Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Text study for self-control panel

exploring text idea: researched Naxi pictographic language at LoC.

[Interesting that Chinese scholars rather than American librarians are now in charge of the collection. Makes sense since more research seems to have been done in Chinese and they can read it. For me it was a silly experience to search a catalog and not be able to understand anything. Latinized, phonetic transcription is remarkably unhelpful. Obviously learning the language is a thought, but I have no interest or time.]

Anyway, found a great dictionary and will use that.



Friday, October 5, 2012

Wrap study for Self-control panel



collage of white sheet for wrap
gesso "wraps"


spray paint text

Technique - Self-Control panel




1. use 16G steel horizontally-oriented, heat mark that appears to be a woman, prone and headless.
    dims: 72"W x 19"H

A. Use angle grinder to shine up the body. Chalk in.

B. Solvent transfer for ghostly image or black paint Blacken the area under the body.


Mummy Black paint. Spray gesso to the area below the body and apply "Bone Black" pigment.

C. Gesso/Bone Black above the body too - a layering to evoke burial?
Yellow above body - life



2. referring to my method of funereal body-washing, align my text. These all could go with the head. Always the head! I started washing her head and hair. Her attitude towards life was in her head. But Buchwald joke is an emotional sharing for my family. I'll move emotion to the heart.















3. Framing
Weld cleat on back
Bend cleat at a 

Font research - RAGE for Self-Control panel

As I'm starting on my Self-Control work, I decide to work on my text. I get bogged down with choosing the right type font in order to capture the sense of rage that I felt at my need to live M's life. An hour has passed and I can't find the font I want. In this case, it's a font that's used for the word "RAGE". It's sans serif, has especially wide letters, cracked like a person falling apart, very tight like an attempt at self-control, orange-red for anger, and an "A" that evokes wikkan ritual.


Choice: photoshop the text to mimic it or keep looking for a downloadable font.
Photoshop.
I choose Ariel Bold as a place holder. Return to draw.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Text n Image Research - Self-Control panel

Shirin Neshat captures sense of outrage over suppression that words and guns have over human rights. 1994    http://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Rebellious-Silence/68AD644BC796E1B0

Kerry James Marshall with just 4 words, references our American popular culture and the plight of inner city poor.    1994  http://www.art21.org/files/images/marshall-paint-004.jpg



Jenny Holzer makes vivid the roiling tension always present in a NYC subway. 1984
http://www.spruethmagers.net/bilder/works/holzer_00110.jpg


Misused words trigger rage effectively. 

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Text Research - Self Control panel

Fighting my love of reading and words. I'm under the impression that words (in the great amount that I want to use them) have no place in my visual art work because they seem mad.
Then i look at Basquiat's work without the text, and wonder, what's the relation between:


images:
profile, amputated limbs, clock, sole of a shoe

AND or VS:


words:

Staff into Serp, Staff into Serpent Trick, Magic Leprosey, Magic Water into Blood, Egyptians vs Moses, Size Nine, Moses, Moses, Moses, Heel, el, He, Hee






If I used words to the extent that I wanted what sorts of shapes would I be able to incorporate to make my point.



Duke University#2 - Self Control

This work's about self-control - both the physical making of the work and the topic of the work.

Physical making: Trying a Ulysses Contract with the CAH folks: I make a work and show you my weekly progress as a way to keep the discipline.

Topic of the work: Is a Ulysses Contract moral? Specially, address my moral discomfort when I was required in October 2007, by virtue of my mother’s stroke and her Advanced Medical Directive, to exercise my power as her Health Care Decisions Agent.

"Health Care Decisions Agent" is a legal term devoid of emotion that describes a function accompanied by an intensely emotional state of mind.