought

I've been getting some cool (I think) ideas, and am really ready to have a studio, stretch some canvases, and just let 'er rip. Holding all this in is not great, I am just so excited to have a studio in 6 weeks! Not that this has much to do with what I am doing -- which isn't much. C'mon girls, post, post, let's see some images!

Readings

I think if the readings are online, you can just post a link. If not, maybe we could agree on a reading, and then do it together? I think that would be a great idea. I think I could really use some art discussion, and a community of women artists. Which readings were you thinking?

Readings and such.....

Hello All!  I finally made it onto my first blog and I am very excited.  I hope we can all inspire each other to spite the dampening effects of post-grad school, day to day grind. 

I am going to attempt to attach two readings that I have been wanting to embark on (sorry Tori if you have already read these in your soft sculpture class).   Read along if you like or I'll just post more information about them soon. '

Actually....does anyone know how I can attach the readings for us all to get to?  Or can I even do this? 

 

Art blog!

Hmmm, first let me say thank you to the invite, and what a great idea! Here is some stuff I am thinking about. The first two are just shots from my room that I think would be fun to blow up into a large photo, the next ones are watercolor monoprint plates that actually looked cooler as plates. I wasn't so crazy about the actual prints, though it was nice to see the layers starting to break down as I kept printing the ghosts, which created some lovely passages that while nice on their own, can't hold the print by themselves. Still working on that. I am hoping I can redeem the actual prints by drawing back into them. This process has been great, since it allows me to work at home and then take the dry plates to the shop and print them.