Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I have a solo Sculpture show in April!!!





I am going to be having a gallery opening on April 15th at Sparrow Collective (6-9 at 2224 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207). I sell some of my handmade items from magicalponyfarm.etsy.com there and they also happen to have gallery shows in the same shop and I'm the next lucky artist! I am so excited because it will be my first time showing my sculptures in Milwaukee, my first solo show, and my first time in years making a new piece!

The photos above were taken in my studio while I was working, that is the new piece I plan on showing along with some of my favorite older ones. It's still a work in progress in those photos and has a long way to go. I'm really excited about how its turning out. It draws visual references to some of my favorite artist's work including: Eva Hesse, Kiki Smith, and Petah Coyne. For the most part I don't like to explain my work and I think as a rule in general art should be able to speak for itself, but for the sake of having it out there... i'll give a few reasons for what i'm making...

This piece is made of different parts of tree branches that I wove together to form an organic mass. I like to think of the branches as a circulatory system, vein network, or something corporal. It's also going to have small hand cast wax birds. I have two colors dark purple and white, I use birds in a lot of my pieces, and I like to think of them as blood cells (white and red). I like the idea of a forced reality, for example the fact that what took me hours to create (the branch structure) happens in nature on its own without all the effort.

The piece is also going to have small crocheted circles that I made out of very thin thread; the effect is that they look like spider webs stretched between the branches (or some other type of organelle). The finishing touch will be thin gold chains draped and wrapped around the branches (ligaments or connective tissue). The overall effect will hopefully be a static non functional macabre chandelier.

When it's finished and after the show I will post pictures!

Artist statement:
My work has always been highly detail-oriented and process-based. Step by step my sculptures slowly come to life and develop meaning and structure in an intuitive way. Each piece invites the viewer to interpret it as they choose and to include their own personal mythology to each component and piece as a whole. Every sculptural component is chosen not only for its aesthetics but also for the relationship it creates when paired with another. For me, an object is unique when it is able to speak for itself.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

What's been going on in the studio?







I've been working on some adorable retro inspired hair pieces for everyday use or that oh so very special occasion! I made my best friends hair piece for her wedding and fell in love with the process of making them, so now I cant stop!
My touch of inspiration has come from trying to make these as cute and feminine as possible. I have even gone as far as to add tiny birds to some! I thought that there may not be much of a market for these since wearing a bird on your head, literally, may just be a bit too much, but after my product photo shoot I have completely changed my mind. I love wearing them and I love how cute they look on. Come on... you know you want a bird on your head!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

20th Century Werewolf Aesthetic!







I would like to introduce to you David Altmejd. This is my all time favorite artist. This is the kind of art you see and think...Oh my god, someone took my dreams and made them real?! How did this not come out of my mind and hands? Anyone who has created something that has been written about with the term "20th century werewolf aesthetic" is my HERO. Almost, as much as I love his work, I empathize with his view on art. In an interview he said:

I am interested in complexity as a form. I am happy when people are fascinated by the thing itself, when they are absorbed by it and know that it contains something more. Personally, I like experiencing complex objects, but not because I necessarily wish to understand the system. I am seduced by complexity itself. From my perspective, my work is intuitive. I am not able to mention specific reasons why I associate these things. I get a feeling from certain combinations, a feeling that something is going to happen when I mix things together. I do not have to say something; the object will say it. I see my installations as organisms. I start making something but at a certain point it starts making choices by itself.

He said, in a far more eloquent way, how i've always felt about my own art and art in general. Thank god for the small occurrances of brilliance that still happen in our ever vapid society.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011