Restless Leg Syndrome

RLS Configuration 1, ink on vellum 11x34 (2009)

RLS Configuration 2, ink on vellum 11x34 (2009)

RLS Configuration 3, ink on vellum 11x34 (2009)

RLS Configuration 4, ink on vellum 11x34 (2009)

New Bodyscapes

swoop, ink on vellum 10x11 (2009)

Untitled, ink on vellum 11x 17 (2009)

Bodyscapes

Size. Scale. Scales. Fish. Big fish. Small pond. Small world. We Are The World.
We Are Wolves. Wolf in sheep's clothing. Discount bin. One size fits all. Size.

How and where do we fit? How can there be so many bodies?
Our physical bits are held in, contained by our bodies. Our bodies are contained by our environments. The boundaries of these are not so clear as the defined space inside our skin. The borders of our habitat are flexible, breakable even. We can choose to make the world our living room, and be a "global citizen". We can develop an intimate relationship with a space no bigger than our living room. We can do both. Neither.

Sketches

sealegs, charcoal and conté on paper 11x16 (2009)

kneesea, charcoal and conté on vellum 11x17 (2009)

Went back into yupo, getting reacquainted with ink.
I photographed this piece before the ink set and dried...

detail

and afterward...

Untitled, ink on yupo 20x26 (2009)

detail

Now I'm saving up for more yupo, anxious to continue playing.

Self

Grayscale: Self-portrait, ink on rice paper (2008)

Untitled (Self-portrait), charcoal on newsprint (2008)

face.jpg, installation, acrylic on 1.5" x 1.5" papers (2009)

Untitled (Bald Self-portrait), charcoal on paper (2009)

Skull study, conté on newsprint (2009)

New things

Obviously the time that effective and exciting blogging requires has not been given to me these past weeks..
I've been doing a lot of different things, getting used to the Emily Carr setting being one of them. I love Granville Island. Apart from the high prices, I haven't even minded the trek to and from transit. We'll see if that changes with the weather...


Relevant to my older work, I've returned to some landscape themes:

Untitled I, ink and acrylic on Yupo paper (2009)

Untitled II, ink on Yupo paper (2009)

In Handscape, I returned not only to my interest in the notion of landscapes, but also of the body and experimentation with line. This piece is the first plateau in a series of ongoing studies in these areas.

Handscape, charcoal on paper (2009)

Handscape detail

Study for Handscape


Where is my love?, ink on paper (2008)
This drawing was a tribute to a lost glove and a secondary source for Handscape.

Tracing studies for Handscape

Continuing with my exploration of line, a series of charcoal and graphite drawings emerged, exploiting the tendency for heavy weight papers to carry impressions.

Giraffe I, graphite on paper (2009)

Giraffe I detail

Back to school..

For Tash, ink on wood panel (2009)

This was my first week of classes at ECU. So far, it seems to be what I signed up for. Still a little early to tell...

Revisit

The Splits - mixed media print, ed. 1/3 (2008)

While working on The Splits, I was interested in ideas of sustainability. I wanted to look at the term when removed from its realms of most common and comfortable use, namely the ecological, economical, and educational. Policy work and product knowledge have turned "being sustainable" and those who practice into the latest fad religion. I have no problem with environmental and social awareness being popular; vast numbers are crucial for a movement to succeed. However, I also find that in the most recent panic to save our planet, as with any crisis, many go through the motions and follow the steps they are being told to follow, hoping for a miracle. What is missing here is personal connection; the understanding of what sustainable practices can realistically achieve and also one's place within the grand scheme of things.
I will be the first to admit that
a) I have a limited understanding of the processes of our global environment and how my choices physically affect them, and
b) I have next to no understanding of how I fit into the bigger picture of human existence.
These both seem unmanageable.
In order for me to begin to contemplate these ideas, I needed to start from a familiar place. Before I could intellectually tackle sustainable living on a social (global and/or local) scale, I wanted to first explore what sustainable living means when rendered down to the individual body. Using my own body and experience as reference points, I took stock of how my actions and decisions play out within my daily life. Manageable. In the end, I suppose I was using this project as a sort of therapy. By working closely with images of my own body (and the not-so-nice things I, until recently, routinely did to it) for a sustained period of time, I was forced to really look, really see what 'footprint' I've left on myself. Using my body to create these images was highly cathartic, almost as if I were pulling back from the abstraction of my self-image and re-inserting myself into physical reality. Is the way I exist within my body a reflection of how I exist within my living space? My community? My planet? I believe that these realms are separate, yet interconnected. Where are the gaps, the splits between them?

Thinking about landscapes: another afternoon.

What is it in a landscape that can invoke such deep emotion?
I have to stop and catch my breath whenever I look out across golden fields underneath the enormous Prairie sky. There is a physical reaction in my chest each time I find both the mountains and the Pacific within my view. This sudden rush of blood from the heart to other areas of the body, is spurred by a vision, like catching sight of your true love following a long absence.

It's something more than being in awe of the forces of nature.

Is it some sort of primitive bond to other Mother Earth? This description seems to fall short; the feeling more akin to the sensual realm than the familial. Though I feel infinitely small in the presence of a vast landscape, the relationship between myself and it feels like more of a connection between lovers than between parent and child.
Where does the Romance come from?

Can we, in manipulating our landscapes, altering them to suit our way of living, ever hope to replicate that feeling of a swelling heart or stolen breath inspired by the natural world?
Do the alterations and additions in themselves deny the possibility?

works in progress

Landscape

Water - digital print (2008)

Untitled - acrylic and conté on stretched cotton (work in progress)

Study for Untitled

Zoning - digital print (2009)

Study for Zoning















Untitled - wood panel (work in progress)

detail 1, 2 , 3

A short film

The Narrator - 2009

Bodies

Self-Portrait - acrylic on cotton bedsheet (2007)

detail of foot

detail of pillow

detail of hand/face

Reclining Nude - acrylic on paper, cardboard (2008)

Women's Work - ink on paper (2008)

Wood block for The Splits (in progress)

Collograph plate for The Splits

The Splits - mixed media print, Var. 1 of 1 (2008)