The Mutter Museum

The medical museum in Philadelphia, The Mutter, might be of interest to some of you. It is located within walking distance of the PMA. Here is a link.

Dan Dudrow painting- Elle

Although I haven't tried much abstraction, I'm so inspired by Dudrow's use of color relationships, mark, shape and space for my figurative paintings. For my first painting this semester I experimented with this kind of color on the figure, very challenging, however it resulted to be very problematic. I hope to make discoveries inspired by Dudrow in my future works. Here's his bio from his site:

Dan Dudrow was born in West Virginia. He attended Louisiana State University for two years, then transferred to Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned his BFA in 1963. After spending two years in New York City, he entered the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he earned his MFA in Painting in 1967. Since 1970 he has taught full-time at MICA. During those years he has exhibited his work nationally and internationally.

-Elle

Virgil Marti

(Virgil Marti's "Bullies" in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1992/2001)

Virgil Marti is "a Philadelphia artist internationally known for inserting high décor into fine art contexts. His installations, rich in humor, satire, shrewd observation, and questionable "good taste," work through a vocabulary of architectural history, pop art, and craft." (from the ICA Philadelphia website). The image above shows a flocked wallpaper he designed using images from his high school yearbook. It was initially installed in a bathroom (floor to ceiling) and illuminated by black light. Here is a link to some of his more recent work.

On Foot Washing

We had had some conversation today about the passages in the Bible related to foot washing, and thought it would be worthwhile to share this link for your information and edification.

Squeak Carnwath

Squeak Carnwath has a specific style about her work which combines personal elements with universal themes. Her paintings typically use both text and abstract fields of color. Many of her pieces express spiritual and political concerns. Though painting is her preferred medium, she also is an accomplished printmaker. She also creates tapestries, artist books, and mixed media works. I love the use of bold color in her work and how her works feel extremely personal - as if I'm peering into a private sketchbook.

Dana Holgerson

Philadelphia!

We traveled to Philadelphia on Saturday to visit a number of cultural organizations and institutions. Photos from our visit follow:

Liza Goodell, Spiral Q's Production Manager, talking to our group in the museum.

A wall of supplies in the Spiral Q workshop.

Jen takes a turn as a stealth bomber, in the Spiral Q warehouse.

Liza shows us around the Spiral Q warehouse.

Puppets in the Spiral Q warehouse (above and below)
Brittany, one of our excellent tour guides at the Fabric Workshop, showing us around the silkscreen studios.

Kerry, our other fabulous FW tourguide explaining the apprenticeship program to our class.

Stripes. Stripes. Stripes. Erin, Cornelia, and a few friends from Philly in front of the Temporary Contemporary.

Karen hangs up her Fundred Dollar bill.

Lindsay at work on her 'mint'.

Working on Mel Chin's Fundred Dollar Bill project at the Temporary Contemporary.

Brittany and Kerry, standing in front of the wall of fundred dollar bills created in Philadelphia or sent in to the project site at the Fabric Workshop.

Nick Cave

Nick Cave was born in 1959 Missouri. He received his bachelor's degree from the Kansas City Art Institute and studied dance in Alvin Ailey. He received his master's from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. He is currently a professor and chair of the Fashion Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He utilises many decorative and found objects to represent human condition in the social and political realm. He makes references to African ceremonial costumes and masks. he attempts to open up views to many cultures and examine personal and cultural identity in relation to the world.

Karen Feliz

Traveling to Philadelphia

A map to our travels (and thus our itinerary) can be found here.

Please remember to bring $5 for Spiral Q, $3 for the Fabric Workshop and singles for the Septa Subway, as well as money for lunch (or a brown bag).

See you all at 8:45 am on Saturday morning in front of the main building!

High Zero Festival

This week marks the beginning of the High Zero Festival, the premier festival of Improvised, Experimental music on the East Coast, fully devoted to new collaborations between the most inspired improvisors from around the world.

The festival brings together 28 core musicians each year, but also involves a much larger subculture of musicians in Baltimore and on the East Coast. Unlike many related festivals, High Zero is not narrow in terms of sensibility or subculture, but rather widely inclusive of all the different types of experimental music-making in the moment. The fact that half of the festival's core participants are from Baltimore speaks to the depth of Baltimore's experimental music subculture, which in recent years has grown to be one of the richest cities in the country for experimental art.

Trisha Brookbank

Vermes Fluid
2006
Polyurethane Foam, Epoxy Resin, Wood, & Acrylic Lacquer
5'5" x 8" x 4'

Trisha Brookbank got her BFA in Syracuse University and is currently living in Miami, Florida. Her work is divided into separate bodies of work and in each body of work she explores and expands different ideas and concepts.The piece above is part of her "Hybrids" series, this series contain Sculptures, Gestures, Drawings, and Installations; She developed in over the course of three years.

As you guys MIGHT have noticed i am very inspired by people around me and people I interact with regularly, I was lucky enough to be part of the only class she taught, which was in my high school. While in her class we didnt always see eye to eye, in fact she horrified me with just the way she critiqued (say punch, sit on, or throw sculptures to 'test' that they were constructed properly) but i do feel i've learned a lot from her. i actually found her work a year after her class and was just amazed by it, especially her "hybrids" series. The image above is actually the first piece i saw and i stumbled on it in a gallery not knowing she would be in the show. Now I find her work very inspiring and often look at it when im stuck on projects.


Sofia Schiano

Our Visit to The Load of Fun

On Monday, we visited the Load of Fun on North Avenue. Melissa Webb was our extraordinary tour guide to this artist space. We visited Melissa's studio, as well as those of Carrie Fucile, Mara Neimanis/Inflight Theater, Jimmy Joe Roche and Sergio Martinez. Thank you to all the artists who gave so generously of their time. Following are photos from our visit.

Sergio Martinez shares words of wisdom with students in his studio.

Delaney enjoys the window seat, overlooking North Avenue.

Sergio Martinez' efficiently organized materials.

Artist Carrie Fucile talks about her work in her studio.

Katie ponders the installation of signs left for us by artist Jimmy Joe Roche.

Mara Neimanis, founder and director of Inflight Theater speaks with students in her studio.

Artist/Performer Melissa Webb shares images of her work in her studio.

Our tour of Load of Fun includes a wall of paintings by artist Spoon Popkin.

The People of the Elements assemble for a group photo in the graffiti alley behind Load of Fun.

The alley has been designated as a legal graffiti zone, attracting artists from the East Coast to come and make their mark.

Bill Morrison Film and Lecture

Bill Morrison, artist lecture
Thursday, Sept.30th
Falvey, 6pm

Followed by a screening of 'Decasia' at 7pm

Artist lecture with filmmaker BILL MORRISON.

Bill Morrison’s films and videos have been screened in theaters, museums, and
concert halls worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Museum of
Modern Art, Royal Festival Hall, Sundance Film Festival, Tate Modern, and
Walt Disney Concert Hall. Morrison is a Guggenheim fellow and has received
the Alpert Award for the Arts, an NEA Creativity Grant, a Creative Capital
grant, and a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His work
with Ridge Theater has been recognized with two Bessie awards and an Obie
Award.

Morrison's landmark film DECASIA (2002) will be screened following the
lecture.

Audrey Kawasaki

Audrey Kawasaki is most known for her soft, sensual, and super detailed figure paintings on wood. Her works are both eerie and beautiful, capturing raw beauty within the female figure. She was a Fine Arts Painting major at Pratt Institute for two years and has been successfully selling and exhibiting all over the globe. Her technique feels flawless and her subject matter is strong yet delicate. Audrey Kawasaki takes painting on wood to a whole new level.
- Jenny Acosta

Candy Jernigan

Candy Jernigan's work was based on "evidence", or proof of her existence. She collected objects and kept records of the things she saw and places she went, then made her findings into books. Her objects ranged from ticket stubs and receipts to dead bugs.

-Erin Lanagan

Riitta Ikonen

Riitta Ikonen is a London based artist from Finland. Her art explores object purposes and how it effects humans. This piece is part of her "Human Nylon" series where she investigates Nylon and how it assists humans (life jackets, car seats, suitcases, toothbrushes). She creates lots of costumes which she wears and performs in. Her art usually has a sense of humor that goes along with whatever statement she is trying to make.

Jenn Kim

Keybag by Joao Sabino Studio

Joao Sabino's works are mostly created by using keyboards and this is also one of them. Each of these bags contain 393 keys and they all have not been cut even once. These bags are made in 4 different colors which makes it look colorful and different. As I saw this work, I was surprised by how she thought of making this bag without cutting the keyboard. Joao Sabino's works are all different and some amaze me when I look at it because they are all mind blowing and all are ideas that people will not think of making by using keyboards. For example another work of hers is called chocolate keyboard and it is created by using keyboards.

Soo Young Choi(Aileen)

Dettmer's Book Sculptures

Sculptor Brian Dettmer has been creating marvelous works of art by doing "surgery" on books. In this specific sculpture, Dettmer has taken numerous hard-covered books, carved and colored them, and attached them together to form what reminds one of a caterpillar. I find this sculpture extremely interesting because of the way Dettmer utilized the free-falling, organic nature of the pages in the book to replicate a creature without a skeleton. On the other hand, the rigid covering of the books imitate the spikes or legs that the creature has, which are usually the only parts of its body that are not tender and delicate.

--Jennifer Zhang

Alessandra Torres

Alessandra Torres's art deals with the relationship between the object and the body and the body's experience of the world. There's a really satisfying physicality and sense of exploration in all her work. Alessandra Torres received her Bachelor of Fine Art from MICA and her Master of Fine Art from Virginia Commonwealth University. Torres is now a sculpture instructor here at MICA. I came across her work last year after she gave me a tour of the sculpture department and have been interested in her perception of the body and the world since then. All her works involve sculpture with objects and sculpture with her body.

-Patrick Schlotterback

Nathan Vincent

Nathan Vincent's work is all about the connection between the object & what it's made of. In the series of work on his website, he deals with gender issues and what it means for objects to be masculine or feminine. "It critiques the stereotypical gender mediums by creating 'masculine objects' using 'feminine processes' such as crochet, sewing, and applique."

http://nathanvincent.com/home.html

-Rachael Durnin

Mark Newport

Mark Newport is an artist who puts a spin on his own dynamic object: the superhero.
He alters the way we view these well-known characters through the material he uses to recreate them. By building each suit out of knitted yarn, he challenges us to look at the idea of a strong savior in a different light. He continues this juxtaposition of soft and chiseled through his performance pieces, which often include knitting himself (a middle-aged, slightly chubby man) into these superhero suits that were originally worn by the muscular role models of every little kids childhood. I love his work because its really unconventional and quirky. Plus, yay knitting!
Chelsea Andrews