Rich People Beginnings

Basically this started with an idea that was brought up on a long car ride some time ago, and I only recently realized I simply had to do it as an art project.

The premise of the conversation eventually went something along the lines of what sort of things the highest echelon of society do with all those expensive clothes they change out every season. The quote that sparked this endeavor was essentially, said in a completely sarcastic, faux aristocrat voice, "Oh dear, I seem to have spilled my wine all over your dress, ha ha"


In summary: a parody, mockery, or satire of the filthy rich (maybe jealousy?).


So for this event to happen we need to:


Hit up a thrift store or two the day before or rather early the day of.


Buy suitable well fitting clothes.


Buy boxed wine, squirt guns, and maybe fake money.


Head to lettuce lake park or similar venue before sunset and take glorious images.


Dress in fancy clothes, fill squirt guns with wine, ruin everything, all while photos are being taken. Act like affectatious rich white people.

Pinned

Featuring my series "Attraction". No framed works were allowed, everything had to be pinned to the well. Here is a crummy cell phone shot of my work on the gallery wall:

Return Inside Part 1

This series of images is the start of the work I am making towards my thesis show. These sort of represent... one half of a coin, per se. I am trying to create a dream-like, drifting or floating feeling, that of being lost and disoriented. The fantasy motif was mentioned, but frankly I do not mind it very much, if anything it only adds to the otherworldly nature of it. I hope it does not remove the viewer too far from the state of relateability however.

Now to get to work on unraveling my plague doctor character and overlapping these "worlds".

Poems

These images  are largely unplanned. I had taken a walk, in a sort of halfway delirious state, some days before these shots were taken. I went down to the marina with my boyfriend (a place of personal significance to me, though that is irrelevant to this shoot) and I recall being struck by certain images as I went, sort of congealing into my thoughts. I later took it upon myself to retrace my steps and see if I could summon up these spaces again. 

In the grand scheme of things, I think about these images in the sense of poetry - as invoking a mood or head space, visually immersive - which will hopefully, when viewed which my larger scope of images, create a sort of unified presence, each part informing the whole.

Fingers crossed.

 

Fixing a Warped Painting

So earlier I posted pictures of the large scale ink and gouache painting I had done, combining Chinese and Indian style idioms. I did the ink first, mounting the rice paper to a larger and firmer piece of rice paper using a rice-paste method which flattens and smooths out the lot of it, which can wrinkle quite a bit in the painting process. I then applied the gouache, hoping that it would be sturdy enough to take the application.

It wasn't, especially after I changed plans midway (from rainbow patterns to pure silver). The piece was left warped and wrinkled. So, not to be defeated so easily, I looked up methods normally used to flatten warped watercolor pieces, figuring that, though the rice paper was thinner, the ink was indelible. The only worrisome bit was the gouache.

The actual process was relatively simple. I got a large sponge and dampened the back of the piece, working from the inside out like I do to apply adhesives or whichever. I then sandwiched the painting between a couple layers of scrap newsprint on either side. I then put all of that between two pieces of hardboard and stuck a giant box of books on top of it. It did wonders. Some of the lake bits are still not perfectly flat, but I think that owes more to the layers of paint. Everywhere else is as flat as when I first mounted it.

Success.

Some comparison shots:

I think I just want to... disappear people. Leave nothing but the traces.

Of course then the debate becomes whether I want them to essentially walk up and leave, float away, evaporate, keel over dead, be arrested, eaten by wolves, abducted by aliens or whatever.

Now, in the semi-recent events surrounding Harold Camping's rapture-end-is-nigh spiel, there were quite a few people doing things that looked like this:

Honestly though, while it was rather funny at the time I don't currently find it all that interesting. Aliens aren't much better. I feel a more subtle approach might be best - as if perhaps someone were taken forcefully from a room, but not in a graphically violent way. Tipped over chairs, spilled cups, open doors. Leaving the impression that someone was taken, or had to leave in quite a hurry and creating a host of questions in the viewer.

Visability

I have some images of my latest series! These aren't the final documentation photos, and some of the colors may be a touch off, but they are decent for the most part and I can't resist sharing. I debated it for awhile, but finally caved. Do keep in mind they look much better in person. I know, I know, people say that all the time, but there are a lot of sculptural details in the wax (hand carving and layering) that simply don't show up in these photos.

Visability - Mounted photos, ink on rice paper, wax 17.5x11.5

The process is... interesting to say the least. I printed the images off and then mounted them on hardboard/masonite, requesting the guy at the hardware store (Derek) to, essentially, cut the board on the inseam so that my photos would not potentially have problems covering the full space, which turned out to be a solid move.

I knew I didn't want a clean cut on the rice paper, since the look falls into the grunge aesthetic. The solution to that was simple enough - a clean brush dipped in water and traced around the figures allowed me to tear the paper in various ways without risking the images. I thought of the idea when I remembered a line of water as the easiest way to break off segments from the roll (if you didn't care about it being smooth, that is).

I found out through experimentation that if I rushed things and applied any wax coating before the rice paste had completely dried after applying the ink drawings to the photo that instead of enhancing the paper's ethereal qualities it instead actually made it more opaque (rice paste is a traditional tool used for mounting ink drawings done on rice paper, or for various kinds of collage work - very handy stuff. The ink is indelible after drying, as opposed to, say, watercolor). Having to work over the course of days killed me, as I am not known for being patient.

After heating the wax in a crock-pot until liquid, I applied it using a very thin fan brush, creating a light layer to start with over the entirety of the paper parts. I then built it up by adding more wax in sections and creating textures with drips, brush-strokes, and splatters.

When the wax had cooled (which takes no time at all), I used a tool that resembled a hair stick (which resemble chopsticks or skewers) and carved into the wax which always remains relatively soft, creating accents, detail, and figural relief. I could have worked deeper, but I wanted enough thinness to let the ink show through without the wax obscuring. If I do something like this again, I might also use woodcut stamps to add design work into the piece.