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. 

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.

Crinoid credits

Crinoids hold my attention: for their fascinating shapes, strangeness, resiliency, inaccessibility. I am indebted and grateful to the professional and amateur paleontologists, natural history museums, university professors, and geologist/traveler-bloggers who by sharing the results of their explorations, allow me to explore my fascination through my steel, print and ceramic art work. Thank you.

Fossil Crinoids, Hans Hess, W.I. Ausich, C.E. Brett, M.J. Simms
http://www.blackriverfossils.org/
http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/
http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/
http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/

salvaged steel

Found some great salvaged steel at Criss Brothers for a piece for ArtExpo NY:

Frieze Photoshop process

Thinking back on the photo transfer process for 2011 The Frieze Project, I was very fortunate to have someone on my team who was more knowledgeable than I about Photoshop. The Photoshop process was complex and required the steady hand and responsive mind of Sonja Lashua, a photographer in New York.

I found most of my imagery online and decided to use low-resolution files in order to achieve an historical haziness. I would let Sonja know what I was trying to achieve visually, typically a strong contrast and one or two highlights. My great concern was that the image transfer well using solvent to release it and then an etching press or hand to transfer it.

Sonja and I communicated throughout the project only through email and google docs. There was a trial and error period to figure how best to achieve the goal. Sonja was a willing partner in the process, trying various techniques to deliver what I'd described. Her 6th sense combined with her expertise helped me to realize my vision.

How difficult it is to describe what was in my mind when I wasn't sure of the steps. Art is about NOT verbalizing, rather about making. Undertaking such a grand project was so much more than the sum of its parts. It was like managing a small army and myriad logistics. I'm satisfied with our accomplishment and the lessons learned. It's the process.

Collaboration with Gretchen Schermerhorn

Gretchen Schermerhorn, printmaker and hand papermaker, and I have been collaborating on a public art work since August 2011. We're making monotypes and using solvent transfer on paper and basswood to address how images of women are perceived.