Learning the Laser Cutter

Laser cutting is a PITA. I should’ve predicted that the machine would be super finicky! I guess I have to keep practicing. #laser cutting #design 1 note

Loving the Metal Shop!

I’ve been spending a ton of time at @makerhaus working in the metal shop. I’m a perfectionist, so this wine rack that I thought would take only a day or two has ended up taking more like three or four weeks! I’ve learned to use almost every tool in the shop: lathe, milling machine, bandsaw, stomp shear, drill press, belt sander, tap & die, and MIG welder. This project is more of a design problem than an art piece, which is nice — I like going back and forth along the edges. These photos illustrate my process of making a wine rack from scratch. I wish I had thought to take a photo of the raw materials before I started working on them. I had a 2 foot long aluminum round bar, a flat steel bar, a smaller rod for making my own screws, and a couple scraps of pipe. When I was making my own screws and threading the steel bar, I got impatient and broke the tap off inside the bar. I ended up going down to Tacoma Screw and troubleshooting with the awesome guys who work there. They didn’t mind teaching me a little bit. (I’ll definitely go back there if I ever need more advice or tools and whatnot.) I really love the metal shop. The work there feels so substantial and utterly physical. I’m especially enjoying the contrast against my graphic design job which is sitting at a desk staring into a screen most of the time. I hope to be finished with this by next week so that I can start working on my next project — which is going to involve a ton of welding! #welding #metal shop #wine rack #pnca

American Landscape Painting in the 1800s

I’ve been reading a lot about Americans’ attitudes towards landscape/nature over the past 200-ish years. In the 1700’s it seems that painting landscape just wasn’t something that was considered acceptable. It wasn’t until the very late 1700’s that Americans realized that they had something uniquely different from Europe, and they began to (sort-of) celebrate it. Romanticism was in its heyday during the first half of the 19th Century, and the paintings pictured above were created during this time. Many artists during this time wanted to celebrate pastoral nature, the agrarian landscape, evidence of the people’s control over the land for production purposes. They weren’t quite ready, it seems, to depict full-blown wilderness in a positive light, as it was still dangerous and frightening. In these images, we see lots of human activity on the fringes between wilderness and civilization. Urban development was looked down upon as well as wilderness. The rural farm life was seen as the most virtuous. Cities and industry were depicted far in the distance, with these pastoral and leisurely images in the foregrounds. Picnics and farms were common subjects during this era. #landscape #painting #art #America #Thomas Cole #Winslow Homer #Alvan Fisher #PNCAmfa

Ellen Sollod: Studio Visit

Ellen Sollod is an amazing, thoughtful, and generous Seattle #artist. I had a fantastic studio visit and lunch with her today! Learned all about the trials and tribulations of working in the world of public art. #publicart #studiovisit

What I’m Reading Now

The stack of books I’m sifting through these days. #art #landscape #nature

View from Mount Waterman

View from the top of Mt. Waterman in the Angeles National Forest. What a fantastic day!

Drawing in a Friendship Garden

I created this afternoon intervention in the park today. I loved the meditation of walking around and around this tree to envelop it with my attention. Then the meditation continued afterwards as I walked around the tree an equal number of times to disassemble the piece. #contemporary art #installation #nature #landscape 9 notes

The Drawing that Makes Itself — Variation 07

Here are some more images from my recent series of Drawings That Make Themselves in the Sierra National Forest in California. That granite is such a great substrate for the drawings. I would love to go back and do more of these drawings sometime.

Variation number 07 was about how the liquid transfers from one surface angle to another.

The Drawing that Makes Itself — Variation 06

For this variation, I decided to see how the drawing would look when I mix colors. Having all the extra liquid also created a much bigger drawing. I enjoyed the longer, more meditative process.

This is my favorite set from the Drawings That Make Themselves. I am really excited that they were chosen for the Tool at Hand PDX exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland. Check out the images in person before the end of January 2014!

The Drawing that Makes Itself — Variation 05

This is number 05 in a series of ephemeral landscape drawings that make themselves. I love setting something free and seeing how it behaves on its own — like a controlled chaos almost. 

I'm getting more and more excited about working outside in the landscape. Interjecting artificial, almost psychedelic colors into an environment filled with earth tones creates a tension that reflects the collision of urban civilization and natural landscapes. I created these drawings in the Sierra National Forest just south of Yosemite.

The Drawing that Makes Itself — Variation 04

This series of photos documents the process of creating The Drawing that Makes Itself - Variation 04.

Harry Dodge at Henry Art Museum

Last night Matt and I went to see an art talk with Harriet “Harry” Dodge at Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. I was super inspired!

Still shot from the video.

We saw a hilarious video called The Ass and the Lapdog that tackled issues of language — the ways we describe images with words to create materiality in the minds of others. And body language is so essential. The stories each character describes are so vivid and funny, so strange and surreal. Imagination is key for both the story teller and the listener.

I would love to have Harry come as a visiting artist at PNCA next summer... So smart, thoughtful, funny, and insightful. I love all the different media at play in these explorations of language and imagination.