Daddy
"Every woman adores a Fascist, The boot in the face, the brute Brute heart of a brute like you."


Sylvia Plath

Burgundy Boutique Dream 

Boutique II
This dream had to be painted at 5 am Saturday morning.

The Burgundy Boutique is full of luxurious fabrics and entryways that lead to room after room of beautiful things that women love. Textures swirl and there is a box of chocolates hidden behind every velvet curtain.

Wouldn't you love to shop there?

Nathan's self-portraits:
Practicing facial expressions.

My Art Opening

So this is what the gallery space looks like with my work hanging in it. The lighting is enchanting. This photo was taken by Tamiyo, a fellow photo history student. She said that she saw a girl sleeping on this couch one day and wished she had a camera as the images of the figures are almost all lying down.

Thank you so much Tamiyo. We will get to study together soon.

Drawing and Automaticality

The following works are my latest attempt at letting loose and allowing myself to explore what drawing has to offer my free hand. I am using the time spent in the studio to practice a type of automatic writing. I want the words and lines to spill out of me unedited in order to get to the unconscious things that I have been working on. There is tension and beauty in each of the drawings. The work has offered me my own inkblot tests with which to create and experience my own stories. This practice of allowing the work to come rather than forcing it has crept into most everything else I have done. I find it extremely challenging not to drive the outcome. This has pushed me beyond what I believed with my conscious mind to be possible.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I grew up in the South, a fact I tried to run from, hide from others and deny. I was embarrassed by the limited way I felt some of “my people” looked at the rest of the world. I felt that I too would be associated with the bigotry, “family values” and prejudice that were around me. I have since learned that I have a responsibility to answer to the things that I was taught. I also feel it necessary, like a calling—to quote my Baptist preaching grandfather—to respond the questions that the world around me refused to answer: questions about ethnicity, gender, sexuality and god.

Drawing, printmaking and painting allow my hand the freedom that my words were not allowed to have. As a woman, I was taught to be demure, graceful and charming…all things I fought vehemently, much to my mother’s dismay. Words were never what they meant on the surface, but had many hidden meanings. (“Oh, Bless her heart” sounds really kind but is actually derogatory, meaning that someone usually doesn’t have sense enough to come in out of the rain.) My work reflects the concept of layering meanings both literally and figuratively.

My work is a response to and a celebration of situation and location and how these things can affect the way one views the world. I use the figure as a metaphor for humankind and the sadness and beauty of living.

This is one of the prints I am including in the show. "Gathering the Quiet" includes several different types of printmaking including intaglio, lithography and inkjet techniques. There is a dialogue between the varied works that encourages reflection. Gathering can be defined as harvesting, gathering people together or bunching material together for sewing. Quiet can be defined as calm, without sound, serene, untroubled. The process of making and viewing art is often a quiet, thoughtful process. Creating art requires restraint, concentration and a certain amount of tranquility. Art engages the viewer, takes them away from chaos for a time, and requests a sort of quiet reflection.

The following are recent works. I am focusing most of my time on the figure with special emphasis on line and accuracy of form. 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

here is my family: Gloria, myself, Glorivy, Nathan and Mom

These last few months have been some of my most productive. I have made the conscious effort to focus my work in a limited number of directions so that the work will be considered cohesive when being viewed by future possible graduate programs.

I am planning on taking one year off between my graduation time and graduate school to rest and to prepare work. I am presently researching schools and have been considering one in Savannah, Georgia, one in Tampa, Florida and trying to find information about schools in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is my first choice as I feel it will push me to explore what I am working on through another culture’s eyes. This will also force me to learn another language and I can’t help but wonder how this will affect work that is already so steeped in a language that I am fluent in.

The pieces I am currently working on speak to being poor and undereducated. I want my work to reach people from all walks of life. There is a universal suffering and celebration that I wish to share. The times when my works are beautifully rendered reveal the celebration of human ingenuity and the ability to overcome great obstacles. The messages that I share are not always apparent upon first observation, sometimes even to me. This double meaning of the symbols and figures brings me great joy. I like making the leap between what is, what could be and what was. Memory plays a large part and I realize that as time passes these memories are being filtered through my own current experiences and are therefore altered bit by bit like the telephone game.

A recent example of how these meanings come to me was this epiphany I had when I was driving the hour and then some it takes me to get back home each day to Sierra Vista. I was listening to a song that I hadn’t heard in several years. Some of the lyrics speak of a child whose father has passed away, but somehow this child missed it because he didn’t realize that it was his real father. The song had meant so much to me because my father had just died and the lyrics sing “oh, I’m still alive” and it seemed a rebellious celebration in the face of a man I had once thought invincible and godlike. I was thinking about his death, he drowned, I was thinking about my favorite poem: “Not Waving, But Drowning” and a photograph that I recently learned about in one of my other classes that stood out as a favorite. The photograph is of and by Hippolyte Bayard who was angry that he had not been given credit for a photographic technique invention so he posed himself as a drowned man. These things all came together so loudly they clanged like a church bell. This is where the work I make comes from. I have a thought factory in my head constantly making connections between all of the things that have happened in my life and all of the things I know to be true.

Here is a picture of Mr. Bayard and a copy of the poem, the lyrics and the images these all brought forth for me.

Not Waving But Drowning
by Stevie Smith
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

This past week I drove up to ASU to drop off some artwork that I donated to the Scottsdale Arts Organization to raise money for the Hurricane Katrina victims. I am glad to give something to people who have suffered so much tragedy in one lifetime. It is bad enough to be brought up poor. Maybe this will help these folks get out of the stuck place they were already in.

Every time I go to a museum, I am both humbled and inspired by the work I see. The works of Akio Takamori are no exception. The body of work presented as a whole was moving. There were about a hundred figurative pieces of pottery altogether with several that were almost envelope-like, teapot shaped and full figures that stood at about ¼ life size. I found the amount of straight drawing in the works to really answer my question from last week about drawing being considered an art. The stoneware works would be lifeless without the drawings on them! There was also a nice collection of prints by the artist and a fantastic self-portrait done in watercolors that was about 4’x4’ and the colors in the work were the same as the colors used on all of the pottery.

Takamori will be giving a lecture this Friday, October 7th at 7 p.m. at Neeb Hall and then giving a ceramic demonstration this Saturday from 10-4p.m. I would love to be able to attend.

This weekend I hope to be going back up to Phoenix for “Ripple, Respond, Relieve, Rebuild” as the musicians that are performing are from Louisiana and will be given part of the proceeds earned by the fundraiser.

My hands are much dirtier now. I have prepared many, many t-shirts, magnets, prints and wall hangings. I am ready for tomorrow and I am going to sleep late on purpose so that I can stay up for the long haul at Club Congress!

This is collage, paint and wintergreen transfers on paper. This work describes a friend who was injured while she was in the military by a fellow soldier who tried to rape her but was unsuccessful. She still suffers from the injuries many years later. She studied geophysics and her favorite rock is galena. It is one of the hardes rocks. I found this important as she felt vulnerable. I wanted the work to portray the body as fragile like paper and the facts about galena describe her injuries. Many victims are matter of fact in their descriptions of what happened to them. The labeling of the parts of the body at the site of injury paired with the description of the way to break galena makes a pretty powerful statement.

another image to be used in the current project

Foot to be used in current drawing project.

This is what I drive by every single day. I am one lucky girl.

dunes

sand dunes

First class back

Dear Mark,

I am sorry that you are gone. Why didn't you wear your damn helmet? I have picked out this corvette for you to ride off into eternity in. I am sorry that the engine sounds like it does, but what can you do about a car with wings? I imagine you can work on it and you'll spend your time doing something constructive.

Thank you for being a good friend to me. I loved being able to talk to you about anything and everything at work without judgement. You encouraged me to take chances when I was feeling timid. You reminded me that life just wasn't that serious. What I would give right now to hear you say for the millionth time, "Sew buttons on a balloon, get a bang outta life." Well, that is exactly what you did. You lived well, you did so many things and you were just embarking on another adventurous chapter.

I will keep an eye on Louie for you. He misses you terribly and he keeps saying, "Fifteen years, I love him so much, I wanted to hear him tell me he got that promotion....This is terrible, he loves you all so much." He needed you to take care of him and he is so small and fragile I just can't imagine what he will do without your strength. He and your family all loved you so very much. Thank you for sharing them. Oh, yeah, and they said to stop hogging all Grandma's mashed potatoes.

I am glad that I was lucky enough to be your friend. I love you.

Laura

My next project will incorporate painting and assemblage. The paintings will be on huge masonite canvases: Five 4'x8' boards, each with a body part filling the space entirely; a hand, a foot, a face, an elbow, and a knee. Between each of these will be a shadowbox containing objects (found objects, painted, photographs) related to each painting. I am planning on painting each body part realistically, but you know how "happy accidents" are. I will let the paintings take me where they will. The shadowboxes will be 1'x2'x4" and will be whitewashed and sanded.

It is my last week before class starts. I am counting down the days til I can get into the studio with Harmony Hammond. I am scared, intimidated, nervous and very, very excited! I am trying to keep myself open to any and all possibilities.

A closer look at the colors used. The paint is wet and I am still learning how to use the digital camera so there is quite a bit of reflection. I am hoping, like the painting, this will get better.

This painting is progressing slowly. I think it is important to share the process. I consider myself still pretty wet behind the ears when it comes to painting even though I have been at it for nearly 14 years. If you think that art is genius, I can tell you it isn't. Artmaking is the near compulsive desire to create and create. If you wonder what you might be able to do, I recommend it. There will never be another person exactly like you. Noone will ever have lived when you lived, noone will ever have seen the world through your eyes. The things you say and the marks you make will never be made again. You are important. Art is about the probable and the possible becoming real. How do you know what you can't do until you have tried it?

The canvas painted on here was donated by friends back in Tennessee. Thank you Les and Amy for supporting me during a time when I was poor in dollars, but rich in friends. Both of you were and continue to be a source of inspiration.

Heat 

Red has many meanings including the color of blood, cherries, tomatoes and precious gems like rubies. Red can be the color of revolution or the color of debt. Here, red is passion and heat and the red-faced shyness so many of us share .

Momma,

Thank you for the opportunity to make things. You encouraged me to believe that I could do anything that I set my mind to. Remember when you sat at the typewriter and I practiced piano in the same room? I would imagine that the stories you were writing were creating worlds around me and my piano. The sound of a typewriter still makes me feel nostalgic. You were an ordinary person with an extraordinary imagination. You helped me to see that regular people make a difference every day. You helped me to realize that there is magic in everything we all do and that each moment we live is a gift.

What would I have done without your stories? You made the Grimm brothers the funniest guys on earth. (What exactly was that big bad wolf after again?) Thank you for reading to me and showing me that quiet time spent with a good book just might be some of the best travelling I would ever do.

I can't wait to drink mint juleps with you in Savannah. You are as magical and wild as any old, Southern city could be. I love you.

Laura

Drawing is like relearning a language every time. It can be quite difficult when there are so many more important things in the world to do. These drawings are like songs to a stutterer. Singing allows the message to flow out freely.

Mother and Child 

Lyrical 

Warming up lubricates the brain and the wrist. 

The past two weeks I have been working on the last of my papers that were due. I am finally over the hurdle and feel free to take courses to complete my studies. The following two works are part of the series utilizing tools for escaping. Do you believe that thinking and reading both apply?

Layout for Thought