Shenanigans

A new semester! Spring 2012

And indeedy, Summer, er Spring is here!!  We have been experiencing amazing weather here, its been well into the mid 70s here - everyone is wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops now, the weather is warm, dry and pretty! 

And we are off to the races with our Spring 2012 semester.  The grad studio benches have been shuffled around a bit, and Jon Bonser has found a new studio space, and will be moving his massive benches, towers, and supplies out, in the meantime, the grads have shifted their spaces a bit and I can see that they are all going to be pretty spread out.  Vince has very quickly acquired Jon's space, Liv has shifted into Vince's space, both Justin and Reuben pretty much have the entire West wall to themselves. 

ANNNNDD our guest artist in residence is Michael Hurwitz - he is very comfortably settled in his space and already has a cute little table set out.  He has already found more restaurants and salsa clubs in the short time he has been here, and knows the place like the back of his hand!!  Feels like old times, like the time he and I were working in the same benchroom at Boston University back in 1976-1978. 

The first assignment was dispensed last week:

"Masterpieces" - a project inspired by furniture depicted in a Painting, plus other options.

The idea was actually "borrowed" from an exhibition that was shown at the Workbench Gallery in New York City in 1983 or so, and it, in turn was "borrowed" from a book "Master Pieces" that was published in 1975. 

SDSU Furniture at ArtSD2011 Contemporary Art Fair

An undergrad student experiences Anderson Ranch!

Elisa Nguyen, one of our second semester students just got back from Anderson Ranch Arts Center, where she had an intensive one week carcass workshop with Cory Robinson. Now, I just can't imagine how Cory managed to teach carcass work in one week but it seems like they worked pretty hard in there.  I am glad that one of our undergrads applied for and got the scholarship and hope that many more undergrads or post-bacclaureate students wanting to beef up their portfolios will apply for these things. 

Thanks Elisa, for sharing your blog with us.  I have linked it with the rest in case you want to keep your thoughts on track!

It's all about tooting the ol' horn.

I have to admit that I am an email nut. I love getting email, I love sending them, I love reading them, I love replying to them, I love deleting them, I love criticizing them.  As a designer and artist, I find myself more likely to glance first at the ones that are well designed, colorful, and if they have pictures of familiar faces I am likely to read the whole thing. 

My friend Sonya Clark has been sending her email blasts for some time now and I just always enjoy reading them, I look forward to them and sometimes I read them with great envy and joy - she has such an amazing life and her buoyant personality shines in her messages.

I thought I would give it a try.  That said, I was a little cautious: I am not really one to brag much and my entire life I was taught to keep on the "down-low" as my friend Vince always likes to say, and hide under a rock.  Maybe its not such a horrible thing to Toot The Old Horn, as long as you're not too terribly obnoxious about it.  I always hated people who liked to brag, hell I still hate them.  Most of the time its boring, other times what they have to brag about isn't that great which is the worst kind.  MOSTLY though I just don't know how to brag and when I do, I almost feel embarrrassed.  Bragging in writing is a little easier though: I find it easier to just somehow feed it in electronically because you know that you can't stammer or stutter or giggle nervously, or fidget and look at your feet in email. 

Also I am finding that its not a bad thing to talk about yourself, as long as you keep it personal and non-threatening (this is threatening: "Raawrrrr I am great and better than you and I am going to SMASH you") and friendly.  Most of all, I like to think that good things that happen to me can happen to anyone, and in some ways, all my friends have some hand in helping you get there in some small way.

Then I had to think about what to Toot about.  My first impulse was to talk about how uncomfortable my bicycle seat is, but wait - that's for Facebook.  That's the beauty of FB because you can bitch and moan, and then brag about very uninteresting things like being able to accomplish some ridiculous yoga pose or show pictures of some disgusting food you just ate. 

The biggest tootin' thing is the Tag Project, which has a life of its own, twisting and turning, raising and lowering my stress levels like the pull of the moon.  But its a big deal to me because its not just "mine" but its the blood sweat and tears of so many other people.  And it is slowly moving into some new venues - people are coming together to add to the depth of its message. 

And then my work, past and present,  is making its debut.  I am finding that if you keep at your work long enough, suddenly your work becomes "vintage" and is being used in a variety of "retrospectives" of various decades.  There is a '70s craft exhibition in the works at the Mingei - more on that in my next "blast" which will focus on the 60's and 70's. I can almost smell the patchouli already.  Then there is a Postmodern review (1970-1980) at the V&A, in which my work from yet another decade will be on view. (I can hear Talking Heads in the background).

So I just launched my first email blast via ConstantContact.com.  What a great company.  They have a terrific customer service program, they even call you to ask you if you have any questions, and they have a responsive Live Chat service.  It's not cheap ($15 a month) but they do offer a nice trial period. 

The best part is that it is likely to generate replies from friends - I just sent out my first email blast and almost immediately I got three emails from friends in England, and have made plans to visit them soon.  Secondly, I provided links for some events I am attending and several folks have decided that they had not known about it and plan to participate too.  And thirdly, people I have met at other events have told me that they are also attending another event I announced, and we plan to meet there!!  I think this is what is so cool about the internet and all that it has to offer.

In the end I like to think of these things as being a sort of celebration of good things, large and small.  Having said that, I will likely sneak in a few pictures of the cat and dogs.

 

Cannibalizing studio furniture

Outgoing SDSU President Weber has officially moved out of the official residence: for 12 years, he stored my big assed desk that I made for a solo show back in --- oh sheesh - 1998?  I can't remember.  It didn't sell, obviously and I was telling him that I was going to just leave it in my driveway since I had no storage for it. He seemed pretty dismayed - I asked if he would like to use the desk at the residence and he agreed. Hey it was free storage and someone was using it.  He did so much for the furniture program that it doesn't really matter if it took a beating.

Anyway so the dreaded day came where I had to take the desk out of the residence - the new incoming president obviously didn't want the thing so the University graciously had a truck come and help me move it back to my driveway.  Justin and Erin helped me dismantle the many parts (I am too old to be crawling under the desk to unscrew all the hardware) - Erin asked me what the top opened up for, and I said it was for a laptop - she stared at me with those big doe eyes and asked, they had LAPTOPS back then???  I think she momentarily had a brain fart as far as the timeline goes - and then she conveniently remembered that in 1998 (she would have been a mere child - 10 maybe) that perhaps there were laptops back in that day.  The laptop at the time was pretty ancient, as you can see, it was one of the earliest macbooks, and I remember it weighed alot, and I think the monitor was black and white in those days.  It had a little round trackball.  I thought it was pretty damned cute back then.

In looking at all the parts, I have quite a stash of mahogany here, it would have to be planed down again, of course, to remove all that 90's era paint.  The desk got quite a bit of use, and to refinish it would be an incredible job so I have decided it would be most practical to cannibalize all the parts, and use it for new work.  Got about five really nice deep dovetail drawers, which were designed to hold zip disks, hahaha, remember those things?  Or maybe CDs, but I can't remember.  Got a pair of humongous soss hinges, and a nice pair of chest lid stops.  A beautiful piece of glass thats about 7' long cut and polished edges, 1/2" thick.  a hollow laminated piece with macassar ebony veneer, which, by the way, faded in one spot which surprised me.  I think that room must have been bathed in sunlight. 

Anyway, if anyone wants to buy the glass from me, its pretty beautiful and a lovely shape if I may say so - if I wasn't so busy making this other work I would use it for a new piece but I don't have the room or the space for this.  It would be really terrific for a public space, like a reception desk or a salon or something. 

If anyone wants to recycle the ebony veneered thing, send me a proposal and if I like it, its yours! 

 

Final Critique

The Final Critique finally took place this past Friday - all things told, some very new and interesting things happening. Some of the work has potential (meaning they could be pushed further) and others were great technical exercises - yes I am still a bit of a woodywoodpecker and I feel that if these folks are eventually going to teach I'd like them to be aware of some nuances and details about woodworking that should be considered even if their own work is completely sculptural in nature. 

I got a Flip Video camera for Christmas last year and I wondered how I could really use this contraption. This critique seemed to be one that relies on video to capture the work - there are a lot of kinetics, moving parts, liquid moving through the work, motors, and even tambours need to be shown while they are opening. I just need to get a better hold of that cam - I am way too shaky for this but you got the idea.  I need to do some film editing so these are rough - just turn the sound off for most of them.  definitely need the sound for Jon Bonser and Aren Skalman's work.

Some of this work relates to the earlier "Amplification" Project.  Others were based on carcass construction principles - a litmus test of a grad students' abilities before they can move on.  My philosophy is that if you can get through a couple of major case pieces, you can pretty much build anything you want, and better.

Some students had just gotten advanced towards their thesis work so this was a good time for them to step away and work on a new skillset.

For the most part I am pretty pleased and proud of this group - they all left their comfort zone for most of this semester, especially Justin Kramer. 

Nope, yet ANOTHER post about "amplification"

Artist and amplifier Clea Minaker is the artist in residence at the acclaimed Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego for a week, and to celebrate they're screening LAWTLDN.

Look at What the Light Did Now documents the journey of Feist’s Grammy nominated album “The Reminder”. This poetic film pulls back the curtain to reveal intimate partnerships with the people Feist calls her ‘amplifiers’: The photographer who helped her hide within the frame, shadow puppeteers in hockey arenas, an artist who built a thread-radiating mural, the video director who conducted fireworks, the pianist who guided the recording of the album, and other musical and visual collaborators. The film follows Feist and her supporting cast through an impressionistic array of flickering scenery, echoing stadiums, puppet workshops, the red carpet, a crumbling French mansion, definitive concert performances and uncommonly candid interviews. Itself a part of the creative mosaic it portrays, Look At What The Light Did Now illuminates the synergy of collaboration, art as magnifying glass, and the power of trust.

Championing mid-career artists, MCASD's collection features light works from neon sculptor Pasha Rafat and the LED architect Erwin Redl. Don't miss the view of the Pacific from the Edwards Garden gallery or the seven sided, star shaped clerestory designed by Robert Venturi. Tickets to the screening are available through MCASD or at the door.

MCASD - La Jolla

Saturday April 16

7 PM

This special screening is one of many planned activities surrounding Clea Minaker’s week-long residency at MCASD, focused on her recent work with shadow puppetry and light projections. Produced in collaboration with Sezio, the residency will celebrate the power of cooperation, creative production, and performance. Clea will work throughout the week at a studio space in Golden Hill, creating ephemeral, site-specific set pieces.

One last post about "Amplification"

With things getting more and more high-teckie, and smaller and fancier, I couldn't help but appreciate this new speaker for the iPhone.  It's charming in an Old World way.  So as things become more miniature, are we going to become nostalgic for the larger bulkier inventions? 

Amplification, and then some.

Last week,  BA Harrington gave the grad students a new assignment,  "Amplification".  Sure will be interesting to see what everyone comes up with. 

I can't help but think of my hearing aids - "amplification" was probably the biggest word I learned at an early age since getting fitted with these things when I was 6 or so.  Oh how I hate these things. Back in the day, they were bulky, awkward, and I was always getting tangled up in the cords (much like the way folks get tangled in their ipod cords) and there was no way to hide them.  The hearing aid housing looked like a transistor radio, worn under the clothes but they stuck out like a square implant under the clothes, and the cords were flesh colored, which, haha, was a joke in itself, the same color as the "flesh" crayon in a Crayola box.

The problem with hearing aids is that, unlike glasses, which will improve your eyesight to 20/20, it will only amplify the sounds, along with all the other extraneous noises around you.  There is no filter, so if someone is unwrapping cellophane from their candy, it is amplified along with whatever I may be trying to hear.  Also, everyone's hearing loss is very different and so along with that basic hearing loss, is the cognitive aspects of hearing - "understanding" what you are hearing, or recognizing the sounds.  Being born with a hearing loss, I essentially had to "learn" what sound sounds like, if that makes any sense at all, and I had to SEE what the sounds look like as they are formed with the lips, via lipreading.   It certainly set me back in terms of academics - and explains why I became a visual artist.

Just last night Bill and I took his son Robert to dinner and I spotted three people in a corner booth, speaking in sign language.  Sometimes I really wish that I knew sign language just so I could eavesdrop from across the room.  Folks have asked me if I know how to sign - I only know a few dirty words in sign, which of course is the juvenile version of someone learning how to say in French 'I want to sleep with you", or a few Italian cuss words.  But no I don't - I did have an option though - at Rochester Institute of Technology, (where I attended the School for American Craftsmen) there is a  a separate campus for deaf students known as the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID).  They not only offered classes exclusively for the deaf, bu also offered services such as transcription or note taking services, as well as sign language interpreters.  I was also able to brush up on my lipreading now and then, and would have conversations with folks who would watch my speech patterns and make recommendations. However as I got sucked into the graduate program I didn't have as much time to do those things, much less learn sign language.  But oddly, I felt like an outsider at both campuses - the NTID campus, which was eerily silent - you walked into the dining hall, and you would hear whispers or the sound of hands signing.  But I didn't understand what everyone was saying.  When I would approach someone to ask where an office was, they would sign but I had to ask them to point the directions. 

And on the other side of campus, which was loud and noisy, I would be in the student union, and folks there would assume I was deaf and did not attempt to talk to me.  Even my own professor, during my interview as a grad student, looked at an advisor who was with me and asked him if I could "use machinery safely even if she's deaf".   There was a real feeling (in my mind) that there was a divide between the deaf community and the hearing community, which strangely enough had intentions of integrating the deaf with the hearing.   I was stuck somewhere in the middle.

In my own blog, I wrote about the importance of humor - and I shall end this note with some funny images.  Some of these are definitely for Erin, or anyone with cat.  I never used so many "I's" before. whew.  But its a blog, its all about ME. ha.

 

Dead in the Water

It continues to surprise me how some blogs just sit, DEAD IN THE WATER, with no activity for days, weeks, not quite months but soon to be. I realize that it takes a bit of energy to "maintain" a blog all year round but is it going to kill some folks just to write or even share a few snippets of their mundane lives?  I, for one, love to share things that are either FUNNY, SCARY, UGLY, or have a cute animal in them.  So what if its boring to anyone who looks at my stuff, but its a glimpse into who I am. If you have enough time to watch American Idol, or beat on a drum, come on, is it really going to kill you to write a few lines?

I love hearing Adam complain about his radio.

I laugh at Erin's kitty pics.

I marvel at a whole other side of Justin, revealed by his blog.

I snicker at Vince's view of the world.

I know Reuben's like a deer caught in headlights.

I am humbled at BA and Chele's ability to capture their experiences.  (they should publish a book).