Monday, October 26, 2009

Eden







Pumpkin patches, farm animals, bright orange, red, & golden trees everywhere, sweet brisk air, wool sweaters, wearing my new pink knitted scarf, cooking acorn squash, eating pumpkin pie, AND a visit to an apple orchard?!! Can October be any more perfect? i think not.

Animal Farm







During Lizzie's very memorable visit, we went to a pumpkin patch, frolicked in the fields there, and played with farm animals. Lizzie has an almost unnatural love for alpacas ♥

hitched







I got married, it was lovely. My dearest friend Lizzie saw the whole thing and now I have health insurance. awesome.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Timeless Saucer and Uncle bunny

For the next time you desire to mindlessly lose two hours of your life click here.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Scrub Pub

My dryer broke already. Not to worry though (as I know you are prone to do, especially in matters that concern cleanliness) but I found the Scrub Pub. It has a bar & food (if you consider Mozzarella cheese sticks and nachos food), a lounge area with a flat screen TV, wireless Internet and a whole bunch of cafe tables on top of all the expected laundromat amenities. I noticed the bar even has regular patrons who appear to have no interest in ever doing laundry. I think it might be love. j

in the BIG house,




As it turns out Iowa isn't so bad. I thought maybe living here would naturally induce a state of absolute boredom and total disconnect, bit it's been quite the opposite. I can't explain why exactly but there is something sort of freeing about not being absolutely inundated with endless options. I think I actually pursue more activities here than i even did in Chicago. Namely because i can afford to go places, getting around is relatively quick & painless, i can ride a bike without fear of being run over or doored, I can enjoy a walk along the river without competing for space, The farmer's market is HUGE and less than a mile from my house, rent is way cheaper, and I have a studio space in the house! oh and did i mention the thrift stores around these parts??? Tons of super cheap awesomeness.

Fast Forward

I live in Iowa now, specifically Davenport, one of the cities that makes up the Quad. Gloria Gaynor has absolutely nothing what-so-ever to do with Davenport, Iowa, or the circumstances for which I moved here, but for some reason this song is on repeat in my head and quite fortuitously has a seriously awesome video:

Friday, October 2, 2009

not to be confused with ketchup.

Obviously I took a big break from blogging and truthfully I am not sure I am even capable of being consistent. My natural blogging style seems to be more of a cycle of binge and purge. So please excuse the retrospect, but i thought i would start to catch back up with some pictures from my summer painting class (which was awesome).

Alison Ruttan, who fit the stereotype of the New Yorker that she was, made me a little self conscious at times. She was not a painter herself in practice, but she did know everything about contemporary painting. Considering herself more of a conceptually driven artist she chooses her media as it relates to her intentions therefore her body of work was diverse and included video, digital, porcelain and sound. She was blunt but not mean spirited, perceptive, and unapologetically honest about her opinions but up for debate and respectful of difference….all qualities I really admire in a person. According to Alison, the narrative approach that I had been using in my paintings evoked a false sense of intimacy, tended to be sentimental (which is apparently the WORST thing a painter can be) and were a little too perfectly proportioned and balanced which undermined the dissonance, ambiguity, cognitive complexity and dark tension that I purported to be interested in.

* She referred me to Amy Sillman, Monique Prieto, Thomas Nozkowski among many others.

Richard Hull was easy to be around and i felt really comfortable talking to him about painting. Almost a little too comfortable at times, and I fear I tended to ramble on and on about things I know relatively little about. Richard was a painter. He worshiped light, shadows, space, form, perspective, movement, mark making, the details and lack of details. He seemed like a deeply spiritual person without at all being religious and took us to the museum all the time. This may be a little cliché but the museum was cleary his "church" and Titian, Carpaccio, Caravaggio, Goya, all saints perfect & flawed.

His advice to me was to sloooow down, consider the impact of each mark, simplify. He had similar criticisms of my work as Alison, but emphasized that he felt that I had really good instincts as a painter, with obvious strengths and potential. He said I should trust myself a little more.

*and yes it’s fair to say that I had a huge crush on Richard. I feel tingly.


Here are a few paintings made during class: