Site Map - Westlake Center

For our site catalog project, we had to pick a filter - or a specific thing to focus on- within a certain area. I chose to photograph the statues by the Westlake Center. I really was intrigued with capturing these very naturalistically posed, ambiguous statues in conjuction with real people, and showing how they really do fit into the space nicely.
As for the word on each picture, I chose them because they either described the particular statue's emotional feeling - as I felt it - or it is a synonym of a word someone else used to describe the photograph itself. For whatever reason the reocurring "c" sound kept re-entering my mind, so I went with it.

STOREFRONTS Seattle

      On the 21st of September, we all went over to the International District to check out some art installations in the storefronts of Seattle. It really was quite interesting, seeming as I haven't been able to check out many of the installations around the city. On the other side of the water, in Kitsap County - where I'm from - there are quite a few installations to scope out. It was really cool to be able to see the differences between the installations in Seattle versus the installations in Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, Silverdale and Bremerton.
       I especially loved The Santuary Arts Center, which serves homeless youth of the Seattle area. It really is great to see art benefitting those less fortunate. And the art was wonderful!

Pocket Shrine!

Okay...So it doesn't actually fit in my pocket. But all the same, here is my pocket shrine, a project my Core class did. The basic gist of the project was to create a little shrine- whether it be a shrine to our inspirations, an autobiography, or something a little more in depth than that.
Me? I chose to do a shrine to those things and people that inspire me.

 I started with a little chest I had picked up from a camping trip I took to Kalaloch,WA with my boyfriend and our friends Nick and Christina. I first treated the outside. I pasted cigarette papers to the outside to remind me of my boyfriend and several of my friends that roll their own cigarettes. On the inside on the bottom, I pasted pictures of art pieces and forms that inspire me, and on the lid inside I pasted a few little drawings I've done.

Although you can't tell from this picture, I wrote my favourite poem- and the source of much of my inspiration - "Invictus" by William Hernest Henley on the top of the box on the rolling papers:

 

       Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Hernest Henley

This poem has inspired several of my tattoos (present and future) and is a source of great strength for me. Everytime I read it, I remember that I control my fate, and that I choose what path I walk, and no one can take my will and dreams away from me. It gives me the drive I constantly need.

 

On the inside, I placed several objects to remind me of the most important people in my life. I placed a wooden key given to me by my amazing boyfriend of two years, a silver ring that always reminds me of my past experiences, a keychain with a picture of my wonderful parents in it, a shell to remind me of the great PNW and Kitsap County where I'm from, and finally, Earl Grey tea leaves to remind me of my sister.

 

 

The key my boyfriend carved and gave me to symbolize the key to his heart :)             (I know, we're cheesy as all hell!!)

 

The shell that I took from the Poulsbo waterfront.

(For those of you who haven't been to Poulsbo- or Kitsap county for that matter- you need to go! It's gorgeous.)

 

 

The keychain with a picture of my mom and dad from one of their adventures years ago :) I always carry it with me. They are truly the biggest inspiration in my life....they have never stopped supporting me and have always given me the encouragement I need. I love them with all my heart and I wouldn't be here without them - I aim to make them proud with everything I do.

 

The ring. I've always worn rings, mainly sterling silver ones. The ring sort of symbolizes to me all of the things I've done and been through, the things I've conquered, the things yet to come - because my rings have been and will be there through all of that!

 

And, finally, the tea leaves (sorry it's a bad picture!) that represent my sister. For as long as I've known, my sister has always loved the old world and history, as well as this particular brand of Earl Grey tea. The smell always reminds me of her, and the way she will always be there for me, and how she has never stopped challenging me. If not for her and my highschool art teacher, I probably never would have picked up a pen or brush!

 

 



Ruthie Marie Tomlinson - Inspirations of our Instructors

On Thursday this last week, we got to hear about what inspires and influences Ruthie. Ruthie is the head of the Core Studio Concepts class, which I am taking this semester, as previously mentioned. It was great to see her work as well as hear about the places she looks to for inspiration.
     A large portion of Ruthie's work stems from process books...I'm starting to see how useful these things could be! Her work is heavily influenced by natural, organic shapes and forms. A portion of her work at one point was influenced by the rubber of inner tubes. She used that material in ways I definitely would not have expected nor thought of on my own. I loved her use of innertubing as a flooring of sorts, when she cut them apart then laid them out to exhibit their texture as they folded, as well as adding an interactive portion. I personally love interactive sculpture, and the fact that she provided galoshes for people to use to walk across the material was very cool to me.
      One thing from her presentation that stuck with me the most was when she talked about her "Two Dot Spot" and what started happening to her work after the acquired the studio in Two Dot, Montana. She really made me realize the importance of having a place that you love to do your work. A place where you can really breathe, where you can freely let the art flow out of you.
     She told us about her adventures into drawing, spurred on by her friend and fellow artist, who encouraged her and challenged her to branch out. Now, her place in Montana gets a ton of sun. So, one day as she was frusterated at an assignment given, she stumbled upon the shadow cast by a plant on her desk onto the blank paper she stared at. She began tracing shadows of everyday objects - branches, stencils, bones, grass- onto paper and canvas. I love that she came upon a big part of her work by sheer happenstance. Sun and shadow influenced her to continue her work, to search out objects everyday and to capture their fleeting and ever changing crisp shadow. The work was very thought provoking. To think that, everytime a shadow she was tracing moved, it indicated exactly how much we are rotating during the day. Very cool works. :)
I can't wait to see more of our professor's work!

CSC Henry Art GalleryTrip - 9/06/12

           For my Core Studio Concepts class at Cornish this year, our first Thursday trip was to the Henry Art Gallery on the UW's campus. It was a very intriguing visit and I think it was a great start to the class.
          The first place I went at the Henry was the James Turrell "Light Reign Skyspace Tower". It was so pleasant and enchanting to be able to sit in such a quiet and peaceful place amidst the bustle and noise of the city. It was basically a oval room with wood plank seating all around - very reminiscient of a cabin or of a sauna of sorts. All around you, in the back of the seating was a soft, warm luminous glow. Above you, an oval shape was cut out of the ceiling, containing in it a gentle blue light, fading into purple in the middle. There was silence all around, and the light just made you feel as if you were in the bottom of some enormously tall tower. It was a refreshing start to the rest of the sights before me.

Poster for "The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl". 2012. (Henry Art Gallery)



        Once I had had my fill of the skyspace, I ventured forth into the main museum building, where I first encountered :The Record : Contemporary Art and Vinyl". All of the pieces featured in this show collectively showed amazing spontaniety and creativity, in my opinion, of all the artists whose work was there. The first piece that really caught my eye was Sean Duffy's "Burnout Sun" which was an amazing use of half-records and whole records to create a dynamic piece. What I thought was interesting is that he kept all of the labels on each of the records. Instead of making the records just simply vinyl discs, he kept their identity by leaving the labels.

      Another piece that grabbed my attention was the working model of Laurie Anderson's "viophonograph". Laurie Anderson was an experimental performer back in 1977 when she created a unique variation of the violin she was trained to play. She removed the strings that her bow would normally strike with a small, battery operated phonograph. On that phonograph, she placed a custom made record with grooves corresponding to all the notes regularly played on a violin. When she placed her bow on the rotating vinyl, it emitted a sound not unlike a modern synthesized violin. I thought this was an incredible marriage of classic and modern sound, and if you haven't heard (of) it, definitely look it up sometime! It is mindblowing. Absolutely amazing innovation coupled with creativity and technicality.

Laurie Anderson and her "viophonograph". 1977. (google images)

 

 



       The next show being presented at the time of our visit was Gary Hill's "Glossodelic Attractions (part two)". This was done with a variety of interactive and thought provoking media, but all included an element of film. Gary Hill's work was of special interest to me. Video has never been a medium that I have worked with, but because of that lack in my work, video has never ceased to capture my attention. One of the most striking pieces to me (and the one that is the most memorable) was "Circular Breathing",1994.  It was made up of five video projectors, two speakers, and numerous amounts of gadgetry - the names of which elude me. At first impression, I was startled and almost overwhelmed by the sheer size of the screen and of the images being thrown onto them. Images of a girl reading flashed across one of the panels, whilst on another screen a musician stroked the keys of an old piano. Sound, combined with video, gave a very emotional feel to this piece. The steady rhythm of what sounded like a train, combined with music and the flashing images caused me to stop and reconsider - not what it meant, but what I felt about it. It was a very powerful piece, and I wish I could have looked at it longer.
       Another of his works featured was "The Psychadelic Gedankenexperiment", created in 2011. Here, Gary Hill explores what he calls the most influential "found performance" of art - LSD. In the piece, Hill performs his experiment in a "computer generated anechoic chamber". Throughout the video documenting his gedankenexperiment, Hill constructs a large molecular model of LSD ( or lysergic acid diethylamide. But what makes this piece enthralling is the face that he recorded the spoken text in reverse. He had made four large boards imprinted with language signs he himself created so he could read the sounds backwards. Then, for this exhibition, the video is played in reverse to revert the sound back into regular, comprehensible speech. It was such an off-the-wall piece that I couldn't help but to sit on one of the provided foam chairs to watch and listen to this guy ramble in what seemed to be slowed down speech. I can't tell you why it enthralled me as it did, but it certainly will remain in my mind for a while.