Good Riddance, 2009

2008 was by far your superior.

that is all

Show Kickoff

The show was a blast.  Everything looked good, the lighting was fantastic, and all the work was wonderfully displayed. Everyone dressed up, and I took an opportunity to try out a new dress shirt and tie under my suit, to great sucess. I think I'm going to buy another suit or two, firstly because they make me look awesome and secondly because my current suit is a little big, though in places it needn't be - its a little tight across the shoulders.  I'd also like to try out a different cut. 

Fun fact: Wearing a suit to the airport makes you look less suspicious and less likely to be pulled aside for a magnet-search. 

Back to the show!  I made a big bowl full of beef jerky which was gone in 30 minutes of course, and I got almost as much attention for that as for the pieces, which also seemed to be a big hit.  Nacho showed up for the opening too, which was wonderful because I haven't seen her in like 4 months. Its a shame she didn't take this class again.  I think in two years, when its offered again, I'll drop everything to take it once more. Hopefully in another 6 months to a year we'll do another Anagama firing on our own outside of MICA.  I'm sure it'd definitely be cheaper.

I was quite happy because within the first 20 minutes I sold 3 of the 12 faces i had made. Hopefully someone will find the rest of the pieces to their liking and take them off my hands, except for the postcard piece, which I've priced high because I want. :P    

Left early unfortunately to fly home for the weekend, but its really, really good to be back.  I'm looking forward to running in my old neighborhood; a change from hunt valley at the very least.  I'm also going to go swimming at last, as well as some stalking through the rather extensive woods.  Its good to be home.

Tomorrow I finally throw all of my work online for the world to see.  Then later on, perhaps, I'll add the artist statement, though I don't know if that will be necessary.  Whatever. It'll be nice to actually update the blog with something worth showing. 

Show Set up Sucess!

Welp saturday from 9:30 to 3:00 I spent the day setting up the show, and I'm absolutely thrilled by the result.  Everybody's work looks super excellent, and I definitely gotta give props to Barnes for setting up the show. I'm also really thrilled that Chris and Erica Bonner's work is going to be up as well - the whole space, while small, feels real complete.  I'm particularly looking forward to seeing how Sarah Hrvoski's main piece is going to look, as that was the only thing not set up (it involved chains and dry wall anchors) 

The lighting hasn't been done, so things will probably look even better when I return Thursday Night for the opening.  The piece on the postcard (mine) is wonderfully displayed in the window of the gallery, and I have no complaints about any of the positions of my work. I think in general everyone's work is wonderfully displayed, and hopefully everyone's gonna make some moolah! Tomorrow I flood my company with postcards and invite everyone I know to come see the work ... I've got a feeling that the tiny little Meredith gallery is going to be -packed- thursday night.  I'll be wearing my suit too, and making beef jerky for gallery food. 

Unfortunately, due to my own stupidity I booked a flight home leaving at 8:45 so I'll have to leave early from the opening to hop a flight back to CT, but hey, I'll be in CT for two and a half days which will be absolutely wonderful, so I shouldn't really complain. It'll be great to see  my parents and perhaps visit some old friends while I'm there. 

Since the Anagama trip everything in my life has just felt so damned good. I finally have a goal ... no several goals to work towards, and pretty much every weekend has been appropriately busy or relaxing. I'm at clayworks 3 times a week, and while I don't exactly have an aim for work I've a general idea about where I want to go, so I'll be able to make some cool stuff while I start to build up another body of work. 

Also finally saw 'Up' this weekend, which was absolutely excellent, as I expected.  Particularly poignant in my mind was the mini-story of Carl's life - were at home I'd surely be bawling. Definitely buying the DVD when it comes out.  

blah blah blah i'm off to do some more working out before hittin the sack early tonight

New stuff soon

I've not shown my core work from the Anagama class yet because I'm waiting for the show to open on the 2nd of July. I didn't want any of my coworkers to see it so they'd go to the show. I've also been trying to come up with a sort of artist's statement to go along with the work to help describe it; so far nothing quite right on that front, which is a little bit problematic if I want to go to grad school ... gotta learn to express myself verbally, though part of me wonders wether thats a redundant thing; I feel like in a lot of cases art is a means to describe something without words, or because words aren't enough. Perhaps a statement is moreso meant to describe the circumstances leading up to the expression that is art, a cue in the right direction, in order to force the viewer to see the work in the right light ... I dunno

Its particularly hard with personal work to describe it to others; during my critique I felt naked and exposed, and the act of talking about the work seemed superfluous and painful. 

Lately i've been throwing 25lbs of clay, with decent results, as I've been taking a class with Jim Dugan about throwing large, but I'm filled with doubts as to my reason for pursuing this particular skill - the prior statement effectively exhausted the built vessel as a metaphor ... what is its purpose now?

Tomorrow I set up the show, and I'm super excited!

Snippet of Anagama #2

It was evening. I had been unable to get to sleep as I had wanted to prior to my 12 am to 6 am shift with Jon, so with the last hour of my rest time I decided to get up and wander through the forest.  As I quietly left the nearly empty cabin of my sleepy comrades, I was immediately struck by the brightness of the moon that was high in the sky, outshining the stars around it. 

I hesitated a moment, and then walked back into the cabin to turn the outside light off, getting onto the nearby picnic table and lying down face up, letting my eyes adjust.  Georgia O'Keefe's painting Lawrence Tree is an insult to the beauty I saw.  The trees, with their leaves fully opened were black, the sky behind being a bright navy blue, with the stars not obscured by the moon shining through. The air was laden with moisture, and as such it picked up the rays of moonlight that shafted through the forest, so crisp it felt as though I could reach out and shatter them with a touch.  The fractal nature of existence pressed upon me; the world is a dazzling explosion of detail and intricacy, fanning out from all points, and collapsing inward from everywhere simultaneously. 

I imagined the perspective of the ant crawling along my leg, and let my perception expand to encompass the table I lay back upon, further to the rough trees around me, and for a moment I zoomed into its crevices, an endless, living, breathing, mountain range.  Upward from there the immense number of leaves moving in the wind of the evening, each current shifting and changing from each surface of the leaf to another.  The leaves from all the trees in the forest melding together into yet another fractal shape; an endless silhouette against the stars beyond, far far beyond.  I was small, so small in the forest, on the planet, in the universe, but so much a part of the system. I was an anomaly of animation upon the surface of a spherical rock, caught in the gravity well of a massive, yet astronomically small star, lost in the outer part of a still-larger galaxy. I was then a tiny voice among the millions in this country, a single creature silently contributing my part to the ecosystem which so verdantly surrounded me. I then came back to where I was, surrounded by old growth trees, quietly respirating in the night. 

Humbled, I shed my shoes and proceeded into the forest - where I live now, rarely do I get the opportunity to walk barefooted - stalking quietly as I had learned, eventually I came upon two other classmates, quietly enjoying a cigarette and each other's company. Startled at my sudden, soundless arrival, they declined my invitation to travel down to the water, and I continued onward into the forest happily alone.  

Again I was suddenly struck by the beauty of the night, as moonlight reached the lower trees in a small open space, created by the death of a very old tree, who remained majestic in its final recline.  I stood silently for a while, slowly letting the film in my mind develop, before moving on, slow and steady through the nearly pitch black forest. 

Through the trees the blue of the lake's surface became slowly more visible, as did movement before it.  I froze, attention snapped on the silhouette 30 feet ahead of me.  A mother and a fawn paced as carefully as I had along the shore of the lake. Recalling the distress of a mother deer I once encountered while painting in the forest behind the house in Connecticut, I halted my progress and watched the two slowly depart, before once again turning back to the cabin.

The light of the cabin was on, as my shift partner had awoken, preparing for the night's work. 

Snippet of Anagama #1

I awoke to the day early, arisen by the alarm clock I was used to waking to during work. Unable to fall back asleep I decided that i wanted to see the lake were camping around, so I quietly pulled on some pants and let myself out into the verdant forest that surrounded us.  Its a rare thing that I get to walk through a forest and happen on a lake without running into other human beings, and the scents of their passage. One of the most wonderful parts of being in that part of PA was the absolute lack of human scents, fire aside.  I felt as though each breath I took washed away the filth of the city from my lungs, and greedily inhaled deeply, splatter-visioning my eyes to further take in the forest, and enjoying the soft murmurs and whispers of the trees that surrounded me.

It had rained the previous night and the rich scent of the planet was delightfully inescapable, with masculine subtleties, the leaves gave silently beneath my bare feet and soon I was upon the lake, stunned by its stillness. The flies were out and the fish were jumping, carefully adjusting my focus I saw through the sky's reflection and found one fish to follow. I carefully sat down upon the sand and gazed out across the lake, hands idly gliding over the wet debris, happening upon a strand of discarded fishing line, to which I married with a twig, wrapping the two around one another till they lay cozily together. This process repeated itself twice more, and then my blurred eyes sensed movement.

A large bird flew directly towards me, its heavy wings struggling to gain altitude in the cool, thermal-less morning air. Mesmerized it inexorably glided across the lake, gaining speed until it was nearly upon me, too lost in thoughts of buzzards to notice the white head until the magnificent creature banked to my left, its gigantic wings blowing air upon me harder than a window fan, before disappearing into the trees.  Promptly, the still water became blurred as a wind swept across the lake, crashing upon me and chilling me. 

sated, I got up and wandered back to the cabin

Mica Commencement Show 2009

yeah yeah I've not updated this blog in a while I know i've been BUSY

In the meantime I got to briefly (as in super brief) see the commencement show at Mica this year.  I'm pretty bummed actually that I didn't get to see more of it, I checked out some of my friends' work, as well as most of the illustration department, but didn't have enough time to see more. They really need to extend the length of the show because two or three days isn't enough at all.

Anyway, I took some photos of the more interesting works I saw, all of which can be found here:

http://zombat.roosteredge.com/mica2009/

I've chosen a couple from the directory just to keep things simple.

 this young woman had three different parts to her show, but my favorites were the actor/actress portraits, such as this one. The photo really doesn't do it justice, but it seemed as if the three portraits she did in this style were a more contemporary art nouveau (lol redundant)

This next one was just three awesome monster printouts.  Really awesome color, and dynamic posing. 

This fellow was just off the wall in general. I wish I had gotten more shots, but as I was seeing the show before work and I didn't want to get yelled at for being TOO late I took about 3 closeups of the rest of his work. I love it!

This young illustrator had an incredible series; a really unique style which might not be the best suited for sequential, but they looked BEAUTIFUL in my opinion anyway. 

I played soccer with this young illustrator, who reminds me of Nancy Mueller's work ... hardcore. Her thesis was based around what a child would do with a couple wishes; for instance this one was 'if I could move objects with my mind'  ... cool :)

Other notable artists in the illustration department, though I didn't photograph them all, would be Isaac Orloff (who has come a LONG way - his stuff looks great! I couldn't photograph it because the gallery lighting was off for no good reason)  Peter Wogstad (the last image in the directory) and Sam Bosma - I enjoyed his black and white work specifically, though the color work was a little bit lacking, by comparison. 

Cool stuff

NIFTY PORCH SETUP

GOT REALLY BORED TODAY SO I DECIDED TO MAKE A SORT OF BENCH WHERE I COULD PUT MY BONSAI TREES AND THEN THEY'D GET FULL SUN. FUN FACT: THEY SIT ATOP A LARGE SHEET OF PLEXIGLASS, WHICH RUNS THE WATER OFF THE EDGE OF THE DECK AND HARMLESSLY INTO THE IRISES 20 FEET BELOW. NO MORE PISSING MY NEIGHBORS OFF WITH EXCESS WATER AND PLANT JUICE, BOY HOWDY!

  IN ADDITION IM WORKING ON A VEGETABLE GARDEN OF SORTS (YOU CAN SEE SOME OF THE BOXES TOWARDS THE MIDDLE OF THE BELOW PHOTO - THEY ARE SUSPENDED AND RECEIVE DECENT SUNLIGHT. HOWEVER I NEEDED TO READJUST MY WATERING SYSTEM

SO IN THE ABOVE PHOTO YOU MAY NOTICE THE BUCKET HANGING FROM THE WALL IN THE FAR RIGHT. THAT HANGS BENEATH A LEAKY DOWNSPOUT, SO IT REFILS WHEN IT RAINS. THE BUCKET IS HIGH ENOUGH THAT ALL PLANTS ARE BELOW, AND IT ALLOWS FOR A SIPHON. I THEN HANG THE TUBES ON THE STAIRS WHEN I'M DONE WATERING AND THEY ARE HIGH ENOUGH THAT THE PRESSURE OF THE SIPHON IS STILL HELD BUT ITS NOT LEAKING EVERYWHERE. FROM THERE ALL I HAVE TO DO IS TAKE THE TUBES OFF THE HOOKS AND BAM FRESH WATER.

I SHALL BE GROWING GREAN BEANS, SNOW PEAS, TOMATOES, CILANTRO, LETTUCE AND CUCUMBERS. ALL ORGANIC SO THAT I CAN SAVE SEEDS AND REPLANT NEXT YEAR, SELECTING FROM ONLY THE FINEST FRUITS. SELECTIVE BREEDING FTW