New Sketches

Yesterday was the first time in a long while that when I sat down to do some sketching, it came easily.  Usually when I walk into my studio (knowing how important sketching is to a studio practice) I block out thirty minutes to an hour to do some sketching.  Honestly, it is always the post painful thing for me to do- silly things happen and I never feel it truly pay off.  However, yesterday was a great day.    An hour turned into six hours too quickly. It was fun.  It was easy. AND I really like the outcome.  All the new sketches are over on my website for you guys to see as well as uploaded sketchbook pages.

For now, I am off to try again. 

Cory Imig

I recently came across Cory Imig's work after a professor told me that I should look her up during one of my recent critiques.  The last few weeks I have found myself coming back to her website over and over again because I think that it is just genius what she has done with documenting people's stories and how she deals with time-based ideas.

For her documentation of time, she has installed all of these minimalist-esque prop situations up in a small space.  Trapping balloons under various material weights, she tracks the process of the balloon's increasing compression.

All to say, I really like you Cory.  You can check out her website here.

For her documentation of people's stories she sent letters out to other Imigs who live in the United States and asked them to send a letter back to her telling a little bit about themselves.  I am always amazed when you reach out to people, how much they will gladly and sincerely share.  At the end, she honored these stories and people and had a whole installation/exhibition and invited all of the Imigs!

WWD: SCADstyle Commission

There's an article online at Women's Wear Daily about the SCADstyle event that featured my work seen below.  The work consisted of six 72" x 72" handwoven tablecloths with planted life growing from below.  You can read the article here. 

Untitled (Structure that Eats)

Lately, I have been very interested in variations on change and how to subtly depict those changes.  A friend pointed me out to this sculptural piece that is being exhibited through April 21 as part of Ileana Sonnabend: Ambassador for the New at the MoMA.  In Giovanni Anselmo’s Untitled (Structure that Eats) from 1968, a head of lettuce is pinned between two blocks of granite and held together by a copper wire. As the lettuce wilts, one of the blocks begins to fall. 

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[Giovanni Anselmo. Untitled (Structure that Eats). 1968. Granite, copper wire, lettuce, and sawdust. The Sonnabend Collection. Photographs by Talia Kwartler.]

A Transformative Home

A Transformative Home: solo exhibition by Frances Russell

Artist Statement Excerpt: "A Transformative Home presents planted life as a surrogate for human form through photography, sculpture, textiles, drawing, and installation.  Placing anthropomorphic piles of dirt and seed in the visual landscape is a way for me to engage in a conversation about the life and the temporary environments we create, occupy, and share with other living things.”  

EXHIBITION OPENING: May 30

GALLERY CONTACT INFORMATION: 
nonfictiongallery.com
912.662.5152
1522 Bull Street 
Savannah, GA
31401

Uprooted

I have got some new work up over on my website.  Check it out and let me know if you would like to be a part of the stories! More will be added soon.  

Frauke Wilken

Frauke Wilken, a German artist with a focus on sculpture, creates objects that deal with the boundary between inner and outer worlds.  There is an uncertainty whether whatever is on the inside of these objects are still or are in motion.  There is a grotesqueness to each one of these sculptures and a call of attention to certain orifices.  Each one of his objects create a tension between fragility and strength, security and bondage, as well as growth and decay.  I stumbled upon Frauke while researching a few months ago for my own work.  The absurdity of her objects is an inspiration to me.   I can see the links between womb and cellular structure, present in my own work, in the sketches and ideation that can be seen throughout her work.  Like always, you can check out more of Wilken's work at her website.  

Jason Middlebrook, Submerged

This past week was deFine art, a small art festival, at SCAD.  There were many artists here, including Jonah Bokaer, Jason Middlebrook, Dustin Yellin, Alfredo Jaar, Nicola Lopez, (and more), visiting, performing, and installing their works.  I helped Jason Middlebrook and his assistant Anna work on and install his work, Submerged.  He used reclaimed wooden spikes, that 200 years ago helped build up the bottom of the Savannah River, for a large scale installation in the tower of the SCAD museum.  We painted these pieces of wood and then they were suspended upside down in a tiered system to resemble some sort of chandelier type of structure.  It was very  fun to get to talk to Jason and Anna about the going ons of their studio work as well as how their personal lives affect their studio.  Here are a few pictures during the install.  

A Birthday Present

I just took official pictures of the shuttle that Zach made for me for my birthday.  It is made primarily out of an African wood and a few small details of walnut.  

The Transformative Home

These are my newest works that I have been working on the past week or so.  

           “I imagine each planted life as a surrogate for a human form.  I am interested in the intimacy and fragility that the anthropomorphic pile of seed and dirt create.  Placing it in the visual landscape is a way for me to engage in a conversation about the life and the temporary environments we create, occupy, and share with other living things.

           I imagine each discarded blanket as a specific memory of a part of life that was lived through these objects.  It is my opinion that entropy explains the state of the present human life.  It is while we are engaged in living that we are fighting that state of decay and attempting to control our own conditions.  I want to highlight the significance and extent of the time, protection, and attention that must be spent in order for things to grow despite the aspect of chance and chaos. These fundamental inconsistencies in the transformation of a home fascinate me and continue to fuel my curiosity to seek the patience involved to find potential beauty in the decay and growth of the future.”

                                                            -Frances Russell

The Gap, Sheldon Vanauken

“ Between the probable and proved there yawns
A gap. Afraid to jump, we stand absurd,
Then see behind us sink the ground and, worse,
Our very standpoint crumbling. Desperate dawns
Our only hope: to leap into the Word
That opens up the shuttered universe. ”

Ken Price

This summer I got to see Ken Price's retrospective at the Met.  After that I was able to spend a week in Taos where his home was for the majority of his later years.  He grew up in Los Angeles, got his MFA in New York, and worked in Taos.  He very rarely used glazes on his ceramics but instead used layers and layers of acrylic paints which he later sanded to reveal a great depth.  When visiting the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, Price's death shrine to himself was installed, which was so fitting to see just a year after his death.  

Rona Pondick

I recently came across Rona Pondick's work in my Gender and the Body class as she deals with the feminist critique of Freudian theories of sexuality.  She is an american sculptor who studied under Richard Serra and went to Yale to get her MFA.  She deals with a wide range of imagery including teeth, trees, human/animal hybrids, beds, etc.  You can see all of her work over at her website. 

Sterling Ruby

Sterling Ruby is an artist working in Los Angeles.  He works in a wide range of media including ceramics, sculpture, painting, and video.  Being inspired by the graffiti culture, his work seeks to confront the psychological space where individual expression meets social constructs.  

Lesley Dill: MIAMI 2013

This is the blackbird dress that I worked on all summer with Lesley Dill and other interns.  

A Zachary Allen and Frances Russell exchange

In order to practice the skills that we had been learning, Zach and I decided to have an exchange after the process was over.  In exchange for him making me an art cabinet out of nogal, walnut, and metal (complete with hand carved handles),  I created a handwoven (size full) merino and raw silk blanket.