5 semesters down, 1 to go!

One semester left of grad school!  What a crazy and exciting time for me and my fellow grads  We have been busy meeting and planning out our show which will be entitled Underlined Action.  This semester has included a lot of studio time, making work that will go into our thesis show and writing our supporting papers for our work.  It's been a challenging but completely eye opening and rewarding experience so far for me.  Although many changes still need to be worked out in my paper, I feel that I have been able to articulate what I desire my work to emulate and the atmosphere I try to create.  I am so excited to be working with the other talented grads towards this show that we have been thinking about and working towards for the past three years!

In addition to all this excitement, we are putting together a catalog of our show.  It's exciting that we will have this wonderful document to introduce each of us as artists and the work we create to go along with it.  We have the talented Andy Sturdevant, a local arts writer, writing short essays about each of us and our work.  We are so lucky to be working with him on this project.  We could really use any help with this process though that you can give!  We are trying to raise money on IndeGoGo for the costs of making and printing this catalog.  It goes to help all of our artistic careers and gain the opportunity to showcase each of us and our work for our Thesis Show before we graduate from the program.  Please consider donating anything that you can.  It goes much appreciated!  You could even receive a piece of art with your donation so check it out!  Click any of the IndeGoGo links in the post.  And thanks in advance if you are able to help!!

This fall, a group of grads from the U of M had a show in one of our galleries called For a limited time only.  It was really great timing in our semester to install some work when much of us need the space to set up our pieces in a new, specific situation other than our studios.  The show's main idea was centralized around the idea that our work could only be seen for the duration of the show and would never exist the same way again once the show was complete.  Will Lakey, Jess LaRotanda,  Chris Groth, Nicholas Wells, and myself had work ranging from drawing and painting, to ground metal on a wall surface, to ceramic installations.  Click on the other participants' names to check out their work!  It was an exciting show for all of us.  Here are some images of mine from the show entitled Really. Just look with me on the other side.

I hope to be creating an actual website in the near future with more information and a better gallery of my images soon!  But for now, keep checking back here for updates.  And again, if you can help out with the IndeGoGo fundraiser, thank you!!!  Happy holidays everyone!    

Thesis Year!

Hello third year and hello to my thesis!  It's hard to believe that I'm in my final year here in Minneapolis.  I'm excited and ready though to work hard this year for my show in April.

My summer was a busy one.  Traveling to Cape Cod and also Oaxaca Mexico(!!) as well as moving and working.  It was much needed though to get some rest before the start of the year.   My trip to Oaxaca was completely inspirational and so exciting to be in a new country and new environment.  The colors were all so bright and vivid, the architecture and ruins held all of the visual stimulation that draws be into the structures, and experiencing a completely new culture was invigorating.  I visited so many museums, took trips to Mitla, Monte Alban, and Hiergo el Agua, visited a ceramic artist in Tavehua, ate amazing food, and met some pretty incredible people while down there.

Coming back to the studio, I feel that I have new forms I want to build and colors I want to incorporate into my installations and work.  Having had the past two years of more intensive study into theory and my conceptual ideas, it was valuable to bring this knowledge to this new landscape to research my documentation and experiential process in action.  There were many things I became aware of concerning my reaction to certain spaces as well as what I gravitated towards that wasn't so evident for me in past documentation sessions.  It's a really interesting and exciting thing to see yourself developing a specific "eye" for certain situations that would more likely be apparent to someone through practice.

Here are some images of my trip as well as a small installation from the all grad show at the beginning of the semester, "Blinking Fresh", as well as some work that is in process in my studio right now.

Take care and go pick some apples!

Cactus at the Botanical Gardens

Amazing courtyard at the stamp museum

Courtyard

Favorite pot at the Cultural Museum

Another amazing courtyard; Contemporary Art Museum

Archway in village near Tavehua

Artists I visited in Tavehua

Drying the pieces

View from their studio!

Our lunch

Making work at their work tables

Drive through the mountains

Mitla 

Convent

Awesome shape

Petrified waterfall

Shapes

Yellow block and blue lines

Green Shapes

Monte Alban

Rufino Tamayo Museum

Rufino Tamayo Museum

Rufino Tamayo Museum

Clay cow in archway

Espresso and Chocolate croissant 

New work post Mexico trip

Small installation

Work in progress!

Summer is time for slowing things down

 Here's to the the completion of my second year at the U and on to my 3rd and final year!  I'm feeling ready and excited to see what is made in my studio this year as I get ready for my thesis show.  I've found a flow to my practice which is a great place to be at the end of my second year.  The process of creating my large sculptures doesn't have a set plan for where they may potentially live in my installations.  I might have a general idea for how they sit and what other objects or forms they may be placed in relation to, but the process of installing is separate from the building.  There is a slowness to the building process that I have grown to enjoy and desire when my life seems to be getting more hectic and stressed.  This slowness and pace is apparent in the pieces themselves as they sit in my installations, having a quicker and more immediate feeling.

The following images are from my final installation for the spring semester.  I have grown a new understanding of what I want my viewers to feel from these situations.  There is a way to create an emotion and feeling with just the placement of two objects in relation to each other.  I am looking to create a similar experience for others to that of my experiences with certain buildings and architectural situations.  I love the feeling of awe and remembering a memory just from different shapes and combination of facades I encounter.  With these installations, I hope to give people a chance to remember and contemplate.

After the end of the semester, I was able to slow down and focus on making pots again.  It's been a nice change of pace and change from my more conceptual thought process.  I was also preparing to be the Featured Artist in July at Lillstreet Art Center!  I'm excited to have been asked to show more of my work there for the month of July so check out some of my new pieces in a couple of weeks.  

As I slow down for the summer a bit (even though I've also started 2 new jobs!), I have more time for making things in the kitchen.  I've been baking rhubarb bread, pulp muffins, making kambucha, fermenting, and trying new dishes for breakfast and dinner.  I really enjoy slowing down in the kitchen and learning new processes.  So I've decided to make pots and pieces that I've realized I need to show off and help the processes of these new creations I'm making!  So here's an in progress fermenting pot for my roommate and I to make sauerkraut in!  yum.   Also not shown is a bread basket for my rhubarb bread, a basket for the fruits and veggies of the summer, and a chemex for a new way to make coffee.  I'll get images to you once they are complete!  The last two images are two of some of my favorite things I've seen so far this summer.  A barn in Red Wing that I catered at for a wedding and then Powderhorn Park at dusk with some lovely baby ducks enjoying the sunset.  

Happy Summer everyone!

It's May and it's about time

Happy Spring to you all!  It was a rough winter all the way up here in Minneapolis. I definitely experienced some new temperatures this year.  Ones that I haven't ever really wanted to experience……

But that meant a lot of studio time!  I've been producing new drawings, wooden constructions, experimenting with new materials, and building larger than I ever have before.   I also have been thinking about how I am constructing a specified space by utilizing  moveable walls and creating a new atmosphere and environment within a given room.  

For now, here are some images of a piece installed in a few different scenarios.  I would like to write more and share more but for now, as I finish up the semester, I just wanted to share what I have produced this semester in my studio.  

A new installation will be going up next week so there will be more to share!  

(side note, I gave hand building in a canvas hammock a shot.  It was pretty awesome.)