almost there!

Thank you for supporting the project!

incognito 2013

Incognito was on Saturday, May 11, at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Now that it is over, I can post the pieces I donated:

second skin
10" x 8"
leather sewn on burlap mounted on illustration board

Second Skin is sort of a "sketch" of Genuine and Bonded, which uses cut up leather belts to reference personal childhood memories. I'd prefer to shy away from over-explaining, but I'm sure (unfortunately) that many others have had close encounters with belts in their formative years. 

The striking (no pun intended) contrast between the different textures and colors serves to draw attention to the material, while the choice of material, arrangement and shape of the pieces is meant to suggest a something more aggressive and sinister.

a piece of heaven
10" x 8"
corrugated cardboard on illustration board

A Piece of Heaven draws back to another memory. In middle school, I found a bird that had fallen from a tree. I put it in a cardboard box and planned to nurse it back to health (or at least keep it safe) in our screened-in patio. After its life was threatened, not by cats or weather, but by a human presence, I was forced to find the safest possible spot I could think of for the box. I hid it downhill near a bridge that went over the canal near my bus stop. When I got back from school, I ran to see how the bird had fared and found only feathers scattered about.

Both of these "sketches" touch on a child learning cruelty not only from the outer world, but also from inside the home. I think of our capacity to reach out or to hold back, depending on the situation, and how those choices change us and define our character.

kickstarter launch!

Today I launched a KickStarter campaign for the artist residency I will be attending this summer in Haukijärvi, Finland at the Arteles Creative Center. After many weeks of work on the video, it's a relief to finally be able to share all the fun little animations I made with you.

The project is:  Ephemeral Past --> Material Present

Check out the Video

I will keep a Finland blog that will be open to the public until June 9, 2013. After that date,  the Ephemeral Past --> Material Present blog will be private and dedicated to all $25+ backers of my KickStarter campaign, who will be added to the "readers" access list.

I'm grateful to all backers and supporters of me and the project ... Backers below $25 will still receive official project updates via the KickStarter site, and will be able to view this blog as always, but those updates will not be as frequent or as detailed as the ones on the Finland blog and won't include extra insights and fun details about food and travel.


I have never kept a blog during my travels, so this is a very special case where I have decided to do so as an extra special part for most of the rewards. 

While the campaign is active, I still have the ability to add rewards. If you think of something I may have overlooked that would make a great reward, please feel free to leave a comment and I will consider it!

Thanks to all for your support! Remember, KickStarter is all-or-nothing, so please spread the word. :)

sneak peek: kickstarter video

I've been having a lot of fun making these little animations. So far, I have taken photos for probably 10 clips out of a possible 20+. Some are long and required hundreds of photos, and others are like this one above: quick and easy. I hope to finish the video and launch the KickStarter in the first week of May. I backed two projects that are currently going on at the Arteles Residency and received a postcard from one artist and a letter (and photo) from the other this week...fun! I don't know either of them, but have enjoyed hearing about the snow, the art making, and a trip on a ferry to Tallinn.

This afternoon, I spent a good amount of time cutting out little paper objects (tiny undies, a tube of toothpaste, and an umbrella among them) and will photograph them for a "vessel" clip that I'm really excited about tomorrow. I also cut out leaves for a plant and spelled out the word "project" using sticky letters. I stopped cutting when I realized the sun had set and it was too dark to see in the room. Most people would have just turned on a light, but I took it as a cue to make cinnamon popcorn and write this blog entry. 

Scary...the middle finger on my right hand has actually gone tingly from overuse of scissors...and it's been two days since then. So now I'm using an x-acto knife to cut. It's great to be semi-ambidextrous at times like these. Scissors go in the right hand and most other tools in the left.

More announcements coming soon!

lifelong learner: jewelry class

Around this time last year, I took a wheel throwing class at the Craft Alliance location near where I live. This year, I'm taking a jewelry/metals class. With something new, it's always a little frustrating the first few classes to be the bumbling newbie who barely knows a thing, but I'm very pleased with what I was able to do in only three hours:

It's a tiny copper cylinder with a matching domed lid that will be hinged (during next week's class). We're all making different iterations of the same thing. Some students are using brass, some made a square or petaled base, others are using combinations of copper and brass.  What they all have in common is...well...the woman sitting next to me asked, "Is it just me, or do they look like little...?" and then we both laughed. There's a reason I didn't perch the lid on the cylinder for this photo! I can't help but wonder if the instructor realized this when designing the project.

I have a project idea in the research stage that may require the kinds of skills and knowledge I'll be getting from this class...and, let's be honest, I just like making stuff. All kinds of new words for me: flux, the pickle, annealing, etc.

The location for this class requires a ~4 mile bike ride. I took my time on the way there, when the sun was shining and the birds were still singing. But at one point, someone in a car intentionally tried to scare me by speeding up and stopping just short of me, rather than waiting at their stop sign. They did it twice! Awful. The ride home was incredibly fast. I raced through dark alleys and got home in about 24 minutes. A nice bike ride or walk is great for thinking.

*Update*

5/9/13

My weird tube thing melted while I was trying to solder a few weeks ago! My teacher recommended I start working on a locket instead. Here it is so far.  Next week is the last class, so I'll use that time to clean up the solder mess and polish this little beaut.

I  need to cut and hammer the brass hinge pin as well as make a silver clasp to keep it closed.

winging it

Here's a peek at what I've been working on lately using those cardboard boxes. I managed to watch two films while making these parts: 1) The End of the Line (a documentary on over-fishing) and 2) The Flaw (a documentary on income inequality and the financial crash).

Now I'm off to get started on my KickStarter video! If you have any suggestions for great rewards for me to offer to backers for my project in Finland, feel free to leave a comment.

Until next time....

process: corrugated

... taking apart boxes for my next project ...

february 2013

new year announcements

The holidays, lovely visitors, and various bureaucratic processes have kept me away from my blog and studio. In the hiatus, I have made things to eat and wear and use around the house, as I'm prone to do. But now I'm back!

Great news: Lyndon and I have both been accepted to an artist residency in Finland this upcoming summer. More info to come soon. We're both excited and glad to have something to look forward to...

photo by Stephanie Chambers

photo by Delilah Jones

Currently, I'm working on one of the two pieces I plan to submit for this year's Incognito at The Santa Monica Museum of Art. I have yet to have been able to attend the actual event, but who knows, maybe this year will be the one. Maybe not.

Of course, I've chosen a very tedious and time-consuming process to make this piece, but luckily, its size is limited to 8" x 10". I can't post images of it until after the event (because the whole point is for patrons "to trust their instincts in selecting the works, as each work is signed on the back and the artists’ identities are revealed only after purchase")

For now, take a look at the two I submitted in 2011:

paint samples and ink on illustration board

paint sample collage

Here's to a Happy 2013!

mapping home

october 2012

a year - according to you

Thanks to all who participated in the project!

video: swarm

genuine and bonded

men's leather belts, cut and layered; closet door

september 2012

fair trade ?

West African trade beads, Dutch wax fabrics, silk/cotton yarn, tied onto wire frame

august 2012

sneak peek

The project I was working on in June (work in progress) has been brought to a temporary standstill due to problems acquiring materials. I was relying on a Goodwill Outlet for what seemed like an endless supply of leather belts. It seems someone else is on to my secret supply of cheap leather! 

In the meantime, I have been working on another project and reorganizing my studio (finally a clear floor, thanks to some shelves). Here's a sneak peek:

an amazing year

I've been meaning to post this comic since I first saw it in March. It's been hanging on my studio wall and had started to yellow, so I decided enough was enough and finally took a photo of it. Then I realized that just going to the artist's blog would provide a better image (link below image)

It was in Riverfront Times just around the time when I was getting a decent amount of responses to my year project. How relevant! 

http://leonbeyondfacts.blogspot.com/

darn it! sock gallery

july 2012

july 2012

june 2012

june 2012

june 2012

june 2012

work in progress

june 2012

perpetual spring

may 2012

see it in progress

project: ice cream party

This project was a collaboration between addoley and lyndon in conjunction with graduate students from Washington University's Sam Fox School.

                       

We've noticed that ice cream seems to have a way of heightening emotion and bringing people together. Think to the familiar image of a woman who has just experienced painful rejection crying over a pint of ice cream, or to the other extreme, an image of children chasing an ice cream truck.

A cinnamon heath ice cream played a major role in getting addoley and lyndon together nearly eight years ago in Baltimore. So in this vein, an e-mail was sent requesting proposals for flavors. These flavors were curated down to six:

avocado lime

pink peppercorn honey

bourbon date

cucumber melon

lemongrass vanilla rum

chocolate irish car bomb

Flavors were chosen for their creativity and deliciousness potential - with practical concerns factoring in to weed out flavors involving expensive or meat-based ingredients. Over the course of a month, addoley and lyndon spent many days creating and tasting, inviting participants and other friends to an ice cream party in the afternoon on May 15, 2012. 

By creating homemade ice cream in flavors that were invented (and not commercially available), we sought to create a unique and enriching ice cream experience for our community of friends, which include lyndon's classmates and my coworkers.

side effects for some

you ate it, now rate it
participants rated each flavor on a scale of 1 to 5

my personal favorite

after everyone left, we made milkshakes.