Some of the Flora and Fauna outside of Crawford

I am working on a lot of different projects right now but none of them are done or close to being done.  I might post some in progress photos of all of them in a week or so but right now I wanted to show off the life that is outside of my residence hall for the summer.  It is surprisingly lively out there, with so many flowers and insects.  I swear that I cannot walk through Alfred without seeing a deer, woodchuck, or 3 squirrels.  Sometimes I even see all of the above!

These pictures are focusing more on the tiny creatures I get to see everyday. Enjoy.

 

A Semester Back...

A semester back, I made a ton of prints with repeated colored squares that make these asymmetrical shapes when connected together.  They are all different shapes all made up of squares.  They all were made with different printmaking techniques and used different color pallets.  I somehow never posted any of them.  I do not seem to have photographs of many of them so until I get them photographed here is a sneak peek of them.

This piece was my final piece for the class and is made up of squares that are patches of the other prints that were scanned and manipulated slightly.  It's called Eric Carle Revisited.

The Rock Chairs Continue...

The other after noon Vinnie and I created two more of the rock chairs.  We placed them infront of the Powell Campus Center on Alfred University Campus and in the stream nearby the campus.  We also have plans to complete a ton of chairs all over upstate New York.  Here are the images of the newest chairs and keep a look out for more.

The Chair in front of Powell Campus Center

The Chair in the Stream

I also got to see how long these chairs stayed up.  They stayed up for about four days.  I believe that someone knocked down them both so they are sturdy enough to withstand the weather.

Hairpin Fence Installation

Today I wanted to make a couple rock chairs with Vinnie but he had to work so I decided to go up to Hairpin Turn and put up an installation piece.  I sorted my colored muslin strips into the basic colors.  I was going to lay them on the ground in rainbow order or put them in piles.  That is until I saw this bandana tied on the fence.

I decided that it would be pretty nice if I mimicked the bandanna with the strips and had them jut out into the field.  I placed them in rainbow order and tied one end to the old fence.  Enjoy.

The sky was so beautiful today.

Andy Goldsworthy Inspired Sculpture Series - Come Sit With Me

The Stone Chairs is a series of sculptures my fellow artist, Vinnie Gravanda, and I are making this summer.   This is the first of the many installments of the sculptures.  It is made of rock and some mud.   They are inspired by Andy Goldsworthy's giant stone eggs as well as some other artists that I have mentioned before in my blog.

We accidently made it on someone's property instead of university property and the owner came up to us on a four-wheeler to warn us about her rottwieler.  Also to tell us to get off her land but she was being subtle.

We also saw this adorable, little toad too!

Ebb and Flow

This installation piece is a continuation of the Muslin piece I did earlier on last semester.  With this installation I wanted to take the criticism I got from my muslin piece and change it up.  I wanted to show the flow of the material while also creating color combinations that keep your eyes moving around the piece.

 

 

My Life.

My life just got severely less crazy...thank God!  And I will be able to post a lot more often.  I plan to be making work this summer!  Tons of it.  I have already started making some collages so just you wait!

Anyways, I thought I would post some of the paintings that I have made this past semester in my Mixing Materials painting class.  I am really happy with them.  They break down the boundaries of painting has to be, at least to me, and moves away from my old work well still maintaining the same themes, subject matter, and color pallet.

I already showed off my muslin piece so here are my wax paintings, my object with painting, and my FINAL (which is my culmination of the semester).

This one is Rubber Bands encased in wax.

Close Up

This is dripped wax that had Oil Paint mixed with it.

This one is sheets of wax with Oil Paint added to it.  I then carved into it with a woodcutting tool.

My object for my painting with object was a dollar store rug that I cut apart.

And some Close Ups.

Last but not least, my final painting was almost 400 mini canvases that I made with 3" x 3" pieces of plywood and dyed muslin squares.  I placed them next to each other randomly by pulling them out of a black garbage bag.  The piece ended up being 6' x 3.25'.

I am enjoying the formalism of my latest painting work and how I am advancing the way I use my squares.

I am horrible at this posting thing....

So I know that I haven't had a post in awhile....I am just so busy right now but I hope the work that I will be posting right now and in the next few posts will make up for it.

This post is all about MUSLIN.  I had a project in a class I am taking to use an entire piece of 12' by 8' Muslin.  So I tore it into strips of all different sizes and wove it together.  I then asked for two more pieces of muslin (each a little smaller than the first), and made two more.  I filled a whole wall in the painting hallway with my installation.  It was pretty intense and took awhile.  I am very pleased with it though.

Here are some close ups of the piles of strings and the weavings.

I found this to be a very analytical way of creating work.  The thing I love though is how dying these strips caused a painting that was not analytically made but it is more spontaneous and fun.  Here are some photos from the process.

And here are some close ups of the wall.

I hope that you enjoyed.