Triangle Workshop residency 2011
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 08:37PM From June - December 2011 I was one of the artists in residence at the Triangle Arts Association in DUMBO, Brooklyn, run by Sarah Walko www.sarahwalko.com and Michael Merck (google his name for images of his paintings), both incredibly talented artists and very responsive, generous residency director/asst. director. I was also fortunate to get to know and be inspired by the other exceptional artists in residence; http://www.marianneviero.com/, http://stefanpapco.com/ http://myriammechita.net/, http://www.jonggeonlee.com/, http://www.astridbusch.com/, http://laurapawela.com/, http://pia-linz.de/, Sabine Meier and Mathilde Delahaye.
I'll begin with some shots of DUMBO itself, which inspired the large piece I ultimately created. It's a quirky neighborhood with interesting compressed spaces and odd angles. It's also another example of the evolution of neighborhoods through the 80s, 90s and 00s as artists, then galleries, then affluent professionals discovered it, leading to a beautification of the space, but also a Starbucks and West Elm. Of course you can't blame people for wanting to be there--the views are spectacular! And who doesn't love watching tugboats...
Fortunately artists still maintain a strong presence...
In short, it was an inspiring location and I had a lot of studio space in which to experiment:
I wanted to take advantage of the room, so I began with the idea of a kind of sculptural drawing that would become a stage set for viewers:
But I eventually became frustrated with the limited size of the cut-outs and found, with assistance, that they worked more cohesively layered on the wall. So they coalesced into a large multilayered wall piece, about 8.5 ft high by 10.5 ft wide, exploring the psychologically complex space above, around, and below me. (Sometimes I feel like I spend half of each day in the subway...)
"Oculus", graphite and ink on paper, pins, 102 in x 126 in, 2011. (Photographs by Etienne Frossard)
I also played around with old and new paper constructions as miniature monuments on their own as well as subjects for collaged drawings.
(photographs by John Gordy and Stephanie Beck)
(L) "Threshold," graphite, mylar, magazine pages, and glue on paper, 24 in. x 30 in., 2011. (photo by Etienne Frossard)
(Above) "Bridgecage," graphite, magazine pages, and glue on paper, 60 in. x 40 in., 2011. (photo by Etienne Frossard)
(L) "Wall," graphite, magazine pages, and glue on paper, 24 in. x 30 in., 2011. (photo by Etienne Frossard)
And began exploring the idea and structure of the book, which will be my focus during my current year-long residency at the Center for Book Arts in Manhattan. There will be many more book(ish) images to come...stay tuned!
work in progress...
(photos by John Gordy and Stephanie Beck)
