New Print

So this past month 3rd Street Gallery here in Grand Forks had their annual show. Each year invite people to submit ideas for a theme for the show. The person who submitted the chosen theme gets to be on the postcard. This year the theme was Imitation. This is one of the two pieces that I submitted.

MFA Exhibit

In April, I will be presenting my MFA exhibit here at UND. It is the culmination of 3 years of work and research narrowed down into a cohesive show and theme, defended to ones chosen committee, and then (assuming you pass your final review) opened to the public. Well, I have taken a route I do not recommend. As of days a week before Thanksgiving last year, I changed my topic anddirection for the show from large cyanotype landscapes to considerations of the archive and vernacular photography. While I still love the large scale landscapes, I was unmotivated by the work and I wanted to push on something more conceptual...and it ended up on the idea of the archive. Essentially it will explore the way we think about objects...any historical object really, but I am using the vernacular photograph as an expression of this. The show will illustrate...exhibit...suggest (not finding the right word right now) the different approaches towards said objects between modernity and postmodernity. Over the past few months I have built an archive of vernacular photos with the help of Ebay...2 venders in particular have been of immense help selling their wares to me at decent prices.

For the past week and half I have been making frames...21 to be exact. These function as frames, but are meant to recall less framing and more specimen trays. Inside, I will mount a singular photographic object on a white back ground with a lithographed archive label that will be filled out by hand in pencil. These pieces will be one aspect of the "modern" direction of the show to suggests modernity's drive for isolating objects for objective readings.

A few New Pieces

Its been a crazy month and a half since I returned from NYC. Little time for anything other than finishing out the semester, let alone posting on the blog. My hope, as it always, is to post updates on my work and current endeavors. This new year my hope remains the same.

My recent work has taken my interest in lost vernacular photos and turned it into prints to explore the lost connections, narratives, roots, etc.. These two works take different but related approaches. Both use maps in a way as to suggest context. But upon closer inspection, the contexts of town and identifiers have been masked and scratched out. The first print uses a lithographic reproduction of the photographic image and replicates it and reverses the direction of one to amplify the confused nature of this lingering object. The second uses the map, printed on rice paper, then covered in wax to make it translucent, functions as a veil to the antique studio portrait.

Even More Prints...

As promised...A few more finished prints, including my Oktoberfest invite. The first two are obviously related to the ongoing series. The invite...well...thats just for fun.

More Prints

Today I finished 3 more prints...2 in this ongoing series which will appear here in a few days and an invite to an Oktoberfest party which will show up here too.

Again these prints fall under the Foreign Policy series of prints that utilize texting abbreviations as a shorthand for some kind of American attitude. The maps too function as a shorthand that represents real space.

Fall Beginnings

Somehow it is already the 4th week of classes? Where did this past month go? I have made great progress on my print for the semester. So rather than waiting until the end of the semester I thought I would put up a few now.

This semester's focus is on mapping. Toward the end of the summer I started playing with a few cultural maps. See them here. I am taking a similar approach to my current series as I did for the fly-over states print by hand tracing the map and using a separate plate for text formatted in Photoshop.

The first map, is from a larger series that will show up here over the next few weeks. It might be called something like Foreign Policy, with a companion series Domestic Policy. It plays with the idea of cartography as a shorthand in a sense for real places. Here it is paired with a text abbreviation, another shorthand, that describes some sort of foreign relationship the United States has with another country.

The 2nd print is suggestive of a stereotypical arrogant American attitude about the rest of the world and America itself.

Fall Semester 2010

So it begins...the last year of the MFA program. A hectic summer of 10 credits leaves me with 12 to go before graduation. As it stands it will break 6 and 6 over the two semesters. That is of course if I survive the extracurriculars of this semester.

During my time here at UND I have worked hard to stay active in the academic theological world as well as start to build a quality artist CV as well. This fall will continue that trend with shows, lectures, travel, and conferences. At times it feels overwhelming with the amount I have to do to get to where I want to go, but at the same time with the encouragement of friends, my beautiful wife, and faith that God has created me with these two passions of art and theology I keep going.

Upcoming Events...

This week I have had stuff taken to Valley City University for a show arranged by Linda Whitney (a UND alum) whose daughter Jess I now share office and studio space with. The show will be of current UND graduate student work and will include an artist talk and panel discussion the day of the opening. The show will run from 9.1-9.30 with the reception on 9.24 from 4-5:30. If you are in the area please stop out to see the show.

Next week I will also be hanging work for the month of September at Amazing Grains here in Grand Forks. I think Amazing Grains is one of the stops on the GF area Art and Wine Walk as well to be held on September 18th from 1-5 pm. I will be showing a number from my Elevator Series. Its great to see them framed and sitting together. Until now, I had only framed a few pieces for other shows.

I will also be at Dickinson State University in Dickinson ND for the NDUS Arts and Humanities Summit. Faculty and students from across the state come together to showcase their research. UND's Department of Art and Design will make a good showing with a good number of students and faculty presenting. I will be presenting a paper called Embodying Theology: Theological Reflection and Artistic Practice. Essentially it is a reflection upon the theological backgrounds to my artwork and how those trajectories emerge within the work. I will also be co-presenting with Prof. Kim Fink on the collaborative printing for visiting artists through Sun Dog Multiples.

In November, the printmaking folks here will be heading to New York and New Jersey to give an artist talk at the Printmaking Council of New Jersey as well as printing for the recent Guggenheim recipient Daniel Heyman. While in NYC we will hit various museums, galleries, and of course the IFPDA Print Fair.

And somewhere in there, visit PhD programs, apply to PhD programs, and of course fulfill my 6 credits of studio work just in time for my all important 2nd candidacy review which basically lays out the direction for the final exhibition needed for graduation.

Im tired just typing all of this.

Better get to work.

Summer Work VI

Another batch of lithos. This group is a random collection however...no unifying theme or direction. These first 2 prints are variations of each other and the one table top photo icon from my earlier postings.

The next two images modify Ben Franklin's famous statement that (insert whatever) is proof that God loves us. This takes that statement and pushes it into geography and patriotism and comes out as another intentionally arrogant pro America statement. While those of you who know me or my comments on the blog know that I would hardly be considered patriotic, the statement seems to hover between reality as something you might see on a t-shirt and just being over the top. Its one of my favorites...not so of my lovely Canadian wife.

The 3rd print is one Ive been talking doing for a long time of the fly-over states. The fly-over states, if you dont know are the states that most people only see from the air as they pass from one side of the country to the other. They make up a rather irrelevant and unrecognizable lot to many Americans. This print intends to highlight that attitude.

Summer Work V

This series continues the line of thought from the Religion as a Chain of Memory series in an alternative direction. There are 3 pieces in this series, but it looks like I forgot to photograph one. The prints contain an embossing of the state/province, 4 color separation portraits, local maps, and a regional landscape. The images are then chine-colle'd onto BFK. They are intended to be folded like an accordian (but i have not gotten to that yet).

Summer Work

It has been a quite a while since Ive been updating this on a regular basis. This summer was... well... overwhelming. What was I thinking taking on 10 credits? I guess its the Dutchman within since the credits were free. So in that, I will not complain. And I did manage to make a lot of work both in alternative photo and printmaking.

I challenged myself this summer with moving the image away from the traditional mat and frame. The trouble then becomes how is it displayed. One direction I began was to work into a table-top icon or altar piece. These images combine a base with the images printed in either Van Dyke or Cyanotype on plywood.

More New Prints From This Spring

Its been a busy spring but I have managed to create several prints. This top image is the most recent and draws connections in both theme and aesthetic to the Religion as a Chain of Memory series. This print takes an image of my mother and places it over Medieval manuscript image of a family tree. Along side it is another Medieval image of the annunciation to Mary. My hope is to suggest similar things to those prints of my father, but without using text.

The next image is a reworking from another failed attempt. I like the idea, but both this and the previous rendering have failed to live up to the idea for me so I have begun again to create this print. The image on the right is John the Baptist from the Isenheim Altar piece. In it, he points to Christ on the cross. In place of the crucifixion, I have instead replaced it with consumer logos that are meant to correspond to the four central parts of the Easter Vigil (roughly the services of Light, Word, Baptism, and the Eucharist). All of which hover over the text of John 1 in Latin.

The last print is just a little experiment from both my printmaking and alternative processes photo class (those images to come later this week). It takes a lithograph of a cropped Medieval manuscript drawing of the Ascension and places it over wonderful cyanotype image of a late summer Iowa sky.

New Prints From this Spring

It has been a long time since I've posted any artwork...or much of anything. Ive continued on in this series of Contested Space embossings. The first included here is the Missouri River which is contested on not only water rights, damming, flow, and native lands, it also divides the Dakota's geographically into East and West river. In each state, the river divides its culture and its topography.

The second print also portrays a contested space...that of Mount Rushmore. The site is sacred not only to good patriotic American's, it is also a sacred site to the Native Americans. A few years ago, when I started thinking about sacred space, Mount Rushmore was foremost in my mind. I had never thought about it as a Native sacred space. But what happens when a colonialist people literally reshape a holy mountain in homage to their rule and build a tourist attraction upon a sacred site? It becomes a contested site.

This print took several tries to get it where it is today. The first with simple red thread conveyed the contested nature, but in the end seemed simply too anti-American. In the second, I added beading to connote the Native role in the contest over this place. Here I ran the beading along the heads to highlight the aspect of the landscape itself but at the expense of highlighting the contest. The third option, the one Ive ended with returns to the X's but with beading. Not only do the X's symbolize the contest over place, they also draw more closely from Native artwork where the 4 directional colors (as I have used) are placed in a vertical and horizontal axis. I simply have turned it on its side to make the X.

While I've not completed all the prints in this series, I expect it to be editioned in 5.

More prints and photos to come shortly from this semester.

Dan Attoe Visiting Artist

Two weeks ago (yes I am behind in my posting) Dan Attoe visited UND as part of the Myers Foundations funded Visiting Artist Series. Dan's visit stood out as one of the more significant for us as students. His generosity of time, energy, and encouragement were remarkable for us all. I was thankful for the connection to the printmakers so I got to spend a little more time with Dan as we printed 2 prints for him (a larger 11x22 and a smaller 10x10) for Sundog Press.

Causing Trouble in New Jersey

Earlier this year I entered the members show at the Print Council of New Jersey, a wonderful group of artists and programs for printmakers. I entered a show and was accepted last year and so I thought I would join them this year. My piece Contesting Cyprus was chosen for their annual show entitled "Where have we been" or something along those lines.

The other day I received an email from the director saying that one of the venues for the show had deemed my work as "inappropriate," had been removed, and I was expected to make arrangements to come pick up the work. The County of Somerset Cultural & Heritage Commission sent us both letters notifying us of their decision. Hers got their faster since PCNJ is 10 minutes down the road while the time to get the letter to North Dakota took a little longer.

Ive attached a picture of the letter. I've gone back and forth with my emotions between thinking its funny and then being angry, and yet understanding. I don't deny that the piece is controversial. Its meant to be. I understand that the piece taken literally might be offensive...hey its got the F bomb in it. I understand that it might not be appropriate for all venues. I get that. But its what the letter insinuates about me and what that suggests about their utter failure to understand the piece that makes me angry.

"The [SCCHC] will not permit the C&H Gallery to participate as a platform for individual's political protests, promote hate speech or allow the display of obscenities. Your artwork has been removed as inappropriate for this venue."

It is the misguided assumption that these are my particular views rather than my effort to document graffiti as a sign of the many political, religious, and ideological contests marked upon place.

Along with the entry, I was asked to write a small statement on the work. This is what accompanied this particular print.

"The print takes two urban landscape images; first, of the Turkish North and one of the Greek South and placed them next to each other as in a diptych. I then used Photoshop to cut and paste the copious amounts of graffiti that covered most city blocks in both the North and South. The graffiti represents literal plurality of contests marked upon the landscape."

Now, I dont know if this statement was hung with the work or not. If it did not accompany the work, it makes their decision perhaps less offensive to me. Perhaps my current location within the safety of a university has heightened my idealism and I've forgotten to think about the impact that the literal words and statements might have upon and individual or community.

Oh well...Im still putting it on my C.V.

New Print

This is the latest (just completed this afternoon) in a series I've been calling Religion as a Chain of Memory. The image of me and my father is being reused from my prototypes in the first posting. This print uses the first question from the Heidelberg Catechism, still memorized by my father from his youth. I too studied it in my youth...although it is not lodged quite as firmly as it is for him. In a sense, that is what these pieces are about...human effort to convey meaning, morality, religious creeds and other confessions of faith from one generation to another. Thus far, they just happen to be those that my father has shared with and embodied for me during my life.

Two New Prints

I've recently completed two more prints in editions of 10 each continuing this idea of religion as a chain of memory. I've begun this series with my own father and images of him and his own handwriting of central religious statements in his life.

The top landscape image is from Karina's cousins home just down the road from hers in Sask. The left image is of my father at 19 or so visiting Pompeii while stationed in Germany. The image on the left is me at Paphos this past summer on my residency in Cyprus. The text is the Lord's prayer.

The second print is also a landscape just down the road from Karina's home. The image is of me being held by my father with the Apostles Creed printed over top of both images.

I think I have committed myself to using gold for the text. As I think about its significance and associations with value, it seems to make sense to put the "tradition" in what makes an easy tie to value.

New Prints

Before I left for Seattle I had a bit of time so I pounded out 2 new prints and a mixed print from previously printed materials.

The first two continue on in the series of contested spaces. The first if Korea with the DMZ embroidered into the paper in a light blue to signify the division and presence of the United Nations. The second, decidedly more local for me are the Dakotas with the Missouri river embroidered in the same light blue. The river is a source of division on 2 levels. In one sense it divides both states into East and West territories. The divide is more than just geography or topography, it is cultural as well. The East side of both states hold most of the two states universities, industry, and population. The rivers are also hotly contested spaces over dams and water flow controlled by the Army Corp of Engineers.

The 3rd print is a new combination of old elements. I made them from the left over Twinkies from the fall and added the embossed flag. Its just a fun combination of imagery.