On view now at Ohio Dominican University

Great opening on Sunday, March 17th of "THIS IS | on the subject of art," curated by CCAD's own Julie Abijanac. What a fantastic turnout! We even had three intrepid students bike from CCAD--a good 45 minute ride each way--on that chilly day. The show will be up until April 12th, and the hours are 10:00am-4:00pm Monday through Friday. If you visit, you'll get to see great work by fellow CCAD faculty Shannon Benine, Matt Flegle, Michael Goodson, Danielle Julian-Norton, Kelly Malec-Kosak, Andrea Myers, Susan Li O'Connor, Tim Rietenbach, Mariana Smith, and Melissa Vogley-Woods. Click here for more information.

I was pleased to install my 2012-2013 piece Divided Attention again; I last exhibited it at Oregon College of Art & Craft in a fantastic space that was a thoroughfare for college visitors. It was difficult to photograph it in that setting, so I relished the chance to get better images. The soft light of the gallery and Julie's generous placement helped it look its best. (Thanks Julie!) The new images, as well as an artist statement about the series, are on my website here under "works > studio works > pennant collages." 

right after finishing the installation - it's up!

look at that crowd

New Blog

The stirrings of spring have drawn me into garden preparations, and once again, I have been thinking a great deal about the intersection of art and gardening. I find that being in the garden influences my outlook on just about everything, including art. The palimpsest of this earth I work is layered: those settlers who first cultivated the wild land, those generations since that have coaxed food and flower from the ground, the previous owners of our house who so cared for the garden plot that their tomatoes in a wet year convinced us to buy the house, and us last year and our embarrassingly rich harvest. There are patterns here, layered upon one another; perhaps they will translate to drawings, ceramics, etc. I know there is a wealth of creative work here, and I want to see what my life looks like when I let these two generative actions intertwine. I have started a separate blog that is a repository for this ongoing questioning, as well as the progress in the garden. I am transforming this patch of earth, and somehow that feels terribly close to sculpture or performance art or something. Just a feeling so far; hopefully the blog will help me really sort it out. It feels like a major turning point, although I'm the first to admit that spring itself lures us into inviting change wantonly. I love that it does that...

http://c-o-m-p-o-s-t.blogspot.com/

A guiding quote from poet Stanley Kunitz, a fellow gardener:

I associate the garden with the whole experience of being alive, 

and so, there is nothing in the range of human experience 

that is separate from what the garden can signify 

in its eagerness and its insistence, 

and in its driving energy to live--to grow, to bear fruit.

It is the first day of spring.

Fall Update: Japan residency, Ann's exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory

It has been an exciting fall! 

Japan Residency Next Summer

I learned a while ago that I was selected for a one-month residency at Artist in Residence Yamanashi (AIRY) in Kofu-city, Japan! I will be traveling there from mid-June to late July, and will be studying shibori dyeing techniques at their relationship to my slip drawings. I am hoping to travel to Arimatsu, a small village that has collectively made shibori for 400 years. (Interestingly, I had not studied shibori patterns at all before making my slip drawings.) For comparison:

late 19th / early 20th centure Itajime shibori

my slip drawings on rice paper

This is such a dream come true - I have long felt a resonance with Japanese aesthetics and sensibilities, and feel so lucky to experience them in person. 

Here are a few pictures from the residency website:

AIRY is in the foothills of Mt. Fuji

Working on the rooftop

After the residency, I will travel to Kyoto and Tokyo with the US-Japan Leadership Program. I am so looking forward to seeing all the delegates from last year, and meeting the new delegates. It promises to be as fantastic as (if not more than) this year's conference in Seattle!

Ann Hamilton's the event of a thread

After months of intense preparation, we finally launched Ann's massive new project at the Park Avenue Armory title the event of a thread. (Fun fact: if you click this link, those are my hands!) Sometimes I stop and marvel that I get to help make things like this happen.

Here's a great slide show of images from the Armory, and there was a fantastic review in the New York Times. For those if you who didn't get to experience it in person, the NYT also put together a video.

The show has come down now, but I was lucky to spend a few days with it in New York. Several friends from USJLP come to see it (thanks guys!), and I feel privileged to have been there before the huge crowds starting coming in. It was a profoundly fluid piece that directly reflects the energy of the room, so quiet mornings on the swings were a treat - a lovely contrast to the fervent spirit of the bustling afternoons. Such an amazing experience to see from the inside how something of this scale happens! I am so fortunate.

Presenting at the SECAC conference

Off to the SECAC conference in Durham, NC this week! I'll be presenting on the "Fostering Civic Engagement" panel, and it's a real honor. Here's the abstract of what I'll be discussing:

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The Puppet Show: Collaboration and Community Engagement in Design Foundations

What do rapping Vikings, fluffy sea monsters, and two chatty mermaids from Jersey have to do with design foundations?  They are a few of the unlikely characters to unlock the concept of community engagement for freshmen at Columbus College of Art and Design. Working in teams, these students created a multi-act puppet show for patients and families at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Each team consisted of a production/budget manager, playwright, marketing and communications representative, actors, and character/set designers. The students selected their roles, allowing them to play to their strengths. A comprehensive six-week production schedule kept teams on task, and frequent in-progress critiques helped the overall class produce a cohesive performance. (On their course evaluations, many students cited “teamwork” as the most important lesson from the class.) Other learning objectives for this assignment included utilizing 2-D, 3-D and 4-D design skills developed throughout the year, managing all aspects of their production, documenting the process, and tailoring their engagement to a unique audience. Instead of creating artwork for themselves, their peers, or their instructor, these students had to consider the needs and interests of a very different “viewer.”  The results were so positive that Nationwide asked us to return again this year!

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I'm looking forward to seeing Durham and meeting all the conference attendees!

Great residency

In May, I had the fantastic pleasure of a two-week residency at the Anderson Center at Tower View. It was such an amazing experience - I'm hooked! During that time, I made thousands of small drawings that I posted around the studio. My fellow resident Norbert Marklin took this great photo:

This is just one wall that I covered, but it gives you the idea. We also had fun making this one:

When I got back to Columbus, I spent the next several weeks putting together pieces for a 9 x 12 foot collage/mural I made for a show at Oregon College of Art and Craft. (I'll be heading there soon to install it.) Here's the piece in process:

I'll be sure to post pictures of the finished work.

Awarded a residency at the Anderson Center

Boy, 2012 is my year so far!  I just learned that I was awarded a two-week residency at the Anderson Center at Tower View for May.  It could not come at a better time, as I prepare for my solo show at OCAC in August.  I'm going to eat up the opportunity to focus on my artwork for two uninterrupted weeks - sounds like a dream!  

Selected as a 2012-2013 USJLP delegate

In February, I was selected as a 2012-2013 USJLP delegate!  It is such an honor; only 14 Americans and 6 Japanese young leaders were chosen this year.  I will travel to Seattle this summer for a weeklong conference where delegates and fellows from both countries will gather for friendship and dialogue about issues affecting both countries.  It will be fascinating to see how fine art can be a part of this conversation.  And next summer, I will travel to Kyoto for the conference.  It will be my first time in Asia; I'm so grateful and excited!

http://www.usjlp.org/index.html

Two pieces on view in Lake Charles, LA

Untitled (Red Cells), 2010

Untitled (Black and Red), 2010

What's Happening in the Studio

After a long summer of moving to our first home, the studio is up and running.  Here are a few snapshots of what I'm currently working on.  There are two potential bodies of work starting now.  The first are what I'm calling "pennant drawings".  They're constructed from torn segments of other drawings and collage material. 

It takes a considerable amount of time to make the fragments.  I'm asking myself a lot of questions right now: do the fragments need to be hand drawn?  By me?  What content/effect does having collage material from old magazines offer?  How can I make these bigger?  Are they a timeline or record?  This idea started with a series of drawings from summer of 2008 that were combined.  Here's how they looked individually:

 

 And then when I put them all together:

The other thread I'm starting to explore is garish color and the power of repetition.  I think I'm drawn to pattern right now because of my constant exploration of fabrics and interior design for our home.  I especially like Amy Butler's designs; she is not afraid of color!  I fluctuate between natural and neutral colors and bright, almost primary colors in my compositions.  In learning about Amy's process--in which she designs the seed pattern or motif in paint, and then it is replicated--I wondered how hard it was to create my own.  This is my first attempt:

 

I'm going to scan it soon and see what it looks like replicated.  I was pretty shocked at my color choices as I went along.  I kept pushing myself out of my comfort zone whenever selecting the next color.  What I find intriguing is how repetition mitigates the discordance of the color.  This led me to really push it.  First I was looking for motifs...here's the first steps:

  And then here's where it went:

It's not complete yet, but whoa!  That's a whole lot of color for me.  We'll see where it goes...

There are some other directions starting to form, but these are the two most prominent.  Alongside them, here's what else is percolating...

My 2010-11 Freshman Class Profiled in IMAGE magazine

The final project for my freshman design students last year was profiled in CCAD's IMAGE magazine and blog.  Here's the online version. 

And here's an earlier entry on the CCAD news blog about the performance.  It was such a great experience!