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 

blaaaaaaarrrgh!!!

Well, nothing is perfect. After about 6 hours of rendering (stupid school lab computers - you can't change the computer sleep settings on them), this animation is done - sort of...
It's supposed to start with the legs walking in and yes, I am aware it is not of the best quality. I'm getting there. I finished rendering it for archives and since it took so long, I just gave up and went home for the day. But it will be remedied and put up much better soon. I think this one I'm going to reflect off of mylar too and see what happens.

so much to do

Things to do this week:
{} export new animation (render time gives me 6 hours so far...ha)
{} finish buck head mount sculpture
{} mentor meeting
{} draw
{} draw
{} ... draw some more
{} sending proposals to spaces for performances
{} create 2 more dolls


FINAL CRIT is December 15th! Work goes up on the 14th!!
Hopefully I can get the animation and photos of installation up by the end of today!

^ how I feel today...

one of three

The past couple of months I have been working on a particular set of rules from the rules of engagement :

punkin.
buckwheat.
tinkerbell.

My dad called all three of us kids that interchangeably. These terms are something that remind me of how he cared for us. I also consider them as something that represents his thoughts of us, his kids. I have been making costumes the coincide with these rules, all child's sized - a Halloween pumpkin costume, Tinkerbell wings, and rolled pants with suspenders like Buckwheat wore in Li'l Rascals. Finally, I figured out to make dolls to wear them. I thought I would make something that would kind of go with the legs I made before. There will be three and they will be suspended from the ceiling, kind of head height. I'm thinking the kind of height that Annette Messager suspends her sculptures.

Today, I finally have one mostly completed. This is the doll wearing the 'punkin' costume. I will be tailoring the costume to the doll a little more and make finishing touches on the doll like closing up seams, etc.

Here's the doll in punkin costume in my studio space at home.

burt reynolds?

So for the past couple months, I have been creating these really bad Photoshop collages (with a program that isn't even photoshop, but a free one that pretends to be) of Burt Reynolds's face put on top of my dad's face in family photographs that I have collected. The reason for Burt Reynolds is my dad's 'look' that he kept for years. The delicately placed hair and perfectly trimmed mustache. At first, it started as just a thing I was doing that coincided with the rules of engagement project. However, I've started to like them more and more as things. I've started printing them on transparencies and created mixed media works on top of that. But I am struggling with display issues as of right now.

Pretty Face, Culprit Hands 2012 Mixed Media collage - work in progress

I'm hoping to get these printed large on acetate or mylar and continue the same kind of work.

I lied...

So obviously when I said more to come soon, I lied. So much has happened. Where to start?

Well, since my last post, I had been working on a continuing list which is what I call "rules of engagement" when it comes to my dad. These are brief statements that relate to things he did, things he said to me, or just little quirks that I always remember about him.
Here is a link to the full list: http://www.caitlinpeck.com/rules-of-engagement---list.html
 From there, I began making work and I created this drawing:

The coordinating rule with this is: 'short shorts and long socks are appropriate.' because my dad wore these embarrassingly short shorts usually in an awful 80s tracksuit teal or purple and long white socks because the man didn't own any other kind of socks. I then felt the need to create this in 3 dimensions, which led to the sculpture:

Since then, the work has continued to grow. The drawing in this post and a photograph of the installation of the WAITING video on this blog (the red mask with the white background), were selected for the Portfolio section of CRED magazine, a local Philadelphia magazine featuring artists 25 years old and younger.

Much more has been done since then (this was in mid-August) and more will come soon! (this time I promise for real). But I think this is enough for this blog post for now.