Machinewithnoname

Alabama Center for the Book Tim Ely March 3

2012-02-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

Hope all my fellow book peeps in Bama will consider attending

Send registration of $20 to Donna Adcock - for the Alabama Center for the Book Gathering
March 3 from 830-430 pm
Tim Ely will discuss his one of a kind books.
Call Donna at the The University of Alabama Library to sign up
205.348.1416

Book Artist Tool Maker Randy Arnold - Visiting Jemison Lecturer 2012

2012-02-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

Randy Arnold - tool maker will speak in my book arts class on March 01, 2012. He will show some of his tools
and assist members of the UAB class in a project based on his tools and sculptures. Feel free to call me if
you need information.

installed wreath - andrea's house -

2012-01-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

my friend dre recently put one of my wreaths up over her bed - it looks sweet!

finishing ceramic bird colorful migration pieces

2012-01-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

Art Folks - curated by John L Wilson

2012-01-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

here are a couple of new pieces - on view now at the art folks space in the ham

more pictures from alabama chanin butch anthony doug baulos

2012-01-25T11:36:00.000-08:00

brandon loves craig - continued

2011-12-29T12:17:00.000-08:00

wreath like forms

2011-12-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

Florence Alabama - Alabama Chanin

2011-12-17T07:54:00.000-08:00

had a super great time and really want to think Kay, Natalie, and Butch and the whole crew at Alabama Chanin for showing me around - also had a fantastic time with the Pine Hill Haints and J.D.! and of course got to spend the whole weekend with Goose.
(merrilee Challis) and we did some more cool collaborations -

julian....cliff......wesco studiio

2011-12-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

2011-12-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

Dick and lou ....a cold winter night in my studio

bonard hughins - studio crit

2011-12-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

bo came and gave me some great feedback - here are some pix
of him standing in front of a portrait in hanging out in general - it will
be sad to lose my studio soon!
bonard hughins has a cool flickr site - check it out here http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonardhughins

Margaret Couch Cosgwell

2011-12-04T06:12:00.000-08:00

Got a chance when I was in Asheville NC to visit the studio of my friend Margaret Couch Cogswell - she sure can cook up some cool ways to re invent some of my favorite things - books, drawing, and collage/sculpture/sewing oh my! She also loves birds, dogs, and books so you can see why we became buddies.

It was just
a hoot and a holler to see all the ways she uses the book form in her work - She is featured in the new masters of book arts book.
Click on her name above to see her wonderful blog and visit her studio if you are in or traveling through Asheville NC!
xo - mayo loves her - see photos two posts back!

working towards victorian ideals

2011-12-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted much stuff lately but I've been hard at work teaching in honors at UAB this fall and working on some time consuming paper craft. Making victorian wreath sculptural forms with hundreds of paper feathers made from discarded dictionaries. I always loved reading the dictionary when I was young and something about it being "the biggest type of book" and center of words always captivated me - I'll post more pictures from my studios soon - also doing lots of ceramic and drawing

new ideas

2011-10-24T08:01:00.001-07:00

strange prototypes
albatross
dust
cosmic web like structures

Asheville

2011-10-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

Visited my friend Margaret Couch Cogswell in her Asheville studio - check out her work here..
http://margaretcouchcogswell.blogspot.com/

2011-10-13T18:08:00.003-07:00

on my way to North Carolina I blew a belt but luckily some cool mechanics helped me out in georgia

pictures from andrew of aumlac show and book arts workshop

2011-10-10T11:01:00.001-07:00

2011-09-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

dyes dyes and more over dyes

2011-09-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

have been working on a body sculpture - that will focus on dyes of red and blue>
red> oxygenated blood goes away from the heart
blue> deoxygenated blood goes towards the heart

want to make sure the body is 3 dimensional looking and not simply about mapping some 2-D type chart. Have had to dye the paper multiple times to make sure the depth of color was produced - was constantly scared that the dictionary pages would fail and tear apart but so far so good! knock on old book covers.

studio - august 2011

2011-09-04T09:54:00.001-07:00

john fields

2011-09-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

john and I , along with a bunch of others - bo, serge, etc were in pulp together - got to get the catalog since I'm not sure when we will all be in an exhibition together again!

new photo series - bound wings, tied and nailed

2011-08-11T10:03:00.001-07:00

Amarrado and Claveteado (bound and nailed): The name of this powder is clear, it is used traditionally to tie the partner and ensure that he/she will not betray the partner and that he/she will be completely dependent on the willingness of employers of this tool esoteric. It also uses the magic of attack in the rites of inertia. It is used in rituals of love and domination, or against the betrayals. It is also used in photography - the lens opens and the image is bound.

tear catcher binding - little lost causes series

2011-08-11T09:55:00.001-07:00

Night Blooming Cereus

2011-08-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

Pinky dragged us out into the night after oysters and shrimp by the bay - she's pretty good with her flashlight - fun to see her Night Blooming Cereus - lois and the kids were there - I think Pinky got it from her aunt who was blind and was able to "smell" when it was ready to open - they open and close in a night and then sometimes re-bloom much later.

dofd collab piece with pinky - in 3 different venues

2011-08-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

also -= pinky's foto of la catrina piece installed in mobile at 301

pinky's photo of Jet Lanka performance piece

2011-08-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

photos pinky had of new orleans installation

2011-08-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

LL Foster, road trip to Pensacola, paste paper, crabs, masks

2011-08-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

Road trip to Pensacola to visit LL Foster (Lawrence Louise Foster) aka Larry Lou etc. We had a big time - she made a great lunch and mayo and I had a great time exploring her house while Pinky met LL. We got to see lots of great books, paste papers, and talked music, books, slow food, and lots of little things about everything interesting to us. LL told Pinky and I she liked thinking about us "out in the Ether" which I just loved. I would like to stay longer and do some crazy bindings and paste paper with her at some point. Preferably when its cooler - see attached pix.

some more new photos - working at pinky's

2011-08-06T18:44:00.001-07:00

fairhope to pensacola

2011-08-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

hanging with pinky this week doing photo and sewing - working on my nest mountain piece.
today going to see LL Foster in Pensacola = lots of book arts handouts to pass on for her students etc.
Pinky and LL will meet!
Went to Kiln Opening. Teneriffe Lace Hourglasses - finally making use of frame from Water Valley.

next forstall class - call for more information about book class at forstall

2011-08-02T19:12:00.001-07:00

Forstall - The devotional Book – combining and sewing multiple bindings at the same time.
Participants must register with Forstall Art Supply - class size is limited.

Student will learn to sew multiple types of historically important bindings and will also create a guided devotional stylebook in the style of 17 and 18th century psalm books. Students will create unique painted covers and case in the books as well as creating unique clasps.

Doug and Forstall will supply –
Adhesives, Pastes, all book block
Students will bring
1 One large piece of decorative papers for end papers
2. 1-3 Bone Clasps optional
3. Book arts thread, awl, bone folder, sewing needles size #1, xacto, ruler, cutting matt, waxed thread.
4. Bring various watercolors and inks, paints and whatever image making supplies you need to create unique painted covers. Instructor will also demo needlework effects if you want to bring other types of string, embroidery thread and additional larger needles. I typically use some transfers type images if you want to bring gel medium, color Xeroxes of your choice. Please bring any other objects you might want to work with!

Forstall Art Supply 402 Palisades Blvd
Birmingham, AL 35209 (205) 870-0480
www.forstallartcenter.com

2011-08-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

my pal brandon and his wife brandi are back in the ham and looking for a building to buy.
its been fun having them around.

you can see more stuff about brandon here - http://flyinshoes.blogspot.com/

devotional book series

2011-08-02T13:15:00.001-07:00

books loaded and unloaded

2011-08-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

dos a dos y mas

brandon, brandi, and billy joe

2011-07-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

brandon, brandi, and billy jo are in town - its been nice hanging out when I had time.
Some of billy jo's work can be seen here - http://buckshot.carbonmade.com/

you can see some of craig's artwork here - http://buckshot.carbonmade.com/

july 3 2011 photos with pinky fairhope alabama

2011-07-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

lots of ears like fried bologna in the audience

2011-06-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

2011-06-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

shake a rag

2011-06-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

gosh - had a great time meeting new folks and eating the most incredible food ever at shake a rag as my friend bo calls it. It was a great class and loved swimming at the res and hanging out with new and old friends.

north carolina

2011-06-06T09:50:00.001-07:00

in north carolina teaching and visiting friends - had a great time in the book arts class and printing some large photographic stuff.

Next Forstall Class

2011-05-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

Forstall Japanese Book & Paper Art/
Binding 2-Day Workshop - July 9,10 2011
Participants must register with Forstall Art Supply - class size is limited.

Student will make three projects exploring and re-inventing historically important types of Japanese bindings and traditional cases/boxes. 1. A Tortoise-shell Binding 2. A Yamato Binding. 3. A Variation on the Kansubon Scroll Book. Many variations in these binding styles will also be discussed at length. Correct preparation, use and adhesion of a wide variety of Japanese papers will be shown. Japanese bindings are both stunning and practical, much like their decorative papers.

Doug and Forstall will supply –
Glues, Pastes, all book block, wooden dowels, e6000
Student’s will bring
1 One large piece of kozo or mulberry rice paper PLUS one large piece of chiyogami
2. 1-3 Bone Clasps
3. Pair of (3 dimensional) “knobs” (Students will attach these knobs
to the top of dowels – they should be the size of gumballs or smaller – can be
anythings – balls, buttons, bees, bullets…..)
4. Poem, or quote of your choice
Bring also your bone folder, sewing needles size #1, xacto, ruler, cutting matt, waxed thread, other types of string, and your choice of papers, buttons, images, art supplies (watercolors and inks! Zeroxes and matte medium) or other objects you might want to work with.

Forstall Art Supply 402 Palisades Blvd
Birmingham, AL 35209 (205) 870-0480
www.forstallartcenter.com

found photo from show

2011-05-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

here is a pix of all of us that showed in the litebox how except jonathan who took the picture!

the forest within - bo portrait installation

2011-05-03T09:33:00.001-07:00

new projects quipu related knotting

2011-04-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

new pieces

2011-04-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

working on several pieces at the same time - taking hundres of old dictionary pages and deconstructing them and making feathers, branches, etc out of them - working on a portrait of my friend bo right now - having fun spending large of amounts of time slowly building structures etc.

Boutwell Invite for collab show with Julian!

2011-04-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

next show with Julian - Boutwell

2011-03-31T10:55:00.000-07:00

Julian and I have been working in his studio on a show at Boutwell that will have between 80-110 works - coming
in late April. Its been a blast collaborating and getting to know him more. I like the way he collects things and
information - also - he is a lot more energetic and joy filled than I.

the universe

2011-03-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

"As you zoom in from the entire observable universe, the first thing you notice is that matter on cosmic scales is distributed in a cobweblike pattern- a filigree of filaments, several tens of millions of light years long, interspersed with voids of similar size. Simulations show that both matter and dark energy are need to explain the pattern." - christopher conselice - scientific american

fairhope march 2011

2011-03-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

hanging with my photo friend this week doing lots of darkroom stuff and generally eating, talking and having
lots of fun with mayo, carolyn and the pinkster-the wisteria is beautiful in fairhope - loved seeing peg, nick
and susie and John and Kay in Bon Secour tambien.

next show in New York

2011-03-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

titles of works going to New York

2011-03-03T10:38:00.000-08:00

All work 2010/2011 – paper, thread, silver gelatin prints, dyes
Penelope at her loom Unraveling
3-legged
path of thorns
espejo obscuro
Body Atlas
Groom in Trouble
Flashing Crowns
Late Night at the Virrey D Mendoza
God-monster
Snow Guilliotine
Short night in the Corridor
Carnival of threads
The Story of Fragments
The Double life of Tears
Who saw the Brute?
Hope meets Magic Underground
Boy and Crossbones

White Raven photos for piece

2011-02-23T14:17:00.000-08:00

bird flyways - mapping

2011-02-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

pinky's shots at aum - note I always have a book block in hand

2011-02-22T06:48:00.001-08:00

lately it seems like I always have a book block in my hand in pictures

catalog essay by michelle forman about my aum show

2011-02-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

To the Interior: The Transformative Art of Doug Baulos

I first encountered the work of Doug Baulos many years ago in the Birmingham, Alabama, home of an artist couple. Though this sculptural installation of square oxidized tiles of metal arranged in the vestiges of a grid was a very early piece from his career, it displayed the signature tension between organic, natural processes and man-made functional objects that Doug would continue to explore. The reference to specific historical eras and sites through the selection of found objects coupled with the representation of the passage of time through the natural changes to those ready-mades are persistent qualities within Baulos’s artistic practice. The deadest of objects are reclaimed and re-animated in Baulos’s world.
Baulos is a difficult artist to categorize, which may be by design, as Baulos described himself to me in a recent studio visit as someone who “does not like to label things.” Working in both two- and three-dimensions and comfortably moving between drawing, painting, new media, sculpture, found object, and traditional craft techniques, he is a quintessential mixed media artist. However, Baulos is also a multi-vocal artist, performing within an American vernacular, as well as within Mexican and Cambodian folkloric and historical vocabularies. His body of work has clear, identifiable style, and, at the same time, Doug is a model collaborator who moves in and out of artistic collectives.
Part of Baulos’s breadth is due to his early experience on his grandparents’ Illinois farm and his connection to agricultural traditions that are natural, cyclical, and simultaneously technological. Denizens of the contemporary art world tend to define rural experience as a historical phenomenon instead of a present-day practice that takes place out of sight from urban centers. For Baulos, the direct experience of Midwestern farming communities—a rarity among contemporary artists of his generation—undergirds a great deal of his iconography and choice of materials. Baulos chooses objects that are humble and discarded, arranging them in sophisticated and tenuously balanced compositions. The references do not conjure a sentimentalized Norman Rockwell farm family so much as they do a farm accident, with all the gruesome and homely qualities of the home funeral, “of a body laid out on the dining room table,” as Baulos described. There is an intimacy with the subject becoming object, with the reverence for the passed life and the confrontation of the doggedly present body.
Baulos cites this his rural sensibility with his long-term collaborative work in both Mexico and Cambodia where he finds similar conceptions of time: cycles of decomposition and loss, of rebirth and embodied memory. Baulos’s connection to both Mexico and Cambodia are the result of kismet, an intuitive response to chance visits. Mexico’s Dios de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and its ritualistic celebration of one’s ancestors is a potent and fruitful cross-cultural current that finds a home in Baulos’s body of work. Baulos has returned to Mexico over 30 times since his first visit at age 19, during which he fell in love with the culture and the texture of the place. In “Oracion, Huastec Child in Mask (2008),” Baulos employs a photography-base drawing technique on tea-stained paper. The image is a trace of an encounter, re-marking and re-visiting by
hand a mechanically-captured moment. The child is further distanced from the viewer by the mask, highlighting our reliance on Baulos’s subjective memory and re-telling of his experience. Baulos is not presuming to give us Mexico through his work, but renders how a place encodes itself within us and an event evolves as part of our own personal system of symbols.
Memory and memorial are brought to the fore in Baulos’s Cambodian pieces, a place he visited on the invitation of an artist friend, Chris Lawson. Baulos, Lawson, and artist Merrilee Challis traveled twice to Cambodia to work collaboratively at the Java Arts Center in conjunction with Cambodian artists. Interested in the Buddhist aphorism “with a body comes suffering,” Baulos developed a series of works that merged his own explorations with mortality with the stories he was hearing about the Killing Fields. While later serving as the artist-in-residence at Wat Lanka in 2006, Baulos was given small photos by their family members of the people who had been killed. Baulos described the photos as precious objects that were smuggled out by those fleeing the Khmer Rouge, along with other small objects which were sewn into the lining of their clothes. The Lanka collages function as shrines to the lost, commemorating their lives and, at the same time the story of the reclamation of their memory. Baulos sews the photos into the composition, a material reminder of how the memories and images were preserved.
Baulos cites the Surrealist collagists as clear influences in his artistic practice, but he finds a deeper affinity with literature. The development of an extended personal symbology that at times may be difficult to penetrate, Baulos attributes to the poetry of John Ashbery, particularly his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. Likewise his meditation on the body, both literal and mythical bodies, is inspired by Carson McCullers’s novel, The Ballad of the Sad Café. The small town Georgia story centers on Cousin Lymon, a hunchback, who is at the center of a series of unrequited romantic relationships, but at the same time possesses “an instinct which is usually only found in small children, an instinct to establish immediate and vital contact between himself and all things in the world.” Baulos calls Lymon his alter ego and his figure appears in the AUM Gallery in the form of a suitcase, the symbol of both the traveler and the collector.
Baulos’s own traveling extends beyond Mexico and Cambodia to go back in time. Drawing from memories of his walks in the woods in Exeter, Illinois, at his grandparents’ house as a child, and with the aid of Google Maps, Baulos revisits those paths and replicates those lines in “Exeter Walking Meditation.” His collection of found objects conjure images of dusty basements and rural attics packed with the items that are no longer necessary, but his careful arrangement suggests something precious: the token or fetish that can make the past present.
The “vital contact” is central in Baulos’s work, as he connects histories with bodies, the abstraction of narrative with the physicality of things. The nature of these connections is evident in his spider web imagery and his portraits that include x-rays and anatomical organ drawings. Perhaps even more potent is his recent work with book arts in which he pushes the idea of simultaneous linking the outside surface with inner experience. The book itself is humble object that opens into vast, imaginative space for the reader. Baulos’s transformative book sculptures “Effigy Fleurs du Mal Albatross (Baudelaire)” and “Effigy Albatross (Coleridge)” explode the text into an embodied narrative, a sculpture of our inner life.

spiderweb detail from aum show

2011-02-21T11:12:00.001-08:00

more spiderwebs and teneriffe inspiration

2011-02-21T11:06:00.001-08:00

embroidered psalms and inspiration

2011-02-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

walking through again

2011-02-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

i can remember growing up really looking at birds, chairs, and houses. Wondering about roads and steps. I was always super curious about the human body and making things. The house and farms around Bluffs. To a less extent I really remember my grandmother´s house in Exeter - especially i can remember the porch, the deep freeze on the back porch and the tomoatoes growing on the window sill - the horse aster, reading in the forest, making things in the yard - big flowers of hydrangea bushes that seemed like fireworks - interested early on in what was fiction and what was non-fiction...what seemed real and what was imaginary - grandma being a postmistress - the candy, the mail, the dry goods - across from the old hotel in exeter.

Why did grandpa collect so many pairs of long underwear? why was there so many things hoarded in the basement with the canned produce and the poinesetta and amaryllis plants - the dahlia bulbs hanging in old pantyhose and all the tools. I remember being interested in the what stayed in the basement and what made it upstairs. The small garden here compared to the bigger ones. I suspect my grandfathers´`s love of dogs and birds what not shared by my grandmother. I remember him feeding stray dogs a lot but they never had one.
I´m much more interested in the places and objects than the people that used them to some extent. Or I should say they live larger in my memory now. Especially things from my childhood like the cardinals and jays etc in the cherry trees, the flower bulbs, assorted dogs,
and hand always in dirt. Trying to find bones, looking for secret places, drawing, being by myself -solitary thoughts/secrets.

.the thin amount of water in the baths we took, the red chair, his camera collection...and his hats. Those cookies and making noodles, learning to knit, and sew - The hoosier cabinet, recipes, and the tiny back porch and front room that had new furniture that was actually 30 years ago but no one ever sat in it so it seemed new. Grandmas quilts and embroidery and knitting as well as her collections...the really strange bird glitter thing over the buffet and grandpa asleep in that textured recliner.
big beds with chairs on either side in case one of us fell off. Lots of pictures and grandpa always looking at the backs of pictures so he could read descrioptions before even looking at the image. His stroke and his relearning reading and writing. He had an awful scar from a plow accident when a horse bolted from a squirrel and the plow jumped across his body. His french habits of eating, drinking (licorice sticks). His grapevines, socks goldtoe
and driving like a crazy person...i remember he drove from illinois to alabama in his 90s

the human form of books

2011-02-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

Books: They reference the human form. Book terminology includes: spine, header, footer, and shoulder notes.
layouts and structures - bilateral spine leaves out

bird museum

2011-02-07T08:49:00.002-08:00

spiderweb mania!

2011-02-07T08:49:00.001-08:00

overall gallery shots aum

2011-01-31T10:54:00.000-08:00

aum gallery shots

2011-01-31T10:51:00.001-08:00

aum more installation shots

2011-01-31T10:49:00.001-08:00

aum show installation shot

2011-01-31T10:48:00.001-08:00

aum show jan/feb 2011

2011-01-31T10:46:00.000-08:00

installation the front gallery new orleans prospect 1.5

2011-01-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

i'm not great at translating

2011-01-05T11:45:00.001-08:00

The Albatross
Often, to amuse themselves, sailors
take albatrosses, vast birds of the seas
who follow, indolent companions of the voyage
the ship sailing over the bitter gulfs

No sooner than they have laid them on the planks
than these kings of the sky, clumsy and ashamed
let piteously their great white wings
like oars, trail by their sides

The winged voyager, how he is gauche and weak!
He, so recently so beautiful, how he is comic and ugly!
A sailor burns his beak with a clay-pipe,
Another mimes, limping, the cripple who once flew!

The poet is like this prince of the clouds
who haunts the tempest and laughs at the archer
Exiled on the ground, in the realm of jeers,
The wings of a giant ruin his walk.

new works

2011-01-04T06:25:00.001-08:00

michelle forman is writing the catalog copy for my show at the AUM conference - working on my mariner albatross and les fleurs
du mal albatross - this weekend will head to prospect 1.5 the front gallery in New Orleans to put an installation up.

more from san blas

2010-12-22T17:20:00.001-08:00

san blas

2010-12-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

Apalachicola, Florida

2010-12-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

It was cotton that took a fancy to Apalachicola, and for a glorious, though fleeting period, paved the streets with gold. The City featured a race track, an opera house, and plush hotels offering balls, socials, and gambling. Cotton was king and the river brought it all to Apalachico1a. It was during the height of this great prosperity, that Dr. John Gorrie invented the artificial manufacture of ice, forerunner of modern air conditioning and refrigeration. At the same time, Dr. Alvin Chapman, world-famous botanist and author of “The Flora of the Southern United States”, resided in Apalachicola. Jimmy Bloodworth, an Apalachicola native, played professional baseball from 1937 to 1951. In 1946 he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, where Bing Crosby was a partial owner. When the two men met, Bing asked Jimmy where he was from and Jimmy proudly proclaimed "APALACHICOLA, F-L-A!"

musing in the studio

2010-12-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

2010/11 towards studio practice resolutions
Agents of meditation and healing
Expressive power of the human body
Nature/organic vitality
Biotic quality
Metamorphosis and mutability
Change/transformation
Seeming contradictions of life/death growth/decay destruction/regeneration
Human and natural things – larger metaphors for cycles of life
Pieced marked fragmented bodies
Biological and culturally inscribed personas of identification

Traps

Book / loom / the odyssey - making and unmaking to save yourself - Penelope at her loom
Sewing things - trapping and pinning things down

As I push forward...I look back
new reflections/ new projects

Leading a life of empathy
Lots of figurative painters sculptors stress victimization in their work – I don’t
Transformative and regenerating power of life – plant-generating…doppelgangers
Lead to phantom limbs/lives
Mystery and discovery of childhood books, birds, tree’s rivers, cliffs, (bluffs Illinois)
Around the bend and hills of Exeter
My rhythm and solaces
Apportions in the woods.
A lot of my reflections are unconscious looking back at memories
As I have gotten older my work becomes less and less rational and even more emotional and empirical
I interested in the object ness of even 2d things. I want my experiences to be tangible – for the viewer and me
If I show work that I think is fantastic and it shows and explains certain things about struggle to others than its all good – but the second I make things for pleasure, its about ego, and this causes problems in my studio practice and exhibitions.
I think expression is fatal – crucial – self-rewarding
I’m figuring out the past by working today – traveling behind things
I equate problems or loss of control with fragmentation – hence collage, ripping, binding, sorting etc.

Evoking the presence and absence of the figure and emotions tied to it
Crevices, soft nests and gatherings
Branches, collections, bottling, long warm limbs of thermal underwear.
Blankets and pillows.
Roots – dirt and dust
Tomato plants in milk cartons
Zippers on clothing, construction panels. – Shelves and red poinsettias.

Not casually accepts definitions from outside my web.
Junk collecting and 3 legged dogs – scarecrows and collections of things
Tattered – the pluck of survivors – bandages and wrapping jury-rigged and judged.
Clothing layers and shells
I sing in the tenor range – my voice in artworks cracks and breaks more.
Non-rigid materials bending – trees moving – moved - wind rigid
Fossil unburied – ceramic brittle – moving cancer in throats and opening
The body likes a coffin.

Certain literary works – the love song of J. Alfred, - ballad of the sad café
I believe in reparations and mutability. I believe all the great questions aren’t easily answered.
Don’t avoid negativity – recognize it – Death has really taught me more than anything.
I don’t really privilege style or materials – except from memories, nostalgia I equate with trivia unless it’s distilled through me

I’m interested in what survival means – how did I survive? The whole one –legged dog
Its emotions not events that shudder the senses

And its pluck?

I like the fragility of paper resistance- folding, tearing. I find it in human interaction Screening, whispering, insisting…I love arranging chaos – I love being disoriented. temperamento...sanguineo...melancoico...colerico....flemetico
tree skeleton button collectors
la noche de mimal
ya no puede bebir sin tu amor
the river of the crying moon
dust and earth
tied and connected
counted and left
Sewing thin lines multiple piles and lain.discarded.refused.
cracked mirrors and webs ...espejo obscuro
the function of freedom is to free someone else(toni morrison?)
Does artwork free us from isolation or does the viewer?¿?
Can the truth of my experience be told with only my voice¿
How was I interested in the world when I was younger - tea ceremony and washing dishes at the golden temple.
The image of hands draws attention to the idea of desire
The dreaming mind
"When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs for what it found"

You had me at
¨That is the mother that cries frozen cold tear for todos personas¨
Flowers = art = passing stories and lives = beauty
Guarding protecting – go looking – journey.breathe..Art looking at me.

Emotional and Psychological pain- needles are used to repair damage and tears –
They aren’t aggressive- they bind.
I’m not so interested in fear – really interested in hope.
I’m not a zombie – I like life – I think considering the nature of human suffering/life super important.
I carry my feelings in my body – almost all of my work uses or references the body. Beds, urns, parts, milagros, ex-votos, limbs
The things I found mysterious as a child still absorb my interests – as I get older I’m interested in the things I’ve always been compelled by – birds, trees, faces, eyes, hands, (longevity of reflection as journey)

The one who mends what falls apart
Bones and sympathy
Secreta rafs
Horosopic old iron
Bottle and black teeth
Shads and fangs
Nasturtiums
Birds calling tree skeltons
Vampira diamantes
Black mirror
Button
Enorme distancia
La noche de mimal
Ya no puedo bebir sin tu amor
Chocolate seeds
Llegando a ti
Me voy
Its emotions not events that shudder the viewer
Truque de suenos
El destino
Trozos de una carta

Te pareces tanto a mi
You look a lot like me
We as strangers
And soujourners
Our days are shadows
And there is none abiding
Bodies thin skinned
Parcels leaking picks
Fall into graves
Kick up your dirt
Things we keep close to our bodies
Answer cancer
Shrug in my heart
Tiny flashing stars
Vessels on walls/limbs on walls

2010-12-13T08:38:00.001-08:00

everything must go

2010-12-06T14:14:00.000-08:00

so the opening went well and daisy and I are regrouping and adding more stuff!

barehands last show shine 2010

2010-12-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

here is a pix of the garland I did for Shine 2010 - barehands last show!

everything must go

2010-11-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

Goose and I did some collab pieces drawing on ceramics...here are some of them

more marbling with students at uab

2010-11-18T08:38:00.001-08:00

couple of new pix of books

2010-11-10T15:14:00.000-08:00

Library Brown Bag Lunch Lecture on Book Arts

2010-11-10T08:12:00.001-08:00

Had a good meeting of about 20 people in the Henley Room/UAB Library

traps

2010-11-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

book / loom / the odyssey - making and unmaking to save yourself - Penelope at her loom
sewing things - trapping and pinning things down

as I push forward...I look back

exhibition - Everything Must go - Opens November 26th at the Lite Box Gallery

2010-11-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

The little known, but thoroughly eccentric & quietly historic Benjamin family of Birmingham has recently marked the end of its line with the death of H. Benjamin Benjamin. The estate has reverted into the hands of the State. With plans to use the property for family-friendly shopping, everything must go!

In order to raise the capital required to raze the historic Benjamin homestead to the ground, State officials have announced the open sale of the estate effects to the general public. Items will be on display for open manhandling & criticism, as well as immediate removal upon receipt of sale.

Items included are books, dolls, birds, bowls & bottles; personal effects from a lady’s boudoir; a botanical collection from an overgrown conservatory; sundry laundry accessories; out of date kitchen ware, fine dining ware & various miscellaneous odds, ends & collectibles.

Sale is first come, first served, with a strict cash-&-carry policy. The State has declared the site an official EVERYTHING MUST GO zone, with intentions of burning anything left as rubbish as of January 1, 2011

exhibition - Everything Must go - Opens November 26th at the Lite Box Gallery in Birmingham Alabama - I will have lots of ceramic things, books, collages and more in this show - I'm the aviary/library room.
xx

Amy, Larry Lou, Mary Ann, Billie at Foster's House eve of conference

2010-11-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

had a wonderful time with some of my fave alabama book artists on the eve of the conference hosted by Larry Lou Foster! it was great to see everybody - !! and a real treat to see Larry Lou's paste paper studio and her collection of books, family paintings, house and general dancing accordion playing good times!

Book arts Conference Alabama Center for the Book Tuscaloosa

2010-11-07T06:52:00.000-08:00

Had a great time with all my peeps at the Alabama Center for the Book arts conference 2010 in held by Steve Miller and all the great folks at the MFA Book Arts Program in Tuscaloosa

great time with Larry Lou Foster demo at UAB

2010-11-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

Had a great time with Larry Louise Foster and Mary Ann Sampson last night - Larry gave a great demo to my class about box construction and applying paste papers and book cloth to boxes and many many different ways to hinge. She also talked about her paste papers and showed us a really cool gussett and we toured the book arts exhibition up at the UAB library.

day of the dead #8 bare hands gallery

2010-10-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

winter web:hours mixed media installation

2010-10-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

book arts in alabama/bham

2010-10-07T09:53:00.001-07:00

bone collecting

2010-10-02T05:35:00.000-07:00

working on catrina piece
out bone collecting with bo byron ash and megan
aviary library project go!

teapots

2010-09-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

still struggling trying to figure out why I'm so taken with the idea of making *#()%(* teapots!

pinky's house, pitcher plants, photos, back bones y mas

2010-09-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

south alabama

2010-09-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

hanging out in south alabama and went to semmes looking for molds but
hung out at the boiled peanuts and saw tony's studio and house - I liked
my doll in the middle of all of Rachel's childhood doll collection - back to Pinky's
to make food for dinner party tonight.

steep

2010-08-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

M.L and I have some teapots in the "steep" show at Red Dot Gallery

photo printing on organza experiments

2010-08-02T09:40:00.001-07:00

winding thread installation working draft

2010-08-02T09:39:00.001-07:00

new work trying to finish stuff I started in Mexico

2010-07-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

new reflections/ new projects

2010-07-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

A lot of my reflections are unconscious looking back at memories
As I have gotten older my work becomes less and less rational and even more emotional and empirical
I interested in the objectness of even 2d things. I want my experiences to be tangible – for me and the viewer
If I show work that I think is fantastic and it shows and explains certain things about struggle to others than its all good – but the second I make things for pleasure, its about ego, and this causes problems in my studio practice and exhibitions.
I think expression is fatal – crucial – self-rewarding
I’m figuring out the past by working today – traveling behind things
I equate problems or loss of control with fragmentation – hence collage, ripping, binding, sorting etc.
Emotional and Psychological pain- needles are used to repair damage and tears –
They aren’t aggressive- they bind.

I’m not so interested in fear – really interested in hope.
I’m not a zombie – I like life – I think considering the nature of human suffering/life super important.

I carry my feelings in my body – almost all of my work uses or references the body. beds, urns, parts, milagros, ex-votos,limbs
The things I found mysterious as a child still absorb my interests – as I get older I’m interested in the things I’ve always been compelled by – birds, trees, faces, eyes, hands, (longevity of reflection as journey)
Certain literary works – the love song of J. Alfred, - ballad of the sad café
I believe in reparations and mutability. I believe all the great questions aren’t easily answered.
Don’t avoid negativity – recognize it – Death has really taught me more than anything.
I don’t really privilege style or materials – except from memories, nostalgia I equate with trivia unless its distilled through me

I’m interested in what survival means – how did I survive? The whole one –legged dog
And its pluck?

I like the fragility of paper resistance- folding, tearing. I find it in human interaction
Screaing, whispering, insisting…I love arranging chaos – I love being disoriented.

more photos from show in tokyo

2010-07-07T18:56:00.001-07:00