AIB Jan 2010-Summary

I came to January’s residency with a body of work that discussed a fascination I have with the tenacity of the natural world over man’s best efforts. First was a group of drawings, which is a continuation of a daily practice I have discovered for myself while working on my MFA.

These drawings are a represented mediation on growth and time and recently I began working on velum to bring a sculptural element to these works. My intent was to draw an environment that surrounds the viewer with an image of incessant growth. Which I feel these do successfully. Though these are very attractive and accessible to many people, I think it would be difficult to force them into a thesis body of work. Perhaps I can use this work as a point of departure for forms in the work I plan on pursuing during the next semester.

Second I brought several photographs showing what I have dubbed “found sculptures.” They depict places where the human environment is overcome by the forces of nature. At all times microbes are working, but given enough dust deposited by the wind a layer of topsoil becomes a home and eventually trees burst forth. I had a variety of photos of these places where nature saw its opportunity and moved in. Although I wish to continue to document these places and allow them to continue to inform my work I will not be using photographs as an element in my thesis work.

The third work I brought were wall sculptures, these works with cracks, glass mosaic and the living grasses in them had humor and metaphor, and they married aesthetic attractiveness with the concept behind my work. They seemed to function as a contemplative objects without the label “activist work.”