What if Degas observed yoga studios?

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Yesterday I spent some time at the MFA Boston’s “Degas and the Nude” exhibition. Confession: for all the concept-based work I’m doing about simulation, observation and surveillance, I’m still a sucker for a well-rendered nude.
In the dim light of the exhibition I observed beautiful line, vibrant color, bawdry images (lesbian sex...consider the era!), smoky scenes of voluptuous flesh made with the simple swipe of a rag through ink, and one heck of a complex relationship with women. 
But what resonated most deeply with me was the beauty in the awkward poses of Degas' bathers and dancers. Suddenly the big-assed woman getting out of the bath, balancing precariously on one foot had as much grace and purpose as his earlier Spartan figures. And I recognized a similar desire, as an artist, to show the moment of “coming into” or “getting out” of that I explored in my hair drawing/yoga series from 2003-2007.  Now I’m not comparing my work to Degas’…never would I dare...but I read in his work a shared yearning to express the dynamism of the human figure in the complex context of our modern world.  (His being, of course, much different than mine.)  
So I ask you this: what if Degas had access not only to the brothel, but also to a yoga studio? 
Two Degas bronzes ("Dancer Holding her Right Foor in Her Right Hand" and "Dancer Looking at the Sole of her Right Foot") at MFA's "Degas and the Nude"
"Remapping #1", 2007. Human hair on paper.

Open Studios

Thanks to all who stopped by Fort Point Open Studios this past weekend and shared impressions and thoughts about my work. It's so helpful to get feedback as I wrestle with new directions in my work. 

"In a town where conversations with strangers are often flatlined" (a borrowed descriptor from a new friend), I found great fodder and inspriation.

Here's to continuing the conversation throughout the year...

 

OccupyBoston


On Saturday I stopped by OccupyBoston at Dewey Square on the Greenway to shoot some video for class. I was expecting (hoping) to get some tense cop/activist footage but alas, the cops were actually helping the protesters. A cop to the protesters, "Now if I were you, I'd stop and pivot here, around the sign post." (Did he actually say sashay?)
While it's nowhere near the size of Occupy Wall Street, I was still impressed and inspired by the sense of interconnectedness I saw among participants. People really seemed to care. They care about what's going on nationally, and they care about the local environment. There's a food tent, a medic, and people there to help. "I have the answers", read one cardboard sign. 
Good luck my friends. I'll be back for more interviews -- and your answers -- and if the editing software gods shine down on me, I'll post some videos soon on my website.

Transparent White, are you the answer?

So I think Winsor Newton Transparent White may have changed my life…or at least my oil paintings. According to www.winsornewton.com it provides the “palest white glaze”. I have four days to find out if it can also provide the color and light that comes so easily with watercolors but escapes me in oil painting. This painting and three others will be finished, cropped, stretched, and perhaps even framed in time for Fort Point Open Studios this weekend. Come see! Friday 4-7 pm and Saturday and Sunday 11 am – 6 pm at 12 Farnsworth (next to Flour Bakery).

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A 3D painting for the pioneers of 3D rendering

Tonight, my Fort Point neighbors at Neoscape are celebrating 15 years of creating breathtaking renderings, animations, interactive and design for the real estate and architecture fields. Neoscape President Rob MacLeod, and one of the pioneers in Experiential Design and Visualization, asked me to hang a few works for their celebration. He chose, “Undone”, my first experiment in cutting canvas to create a three dimensional object, for its obvious connection to Neoscape’s 3D work.

While Neoscape’s work is just plain cool and slick and mine is purposefully messy, there’s a similarity in the works…both are storytelling and an invitation to the viewer to imagine things that aren’t yet there.

Happy birthday Neoscape! 

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a city plaza, life's canvas

This is city life…this is art: Me on a bench in business clothes working on a laptop in a city plaza. Two young men in front of me juggling a soccer ball, beginning a 12-hour marathon fundraiser. A pile of blankets on the bench to my right with a dirty sock poking out. Adjacent to us, a slumbering, sunburned sailor with Patagonia clothes and the trappings of a past ‘good life’. The park employee cleaning the barrels hands a resourceful homeless man an extra trash bag for his possessions. Meanwhile, thousands of commuters stream by us, never picking up their heads. How can we not see each other on this great canvas of a plaza?   

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It looks like a turkey

People have said more degrading things about my artwork but “It looks like a turkey” was the first poultry reference I’ve ever heard…about my artwork, not me. (Full disclosure: I’ve been accused of talking in circles like a hen; My sister says the adorable messages I leave her in French sound as if a turkey hijacked my phone; and I have refined an excellent pigeon impression.)

The turkey comment came from a Boston police officer as my fellow artist/arts-activist/patron/friend and I walked through Chinatown last night with Soft Spore White in a clear plastic bag. I’d finally delivered it to her –  a work from an installation she helped make possible in January 2009 – and suddenly, I wanted it back! It is the best conversation piece. Ever.

Imagine if you will, a 16” irregular sphere of iridescent white with 3” conical spikes all over it, which have been folded and smooshed up against the side of a bag. Its shape is not perfect and it sags into the corners like a lifeless fair prize goldfish at the bottom of a bag of water. 

What is it? 

A spore! And we’ll release it on you if you don’t stop staring!

One woman said it looked like a dumpling. I call it art. The whole thing…the piece and the interactions with people while walking through Chinatown, and later sitting by the Chinatown Park waterfall.

I have visions of creating one enormous spore and suspending it in plastic over the plaza…what would people say then?

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