HomePage

Dear K, 

WE DID IT... A collaborative show after years of talking about it. Whoo! Everything is on the walls, technology - both new and archaic - is working, lights are set... action. For those few who read this, the opening is on Friday, June 26 from 6 - 9 p.m. at the ARC Gallery in Chicago. See more info here: ARC Gallery. And in Time Out Chicago. 

Despite our ridiculously crazy week.. I think everything looks great. I'm not sure how we have managed to have parallel lives for almost 10 years - but am so happy that we are still working around and within the same ideas. After seeing "HomePage" on the walls, I am proud at how interdisciplinary we still are. - Showing collages, handmade books, animations, drawings, slide projections, etc.. It was nice to feel like we could play again.. . Who knew that getting back to the idea that art was fun to make would be such a journey. I'm grateful we have done it on parallel paths.. 

Above are some pictures.. although I'm sure we will post more. 

Love, 

K.

p.s. Thanks for letting me camp out on your couch and invade for the hottest week of the summer!

cute collections

Geez, K. We're really slackin' off here. Welp, I have a couple of links to share. Maybe it'll get us back into it.

The first, a blog collection of sweet photographs: small rocks hand-picked, grouped, positioned, cradled---even crafted. LoveLea sent me the link over facebook (I'll have to research the connection). Individually and as a community the images are beautiful, simple, curious, and infused with child-like wonder. View all the entries: http://everyoneneedsarock.wordpress.com/
C and I made our own response in the form of an animated GIF (at top).

The second collection, was a tip from C---www.sleeveface.com. Not only are we getting a glimpse of participants' record collections, it's a quick look into their homes, lives, closets, and (best of all) cornball threshold. I love it! You can even browse by artist. Here is Barbara:
And here is our entry as "Funny Face" + "Phil Ochs":Any other blog/virtual/communal collections to share?
Can't wait to see you soon!
k

Rugged up and left hanging out to dry...

Dear K, 

After weeks of thoughts of wallpaper, I'm continuing down the textile train to rugs - artist designed rugs. I've always been interested in textiles, but since moving to south Florida, have been able to embrace design a little bit more. Particularly in Miami, design in extremely important and exhibited all over the city. The last time I went down to Miami, I was saddened to see one of my favorite "living rooms" (image below) has been drowned in graffiti. . . The Design District is always a visual overload of beautifully designed objects de arte. Most are too expensive for my tight pockets, but a girl can dream. 

 

While researching the judge of the wallpaper exhibit that I am in through the Florida Craftsmen organization that starts in 2 weeks, I came upon Home Miami Magazine. The article on designers Doug and Gene Meyer in the July 2008 online issue re-sparked my love of the nubby, well-designed, large scaled rugs seen above. A tad more design/space/slick than we normally post about - I'm interested in how these woven threads can so drastically change not only the architecture of the room, but the objects within it.  

All of this talk of Miami and rugs made me think of an artist I have run into a few times, Michelle Weinberg. An impressive, multi-disciplinary artist, I love how she translates the same visual aesthetic with her paintings to her surface designs. 

Can we start our own wallpaper and rug line (You know, in our spare time - ha!)  Thoughts towards the future of the repeated pattern.... 

Love, 

K.

Tangled Alphabets

Dear K, 

You absolutely have to visit this website: 

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/tangledalphabets/

for a beautiful, delicate and witty interpretation of fonts, language and pencil drawings. This made me think of your recent playful assignment with handmade fonts.

Love, 

K. 

Paper that wall!

Dear K, 

Urban decayed romance is exactly what I have been thinking about lately - and these dramatic scenes where something has gone awry have been trickling into my daily writings, installation ideas, slide manipulations and filmic thoughts. It's always a quiet scene, where colored thoughts lie scratched and eaten - their layered qualities seeping and swimming into each other. You're right about these "anti-slides" (as Step cleverly dubbed them..) they are much darker than I usually work. I think this "complex subtraction" stems somewhat by the life phase that I am in - newly married - starting a new life, trying to figure out what to bring into it from the past, and what to scratch out entirely. 

Speaking of mechanics and motion, I can hardly wait to see your automatas. There is something simultaneous masculine about trying to figure out the mechanics of how things work, and the delicate, feminine quality of your "steam puffs" - which hint at craft, sewing and airy, soft clouds. Its an equation of Duchamp/Dada + Folk Art + Contemporary dioramic photographic studies. Keep pushing those buttons!

On another note: While you are venturing into artist + engineer; I'm knee deep in artist + architect/interior designer. 

Wallpaper is never far from my thoughts. There is something about the delicacy of a simple and beautifully repeated pattern. I've always been in love with that Charlotte Perkins Gillman story, "The Yellow Wallpaper". Recently accepted into an exhibit called: "Paper: On and Off the Wall" .  . . I've been experimenting with delicate lines. Here are some great reference websites that I have found in the last week: www.designyourwall.com, www.studioprintworks.com, www.handmadewallpaper.net and www.walnutwallpaper.com

Repeat and paste on YOUR walls. Can you guess which above image is mine? (The rest are from www.studioprintworks.com)

Hoping for a repeat of my super productive week and weekend. 

Love, 

K. 

lost, found, and recontextualized

Busy lady K,
Cool install at the Showtel! The lighting really sets the mood--much like Gregory Crewdson photographs--and leaves an eerie feeling that something is amiss. Your found slide reworkings are beautiful in that urban decay romance. Here we are again working with the old, beat-up, fantasy marker of memory. But K, this looks like a darker nostalgia than I've ever seen from you. The elements of consumption and (almost) destruction may be giving way to your current state of life making. Not only are you layering and stacking and building and adding, but also taking away, clearing, and covering--it's a complex subtraction (and not necessarily a negative one). I'm also glad you're working with the now archaic technology of the slide projector (the didactic tool of the Art Historian). In parallel, I'm appropriating the old ABCs of mechanics (Automata has always been a very masculine field hasn't it?). It's silly really, but I like the look, sound, and process of making things "work" (spin, move, etc.).

Look forward to seeing your wallpaper samples!

Love,
k

Photos:
1. Found this distorted polaroid in the alley behind my house. I'm not sure if it was intended this way or if it was just discarded and left for the weather and outside elements to "take care of it." It reminded me of your slides. I was afraid to pick it up, so just snapped a pic with my cellphone.
2. Still shot of my tornado machine--simple automata of wood, cardboard, and cotton. And it really spins!!!

Showtel 2009

Dear K,

Whew.. what a whirlwind few weeks - and the next few are crazy as well. First, wanted to comment on your amazing last post. Oh how I LOVED your students invented font animation. What a great and successful project!! You should be giving yourself a gigantic educational pat on the back for that one... loved it and it looked like your students had so much fun as well. Here's to art being fun again.

Funny thing.. in addition to your amazing fonts, ironic that you posted about the "penny art" and wallpaper. As I have had references to both this week. See Showtel photos for penny room as well as look for a post later this week on my upcoming wallpaper exhibit!

And now for some updates/photos from this weekend's Showtel 2009. What an event! I've never been involved in something so exciting, so frantic and so overwhelmingly full of energy. Adrienne and I spent 14 hours carefully placing small sculptures and silkscreened ants about the room for our "munching, crunching, bunching, scrunching" piece. It was a total success and wonderful to be a part of. I felt like an art star!! Our sound, video, slide projections, scented room, silkscreened ants, thread, small sculptures made of hair and lint, and fabric draping the room created a fantastical habitat that spoke of layered consumption, nesting and the feeling that insects (or some other creature) had invaded the space. Although I have worked in installation before, I haven't ever had so much sensory overload. The projected slides were one of my favorite aspects. See above for a detail shot. .. I'm planning of using these in our exhibit as well. There are about 80 that change every 3 seconds, creating a didactic and scratched, eaten and abstracted image.

Kara Walker-Tome, the event's curator, did such an amazing job coordinating - complete with a lovely catalogue and much press about town. And I have to say, it was wonderful to meet so many amazing and energetic local artists.

For additional photos see here
and here.

Stay tuned for a wallpaper post - lots to tell. It's the end of the semester - grading, compiling, etc. Plus, I need to keep working on our exhibit, and the film that I'm working on. Storyboards are next. Yippee.

Lots of love,
K.