Let there be COLOR!

Mount Lebanon Cemetary

Lebanon Common

I have been experimenting with a way to put color in my work and still maintain all the qualities of a drawing. I tried watered down acrylic but it looked to "painterly".  I am not against painting and do plan on going in that direction at some point. As well as finding a way to translate these ideas in clay. It's just for this series I want to stay with drawing materials. So I have found that pastels work well but the tend to smudge away to easily. I have ordered colored charcoal, I have never tried this product so who knows what will happen. Also I've ordered  a roll of 42" wide paper to work on, this will let me make large gestural drawings using my whole body to create marks that I can respond to. Very exciting!

I am looking at crossroads in life, past and present. Exploring how the decisions I've made(or that have been made for me in some cases) determine the paths I've taken. I have never ended up where I expected.  This is becoming a very personal journey one I was not ready to face until recently. Delving into my past has drastically changed my work and as I dig deeper more is revealed. I am in an amazing place right now and each day is a new discovery.

"controlled spontaneity"

Hanover Center

Crafts Avenue 2

Pine Street 1

I have been working on a series of drawings using "controlled spontaneity"(thanks, Nicole!).  I start with a liner street map of an area where I have lived.  These maps are not necessarily accurate but they are as I remember. Over that I make spontaneious gestural marks. As new marks are made I respond to them. This is purely instinctual with no pre-planning or forethought on my part. One interesting thing is so far all the drawings seem to resemble abstract landscapes. I am okay with this and I am just going to keep working and see what happens.

This, that and the other thing

This is what I've been working on this week. I started with a sculptural piece(middle image) then moved to drawing(bottom image) then finally brought multiple elements together in the wall piece (top image). My materials and process have been a bit scattered so far this semester. I am going to trust myself and continue working this way in the hope that it will all come together at some point into a  cohesive body of work. I have a few concepts and ideas that I am working through. They are all related in some fashion but not linear more like they spiral out from a central point. Some are very concrete while others are elusively ephemeral, they come and go like mist.
On  another note I am waiting for the weather to warm up a bit more so I can get back out to my barn and try my ideas out in clay. I envision large ceramic forms but not sure how that will turn out. Also I was checking out Steve Tobin's work.  He blows up clay to make his vessels. It is a very cool process and I'm going to give it a go, I just got to find a store that sells fireworks in VT!

Great video showing Steve Tobin blowing up pots:
http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/arts/museums/mc-steve-tobin-moravian-20120128,0,981949.story

Fate?

Khobar 1(Finished)

Khobar 1(form)

I've been think about my time spent in the military and my experiences lately. I don't often dwell on on these events but recently they have been haunting me. I never realized the gravity of my military duties and actions until later. My unit(the 30th Intelligence squadron) was one of many deployed to Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm/Desert Shield in the mid 1990's. We were stationed at the Khobar towers complex in Saudi.  I had returned to the US from my last tour there in April and was scheduled to go back in June. The day before I was to leave I was not feeling well so I went to sick call. I found out that my "sickness" had a cure but it would take nine months for me to feel better (yep, I was pregnant!) This prevented me from deploying. Thus saving me from being in the bombing attack on Khobar that happened a few days later. My unit was not spared and everyone I knew was injured in some way during the bombing.  I would of been there if not for my unborn son, who knows what may of happened. None of the members in my unit were killed but the unit next to ours was, just one room away................

back to the drawing board...literally!

SO

After spending a week or so continuing to work in encaustics I realized that my work did not feel like it was moving forward.  So I moved into a different direction. I wanted to work in clay but since my studio is in a barn, I live in VT, snow ......... need I say more. So I am bound to a medium I can work with in the studio space I have in my home.  The above drawings are what I've been working on for the last few days. They are not meant to be representational but abstract images expressing my emotional connection to a certain geographical location. I've spent a lot of time thinking about what ties an individual to a place. One interesting theory is that where we bury our dead determines where we call home. That our ancestors tie us to the land and pull us back there. I have lived all over the country even spending a few years overseas.  I recently wrote out all the locations I have lived and I realized I have moved 35 times so far in my life!  Despite this nomadic lifestyle I've always consider the Upper Valley region of NH/VT my "home".  Is this because all my family is buried there and this is where I was born? I don't know but these ideas are the focus of what I am exploring this semester.

"deskilling"

Cardboard form

Finished Vessel

I have been working on "deskilling" my artistic practice over the last week. This was suggested by multiple faculty members at the Jan. residency. My first few attempts have been a mess. Obviously newsprint and elmer's glue are not my forte! So I took a different approach,  I created a form out of cardboard. Then using melted wax I attached strips of real estate ads to the form. I feel this was a much more successful exercise. It took longer than the 15min time limit I set to keep me from making anything to precious.  I did finish it in 45 min, without the time limit I might of continued working on it till I considered it complete. While working on this I had an idea to make  forms from wire then cover with tissue/rice paper dipped in wax. I am trying to only work with materials that are not permanent or valuable. Items we would throw away. I have not returned to working in clay yet but I plan to at some point in the semester. I am interested to see what influence that material would have on my current ideas.

Residency 2 Crit Space

The title explains it all!