I started working on a drawing from 5 years ago and in the process of re-thinking and filling in, I learned something about myself.... I'm not afraid. This is a really great news because I think 5 years ago my confidence was rocked and I was afraid of doing everything, going anywhere, trying anything etc etc. I'm so much better now! Yay for me!
So, back to this drawing-- I started it in grad school and it depicts a Utopian landscape complete with grassy hills, streams, bridges, trees decorated with tiny lights and these comfy egg shaped modernist chairs hanging from the branches. It was exhibited unfinished but I recently decided to finish it and have been coloring it in and thinking about some changes I'd like to make. It's a very slow process because I'm coloring in each leaf individually.
Otherwise, it's been a while since I've written in the blog- here's what's new in no particular order.
*I applied for the associated artists of pittsburgh and didn't get in. oh well, will try again in the fall.
*I went to see the Carnegie International on sunday and while I didn't see it all-- I was pretty impressed by some of what I did see-- Matthew Monahan's sculptures made out of floral foam, beautiful and unusual statuary relics that look like they are from another place and time. In fact, I can't stop thinking about these. (more on these later)
(image: carnegie museum)
Also, Mark Bradford's huge collaged paintings which use found papers and posters, permanent wave hair wrappers from the hairdresser and other urban detritus. He collages these huge canvases to look like maps of his neighborhood in LA and then sands them down and builds them up in places. These are so freaking awesome and huge and layered!!!
(image: carnegie museum)
*Stacy and I went to the gallery crawl on Penn Ave on Friday night and we visited some cool little alternative art spaces on Penn Ave., the Glass Center, plus the Tunnel Gallery located in my studio building- which has a cool show of 5 kinetic metal sculptures by Boston artist, AM Lilly.
*Braun Brunch took place with a smaller group than usual this past Sunday. I made lemon ricotta pancakes-- they were REALLY tasty. I found the recipe on the site the kitchn.
(I did not take this picture, it's from the kitchen website linked above!)
*I had a job interview last week and the interviewer asked me to bring a writing sample. I realized I should really start writing more about the art I see. I did not want the job nor was it offered it to me- but I developed a nice piece of writing because of the interview!
Jeremy Blake’s animated videos combine photography, computer art and drawings to create a rich and densely layered landscape. Inspired by pop culture, fashion, the Sixties, psychedelia, punk rock and video games, his artistic process was as complex and layered as his body of work. One of Blake’s video projects, Reading Ossie Clark, was inspired by the 1998 publication of the London based fashion designer’s illustrated diaries. Clark, whose clients included Twiggy, Bianca and Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful, had a great impact on the “swinging sixties.” Blake’s videos mimic diary form with a stream of conscious, non-linear visual narrative of words and images. An ambient soundtrack consists of Clarissa Dalrymple, a NY art dealer and critic, reading fragments from Clark’s diary entries. Employing color, imagery, pattern and sound as tools, Blake constructs an animated world that pays homage to Clark’s influence while referencing the youth culture of life in London in the sixties. Blake grew up in the Washington DC area and was formally trained as a painter. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 1993) and earned a MFA at Cal Arts in 1995. Blake unfortunately committed suicide during the summer of 2007.
* Erica and Heidi had their baby derby party on Sunday and I bought them both little somethings which I wrapped in really cool paper with black ribbon-- distinctively un-babyshowerish but I really like it!
