A Little Story About Trash and Treasures

So, because I haven’t actually made this thing yet, I am just going to tell you my plans. I am excited: I keep finding shards of blue patterned ceramics (cups, bowls and plates, I suppose) in the gardens I am working in, and today I found most of a bowl. One chunk is mussing out of the side, but there is enough left to see the full blue floral sweetly decorating its curvature. When I found it, I wasn’t sure whether or not to keep it – all of my other pot sherds have fallen out of my pocket and been reclaimed by their respective gardens. But, as I was carrying this bowl to the work truck along with some other bits of trash, I realized that it kind of went with them… A little old wooden shingle and approximately 10-12 inches of what looks like the plastic that keeps together staple gun staples. I had a few other miscellaneous items, as well, but the worn shingle, the lacy-looking plastic and the bowl just fit together. So I kept them, and I am going to make an assemblage. (I would have called it a drawing in our senior studio classes…) They clattered in my bike basket the whole way home.

Breaking News! I Added a Page!

Well, I guess I gave it all away in the title of this post, but I added a new page to the blog. It is called Other Projects and is devoted to… other projects. Since most of the work I have been posting on the home page lately has been what I would consider sketches, Other Projects is a little different. There I document the “assignments” I have completed from a few different projects, not all of which are mine. So check it out.

Photo Sketches: MA #2, the docks

I was wandering again and I really liked the way these things looked.

Photo Sketches, MA Edition

Now at my parents’ house for the summer, I am trying to keep up my creativity. I was really getting into a groove before I left, which was great. But truth be told, since this last week (my first week here) was both very dreary and my first week of work, I didn’t feel like doing very much at all. Other than sketching in a cafe on Tuesday for about an hour when I was rained out of work (I work outside) I haven’t done anything to exercise my eyes or hands creatively. This morning my remedy for this inactivity was to walk around and take photographs. I found or made a handful of compositions out of my parents’ things and then photoed them. This is a selection.

Reclaiming My (high school era) Studio

In high school I was lucky enough to have a small studio in my parents’ shed. I had everything I needed – space to work, space to store supplies, a radio, a radiator (for those cold Massachusetts winter nights), a small rug… and turquoise walls with orange accents, a chalkboard painted cabinet* and tons and tons of “inspiration” (ie. clutter) tacked to the walls. EEK!

I am again lucky enough to have this work space (and I really mean that), although this time I share the space with a chest freezer. That said, it (clearly) needed a little bit of updating and decluttering. It was a fun afternoon project. I covered the bare plywood work bench with a sheet of Masonite for decreased risk of splinters and ease of sliding paper collage pieces. Above that -and below my blue, orange and chalkboard storage cabinet- I tacked a piece of canvas over the turquoise wall. I took down most of the things that were hanging from the wall and ceiling, rearranging what was left into actual compositions. I pulled out extra nails that were sticking out of the walls. And I went through everything in the whole area. It’s really strange to be so engulfed by this space and these relics of a past self that no longer exists. I split these things into several piles (see below). Needless to say, there were some gems.

TRASH – including an old, unfinished painting, damaged in transit, that I thought I’d already trashed… and the Johnny Depp part of a Pirates of the Caribbean poster… (Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom were MIA, although I know I had them too at one point.)

RECLAIM – several canvas boards with really bad sketches of things representing teenage angst that never became paintings -thankfully- c. age 15. (To be gessoed over and then added to the “donate” pile.)

DONATE – Things that are still perfectly good, but not things I will/ can use, ie. giant pads of newsprint and lots of clay – sigh, no kiln. (To go to someone/ someplace that needs them.)

KEEP BECAUSE I WANT TO – bead loom, personal sketchbook from my last year of high school/ first year of college, clay tools, etc.

KEEP BECAUSE I SHOULD – a sketchbook from age 12 and another from age 15 or 16. Both of these are just as embarrassing as the middle school journals that I also keep but also cannot look through. I’m just glad there are fewer of these sketchbooks and that most of them aren’t very full.

BELONGS ELSEWHERE – my parents’ kitchen scissors, c. 2003, a cd I have never seen before…

GIFT/ REGIFT – beach glass, an ocarina that is actually a geode that I found on the beach (pictured below), a four pack of stinky votive candles, gimp (Seriously, 15-year-old self?)

and GAG GIFT – This pile was BIG. And I’d list some of these *prize* items, but if I did that, you’d know what you were getting the next time I have the opportunity. (Gimp might actually have ended up in this pile.)

*the things that I wrote on that chalkboard were not fully erasable, so I have lists from that era to remind me of what I needed to do and song lyrics of songs I haven’t listened to in years.

Sketching, migrating and misplacing my camera

I have misplaced my camera, so it is going to be a little longer before I post some new work. Recent activities include sketching plants (my tomato and basil seedlings) and people (in a local cafe) as well as more work on Thought Cloud. The ts envelope was bursting at the seams, so today I’m going to be tackling some thes, thoughs and todays, among others.

I’ll be heading back up north for the summer to work, too, so I’m sure my work will reflect that in some ways. I always seems to use more cool colors and sketches of seashells while I’m by the ocean. There are gallery openings pretty often, too, so I will have to check them out.

In the meantime, if you’re in the mood for something scrumtious, head over to my side project, Collective Kitchen, where it is easier for me to post something without the benefit of a camera.

Archie Scott Gobber

My friend Cory sent me a link to this artist’s website. As an artist who uses text, I think it is facinating how Archie Scott Gobber uses it in such a completely different – but very compelling way. His statement is short and sweet:

“Using language, I say something and nothing at once.  There is power in words and suggestion as I ask the viewers to provide authorship through the filter of, their lives, beliefs and unique circumstances.  Through the various meanings usages and entendres of language, I am provided infinite source material.”

image 1: In Memory of Loving You, 2007
image 2: Better Off Now, 2009
image 3: Gol Darn America, 2008

Inspiration: rununculous and dogwood

Every time I go to the farmers market I swoon over the flowers, but I rarely buy them. This week, though, the rununculous were so gorgeous that I couldn’t pass them up. I bought this little bunch of mixed colors from Wild Hare Farm. They are perched on the book shelf next to my desk in a repurposed glass jar. Although I haven’t drawn them yet, they were too pretty not to photograph.

Also, now that it’s spring, the whole town is in bloom. I have never seen so many dogwood trees in my life. They are not only carefully cultivated in people’s back yards, but growing wild along the highways… it’s gorgeous

While I love gardens and cut flowers, as well as drawing them, art featuring flowers has never appealed to me all that much… except certain traditional French/ Provencal textiles, such as this one.

Studio Time!

Since finding out about my acceptance to the VAE, I have been logging a lot of time in the studio. And I have made A LOT of progress – lots of new pieces in ongoing series, a few tangents, reviving old projects, lots of podcast listening, etc. Which makes me wonder how much I would have to show if I had done this all year (rather than taking my studio 100% for granted for weeks at a time by only venturing into it after the cat…) It isn’t exactly a fair comparison, since my batteries badly needed recharging and I had a full time job, but now that nothing is weighing on me, I am going to continue enjoying the luxury to work all day in my studio, completely wrapped up in my own little world. (Because it sure isn’t going to last forever.)

Anyway, I’d like to share a couple of new pieces from Thought Cloud. These are from the envelope entitled “drawings and symbols” which includes punctuation and numbers.*

Sorry for the quality of the photo. It’s drizzly and dark today. Hopefully you can get the gist…

*I copy, cut, sort, file, sort again, arrange, and glue these pieces together. Envelopes factor in around step three.

Natural History Museum Sketch Session

So, as some of my previous posts have shown/ as anyone who knows me already knows, I love natural history museums. Even with the thousands of screaming children that always seem to populate them, I think they are fantastic. And, as anyone who has ever been to a museum with me will know, I read every little plaque and constantly talk about wanting to touch things.

Well, last weekend, Matt and I went back to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh and this time the naturalist center was open. Oh man, was it exciting! The naturalist center is a room where -as long as you are older than 8- you can look at and touch preserved specimens of bugs, animals, some types of plants and fungi. Not to mention fossils and bones. This was our first time in, so we were both surprised (but thrilled) to learn that we could touch. I picked up almost every bird and was really tempted to climb into this huge wolf’s pelt (I totally understand now why they were used ceremonially). We had both brought along our sketchbooks, so we set up at a couple desks to draw our specimens.

This is my screech owl. She was preserved by having her skin/ feathers preserved and stuffed with cotton. My hand got really hot from holding her while I was drawing. During that time, this kid came up behind me to watch. He got embarrassed when I turned around and said hi, so he said, “Nice owl” and wandered off.

I still can’t believe what an amazing resource this is. And, it’s free.