Final Pieces of Junior Year!

Well now I'm a senior. What? I still feel like I just finished foundation year! I'm not ready to graduate! I haven't made anything good yet! Here are the final pieces from my three studio courses I took the past spring semester.

This is an untitled, it's approximately 3 feet long. I made this by dipping a bundle of horse hair into a mixture of soy and bee wax. This piece was a struggle due to the fact that it actually fell and broke in half twice and the wax would over time slip off of the hair.

This is my Projects II final. Our prompt was beauty and how we interpret it. I titled this "I haven't showered in a week...still wanna fuck?" It's loosely based off of the relationship I had while I was making "This Just In". The materials used were horse hair, wax and satin ribbon. I needle felted the hair on the right and brushed the hell out of the one on the left.

I think this is beautiful because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While someone may be beautiful on the outside they may be a real bitch in reality. Are they still beautiful? And sometimes a person may be crusty or not fit into what our society say is beautiful but is also the most wonderful loving person. Does that make them beautiful?

Finally this is my Advanced final. We had to pattern out something that was hard and make it out of fabric. I chose to make a toilet. I used linen to make the piece and it is clearly not a very sturdy material causing it to sink in multiple spots. I should have used canvas but what can I do now? I'm really satisfied with the pattern and the sewing. This was actually the first time I used a sewing machine!

I have a lot of plans for this summer as far as making is concerned. I really want to make a solid portfolio and all that jazz!

Fancy Things

The Wetherill Ball was amazing. Even though I only attended the cocktail party, I had a ball! I ate caviar and other fancy appetizers and met some pretty amazing people! The picture above is of the three university representatives giving a quick speech. Curtis Nouchi and Chiyan Tse were the other's with me. Both their pieces sold, mine didn't but I did over price it. Whatever. Below is my piece all done up on the table in the ball room. I am so glad that I painted it silver instead of the flesh color I originally wanted to do.

Wetherill Ball

I feel like fucking Homer Simpson, not physically, I just feel like an idiot. I finished my piece for the Wetherill Ball last night at about 3am and then today with the help of my wonderful friend and artist Amanda drove to ultra South West Philly to deliver it. She did not come with me I just borrowed her car. After sitting in traffic for an hour on the Schuylkill and getting a truck drivers tan I just realized that I never photographed my piece! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

No worries though! I was selected to attend the ball this year so I will just take a few while I am there. According to Jim Makins...and everybody else in the crafts faculty it's a pretty big deal that I was selected to attend this event. I can't wait to rub elbows with the art elite of Philadelphia! Last years honoree was the fabulous Sharon Church. This woman inspires me and challenges me every time I see her! I hope this year's award winners are as amazing as her!

The award of merit this year will be going to Lynee & Harold Honickman. They will be honored of Friday, May 6, 2011. Apparently Mr. Honickman is number 227 on the Forbes 400. Ms. Honickman is the founder and president of the Honickman Foundation. This foundation helps the community with art and education for all. She is also a trustee at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The medal of achivement will be going to Jane Golden this year. She has basically done so many amazing things that I really don't have time to list. But I am very excited to meet her!

Zoe Strauss

I recently did a presentation about Zoe Strauss. She's bad ass, check out this video that the ICA did about her.

Lots of Things!

This past Thursday, April 14'th my friend Ana Thomas had a show at the Bahdeebahdu Galleryin Fishtown. Due to lack of money I could not make my way up there for the opening of the show which is titled "Fresh Blood". The show included work from Rebecca Pulver, James Hughes, and Ashley Goldfinger. I suggest you all try to make it out there to see the show, I know the first free second I get I will! The show runs until May 7, 2011 and check website for their hours! http://www.bahdeebahdu.com

What I did do this Thursday was go to one of the Philadelphia Art Alliance's Commonwealth lectures. This past year they have been offering a wide variety of artist lectures (free to students) which have so far all been amazing. This past artist was Adelaide Paul. Adelaide is currently a ceramics professor at MICA, but does not limit her work to only clay. She uses taxidermy forms and a wide variety of fabrics stretched over the form. Her work is not limited to clay or fiber materials, she brings in found objects which help bring the point of her work across. She owns seven dogs studying them closely, which she then bases her work off of. My opinion of her work is in one word AWESOME. She made me think of how the idea of perfection in the body and how it can be distorted.

This is Adelaide with one of her many dogs!

This is a piece she did titled "Bitch". This was made in 2008 using porcelain and pink leather

On the first and second floor of the Art Alliance Tania Mouraud, an artist from Paris, France has a solo show currently being displayed. The show titled "j'entends les trains depuis toujours / I keep hearing the trains for ever" is a video installation. In each room their is a new video being played. I thought it was particularly interesting to see her work along side Adelaide's due to it's content. In many of the videos it shows vicious dogs with others showing clapping hands and fish. I've been very attracted to film and video art lately. Hopefully I will one day be able to explore it!

This is a video of Tania Mouraud. I could not find any from the present exhibit. If you can, I recommend you go and seethe show! It is up until May 8, 2011. The Art Alliance is opened Tuesday-Sunday from 11am until 5pm.

Artist Statements...blah blah blah

After a miserable trip to NYC last week my hopes and moral were lifted by the great Sheila Hicks. I still can't believe I got to meet her!

I was talking to a few friends of mine outside of the crafts/fibers department and I was amazed to hear that they do not need to make an artist statement. They also laughed at mine but I did too. This is my first draft of my statement, I made it for my junior review.

"As an artist beginning their career it may be difficult to find what moves us. That being said I feel that I am moved by the feelings and jesters that occur in my gut. When making I know that I am progressing positively when I feel the sensation of being sick, as if my creative process needs to be vomited out of me."

ZZZZZZZ

When ever I come to studio I am filled with A) rage and B) the uncontrollable want to take a nap. I am choosing B today....like I did yesterday.