Project Ideas:
9/17:
I'm currently interested in depicting themes surrounding the female experience and girlhood. I intend to combine domestic and delicate materials with unexpected objects to create a sense of softness, subtly, and feminine, but also cause my audience a sense of unease due to the cold and painful elements mixed in.
Mood Board:
I've written out a list of goals I want to achieve this semester in both painting and sculpture. (I also want to explore how these two mediums can intertwine.)
- Painting:
- Complete scissors painting.
- Find an idea for the large canvas I have.
- Stretch muslin over stretcher bars and utilize tea staining as my painting medium.
- Fiber:
- Complete more knit thread swatches
- Continue to explore knit thread sculptures from the summer. (And other ways to create shape)
- Find fiber objects to cast in iron
- Sculpture:
- Fabric and beading
- Blacksmithing to create more of the knit steel from the spring semester.
- Found objects
- Play/ experiment with latex
Some sketches:
These are rough outlines of what I'm thinking but I definitely want to spend more time thinking them through and creating more detailed sketches/outlines.
I want to change the paper portions to fabric and then put stitch work and beading into them.
Previous Work:
Quietly Devoured
Knit thread, wooden beads, clay teeth, wrapped fabric, and beads
Summer 2024
This is the most recent development in my work. I've continued to explore and expand upon a technique I found last semester with knit thread. Previously, I was working quite small with the knit thread and I wanted to up the scale and really commit to larger swatches. Through artist research and influence I found forms I wanted to attempt. I do want to push this work further and experiment with other techniques of casting.
I Am All You Could Have Been, And You Are All I Might Be
Fabric patches, thread, notes from Mama, and yarn on tea-stained fabric.
Spring 2024
Fabric has been a huge material interest of mine and I want to continue to explore all the different ways it can be manipulated. With this work, I want to continue building it and creating much larger, much more complex pieces that show time.
Slaughterhouse
Found object, fabric, thread, beads, bra, and tule.
Spring 2024
This is honestly my favorite piece I've made recently. I found that working around a found object with techniques, such as beading and sewing, that I love made every part of the process one that I loved. I want to continue with sewing and stuffing patterns but push them to be much more complex.
Steel, cast paper, and thread
Spring 2024
After experiencing the techniques behind this piece and cold-bending all the steel rods, I definitely see myself wanting to explore blacksmithing. I want to see how much quicker and easier it is on the body to use heat to bend the rods. I also want to push the scale of this piece and go much much bigger.
I am Fragile – Tender Like a Bruise Oil and thread on canvas
Fall 2023
I wanted to throw in a recent painting of mine that sort of felt similar to the works I've been producing outside the realm of painting. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it quite yet but I do want to spend time connecting and writing about how all my work has a thread of similarity.
Materials:
The top three materials I want to work with are Found Objects, Fiber, and Fabric. (and cast iron but in a whisper voice because it's supposed to be three)
I want to explore plaster molds and wax building that will eventually lead to casting in different materials.
Iron Pour:
Since I don't have much experience with casting under my belt, I'm really excited to see how I can take my comfort materials such as fiber and fabric, and turn them into metal. I think it's interesting to see how that changes the meaning behind these materials.
Thematic Threads:
Thematic threads I have pursued in the past surround the idea of feminine experience. I've been attempting to see how subtle I can create the message while also still getting the idea across. I want my work to feel delicate and sweet but also have a tinge of strangeness or feel off in a way. Other themes I want to explore are metaphorical and obsessive.
Artist Influences:
1. Nettie Sumner
Sumner's work influenced the latest work I did over the summer. I fell in love with the forms she created and the sense of weightlessness even though her material was wire. The shadows and translucent qualities are what draw me in.
Cocoon
Wire and Bronze
2023
Copper wire and a branch
2023
Copper wire and clay
2023
Sawatzky's stitch work is out of this world and was a huge inspiration for some of the stitch work seen in my BFA work. I also really enjoy her color palettes and think they align closely with my interest in color. All of her work is seen on Instagram and she doesn't really title any of her works that I can find at least.
I wanted to place Milne in this line up because I think a common thread throughout some of my previous works is dealing with material and what happens when fiber techniques are brought to hard materials. I've been obsessed with knitting for over a year now and it has caused me to try to knit with steel and play with scale through my knit thread. I want to continue to explore this interest.
Goldin is a photographer so I don't necessarily connect my work with her work, but I really do draw inspiration from her themes and ideas. I find that her way of documenting her life as a woman is something I want to do and have done in many ways. "My work has been about making a record of my life that no one can revise" is a quote that I find inspiring and that I connect with. Goldin also motivates me to want to work faster and smaller to grab snapshots and then work into larger pieces.
Hesse's materiality behind all of her works is amazing and leaves the result to be barren and beautiful. I find her work that are hard to conserve and that are actively deteriorating to be the most inspiring. They speak to a sense of cycles, death, and humanity.
What's Next:
Graduate school has been on my mind for the last year, and I think it is the pathway I want to head down in the near future. I need to find time to set aside other responsibilities to begin researching programs that fit my needs. I can see myself working as a professor, but I'm not necessarily sure it the the highest career path on my list. Maybe working in a community center would be a better fit if I find that teaching becomes a part of my practice. I need to do more reflection on myself and my wants to better look into career pathways that interest me.
Careers I don't want to end up in are serving for the rest of my life due to how hard it is on my body. While the money is decent and it is a job that is found everywhere, it isn't a job that one can stay in forever without seeing negative effects on the body and mind. I'm not interested in graphic design jobs, curatorial jobs, or managing other artists/museums. Obviously, I'm not opposed to trying out some of these jobs to gain experience and truly decide if they are careers I don't want to pursue.
I loved "(and cast iron but in a whisper voice because it's supposed to be three)," it made me giggle. But I believe your work is successful at being subtle, especially with the combination of your forms and color palette. Most of your work uses abstract forms, while your choice of color is pink, which many consider feminine. I think an artist who might be of interest to you is Holly Rozier. Here's the website (https://www.mrxstitch.com/holly-rozier/) that I found to be the most helpful when reading about her work. For some reason, I think her artist website may be down. Her work is slightly grotesque, but the materials she uses are similar to your 'Slaughterhouse' piece. Or another artist you could look at is Laura Bell (https://www.laurabellstudio.com/sculpturalembroidery). Her sculptural embroidery reads as a relief to me, and given that painting is a part of your practice, perhaps you could incorporate it into your sculptures as well.
ReplyDelete"Slaughterhouse" is one of my favorite pieces you've done and I definitely think about it often. Across all of your work you do a great job at tying them all together. Not only through the color palette and materials you choose, but also through the emotion conveyed. There is a soft, delicate, feminine 'feel' to each piece, while also having this raw, cold, and painful side to each one of them. I could see you really experimenting with fabric 3-dimensionally. For example, I wonder what your BFA project would look like if it was more 3-dimensional and in the round.
ReplyDeleteYour Slaughterhouse was one of my favorites from last semester, however your Weighted Baby Blanket is my favorite. The steel shapes are intriguing. The title alone brings up so much iconography and injects the piece with so much meaning. I would be curious to see what would happen if you revisited steel and incorporated soft fabric rather then paper.
ReplyDeleteI love how your artwork combines grotesque imagery with light pastel colors that evoke a sense of femininity. It creates a juxtaposition between the subject matter and the materials. There is a sense of pain in each piece that draws me in and makes me want to consider more as a viewer. I also like how your work is leaning towards a more fibrous medium because I feel like it can be so versatile especially since you can mix it with other mediums. Working with various textures and keeping your color palettes would be good starting points for future projects.
ReplyDeleteThe textures in your work are so visceral and always draw me in. I have been seeing you do a lot of knit work recently, and I FIRMLY believe you need to cast some of your work in metal, or we will explode if we don't see it. Your fiber work is visually delicate, even when dealing with extremely heavy topics. I think a juxtaposition of ideas here could be fascinating paired with the feminine themes of your work. The delicate fibers are beautiful but destined to disintegrate, but the same forms in a more rigid metal would serve a different message.
ReplyDeleteI have to add that I think expanding on “Weighted Baby Blanket” would be very visually interesting. especially if paired with the textures you created in “I am Fragile – Tender Like a Bruise,” or some other texture on the paper caps.
Check out Lenore Tawney (https://lenoretawney.org/). I think you will like her!