in the summer of '98 i settled into a 750 sq.ft. studio in an industrial warehouse in baltimore after completing an mfa in painting. to this day i'm still trying to convince myself of it's practicality (the degree, that is) every time i make that monthly student loan payment. i must admit, however, if anything, those two years unveiled irreplaceable friendships- so that's my consolation. during my graduate studies i was irresistibly seduced by paint/painting like never before. i had just finished a body of work that explored minimalism and illuminism with a conceptual impetus. using the simplistic design of the 'mary jane' candy wrapper, with that beautiful red strip disecting it's yellow ground, mary jane was re-invented with oil paint on traditional prepared wood supports with a concoction of marble dust and hide glue. 'mary jane' met William Turner and embraced a Cindy Sherman persona as the wrapper was presented in various colors and it's surface carefully reflected it's own light. "mary jane in plaid at dusk" reveals a perfectly striped panel that settles itself into the light of evening. "mary jane at midnight" glows in deep blue with a nearly black stripe. and in "in rose with dots" her stripe is over-layed with a river of polka-dots that can only be seen at a certain angle on a panel of deep red.
before grad school my work embraced the "picture making" game that included works like
"a bodice front" and paintings on found/discarded pennies. reflections on religion, family, landscape, nostalgia and still lives embellished the 3/4" surface of pennies that i had found on sidewalks over the years. a black and white portrait rests on a 1951 wheat penny. the portrait is of my mother when she was three years old. in the original photo she is standing next to a bird bath with her brother on the other side of the bath. the title,
"kisses and ghosts" comes from a statement i had read from a young child. a group of children were asked what they feared most. this title was one on the answers. on a 1944 penny a serene pastoral landscape is titled "through carelessness he loses his cow". words randomly pulled from the pages of "The I Ching or Book of Changes". a simple painting of a baseball is called "four witches stand". and then there's
"venus dreams" if you haven't noticed yet, the titles of my works are integral to my practice. words have always been a part of the works conceptual and experiential duties. which is clearly explored in the works that i have been courting since that summer in 1998. after several post-grad paintings i had become suspicious of the works aesthetics. aside from their conceptual/unseen characteristics and though they were burdened in layers and layers of glazing, the paintings appeared too simple, too minimal, too obvious and most of all - too much about their surface.
as usual i stopped painting for a while and turned to books. i am not prolific in the studio. i never have been. i'm not one to "work it out" with materials or make work for the sake of making work. there's enough garbage in the world. i turned to poetry and the tattered art history books that i have dragged around for over twenty years. the big fat separated-at-the-spine kind of books. as pure exercise i began borrowing images from various resources with the intention of creating my own narratives with them. i wanted/needed a break from the practice of painting. using a
pounce wheel i transferred figures, birds, moths, structures and forms from the pages of these books. each image was made up of a string of small, punctured dots. while pouncing the stars from a Jasper Johns painting my eyes were guided to the small periods buried within the text on the page. i began mapping those, as well. and soon, within days, my transfers consisted of only the carefully mapped, charted periods.
"The Paradiso, by Dante Alighieri" was reborn. (this work was charted from a 1904 edition that was given to me as a birthday gift by my husband during our first year of marriage.)
now. from poems to art criticism to artist biographies to newspaper articles to "the sexual life of catherin m." my work explores the moments between the words. between the thoughts. at the breath. a pattern of pauses. a pre-destined design, transformed.
exposed. for the first time in NY.the above image: #2 from a set of 4 drawings.
"For Mr. Reinhardt, Opals, Dreams, Lines and Hearts"
mapped periods from "Art as Art", Art in Theory, pp. 806-809, graphite powder and ink on paper.
Why settle for only what's offered at the overpriced department stores and boutiques? If finding the right garment is difficult and you'd rather "make it your own damn self" from scratch or by renovating an existing garment then here's the list for you! I'm posting ideas and references to designs that not only embrace the terrane of the post mastectomy, non-reconstructed, no-prosthesis body but these designs thoughtfully celebrate and honor it. I'll post photos of handmade garments and basic "how to" instructions so check back in often if you're interested in the Do It Yourself approach to your wardrobe solutions. We'll start with the obvious... Rhea Belle designs at Rebel1in8.
