QuestFest!

Last weekend our 6-10 year old class had the opportunity to participate in QuestFest. QuestFest is visual theatre showcase for hearing impaired, deaf and ESL audiences. Earlier, the Open Minds Art Club facilitators (including me) had a great training session with them which was 90% wordless. We played games, but had to figure out the rules to the game through pantomime. Exceedingly challenging! How to tell a story through visuals, movement...body language! It was pretty darn awesome and we took that information and created a Human-powered Carousel for the performance. They all had fun, we got oodles of compliments and I feel pretty accomplished!

The first image is from my camera, which I strapped to my jelly bracelets in the hopes of getting the 'inside experience' of the carousel. In the second image, you can see that I am actually playing the part of the middle mechanism.

And it was good.

Firestarter II

Firestarter: Angry + More is finished!
(Please note that uploading to blogger significantly screws with the brightness and color. This isn't really what it looks like, color-wise)

I really enjoy the way it turned out, imagery-wise, however I am still working on flattening this bitch. As a piece of paper, it is certainly behaving as such. I have tried everything in my arsenal and a few others', and still, this thing won't behave. It's time for some creative thinking about how these will be displayed. Normally I would mount the paper on canvas or a board, but since it's not flattening appropriately, that assuredly will not work in this situation.

I have issues with all paper pieces (90% of the work I make) when I display them. I hate the idea of them being behind glass, I always want to give them more physical weight (I think it helps with metaphorical weight) and they are never archival-y sound; they are never pure watercolor pieces. I use polyurethane to yellow and age them prematurely. My own aesthetic and process inherently make this difficult, but I want it the way I want it. But this flattening issue may be the worst I have ever dealt with. As a perfectionist, this stupid poster paper may be my undoing. I am seriously irked.

HOWEVER, to put it into perspective, I have seen some hella crinkly paper work clipped up on gallery walls, all blowin' in the wind, so I think I can at least do better than that. This will be my submission to the Things That Scare Me invitational at HCC for the Columbia Festival of the Arts, so something awesome must be done! Stay tuned...


ETA: I like this song...it oddly reminds me of the past and the present simultaneously. I have been listening to this song fairly heavily lately.

Empathy

My students at Howard Community College this semester were lucky enough to participate in The Empathy Project at MICA. As per the parameters, they each wrote 500 words about an experience with empathy and they also created new art from old art pieces and recyclables. They were to buy nothing new.

This was a very difficult, ephemeral concept for them to contemplate, especially within the first few challenges I gave them of the semester. I told them that they should concentrate on the materials they were using, and that the act of touching someone else's art with your hands was a form of knowing them, and could be considered a form of empathy, depending on how sensitively the art was utilized and 'handled'.

I was really pleased with the results, considering I personally tacked on a few more challenges for them within the project. I requested they work collaboratively, and create life-sized, in-the-round figurative sculptures. No small task. However, working together and speaking to one another while building was really the best thing for them. They were able to learn from each other, they were able to flex their thinking/problem-solving muscles.

We ran into a snow day, so a few sculptures are smaller than others...and the first 2 of these are from my Sculpture I students, Ingrid Nuttle and Charles Kendall, whom I had collaborate in a different way; they switched pieces at the end of their first day of working! I also required their participation in the exhibition at MICA.

Here are some of the students' pieces and a few long shots of the rest of the gallery. Please keep in mind that they had between three and seven hours to complete this work! I say "bravo" my 3D peeps!


The Empathy Project is created by Paul Rucker, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Artist-in-Residence and Research Fellow in MICA's Center for Race and Culture, and curated by faculty member Marcus Civin of MICA's Curatorial Practice program. The project is supported by the Center for Race and Culture, M.F.A. in Curatorial Practice, M.F.A. in Community Arts, and the offices of Diversity, Graduate Studies and International Affairs.

Firestarter

I have started the first piece in my series, Spitfire! Actually I'd say this is almost done...for the time being. I had some physical and psychological difficulties with this...actually with the text application. Partially it was my nerves, I started having visceral reactions every time I tried to place the tiny slips of paper, cold sweats, shaking and a mini-crying fit before I got it together....so I know it's important.

The printmaking did not take the way I would have liked and got smeary in areas, despite my earlier tests. I switched it and ended up just collaging the words. I do like the effect. I was going for symmetrical enough to trick the eye, but not absolute, and still retaining the feel of my hand in the piece. I think the marriage worked on this one, but I'm not sure what I'll do for the rest.

Tentatively titled, Firestarter: Angry + More; here are some WIP shots...

Incidentally, I was recently invited to submit a piece for an exhibition this summer, Things That Scare Me at Howard Community College. The exhibition will be up during the month of June as part of the Columbia Festival of the Arts. This might just be the one!

Upcoming TFAP Meeting + Volunteer Time

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.

TFAP - Bmore's First Event, 'Speak Up'!

Please Join The Feminist Art Project - Baltimore for our first event, "Speak Up" at Gallery CA! Speak Up is an evening of spoken word and funny, heartfelt ruminations featuring "The Slam Up Tour". Doors Open at 6:00 pm, Open Mic at 6:15 and Slam Up goes on at 7:30 pm. This event is FREE!
   
Speak Up will also host work by Baltimore artists; including a performance piece by Katie Duffy and video pieces by Tiffany Black, Allana Clarke, Danisha Harris, Tanya Garcia and Nicoletta de la Brown. Hope to see you there, I'll be MCing!

Get Ready to RUMBLE

Spitfire. That's the title of my new series....the series I have been hesitant to create. I'm going to still gloss over what it's about, but along with the hint in the title, I'll give you a few of my recent musical influences. One newish, one oldish (beyond Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, which is an 'always'...those sick, twisted geniuses).

I like the feel of this song, I like the bass...




I have also been listening to this old Prodigy song...a bit more frantic than the other, and I have always enjoyed the visuals on this one. I wanna kick some asses after watching. Also, *yoink* thanks for the title, dudes...




The main point about this series is that it has to be powerful, that the imagery isn't somehow weaker than the message. I don't know that I've ever made 'weak' imagery before, but there's a first time for everything. So without further ado, I'm ready to rumble.

More on this series later, IN THE NEW YEAR!
Have a good one, cheers.

Good Times, All Around

I was meaning to get to Maryland Art Place (MAP) last night, but I got so caught up at MICA and all the exhibitions they had opening. Super good stuff, super "Baltimore". I saw Picture Windows: The Painted Screens of Baltimore and Beyond, The Amazing Johnny Eck and Life Interpreted & Home at Last by Colette Veasey-Cullors. Colette invited me to be a guest artist in her Foundations class in 2012 while I was attending MICA for grad school, so it was cool to talk to her and see her work.

In the meantime, last night or this morning before I arrived at MAP, my work sold! That's tremendous, because I really needed to buy some paint and I don't buy new art supplies unless I sell work. As you can imagine, I am a bit more motivated to sell my work than I normally am when I need new art stuff. I went halvsies on the sale...and I feel good about my small donation contributing to their art programming this coming year as well. Good times, all around!

They had these really nice bios under each of the pieces and the red festive bow signified a sale. And even though many of the pieces were gone by the time I arrived, there were little photocopied images in their place, so everyone could see what they were missing. This was a culmination of several 'nice touches' at MAP's Under $500. It was a very nice, full show, I left wanting a few of the pricier pieces, myself.

Art: Fast and Furious on a Thursday

On Thursday I had a whirlwind of a day. Hard to be in three places at once, but I managed two of them! I managed two exhibitions, 45 minutes apart within two hours....somehow. The first was the Student Art Invitational at HCC in Columbia, Maryland. I had four students in the show this semester and I got photos with three of them! Here is us and their exemplary work!

Ingrid Nuttle, "Giractus"

  Belle Eunjong Ko, "Pineapple-hedgehog"

Lindsay D'Andelet, "Merging"

 

Joel LaFerriere, "Untitled"

Joel's work had many admirers! Photo of a photo-taker!

AND THEN, if that wasn't exciting enough, I drove back to Baltimore for Jubilee Arts' "Deck The Walls", where I had several pieces in the show, which I donated. When I got there, I realized that my work was right above that of Fletcher Mackey, one of the brilliant Community Arts faculty at MICA. So I got to show my work right above one of my past professors! I have been in exhibitions with my past professors a few times, but I've never been this close. Delightful! Here's the proof...

 

Bake Me A Cake...

...a cake made with money, and filled with creamy art-awesomeness. The Baker Artist Awards happen every year for Baltimore's finest and often most interesting artists, and every year we artists can re-activate our profiles and get that shot. True, it is a shot in the dark, but still, one day.

So with that being said, here's my nomination for the 2014 Baker Artist Awards! http://www.bakerartistawards.org/nominations/view/shanagoetsch/