Doug Aitkin's "Sun Pool"

Doug Aitken, Sun Pool from the exhibition Still Life at Regan Projects, 2014
Aluminum lightbox, LED lights, chromogenic transparency, acrylic
38 x 88 1/2 x 7 3/8 inches

The Pile of Library Books That Keeps on Giving

Next time a couple hundred dollars falls into my lap, remind me to purchase this:

Todd Hido's Excerpts from Silver Meadows.

Spheres of Cat Hair and an Orange Chair

I took this photograph two summers ago around the time I was emulating obsessive activities professors did in art departments. I finally showed it to my inspiration - the person who rolls cat hair into spheres - last year. Fortunately, he wasn't horrified and that gave me permission to carry on (and post it now). After this photograph was taken, I started another activity (talking to a plant and recording my conversations) last January after my former professor who acquired dementia and was found conversing with cacti on campus. Once a month after each faculty meeting, I sat next to a bush and talked to it as if it was she. She died prematurely last summer and I was never able to say good-bye. That was such a depressing endeavor that I stopped after four months, not particularly interested in ever hearing the sound recordings again.

More stories were collected from friends and colleagues and I kept wondering what the point was in my recreation. I was interested in the subject matter but grew despondent thinking I would become these "characters" when they were, in reality, not like me at all.

In May, I saw this chair in the old watercolor classroom at Boise State University and my heart flew into my chest and everything changed.

I remembered this chair from our last acquaintance in 1995. It resided in my Dad's office for years, providing a seat for students during open office hours. I even recognized the blue paint.

Suddenly, I knew that the work I must make had less to do with other people's experiences in the art department and more of my own. I have thought about these photographs all summer - the white one above was the most important image I made on the residency. My return to Boise State earlier this month allowed more access to the photography, drawing and painting classrooms. I am working with the original locations but still telling stories through the objects I find there and the actions that took place in those spaces many years ago.

Art Department: Further thoughts after the post a couple weeks ago

I was born into an Art Department and have spent all but two years of my life there. One evening while participating in the Surel's Place residency in May, I walked to Boise State and visited some of the classrooms where I spent many of my earlier days watching my father grade, helping him rearrange drawing chairs, and staring out the windows while he completed administrative tasks. Later on I would attend the same school, switch my major to art from creative writing, and enroll in the classes of the professors who had known me since birth. I moved to Arizona for graduate school, attended another department, then eventually became an art professor. After seven years as an adjunct (at University of Houston, Lee College, Washington State University Vancouver, Oregon State University, Lewis and Clark College, Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, and Mt. Hood College), I obtained a full time teaching job at Ball State University.

It wasn't until last May while wandering through the hallways of the past, did I realize how important it is to make art about this topic. I have tried to reconcile this, deciding if it is worthy to pursue (or too insular), but I can't stop thinking about it. The concept refuses to fade away and I keep taking photographs. I may post a few of them over the next week or two while I formulate the words to describe what this means.

The Return to Kirkham Hot Springs

Since returning from the residency in May, I have had a little time to assess the water images. It has become painfully clear that I had nothing to work with from Kirkham Hot Springs that was out of the ordinary. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to return to the Middle Fork of the Payette River last weekend. I am hoping to make something from the two photographs below. This may involve printing, rephotographing with outdated slide film, and cross processing. Not sure yet but film is on my mind lately (visiting the old color lab at BSU may have instigated this). Needless to say, they are more successful working images to contemplate compared to my previous outing.

Kirkham Hot Springs, Idaho

Kirkham Hot Springs, Idaho

Piling rocks into pools (photo by Marie Baldner)

"Faux" Featuring "Claimed" and "Nine Fake Cakes and Nine Bodies of Water"

Two years in the making... so happy to have this show with Alexis.

Boise State - Visiting Artist Gig with Alexis Pike

The posters and the contracts.

Alexis discussing we sagebrush folks in Jonathan's class (photo by Laurie Blakeslee).

Where I fell in love with photography and changed my major from English to Art. It hasn't changed too much since 1995.

The only Jobo left in the old color lab.

The first time I exhibited the cakes with an "archive" in a vitrine. More exhibition documentation coming soon.

Boise in September

Fire Alarm Dispatch cards at the Sesqui Shop. They are hand drawn maps showing the location of the box alarms in Boise.

Best paint by number artwork in Laurie and Stephanie's guest room.

Spotone on the bookshelf.

Laurie in the garden she has photographed for a couple years.

White cats left in a cul-de-sac.

View from the Boise Airport that I will never forget since I first saw it as a child.

O.P.P. Interview with Stacia Yeapanis

Check it out. I was very happy to participate when Stacia contacted me. She asked such thoughtful questions that helped me formulate new ideas on how to describe my practice. This is a key example: "In what ways are you a documentarian? In what ways are you not?" This is not a description I would have prescribed for myself but the more I explained my answer, the more it seemed feasible.

"Faux" at Boise State University with Alexis Pike

I started packing today and am currently formulating a 30-minute presentation where I talk about nothing except cakes (and Ed Ruscha) and more cakes. 

I don't have an official announcement yet but here is the information for the exhibition, Faux, at the Hemingway Center on the Boise State University campus.