artist talks

this is what i do when i'm in meetings. the doodling actually helps me concentrate i think. funny how the mind works in that regard.

i've had artist talks on my mind. partially because i've given TWO of them in the last two days. one to my students - they have to give one on their work and so i offered to give them the long version of mine. i showed them work all the way back to right after being an undergrad. it's so funny how i look at that work now and feel so removed from it. i can actually physically remember making it - but it also seems like such a different time.

this morning i talked to another group of students, at a different school, about my work, about working in galleries, about how having a web presence in this day and age is so important....

i'm making my students talk about their own work because i think that saying things out loud really reinforces the premises, parameters, and thematic courses that you are hoping to develop in your work. i find that when i say something out loud it has to really BE TRUE. it also helps me re-evaluate where i've been and where i'm going. all of a sudden i can see connections between bodies of work that i didn't realize were there before. so as much as it's hard - it's also a good thing....

i also got the great opportunity to see julie mehretu speak about her work last week. i've waxed poetic about her work before and seeing her speak was good. very good indeed. she is one of those academically aware and incredibly articulate off the cuff speakers. here's some of the phrases she spoke that i fervently wrote down:

• mark making as an evolution of language [self-language]
  
• patterning as community
  
• markers of behavior
  
• work intuitively first and search for meaning after
  
• a sense of history - a city isn't born, but developed
  
• how to pull the imaginary/personal world into NOW [oh this was big for me]
  
• the idea of an image shattering as you get closer - a grander picture from a distance and the shifting of scale that one can only accomplish in a paiting
  
• erasure as a gesture - as a social gesture [oh this really made me think too]
  

and i had a little thrill. she included the plans of an ando building in one of her pieces... and i've shown in an ando building . i'll take any connection i can get. what most struck, me, though, was what a different league of artist ms. merhretu is. and how she appreciates it. she flies all over the world. all the major art cities, working on major [and physically large] pieces in major museums and institutions. it's such an "other" level of engagement. she is an art rock star and leaves you "awe" struck - and yet she is approachable and direct and everything you would hope....

anyway.... i offer two sneak peaks





i'm working on stuff for my show with aurora robson which will be at sq ft galery in nashville in january. i'm in the thick of it. i think it's working. i hope it's working. oh.....

i'm going to try and post regularly, but with grading [last weeks of classes], and life, and this show, and the holidays and.... i may be a bit behind on visiting you all. please forgive me. i miss you already....