Guts n such

Deer guts are completed and in the deer! Next is a hand-embroidered ribcage and finally, the antlers! This project was a lot of fun to make and look at. It's like a cuddly, but gross body pillow.

Deer guts and such

Just an update: deer guts are on their way!

What's for dinner?

Newest sculpture! 'Prize' is a recreation of a gutted deer. In this work I am directly referencing my hometown of enthusiastic hunters and the value of a dead deer. The outside is a tan suede and the inside is a ribbed gold and pink. I have yet to make antlers - they are on their way! And might make some entrails too. Size is roughly 4.5 feet.
Happy Friday everyone!

The value of pie

Finally completed (or just about completed) this pie sculpture. Not only did my father tell us of his love for pie every time he was in front of one, but I can remember growing up in the community that I did and pie was like a secret weapon currency of the women. You wanted something done? - you made a pie. Materials: the outside is made of felt, what I consider to be the most humble of fabrics. The inside however, contains rich, raspberry pink chiffon and crystals to act as the filling and berries (which practically represent real value in my community - while fresh berries were abundant, it was almost competition to find the freshest and tastiest). The plate underneath is made of royal blue velvet a if presenting the pie on a ceremonial pillow. I may be adding some more smaller "berries" but I'm very excited to have this ready to post!

the new artistic medium...

We are in an exciting time in the world of arts. We are in the midst of a new medium for artists: the project. Through this medium, artists can explore a new potential using teams, converging with a more scientific approach to their research, and creating a work which can remain ongoing. The project structure may involve other mediums such as drawing, sculpture, video, performance, etc. but the difference is that these things involve something more: the community. Whether that community be local or global, present or on-line, small or many, the project is being used by artists to spread his or her research and work-making to a wider audience and to fit outside-of-the-arts standards. Today, we could consider the project to exist on the same level of scientific research, discovering new things about our world.

What's your function?

It is curious to consider a particular audience when it comes to my work. For one thing, I use imagery and stories that come from my family history. There are pieces that members of my family recognize right away as some symbolic meaning of my father or other family jokes. However, my goal when creating the work is to use imagery that those outside of my family may create their own memories or find some significance in dissecting what remains in their minds. I want to be specific for my family, but also vague to other viewers. And I try to do this in my selection of imagery and text and use of domestic things: house, tablecloth, fabrics, textiles. I think I would want a critic to approach my work as a doorway into the viewpoint of the artist. The critic can use my work as an opportunity to learn more of the artist, where I come from, and how that may affect me today. It is an opportunity for research, detective work, and sharing memories. I hope that my work can ignite conversations of familiar things past. I am sharing my history with you and I would love you to share yours with me. I am interested in comment books at show openings and overhearing conversations.

I believe, in some way, the function of my art is the function of all art: research and experimentation. We are like scientists in the things we make. We set up a hypothesis or idea that creating this thing will say that thing, and then we follow through with the experiment. The theories we may discover can be up for discussion or peer review. Why must we insist on the separation of art and science? We use the same thought progress, follow-through, presentation, and follow-up. In a way, art is like theoretical physics, presenting new possible rules and ideas that have the option to be refuted, disputed, encouraged, or fought for.

Janice's Philadelphia debut!

On February 1st @ CRED On-Site/ 325 South St, Janice made her official Philadelphia debut and my start to performing in public places with this new group of work. The experience was great. The staff at CRED was wonderful, so open-minded, and so accommodating to my needs as a performer. Here are some photos from the performance. More of the event and a video will be coming soon!

writing about writing

So we started a new class this semester. A class in which she suggests we write at least 10 minutes everyday. I thought, what better way than to write on here, right? She says we shouldn't self-edit. That's going to take a lot of getting used to...Anyway. I'm just writing. This is a way that I can keep myself in check. Everything has a date stamp. No files on my computer, no loose papers that get lost or thrown away. It's in the internet now. Lost in that space that constantly hovers above our heads and looms until sucked through another computer at another access point. Another thing I was considering was poetry. I wrote poetry last year at this time and it inspired some work. What happened to that? I suppose life did. The rest of grad school, etc. But I'm going to try to pick it up again. That might require some hand written work because there is a certain way that I write poetry that I like. I like the visuals of it. But don't worry, they will be scanned and posted on here as well for each writing exercise. I think this could really get some juices flowing for my visual work. I know that it is "supposed" to get them flowing for the thesis, but writing is such an essential part of my process. Or I suppose thinking is. But to me, thinking is writing. It's just writing on the soft, easily-erasable tissue in your brain that is easily wiped away by a passing thought. So maybe it's better to put this in the Network. I know the phrase: "Once it's out there, you can't take it back." (Boy, this is really hard not to self edit. We have been trained to do it for so long...) And of course, I know the limits of what can and cannot/ should and should not be send out there in interspace. However, I do believe there is a certain account of credibility for me taking the assignment blog-style. Others can read. I can read over and over again. It is no longer a ghost that floats in my head, awaiting the moment to be expelled, which quite frankly, doesn't happen as often as it should. Is it 10 minutes yet? 8 minutes. Hm...cat. cup. cable. computer. coffee. creamer. can. cabinet. cone. carpet. well, not carpet. cap. canvas. clock. clack. clip. clap. clump. clumps. claw. cut. cringe. carry. curl. cuddle. compose. compromise. compost. cracker. cackle. cad. crap.

"I dreamed of a nest in which the trees repulsed death."

Over the break, I have been reading...and reading...and reading...
I have a stack of books almost a foot high that I am working my way through:
Victor Burgin In/Different Spaces
Guy Debord Society of the Spectable
Jun'ichiro Tanizaki In Praise of Shadows
Martin Heidegger Being and Time
Deluze and Guattari A Thousand Plateaus
Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary
Michael Cunningham The Hours
Gaston Bachelard The Poetics of Space

I started with the last in this list: Bachelard. Bachelard breaks down the secrets of spaces, starting with the house (childhood home) and continuing to drawers, corners, nests, shells, etc. In my interpretation, Bachelard references to the home does not end with the first chapter but continues to apply throughout the entire book. His chapter on nests however, particularly interested me. The obsession that comes with building a nest. The imagination that occurs when we find a nest, both full and empty. The mindset that we obtain upon finding a nest in the garden or the forest floor:

"This wonder is lasting, and today when we discover a nest it takes us back to our childhood or, rather, to a childhood; to the childhoods we should have had."

It is this kind of wonder and sense of play that I like to encourage in my own studio practice. So why not draw nests? 

This one is finished.

detail

This one is a work in progress.

detail

What I like most about these is the opportunity for surprise. The moments for the detailed pieces. I also really like watching them appear in process in the studio, watching each mark I make build upon the next and affect the next in space much like a bird building a nest so gently and each piece is considered. The marks of the paper are spinning out and into themselves, creating a pause and rush of time simultaneously - I am speaking about time by trying to eliminate time, in both the marks of the paper and the philosophical/phenomenological support of the subject matter. I love the sense of play and yet the serenity in completing these. I often think of a poet that Bachelard quotes in The Poetics of Space:

"I dreamed of a nest in which the trees repulsed death."

"I dreamed of a nest in which the ages no longer slept."

-Adolphe Shedrow