Nick Cave(s)

Two of my favorite artist/people in life are both named Nick Cave. I personally find that odd.

I saw one of them yesterday at The Contemporary's Speaker Series at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Nick Cave was requested by Pinebox Art Center and their chosen moderator was Maiza Hixson from the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. Really great talk, really good company!

I was able to attend the talk with my mentor and past professor, Fahimeh Vahdat. We did about a half an hour's worth of full-on spooky haunting of Nick Cave to get this photo. He was totally awesome in person, fyi. He spoke to us for a few minutes, he asked about MY practice, which blew me away. And then I got all dorky and super flustered up in there. But he was gracious and kind and the talk was great. We got a good photo with the help of one of our fellow HCC professors, Amy Boone-McCreesh who was there as well. Actually I saw a ton of people there that I knew. It was a really good night!

The spoils...

Gifs

I'm actually gonna just drop these here for now...

Of Women and Time

I am revisiting a series. It's mostly about my mother and my grandmothers. I started this series several times already and stopped...then I created two lesson plans out of it in the last month (one for college students and one for little bits). Today I woke up and realized that the concept of time and memory was really important to me...duh. I wrote this shortly thereafter, everything finally made sense, and the words flowed like fine wine.

Of Essence and Time

We construct our own time, we color memory and nostalgia as we see fit. But how do we express the measured, yet ethereal? Is time linear? What does it look and feel like? How do we visually express a full life, or a portion of a life; a period of time, maybe last week, or today, this past hour? If you had to represent time and memory through touch, what would the experience be like?

Of Essence and Time is a series which deals with issues of time and memory through texture, line and mapping. Originally based on past low relief pieces, then developed as a lesson plan for students, I return to the concept to further my own understanding of "time", and in part, to have a solid record of my own remembering. 

As an artist with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the past can often be evasive. I have lost as many soft and sensitive memories, as I have large, definitive chunks; important periods that I really shouldn't be able to lose, but have. I find myself constantly chasing time, begging it to leave me more residuals, some residue, any kind of physical mark, proof. I feel the loss greatly when there are gaps. I fear it gets worse as I get older. This is little bits of my time and memory, fragments from the missing, collected visually.

 Ode to a Knitted Rainbow Scarf, 2013

 

Lizardy

I am revealing one of the starter images for my next series, Spitfire. I ordered a starter, tester series of matte posters, with the intention of working back into the images with paint and print and text.

This one though...it's so perfect. There is something fairly eerie about it. But at the same time, it's not entirely unsettling, and I'd say, quite striking instead...someone told me it was 'mesmerizing'. I'll see how pixelated they actually are when they get here. If this works I'll have about ten more to order and wait for, and 15 large images should keep me going for the rest of the year. Sometime next week I'll get to play with them!

Speaking of 'play', I bought a Crayola brand children's overhead projector and it's calling my name...

Baltimore 1 Exhibition - Upcoming!

Hey this is coming up! Hey, I helped!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

BALTIMORE 1 Exhibition at Gallery CA

Curated by Marcus Civin

February 17 - May 2, 2014

Opening Reception Thursday, March 20, 2014 6:00 - 9:00 PM

Gallery CA is pleased to announce Baltimore 1, an exhibition of personal objects on loan from City Art residents. Upstairs are artists in affordable housing—people eating or playing guitar, texting, netflixing, painting and reading books. Downstairs in the gallery is some humble evidence of lives lived upstairs; objects wait on practical tables and shelves designed by Jennifer Coster and Marcus Civin. The collection, which is still growing, will be on view in the gallery February 17, 2014, through May 2, 2014. An opening reception will be held at Gallery CA on March 20, 2014, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

Over the course of several Saturdays for the past three months, a team has knocked on doors, reminded neighbors, given out sweets and haunted the building halls and lobby. There are 69 apartments at City Arts; it wasn’t easy, and not everyone is participating, but there are now upwards of 60 objects included in the exhibition. These objects emphasize the diverse interests and experiences of City Arts residents—the whispering of families, the idea of “home”, private inclinations or pride, dazzling.

There are a few jokes, a few nods and smiles. The collection is a portrait of a place at a certain time, a building in a city—an intrinsic Baltimore portrait perhaps, just one Baltimore. Neighbors move in, move out, make a drawing or two, go to work, do laundry, park, bring in the groceries, pet-pet-pet dogs, go out for the fire drill, talk in the elevator, get the mail, pay the rent, take out the trash…How was your day?…Oh, it’s going to snow?

Within the collection are objects including: a fragile dried bat in a shadow frame; an old rusty roller skate (the kind that attaches to the bottom of a shoe): The Flash Brownie, a WWII era camera made in the USA; a circuit-bent child’s keyboard ready to be played; a Marine Band harmonica; panpipes; an antique light table which shows a skull xray; a portrait by a neighbor; a scarred piece of wood; a jubilant twisting red cupcake holder; a biscuit cutter; a purple squishy toy truck; the pet rabbits’ toys.

A team at City Arts has meticulously measured the objects, inventoried, stored and documented them.
Some objects are bent and worn, some have dog hair lingering, strings of hot glue still clinging. People are starting to talk about these objects: These clubs were my Grandfather’s; he used these on the public golf courses around here…This is my favorite record—You know Queen Latifah, remember “Ladies First”?



Workshops will be offered during the exhibition, prompting interaction and inviting response to this
collection of assembled objects. For information on Baltimore 1, including more information about the programming, please visit galleryca.org/baltimore1. If you are interested in leading a workshop in
response to the objects in Baltimore 1, please contact Catherine Akins at Gallery CA by emailing
info@galleryca.org.

Baltimore 1 Team:

Marcus Civin is Faculty in Curatorial Practice at Maryland Institute College of Art. He will be Acting Director of Curatorial Practice in the academic year 2014 2015. This Spring, he is also curating The Empathy Project by Paul Rucker at MICA.

Jennifer Coster is an artist living in Baltimore. In 2012 she received an MFA from MICA and founded the publication project Print/Collect.

Shana Goetsch is an artist and educator in the Baltimore area. She is currently Adjunct Faculty at
Howard Community College and the Regional Coordinator of The Feminist Art Project - Baltimore.