I drown in petroleum distillates. » artists

Katrina’s dress.

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:45:09 +0000

It has been a while since I worked on this project, the Sporozoan Swarm is running me ragged. Before I began The Swarm I was working on a project in which I asked people to send me an item of clothing and I would modify it with The Sporozoan. I started out just screen printing the image on t-shirts and the like but then I started getting excited about sewing and began embroidering articles of clothing.

Katrina was very daring in sending me a dress and telling to me to go for it. I cut into it and added bits and pieces and did a lot of hand as well as machine embroidery to the dress. Now that I have finally seen the dress on her I am excited to breath some life back into this project. We shall see what the next few days bring in the life of The Sporozoan Embroidery project.

Congrats to Meagan Segal.

admin — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:12:06 +0000

One of my most adored students, Meagan Segal, graduated from Pratt Institute this past week. Meagan is an artist with a great deal passion about the work she is making. I was always very excited to have our meetings and see her delightfully gross paintings.

Meagan I wish you all the best and hope that your paintings continue to make people shudder.

Our art can change the world!

Art must be subtle?

admin — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:12:12 +0000

Obvious, one liner, in your face, simple, these are all terms I do not want applied to my work. I have something to say with my art and I know that if I make the statement too simple than my work will not have staying power. Looking back at all great art it is layered with information. Viewers can come back and come back and always find something new. I believe this is because as we grow in our experience we bring to great art a newness of vision. We are able to peel away layers of the statement made by the artist. It is important for we as artists to continually ask our viewers to challenge themselves in how they view art. This in turn will allow them to challenge their view of the world and themselves.

Make art with all that you are.

Art is everywhere.

admin — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:38:27 +0000

Art is everywhere, it is true, but art in the way we normally think about it is not everywhere. That is because we have been trained to believe that art is only to be seen in formal locals. Bullshit! Art should be all around us and not just the art that is in advertising or in the beautiful design of a door handle or an article of clothing. In this shot one of the parasite prints has taken the place of an ad on the Berlin subway. When I was teaching at Pratt a student who had lived in East Berlin decided that she wanted to take art work and place it in the Berlin subway. She asked people for work and came back with pictures of where the work had ended up. It was a real interesting project that encouraged a lot of other students to think about how the boundaries, that are set for art, can be viewed.

Make art and make it be seen. Art is changing our world!!

sporozoan cavities – Intaglio prints

admin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:33:20 +0000

sporozoan cavities is a suite of Intaglio 15 prints, which are 18×24 and printed on 22×30 Rives BFK Tan. All of these prints revolve around the origin and evolution of the sporozoan image as the primary object in all my work. The sporozoan is derived from the chest cavity of the human form, which is my favorite thing to draw in figure classes. I visualized the form underneath and slowly modified it until I discovered the sporozoan. sporozoan cavities shows the sporozoan in many states of being and is drawn in a way to show its anatomy and its exterior features. The suite has been printed in black and white and in a la poupee, editions of 25 of each print are to be printed. I have yet to finish the suite due primarily to its size, when all prints are made there will be 800 of them. My obsession with the sporozoan is growing exponentially as it has quickly been taking over all of my imagery.

Art is not truly art until it is viewed.

admin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:06:48 +0000

I have always believed that painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and all other forms of visual art were forms of communication. With that being true they all must have a viewer, hopefully multiple viewers, in order to be called art. Until they are viewed and digested by people they are just things without a purpose. Here is the interesting part of the equation I make art for me, to tell a story that I want to tell. I can only hope that when it is viewed it is savored and the viewer leaves feeling. Art can and should create feelings in viewers, it should make them excited in a way that makes them want to come back to see and feel more. This is one of the reasons why I started making objects that were interactive. By combining body and art I add a theatrical aspect to my work that demands attention. By making art that requires a viewer to interact with it in order to fully understand it I go out on a limb. Art is not suppose to be touched. It is suppose to be hanging on a wall or sitting in the middle of a room with red velvet rope around it. In “The sporozoan’s shrine to the mapping of the parasite.” I ask viewers to not only walk around and into the shrine but to open the box and remove its innards. It is not an easy thing for viewers to do, to get beyond what they have learned from years of art viewing – “DON’T TOUCH”. Because much of the work that I make is made with paper and delicate materials damage is inevitable and fixing these damages adds to the history of the objects. The objects change and evolve from one performance and showing to the next.

Art never ends.

sporebox

admin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:25:09 +0000

The sporebox is a portable art piece. It was the beginning of my interest in performing art work. Because the sporebox is so small when it is closed I can easily carry it around with me in my messenger bag. For a couple months, right after I finished it, I carried it around with me and anytime I saw a place that looked interesting I would pull out sporebox and let it bloom and wither. In this shot I am in a gutted room in a building on Pratt Institutes campus. This particular time I had someone with me to take shots. Most of these performances I did not have anyone with me so many of these performances are just a memory to me and the people who were there to see them. I find this the most interesting part of the sporozoan performances. They are serendipitous experiences for viewers. And because no one knows when or where they might happen the viewers are random, usually people who would not normally go to galleries, look at my work or anyone else’s. My favorite place to perform sporebox was on the F train in NYC. On the train sporebox was able to tell its story many times in one evening as I would ride from station to station performing the bloom and wither.

Art should be part of our daily lives.

Shrine

admin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:49:08 +0000

“The sporozoan’s shrine to the mapping of the parasite.” is a piece I made in 2002 for a large group show. This picture is a detail of the sporozoan’s display box.

Drawing with pins and thread.

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:05:58 +0000

Making a dress is not too much different then making a drawing, painting or print. You are drawing out shapes with pins and thread and using fabric as you would paint for colour. The object is only different in that it is wearable instead of something only to be looked at. The art object changes on the body of the wearer.

Don Roff

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:49:02 +0000

Don Roff is a writer. He is deeply passionate about film, novels and many other forms of story telling. Another of Don’s passions is scores from films. Currently on his site is a beautiful piece by Philip Glass from The Hours. Check out Don and Phillip’s piece at Keydancerchronicles.

Art can enhance your day.