October 2011 Boxes

Baker Tarpaga Residency March 2010: planet karaoke the space that belongs to no one

Nearing the End: New Mixed Media Work 2010

SOLD

Here are 35 of the 40 hitting the road for San Francisco Tomorrow!
More thoughts about the “from as sketch” process later… hopefully while enjoying some Blue Bottle in San Francisco!

process in the process

Buried in both the shop and the studio the past week and a half many things have been made and are being made… from boxes to new surfaces… and even a few finished mixed media paintings. I have found that  I have more intrigued by abstract surfaces that evolve from layering metal and wood, paper and text… and yet still I fall into old habits of representational work… strong images of jars flowers black birds silos and weathervanes always arise/arrive. None the less, I am pleased with the daily ebb and flow of building sanding layering and uncovering.  Below are 17 of the 40+ pieces I am  currently working on… 16 a, 16b, and 16c are the same piece with different objects layered in which I am considering…

To stay inspired while working my current listening list includes:

Chris Pureka,

Paul Curreri

Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus (soundtrack for the film)

The Proposition (soundtrack by Nick Cave)

and a little Tom Waits ,Cowboy Junkies, Billy Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald in there as well…

they don’t call them day lilies for nothin’

It is spring/early summer here in Columbus, every day a combination of clear sunshine and dark afternoon thunderstorms. Over the past two weeks I have seen my front flower beds transform to towers of olive, crimson and burnt orange. I am not one who normally feels drawn to paint flowers… however, this week felt appropriate to visit sketch #5 from September of 2007. There are objects symbols and metaphors that I find I revisit in my sketches, one in particular is that of the Blue Mason Jar. Something feels inherently Southern about the Mason Jar… preserves, preservation, collections, vessels to contain, to hold…

In homes I have restored over the years, I always find jars filled with buttons, screws, odd trinkets, and sometimes food.  I have a collection of over 40 old Blue Mason Jars (thanks to the mother and grandmother of a friend in Richmond Virginia). This week I filled the  Jars and old bottles with Day Lilies , Gerber Daisies, and common White Daisies and set them around around my studio. To begin this series I am revisiting old painting surfaces that I had prepared from other series of the past 5 years. My painting surfaces are varied, some are cabinet grade plywood from old home renovation projects, covered in reclaimed house paint, some are layered roofing tar and house paint, others are reclaimed wood, vintage letters from the game Anagram, and layered salvaged vapor barrier paper. I began by roughly sketching this bottles and jars of flowers in charcoal on 14 different surfaces, and over the week have worked to layer paint, sand and remove paint from each piece. I have been working mostly early mornings on the flowers, as I have found that Day Lilies truly only stay open during day light hours… powered by Stauf’s Puerto Rican Single Origin coffee.  During  the evening hours I have focused on the paintings  the vessels(bottles and jars) while  drinking my evening libations (appropriately enough) from a small vintage crystal jam jar.

This is the first time in working on a new body of work that I have worked on the same types of images, on varied surfaces. I am not sure why I don’t repeat ideas or images… because I have always been  enamored with the work of Jim Dine( hearts, red coats and of course his tools!) and seeing images repeated over the years.  Maybe it is because I begin work focused more on the process of achieving surface textures to work on and not necessarily beginning with a focused image or idea….

Moving into this process of exploring one idea/object has been inspiring and I feel may be opening doors for other explorations!

Below is Sketch #5 and the results of my week thus far… I hope to finish painting these 14 pieces today- get them framed tomorrow and hopefully post the final images the first of the week.

from a sketch: begining a new series of paintings

It has been almost 2 years since I have begun a new series of paintings. My last series of new work “Along about Sundown” 2009 focused on collecting, assembling memories by means of sewing and constructing fabric,wood, tar and beeswax… and this past year I seem to have drifted and dove into installation based art.

I have felt a real longing to return to painting this summer… and in my thoughts of returning to painting I realized that while I am constantly sketching ideas for new work in my journals, I rarely return to those sketches to create work. Over the years I have found that beginning a new series of paintings sometimes feels like pulling teeth- spending hours with materials, surfaces trying to SEE what will appear and inevitably the work becomes about the process.

Therefore, to embark on a way of being with painting, I am finally returning to 5 years sketches. I have begun scanning and attaching select sketchbook entries below, and will continue to do so over the course of the next 2 months. As I work, I will note the sketch number listed below as well as the sketch book entry date.  I will do my best to photographically document my process every few days and post these images here on my blog.

I have been fortunate enough to schedule a show of this new work at Zonal (568 Hayes Street,San Francisco) in late july or early august. I will also have a fresh new batch of boxes to go along with the paintings. For those of you not in the Bay Area, I will have an up close and personal preview of the new work in Columbus,Ohio in early July(time, date and location to be announced-check back for details!)

I will look forward to seeing some of you July and August! In the meantime I welcome any feedback you would like to send my way!

nicole

Separate Panes Site Specific Installation 2.25.10-2.27.10

From December 2009 through February 25th 2010 I had the pleasure to work with choreographer James Graham on his site specific performance MFA Thesis project in the Dance Dept at Ohio State University. I was originally approached by Graham to develop a series of installations that would relate to the space and his performance project  in the 20,000 square foot Sullivant Hall Library. Graham’s hope, was for solos duets and trios to happen simultaneously, as in an art gallery setting the audience had a choice to view one performance or wander through out the space to observe the other performances.

In 2009 Graham secured the 3rd floor of Sullivant Hall at the Ohio State University as the site for his MFA project.  Sullivant Hall, the architectural structure, had seen many lives. Built in 1912 it originally served as the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, followed by uses as a Museum Building, and Archaeological Museum, and most recently a Library. In 1926 a World War II Memorial was added to the North Wing  with a four panel bronze relief sculpture by Bruce Wilder Saville, documenting the story of the service from enlistment to the trained soldier in France.

Graham, in collaboration with his Dancers (Erik AbottMain,Mair Culbreth, Katie Gilmore,Leigh Lotocki and Carson Moody), dialogued about internal and external relationships, personal and private spaces as they developed movement scores which also related to the architectural structure. Graham worked simultaneously on 3 dance for camera films focusing on similar ideas featuring AbbotMain, Lotocki and Moody. Graham intended on using these films as a part of the final installation and performance project.

Over the course of  2 1/2 months I researched the history of Sullivant Hall, attended 80% of the rehearsals with the dancers on site, and photographically documented the movement development/generation. During this period, I also had significant conversations with each of the dancers with regard to their own personal reflections of the process, the space and character development.

With 20,000 square feet of space and limitless possibilities and only 2 months to prepare and install I felt challenged by how where and WHAT to design construct and install.  Graham was not connected to any particular visual aesthetic and gave me carte blanche. I felt a bit like I was in and episode of a Food Network Challenge… you have 3 videos, 5 costume ideas, and roughly 30 minutes of rough movement scores… now you must make a space to engage, move and connect 150 to 200 people  in 2 months… Go!

Armed with 2 boxes of medical dictionaries and antique french art and lifestyle books, old ladders, windows, paint, a clawfoot tub, tree branches,rocks and lights I embarked on creating 8 Separate rooms… with in each room  my intention was to connect both physically and metaphorically to the movement/movement installation. My visual ideas grew from spaces and fragments I observed from each dancer within their inner and outer worlds.  I wanted to create installations  within this abandoned library space that  felt comfortable/familiar and eerie at the same time…to accent the movement and space without covering or distracting from what is was and the movement happening with in it.  To create these macro and micro worlds I used antique french and body related books as source materials to connect every room… from 1,000 paper airplanes hanging and littering the floor, to a 40 foot length of sewn pages, to hanging towers illuminated from within… book pages in various forms reflected the space as a former library while serving as a vehicle to transport audience members room to room like bread crumbs.

The installation and performance was brilliantly lit by the amazing Dave Covey and sound scores for every room were created by Anthony Vine.

Please check back later for video footage from the Separate Panes performance!

(You can also read a review of Separate Panes, by the lovely Michael Morris at: http://morrismichaelj.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/separate-panes/)

Bendeck Custom Box

The Bendeck Box completed on Feb.18th 2010.  This box was custom ordered as a wedding gift for the Bendeck’s, of Atlanta, Georgia. The Bendeck’s will be using the image of the peacock throughout their wedding decor. This one of a kind box is made from reclaimed flooring from the historic Casa Loma Hotel in San Francisco Ca, reclaimed redwood siding from Palo Alto, Ca, grocery store and workshop shelving found in the Mission District of S.F, and heart of pine wainescotting from Richmond, Virginia. The  vintage Victorian cabinet pull is from San Francisco, and the cabinet hinges are from Columbus, Ohio. The pewter plated  Victorian Peacock brooch was found in South Carolina.

“Along About Sundown”

Year: Summer 2009

Description: “Along About Sundown”. Show Series- 14 pieces

In the winter of 2009 through the Summer 2009 of I temporarily relocated from San Francisco Ca to the mountains of North Carolina. Spending these months with ailing grandparents and assisting in the physical, mental and emotional rehabilitation of my sister-in-law with a traumatic brain injury brought up many issues and ways of learning, knowing and being beyond words.  What are the ways of healing ourselves, others and the environment?  And how does this affect our understanding of self sufficiency and long-term sustainability?

My time in North Carolina allowed me the space to explore issues of personal sustainability once not afforded to me with the pace and access of city living in San Francisco.  In my process of learning to sew, beekeeping, preparing and growing a garden, building, cooking and assisting Angela relearning how to live, I had many significant conversations with my family members, each of these experiences leading me to explore and reflect on the concept of memory.  In memory we create a vocabulary for life and in the sharing of stories, skills and life practices we find a deeper understanding of ourselves and our connections to the world around us.

The series “Along About Sundown” was the culmination of my experience of memory.  I see stories and memories in black and white, like a silent film slowly rolling by or fading snapshots.  Spending the quiet time of my evenings sewing the vintage photographs with old quilting stitches onto a worn painter’s tarp allowed me to more deeply experience the details the photographer sought to document and preserve of their own life and the significance of that moment in time.  The snapshot is a reference card in the catalogue of their own memory….much like my sister’s process of re-finding memories in her brain as it is healing.

In my study of beekeeping I learned that in Egyptian times, prior to the advent of embalming, honey and beeswax were used to preserve bodies, the embodied memory of a person.  The use of beeswax on the photographs refers to this process. Through sewing, building and waxing of each I found a sense of healing and a layered and textured significance of those things passed down in and beyond words.

Experiments in Wheat