Wednesday, November 11, 2009

New Prints and New Considerations

I have created some new works, which I am happy to be doing. This weekend was full of glorious sun, which allowed me to print, which is great. I have been absolutely fascinated and entranced by baby dolls and have been doing prints of them:

a small porcelain doll

baby doll with clothing

creepy oversized troll doll

two similar dolls next to one another

another baby doll

What was most interesting about the new set of prints is the shadows they cast. Because the object cast a shadow to the side, the prints have a very eery and surrealist quality to them. I think that it is interesting to do these photograms of the toys because it is a way of memorializing childhood; of putting importance into these objects that we forget about, but which have so impacted our development.

I also was able to do a full size print which turned out like this:


I really like how this turned out; I quite like the two pieces separately; there is a sort of disembodied quality to them. The scale, however, is my favorite part. I think they are very impactful on a large scale. Doing this print makes me think about issues of scale and number of bodies and the form the bodies take. How they interact and if there are two bodies vs. four vs. more. There is a lot of potential here and I am excited to see how I can push this. There are certain variables that I simply cannot control, so that adds an entirely new element of surprise. Things like water drips and other things are not things I can control, but they impact the piece very much. This weekend, I am going to try some of the fabric pieces and see how those go. I am excited to see how the fabric reacts and what the color quality will be. I will be in Cincinnati until Saturday, but I will still have some time to get these pieces rolling (before the all student show? fingers crossed....)

Monday, November 9, 2009

Observing your surroundings....

Today I was walking to class and I saw how they rake the leaves on campus. It is not, in fact, small men who come with rakes while everyone is sleeping. There is this moving vehicle with a giant vacuum attached that goes around and sucks up the millions of leaves that are all over the campus ground.

My thought was.... where do i get one of those?

And what else could I suck up (besides leaves)?

Monday, November 2, 2009

toy giraffes, body parts, and apple tarts

ever working, never writing....

i have failed in my bloggerly duties. but i am back on board and am excited about some work i have been doing as of late.

i am trying to master the process and the technique of the cyanotype. i want to master the basics so that i can really work with the process and test the boundaries. i have done several tests with different objects/subjects:


the body; or at the very least, a body part. i think this appears a little eerie; sort of strange. a little titanic or x-ray. i am not sure how i feel about this arm separate from the body. i am thinking about what it means to separate the body parts from one another and why that would work and not work.

the body is a very important part of my original concept; one of the main reasons i began pursuing alternative process and specifically, the photogram. i wanted to make people themselves become a part of the art. however, i am not sure how crucial or realistic this is. this is one of the many questions i am asking myself at this point. how important is the physical human aspect and how do i make that work? especially as it gets colder and the light sources are limited, i am analyzing whether or not that is the core of this work.



a test using chain and film strip; perhaps a tid bit over exposed. i am especially fond of how the chain looks.

testing how paper cuts work with the process. not bad, but a little too clear for me. leaves out the mystery that i believe exists in a sincere photogram...

exposure study meets the rain; that's what the lovely drip to the left and the white speckles throughout are.


family photo from 1915 turned into silhouette cutouts, tested with differing exposure times. i need to start printing photos on mylar and transferring into cyanotype.


this one is my favorite test. i love the mystery and the nostalgia that appears in this image of the toy giraffe. i think this one gave me some great ideas for where to go next. i am going to start looking at the childhood toy and doing some more prints like this little giraffe friend.

endi also suggested that i start looking at scale. so now that i have scanned these little tests in, i can start to play with how they might appear. i have been focused on the process and getting the science right. but i need to start to shift to the content of what i am trying to say and in what way.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Setbacks.....

I know everyone always says that failure is great and it's what art is all about. And while part of me buys it, the other part is still discouraged.

I experienced several setbacks over this fall break regarding IP. First of all, I was unable to stage the large-scale cyanotype with my sisters. My first problem was that I did not have the space or time to prepare the fabric. Furthermore, I had not experimented enough on a smaller scale. Also, it was too cold to be laying outside without warm clothing. I have been researching several sources of UV light that are not the sun. Unfortunately, they all seem to have extremely negative effects on humans. Therefore, I probably should not force my family to lay underneath them.

I guess I am just a little frustrated with what I am doing. I really enjoy being able to work and work and I feel like I am running into far too many roadblocks for my comfort. I am not producing enough work. I am just frustrated.

For now, I am going to work on small scale tests. Hopefully, that will take me somewhere meaning ful soon.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

photograms

Photograms!

My project, ever evolving, is becoming photogram-tastic! My first big test for large-scale photogrammin' is scheduled for this weekend (assuming I can get the chemicals in time). I will be treating a king-size sheet in a lovely mix of Potassium Ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate. Then, my three sisters and I will don nightgowns and lie together on the sheet. Once exposed, it will probably look something like this:Haha.... but, seriously. The idea for this mostly stems from the fact that the four of us used to sleep together a lot in one big bed. It also represents this incredibly feminine household I grew up in and my relationships with my sisters. And I'm not entirely uncomfortable with the Virgin Suicides reference. I am super excited to get working and be able to test some things out. However, I am feeling a little nervous about getting my sisters to participate. I did talk to them and they seemed willing, but they also think I am crazy. And if the weather does not participate, I know they will not be willing to lay out in the freezing cold with me. So I am just a little nervous, especially since this is my one big shot for a while (my sister Lisa lives in Florida and will only be in town for the weekend). But here's to hoping that the stars align and things work out!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

shadowssss

Light and shadow is the topic of the day!

Why? You may ask.....

because i like it!

Shadows are so interesting to me. I think it's something about the mystery and the nuance that surrounds them. I have been looking at some artists that use shadow in interesting ways.

Remember Xu Bing? He came for Penny Stamps and I remember being really blown away by his work. I didn't really understand his lecture, but luckily his work spoke for itself.



www.xubing.com

So great!

Apparently, there is something about those fabulous Asian Artists.... because Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita does some really beautiful things with shadows and figures as well.

www.kumiyamashita.com

Street artists have also had a history of using shadow for their art. Ellis Gallagher, for example. He traces shadows at night using chalk. During the day, their shadows exist where they wouldn't normally.


Finally, Tim Noble and Sue Webster are London-based artists (also absolutely brilliant!)


So I'm making shadow monsters these days..... more to come on that topic later!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Sourcing Inspiration

Are you more likely to be inspired by:

The presence or absence of contentment?
Personal situations or social conditions?
Interactions with humans or non-humans?
Rest or fatigue?
Relaxation or pressure?
Sobriety or being high?
Joy or sorrow?
Culture or nature?
Familiarity or mystery?
Production or consumption?
The past or the present?
Facts or feelings?
Anger or pity?
Yourself or others?

A couple of these were difficult for me to answer. On the other hand, some of them I found to be very easy to answer. So first I will start with those.

Culture or nature?

Culture is what absolutely inspires me. Whether it be for the positive or the negative, the society we live in and the "culture" that is embedded in that society is integral to my work and my life. My own culture is also very inspirational to me. Growing up white and Roman Catholic in the suburbs of Detroit is something that has been definitive in my upbringing. It is part of who I am and the way I think is a result of that circumstance. As much as I like to pretend I am something else, it is what it is.

Familiarity or mystery?

Familiarity is something that I understand. Mystery is scary. While I like a healthy dose of mystery, I find that I work well when I am working with topics that I know well from a personal experience or viewpoint. I believe strongly in research, but unless I am personally invested in the subject matter, I find myself getting lost.

Facts or feelings?

Facts are important. I definitely believe in knowing and understanding facts. But I also am a strong feeler. I believed for a short period of time this summer that I was crazy. My sister told me, "You're not crazy, Jenna. You just feel things stronger than other people." I know, so deep you could drown. But seriously, I am very emotional and that is an important element in how I work and understand my work.


Now a couple that were difficult for me to answer:

Personal situations or social conditions?

Social conditions are extremely, extremely important to me and I find inspiration in that. However, I can only truly speak from my own personal experiences. I work best when I am able to relate my personal situations to social conditions.

Yourself or others?

This is similar to the last question. I am inspired by other people always. I am not the type of person who could lock herself in a studio for weeks and just come out with a ton of brilliant work that would change the world. I am a part of my community. I need to be talking and responding to other people. I get lost in my own head a lot, but I need to be grounded by those around me to stay sane.

Thank you, Linda Weintraub for that exercise.

narrativeeevs


I find something really fantastic in the narrative; I love something that tells a story. Work that speaks not only to a situation but to the people involved and their story are all things that are important to me. I think this began when I was younger and I was obsessed with this book about Egyptians that my mom gave me. I liked to make up stories about the people and how they would interact.


I love the way that Kara Walker creates these epic stories using silhouettes. The scale and the figures speak about slave revolt and rebellion. Yet they retain some sort of whimsy in the exaggeration of certain body parts and features.


Bec Young, who was my supervisor this summer (and my life mentor), is part of this print collaborative called JustSeeds. Her work is really fantastic. I have had the opportunity to see many of the other printmakers' works in real life as well at a show this summer. I absolutely loved the work by Meredith Stern. Her creatures have something sort of dark and mysterious about them; something sort of weird. (This image is not the colors of the print I saw- the one I saw was blues and browns and no reds) Her work is very stylistic and also has a nice mix of whimsy, darkness, and narration.

I want to find a way to incorporate this narrative style and memory into my work.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

What've you been doin' in therrr?


So you may be wondering..... Jenna, you have a lovely studio space. But what do ya actually DO in there? Well.... mostly, I think. I think.... and I think. I have been researching a lot. Specifically, I have been reading about postwar Detroit. Right now, I am reading a book entitled Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. It's by Thomas Sugrue and while it's not exactly a page turner, it clearly outlines how the situation in Detroit has deteriorated to the state it's in now. Sugrue writes about the origins of racism and how tenuous race relations have contributed to inequality in housing and employment. I think that reading this kind of stuff is really helpful to me because it helps me to see that Detroiters didn't just wake up one morning and find that their city had been abandoned. It was a gradual process that was inclusive of various factors including housing, industrialization, racism, classism, and more. Detroit is coming more and more into clear focus as an important part of the work I will be doing this year.

Furthermore, my mother sent me a box in the mail of family photos. I have been going through them, trying to decode the gibberish writing on many of them, and finally, scanning them into digital files because soon, they need to be sent home to my mother. (She doesn't trust me with them for too long.) There are some really incredible photographs that I find to be full of inspiration. I guess I am most interested in the fact that these lives are a strange part of my own and yet they exist only as frozen moments from the past.

Along those lines.... I have been thinking a lot about traditional photo development techniques. This all started when I went to a cyanotype workshop at the DIA and I hope it takes off from there.....

Well, if I sneeze onto the keyboard one more time, I think it's going to develop its own swine flu.

Oy vey.

-jlu