previous work

This week we were asked to post some of our previous work, especially pieces which relate to our interests for IP, here you go...

This box was created for my "Inside Small Containers" course sophomore year. I really enjoyed working with delicate materials. The piece was based on an original fairy tale which I wrote on a scroll and placed inside the box.

Inside view, scroll.

This work, described in my very first written assignment, uses a doll's dress made by my grandmother along with text stitched on by me. Holding a piece of history in my hands and giving it new life and meaning was really important to me.

This print was the final stage in my first series of etchings. It takes an object, a sewing machine, and pushes it to its limits - eventually causing the piece to burst into a sea of threads. I think the abundance of the threads and chaos they create was successful.

This print was a combination of stone lithograph and digital media. The connection between stories and personal relationships was a large part of these piece - based on my grandmother.

Books have always fascinated me, in this work I carved an intricate tell/cell-like pattern into the pages of a book about deforestation. I loved working with the repetitive form and motion of the cutting tool.

thrift finds

I didn't have a lot of hope when I set out last night in the rain. I wanted to stop at a few thrift stores in Ann Arbor before I did my usual grocery shopping for the week. To my delight, I came away with four fantastic pieces. At Value World I found a doll dressed in beautiful Indian clothing - this doll made me think about a person who is a world traveller, someone who picks up interesting items wherever they go. I also purchased a small framed print - a photograph of a flower that just felt very sentimental and sweet to me. At the Salvation Army I found a mirrored vanity tray as well as an amazing antique telephone. Overall, some great collecting. I'm not entirely sure whether I will use these objects in my final project, but I think it was a good start to just pick up things that really peaked my interest.

small assemblage for today's class...

meet your [print]maker

non-linear exploration/week 3 conclusion

This week:

Tuesday - 1.5 hours researching artists for influence post, 1 hour blogging, 0.5 hours reading the article Seth gave me, 0.5 hours hanging more inspiration in my studio.

Thursday - 2 hours making a small collage/assemblage, 1 hour reading and researching, 1 hour reading the class blog, as well as taking a look at other students' blogs, 0.5 hours blogging.

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

This week I've spent time looking into other artists and doing some reading. The class blog had a post about Dario Robleto's incredibly collage/assemblage work. I really appreciated his intricate layers as well as the unexpected details such as dust from bones, or melted vinyl records. The multiplicity of meaning and deeper concept is beautiful.

The chapter Seth gave me, "Tradition and the Individual Memory," was another fantastic resource for me this week. The text explores Christian Sanderson, a man who was "not simply a collector, [but a] compulsive memorialist - an individual who seemingly felt a need to turn every object he came into contact with to the task of remembering." I very much connected with this story because I find myself holding on to things which really just serve the purpose of remembering. When my grandmother passed away this year, my mother began to empty her house and toss out old useless things. I found myself extremely upset over the loss of newspapers, jewelry, clothes, kitchen utensils - I really didn't want to see anything go. Every little object was a piece of my grandmother, pieces I was losing. It's incredible to feel the connection between objects and human relationships - it really is quite powerful.

I was also sent a great website, which reviewed "A Permutational Unfolding" by Eve Andree Laramee. She filled a gallery space with artifacts from the 19th century. With no wall text, one reads the contents of the room...unfolding visual clues. I loved Laramee's idea of non-linear exploration. I plan to incorporate that idea when making my own installation.

What comes next:

After presenting my first three-dimensional experimentation this coming Tuesday (image to come), I plan to build my "library" of materials and objects. The first step towards my project will have to be finding a photograph which excites and which I can build a collection off of. I'm sure I will have to start with a few photographs - perhaps many - in order to find the story which best suits my ideas and ambitions.

influences

UMMA has introduced me to some amazing artists in the past couple of

years. I almost always find myself stumbling upon artwork that

really strikes me; whether it's a new exhibition of a contemporary

artist's work such as Jakob Kolding, or experiencing a master in a

whole new way, such as James McNeill Whistler. However,

there are two artists' work which I've seen at UMMA that

completely changed the way I looked at my own work.

Betye Saar is an assemblage artist who uses items which

draw on various cultures, reflecting her own mixed heritage -

African, Native American, Irish, and Creole. This view into one's

history and ancestry is what initial drew me to Saar's work.

In the 1970s Saar explored ritual and tribal objects from Africa,

evoking magical and mystical atmospheres, but after the

death of her great aunt, Saar began to work more with

family memorabilia. In the 1980s Saar moved toward larger

installations - alter-like shrines. These more sculptural works

are similar to my ideas for my IP project - something rather

substantial and incorporating three-dimensional objects.

I was delighted to learn from Janie that Betye Saar's

daughters are also artists. Alison Saar uses the female

figures in conjunction with natural forms. She is said

to enjoy building beauty from cast-off objects.

Betye Saar's other daughter, Lezley Saar began her

art-making with books - using them as containers and

canvases for paintings. Her work fixates on duality

and contrast. Generational connections interest

me as well because both my mother and father

are in the art field. I also spent much of my semester

last winter working on pieces about my grandmother

and her influence on me regarding fiber works, as

she was a talented seamstress.

The other artist that really influences me is

Christian Boltanski. His work uses found objects and

photographs as well, often in quantity. Boltanski's

work plays with memory, intimacy, and humanity.

His works are both haunting and incredibly spiritual

at the same time - he has been known to exhibit his

installations in churches, a very interesting context

in my opinion. Boltanski said he wants to make "art speaking

of the humanism of a religion freed of a powerful

God, to make way for each individual." I really can't

decide whether I like his view on afterlife or religion,

but I know that it's intriguing and I think that's the most

important thing. Christian Boltanski often seeks to

memorialize the anonymous - the direction I head for IP,

so I'm very excited to look at his work further.

week 2 conclusion

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

After visiting the faculty show, Creators Collect, I discovered that almost anything can be a collection if you put effort or worth into it. I surprised to see the lint traps in the exhibition, but such quantity, the traps really did become valued art.

Although I'm sure I'll change my mind and say this many times over, I think I have a plan! (a collection of found objects, along with creating pieces to assemble a fictional narrative for a stranger).

The third thing I determined was that my ideas will work! People have been responding positively to my sketches, so I just need to develop them further (decide what type of story I want to tell) and try not to doubt myself!

What I'll do next:

I really need to research artists such as: Allison Saar, John Carin, Dieter Rot, Kay Walking Stick, and Christian Boltanski. I'd also like to take a look at shrines from different cultures. I think beginning to write some stories and create some characters (as practice) would also be a good idea.

Creators Collect: faculty show, slusser gallery

"For a collector...ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to things. Not that they come alive in (us); it is (we) who live in them." - Walter Benjamin.

The gallery gods are shining down on me this week because at the same time I'm contemplating the idea of collections for IP, Ed West curates this amazing show called "Creators Collect." This show is filled with a wide variety of little collections from different professors and artists.

How perfect is that?

Some pieces that really spoke to me were Michael Rodemer's Lint Traps, Jim Cogswell's Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth Edition (1894), and Susan Crowell's Family Photos. The lint traps were great because I liked the idea of "valued material transformed into valueless material" (though I think the opposite can be just as compelling). This

also brought up the question for me, does a collection have a definite value? While things may seem worthless to some, might they be the only thing that matters to others? I thought Jim Cogswell's encyclopedias were just simply beautiful. All that history and information, sitting there ready to be absorbed! (but I'm partial to books). The family photos immediately transported me back to a different time and place, Susan Crowell's words described it perfectly - "the photographs activate in me a highly elastic sense of time, as well as the s

heer pleasures of looking and imagining."

IP Studio Weekly Summary:

Tuesday - 15 min speaking to Amanda, 60 min sketching, 30 min research, 30 min working on studio, 45 min faculty show.

Thursday - 15 min scanning sketches, 45 min hanging things in studio, 60 min taking pictures and notes at faculty show, 30 min writing, 30 min sketching.

sketchyy

Above are sketches of a few ideas for my IP project that combine found objects in an interesting way. The first is a hollowed out book with smaller objects held or suspended within. The second is a shrine-like assemblage which begins with a photograph of a stranger, who I then collect possessions for - creating a narrative for this fanciful individual. The third is working off the concept of a "cabinet of wonders," with different objects being put into context with one another and then put on display.

After discussing my ideas with my small group on Tuesday afternoon, it seemed as though everyone really responded positively to the second sketch. This idea of a fictional story and character created through three-dimensional objects is something I'm very interested in.

studio 54...or 5B rather

"The only thing I know is that if I get to my studio,

that means I'm alive today."

- Robert Farber

the studio so far:

a HUGE desk, open shelves, a black rug, a chair (rather tall, to accommodate the desk of course), a trunk for supplies, a lamp, a small table (with my painted designs added), a few of my old paintings, an empty frame, curtains (lace and sheer).

thanks mom and dad!!

IP: the first week

After meeting with my section for the first time on Tuesday, I've been thinking more about the type of project I want to do. I came in with a pretty polished idea - I planned to make a textural collage with an emphasis on layers and history (possibly my family's history), but when I started talking about museums and found objects, Seth made me realize I might be better off focusing on that.

At the moment, I'm just really trying to work on concepts and themes that bridge the collecting of found objects with the aesthetic I was originally going for. I think this is definitely doable, some of Betye Saar's pieces (which are posting above) do just that.