New Year's Resolutions: Art Edition

I've been neglecting my blog (...and my artwork) in the past couple months since graduating in August. It's hard to keep the moment up without being surrounded by other creatives pushing and inspiring me. But now that the new year is about to start, it seems like a good time to make new goals to keep the art moving forward.

First goal is to post more in the blog. I'd love to do a post a day but I think it's more realistic to say at least one post a week. The act of writing formulates ideas into words and sparks more ideas.

Second goal is to get the studio clean and organized. It was looking like a bomb went of down there for awhile and the mess wasn't spurring any motivation to work on anything creative. I started some straightening up this weekend but it's gonna need a lot of work and time to get it to a completely functional space. I have too much stuff and not enough places to properly store it.

3rd goal is to work on my website and make a respectable web presence. I need to start getting my name and work out there but my website is well, terrible. I want something clean and simple and easy to update. So I may have to enlist the help of my brother and/or cousin who does web developer type stuff.

The 4th is simply to make more art. I might make myself do a doodle a day just to get things rolling. I also signed up for a class at Fleisher for the winter (i'll write more on that later) so that should be fun.

5th and speaking of Fleisher, I want to work on a proposal for a class that I could teach there. I'm thinking of maybe something with different image transfer processes. Kinda in the realm of printmaking but perhaps alternative printmaking processes like the acrylic photocopy transfers. (more on this too)

I also have some other non-art related goals like eating better and generally being more healthy... and trying to stay organized... and saving (or making more) money...

Seaworthy Slideshow

In my last post I started to talk about family. I'm still not sure of the exact statement I want to make yet but the last time i was home at my dad's, I picked up an old slide projector and a bunch of boxes of old family slides. Studio time is going be spent going through these slides and seeing if i can come up with an idea of how I want to use them. There certainly are a lot of boating related slides that works well with the nautical theme I had for thesis. (told y'all i came from a sea worthy family) so I could could continue in this sort of direction again. Maybe instead of video, i could project still images from the slides on the boat tent.... (a sort of solution to me not having a video projector at the moment.)

My sister and cousin

Pop-pop aka the Captain

See, i was playing with ropes and sails even then.

Post Grad School Blues...

It's been a couple months now since graduation. I gave myself a little break from art at first since the last few weeks of the program were pretty stressful and exhausting. But I may have given myself too much time off and now to start up again has been a bit of a struggle without the usual momentum and motivation behind me.

It's not that I haven't done anything at all having to do with art. The past couple months I've been meeting with Sarah and Ben for First Fridays and we  go and look at art and talk about it. I also started getting involved with the arts committee at the William Way Center and helped them make a post card for the show next month. And then I threw an art show party in my own house, which was partially successful in that people came and had fun and ate my food and the art looked really good on the walls.

But in terms of my own art progressing...I'm at a bit of a stand still and wondering what my next move will be. I'd like to continue where I left off and play around with more video installations and projections but I need to get a hold of a projector (Christmas list!) I have been pondering a concept about family and home. They both have become strange abstract ideas to me over the years...I've moved to a new apartment or house every year since college, constantly having to resettle myself. (this being the first year i stayed in one place...but it's still temporary) And having lost my mom, who really was the center link to home and family, it's hard to readjust and accept this new state. Every time I go "home" to my dad's, it's an odd mix of unfamiliar and familiar. So many things have changed or aren't there any more and new things have taken their place. And we're hardly all there together as a family, but when we are there still is a disconnect.
Yesterday, a girl came in the store who had the same last name as me. I had never met her before in my life and she said she was originally from Michigan. But it's still funny that there was a common link between strangers. Maybe we are distant cousins. It's also funny that the idea of being related (however distant) can instantly warm a connection between otherwise strangers.

This brings up a few points of departure in which to investigate relationships and connections. And the big question: What makes a family? Is it in the name, the DNA or is there something more?

Perhaps my next step is not so unsure and is just a matter of figuring out where to start.

Thesis wrap-up

The work for the show went through many stages of evolution. Early on, I decided I was going to reuse the Waves video in a new way by projecting it somehow as part of an installation. I liked the idea of the video taking up a full spectrum of site so that the viewer would feel surrounded by the image and thus creating a transcendental experience separating them from the reality of being in a gallery.

Plans for a curved projection screen...enveloping the viewer.

Attempt at projecting on a curve

This idea proved difficult to construct. And also expensive if I went the route of a pre-made screen. So I had to re-think the vision. Then My brother and sister found an old tent at home that was my Pop-pop's tent for the back of his sailboat. Boats. Waves. Connections started to form. Tent. Shelter. Haven. I thought of one of my chapter titles in my paper that came from a Latin motto "Post tot Naufragia Portum." (after so many shipwrecks, a haven/port) Everything began to come together. The tent served as the projection screen.

Hanging in the studio

View from inside

 Set up in the studio, with full control of the lighting, I was able to get the desired effect. This would become a little more of a challenge in the gallery. I got the brightest projectors the school had and tried to make the best of it with the gallery situation. Ideally, I want to show this again in a darker gallery that I have more control over. Hopefully in the near future, I'll work something out in another space. 

Block and tackle pulley-Nautical detail

Hanging in the gallery

final install

Intended viewing angle

Closer to ideal lighting

from inside

In my tent

Sea glass pile

I also wanted the sea glass to come back. After playing with some installation configurations, I came up with a curved line of glass, a gestural spreading that thickens in the middle and thins at the ends. The name I came up with for the piece, "Memoria Congeria" basically means collected memories. But "Congeria" has several meanings;

1. heap, pile, mass
2. collection/accumulation (events/words)
3. the ruins
4. chaos

Given the metaphor I had come up with regarding sea glass (experiencing tragedy is like shattering glass, but tossed in the waves of grief the edges become smooth overtime, never whole again) the definitions, "the ruins" and "chaos" seemed extremely fitting.

Sea glass temporarily installed on the beach

"Memoria Congeria"- Installed in the gallery

Light Dance

Right about 7pm I had this awesome moment where the sunlight was coming in my window and doing a crazy dance on the opposing wall. So of course I filmed it. Here are a couple of the raw videos. Obviously i'll be editing them and adding sound. I like the close up views best. I think with the right music and editing, this could be a nice compliment to the waves video. It has a very similar transcendent, mesmerizing quality to it.

Potential musical accompaniment...
BT-See You on the Other Side ....how perfect is that title?!

 

Or.... Múm-The land between Solar Systems ...also a good title.

"Mom"morial Tiles...Ha...

 I've made some more tiles. And I decided that I didn't want to create so much a monument but a memorial, and not so much an object but a space...
So the plan is to section off a nook in the gallery with a wall of tiles leading you into the space telling a sort of story about my mom and a continuing cycle of life/death/rebirth. On the opposing wall would be the "waves" projection (and/or potentially another video of similar effect) with some seats or cushions to sit on. And maybe have something with the seaglass in the space.
Still needs some thought but I feel like I'm getting closer to the experience I'm trying to create.

I also came up with a new statement to be used in the thesis catalog...

"I am moved to create art that touches on concerns of humanity through emotional concepts that are relatable to a wide audience. I've used the personal story of losing my mother to cancer as a starting point as it evokes such questions as, How do we get past the loss of a loved one? and What happens to them, and eventually us, when we die? The former could be answered through the process of mourning and memorialization. For the latter question, I can only begin to speculate the possibilities from my Christian education mixed with the exploration into other religions and cultures. However, through this exploration, I have begun to form a vocabulary of symbols and metaphors to cope with my loss and develop a better understanding of death and the afterlife. Using these images, along with personal photographs of my mother and family, I wanted to create a sacred space for reflection about life, death, and the continuing cycle. Through the process of creating this piece that doubles as a memorial to my mother, I have been able to accept her death as well as my own mortality."

To elaborate on the ideas in the last post....

I've started experimenting with image transfers on Marble tile. So far i'm liking the results, I just have to perfect the process and not be so impatient when it comes to revealing the image. (Thankfully i have a heat gun to help speed things along) The marble is also imperfect in its surface, the nature of the raw tumbled stone. It kinda works though for these images, it enhances the look of degradation to emphasize the fragile, impermanence of life. I'm also not flipping the image before printing and letting the transfer be the mirrored reflection of the photo taken, much like i did with the transfer images in Ireland. Again, the images become the view from the other side. I don't know how obvious i'll make this just yet.

Their are two ideas for the structure that these tiles will form. I'd like to have both completed for the show.... but it's going to be a lot of work.

The first is a monument of four sides approximately 2 feet wide and 7 feet high. Ideally, I'd like it to be bigger but for sake of time and space, the 7 ft version is more feasible while still giving an impact of a large scale object.
Still keeping with the symbols I've been working with, each side is an element and representative of those symbols and metaphors.
The base will be about 2 ft wide and 1 ft high. The next section will be a little more than a ft wide and about 3 ft high. the top section will be 1ft by 1ft. And at the very top will be possibly an urn draped in cloth or some other symbolic statue/structure.
I was looking at garden statues to use in place of the angels cause I thought it'd be easier (and take less time) than trying to sculpt my own. However, it has been difficult to find ones that still feel representative of the elements, and at the right scale with the right stone finish to match. So my next thought is to do a mosaic inlay within the 3 ft center section. That will also save some marble tiles. (and $)

The second structure plan is more simple but still huge and a lot of work. Basically, it'd be a wall of tiles. It'd be cool if I could do an 8ft by 8ft wall, a full floor to ceiling gallery wall. Scale will most likely be determined by time and materials. I think I want to put importance on the monument but the wall would be pretty awesome as a compliment and another way to work with the tiles and try some different patterns. It'd be like a giant puzzle on the wall.

So the goal for the moment is to figure out the best transfer method, and then make a bunch of tiles. Whatever won't work on the monument can be saved for the wall.

New Idea...s

instead of shrines...a monument... four sides...four elements....different tiers of images...

and a tiled surface on one or more of the tiers... photo transfers on the tiles...

depending on the material used to make the monument...displayed outside...in public space...
extra tiles and maybe some other smaller pieces in the gallery.

Laurel Hill Cemetery