Networking

A little bit of drawing done this week, but as always mostly more researching, more looking and thinking that always seems to dominate my life.

Above are some samples of the sketching I did this week. They are all very rough and unfinished, but they got some ideas on the table that I'm really hoping to stamp out this weekend during some serious studio time.

I did attend a lecture Tuesday evening in the Dana building on campus, given by landscape architect and artist Martha Schwartz on the subject of sustainability and landscape architecture. Her projects were as innovative and inspiring as they were thought-provoking. What was most interesting to me though, was that she had been an artist before she became a landscape architect, (she even showed some of her art works and installations), a path I myself am considering. After the lecture I was able ask her several questions, mostly regarding her experience as an artist in the field of landscape architecture. She repeatedly emphasized to me that as an artist I will inherently consider the cultural, aesthetic, and social effects of my work over those who are trained in the sciences or any other field. (for this reason she insisted that I need to go to Harvard's MLA program...but she teaches there so I think there's some bias...). No matter, the encounter got me thinking about how my place in the world as an artist is a little different than other people's and how I can and should use that perspective to my advantage.

Furthermore, after some several productive discussions with professors and students this week, I've really begun to think about networks and ecology, the interconnectedness of everything and how this concept of interconnectedness is evident in nearly all of my interests. Seriously look at this: tree branches and roots, food systems, maps, train systems, cells (they form the most exquisite patterns!), material life cycles...the list goes on. I think this is what inspired my train ticket map of Europe on my studio walls (see picture below). So now I'm thinking of this concept, and issues of spread, woven qualities of life, both physical and conceptual, the idea of above ground systems and below ground systems and how they can influence and feed each other, how there are hidden connections below the surface level of systems, or simply in places we cannot see for whatever reason (think rhizomes...how what appears to be several different plants can actually be the same exact plant, genetics and all)... Now the only question is where to run with this new found revelation...oh how I am ready to explore!

Anyways, an estimate of this week's totals is:

2 hours of drawing/sketching,
2-3 hours mapping out my thoughts, writing down ideas,
2 hours attending a lecture on sustainability and landscape architecture,
1 hour reading an all-food issue of The Nation (Thanks Janie!)
1 1/2 creating a map of europe on my studio wall out of all my study abroad train tickets
and quite a fair amount of time setting up my studio and organizing my thoughts and inspiration on my freshly painted yellow walls.

Look at that proportion of thinking/researching to doing. Not pleased. (One a side note: Damn you Stats 250 for pervading my every thought.)

So a lot to think about, but not as much accomplished as I would have liked. C'est la vie, I suppose. Just need to work harder this coming week. This weekend especially. Janie suggested that I read some and then draw what I'm feeling or thinking immediately after that reading. My goal this weekend is to do that at least 5 times, in addition to experimenting with lemon juice as a drawing material (I learned this week that it can be used on paper and heated to appear brown, but it also works as a bleaching agent..this duality intrigues me. Must explore further...)

Last thoughts:

Creator of the Week
Two for One Special!

1. El Anatsui

This stunning piece by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui makes me believe in love at first site. My first encounter with Anatsui's work was in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and I was in awe from the moment I caught first gleam. It is an exquisite tapestry of old, discarded aluminum wrappers, bottle tops, scrap metal - things that had originally been tossed aside with no consideration, transformed into this intricate work of woven royalty. Each fragment of trash was pieced together by hand with thin wire, so that it is difficult to imagine just how long the entire process took, considering the large scale of the piece. There are so many aspects of this piece that I hope to exhibit in my own work, the hand-made process, the recycled material, the woven qualities - both physical and conceptual, the intricate detail, the underlying cultural and environmental undertones, not to mention the raw aesthetic power.

2. Marvin Bileck



Thank you, Janie, for introducing me to this wonderful artist's collection of tree drawings and etchings. His exploration of the nature of Cranberry island speaks to the spirit of the place and to the trees that inhabit it. Just exquisite.

Overgrown

I may have drained every library in Ann Arbor of all its books. While my still furniture-less studio was barren before, now it is overgrown with stacks and stacks of books. I feel quite at home in this little forest of knowledge.

So as you may have already guessed, there was a lot of researching accomplished this week. Two hours in the library on Sunday, 3 hours of reading on Monday, and another hour in the library, other countless hours I can’t keep track of - minutes on the bus, spare time between class, time when I should have been doing homework for other classes, maybe even some time during my other classes (certainly not through Stats!) - just reading and looking and thinking and writing and looking and reading some more

Books I am currently reading/investigating include (but are not limited to):

• American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau: I've owned this anthology for over a year now, and it is probably my all-time best purchase. With excerpts from Thoreau, Michael Pollan, and everyone in between, I like to pick it up whenever I have a spare minute and see what I can learn. I read a few passages this week, but two in particular struck a chord with me. First, Alice Walker's "Everything is a Human Being," in which she writes a brilliant dialogue between her and some trees in a park, her and the spider she kills in her garden, and several other morally-conflicting circumstances between man and nature. Her title maintains her conclusion. Perhaps my favorite quote though, comes from Barbara Kingsolver, who writes "I write a good deal by hand, on paper, which - I somehow can't ever forget - is made from the macerated hearts of fallen trees." As I evaluate my own use of materials, these words echo in my head.
  

• Vitamin D: New Perspectives in drawing by Emma Dexter- I need need need to invest in this book. It is an incredible collection of contemporary drawings, and for a girl who grew up only studying the traditional masters of drawing and thinking no one today really still cared (of course I know now that's not true), I feel like a nerd discovering chess club. Like, wait, there are other nerds out there!? WHY didn't anyone tell me sooner!? Future posts will surely feature artists that I am just now discovering in this book. (P.S. I'm a total nerd so stereotype is acceptable).

• Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color by Philip Ball - If I'm concerned about color and the effects of my materials on the environment, I should learn how the use of toxic chemicals in color came about, right?

• Paradise by Design: Native Plants and the American Landscape by Kathryn Philips - The author follows landscape architect Joni Janecki as she and her design firm fight for the health of the American Landscape. Basically, I want to be this woman when I grow up. Seriously, I'm looking into landscape architecture for grad school. Plus, the book includes history of landscape architecture, briefings about various landscape architects, native plant bios, and scientific studies proving that time spent in nature improves your ability to focus later. My thoughts on life, bound in one book.

I also reflected on past work, especially my pieces from Switzerland. After the first assignment in our writing workshop this week, I really can't stop thinking about it. Take a look:

Both of these pieces were inspired by les vignes de Sierre. The small town, so delicately placed in a valley of the Swiss Alps, was flooded with them - these rolling, dancing, quilt-like waves of leafless trees. I was enthralled.


Each tree was drawn with watercolor and bit of colored pencil.



The miniature sculptures were originally in jars, but a professor suggested I unleash them. I think this one is thanking me for its release.

As alive as these trees were, I couldn't help but notice the metal posts and wire fencing that organized their every growth. The fencing directed their every move as they marched across the land, a natural militia of hired mercenaries for the region's age-old wine industry. They seemed healthy and happy enough though, and these iron posts did support them, not to mention the local economy. But how, then, did they grow before man bound them to these metal shackles? The trees were a tangible visualization of my own conflicts with nature, and my artwork became a grappling study of that conflict.

With all this accumulating thought this week, my brain suffered some major overload. So much inspiration, so much information. Too much maybe?

So I made thought maps on the wall of my studio. "Map" seems like a misnomer. They are not quite as directive as a map, but it's helped my head feel a little less heavy. I included lists of possible materials (drawing with lemon juice, drawing with sticks dipped in ink, using resalvaged wood as drawing surface, etc). I also wrote down themes and quotes I want to consider. I even have a whole "What if" section (What if whole forests were as economically valuable as lumbered forests? What would that world look like? What if I drew on anything but paper? What if my drawings were on layers of tracing paper, then lit from behind? What if to keep the drawing lit and visible, the view had on a treadmill to generate electricity? What if I burned drawings of trees into paper, burning trees into trees?...)

Anyways, my final point: In the midst of all this thinking, a little drawing did occur, but not nearly as much as I would have liked. In the interview we read for our writing workshop this week, however, Philip Guston states,

“I work to eliminate the distance or the time between my thinking and my doing.”

I think this week I’ve only increased that distance, so this coming week and weekend I'd like to reverse that cycle. I'm heading back to the homeland this weekend (love my Cleveland), so I plan to forage my house for stray surfaces to draw on or with, which I am sure my house has plenty of. I'm hoping by the end of the weekend I have a nice harvest of reused or recycled material with which to create all next week.

Lastly, my featured Creator of the Week. I'm mandating this requirement for myself - one artist, writer, creator, or overall world-improver, every week, on this blog. Anyways, this week's feature:

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy's work is why I feel I cannot restrict myself to drawing. His work is ephemeral, beautiful, and directs attention to nature in a way that is hard to overlook. He has been a major influence on my thoughts about life and art. Without doubt, I will be looking to his work this year as a source of an encouragement and inspiration.

And with that, take a deep breath. This blog post is finally over.

Rotting Tomatoes

I'm never quite sure what I'm looking for, but I never seem to miss it either. So with that in mind, I started this first week of IP by looking the best way I know how – by drawing. I trotted off to the Ann Arbor Farmer’s market, scooped up some heirloom tomatoes, and made my way back to my studio. And then I drew.

I created six different studies, each on colored paper with Prismacolor pencil. After about 3 hours Monday morning, 2 hours Saturday night, and another 3 hours Wednesday morning, I had myself 6 different studies of three different heirloom tomatoes, grown and raised in the good ol’ Mitten.

Why tomatoes? Well, anyone who knows me knows I have this obsession with nature, especially plants, and more recently, locally-grown produce and gardening . Since I have this tendency to get stuck in a rutt of thought, I was happy to jump into something, get to know it a little better, rather than think myself into an apathetic stupor. I've been trying to get to know tomatoes better for a while now. In fact, I used to hate them. (I thank my best friend Sara for remedying this affliction.) And really, there’s no better way to know something than through drawing it.

They aren’t the best drawings I’ve ever done, nor are they my favorite, but they did get me thinking in a less scatter-brained fashion. I was happy to be actively creating, moving forward and letting the process guide my thought. As I drew, I became more transfixed and more fascinated by the vibrant, colorful patterns in the fruit. If those visuals don’t influence my IP project, they will surely influence my screen-printing project in Fibers class. Furthermore, I enjoyed creating a series of these tomatoes, re-exploring and discovering new facets with each drawing. At one point, the yellow tomato was actually rotting before my eyes. I wish I would have let my hands better capture that. The fast-paced ephemerality was breathtaking, almost heartbreaking, and it’s something I’d like to consider capturing in the future.

As for this coming week, I’ll probably continue drawing, but I also really feel a need to do some research. I’d like to see what other environmental and food artists are doing, and I’d like to discover what organic, natural materials might function as my unusual drawing tools. I know material will play an important role in my work this upcoming year, but I don’t know exactly what that role is yet.

...Or this could just be a reference to the lack of shut-eye that will surely dictate my life this coming year.

Wait a second, it’s senior year? When did that happen?!

Why yes, yes it is. It happened....just now. So you know what that means:

Integrative. Project. (Henceforth referred to as IP).

There’s a year full of possibility ahead, and if I were to say I am anything less than excited, that would be a big fat lie. I’ve got myself some studio space, a sketchbook, and a brain overflowing with inspiration and ideas.

Now the only question is where to begin.