Studio: Traces and Process

I’ve been trying to figure out my new process.  I’ve spent a lot of time doing samples so that I will have more control with the fabric impressions on paper.  I did wet on wet, dry on dry, wet on dry, and dry on wet; straight out the bottle and thinned out with water.  I’m hoping to have a solid set of small samples for reference.  I did 4 samples that sit alone to dry, and 4 samples that dry under pressure.  I’ve also been thinking about my substrate.  I decided I would cover a wood panel with pages from an old history book.  I tried to pick out pages that tell stories of people in the southern area of the United States, where my family is from.  (Eli Whitney, Daniel Boone, etc.)  Now I need to figure out what to stitch and do impressions of.

Ink samples using wet and dry paper and fabric

Fabric impressions on book pages.  (Samples)

Book pages glued to a wood panel.  This is the ground of something to come.

Studio: I’m back in the studio! Yippie!

Hey everybody! Thanks for being patient with my long break from this blog. I’m in a studio class this quarter, and I’m ready to out of my head of writing papers and excited to see what comes out in my work with my recent research. My new class started last week, and my teacher jump started us with an assignment. Since I’ve been out of the studio for a while, I was thankful that I had a project to get me going. I had already been experimenting a little bit, but have not had a chance to really investigate my new idea of using my stitching as my tool. So, here’s a little sampling of what I’ve gotten done so far. Enjoy, and comments welcome.

Do you like one more than another? Why?

Research: Outline

These past few weeks I’ve been collecting a lot of articles and resources on my topic idea with the ultimate goal of narrowing down my idea. I felt like I needed to see what sort of information was out there before I could really settle on a final idea. Since my outline is due tomorrow, I must make my final decisions today.

The approach I took worked really well for me. As I’ve been reading my articles and books, I’ve been writing down some of the basic ideas I’m interested in on post-it-notes and taping them to my wall. It has always helped me to see all options in front of me, so I can organize and edit as I go. Having the ideas on a separate piece of paper makes it easy to organize and group related information. These are all of my notes grouped together by idea:

It was finally time to sit down and gather my ideas in a uniform manner and come up with a final idea. After careful consideration, editing, and adding, I came up with my rough draft of an outline:

While translating the wall outline to paper, I edited and added again. Finally, the final edit was translating the written outline to the computer. I highly recommend this approach. It made the editing easier and really helped me realize the gaps in my research and where to go from here.

Here is my final outline. (WordPress will not show the original outline formatting.)

Residual Memory and Our Place in the World: Will we be remembered when we are gone?

I. Introduction
A. Mortality
1. Our need to remember and be remembered
2. Connecting with memories and family
II. Truth & Reality: Believing in the past
A. Myth
1. Stories passed down from generation to generation
2. The beginning of memory
B. Reality
1. Evidence of existence
2. Traces left behind
III. Memory & Time
A. Non-linear time
1. The “aura” of trace
2. Genetic likeness
B. Linear time
1. Evidence
2. Collection
a. Questioning existence
b. Organizing
1. Family photos
IV. How photography changed our reality and memory
A. Portraits
1. Painted portraits
a. Formal
b. Informal
2. Photographic Portraits
a. Formal
b. Informal
B. Photography as evidence
1. Evidence of existence
2. Testimony of time
C. Photography manipulated
1. Context of photo
2. Untold stories
a. Who took the photo?
b. What can’t be seen
3. Anti-memory
4. Photo-editing software and technology
V. Our trace today
A. Digital Photography
1. How we collect and share photos today
B. Influence of the world wide web
1. Genealogical websites
2. Blogging
VI. Conclusion
A. Collecting and passing on family history
1. Technology has influenced multiplicity of old family photos.
2. Digital photography and sharing photos
a. Advantages
b. Disadvantages

I welcome any feedback on organization, content, further research, or anything else you can think of.

I hope this post isn’t too boring! It’s just what I am focusing on right now. I am getting a little done in the studio, but I’m not ready to post about that yet. I will try and share in the coming weeks while I’m writing this paper. Thanks for visiting!

Research: Photos in Art

Below are images of artwork that have inspired me in some way. All images are scanned from the book Proof: Los Angeles Art and the Photograph 1960-1980 by Charles Desmarais, copyright 1992. The book and exhibition focused on artists who used the photograph to question truth. Each artist brings their unique expression to the idea of truth and fiction in our trace of history using photography.

“nohJ”, William Wegman, 1970

I love this piece for its simplicity. A photograph printed backwards to question reality.

Untitled, Susan Haller, 1972

I also love the simplicity of this one.  It is a wonderful comment on the evidence of trace left behind.

A Cubic Foot of Photographs, George Blakely, 1978

Accumulative memory neatly stacked and organized.  I’m not sure of the artist’s intention with this sculpture, but if reminds me of our need to organize in a non-linear way.  It’s as if we are collecting evidence of our existence so we can prove that we were here.

Research: The struggle for a narrow topic.

I never imagined that I would struggle so much trying to figure out a topic for my research paper this quarter.  Part of the problem is that I am interested in many things, and it is hard to narrow it down to one small topic.  The other part of the problem is that some of my ideas are so abstract, that I can’t seem to find any references to research from.  I’ve spent the last 3 days researching ideas and topics and reading articles on various things.  I’m hoping that writing out some of my ideas here in this post will spark some sort of “ah ha!” moment.  Also, if any of you quiet readers would like to put your 2 cents in…PLEASE, feel free to comment.

This is my collection of words: trace, time, memory, simulacrum, residue, death, mortality, mapping mortality, nonlinear, collective memory,  photo-montage, erasure, collage, palimpsests, pastiche, pentimento,  and shadow.

I wrote down many questions for possible topics, but they all seemed to lead to these two ideas:
How has residual and collective memory changed in our personal history?  What kind of trace will we leave behind for our future families?

Can a trace of something be a sign of the same thing?  Is it too far removed from its original source?

I think I’m leaning toward the first idea.  I am interested in how people have memorialized their family and friends through history, and this is a topic that I feel I could find information on.  It certainly has changed over the years, especially in medium:  painting, photography, video, etc.  We all have our different ways of remembering someone: a picture, an object, a letter, an e-mail.  The way we have been taught to discard and constantly buy new, makes me wonder if we will leave as much a trace of personal history behind as our ancestors did.  We live in a world of digital pictures.  I don’t know about you, but I vary rarely print out my digital pictures.  If I were to die, will my family take the time to go through my computer and find all the pictures I have stored?  What about all the pictures stored in e-mails from friends and family?  Is our pictorial family history going to be lost forever in the information age?  It will be if we don’t make a conscious effort to document and store the information in way that is easily accessible to others.  However, even this can not be guaranteed.  Another thing we must consider, is the hardware could change too.  We could have a floppy disk from 10 years ago, with family pictures on it from grandma, and no way to view them.  So I guess the lesson here is be sure to print out those good family photographs for generations to come.  However, even then, it is not so simple.  They must be printed on good paper, preferably acid free, with ink that doesn’t fade easily.  My how things have become so complicated, yet seeming so easy!  (no pun intended. 😉

Research: Christian Boltanski

The artist Christian Boltanski was recommended to me several times by various professors. I loved his work immediately when I saw it. I have been trying to find books in the library about his work for a while now, but they always seem to be checked out or missing. I finally ordered one titled Boltanski: Time, edited by Ralf Beil. By slowing reading through it, I’m realizing how much Boltanski is obsessed by death and the anonymity of the living. In his work he presents people or objects that are dead and forgotten. Having been born in France post-Holocaust, Boltanski had a challenging childhood since he had a Jewish father. In his early work, he would often invent his own childhood and history using other people’s photographs. He would purposely choose photos that could be anybody and would often use many of them together to further implicate anonymity of the figures. This furthered the universality of his work. Boltanski comments in an interview with Ralf Beil on May 24, 2006: “I’m fundamentally convinced that the observer completes the work of art. I provide the stimulus, and the observer reacts in accordance with all of his past, his deepest experiences, turning it into something else.”

Click here for a video documentary about Boltanski and his work.

In relation to my own work, I am less interested in the death aspect and more so in the memory or the traces of memories that are left behind. Another big difference is that I am using photos that are personal to me, so it is even more about memory and my family’s trace through history.

Zeyt, 2001

Each stand shows a single person, on one side as a child, on the other side as an adult.

La reserve des Suisses morts (The dead Swiss), 1995

Each biscuit (cookie) tin has a face of a person pasted to the front. These faces were appropriated from the obituaries. The faces of the dead are smiling, showing the best side of themselves. This is a good example of the truth and fiction theme that I’m interested in. There is always a flip side.

Scratch Room, 2002/2006

Underneath a layer of silver paint that scratches off fairly easily are large photos of crime victims and criminals from the Spanish magazine, El Caso.  It is left up to the audience to scratch off the silver paint to reveal the layer below and in doing so the violence of the crimes are mirrored in the act of the audiences participation and leaving its trace on the floor of the gallery.  After the photos are revealed, we are still unsure of who the criminals are and who the victims are.

Oh, boy. A new quarter is starting soon.

Can you hear my enthusiasm? Well, I’m only dreading the new quarter, because I’m at the tail end of a 2 and a half week vacation. I spent most of my time thinking about everything EXCEPT my art. I’ve enjoyed this much needed break from work and school tremendously. I’ve been doing everything from cleaning out my attic to crawling under my house to spray Good Stuff foam to keep the stray cats from ruining the HVAC duct work insulation. I tweaked my back with all the stooping and crawling, so today I decided to give my body a break and start thinking about my artwork again. I spent the morning experimenting with Masa Wax paper. Below is my first attempt to use it in a collage. I’m trying to rely less on the photograph and put more of my hand in the process.  Comments are welcome.

Studio: Synthesizing my Assimilations (WHY?)

Well my graduate review is coming up very soon, and it is time to write an artist statement about what I’m doing in the studio at the moment. However, before I can do this, I must really think about what I am doing. My classmate, Virginia, has challenged all of us in the graduate program to “ask ‘WHY’ in everything we do in our studio practice.” This challenge came at the perfect time for me. I have been gathering all this information and researching ideas, but it is time to absorb and reflect to come up with my own ideas. Below is what I’ve been thinking about, and the ideas that resonate with me the most. I will jump from here to begin an artist statement this week.

MATERIALS

Recycled Linens and Fabric:

Recycle is the key word here. Unfortunately, we are in an age where people buy new things and dispose of the old. I was brought up in a family that used things until they were broken beyond repair, and only then were new items bought, and only if you couldn’t get it used. My family was not only frugal because at one time we had to be, but also because it was a way of life. As time has gone by, society has become more and more wasteful.

• Giving a new purpose to something that has been discarded.
• In the past, worn items were darned, reassembled in patchwork, used as diapers, or dust cloths. In WWI scrap fabrics were used as bandages. Some societies even use scrap fabrics for paper pulp.
• Owning linens at one time was to own something very precious. With the increase in production of cotton, linens were more accessible to people because the price came down and was more affordable; thus made them more common.

Old Photographs:

Looking at old photographs, whether they are my family or not, has always intrigued me. There is always a story to be told. It is an inside peek into someone’s life. My family photos are a clue into my grandmother’s life, and what she was like before I met her.

• I am interested in the history of my family and looking at my grandmother’s perspective of her life.
• Old family photos generally chronicle the important happy events of a family’s life. I am interested in this positive aspect of memory. A positive, sometimes humorous message.
• I am trying to keep the past alive, but not stop change. People are so quick to leave the past behind. I wish that people would learn more from the past and grow into the present by learning from the past. POSITIVE CHANGE.
• My connection to old photos and old things is in part because I don’t like where the present is leading us into the future. We are a disposable society that makes decisions based on GREED. Older items seemed to last a lot longer than ones produced today. Things are not designed to last anymore. Companies slowly release upgrades in order to make more money.
• Showing personal photos is an invitation to view it: a concept of TOGETHERNESS.

CONCEPT

Memory and Time:

• Connection to my family, but also bringing the PAST TO THE PRESENT by creating new stories from my grandmother’s memories.
• NOSTALGIA – My grandmother’s memories: honoring the family and friends that were in her life.
• Remembering the positive and carrying that to the present and future. What you do now will affect the future.
• To be forgotten is to not be important enough to be remembered.
• At one time photos were considered to be the TRUTH or evidence. With todays ability to manipulate photographs, this is not the case anymore. However, even in the past, photos could still be interpreted in many ways depending on the context, thus questioning still this ability to be EVIDENCE.

PROCESS

Layering Fabric

• Layers of memory.
• Accumulated memory .
• Generations

Cutting Away Fabric

• Taking away the negative and taking the positive forward to the future. (metaphorically)

Collage

• Keeping some detail and erasing other detail: fading memory and deterioration of the past.
• New memories: A new point of view (my point of view using my grandmother’s point of view.)
• Bringing the past to the present.

Working Intuitively

I have brought a chance element into my daily photo collages. I am randomly picking 2 photographs and using only these 2 photos for the collage. These compositions don’t always work out to be successful, but every once in a while there is a HAPPY ACCIDENT. It is the happy accident that I am looking for.

• The happy accident is what we learn the most from. The unexpected is what makes us take notice of what we wouldn’t normally see.
• If more people would follow their intuition, they would probably be happier people.
• By using happy accidents as a part of my message I hope to inspire positive change.

Whew! Well, It actually took me all day to come up with this stuff. My brain actually hurts! All of this thinking, and I haven’t even STARTED the artist statement! However, this has really helped me narrow my thoughts and is a good starting point to jump off from.

Earlier last week, I went to a graduate photography class to get some feedback from a different perspective other than my fiber friends. One of the things they really zoomed in on was the BACK of all of my sewn collages. They really wanted me to figure out a way to display my work in a way that you could see both front and back. They also thought this would go in line with my concept of memory, and the lasting IMPRESSION that certain events have on your memory. So, I scanned some visuals for you with this in mind. I accidentally scanned the front in black and white and decided that this perspective was quite interesting in its own right so, I scanned the other one this way too. I will have the color versions of these in my new PORTFOLIO section later this week.

What do YOU think of the back of these collages? Do you think I should figure out a way to show the back too? (I’m not sure how I feel about this.)

I think it is really interesting how it looks like he is going DOWN the stairs on the flip side. The back really works well in contrast to the front on this one, but I’m not sure about the next one:

Daily Photo Collages: update

Most of the fabric collages that I’ve been sharing with you, are experiments of compositions and subjects.  The photo images you see with the fabric are just xeroxes of the original photos.  I work this way for ideas only.  Since I’ve been wanting to actually carry some of these ideas to a finished work, I’ve been wanting to refine my process of how I’m going to translate these collages to the fabric.  So, in my studio practice, I’ve also been working on process experiments of transforming the photo to fabric.  After many trials and errors, I think I have finally figured out how I want to do it and have gained control of different looks and contrasts of the image, but since this blog is not about process, I will not go into detail.  Thus explained, my post today, will be another peak into my daily collages.

I appreciated a comment by my friend Virginia today about leaving an art work open for interpretation as to bring more meaning to it.  So, since I am looking for concept in each work I do, today, I will not share my own opinion, so as not to taint yours.  So, my questions to all of you:

What do YOU think these collages mean? I would love to hear YOUR interpretation.

Do you appreciate hearing the artist’s concepts of an artwork? Or, do you prefer to bring your own meaning to a work?

PLEASE, comment. 

Studio: Collages with Fabrics

After a highly needed restful Saturday, I went to the studio all day Sunday.  I seemed to kick my lethargic Saturday mood to the way side.  (I think I was fighting a cold.)  Today I have more energy, and I had a good studio day.  I started by organizing my stack of xeroxed photos into stacks.  I put aside the ones I related to in some way today and picked out these.

Today, I worked from these photos only.   I played with compositions and came up with the following collages using fabric:

I haven’t given these collages names yet.  This composition came to me intuitively.  I didn’t expect to make a collage today about war.  War is always going on.  It could be a personal war, or a religious war.  It make no difference.  It is always people who don’t accept people for who they are; forever trying to change people to see the same way.  (How boring, really!)  Diversity is good in my world.

What do you think is going on in this one?  I would love to hear what you think.