wonderroot

An interview I did with Floyd Hall for WonderRoot came out today.  I always get nervous about listening back to these things...I avoided it for a bit, anticipating a lot of fist-in-mouth moments and assumed I would probably end up making a post where I reworded or revised my answers. Who would of thunk, everything turned out just fine.  There's always more for me to say about everything we talked about, but overall, it was a pretty thorough sweep.  

Take a listen here!  And be sure to check out the rest of the podcast - there are tons of really great interviews with other local Atlanta artists.

EMBROIDERY

I have been looking up embroidery, trying to decide if this is a medium I’d like to indulge and incorporate, or if I already have enough on my plate. I feel like it’s a natural progression of where my work is at already…but sometimes my ideas move faster than my output can handle. I look back and feel like I wish I had more work to evidence each of the concepts I digested at any given point. Will my mind ever slow down? There are worse things I guess…

I found this really great place NEAR ATLANTA! called Japanese Embroidery Center – I will let them describe themselves:

“The Japanese Embroidery Center (JEC) is a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Japanese embroidery through the pursuit of Nuido™, The Way of Embroidery. The word Nuido™ is made up of two parts; Nui, or embroidery (also shishu), and Do, the way of Nui refers to the acquisition of technical skills and knowledge. Do refers to the development, and constant discovery, of the spiritual components of the art of Nuido™. Nuido™ has three aspects: the acquisition of technical skills and knowledge (rationality), the development of artistic sensitivity and awareness (sensitivity), and understanding the spiritual aspects of shishu (spirituality), resulting in a state of peace, calm, and harmony.”

http://www.japaneseembroidery.com/

I am definitely drawn to the intention and ritual, the idea of meditation before working, having a sensei, everything about it really. And good on them for getting over here and further taming the wild, American beast. An information video on the site said the hardest thing about teaching students in the States was getting them to shut up during class – we can be so obnoxious as a culture, like a toddler. –I probably, wont be able to get in and take a class until next year, but I’m glad to know it’s there for me when I’m ready.

I love that the  students of the Japanese center learn gardening and appreciation for nature’s role in their craft.  It isn’t really clear whether or not they are introduced to silkworms and if that’s what they are working on maintaining in their garden, or if they are simply growing their own food.  Either way, I think hands-on interaction with the earth is essential in maintaining a tradition and culture of ‘big picture’ understanding.

There may come a time when I will only use found material.  This is hard for me because I love paint so much, but as a medium, it’s completely artificial…or at least in the ways I indulge it.  I want to find a more sustainable, but simultaneously archival, way around this.  I know I can make my own pigments out of plants and household items, but the way I’m painting currently, this isn’t really practical.  The dilemma itself really is the greater umbrella concept of my work: the intoxicating trap of artifice and the quest for ways to find the purest relationship with the natural world possible, coming from an honest evaluation of where we stand today on our journey as humans on earth.  I’m not too beat-up by the conflict as it applies to my personal work though – I’m confident I will arrive naturally and gradually at solutions that make sense and support my ideals.

…So do I paint on the fabric and then embroider on top? or do I pour paint on top of embroidery. Probably BOTH! Playing with stitches will be added to the bank of stuff to play with while I’m in Vermont. OH! This is perfect considering I will be meditating and yoga-ing daily. So excited.

the featured image:

from the series Red Sky at Night by Rebecca Ringquist — Bounty, 2011, 60 x 32, Embroidery and machine stitching on found fabric

http://www.packergallery.com/ringquist/index.php

GODZILLA

The other day I took myself on a hot date to see Godzilla at Plaza Theatre.  I entered with the usual assumption: I'd see a classic, old movie and indulge a little nostalgia for recent human past.  I was excited to find that elements of the movie actually tie nicely together some of the ideas I am trying to work through in my paintings, as well as further solidify and connect interests I haven't formed informed explanations for.  For example: I have always felt a pull towards Japan.  I am interested in ritual and process and find these attributes are a bit atrophied in USAmerican culture where emphasis on quantity and speed overwhelms quality; I am still seeking sources to justify and support these claims. Anyhoo, Godzilla shined a light on a whole other aspect of Japanese philosophy//other phenomenon I had no idea I was headed towards.  Check out these pics I snuck...

POINTS IN GODZILLA I'M EXCITED ABOUT:

- gender and family issues - that whole love triangle between Emiko, Hideto and the scientist Daisuke - The self sacrifice of the scientist Daisuke at the end. He destroys his notes, knowing that his discoveries could be used for good, but their potential for evil and dangerous applications make them unfit to share with mankind. - anti-H bomb propaganda and morality of the sciences was a delightful and unexpected enhance my own personal claims. - Japanese philosophy about the balance of the masculine and the feminine. The bomb as a symbol of masculinity, nature as the feminine - the disruption and retaliation of nature on man. Ultimately the feminine restores balance.

WOW! NEW POINTS OF INTEREST TO EXPAND UPON: Mutations, monsters, archetypes and evolving myths in the modern world

A lot of the ideas that struck me,  gender-issues, ideas of family structure, etc, are all further discussed in this article by Jerome Shapiro (http://serdar-hizli-art.com/symbolism_in_art/symbolism_in_japan_movies.htm). Reading through this has helped shape and inform some of the points mentioned above and also have got me wanting to rip apart monster movies.

MY WORK AS IT STANDS TODAY: Agitated nature-scapes in contrast to the serenity / majesty of historic depictions of landscape in painting, photography and drawing. I reflect on a landscape interrupted by human "progress" - technology, strip-mining, clear cutting forests, irresponsible agriculture, pollution, trash, waste, consumer culture. I am trying to depict a space that is unbalanced and victim to the indulgence of the masculine (if we're relating it to the philosophy of harmony and balance of the dual forces: feminine and masculine) and judeo-christian notions that nature is at our disposal. Maybe I will take the ideas of the feminine, represented as silk, weaving and healing acting as calming balance to these landscapes. But then what are the gender role stereotypes I am indulging in doing this? How can I see "masculine" and "feminine" as compartmentalized concepts that exist in relation to one another in duality, but also have attributes of the other with in themselves? ...THE YING YANG lol.  The cocoon may be a place for incubation, the womb a place where change and growth can be made, but it is also a sort of prison, isolated.  I want to emphasis and explore the ideas of gendered constructs in their extremes as unbalanced, not that the feminine is inherently positive and the masculine negative, or the opposite, which is a bit more ingrained in our language and in our tradition, at least in the Western world.

MULLED ART: dig myself out

what i'm interested in regards to painting:

• spontaneous gesture
• obsession
• compulsion
• neurosis
• self picking at
• self flagellation
• internal vs external
• alienation
• power struggle
• power play
• bursting at the seams
• over-pouring
• drips
• drops
• splitters and splat
• paint as blood
• paint as skin
• paint as mud
• paint as its own wild animal
• paint as snot and scabs
• paint as scum
• grit
• grime
• wabi sabi
• paint as easy to handle
• paint as hard to hold

this list makes me feel like i should be more abstract...

....it also makes me want to paint more portraits.

by: hannah helton

hypnopompic and my own hallucinations

I came across these beautiful weavings by Finnish designer/artist Kustaa Saksi in a blog post by Miss Moss.  Yes, they are trippy, and vibrant, yet subdued in a really appealing way, but the reason I had to catalogue them here is this quote/definition of the title of the series "Hypnopompic": "Hypnopompic refers to a state of sensory confusion leading out of sleep, when the state of awakening gets mixed with the dream world into a surreal reality. It is an exceptional state of consciousness, in which one may experience the presence of, or see creatures and animals, such as spiders, monkeys and insects. Hypnopompic state has also been affiliated with visual delusions caused by migraine. These graphic patterns, designs and textures are thought to have contributed to the traditions of ornamentation, mosaic and textile."

For as long as I can remember, I have hallucinated (visual, auditorial, physical) while falling asleep and waking.  Even though I know now that it's a completely normal phenomenon (and symptom of narcolepsy) called "hypnogogic hallucination" that many a brilliant historical figure experienced in their day, I still sometimes feel a bit off my rocker (the fact that the only "famous person" I can think of off the top of my [wikipedia's] head who mentioned experiencing the phenomenon is Edgar Allen Poe does not plead my sanity case).

...But these weavings are so inspiring.  My hallucinations are sometimes terrifying (I've been told I cry), sometimes exhilarating, sometimes funny (I've been told I giggle), so duh, I don't know why I haven't already considered THEM "inspiring."  Apparently, some people even actively try and learn how to achieve them (like they do with lucid dreams...WHICH my visions have always lead right into--or out of)  I guess if anyone wants some tips just ask...But be forewarned: nothing is worse than having something really cool or beautiful or what-have-you in your possession during a dream you're controlling, only to wake and see it there! with you! in your bed! and then lose it to reality... Huge bummer for me as a kid.

Anyhoo, on an art note: these really jumped out at me because the most common things I see in my hypnogogic state are bugs, particularly spiders.  I have been trying to think of a way to tap into the whole weird dream thing for a good long while, and these are definitely inspiration in the right direction.  Also love the concept of weaving (a very feminine history which also references spiders--Mother Spider taught us to weave), meshing with my very physical painting style (rooted in the very macho action painters of the 50s)---little gender discussion about materiality there.  Also, the concept of "mother" as spider has been coming up a lot in my work lately.  ...AND the comments in the quote about mosaics makes me better understand my tendency towards pattern work and this sort of thing...  WHAT A SERENDIPITOUS FIND! THIS IS SO DENSE.  I'M SO EXCITED.