what's the story, wishbone?

A new mask, not entirely done:




Here's an in progress shot:



And this is "The Eyes" doing the dance from Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights' video:

Indiana wants me. Lord I can't go back.

I think I'm going to call this series "who shot MLK J.R.?"

I should take photos of these as opposed to scanning them. The first one is about 11"X20" (maybe longer) the scan is a little green. I used black ink on all of these. The second is the same image on a shorter, white piece of paper, and the third is about 11"X17" as well.

I listened to MLK's last speech, in which he talks about his own death, and thought it was moving. The shape in the first one reminds me of a monument, the other un-posted images I'm working on have the same solid cut out shape feel to them.



When my family moved from Chicago to Indiana my junior year of highschool we were all confused about why we didn't have school off on MLK day because it was standard in every Chicago school I'd gone to. My mother asked the office at school and they explained that the reason we didn't have the day off was because there were no black people there.





Another thing I'm trying to think about with these lithographs, and anything else I like to make, is the use of pop images. I think there's something at once sort of important and pathetic about my interpretation of Martin Luther King as this sort of image. Images like these and even things like the cut out chests I posted earlier are images that my world is inundated with. Neon, glitter, googly eyes, chests, and the news don't seem like fine art subjects but the nature of collage is the nature of art. Collage is a method of processing the world around you using the actual world around you as your medium.

I think that's pretty sweet, but, it can be intimidating to begin to think and act on that idea. I wonder how respectful or sophisticated it is and whether with all the baggage of the images they're composed of if the pieces are still readable and accessible.



And, as a side note, the title of this post is from the song "Indiana wants me" by R. Dean Taylor. I misheard some of the other lyrics as:


I hope this weather finds its way to you




love this.

masks

This is a nearly finished paper mache mask, with a cardboard base, I might add some gems:



I had a hard time finding any instructions to go on for this type of thing online. Traditional Mexican paper mache masks are made around a sculpted clay form. I cut out a circle of cardboard and cut darts in the top and bottom (and the sides for the blue mask) that I folded over to create dimension. I also rolled and folded the cardboard before hand to make it more flexible. With the following animal mask I taped a paper cup to the form to make the snout. I'll do some things differently next time.

here's a bear/dog mask that I have yet to paint:



I've been loving making these. They're going to be characters in a video.

Also, here's an epic picture of me and my friends at the Art Museum.

some recent work, studies

How to have muscles the magazine. A deeply embarrassing purchase with increasingly satisfying results:






more to come

bring a little water, sylvie

A few in progress things. I've been getting very little done over spring break but here's a sampling anyhow. The above is a mask I'm making out of fabric and wax. The fabric/wax combo was made by Danielle as a part of another project. Long story. School story. Boring. Below are a few quick clips from a video I'm working on for class as well. It's about the future, kind of, and space, kind of. It's going to be called "Visions of the Multiverse". I made the costume but I'm not entirely happy with it. ideas to explore further. Lotsa sniffles in this one. The static videos I posted earlier will probably be a part of this finished project as well



and some more:



sniff snifsnif, it was dag cold out.

Also, for kicks, here is my favorite video that I made in highschool. I used pictures of my mother and elements of this movie by Maya Deren, 'In the Very Eye of Night':



I don't think my mother operates in this way but when I made this I was imagining people holding onto their fondest moments and defining themselves by them. Maya Deren compared the movements of dancer's human bodies to the movements of stars which she described as being perfect. I compared the movements of constructed stars to images of a charming personal history vignette. Does that begin to make sense? I can't be sure. Here it is, the audio is a little poppy, I'll have to fix that sometime:

Collection

These are some found photographs from my collection. I used to paw through stacks of frames at thrift stores for them, slim pickings these day. Now I usually find them in bins at antique stores. I think I feel as connected to these images as to the ones I made. I'll post more sometime, they're a pain to scan.

pictures

Here are some images that I think function individually to the world but personally as a series. They're about what I saw one summer. I love the Midwest but I hate living here. I hate the cold and my memory is too bad to appreciate the summer. I get distracted and lonely, I miss what my life is during the winter.

the news

It feels really good to be listened to. Here's something I wrote for an english class a couple months ago:

We exist in a time that is changing in big and important ways. As a general whole I think we’ve felt defeated for the past eight years. Some of us have protested or just complained but however we’ve dealt with the abusive political climate, the increasingly choking restrictions placed on our personal freedoms, we haven’t been able to escape them. I think the most impressive change I’ve witnessed is a new crazy hopefulness. People who have never taken much stock in their roles as citizens might finally feel like they matter, “they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference”. If this record voter turnout says anything it should at least say that. Even as a white, midwestern girl I feel more politically represented now than I, having participated in American media/pop culture as well as having witnessed the representation of our white supremacist patriarchal bureaucracy through these outlets over the course of my life, thought I could feel. Whatever Barack Obama’s doctrine of change means to any one person this whole process can say that if you care about something, and you care enough to do something about it, to make art, or to vote, or yell about it, or anything, it does matter and you can sincerely incite an action that’s grander than you are. It’s incredible to me that a group of people who were so beaten for so long could come together and get what they wanted, to get the man they wanted as President elected, could forget and put behind them what they needed to and to keep trying. Regardless of the myriad criticisms that could be posed in regards to the political system in the United States it’s still more than sweet. For me anyway, the election of Barack Obama seemed to validate the past century of epic struggle this country has seen. However long it takes, if it can all add up, eventually the struggle is worth it, right?
It dangerous though, this burgeoning optimism. I’m hopeful about this new administration and I’m more hopeful about the spirit it may have enlivened in people; but I know that optimism can’t stop me from questioning my world, my society, the choices I make for myself, and the choices I let my government make for me. Of course now I, and everyone else, shouldn’t stop making decisions for myself. If I want something, I can have it. In as unimperialistic and effacing a manner as possible if I want something it’s ridiculous for me not to have it. Just remember!


Also, I'm pretty sure this isn't news anymore but here are some video stills I took. Remember this one, heh? I feel like I was one of the first to have stills of this posted online (on Garrett's cool index exhibit site):

More analog broadcast TV stuff

I must be getting less creative. This is from GlobeTrekker, on MPTV, the first thing I recorded when I got my new little portable TV. Digital broadcast just isn't going to be the same. The camels are premium and the singing children are premium. This isn't a finished piece, just a test. More later, I hope:



Also:


I took this video still today from a podcast I'm subscribed to (Obama's weekly addresses and key speeches) He's a good man.

And some stills from the above video. pretty patterns, abstractions, tones:

active static

Hopefully these will be parts of other projects, no sound in either one:





also, in the same vein as an earlier post (I think it had something to do with identity) here's a list of my fave songs. There are others that I like but I think these ones are ones I wouldn't want to exist without. The list is not quite done and some have yet to stand the test of time, but, for the most part... yes, favorites:

songs:

I will always love you (Dolly Parton)
train song (Vashti Bunyan)
babooshka (Kate Bush)
lay lady lay (Bob Dylan)
don’t be cruel (Elvis)
words of love (Buddy Holly)
mr. record man (Willie Nelson)
just a little (Brenda Lee)
MX missiles (Andrew Bird)
Here comes the sun again (M. Ward)
chain gang (Sam Cooke)
black jack david (Carter Family)
a well respected man (The Kinks)
hobo’s lullaby (Woody Guthrie)
There but for fortune (Phil Ochs)
Alone and Forsaken (Hank Williams)
Wildcat (Ratatat)
The Model (Kraftwerk)
Neon Lights (Kraftwerk
It's my party (Leslie Gore)

tentaculus

At once the most revolting and tantalizing dictionary definition I have ever read