Sorry for this but...: 05/01/2010

Hello again! Now that the summer 'break' is in full turn, I'll have sort-of enough time to post.
I'll be posting out of my lovely summer studio at SMFA...speaking of which, here's what I've been up to for the past year. (I'm breaking it up into two posts, otherwise it's unbearably long.) So here is...

Fall 2009

[picture soon]

Resin Boxes: Series I

Resin & Plant life
November 2009

This short series of rectangular boxes were made of solid resin and dried and preserved plant life I had gathered from outside of my school. They were initially a test for a much larger (and extremely long-term) project I've been working on for a few years now, but turned into my form of hibernation for the winter approaching me. I starting looking at encasing these plants, flowers, and hard-shelled berries/seeds in an ice-like chamber. Preserving it for the winter. This mind-set could of also been caused by the amount of fumes I had been inhaling. (I was in the ventilation room, with a respirator. I'm extremely cautious with materials, don't fret.) Either way, I was pretty delusional.

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[The Video for this installation was lost in a move. Hopefully it will be found.]
6x6x6
Mixed-Media Sound Installation
November 2009

So after my resin box series, one of my mentors (Charles Goss) looked at me and said "more."
He then proceeded to tell me that every single time I asked him a question, his answer was just going to be "more." Obsession is the only word I can really tag along to this piece. Oh, and maybe determination.

The "6x6x6" piece had two simple requirements:
It must be a 6 x 6 x 6 in object that dominated, manipulated, or affected a 6 x 6 x 6 ft radius around it. I made an installation involving a 6 x 6 x 6 inch paper light box I constructed out of translucent paper and a translucent lace-paper (Thai Unryu) that I wrapped around a wooden-stick frame (I made out of chopsticks 'cause I'm so DIY, yah?") and suspended in the center of the room. I chose the ventilation room, since it's pretty tight and a tad creepy. Actually, really creepy to some. Some people can't even go in there for more than a second. I also incorporated sound within the 6x6x6 installation, which for me was the most capturing aspect of the piece. Here was the ultimate low-down on "6x6x6":

Visual:

I made a 6 x 6 x 6in light box hung by 6 strings in the center of the room, on each side of the box (6 sides) I carved out "6" 6 different time in 6 different fonts/styles in 6 different styles. I then google image-searched "color wheel six", chose the 6th option on the list, then chose the 6th color on that wheel. It was a standard green. I bought a 60 watt green light bulb, which I used in the light box.

Sound:

I recorded 6 different people in 6 different locations (one being in front of the 66 bus) saying "6 by 6 by 6" 6 times in 6 different voices in 6 different volumes within 6 seconds. With help of Gabe Solomon, the recording was fed to a 6 multi-track piece, (which took 6 steps to do) putting one voice per speaker. One speaker was placed on each side of the room (floor, walls, ceiling; 6 sides) each on a time-based repeat. The actual track was composed of the six tracks repeated multiple times to create an actual 6 x 6 x 6 equation. (Six tracks x 6= 36 tracks in one track) The final track was then repeated 6 times (36 track, track x 6) with a 6 Millisecond space in between each time the full track (6 x 6 x 6) starts over.
The entire piece took 6 days to complete (by coincidence.)

(Needless to say, I did more.)

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Of My Friends and Family
Silver and Enamel
December 2009

Throughout Elementary, Middle and High school books on Vietnam were fed to us on a yearly basis. Multiple times a trend of wearing "their [soldiers/fighters] victims' ears" on a necklace showed up in these different stories. I had multiple friends and family members sit down as I "recreated" their eyes with enamel (powered glass) on silver. I wanted to collect the eyes of my friends and family.

Detail of bottom eye

Each eye is aprox. 1 in tall/wide and 1 cm deep of pure enamel. Over 40 enamel eyes were made, but only 4 of them survived. The rest of the 36 either exploded, cracked, or (in one batch) the enamel reacted strangely and ruined the irises. The entire necklace took over 310 hours of work (mostly on the enamel work.)

Eye for an Eye

Silver and Enamel
December 2009

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Gummy Bear Necklace (Student)

Gummy Bear Necklace (Perfect, no chain)

Direct Cast in Silver
January 2009-2010

I consider these necklaces to be less of a 'fine art piece' as much as it was just something I enjoyed doing and enjoyed seeing the enjoyment off of other enjoyed people's faces. :)
This necklace took about one year to get the best cast off of, (it was directly casted from a real gummy bear) then finely-and very carefully filed, sanded and polished. These bears are more of a sculpture I make a lot of and distribute to whomever wants one! It's really switch to be able to give everyone a piece, rather than only one person, or nobody at all.

There are two different types of bears:
The Finely-Polished-Perfect-Bear (a LOT more time spent on clean-up and polishing) which I have for between $45-50 (price may vary based on chain) and a Heck-Yeah-Student Bear! which I have for between $35-40 (price may very based on chain as well...I try to keep it cheaper since I know everyone is making work. I like art to be affordable!)

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The Argument

This piece has defiantly had the longest and most 'successful' life out of all of my pieces this Fall. It was featured in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts' 2010 Student Annual, and the Silent Auction at the SMFA Medal Award Gala (honoring Omer Fast) this past May (day! 2010) There have been many different arguments since the fall, with many more to come. I only have documentation of some of them, as a result of a hard drive crash with all of my Fall semester photographs.
The original Argument has no documentation, as explained above. Here are the other Arguments that have been made so far.

(upright & turned-over)

The Crying Argument

Dripped into a drip-tray until empty. (No one can cry forever.)

(upright & turned-over)

The Argument (Narrow)
Plexiglass, Oil & Water
2009, 2010

There's a story behind this argument (narrow) It was featured both in the Student Annual and the Award Gala Silent Auction, and won by the amazingly sweet Nataly & Jens Funk, whom of which expressed their support of the piece and the kindest words anyone has ever spoken of my work before. I went to move the piece out of the way (since they did not take it with them that evening after winning) but there was a fold in the fabric, so it didn't stand evenly. It fell over, broke, and motor oil was all over the nice linen in the MFA.

Nataly & Jens were nice enough to allow me to make a second Argument especially for them, along with a Small Dispute (a handheld argument I made for them, so they could turn it over without being worried of it falling and breaking again.) This time I didn't make a narrow argument, considering I felt they would be nervous of its top-heavy nature. They decided against the main piece (Nataly vs. Gravity) since there was air trapped in the box (I miss calculated the oil/water amounts) but offered to pay for the Small Dispute that I originally gave to them as a gift. During the construction of Nataly vs. Gravity and A Small Dispute, I created A Tiff.