Lately Looking at...

artist, Kim Jones aka Mud Man
I wish I could have seen this exhibit at the NewMuseum about collage.

a tiny bundle

My friend Erica had her baby over the weekend! I am holding her! How tiny and exciting she is!! Welcome to the world Dagny Dash!

More on Matthew Monahan

Matthew Monohan's sculptures, which I saw at the Carnegie International use materials in very unusual ways. The International has 4 or 5 statuettes and large columnar figures. The human body is carved very realistically in some places and indecipherable in others, like ancient Greek or Roman statuary. Also, one of the figures was sandwiched between two tall pieces of glass and held together with one of those bungee cord- like flat ribbon ropes with a metal buckle. I'm not sure what they are called. They reminded me of artefacts you might find in a shipwreck, frozen in time. They were carved out of huge blocks of floral foam and painted to look like granite or other carvable material and give the illusion that they way tons when floral foam is just that-- foam! Very interesting!


Check out the Carnegie Museum blurb on artist Matthew Monahan or here

just stuff

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!!!

*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!

an afternoon at Phipps

An afternoon spent at Phipps Botanical Gardens sparked my green thumb to life. I love these flowering trees of spring. This one was so gorgeous.

Orchids are such cool flowers. They have such personality. Each one looks like a miniature and intricate work of art.

This is a living wreath. I would love to make one of these to hang on the front door. It uses another of my favorite kind of plants-- sedums or hens and chicks.

As for me, I have been getting into watching The Wire -- we just finished watching Season 1 and now are eagerly awaiting the next netflick shipment. This show is so smart and gritty. I love it!
Working at the theatre 3 days a week for the summer so that I can be in my studio while the weather is warm.
Making new work and revisiting some old things which might morph into new things.
Thinking about photography and sculpture and bright colors and 3 dimensionality.
Trying to read Jumpa Lahiri's new novel but I keep getting interrupted.
Voted in the PA primary today.
Thought about Earth Day and how screwed up the world is right now.
Trying not to eat bread or baked goods in observance of Passover (boy is this hard!!)
Making plans for this year's garden, I have a list about 10 items long.....
Happy Earth Day

Lately Looking at...

work by the painter, Elizabeth Murray:

Images from Art:21 and the NYTimes.

revisiting the past

I stumbled upon this cd of images from my MFA thesis exhibit and decided to take a look and prepare them to archive on my website. It's strange to look at this work now that I have some distance from it.- It was such a difficult period of time in my life. I worked so hard on this and had so much mental anxiety. I thought about destroying all of these delicate mobiles and sculptures that I made out of paper when I finished school but I resisted the urge and packed everything away in boxes to return to at some point far off in the future and I guess that day is here. Interesting how time and distance changes your perception.

knitting the blues

I am knitting this dress and have been for the past year. It is nearly complete-- the only part that is left is the top hem which I made too large and had to rip out. Hopefully it will be done in the next week and we can have one semi cool day so that I can wear it! It is uber cute.

(photo from the Anthropologie catalog)

I had a grand plan to try to grow my hair into some resemblance of this coif. But, my hair is not cooperating---- I can't handle it once it passes a certain length of about 2 inches, especially right in the front-- it just starts becoming poofy and wiry.

In sad news, a dear friend of my family passed away this week from stomach cancer.
Carol, wherever you are-- you meant so much to us and your smiling face, wise words and gentle nature will be missed more than you know. I love you.

hip homes and gardens

more cool kitchen shelves from desiretoinspire. Apparently, this is Drew Barrymore's house or her office? not sure which.

Also-- very cool link here. More on it when I'm not feeling totally exhausted!

There's Nothing Better Than......

I often find myself saying this phrase when I really like something. Here are some examples:

there's nothing better than getting into a bed freshly made with crispy clean sheets.
there's nothing better than a hot latte in a fancy big cup at a cozy cafe.
etc etc

and so it begins

Spring is pushing up out of the ground in the form of buds and leaves.
Went to the library this morning to do research and took out a bunch of interesting books including one about the use of Craft in Contemporary Art. Discovered the artist Carolyn Salas whose soft sculptures take the form of underwater seascapes. An idea I have been playing around with in the form of drawings inspired by creatures who dwell at the ocean floor. I love it when I get to see into other artist's studios. The photo at right is a studio view.


I also checked season 1 of Art:21 out of the library. This is such a fantastic series-- showing artists at work in their studios, practicing their art- and discussing what they're doing, how they do it, and the ideas behind it. Every time I watch one of the segments I feel inspired and opened up to art engaging people in so many different ways. It was really inspiring to hear/see Margaret Kilgallen talk a little bit about her work. She passed away at the age of 33 in 2001. Her work has this really western meets folksy, handmade feel. I love the section in Art:21 where she is riding her bike and stops to take a photo of a painted sign and the store owner comes out to ask what she's doing. I love that she was inspired by the handmade visual world around her and that part of her process was to document and archive the images and typography she saw.


very inspiring......

oh happy day oh rainy day

I am listening to a concert by My Morning Jacket streaming off of NPR. Honey (hi Honey!!) introduced me to them a while back and then, I had the pleasure of seeing them live with Wilco at the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo NY in what was the first Rockin at the Knox concert and it was Rockin my friends-- I was proud that it happened in my city.
Sadly, I haven't listened to too much music of late. Living with a musician makes it difficult because his studio is the living room and when he's playing the piano or writing music that takes up all sound space. But, I can't say I'm complaining since he's quite entertaining whilst working things out at the piano.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm baking some chocolate chip cookies right now. I used the brand spankin new Sunbeam mixer my Mom got me for Hannukah!! It's a champ! yum.
I went to Knit One today to get moral support on ripping back my dress one panel so that it isn't gigantic anymore. I think it's gonna work. While I was there I found a great little book for 13 bucks so I bought myself another book present. It has very fun looking chunky knits in bright colors. That pink wrap sweater is calling my name.

Artistic Inspiration

I bought myself a present. The book at left, Andrea Zittel: Critical Space. She is one of my favorite artists. I have acquired so much published media in the last week. I'm overwhelmed with magazines, books, the newspaper and have barely had time to study this book. Oh but I will! I love her gouache paintings of herself making her art, her knit uniforms, and pseudo manifesto. I think I need a manifesto. If you had a manifesto for living, what would it be?

yummy spring treats

the girls are coming over for brunch on a saturday morning and I'm going to make ginger scones!

Here is the recipe I found:

1 Cup all purpose flour

1 Cup cake flour

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1/2 tsp dried ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

4 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into pieces

2 oz. chopped crystallized ginger

3/4 Cups milk

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp cold wash to make egg wash

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. You can mix by hand or with a food processor or mixer, but be careful not to over blend the dry ingredients. If you over-blend, your scones will be tough and chewy. Put the 7 dry ingredients in a bowl and add the cubes of butter. With your fingers, or with 2 knives, blend the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles a course cornmeal. Some large pieces of butter should remain, this will make your scones light and fluffy. If you are using a processor, pulse briefly. Stir in the ginger bits. Add the milk and work quickly with a fork to incorporate. The dough should be soft and lightly moist. Again, don't over-mix. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and gently pat down until it stands about 1/2-inch thick. Cut into 12 triangles with a dough cutter or a knife and put onto an ungreased baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash and sprinkle with some sugar. Bake for 12 minutes until golden. Let cool briefly.

i am not allowed to go to Target

(images from desire to inspire, top photo: Alison Gootee)

I woke up this morning thinking about paint colors for the bedroom and window coverings.
Last night, we went to the Home and Garden show- overall, it was underwhelming as far as homes and gardens go-- I was hoping they would have those cool faux garden setups that you can walk through and feel like you're in someone's backyard in the convention center- but no such luck.

kitchen shelves and books with horses and yellow covers

I swiped these pics from another blog-- sfgirlbybay.blogspot.com which she swiped from a book called The Way We Live in the City. Inspiration as we are going to get shelves in our kitchen!!! Yippppeeeeee! I can hardly wait, we need them! and waiting for me at home is a big ring of sample colors to choose from! Yahhooooooo
In other news,

I seem to be on a horse kick in my reading life. I took two books out of the library and each has a horse on the cover. I started reading the first book, The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss. It's a novel about a woman who is a bronco buster. It has a very mellow vibe and not too much happens but I'm enjoying it. I've been having some existential dilemmas of late- (twiddling my thumbs while I'm at work thinking: what am i doing?, why am i doing it? why am i not doing something else? -- you know, the usual existential dilemma stuff one worries about. But it's all good. Last week, D and I took a new exercise class at our gym called Group Power. It kicked my ass-- but was awesome and I can't wait to go again and get buff! You use a barbell with different weights and disks and the class works all your major muscle groups. It's just what I need!

100s of robins

The other day, we drove through Schenley Park and there were hundreds of Robins on the ground waiting for spring to arrive. Right now, it is blustery and snowy and cold out-- it started suddenly this morning with tiny hail balls that quickly turned to wet snow. But fear not, Spring is on its way. I'm having a lovely morning, slept in, had a cappuccino and now, I'm listening to Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland and writing these words.

Last night, we saw the play, A Number, which was very good. The set was wonderful. Stacks of file boxes surround the stage and create the walls of an apartment. The stacks were of varying heights and made you think of a city skyline as well as endless files stacked up. At a scene change- one of the characters steps off the stage in the front onto the file boxes and the spotlights go out while lights go on under the stage and a few of the file boxes have lights in them-- like windows in buildings. It was a very cool effect.

about to scream!

I'm sitting here reading Ketzel Levine's Talking Plants blog.
The day has escaped me. It's rainy, gloomy, grumpy out. This week was wacky with 2 days of jury duty, 2 days of work and today, a day of trying to get along with various computer media and failing. I was attempting to transfer Zip disk files onto CD and although I have all the pertinent equipment-- the computer did not like what I was asking it to do and answered my call by moving very very very slowly and making 5000 windows whenever I tried to move something.
Oh well, the nice thing is-- I got 2 new tea flavors, ginger and white tea with pomegranate and now I'm going to work on my purple dress project- it's almost finished and I will have a picture to show for it soon.
As far as art is concerned, I'm so frustrated as it is very cold in the studio and at this point I'm waiting for the warmth of spring to allow me to get back to work. I have thought so much over the winter about what I'm doing and worked on all the administrative items I could and now I'm ready to dig in. It will be nice to see the garden grow as well!
and with that here is to spring blooming. (image from flickr)

Sink spit up

as in gross blockage accumulating in the basement sink. Resulting in me having to take two loads of laundry around the block to the laundromat. Snow is falling falling all day. I'm wearing my winter hat with the flaps, looking around the internet, and just put a batch of brownies in the oven.
Bummer man, I just heard that Polaroid is not going to make instant film anymore. I was already wondering what to do with the I-zone and the Joycam since they don't make film for those anymore either.

The picture above is from an interesting article on NPR titled: Eroded Oregon Coast Yields Once-Sunken Surprises. It made me want to go there to photograph the landscape.

Speaking of photography, there was a really interesting article in the NY Times Home and Garden section about Gallerist Jen Bekman and how she got her start. Hope this link to the article works!

new drawing

Here's a pastel drawing, it's finished although as I was looking at it I see something that's bugging me. Must move onto the next thing and stop agonizing over all the little things.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Ok so this was the spread at a gig we went to in New Martinsville, West Virginia for Doug and Daphne's concert. I ate a lot of sweeties.

Bird Ballet

cup of inspiration

This quote is on my Starbucks cup today:

The most important thing in life is to stop saying

"I wish" and start saying "I will." Consider

nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probablities.

--David Copperfield

Words to live by.

3-D Paper Collages

Today I'm working in the green room ...also known as the spare bedroom. I tried doing work at my studio yesterday but it was just too darn cold. Since today is a day off for me, I decided to just play and make some collages at home-- and I'm having fun with markers, paper and scotch tape. Making art is a continual evolution and everyday I feel differently about it. I've come to the conclusion that this is the year I'm going to push forward. In both working on my art and gaining exposure for it. The wheels are in motion!
I'm so excited to be off from work for a few days (till Monday). This weekend we are going on a mini adventure to W. Virginia. Will report later.

weekend wonders

All weekend I worked on putting a press kit together so that I can start sending my work out to galleries. I ordered new business cards and they are due in around Feb.21. I polished up my artist c.v. and artist statement. Best of all I was looking online to gather ideas for business cards and letterhead and came across this flickr collection.

yummy stuff

I have been loving this tea lately! It smells divine and no matter how long you leave the tea bag in- the flavor just keeps getting better. They have a really cute website too!

I feel very professional and accomplished today! I ordered brand spankin new business cards and put all my finances in order and even made some calls I've been putting off for awhile. It is so nice to have a day off and catch up on stuff. I had a good night's sleep last night which is always helpful too. I decided I need to update all my art related business stuff-- new press kit, new postcards, etc etc. New year- new stuff.

Tonight, I'm exciting to see and hear D perform at this event

I have been knitting this really cute jumper from the Holiday 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting, forever. Everyone at work is asking when I'm going to finish it so they can see it on me-- and I'm so close to finishing. I have the top and bottom hems and sewing all the pieces together. Almost, almost.

Here's to a happy and productive weekend y'all!