Thursday, December 4, 2008

Its about stars


My most recent piece after getting back into my studio after a 4 month hiatus turned out better than I was expecting. I had been using the star symbol in my work before the baby was born, but not to the extent that I did in my most recent work. The traditional symbol of a star with multiple points is a quite nice shape and with all the many connotations that accompany a it, a start can mean so many things. Thinking of all the places I see stars including the sky. I can not escape them. There are stars in the entertainment industry, in business, in athletics, in the military. They represent states and countries. And even have their place in religion. With all of these associations, stars are one of the most ambiguous and abstract complex shapes (it has a minimum of 10 sides with 5 points and 5 valleys) I can also forego the entire shape of a star and represent it as just a dot. It then becomes something different while still representing a star. When a star becomes a dot, it becomes a point, and as such becomes even more ambiguous. I think I can play with the concept of stars for a while.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Pictures of me with other peoples work


So, I have been hitting a the equivalent of writers block for an artist. Until I start getting some work of my own to show again on this blog, I will be posting pictures of me with artworks in some of the chelsea galleries. This one is by a fellow Iowa artist Dan Attoe and it is part of a group show at Stellan Holm Gallery.
Back to my problem. My art making has been pretty stagnant for the past 3 or 4 months. I have been finding that expressing the problem is part of the solution for me. It forces me to think about why I am not making work. I have been using the excuse of a recent child but now it is time to get back at it. I started December off with a trip to my studio and a new drawing. The studio seemed like a new environment, divorced from what I new it as before the baby was born. I had to reconnect with the place, find where I had put my supplies, search for the tools I wanted to use, and make it feel comfortable again. It was like catching up with good friend you haven't seen in a while. Everything is the same, but there is the events of the absence that create a new niche in the relationship. This is how I felt to get back in the studio.