Poisonous Dart Frogs and Mock-ups, Oh My!

Last week was my second interview for a Kindergarten Art Teacher position, which I nailed! YAY! We created rain sticks!!! This week we are still studying South America and for tomorrows activity we are making tissue paper "stained glass like" leaves with primary colored frogs!! I really enjoyed stepping away from string and tracing cute little frogs for little kids to collage on.... How can I even call this a job???

I also worked on my first mock-up for my tapestry pieces. I really appreciate how it came out but I want to show some more of the actual bracelets. However, there is a really interesting tension happening by taking away the look, feel and time in each bracelet. It feels very absence of presence/presence of absence to me. My mentor asked me to consider what is "inside" the space the bracelet creates. I am going to mind map this thought and see what I can come up with. You wrap them around ankles or wrists... and in my case, some trees... But what is that space all about and why is it important? I shall be thinking on this one....

A little corny :-)

A few weekends ago, my friend Megan and I, went to the Seattle Art Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum. It was the first time I had ever engaged what was on display. Megan and I were able to dialogue about pieces and bounce ideas off of each other. The Tacoma Art Museum had on display, an installation piece by Marie Watt. She created/constructed a felted/wool structure that you entered with bare feet. It felt very cave-like inside the structure with felted "rock" covers, stalactites and what I refer to as the little magic man! There was, projected onto the inside walls in three separate places, a holographic image of a Native, telling stories... I was overjoyed!!!  The inspiration began to flow through me and I wrote down all the emotions I experienced while inside the structure. I was fortunate enough to have personal time inside this space. The museum was not busy!!!!

I purchased her book and began to read, immediately after arriving home. She has worked with corn husks in the past and created a bridge in Portland that was structurally based off of the corn husk structure made by the veins. I began to think about corn, our similar connection to being Native American but not knowing where our connection leads to, or from... Not wanting to "copy" her in any way I began to think about the corn silk and how "string" like it is. It is also a very liminal material inside the corn structure itself. What a perfect material to play with! At first I was going to attempt to stiffen it as I did to the string. My mentor suggested creating a bracelet out of the corn silk. However, it is too fragile of a material, for now... ( I know I can figure out someway to make string out of corn silk.) So then I decided to weave it into some bracelets I am working on. Here are my results!!!

Nature of Relationship

I am not so good at blogging, so be gentle with me! I am currently in my second quarter of graduate school. The low residency program I am  in allows me to work from home this quarter. I have been working with string and conducting material studies to further my investigations. My final project for the first quarter was a rather large installation of string that I had organically tossed over the beam in our main space. I then wove the sides into a tree like structure which caused the illusion of a canopy or protective space to interact within. Among the element of organic placement I manipulated a few pieces of string with gesso and encaustic wax to cause them become stiff. Although the triangular structures were fragile they were protected enough to hold up to the rigor of placing them onto the main pieces of the structure.

Since I have been home I have conducted several material studies that included using stiffeners such as cornstarch mixed with water and various non-toxic glues. These studies were very successful for me in finding a jumping off point. My mentor, Abra, encouraged me to begin ti "play" with the material and pushed me further into dialoging with my work by suggesting what it would mean to weave the string. This interaction led me to think of friendship bracelets. For me the friendship bracelet has multiple levels of meaning. As a 12 year old girl growing up in the 80's it was a big deal to have them up to your elbow. My left arm was covered with a few scattered ones on my right arm. I made most of bracelets as I did not have that many friends to trade with. This begins to unravel for me as I think back to my earliest relationships with string. In 4th grade, Mr. Barnett had us pick dotted patterns, nail them to a piece of board and then string them until you created a string picture. These were geometric in nature but my favorite piece was a triple triangle that resembled a bird. I was unable to fully conquer this pattern due to my grades falling... But every chance I could weasel in, I would be out pounding nails and stringing patterns.

Th next significant string step was a cross stitch pattern of a yellow chicken and two chicks. My mom still has it on her refrigerator. The counting of the squares and weaving in and out on the canvas was very meditative for me as a child. It calmed my mind and allowed me to concentrate on one aspect at a time. During my child hood I must interject here that my father was a longshoreman. I was around big boats, and big rope my entire life. My grandfather was a commercial fisherman in Westport, WA. There were crab pots in his back yard and piles of large rope strewn about.

String/rope has been in the background of my life. I am sure this common and that I am not an oddity...

Then again...

The bracelet for me represents the best of what a friendship can be. It can be strong, beautiful, connecting, rooting, durable, long-lasting, memorable, colorful, personal... How do I translate all of these things? I did not want to just make friendship bracelets.... So I decided to make LARGE friendship bracelets. Then I thought, where would you tie a huge bracelet? I thought of rocks, chairs, people... but ultimately decided they needed to go around trees. Trees represent foundation and growth. With this I titled the piece, "Nature of Relationship" and I was honored to install it in Mt Lion & Rosy's back yard! Their energy is amazing and they both understood where the piece is coming from.

I have one more large piece to make before tying them to a random tree. I shall be finishing it up tomorrow. I have only made 15 smaller bracelets and need 500 of them for my tapestry idea. I have asked for help from friends and family on Facebook and received a response of 20+ people willing to help me with my project!!!  I am so excited for this collaboration and to see where the energy of the piece takes me. I will try to update this at least once a week with new pictures and journey updates.