Thesis, hauntings, Alison Knowles, Oh MY!

Another day, another presidential debate. I wonder if Joe Six Pack and Joe Plumber know each other. I hope that Joe Plumber has a six-pack, and that Joe Six Pack has a plumber. Do they know how famous they are?

Anyway, neck deep in the initial stages of thesis in preparation for the departmental critique at Columbia on Tuesday, I've found myself in the frantic territory of detailing a work specifically enough to get approved, but ambiguous enough to allow the evolution of process that is intended for this piece. In the meantime, I've become a city hermit, spending my time in my studio, in class, tending bar, trolling museums, and scaring folks at The Silent Theatre's Haunted Sanitarium. It's silly and fun, and I forgot how much I enjoy working with make-up. I wish my face enjoyed it, as well. Alas...

I'm not going to get into too much detail on my thesis, as it is evolving in its very early stages. The initial working title was "Transient;what it means to move on," which turned into, "Transition and moving again" and continues to change. At this point, it is an installation piece combining waiting rooms, photobooths, pinball machines and the rate of motion in personal and political strife. I'm still on the fence about putting a performative element into it. I'm kind of obsessed with having the installation full of objects that can be activated, or not.

I'll have a better idea after my workshop weekend with Alison Knowles, kicking off on Halloween. So excited.So, so, so excited. I have also been reading "Fantastic Reality- Louise Bourgeois and a story of modern art," finally out in paperback.

In between articulation of my thesis, and everything else, I've really found solace in my studio, and have picked up some layers on a few paintings that have been begging for attention. In this space of reflection, consternation and some difficult remembrances, it feels good to have accomplished these layers.

Here they are!

1) Atmosphere is everything-Oil on Canvas

2) Judge, Jury and everything lost-oil on canvas

3) Lakeshore at night- acrylic on canvas

3)Vanity Box-Acrylic, US Weekly, and Resin on wooden box

Now back to banging my proverbial head on the keyboard...

Connected Images '08

The most influential, and frightening, course of my graduate study has been Connected Images(art camp!). During the last week of June and the first week of July, the Interdisciplinary Arts department began a retreat in La Porte, Indiana on the La Lumiere boarding school grounds. Prior to arrival, we were sent a rather cryptic tome of readings and general instructions, dealing with this year's theme, "In Real Time." On the first day, we were given marshmallows, sugar, honey and a swath of text with the instruction to create an "object" using these elements, and to build a site specific work.
The site I chose was quickly dubbed "Poop Island" due to the excrement of the many geese. I was attracted less by the poop, and more by the two-plank bridge that crossed onto the island, and the empty cross structure that had clearly, at one point, help a sign that was now missing, deeming it the only untitled island on the lake. Poop-ridden or not, it needed some love! I created a path of "marshmallows on sticks," leading from the mainland onto the little island, where my object hung. On each marshmallow, I had written a word, taken from the free-write response of text given, and had created a path of sugar and honey along the way(once on the island) hoping that it would create a path of ants to devour the sweet stuff. Turns out, ants don't dig poop island, either. Two days later, when our challenge was to create something out of the dissipation of our original project... mine was the only one completely intact...I took everyone on a tour, plucking the marshmallow on sticks, sans ants, from the ground, and leaving those with ants alone, pointing and proclaiming "That's alive". Once facing my object, I activated it as a dartboard with the "non-living" marshmallow skewers and sharpened sticks. I invited the tour to play, and left the space, to watch from the outer bank.

The next task was to form our original pieces into another form. I tend to play with the form and structure of text and communication, which probably comes from making sense of any and all text as an actor. I took my original free-write and forme a palindrome poem of sorts, with a tone from one end, that turns around and changes from the reverse direction. I wrote the poem in chalk on trees, creating another path in the wooded section of campus.

This led to a personal exploration of site specific work. After the tree poem was written, I felt there was not much more to do. So, I considered my work with text, path and layers, and chose the baseball diamond in which to get a bit more personal to involve the space I was accessing, outside of the city, among artists. I channeled the focus and playful atmosphere of one of my first favorite places.I created a tour, while physicalizing playing the game.I made the based for 1st-3rd, filled with different materials:1st-pine needles 2nd-pine cones 3rd-rocks
text:
This is a path of gravel stone and sand
asphalt grass and shit
I'm leading as you follow me
to the next mark.
This is a mark of chalk,charcoal and tobacco
the beginning of a cycle
of running circles around a diamond
until the game is won.
This is a game made of marks
and back and forth
running to catch safety
with the challenge to get ahead.
This is the challenge of ripping hair and breaking words
sliding in and tagging out
hoping to steal within the rules.
This is the rule of panic and belief
Taste your impending victory
despite the fear of going home
or getting out
This is the fear in the strategy of waiting:
Watching the path, unable to run.
Step back from the path, and away from the game
of catching flies and stealing seconds
See the history of triumphant victories and staggering losses
as what it is.
A simple path.
Trodden,
lonely,
and covered in clover