Whalerider

Last night I dreamt that I was riding on the back of a whale through the ocean. I woke up and thought about Lisa Frank, and those creepy visually assaulting images she creates that adorned my 5th grade trapper-keepers. I wish I was a painter, because that is seriously rich source material.

These ladies are hott

Women welders during WWII. I was googling images of Rosie the Riveter and found some of the real women behind the icon.

Philadelphia

I thought I was going to Baltimore but I ended up visiting my dear friend Mari in Philadephia over the holiday.

MUTE AND PRESERVE

I am currently showing some of my work at the North Dam Mill. Here's the statement for the show.

MUTE AND PRESERVE::The act of writing rather than speaking is a means of muting language, silencing the spoken word and preserving it (so that it can be read both in the present and the future). Writing is an attempt to preserve meaning, however, written words lack the context that speech is provided. Words that are spoken are heard within their direct context while the written word is likely to be read in a drastically different context that will significantly alter its perceived meaning.

The language utilized in this body of work is familiar phrases removed from bodies of literature and historic accounts. These words have been muted and preserved through the act of writing, and my abridgement re-interprets them into an altogether new context. Through this process I am questioning how written language functions. Where and how is meaning made within the written word? Is meaning innately linked to words and phrases? When the written word is removed from its familiar context can it author new meaning?

The materials I use to work with these concepts directly reference the ideas of preservation, as salt is a preservative and the prints are created on purely archival materials. The paper is left white and color is absent, resulting in a muted aesthetic.

Some sweet scenes to check out in d-town Bidds.
Franklin Street Art Space is a contemporary art gallery started by Tammy and Russell who are really cool people. Great space, great light, great floors, if you're in Biddeford, it's worth a wander down Franklin Street.
Hog Farm Studios has a concert series, a great show was on the other night with the following artists that I recommend checking out if you're not yet acquainted with,
Tom Thumb
Run on Sentence
Midwest Dilemma

My cousin is working at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, she does things in a lab with zooplankton, fascinating subject. The word planktos (which the latter part of zooplankton originates from) means "wanderer" or "drifter", really beautiful right? everything in the ocean eats zooplankton, they get crushed by sea life, think about that.

I like these images and so does Judith Butler.

After my visit to the Bennington Memorial this summer (see previous blog entry to read about it) I have been really interested in the tourist brochures provided at such sites. I have collected many tourist brochures this summer, but my favorite has been the Bennington Battle Monument brochure. I'm stuck on the pictures of revolutionary war reenactments within the brochure and have been cutting out the pictures of the soldiers and making things with them. Since this is something that I am processing, I don't have any concrete statements to make about the things I'm making with them. (And since I'm not in Thesis I don't have one due! ha!). I know that I am interested in the idea of these brochures being mass-produced, that these war reenactments are in a way mass-produced as well (think Rauschenberg, copies of copies).
I have also been inserting these little soldiers onto postcards, displacing them from their context (which, if you consider it, is an already foreign context, as they are reenacting a piece of history today). A reenactment of the Green Mountain Boys documented and displaced.
Enough of that. Your comments are welcomed.