Personal Mapping Update

Over the last week, I have made several collages using themed images from my grandparent's backyard:

• my childhood playhouse
• the basketball goal
• beyond the fence
• 2 generations of banana trees

After editing the images in Photoshop, they are printed, cut and used for collages. Since photo transfers are a new technique for me, I am experimenting with various methods on boards before I move on to the papier-mâché forms. So far, I've worked with acetone, matte medium and Mod Podge. My mentor suggested to also try oil of Spike Lavender and Citra Solv.

I'm also experimenting with surface: unfinished wood, primed and painted panels and paper, in addition to the papier-mache forms that are my ultimate goal.

To finish off the paintings, I add text. A list in prose form of my own memories associated with the place depicted in the collage.

Work in progress

Work in progress

Inspiration for this work comes from...  

Tone and texture

Tintypes, particularly the one shown above that I saw at the Smithsonian Museum of American History

Treatment of figure and setting in portraiture

Gerhard Richter's Portrait Wunderlich

Use of narrative and text

Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document

Figure and place imagery in collage

Romare Bearden's The Dove

Personal Mapping

I've been working on reintegrating the relief forms into my practice. Earlier this semester, I expressed a desire to use these works as an opportunity to map specific places and memories. This project has also evolved to document changes in the landscape over time. There have been significant changes in the construction and content of these forms.

1. Instead of using several layers of papier-mâché strips over the cardboard, I added one layer of strips and sculpted papier-mâché clay on top. With this method, I'm able to increase the level of detail and sculpt a gradually sloping form.

2. Instead of painting and embellishing the forms, I have created collages using archival and original photographs to transfer onto the surface. Although a couple of the collages are finished, I am still working on building up and smoothing the surface of the forms. This work is still in progress.

The Water Knows My Secrets: Update

Just finished a new draft of this project with new footage, narration, and improved timing.

The Object as an Image

Over the summer, I made some cyanotypes while visiting my grandmother. She owns kitchen utensils that were passed down to her by her own mother. A couple may have even belonged to her grandmother as well. These objects are beautiful in their own right.

Although they are still being used, they hold for me memories of my great-grandmother and her cooking. They also bring to mind issues of legacy and inheritance. Not only do these objects symbolize the values of hard work and devotion to family that was the legacy my great-grandmother passed on to my grandmother and the rest of her descendants, but they are also imbued with memories of her recipes, mealtimes and holidays spent with family, and a tangible symbol of her touch and labor.

My goal is to incorporate several of these images into my quilted collage work. I will also experiment with using them as part of a wall collage, that will draw connections between my hand photographs and hand shell sculptures.

Stories in the Details: Grandma's House

While at my grandmother's house, I collected more images from her backyard. As with my mom's yard I focused on details that tell a story of place and time. However, unlike mom's house, I have a long history and deep connection to this place. There, each detail felt like a window into my parent's personalities and everyday life. Here, each detail also reveals something about my grandmother's lifestyle, but it is also steeped in memory, loss, personal history, and change. 

Three Distinct Worlds in One Yard

This is a collection of detail shots I've taking in my grandmother's backyard. There seems to be three distinct zones: the far side of the yard beneath the tree line that is nearly abandoned, yet full of relics of past use, the manicured lawn that is closest to the house, and still in use, and beyond the fence where nature is more wild and the ravine and creek divide our yard from our neighbors to the rear.

Reflections: Photography, Part II: Original Images

There are several directions for my original images during the early part of this semester. The first series seeks to explore using photography as a means to reinforce the relationship between woman/man and nature in regards to place, home and its surroundings in particular. These images focus on the details of landscapes surrounding the homes in my family. Although starting with my grandmother's yard, this series also includes my mother's current home. I aim to expand this series to include my own home and those of my aunts.

The second series explores the connection between objects, labor, and identity. Building off of motif of the branching line as a metaphor for lineage, time, and a connection between nature and the body, I have been taking pictures of my mother's and grandmother's hands engaged in activities that they enjoy. I'm also interested in the story that particular images and objects reveal. For example, there is an image depicting my grandmother passing to me a mechanical egg beater that belonged to her mother.

The third series documents the journey to my ancestral home, examining the connection between place, identity, migration, loss and the traces left behind. In the coming days, I'll discuss this more in greater detail. For now I'll just say that these images illustrate my ongoing research into my family heritage and my attempt to answer questions, uncover information, and find my ancestral home.

My final goal for this semester concerning photography will be to consider printing methods and methods of installation to maximize effective storytelling. As I've previously learned, this is a problem that cannot be left unresolved until the end of the semester. I will have thoughtfully consider ways to solve this problem starting now.

Mapping out the Semester - August

Grandma in her backyard (c. late '80s)

While in Georgia...

• Continue daily writing
• I haven't been drawing as much as I had originally intended so I plan to begin this exercise in the next week
• Continue adding daily entries into Commonplace/reflectionnaire book
• Complete recording sounds/narration/interviews in Georgia
• Complete 3 photograph series: hand portraits, homesteads, Harris County photo essay
• Compile archived/scanned photographs: family portraits, family and place
• Collect and scan archival documents
• census records
• birth/death/marriage certificates
• any documentation of family in Harris County
• Create at least 2 collages per week 

Once back home in Rhode Island...

• Start researching video/audio techniques
• Make clay sketches for gestural sculptures/consider mold-making
• Make 4 shell pieces
• Make 2 papier-mache sculptures
• Pulp and dye 1 batch of paper for casting per week
• Cast 1 set of collard leaves per week

Mapping out the Semester - July

The beginning of Grandma's backyard

I love lists and I'm very excited about going back to Georgia this summer to visit family and friends. This trip will also grant me the opportunity to conduct some research and start projects that have been on my mind since last fall. Here is a general outline of what I want to accomplish over the next few weeks.

• Create a studio plan for the semester
• Get into the habit of writing every day
• Start Commonplace/reflectionnaire book (add to it daily)
• Find source for new library cards
• Create at least 2 collages per week
• Make a list of sounds to record while in GA
• start recording
• Decide which plants to make molds of while in GA
• make molds
• Sketch ideas for 3d collard work
• Collect and scan archival images of my grandmother's backyard
• Begin new photo series
• establishing views and details of landscapes
• grandma's backyard
• mom's backyard
• ancestral home in Harris County
• hands of the women in my family at work and at rest
• landscape/self portraits