Personal Mapping...a new update

These collages are becoming larger and more complex. I'm experimenting more with text and hope to soon have the courage to try this technique on my relief forms.

The Taste of Memories

This is an in progress draft of a new video piece I've been working on. The audio is from an interview I conducted with my mom over the summer. The video features footage of a stream and wooded area near my home with superimposed photographs of family members mentioned during the narration. My intention is to make a two channel video installation to be projected simultaneously. Like the Water Secrets installation, this video visually merges nature and body, while also raising questions about the importance of food, family relationships, the home and its surrounding landscape to who we become.

Stories in the Details

                                      

                                                   Walker Evans, Circus Signboard, 1936

                                 

                                                       Aaron Siskind, Tombstone 3, 1949

I was recently inspired by two photographs, Circus Signboard by Walker Evans and Tombstone 3 by Aaron Siskind. Although I've always been a fan of the narrative qualities of Evan's work, I was not aware of this particular series of wall images. Simple, yet profound in composition, this piece tells stories about people, place, and time, simultaneously. While Siskind may have been more concerned with formal abstraction, the resulting narrative is similar. I am fascinated with the idea of telling a story with a minimal amount of information, allowing the viewer to more actively engage in the storytelling process. It reminds me the what I love most about reading; using tools provided by the author to activate my own imagination.

When photographing my mother's backyard, I kept these two images in mind. When deciding what to shoot, I asked myself what story I was trying to tell and which images would best serve as a catalyst for guiding the viewer into that story.

                                    

                                     

        

       

                                     

                                       

                                       

        

                                     

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.

Reflections - Photography, Part I: Archival Images

I'm off to a good start with my plan to re-introduce photography into my practice. Over the last several weeks, I've been using original photography and archival images in an attempt to craft narratives.

As mentioned in my residency summary, my goal is to consider what the image can provide that the object cannot. So, my intention is to use photography to provide a setting and add contextual information in regards to landscape and place. In some instances it also shows connection to place and its importance to family. 

I have been collecting and scanning archival images of my family's home and candid or posed portraits taken outdoors, focusing on the landscape surrounding that home. The majority of these images feature the house I grew up in, the home my grandparents had built in 1971, from its completion up until my infant son played in the backyard around 2004. There are also a few earlier images featuring homes my family lived in as early as the 1950s. Additionally, I've collected a few portraits taken indoors, that could be used to provide more insight into narratives concerning individuals and family structure. I'm not sure yet if I will use them.

In fact, I'm not sure exactly how any of these images will be used yet. I'm considering creating objects, similar to the landscape reliefs I made during 1st semester, that will have a collage of images for its surface.There is also potential for a wall collage, individual collage works, a wall installation of enlarged photos (similar to the type seen in natural history museums), foundations for paintings, and an artist book.

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