SGC Conference

This past week I was at the annual Southern Graphics Council Printmaking Conference in Richmond, VA. A good time was had by all and we were dropping more rhymes.... than Detroit has crimes. I participated in a few exhibitions. The etching pictured above is titled "blue song plaid" and was included in the: Artspace National Juried Printmaking & Photography Exhibition 2008 Juror: Brooks Johnson Curator of Photography and 21st-Century Art, Chrysler Museum of Art.
http://www.artspacegallery.org/anjppe08/index.htm
My printed plane was also in the "No Danger" Exhibition curated by Ed Bernstein which was exhibited in the Richmond International Airport and from there will be traveling to Indiana University, Purdue University, and Australia, I have already posted images of the plane on this blog as well as details 'bout the show. The show looked good it was interesting to see everybody's interpretation of a paper pane ranging from the insanity of a an origami folded structure to the more solid built or constructed structures and all of simple yet evocative cut planes. Thanks Ed for organizing-- impressive.

RESCINDIA installed in Durham

The work is up at Fort Grunt Aquarium. Here is a pic-- it will be up through March.
http://www.fgaquarium.com/

Julie Mehretu Lecture at the University of Michigan

Yesterday I went to listen to the artist: painter/ draw-er Julie Mehretu lecture in Ann Arbor as part of the University of Michigan's Visiting Lecture Series. Mehretu is an Ethiopian born and Michigan raised artist whose work focuses on mark-making, place, and the accumulation of people en masse. It was interesting to hear her ideas about using an abstract visual vocabulary to directly address subject matter of humanity, architecture, and space. She is interested in "the multifaceted layers of place, space, and time that impact the formation of personal and communal identity." Her work is great and it was nice hearing her talk about the visual resources she draws on including historical paintings, crowd photographs, and architectural drawings. She has an interesting background coming from parents who were Africanist and of Montessori belief and her work draws on that sort of Utopian ideal and the dissolving potential of human experience in situations of war, violence, and political upheaval. Her work has a great vocabulary of mark-making and ambiguous space. It appears to breathe. It is always nice to be back in Ann Arbor and my Alma mater of UofM where I earned my BFa in Printmaking. It was nice to bump into one of my former professors after the talk-- Jim Cogswell painter professor at Michigan he was always great to work with back in the day, he is refreshingly optimistic, inspiring, and an encouraging artist.

No Danger: Printed Plane

Here is my contribution to the "No Danger" Printmaking Plane Exhibition curated by Edward Bernstein Printmaking Professor at Indiana University and Italian installation artist Franco Vecchiet. The exhibition will include 100 artists from the US and Europe and will be displayed at the Richmond International Airport in Virginia in connection with the Southern Graphics Council Annual Print Conference. Artists were invited to create an original printed plane that could be assembled and displayed without the benefit of a kit. This piece is a mixed media reductive woodcut mounted on foam core and is approx 12"x10"x6". It is in "flight" now to Bloomington and will "land" to be installed in Richmond in time for the SGC conference March 26-29th.

FORT GRUNT Aquarium

So here it is the finished mixed media quasi stencil printed painting and off it is sent to Durham North Carolina for my installation "rescindia" for the Aquarium space at Fort Grunt. 6'x10' of madness-- sixty square feet I suppose of blood, sweat, and tears. Mostly tears. To the fine folks at FT Grunt thanks for the support. I apologize for the lack of photographs-- techinically and aesthetically they did not work out as part of the final image. Thanks also to my students who helped tremendously this past week move this large "piece" around and thanks for all of the critical support. Here is the link for those interested in the aquarium and for future projects at fort grunt: www.fgaquarium.com/ and www.fortgrunt.com.