July 14, 2006

And/Or Gallery Show #4

I was invited to curate a show at And/Or Gallery and this is what I've come up with. It was a lot of work I tell ya. But what I like so much about it is that I got be the kid in the candy store. I had no theme for the show except that I wanted strong work that would create an interesting dialogue. Vague and art-speaky, I know. But you don't have to worry about that. What you need to do is come and enjoy the show. Alright enough talk, here's the press release.

And/Or Show #4 | Denise Burge and Jahjehan Bath Ives, guest-curated by Ryan Fitzer

The exhibition dates are July 15th - August 19th, and the opening reception will be July 15th 6pm-9pm and we'll have beer and a veggie burger cookout. Denise will be in attendance.

Denise Burge's "quilted paintings explore the mutiny of nature against evolution and industry. Primal, visceral and muddy, the fact that these works -- neither quilts nor paintings, but both -- look almost like graffiti further emphasizes the struggle of the insurgent." (citybeat)

She received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and has had solo shows at A.R.C. Gallery and Artemesia Gallery in Chicago, Illinois; Linda Schwartz Gallery and Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati, OH and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Burge has also received numerous awards and grants including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in 2004.

Jahjehan Bath Ives gains her inspiration from the act of translating common western myths and religious stories into imagery. By using the framework of wallpaper or domestic space, she captures the figures in these stories in a way that makes them part of their setting.

Ives has had solo shows at Temple Gallery in Rome, Italy; Cactus Bra Space in San Antonio, TX; Project Row Houses, Lawndale Art Center, and Mackey Gallery in Houston, TX and Daniel Martinez Gallery in Munich, Germany. Jahjehan Bath Ives is currently an MFA candidate at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA.

July 9, 2006

A little Process

(Images clockwise) A water saturated ceiling tile, mixed down with a hand-held drink mixer from CVS ($15-$19). Basically, some paper and wood pulp (I guess the same thing) and calcium carbonate.

Plaster mold (in a kitty litter box) of an Ikea bowl (girlfriend let me use [those are her tootsies]). I just needed something quick and easy and with no undercuts to test this whole deal.

Drying the mold with a fan. Actually, I already tried to cast the pulp mixture with little success because the mold was to wet (I'm a little impatient). The mold is in the oven (gas-on warm) as I write. More to come.

June 8, 2006

Nice Form

I snapped this the other day while watching Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride". Not that great of a movie but the some of the characters were beautiful. The special feature section where they show how the characters are made is worth the watch. It was probably the most engaging part of the film. This form might end up somewhere, or not.

May 13, 2006

Fill a Small Room

Study for small space | graphite on paper | 2004

Here's an old drawing I did when I was in the UTD residency. We were given these gallery spaces at the front of the apt. to use either as a studio or clean space to show our work. The idea with this piece was to fill a small space with very large blob-like forms coming out of the walls. For the most part it was site specific. This way of working is starting to make more sense to me again. I've been thinking a lot about how I want to realize certain works in actual spaces (other than a gallery).

Below is a small version I did in the apt. during the residency. Everyone who saw it likened it to a boob so it became a wall boob. Of course that was the last thing on my mind. It was a form I was able to create quickly so as to test out if the mold making material (tin cure rubber I think) would set on wet clay. What really stuck for me about this study was how it was located next to the normal, mundane items that one usually finds in a home. Did one activate the other, or did the wall boob become just as ordinary as the light switch and the thermostat? Or something else all together?

Study | urethane foam, wall paint, acoustic texture | 2005

April 3, 2006

Stage One

Starting another wall piece. This time I'm making the frame first. I'm more confident about creating an element to work within a predefined space than the other way around, which is how the first one developed. Next is to cut the masonite to size.

March 17, 2006

Trying Something Longer

I'm currently working on making a much more complex version of the earlier animation. I get very frustrated with Flash unlike most applications I use. The interface and tools are so unintuitive. There's always a learning curve when figuring out a new application , but I'm not new to it! I just don't use it very often. Everytime I come back to it I have to learn it again.

March 4, 2006

Things That Aren't Working

I 'm starting work on an idea with a medium I've never used before, paint. I disliked painting when I was in art school because of it's (perceived) lack of immediacy. These images represent some of the first studies. Don't worry, I know they're bad. But these only took about 30 minutes a piece and are going to get me somewhere little by little (whether I like the results or not).

I've been thinking a lot about the medium of paint. Working in 2-d is still a little new to me, despite 3 years of drawing (art school). I simply learned drawing as a way to represent the physical from observation. But what I'm working with now has no physicality to observe. This is what I need to invent.

February 19, 2006

DIY Easel

I've been needing an easel for a little while but I've held off because the cost, as well as the fact that it's a dedicated piece of equipment, which doesn't work so well in a small studio. I saw the studio of an artist in one of those architectural mags like Dwell or something and noticed their easel. It was very simple. A piece of plywood, a ledge (what the painting rests on), and four spring loaded hand clamps (the orange kind).

I've had two hollow-core doors laying around for a while that I used as level-able surfaces to do my wine/coffee drawings. They weren't doing anything but acting as a headboard for my bed (storage), so I decided to use one of them as an easel. The total cost is around $40. Door: $20 (luan works the best because of it's smooth surface), 2 pieces of white pine measuring 1"x8"x6': $11, and two small clamps: around $10 (I tried the hand clamps but they weren't strong enough for what I needed). The glue and screws I already had. I'm sure you could find some shelf type of deal that would work but I needed something heavy-duty because my stretchers are covered with masonite instead of canvas. It took about a half an hour to make. Plus it has clean lines, which I like so much because I'm a design freak.

February 7, 2006

It's Coming Along

Another in-progress of what I'm working on. Got a lot done this weekend on it. Maybe it's a little corny to only show so much of it but I take these photos for myself as a way of looking at my work differently. It can be really hard at times to block out what's around, especially when your studio is as dinky as mine. It needs another coat of paint and then the airbrushing starts.