denmark

I apparently arrived one day early.  no one was upset about it.  i have a comfy bed in a nice room i share with two other girls.  the window treatments are tacked up pieces of paper with fantastical erotic drawings on them.  the grounds are beautiful.  the whole place used to be an apple orchard.  the gallery is inside of the old barn.  the studios are inside of the old stables.  the grounds are part of a park for the whole town.  today i went to a bakery and had a strange tasty treat that i can only describe as a fudge-praline filled chocolate burrito.  it was really heavy, and tasted very good.  it kind of looked like a chocolate egg roll.  I also went to the grocery store and did some shopping.  Vegetables and other good things to eat for breakfast.  had to play guess and check with the cheese and the lunch meat.  They have given the residents each a shelf in the closet for dry goods and a basket to place in the refrigerator for our cold food stuffs.  We are responsible for breakfast and lunch and then each of us has to cook once a week (or however it works with the amount of people) for the whole house for dinner.

We had a large dinner tonight of spaghetti and salad with bread.  it was very good.  There was a nice crumble and a cake for desert.  We watched bridesmaids last night, and tonight after dinner, we watched the nightmare before christmas.  It's been a very long day, and i'm pretty tired.  The girls have told me about a couple second hand shops here, and i kinda want to go see if i can find a nice comfy sweater.  the one's i've brought aren't good enough, haha.  nah, but really, i want one that covers my butt while i sit around the house at night.   it gets chilly in here.  It's been moist outside and partially drizzly.  There's mud everywhere.  we have to change our shoes into house slippers when we come in from outside.  i went and got a really cheap pair when i was out shopping today.  i couldn't stand how filthy my socks were getting from walking around the house.  I ended up sweeping the room i'm staying in, the kitchen, and the hallway/entryway area.  i've never seen dust like the dust that came up from that floor-- like the dust from the interior chambers of egyptian tombs.  I really like these house slippers though. the bottoms of them are filthy already.

i guess tomorrow is business time-- ordering stuff, getting studio space assigned, etc.  I'm going to bed now.  i'll amend this later and add pictures or something.


pictures of the whole trip can be viewed on my picasa  account, or if you're a friend on facebook, i've been loading them on there as well.

And now for something completely different

Mowgli doesn't want me to leave

It's 1am, and i'm about to head to bed.  Going to get up around 6 to get ready for the insanely long trip i'm about to make.  It took me all day to pack.  As of right now, my suitcase weighs 44 pounds.  tomorrow i'll have to reweigh it again after i put all my toiletries in it.  50 pounds or bust.  I'm pretty sure my back pack is going to weigh a ton as well...  It has 3 sketch books, a folder, a novel, a travel guide, and soon, my lap top and charging cord. 

This whole thing seems entirely surreal.  I can remember going to my first NCECA in Pittsburg and looking around at all the tables.  Project Network was one that I visited with, and drooled over.  that was over 3 years ago.  I would have never imagined in a million years that I would get the chance to participate in this.  Young, naive, and hopeful-- I've come a long way.  It never fails to amaze me how things just tie together.  I don't believe in religion, but sometimes it seems like there is a such thing as fate. 

HELLO FIRENZE!!!  TAKE IT!

This will be my second trip to Europe this year.  I went to Italy in June for 2 weeks.  That was definitely amazing.  The only laundry facility i had was a holiday inn bathroom sink and a hair dryer (which i accidentally melted a bra with, haha).  The hair dryer only went so far, so in the morning, the scene on the left is the result.  I'm sure my uncle loved having to see that.  Luckily, there are laundry facilities where i'm going, and time to do laundry.  It will be an interesting time to compare to the Italy trip, as the Italy trip was planned to the 9's and everything was scheduled.  There was hardly enough time to totally take in some of the places we stopped at.  The longest we stayed anywhere was in Venice, which was about 4 days.  This trip to Denmark will have me staying in the same place the whole time and making day trips to museums and local studios.  Everything's going to be all right.  Until next time.  Cheers.

Final Countdown

Implements of Artstruction

Today was super busy.  Woke up early and immediately started digging through the storage unit for my tools and equipment for the trip.  Since i had to dig through all of my boxes within the last month due to the lost passport debacle, I was able to find everything fairly quickly. 

I got everything cleaned off and remarked.  I couldn't help giggling about how it all looked when i laid it out for the picture.  My tools look like that of a dentist or a psychopath.  I had an odd experience while i was rinsing everything off.  I guess it's been so long since i've touched wet sloppy clay, that i started smiling uncontrollably when i felt it on my hands.  Sort of like that fun feeling you get when you put on a pair of roller skates or hop on a bike after it's been forever.  Silly stuff like that always gets me giddy.
 
I decided that I wasn't done with my slide presentation after all, and made a trip out to SIUE to take some pictures of the studio.  I ran into a few old friends and got to see some of my profs.  It was pretty fun.  lots of smiles and hugs.  It made me all wispy.  There are so many new people, but it seems like the conversational topics are still as colorful as they were when i was there... Still lewd, still crude.  I think I left a footprint. 

I wasn't there for very long, but I got to spend about 10 minutes talking with Paul Dresang about the trip and life in general.  We talked a little about what he's been up to, and he showed me the barbed wire he's been working on for his sofa piece.  It was really nice seeing him again.  Although, I noticed that he took down the bumper magnet i put on his storage cabinet ("Real Men love jesus").  I'm guessing that with all the renovation/construction going on that most of the fun little quirks that make up the studio character had to be put away.  I'd heard that OSHA came through and dropped the hammer on the department as well.  No more cool whip or cottage cheese glaze containers in that studio! 

I finally finished the slide presentation, for real this time, and have been working on my list of things i need to remember to bring.  I have also been looking up the basic info i'll need for while i'm over there.  I was relieved to find out that the trip from the airport in Copenhagen to Skaelskor is only going to be $23, and includes a 2 hour journey involving a train, a bus, and my legs.  Not too shabby.  It's going to be pretty awesome, because my flight gets in around 6am, I'll get to Skaelskor hopefully by 10, and have some time to unwind and explore the grounds and the town, and possibly make some awesome new acquaintances. 

Tomorrow will probably be spent shopping for some last minute stuff, packing, printing out copies of things i will probably need, going over/refining sketches, and arguing with my dad that his power converter can't handle the load of a hair iron. 


 Turns out, internet is a whopping $4.68/week, so keeping this going is looking pretty darn feasible. 

"No cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer."

4 days

There are 4 days left till I leave the country.  I've pretty much finished up my slide presentation, and tomorrow is going to be a storage unit day.  I have to go collect the tools i'll need, bring them home, wash them up, remark them with my name and pack them up for the trip.  I have a lot of stuff left to do, but I'm pretty sure i'll get it done.  I work better when i'm under pressure.  I'm feeling a little uneasy about the whole trip.  I know that once i'm there and working, most of the weirdness will melt away and everything is going to be awesome.  It's a lot like the anxiety you get before the first day of school--you can't sleep the night before, but the day after you really don't care anymore.   

Went to go see Polkadot Cadaver last night.  Had a great time and brought home a new t-shirt.  It's got andy warhol's severed head on a plate on it, ala Creep Show.

bam!

fun found treasures

I've been having these cravings to get into the metals studio recently.  After finding this awesome money clip at a storage unit sale, this urge has become even worse... It was really obvious while looking around at this sale that the locker had belonged to an older woman, which can only mean one thing...  relics of the deceased.  I went to the sale two days in a row, and i didn't see this piece till day 2.  I was pleased to pick it up for $2.  I just thought it was pretty novel, and I had never seen a money clip like this before.  I think it would be a lot of fun to make some, maybe incorporating some recycled materials for the image.  it's pretty simple looking, two sides, a hinge, and the hinge pin doubles as the money holder.  Maybe add a little chasing or a rolled on pattern, or even some reticulation-- soooo much fun, so many possibilities.  I really need to get my studio started.  wishful thinking does not = money in my pocket.

Outside front

Flea markets are also a favorite place I like to go to, but I hardly have the time recently.  I went a month ago with my dad and grandma.  I picked up some awesome costume jewelry and a cute little picture locket (picture included!).  The case for the locket is pretty interesting.  it appears to be tri-colored with lines of brass (gold?), copper, and a mystery metal (maybe silver?).  It's fun to think about how different this locket is compared to the ones we have now.  The size alone is drastically larger than any locket i've seen.  Even though it appears to be a mass-produced piece, it's still pretty high quality.  I looked up the stamp on the picture clip, FMCO, and found this article.  Apparently, this locket was made sometime in the 20's or 30's, by the The Finberg Manufacturing Company.  I tried using a couple different magnets on it, and it wasn't attracted to any of them, so I'm assuming it's gold.  not bad for $7. 

back view.

Long day...

This set up reeks of home torture chamber

Got a lot of work done today.  I managed to overcome the hyper mania I was having earlier, buckled down, and put the nose to the grind stone.  I have a good majority of my presentation for Denmark done.  Probably have another half day before it's complete.  I also managed to retake some slides.  I was able to magyver up a photo set up in the spare room with the following: a lot of painter's tape, a long strip of foam insulation board, and a subwoofer as a table.  I hadn't thought about the fact that i had a huge tripod i could've used to hang my light box until after I had already taped the closet shut.  I had to hold the light box up myself (there was no rejoicing).  The whole thing took forever.  It was definitely one of those days where i was cursing myself for not taking photography.  Epic tracy fail.   I retook some slides that i had originally done with a point and shoot at Purdue.  I finished taking the slides about 5 hours ago, and I still haven't cleaned up.  I got side tracked trying to edit the pictures and inject them into my slide show.  I actually had to skip going with my dad to the airport to pick up my grandma just to get it done.  I haven't seen her in about a month.  Stupid work.   

New anal detail shot

New slide of the piece formally known as guilt

I'm happy with the shots I got, as well as the work out my arms received from doing reps and sustains with the light box.  These slides are way less hot than the old ones.






Tomorrow will have to be a break day.  I'm going to go to a wedding in the afternoon, and i'll probably end up sleeping late since it's damn near 4 in the morning.  Looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends.  I'm totally burning the bouquet if I catch it.  I have a feeling it's going to be a good time.  can't be any worse than today.


And to wrap things up on a happy note--
As I was searching for an image of a pillow, I stumbled across this adorable little gem.  I want one!  I think this would be a fabulous christmas morning present.  Sneak in, put it under the covers, sneak out, wait eagerly for anticipated reaction.  It's so darn cute!

awwwe <3

Inspiration and the everyday

  I'm about half way through compiling slides for my presentation, so I decided to look up some more inspirational material.  I keep coming back to this awesome cephalopod, the vampire squid.  It's so cool, the shape, the bioluminescent lights, its big blue eye, and of course those cute little cephalopod ears/fins.  My favorite part about this creature is how it can turn inside out, and its form just becomes amazing!  I love it.  wrinkly and smooth, shiny and soft.  It's just so bizarre and entirely intriguing.  Like a floating colon of the deep.

Check out this awesome video of the vampire squid

Promachoteuthis sulcus (AHHH!!!)

I tend to get caught up in themes when it comes to image research, especially when it comes to sea life.  I'm attracted to all the varieties of ways sea life capture, ingest, and devour their food. The spectacle is wonderful.  It's a great source of inspiration for my work.  Sea anemones, squid, cephalopods, corals...  Easy to say, I can stare at aquariums all day, and I have, haha.

More recently, I've been more interested in creatures from the deep.  their mouths are fabulous.  for example, this cephalopod, Promachoteuthis sulcus, appears to have teeth.  I really like the sporadic nature of its suckers.  I just love looking at stuff like this.  Nature always seems to pose the best solutions to my sculpting problems.

I had this piece that i worked on for over 2 months (sadly, it exploded), of which almost an entire month was me adding on, tearing off and remodeling an opening on it.  I just couldn't get comfortable with how it looked. 

Fig. 1-- Bleh...

One of my SIUE friends had made a comment about being curious as to what the interior of my work would look like.  I'd been looking at a lot of colonoscopy pictures, and really enjoyed the bumps and ripples.  So, when I started this piece, I gave myself the criteria that I would have an internal space/cavity.  It was a fun and extremely painful experience.  I want to do it again, haha.  The following pics were all taken along the way. 

This is what I started out with.  No way in hell was I going to leave it like this.  One lovely thing about independent study that I really enjoyed was that I was able to have the time to tear this thing up over and over.  I learned so much about constructing in this manner.  It was a total in progress, trial-by-error deal. 
 

sweet interior colon shot

 Close up of the first "draft".  Since I had never made anything like this, it was interesting trying to sketch out any solution.  My general lack of experience with making sculpture wasn't very helpful either.  I was happy with the interior, but the transition to the outside just looked like something you'd see on a pot.  I started looking in my sketch book and at images online of sea anemones, octopus, anuses-- basically anything to help me figure out a way to make a convincing transition. 

 Another thing I failed to think about, besides the transition, was how i was going to build onto the form itself and not lose the puckering.  Getting the interior piece inside was easier than building the exterior up.  The picture on the right, and below, was my second attempt.  I decided to build out, and up.  I wasn't really happy with the outcome of that either.  it lacked balance, the tentacles just didn't fit the piece, and the over all height of the protrusion made it really hard to see the interior.  There were things that I enjoyed about the change.  I added some coils on the inside that I had modeled after intestines, and I really liked the rim on the top of the addition. 

enlarged to show texture, haha

The final treatment

I ended up with this as my final solution.  I recycled the rim, shortened it, and redid the intestinal coils.  I had thought about what else had failed on the last attempt, and decided to use more flexed anal muscle (thanks pink flamingos!) and less hemorrhoidal bumps.  I then worked back into the rim to model it more after an actual anus.   The whole thing magically became believable, and I walked away a wiser person. 

In the spray booth, getting a nice coat of sig.

This sculpture was one learning process after another.  I already knew how to slip cast and make moulds, but only how to make 1, 2 and 3 piece moulds.  I wanted to cast my whole arm.  I ended up buying algenate, and with the help of my friends elaine and scott, attempted to get a plaster positive of my arm.  it was a very, VERY cold and messy process-- I'd totally do it again.  I only got an arm out of that experience.  I had enough algenate left to get a good positive of my hand, which was very quick, and not nearly as big of a mess as when i did my whole arm.

Making the moulds was a challenge in itself.  The arm was missing a good part of the wrist, so I had to rebuild it from clay, and i had to redo the second half due to an undercut i hadn't noticed.  The hand mould was insane.  I sat and stared at it with a pencil for at least an hour, dividing it up, trying to figure out the order in which i could cast it...  to top that off, i only had enough pottery plaster to make the first piece.  i had access to a ton of modeling plaster, so I used that...  that was a treat.  abnormally long setting times occurred from the type of plaster, and it was freezing outside.  That mould is like a puzzle.  the first time I poured it, i was insanely amazed that an actual hand came out...  i had a ton of hands and fingers laying around my space after that.        

shattered anus, sad face

 This was what I had left in the end.  Every single part of it, except the anus, exploded.  I figured I'd keep it and glaze it for practice.  It was a trooper.  haha.
  I wasn't really a super huge fan of the piece as a whole, but yeah, learning is fun like that.  I'd do it again, and I actually want to build another piece with similar qualities.  it should go by a lot faster next time, lol.

Totally Putrid close up.  <3 it!

Not entirely unrelated, but helpful

After a semester and a half at Purdue, I was well overdue to take slides.  I had a camera and a backdrop, but no lights.  The photo set up for the ceramics department was a photo cube and two side lights, which is effective for small work, but my pieces would not even fit into the cube.  I tried using the lamps and my backdrop, but the slides were really hot and washed out since I had no diffuser.  My solution, you ask??  Make my own light box!!!   One night of shopping, some donations, and a day of cutting, drilling and taping later, I had just that.  All for the low low price of $62.17.  I can take it anywhere, and storage isn't that hard (just put it inside of a large garbage bag and on its side to protect the diffuser fabric from stains and damage, OR you can leave it hanging in a dust free environment).  It could probably be done even cheaper than what i did.  My main point is that I now have a light source and diffuser available to me whenever I need it AND I know how to repair it if needed.

  While I was making my light box, I invited some of the undergrad students to come and participate.  It was a lot of fun, and I took pictures to chronicle the event as well as make a photo tutorial, complete with written instruction (lucky you!).

Full Tutorial (materials, construction, SAFETY!!!)

A nice rainy day inside

I spent most of the day scouring my computer for images to include in my presentation.  Influences, slides of work, pictures of studios.  I thought I had most of it in some logical order; however, it's become clear that i need to come up with a new way of organizing my pictures.  I think I'm going to have to completely separate my art slides, in progress shots, etc. from my normal pictures.  I had everything organized by year, then by subject matter.  oh well.  I've needed to reorganize everything anyhow.

I went ahead and started up a Flikr account today, something i should have done a long time ago...  I'll be posting pictures from my trip there.  I uploaded some slides of my work in the mean time.  enjoy

http://www.flickr.com/people/trcyhd/

I got to spend a little time outside today before the rain came, and a little while it was raining.  i love it when it's still raining and the sun comes out and lights up the meniscus on the leaves of the trees.

Bank of America always puts me on hold...

Another day, hanging out in my workspace, watching old Stephen King movies.  I'm trying to piece together the money situation abroad.  I've visited my bank already, but the teller wasn't the most helpful person.  She gave me a printout of all the banks that are allied with bank of america, and pawned me off on the 1-800 number people, with which i'm now on hold.

Among other things today, I received a print from Nate Gaefcke in the mail today.  It looks great, but I need to frame it.  The print is 5/30 in the edition.  Another print from the edition is going to be for auction at Sotherby's for the New York Academy's "take home a nude" auction/event.  Congrats to Nate.

Annnnd the customer service representative just asked me where Denmark is...

So, after explaining to the phone representative that Denmark is in Europe, he fails again to understand that it's not a town in England, France, Spain, or Germany.  After some more hold time, an answer was finally found.  Bank of America is not a valid option.

Project Network 2011

     Many moons ago, I applied for a residency in Denmark.  For the most part, this blog was created so that i may chronicle the adventures and work before, during and after the trip.  I leave for Scandinavia at the end of the month.  It is both exciting, and scarey at the same time.  This will be my second time in Europe, my first being back in June when I visited Italy for 2 weeks with family.  This time, it's a solo act, and I'll be there to work.  I can't begin to say how excited I am to finally be able to play in the mud again!  It's been at least 5 months since I've made anything out of clay, and I've been itching to get back into it. 
   
     To the heart of the matter, I am going to be spending a little over a month in Skaelsor, Denmark working at a place on the coast called Guldagergaard.  There, I will be participating in Project Network, a group project where there will be other ceramic artists from around the world.  We will all have our individual projects, but be working toward an exhibition at the end of our stay.

    I consider myself to be very lucky to be able to keep working toward my career, even in the current state of our economy.  A lot of art students don't fare so well after they graduate from undergrad.  My adventures since graduation have been little in number, but insane in quality.  I stayed behind for a semester to keep working at my old school.  I graduated a potter, and kept making pots.  After that, I moved to Lafayette, IN, where I attended Purdue to study ceramics in a one year post-bac program.  I spent a lot of my time researching glazes, terra sigilattas, and most importantly, making sculpture (most of which was entirely horrid.  Got to start somewhere...).  I applied to Guldagergaard toward the end of my first semester, and was entirely surprised when I received my acceptance email (It goes to show what a good letter of reference can do for you).  I wasn't the most enthusiastic person about my sculptural work at the time.  Most of my breakthroughs and successes really came during my second semester.  I don't consider any work actual failure.  Each piece has features that work, and you can learn from it.  the whole thing may bomb when viewed as a whole, but hey, that's process.  Getting frustrated and working through it is all part of the game.

     So here I am, a little over 2 weeks until I take off for adventure, armed with sketch pads, a plethora of tools and my trusty ipod.  I have never been so excited in my whole life.  This is going to be my own adventure-- an experience I have never really had on this scale before.  Hopefully, someone will get something out of my blogging about it.  Cheers