Marilee's ramblings

Millersville show

2011-02-08T13:09:00.005-05:00

Here are some pics from my latest solo show at Millersville university. The main piece is called Growth Patterns and it is a large installation that I have been working on for over a year. I had a good deal of help by artist assistant Sophie Brennman. She was essential to this project and deserves a good deal of credit.

So, for you print geek types: I printed most of these as etchings, a few are also printed digitally, everything was printed on printmaking paper. Then I glued them do to various pieces of wood and we scroll sawed the shapes out of the wood.

More images can be seen on my fb page.

las vegas installation shots

2010-05-20T21:16:00.003-04:00

Here are some pics of the installation that is currently at College of Southern Nevada. Thanks Chris Tsouras for installing the show and for sending me these pictures!!

installation in progress in studio...

2010-05-08T23:29:00.005-04:00

Here are pics from the work in progress. I just began hanging but wanted to give you an idea of what is going on in my studio. A special thanks needs to be given to Sophie Brenneman for all of her hard work cutting!!

The saw...... This is an excellent saw by the way.

The work is mainly etching and digitally printed. I print on paper, then glue it to the wood and scroll saw it out. I have 100's more to add so check back soon to see how it is coming along.

I am pretty sure this work will be show at my solo show at Haas Gallery in August- beginning of Sept.

stuff

2010-04-02T00:23:00.008-04:00

A few updates for you.I now have a fan page on facebook, to join click here

I have a few shows coming up that I am pretty excited about..

From May 21- July 16- Solo show at College of Southern Nevada below is a proof of the very

nice brochure they are in the process of creating (click on images to enlarge the

image)

It will be an 8.5x11 brochure folded in half. I look forward to seeing them when they are printed.

I will have a second solo show at Haas Gallery, Bloomsburg University from the end of summer- to a few weeks into the fall semester (dates have not been finalized yet) with a closing reception. I am still debating what will be shown for this yet.

I found out very recently that I will have a 2 person show in t

he main gallery at the McLean County Art Center, Bloomington IL tentative days appear to now be May 6- July 23 2011. My work has been pared with artist Sarah Smelser who is the intaglio Professor at Illinois State University, where I did my undergraduate work. I never studied with her, as she has only been there for a few years (unsure how many), but it occurred to me that I received this degree 10 years ago! Geez that seems like a long time ago! Anyway, it will be an honor to show at McLean County Arts Center, I was in a group show there a few years back related to printmaking alumni of the university and then probably 11 or so years back, a juried show which I won an award of sorts. It will be the first time in t

en years I have had a solo show in Bloomington-Normal, the

town I grew up in.

I have another solo show scheduled for November-February 2011 in Reno Nevada at University of Phoenix. I will discuss that one further down the line.

I recently returned from the Southern Graphics International Conference held this year in Philadelphia. My university funded 2 grants I

applied for to allow myself and 2 students to go to this conference. I was one of 11 people invited to participate in a portfolio organised by amazing artist Jennifer Anderson, the portfolio was called Vast Intransitive Acts and it begun by the participants uploading images to a blog from there we each had to create a work of art that util

ized images from the blog. The final work, as well as a book with all of the blog images was shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art during the conference.

I really enjoyed this project. I have been considering how I can incorporate this type of a project in my classes. Later, I will upload a picture of the work I created.

Here are a couple of pics of the work I showe

d during open portfolio at SGC.. its a work in process, these are some of the blocks that will make an installation

about time

2010-03-01T18:39:00.003-05:00

So, it was pointed out to me that I have not blogged since October. So, I figured I should probably change that.

Lets see, what is new? Well, I am currently in 2 group shows. Both shows are with a group of exciting printmakers from around the US; we worked on a portfolio titled A Real Fake: Truth Is In The Making. So since we each created an edition of prints, the work is able to be shown at the two different venues at the same time. One show is at Adirondack Community College, Queensbury, NY and the second is at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale Il. This location happens to be about 4 hours south of my home town. below is the postcard for the IL show:

The portfolio was organised by Shannon Drowne and Denise Saint Onge. Thanks Ladies.

I am pretty excited about the Southern Graphics Printmaking conference that will be here in Philly towards the end of March! My University has been generous enough to give me a grant to go as well as a second grant to pay for 2 of my advanced printmakers to go. A third student will be joining us as well. It should be a great time!

My work will be shown during the conference at The University of The Arts in a very interesting portfolio organised by Jennifer Anderson called Vast Intransitive Arts. I cant wait to see the prints! I also plan to bring some new scroll sawed pieces for an installation that Sophie Brenneman and I have been working on to show at the open portfolio session. I will be in session 1, in case you happen to be going to the event.

My beginning and upper level students are now required to blog as part of their grades. Feel free to take a peek at what they have been up to.

Mary Had a little lamb

2009-10-11T22:18:00.004-04:00

My solo show Mary Had a little lamb just opened at Open Studio in Toronto on thursday. Below are photos of the exhibit and a write up. I think it turned out quite nice.

Marilee Salvator: Mary Had A Little Lamb

by Bridget Indelicato

When I first began researching Pennsylvania-based artist Marilee Salvator for this essay, I felt like I’d stumbled upon her diary tucked in the back of her underwear drawer. I read about her middleclass upbringing in a small town in Illinois in the early seventies through to the early nineties, her vocational and educational explorations, and her inspiring journey to becoming a practicing artist and fine art printmaking professor at Bloomsburg University. I began to feel an affinity towards her; I too was born into a middleclass family in a small town in Illinois in the early seventies and paved a path into the visual arts in my twenties and thirties. As I flipped through her imaginary diary I came to an arresting development in her story – she experienced childhood sexual molestation. She spent years painfully trying to erase her memory of this violation of her innocence and her feelings of deep shame, but today she pushes her abuse into the light to process it, expose her scars and heal herself with courage and grace.1

Marilee Salvator brings together a number of recent and new series under the title Mary Had A Little Lamb for her solo exhibition at Open Studio. As the title implies, Salvator is borrowing and appropriating this popular children’s rhyme to subtly mask and quietly unfold her own narrative. In these personal works, driven by exhaustive process and layering, she also reaches outside of her autobiography to point to the broader historical reference of women and domestic work, namely embroidery and family portraiture.

The large installation Moo Goes The Cow is comprised of over one hundred mixed-media works on found and reproduced patterned fabric stretched onto embroidery hoops exhibited six feet high along a fourteen-foot wide span of wall space. The overall first impression is a colourful smattering of playful bubbles of varying hoop sizes (some no bigger than the palm of your hand), each with layers of screenprinted and watercolour painted imagery that invites you to step closer. They appear like kaleidoscopes of children’s book illustrations – a grazing cow, a little girl blowing bubbles, a fire truck – on surfaces sporting children’s bed sheet-like patterns of ribbons, flowers, and toy boats and planes. But the crafty sweetness is quickly marred by the murky stains, produced with tea and watercolour, and overlaid anatomical drawings of male and female genitalia, including instructional steps of how to put on a condom. This visual disruption drops like a clue on the unsuspecting viewer drawn to the bright, playful pattern. As a viewer, you start to question and examine each piece, bending down to see the ones grazing your kneecaps and stretching on your tiptoes to make out the ones overhead. Salvator describes this juxtaposition of innocent children’s imagery and sex education illustrations as a way to “illuminate the deep-seated confusion and scarring that sexual molestation can create.”2 The inappropriateness of this adult content imposed on the storybook characters is meant to crawl under your skin and create discomfort and awkwardness.

Scrapbook is another hefty installation, both in volume and subject matter, which Salvator began in 2004 and continues to expand, currently containing over one hundred pieces. These mixed-media works housed in secondhand, cheaply ornate frames, reminiscent of family portraits clustered on the living room wall in its final presentation, follow the recipe of the scrapbook: memories pressed onto pages in a collage of imagery. But again Salvator disrupts association by formatting painful childhood experiences into keepsakes. The individual works are layered collages similar in content to the previous series and made of found materials, photocopies, tape, crayon markings, fluids and digital reproduction with screenprinted imagery. In these works, and even more so than in the previous series, the surface appears stained and watermarked as though left too long in a damp, leaky basement. She uses multiple sources of staining including her own menstrual blood, a deeply personal impression of herself which can also be read as a right of passage and loss of innocence. Salvator describes this permanent staining – which is also extended onto the gallery wall in dramatic tea drippings – as the manifestation of feeling unclean after abuse, a feeling that never fully disappears.3

While these works deal with pain and confusion, they bring the subject of childhood sexual abuse out of the darkness. Marilee Salvator’s “obsessive handiwork,”4 as she calls it, is offered to us in playful and alarming installations, safely bringing us to a place of hope and empowerment.

1Discussions of the artist’s background and artistic practice and imagery can be found on her website http://www.marileesalvator.com.

2Marilee Salvator, Mary Had A Little Lamb Artist Statement, September 12, 2008.

3Email correspondence from Marilee Salvator, August 4, 2009.

4Marilee Salvator, Ring Around The Rosie Artist Statement, July 1, 2007.

Image: Moo Goes The Cow (installation view), screenprint, watercolour, fabric, thread and cross stitch hoops, installation size 6' x 14', 2008

2009-06-21T08:41:00.002-04:00

Well, i have been home a couple of days and in that time i have not done a whole lot other than rest, unpack, do some laundry, and hang out with my dogs. I missed them a lot when i was gone. Needless to say, they have been staying pretty near since my return. I left yesterday for a bit and pudge nearly had a heart attack. I think he thought i was leaving again. They were taken very good care of while I was gone by Becky, an old student of mine who is now in grad school. It was very wonderful of her to stay here and take care of them.

I am having a hard time adjusting to the 12hr time difference. It was kinda easy to adjust to the china time but returning home has not been so easy. I tend to get up at 4 am. I of course have not been so good on making myself stay awake. I tend to nap during the day which I am sure is not helping matters but I guess my logic is that I am tired and I deserve to take it easy if I want to since we did so much in the last month. But I know that is not helping me get back on schedule at all.

Its so quiet here. I live alone and can sometimes go for days without talking to other people during the summer. Its so strange now since I was with a group of 15 for the last month, always around other people. I missed my peace and quiet at times, but now I feel kinda alone not having everyone to talk to. God, I am never happy it seems. Too many people, not enough people. Too quiet, too loud, blah, blah, blah.

Alright, I feel like I want to try and go back to sleep now...

China Trip

2009-06-20T18:39:00.003-04:00

Below is a blog I wrote about a week ago while in China. I wasnt able to post it at that time because you cant sign onto blogger there, its blocked. So now I am posting it.

Well, I am unable to blog, blogger is apparently banned here or something, I cant get on. Lets see, I have been in china for almost a month, 28 days now I think. It has been one hell of a trip. We have been to some really insane places, seen some crazy shit along the way. We have been to about 40-50 rural villages. Barely missed a landslide, no let me change that, barely missed about 7 landslides. Its been pretty scary at times. One province we were in was especially scary. The roads were so dangerous. I am unsure how we were about to drive on many of them and we drove all over that province for a week straight, a different place each night. We are getting read to go to our last city, Shanghai. We leave tomorrow for it by plane. We have been here for about 8-9 days at a ceramic village making work. We have an exhibition at the university here and we did a symposium the other day at the college as well. It was the most familiar thing we have done so far. Odd how that works. They had a couple of really nice parties for us, one was hosted by the president of the university. We had a second party at the ceramic village and there they had the beijing opera perform and there was a guy who was making homemade noodles also. It was a really good time. We went to a really cool Buddhist temple and some Buddhist caves a few weeks ago. I truly enjoyed these sites. I took pics even though I was not suppose to. I hope I didn't get bad karma for doing so. These places were very special for me. We walked among the rice patty fields one day. One section of the country in particular was amazingly beautiful. I was so impressed by the way they were farming. They used every tiny little space that there was to grow stuff on the mountains. I have a lot of photos I will post when I go home so you can see for yourself what I am talking about! If you read an earlier blog about bathrooms, well, I have not seen the pigs below them or anything but have seen some insane ones. We developed a numbering system to rate the bathrooms. The system is 1-10 10 being the worst. Well, one I went to at an elementary school was easily a 25! It was insane, piles of shit that went over the are you were suppose to put your feet. The woman who went with me refused to speak of the experience for days it was so traumatizing. Ya, it was pretty bad. Second to this were a couple of village out houses I used were below I saw stuff moving from the maggots and who knows what. I have met a lot of really cool artists whom I have been traveling with as well as some really cool people who live here and other artists who are staying at the village currently. Needless to say I will be so happy to be returning to the comfort of my small rural town in PA in a few days. I have never been so happy to go home. I also look forward to eating some pizza. I like the food here but miss so good old fashioned american grub.

stuff: travel fears

2009-05-12T15:42:00.003-04:00

Hello. Well I am preparing for the big trip to China. I am a little worried about it. It is such a long time to be away from my house. I dont normally go anywhere for that long. I dont think I have ever really been gone longer than a week or so from any place I have lived. I have never been gone longer than that from my dogs. Then there is the fact that I haven't ever left North America. Id say this is pretty sad and a damn good thing to be putting behind me, but still a little fearful of the unknown.

I have a fear of Chinese restrooms. I have read some Internet horror stories about some of these being simply a ditch dug into the ground and people must squat around it, no privacy at all a communal shitting ditch. Then in one thing I read, I hope it is not true, please be untrue, that in really rural areas (about 1/2 of my trip will be spent in such areas mind you) there can be a whole in the floor where you are to go to the bathroom and below it are pigs! Oh my god, that sounds horrid. What if they reach in and bite you on the ass???? I do realize they are not all going to be this bad. We are going to have western type toilets in the hotel rooms. I think I will take some bathroom documentation while traveling since it has become sort of a small obsession for me. So you can look forward to that in the future. I am sure your very excited!!!!

If you have been to China and had a different experience, a more positive bathroom experience or never once saw anything I have described above please let me know so I will be less fearful!!!!

Our first stop is Beijing. We will be there for 5 days. We will be visiting the Printmaking dept at Centre Academy of Fine Art, going to 798 galleries area, the Palace and Beijing Museums, Tsinghua University and the Soug Zhuan artist village.

Circles: installation shots!

2009-05-05T17:46:00.005-04:00

Below are some pics of my solo exhibition Circles at Fairbanks Gallery in Corvallis OR taken by gallery director Doug Russell. Thanks a lot Doug! The Show is up until the 27th of May!

Cirlces A solo show by Marilee Salvator @ Fairbanks Gallery

2009-04-30T04:30:00.002-04:00

Circles: New Prints by Marilee Salvator

funded by a generous Research and Disciplinary Grant from Bloomsburg University

If you happen to be near Corvallis Oregon please stop by Fairbanks Gallery to view this new exhibition. There are 22 28x36 mixed print media works included in the exhibition. The work draws inspiration from repetitive mark making, biological forms and plant life.

A special thanks needs to be given to Bloomsburg University for providing me with the extremely generous grant to make this work. Part of the grant included hiring assistants and these two young men were essential to getting the work completed in a timely manor. Ryan Forbeck and Brandon Brown both deserve a huge thank you for all of their help.

Milwaukee art museum

2009-03-31T01:25:00.004-04:00

Alfred Jensen, shown above, a long the fav of mine, currently on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

very cool installation above at the same museum, my friend Naomi in front of it.

Naomi again, getting in front of the work, another favorite, Eva Hesse installation.

Me and Naomi at this amazing museum.

The Stream of International Prints

2009-03-01T13:36:00.004-05:00

These are pictures from The Stream of International Prints currently being exhibited at Anyang Albaroshija Hall, Anyang, S Korea.

Ribbon Cutting.......

Above middle person, Dae-Sup Song, Professor Hong-IK University. He made the exhibition happen. Thanks Dae-Sup Song!

The above photo was taken during the opening reception.
This is the gallery entrance.

My work is on the rt wall, 4th piece in. Ya, I realize it is almost impossible to see it but its there!!!

Support gay marriage.

2009-02-12T19:44:00.000-05:00

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

new work

2009-01-29T22:06:00.010-05:00

after being annoyed for a good part of the evening because I couldnt find my light meter to take some pics of my new work I just decieded to wing it. Here are some of the pics. I think they turned out pretty good! All of these have been made since the beginning of December.

open studio/classload reduction

2009-01-29T00:38:00.003-05:00

Hello. Today was a snow day. these are always nice. A chance to catch up a bit. Lets see. I have more exciting news. I have a solo show scheduled at Open Studio in Toronto. This is the largest, most prestigious printmaking center in Canada. I am super excited about it! I am going to be showing installation type works related to abuse. I have a lot of work to do on it, but the show is not until Oct. so I have some time. Here is their website if you would like to check out the center.

I also recently found out that I was awarded reassigned time for the fall semester, meaning I have a 1 course reduction in my teaching load so I can focus on my research! I am super stoked about this!! I will be teaching 1 intro to printmaking and one upper level printmaking class and that is it. This will help me focus on my art sooooo much!!! I am just so surprised to have suddenly been awarded with so much! I am kinda still a little speechless.

This article was recently written in HI Art Magazine about a show my work is currently in if your interested, I received an jurors choice award.

Well, I guess that is about all I wanted to say!!!! Cheers.

computer issues/china trip

2009-01-09T23:28:00.005-05:00

Hello!

Something is once again not right on my poor computer. Hopefully I will be getting a new one because apparently this one is going to quit at any second. I have been spending the whole night backing up my files onto my external hard drive. I cracked some thing that has to do with the network or something. This is the first time I have had a laptop but let me just say, it is not very strong. Considering a laptop is something you are suppose to be able to carry around with you I feel it should be more sturdy. Its not like I am playing football with it, but I am starting to feel a little paranoid that the technician may think I am.

Apparently the newer modelof mac book has an aluminium outer shell, this one is plastic and kinda junky (okay, this is what the tech guy told me today at school). So lets hope that they agree to replace it before I should be due for one (my fingers are crossed). I hope to god that I dont some how break it. Have I mentioned I dont have a lot of luck with technological things? Okay, seems like that has been addressed, Next topic.

Miss Rebbecca, X bloomsburg U student is going to be my pet and house sitter this summer while I am traveling in China. I feel much better knowing that I have a really reliable person who I can count on and who loves dogs to hang out with my 2 little guys for that month. I hope they wont hate me too much when I return. I am truly worried about that and I know I am going to miss them sooooo much. But what can I say? I need to spread my wings and leave my home for a longer period than a week! I think I will manage. Besides, it is extra good for me to go places since I live in such an isolated area. It sounds like my friend Eric from undergraduate school will also be going on the trip. That should be cool to be able to hang with him.

china

2009-01-07T02:12:00.001-05:00

Looks like I will be able to go to China this summer. I recieved a grant from my school to fund the month long trip which is very exciting! I must get a pet/house sitter. I have two leads, one an old student who graduated and is now in grad school and a fellow professor recomended me another person whom she uses. We shall see, I am sure one of them will work out which makes me feel a lot better about the trip. My dogs are my babies.

2009-01-04T11:03:00.001-05:00

2008-12-28T17:50:00.004-05:00

Here are some new prints. The one to the left of the text is silkscreen, waterless litho and etching its about 15 x22..

The one to the left is digital and waterless litho, its 19x13.

This one is 22x30 and has silkscreen and litho in it.

Below are 2 details of the work posted above.

All of these are part of the circle series I have been working on which will be shown in May at Oregon State University. I am exploring issues related to obsessive doodling, cellular forms and prolific growth, the uncontrollable way things can spread and take over spaces. The interest in the more literal usage of cells and disease is a new direction. The fact that cells under a microscope can be so beautiful and yet they are so damaging to the fragile human body is something of great interest. It reminds me life and how so many things appear to be one way but are often quite different when we look further.

just a little something..

2008-12-15T21:15:00.003-05:00

School is done. I am always relieved when a semester is over. It was a good semester, not like the last one. But, it is nice to have time to think, focus on myself and my artwork.

Part of my grant money goes towards an assistant. He began working for me thurs. he is a very hard worker. Currently he is editioning some of my prints which are kinda complicated, like 20 etching plates or more each ( here is a pic of one of the most complicated, it has about 38 different things to print including a waterless litho background, a silkscreen layer and a ton of shaped etching plates that are layered in a dense way. When I make these things I dont worry about how they will be reproduced, its not really a concern to me, I never really thought about doing so but, I bet he wishes it was a concern!) So I am quite greatful to have him to help me with the things that I simply am not very good at or dont like to do. Its good to because he is keeping me in the studio more than I would on my own, well, I would of probably done nothing for a week or so to mellow, but because he is working for me I have spent everyday in the studio for at least 8, most days 9 hrs (except sat., I said I needed a day off). So its good. There is a lot to do. Next semester will be nutty, we have 2 job searches and these take a lot of time so I need to get as much done over the break as possible, My show is the beginning of May.

So, thats about it. Cheers.

mucho cash!!!!!

2008-12-03T11:08:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to do a little bragging. I just recieved a 14,500 grant for my research!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am super excited, a bit in shock.

home this weekend.

2008-11-24T01:29:00.004-05:00

I was home this weekend, it is the first one I have been home for in at least 3 weeks or so. I have been so busy with stuff recently I havent had any time to simply hang out at home. It was kinda strange oddly enough.

I worked in my studio which made me pleased. I have big plans for work in there and the printshop over the thanksgiving break and of course Christmas break. Lots of art making is going to occur. It is about bloody time, thats for sure. Perhaps Ill post something here when it is finished. Im working on the circle series because I have a solo show in Oregon, in May, that I need to create more work for. I am trying something a bit different than I have for this series in the past, I began scanning and printing some different cellular forms digitally and I will print on top of them with some traditional types of printmaking. I created a waterless litho plate this weekend to print on them next. I think Ill be able to do so tomorrow.

dogs, dogs, dogs

2008-11-20T23:01:00.008-05:00

pudge, my little boy boston. i rescued him 1 year ago, dec 1!!!

biggie, my little chi chi rapper girl. ive had her since she was 8 weeks old. she is 8 now.

pudge playing a game of tug-a-war with my moms puppy sarge.

sarge, my moms little bulldog puppy. isnt he cute?

non-white police guarding the "white" house

2008-11-16T21:41:00.006-05:00

while in DC, as I was walking in front of the white house i passed a man with a camera, i heard him saying to his partner, wow, a Chinese police officer guarding the white house, i need to take a picture of that, thats a powerful picture. his partner said you should ask if it is okay. he says, this is a free country. i looked at him and said, are you sure of that? he said to me, isnt that a powerful picture, a Chinese police officer in front of the white house? I touched his arm and said that is very sad. He looked at me and then said, ya, your very right, it is, isnt it.

we began talking and it turned out he was from Trinidad. he was still going on about how amazing it was that this man was protecting the white house and i again told him that i found that to be oh so sad that he was so shocked by this. he said ya, its pretty amazing that this could affect him this way, being a free country and all.....

lets hope that the fact that our new pres is not a member of the "white male club" will help change such views of our country, god knows it is about freakin time for some change! Good job America for your voting decision! I never thought I would see this office being held by anyone other than a member of the white male club!

washington dc trip

2008-11-16T20:51:00.008-05:00

well, i returned last night from the washington dc trip. 3 other profs and myself took a group of students down there for an overnight adventure to check out some art, of course.

i saw a few exhibitions that sparked my interest. i sorta think i may have seen a bit too much art recently with all of my travels. i say this because it seems to be becoming more and more difficult to get me excited about the works..

but nonetheless, garden and cosmos: the royal paintings of jodhpur was able to seriously spark my interest!

the following was taken from the exhibition description:This groundbreaking exhibition of newly discovered Indian paintings from the royal court collection of Marwar-Jodhpur (in the modern state of Rajasthan) has three sections devoted to the garden and cosmos leitmotifs, with an introductory gallery about the kingdom of Marwar-Jodhpur and the origins of its court painting traditions in the 17th century. Produced for the private enjoyment of the Marwar- Jodhpur maharajas, virtually none of the 60 works on view in "Garden and Cosmos" have ever been published or seen by scholars since their creation centuries ago. Strikingly innovative in their large scale, subject matter, and styles, they reveal both the conceptual sophistication of the royal atelier and the kingdom's engagement with the changing political landscapes of early modern India.

The bold inventiveness of Marwar-Jodhpur artists is revealed through their creation of “monumental manuscripts.” Thirty-three monumental folios, each a full-page painting approximately four feet in width, are featured in the exhibition. Like most north Indian court paintings, they are glowing and finely detailed opaque watercolors on paper, but their scale dramatically overturns typical expectations of Indian painting as a “miniature” art.

please click here to go to a interactive link, its well worth your time!!!!

unfortunately, the reproduced images do not do this work justice by any means. the tiny minute details that are captured within each of these large scale gouache paintings are astounding. just standing in front of these works was a religious experance. this exhibition alone made this trip worth while for me.

after the washington venue the work will travel to the seattle art museum, the british museum and national museum of india so perhaps you can see them for yourself. if you live any where near these museums you should make a trip to see this work it is simply amazing.

lawyers blow the big one.

2008-11-13T22:43:00.007-05:00

i hate lawyers. i am very upset by the complete lack of common courtesy that this jerk lawyer has given me and if i never have to deal with one again in this life i will be a very happy camper. i just paid her all of the money she has made me pay even though she didnt deserve it and am glad to be finished with her bullshit.

dont trust them. i was told this by many people prior to this experience, but i figured that they are human beings, how bad could they be? ha. pretty bad, at least this one is. live and learn, i guess.

ps- unsure what this image has to do with it completely but, i wanted to give you something visual to look at.

Latest Print

2008-11-11T21:23:00.005-05:00

Well, I wanted to post my latest print. I haven't had much time to make work recently with such a crazy semester but I agreed to be in a print exchange with a bunch of other printmakers so I had to produce something. This is a digital print. I am becoming more interested in working with digital technology all of the time. I like how I can layer images together and play with transparency and all of that so easily.

I recently started using old pattern illustrations. I am super excited about the possibilities. I just got a 1960 butterick pattern book off ebay and it has the most amazing images in it!

Ill post some of them sometime soon.

Trip to LA and such

2008-11-10T23:04:00.007-05:00

well, I was in LA last week. I had a really wonderful trip. I did a visiting artist gig at California state university long beach which included 2 lectures on my work, critiquing 2 printmaking classes and talking with some graduate students about their work. I enjoyed the interactions with the students there a great deal. I really wish I was able to work with graduate students at my school. We need to get a graduate program!

it was so beautiful out there, it didn't even seem real, really. So nice, the temperature was like 80 degrees, super sunny. One of the things I could not get over was how there were so many house plants that were growing in nature and they were growing like crazy!! I found it amazing. i kept wanting to take cuttings to bring home and try and grown them but would then remember that I had to fly back.

My friend Kimiko and I went to a bunch of galleries and a few museums. I saw the Louise Bourgeois exhibition. I was super excited to get to see it. I had missed it while it was in NYC so It was great to get a second chance to view it. Take a look at the link and get an overview of the show. She took me to the Getty Villa, here is a little video about it I was much more impressed with this than I thought I would be. There were amazing gardens and ponds all over, very beautiful.

We also went to the Santa Monica beach so I could wonder around and collect some rocks. I am a sucker for collecting things on the beach. I know it is kinda cliche to collect sea shells or whatever, but I will admit I enjoy finding stuff along the shore. Mainly rocks.

The ocean is such a peaceful place. Walking along the shore, hearing the water, the birds, the wind, feeling the cool, wet sand between your toes, the breeze hitting your skin, the water running over your feet, ankles, calves is such a special feeling. Looking for unique objects that have been washed a shore by the waves is quite fascinating to me. I suppose if I would of grown up around the ocean I may have a different view of all of this, but, I have spent such a small amount of my time at the ocean that it is extremely exciting to me. Id like to make some art related to the ocean but think it would probably be difficult to do something original.

well, i could go on and on about this trip, but will stop here. I have the trip to Washington DC on Friday. It is only 1 night in the city. Hopefully it will be a fun trip. I have not been there for years.

Death and New Life

2008-10-31T21:10:00.001-04:00

my grandpa died last night. i am glad he let go of the suffering he had been feeling for so long and hope he is now at peace and continuing on his path. he has been in my daily thoughts for quite some time now, my wishing for him to have the strength to be able to move on, let go of his attachment to this life, his pain and suffering. Finally last night he was able to do so although, it was with a good deal of fight. My mom called right after to tell me he had died. Funny, I had wanted him to have this freedom for so long and it was still very difficult to hear, my clinging to my idea of him. I have spent a good proportion of today trying to communicate to him, encourage him, comfort him through the bardos he must face. I wish I was able to do more to ensure that he finds a suitable birth. But is that relevant if its not his belief system? Should I be encouraging him in a Christian way since that was his religion? Encouraging him to go to heaven? Spirituality is so complex. But what is important is that he finds peace and does not suffer a minute longer. All of the rest is just interpretation, right?

He was my friend. I love him dearly. He was one of the only truly sane members of my larger family. During my childhood I could always count on him to be there and that was enough. His aura, so pure and kind. Id spend hours just sitting with him at his kitchen table watching the squirrels outside eating the food he would sit out for them. Often in complete silence. He was one of the only people who I even felt comfortable with, back then, sitting with in silence. His energy was calming, peaceful, it spoke volumes.

He was funny. Funny in a goofy way, I guess similar to myself. A couple of his jokes I have always got a kick out of are as follows:

when i was really young he use to drink this beer called haams. every time anyone would go over to his house, for years he hadnt even drank it, and he would say when you would walk in, "want a ham sandwich?" ya, corny. but i liked it. the last time i saw him, about 7 mo ago, he was talking to my nephew and he had a popsicle, my grandpa said to him, is that too cold? should we warm it up? I got the biggest kick out of that. I told it to a friend and she thought it was kinda dumb. But I loved it. It may have to do with the way he would say these things, completely serious acting, dead pan. His sense of humor was wonderful to me, he was always able to make me laugh. Now, thinking about it, makes me smile. I love my grandpa and hope he has finally found some peace after struggling for so long.

This evening, oddly enough, I witnessed birth. One of my fish had 5 babies! It is kinda odd how I lost my grandpa and in less than 24hrs I was blessed with the birth of new beings. I will name them after him. I cant help but think he had something to do with their birth. thanks grandpa, i love you.

NYC stuff

2008-10-24T23:12:00.013-04:00

Okay, about my trip to NYC. The best show I saw was called remixing the ordinary it is a group show of artist working with odd or unusual

materials. My fav. work was a chandelier made out of old eye glasses. It rocked. The way the light shined through the glasses and the shadows that where created as a result were truly magnificent. The artist is Stuart Haygarth.

Below: Sculpture made out of buttons, pretty amazing, Tara Donovan Bluffs, 2007.

The work below was done by Jill Townsley, its called pyrimid and composd of spoons and rubber bands. I love it!

I really enjoy artist who use these everyday materials and end up making these crazy fun works with them. I think one of the attractions is

Below: made from records, Paul Villinski, My Back Pages, 2006-2008

the obsessive, repetitive aspect that a lot of the works have.

I saw a lot of other neat works as well.

One gallery had this show called Meat After Meat Joy

Below: Pinar Yolacan, Untitled, C-Prints.

Women wearing meat clothing.
..this is a video of the opening, make sure to look for the cat part :).

Below:Sheffy Bleler, Testicles, Lambda Print

Here is a press release:

October 16 – November 15, 2008
"If the flesh disturbs you, then the reality behind the issue would disturb you far more if we opened our eyes long enough to see it. We live in a culture disconnected from what it is doing to itself and others, we choose to ignore rather than deal with the reality we have created for ourselves.
– Adam Brandejs

Meat After Meat Joy brings together the work of contemporary artists who use meat in their work (raw meat, the concept of meat, its symbolism and viscera) in order to investigate the paradoxical relationship meat has to the body. Meat combines flesh, skin, muscle, organs, blood — each with its own relationship to the body, yet meat's only reference to the body is as a once-upon-a-time living biological thing. By putting these artists together, the exhibition seeks to investigate the uncanny effect meat as a medium is for artist and viewer. This is not a show about meat as spectacle but about meat as signification, precisely because meat does not signify (a body) but its very annihilation.

Skin is the body's largest organ and greatest protection. It is the body's most public point of vulnerability and private realm of pleasure. Flesh is associated with the body often the body of Christ. It can't be separated from the body except when it is torn, crucified, burned, flayed. Muscle and fat are anatomy, as well as the fit body, the football body, the anorectic body, the fat body. Meat is the body without skin. It has no identity. Meat cannot have a mood, cannot feel, nor have an intention.

And yet, an exhibition on meat seems like an obvious continuation of discussions of contemporary art and the body. Certainly in relation to feminism, meat has been an erotic and eschatological component of a libratory, transgressive discourse of female sexuality and the body beginning with Carolee Schneemann's path-breaking 1964 Meat Joy. After Meat Joy, the female body was no longer the 'poulet" or chick but an erotic and political force of the laugh of the Medusa (Helene Cixous)—the writhing ecstatic female body freed from the constraints of patriarchal definition (meat is the indefinable flesh) that expresses an epistemology (Interior Scroll 1975) into ontology (the feminist movement). In Meat Joy, although controversial, raw meat —animal human—and the human body are at their most uncontested and merged, for meat is not the absence or the other the body but an act of reclamation and affirmation of all that patriarchy had previously "disemboweled" from the female body.

But forty years later, in Meat After Meat Joy, meat, as metaphor or synecdoche of the body, is different because we recognize more clearly that meat is precisely what the animal or human body is when it is not. In other words, meat has no body, can't be a body, may have been a body but is only called meat because it is no body. Meat here is neither flesh nor skin, but the notion of the human or animal at its most base, absolute zero point of being, "being" as completely without "Being"."
– Heide Hatry

I found this show quite interesting. I was a bit grossed out by some of it, but also quite fascinated. As a huge Carolee Schneemann fan, I liked the comparison between her "Meat Joy" performance and this show. The performance was playing during the show.

Well, there were many more exciting shows but I am going to stop here.

Titus Kaphar

2008-10-22T23:15:00.004-04:00

Conversation Between Paintings #1: Decending From a Cross to be Nourished at the Breast of Our Mother, 2006-2007

A very interesting artist I just learned about in

the article I put a link to in the last blog, this link shows a bunch of the work Titus Kaphar

Check it out. I really enjoy the cutout pieces.

seatle trip

2008-10-22T23:00:00.006-04:00

Pic on lt, Kara Walker, I'll Be a Monkeys Uncle.

I went to Seattle for this conference a week and a half ago or so. Lets see, I was put in a super fancy room, it was a suite, had 2 flat screen tvs. I was unsure what to do with them considering my tiny TV is unplugged and sitting in a corner covered by a bunch of art stuff. Kinda funny.

I went to China Town one morning, wandered around bought a little Buddha statue to put on my alter. I also bought some lovely wasabi peas and sesame cakes, Very tasty. Oh and some sea veggies for my fish. :)

I also got to go to the art museum, sculpture park and galleries. The Best show was called Black Art There is the link, only one image though on the link,

but a description. I just found this interesting blog about it CLICK.

A very good show, it discussed a lot of important questions related to race and the idea of "black". Read = if your interested.

So Ive been back for a bit, this Friday is NYC! Only a day trip though. Stay tuned.

art and travel

2008-10-10T23:20:00.002-04:00

I am heading off to Seattle on friday for 3 days. A lovely university art accediation conference, myself and a colleague are going to represent our art department. I am hoping to sneak away as much as possible to see some sights. I have only been to Seattle once around 4-5 years ago. Im crossing my fingers for some nice weather and exciting art exhibitions.

a week or 2 later I will be going to NYC on a day trip with school to see some art. Very excited about this one! I find that city so crazy and get a lot of inspiration from the galleries in Chelsea, usually. It will be a wonderful day. I wish I could stay longer though.

Next month I am off to Long Beach CA to do a visiting artist gig at California State University. Ill be there for 4 days. Im a hoping to see some really sweet art while there as well. Ill also be visiting my friend Kimiko, which will be a true pleasure, I miss her a lot.

Last week was our bus trip to Philly and that was okay. Philly is not exactly a hoping art mecca although I did see a nice little Polly Apfelbaum exhibition at Lock Gallery. I have been a huge fan of her work for years. If you unfamiliar with it, you should become familiar, its worth it. Although I must admit, I am more into the earlier stuff. A very nice gallery I was not familiar with. I will be going back to it.

I was very disappointed in the new Fabric Workshop. There was only one smallish gallery and you were not allowed to go into the workshop without an appointment. It was kinda an odd deal I thought. The old building and setup was much better, in my opinion. Also, I had been to this very sweet gallery on second street before and was excited about going into it again, well it was out of business. Seemed to be a pretty big theme there unfortunately.

Now at Gallery Joe I saw a great show of Alexander Gorlizki

Now the web does not do the work justice by any means. This stuff is crazy detailed and so obsessive or meditative, I really enjoyed it! Funny, I almost walked right by it. That would of been a big loss. Interesting, life is like that often, isn't it? To the point we dont even realize it half of the time......

well, just wanted to blog about something. I haven't done so in awhile. Maybe Ill start doing so about each place I go to and about the work I am interested in. I have always wanted to do that actually. But you know, time? I am unsure why I am writing this now when 1 I should be sleeping and if I cant sleep (a theme, yes, a theme) I should be writing one of the grants that are due before I leave on friday or grading the student work I need to grade or writing my self evaluation that is due next week! Ha! I simply hope that I do not loose my mind before the end of the year with all of these "things" I must do.

living..

2008-08-10T13:00:00.001-04:00

Living…creating…. searching…living…loving…scaring... managing…holding…embracing…doubting…maintaining…living…processing…in-sighting…knowing…misunderstanding…hurting…inspiring…clinging…fleeing…regretting…living, breathing, dreading, misjudging…choosing…being…stilling…living…safeguarding…protecting…. honoring, wishful thinking…depressing…glowing…hoarding...thinking…smiling…befriending…agreeing…living…violating…aggressing…repenting...calming…clarifying…energizing…contorting…resting…soothing…analyzing…touching…caressing…affecting…exciting…identifying...stimulating…living…repressing…living, projecting, mirroring… disappointing… living,…collecting…processing… defending… repressing… minmizing...hovering…securing,…living,...embracing,…defacing…polluting…heartbreaking…living…objectifying…distressing… discrediting…dignifying…humiliating…abstaining… pitying…living… becoming…humbling…freeing…glamorizing...fretting…repulsing…aspiring…emerging…purging…living…penetrating…scarring..owning…living…giving…taking…using…abusing…consuming…
Fixating…idealizing..ruminating…indulging…obsessing…living…yearning…craving…aspiring…living…moving…stopping…stalling…hesitating…resisting…resigning…living…fearing…skipping…running…jumping…playing…hiding…evoking…escaping…avoiding…realizing…living…living…managing…checking…praying…adoring…counting…dying…. birthing…living…living…living…handling…cherishing…despising…. hating…worshipping…manipulating…dramatizing…intensifying…living…quitting…loving…caring…hating…. relaxing…irritating…encouraging…living…comforting…supporting…reassuring…coveting…recreating…wondering…wanting…needing…desiring…fantasying…romanticizing…. arousing…living…rescuing…disturbing…unsettling…wishful thinking…. living…. learning…. dreaming…breathing…. idealizing…objectifying…worrying…upsetting…distressing…questioning…asking…making…pressuring…prying…degrading…faulting…degrading…living…blaming…crying…laughing…screaming…inspiring…procrastinating… teaching…refusing…insulting…enslaving…demeaning…. Living…making…building…. contemplating…hoping…. loathing…investigating…diagnosing…inquiring…using…burdening…fighting...living…hesitating…cautioning…living…watching…seeing…accepting…spying…stalking…guarding…destroying…defacing…living…lying…respecting… assuming… deconstructing…surprising…alarming…living…sensing.... tending…should-ing…envisioning…developing…appropriating…prolonging…validating…living…rationalizing…reasoning…living…probing…requiring…guilt tripping…shaming…promising…expecting…rejecting…living…rushing…encouraging…discouraging…infuriating…justifying…accommodating...sustaining…expecting…down playing…living…numbing…conflicting...shocking…revolting…disagreeing…arguing…stealing...forgetting...intellectualizing…diluting…betraying...complicating…complaining…doing…undermining…living…doubting…devoting…abstracting…rationalizing…objectifying…living...comprehending…obscuring…mourning…mortifying…disconcerting…disquieting…living…distressing…perplexing…bewildering…grieving…simplifying…complicating…assuming…living…reflecting…comforting…satisfying…jubilating…priding…rejoicing…honoring…upsetting…celebrating…living…assuming…enlightening…confusing…misleading…taxing…nerve-racking…alluding…forgetting…illuminating…instructing…destructing…absorbing…helping…musing…brooding…living…shielded…securing…philosophizing…thinking…living…regressing…enduring…pondering…conforming…judging…regretting…accepting…healing…revealing…concealing…doubting…withholding…valuing…stressing…serving…traumatizing…hoping…waiting…sacrificing…educating…living….

this moment in time

2008-06-15T11:24:00.001-04:00

im sitting outside in my back yard. what a wonderful space i have here. im under one of the old oaks in my swing. My little boy, pudge resting by my side. i can hear so many birds, they are all very happy and enjoying the day. i am curious as to what they are singing about. are they simply singing for the sake of singing or are they saying something to each other or perhaps even to me? it does not matter, what matters is this very moment in time.

one just landed next to my swing. it is very peaceful, i can tell. I dont think that they allow the bullshit that surrounds us to effect them the way most of us humans do, the way i have lately.

Ive been a bit edgy. lots of stress occurring and i have been allowing it to impact my thoughts. allowing my mind to fill with unessential worries and words. it is so odd how this can occur so quickly without us even being aware of it. it can take over if it is not monitored. allowing the mind to be at peace, honoring the moment, is a very difficult thing sometimes and yet, there is nothing more important in this short life.

being here, breathing in the fresh air, light breeze, listening to nature surrounding me brings me back to the here and now. its so strange that this is so easy to forget about. so easy to fill up ones consciousness with unnecessary thoughts.

im thankful for this moment in time, this peaceful setting and my inner bliss as a result.
namaste.

We think we are awake

2008-04-16T23:26:00.001-04:00

Hi. This evening in my Buddhist study group we talked about this theory that blew my mind, so I wanted to share it with you...

Apparently in Both Buddhism and Hinduism there is this idea of our present state of mind and what we "think" of as being reality as actually being another state of dreaming or a Bardo (transitional state).

This present reality is no different than when we are a sleep and think we are dreaming. We wake up in the morning from dreaming we are actually just entering in a different dream or Bardo. When we die, we will suddenly wake up and realize that our life was only a dream playing out.

The eager student in me raised my hand and asked, so, when I wake up from being asleep I "think" I have been a sleep for around 8 hours. Now, when I die and realize I was basically dreaming my whole life, how long will it have been? Will it have been 80 years or how ever long I thought I was alive or will it have been like a normal dream?

The answer??????

My teacher snaps his fingers. Thats how long it will have been. The idea of time does not actually exist.

I am dumb founded by this idea. I am completely blown away! I absolutely love it. What do you think?

clingging

2008-03-12T23:27:00.001-04:00

this evening I went to a Buddhist study group. It was lead by this monk named Carl (his American name). His introduction had to do with this small shriveled up thing. He held it up in the air and said he was going to pass it around and asked if we could tell of what it was. When I got it I looked at it really close, smelled it. I was not sure what it was, it had a bit of mold growing on it, a touch of sap of some sort. I thought perhaps it was a walnut, my best guess.

After everyone looked at it he asked us what it was. No one knew. I was wrong with my walnut theory.

apparently it was a shriveled up peach.

he laid the peach down on his table next to a very beautiful, ripe orange.

he proceeded to tell us a story about the peach. Carl told
us that he was walking and saw this on a tree just the other day. The peach was still hanging off the tree in this state, it had never fell to the ground. He compared it to the way we tend to live our
lives. We cling to the notion of a self, and the idea
of being an individual. This peach was clinging to the
tree and would not let go in the same way. The unhealthy
attachment to the tree had not helped the peach, in fact it had shriveled up and looked disgusting. . He then held up the peach and the orange and asked which one we wanted to be.

If we continued to hold on and cling to this world and the idea of having a separate self we would be the peach.

If we let go and embrace the selflessness that truly exists we will be the orange.

I loved this analogy. I thought it was very true and an excellent way of explaining the clinging/attachment that occurs in our daily lives.

I hope to be the orange one day :) Im tired of being the bloody peach.

knittivism

2008-02-18T11:29:00.000-05:00

I just realized that this was actually occurring on a mass scale. I have know artists who knit things to cover stuff, such as a tree or something. But this, is a different way of looking at it! It is knitting as activism.

According to a very interesting website: http://www.glittyknittykitty.co.uk

Knittivism is
n 1 a doctrine emphasizing vigorous or militant knitting activity, e.g. the use of knitting in mass demonstrations, urban interventions, in controversial, unusual or challenging ways, esp political, causes. 2 the systematic use of knitting for political ends. knittivist n and adj

I got this from a blog about this knitting mania (not the greatest blog BTW, but this paragraph is interesting:
"The Joys and Ploys of Contemporary Knitting" by Nicholas Forrest

"There are so many weird and wonderful things going on in the the most intriguing of which are the practices of a group of artists that have been given the term "guerilla knitters". Now before you start imagining knitted camo wearing soldiers jumping out of Apache helicopters attached to a stealth length of yarn packing rocket propelled knitting needle launches, "guerilla knitters" are basically the graffiti artists of the textile world. Nothing is safe from the wool warriors and needle ninjas who practice their moves under the cover of darkness giving everything from bike racks to trees to public sculptures the knitters touch. One of the great things about knitted graffiti is that it does everything that painted graffiti does except for damage other people's property, genius!" One note here to defend traditional graffiti, it does not have to destroy or damage property and some would say it is a simple enhancement.

This morning I did a little more searching around, did a google search for Guerilla Knitters and came up with all kinds of stuff. Apparently I have been in the dark about this. I think this is great!!! How much fun?

I am a fan of regular graffiti but this is much more exciting to me. It has a gentle, feminine quality, a nurturing aspect that I can relate to. Going out at night and making sweaters for stuff. I love it. I want to join the movement!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyone in with me on this? I will write more on this later.

I think one of my interests in this is related to my own work. I tend to refer to my obsessive circular forms as a 2-d knitting.

Good StuFF!!!!

cloaca machine

2008-02-10T23:31:00.000-05:00

cloaca machines (shit making machine)

Please go to the link above to see the work of Belgium conceptual artist Wim Delvoye's Cloaca machines.

"It's a machine that mimics the human digestive system, from the mouth to the bottom hole. Delvoye feeds Cloaca normal human food and shit comes out the other end. The end product is wrapped in plastic and sold to adoring art collectors." -from artnewblog

very interesting stuff.

make sure to check out as seen on tv