Adding Depth

One of the things that came up in the first meeting with my mentor was to push the depth in my relief sculptures. Since I had already completed the structure for the 3 panel relief, I decided to make a couple of smaller pieces to work out potential structural issues. The original relief sculptures averaged about 1.5 inches deep, the two new ones are between  3-4.5 inches deep. 

I learned 5 things in this process:

1. I'm more attracted to the undulating form and play of light in this work than its predecessors.
2. I'm less enthusiastic about the edge, increasing the depth also makes the form appear more like a box. I need to consider the overall form as an object and not as confine it to a box/square.
3. Exaggerating the depth of the form complicates the papier-mache process, making it more difficult to maintain strength and smoothness.
4. In keeping with thinking of this work as sculptural objects rather than paintings, I should pay closer attention to how I finish off the back of the work.
5. By painting the object the first, I can use glitter and sealer more efficiently. 

Candy Colored Creeks

It's been a while since I last posted. The end of the year brought a whirlwind of activity which culminated with my second residency. I have a lot of finished work to share, thoughts and feedback to process and plans to make for my future studio practice.The Candy Colored Creeks are a good place to start. This series began as an attempt to merge my sculpture and painting practices and also process childhood memories. Over the course of the semester, I used imagery inspired by my grandmother's backyard and experimented with different ways to use color, surface, texture and form to create objects that symbolize my experience in that landscape as an 8 year old. I'm happy with the direction the work is going in and feel that there is a lot left for me to explore here, which I fully intend to do. 

After several conversations during the residency, including those with my previous and current advisors, Laurel and Kamrooz, my plan is to explore the following:

• Think of each work as a time capsule
• Build a specific visual and tactile language to depict memories.
• How can I synthesize sensory experiences to build narrative?

• Can I use tile format to build content?
• A square foot is a very specific unit of measure used to depict space, can I use this format more deliberately to tell a story?
• Is square format necessary? If not, experiment with different formats and scale.

• These works belong on the wall rather than a pedestal or table, but I need to determine why I feel that way.

• Experiment with working in a way where process/material is more transparent.

Lollipop Trees

Lollipop Trees #3

This week I've also been working on new forms for the Lollipop Trees. I just finished two. The first one is 15 inches across and the second is 19.5 inches across. So far, I think these forms are a huge improvement over the first which was built on top of a square plane of Masonite. I hope they will hold up during the process of papier-mache and painting. I hope to finish a couple more forms so that I can complete all of my papier-mache at once early next week.

Lollipop Trees #2

Candy Colored Creeks and Lollipop Trees...an update

Lollipop Trees #1 with pours and dots completed

Last week was a little short but progress was made on four of the painted object pieces. I finished pouring dots on the lollipop tree piece. This week I plan to wrap this up by adding a pattern to the flat area to the right of the composition. As I look at this piece now, I find myself feeling it should already be complete. The squared-format of the picture plane seems to take away from the overall composition. I've already started cutting out new shapes to build a form that doesn't depend on a square plane as a base.

Finished texture on Creek #4

An in progress shot of glazing on Creek #3

A detail of the completed glazing on Creek #3

In the last post, I talked about building up texture on two forms. I finished the texture on both forms last week. I also started staining the first one with layers of glaze. I started with a layer of green, then alternated layers of blue and green with some yellows in the highlights. Overall, I ended up with 7 layers. It is a little darker than I intended but I feel that I have enough depth now to add the final, bright green pour. This week the plan for the second form will be to glaze it in a similar fashion. Using what I learned from the first one, try starting with light washes and do not add dark hues too soon. 

More bead patterns on Creek #1

Finally, the beads again. I'm really going to push to finish at least one side this week. That's a pretty optimistic goal but I'm sticking to it.

To recap, my painting goals for the week are to...

• Finish lollipop trees
• Build 2 new lollipop tree forms
• Finish 2 candy colored creek glaze paintings
• Build 3 new creek forms, slightly smaller, without relying on a square plane
• Finish 1st half of the beaded creek painting

Candy Colored Creeks and Lollipop Trees

I've been spending the majority of my time working on the painted objects this past week. The lollipop trees are nearing completion. After laying on several layers of under-painting, I started working on layers of poured paint over the trees. The underlying structure has too much depth for me to control the pours with much accuracy. As a result, I was pretty much stuck with whatever happened. At first this was highly frustrating, then I decided just to go with it. Removing the tape allowed paint to run off of the trees and pool wherever it ended up. The pattern that emerged after the pink pours was very interesting so I decided to stop there. Feeling the need to experiment even more, I started adding layers of dots on the flat surfaces at the top of each form. The original impression/memory that inspired this piece involved watching the wind blow through the trees behind my grandmother's house. The way the light shimmered off of the vibrating leaves gave me a sense that the trees were alive and breathing. My goal was to create a static object that embodied that kind of kinetic energy. At the moment the plan is to complete the dot layers, then add some texture in the form of a grass pattern in the negative space on the right side of the composition.

After 1st 2 pours

After 3rd pour

Building up dots

A detail of pooled paint

I completed and gessoed two forms from a previous post. This week I worked on building up the surface texture a bit. These two pieces will be monochromatic. I plan to cover one with layers of stain to emphasize the surface texture. The other will be finished off with a pour on top of the stain. I also worked on making a new piece.

This will be the 3rd form in the series

A detail of the 4th in the series

New piece to papier-mache next week.

Finally, the beads....not much new to report with that piece. Still pushing forward. I'm starting to vary the size and color of the beads more; creating a patterns of concentric circles within the overall pattern.

Painting More Landscapes

I've finished the first piece in the series of object/painting hybrids I've been posting about. Although happy with the result, there are still a lot of things I want to try. In previous weeks, I was concerned about how these pieces connect with my other work. The subject matter, the creek/stream motif, is a reoccurring theme in my paintings and sand work this semester. In these paintings, I've incorporated colors culled from popular culture, toys and memories from my childhood. Both the paintings and sand work also emphasize making, process, repetition and attention to surface texture. 

In reading *Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag, I discovered an affinity between my work and her description of Camp art. I was particularly interested in her observation of Camp having the tendency towards "decorative art, [...] texture, sensuous surface and style at the expense of content" (278). Although I would argue that my work is not quite free of content, I would agree that form outranks content. Sontag goes on to say that, "Camp introduces a new standard: artifice as an ideal, theatricality" (280). This statement perfectly encapsulates my goal of presenting nature as artifice. 

I really like the interplay of light and shadow on the first painting. In fact, I plan to use one of the new objects to further explore monochromatic painting. The bead work on the 2nd painting is moving very slowly but so far I'm happy with its development. I've been building up layers of color on the lollipop trees painting and will eventually pour layers of glaze on top of it. I have two new objects to gesso today and one new object ready for papier-mache. The next step in this series will be to build objects that will be organic in form and not limited to the square format that I've been working with.

*Sontag, Susan. “Notes on ‘Camp.’” Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966. 274–292. Print.

Painting Landscapes

Leaving the topography of the form white draws attention to the interplay between light and shadow. I think shifting the direction of the texture might create some interesting, unexpected patterns.

So a month ago I was really excited about these object/painting hybrids. A couple of weeks past and I finished the first set of forms and found myself ready to start painting. Then I ran into a problem. I realized that although I brainstormed and sketched the forms, I did not have a clear idea of what the finished, painted work would look like. I knew I wanted to do something with surface texture or pattern, but I wasn't exactly sure what. I was very happy with the forms themselves but once I started working on the underpaintings, not so much anymore.

I think I reached a point where I was overthinking these pieces. Since the concept behind them is rooted in childhood, I figured that I should try to recover a sense of play. I've resolved to work intuitively, which is something I normally reserve for my sculptural work. I immediately started building some new forms so I can try a different approach on each of them, working my way through the problem.

Started building some new forms to play with.

Finished the 3rd form and ready to paint.

Covering the first form with beads.

I like how the bead's iridescence gives the illusion of cloth.

Where am I? Part 3: The Field

It's been a while since I've posted and I have a lot to catch up on. In the past month, I've been working to find answers to some of the questions that were raised during the residency. In some cases, the answers revealed themselves. In other, they remain elusive.

One thing that I'm continuing to work through is exploring landscape through personal connection. So far this semester the imagery in my work was limited to my grandmother's back yard, but I'm beginning to expand a bit, moving forward in time from early childhood to adolescence and the end of childhood. That brought me to my family's move to rural Georgia when I was in middle school. Although I had a rather introverted childhood, I felt especially isolated during that time. One of the most vivid (and pleasant) memories I have is spending time reading and daydreaming while sitting in the middle of the field at the top of the property. It was an extremely rich, sensory experience. I distinctly remember the smell of the wind, the sound of cicadas, the dust rising up from the occasional car driving down the dirt road and the way the lavender wildflowers swayed in the breeze. The contrasting feelings of near isolation while also being connected with my surroundings remain with me.

Also, with this sand painting I numbered the images using the orthographic projection method I discussed earlier: 1-front, 2-back, 3-left, 4-right, 5-top, 6-alternate. Since I cannot photograph the painting from underneath (yet), I use an alternate view, in this case from the top, as a substitute for the sixth image. The 7th image is a bird's eye view of the entire work, for documentation purposes only, which will only be shared on this blog. I've been thinking a lot about the fact that these works will never been seen by the public except through the images I take of them. I would like to use my role as liaison between art and viewer more to my advantage. The work itself is an exercise in ephemera, its documentation, and sharing a fleeting moment with the viewer through the image. So the viewer, will experience my imaginary landscape much like an actual landscape; from a particular point of view, instead of all at once. It is my hope that will help create a more intimate connection between the viewer and the image and dissolve the separation between the two.

Landscapes & Relics

I've been playing around with the idea of adding permanent sculptural objects to my temporary installations. I would like to create a dialogue between natural material and man-made (or in this case "woman-made" relics. These biomorphic forms are intended to be ambiguous, at the same time referencing bodies, organic structures, land forms, or abandoned artifacts. I have always been attracted to working with multiples, building increasingly complex patterns out of simple shapes. These forms are made of cast porcelain. I love the interplay of light on the surface of unglazed porcelain. Its color and texture bears a resemblance to bone, stone, and fungi. 

I am working with porcelain slip for the first time and figuring out what needs to be addressed as I go along. From this first set of forms, I realized that I need to experiment with different methods of burnishing the clay before I fire it to improve its surface texture. I also found that I shouldn't be afraid to conceal parts of the form under sand. When I built unfired clay structures to submerge in sand, I thought the interplay between what was revealed and concealed was very interesting. I don't feel that this first attempt in using permanent sculptures was as successful. Maybe because I spent so much time in the process of sculpting the form, creating the mold, casting and firing it, I was a little more reluctant to cover it up.