Sooo...new stuff, new stuff.
I have a photography weekend coming up with work so I thought I would post an update before I flood the inbox.
Life is crazy busy, I have two shows coming up at the end of April a week apart from each other and two more shows to send out applications for by April 1st. Also looking for summer job, hopefully a new place to live, coordinating summer plans and all that good stuff. Its tiring just writing it!

My main body of work that will probably end up being in both the upcoming April shows is a bit of a deviation from the last few pieces I have posted. Going back to the talisman series and away from my Iraq works. Looks like soon I will have fodder for some Iran pieces, but lets hope not...ha.

Anyway, some other unrelated stuff is also in the works. I'm working on a 15 page copper book using news articles on the current middle eastern conflicts, inspired by the Al Mutanabi street book market bombing. That and two of my other related altered book works should be up here in the not too distant future. Also I just finished a mural for the University daycare center that I could post pictures of, just to prove that I am actually capable of bright fluffy happiness (and god is it bright fluffy happiness...there are sheep). Is anyone who watches this page really interested in bright fluffy happiness though? Really.

Artists Statement:

In the Christian context of postclassical Europe the memento mori, images of bones and decay, acquired a moralizing purpose, using the prospect of death to emphasize the emptiness and transience of earthly pleasures, luxuries, and achievements. I am interested in this concept of ‘memento mori’ as it relates to our societies treatment and understanding of the environment.

My close relationship to the land and environment I have grown up with in Alberta lead me to be increasingly concerned with how our society relates to this environment, especially in a province economically centered on the extraction of natural resources. I have always felt a close spiritual connection to this land when I am alone with it and this sense of spiritual reverence is central to this body of work. My intent is to present these issues in a poetic, rather than overtly moralizing context, where art might offer what scientific research and news media cannot in the increasing debate on our environmental practices.

The sculptural ‘talismans’ presented in these images are visual manifestations of my search for the ‘spiritual’ in our environment, through combining traditional Shamanistic and Christian imagery and symbolism. The object becomes a metaphor for the land, a creation imposed upon but bound by both natural and artificial elements into a whole. Not only a metaphor for environment, the talismans become a metaphor for self, referencing both land and body. The work plays with our opposing practices of violence and sanctity as they relate to our understanding and treatment of the landscape; The significance of burial and growth or ‘unearthing’ and in the vein of the memento mori artists, the connection to the land’s mortality and with it, our own.



If anyone is in Edmonton around the end of April and interested in coming to some kick ass art shows, drop me a line and I'll give you details. There will be free food, and cheap booze! cheap!

I am optimistic for 2008. I am a generally optimistic person though, so I can't really help it. Events occurring in our world today however, certainly leave a lot of room for optimism to be overshadowed by doubt.

This body of work stemmed from an interesting conversation I had with my boyfriend many months ago about my works dealing with the imagery of the Nazi death camps and scars (Home's the Place, Ancient Punishments, etc). He commented that in his opinion, much ink had already been spilled (so to speak) on that period of history while such atrocities occur today swept out of the public eye. Why Auschwitz and not Abu Ghirab? This stuck with me, in the back of my head for a long time.

I believe the role of the artist must be one of meaningful commentary on the world which they inhabit. I have been fortunate not to have directly lived the horror of either war that appears in my work, but am increasingly concerned for the future of this generation when such lessons past generations have to teach us fall on deaf ears. There is one element to this war however, that has so far been unpresidented in previous generations, and that is the role of the media. Embedded journalists create the illusion of military transparency, we can access hundreds of independent and foreign news networks online, watch the bombing of Fallujah on youtube. We should be the best informed generation in history, but whether it be through willful ignorance, apathy or outright media manipulation we are not. This I felt, was the place to start.

Artists Statement:

Much as the memento mori artists of the 1700’s dichotomously rendered somber images of skulls, bones and decaying flowers or fruit in beautiful and elegant detail, I am interested in the often fine or obscured margin between images of beauty and horror. I am exploring this in a different body of mixed media work using current images of the Iraqi war. Specifically I am referencing internet collected and tv news footage imagery of highly controversial white phosphorous bombs, which without context look just like fireworks.

As a Canadian student, my window into the events of this conflict has almost exclusively been based on popular media’s presentation of events that occur far from my frame of reference. I am interested in the media’s take on this horror/beauty
dichotomy in their presentation of the war to the public and issues of media transparency.

The interest in this body of work is to get the viewer to question what they are seeing. Formally I am playing with light and harmonious layers of information to create meaning and evoke a visceral reaction. The work, which presents horrific subject matter in an aesthetically pleasing way (but often with sinister undertones), asks the viewer to question its origins, a practice vital when viewing any form of visual imagery, whether it be fine art or footage from news reports on tv.

Central to both this body of work and the previous talisman series is the goal to get the viewer to question. The common thread in all these pieces is my desire to comment on, question and expose current issues in my world today. Throughout the work there is an attempt to bring together two disparate groups of knowledge or ideas to create further insight (ie. the combining of visual traditions of Christianity and Shamanism, the beauty/horror dichotomy of the bomb imagery). In both bodies of work this contrast of ideas is reflected materially in the choice of mixed media techniques.


More Information:

Watch the movie "Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre" Produced by Italian state broadcaster RAI TV: [link]
BBC articles: [link]
[link]
Further Reading: [link]

Happy 2008 everyone.

Although this is a bit late, I definitely need to say a collective thank you to everyone who commented and faved 'home's the place' [link] which received a daily deviation on December 28th. It made my day! Extra thanks to =arctoa for suggesting it and ^RockGirl1582 for featuring it. Many thanks guys!

Although what these statements apply to is not yet uploaded here, I thought I would post them premptive to the semester break uploads I usually end up doing around Christmas. Or as I so I optimistically hope I will be doing.

Yes, it is long. There's actually two slightly different projects I am working on so I kind of did two.




I.

In the Christian context of postclassical Europe, the memento mori, images of bones and decay, acquired a moralizing purpose, using the prospect of death to emphasize the emptiness and transience of earthly pleasures, luxuries, and achievements. I am interested in this concept of ‘memento mori’ as it relates to our societies treatment and understanding of the environment.

My close relationship to the land and environment I have grown up with in Alberta lead me to be increasingly concerned with how our society relates to this environment, especially in a province economically centered on the extraction of natural resources. I have always felt a close spiritual connection to this land when I am alone with it and this sense of spiritual reverence is central to this body of work. My intent is to present these issues in a poetic, rather than overtly moralizing context, where art might offer what scientific research and news media cannot in the increasing debate on our environmental practices.

In my latest work I have strived to create images of the sacred from elements of my environment, both natural and man made. Natural elements of bone, horn and stone are interwoven with man made string, wire and glass to create ‘talismans’ and photographed to produce the final body of print works. Through photographic or representational printing processes, these talismans are presented to the viewer in a pristine state, invoking a sense of reverence for the object itself.

The talismans presented in these images are visual manifestations of my questioning of what in our environment is ‘divine’, and to whom, through the historical context of the memento mori image. The object becomes a metaphor for our environment, a creation bound by both natural and artificial elements into a whole, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes not.

A talisman can be described as “anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.” Through the play between the visual traditions of the Christian church (the memento mori and vanitas images and the altarpiece) in combination with the visual traditions of the Shaman in creating talismans, I hope to create layers of meaning that have been pared down to a formally simple, but visually loaded image that evokes this “ powerful influence on human feelings” in the viewer.


II.


Much as the memento mori artists of the 1700’s dichotomously rendered somber images of skulls, bones and decaying flowers or fruit in beautiful and elegant detail, I am interested in the often fine or obscured margin between images of beauty and horror. I am exploring this in a different body of mixed media work using current images of the Iraqi war.

Specifically I am referencing internet collected images of white phosphorous bombs which without context look just like fireworks. In reality they are a highly controversial chemical weapon (having much the same effect as napalm) which the United States first denied, and has now admitted to using in Iraq.

As a Canadian student, my window into the events of this conflict has almost exclusively been based on popular media’s presentation of events that occur far from my frame of reference. I am interested in the media’s take on this horror/beauty dichotomy in their presentation of the war to the public and issues of media transparency.

Formally I am playing with light and harmonious layers of information to create meaning and evoke a visceral reaction. Various print media (ie. etching, silkscreen) and mixed media, including various different papers, transparent mylars and metal plates as substrates have been used. I have been experimenting with different scales to best present these ideas, from quite large ‘widescreen tv’ format works to very small (5x7” ) pieces that would be more to scale of newspaper photos. I am interested in getting into large scale pieces with this body of work, works to scale of television screens and ideally some installation as well.

The interest in this body of work is to get the viewer to question what they are seeing. The work, which presents horrific subject matter in an aesthetically pleasing way (but often with sinister undertones), asks the viewer to question its origins, a practice vital when viewing any form of visual imagery, whether it be fine art or footage from news reports on tv.


Quote of the Moment:

From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
~Kafka

Riiight...so this has been a while, again. I should stop leading with that, I never post these things more than like twice a year.

Just some random art related news:

Yikes, finally made it to the last year...all of my studios are now 500 level "pretty much do whatever work you want", which is fantastic and daunting. My love affair with school (or more specifically the intensity of school) is on again, off again.

In my 'word and image' print class we are doing a collaborative piece with some fellow students from a non fiction writing class this semester. In the interest of letting people know what they are getting into in such a partnership (ha! be afraid!), I thought I would post a little bit about where my focus lies this year. Also, if you reading this and are said writing student, please ignore crappy grammar and/or spelling. I tried, but I am still self conscious about it after years of public school chastisement.

I am doing three print studios this year and the focus is slightly different in all of them, although I suspect it may coalesce into some vaguely related body of work at some point...we can always hope.

(disclaimer: this is not an artists' statement...only sorta)
Art for me must carry some sort of message. Technically accomplished, formally interesting, pretty colours...all nice, but doesn't hold my interest unless there is meaning there beyond these elements. Appropriately, I guess, my work deals mainly with current events and some political issues. The intent being to present these issues in some poetic context, where art might offer what news media cannot.

Environmental issues have always been of concern and interest to me, as far back as I can remember and it is a continuing theme that seems to come up in my art whether I want it to or not sometimes. Right now I am looking at environmental issues in a cultural/spiritual context. Ideas of the environment as related to divinity. What is divine about it? To whom? How do other cultures such a first nations see it differently/the same? Images of the sacred, what is sacred? Plays on visual traditions in the Christian church in combination with visual traditions of the Shaman. So far manifested in etching and photo etching (I am an etching fan, as evidenced by my gallery).

I am also working experimentally in a lot of mixed media with current images of the Iraqi war. Specifically I am referencing internet collected images of white phospherous bombs, which without context look just like fireworks. In reality they are a highly controversial chemical weapon (having much the same effect as napalm) which the US first denied, and has now admitted to using in Iraq. Working with ideas of media presentation, horror/beauty, transparency. Formally playing with light and layers of information to create meaning and evoke a visceral reaction. Looking at getting into installations, but so far just mixed media drawings and silkscreens.

As for the stuff up in my gallery, there are (I think?) all the prints I did last year in my 400 level print classes with some ideas behind each one in the caption. There are also some paintings...to get a sense of my colour theory, I guess? Not so interested in working with colour on this project, but I am always open to suggestions if it works. I should also mention that you should click on the image to make it bigger, the gallery is mostly thumbnails.

Please contact me on the email listed on facebook if you have any questions about my work (because artists love that), want to work with me, think I'm a nut job and that someone should mention it to me...whatevers.

Quote of the moment:

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."
~Elie Wiesel