decided to start printing some figures- and to start using some color yeah. printed these colors on two separate papers and then laid them right next to each other to print this lady half on one sheet and half on the other. i'm having fun moving half of her up and down to deform her body a little. i guess i shouldn't say that is fun. its interesting. not in a grotesque way.

the second layer is looking less creepy! yeeeehaw! hope it will contine to decline on the creepiness scale and continue to rise on the defined (looking like a real person) scale.

printing this weekend- 4.5 hours

2nd Layer of Love, color, and wheels

In the process of carving my dad's portrait I've gotten a little bored. I need to integrate different images and work on a few carvings at one time-to keep myself interested and to explore various aspects of my project instead of being so narrow. Along with the use of silouhettes to tell the narratives, I am going to use singular object in the collage to assist in expressive story-telling. I think these objects will help with the concept and asthetic.

Some objects I am thinking of to tell my dad's narrative

Wheels

Tractor

Architectural structure of some type (house)

a floral pattern reminiscent of wallpaper

The presentation of these images will be in the form of large-scale collage. Generally speaking, I am planning to have all my images carved and printed by the middle of march, leaving me a few weeks to cut-up, play around, and find a comprehensive way to present the images in a narrative fashion.

Here are some images...

finished carving 2nd layer-total 7 hours

Drew three wheels as my first set of objects to include

Drawing-1 hour

Preliminary Carving-2 hours

The wheels symbolize a lot of things to me-motion, progress, innovation, revolution

they also relate to my dad's narrative- he is an engineer and has a few patents. for him, the wheel represents invention, a mechanical and fluid way of thinking

I started incorporating more color- printing my dad's face in color and also printing color with my wood blocks. i'll use these to print on top of with other images, or keep them to cut up for the collage

printing dad's face and blocks in color-3 hours

I've been working on some small collages- experimenting with figure form, expression, placement, and repetition. also seeing them with blocks of color and with other images and architecture

collage time-4hours

1st Layer of Love

Here are some images of my first layer of the woodcut. There is some variation in the shade of gray in each print. I would say there are about 4 distinct shades in the total of 20 prints. I don't mind this, I think variation makes each print feel individual and hand done. The challenge now is to register the print correctly so that the second layer prints precisely onto. I'm not really into precisness. (When I first typed that, I accidently said preciousness. I am into preciousness!) I think that even if some of my prints are slightly off registration-wise, it will be a good thing. (Sadashi agrees!) A series of prints that are all exactly the same may be good for selling editions, but to me it seems a bit robotic. I'm also starting to think about eventually displaying many of the portraits next to each other (not Andy Warhol style). In this case, I think slight nuances will give the piece character. I'm really into repetition with slight nuances. I'm trying to figure out why...

Shooooot

I know I haven't updated my blog in awhile. I am going to be so good about it from now on! Although, my picture taking is not quite up to par. Two weeks ago, I have to admit, I was wrapped up in applications, and didn't make a lot of art progress. I have put in a substantial amount of hours since. I also feel like I have some bedrock to stand on project-wise for the first time. My two main themes that I am certain that I have stuck with and will stick with are; telling the narratives of people whose stories are never told, and humanizing these people who have been through a dehumanizing situation through my art about them. I have decided to use the process of reduction woodcuts because it is a delicate process. It is largely labor intensive to carve wood. Once that intricate work has been done, I'll carve and forever lose that layer on the block, making it precious and one-of-a-kind. I feel this is similar to the narratives I will be telling; in both the lives of the people, and the act of their telling. I plan to carve portraits of the people I meet, but collage them onto a larger piece of Rives paper and continue to tell the narrative with painted expressive but simple silouhettes (on the same paper). The stories will not be understood in a sequential pattern, but they will evoke a feeling that the person experienced.

So ANYWAY...here is how I have gotten started...

Meet...my dad

Whatta guy! He is my first narrative. He has been battling metastic liver and lung cancer for the past few years. He is humble and quiet. There are so many people like him who spend days in the hospital and no one hears them. He is also one of the foundational reasons I want to to this project.

So to begin thinking about how to turn this photo into a reduction, I did a lot of planning. I did a few studies of black and white paint, as well as drawing on the photo to divide the colors into segments. I've decided on a five block print printed in a series of 15-20.

I did some small studies on how the silouhettes would look and act on a large sheet of paper.

I went and purchased some real nice wood, sanded it and shalacked it.

Then, I started carving. This is the first of five layers

I did 4 test prints, figuring out press pressure settings, heaviness of inking, registration, and mixing different shades of light gray. I definitely took time doing this. I am very nervous about getting everything right because this is my one shot at this layer. This whole process is a bit anxiety provoking actually. I haven't done a realistic reduction before, this is a challenge.

I have since completed 13 final 1st layer prints....only 7 more to go! Then I can carve my next layer! I wish I was handprinting these, but I just don't think time will allow for it.

Time Keeping

Studies and planning for reduction: 3 hours

Wood Prep: 1 hour

Measuring and Sketching image onto wood: 1.5 hours

Carving first layer: 4 hours

4 Practice Prints: 1.5 hours

13 finalish 1st layer prints: 4.5 hours

This past week, I printed both the lino and woodcut that I carved. I printed them together to form a composition and separately so that I could cut out the woodcut image.

(3.5 hours)

I researched Carol Jacobsen's work and watched two of her films, Sentenced and A Prison Diary. The films were powerful, enlightening, and sad. They made me think of portraiture in a new way. In Sentenced, the personal narrative is being told by a woman prisoner. Her face takes up almost the entire screen and is softly overlayed with different scenes happening in the prison. In an interview I read, Carol Jacobsen said that she enlarges and focuses on the head because it is what is most important. She isn't concerned with a Hollywood look to the movie, she wants to tell what is important. The second film is a story about the life of a prisoner, but is narrated through audio of letters she has written to Carol Jacobsen. It was beautiful to see the penmanship of the prisoner's letters scrawled across the screen. Hearing a voice, and seeing written letters is a poignant way to humanize them without showing a portrait of their face.

(1.5 hours)

I spent about 15 hours researching social work grad schools and writing grad school applications over break. The essay are not very lengthy (about 5 pages per school), but they ask these huge questions like, "What is the biggest social problem today, and if you had the resources, how would you solve it?" and personal questions like, "What are the personal and professional life events that have led to construct your moral and ethical standpoint, and make you want to pursue social work?" that I know the answer to, I just don't know how to verbalize it. I am trying to not become too sappy or abstract in what I write. Having written my proposal actually helped a lot, because it is a theme that is constantly flowing in what I do and think, and very applicable to the work that I want to do on a large scale in the professional world.

This is an excerpt from part of my application-the first paragraph is focused on why art is important in prisons and hospitals and the second part talks about the areas I want to study in "Interpersonal Practice" (working with people as opposed to research work).

I know that art has the ability to create an open and honest space. The act of creating is intrinsic to self-awareness and growth. In creating something outside of who you are, something that other eyes will see, a person becomes conscious that what they are creating holds a piece of themselves, but will also become a part of the outer world. These disadvantaged populations need a space like this more than most so that they are able to humanize themselves as they travel through dehumanizing environments. The practice method I have chosen, Interpersonal Practice, will allow me to gain the education I need to create better relationships between people and their social environment. This is applicable to my desire to work in the creation of a positive, healing space. It is also important to me to translate this positive relationship between an individual and their space to the individual and their families and social groups. The practice area, Health, would allow me to become educated on the mental rehabilitation of prisoners and patients. I also believe that mental and spiritual health promotion is important inside prisons and hospitals. It is often an area that is overlooked when the main focus in prison’s is punishment and the main focus in hospitals is physical healing

I also cat-sit for Janie on Saturday. Sophie and I chilled.

The Right Side of 5 mile Road

After I photographed the prisons on 5 mile road. I drove along this road for awhile and became enamored with the different worlds that inhabited the countryside.

Week of October 6th

I began carving and am 75% done carving a small lino to accompany my woodcut. I plan to print this lino multiple times on the same paper as the woodcut, creating different combinations. (3 Hours for sketch and carving)

Experiment prints of lino in various stages (2 hours)

I drove to and photographed the old Washtenaw/Wayne prison and spoke with a security gaurd at Robert Scott Correctional Facility. He said that I needed to leave, it was illegal to photograph prisons and that I would need permission from city hall. Luckily I got some photographs at the first prison! (2 hours)

I've been cutting images and colors out of magazines, beginning to experiment with collaged compositions and colors (2 hours)

woodcut

after writing my "process" paper on woodcuts, i decided that even if it wasn't directly coorelated to my ip project, i wanted to create one.

3 hours for drawing image and initial carving

building studies

in keeping with my interest in architecture, i did small sketches with acrylic paint of the facades of buildings.

3.5 hours for sketching and painting

Artist Inspiration

Krzysztof Wodiczko is a Polish artist who addresses issues of war, trauma, political, social, and psychological issues through large scale public projections.

I saw a short film of his projection on the St.Louis public library- voices of those affected by violent crimes and images of their hands moving as they spoke. I saw this when I took a video installation class with Cynthia Pachikara- and it was the catalyst in my thoughts of social art

This projection deals specifically with military combat and trauma in the war with Iraq and civilian impact. I am drawn to it because of the beautiful use of silhouettes. To me, these silhouettes bring the viewer to a personal level by showing the outline of a human figure, but also leave enough unresolved to bring the viewer to fill in the narrative. They also create a sense of discomfort in the viewer-they seem to be hiding who they are or a story they are holding.

2008, Krzysztof Wodiczko has completed major public projection in Warsaw (organized by the Polish National Theater and the city of Warsaw to commemorate the anniversary of 1968 Polish students upraising

The Poetics of Space

I have started a very dense, concept driven piece- "The Poetics of Space" The ideas surround an individuals interpretation and resistance to a space.

The Poetics of Space

By Gaston Bachelard

The concept of “Inside space”

“The world pulse beats beyond my door.” The idea that inside is a community completely removed from the outside world. They live next door to each other, but are uninvolved with each other. Can we merge them somehow?

What is the Primary function of inhabiting?

“We should therefore have to say how we inhabit our vital space, in accord with all the dialectics of life, how we take root, day after day, in a “corner of the world”.

-where you are/where you dwell is your corner of the world

What past dwells there?

The sheltered being has perceptible limits to his/her space

-topoanalysis-systematic psychological study of bits of our intimate lives

-how does one achieve space?

-how does one achieve silence?

-how do we inhabit our vital space- how does this change when our vital space becomes a hospital or prison?

-what is the importance of ownership of space and silence?

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Panopticism

In tandem with making things, I think it is important to do a little reading/research on architecture and space. My thought is that the new knowledge from the articles will serve as fodder for the "making" brainstorming. By understanding a method, I will be able to rethink and re-envision it.

Notes on Panopticism by Foucault

-Began end of 17^th century

-segmented, immobile, frozen space

-in a fixed place in which the slightest movements are supervised, in which all events are recorded

-power is excercised without division

-what characterizes him, what happens to him

-ritual of exclusion

-multiple separations, individualizing distributions, an organization in depth of surveillance and control, an intensification and ramification of power

-the practice of rejection

-the forcing of a “pure community” “disciplined society” by controlling relationships and separating our “dangerous mixtures

-function according to a double mode-

-that of binary division and branding (dangerous/harmless) (normal/abnormal)

-differential distribution (who he is, where he must be, how he is to be characterized, how he is to be recognized, how a constant surveillance is to be exercised over him))

http://www.good.is/post/look-art-therapy-for-a-city-on-the-mend/

I've been thinking about art in social settings- used to draw attention or start conversations about architecture and its social implications for an urban area or for the people and relationships inside it.

This article is about a group called Broken City Lab and works as a artist led urban improvement group- art therapy for a city.

I love the idea of public art on buildings as a way to bring stories from the inside-to the outside. Architecture can often serve as a shield, a screen enclosing lives.

Mountain Sketches

This summer I spent 4 weeks in Wyoming taking History and Literature of the Rocky Mountains. I sat around the campfire, slept in tents, cooked food over fires, read books, and hiked with 15 peers and 2 professors. These are a few sketches I did while I was there.

Artist Inspiration

Nancy Spero
Leon Golub
Julie Mehretu
Egon Schiele

Previous Project- Woodcut Series

Through an independent study, I produced a series of woodcut prints. I cut, collaged, and paired with oil painting the prints. I experienced both the materials in oil painting and printmaking in new ways by using them together.