Saturday, December 31, 2011

New projects

Working on some new stuff over the winter break. I'm shooting with film again, large format 4"x5" sheet film so hopefully I will have something nice to work from and be able to print some mural size prints, 44" across! For now, though, here are a couple images I took with my digital camera.


Images from "Wild Pet" 12/2011
Below: the beginning of another project in which I will be re-leafing a small dead tree.
Some 300, or so, leaves on just this one branch. So far I have hand cut around 2000 felt leaves but still have  a very long way to go!

My first semester of grad school


Well, I have to say that my first semester of grad school went well. I, somewhat foolishly, only took 2 classes as I was unsure what my work load would be like with my TA appointment and schoolwork. I found that I ended up having a lot of free time! So, next semester I will be taking 4 classes. I thought I would share some of the photos I made over the semester though.

Disco Cicada

Masked Cicada

Wrapped Cicada

Candy dots Cicada

Acrobat Cicadas

Bedazzled Cicada

Fortune Cicada

Open Cicada

Painted Cicada


As is to be expected I had a lot of people asking me what my deal was/is with the cicadas. Well, there was plenty going on with these little guys for me... Firstly, I loved collecting them and how the act of looking for them really made me pay attention to my surroundings and notice other things that I probably would have overlooked. I also liked the delicate way in which I had to handle them and all the little things I noticed about them when I was working with them.  I also really liked the idea of challenging the perception that these are just ugly, annoying little creatures.  It's funny how quickly and easily something turns from "oh ick!" to "that's so cool" just by some simple adornment... it's still the same thing, it's just wearing a different shirt/dress/jacket. I also liked the idea of placing the newly adored shells back out in the world, in their new flashy outfits, as a way of saying "hey, look at me! I was nature and I was awesome but you didn't see me until someone made me all shiny... look around, you're missing cool stuff all the time!". Does that come through in the images? Well, you can be the judge, but those were the things I was thinking about when I was working on this project. I will probably end up incorporating a couple of these images into a larger more varied body of work instead of having these images stand alone as a project. There were a few more cicadas, which I've chosen not to show here and I also have more plain/unadorned shells in my studio, but I'm unsure whether I will make any more fancy cicadas.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The most expensive photo in the world!

So, it has come to my attention that I have been rather neglectful of my blog. I plan to change that this weekend and try to get things up to date!

I thought I'd throw out an interesting little tidbit to get things rolling.

German photographer, Andreas Gursky, is the current record holder for producing the most expensive photograph at $4,338,500. And here it is.....


Rhein II, 1999, C-print mounted to plexi, 81 x 140" (6.75' x 11.6')

Photographing "large, anonymous, man-made spaces" Gursky prints and presents on a massive scale, which creates an encompassing presence, transporting the viewer.

99 cents II Diptychon, 2001, C-print mounted to glass, 2x 207 x 307 centimeter (I'd convert this to inches but I don't like math)
This was sold for $3.34 million on February 7, 2007 and was the record holder for most expensive photograph until Cindy Sherman's Untitled #96 sold for $3.89 million in May 2011.

Untitled #96, 1981

Of course Gursky before there was Gursky or Sherman their was Edward Steichen's "Pond -- Moonlight" which sold for $2.92 million in February 2006 (on a side note I really dislike the way February is spelled!).


The Pond -- Moonlight, 1904

So it goes like this:
Gursky - Rhein II, 1999 = $4.33 million
Sherman - Untitled #96, 1981 = $3.89 million
Gursky - 99 cents II Diptychon, 2001 = $3.34 million
Steichen - Pond -- Moonlight, 1901= $2.92 million

Sunday, August 21, 2011

A day with "pazazz"...

As an artist I, naturally, have a job totally unrelated to art. I work at an assisted living home for adults with autism, the lower end of the functioning scale too, and have been there for 2 years 3 months.  I see more "wang" in a day than I care to and have cleaned up way more poopy undies than I ever imagined I would, especially since I have no desire for children.  The job requires a colossal amount of patience, of which I do not possess.  So, I spend about half of each shift daydreaming and refreshing the main page of Facebook so I don't go totally crazy. Today was different though. Today I 'got' to find out how deep the creek near work actually is. How, you ask... Well let me tell you.

We have a new staff person training in right now and things tend to get a little more interesting when new staff are around because the residents like to push the boundaries and see what they can get away with. Today was one of those days. The new staff had her resident out in the front yard, which is fenced, and he was enjoying playing in a tub of water. The timer beeped and his half hour of water play was over so it was time to dump the water and head inside. All was good and well until the resident walked over to the house door and noticed the door to the garage and apparently decided to check it to see if it was locked. Unfortunately, it wasn't locked and the main garage door was open too as someone had taken the van out of the garage earlier.  So, the resident takes off! I happened to be keeping a close eye on the camera monitor and saw him sprint off. I hopped down to the landing, yelled for the other staff, who was downstairs, then took off out the front door. The resident was hauling ass through the parking lot and his brand new staff was in hot pursuit but was in no real shape to give chase for a dude hauling like this rezzy.  I see the direction he's going and cut through the trees on the facility property, saving me some time and ground. I'm running full sprint after him as he books it down the sidewalk to a creek that is about a block away from our facility. I passed a Mexican family that is waiting for the bus and give a little wave to the youngest girl who is watching me strangely as I clomp towards them, fast as I can, in Keen sandals.  She did not wave back. Meanwhile, I'm yelling, in a scolding tone, for the resident to stop. He didn't, of course.  I'm able to catch up to him and grab a hold of him where he briefly stopped in the tall weedy grassy stuff on the bank of the creek but he jerked away and the pursuit was on again.  He scrambled into the water which meant I had to as well.... Now, I'm thinking "Fuck! Why did I run so damn fast?!?!?!" So now I'm tripping around in the muck and water after him but he has already waded so far out I figure it will be faster to climb out, run around, and head him off.  I, of course, trip and fall getting even wetter before I manage to climb out, not that it mattered I'm sure I already smelled like duck shit before the fall.  I run further ahead in front of him and got in again. I wade out and then holy crap! there is apparently a "deep end" to the creek because I can't touch bottom and I'm 5'6"!  The resident is taking in water and I freaking, thinking he's drowning.  I'm exhausted from sprinting and haven't been able to catch my breath and am thinking "Fuck, somebody is going to have to jump in after me in about a minute!".  My internal monologue is full of the "F" word.  Turns out this resident can swim alright, he was actually voluntarily drinking the water (ew!) and started to swim away from me, little bastard!  I was finally able to corral him and get a solid hold of him and bring him over to the bank where another staff person pulled him up and then escorted him back with another staff.  I slogged out of the creek with mud and weedy garbage all wrapped around and in my shoes, clothing all full of grim and smelling like... crayfish.  I squished back by the Mexican family, waiting for their bus, and waved at the little girl again.

I'm thinking my next review at work is going to go really well!

Friday, July 29, 2011

A new term...

I was just talking on the phone with my mom and was telling her that there is a concert on 9/11 that I just bought tickets to. She made a strange noise as if it was inappropriate or inadvisable to do something on 9/11 and I said well the world does go on, despite whatever unfortunate events have happened. She then told me that she had heard them talking on the news already about the anniversary of the attack coming up. I then suggested that "anniversary" really brings to mind a celebration of something happy and suggested we develop a new term, "trageversary" to describe the passing of another year of which a tragedy took place on a particular date.  Seriously, we need a new term, don't you think??

Thoughts?

Thursday, July 21, 2011

A little "treasure" I had forgotten about...

While unpacking, sorting, and organizing I came across this old book that I made for a class at MCAD back in 2002. The class was Anthropology; I don't quite remember what the assignment was. I had totally forgotten about it but was very amused to see it again. So, I thought I'd share.

A story of creation...

















Tuesday, July 12, 2011

I didn't die. I just moved into a house!

For those of you waiting to see what my latest art project is I have to apologize as I have not been working on anything new for about a month now! I've been neck deep in moving, organizing, painting, and dreaming about shopping at Home Depot (and actually shopping at Home Depot)! I just moved into my first house!!!! It's an adorable little rambler style place that was built in 1958. It is finally starting to come together now. My folks came up from Oklahoma and brought a trailer full of stuff, some stuff that I'd hoped I'd never see again, but of course I don't want to just get rid of it! Things like my baby blanket, in the event that I ever do date again that will look real sexy hanging in the bedroom! I guess I will just have to find a good storage place for it :-) Luckily my stuffed toys wouldn't fit in the load they brought up! Nothing more mature than a 30 yr old with a closet full of stuffed toys! Here a few photos of the place. I will have a studio space too, which is obviously going to be fantastic, but it's not quite fixed up yet. Still lots of things to be done.

p.s. A big thank you to my folks for helping and doing so very much and to my Mom for doing lots of cleaning and helping me get things together too.




The living room, which I had to paint a beautiful aqua color! Subdued is so overdone!

The pink tile bathroom. The tub and toilet are pink too!

The main bedroom, still needs some art on the walls!

 

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

"Surprises"




Never before captured in paper.... wouldn't it be great if we all just got along and ate cake?!!? Here we seen a scene with a number of surprises and we're not really sure if they are all good.

This is perhaps one of my stranger scenes.. maybe :-)

This little box measures in at 5.25" wide, 3.25" tall, and almost 2" deep.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Polite Hound



Printing is hard work!! I was at this tonight for 4 hours and only got 3 decent prints. I'm excited to work on printing a few more and getting one framed up for myself. It's gonna look great in my new living room surrounded by some other greyhound art! This is a large print 21" x 30"