So close, yet so quiet in this foreign world

At Donnell Library, I'm in a foreign world, albeit a quiet one. I set up on the third floor, the World Languages Department, at a circular table in the center of Russian, German, Swedish and French titles. The German books are beautiful and I collect some in order to demarcate my space. I create a perimeter of sorts within which to work. I begin by working extremely small. I start taking over the table (even though, judging by their books, there are some French and Russian library patrons to my right and left, respectively).

With my book barricade, I've managed to make a private world. It is so quiet, although my Russian and French neighbors are so close. Like a good American, true to my birthrate, I have taken over the table, diligently protecting my space. I am embeded in the folds of my work.

Basemented

I need to hide in the depths of my beloved basement today. All the old washers and dryers have been replaced! The fresh look of stainless steel surrounds me. It is sunny outside, so hopefully it will stay quiet down here, so I can work. It is the artist's job to give and give, and the world's to take. I need to fill up.

Return home

Returning home is always a return to work. Yesterday before getting in the car for 7 hours, I spoke at the the Cleveland Institute of Art . Troy Richards is an amazing professor and I'm a new and huge fan of his work.

Tonight it's text-based and some "unstraight-line" drawings, while watching Primer so I don't pass out. After that I won't really have the energy to read my new book for bookgroup, so I'll just admire John McPhee's The Control of Nature from the pillow.

Ohioized

I've been a little "Ohioized" which is accompanied by brain-deadness, but I've decided to snap out of it tomorrow and go up to the Cleveland Institute of Art and give a talk about drawings and perches, social space and mark-making. My host for the day will be Troy Richards.

I've been organizing a slide show for the students and will plan to talk about where I work, the drawings and collages, and ideal social space.

Ohio art-making

I like Ohio for short periods of time. Almost exactly a year ago I was here making the perches for Wavehill. This year, we are here celebrating a birthday, a 75th one, so I'm not building, unfortunately. And only slipping away to work in short snippets, slowly setting up studio on the dining room table. No one has noticed yet.

Multi-tasking in slow motion

Today I felt like I was multi-tasking in slow motion. I cut vegetables while packing suitcases. Did the laundry, 3 loads, while reading. Constructed some sculptural drawings while writing. I watched LOST while writing some more (this blog entry). Walked and made mental lists of paper sizes for a print edition. I played with Grant, making sand castles together, and brushed sand that some little brat kept putting in my hair while thinking about what Hannah Arendt wrote about totalitarianism.

I reviewed the work of David B. Milne while folding the laundry and did some more packing. I got it all into the car and headed to Ohio, through the snow, and reflected on my managed life.

Mandala Monday

It's Mandala Monday and I'm working at the kitchen table. I've been reorganizing my FAAN site, the curated page from AT Freespace. One work, Calico Brown's has been adopted, and there's another one in the works. It's such an amazing resource/inspiration. Visit it, adopt art.

Evening time, finally

Grant is finally asleep, after having a crying fit mixed with delirium, so now it's time to finish watching Robert Altman's Nashville and do some drawings. It's getting late and the film-watching while drawing keeps me up and working. It's an enjoyable multi-task (draw, look, listen, watch).

The times

I want to give a shout out to two "freespacers" who appeared in the New York Times this week. Hendrik Gerrits, my "freespace sponsor" down at LMCC, appeared in the Times on Wednesday, March 7th, and Brece Honeycutt's show up at Wavehill was reviewed in Friday's Times.

There are as many ways to be an artist as there are artists. So it's nice to see fellow artists make their own way. This week (and last) I've been making space for more artmaking time on Thursday and Friday afternoons, which seems to be be taking some time. It's ironic how getting more time to work can take time. It's a paradox.

New Ingredients

With a mundane life like mine, being the mother of a 2 year old with no place to go, doing different types of drawing on different days, I need to search out new ingredients to spice up my practice on a regular basis. For instance, I pay (yes, pay) a visit to Talas in order to sample new drawing papers. I read salient exhibition catalogs, like the one from MoMA's 1982 retrospective of Louise Bourgeois. I stop at the store for blueberries, cheddar cheese, walnuts, cottage cheese and pumpkin seeds, for food is always a muse. Then I make coffee (same old chock full o'nuts), look at other blogs for inspirations and start planning new projects!

(pictured above "Social Labels," 2002)

Bringing it all back home

It's Uncle Stephen's birthday today, so Uncle Mike is babysitting up in Inwood (a.k.a in-law-wood), so I have taken back the house and am working in every room (almost) and on every surface. It's the ideal situation-home ownership. Homeless no more, or at least for the next few hours. Pure bliss.

Excuse me, #2

I met Valerie Hegarty when we both did a residency together at SmackMellon. She was the best thing about that residency. During the summer of our residency we showed together at the Drawing Center. After Smackmellon, Valerie did a residency at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation and I did one through LMCC. Then Valerie did another residency at P.S. 122, and then moved into a beautiful studio off 4th Avenue in Brooklyn and took a two and a half year lease.

Walking into Valerie's studio for this month's "Excuse me, you have art in your teeth," food and art salon was like stepping into a dream. Pictured above, the whiteness and creativeness of the space embraced me immediately. I brought a picnic dinner, my computer, and a box of drawings. It was really the first time I prepared a comprehensive mobile studio visit. Valerie had just packed up work for a show at London's Museum52.

Her studio wasn't empty, but a big project, having been packed up, left room for something new. Ideas were swimming around.