To curl or not to curl

I am curing things these days. Rolling plastic into tubes (see below), and now curling q-tips. I am not sure where this one is going, or if it will go any where, but there is something interesting in the way the q-tips attach themselves to each other. I might investigate trying to hang them in clumps... but here they are on the floor in one big clump. Thoughts?

Never throw anything away

Being a frugally minded person, (which could also be read as broke and trying to stretch my money as far as it will possibly go), I never throw any of my art supplies away. For example, if I use the seals from a plastic bag, I save the rest of the bag for a future use. Most of the time this simply means that I have to creatively store these materials until the blessed day I find a use for them. But every once in a while, an idea is immediately born out of a cast off material. This happened just the other day as I reworked a sculpture I am sending off to a show in Virginia next week.

Here are some images of the first few pieces;





Now this is by no means a complete sculpture. It is more the beginning of an idea. I will probably make a ton of these little things and turn them into a glorious floor installation. I have an idea in my mind's eye of how this will turn out, though that often changes along the way as I problem solve. So often materials are used and reused until I feel as though I have found a solution to match a material's specific properties. That is one of the things I love most about my work- it is constantly evolving. None of my pieces are ever "finished". They change with each installation as I find new ways to deal with composition, lighting, space, and all the quirks of plastic bags, toilet paper, or masking tape. It sounds bizarre but I love it.

Good News!

I know it has been a while since I last posted on this blog, but fear not, I have been hard at work on new pieces, as well as fixing some old ones.

Now for the good news! I had a work accepted into the Alumni Show at the University of Mary Washington! The show will be in held at the University and opens to the public on March 13th. The works are all created by former Mary Wash students, myself being one of them. I have been busy repairing the sculpture that was accepted (aka, redoing almost the whole thing) because of some discoloration that happened when the tape I used was exposed to the air. I suppose that's what I get for using materials like duct tape and Ziploc bags. All complaining and finger blisters aside however, I am now at the tail end of fixing, and will be sending off the new and improved piece this Monday. If you are going to be in the area around that date, stop by the show and let me know what you think!

This is the piece that was accepted. It is made out of the seals from Ziploc Bags and packaging tape. It is called, "Swatch"

The Migration

3' x 5' x 4"
aluminum foil

Another sculpture I submitted to the alumni show at my university, this piece consists of braided aluminum foil. I am not convinced of the installation, perhaps it needs more braided segments to reinforce the migratory feel of the work.... any ideas/suggestions?

Swatch

30" x 10" x 4"
resealable plastic bags, clear duct tape

This is a piece I recently submitted to a show at my alma mater, titled, "Swatch". There are still a few things I am unsure about, the inclusion of colored seals, for example, but as the submissions were due by October 12, this is what I came up with. Any thoughts??? Good or bad, I certainly appreciate the feedback.

"Flight"

This sculpture is a reincarnation of a piece I did about a year and a half ago, though I was never quite satisfied with the original sculpture. I made a bunch of these:

and strung them on several pieces of fishing line which were then hung in the shape of a cylinder. As with many of my sculptures and their resemblance to objects and actions found in nature, the piece called to mind floating cords of seaweed. Absent however, were the bright greens, reds, and browns found in their natural counterparts.

That piece was part of my senior show, and given the deadline for hanging, I did not have time to rework its installation so I was happy with it. I have long had another idea for installation of the work and have finally given life to it.

"Rise" is installed in the Glens Falls office of Trampoline Design and is composed of hundreds of small pinwheels, hung with white thread. Reminiscent of both a cloud and a flock of birds taking flight, the work calls to mind a lightness of being, and the weightless nature of objects that seem to suspend without effort in the space above us.

This is my first (of many I hope) permanent installation and I would love to hear feedback, the good, the bad, and the helpful. :)

At the Wood...

So last Friday night, I had a piece in the Upstart Art Auction to benefit the Homeless Youth Coalition. It was a piece created as part of my senior thesis art show, which I cannot believe was well over a year ago (college is slipping away faster than I want it to!) Here are some images of the work. It is made of woven plastic wrap. The Charles R. Wood Theater where the auction took place, was perfect for the scale of the piece and the wide open ceilings really got my installation brain cranking... stay tuned for sketches :)