February - March 2012

Jentel
Spent one month in rural Wyoming at Jentel Artist Residency Program. An amazing and productive time spent with three other visual artists - Charlie Capp, Joseph Kendrick, and Ryan Molenkamp - and two writers - Alena Graedon and Erica Olson.

Completed many projects, including: Kindly Use - a site specific work consisting of hand-painted signs placed along a four mile stretch of Lower Piney Creek Road referencing land-use ethic; Good Neighbor - a work that explored the role of fences in the West; Small Gestures - see January 2012 blog post; and other smaller projects that tracked my observations of this place.

photo credit: Joseph Kendrick

March - April 2012

But the Flowers, They were Ours and Work is What I Do on display in the 15th International Open at WomanMade Gallery in Chicago, IL, from March 2 - April 26, 2012. Juror: Linda Warren.

Artist reception: March 2, 2012, from 6 - 9 pm.

February - March 2012

Shadow Effects is on display at the Douglas County Museum in Roseburg, OR.

Through this exhibit I hijack the topic of land management on O&C (Oregon & California Railroad) Lands from environmental activists, politicians and the timber industry. I also seek to monitor the impacts of the shrinking county budget through looking at the public library.

Go to my website to see more images.

Exhibit runs February 3 - March 31, 2012. Click here and here to read articles on the exhibit (News Review subscription needed to view articles).

image by Sandee McGee

January - February 2012

curious

Fine Arts Faculty Show at The Art Gallery at Umpqua Community College.

I am displaying the beginnings of a body of work called Small Gestures (bottom image). For this project I've collected return envelopes from solicitations of credit card companies, magazine companies, etc. I am creating small drawings to send to the employees of these places - complete strangers - in the mail to acknowledgement the work they complete each day. I will complete the rest of this project - roughly 200 drawings - during my residency at Jentel in Banner, WY.

November 2011 - January 2012

A Long Slow Forlorn Cry - Chapters 2, 4, and 10 on display at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center. Juried by John Olbrantz.

Exhibit runs November 4, 2011 - January 6, 2012.

October - December 2011

Shadow Effects

My multi-media installation Shadow Effects is currently on display at The Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, Iowa, from October 13 - December 31, 2011.

Click here to see more images.

October - December 2011

Western Oregon Regional

A Long Slow Forlorn Cry (Chapter 4) on display at the Coos Art Museum from October 14 - December 3, 2011.

September - October 2011

mapping affection

Sandee McGee and I co-curated the exhibit mapping affection at The Art Gallery at Umpqua Community College. Featuring the works of Jessica Curtaz, Sally Finch, Charlene Liu, Carly Piccarello, Kerri Rosenstein, Lexi Ryckman-Harriet and Lisa Solomon. Exhibit runs September 12 - October 27, 2011.

August 2011

To Missoula with Love

A postcard show curated by Yaro Neils at FrontierSpace Gallery in Missoula, MT. Artists from across the country were asked to use the "old-fashioned art of correspondence" by sending artist-created postcards. On display for the month of August.

image credit: from FrontierSpace website

July 2010

object stories

During my last trip to Portland to have a fun "art day," my friend and colleague Sandee and I participated in Object Stories at the Portland Museum of Art. Story topics range from hope to remembrance, adventure, love, growth and wonder, and more. Click here to view stories...and look for my story.

July 2011

I won a $1,500 Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission to assist in the completion of my installation Shadow Effects. Excited and honored to have received the grant, which will ensure that the current scope of my project is maintained. Can't wait to begin shopping for materials! The grant eases my stress levels because I can now focus on just making the work.

Shadow Effects will be exhibited at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in northwest Iowa from October 13-December 31, 2011. It will later show at the Douglas County Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Roseburg, OR in February-March 2012; and Rogue Art Gallery in Medford, OR in July 2012.

To learn more about Shadow Effects, click here or view my May - September 2011 blog entry.

July 2011

teduim

Solo exhibit at Rogue Community College's Firehouse Gallery in Grants Pass, OR. Exhibit includes works for the permutation series, the long, slow, forlorn cry series and the sculptural work HSH SOS. Works on display June 29-July 28, 2011.

July 2011

SAAC Juried 2011

But the Flowers, They Were Ours and Work is What I Do on display at the South Arkansas Art Center from July 1-29, 2011. Juror: Astrid Oviedo Clark

June 2011

Finally decided to get a website. Click here to check it out.

June - September 2011

Art of Our Century

A Long, Slow, Forlorn Cry (Chapter 1) on display at Woodbury Art Museum at Utah Valley University in Orem (Salt Lake City), Utah from June 3 - September 23, 2011. Juror: Erin Linder, Exhibitions Director of Kimball Art Center.

May - September 2011

On and on and on...

Once again back working in ernest on Shadow Effects. Feeling focused. Will be working on this project for the next few months...it needs to be finished by the end of September for an exhibit.

Above is a image of what Shadow Effects could look like when installed.

April - May 2011

37th National Photo Exhibition

Permutation (June 18), A Long, Slow, Forlorn Cry (Chapter 1),and A Long, Slow, Forlorn Cry (Chapter 3) on display at the Larson Gallery in Yakima, WA, from April 8 - May 7 2011. Ann Pallesen (shown above), Gallery Director of the Photo Center NW in Seattle, WA, juried this exhibit.

Reception held on April 8, 2011.

March - May 2011

Celebrating Collage: Contemporary Artists Respond

Exhibit curated by Jon Leach at The Art Gallery at Umpqua Community College from March 28 - May 12, 2011. Other artists participating in this exhibit include: Siobhan Clancey-Burns, Shelley Curtis, Nicole Dally, Suzan Fant, Cynthia Herron, Susan Lehman, Keith Pace, Vinita Pappas, Susan Rochester, Pat Snyder, dorothea tortilla, Donna Watson and myself.

Opening reception on Friday, April 8, 2011, 5 - 7 pm.

February - March 2011

Finished scanning, editing and selecting linted-book page images. Twenty images became a limited-edition book entitled A Long, Slow, Forlorn Cry. Also selected eight images to be printed at 24"x 28" by Sterling Editions. This group of works, along with images from the Permutations series (see April 2010's post), will be be exhibited at Rogue Community College's Firehouse Gallery this summer.

January 2011

You're Perfect!

Started creating signs for a public installation. Reclaimed cardboard used to make signs saying, "You're Perfect!" to be placed around Roseburg, OR. It will be a small gesture to brighten people's day as they go to or return from the variety of daily responsibilities.

January - February 2011

Examinations and Explanations...

Works by Susan Rochester, Sandee McGee, Ted Isto, Greg Price and myself are on display for the UCC Faculty Exhibition at the The Art Gallery at Umpqua Community College.

Exhibit includes, but the roses, they were our's, made from over 3,800 pinches of salt and old work gloves (above left), as well as other works made from a variety of media, including collected lint, collected ash, collected tears and photography.

Exhibit opens January 3, 2011. Reception to be held January 27, 2011, from 4 - 6 pm.

December 2010 - January 2011

(re)starting and finishing...

Took a break from Shadow Effects December and January.

Finished redacting a used romance novel using collected lint in response to Henri Lefebvre's essay "Clearing the Everyday." I will reduce the novel to 20 scanned pages and re-publish into a a new romance novel. I will reduce the novel again--down to eight images (pages)--that will be printed to 24" x 28" that follow the general arch of all romance novels. These, along with images from Permutations series, will be a part of an upcoming exhibit Tedium at the Firehouse Gallery of Rogue Community College in July 2011.

Started to revise 10 Pillows Not to be Laid on Again (March 25, 1911/2010). This year is significant given it marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, where 146 people, mostly young women, died. Currently collecting 146 pillow cases from friends and family; going to ask for donations from hotels. See August 2010 for the original version of this work.

Above images shows me working on pillow cases (top) and one of the scanned linty book pages (bottom)

December 2010

Ink Spot Print Exchange on display at the Nightingale Gallery at Eastern Oregon University in LaGrande, OR, from December 1-10, 2010. Click here to read the press release for this exhibit.

I've participated in the Print Exchange for the past three years. This year, my work was a silk screened image of the words Steal Time/Steel Time, a play on words inspired by Bruce Nauman and our cultural perception on time.

Postcard image by Angela Katona-Batchelor

November 2010

Started research for Shadow Effects. Reading a lot. The O&C Lands have a complicated history--one source referred to these particular public lands as a "hornet's nest."

Four interviews done. The interviews take a long time to transcribe. Ultimately, I will print the interviews onto library cards and house each interview its own card catalog drawer for the viewer to engage with the thoughts of environmentalists, foresters, industry workers, library workers and library users.

Photographed enough blue painted trees (above right) for one video element. Also created a short video of balloons caught in a tree gently blowing (still from video above left)...

October 2010

Research materials for my new project, tentatively titled Shadow Effects, finally arrived. This project will explore the connections between logging, libraries and employment through sculpture, video, photography and drawing...and glitter encrusted conifer cones. There is much research to do and I am excited to begin researching and planning for my first installation. I believe this to be particularly relevant projects considering library closures within the state of Oregon and the declining forest products industry.

My questions for this project:

-- What pressures does capitalism place on the environment and the community?

-- How are these pressures manifested?

-- How does one's work shape their position on land use management?

-- How can federal lands be managed to benefit the environment, industry and the community?

October - November 2010

Work is What I Do currently on display at the Coos Biennial from October 1 - November 27, 2010 at the Coos Art Musem in Coos Bay, OR. This is a nice little fundraiser that I like to participate in as a gesture of support for the museum.

Work is What I Do examines where and how our identities are derived. One's identity is a multiplicity of roles derived from one's job and personal relationships. Through collecting ash from my wood stove and ash from one month of burned paper work, I tried to measure compare work completed at two sites that shape my identity.

Click here to read a short article in the Coos Bay newspaper about the exhibit.

image by Jon Leach

September 2010

Labor Day's Labor (2.0)

Finished with graduate school. Time to begin a new studio practice.

This year's Labor Day's Labor focuses on the two areas that feed me: my studio practice and my garden. One feeds me literally while the other feeds me figuratively. Both enrich me.

Inspired by Yoko Ono's book Grapefruit, a series of video stills show me cutting up a series of 50 drawings I made earlier this year. The drawings--Venn Diagrams--explore ideas surrounding work and labor. I planted seeds in my garden, covering them with the paper mulch. Soon I will nourish my body with the food that grows through the drawings.

Individual video stills will be selected to create a limited edition series of photographs.

August - October 2010

4th Annual 100 Valleys

There is No Bottom to Reach (detail, right) and I Snap Alive at this Ritual (detail, left) are on display in the 100 Valleys Regional Exhibition juried by Kerri Rosenstein at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association from August 27-October 29, 2010. I Snap Alive at this Ritual was award Best in Show.

image (right) by Sandee McGee

August - September 2010

Art at the X

Escaping the Everyday is on display in Art at the X National Juried Exhibition at Xavier Univeristy Art Gallery at the AB Cohen Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Juried by Dennis Harrington, this exhibit runs August 27 - September 24, 2010.

Escaping the Everyday responds to the essay "Clearing the Everyday" by French philosopher Henri Lefebvre. I want to re-stage this image as a looped video.

August 2010

sanctuary: an echo of frustration
MFA thesis exhibition at the T.W. Wood Gallery at Vermont College of Fine Arts including sculptures responding to the questions, "what is work?" and "what is our relationship to work?"

Exciting work by my fellow graduates also on display. Click here to see images of my work and the work of my fellow graduates.

Opening reception: August 3, 2010
Graduation reception: August 7, 2010

Shown above: 10 Pillows not to be Laid on Again (March 25, 1911/2010) and three other thesis works in the background.

image by Polly Gaillard

July 2010

Almost there...

My final critique with Tannaz Farsi went well. Sudden changes made to works. Finishing touches. Everything takes more time than I think. Work display decided. Titles decided.

I've learned to trust myself, to trust in the process. I spent hours on Etsy.com looking for the perfect bottle, only to decide my original bottle is the perfect bottle for Sometime Just Too Damn Much, Sometimes Just Not Enough, a poetic reference to dreams and disappointments shown above. The 135 pounds of salt originally to be a part of another work has become its own work, reduced to 113 pounds--my weight--of salt and titled Moments Like Dust Blown Through My Body.

My Faculty Advisor, Dont Rhine, reviewed and gave the go ahead on the final draft of my Process Paper. Now I have to prepare for the residency.

image by Sandee McGee

July 2010

2010 Annual Juried Art Competition

The Strictest Discipline and We Eat Laughing, Helpless and Forgetful are currently on display at the South Arkansas Arts Center from July 2 - 29, 2010. Juror David Houston, chief curator of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, selected The Strictest Discipline for third place honors.

images by Susan Rochester

June 2010

Movement (forward, backward, forward...)
Currently, I'm deep in the trenches trying to complete all my work for my MFA thesis exhibition. Working diligently while trying to remain aware so that I don't miss opportunities that present themselves within the work. Time is flying by. While many decisions are made, I still have more decisions to make.

I'm spending hours coating pillowcases will an ash/wax mix and wax is currently all over my studio. I recently bought out the grocery story of hot pink food coloring to dye 135 lbs of salt a cotton-candy pink color.

Trusting in the process, trusting that everything will be finished by mid-July.

image by Sandee McGee

June - August 2010

UVAA Open
Umpqua Valley Arts Association's annual members exhibit on display from June 18 - August 20, 2010.

May 2010

"There are no tears in art..."
Tannaz Farsi (my Artist-Teacher) said during a recent critique. I disagree. I believe there are tears in art, lots of them some times.

In response to this conversation, in response to readings on Hans Haake (Condensation Cube), Piero Manzoni (Artist's Breath and Artist's Shit), and Marcel Duchamp (Air de Paris), I'm collecting my tears in the small bottle. I have 25 tears, but I expect to collect more. I believe this, in it's own way, is a measurement of work. I'm reflecting on having hopes and dreams, the work and frustration involve in reaching those dreams, and how it feels to fail.

Agnes Martin once said that making art is a solitary business. Indeed, it sometimes feels that way.

April 2010

In this last semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts my life has become a series of to-do and have-done lists.

To Do:

-read Arcane of Reproduction by Leopoldina Fortunati

-read The Right to be Lazy by Paul Lafargue

-buy salt for new works

-collect other materials, do experiments

-finish first draft of process paper, opening statement and artist statement

-continue images for the Permutation of Congealed Labor series aka "ghost cubes" (this will be an on-going series of images in continued exploration of labor's 'tedium of repetition')

Have Done:

-read significant portions of Art Workers by Julia Bryan-Wilson

-created a nice group of images for the Permutations of Congealed Labor series

-embossed some lint cubes with words or parts of words

-created a mock-installation of works

-finished two "infinity cubes" (but I still need to title them)

-read The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton

-re-read Mythologies by Roland Barthes

March 2010

As I move forward in my last semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts into the production of my thesis body of work (and hopefully beyond), I want to respond to the following questions:

What is work? (How has work changed historically?)
What is our (cultural) relationship to work? (Why do we work? How is work measured and who measures it? How is it valued? How do you proved you've worked? Is work necessary?)

Above is a venn diagram drawing. I made this drawing (and others) as a means of trying to answer some of the questions listed above. Additionally, I'm creating short videos of myself working so that I can produce a personal definition of the word work.

February 2010

Four down, one to go...
I completed my forth residency at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Many exciting speakers, including artists Carlos Motta and Lisa Sigal have found ways to balance the personal and the political. I presented my research on Marxism, Bruce Nauman and Mary Kelly to Marie Shurkus and my research group, and presented my work with Michael Minelli and Ulrike Muller during my candidacy review. the faculty granted me full credit for my Visual Culture Project and my Studio Project. I now advance into my final semester, anticipating earning my MFA in August 2010.

During my final semester, I work with Dont Rhine, an LA based sound artist and co-founder of the sound art collective UltraRed (logo above right) on my research project. I work again with Tannaz Farsi, an installation artist (image above left), as my Artist-Teacher. I continue to work with lint in a variety of ways, finishing works begun during last semester under the guidance of Allan deSouza.

I look forward to seeing where things will go...

January - February 2010

A group exhibit juried by Lily Mayfield at WomanMade Gallery in Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit shows a wide range of work of 35 artists from across the country who are currently pursuing their BFA’s or MFA’s from January 22-February 24, 2010. Click here to read the press release for this exhibit and here to read a blog post on WomanMade's blog.

January 2010

Wrapping up my third semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts. The assignment my Artist Teacher Allan deSouza gave me provided much needed focus and my work took on a life of its own (see December's post). While still labor intensive, my work currently has a very different feel. The assignment forced me--freed me--to really experiment.

Above is a still from a video of me playing/working with 144 lint blocks. In the video, I'm trying to make and maintain a structure, but it keeps falling apart. Just when I make the structure secure, more blocks--more responsibilities--appear, I have keep stacking, keep working. It looks like play, but it's work...

January - March 2010

Review Session

A group exhibit featuring works by UCC Fine Art Faculty at The Art Gallery at Umpqua Community College from January 11-March 11, 2010. (image above)

East Meets West

A group invitational exhibit at the Giustina Gallery at the LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, on display from January 11-February 24, 2010.

January - February 2010

The Strictest Discipline on display in the exhibit Americas 2010: Paperworks juried by Heidi Goldberg at the Northwest Art Center of Minot State University in North Dakota from January 11-February 24, 2010.

December 2009 - February 2010

On the Cutting Edge
A regional exhibit juried by Kay Campbell, Jon Leach and Beverly Soasey at the Coos Art Museum. The exhibition is on display from December 11, 2009 – February 12, 2010.

Click here and here to read two different articles of the exhibit printed in the Coos Bay newpaper.

December 2009

Assignment

In my continued effort to create more fluidity between media while focusing on similar content, my artist-mentor Allan (deSouza) has given me an assignment:

I can only work with the 144 two inch by two inch by two inch cubes I recently finished (ironically based on a Carl Andre work) and the garbage bags of lint I've collected. I can photograph them, build things out of them, scan them, drop them, video tape them, whatever I want with them, but I can only work with the collected lint and the 144 cubes. I look forward to what will happen. It reminds me of Bruce Nauman's self assignment that led to Flour Arrangements.

Click here to watch an interview between Allan and Humberto Ramirez taped at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

November 2009

My research on Bruce Nauman and Mary Kelly is proving itself useful. Nauman’s fluidity between media and Kelly’s ability to construct layers of meaning through materials, objects, words and installation is inspiring. These two artists are excellent models for me right now.

Using lint as a signifier for domestic labor and a means of measuring daily or weekly labor, it is my raw material in producing works that involve creating bar graphs charting my consumption, stress levels, savings, etc. Another current interest lays in what staircases symbolize--how staircases connect interior spaces to exterior spaces (the public to the private); how staircases can be used to enter or escape.

Special thanks to faculty and students at Umpqua Community College who collected their lint for my use. The image (above right) is a still from a 5 minute video I made about work ethic and erasure.

October 2009

Thinking about cycles of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly acticities...of the everyday, of the constant messing up or undoing and erasure as a proof work. How can this be measured?

This image shows me working on a cutting board print. Each week I used and printed the cutting board, thereby taking a measure of labor performed in the kitchen; the cutting board becomes a timeline of sorts...

September 2009

Labor Day's Labor

Currently exploring wage labor and domestic labor. How we value labor? Where it take place? What does it produce? Domestic labor is a series of erasures, occurring in a private space while wage labor produces something and often occurs in a public space.

In a series of photographs taken on Labor Day, I went to a road in much need of repair, yet skipped over by the recent wave of stimulus-related road construction and repaired it using materials used in or waste produced from domestic activities.

Individual video stills will be selected to create a limited edition series of images.

Rose Stone September

I went to the closing reception of Kerri Rosenstein’s exhibit at the Missoula Art Museum. Her work father is beautiful and thought provoking. Each visitor was encouraged to take one stone from the exhibit and place it into the world. When every stone is placed back into the world will the piece be finished.

I took one rose stone from the exhibit to place into the world. I thought of a lecture I attended during my residency at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Art Historian Marie Shurkus spoke of appropriation, re-enactment and affect. I decided to recreate or re-enact part of Rosenstein’s work (entitled Father) to place my rose stone. I opted to collect 230 stones (roughly 1% of what Rosenstein) collected to place my rose stone. Next, I decided to collect blue stones in honor of my grandfather. I collected 282 stones (roughly 1% of the number of days in his life) where I placed a blue stone with “couture” written on it.

August - October 2009

3rd Annual Hundred Valleys Exhibit juried by Walt Padgett at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association. The exhibit will run from August 28 to October 30, 2009.

The Strictest Discipline focuses on the notion of language as an object. For this work, I compiled phrases that spoke directly to communication from a book by Ludwig Wittgenstein.

image by Susan Rochester