more art work

It took me so long to update this blog, and now I am posting two days in a row... there is just so much to catch up on.





I am posting some pictures of three sculptures that I am working on right now. They aren't completely assembled yet, which is why they look all wonky. These syringes will be hung from a tall ceiling with the tar pieces directly below them, so it looks like black liquid will be pouring out of the bottom of them. Also, each syringe will have a glass bulb sitting on top, half full of black liquid. The people here at the company think I am a little weird, or rather, that my artwork is. Okay, probably both. But it is a little hard to explain the story behind them when I don't speak the language. Even so, it is still weird.





These were inspired by a couple of rather personal things. The idea came to me while staying at St. Urban, which is the revamped insane assylum. As many of you know, both of my parents died from overdosing on the medications that were supposed to help them... My mother on purpose and my father by accident. I have thought a lot about the fine line between healing and hurting and am not so convinced that western medication is all it is cracked up to be. My family tree is pretty ugly with mental illness and I worry a lot about my own menal health, as I have battled a lot from depression. Feel like I am doing pretty good despite the bad genes, but it is still something I can't help but consider. So in a way these three pieces are a family portrait of sorts. I am not sure what the statute of limitations is on making bad art about personal tragedy, but I am sure my friend and art nemisis, Gordon, will let me know when to just get over it. I figure if Sophie Calle can make art about a breakup she had a decade before I can indulge in art about this for a while.

Working like mad

I have lots of things to write about, but am exhausted and am going to try to keep this short. I feel like I have been doing a lot of things, and I feel like I have been getting nothing done at the same time. I have been working like crazy trying to get everything finished by next Thursday, when I travel up to Germany for a couple of days and then down to Italy with Shelby. Yay!

Last weekend I went to the Zofingen open air, which was a big rock music event taking place in the park above the house. Saw some great bands, including Gogol Bordello, which was a crazy Russian band with a rabid singer whose pants looked like they were going to abandon ship at any moment, and a woman stomping around the stage with a huge base drum. P!nk was the headliner and was pretty aw some to watch. I have never professed myself to be a fan or her music, but she was a great entertainer and much more talented than I have given her credit for in the past. She did some great Janis Joplin covers, so that might have been what won me over.

I have a lot of things I am working on right now, and have attached some blurry phonographs of everything in progress. Some of you might recognize the pattern on the corset drawing as my tattoo, and the one that is cut out of steel is borrowed from the tattoo I am going to get on my back when I get home. Both tattoos were designed by the lovely and talented Emily Bixler (who's name I know I am misspelling) In many ways I am reverting back to pre-grad school work, which I am sure I will get flack about when I get home. It might be because it is safe ground for me or because of lack of time to do anything large scale like I want to continue doing. Also want to get everything finished so that I have more time to play in Italy and don't have to rush back here to keep working. This residency has definitely been a great experience, but an exhausting one. My hosts are out of town right now, and it is really nice to have space to work at my own pace. I don't do well with someone hovering over my every move and get a lot more done when I am in charge of my schedule. I can't say anything bad about the Swiss though, I have discovered that my blog is being carefully monitored by sneaky Swiss spies (Hi Reto)

I am happy to report that during my time here I have only accidentally caught three things on fire... and only a little bit. Yesterday it was a pair of gloves while I was welding. Granted, the gloves were not being used in the appropriate manner, but that is just a minor detail. This is a vast improvement for me, as I tend to be a bit of a haphazard pyromaniac sometimes.

I have included a lovely self portrait of me at work as well as a much more flattering picture of me in Ticino during the Swiss national day. The man in the wheel chair was singing old ballads and playing the accordion during dinner that night, he was really great to listen to. I have also put up some images of Luzern, where I went last week to tour the local art school. It is a beautiful town and I would love to have more time to explore it. The picture of the guy with the finger over his head might be my favorite billboard of all time. And the big jungle gym thing was at a glass factory and was absolutely amazing. You drop marbles into the contraption up at the top and they spiral their way down making beautiful sounds as they hit all of the glass parts. Very inventive and cool. I loved it as much as the kids did.

Okay, off to home to drink too much wine and get some much needed sleep.

Where I am working

So a lot of you want to see where I am working. There are questions about what an artist residency is like and what I making. Well I don't know what regular residencies are like, since this is more of an internship mixed with a residency and has a pretty strict program, not the free form style I imagine many residencies to have. Anyway, Aeschlimann is an asphalt company, so I am working there at their facility, where there is a welding shop, a machine shop, and a huge hanger for trucks. There is also an army truck that Heinz bought and outfitted with a welder and power tools, so that I can drive anywhere and work. He said that he was going to bring me to the woods one day and to the center of town another, but that hasn't happened yet. I have had some successful attempts and some rather unsuccessful ones.... such as the spine I tried to cast in asphalt and instead made an asphalt/plaster sandwhich. One of the pieces pictured here is some steel that Heinz gave me to make a sculpture out of. Apparently all of the residents have been asked to do this out of similar pieces, and they will have a juried show and whoever is deemed best will be invited back. It will be part of a larger sculpture surprise, which you will see later.

n

Interview in Craft

http://www.craftzine-digital.com/craft-lookinside/vol04/?pg=178&liid=dc6fd5af5a

Check out the above link for a super, super short story about my shopping cart in Craft Magazine. It is kind of a blub, but exciting none-the-less. Also, my name is mentioned in an add placed by Art-st-urban in the summer issue of Art News. Yay me.