Art Department

Sarah Jones, Colony (Studio) (I), 2008

Sarah Jones, The Drawing Studio (I), 2008

I have spent all but one year of my life in an art department. I was born into one, attended two, and have taught in eight. In May during my residency, I realized that a series devoted to this topic has potential. I am slowly coming to accept this and have begun working on it regularly. Here's to being so excited about a project that I spent seven hours working on one photograph without eating dinner tonight.

It is a reprieve from needing to travel to points far away to finish the "water as autobiography" and artist stalking series. They are still in the works but I have reached the point where serious travel must happen to complete them (which is difficult during the school year). I am researching funding opportunities but in the meantime, looking over my shoulder at my surroundings to see what will materialize.

Erick Swenson's "Muncie Head"

Erick Swenson, Muncie Head, plastic and acrylic paint, 2001

Last month I finally made it to CCAD (Columbia College of Art and Design) to see their exhibition space. I keep hearing that it is the place to see art in Columbus and I was grateful to see Erick Swenson's Ne Plus Ultra. Since leaving Texas (and no recent trip to NYC), I haven't seen much of Swenson's work in the last couple years. You can imagine my surprise at seeing the title of the above sculpture. After further research, I have failed to find a connection with Swenson and Muncie. My consolation is that it is the best work of art featuring this town's name that I have ever seen though I have no idea as to the context.

The next CCAD exhibition is Tom Burkhardt's Full Stop, another installation I first saw in Texas, once many lifetimes ago. Here's to keeping this space under my radar and to wishing that they update their upcoming exhibitions soon.

Chicago

Sol LeWitt, A Square of Chicago Without a Trapezoid, 1979

A trip north is necessary because far too much time has passed since my last visit. Yes, I am living in denial that school started this week. Stretching each of the last days of summer to their fullest capacity.

Installation Weekend

Here are a few details from yesterday's installation (= me sneaking around photographing holes and zippers).

(Portrait of an artist with his cat and horse)

The Last of This Summer's Water Collections

James K. Russell, Long Beach, Washington

I asked my father to make a drawing in the sand. He found a stick from his yard and packed it in the car. He had no idea what he would make and neither did I. He thought this was much larger than it turned out to be and I envisioned it was closer to the water.  Since my mother was a prominent feature in the Idaho photographs, I wanted my father to be a part of the project too. Note to self: I have skills convincing my parents to do things for my art without any forewarning.

The end product though the "ruffles" kept getting in the way. As with the residency's water photographs from earlier this summer, I am not sure if I will use many of these or what the final outcome will be. For now they are merely a collection and one day when I finish every location, they might transform into something else.

 
More from Long Beach.

Cannon Beach, Oregon (After Gerhard Richter)

Posing as we all do, Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon

I will return to Cannon Beach to photograph on a day when it isn't so crowded and warm (yes, warm!) at some point in the future. The two images above document the location where this came from...

... (wishing it was completely full but knowing I can take it back).

You know what this means? I finished everything above the line on the list I made in April. Add a few locations I forgot from Idaho and last year's trip to Texas (which produced this and this) and I am over the half way point in the autobiography of water series (I need a real title, damn it). I hope to complete the final destinations by Summer 2016. Yet another long term project in the making.

I am still alive...

... unlike many of the people that are passing from this world en mass this week. Since returning from the residency and Canadian road trip, it has been difficult to keep up with this blog on a regular basis due to a multitude of reasons not worthy of explanation here. As soon as school starts (shockingly so very early next week), I will have a routine again and it will feature regular blog posting.

There are a couple of exciting events on the horizon. Two years ago, I was fortunate to be asked to return to my alma mater for a two-person exhibition with a dear friend whom I always looked up to as an artist as a lowly undergrad. Our show opens the first week of September. In the meantime, I have my hands full with coordinating this, two interviews for online and print publications, and the inevitable (and suffocatingly large) pile of school work to contend with prior to Monday.

I leave you with Ed Ruscha's Hi There My Old Friend from 1994.

"More Than You Wanted to Know About John Baldessari: Volume 1 and 2"

Interview here. Books available here.

Rósa Gíslasdóttir

Rósa Gíslasdóttir, The Doubts of Future Foes

While on my residency in May, I met an artist named Samuel Paden who suggested I research the artwork of Rósa Gíslasdóttir, an artist from Iceland. Her series The Doubts of Future Foes concentrates on an everyday object, the bottle which relates to my Clear Water Sample series.

Rósa Gíslasdóttir, The Doubts of Future Foes

Rósa Gíslasdóttir, The Doubts of Future Foes

"She is fascinated by artifacts that have been produced and utilized for millennia. In the course of a long development, the forms of plates, jars and bottles have become fixed... She discovers the 'perfect form' in the object of our immediate environment, and our waste, making her selection on the basis of aesthetic criteria. A plastic Coca-Cola bottle, for example, is taken to represent a disturbing product of waste and, simultaneously, a precious form." [via]

One year later, the paper is weathered

Somehow it survived the worst winter and coolest summer in Indiana. Now to flatten it and determine what list will live on it (hopefully) permanently.