looking back picking up

works from BFA thesis show, tape & string on wood and various materials, tallest at 11 feet, 1999

Feeling a need to write things down. Mind is cluttered with stuff, both art and unart related. Grieving hearts, suffering minds, and a broken friendship. Feel helpless. Also trying not to feel guilty about: being out of touch with people in real life but maintaining close contact to this virtual world. It is real to me, too. And is really the only public outlet for my art right now. Want it to be seen as a primary job that i report to on a regular basis. like everyone else who can't just take days off from work whenever they want to.

Many pieces of work scattered about, unfinished. I want to pick up the enthusiasm i had for making big things as when i was working on my thesis show years ago. a little embarrassed to say it's been nearly 10 years ago and i am still looking back, not quite done with what i have started then. I don't mean not done with the pieces themselves. They are finished works but they marked a new beginning for me, one that i stopped short of exploring. Went off towards a different path that was more space-conscious, more practical, and less in courage and timid in drive. Slowly, i find myself breaking out a little with this piece and that. And Now Fully, Consciously, Embracing it.

I want to get back to working more with string and wrapping and mixing mediums crossing disciplines, and just thinking bigger in general.


pop


pretty in pink


lady in red


touch me


pregnant


blue

vineyard

etching, image size 11.3 x 10.4 cm, 1999

The copper plate for this print had been deeply etched, in which it was left in the acid bath for hours and hours. So long that the area where the copper had been exposed to the acid got quite eaten away, creating a sort of a crater-like surface that held a lot of ink when the plate was inked up to be printed.



I was really happy at how much ink was able to get transferred onto the paper when it was printed. It does not show too well in these images, but on the actual print, it has quite a 3-D effect, like that of a small relief painting. I want to explore more of these effects with etching when i get my new press. Want to also continue breaking out of the perfectly squared/straight edges of the plate/canvas.

hair

etching, drypoint & mezzotint on arches printmaking paper (cream color), image size 36 x 41 cm on 56 x 66 cm paper size










back of print showing the impression of the little plates printed together.

skin/flesh (detail)

A glob of caulk applied on the surface of the wood
and then painted over.

Below is the back of the same spot:



-detail above-









-detail below-




The two images above are painted on one single wood board (the front and the back of it), 36" x 11.25"


String coated with some caulk and then painted over.

Below is the back detail of the above spot:

skin flesh

<--outside (front)

inside -->
(back)

oil, string & mixed media on wood, 36" x 11.25"

I think this may be the first painting in oil that made me feel like i could actually work with paint my way, which is on wood (not canvas) and incorporating other non-[overpriced] artstore materials with it (string and caulk, yes!). Was it 7 years ago that i was so happy with how this painting turned out? thinking how innovative it was that i used the back as well? that it would be mounted on its side so that the viewer could take in both the front and the back?

But now looking at it, it is kind of making me sick in the stomach. I was thinking maybe i just need to touch it up a little since it is a little scratched up from storage but now i may have to cut it up soon...

big brother blue

<--This guy here is the tall one in the blue installation:

It is steel rod, wire and twigs wrapped together in duct tape, standing at 8 ft tall. The shorter guys are just twigs and tree branches wrapped in the same blue and black duct tape.

By itself, it is a sculptural object but in the blue installation, it is to be viewed more as part of a painting than a sculptural piece.

A close-up of the blue "paint" over black:

blue

black & blue duct tape on twigs, steel rod & wire, 8 x 6.5 ft

can you hear me

dyptych, etching & mezzotint on printmaking paper,
4.5" x 12"