Community Building Awareness

The opening of the House Show at Urbanite@Case[werks] gallery was just this past Friday. I had proposed a community art piece in recognition of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October). Basically I proposed that we all make some row houses, and that I would try my darnedest to get this piece of art to the policy-makers when all was said and done.

We used the same technique that I used for my collograph printmaking pieces and my series, 3 Tributaries, which was all about domestic violence and large statistics. This community art piece would be in much the same vein.

I had been told ahead of time that I would be in the gallery's actual closet (we needed to use glue and acrylic paints - not the norm for a really nice gallery, so I totally understood)...but I was worried going in. Not because I was put in a weird gallery space, but just that the space we'd be working in was recessed a bit, and I worried that it would be hard getting people into the storage room/closet while also enticing them to make something for me.

Well, I need not have worried! That storage closet was hoppin'! People were actually waiting in line to make the pieces! At about 7p I also had a friend stop by to help me, Denise Duarte, who is a very fine public artist hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada. Denise is currently in MICA's MFACA program in Baltimore and generously volunteered to help me and give me a break so that I could talk to people at the show.

I was able to make many people aware of the actual statistics of DV nationally...some patrons were literally dumbfounded. The piece started out blank, with just one statistic, and then as participants finished their row house, I painted the house (if they wanted) and placed it on a panel underneath the stat. for them. I was amazed and appreciative at some of the frank conversations I had with people about DV and about why I was doing this. The House Of Ruth Maryland generously provided me with some pamphlets and some small crisis situation cards which were taken by quite a few people, that I saw.

All of this was about awareness...and I also made the first row house myself, in honor of my mom. I painted it hot pink, especially for her. In a way, she's always leading the charge for me. Sometimes I wish this were not the case and that she was alive and that she and I could go to the mall and shop or something as equally banal...even just to talk to her. She'll never know what an impact she continues to make in my art and in all of the people who see and engage with it.

I also saw quite a bit of creativity in these houses...the adults were having a really great time designing their row houses and gluing the simplest of recycled materials. Bottom line is, grown-ups should really do themselves a favor and make more art. 

All in all, it was a successful event for me and for raising awareness of domestic violence in our communities. More photos below...

This row house above almost made my heart stop....he really ran with the concept and made it happen. By including the words, he furthered my own metaphor in the most interesting way. He created a new layer of meaning to the project that I had not considered.

And before I drop the 3 Tributaries series off for my upcoming solo show, I will be talking/guest artist-ing at Paula Phillip's Finding Baltimore, Foundations class at MICA. I think this participatory community art piece will serve to illustrate to them just how much one, solid idea has served me, even two years later. Gotta love my Baltimore and its iconic imagery.

Big. Damn. Shebang.

Oh my gosh, there is so much going on lately! And I know my last two posts have been show info...and here is more. This reception and the House Show's reception are on consecutive weekends.

I'll have to put up a more extensive post about my working process on these murals. I took a bunch of photos at each stage. But until then, here is one of the pieces I made, located on the corner of E. Federal and Barclay. Reception information is below...woohoo, y'all!

*Join Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. and Governor Martin O’Malley for a very special Final Friday event as we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Station North Arts & Entertainment District!

Friday, September 28th
5:00-9:00PM

Rooftop of the Charles Street Parking Garage (1714 N Charles Street)
FREE

FEATURING
*Governor Martin O'Malley
*John Waters
*Music by Lafayette Gilchrist and the New Volcanoes, Four Hours of Funk's DJ Exclaim, and Dig's Landis Expandis
*Stiltwalkers from Nana Projects
*Circus of Wonders featuring Magician David London and artistic face paint by Jeramie Bellmay and Patricia Tamariz
*Joe Squared pizza
*Flying Dog beer
*Wine
*Photobooth
*Tours of MICA's "Invited: The Anniversary List" exhibition with the Pushpops and Graham Coreil-Allen
*Tours of Station North with Baltimore Heritage
+ MORE!

This month, Final Friday will be a wind-powered event thanks to Clean Currents. To learn more about Clean Currents and renewable energy visit www.cleancurrents.com

Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. is generously funded by the Goldseker Foundation, Lockhart Vaughan Foundation, William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, PNC Foundation, Blaustein Philanthropic Group, T Rowe Price Foundation, and the Aaron and Lillie Straus Foundation.

more info: http://www.mica.edu/Events_and_Exhibitions/Invited/Invited_Anniversary_List.html

Hey NY State!

I have a FREE workshop coming up on November 3rd (ETA: date has changed!) at the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts. This workshop is offered by me in honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness month (October) and it is an accompaniment to my upcoming exhibition at the art center, 3 Tributaries. So if you are around the way of Blue Mountain Lake and want to stop by, here is the listing on their website:

http://www.adirondackarts.org/l_work.html

and here it is in long-hand:

Printmaking workshop with Shana Goetsch
Saturday,  November 3, 3-5:30 pm 
Free
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month
“One of the most important resources for people experiencing domestic violence is a safe space, emotionally, spiritually and physically.” Explore and create your own ‘safe spaces’ using collograph printmaking with featured artist Shana Goetsch.

House Show

I'm in this upcoming exhibition! Here is the press release:

HOUSE SHOW
Urbanite @ Case[werks]
September 21–October 24, 2012
Opening reception: September 21, 6 p.m.–8 p.m.

HOUSE SHOW studies and celebrates the idea of the rowhouse as storyteller. Co-curated by Marianne Amoss, Marian April Glebes, Sarah McCann, and Jessica Young of D center Baltimore, the exhibit examines how these familiar structures serve as narratives, recording and telling our personal stories and the stories of streets, neighborhoods, and entire cities. What are the stories contained within rowhouse walls? How do rowhouses reveal how we live now, and how we used to live?

In keeping with the interdisciplinary mission of both Case[werks] and D Center Baltimore, HOUSE SHOW features work in a variety of mediums and by a range of artists, representing architecture, photography, sculpture, oral history, and more.

The exhibit is at Urbanite @ Case[werks] from September 21 through October 24, 2012. The opening reception will be held on September 21, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Complementary programming will take place during the exhibit, both in the gallery and at off-site venues. Additional information about these events is forthcoming.

Urbanite @ Case[werks] is located at 1501 St. Paul Street, Suite 116, Baltimore, MD 21202. The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 410-332-4160.

ABOUT D CENTER BALTIMORE
D center Baltimore is a broad cross-section of disciplines and individuals invested in improving and encouraging design—in all its iterations—in the Baltimore region. D center's members believe design thinking has the capacity to change the world and that banding together in creative collaboration will greatly improve the quality of urban life. For more information about D center, please visit www.dcenterbaltimore.com.

ABOUT URBANITE @ CASE[WERKS] in collaboration with D center Baltimore Urbanite@Case[werks] serves as a showcase of Station North and other Baltimore artists for audiences traveling into Baltimore’s Penn Station, thereby expanding the audience for local artists and the local and regional recognition of Station North. By highlighting interdisciplinary work, the exhibitions in Urbanite@Case[werks] draw participants and audience from diverse fields including architecture, fine arts, photography, design, and more. Urbanite @ Case[werks] is a collaboration between Urbanite magazine and Case[werks] and is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. For more information about Case[werks], please visit www.casewerks.com.

Incoming...

I just wanted to update you on THREE of the exciting things I will be a part of in the next few months:

Invited/The Anniversary List (group exhibition)
http://www.mica.edu/Events_and_Exhibitions/Invited/Invited_Anniversary_List.html

On view September 28 - November 11, 2012 

Opening Reception: September 28, 5-10 pm

"MICA's inaugural M.F.A. in Curatorial Practice class invites you to join them in celebrating the 10th anniversary of Station North Arts & Entertainment District by presenting Invited, a two-part exhibition. The exhibition series will feature site-specific artworks in 10 area businesses as well as a party-themed gallery show in MICA's newly renovated Graduate Studio Center Riggs Gallery. The work by MICA's M.F.A. in Curatorial Practice program highlights the College's active role in community revitalization, ensuring that all businesses and residents in nearby Station North-one of the nation's first state-endorsed Arts & Entertainment Districts-embrace and are engaged with the unique artistic nature of the district. Invited is presented by the 10 inaugural candidates in MICA's M.F.A. in Curatorial Practice program, under the guidance of faculty members Jeffry Cudlin and Gerald Ross, who also serves as the College's director of exhibitions."

(I'm one of the 10 site-specific artworks.)

HOUSE SHOW (group exhibition)

On view September 21 - October 26, 2012 at Urbanite@Case[werks] gallery / for D Center Baltimore
1501 Saint Paul Street, Suite 116

Opening Reception: Friday, September 21, 6-8 pm

"HOUSE SHOW will examine how these structures serve as narratives, recording and telling our personal stories and the stories of streets, neighborhoods, and entire cities. What are the stories contained in rowhouse walls? What are the personal, political, and social implications of how these buildings were and are created, used, and left vacant or torn down? How do rowhouses reveal how we live, and how we used to live?"

(I'm presenting/facilitating a participatory art piece, a narrative about Domestic Violence that will grow with the exhibition, and within the gallery space.)

3 Tributaries (solo show)

On view October 5 - November 3, 2012 at the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, Blue Mountain Lake, NY

Closing Reception: November 3, 2012

Additionally, I will hold a free printmaking workshop on November 3, 3-5:30 pm in recognition of National Domestic Violence Awareness month. This process is the same one used for the series, 3 Tributaries. "One of the most important resources for people experiencing domestic violence is a safe space, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Explore your own thoughts and experiences with ‘safe spaces’ in the form of a collograph printmaking workshop. This hands-on workshop will detail creating a printmaking plate as well as a simple hand printing process that can be easily duplicated at home.”

(And currently, this piece, 'Home', is up for silent auction at the art center. All proceeds benefit the Blue Mountain Lake community.)

My Snarky Art Friend

Recently I learned of art critic Robert Hughes' passing. What a terrible loss for the art world! All of his series', The Shock of the New, American Visions, Visions in Space, are some of my all-time favorite videos on art, many of which have been posted on this blog. I am really sad that I will not get any more quality, critical reviews from Robert Hughes. What a spit fire! Here is the absolute best clip of him, in some of his best work, The Mona Lisa Curse...





Rest in Peace, Robert. Hopefully, for your sake, heaven doesn't allow the art of Damien Hirst.

Ladders

Ladders. I make them now. Here are two more ladders paintings, both acrylic on canvas...

And here is the first one in this new series which I completed last week ...

I've wondered recently if, in fact, I base my work on geometric shapes that are appealing to me. I went from circles (365.series) to rectangles (the row houses) to circles within rectangles (the Beyond Rorschach pieces in my last thesis) and now I seem to be back to rectangles / squares again with these ladders. I wonder, are triangles next? That's something to think about.

Something Old, Something New

I reworked an old painting, The State of Independence. I was not quite happy with it at the time I first conceived of it. It was one of those in-between floater pieces. One that doesn't fit in a series, one that I needed to make for whatever reason in order to get to somewhere else in my work. So this piece was one of those...just hanging out, not belonging. I am series motivated, I like to make things in groups so that I can explore multiple angles of an issue. If I have a true interest, it's not going away in one piece, I have to thoroughly exhaust myself with the the subject before I'm done.

An outside force did compel me to dig this piece out of its storage container...it's a long story, and it seems to be a moot point for me now because of my excitement of coming up with this. Seems this piece was almost finished and I just didn't know it. I don't want to say it was nagging me, because it didn't keep me up at night, but I didn't like the piece until now. Every time I saw it I disliked myself a tiny little bit for not getting it right and not know where to start to do so. The fact is (and I knew it at the time too), that my metaphor was not sound. And with the way I work, that's absolutely everything...like, if I don't have that working, I should forget about even putting the paint down.

Ah, but you see, this was for an 'assignment'. At the time, I resented having an art 'assignment' (other than a thesis) in grad school...oh who am I kidding, I still do resent it. Needless to say, this one was a fail for me, but I had not had parameters set on me since becoming a professional artist, or ever really. I guess the moral of the story is, I don't do well with art assignments because, who cares, get me to my next series!

So this piece was lying about and something compelled me to pick it up again and 'fix' it. Right now it's tentatively named Step. I like the idea of exploring the metaphors for ladders, so I'm going to go with that premise for exploring any new works, for now.


Here we are, new and improved...

Artist Talk Video

I finally have the link for the Artist Talk video from my thesis work! This was originally filmed in April. Many of the bystanders you see are actually undergraduate students from my GTI class, Global Perspectives: Politics and History. In this half hour I talk about the Art That Circles The Earth exhibition as well as my own series, The Psychology of One. So if you've ever wanted to hear and see me talk, now's your chance. Please check out the link below and enjoy...

http://youtu.be/LFwVwW0g7UQ


Also, I failed to upload one of the new paintings I made in the last post. The piece got carried by the wind of the airconditioner and so I found it later. Whoops. Here is that watercolor...

Yep. More.

I was on a roll, what can I say other than 'watercolor on paper'...

Scab

Scumble

Mark II

Mark I

Shave

Brush

Scrape

Scar

This Is Where It's At

So I painted some more new pieces. I feel that with the last fifteen I made, I was just treading water...until I got to this point right here. It's important for me to work through being stuck, work it out and stumble around on the paper, even if it takes awhile. I am of the opinion, and I have said it before, that not everything I make is going to be dipped in gold. No, my paints are not made of stardust, unfortunately, so they do not produce automatic winners. Sometimes I make some crap. The last 15 were certainly not crap, but some of those paintings were created on the back of some crap, for sure...I flip the paper over and use the back as a new surface if the first side has an awful result.

But anyway, let's not dwell on the crap and get on to the good stuff, which is here, right now! It's nice to discover a new way of mark-making for me on this most constant of subject matters...and mediums...watercolor on paper...

BOOM. I'm there.

The Motherload

While recovering from my last thesis, I am trying a few new things while also defaulting to my beloved circles. I simply can't get enough, they help me so much. I have also 'started' (not really, I have been eyeing these for awhile) creating, for lack of a better term, 'run-off' paintings on actual good paper. Let me explain. Since I normally paint on a relatively small scale, I tend to just grab a book to paint on and a sheet of scrap paper to catch the drippings. I have saved and then alternately thrown out so many great would-be pieces of this type. They would be great if the drippings dropped on some paper that was thick enough not to be wrinkly and crazy etc. So with all of the losses I have been incurring in this manner for years, I decided to tape some good paper down and dribble away on that. I got some really good results, so I think there's something to this....anyway, the first two are the 'run-off' paintings, and the majority of the rest are smallish watercolors, maybe a 4" x 6". I also created a few larger 'color field' paintings at 10" x 15" and one of the same size that I feel has really great, fluid movement.

I'm calling these "Accidentals"...

 

the three, 10" x 14" ish's....

 the 4" x 6" ish's...

Lately

Lately I have been doing a myriad of things...looking for jobs (got one for the summer!) more jobs (for the fall) painting some small watercolor pieces, working on a public art piece for August and getting lesson plans together. Whew.

The lesson plans really have to be done first, with everything in place and the budget and ordering form ready by June 14 (Flag Day!). I start work as the Lead Instructor for The Creative Alliance and Baltimore City Public Schools in early July. This is five weeks of STEM classes for middle schoolers in BCPS. I am actually really excited about some of the things we will be doing....including but not limited to: kinetic sculpture, light sensitive paints, flip books and mosaics. I'm most excited for the light sensitive paints - solar energy, yo!

And here is a photo of the watercolors I have been working on. These are all 5" x 7" pieces, but I still have to figure out if they are finished and if they merely need to be mounted...

 

For the public art piece, later this summer, I have been tasked to work with a non-art business in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District (SNAED) here in Baltimore, at Honey Carry-out. The curators from MICA (Curatorial Practice candidates) decided on an idea that 'marries' the artists and the local businesses. Just like an anniversary present, the number of years that the business has been in Baltimore reflects the medium I will use (to a certain extent, you'll understand why in a second). Honey Carry-out has been in its neighborhood for 6 years, making the 'gift' material iron. Yeah, I just said I had to work with IRON. I don't know if you know anything about iron, but I did research so I can tell you....iron, in its purest form is somewhat tough to find. It's also extremely heavy. Most other metals have some bits of iron in them though, and you can check this out by using a magnet. If it's magnetized, then it is an iron alloy. 

So, long story short, me being a 'works on paper' sort of artist, and with a limited budget, I had to get crazy creative, right quick!  What I am doing is using prints of the iron manhole covers in a collage fashion. These prints will make up a portion of a honey bee. So this piece will be about pollination and the environment. I am also fixing their outside signage for them, just because I really think it's needed and a fresh coat of paint is akin to putting on a Sunday dress in my opinion. Everyone feels like a million bucks when they 'dress up'. 

Here are the preliminary prints that I have done. These will be altered and I'll go back in and hand paint these so that they fit with the bee body. These giant bees with be flying over fields of flowers. The picture is really strong in my mind, so even though some of you may not be able to imagine what I am talking about now, rest assured, it's golden in my head. 

Prints (the neighbors were really awesome by the way, lots of questions, lots of amazement)...

And lastly, you may remember that I was in an exhibition in April at MOCA DC in Washington DC. The curator of this show, Lilianne Milgrom created this short video. The closing shot is me. Hilarious.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JlGVBpTAaqk

I also have a few photos from that night, which I just uploaded to flickr here, located in the last row.
Well, I think that's it for now, time to work on lesson plans and other fun things. Cheers.

ETA: Oh! My final thesis exhibition images are here. Please check them out if you haven't already!