3.26

Did: Gathering milk jugs, cutting, stringing (7+ hrs)
Hanging material in extra studio (2 hrs)
Working on new website (3 hrs)
Group Crit (20 min)
Meeting w/ Mark Nielsen (1 hr)

Discovered: I am very excited about the installation possibilities for my work after putting it up in a second studio space... but I am also very nervous about my final show being a complete success due to space. After talking to Mark, I realized I really might not have enough room to make both a projection and sculptural installation possible... I am going to bring a projector down to the gallery next week to play around with a few things, but I think I won't know exactly what I will be showing until I start setting things up in the gallery....

I was also really grateful for the critique on Thursday with our visiting artists. I think they really had a new perspective to share and they also provided me with a list of other artists to look at so I am excited to check that out.

Other than that I am work work working... cutting plastic, stringing it together and trying to figure things out...

Do: My last pool photo shoot is tonight, so I am going to photograph some of the milk jug handles and un-cut milk jugs. Then I need to get serious about the loop of images that I will hopefully be able to project and I also need to collect plastic exponentially from now until my final installation. At this point I feel like the more material I have to work with, the better my installation will be.

3.19

Did: Editing new photos (some are shown in my last post) (1.5 hrs)
Gathering milk jugs, cutting, restringing, organizing (8+ hrs)
Chatting with a number of people about installation options (2 hrs)

Discovered: I am now pretty set on pushing forward with an installation and projection in the gallery. Now I just need to figure out how to combine the two. I have thought about a couple different scenarios:

I would like the projection and the plastic materials to occupy some sort of space together without competing with each other. I want people to be able to examine the plastic objects closely without getting in the way of the projection. And the projection and the sculpture feel to me as if they are two separate works (although they are obviously closely related) so I would like them to have enough room so that there feels like there is that small distinction...

I have spent a ton of time this week collecting milk jugs because I am going to need a large amount of material to pull off a successful installation... I also restrung a lot of the previous strands that I had made because they were strung on thread and I wanted everything to be consistently strung on thin fishing line. I feel like I am getting into a pretty productive working mode.

Do: I now have a new second studio space to start working on possible installation scenarios. I am really excited about this and in critique an idea came up to install the material above the viewers head so that people can walk under the installation of my materials. Then I could have pieces of the installation hanging down at a better viewing level, and maybe even trail some of the material onto the floor.... lots to start doing. I am hoping to have a mini installation to show next week.

new photographs

3.12

Did: cutting, collecting, restringing plastic (7+ hours)
researching photographers I came across (1 hr)
Friday pool photo shoot & prep (4+ hours)

Discovered: So, Florida was not the super productive break that I had expected, but I would like to say that the weather was greatly at fault for this. The temperatures were 15 degrees colder than average for the time of year making up the coldest string of days since 1958. Yay spring break!!! My grandma's pool was not heated and so I wasn't able to take advantage of it... I did complete a photo shoot last night and I will start going through the images and editing them.

Florida was productive on another level though. I walked the beach a lot (in a sweatshirt :) and went to the Florida aquarium. I began taking picture of organisms I found that had interesting patterns and forms.





Here are some of the new forms that I have been working on:


I think there might be a lot of potential to utilize shadow in the gallery space:



I found the photographers David Liittschwager & Susan Middleton who focus on animals that are endangered. They began a series in the Pacific and came across an albatross that had died from ingesting plastic. They photographed the bird and then removed the plastic contents and photographed them separately:Do: GET TO WORK. I'm slightly freaked out by our lack of time. I need to make a final decision soon about whether or not I am going to have the plastic pieces in the gallery space. I plan to meet with Mark again personally to discuss my options and show him the projection that I have started putting together.

new projection experiment

I have created a new short video loop of my images... they are moving much slower which I think could work well in a gallery space...

2.26

Did: Cutting plastic (4)
Creating new video (1.5)
Prep work & packing for Florida photo shoots (1)
More research & article reading (1)

Discovered:
Sorry this post is late! I forgot to post it before I left for Florida on Friday...

A new BBC article just came out about plastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean. It seems that more research is being done in oceans other than the Pacific, and its not a shock to me that they are finding similar "patches" elsewhere. Check out the article, "Plastic rubbish blights Atlantic Ocean". I also came across the website, greenfudge.org, which has a ton of links to articles about marine plastic pollution. I love the title that states, "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: The Parabolic Toilet of the Environment". How eloquent.

I was really happy with the feedback I got from showing my projection at the critique. I posted the new projection in my last blog post. I am going to push forward with making new images this week in Florida... assuming the weather cooperates with me... it has been freakishly cold :(

Do: Make more images and continue cutting & making plastic forms.

2.19

Did: Thesis 2nd draft (4+ hrs)
Met with Patrick to discuss printing options (1 hr)
Small group crit (1 hr)
Recovering data from hard drive (2+ hrs)

Discovered: To be honest, this week has not been extremely productive for me. I became really overwhelmed by a technological problem with my hard drive. It totally freaked me out and I need to do a better job of backing up my work asap. My hard drive malfunction, in combination with the need to finish the 2nd draft of my thesis and prepare for my cousin's wedding which I am photographing today has prevented me from being really productive with my IP work. I am hoping to get back on track before the upcoming break because I am planning on photographing in my grandma's pool in Largo, Florida. I'm really excited to enjoy some warmer weather, but I would also like to produce a lot of new images... I need to get back into a productive mode.

I do think that the small group critique this week was really helpful for me. It became apparent again that viewers do not necessarily see a connection between my images and marine pollution. Instead they see pretty images that look like weird organisms. My group suggested that I try taking some images where the milk jugs might be slightly transformed but more identifiable as milk jugs. If I combine images that look more like milk jugs and the images that I have been making in a projected loop, I may be able to make it appear as if the milk jugs are being deconstructed. I like the idea of trying to visually show the process of plastic breaking down. I think I avoided photographing the milk jugs as milk jugs in the past because I was worried that I would make work that would be too literal. I didn't just want to throw trash in the pool and photograph it. But I am excited about the idea of slightly manipulating the milk jugs and photographing them as if they are going through the process of breaking down and becoming the abstract-organic-looking sculptures that I have been making. We shall see... I think it is worth a try...

Amanda also suggested that I look at Cornelia Parker's work. I recognized her piece "Hanging Fire Suspected Arson" (1999) but I really liked this image of her piece "Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View" (1991):


I think this piece could provide some great inspiration for the installation of my work...