Dill in my Garden and Dill in my Art

Waiting for these to dry to make some pigments from. 

Floral Compositions

Aspidistra

Feverfew

Mixed Bouquet

I began dropping flowers and leaves on to a white background to dry and make pigments. The process is beautiful and I felt sad that I was the only one experiencing the vibrant colors and shapes of the flowers before they would dry out and turn to neutral earth tones. I decided to record this part of the process to show just what I experienced.

Drawn to Bundanon

I made a series of drawings while at the Bundanon Trust Artist Residency in Australia.  I had nine days of bushwalking and drawing from the inspiring landscape. Here are some of my favorites from the experience. 

  

Garden Facing Winter Photographs

Free flow writing about accepting failure...

How do we tell ancient to immediate stories? Today there are few stories passed down from generation to generation.  There are no stories for me to pass down to my children, except for my specific life.  Are we going to keep repeating failures from the past because we choose to not talk about our lives.  Choosing to look at personal family history is hard when no one wants to be open about it.  Guilt, jealousy, and failures are not allowed in the world today.  We strive for perfection yet how are we perfect if every time you think of the past you have to gulp it back down.  Push the history back, forget, live in the now, never in the past, always looking to the future.  Lies, distrust, and secrets are part of our future.  We say that they are bad people but we're all bad.  I hope I am able to answer any question truthfully and honestly.  Progress happens when we accept failure as something normal.  Do not banish someone because they were violent or stupid, instead ask why in order to improve and teach the community.  Forgive and love in the now for the future. 

 "Art as history, and history as art, without them, the knowledge and the people vanish." - Aboriginal unknown person. 

Vermont Studio Center

I have a week left and I am spending some time reflecting.

I have been thinking about being a communicator as an artist.  How do I feel/think and how do I want to communicate my feelings to the art world, advice I was given in a critique with Ward Shelley.  It didn't occur to me until I spent the whole time during my 5 minute slide presentation being only able to communicate my medium.  After my 5 minutes were up I felt like I didn't mention any of my concepts besides saying " I like to question history and stuff "and by the next slide I would start up with what medium I used which was generally the same as the previous slide.  I think I could have done a lot better and now know I need to sit down and have a chat with myself about how to articulate the meaning.  It was helpful to have written down my thoughts as I was working through some pieces.

1. In the landscape piece I wrote: dirt VSC, coal VSC, hydrangea pigment VSC, sleeplebush pigment, eggshell pigment, invisible habitants, harmony, balance, signs, lace layers, taking it in.  [obviously about my impressions of the landscape of Johnson, VT and using the found materials.]
2. Mud Painting: dirt VSC, dahlia NY, hydrangea VSC, Walking the___ (because I'm pretty sure there are some feces in that mud), getting deeper, endless, more and more, living with impulse, pulse, memoir, pulsing life, my therapy, hidden, hibernation, warmth, there are always words left unsaid in my family, impossible questions to mom, scary.   [Making something meditative as I dive in to difficult family history.]
3. Dark Charcoal Painting: sadness, uncovering, digging, working through issues, impossible to uncover everything, impossible to know future, leaves you here.  [Another meditative piece where I'm acknowledging the unknown and accepting mystery.]
4. Table Painting: lure, understanding myself and what I'm doing, gathering, curiosity, collection, disease, everyone is getting sick, cold, -4 degree F as a high, inside, sticks, anger, selfishness. [ I think in this one I am writing a lot of words that are focusing on the self. ]

Working through some sort of artist statement I came up with....

These ethnobotanical paintings are about experiencing a place, a moment, and a mark.  Made by using found materials and handmade pigments found in my immediate surroundings, often from plants, charcoal, cloth, and mud.  My work collages sweeping lines, occasional text, surface textures, interweaving and overlapping detail to broad mark, and breaking up a mark and also restoring the original gesture with repeating the same gesture repeatedly.  With a limited palette I have been relating to ancient cave paintings in southern France.  And as I'm directed to southern France the web of discovery reveals my ancestral roots, and interests me to begin with immediate family history to relate to the notion of understanding what immediately surrounds me.  I hope to encourage asking questions about our human expression and encourage curiosity about natural history.  My goal is to acknowledge the past, engage in the present, and create a new visual story for the future. 

^ This needs work but I need sleep now.

"INTRODUCTIONS"

INTRODUCTIONS

On view: December 13 – January 7, 2013 Opening Reception: December 13, 7-9PM

(BROOKLYN, NY – December 13, 2012)

 —Introductions is an exhibition featuring eight artists who have recently graduated from BFA or MFA programs around the country. Each of the artists in Introductions displays a pressing sense of time, transition, and the unknown through their artwork.

Images of dying bees, melting snow, idyllic temples, pocked elders, anonymous subway scenes, dystopic suburbia, or something that looks like spit, offer a voyeuristic glimpse into the artist’s private world. This view triangulates the artist’s ‘real life’ between the viewer and the artwork indicating time lapse and a measure of what’s to come.

Patricia Brace, Sam Branan, Case Jernigan, Kit Lagreze, Darryl Leung, Andy Mattern, Rachel Rickert and Rachel Sard

Visitor Information

Address: 168 7th Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Hours: Monday through Friday, 11AM – 6PM, Saturdays by appointment Website: www.trestlegallery.org

Questioning Materials

 My study has engaged me in learning methods and processes used by our ancestors. My work is 

about the surface of the painting.  What is on this canvas and how does every element of it feel to 

me.  Three dimensional objects poke out of the painting as I question my use of materials.  I am 

utterly involved in my relation to every object I use to create art.  I am continually asking where does this paint come from? Who made it? What plant or mineral is it from?  I can use a tube of beautiful colors but I haven't been finding those colors to be connected to the meaning of what I have created. 

A Moment of Release
handmade dahlia oil paint and graphite on panel
2012

When I use my surrounding environment of materials it is a part of me, my existence, and my beliefs.  In an age where we must question ingredients in our food, shampoo, and medicine, I am doing the same for my paintings. The materials I use are leftover flower petals and herbs from the New York City Flower Market.  There is an extreme amount of wasted flowers because they are either "dead" or "bruised" or have a broken stem.  My paintings have always correlated plants and flowers and by breaking down those bruised and dead flowers in to pigment using a mortar and pestle, I have a direct relationship to my inspiration.  It sometimes takes hours to create an ounce of pigment but the result is gratifying. The work results in expressive marks and sketches of present surroundings with occasional hints of text describing moment of thought.  

Different Families

Handmade oil paint (delphinium, lavender, hydrangea, and basil) and graphite on panel

2012