Reflecting on the Residency

Specific ideas to explore from critique feedback that will guide my research and practice this semester…

·         Use collage as a way to sketch ideas, using metaphor to create narrative.

·         Material-based language can still help me realize my vision.

o    Look for objects that help to tell a story.

o    Think about the difference between found object vs. translating object through a different material.

§  What are advantages/disadvantages of each?

o    How can objects encapsulate a moment?

o    How can objects appeal to the viewer’s senses and emotions?

·         Work toward a unification of tone in text, narration, object and image-based work.

·         Can my work be framed as a fusion of scientific investigation and fantasy?

·         Consider more carefully ironic elements present in my practice; photographs of ephemeral sculptures, topography depicted through kitsch, etc.

·         Combining narration and the pictorial is more easily accepted by the viewer than narration and objects. Find a way to resolve this. Either make the objects/installation more immersive or more pictorial.

Gratitude

Reorganized crit space

The third residency has come to an end and today I begin a new semester. This past residency was extremely beneficial and I felt that I learned a lot about myself, my work, how to articulate my ideas and the art community I will soon be a part of. 

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the support and guidance of my cohort, residency friends, and the faculty at Lesley. Thanks to everyone! It was truly an honor to be included in the curated group show, Missing, with artists that I love and admire. Thank you to everyone involved in organizing the show and to those who attended the opening.

I'll spend the next couple of days sorting through all of my seminar and critique notes. A detailed plan for the next semester will be posted here by the end of the week. 

Summer 2016 Residency: Crit Space Day One

The second semester is winding down and today I began my third residency. I'm excited to share the fruits of this year's labor but also a bit nervous about way the installation came together. Last residency, before arriving I already envisioned the direction that I wanted my work to move towards over the next semester. Determining how to proceed from here, I believe will be quite a challenge.

Meandering Lines: Second Semester Artist Statement

“…we make our lives among relics and ruins of former times, former worlds. Each of us is, too, a landscape inscribed by memory and loss.”   –Lauret Savoy 

 

The meandering veins of a leaf echo the veins in my great-grandmother’s hands as she prepared 

collard greens every Friday. Memories of her hands lead me to think of the veins that ran 

beneath the skin of women in my family that picked greens for generations before her. My 

thoughts drift to the meandering creek behind my grandmother’s house and the stories she told 

me about catching crawdads in a nearby stream as a child. Thinking back to my own childhood, I 

remember sitting at the feet of my great-grandmother, as she recounted stories of her own 

great-great grandmother who was kidnapped from the banks of the James river and sold at 

auction.   

Through creating objects that evoke emotional responses, cultural associations, and personal 

recollections, I  recover and record traces left behind by my ancestors and leave some of my 

own. These accumulations seek to answer what role does our surrounding landscape and its 

resources, play in who we are and what we become, where do individual and cultural identities 

overlap, and where we can find connection to the land, to each other, and to our heritage. 

Transparency of Material

It is much more difficult to pick up detail from the molds when using entire cards. Working this way, I focus on articulation of the stem vein and contour of the leaf.  They still need a lot of work but I feel it's a move in the right direction. Rather than thinking of these leaves as a separate body of work from the others I intend to display them together so that they add context to the more realistic leaves. 

I've also been experimenting with laying large areas of text into the mold before adding pulp. This way the leaves are a composite of processed and unprocessed paper. I tried to lay in the text randomly so that it doesn't appear too contrived. Some are more successful than others. For instance, I respond more favorably to the leaf with text in mostly alternating diagonals rather than the leaf with mostly horizontal text with some diagonals near the top. I need to figure out a way to make the text appear effortlessly random.

Casting

"...an empty shell, like an empty nest invites day-dreams of refuge." 

- from The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

In my recent explorations with tinted plaster, I've found that adding pigment to the plaster changes its texture. This has its advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, it seems to prolong the setting process. On the other, the set plaster seems a bit more brittle. I need to keep experimenting to find a way to achieve the vibrancy of color I'm looking for while maintaining the integrity of the material. As I work on this project, it strikes me how much these castings resemble shells.

More Thoughts on Display

Does the way a collection of objects is arranged reveal clues about how it will be interpreted by the viewer?

I've been playing around with different configurations for displaying the leaves. I've settled on two different methods. On the shelf of objects, I will arrange a single loose stack of monochromatic leaves. This will draw connections between the methods of working and also aid in connecting family, cultural and historical narratives. The uniformity of color in the leaves suggests consistency and uniformity of identity. The variety of shapes and sizes reference individuality and growth/maturity. This makes it easily acceptable as a family unit.

The crux of this work's content is individual vs. group/cultural identity. That being said, I've determined that displaying the leaves as a continuous row hung along the wall at eye level is most suitable for supporting the content. In this way the viewer must engage each leaf as a unique individual, that varies in color, size, shape and method of making from its neighbor. From a distance, the leaves merge into a line. In this way, unique, differentiating features of each leaf become less evident, establishing a group identity.