fever to tell

Olivia Jeffries 


I'm always interested in this aesthetic. I like beautiful things. I like thinking about why things like this are beautiful. I like time. I like delicate things. I like pieces of her artist statement about things that move her: "the complex and unknowable nature of reality, an intimate moment which exists for just a second and is then forgotten or the impossibility of feeling how someone else feels..."

and you still refuse to speak

empty vessels

my secret self: you can't always be friendly, there just isn't time

In short: I don't like all of her pieces but I like thinking about them.

They ain't ready for this one nephew

Heike Weber is a German artist who makes amazing pieces like this:

Mardin Kilim 2007

silicone

680x340 cm

Dorotheum 300

2007

permanent marker on vinyl floor

Utopia

2009

permanent marker on acrylic paint

I like this statement about her work:

" The foundation of her work is the idea of a neutral space whose potential is first realized through the drawing and is what consciously positions Heike Weber within the critically reflected tradition of Minimal Art. Judd's cubes, Andre's metal plates or Morris' serial objects had focused for the first time on the referentiality of art to its neutral environs... The reality of the room is confirmed, classically, stroke for stroke, line by line, only the next minute to be thrown out of sync. The gestural input, the physical working on a picture support that expands in all directions, seems to veer towards a momentum that now on its part appropriates the viewer. It is not the object on view that finds its irreconcilable and multi-angled visibility made manifest, but the ‘specific object' that strikes back. "

I feel it all, I feel it all

Untitled

ink on paper, 2005

Sometimes I do everything backwards. Some people have these great artists who they always admire and look up to and their work contributes to some sort of visual conversation with these great artists. That sounds awful to me. Instead, I make things and when I get down or confused or curious or excited I look around to find other people like me. Other people who use the same visual language, or the same medium, or the same scale, or with the same general concept (i.e. time, memory, classification, etc.).

As I was meandering around the internet, I found Katie Sehr.

I can see it. I can see her thinking about time, translation, and intimacy.
I like it. I like that they took forever to make. I like how purposeful they seem. I like the language she uses which is very similar to my own.

Untitled

ink on paper, 2005

30" x 29"

You looked like a swimmer

After a few twelve hour work days, this is my first chance to post about my trip to the MoMA and The American Folk Art Museum last Friday. As I meandered about and inundated myself with the act of looking (as opposed to seeing, which we do all the time) I did something out of the ordinary for me and my sketchbook: I wrote about it.

I feel compelled to share it with you, if only out of a desperate desire for more honesty and more transparency between artists about their work and their process and their thoughts and their inspirations. Here are mine:

"I'm not sure if I'm on the right track or if I'm light years behind. As an artist, I must take comfort in the inherent uniqueness of my work being that it comes from ME and I DID IT. The things I like in these great works overlap with things I love in my own. Logically, I know this is normal, and possibly even a good thing. Themes and stories and patterns that occur and reoccur in art and history are great -- standing the test of time indicates that the content deals with questions of humanity-- yet, I find myself wondering how I can compete with the likes of ERNST and JESS and DALI? With the bookmakers, printmakers, and drawing-based artists who have years of experience, time, funding, training, patronage, and practice?

YET I CONTINUE TO MAKE.

I take comfort in the inherent me-ness of my work. I take comfort in the practice itself. and I take comfort in the knowledge that great artists make crap too, sometimes."

Here are some pieces I enjoyed and wanted to share:
Mona Hatoum (medium: paper and hair)

Rivane Neuenschwander- I love this. The colors, the idea, everything.

MAX ERNST and a biology poster. one of my most surprising finds. and strangely encouraging. (as in, if he can take an actual biology poster and dissociate it from its content this much, then I can definitely use organic-inspired elements and not have them just be illustrative)

I would love to hear your thoughts.

(all photos from MoMA's website)

A Spoonful Weighs a Ton

I've been spending an exorbitant amount of time looking lately: at the MoMA, at the Museum of Folk Art, on the street, and on the internet. Soon, I'll share some of those images with you, but for now... here are some artists I've been looking online whose work I'd like to share:

Chelsea Hertford Taylor

(nefertiti, left + joanie, right)

These watercolors are really fantastic: I can't wait to track one down and see it in person! Oftentimes, I find it a lot more difficult to discuss abstract images, and there's really no reason for it, but I'll try. (I'd love to hear some comments about these pieces or about that feeling of hesitation in front of an abstract work, if you have anything to chime in with!) I love the three dimensional quality these works contain. They're very clearly objects and not just swatches of color. The colors really compliment each other: they flow together, work together, and share the canvas.

Mel Kadel

The reoccurrence of this figure throughout her drawings takes the somewhat abstracted imagery and makes it somehow more personal, more of a representative of an unidentified struggle, and tells a story. 

If you find yourself caught in love

I've frequently run across Justin B. Nelson's work in my internet travels, and I think it's about time to share him with you all.

I'm currently obsessed with tying in my abstractions to something more tangible (side note: I do NOT believe that abstract works need to be tied to realistic images to be successful.. but in this very particular case my imagery would really benefit from an anchor). Nelson tries to do this in an interesting way. Relating abstraction to the figure can be a risky endeavor, and I admire his boldness.

Both photos from www.justinbryannelson.com/

His work is detailed and includes a lot of imagery I love: muscle striations, movement, pattern, abstraction, hair, noodles, and all things detailed and line-driven. I like that our work has similar elements but (at least appears to) come from completely different places and do completely different things.

Just something I've been digesting for awhile, I hope it has a similar effect on someone else out there.

IMPORTANT:

 you can find one of Nelson's pieces at My Love For You's Gulf Restoration Fundraiser! The fundraiser has collected beautiful works from tons of great artists.. and ends on the 5th! So hurry and snatch up some great works for an even better cause.

I heard a rumor

I feel obligated to let you all in on a secret...

I've got a few things in the works, and can't wait to share them as soon as they're finished.

In the mean time, blogging may decrease in frequency, but stay tuned!

Soy su futuro ex novio(a)

I've been trying to inundate myself with pattern, delicacy, and intricacy: lace, henna, embroidery, skeletons, cross sections, and knitting. I'm close to what I want, I just have a few connections to make before I can get there. During this process, I ran across Vasco Maurao's work, shown below:

intricate, repetitive, obsessive, compositionally interesting, and hand-made (no computers!). I really like a lot of things about this work.

I attempted to contact him in Spanish today. Yikes. My conjugation skills are atrocious and my vocab has nearly slipped away. So I ended up saying things like: I go crazy for the drawings of yours! to get around all of the things I've forgotten.. which means it's time to break out the Rebelde y Belinda and brush up!

check out his Vasco Mourao's work here and there

Here I am

I will catch up on blogging.
I will catch up on sleep.
I will enjoy every minute.
I will solve a scientific problem (no matter how minor).
I will look, listen, record, and absorb everything. everything!

But for now I have more pressing needs, like groceries and shampoo. Thanks for being patient. Till then, here's a piece of KillTaupe's drawing a day project. It was so great to meet him! Plus, I love the drawing-a-day obsessiveness. After giving myself the week off, maybe I'll be inspired and try to make a (very small, simple) book a week for the next ten weeks.

The chills

I love Michele Bosak's new work.

These gouache paintings feel intimate, feminine, and well cared for. They remind me of some books I'm working on about texture. (Yes, books. Books are my solution to my lack of space and money problems thanks to my impending city livin' situation).

Speaking of... 

               I've finally decided on my narrowed-down list of supplies:

               1. This series continued

               2. Books books books 

               3. Watercolor posters: somethings I've been working on for awhile, really detailed line drawings that may or may not become non-traditional prints

               4. The Necessities: a sketchbook to hold all of the my ideas that will undoubtedly involve large, costly materials; pastels, because they fulfill my color mixing needs when I'm away from tried and true paint; and my small-but-nice pencil and pen set that I've accumulated over the years.

it's a lot, but compared to bags and bags of paint, unstretched canvas, paper brushes, lino supplies, and screen printing supplies, I'm totally content. All that stands between now-art-making and then-art-making are four paintings and time. I can't wait!

you and me baby, we ain't nothin' but mammals

I love detailed line work in prints, drawings, life, or anything! If it looks like it took one thousand hours to make, I will probably like it. As such, I'm really attracted to hair, muscle striations, and fabric patterns, among other things. 

In short: I look at things like this a lot.

magnolia mountain (browsing turned blogging)

Shahzia Sikander

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