Projects
Object Place Ten site specific, self portrait performances documented in a set of videos.
The object is a very large industrial bulky bag commonly used to transport food or landscaping materials. Top and bottom have gusseted openings for filling and dispensing materials. Handles are held by a fork lift to transport and deliver materials. The scale and the circumference of the portals allow the artist to enter the internal space of the bags and maneuver although with vision obstructed.
The object is also the body within, the middle aged female artist.
The places are within driving distance from home. Each has an appearance of being stage-like while devoid of an audience in attendance.
This body of work is from 2011 during a time I was an active caregiver of my aging mother and adolescent son. While my time in the studio was limited the time I had to learn and navigate video processing formatting and processing could always be negotiated during odd times.
TAKEN An artist book in response to police violence and black lives taken.
Text: BELOVED. TAKEN. STOPPED SHORT. TAKEN. LAST BREATH. TAKEN.
George Floyd was murdered by police while I was at a weeklong printmaking residency. It was hard to think about much of anything but the truth and how I was complicit. I needed a process, a durational practice to think and feel while keeping my hands busy.
In response I began by inking up and rolling out a deep shade of gray and placing a page over the surface. I sat at a table, taking the time necessary for narrow and wide lines and the spaces between them. Each page had its own tool. Some were thin and narrow, others were colorful. The shade of gray (darker to lighter) and the tool changed with each page. Parallel lines drawn lifting ink from below. Using the practice of trace monotype as a durational practice.
I painted Kakishibu over the surface of each page on one side. Kakishibu is fermented tannin juice from unripe persimmon. It is traditionally used to waterproof, insect proof and strengthen paper. One characteristic that I was particularly interested in was that it looks like blood and the color darkens over time. Applied slopply. Once dry, rough patches were sanded smooth.
Limited text was added and and the 16 pages were gathered with a coptic binding would allow the long narrow pages to lie flat.
The cover needed to be something other than a hard surface. I have recently been experimenting with natural dyes. I had collected oak acorns and had made a potion. Among a collection of other fibers I also soaked the shirt my Dad had worn to his wedding. The book cover to TAKEN is a shroud. A shroud stitched from this formal shirt of my Dad who passed away in 1994.
Images found in Portfolio: book forms
VIDEO LINK
The Human Toll On May 24, 2020 the New York Times published names, ages, places and brief narrative biographies of the 100,000 COVID deaths in the United States. This is my reflective, creative response to this moment. Grieving and commemorating the lives lost.