Sunday in the City | 1

If you haven't been following me on Facebook, you will be surprised to find out that I packed up my little art room in little Tallahassee and moved myself up to the big city - NYC!  Yes, of course I have only been here for five hours, but I'm already feeling renewed inspiration in my bones.

I used to blog about both my art and my personal growth as an artist, but that slowly faded in my later years of undergrad after being bogged down with extensive projects, and we all know the blocks that I've been having this past year making new and exciting pieces that mean something.  I think that this transition in my life needs to be documented (and my aunt has been pushing me to blog a bit more), so I'm going to try to sit down each Sunday and figure out everything that I've learned about myself, art and this great city that I'm now a part of.

So for today, it was a lot of traveling.  A long layover in Milwaukee reflecting alone at an airport Chili's to a lost bag that made the trip all the way to San Fransisco.  My uncle picked me up from LaGuardia and we did a quick tour (several detours actually, due to a malfunctioning Garmin) of Bushwick and had dinner at a lovely hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant (the first of many hole-in-the-walls to come, I'm sure).  A drive through Times Square led to one of my fave rappers getting out of the taxis in front of us (SAMMY ADAMS) and we landed in the Upper West Side at the apartment I'll be staying at until I find a permanent location later this summer.  It reminds me of the Princess House and is nice and cozy, filled with colorful art that reminds me of pieces the Jealous Curator would love, and two cute kitties that I will make love me. 

I can't wait to get up and explore tomorrow.  And that's something I haven't said in a really long time. 

"Hello, I live here."

Hibernation

I've been away from art all summer, which I must admit has been both a good and bad decision on my part.  I have been catching up on sleep, hanging out with friends before they move on from Tallahassee.  However, I've also been severely suffering from lack of inspiration.  Last semester just wore me out.  So, here is my first attempt at getting back into the art groove.  DRAWING LINES ON A PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT WITH A SHARPIE.  It's not much, but I guess it's something.

A Post About Resolutions

Hello all!  Although I have been trying to throw some posts together in the last few days, I would like to declare this the first official post of the new year! 2011 already seems like it was so long ago, and was filled with friends and family and some drama, but overall was a pretty good year.  My artmaking has really taken off in the last 365 days, and I hope that a clean studio and fresh mind will help to continue the trend.

Resolutions are always something I start to think of in the fall, and forget about until the champagne is popping and someone asks me what mine are.  So I made an effort this year, and came up with many, many goals for 2012:

To read, and understand, poetry.

To finish every book on my living room bookshelf.

To go to the BFA warehouse two to three times a week.

To keep my room clean (a problem that a young adult should not have to face).

To lose some of that extra weight. 

To blog more.

To call my best friends often.

To rollerblade!

And finally, to survive the Apocalypse. 

Update

I haven't blogged in a while, so I just wanted to condense everything that I have been working into one entry.

These are white earthenware honeycombs that I have been working on in ceramics.  The largest is a little over 16"x12", and there are two smaller ones.  I am very attracted to homes, so I wanted to explore the habitat of an insect.  These are coming out of the kiln today! Hopefully they will be installed in the Art Alley.

This is a side project that I have been working on.  Lately I have been very obsessed with the idea of hair and its links to identity, strength, and weakness, as well that the oddity it becomes when it is detached from a person.  This should be finished this week.  It is a banyan tree that will be draped in long braids.  The drawing is around 5.5'x3'.

These are two projects that I have been doing in printmaking class.  The one at left is a litho print that was created in Photoshop.  It incorporates an old family slide, one of my drawings, collage, and a photograph I took.  The picture at right is my screen print project.  It involves the old and outdated practice of phrenology.  I was experimenting with which traits I actually possess with the traits that I should possess according to the bumps and indentations in my skull.

Finally, these are porcelain molars that are also coming out of the kiln today.  Like hair, these are objects that become strange when apart from a jaw.  I have also created small porcelain nests that I hope to fire in the soda kiln that these babies will sit in.  As for the meaning? I think it has to do with identity again.  I'll get back to you on that when I get some final pictures up.

Update

How has the entire month of October already come and gone?! Tallahassee has yet to feel a consistent fall breeze, although the nights have been cool and wonderful.  We have been spending them with good friends at the Princess House playing backyard football, carving pumpkins, sitting around our brand spankin' new fire pit, and indulging in some AMAZING food (it surprises me how good we actually are at cooking).

The BFA warehouse has been cooling down a lot and I have been trying to get some work done over there too! My parents finally got to see my space when they came to visit us.  Speaking of work, I have had a zillion projects going on and am feeling very in over my head, which is frustrating.  Guess it is finally time to learn some time management!

So until I can learn to juggle school, work, and play like a grown-up, I'll just enjoy the beginning of fall in Florida.

My studio all finished... well, for the most part!

It's been way too long.

I'm back baby.

Plans for my 21st

So as the semester winds down and I sit on my couch itching for pack my room up in boxes and return home to my cluttered room and kitten, I cannot help but begin to gather ideas that I want to put into place for my magical twenty-first year on Earth.

First and foremost, I want to become more aware of things that I am spending my money on.  I feel like I am not a person who splurges on purchases or goes on constant shopping sprees, but I just feel like my money withers away just as quickly.  So I would like to begin to write down everything that I, spend my money on.  After finding a house tour of Kate Bingaman-Burt and her husband's apartmetn on Apartment Therapy, I was completely obsessed.  She has found a creative way to do document her spending.  As a fellow lover of obsessive behavior, I can fully appreciate her drawn out replications of credit card bills, drawings of strangers' mixtapes, and written-out lists.

Second, I would like to perfect my new house.  I want a room like they have in the magazines.  I am thinking a cozy and warm grey with lots of art on the walls and my beautiful gold mirror.  Of course these are all pictures of my dream home, I am hoping to pull some of the details into my pad.

Third, I think I would like to impose some therapy upon myself and do a drawing a day... I am going to need inspiration come fall for BFA reviews and my three studio classes (yikes!).  So at this point in this boring post, I would like to celebrate the fact that I finally have filled a sketchbook from cover to cover! Yay!

So, I think that is a good start.  I mean besides being with my friends and snagging a few gift cards, these are my birthday wishes...

Kate MacDowell is my idol.

So I figured that I would kill some time before leaving to get some lunch and check if I got into BFA (eek!) and put down in words a post that I have been formulating for some time in my head.

For Holly's class, we did a contemporary ceramics project that had to be based off of a modern ceramist's work.  I was sniffing around Artaxis when I came across Kate MacDowell, a ceramist who primarily works in porcelain hand-built sculptures.  When I looked on her website, I found that the symbols she works with (skulls, birds, nests, fetuses, organs, and insects) were ones that I have dealt with in my own work.  BUT, there was one piece that stuck out more than anything:

Entangled, 12.5"x10"x4.5", hand-built porcelain and cone 6 glazes, June 2010

If you have been following my blog along, you will see that this bears a strong, and I mean STRONG, resemblance to one of my pieces:

Anatomical Heart Octopus, Micron pen and ebony pencil on watercolor paper, February 2010

And I knew right then, I had found my art soul mate.  Everyone talks about an artist that has strongly influenced their work.  I had something similar, though I had never really felt a connection to any artist.  I literally stared at Entangled for fifteen minutes on my couch.  The fact that two people can come up with ideas like this independently baffles me.  Never in my life had I seen anything like this before I drew it for Chuck's class.  It kind of reminds me of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace and their ideas of natural selection and such.

Anyway, I obviously sent Kate some fan mail and she sent me back a lovely note answering a few questions I had about how she started to get into ceramics.  She has only been at it for four years!  Kind of gives me hope, haha.

Whatever happens, happens.

BFA Round Two

Today was BFA review day.  This time around, I didn't make as big of a deal out of it.  But, I am pretty confident in the work that I put up.  The first time I applied was a nice learning experience for me.  Whatever happens, happens. :)

This is my living room this morning at 3:30 am...

The final product!

I got prime real estate.  Drawing room, end of the wall, and table.

NCECA Adventures

Well last weekend was the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference in Tampa.  A couple friends from my ceramics class and I decided to take the journey home for some gallery hopping, lots of walking, and my mama's homemade waffles! We left late Thursday night so that we could get a full day in on Friday.  And let me tell you, we jam-packed that day!  I can honestly say I have never in my life done this much stuff in one weekend of being home.  

After some delicious waffles and bacon, we drove to SPC Clearwater to see an Islamic Influence show that Erika was interested in.  Then we continued on to Downtown Tampa and went to the Tampa Museum of Art where they were holding the NCECA Biennial as well as Degas' sculptures.  Afterwards we were hungry again (we never stopped eating), so we crossed over the bridge to the University of Tampa.  After lunch in an un-air conditioned cafeteria and a few laughs, we crossed back over to downtown.  We made a quick pit stop at AIA Tampa Bay to see Michelle's favorite ceramists, Jason Briggs and Stephanie Lanter. After that it was over to the Convention Center to see if we could sneak in to take advantage of the vendors! Unfortunately, we had no luck, but did however get to stock up on business cards, grad school info, and gallery info from around the country.

That night, our ceramics teacher, Holly Hanessian, was curating a show, so we had some time to kill.  And what better way to kill time in Tampa than to go to good ole Ybor City for some Urban Outfitters shopping, followed by the theme park that is Ikea.  Then we headed over to Tempus Projects for the Material Matrix: 30 North by 84 West show.  This is a show that had recently been at the MoFA on campus, but it was lovely to see all the pieces again, including Karen Tharp, whose work I saw last semester in the grad show.  Plus, this time there was an adobe brick oven and a pizza making area!  Nothing like hanging with friends and artsy people and making a pizza pie on the bed of a vintage truck.  As if the day hadn't been crazy enough (it was already 9:00), Holly told us that she was in YET ANOTHER show at the Museum of Science and Industry.  So obviously we went over there to check it out.  Side note: I felt like a kid in a candy store being in MOSI with almost no one there (that was basically every child in the Tampa area's dream, let's be honest).

A little fun in front of the Tampa Museum of Art.

At the NCECA Biennial.  Michelle in front of one of my favorites, an untitled piece by Christopher W. Adams.

Stephanie Lanter's Clench at the You Know You Want To... show at AIA Tampa Bay.

Jason Briggs' Peel at AIA Tampa Bay.

 The next morning after a quick breakfast, we decided to go to Downtown St. Petersburg to see two more galleries where Holly's stuff was being shown (she is in about ten shows right now, totally legit) and to Mindy Solomon Gallery where my favorite ceramist, Kate MacDowell, was showing a piece.  Mama also treated us to a trip to the Chihuly museum!  I die every time I go in there. 

A few of Holly's pieces at Florida Craftsmen, Inc. in the Hot and Humid show.

Natural Selection by Angela DiCosola at Florida Craftsman, Inc.

Baby Head(s) by Bart Johnson at Mindy Solomon Gallery.

Queen of Denial by Kate MacDowell at Mindy Solomon Gallery.

Night Blooms by David Hicks (another fave) at Mindy Solomon Gallery.

Another one of Holly's pieces at the Gallery @ 620 in the Resonance show. (I totally sanded these when I worked at her studio!)

 

My man Dale Chihuly.

 And on Sunday, to round out a weekend of absolutely gorgeous weather, we went to the beach for a few hours before taking the long trek back to school!  What a glorious time it was.  Definitely needed for the crazy week I am having now-- BFA review on Friday!  Wish me luck!

Floor is COVERED with wet pieces of paper from doing photo transfers.

So many things happening.

It is already mid-March, yikes! School is already winding down which means, duh duh duh, BFA review in less than a month! Projects in all of my classes are coming together and I am so excited!

We just finished a family-based project in Creative Inquiry, dealing with transfer methods using photocopies.  Pictures shall be up soon.  I suppose I am pleased with them.  Didn't really have any exceptional ideas for this, so it was a struggle to come up with something I liked.

All of my projects are fired in ceramics, yes!  My spoon and spoon rest (netsuki and container project) have gone through both a bisque and glaze fire.  I am pretty pleased with the outcome... the blue underglaze (which you shall see very soon!) is showing through the white slip which is frustrating because I was hoping for a very opaque, bright white.  However the geometric design juxtaposed with the smooth curves is one of my favorite parts.  I hope it isn't too bottom-heavy and will hold up when mounted on the wall. 

Lady Gaga bust is also underway, having just come out of a bisque fire two days ago.  Her antlers broke before firing which is upsetting, but I am hoping some Sculpey magic can fix that!  She is a little paler than I had hoped for— the peach underglaze and white terra sigillata were an experiment.  I absolutely cannot wait to bedazzle her sunglasses and attach the feathers to her hat. Fierce! (I felt silly just saying that.)

I am ahead of the curve on my paired container project and PUMPED.  I looooove the texture of the tree form I have made and the smooth yellow tones of the attached pinch pots.  Already putting on a glaze.  Very excited.

And not to bore you but our contemporary project is what is currently being worked on.  I will have another entry about this one, because my inspiration is just a whole other story.

Anyway, I think I will end it here.  BFA review in 22 days and 11 hours.  Cannot wait to work in Holly's studio tomorrow for some extra moolah, not to mention soak up every inch of that atmosphere!  Then celebrating St. Patty's Day with my friends. XOXO

There you go Cody.

Updates left and right.

Everything from my ceramics class is being worked on at the moment. My netsuki and its container are going to be glaze fired this week, coil project (Gaga, eeek!) will be bisque fired today, and paired containers are getting a leatherhard critique next class.

Just experimenting in Chuck's class, no firm projects due that I know of.

BFA review in a little over a month.  Let the lack of sleep begin.

Back!

Okay, here comes the overflow of posts.  I am back and ready for action.  I had a lovely break where I just got to sit around and spend time with my old, great friends and my wonderful family.  Brainstormed a lot of ideas that I cannot wait to make a reality this semester!

Hiatus

Sorry that I haven't put up anything recent.  Winter break was a much-needed time to relax and, as much as I love art, a good break to blogging/flickr/etc.  I shall update soon.

 

This was the sky on the way home.  My absolute favorite.  Rides home are the perfect times to see great skies.

A little personal

This has nothing to do with art, but I just wanted to share something from my journal...

December 19, 2010:

12:40 AM.  Sitting on my bed that has lain quiet and still all day and remained unmade my entire time home.  Starting to watch The Mighty Ducks.  Mama gave me her old college sweatshirts and a few sweaters that Oma knitted herself.  They smell like old— storage, she says.  To me they are perfectly worn in and have that musty smell of memories and her twenties.  The air conditioning unit outside is squeaking like baby mice.  My fan is on high speed and I feel it the most on my kneecaps.  My eyes are tired but I find myself hesitating to sleep and I cannot figure out why.

More art should be coming soon.  I have just been taking in the home that I have missed so much.

Final Project Reflection

This is the paper that I wrote for Walking/Looking/Making about my final project.  Just thought I would share...

     Although I did completely chance my idea of my final project, I feel as though this concept came more from the heart, and would have been less tedious than creating a papercut forest.  This project was about taking actual leaves that had fallen from the trees in places where our class has hiked and recreating them to illustrate their rich textures and colors as well as to show how different each and every leaf can be.  Autumn is my favorite season, and studying these leaves was a way for me to create archival copies of changing leaves.

     On class hikes, I made sure to pick up leaves that looked as though they had fallen recently.  I was looking for leaves that were filled with reds, oranges, and purples.  I was especially drawn to leaves that were in the process of deteriorating.  The tiny, intricate skeletons of leaves are something that I have not noticed before, but the complexity of them is just astonishing and filled with texture.

     I was trying to be experimental in how I put together these specimen drawings together in a way that would focus on the color and texture.  Originally, I was preparing to use layered vellum for the drawings, but past experimentation with watercolor and vellum did not turn out as I wanted.  I opted for tracing paper, which is traditionally used for sketching and practicing, not final drawings.  Two layers of tracing paper, one with the colors similar to the actual leaf, and the other with the Micron pen textures, were cut into the shapes of the actual leaves, and glued onto a plate of glass.  The plate of glass was intended to have candles back lighting the drawings, but tea lights did not do the colors justice.  I was nervous that I was unable to capture the essence of autumn because when staring straight onto the drawings, the white of the tracing paper was overwhelming.  I then dyed the layered paper with coffee in order to make them seem warmer, but it did not do much difference.  The drawings curled and wrinkled when wet, and after ironing them they retained tiny wrinkles that I found quite lovely.  After hanging the framed pieces on the chain link fence where they were presented, the setting sun cast a golden light on them.  When night fell, the natural glow was replaced with two spotlights that did not look half bad.

     By putting deteriorating leaves on display, this piece demands that the viewer notice the fallen.  These are the leaves that have fallen early in the season and the leaves that people do not notice in the crisp, autumn evenings.  These are the leaves that the class tramples over in their hasty finish to the hike.  My purpose in making this piece was to show others a part of nature that is often forgotten.

"Make each day of the week like Friday and your life will take on new enthusiasm."

—Byron Pulsifer

My Friday was just so eventful. 

I had my last art history class of the semester (woo hoo!) and then hurried back to my disastrous apartment to finish up my project for George's Walking/Looking/Making class.  At about 4:30 I headed over to the Art Alley, where we were displaying our work in a Get Green show.  The alley is such a mysterious, magical place.  Tucked away behind the Engine Room, St. Michael's Pub, and Paul Putkovsky's artist studio, this is a place where inspiration and nature intertwine.  This alley is often frequented with drifters and the homeless, who both respect and sometimes add to the art that is installed by FSU art classes.  

So Catie, Cody, and CJ came to help me set up my work.  I did Micron pen (of course) and watercolor studies of changing leaves, mounted onto class.  They came out surprisingly well—I initially was not excited to show them off.  However, the setting sun cast such lovely shadows of the chain link fence behind the drawings.  The watercolors were intensified with the golden light, which made me extremely pleased.  

Cody and me hanging the frames on the chain link fence of the Engine Room's roof.

Left: My favorite watercolor job of them all—the purple and oranges were incredible in the dusk light.

Right: Me cutting twine.  Photo is compliments of my lovely sister, Catie.

All hung up!  Catching the last bit of sunlight.

The sunlight was replaced by spotlights at night.  Showtime!

After my class had our critique, Catie and I left and went bowling with the boys.  BUT THEN, there was an intense snowball fight on the Union Green.  Yes, I said snowball fight.  Twenty tons of ice was brought down from North Carolina and shaved into snow and spewed out over students as a very dangerous, but very delightful, snowball fight commenced below.  These pictures are from my phone and definitely not noteworthy, but you do get the feeling of happiness when the "first snow" of the winter has fallen...

We thought that this was going to be it...

After so much more ice was shaven, a ridiculous snowball fight ensued.

Ahh, I can't say enough how much I love this time of the year.

Classes are over, and I have one installation for drawing on Tuesday, and an art history exam on Friday. I see a lot of catching up on due drawings and online TV in my future.

"Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day."

-Robert Caspar Lintner

I have eaten so much food today, and there is nothing else I would rather be doing than sitting with my grandmother on the couch, watching football, beginning my long night of digestion.

Here are just some things that I find myself thanking God for everyday:

• my family
• Cabernet Savignon
• Goodwill
• my kitten and puppy
• Justin Bieber
• my best friends
• college football
• San Francisco, California
• artists great and small
• John Donne
• Sex and the City
• Longboat Key, Florida
• laughter
• deodorant
• thunderstorms

Tomorrow, the Christmas season officially begins.  Decorating all day with my Mama!  Only to be followed by a sleepover with my best friends.  This is just a glorious time of year.

“And when the future hinges on the next words that are said, Don't let logic interfere, believe your heart instead.”

-Philip Robison

Today was just not a good day.  I stood in a fire ant pile, it was entirely too hot for the middle of November, and I did not make it into the BFA program.

You win some and you lose some, I suppose.

So, I figured, "What better way to deal with my sadness than to go to the BFA Graduating Artists exhibit in the Museum of Fine Arts?"  I stood in the museum all alone and reflected.  I stared at the drawings so brilliantly displayed around me and cried a little.  

But then I came upon and installation piece by Mandy Yourick, where this little meatball-looking wax-covered pods were place in a coffin-esque container.  She invited people to take one home in a bag and plant it so a garden of their own may grow.  I saw this as a metaphor my life at this very moment.  I have to take what I have and make something out of it.  Maybe my life has yet to bloom.  

Maybe my life is yet to bloom.