Progress

Southwest Virginia is entering full fledged summer mode–80 degree weather every day, brilliant sunshine interrupted by the occasional brief but powerful thunderstorm. I love it! Thankfully the studios and housing all have air conditioning so it’s easy to escape the sometimes thick humidity. But I digress. I loaded up the next tank full of new work this weekend–a waist piece and a head piece. Here’s some images of the waist piece in progress:

it sort of runs from underneath the breast, up to the armpit

a detail of a new technique, sewing parts together, that I'm really liking... even though it's incredibly tedious to do...

the new piece, off the form and into the tank

the same piece, now suspended in solution

Time Lapsed

After a week and a half at VCCA, I have to report that I haven’t had much time to work in the studio! Since it is my first time back in Virginia for more than a few days in… oh… 8 years? I’ve spent my first couple weeks splitting my time between visiting with old friends I haven’t seen in years and preparing for the move to Brooklyn. After my Monday arrival, I had just enough time to unpack and set up my room and studio before leaving on Thursday to see Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria in Roanoke with my family. Friday a friend visited me here, Saturday I met another friend in Lynchburg for drinks and Sunday my parents visited me so we could spend some quality Mother’s Day time together. Monday was relatively uninterrupted, then Tuesday I headed to Richmond to visit VCU’s Material Studies & Sculpture departments, crashed with a friend in Church Hill, then spent Wednesday with another friend I hadn’t seen in 7 years. Now that I’m back at VCCA, I have a couple days to do some more NYC job hunting (I told myself I would do it once a week, but missed last week because I just couldn’t make myself do it the few hours I was actually in studio!) and then I head to NYC this weekend to confirm my studio at Wayfarer’s Brooklyn, my apartment sublet in Bushwick, and to meet with a couple of job possibilities. THEN, I will finally have some uninterrupted studio time.

In between everything, I have managed to fill my first 10 gal tank with new work and fresh solution. AND set up a time-lapse video of the crystals growing in this new tank, so that’s something at least. Here’s some pics:

knit hardened on top of fabric armatures

knit without armature, almost ready to go in the tank

the first new piece, in the tank after 3 days of growth--the halo around all the strands are the first tiny crystals

a close-up of the crystals after 3 days in the tank

the camera setup for what will be a time lapse video

NYC etc.

I returned late last night from a great extra long weekend in New York. Due to the incredibly warm weather the first couple days and the sheer amount of activities jammed into a short amount of time, it felt like very long vacation. I completely forgot that I live in Vermont and was delightfully exhausted upon my return. The highlights were margaritas in Soho, a bad performance in Chelsea, MoMA bookstore, 65 degree weather in Central Park, arm wrestling in Tribeca, George Condo and Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, and make-your-own bloody Marys in Greenpoint. I even allowed myself the rare sleep in this morning, after sleeping through the night for the first time in months.

As for studio, my show is only 2 weeks away so I’m diving right in to resolving some pieces so I can start planning the install and placement of everything. Remember that tree tank from back in December? I finally pulled it out and am working on how it will work as an object–here’s what it looks like right now:

sugared tree, ready to be integrated into a sculpture

detail of sugar crystals on dead baby pine tree

I also added a few completed images of the raw wool objects to my website, so be sure to check those out:

the series is named sessilia, after an order of barnacles

Suction Cups!

A few new experiments, begun at various points in January…

all different types of knit tubes, one edge taped to the bottom of the tank

the top edge is free to float in the solution

chunks of a tree trunk chopped up to fit the tank length

held in place with suction cups so they don't float

How I never thought to use suction cups before to prevent things from floating in the extra dense solution, I don’t know! They are perfect and you can get them in a ton of different sizes. January’s moment of genius…

Week 48 of 48 (Happy New Year!)

First post of 2011 and last post of the weekly series from my year at the Vermont Studio Center. I will definitely continue to write entries about how things are going in the studio but not on a weekly basis—just whenever something of interest or special excitement comes up. I returned to Johnson, VT last night after a couple weeks of east coast travel (Roanoke, VA, New York City, Binghamton, NY, Boston and Providence). Here are a few images Warren Buckles shot of my studio before I left for the holidays as well as a few images of a new experiment I set up to begin growing while I was gone. I will return to the studio this weekend to check on the progress of all the new test pieces to decide how to move forward during my last couple months on campus.

photos of studio shot by Warren Buckles at the end of December

shot from the doorway

the first of a new set of experiments, set up before the holidays

kind of festive looking for the holidays!

I am really attracted to how it looks right now, regardless of whether or not the crystals grow...