wood

Process is definitly coming along now. It feels great to build. I went in the woodshop last Sat. from 11 am to 6. It was awsome. So far I have one base and one almost finished armature of wood. Judith helped me tremendously which I am extremely grateful for. I had a lot of fun using all those machines. I felt like a powerful woman! haha

Curious

One thing I often wonder about are unkown thoughts of pedestrians and why they move the way they do. Why do they choose to kick a piece of trash? why do they pick it up? Why do they keep the certain amount of space around them as they do? While googling about pedestrian body language, I came across an entertaining website titled Pedestrian Spy. The owner of this site takes photos of random people from his fire escape and post's them on the internet with fictional funny stories and assumptions about who they are and what they're thinking. Check it out. It's really funny.

http://www.markallencam.com/pedestrianspy.html

Thought of the day to remember for future refrence

"Make Art Expecting to Fail" That notion is one of the best advice I've gotten in a while thanks to one of my best friends Shawna. She's a photography major at AIB and a wonderful friend. This phrase and way of thinking pushes the importance of process and reminds us that failing is a lesson. We can gain from failing instead of dreading it. I'm going to keep experimenting and accept the outcome of my efforts.

Update on process

After talking to a few experts it has gone through my thick head that I really do need to build a really strong armature for these glass trees. I went to good ol Home Depot and bought several pieces of wood and chicken wire. No I'm not building a chicken coop. I'm going to have to do some math and figure out how to drill and glue the pieces together into a strong skeleton. In order to get organic winding looking trees, I'm going to have to wrap them in chicken wire and attach pieces of glass to it that way. I might have to drill holes in some of the pieces and hang them from the branches. I'm not too familiar with the woodshop but before I go down there I'm going to have to draw exactly what I need on each of the pieces to make it easier for the poor person who has to help me. I don't like having to ask for help but I sure need it. I've used some equipment in there before and an extremely patient and generous woman helped me. I forgot her name but I really appreciated her help. Thats all I got for now....

Ahh Process

Process of art well any process has its ups and downs. When a person has an in depth challenging project in mind, others comments can be slightly dimming to their vision. Its possible I have been a little too optomistic and naive in my chosen idea. The more sculpture and glass familiar people I've talked to, the more bothered I have become which in some ways makes me want to do it that much more. From the reaction of most, I've gotten the vibe that my artistic vision overrides my mechanical ablilty as a non sculptor. One thing at a time...

Reasearching Joan Fontcuberta

Topics approached: Joan Fontcuberta is a spanish photographer who touches on the knowlege of people. He plays with our perceptions and deals with the notion of reality.

How is their work connected to a larger context? His work is connected to where we live. In his work he uses the placement of our mind and memory. The context his work is connected to is earth as our world and how we react to it in terms of the definity of knowing.

How does he present his work? Form: His form or used material is digital photography, photograms,. Content: Joan's work includes topics such as science, art history(particularly his favorite Spanish artists), and human perception of place/environment and fiction.

Concept: Joan Fontcuberta's work is primarily based on reality as we know it or think we know it. He transforms data from familiar objects into fictional imagry.

Methods: In his piece "Landscapes of Landscapes", he used data of various images including maps, as his source material and translated them into fictional digital landscapes that contain an extremely crisp quality. He also takes close up shots of various body parts and uses their data to creat beautiful mystical landscapes.

Impressive: The process of Fontcuberta's work is impressive to me. It must be challenging to transform images to such an extreme using exact data from the source material. The asthetic quality of his images are also exciting.

His work adds an interesting contratdiction to the notion "seeing is believing". As a fairly gulable person, I often believe realistic looking images. I often read them as honest representations without questioning thier reality. His work reminds me that I should constanly question what I see. The playfulness Joan's work is very attractive. His recreation of information changes the definition of the product. His work makes me think of our environment in a new light. It reminds me that our knowlege of matter can carry several definitions.

Sources: Periodicals: Art Papers 30 no3 My/Je 2006 pgs. 25-7
Art Press no 314 84-5 JI/Ag 2005
Internet Sources: http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/fontcuberta_joan.php
http://www.artnet.com/artist/6336/joan-fontcuberta.html
http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/fontcuberta/efontcuberta.html

patient process

Above are some sketches I've done so far. I've been talking to people with knowlege of glass. I'm in the process of making appointments w/ some glass faculty. My mind is bombarded w/ information. I'm going to make small scale models before I dive into the real thing. I was told there are two kinds of adhesive used for glass. One of them is UV and needs to be completely flush on a surface in order to stick. The other one I was told about seems easier to work with. I'll be taking notes of frustrations, and happy accidents during the making.

thoughts during process

Glass Glass and more glass is all I keep thinking about since I came up with the idea. I'm still working though and asking myself those questions we're programmed to question as artists. What do the materials im using refrence? What are the elements of trees and how do they correspond with glass liquor bottles? What is associated with trees and those bottles separately and together? How do I want the tree to look? How will it be lit? Where is the space most appropriate for this installation? Will I be able to construct the piece in its temporary residence or am I going to have to try to build it in the studio and move it hoping it wont break on the way. aaahh lots and lots to think about. One thing at a time. Thats the way you gotta do it. The Mission was cool enough to let me collect bottles from them. I have 2 cases of various beer bottles. I need to rinse them soon before they stink.

Glass Trees

The Idea for my semester long project was inspired by Cornelia Parker's piece called Hanging Fire. She creates new meanings by using pieces of evidence. Parker reconstructed the woodburnt pieces by haning them so they appeared weightless and energetic. I really enjoyed the fact that she used fragments of a distaster to create something beautiful. Living in the city, I've noticed an abundance of glass liquor, wine, and beer bottles on the ground. Often times left under trees these bottles could be considered an inorganic or part of our landscape. They are evidence of Boston's night life as well as day life. They are also evidence of events experienced by the people who've left them. Having said that I was thinking of taking pieces of these glass bottles and forming them into an installation of life size trees. I want to transform them into a surreal landscape. Trees have always been beautiful to me. I've always been captivated by the beauty of thier characters. I'm excited to take this project on. It will be an exciting challenge to work with glass in a sculptural form.