glue drying in screen, auditioning fabric, gelatin plate in the making, reference books
I ended the week feeling very productive. I did push it to the limit though but feel it was worth it every second! I did some brush calligraphy, continued with graffiti and writing on cloth, set up some buckets of soda-ash solutions (one for over-dyes, the other for white cloth), made a gelatin plate, mixed dyes for dye painting, and set up a screen with glue resist, and held steady with 3 hours in the gym. I increased my time on the reclining bike from 10 minutes to 30 last week. All which has brought me to today: the hardest thing I'm doing today is rolling in and out of bed. The humidity has increased which is horrible for me so going out I'm not!
My social highlight of the week was an artists' date with friends, old and new. Here is Emma, Pat, myself, and Juanita inside the theme hotel 21C. The theme is 21st century art. The C in 21C could stand for Cutting Edge and Conceptual also. The hotel is a series of gallery spaces. Below we are standing between the elevator interacting with a video tech. exhibit. When you walk around the corner there is this wall screen/camera that puts you into the image of fallilng cascading letters...the letters bounce off of you or your body acts as a blockage to the letters falling. This is highly entertaining!!!!!!! and addicting!!!!!!!!!
This is the lobby of the hotel and the 2nd picture below is a projection on the floor in front of the hotel desk of a couple in bed trying to get comfortable. It is in video format so if you stand there long enough you see them adjusting pillows, checking the clock, tossing, turning.
The man and woman at the desk where just as stoic as the figures above their heads, as if they, too, are figures in the art.
The art in the hotel is not just compatible or complimentary, the hotel is more gallery space from every nook and cranny, than hotel. Even the bathrooms provide an ecletic artistic experience with projected video words in the mirror and one way mirrors that allow you to see out in the hall ways of the hotel.
Local artists are represented along with internationally known artists.
digging this white on white embroidery
one of the galleries held a solo exhibit of lithographs by Kara Walker's grotesque antebellum imagery. This is the 2nd exhibit I've seen of her work. I've read a dissertation turned book on it and I'm sorry to still say, the full meaning escapes me. For work to be so intense and disturbing, and it is to me, I still can't fully grasp the intent of the artist.
We also headed to the headquarters of the Embroidery Guild of America to see the LAFTA show. Here are just a few shots from the show:
by Joanne Weiss
And sometimes it all boils down to a sense of humour! This is a bust by Alyce McDonald:
We ended the outing at the Carnegie Museum of Art and History in New Albany, Indiana where Penny Sisto's newest solo exhibit is hanging. I'm always so engulfed and interested in her work but this show, a series of portraits of faith/religion, left me feeling mediocre. Even hearing her give a gallery talk some weeks ago did not tie me into the work beyond a cerebral/academic connection.
I'm looking forward to returning to my workshop next week...it will be my first time doing a gelatin plate and using glue as a resist.
Peace and blessings, immeasurably.
