new place

Full Fathom Five installation shots

2011-11-15T10:22:00.000-06:00

What a great time we had in NYC—thanks to all for coming out to the opening & celebrating with us.
Thank you to our hosts at Jenkins Johnson Gallery! The gallery has some great installation shots of the show as well as images from the entire series of mine on their website (some of the work isn't even on view in person).

I have some exciting things coming up in the spring, stay tuned!

my wall from the front entrance

Max & Jess at the opening

Full Fathom Five opening November 3rd!

2011-10-15T21:08:00.000-05:00

If you are in New York, or the general area, come have a drink with us & celebrate!

Re-visiting, re-thinking, re-engaging

2011-09-19T21:30:00.000-05:00

A recent discussion with a curator for an upcoming show has left me reflecting on some drawings that I haven't thought about in a long time. It is such a treat to have an outside voice plant a seed in your brain which then makes you see your own work in a new way.

The upcoming exhibition (details soon once things are more finalized) has me thinking of transformations. The curator was interested in some drawings from 2007 from a series called "World Machines." The larger drawings use notational and gestural marks collaged together to form teeming masses—mechanisms that make me think of the movie Brazil—that teeter between a state of potential rebirth or decay. The smaller works are a bit looser/lyrical with ink washes in addition to the collaged marks.

Reflecting back is of course making me think about my current work in new ways. I'm working primarily on unstretched canvases and planting suggestions of structure within them by adding chunks of wood stretched within the fields (see Sattha's Mmmm... as an example). I hadn't thought about this work in terms of transitions before but now I see that the idea is very relevant. I have always liked my work to feel like it's caught in the process of becoming; not yet fully matured and retaining a sense of potential energy. This often makes for a fairly awkward object... and I like that too. It's as if I'm creating adolescent artworks—all knees & elbows—makes for some fun angles!

Some images from the World Machines series, all from 2007:

World Machine #1, 18x24

World Machine #2, 18x24"

World Machine #3, 18x24"

World Machine #5, 18x24"

World Machine #7, 18x24"

World Machine #8, 18x24"

World Machine #9, 18x24"

World Machine #10, 18x24"

World Machine #11, 18x24"

World Machine #12, 18x24"

Machine Garden, 40x42"

Machinescape, 58x42"

Sky Net Machine, 54x42"

Convergence Machine, 42x41"

Formulation Machine, 50x42

New American Paintings!

2011-06-09T15:28:00.000-05:00

I'm in for the NAP West Edition! This edition was juried by Cassandra Coblentz of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art:

Cassandra Coblentz is Associate Curator for the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA). A native of Los Angeles, Cassandra has spent her career all across the country, from L.A. to New York, and her years-long focus on museum education has largely informed her practice as a contemporary curator and how she approaches exhibition-making.

Read the full interview for her views on process, emerging work, and the importance of considering viewership when making curatorial decisions at the New American Paintings/Blog.

Exciting stuff... should be out in the fall. Now I must pick 6 images & get the 'ol paperwork together.

About New American Painting:

Somewhat related notes on poetry

2011-06-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

In an article titled "After the Drips" by Jerry Saltz in the April 4th issue of New York Magazine, Saltz says "A lot of the work in "Unpainted" is hard to take—even ugly. Some of it looks like junk. But much of it I love because it shows how fluid and uncanny beauty and form can be. Sit with the work here and you will find you are using you imagination more than you eyes."

On a somewhat related note, I have recently been thinking about the kinship between painting & poetry.

I have never really been a fan of poetry but the more I look into it I think I've just been lazy about it. My dear friend Colleen Sanders recently shared the article "Laugh While You Can" by Kay Ryan with me that, though actually about poetry, is all about painting. I particularly love this passage:
Right now I am thinking of something unlikely that I saw a few days ago, the morning after my town had experienced a major winter flood. In the middle of a residential street, a cast iron manhole cover was dancing in its iron collar, driven up three or four inches by such an excess of underground water that it balanced above the street, tipping and bobbing like a flower, producing an occasional bell-like chime as it touched against the metal ring. This has much to say about poetry.
For I do not want to suggest in any way that this aquifer under poetry is something silly or undangerous; it is great and a causer of evry sort of damage. And I do not want to say either that he poem that prompts me to laughter is silly or light; no, it can be as heavy as a manhole cover, but it is forced up. You can see it would take an exquisite set of circumstances to ever get this right.

In terms of structure, layers, dangerous hilarity, undercurrents, and the role of the reader/viewer this article and how it can apply to painting make me giddy. The parallels of painting & poetry were originally introduced to me in college by professors Michael Byron & Julie Burleigh—but it's taken me this long to really delve into the idea.

And so, again on a somewhat related note, I leave you with one of my favorite poems of all time:
Poem, by Frank O'Hara
Lana Turner Has Collapsed!
I was trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
but hailing hits you on the head
hard so it was really snowing and
raining and I was in such a hurry
to meet you but the traffic
was acting exactly like the sky
and sudenly I see a headline
LANA TURNER HAS COLLAPSED!
there is no snow in Hollywood
there is no rain in California
I have been to lots of parties
and acted perfectly disgraceful
but I never actually collapsed
oh Lana Turner we love you get up

"Not" installation at TSK!

2011-05-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

For those who haven't had the extreme pleasure that is Tanya's Soup Kitchen, get over there!

Max is a fan!

NAP contenders

2011-04-29T15:04:00.000-05:00

Ceegee!, 5"x5" 2010

Satha's...mmmmm, 20" x 46" 2010

Trophy, 22" x 16" 2010

Ahbwak, 11" x 17" 2010

"Not" installation at TSK!

2011-04-13T13:06:00.000-05:00

Ahbwak, 2010

For those in the Wichita area, today marks a special day! Our own local & beloved Tanya Tandoc is opening the new & improved Tanya's Soup Kitchen! I am pleased to have a new painting installation up for the occasion. Details below, photos to come!

"Not"
finished, unstretched paintings on canvas & linen
site-specific installation, April 2011

Tanya's Soup Kitchen
1725 E Douglas at Kansas

Apple & Asafetida in painting!

2011-01-16T08:30:00.000-06:00

Reading an article in the New Yorker about pastry chefs & the evolution of dessert & one particular passage was a great parallel to painting:

asafetida

"The key thing for a cook is to develop a library of flavors that you can recall. If I say to you, 'Apple & cinnamon,' you would click in immediately. 'Yes, apple! Yes, cinnamon!' The library of your mind contains that. But what if I say "Apple, asafetida'? Nothing! You have nothing stored there." He added slyly, "Now, this is a benefit to the chef, because if I do apple and cinnamon and you don't like it you think there's something wrong with me, but if I do apple and asafetida and you don't like it there's something wrong with you." He laughed briefly, professionally. "The development of a pastry chef is not the development of techniques. It is the slow, careful development of a catalogue of savors and flavors, which you can develop the way you develop muscles. There is a logic in every dessert worth eating. Consider the logic of white peach and rich cheese. We must be conditioned not by sight but only by flavor, the tongue, the nose, and the feel in the mouth."

Really?, mixed media on paper, 2009

An artist who really wants to push her/himself and make something new must develop a cache of flavors as well... but in doing that cannot just "paint" apple & cinnamon over & over again. Doing apple & cinnamon over & over makes you a baker/crafter/artisan not a true artist. I love apple & cinnamon but that combo isn't going to teach me anything. Apple & asafetida? I have no idea what the hell that is. That is exciting. As an artist, it's my job to push comfort zones stretch our collective ideas of "flavors" because only by letting new information & experience into our lives do we grow & learn as individuals & as a society.

There is a logic in every artwork worth experiencing. However, if you approach said artwork with your own apple/cinnamon baggage, your experience will be that much more skewed. However, if an artist can present you with apple & asafetida, then you are forced to approach like a child & take in something new. What a beautiful thing... if we were really able to take in new experience like a child & notice our own processing with freshness!

Saturday in the Studio

2010-11-06T14:25:00.000-05:00

Some work in progress... all unfinished, all cell-phone pictures... nothing too serious, just a glorious work day.

Trophy, mixed media on linen, 16" x 17" 2010

Trophy, detail

installation photos

2010-11-01T17:24:00.000-05:00

"...i know you" exhibition at Bob Schwan Studios with Trish Higgins Fine Art!
thanks again to all for your support. The larger pieces are all from a couple years ago, the smaller works ongoing from the past 2 years. The items in the drawing installation include brand new works on paper and canvas, drawings, studio scraps, and important pieces of writing—some extending back almost a decade.

...Leads to Blue, Aneblefa, Kagren (top pink), Ceegofi (bottom yellow), MaJoot, Ofeko

...Ahh, Yes, Muhunse, ...Leads to Blue

Spirmak (top), Ooorapa (bottom)

...Ah, Yes, Murhunse, ...Leads to Blue, Aneblefa, Kagren, Ceegofi

Kaypowla

Drawing installation in the loft

Drawing installation & a painting so new it doesn't have a title yet

Drawing installation

Two brand new, currently untitled, paintings

Drawing installation

Drawing installation including email with the best passage about intuition (*see below for text)

Akka, Ahhbwak in the drawing installation

drawing on velum, shark illustration, Moo-i, and note from Amy Sillman lecture that says "stop trying to finish every painting the moment you start one"

*Definition of intuition: from a Williams Alumni Magazine.
Mike Glier '75, Studio Art

Being creative in the studio requires a kind of mental state that is sometimes referred to as right-brain thinking. Some call it intuition, but I don’t like that word because it makes it sound as if a creative state of mind is mysterious, as if it’s sent to you from above. That’s total baloney. Being creative in the studio is an intellectual process that’s not verbal. It’s a very synthetic process wherein your brain is constantly comparing your sensory awareness of the moment to your memory of similar moments in the past. It’s not a verbal comparison; it’s happening at a nonverbal level. And you’re able to react to the problem of the moment very spontaneously, without a verbal engagement. Then later, you go back to language. You switch back to the left brain and do a critical analysis of what you’ve done.

Mike Glier, May 3, 2006, 58°F, N42º 52.635, W 73º 20.717 (The Garden)

I'm having a love affair with this book!

2010-10-30T10:55:00.000-05:00

My fabulous friends Jennifer Beattie & Kurt Marsden gave me this book of essays and I have been off & on reading it for the past year & a half. Right now I'm fully in love with it. Here are a couple passages for you to chew on.

Eric Wesselow's stained glass, Humber Valley United Church in Toronto

The Way of the Maker: Eric Wesselow's Life Through Art

p. 33: Making or Breaking: Art as Education

"... I propose the universal model, art, as a catalyst. By 'art' in this context, I think in particular of two areas of human engagement. One is what Maslow calls 'self-actualizing creativity.' It is something he finds a painter or sculptor or pianist may not necessarily have, but a fulfilled housewife and mother may richly possess and display. She may be original, ingenious, unexpected, inventive—her first-rate soup more creative by far than a second-rate painting or poem. There are no minor arts, only minor artists.
... What has not happened to the child will likely happen to the adolescent or adult: the maiming, the atrophy of the creative urge by a world of purpose.
... It [art] stimulates our thought processes by way of productive thinking—the relationship between thinking and making grounded in touching the material, most important in today's industrialized world where our only manual activity seems to be pushing buttons and turning dials. It involves the constant training of all our senses, including the kinesthetic and the enteroceptive both of which help promote empathy. The arts are singularly suited to project understandings which cannot be otherwise known or experienced."

And, one more short one:
p. 22 I Never Know How or Why: Probings into the Processes of Art Work

"When a new skill has been perfected, so to speak, its functions tend to become automatic. This may involve the perceptual, the manual, and the cerebral functions. Skill easily becomes stereotyped and dominates the art work. This can lead to a lazy and shallow mind. ... virtuosity stands in the way of originality. Great mastery of a skill often induces an automatic technique or process. Acquiring steady hapbit can interfere with awareness and discovery..."

MMMMMM! Yum! Love it!

Juror for WSU's "Requires Two Coats" MFA exhibiton

2010-10-28T10:06:00.000-05:00

I had the pleasure/daunting task of judging the "Requires Two Coats" MFA exhibition for Wichita State University this week. It was a very fun experience overall! Here is the Juror's Statement I wrote for the show, which is hosting a reception tomorrow night at Shiftspace in Old Town.

The first thing to hit me, upon walking into the exhibition, is a considered sense of craft present in all the works across genres. To choose particular works over others is both an honor and a very daunting task to be certain. I believe the only appropriate way to approach this task is to consider each piece individually, and then use the artist's own statement to enrich and enhance those first impressions. The overall process of "judging" is less about one work vs. another-but rather each piece vs. itself.

This exhibition presents a satisfying variety of themes and mediums with emphasis on strong forms. Some highlights include: Eriberto Biera's painting, which presents a visual rhythm of bold colors, figures, and shapes humorously and suggestively "vandalized" with text and drawing in marker—both undermining as well as informing the painting below. David Hellman's ceramic pieces feel trickily familiar and overly comfortable until their charmingly clunky cleverness reveals itself. Across the room, Zachary Presley's collaged icons, printed and presented so simply they seem almost irreverent, raise questions of mass culture vs organic bodies (both ours as consumers and the animals visible). Lauren Clay's pieces question and celebrate their medium while remaining visually lyrical. Phillip Baumer's tangled installation confronts the viewer with its presence in 2, 3, and 4 dimensions and suggests our considered participation, its action and space. Nathan Carris Carnes's playful sculptures are physically seductive and seem to ooze their suggestive undertones in a very polished way. Amy Yun-Ping Chen's paintings are puzzles with layers and fragments of visual and cultural reference, cheekily presenting stereotypes as you find both your eyes and brain immersed in her (de)constructed "landscapes."

Overall it is a pleasure to delve into the products of each artist's efforts and deliberations—particularly during such a powerful and transitional time as their graduate study. I would like to thank Shift Space and WSU for the opportunity and all the artists for offering their work for us to chew on.

-Kate Van Steenhuyse

Artist's Talk - "i know you..." exhibition

2010-10-26T15:24:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I'm de-installing my show here in Wichita. Thank you to all who came out to see it & support my work!
Below is a video of the talk I gave at the opening, enjoy!

"i know you..." Opens this weekend!

2010-09-21T23:05:00.000-05:00

Ceegofi, Acrylic & Spray Paint on Canvas

I will be showing large-scale and small-scale paintings from the past 2 years as well as a group of drawings, sketches, small construction-y paintings, and notes.

See below for more details!

I know you...

2010-08-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to announce my first solo show in Wichita, KS. The show will open Friday, September 24 & will have 6 large-scale paintings from the past 2 years as well as some smaller, more recent, more experimental work. Stay tuned for details!

Kaypowla (detail) mixed media on canvas, 2010

Watch for KayPowla coming to a gallery near you in September!

2010-07-19T22:31:00.000-05:00

details to come... stay tuned!

KayPowla detail
KayPowla, 2010

acrylic, graphite, spray paint, ink on canvas

60" x 72"

2 weeks left! - Recent Paintings at Arkell Museum in Canajoharie!

2010-07-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

For those in the Albany area, swing by the awesome Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, my show will be up until the end of July as well as some incredible prints by Ed Smith and an exhibition of maritime paintings in the main galleries.

Come out & be proud!!!

2010-05-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

Supercellica

THE WALNUT STREET GALLERY

OPEN: Final Friday 7 PM
Including live art performance, as well as music by The Tom Page Trio.

*Join us Saturday as well for the Art Pride Parade.

SUPERCELLICA is the evolution of Supercell, a Squirrelly Girls exhibition inspired by summer storms, first exhibited at ADA Gallery in Richmond, VA and then at the Couchfire Collective in Columbus, OH. The Squirrelly Girls are an irreverent and improvisational arts group that feed on glitter, and all other manner of squirrelly things. This squirrelly attitude has allowed Supercell(ica) to permeate each new community, much like the glitter we ride in on, adopting new members to our Squirrelly Girl tribe. The exhibition will feature both local and national artists.

and opening next weekend:

Kathryn Van Steenhuyse: Recent Paintings

Arkell Museum Community Gallery

2 Erie Blvd, Canajoharie, NY

OPEN: June 4th, 5 - 7 PM

exhibition will run through July 30th

Also on view at the museum at this time will be drawings by Ed Smith and photographs by Louie Powell.

"Recent Work" at the Arkell Museum

2010-05-13T15:56:00.001-05:00

The crates are being made & the paintings prepped for shipping! After 10 days of life as a Kansan, my paintings are returning to New York! I am pleased to announce this upcoming show:

Kathryn Van Steenhuyse: Recent Work

June 4 - July 30th, 2010

Community Gallery

Arkell Museum, Canajoharie, NY

Also on view will be work by Ed Smith & Louie Powell more to come on this exciting show!

Pieces images

2010-05-13T15:07:00.001-05:00

Some images of the exhibition "Pieces" at Emma Willard. It was a very large show & we had a ton of fun putting it together. See below for a very informal video tour! Thanks to all for your support.

Ooorapa, Krigisme, Sagra's Second, untitled

Seeboo, CeeGee!, black hole drawing, KaypowLa

Sattha's...Mmmm, mixed media on partially stretched canvas, 25" x 46", 2010

Moo-I, 5.125" x 5.125", Mixed media on shaped canvas, 2009

Untitled, Mixed media on linen, 19" x 25", 2010

untitled, mixed media on canvas & frame, 16" x 16", 2009

KaypowLa, mixed media on canvas, 60" x 72", 2010

Betessido, acrylic on linen, 22" x 16", 2009

CeeGee! Acrylic on shaped canvas, 5"x 5", 2010

Ahhbwak mixed media on linen, 2010

3 Untitled drawings from 2009, Ahhbwak

Video Tour of "Pieces" Exhibition

2010-04-18T13:48:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who tuned in live! For those who missed it, here is an informal tour of the paintings & drawings in the show—guided by the ever-talented Ryan Gates, with guest appearances (via text) from our moms. It will be up for a couple more days so if you are in the Troy area, swing by! Please contact me if you have any questions! Thanks everyone for your support!

Pieces: Recent Paintings by Kathryn Van Steenhuyse
March 25th - April 25th, 2010
Dietel Gallery, Emma Willard School
285 Pawling Avenue, Troy NY 12180
Weekdays 9-7, Weekends 10-5

"Pieces" Dietel Gallery at Emma Willard in Troy

2010-03-28T10:51:00.001-05:00

Phone pictures... our camera recently broke. Real images to come soon.

Pieces: Recent Paintings by Kathryn Van Steenhuyse

Dietel Gallery at Emma Willard School

Reception April 17th, 5-7 PM.

March 25 - April 25th, 2010

selected 2009/2010 drawings

2010-01-10T16:45:00.001-06:00

NYC studio visit

2010-01-10T14:56:00.000-06:00

Ryan and I went into the city to show some paintings from 2007/2008. It was great fun to get everything up in the same room again. Thanks Lisha for letting us take over your studio for those few days! Here are some installation shots:

First "En Route" postcard up!

2009-10-01T01:31:00.000-05:00

En Route Postcard Project: Drawings en route to you, made on the way from there to here.

I am making postcard-sized drawings and paintings along the route from a custom drawing board Ryan built into the dash of our car. The postcards will be inspired by, produced, exhibited, and sold all from the road via our blog. I will post pictures of the artwork instantly to the CreativeRHINO blog via a Blackberry. They will be available for purchase by credit card or PayPal for $10 each and will sell to the first person to email in response.

HOW TO BUY A POSTCARD:

When you see a postcard you want, be the first to email me at kate@creativerhino.com! Write the name of the postcard(s) in the subject line and be sure to include your name & mailing address in the body of the email. I'll send you the purchasing instructions and then mail the postcard(s) to you from the nearest post office box. Keep in mind that a little wear & tear may happen to your drawing en route... relax, it all just builds character.

The name of this postcard is Constant, Cyclical, Fleeting.

We went Mobile!

2009-09-30T23:40:00.000-05:00

For anyone who hasn't already heard from our numerous CreativeRHINO & Facebook posts, Ryan and I on our latest adventure for fun, art & work:

CreativeRHINO Digital Nomad

Take a look at our travels in Iowa, the newest installment of my postcard project, & be sure to vote for the 4th leg of our trip!

a story about painting

2009-08-26T20:43:00.001-05:00

Ryan and I were just driving along the back dirt roads of Wichita & I remembered something from my teen years in Iowa. There was a tree on the side of the highway between Shellsburg & Palo that I often passed on the way to the big city of Cedar Rapids. It was my favorite tree. I can't remember what it looked like exactly but it was hands down my favorite tree.

I always meant to stop on the shoulder of the highway & take pictures of it. Arty, black & white pictures of course. But I never actually took any pictures of it.

Thinking about it now, I'm glad I never did. Having a picture of the tree is not important (and apparently wasn't that important to me then or I would have done it). Having a picture of the tree would just be an empty shell and would drain power from the memory and the experience. The existence of that tree & the experience I had every time I drove by & saw it was important. That's what that tree was all about for me.

new pics from home

2009-08-18T23:28:00.000-05:00

Ryan & Nick off the Horicon Heights dock with a subtle rainbow in the background.

Luna & the fish pillow.

too many words on this blog - here's some pictures

2009-08-07T19:13:00.001-05:00

notes on painting

2009-06-15T07:52:00.000-05:00

I am interested in the process of “making sense” of an experience. I use painting as an activity and forum to examine how we can be active, accepting, and thoughtful in an experience. For example, how do we understand a bright yellow bleed on raw canvas with a dark thin mark slicing through it? What do we make of it and how might this perception change tomorrow or even with the next glance?

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Painting is a site for non-verbal experience. Painting is like a zen koan—a riddle for contemplation, not solving—that exists in material form.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I am not interested in pictures. There are too many representations in our society. I am interested in beings. Paintings are a way to be continuously suspended in a state of not-knowing and discovery. Each time I encounter a painting, it baffles me just a bit. Paintngs are an ontological question, not a site for answers. This uncertainty is exciting. I attempt to cultivate uncertainty in each painting so as to keep the paintings and my reaction to them just slightly out of reach. My response to this is to be engaged in each moment and trust my gut sensory reactions.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Art is an exchange of ideas. Some ideas may be expressed with words, some with color, some with texture, etc. Ideas can also be experiences, not just messages. When art has the power to be something—not just be about something—it can change the way we see/feel/think/view the rest of the world.

fundraiser chair

2009-06-02T23:15:00.000-05:00

I am participating in the "Chrissy's Chairs" fundraiser in Bolton Landing this summer. Local artists were asked to paint adirondack chairs which will be on display all summer & then auctioned off in August. All proceeds will be donated to High Peaks Hospice.

My chair is called "April around 5:30" & is painted to look like shadows of budding trees are cast on it... very subtle and thus hard to photograph, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.The chairs are currently on display at Sweet Pea Farms but soon mine will be moving to next summer for display until the auction. Stop by and visit it! For anyone in the area, stay tuned to Sweet Pea Farms & Chrissy's Chairs for more info about the auction & other events!

caution is boring

2009-06-01T09:25:00.000-05:00

I have to keep reminding myself that when I get too precious, too cautious with my paintings it really shows & they feel stiff & dead. Because I slow down the intuitive process so much & work on them so sporadically over months & months I have to be sure they don't their edge, playfulness & heartiness.

That said, here are some new photos (of equally appalling quality no doubt)

still no names, but I have also started making stack paintings (an homage to the wonderfulLeah Rosenberg? maybe...) and a book painting (unfinished)

snapshots on a dark day... no names yet

2009-05-28T13:25:00.001-05:00

drawings from 2008!!

2009-03-19T17:01:00.000-05:00

check out flickr for more!

Check out flikr for more!

studio today

2009-03-19T11:54:00.001-05:00

The best article ever

2009-03-15T12:07:00.000-05:00

Buddhism, Landscape, and the Absolute Truth About Abstract Painting
by Chris Martin
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2005/04/art/buddhism-landscape-and-the-absolute-trut
from the beloved Brooklyn Rail

This is my favorite paragraph, for those of you too lazy to read the whole thing:
Abstract painting is the dirt that catches the sun. You can’t hold on
to it. Paintings are not facts—they are invitations to the dance. If
you stuff painting into a pillowcase you’ll only have a pillowcase full
of dirt. When we try to seize painting and fix the meaning it dies
before our eyes.

Green Line Cafe show & a couple really dorky pics of me!

2009-03-03T19:33:00.000-06:00

Akka & Rewagga

Seracoo, MaJoot, Ula & Nablan

studio shots - really really bad quality

2009-02-07T11:12:00.001-06:00

new work from summer 2008

2008-11-12T22:18:00.000-06:00

all are mixed media on canvas, 16" x 16" from this past summer
titles/names and more info to come!

Work in Progress & Adirondack studio!

2008-08-12T12:02:00.000-05:00

Below are some pictures of my current studio in Bolton as well as some works in progress, much more to come!!

My studio is one room in a 3 room cabin - the others are storage/sleeping, kitchen, etc.

Paintings in progress on the porch!
More in progress below:

New work on Flickr!

2008-04-27T18:53:00.000-05:00

Leuere, 16" x 16", acrylic on canvas, 2008

MaJoot, 16" x 16", acrylic on canvas, 2008

Spirmak, 16" x 16", acrylic on canvas, 2008

check out flickr for more!!

Yay Jonathan Lasker!

2008-01-12T01:10:00.000-06:00

Moral Space, 2001

Some of my new favorite quotes, from his "Complete Essays, 1984 - 1998"
(paraphrased)

It is the job of the artist not to be radical but rather to work on re-building faith in meaning.

Painting is a moral victory.

The project of art today is to locate boundaries of the real in a world where meaning, space and the effects of mortality have been neutralized by technology.

Painting is perceiving the material world through matter (as opposed to via representation).

The Power of Now

2007-12-04T16:40:00.000-06:00

my friend Leah gave me a photocopied page (p.24) from this "new-agey book" called The Power of Now as a gift last week. Here is the text:

...a creative solution is needed, you oscillate every few minutes or so between thought and stillness, between mind and no-mind. No-mind is consciousness without thought. Only in that way is it possible to think creatively, because only in that way does thought have any real power. Thought alone, when it is no longer connected with eh much vaster realm of consciousness, quickly becomes barren, insane, destructive.

The mind is essentially a survival machine. Attack and defense against other minds, gathering, storing, and analyzing information - thins is what it is good at, but it is not at all creative. All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of mo-mind, from inner stillness. The mind then gives form to the creative impulse or insight. Even the great scientists have reported that their creative breakthroughs came at a time of mental quietude. The surprising result of a nationwide inquiry among America's most eminent mathematicians, including Einstein, to find out their working methods, was that thinking "plays only a subordinate part in the brief, decisive phase of the creative act itself." So I would say that the simple reason why the minority of scientists are not creative is not because they don't know how to think but because they don't know how to stop thinking!

It wasn't through the mind, through thinking, that the miracle that is life on earth or your body was created and is being sustained. There is clearly an intelligence at work that is far greater than the mind. How can a single human cell measuring 1/1000 of an inch in diameter contain instructions within its DNA that would fill 1000 books of 600 pages each? The more we learn about the workings of the body, the more we realize just how vast is the intelligence at work within it and how little we know. When the mind reconnects...

thank you John Cage

2007-11-23T12:03:00.000-06:00

one of the best quotes ever:
“What I’m proposing to myself and to other people, is what I often call the tourist attitude—that you act as though you’ve never been there before. So that you’re not supposed to know anything about it. If you really get down to brass tacks, we have never been anywhere before.” – John Cage

Playspace August Residency Opening!

2007-09-26T17:36:00.001-05:00

Yay... this was almost a month ago now, but it was still fun! Click the flickr link for more photos.

One of the most beautiful things I have read in a long time

2007-09-11T13:50:00.000-05:00

read it aloud if you can

Part of Eve's discussion, by Marie Howe

It was like the moment when a bird decides not to eat from you hand, and flies, just before it flies, the moment the rivers seem to still and stop because a storm is coming, but there is no storm, as when a hundred starlings lift and bank together before they wheel and drop, very much like the moment, driving on bad ice, when it occurs to you your car could spin, just before it slowly begins to spin, like the moment just before you forgot what it was you were about to say, it was like that, and after that, it was still like that, only all the time.

August Residency Show at Playspace!

2007-09-01T16:26:00.000-05:00

work in progress during my Playspace residency.

Come check out my wall painting at Playspace. The show opens this Thursday September 6th from 7-9 pm.

World Machines

2007-07-14T16:02:00.000-05:00

Click the photo to link to my flickr account for images of my new paintings. All are mixed media on paper.... a mix of ink, acrylic paint and xerox transfers... roughly 50" x 42".

First year over

2007-05-15T12:23:00.000-05:00

new black & white work in progress.... "World Machines" of some sort....

Well, I am now officially on the last summer break of my life. My first year is over and it was quite a ride. Below is my most recent artist statement... this is how I have wrapped things up in my head.

What if we could see through all the levels of strata in our world—physical, technological, social, psychological—and understand how it all fits together and affects one another? If all the stuff of the world were distilled into either a building block or a connector, how would we understand the construction of our reality? I like to think that our universe is made up of fundamental visible and invisible interactions that shape everything we know. I am interested in the processes of how it all evolves and fits together. In this vein, I build each painting from a single element to create multi-layered autonomous little worlds with tenuous cohesion. The decisions I make in my paintings are based on reacting to what has come before. The paintings are records of their own making—a visual experience of “fitting together” and evolving over a specific expanse of time.

I think the biggest challenges of this past semester have been understanding what type of work I make and not comparing myself to other artists. The concept of Fitting Together applies at so many levels of our world/our understanding... one of which being a fundamental part of painting.

Making Space opening

2007-03-31T13:44:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who were able to make it to the opening!

Making Space Exhibition!

2007-03-02T11:48:00.000-06:00

If you are in the SF area, please come by the Crucible Steel Gallery at CELLspace to see my work in this show!

Making Space
March 7th - April 1st
RECEPTION MARCH 22nd, 7 - 10PM
Space becomes an entity by the elements that define it.

painting vs. photography

2007-02-26T21:28:00.000-06:00

from an article about Botero's Abu Ghraib paintings in The Nation:

"... there can be little doubt that the art of the Baroque was successful in its mission. The art achieved extraordinary precision in the depiction of suffering and hence in the arousal of sympathetic identification. It is often noted that we live in an image-rich culture, and so we do. But most of the images we see are photographs, and their effect can be dulling, if not desensitizing... Photography must be augmented—with text, Susan Sontag proposed—if we are to feel the pain it shows. A picture may be worth a thousand words, as the cliché goes, but a photograph does not speak for itself."

new work!

2007-02-23T13:11:00.000-06:00

check out my flickr account for photos of new work and some studio shots!

This new work is really thinking about creating worlds that are the result of reactionary but very deliberate decision-making. All of the marks are either "building blocks" or "connectors" and each piece grows and evolves to create a unique "place." I think of them as conceptual landscapes or something you might see when peering into a petri dish. What if we were all gods and this is what the world looked like from "above?"

travel & affect on others

2007-02-15T03:06:00.000-06:00

A great excerpt from an independent publisher. I share some of the same ideas about why I feel compelled to make paintings as well as relate some of his thoughts about extension of space and time into the subject matter of my paintings.

Sean Wolf Hill, Time Worm & Counter Culture
All people crave the experience of extension into space. That is why people travel, send letters, write stories, and watch TV or listen to radio. The modern world has given us ways to experience the extension into space, ways tat are more accessible (maybe) than the older routes of meditation, mimetic ritualization, trance induction, hallucination, vision quests and so on. All of these things, including recording and photography & painting, are also mostly extensions into time. Space has become obsolete. That is why I publish. When I send a magazine off, or send my writing, to someone “somewhere else” that person who receives it allows me to re-emerge thru them, to experience the same space they are filling. If this engagement is strong enough, I may also come to life thru them. When this happens, they become my channeller; they carry my life energy into their world. I send to them a seed of myself, product of my vision, sweat, hand-eye coordination and then it germinates in their body or mind and I arise within the. That’s why I publish. Not to push thoughts, although thoughts are surely pushed. Not to make money, which never happens anyway. Not to become known or important, though to some I may be. I publish because of the thrill that happens when someone write back to me and I sense in their letter that I passed through them when the read Time Worm or Counter Culture or other of my books… thru them and out of them, breathed their breath for a while, felt their sensation, shared in their sorrows or good fortune. Mingled with them in a fuller way than if I didn’t publish. I publish for this sensation of in habiting a shared earth where distance in space and time is no obstacle, where there is no wall, no closed system that restricts my travel.

new studio!

2007-02-06T20:40:00.000-06:00

I have moved into a new space in a different building. I am now in Hooper 2 in the the Grad Center. The space is about double the size of my old space and though I will miss my old neighbors, the new ones are pretty great too. Ryan was here today helping me get settled... he put up shelves, installed lights and new outlets, and bought me that cushy blue chair and a coffee maker. It's great in here now!

things to remember

2007-02-06T20:31:00.000-06:00

Making takes time. Evolution takes time. If I am thinking of my work as little worlds that grow and change, the process may take months or years. I have started to think about the work the way I take care of my houseplants... tend to it when need be, appreciate it, ponder it & allow it to grow.

fuzzy non-verbalness

2006-12-12T17:20:00.000-06:00

A brilliant quote from my good friend and former high school art teacher Ann Diedrichsen gives insight to the root of knowledge & how it is different from language. It is so important to recognize why language and art are not parallels & why it is hard for people to "understand" or give credit to art. We have a hard time with things we can't define with words. But deep down we know other ways of understanding the world.

"And you know that your intuition takes every thought and insight and observation you ever had a glimmer of and puts it all together. And it speaks in your chosen objects and your pencils and your markers and colors. My intuition is so much wiser than the part of me that wants to control it all and make logical and profound order. My intuition is even happy, and silly sometimes, something my logical brain is too overwrought to experience often. So it finds truths that I even resist.... I know we need our logical brains---but fuzzy non verbalness is the origin of what we make verbal. Non-verbalness just doesn't speak up for itself very well in this culture. (yes, I think this is funny) Or, ironically, in the art world. Got to have the marketing you know."

inspiration

2006-12-11T00:47:00.000-06:00

check out flickr for more recent inspiration images & new paintings!

inspiration

2006-12-09T23:46:00.000-06:00

An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth is my new favorite thing.

assignments

2006-12-02T10:45:00.000-06:00

Write an autobiography. Make a list of things that work and things that hold me back. Create a log/index of key "letters" in my visual alphabet. Write down three questions I'm sick of hearing & three questions I wish people would ask.

content vs art

2006-11-13T23:54:00.000-06:00

I have been wrestling with "content" and "meaning" in my work in particular for the past few weeks but really for the past 7 years or so. My badass advisor Linda Geary told me last week to let go of meaning... advice that feels like a gift. Then today in the Elliot Hundley lecture, he was talking about his work and different ideas that go on in his work and it hit me that "content" is not art. Content/meaning is the framework/structure on which art happens. Art can not be so easily summed up as "oh this is a painting about such and such..." if that were the case it would be an illustration not a piece of art (not that illustration isn't art, it's just different).
Art has freedom from other more linear forms of communication... so it's not that I have to let go of meaning altogether... I just have to stop trying to equate every mark in my work with a particular idea. (This baggage is part of the problem with art education... sometimes ignorance isn't bliss but it is freedom.) The ideas exist and come to life in an entire work and following that inspiration and intuition is where the art occurs.

photos!

2006-11-06T17:04:00.000-06:00

Click the link below (or on the sidebar) to check out my new flickr site & see photos of my work thus far!

work as of 11-6

Chrissy Preston

2006-11-06T15:36:00.000-06:00

I just found out that a friend and former student of mine, Chrissy Preston, has died. She was a fascinating person & a gifted photograher. http://www.christinapreston.com/

in process

2006-11-04T02:04:00.000-06:00

intuition

2006-11-03T15:38:00.000-06:00

often intuition gets a bad rap. I like the idea of informed intuition. on one hand, all intuition is be informed but I feel like it doesn't get the respect it deserves.

the dilemma

2006-11-03T15:35:00.000-06:00

I am starting to get envious of my peers who seem to have a clear plan or path. I feel as though the deeper I dig into my work, the less I know what it is about, what I want it to be about or how I want it to look.

yes!

2006-10-26T02:08:00.000-05:00

to quote Barbara Rose from "American Painting: The Eighties "...the drive toward novelty, which began to seem impossible to attain within the strictly delimitative conventions of easel painting, was further encouraged by the two dominant critical concepts of the sixties and seventies: the first was the idea that qualtiy was in some way inextricably linked to or even a by-product of innovation; the second was that since quality was not definable, art only needed to be interesting instead of good."

so funny it's awesome. What is interesting and what is good? She had quite specific ideas & mine don't match at all but I think the simplification of the idea is interesting/funny. I do think that for some, the urge/need to be innovative becomes paralyzing.

A former professor of mine, Pat Schuchard (who, if you ever are lucky enough to get to hang out with will leave you feeling so zen and encouraged about art and life) once asked "what if you could make a painting that was as good as a car?" I struggle to figure out what that means but I love the question. We make things. If we are taking responsibility to release these things into the world, we should be confident or attempt to at least make them as good as other things in the world. What if you could make a painting that was "as good as" your fully stocked ipod?

insight into the process

2006-10-24T00:56:00.000-05:00

In one of my readings for this week there is a passage that really sums up the creative process for me and for many other artists I know. The book is "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge" by Paul Feyerabend. Though he is talking about philosophy/anarchy the idea completely works for art as well:

It is often taken for granted that a clear and distinct understanding of new ideas precedes, and should precede, their formulation and their institutional expression. (An investigation starts with a problem, says Popper.) First, we have an idea, or a problem, then we act, i.e. either speak, or build, or destroy. Yet this is certainly not the way in which small children develop. They use words, they combine them, they play with them, until they grasp a meaning that has so far been beyond their reach. And the initial playful activity is an essental prerequisite of the final act of understanding. (26)

For me when I am "playing around" in my studio I think of it exactly this way. I am trying to figure things out—many things—and find "a solution." However, a big problem that I think most artists struggle with is, what solution am I looking for? What even is the problem/question? Often in the search we find solutions to questions we didn't even realize we were asking. This is not really a problem though, it's what drives the production of art. Art is invention and if we stick with it, we may have a breakthrough... an apple falling from the tree kinda moment. One thing I feel I am learning here is that dedication and drive are what create successful artists...perseverance (sp?) is key...embracing the inherent constant changes that happen in the search.

Art is the product of this search. Hopefully it can inspire others in their searches.

Advice for Young Artists (snippets)

2006-10-15T19:19:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth Murray:
Stay in touch with your original motivation to become an artist—and be aware that it is always a process of becoming. You have to stay light on your feet. It is about change and transformation. You are the boss of that buy you don't have total control. Good to give into that. Making art requires a lot of isolation, but I realized over time that I also wanted a whole life, that I could still do my work and have a partner and a family.

John McCracken:
The only art worth doing is the art that makees things better. More actually advanced. More enjoyable. A key: genuine happiness. All around. So, make art that comes out of your own sense of what's actually best, and advanced, and supercool. Do you live on a planet, or on a mulit-blither of unknown galaxies?

Jessica Stockholder:
In art and in life all of our actions are at once inextricably bound to circumstance and filled with choices we make from a vast and unlimited array of what's possible. The dance between the two poles of circumstance and unlimited possibility is what generates meaning and passion.... You are a person, armed with free will and the tools to discover that will. You can make things that embody your sense of what matters. You can have conviction, passion, and belief.

political agency

2006-10-14T23:20:00.000-05:00

During our MFA field trip last weekend, Mark Allen at the Machine Project in LA said something that really struck me. To paraphrase:
The less agency one feels and the more dependent on only a role as a consumer, the less able to react, think for oneself, feel empowered and able to enact change.

So, as a maker of things... how can something create both a tactile experience and at the same time exist outside of the cloud of consumerism we live under?

tactile is important

2006-10-10T23:39:00.000-05:00

I am very devoted to creating direct tactile experience for viewers. I think too much of our culture is mediated by reproductions and representations of life on glossy pages or via various types of screens. Our society often gives the illusion of familiarity and connection while pure tactile experience is becoming increasingly rare. The feeling achieved through actual direct contact with situations or objects outside the sphere of one’s everyday life threatens to be forgotten.

I think more and more, we don't know how to relate to things unless it is in terms of buying/selling. A fantastic example of this was provided by my friend Leah in a class discussion the other day... She was on her way home rather late one night & a man who lives on her street (literally on the street) & with whom she has become friendly had a whole bunch of frozen fish. He offered her some saying that it would thaw and go bad before he could use it all. She thanked him but declined and said goodnight. The next morning when she saw him he told her that he ended up selling it for $2 a pound and getting rid of it all.

Do we really not trust things unless we can know their worth even if it's completely arbitrary? We know how to look through books, we know how to interact with TV screens, computer screens and movie screens. But, what do we do when confronted with an object or thing in the world that does not so easily fit into a catagory?

sitting questions

2006-10-04T19:06:00.000-05:00

ongoing questions meant to be pondered but hopefully never solved...

How (visually) can the concept of location be about information, physical location, cultural location, etc.?
Is it possible to use found/"real" materials from the world and yet divorce them of meaning? Why would I want to?
Is concrete meaning scarier than abstract meaning? does it necessarily have more baggage?
Is abstraction just a place to hide?
What happens in a piece when the information within it transcends its status as an art object?
Will non-abstract information always be nostalgic? Is it possible to avoid nostalgia at all? Why would I want to?

here I am

2006-10-03T00:40:00.000-05:00

"new place" of course is a literal reality for me now, but also an idea and a hope. I like the sound of it... "new place" could be a goal as a general state of mind.
This blog is one of the first steps in "opening up my practice" (an ever so common grad school phrase that I am whole-heartedly embracing). My plan is that over the course of the next few months/years/whatever my brain will vomit all sorts of ramblings out on these pages as both a journal for purely selfish reasons and as a way of sharing with anyone who chooses to read.
I am overwhelmed and slightly uncomfortable about starting this so I will leave this first post a short one. "Overwhelmed and slightly uncomfortable" also seem to be themes for grad school and I love it.

new place concrete facts:
I have named the hummingbird who hangs out on the deck Ted.
Luna's version of getting along with the other cats is to growl and hiss at them from a distance.
Water pressure seems to be low in San Francisco generally.
I can walk to the ocean but I usually I feel like I should walk the other direction—toward school.
I already feel like things are going too fast and yet my work has changed a lot in this short time.
I can't seem to have enough pens.