Kala Wozniak

How about some traveling art. Discovered this artist via poppytalk and thought it might offer you some inspiration as your prepare for your trip. Enjoy!


I think these paintings are interesting in thier incompleteness. You get a sense of the hurry of travel, yet the logos and names of businesses stick clearly in your mind through familiarity and repetiton. Much like the feeling of roadtrips, specific details are a blur as they speed by on the highway, but we remember the places we slept and the unusual juxtaposition of signs and locations and hotels and churches. It is interesting how suddenly the appearance of a sign or advertisement--- a visual symbol-- overrrides the complexity of the architecture or landscape. We only remember the bright colors, the graphic lines, the florescent fonts.

The obvious combinations of finished and unfinished, the pairing of graphic, intentional patterns with looser lines grabs your attention. I admire artists who are daring enough to leave things undone. In the case of Wozinak, it is almost like she starts working on an element of the painting and gets to a point where she decides the certain part just doesn't matter anymore and she moves on to add more detail to something more important in her own memory. Her paintings are not exact renderings of each place visited, but more like poems about the things that are most prominent in her mind. The attention that she gives to the subjects in her paintings tell us as viewers something about how she feels about the place and the importance of each element she is speaking about in her paintings.

Her use of multiple drawing media in each piece contributes to the sense of diversion we feel when we travel. There are so many elements and just one, unified, concise material wouldn't have the same mood. Do you see how the variety of textures, colors, and effects of the different media contributes to the collection of signs and landscape elements that Wozniak is talking about here?

this is what the artist has to say about it:

I make paintings about how the American landscape looks today. The places I depict in these works are specific yet general: the sprawl of a spring break beach town, a view of a strip as seen from the car, the architecture of a highway rest stop.

These paintings are at once fabrications, conflations and literal depictions, records of the places I've traveled to and through. They are also about painting itself- about speed, slowness, touch, spatial expanse and compression. Of equal importance is what isn’t depicted- disappearing vernacular and natural landscapes. The complexity of these works arises from competing impulses- a love of exploration tempered by a measured, almost anthropological realism. This duality is further complicated by my intuitive approach to making.

Although my work often depicts standardized and mundane spaces, it has a quirky, handmade quality, and thus highlights localism and an individual's unique relationship to landscape.

leave a comment about what you think of the work. Do you like it? Why or why not? How do you interpret what Wozniak is saying in her work? What do you think it is about?

travleing thoughts

Times we spend away from our normal place experiencing the ways of life of other people are always opportunities for our minds to stretch, our eyes to widen, and our views of our own world to change. If we allow ourselves to be open to the lessons taught through immersion in another way of life, we learn much about our selves and our role in the world around us. Significant trips away from home often serve as containers to which our memories return for the retrieval of important lessons and new points of view. I found this list of things to consider while traveling on gonomad.com.

1. Sooner later, every traveler will curse their packing job. What is the single best thing you packed? What did you shove in your bag but never use?

2. Travel brings our stereotypes into focus. What did you think you were going to find before you arrived and what did you actually discover?

3. Travel awakens curiosity. Now that you’re someplace new, what are you curious about? Even if you don’t know the answers, the questions themselves are interesting.

4. When I’m in another land, locals can easily pick me out as a foreigner. What makes you stick out? Is it your skin? Your clothes? Your shoes? Your bag? Your hair?

5. At home, I’d never boast about successfully withdrawing money from a cash machine, but somehow, completing the simplest of tasks in a foreign land makes me burst with pride. What have you done on the road that makes you feel proud?

6. Graffiti is everywhere. What does the local graffiti look like? What does it say? In Uruguay, I caught these words spray painted on a wall: Tus ojos me miraron, tu boca sonrio, y quede enamorado de ti. Translation: Your eyes looked at me, your mouth smiled, and I stayed in love with you. Three blocks later, I spied these words painted on another building: Bush Terrorista. No translation needed.

7. Some nights, travel wears me out and I sleep soundly. Other nights I flip and flop, my ears tuned to every new sound. Make a list. What do you hear in the middle of the night? Dogs yelping? Roosters crowing? Trucks revving? Bottles breaking?

8. I love shopping, but I rarely buy souvenirs. Usually I’m traveling on a budget, which means I’m protective of my cash. Or maybe I’m worried about suitcase space. What have you seen for sale that you would love the buy but refuse to purchase? Why won’t you let yourself indulge?

9. What songs have you heard playing in the background? In a Santiago taxi, my driver was listening to Michael Jackson’s Beat It. In a Pamplona grocery store, I heard Prince belt out, “You sexy mother fucker.” Walking through one of Bangkok’s red light districts, I heard Britney Spears singing, “Oops, I did it again.” How could I not write these things down?

10. At the back of my Guatemala journal, I jotted a quote from the mouth of my travel buddy: “My biggest fear in coming down here was that I was going to take a picture of a kid and someone was going to kill me. Now I’m just scared of mosquitoes.” I’ve yet to take a trip on which nothing scared me. Something is always intimidating. What scared you before you left home? Have those fears been realized? Have you developed new fears now that you’re actually on the road?

11. In addition to that bizarre mosquito quote from the mouth of my friend, that’s not the only time I’ve written random quotes in my journal. I often scrawl down the words of fellow travelers, hotel clerks and tour guides with no other explanation. For example, in Buenos Aires I caught my husband saying this: “This city exudes sex.”

12. I notice acts of faith in other cultures. I notice a Buddha pendant hanging around a woman’s neck, a Virgin Mary statue stuck to the dashboard of a bus, a spirit house in a Phnom Phen Internet café, a black and white framed portrait behind the front desk of a Saigon hotel with sticks of incense smoking away. What religious acts, big or small, do you notice on the road?

13. Have you purposefully ditched anything along the away? At the end of one trip, I left all my t-shirts in a folded pile at the foot of my hotel bed. I only took one home — the one I was wearing. Why did you leave behind the things you ditched.

YOKO ONO

One artist that i am specifically intruiged by is Yoko ono. She seems like she was an amazing individual and had such diversity in the work she did. i think it is really important that people understand art isn't just used with paper and pencils or paint but through pretty much everything. I think that Yoko ono is the perfect example to show that, the only problem is that not many people know the work she did "John Lennon once described her as "the world's most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does." Her work really was for the viewer to use there mind, the way the wanted to think about it was up to them. She was just an artistic person, and everything she did shows it. even though know one can really understand exactly what she was thinking the beauty of it is that you can get your own ideas from it. i think she is just an amazing woman. 

there was one website i found really inspring.

http://www.yoko-ono.com/bio.htm

www.whodoesshethinksheis.net

I came across the website for this film that looks like a great way of getting the story out there of many women artists. Take a look at some of the videos of the artists featured-- I love hearing artists talk about what they make art about and how they got there because it always helps me figure out where my own art is going and how to talk about it.

www.whodoesshethinksheis.net.

CRAFT Video: Paper Making with Lisa Jacobs

here is great video that shows a bit more about making paper from makemagazine, one of my favorite youtube channels.

Handmade Paper

Tomorrow, our goal is to try our hand at making our own paper to be assembled into our handmade books. Here is a little demo on the process that I found at pioneerthinking.com

Making Handmade Paper in 10 Easy Steps

Many types of paper that can be used include:


* Computer Paper (unprinted)
* Newspaper (If you want a grayish colored paper)
* Magazines
* Egg Cartons
* Old Cards (For heavier paper)
* Toilet Paper
* Paper Bags
* Non Waxed Boxes (Pre-soak in warm water)
* Office Paper
* Tissue Paper (For finer paper)
* Typing Paper
* Napkins
* Construction Paper

Supplies you'll need:

* Sponge
* Window Screening (mold)
* Wood Frame (old picture frame can be used too) (deckle)
* Plastic Basin/Tub (Large enough to totally immerse frame)
* Blender/Food Processor (For making paper pulp)
* White Felt or Flannel Fabric
* Staples or Tacks
(For tacking screen on frame)
* Liquid starch (optional)

Instructions:

1. Select the pieces of paper to be recycled. You can even mix different types to create your own unique paper.

2. Rip the paper into small bits, and place into the blender. (about half full). Fill the blender with warm water. Run the blender slowly at first then increase the speed until the pulp looks smooth and well blended. ( 30 -40 seconds) Check that no flakes of paper remain. If there are, blend longer.

3. The next step is to make a mold. The mold, in this case, is made simply by stretching fiberglass screen (plain old door and window screen) over a wooden frame and stapling it. It should be as tight as possible.

4. Fill the basin about half way with water. Add 3 blender loads of pulp. (the more pulp you add the thicker the finished paper will be) Stir the mixture.

5. Now is the time to add the liquid starch for sizing.(This is not necessary but if the paper is going to be used for writing on, you should add some, the starch helps to prevent inks from soaking into the paper fibers.) Stir 2 teaspoons of liquid starch into the pulp.

Place the mold into the pulp and then level it out while it is submerged. Gently wiggle it side-to-side until the pulp on top of the screen looks even.

6. Slowly lift the mold up until it is above the level of the water. Wait until most of the water has drained from the new paper sheet. If the paper is very thick, remove some pulp from the tub. If it is too thin, add more pulp and stir the mixture again.

7. When the mold stops dripping, gently place one edge on the side of a fabric square (felt or flannel square). Gently ease the mold down flat, with the paper directly on the fabric. Use a sponge to press out as much water as possible. Wring the excess water from the sponge back into the large plastic tub.

8. Now comes the tricky part. Hold the fabric square flat and slowly lift the edge of the mold. The wet sheet of paper should remain on the fabric. If it sticks to the mold, you may have pulled to fast or not pressed out enough water. It takes a little practice. You can gently press out any bubbles and loose edges at this point.

9. Repeat the steps above, and stack the fabric squares on a cookie sheet. Save one fabric square to place on the top of the stack to cover the last piece of paper. Use another cookie sheet to press the remaining water out of the stack. (do this outside or in the bathtub, it can make a mess)

10. After you press the stack, gently separate the sheets. They can be dried by hanging on a clothesline or laying them out on sheets of newspaper. When they have dried peel them off the fabric and voila! you have paper!

Joseph Cornell

I love Cornell because his work is so imaginative and unexpected. I am especially fascinated with artists who use materials that we are familiar with from our everyday lives and I think this is what I like about this particular artist. He takes things that I know from normal life and turns them into art, which is a statement about what those things mean.

Here are a few links if you want to see more:

http://josephcornell.org/boxes/index.html
http://josephcornell.org/collage/index.html
http://www.josephcornellbox.com/

And we're off!

Here is a re-cap of our meeting last night (and a few additions that have been rattling around my brain since then):

The small details of our work this summer will revolve around these overarching questions and aims:

1) What do we want to make art about and how can the creative ideas of other people become a part of our own work?

another way of saying it could be: Synthesis of reference and inspiration for personal visual statements. Exploration of the purposes of visual communication and what that means to us as artists.

2) What kinds of materials are out there and what can we do with them?

or, in other words: let's be as creative as possible with our materials and push our own ideas about what art is.

3) How can we improve our technical skills?


A few of the things we want to try/do include:
1. making paper
2. batik
3. Book arts
4. painting and stretching canvas
5. getting ideas from print magazine
6. comics
7. various drawing materials
8. field trips to look at and make art
9. Look at the work of other artists

This blog will serve as:

1) a record of our work
2) a way or filing and sharing artists and inspiration
3) reflecting on processes and experiences


The next few meetings will include these activities:
1. making paper
2. putting together a simple book for drawings
3. determining a method of recording Emma's trip to Costa Rica (another simple book? blog? journal?)

I think we are off to a great start. Feel free to let me know if anything I've written doesn't sound right or you think it needs some changes!