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.

in the shadows.

My final piece in my studio class last year was a large installation with several parts. While the whole piece should have been experienced differently alternating between lit and unlit, the strongest element was the projection on porcelain shards and the shadows that were cast on the wall. This piece evolved from many different ideas which came to me constantly. My first original idea was born from my desire to do a painting for a project. I'm not a painter, but really felt that I needed to try many different approaches to dealing with similar themes. And, because our CORE studio class encouraged different explorations it made sense for me to take a risk and try something out of my comfort zone.

I think that there were several subconscious things happening with this piece that were revealed when I finished. The main thing that (clearly) jumps out is the floor work and the shadows that create a new landscape on the wall. Not entirely a surprise to me because I really like artists who work with light and shadows. I had more 'fun' trying to get it right and to have the shadows and projections create the right effect. But most importantly, working with the porcelain solidified my purpose of returning to art school - i love clay.  Why not have both?

I was really happy to be finished with the semester but of course the fear of the big show next year - the thesis show in the museum. What the heck would I do and what would lead me down the right path?

It wasn't until John and I were in NYC to see the Alexander McQueen show at the MET that something else occured to me: the shadows are just as important to me as the physical work. The work can stay the same but depending on how it is lit, or what is projected on it, the experience can be totally changed. After the mind-blowing McQueen exhibit we were walking around the museum  - John taking pictures of hands and other things with his hipstamatic app (he's quite good) - I found myself more interested in the shadows that were cast from sculptures. It started with a piece from the show Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents called La Cuisine. As we walked by this piece (and many other similar ones) the complex shadow caught my eye and I felt that it really brought the sculpture, the mask, to life.

Suddenly I was prowling through the museum looking at things differently. There were shadows everywhere.

I am not sure what I can do with my work that will explore this effect, but I know that I am excited that I can enter my thesis year with an idea to build upon. I have no idea where it will take me and as I have learned (often the hard way) that I cannot always know what the end result will be.

a new experience!

I created this blog a little while ago but couldn't for the life of me figure out a good way to start writing, or what I would write about. As a former marketing professional I suppose that I'm a bit harder on myself and didn't want to start something without some goal or purpose. I think I started about ten blogs. None of them have any entries. Until this one. Now.

Just today I printed my new lease for a studio space at Flux Studios.

As a student at the Corcoran College of Art + Design we are given studio space to do our work. This is fine and great, but we get very little work done. Being a ceramics and sculpture person, installations and performances too, a small space is very hard to create in. Worse yet is my studio space at home. AKA the third floor bathroom. We won't even talk about the amount of my stuff around the house that is starting to drive even ME crazy. To get serious work done I have been looking for a space. Some place where I can be inspired, instead of annoyed, by the people around me and where I can safely work out new ideas and concepts.

I also want to start focusing more on my studio practice. This is something that we are constantly challenged to think about...'what kind of practice will I have?' I think that I am ready to pursue this angle of my art career. Become a practicing studio artist.

And student.

So, the nature of this blog has revealed itself to me. This will be the place where I will write about this experience.

scenes from my studio.

The final days of third year are coming up close and fast. We are on our final 'contract' - 6 - which is a connect-the-dots piece that is the start of a series of work. We are to look at each project we have done over the year and then make a series of at least three pieces based on the common thread or key aspect to our work. This basically translates into 'the studio is kinda chaotic' Partial projects are all over the place, and my own studio is looking rather manic. I've seemed to run out of room for all my work and various ideas. Time to really get serious about a studio!