Spring into Art + Love

Dear K,

Love your little stone plant! Super alien and odd, but intriguing.

Lots going on here... equal parts relaxing and working. Spring is in the air, along with new flowers and we have a slightly cool breeze still. Is it spring there yet? These trees are everywhere in my neighborhood and I am obsessed with their pop of yellow. (I have no idea what they are... oh well, I can still enjoy them)

Been still doing some random crafty/silly projects.. which coupled with teaching and other art looming, feels like a nice release. See new fabric rocking chair and 1 hour collages below.

 Other news: I had an art opening last night and tonight for the Outside the Box show at Whitespace. 22 artists did outdoor installations - and it ended up being pretty amazing. The big hit of the show were these blow-ups below. The lighting and sheer scale of them were awesome.

The mirrored piece was done by a former student of mine! First time I've been included in a show with a student, felt pretty excited for her. Made me remember my first exhibit, where all my books and boxes fell off the wall ;) Remember?

 I made my slides that I did for HomePage into a video and added another layer of images onto them to project onto the above wall.

And.. last but not least. ... It's our 5 year anniversary today ;) After I set up my video for night 2 of Outside the Box, we'll be going out to a fancy dinner and enjoying a nice evening.

Here's to spring + love. I'm feeling sappy these days...

Hope you are great! Love playing scrabble with you!
xoxo, K.

nice green!

Hey K,

Hope your Spring Break was as productive and relaxing as you planned!  Great landscaping job---looks lovely!  Banana and lime tree?  I'm jealous!  C and I just watched "The Descendents" for our date night last night.  Good movie, of course, but I completely adored how lush and green it looked in Hawaii.  Tropical plants are absolutely the best.

I've been documenting this little funny plant of mine, not intended for the tropics, but the desert.

My folks left me this lithop last July as a surprise parting gift after they visited Chicago. Over the last 8 months it has seen a dramatic change. It's almost alien! The new stone, growing out of the middle, requires no water for the winter months, as is feeds off the mother stone. Eventually the outer parts will wilt away. The baby stone, is already split in preparation for its cycle. I think it will just keep going like this forever.

Weird, huh?  Look at some of the other types of lithops here:  http://lithops-stories.blogspot.com/

They sort of gross me out, but I'm totally fascinated.

Looking forward to seeing your new special room!  :)

Love you,
k

Spring Break projects

Dear K,

Hey you! No worries... we've both been more busy than usual. Love your photo archive of updates - complete with birthdays, two trips to the sun (lucky!) and food stuffs.

This week was our spring break - a much needed breather from a busy semester of teaching! My goals for the week were as follows:

 1. Landscaping the front side yard along the driveway. (This of course took WAY longer than expected) We planted 3 palms, 2 banana trees and a lime tree as well as some ground cover grassy stuff - A tropical paradise!

2. Work on a particular room ;)

 

 My famous first geese painting ;) And a framed collage of animal prints on my old wallpaper that I made today. (The artist is the same one I sent that cat print you have on your shelves)

3. Reading at least 1 book (on to number 2 currently)
4. See friends and family I have been neglecting
5. Hang out with Hubby, since we both have the week off!
6. Exercise everday
7. Spring cleaning of house 
8. Studio mini-projects
9. Beach time
10. Cook, bake, eat yummy things (including the famous Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich ;)

So far... all have been accomplished except for the beach (too rainy!) despite 4 full days of yardwork. Studio day is tomorrow - I'm hoping to apply to a few things and also start brainstorming my next project. Also hoping the weather gets a little better so I can at least get a good walk on the beach in!

Above is a photo from ArtPalm Beach in January that I exhibited in. It was exciting to have 2 lil pieces in a booth at an international art fair. YOU are next!! Congrats on your new soft opportunity!

So excited about your upcoming Traveling Truck show too! The website looks amazing - great research links! I learned alot about Chicago! Well.. back to work on Monday, I'm going to squeeze in as much relaxing as possible.

Lots of love, K.

Ah! So long, so much.

Dearest K,
I can't believe it!  It's been 3 months!  I'm terrible. 

It's not out of laziness, though, I'll assure you of that.  I've been busy busy busy.  Here's a quick archive of events:

Chris had a birthday = we got a record player!

Surprise weekend with you and art--sooooo good.

I hugged a Polar Bear in December.

 

 

Quick visit home for Christmas--to see a very mustached family and petrified trees on eroding beach (Huguenot Park).

 

New Year's Day good luck brunch with brother and friends.

 

 

 

Chinese New Year celebration at our house!

Rebuilding the Soft Shop (debuts THIS Saturday with a folk song sing along).

 

Ryan and Stacey's wedding weekend in Jamaica.  

 

A very chill birthday (thanks for my delightful gifties from you!).

And major, I mean seriously major, work on the Traveling Truck Show project.  Check out the Call for Performers and Resources on our website.   I've been finding incredible research, making connections, presenting proposals to City Advisory Councils, writing parts of the script, and getting completely consumed.  It's wonderful! 

love and miss,

k

 

Photo updates

Dear K, Hello! So great to see you recently, thanks to the lovely Stacey + Ryan! Hope you had a great Christmas in Jax with the family. Thought I would post a few photos of the last month (since we are a little behind, as usual ;) Less than one more week of vacation.. then its back to another semester in paradise!

Favorite photos from ArtMiami + Scope with you!

why didn't someone tell me I had a spastic hair sticking straight up? ;)

PBSC Faculty Show: (finally printed those damn paperweight photos!)

Trip to the Florida Keys with my other favorite K:

Hiking at a nature preserve with Hubby:

"Modern Botanical" designs made for other K for Christmas:

What a great December! I'm spending the next few days relaxing and partying. The 3rd Annual Hopkins New Year's Day party is almost here. Miss you already. Happy 2012!

Love, K 

what a surprise!

Mystery Caller K,
Thanks for conspiring with S for such a wonderful surprise!  Your man voice indeed threw me for a loop.

Cool cardboard art, too!  I love the color and pattern and type.

I wanted to show you something I've been working on.  It's a little video experiment to accompany an old song I recorded.

Boom:


Can't wait to spend the weekend with you!

love,
k

A cardboard quickie..

Hey K,

Have you and the Mr. seen this artist? Thought of you both. Seems right up your alley.

Ana Serrano

Love, K.

Surprise!

Dear K,

YEAHHHHHH! So excited you are coming down to visit! ;)

You and Mr. C are so lucky to have Stacey and Ryan! They love ya to pieces and I love them for sending you to me for a weekend! May the parties begin!

Talk soon, dear. Love, K. (aka: "Mystery Caller")

Exploding with words

Dear K, 

So my new exhibit is up! I literally spent last weekend hanging from the rafters, installing 300 ft. of hand cut text around the space of Whitespace Collection

I'm feeling really good about it. Thought you might want to see some pics! The opening is next weekend and this installation will be up throughout the whole season. Yeah! 

On a lighter note.. meet our new friend, Lilith!! ;) She's an outdoor only friend.. showed up on our door a few weekends ago, and hasn't left. As much as this is a shock to me, she's actually pretty cute. Plus, the Mr. is in cat lovers heaven. ;)

Been thinking about ya. Hope you are great. 

Love ya, K.

their dreams and ours

K,
OMG, yes!  I just got into Swoon, after watching this movie: Our City Dreams on Netflix instant.  It shows her Mississippi River Project towards the end.  So cool!  Plus it highlights other amazing women artists:  Marina Abramovic, Ghada Amer and Kiki Smith.  But I appreciate Swoon's alternative approach to the art world in general, and her sincere gestures for bettering community.

Thanks for all the links!  Good luck with install.  Let's chat this weekend.

Love you!
k

Your zest for life is oh so good..

Dear K,

Whew. . . nice last post. We needy a heady one to balance out our light and airy posts. Thanks for all of the fantastic links. I love that GoDoGood campain.. seems appropriate for the times. I totally agree that these days, your "likeability" factor IS a factor in the job search. I tell my students this all the time - its not just about knowing the programs or having an awesome portfolio anymore.. its acting professional (and "goodness" is part of that). We had all kinds of faculty meetings today and idea of not only acting responsibly came up but also critical thinking and fostering a critical dialogue. Funny that you sent that NY Times article, I read this one in the Chronicle and was thinking of you too. Foundations.. are they changing? Are they needed? (I think so..)

When Adobe first started developing their Creative Suite, graphic designers were so fixated on "learning the programs" that they forgot about basic design principles. I always note to my students that graphic design existed long before Adobe. It is possible. And it can be amazing.

Speaking of teaching - I scheduled two field trips this week for various classes. We went to the Jaffe Center to look at books, touch old presses and smell old ink. It was a full sensory experience. In addition, took my 3D class to the Boca Museum where I watched their brains slowly explode. We saw an amazing installation by Federico Uribe, a Miami artist. Holy crap... it takes alot for me to feel overwhelmed by art anymore. (Ever feel "art-ed" out??) . . . this gave me hope in the future of installation and the general creative force here in south Florida. It was Florida without being overtly Florida. No glass. No neon. No airbrush or watercolored palm trees. I loved it. Walking into the room was and again, it a full sensory experience. He had hanging birds, trees, cows - a whole habitat built just for us. One of the most interesting things was that in his statement, he talked about sustainability and making responsible decisions towards society and the earth with his art. He even got Puma to donate 2000 shoes and over 25,000 shoelaces for his delicate assemblages. It was all of my favorite themes in one installation: detailed, obsessive and unexpected materials; nature and bold vs. quiet color. Be sure to watch the video!

Also.. rediscovered my love for Swoon. And watched this video of her and thought of you. I really liked how she talked about her process.. how she got to where she is.. and her awesome project, Miss Rockaway Armada project on the Mississippi River - and how that has morphed to other collaborative music + art projects. (Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea) She also brought up this idea of in a disaster, what CAN artists really DO in terms of act as an agent of change, help, assistance. Her questioning of the role of the artist in the world is really interesting. If you haven't looked into those projects, you should! The community aspect makes me think of your Traveling Truck Show, Mabel's Wayback Machine, etc.

I install my piece this weekend, wish me luck! ;)

Thanks again for my recent gift... it makes me miss you so!
Love, K.