Surfacing To Post

So I haven't been on my blog because every spare minute of my life has been absorbed by making art and writing my thesis. I figured it was time to post some form of update. I've decided to try to make this semesters posts informative in regards to the thesis semester process for my future self, and for others that may be curious about the program.

My first week back I tried to take a few days off, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it...until I got sick. So while I was sick I brainstormed and decided instead of doing a ceramic insert for the flag box I am completely going to redo I am going to do a knit flag. The only problem was I didn't know how to knit. So I took my sick down time to learn to knit.

The following week I was functioning mentally and physically again so I began reading for thesis. I read all day every day ALL WEEK LONG. At the end of all that reading I rewrote my thesis outline to include what images I wanted. I also had a Skype meeting with my mentor to try to figure out the balance for the semester. She recommended I get some help with the massive workload. I decided to take her advice, and the following week I hired a studio assistant.

I spent 7 days writing my first draft thesis to include the bibliography, images, citation, but not the abstract. I turned the draft into the writing tutors and waited 3 days for feedback. I then made the necessary changes to grammar and sent it off to my lovely editor, Lindsey Schmitt with a deadline. She returned it with content comments. After editing a second time I sent it to my mentor who graciously did a quick turn around so I could edit for her comment suggestions and get it turned in to my adviser. First thesis draft done I began focusing on studio work.

With my assistant I have removed all the rebar from the boxes, patched, painted, and varnished (thanks for the tip Kevin Blake) them to completion. I had her cut all the quilt squares for my replacement quilt piece, cut out the shapes for my resource scrapbook, and put all the boxes back together. I have knitted the knit box insert, constructed the quilt box insert, and redone the military medal and ribbon insert. This required I rip the other box inserts apart and put them back together with the new surfaces. I've been putting in between 50 and 70 hours a week. The only reason this is possible is due to my ability to stop living since my boyfriend is on deployment. I have tendinitis in my right arm, eating has become an after thought, my pets feel neglected, my house is filthy, and I'm running out of clean socks and underwear. I don't recommend this normally. Normally I try to stick to the 25 hours a week in the studio to maintain sanity and my health, but I have to meet the catalog photo deadline, and I want my new project in the grad catalog. So that means I'm going to kill myself and my assistant with studio hours until the deadline is met.

With that said. After averaging the hours from February and half of March over the 18 weeks that make up the semester it works out to roughly a little more than 20 hours a week. Crazy right?! I know. I don't know if I'm going to post pictures of this project because I would like everyone to be surprised. Don't worry Sunanda, I will send you pictures so you know I'm on track.

I will, however, post pictures of whatever new endeavor I attempt after I complete the requirements for this flag box project.

Trying Something New

So my boxes are just about done. Waiting for my big F to go away and my boyfriends pinched neck nerve to subside so we can put the last three backs on and I can paint them. Hopefully, we will get them done tonight.

Since my boxes are done I decided to try my hand at an idea for a ceramic anchor sculpture. I used a 20lb anchor and about 32lbs of plaster. It is the biggest heaviest thing I think I have ever made, and it was not 100% successful.

Turns out all the poking and prodding to remove the anchor from the plaster left huge gaps between the mold pieces. So I tried building the clay body like a slump mold and sticking it together with tons of slip and clay chunks. My Frankenmold is now drying. In a few days I will know if all of this back breaking work and money was worth it. I'm feeling like it probably wasn't, but at least I've tried. It has also made me realize that I physically cannot handle such large objects. So back to the drawing board with that idea. I think for now I will stick with my necklace boxes.

Next week is Thanksgiving and the last week of studio time for school for me. I've been busting my butt to get everything done for shipping, as well as, a few weeks time to rest my poor beat down body.

Seven Boxes in Five Months

The work I have been doing for the last six months is almost complete! At this rate I will have it done by my deadline of December 1st with corrections as well. The boxes were surprisingly difficult and time consuming. The backings look great but they each had to be tailored to the specific box it would be attached to. Overall, I'm really happy with the end result. There are many future possibilities for this series as well, but for now I need a break! So here it is, 7 boxes in 5 months...

The colored glass beads have writing on them, but the picture is too small to show that detail

flash so you can see the crushed velvet.

same box different lighting

crochet

cross-stitch

Quilt. I restitched with thicker white so you could see the quilting.

Land of the free.

Weave

Scrapbook flag has had a few reworks and it is at a stage where I'm going to start constructing and completing it.

Once The Paint Dries!

Well I'm surfacing for air finally! Papers are done and projects are coming to completion! So it's time to put some pictures up. I was planning on completing 5 of the boxes today, but my dog had a medical emergency that has taken my whole day. He should be back home tonight though and I can complete the 5 boxes tomorrow before seeing my mentor on Wednesday.

My third paper was about how the work of Rosemarie Trockel and Elaine Reichek use feminist art to create institutional critique. Studying these artists as well as some basics on semiotics helped me come up with the text in these pieces. Some of the writing is much more subtle, but every word was researched and decided upon very deliberately.

I may display the boxes on the floor in a similar manner. They all have holes to mount them on the wall as well.

The rebar is labeled, "honor, courage, commitment" 3 Navy Core Values

The centerpiece complete.

crochet stars (still needs to be ironed so the star centers show better)

Cross-stitched forget-me-nots and a common military phrase with loaded meanings

quilted star complete.

The centerpiece, a pillow with the medal and ribbon attached and iron on transfer.

close up. If you look closely "land of the free" is quilted into it.

Beads. See below for explanation...

 So I had a major meltdown with the ceramic bead box. Specifically, the beads. I fired them without thinking about the shrinkage rate of the stringing holes. Once fired the holes were too small to stilt again for the second glazed form. Fixing the problem would take too many man hours and I had already spent over 80 hours making the 2,140 beads. So I did research and chose Czech drop beads. They have a long history of disrupt due to wars, but continue to be made in Czechoslovakia despite the adversity Czech bead makers endured. Not only that, but they are the exact shape and size to match the ceramic beads I had initially created. 

That's all for now...

Seattle Art Museum

Last weekend I drug my boyfriend to the Seattle Art Museum to see the exhibit Minimalist Moment. It was small but filled with some interesting art. I got to see a piece by Daniel Buren, which surprised me due to the nature of their small collect. There was also an interesting piece by Robert Morrison and an interesting collection of curatorial pieces by Lucy Lippard.

Another great surprise was a room with three artists dealing with identity politics through African American art. Rashid Johnson, Glenn Ligon, and Carrie Mae Weems. It was like having a slice of pie and realizing you get ice cream with fudge too! If you read my second paper it discusses identity politics through the influence of Adrian Piper. I really enjoyed the piece by Weem's and all of the tricky little symbols and meaning openly displayed as well as under the surface.

Glenn Ligon

 I really just wish the museum was bigger. Going to New York City really did spoil me :(

Furthering My End Game

Paper II complete and now working on paper III. Research for paper III is helping my concept progress in the studio. I started the semester thinking about institutional critique and identity politics AND semiotics. Fia and I decided my third paper should be on institutional critique, but as my process and research has progressed I feel a paper on semiotics would be most helpful...which way it will go is still to be seen.

I had a meeting with my mentor last week. Claudia has been very helpful clarifying concepts I struggled with while working with Susan. She is working with me to continue removing the literalness from my work, as well as, developing new ways of thinking about the process. I have realized my current flag box project may have a singular manifestation for the next residency, but there are many new tangents it could potentially branch off towards. I am thinking multiple projects focused around these flag boxes. We also discussed the use of language and words in art, and she gave me a few more artists to research in the direction of semiotics.

Since my last post I have eight flag boxes constructed, prepped and ready for paint and one box with the steel rebar installed.  Below area  few pictures of that. The rebar installation was a bit of a mental and physical challenge, but once my boyfriend and I figured it out I think the other seven/15 boxes will come together much easier (if I decide they all need rebar).

We used two of the boxes to hold up the one we were working on.

Complete and ready for paint. I've decided to keep the rebar in its natural color state

I have also begun to explore and develop further the contents of these boxes. Below are the starting points for the contents. The cross stitched piece will be based off of a plan I drew out on Thursday (forgot to photograph it so I'll just surprise you) that utilizes the catchy Navy recruiting phrase, "Accelerate your life!"

One Forget-Me-Not done, and one petal almost complete

I'm pleased with the pace I am keeping with this part of the project. I thought the cross-stitch would take me forever, but I find it enjoyable and it's interesting to see my drawing coming together in thread and fabric so I think I should have this done within the next two weeks. I also decided to reduce the size of the overall piece and center it in the flag box with a plain but elegant white velvet background (yes, a certain level of cheesiness is implied).

Today I worked out my quilt star. See pictures below. I decided instead of three stars to just make one star with radiating white velvet as its border. I am then going to back it with batting and hand quilt it together with potentially another Navy phrase thrown out of context.

This is where it started

This is the half-finished product

So it is all starting to come together. This project has been a huge undertaking and I've found myself wanting to flit back and forth never really completing anything. I think of making sculpture in the same way I was taught to make paintings. Don't complete one area and move on to the rest because that will create imbalance in the piece. Work the whole thing with shared enthusiasm to make the entire piece one cohesive composition that naturally flows together. I've been really taking my time to get the craft right as well, which means my usual short cuts of not measuring and calculating are not going to cut it.

Concept drawings and tedium

Since my last blog post I have created full scale concept drawings. I've also done some extensive research into identity politics. I've come to find a lot of my work speaks to gender inequalities. The dominant culture in the US is very much a patriarchal society, and the military is an extreme subculture of this dominant culture. Being a part of that as a female was a constant uphill battle. When I was retired I thought things would be more equal as a civilian. Wrong. We speak about equality, but will there ever be gender equality? I feel like people are so worried about minority discrimination (as we should be) African American, Native American, Gay, etc. that the gender issue gets swept under the rug, and will continue to be swept under the rug. The constitution American's pride themselves on states All MEN are created equal. Isn't it time for a rewrite? Shouldn't it read all mankind are created equal? What about the other gender? Anyway, here are the drawings.

The piece as a composite is 5 ft by 6 ft.

ceramic beads

This one will be cross stitched with the actual ribbons attached. It will be the center piece for the entire composition

Ceramic plate

Crochet 5 point star granny squares

Embroidered 5 point stars

Quilted 5 point stars

Woven

I chose the 5 point star for a specific reason. Not only are they representational of the US flag, they also represent multiple awards. When a service member receives more than one of the same award they get a small bronze star to attach to the ribbon. It is also used to signify admiral and attached to high enlisted ranks like senior chief and master chief. It's a symbol of honor and accomplishment in the military, and I want to discuss the women that serve and are forgotten as a form of accomplishment and honor.

Besides the concept drawings I have completed the crochet granny squares, the ceramic plate as greenware, 1700 ceramic greenware beads, and a plaster mold for my rebar posts. I have a test piece poured in the rebar and I am ramping up to fire my kiln by hopefully the end of the week. I am struggling with figuring out my shrinkage rate so this fire will probably be a test fire. I'm really excited to be getting close to completing my greenware beads (what a painful tedious process!). Working in ceramic is time consuming, but I think in the long run it will have a better affect then the polymer clay.