What do you do when time tells you that you have had enough?
I hope I can find the strength to let go when the time is right.
posTTaska
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
"Denver and the Big Blue Horse" or "Why 24/7 Flute Music"
I have come to find that the Denver International Airport is indeed a odd place. Perhaps that why I now feel comfortable riding up and down the corridors on moving sidewalks for 3 hour intervals. Or maybe that was all Alex and I could do stay awake while American Airlines was sending us a new plane to New York.
However while whiling the hours away I apparently missed something fantastic: the giant blue mustang outside! Just shows you how hermetically sealed airports have become. How could I have missed this 32 foot equine collossus?
Isn't it absolutely amazing!?! The New York Times has a decent article on the art and some of the stir it has made. I am in love with this sculpture, and I think that comes down to lousy architecture. Our American post-post-post modern society has created some REAL shit out there. So many buildings we have and are still erecting visually pollute our landscape. Airports are often great offenders of this too. A public work of art of this magnitude has a chance to heal the eyes of the people who find it in their gaze. Jimenez had the gumption and support to stand up against the great blight that we cast on our land. This work carries form, color, emotion. It is bigger than we are so it can humble us with majesty instead of fear or disgust.
Now as for the the 24 hours of flute music piped into Terminal A at DIA, the story that I heard while stuck in her hallways, had to do with the cursed enclosed pedestrian skybridge. This bridge connects Terminal A with the rest of the airport. It is enclosed in glass so one can watch planes land over the Rock Mountains. When it was being constructed the bridge collapsed. This is the same bridge where I met Brianna installing her work Shadow Happy from my I vs. We post.
So the airport folks brought in some local elders, and there was talk of burial grounds and maybe a curse was mentioned. And so the only way to keep this area safe was to have a blessing and keep the sacred flute music floating in 24 hours a day. A local special musician recorded the sacred music. I wish I knew his name. I will keep searching and let you know if I find out.
I don't always know what is true in this world, but I do know what is a good story.
However while whiling the hours away I apparently missed something fantastic: the giant blue mustang outside! Just shows you how hermetically sealed airports have become. How could I have missed this 32 foot equine collossus?
Blue Mustang, 32 foot fiberglass statue by Luis Jimenez
Isn't it absolutely amazing!?! The New York Times has a decent article on the art and some of the stir it has made. I am in love with this sculpture, and I think that comes down to lousy architecture. Our American post-post-post modern society has created some REAL shit out there. So many buildings we have and are still erecting visually pollute our landscape. Airports are often great offenders of this too. A public work of art of this magnitude has a chance to heal the eyes of the people who find it in their gaze. Jimenez had the gumption and support to stand up against the great blight that we cast on our land. This work carries form, color, emotion. It is bigger than we are so it can humble us with majesty instead of fear or disgust.
Now as for the the 24 hours of flute music piped into Terminal A at DIA, the story that I heard while stuck in her hallways, had to do with the cursed enclosed pedestrian skybridge. This bridge connects Terminal A with the rest of the airport. It is enclosed in glass so one can watch planes land over the Rock Mountains. When it was being constructed the bridge collapsed. This is the same bridge where I met Brianna installing her work Shadow Happy from my I vs. We post.
pedestrian bridge at DIA
I don't always know what is true in this world, but I do know what is a good story.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
I vs.We Blog
I heard someone speaking about blogs the other day on an episode of The Splendid Table podcast. She very astutely differentiated "I" and "We" blogs and why she only read "We" blogs. "We" blogs are more inclusive by nature. They express and share external ideas that a larger population can explore. Since my art is about expression it seems logical that my blog concerning my art become more than just a personal diary about my attempts to make salable art.
So here is my "We" blog- Public Art:
If you are traveling through the Denver Airport you are in for a lovely surprise. I was stuck in Terminal A with an unexpected landing and 4 hour layover from San Francisco to New York. It was a really bummer except I stumbled upon Brianna Martray installing her art, Shadow Happy, in the airport concourse. 10,000 folder paper cranes. Amazing! We had a fun time chatting about the series of events that lead her to that place. One of her companions also told us of the story behind the constant flute music floating down the hall. (That story is for another time.) She folded her 10000+ over the last five years from an abandoned novel she had written. What a way to build on previous work.
So if you are passing on through Denver stop down near the security station at Terminal A and behold a wonderful play with paper and shadows.
Labels:
Brianna Martray,
Denver Airport,
paper,
public art
Monday, June 6, 2011
More Wax- Secret Layers
I have been working a wax piece for a few days now. I am feeling pretty good about it, although I am still not 100% sure I am done yet. Travis and I have been have good discussions on why I took these classes at Wax Works West and the importance of encaustic techniques to my work. I feel it is worth the time to learn these skills because unlike other whims of mine, like precious metal polymerclay, dapping blocks and writing "how-to" books, wax embodies Mysteriosity. I would be a fool to turn my back and put encaustics aside because it will take time to master.
I have this sitting in the living room so I can walk by it. I have to approach it at various times of day and from new angles. In judging my own work I often try to track where my eyes naturally travel around the piece. I want to make sure that there is enough going on to move my eyes to land all the important sections or details.
Where do your eyes take you?
This is a lot of layers. I have hidden things and then instead of revealing them by removing wax I just redrew the elements on top of the old ones. It is like leaving the leaves on the ground in a forest year after year. The ones at the bottom are obliterated and disintegrate while more and more pile on top.
The shutters are from a doll house. Some of the text is stencil and some is hand written with carbon paper. There are real branches from my plum tree outback painted with wax, although maybe I have too many branches attached.
I think I like the detail shots better the the art as a whole. I am not even sure what that means. Maybe I should go blot out parts of it? Maybe I should get a saw......
Labels:
encaustic,
hidden,
layers,
mysteriosity,
wax works west
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wax Works West and Taska's Ecstacy
Sorry I was lax in my writing last week. I was caught up in a web of beeswax and pigment.
Mom came out to California so we could drive down to Aptos, outside of Santa Cruz for a weekend of encaustic workshops at Wax Works West. If your are remotely intersted in learning to paint with encaustics Wax Works West is AMAZING. All 3 teachers, Wendy Aikin, Judy Stabile, and Daniella Woolfe, are accomplished artists and wonderful instructors. Explore www.waxworkswest.com and their personal websites to see just what I mean. Now I will give you a little history.
Encaustic painting is the use of beeswax, resin, and pigment to create layer upon layer of translucent color and images on wood. The art of painting with wax dates back to the Egyptian portraits done around 100-300 AD.
Mom came out to California so we could drive down to Aptos, outside of Santa Cruz for a weekend of encaustic workshops at Wax Works West. If your are remotely intersted in learning to paint with encaustics Wax Works West is AMAZING. All 3 teachers, Wendy Aikin, Judy Stabile, and Daniella Woolfe, are accomplished artists and wonderful instructors. Explore www.waxworkswest.com and their personal websites to see just what I mean. Now I will give you a little history.
Encaustic painting is the use of beeswax, resin, and pigment to create layer upon layer of translucent color and images on wood. The art of painting with wax dates back to the Egyptian portraits done around 100-300 AD.
These were painted in life and then mounted to the front of the subject's coffin, just in case you forgot who was buried where...
The 1950's saw a resurgence of encaustic work with Jasper Johns. Personally I am most interested in the oldest and the newest explorations of the medium.
I don't know if it was the fumes or what, but I was in heaven. I have played with wax a little in my work,but was always disappointed in the results and the struggle. I felt like this medium was made just for me. I was so overwhelmed by the inspiration bombarding my head I got exhausted just imagining what I could do. Here is a snapshot of my pallet.
note the torch pointed at the fire extinguisher
That, by the way, is Aliziran Orange in the bottom center. Yes that color is that vibrant. It rose through the layers to the surface. More iamages of my practice work to come.
Labels:
Aptops,
encaustic,
wax works west
Monday, May 9, 2011
Isabelle de Borchgrave, an inspiration
Isabelle de Borchgrave has joined the ranks of Frida Kahlo, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Nick Bantock. I just found another hero. Her exhibition, Pulp Fashion, at the Legion of Honor is stunning.
She creates full scale and full detail historic costumes out of paper. 100% paper. She paints large sheets, hand prints designs, and recreates patterns to achieve breathtaking interpretations of the entire ensembles. Lace, ribbons, feathers, pearls, chains, all the nuances out of just paper. How can paper emulate silk? Borchgrave will show you.
The exhibit does not take up too many rooms, but each room is a treasure to occupy the eyes for hours. She even created a tent out of paper to set the some of the costumes in context.
While I was there I was overcome with the urge to just sit down on the floor and cry. I wanted so desperately to be in the middle of creating one of those costumes right then and there. It was deep seeded desire that made me ache. I hope one day I can create something that draws that sort of response from myself. So I went home and went straight to the studio to start dressing my next bedouin in paper.
Labels:
Bedouin,
costume,
hero,
Isabelle de Borchgrave,
Legion of Honor,
paper,
Pulp Fashion
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Your Papers, PLEASE
I am up to my ears in paperwork- business license, seller's permit, business bank account applications.... let's talk about something fun for a change.
Ann McMillan, a friend and accomplished painter, led me to The Sketchbook Project.
Ann McMillan, a friend and accomplished painter, led me to The Sketchbook Project.
I just signed up and will receive a blank sketchbook in the mail. I chose the theme- "Writing on the Wall" I know it has morbid connotations but, I actually like the idea of using the sketchbook to explore my fascination of petroglyphs and pictographs. There was also the theme "Prehistory" but I thought that was too obvious. (I really want to do a mural/instillation on pictographs, now I just need someone else who is desperate for a mural in their house- any takers?) So I fill my project sketchbook and send it the Brooklyn Art Library. There it will be digitized and exhibited. Pretty cool! Now I just need to get in on The 1000 Journals.....
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