The Roller Coaster's Structure Needs a Bit o' Oil

Well, back to a slightly bumpy ride.

While flying at full speed, wind in hair, books, articles, websites and videos in arms, and an exciting and inspiring new medium in hand I went full force capturing the myriad of ideas that seemed to come at me like a gale. I made sketches by the dozens, and began my first art-piece in the White Shirts and Threads series. Pleased at the beginning outcome, I sat back with a sigh of relief at my newly found focus. Little did I realize that the big loop up ahead was going to keep me hanging upside down for a bit, while the kinks of the technical apparatus jammed my wheels. This roller coaster needed a major overhaul and I did not have the tools in my toolbox to fix it.

(check back later...a run to the hardware store is in order)

Threads and White Shirts

"I drew. I printed. I painted. I sculpted. I photographed myself. But every attempt was too literal, too romantic, too much to look at or too boring. In the book, Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking the authors’ state: “The developing of an imagined piece is a progression of decreasing possibilities” (Bayles 16). This holds true not only for the development of one piece of art, but also for the process of creating as described above. None of what I had imagined spoke to me with the materials I had enlisted, and none had connected with the viewer in the manner in which I had wished. After exhausting all of the “classical” methods of art making, the ones that I revered, as well as some contemporary methods, the possibilities were dwindling, but through process of elimination came revelation." excerpt from Threads-Residency 3 MFA Thesis


Click on White Papers in the side bar to read the entire document

Roller Coaster Quote of the Day

"An idea from the unconscious, as Freud would say, had punctured a hole into consciousness" (Elkins)

White Shirt Series

There are a couple of reasons for the use of the white shirts:

1. It started because of my husband’s white shirts that he always wore, a way for me to remember.
2. My grandfather had a shirt factory and made men's white shirts for a living. This speaks to my ancestors and the marks they left behind
3. The torso is where the heart is held
4. Unlike the brain (thinking) the torso represents the spiritual side of man.The place where our deepest emotions are held.

The threads began as a way for me to draw with texture and materials, a way to accentuate the mark making of an artist. As I thought about it, I realized, that sewing has been in my life since I was little. My grandmothers both sewed, one embroidered, and one was a weaver of velvet. With the help of my mom, I sewed my own wedding gown, and all of the bridesmaid dresses. I sewed all of my own doll clothes as a young girl.

Also, the craft of sewing and stitching represents my feeling of the importance of the handmade, the human touch, that we as a society are moving swiftly away from.

Additionally, for this piece, (see Mending Me..below) the stitches are my way of Mending myself a process of healing One side, the pure white side, is the part of me that is the way it was, my “usual” self, the other side is the 'torn' part, if you will. I am mending myself, and the stitches are rough, as the mending process is not a nice and even process.

Areas considered are:
the shoulders (heavy burden..note the minimal bundle)
the heart..stitched with shiny colorful thread in a delicate manner.Matters of the heart are delicate
the stomach area, deep cut, the gut
the arm sliced and mended as if in a fight by the enemy

In Progress

Ride Number Three- It was a doozy

"One day seven years ago, I found myself saying- I can't live where I want to - I can't go where I want to- I can't do what I want to- I can't even say what I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I want to"- Georgia O'Keefe 1923

"I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself." Claes Oldenburg 1961

"It is a construct".Sunanda Sanyal 2011

"It's not so much what you are precisely trying to get across, not so much directly, but under the skin" Luc Tuymans

I begin with these quotes not simply to take up space or mimic another's philosophy, but to sincerely relate the issues and revelations that my AIB 3rd residency has brought to light.

(To read the entire paper just go to my right side bar and select White Papers- 02:11 Residency Three Summary"