Meeting with Sarah & Chinn

For the individual meeting, I met with Sarah. I was asking many questions to clarify about the paper. I was given many artists and materials to look into. Moreover, the part I found particularly helpful was when Sarah asked me critical questions about my work, such as "Why ceramics?" All of Sarah's questions got me thinking about why I am making what I am making.
With my paper, I started researching the history of ceramics. I realized the importance of ceramics being one of the few medium that survived through centuries, and it was one of the materials coming from Asia. Without giving a second thought, again I found the connection between my work and where I came from. It was helpful to have this direction and I started looking into artists who dealt with similar concepts.
At the same time, in my independent study with Chinn, she was also pointing out that most of the work I created in the past had something to do with being delicate, beautiful and precious. She wanted me to go above and beyond and try to mess things up and see what happened. With this said, I started a fun and mindless experimenting process with ink and collage. After the exploration, I was excited to see the unintentional shapes the ink and water created. However, this is just a step one. I am going to keep exploring with the same ones and see how far I can go with it. The plan is to print again and mess around again.
From my meeting with Sarah and Chinn, we also came up with the statement I should focus on. Because of my experience of growing up in a family of gemologists, I was raised in an environment that constantly emphasized the value of the precious. For me, however, the definition of something precious entails different values. In my work, now, I tried to recreate varied objects or images that reminded me of the beauty of my personal history. Moreover, looking back to the images I created, I also realized my unconscious obsessive attraction to patterns and colors.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science: A New Form of Research

     This is a blog post that I could not wait to share with you all because it has significantly impacted and changed the way in which I hope to gather research and inspiration for my work in the future. In light of our theory, history, and research assignment, I was granted an incredible opportunity this past Sunday to tag along with Professor Tom Mazzullo's drawing class from the Art Students League of Denver as they were allowed rare access behind the scenes in the zoology collection of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

These two guys were sitting on the cart
near the entrance of the collection.

     When collections manager, Jeff Stephenson, opened the door for the first time, it was like walking into an odd biological funhouse. Initially when we arrived, we were led into the entomology section of the lab. The museum is currently working on a catalogue of the various dung beetle species that are native to our state. When the museum does a field sweep to collect specimens, they often find upwards of 600 new species of bugs and insects with each trip. Jeff also talked with us about Colorado's population of spiders - including a species of camel spider that is slowly making its way into the Denver Metro area. I was really fascinated with the variety and diversity of the insects that were pinned within the collection.

Next, we got to really see the heart and soul of the collection - the mammalogy and ornithology departments. Remember when I said that this place was like a weird kind of fun house? This room is what makes that the case. On one shelf, you  might find a mounted beaver chewing on a log whilst standing in between a 30-foot long row of cabinets houses the entire variation of the front range's gopher population. You might find a duck skeleton or a weasel, or even a vulture protected by a thin sheet of translucent plastic. The place is absolutely amazing!

One of the things that really struck me was something that Jeff said about our own state's biodiversity. Scientifically, we know more about the wildlife of the rainforest than we know about species in Colorado. Essentially, our state is understudied and new discoveries - whether it be new species, interactions, or relationships - are literally being made every day in our lifetime. Colorado is also an interesting safe haven for a lot of species who are suffering from the ongoing effects of climate change. Due to our high altitude and its ability to remain relatively stable in the face of global warming, animals not native to the region are increasingly making their way into the state - animals such as tarantulas, bird species, and even armadillos.
     In light of the visit to the museum, I knew that I somehow had to find a way to ensure that I would be able to return and use some of these specimens toward my own work as an artist. On Tuesday this week, I met with Tim Weaver, who has connection down at the DMNS and has used it toward his own artwork - most notably with the extinct bird portraits that were shown inside the former Penrose Library on DU campus. Tim is currently working closely with me to see about setting up a connection for the future, so that I can go in and gather my own research, images, and subject matter. I'm really excited to see where this might go!

Problem Dog

This week I've been working on automatic drawing that will lay behind my transparent symbol calendar.

I have this raw set of data, the 6 symbols. But that's just an exchange of chemicals. Intake, extake, and partake. What does the internal space look like? I want to get that in this piece. That's why I want to include these drawings and some English words, phrases, and interesting shit I rip from art history and my own imagination. They're jokes, humorous tidbits and stuff I'm interested in. It's all a big illustration of mental detritus and inspiration.

These forms inform everything that I make. They're a product of my subconscious and they give a more multi-layered vision of who Caleb Wassell is. These shapes and forms are the kind of art I want to make because they are symbols in themselves. Each one is a new document, describing a mood, a law, an internal landscape. This week has been trying. That's why i vomited all these automatic shapes all over my notes and my mind. They're the leftovers from all the drugs and alcohol and hookups and rap ha.

I'm still workin on articulating all this and integrating it with the screen printing elements. Aesthetically, it should mesh pretty well cause it's still all invented language, contrast and graphic as all high hell. Next stop: HUGE paper scrolls.

Check out this piece I made this week. That's what it looks like baby!

The Difference Between Thinking and Making...

...is seemingly paradoxical. Or perhaps I am simply thinking about paradoxes because of my next litho project. Except that doesn't seem to make sense because I think about paradoxes all the time.

But as both a thinker and a maker, there appears to be an impossible disconnect between the two, even though they ultimately end up informing one another. The thinking, at least in my case, usually dictates the making. But sometimes the thinking, although intended to inspire me to make, ends up doing the opposite of what I have intended and suddenly the thinking and scheming and planning becomes an obstacle that I must force my way through in order to make anything at all. In a nutshell, this mental block is all very frustrating. Luckily, last weekend, I finally ended up devising a project that I can work with. The making is suddenly possible. And my mission, should I choose to accept it, is to finally, actually, make. 

So after talking to both Sarah Gjertson and Catherine Chauvin and anyone else who would possibly listen this last week, I have a game plan. During the critiques with Sarah, Mia, and Chinn, it was established that the way I look at television, film, and other forms of media is somewhat akin to an anthropologist. So I took that and I ran with it. And I ran as far as humanly possible.

Everything is still manifested in plans and designs at this point, but basically what I have decided to do is visual character studies that pull elements from blueprints, diagramming and mapping, and Leonardo da Vinci's designs for machines and anatomical studies. I have a list of characters that I would ultimately like to design "maps" for, all starting from one basic blueprint-esque design, somewhat inspired by the circular drawings I was doing last week, which somehow relates to characters across different genres.


In case that does not make any sense, here is a visual of what I mean:

The image above is my original cerebral vomit of planning. I approached Sarah and Catherine with this, as well as a whole bunch of plans as to the execution and aesthetics of the final project. Basically, I envisioned a sort of blue printing of characters. I would print a base pattern and either print or draw character silhouettes on top of that pattern, and fill in some of the blank space with personality traits evident through the character's actions as well as the way the character is written, essentially studying these fictionalized people as an anthropologist. 

for example: 

Because the base pattern will remain the same across the work I felt that a printmaking process would be best for this image. I talked a lot to Sarah and Catherine about different ways to print and white line versus black line and bombarded them with all of my plans and schemes. Basically, they agreed that because I have established this pattern and because it seems to reference the work with the writing systems and mapping and blueprinting, I should start with this image, make as many as I can through whatever printmaking process, and work on the character elements later, in whatever way feels appropriate. 

So, my plan for the next few days is to do both screen prints of the base image (because I really want to see if I can get lines that thin and also because photo litho doesn't happen for another week), and to cut the image into a block on the laser etcher, which I can then print using a relief method. This will give me both black line and white line prints that I can experiment with, to figure out the best way to approach the character element. 

It's all still a work in progress but I feel, or at least I hope, that I have gotten over this strange period of thinking and over thinking and that the making will come more easily . 

Fashion in the Art World

After my individual critique with Chinn I threw myself into the Theory, History, Research paper/statement. A lot of our discussion was centered around what I am thinking about while creating these paintings: my influences, and my voice. A lot of my work focuses on the connection and interplay between the three worlds of fashion, marketing, and fine art, and through that there are a lot of different ideas and thoughts that emerge. Primarily, through our conversation, I found that the themes of beauty, objectification, design, and history related to how we define art. What makes art art? While past statements and ideas have focused on the ideals and projection of feminine beauty, or critiqued the nature of objectification and appropriation in advertising, they are really just pieces of the larger puzzle.

Working on the THR statement I spent a lot of time researching debates and discussions on whether fashion is considered a fine art or a something else on its own. If it is art, WHY is it art? And if it cannot be considered art, WHY is that? There were a lot of interesting articles published, and even people within both the art and fashion world had very polarized and controversial opinions. Karl Lagerfeld said "Art is art. Fashion is fashion. Andy Warhol proved they can exist together", but doesn't call himself an artist. Other designers insist they are artists. Fashion has been displayed in prominent museums such as the MET, next to Monet paintings and Ancient Greek marble sculptures. Does it deserve a place there?

Within my series of paintings, through the process of sourcing, reinterpreting, and painting the images to interact with each other--pattern and body, model and design--puts both the fashion and the body in the realm of being fine art.

Going forward I'm going to continue to research this ongoing debate, and try to find exactly where I stand within it and how my artwork can contribute some new to the discussion. I believe fashion and the form does have a place within the fine art world, it's just about creating an argument as to why, and conveying that visually.

Meetings this Week

This week I spoke with a few different professors. My scheduled meeting for the week was with Chinn. My focus and goal of this meeting was to conceptualize more ideas of my current art work projects. Because Chinn knows my love for Earth works artists and street artists, she gave me a few things to think about in retrospect of photographing images right onto the land and photographing THAT as a final photographic piece. The idea of manipulating the land such as those who create land art or street art. If anything, this gave me a few things to think about as well as a few artists to research. Richard Long, Robert Smithson are some classic land artists to look up, but more recently, Zander Olsen, a photographer, has picked up the idea of manipulating the land to create interesting photos. Still emphasizing the land, place, and photography but reinstating that the act of photography is mobile, and unique at that compared to the other mediums. The idea of the traveling photographer is something more to research. 

My next meeting was in Boulder with Steve Briggs, the potter who mines his own clay from the Colorado land. Steve was a wonderfully sweet guy who has connections to the areas to mine clay for myself and my work. Because the winter climate might be an issue, he will keep me posted, in a short matter of time if my going out to get clay and photograph the process is even something I could do. And this is where the ideas above might come into play. 

In all honesty, in the winter time, it is easier to bring the landscape in the darkroom than to bring it outside. Materials would be easier, and visual subject matter will be easier in any season, but the winter. I have alot of things I need to think about, and I need to stop hesitating and doubting myself in terms of creating work. Honestly, I am starting to feel wishy-washy and uncommitted because of my doubts, as I am sure we all do. But I need to push through it.

for Brianna

http://www.lynnejohnsonvisualartist.com/pages/gallery.html

she's got images documenting where she's starting with photographs of trees, then taking them into sculptural structures, then manipulating both -

interesting mix -

new developments

This afternoon I met with Roddy and he showed me some new and fun things in the dark room. I learned some new skills that  will help with my experimentation. I spent most of my time doing photo grams and playing with the different aspects portraiture. By using this technique I am better able to abstract the idea or qualities of a portrait. Portraits are a genre of photography that has been placed in a tightly fit box. I would like to play with the idea that is represented in a portrait. Having things or items that in turn become shadows through the use of a photogram to represent people. Instead of having the actual portraits be there. This idea plays along with the research I have been doing with abstract photography and its many different illusion that it seeks to provide the viewer. I love the ideas behind manipulation in photography because it sets out to go against what photography was originally set out to do.  
I have started slowly trying to college in the dark room instead of on the computer. This processes is strangely similar. The results however are so different at this point than what I have done digitally. I like this and have found it to be a fresh new way to look at things. I need more time to develop my ideas through the different techniques that I have been playing with in the dark room but I feel like I am headed in the right direction. 

here are few of my photos from my dark room session today 

The ball is rolling...

This past week I undertook a series of tasks. First, I finished my "Codex" piece from last week. Here are the final two images:

I'm not so pleased with the last one, which was supposed to be a rendering of fabric. I used the Venus sculpture in the lobby of Shwayder as my reference, but soon realized drawing fabric in sculptural form is a challenge. I made a mental note that I would like to practice drawing/painting fabric more from observation.

Next, I made a mixed media piece illustrating the Aztec mythological figure of Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon. I am currently in a Latina/o Communication class this quarter, and it is helping me learn about my heritage from a historical context. I read an article for class about the history of the goddess, and I became intrigued by the visual description of this ethereal being. This is my interpretation:

As suggested by Caleb, I would like to illustrate the other central figures in the legend of Coyolxauhqui, which would help me further explore rendering the male figure as well as expand upon the imagery. I am interested in the translation of historical accounts into stylistic images that are very "contemporary" for the subject matter. I am looking at real examples of Aztec costume, facial features, and glyphs as part of my research.

I also had the opportunity to edit some images I took of my beautiful friend (and professional model) Katie. I styled her in one of my sculptures that I made last quarter, added a bit of fabric, and came up with some shots I'm rather pleased with:

Although photography is not my main interest, I like to experiment with the medium and use it in ways I couldn't do with traditional media. This photoshoot allowed me to create a living, breathing "goddess", as opposed to the two-dimensional ones I draw/paint on paper. I would like to continue doing more fashion photography this quarter as well; I love the idea of producing editorials from the things I make myself.

As a side note, I have a finalized side-project, a chest-piece tattoo for a good friend of mine:

This was a fun piece to make; I referenced work of a few of my favorite tattoo artists, and had the opportunity to paint something in black and white which I usually do not do (I almost always paint in color).

Finally, I finished reading John Berger's Ways of Seeing. The most important points I took from the book were:

1. "Hair is associated with sexual power, with passion." (55)
2. "But all agree that it was a kind of momento mori: a play on the medieval idea of using a skull as a continual reminder of the presence of death." (91)
3. "The gestures of models (mannequins) and mythological figures; The poses taken up to denote stereotypes of women; The materials particularly used to indicate luxury" (138)

I found these quotes notable in respect to my work. They gave me new insight as to why I use some of the imagery that I do, and what conversations are created by repeating some of the same techniques or methods used by artists in the past.

I will be posting more in a few days... :)

Thoughts on Stencil Making

After the critique on Thursday, with many new ideas of experimenting, my next step is to start making more and more stuff to fill the kiln. Before the use of clay, I was making symmetrical stencils to create patterns that may work for the teapot. However, throughout the process of cutting paper, I was reminded by a childhood memory. Around this time of the year in Taiwan, because of Chinese New Year, my grandmother and I would sit at the table with many red papers, and start cutting out decoration for the holiday. It was originally for the purpose of cutting out blessing words, but it became an activity to create aesthetic forms.
With the same process, I was surprised by how the stencil making reminded me of the tradition of where I am from. Oftentimes, I thought my work was not about my past experience, but then I would always found a connections when I am recreating the experience. This realization is something to keep in mind for because it may have something to do with my actual work and it may lead to a statement.

Next week I went to more hardware shops and artist stores to find the best deal for environmentally friendly resin. Also I'm growing my own crystals and will incorporate them into my mixed media. I got aquarium like boxes to experiment with water flow, and LED lights to play with light and shadow. 

Conceptually speaking I have come to realize how fractal shapes are found in nature especially after watching "DMT, Spirit Molecules." To name a few niches, these universal fractals can be found in: crystals, trees, brain patterns, and space. I just started painting and carving these fractal shapes, even though I don't know how to hinge them together yet, I need to start making.

This past week....

This past week was spent doing a lot of experimenting.  I made quite a few plaster molds. I attempted to cast cupcakes and a cookie, and so far it seems like it worked! Now that the molds are set, I will pour slip into them. I'm anxious to see how the forms turn out.

I also made several small plaster cake molds. I want to slip cast them at different thicknesses to see what will be best for baking in the oven with.  I'm running into some problems with the molds however...they still have a lot of moisture in them and it has almost been a week since I made them. This has made it difficult for the slip to set up and dry in the molds. Perhaps they still need to dry out more?

In the critiques on Thursday I got a lot of feedback on how my work and concept lends itself to a performance element, whether that be with the viewers interaction with food or me eating the foods I create.  For me, baking is both intimate and public. The process of baking is very therapeutic and personal to me and in sharing the foods I create, I am in a way sharing a part of myself.

I think the similarities between art (particularly ceramics) and baking is something that I really want to focus on. The process of mixing glazes and plaster by following a recipe, working with clay and "decorating" forms to have detailed surfaces and texture is so similar to the baking process. I like the idea of making molds because it is yet another connecting element. Most of the baking I do for my dessert business is making decorated cookies and cupcakes.  I always make dozens at a time, which is why I like the idea of making many multiples of ceramic forms. Now that I've started making cake molds, I'm not quite sure if that's the direction I want to go in. I really like the idea of having multiples of something that can be shared with the viewer.

Stephanie

If there is anyone out there interested in a really excellent video about math...

You should watch this really excellent video about math.

Reasons:
1.) the animations are amazing
2.) it is dealing with the concept of infinity, which is arguably one of the most interesting mathematical concepts
3.) Also it deals with paradox and who doesn't love a good paradox?!

or even if no one else watches this I have become rather obsessed with it for a multitude of reasons, the above included. And so now I just want to not do anything except animate really excellent videos about math.

The Video Exists Here

"Screwing things up is a virtue." - R.R.

wow... I have not done encaustic in a long time nor have I done much of it. I decided to start with one of my new prints. I spray mounted the photo onto a simple board and then began to melt wax over it. I had some lucky with the experimentation. The photo burned and cracked with the heat gun and I liked the effect it had on the photo. I am interested in doing more with this process but I feel that the photo is lacking conceptual intellect. I want to develop more of concept through the piece. I am currently playing with tension that is both created in the original image as well as the direction of the wax and they it melts into the photo.

I have been doing some research and reading up on ways to experiment with my photos. I have decided to get back in the dark room. I talked with Roddy and I have plans to manipulate my photos while they are being developed and then use this work with my encaustic paintings. I want to blur the lines between photos and paintings. Photography is painting with light and i would like to play with this idea in combining my work with wax and paint. 

I looked at some awesome work today by Catherine Yass and Wolfgang Tillman. They both have done a lot of photo manipulation in the early stages of the developmental process as well achieved the painterly quality in their photographs. I found a lot of things I want to try and play with through my research today. The best advice I gained from today was said by Robert Rauschenberg, "Screwing things up is a virtue." 

here are the early stages of my photo encaustic 

Truth Women Marketing

For Kim and Class Compare these two pictures: How old is the woman in the black & white vs. the one in the color photo? Where do these women live? How old are they? What does their body language convey? What is being communicated in these photos? Both photos are of Rosanne Cash and were taken recently. The color one was on the cover of American Profile inside the Denver Post Jan. 19, 2014, a magazine that is nationally syndicated and put in newspapers around the country. The black and white was in the New York Times Sunday Magazine a few days earlier on Jan. 12, 2014. It’s amazing that these are the same woman and taken at the same moment in time. John Burger coined the phrase "male gaze" and writes about it in the book "Ways of Seeing". Susan Sontag is an important writer on theory and photography and wrote the book “On Photography”.

Hold Up

This week I put the comic strip on hold to figure out how I'm gonna execute this self-portrait/calendar. While continuing to record data for the month of January, I started figuring out execution details for a final representation.

First off, in my calendar, I want to divide the week into two halves. My calm half and wild half. The first 3 days of the week, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, will constitute a first line of 3 symbols. The last 4 days of the week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, will constitute a second line of 4 symbols. That will continue for the rest of the weeks of the month/months I record.

I designed 6 symbols for the 6 vices/impulses I act on in any given day. I rubylith'd them and burned them into my screen. Each symbol will be silkscreened in a semi-transparent color in the roughly 2X2 spot that corresponds to each day of the month. Because these symbols are transparent, I'll be printing each vice on top of each other if they occurred on the same day. Therefore, each combination of experiences creates a new color/new experience. It's calendrics, it's history, and most importantly, it's a self-portrait.

The designwork inside each symbol abstracts a feeling that each vice produces or the physical objects involved with each vice. The meanings behind each symbol won't be clear to the viewer, but I am still presenting them with a set of real, raw data.

I have been keeping a dream journal for the last 3 weeks and somehow want to also incorporate these internal visions into the calendar for given dates as well but don't know how to approach that yet because I'm not able to remember every dream/sometimes I don't dream, etc.

Getting Started...

It is true that getting started can be the most daunting part of the studio practice. This first full week back I found myself in my studio everyday. I can honestly say I have no idea what the heck I was doing but I came each day. Eventually the wheels started turning. I chose to start with what I left off with last quarter. I am still feeling very inspired by my ice photos and wanting to do more with them. I made several prints and had them ready to present with Kristina. Meeting with Kristina was so helpful. I was able to bounce ideas off of her and find out new ways to do things I was already doing. Here are some of my new prints

Second Week

Last week I did an allocation of my art supply resources, started a painting, and bought Crystal Resin among tools and paints. I am so glad I'm using Resin instead of expensive stain glass processes. I was going to fuse glass together to make my planes that would connect with hinges. Rather than doing that, Resin will allow me more of a manipulative capability, making my planes look and feel natural. I have found a medium that can erase a lot of the separate characteristics of canvas and media.

Ideas Inspired by Prints and Kristina's Feedback

In my independent study with Chinn, I was looking into creating patterns in shapes of domestic objects.  I made films in six different domestic wallpaper patterns. Each of them represents some type of forms reminding the viewers of a specific environment. Through the process of printing, I wanted to play with the idea of dramatic negative space. I was lucky enough to receive the oversized papers from Catherine and Chinn. However, after printing on several of them, I decided to take a break on the big paper until I have concrete ideas of using the dramatic negative space. From the discussion with Chinn, we also came up with new experimenting of drawing on the oversized paper with patterns printed on the corner. For the next week, my goal is to go free with drawing and experimenting on the paper. No more planning with visually appealing images just to see how far I could go with the idea. I am excited to see what new ideas would come after the chaotic experiments.

From the visit of Kristina Arnold last week, it was really helpful to hear her ideas because they are also inspired by her domestic surroundings. It was interesting to see her different approach. One thing I found especially inspiring was her idea of creating "internal logic." She was building a world of hers through visual art. Moreover, she brought up a concept that we all understand but not constantly aware of: using the light as a layer of your artwork. Her lecture was very useful because she was honest about the high and down of being an artist. From her critique of my work, she told me that she knew I have ideas for the next 16 years, which is a really good thing. She would like to see me just keep doing things and writing down different approaches. She was also telling me that any practice will help me find a space for installation in the future. She also brought up a new approach that I haven't thought before: using ceramics to build the domestic patterns in 3-D. 

Symbolism in decorative motifs

As I have been searching for elements to add to my "collages" on Plexi, I have become very interested in the symbolism in decorative motifs, specifically in flowers. I feel this is very relevant to the Japanese culture I am trying to represent-- the Japanese have traditionally been very closely connected to nature, beginning with the first major religion of Japan: Shintoism. This was a religion that was created solely within Japan, unlike the other current popular religions in Japan such as Buddhism which was derived from India and China.
Shintoism directly involves the worship and recognition of nature, and those who follow Shintoism believe that each entity in nature, whether animate or not, contains a living spirit called kami. The main deity within Shintoism is Ameterasu, who represents the sun. Though this religion is not as widely practiced after the rise Buddhism, its influence continues to pervade Japanese society, as I said, through a love of and respect for nature.
The Japanese people believe that nature, such as plants, are representative of human life and often utilize the symbolism within art (such as kacho, bird and flower motifs). I think these beliefs are best represented through Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement. There is also a so-called "language of flowers" called hanakotoba, in which each type of flower represents an aspect of human life such as love, sincerity etc. The theme of nature is also very relevant to me because my family were farmers, which became an activity that stayed with them for the rest of their lives. I am currently researching both hanakotoba and ikebana through books and internet resources and attempting to better understand and use these symbols within my work.
On a side-note, after speaking to Kristina, I have also become interested in the idea of showing the panels of Plexi standing in the same arrangement as Japanese screens (byobu).

Broncos.

There is nothing better to me than going out and finding that kick of inspiration! 

This past week was packed with inspiring moments. 

For starters, I went to the stock show! Not just once, but twice! 

The first time I spent the entire day there, ending the day at the rodeo. 

Which was absolutely awesome. 

The bucking broncos, bull riders, and barrel racers were my favorite. 

The show reminded me as to why I love horses so much. These beautiful animals are so smart and powerful, they just have this way about them that I'm drawn to. 

Which made me rewind and start thinking about my next works and what I really want to accomplish.

Also, at the stock show I went to the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale. 

Wow. What a show. 

I could have spent hours just staring at the art. My favorite work in the show was done by an artist, Sophy Brown. 

I found that I loved her work so much I spent hours the next day cruising through her website. 

I decided I'd like to meet her. 

I really liked a lot of the women artist in the show actually, in fact mainly the women artists. 

So all of this great stuff at the show made me want to go back for more so I went for a second round.

This time however, I went to the Dancing Horses show. 

It was fun to see all the different kinds of horses and abilities. It proves my point of how smart they are. 

I went to the art show again, I wanted to get as much out of it as I could.

This week I also got the opportunity to go to the Paris art show at the Denver Art Museum. 

Im a sucker for old paintings, so even though it was my second time I loved every minute of it. 

There is such a progression of the paintings and it amazes me how long they have existed and how the world loves them. 

This trip gave me such an appreciation for old art and respect towards humanity. Because, no matter what people want to understand and appreciated art. The artists that we love today created art that lasts. 

During that day at the museum, I went to artist studios as well. 

This was neat because it opened my eyes as to the possibilities and opportunities as a young artist. 

I didn't realize there was such a community artists in Denver, and this is how they make a living. 

To finish up, it was a great week of finding inspiration and the unexpected outside of the studio. 

All this made me question what my next move was gonna be. 

I felt very stumped and paralyzed to start creating.

So I just decided to go for it and create, cause I felt the need to. 

I started a painting that I feel good about, but now the question is what direction should I go with my art!

-Jessica

Sketches of broncos. 

Wait...what?

Over thinking is dangerous. I think my brain must be glitching, because I can't seem to stop thinking and over thinking absolutely everything. At this point it seems to be impeding my ability to actually do anything.

Well, that's not entirely true. I have been doing things, particularly drawing, it's just that my interests branch off into so many directions it is difficult to know the areas in which I should focus. So basically this past week has been spent doing something entirely different than what I was working on last week.

A creative block (esque thing) has sent me looking into the differences between languages and writing systems, rather than continuing the drawings of hands that I was working on for class last Thursday. I have found out recently that there is a distinction between the language associated with a specific culture and the visual system which is used to record the language on something more permanent (such as stone tablets or paper or the Internet). The ancient Egyptians seem to be one of the most interesting examples of this, because they of course used actual pictures to record anything that needed recording, but the way their language sounds, what they actually spoke, is completely different. The modern Arabic, Chinese, and Russian languages/writing systems operate much the same. At least as far as I understand, since I am not a linguist.  I could be wrong about any/all of this because I've just started looking into it.

This interest sprung from my interest in both the Internet, online communities, and (surprise) Doctor Who. A fellow Whovian (this is what Doctor Who fans are known as, collectively, to other fans) created an English writing system based off of a fictional language in the show that the show's canon tells us nothing about. In essence, we know roughly what the language's writing system looks like, but we know nothing about the language itself. It does not exist. But we do have images from the show which we know are associated with the language. Such as the following:

Since we have images like these, fans have come up with English writing systems based off of these examples here. One system has been adopted by the fandom as the "official" system. It has a "letter" that corresponds to every letter of the English alphabet, with rules as to how to combine them. Basically, it's just a way of writing English with circles and lines, and it looks like this:

This weekend I've been rather obsessed with the aesthetics of images like this, for whatever reason, and so have been drawing these sorts of images simply by writing English phrases. I have been figuring out the rules for writing with this system (and then breaking them because it makes for more interesting compositions). I've also been looking into writing systems associated with other fictional works. 

Aside from this I have also gotten really excited about this new PBS thing called The Art Assignment, run by Sarah Urist-Green, the former curator of the contemporary exhibits at the Art Museum in Indianapolis (And coincidentally the wife of one of my favorite authors). People using youtube for educational purposes is one of my favorite things in the universe, and since this is art related I thought I would share the trailer here. It is set to premier sometime early this year. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tonPbdR1Krs

Struggles, ideas, and a few more struggles...

     I want to start off by saying that I really enjoyed speaking with Kristina Arnold last week. Not only is she a really awesome lady, but she and I share a lot of common interests when it comes to our love of biology and our constant need to switch between 2D and 3D platforms. Though my time with her was short, she was able to provide me with a lot of insight and direction - she even recommended several artists who I was able to really relate to, including a lady who photographs museum dioramas from around the world. 

     Creatively, this past week has been a real struggle for me. I have been working on a large, 2' x 4' birch wood panel where the plan is to incorporate several different animal species into a single harmonious composition. While I've so far only been able to get a portion of the elk done, I'm really starting to struggle with certain portions of its head and antlers. The colors in the reference photo keep changing each time that I look at them, and its preventing me from really continuing. On one hand, I'm ready to scrap the painting as a whole and start off new, but on the other, I'm really set on getting the piece finished and working around the struggles with the color palette. It's simply a few portions of the elk that are really tough. I usually have a hard time distinguishing between the need to let go of a work, versus gathering up the courage to push through the parts that are difficult. I'm very indecisive that way. I tend to save things that I know I will never complete because I still have that odd kind of attachment to them. Lawrence Argent once told me that letting go does not always mean giving up... it simply signifies acknowledging that you are ready to move forward and march toward progress - even if it means scrapping the model you've been working on for the past year. 

     At any rate, I have realized that regardless of the situation, its preventing me from really getting the amount of work done that I expect of myself this quarter. In light of this, I have decided to brush it aside for a few days and begin fresh on a new panel with an entirely different composition in the hopes that taking myself away from the image I've been staring at will bring about a fresh "eye" in the upcoming week. At this point, I will still plan to return to the elk and finish it, but this next painting will give me a bit of a visual break and hopefully allow me to return to this piece much more invigorated and excited.

     In other news, those of you who stopped by my studio this week may have noticed a new resident that is literally calling my corner home. I knew that any space I was going to work in just wasn't complete without some sort of pet to share it with. After much debate, I went out on Friday and adopted a red eared slider turtle! I have decided to name him Akeley after Carl Akeley - one of the first conservationists of the early 20th century and the man responsible for inventing the technique by which animals are mounted and displayed in museum dioramas. Akeley will serve to keep me as well as each and every one of you company as the quarter goes on. He will also be serving as a live model for me in a future painting that I hope to get going sometime in the next two weeks or so. 

Ideas for Winter Quarter

During the winter break, I was reading a lot of art and I started to keep an inspiration book which I collected artists who inspired me. With the classes I took in the fall, I want to keep exploring in the medium of ceramics. I really enjoyed my experimenting piece with fabric and slip, and I would like to take a step further to create daily-use objects with the form of fabric. My second idea with ceramics is also to create daily-use objects but with the technique of using paper stencil. Both ideas started as domestic objects; which is what I am inspired through the experiences I had growing up. However, I like the twist between visually appealing and functional, and I think this is a good theme to start my exploration.

Along with the idea of focus on domestic items, I am also interested in combining the shapes of highly recognized daily products and domestic pattern. With this specific idea, I would like to use the medium of Screen-printing. Moreover, based on the statement of why I am attracted to such shapes and patterns, I also would like to play the relationship between the main image and the negative space. I want to create some type of space on papers as I was to build an installation or an architecture on a 2-D form. Below is the first series of shapes I am going to start.

Experimenting in the World of Porcelain

For the ceramics experiment, I started with making paper forms of container, such as a cup. However, by using the slip on my first experiment, I have realized the clay and fabric with slip are too heavy for my think paper model. I went with it and built the collapsing form because it would still be interesting to see the combination of yarn and lace together.

Through building with pure fabric dipped in slip, and realizing the lack of support, I moved on to using porcelain clay for the base support. I was not thinking too much about the shape of cups in which I am making. The purpose of the use of porcelain was only for the support and to see the combination of porcelain and slip. Along with the experimenting festival, I was also braiding yarns together, and then dipped into the slip. Finally, use newspaper to support the form I was interested in creating. 

After talking to Mia about my projects within more details, she asked me to check out the ceramics artist, Julie Poitras Santos. There two things of her artwork that I found extremely interesting and fitting with my idea. One being her performing installation piece, titled "Raven Mirror." Her use of sea of black ropes inspired me to braid my yarns for the look of ropes. The other one of her artwork, titled "Slip Drawing" reminded me a lot of my abstract of line drawings. Instead of ink on papers, she used porcelain slip in a punchbag and created a larger 3-D drawing on the ground. It was interesting to see her twist of using porcelain to force a drawing into a sculpture. Below is the link of her artist website for those who are interested to check it out. 

http://juliepoitrassantos.com/home.html

Links for you all!

Ken Hamel's all-encompassing blog about the art-related going-ons in Denver. He also posts about calls-for-entry and other regional opportunities.

Chloe Veltman is the new Editor of the Arts Bureau at Colorado Public Radio. She keeps a blog about her adventures in all things art, focusing on what is happening now in Colorado. From her blog: "What I love about art is its way of messing with the truth--of telling us what's really going on in the world through the medium of fiction."

For Kimberly: Kristen Hatgi Sink's new show, Flower Face, at the Byers-Evans House

For Sarah: An article you might find interesting.

For Mikaela: The CU Boulder Map Library, the Rocky Mountain Map Society, and artist Chris Kenny

Starting out!

My starting ideas for this quarter have come from work I completed over winter break. As I showed in class, I did primarily portraits and figures sketches, both real and stylistic. Two of my favorite drawings I made as a pair, called "The Lovers":

Along with a supporting nudge from my friend Ting, I started to think about masculine and feminine identities in terms of sexuality, specifically my own. I'm now planning on doing a piece related to the idea of having both masculine and feminine traits to my "being", but I don't think I've defined everything out for that yet....

I recently bought a set of Micron pens for an illustration job, which came with five 3.5"x3.5" paper squares called "Zentangles". As a warm-up this week and starting point for the quarter I decided to do a small drawing project based around images that are reoccurring in my work.

Each of these is worth approximately 1.5-2 hours of drawing time. I wanted to challenge myself to do something small scale, since I usually work fairly large. My focus is on practicing depicting value, texture, and form better than I have before. I have two squares left to illustrate, and my hope is to have a sort of "codex" of images that I use in my work. I also want to play with the dialogue the images create when they are displayed for others, evident in the way they are arranged on the wall and in what order. 

As a side note, I started reading John Berger's Ways of Seeing. I'm finding this book valuable in terms of learning exactly what it describes, different ways you can see, and how I can apply this to the material I am researching. From how we see bodies in relation to our own, how photographers see and frame the world in a lens, to how women are seen as subjects in fine art, Berger urges the reader to consider the many ways sight and seeing affect our perception of images and the world around us. 

My goals within the next few days is to finish my "codex" as well as Way of Seeing. I have two ideas for sketches and/or paintings, and I have a rather large blank canvas in my studio that is teasing me to throw paint on it. I'll be back with an update :)