It's New York City Baby!

Went to NYC with some marvelous ladies last weekend. We visited some amazing artist studios! We visited Tom Burckhardt and Kathy Butterly first. They had a very beautiful studio/living combination. I was really drawn to Kathy's work. She spoke very eloquently (as did Tom), and I connected with her statements about working in a small scale. She explained that as she works on a particular detail, she gets lost in it and it becomes the whole universe. I really understand that impulse and losing oneself in the particular details of the work. Tom's work was very layered and I enjoyed the transparent quality of the painting. The fact that he casts each base for every painting is really involved. 

The second studio we visited was Simon Evans and his wife. They were both very interesting and inviting people. The work we saw there was evolving and becoming a coherent body of work. I enjoyed the suggestion that the paper they left on the floor of their studio becomes patinaed in a way by walking on it and living around it.

The second day I was unfortunately ill. I missed seeing Jan Huling's work, which I have posted on my blog before. I was very excited about this, and sad I missed it. 

Since being home i've been trying to get back into my work. Meeting today with Trenton Doyle Hancock really enabled me to do that. We spoke about the concept of having each piece be a character, and of enacting them. I am becoming more used to the idea of performance. Also more open to the fact that much of my work may be about gender. These are topics and ways of working I have not been comfortable with. They put me in a place where I am excited and a little bit nervous at the same time, which I think is where I know it is a good place to go. 

In Teaching methods we dissected syllabi and spoke about our rubrics. It was interesting to see what everyone would change in their class, and the different teaching styles that everyone's instructor has. The rubrics were difficult to make but in the end are very useful. 

Here are some artists and things I have been looking at:

Kaminer Design

Jewelry

Beth Cavener Stichter

Ceramic sculpture

Masha Reva

Fashion

Chow Ka Wa Key

Fashion photography

Jean Marc Laroche

Skeletons 

Pirate songs

Arts of Revolution

Video about art made of artifacts of war

Eric Standley

Cut paper sculpture

Matthew Picton

Paper sculpture

Psychogeography

Bence Bakonyi

Photography

Crazy nature

The Richat Structure

Iemza, French Graffiti artist

Russ and Reyn

Cool photography

More crazy nature

Kyle Thompson

More cool photography

Merci dieu, c'est Vendredi!

So this week was full of freaking out and being really stressed out. But, now that my house is clean and there are no more ants in my studio, I am feeling much better.

I started to trace Mourning Object #1 his week. This piece speaks to my comfort with mourning, with my grief about death. I am comfortable with where I am right now in this process, and felt I could start tracing this piece. I am using colour in this tracing, a different colour every day, just choosing whatever seems right. Here is a video:

I am also continuing to trace the other piece, because I feel like this ritual is also important. Here are some videos of that: 

So on another tangent, i've been watching Malcolm in the Middle. I know, I know, it doesn't have much to do with this, but really it does. That show is so well written! There is an episode where the father takes a sabatical to paint, because it's something he's always dreamed of. So the whole episode is about how he's trying to get to that ultimate painting. In the end, his family comes to the garage where he's been painting, and they are in awe because it's amazing. He goes up to it, so proud, and OF COURSE, the paint layers are so thick that they fall on top of him. It's soooooo gooooooood! 

Have been thinking about my work, and about what it is saying. Writing a lot on that. It's not coherent writing right now so I will post it another time. 

In Teaching methods this week we talked about rubrics. I really believe rubrics are a great teaching tool. I feel like they inform the students exactly what is needed from them to get a certain grade. If they are aiming for an A, they know exactly what they have to do. Also, as a teacher, I can just point at the rubric and that's it. It was an interesting discussion. We also looked at some great photos of France and Italy. They made me so homesick! I am ready to go back to France for an extended period of time. I really do miss it. 

Here is who i've been looking at this week:

Trenton Doyle Hancock video, Art 21

Watch this! 

Trenton Doyle Hancock

amazing. 

Alexandra Valenti

Fashion

Elina Brotherus

Model as self

Li Hongbo

Clever Sculpture

Dean Gorissen

AMAZING comic illustrations

Margery Amdur

Sculptures with alternate materials

Antony Gormley

I've been reading a lot of interviews with this guy, he've very interesting

Jon Estwards

Photos

Yuewei Vivien Zhang