appropriately appropriated

Sorry for my absence on the blogging. Much like I would expect, my hard drive crashed again on my Mac Book and I had to get a new one. I'm normally pretty good about doing regular system back-ups and all that - but of course for the past few weeks I've been working 'rogue' at home and bouncing around...NOT connected to my monitor and thus my external hard drive. Fast-forward to my new hard drive and a computer that doesn't remember my blog account password, and a password that is outside of my normal password structure..thus, no blog post. until now, in a stroke of genius, I remembered my 'this is brilliant' NEW password structure. And, now I can blog again. Back to my story... ...I was excited that they could fix the computer, however still a bit worried that this is the second time this has happened, or third even, so I'm now in a constant state of worry. All that said, with my new hard drive, I had to do a back-up from my most recent back-up, which was several weeks ago. I also recently upgraded to Lion and was concerned that my new hard drive was formatted for Snow Leopard and my back-ups would not work. Luckily, the Apple Genius said he had an image of Lion that he could put on my machine. That seems to work for me, but I immediately got concerned that this 'image' of Lion wasn't the real version that I purchased. Could I still use this? Would I be stealing work that was protected under copyrights?

Much like in art, we collect images that we use in our art, be it just a simple notion that we visually revisit at some point, not a copy but a nod to the idea. This is absolutely fine, as is the use or appropriating images for use in work as long as they do not represent what they originally represented. Or, even further, the IDEA that was represented.Once this topic is usually openly discussed, the subsequent discussion on plagiarism must also occur. I suppose because I also 'own' the software, I could use the image freely.

In some of my own work, I have appropriated images. For a piece I did last year in CORE studio, I downloaded and reprinted 50 images that were taken during The Artist is Present with Marina Abramovic, a retrospective of her work at the MoMA last year. She is a favorite of mine and I wanted to sit with her so badly, instead I just watched people watching each other. The work that I created from someone else's images - photos on a flickr stream - were all modified in such a way that they had new meaning and were different than the intended purpose of them (which was most likely just for documenting each person). Had I called the images 'mine' would have been problematic...they aren't mine.

I think that I appropriately appropriated images in this case. But a bigger question is always out there - when are images not used correctly and what can happen? The most recent and important image stealing case has to be that of Shepherd Fairey and his famous Obama HOPE poster image. The actual piece is a collage of newspaper articles, but the image is that of an AP photographer. This all probably would have gone away, after all, they were fighting over the use of the image of the President (which once elected, the POTUS image is the MOST protected visual asset we have as Americans and you can't use it for any purpose) The issue got uglier once Shepherd started lying under oath. Oops.

Last year during the ARTS 101 lessons that Sussannah, Hannah and I created, we used images of artists work. Clearly we didn't modify it's use, or make new art work from it, but we made informational posters with images from Mondrian, OKeeffe, and some others along with images of posters that were actual reproductions of works of art from the Corcoran Collection. Clearly multiple offenses of inappropriate appropriation happening here. Well, not really. The Corcoran most likely owns the rights to the images of their collection (and why you can usually take photos of museum's permanent collections, but rarely for travelling exhibits) so they can do with them what they want - like make posters for art educators (like ME) - who can then make posters from the posters. A clearly clever negotiating the legal side of artwork reproduction. Never did these posters make any financial gain, only educational gain.

I think that as an artist and future art educator, it is ok to appropriate images when used .... errrrr.... appropriately. Obviously we all have enough ethics to know that we don't pass off another's work as our own. As teachers, we have just be be aware of the current laws and make sure that we don't intentionally break them.

to scan or not to scan...

So, my piece "Jesus Doesn't Live Here Anymore" continues to generate conversation. I wasn't sure what kind of response, if any, I would get from my use of the QR code.

Since the piece was installed, last week, people continue to approach me and tell me they like (or don't like) my piece in white walls. How would they know it's me if I do not have a name label on the wall?

Nate G. came up to me yesterday and showed me his friend's phone with my text on the screen. I was glad about that interaction with both my work and me personally. I like when someone tells me they think my idea to use the code is interesting.

I will share one more bit of information about the code and it's placement in my installation. I made it small so that you would have to get closer to the piece, interact with it more, just in order to scan the code.

I'm excited where this work is taking me and I have already begun working on my second piece in this series that will lead me to my Thesis preview show in December where the largest piece of this series should (god i hope) be complete and generate just as much conversation. Good or bad.

I've even included the QR code so that you can scan it on your phone from wherever you are. you don't even need to be at the Corcoran White Walls exhibit.

no forwarding address.

So, I survived my (e)merge art fair experience relatively unharmed. Well, actually, I think I came out of the other side a different person and different artist armed with a better idea of how to talk about my art. It's interesting to me to think that I may make different art now. Not different in that I am going to pander to the art community, but with the understanding that everyone will look at my art differently.

I cannot influence how people interpret my art unless I specifically say "My work is about..." or "This is what you are to think..." Hopefully, I will be able to be clear in my intentions with what I want to communicate - but I'm also secure in understanding that not everyone will 'get' it. That's ok from my perspective, just as it should be ok from the viewer's perspective.

Heading into the (e)merge show I knew that immediately after the de-install of that show, I would be installing my first senior show at school called FOCUS. This show sets the stage for our final thesis project and show in the museum. For many weeks, I worked and worked on a new piece for this first show. I was working on a large wall piece, or floor piece (I didn't really know) and was really struggling with what the piece meant to me and why I was making it. I started to enter my previous work style, and was forcing meaning that was not there. During my one-on-one meetings with my instructors, each gave a different set of critiques and I continued on my way.

On the Wednesday during my install of (e)merge Ivan basically challenged me about the piece and it did several things: 1. made me panic, 2. made me rethink the entire piece, 3. made me panic even more because I was already knee deep in working on a piece where I didn't know the outcome. So, now, I have two pieces that I have no clue what they were going to be. Fuck. I knew I wouldn't have time to completely make something new and I thought that I was going to have to go with a piece that I couldn't talk about and just take the hit. I knew that I would get slaughtered if I put up a piece just because it was pretty and shiny.

Pretty and shiny doesn't always go well in art school. And pretty and shiny CERAMICS definitely doesn't (always) go over well...I might as well have said I wanted to be a visionary artist just for the trifecta of art school sins.

So, all during the (e)merge show I was fretting over what I was going to install on Monday morning. I figured I would just continue making the horns and something would come out at the right minute.  I thought the solution was to work with a different material - glycerine - and so I started working on those.

Still nothing.

I realized that I would have to make something work during the install and just put it all out of my mind and would deal with it at the time.

Well, just as things always work out, the (e)merge art fair came to an end. The last day was the best with so many friends coming to visit  - Beth, Art, Tara, the amazing Jen, Greg, Daniel, Jim, Judith, Novie (the owner of Flux Studios DC) and so many others. Forest Allread continued to be a great friend and we had so many more great conversations. The day definitely was ending on a high note.

Then it was 5pm. The show was over. Time to take everything down. Time to face reality that I still didn't have a good piece for the show the next day.

I got sad.

It was amazing how quickly the other artists were able to pack up their work and return this magical art wonderland to it's own reality: a parking garage.

I was standing in the middle of a parking garage popping garbage bags. Shit. Is this my future? Where was Jesus in the Clouds?

I continued to clean up my mess. Thinking about my work and what this experience meant to me. Did this work still exist? My strand of Jesus lights were revealed to me and as I unplugged them I jokingly said to myself: "Jesus doesn't live here anymore."

Then it hit me like a bag of deflated garbage bags - literally. All this shit i've been carrying around with me, this garbage,  was the work. All I had to show for this amazing experience was thrown over my shoulder and into the back of my car. I wanted to keep it, but also wanted to break out of it like a bull through the toreadors cape.

I had my piece for my FOCUS show. Dear sweet baby Jesus, I hope I can pull this off.

How to make gifs

i feel different.

It's been since Thursday afternoon that my piece "I Saw Jesus in the Clouds" has been on display at the (e)merge art fair. Over these past few days, i've watched the work transform and slowly become something a bit different than the fully inflated bags that represented the clouds. Now, the piece has become a great learning experience for me. Spending time near the piece over the past few days has made me think a lot about how people interact with art and how I interact with people interacting with my art - if I do at all. There have been two main take-aways from this experience for me, which ends today:

• Do I, as an artist, interrupt the viewer and discuss my work?
• How do I actually talk about my work?

I have also enjoyed the times that I spent with former Corcoran student and current MAT2 student (the art ed program I am also in) Forest Allread. His work won him a place in the show, and I've always thought that his work was leaps and bounds better than many folks coming out of our school. His work is just so unique and interesting to me. But, anyway, he and I were discussing the 'problem' of when do you - as the artist - approach someone in the art space and interrupt their exploration of the work? I think he and I were both in agreement that you have to really let the people spend the amount of time uninterrupted. But, there is a point when some cues are given that you can talk to them, or if they approach you. I've had both experiences by my work both with different results.

I was watching a father and son (about 7) walking all around my piece, and then the son finally settled in the chair that is nestled under my clouds. I could tell they were having a conversation of some depth. I got curious and slowly started to inch my way closer and closer. The little boy was looking up and all around him. Finally I got into earshot and overheard:

Father:  "....but, do you think this is art?" Son:  "...ummmmm....yeah, because I feel different when I look at it"

Well, that was all I needed to hear. Of course a few seconds later he noticed the brightly lit magnet piece across from mine and took off. I can't blame him, i'm easily distracted by the brightness of the piece as well. And, it's got magnets. Who doesn't love magnets?

A little bit later a woman, older, and clearly drunk, wanders into my space. She's puzzled and appears frustrated. I intentionally decided to interrupt her because I knew she probably needed my guidance. I chose poorly.

She didn't know that the piece was mine, and I approached her - cautiously - and said hello. The floodgates of confusion burst and her unsuccessful day of looking at and interpreting emerging art and artists was spewed all over me.

Lady:  "....Can you splain thish to me? I jush don' get it...." me: (after taking step back, not sure if I could get contact drunk)  "Sure, it's about white trash"

Of course, my description was a little bit longer, but the funny thing is she then finally understood it. The 'it' being ART in general. We had an interesting conversation about art and that it is ok not to understand it all. This woman was probably in her late 60s and like I mentioned, she was drunk. But I think she was drunk because the day for her was so frustrating. The gallery rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors could be intimidating to the casual art viewer. Even I had problems understanding some of the concepts. But this drunk woman was upset with herself because she didn't understand the art that she so desperately wanted to 'get.'

I told her that it was ok not to understand it all but that she had to focus on what she liked and then could dig in and ask questions. Finally, her eyes lit up like it was me that finally gave her the validation that she wasn't stupid for not understanding what she was seeing. At one point Mia Olsen (whom I adore) came up and I asked the lady if she remembered the 'room with the hair all over the bed'  "YESH! I didn unnershtand that."

me: "That was Mia's work"

A few seconds of awkward entered the conversation again, but I think the woman was finally OK not understanding some work. At this point I directed the woman to the Art Whino area, armed with a new sense of understanding the art scene and knowing it was OK to be puzzled by work.

me: "Sorry, Mia, I had to help that woman drive the bus that just ran both of us over"

But, all of these exchanges also made me realize that sometimes people DO need the help of an artist statement or some sort of explanation of the work. We are not all art students and lovers of art or art theory. I realized that my work may be different things to different people. (let's face it, my piece is a bunch of garbage bags tied together...) Some people need the work explained in terms that they can identify with. I can tell them what it means to ME, but they will interpret it based on what they bring to the work.

guy with long ponytail: "I have work in this show too." me:  "GREAT! what is it?"  (I realized afterwards that his statement was a challenge to me, but I took the bait anyway) guy with long ponytail: "I installed the walls and drywall [that enclosed] the space." my thought bubble said "OH FUCK, now what do I say?" me: "GREAT! thank you for your effort, fine job you did." his girlfriend with the 'Buddha Say Relax' tshirt: "Can you tell me about your work?" my thought bubble repeated, louder this time: "OH FUCK, now what do I say?" me: "It's about sitting under the clouds and meditating on what you may find"

They both took off arguing over who would sit in the chair first. They took turns taking pictures in the chair, and I took pictures of them as a reminder of this exchange.

After they were done, the woman came over and suddenly was full of insight into the work as if Buddha himself whispered the meaning to her. And as they walked away, lured again by magnets, they kept looking back and pointing, seeing different things in the cloud.

Sometimes you have to tell the people what to see. And sometimes, they tell you what THEY see and it brings further meaning to the work that may not have been there in the first place.

But of all the interactions I had with people, the most special to me was walking Jacquie Ionita - the Gallery Directress at Hamiltonian Gallery - through the piece. I don't really care to tell everyone about our exchange, but in just a few minutes she gave me the best advice for talking about my work.

Because of that, I feel different now.

I feel like an artist.

before.

This is quite a week in regards to work and art making. Yikes.  Two big projects happening in the same week. For CORE Studio (my main studio class for my fine art studies) we install our first show on Monday September 26 in White Walls. This is technically our first contract or project that is leading up to our thesis preview show in December. My work is focusing on...well, i'm not entirely sure yet. I've been reading this incredible book The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard, and it has really helped me to understand my work and my thoughts on my work in ways that I suppose I knew was there somehow, but hadn't been fully realized.

My first piece is dealing with horns. But it's mostly about how horns (and teeth, hair, etc) are just by products of things our body doesn't need anymore and we shed it, and what our body produces that will help to protect us. I've always identified with the bull (being a Taurus) and these specific horns have always fascinated me as objects - i've incorporated them into my work for a long time but didn't understand the connection they were making to me and my work.

I've made many of them because it's my favorite mold in the ceramics studio - but it wasn't until the Poetics of Space and my more detailed understanding of space and home and what makes a home a safe place that these horns have taken on a new meaning. I see them as an expulsion of my self and the repetitive creation something that - in mass quantity - can be rather agressive looking and protective. In my one-on-one critiques with my instructors we've discussed the many possibilities for this piece and I'm excited that even up to the last few days of work-time, I still don't know 100% how the final will look. (the old art-making me would be having a nervous breakdown at this point.)

Speaking of me making pieces that I don't know how they will be finalized, I started working on my installation at the (e)merge art fair. I'm revisiting a piece that I did for CORE last year that was a further exploration of my cloud installation (which you stood inside of) but instead, it was me making a cloud but intentionally allowing the materials and the process dictate what happened. This was very helpful to me because it made me have to NOT know what the end result would be. Working with the garbage bags was a great way to wrestle with the act of creating, but having to give-in to unseen forces (air leaking out of the bags.) In the end, I had a piece that was enormous and showed my process as well as my efforts.

When  I was invited to be in (e)merge I was talking with Joe Hale (our exhibit director) and was talking about what I should do, I mentioned the cloud piece and he said that would be great because he needed installations. This piece, when finished should definitely command a presence in the show (good or bad) and will hopefully be the bait to bring people to our booth/area so they can see the fine work from my fellow students in the Fine Art program and Photo/PhotoJournalism programs. There are 10 of us total, and only four fine artists (well, we are all FINE artists...) I plan to do a few different things with this piece and with the help of my good friend Andy Martin (from Philly, and graduate from the Tyler School of Art) so, again, I'm not entirely sure what the end result will be - with the exception of a marketing tool to get people to our space. . .

guess i'll be a marketer until the end.

so many options.

Last night I went to the opening of the WPA show Options 2011  <--click for details -in what has to be one of the coolest spaces for a show in DC - some random pre-demolition or pre-renovation space on New York Avenue next to District Crossfit and the DC Eagle. You enter the space up a flight of crack-house style stairs and through a narrow (about as wide as me) opening into a large cavernous series of rooms. Amazing. There were many artists' work in the show that I'm familiar with, Heather Boaz, Lisa Dillin, and Katherine Mann. Katherine's work greeted me as I walked up the stairs and blended into the space nicely, almost too nicely since some attendees didn't even realize it was her work. Corporate culture was the theme in Lisa Dillin's work (also a current teacher of mine) and I really connect to it having spent so many years in corporate america (lowercase intentional) - and the work seems even more relevant today in how hostile corporations are towards the public and their own employees.

I was instantly jealous when I saw the installation/performance by Heather. She had sent out a request for volunteers to be in the piece and I wanted to do it sooooo badly until my feet betrayed me. She needed someone with a size 10.5 shoe. I'm 11.5/12 and would have gladly cut off my big toe to fit in the shoes that the person had to wear. They had handles on the bottom. Incredible.

If you have a chance, you should check out the show.

and so it begins.

We are several weeks into the new semester, my final fall semester in the BFA program. I'm liking my classes a lot so far - mostly studio courses which is great because they are all focused on helping me gain the skills I think I'll need for my thesis show in the spring. (yikes) My CORE studio has been great and I've got my first critique starting on September 26. I had several ideas for this first project knowing that they should all start to funnel into my thesis show, and the big thesis preview show in December. I've been making and making and making! I'll write a more specific post about that in the next day or two once I have more work done.

My other studio courses are Slipcasting and Mold-making and also one called Mold-making. One is ceramics based (my focus) and the other is all the other mold-making techniques with other mediums. I'm LOVING both and am very excited about the work that I can start to produce, and mass-produce. Again, in the next day or so I'll post about each project in more detail.

My MAT classes are great also - Digital Media for Art Educators, and Thesis Pro-Seminar. For the Digital Media class I will be required to post twice a week on various art education topics we are learning about, so expect this blog to become quite content-heavy. I will most likely create an 'Thoughts on Art Education" section to categorize the pages a little more so if you are not interested in art ed, you won't have to read my thoughts.

I've gotten my studio at Flux Studios DC all set up and have been working there as much as possible, making work to sell. We had an open house with the Washington Glass School last week with 70 collectors and curators of contemporary glass. These were mostly people from the mid-west and as they entered my space and saw gold skulls and devils and my baby-bombs - they would harrumph and turn around. I had some good conversation with a collector about some of my paper works (from a project called "Food, Survival, Extremes") - I really enjoyed talking about my work and process. Another buyer was interested in what I refer to as 'the headdress' and I hope to hear from him soon about purchase. (please please)

Next week my world will also be a bit crazed because I will be showing at the (e)merge art fair at the Capitol Skyline Hotel. I'll be representing the Corcoran with several classmates (four of us from Fine Art.) I'm a little freaked out because I have to create a site specific piece ON SITE. We are allowed in the space the day before. Seriously, the DAY BEFORE. I'm glad that my friend Andy Martin will be coming in from Philly to help me.

I'll post more in the next day and update this post with photos.

wish me luck!!!

seeing the light.

Even though John and I specifically went to the Naples Museum of Art to see the Nevelson sculptures, we also walked through their collection and other special exhibits. For such a small museum, they have a great permanent collection and some fun temporary exhibits. Stephen Knapp's Lightpaintings exhibit blew me away. Because I'm so fascinated right now with utilizing light and shadows in my work, seeing another artist (not like he or I are even remotely the first...) who is using organic shapes and a light source to complete the work made me very excited. I usually gauge how much work moves me by how quickly I think to myself "I want to do that too." Of course I would never blatantly copy another artists work, unless for purely learning reasons and then I would never show the work as my own. Duh.  But I like to think how that specific artists work, and statement about the work, intersect with my own and then what I could use to 'make it mine' or enhance something I am working on.

I had already been thinking about how I can make my porcelain surfaces more reflective and how the reflection would interact with the viewer and the piece. I remember from my last contract in CORE studio last semester that I wanted my shards to hang from the ceiling (or from a structure or whatever) and then have bits of mirror on them and when the projector was shining, the room with dance with the light. Thankfully my studio instructor Lisa kept reigning in my flood of ideas and I ended up with the floor piece and the wall work.

These lightpaintings are also a revelation to me because as much as I would like to be a master painter, the chances of that happening in my lifetime are slim. This has made me think how I can apply my own skills and 'vision' and make paintings of my own, but with materials that are more familiar to me.  Even before seeing this show my sketchbook was quickly becoming filled with ideas for work along these lines and seeing Mr. Knapp's work has inspired me to go even further - to 'get dirty' with the ideas.  It is sometimes frustrating being in Florida for the summer for me because I cannot act on these clay urges as quickly as I could at home in my brand spankin' new studio. (What's even worse is that the one clay/ceramic studio in town where I COULD get my hands dirty is now a Jiu-Jitsu place - SOOOOO not the same experience.)

Seeing his work also makes me think alot about how the shadows will be cast from the piece. His work is often mounted directly to the wall with brackets and then also mounted on boards/MDF perhaps, and then mounted on the wall. for obvious reasons, the directly mounted pieces of glass have a much bigger impact visually and the scale is almost overwhelming. The 'smaller' pieces that are mounted on wood bothered me at first because their was an additional shadow cast from the mounting. Looking back I realize that those pieces are just as strong to me because I really like the 'frame' that the shadow creates. Very interesting effect.

One other thing that I struggle with in my shadow work and that this exhibit confirmed to me is that the light source CAN be integrated into the piece and not hidden. In my work I did a combination of hidden light (projections) and the flashlight on the floor. Being in art school often means that even the smallest decisions are going to be attacked if there isn't some deep hidden meaning to their inclusion. In my case, I sometimes just want something shiny and pretty. having a flashlight on the floor had no hidden meaning (but I could bullshit one if I had to...something along the lines of 'the flashlight is the ghost hunters friend and in this case...blah blah blah) No, it was just the light source, and that's ok.

I'm sad that the museum closed and I couldn't go back to buy the show book, which isn't on Amazon, and to just sit in the room and spend time with these pieces.

forest through the trees.

Usually John and I arrive in Naples at the very end of June and so we never get to go to the Naples Museum of Art - it closes on July 1 for the summer. I suppose the few tourists that come here in the summer do not have 'visit art museum' at the top of their to-do list. Luckily, this year we arrived earlier than normal and were able to visit.

I was lured there mostly for the Louise Nevelson: Dawn's Forest installation. I think that I have only seen smaller works and larger works but in black. In white they have a completely different presence and both John and I wondered how they were lit at night and what that did to them.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of it, and being the ever obedient museum goer, I took as many sneaky shots as I could. The one above is from the museum website. The ones below just magically appeared on my iPhone. Art elves put them there...

From the ground level, you can get a great feel for the scale of these giant pieces, some of them up to or over 28 feet in height, and then several hanging from the glass-domed ceiling like the spanish moss that is everywhere down here lazily drooping towards the ground.

From above, the second floor of the museum I took the picture looking down and was once again struck by what the shadows do to the work - it borders on chaotic. But I still love it and her all of her other work.