Home and Adventure

My Buffalo Arts Studio show Home was a learning experience. Mostly I learned what not to do, but I relish experiences like that so I will take it with me. One of those things was that I didn’t really express myself too clearly on the nature of the work. I am notoriously terrible about speaking about anything. I get nervous and mumble, terrified of my own mouth. Poor Cori did her best with my long rambling emails and if she wasn’t a world class baker I would have gotten her a pastry of some sort for being an absolute patient saint with me.

The show itself was representative of a series of interviews I  conducted with individuals concerning their family, the most significant physical home of their childhood, and the dynamics between their family members. Each of the timeline pieces was a family tree. The insects used were chosen carefully to suit the subjects and/or their parents by matching dominant characteristics. I kept the circular theme of self that was also present in Smother by utilizing glass petri dishes as containment devices for the insects, and mimicking the shape in the painted portions of the diagrams. Red represented a death, white an absence.

The smaller works were representations of the subjects as a fully fledged adult. The insect chosen to represent them as larva in their timeline was recreated in adult form to continue their story.

The light boxes were the two subjects I found most engaging, and wanted the viewer to be able to access and and address the content of the work in a more direct way. With these larger backlit pieces you were able to make out the fact that they are mostly images directly dealing with the concept of family. (various medium format snapshots of buffalo, x-rays of a family pet, etc). The two subjects in question had an extreme attachment to home and family, despite telling me otherwise. I felt it fitting to represent them as adults perpetual emerging from their homes.

Maybe that makes sense, maybe it a ramble.  I am still learning how to speak without tripping over myself so I don’t mind. I am also learning how not to do carpentry on my bedroom floor, even out of necessity, and how to utilize friends when you want to learn an entirely new skillset.

As far as current things go I am doing a fun fundraising event for Hallwalls Wednsday the 29th you should really check out. There will be so many incredible artists there though, I am sure I will have a world of personal struggle trying not to buy everything in sight.

Other Projects:

I missed deadlines for booking a table at small press this year so “Milk, Eggs, Hollowpoints” is put on hold until Alex moves here at the end of June. This will be beneficial because yelling about frames over the internet at each other isn’t really getting much done in a timely manner.

I am however steadily working on “So I heard this book is about birds”. That should end up really fun in the end, especially if I can somehow convince the incredible Tom Holt to color the cover for me.

Dusting off the internet

So I haven’t done a legitimate update in a while now. Mostly due to laziness but also because I haven’t had too much I felt was blogworthy. But! Since this is 2011, which is officially the Year of The Esther, I have a few goodies coming along.

I made a few funny little acrylic paintings lately as well as some other secret projects with my good friend Tom Holt on our art-making Mondays. This one:

is for the Bijutsu Art Sale happening Friday May 6th at the Upton Gallery on Buffalo State Campus. 100% of the sales go to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund and there should be items ranging from $10-$250. A really nice way to pick up some art and not feel bad for spoiling yourself with it.

I am also doing a project with my roommate Allison Brady for Artists & Models this year. This will be my first time doing an installation/performance piece so I am kind of nervous but really excited. I have been gathering my supplies like a madwoman and hopefully it will be an enjoyable work for everyone involved and every guest I force to participate (all of them!).

I also have a great summer project lined up with one Mr. Brian Milbrand which, if we get our act together and it comes out exactly as envisioned, could be pretty impactful. I have wanted to do it for ages so I am pretty excited.

I have a few other things that aren’t set in stone but when they are I might do some babbling on the subject matter, but until then I leave you with this kind of goofy little painting of a hyena I did on an old piece of the Burchfield Penney’s fancy wood flooring that got water damaged and ripped up.

A Few Little Things

These past few weeks have been super great as far as being around art in Buffalo is concerned. With Beyond In you just got spoiled by events/openings/opportunities to meet artists in unusual circumstances (the most unusual being meeting Jeremy Bailey in the men’s room at Hallwalls). First Friday this weekend was pretty great too. The Thresholds of Visibility show went pretty well for me. I don’t say that because I sold anything, but because I got to talk to some incredible artists I have admired for a long time but never met in person, I had even handled some of their work before. It’s really one of my favorite things about this city. A lot of the artists who are just incredible talents are also really amazing people who are open to conversation.

It all made me feel really inspired to buckle down and make some ideas a reality. A little beginning to that is finally uploading some older images/newer works. Check them out by clicking the flickr feed to the right. Sorry for the poor quality on some but I can’t afford a camera just yet so I take what I can get.