Current inspirations

I think that I have finally figured out what I'm going to do with Dragon Bones, so I'll post some photos once I've got something to show. In the meantime, here are some things I've been looking at and thinking about:

This is the new work of my friend, Wendy Clark. A students in Goddard College's MFA-IA program (she also teaches art in the Spottsylvania County public schools), Wendy had been focusing primarily on her painting, but recently began a series of works that she calls 'painted weavings'. She says that these new pieces "speak to the concern of our changing world and the conditions of this world. They ask questions about our involvement and willingness to act toward improvement." It's clear to me that her Quaker background and practice play into this new work, but also that it takes real depth of feeling and subtlety of emotion to produce such simple and eloquent pieces.
The Blood of Our Labor, the Force of Our Breath, at the Garden House at Goddard College, where it was shown this summer (the first photo is of the same piece, from inside the house). Wendy says about the work, "I was very effected by the recent rice shortage and earthquake in China. It led me to think deeply about the landscape as we know it disappearing. And the air which we breath becoming impossible to breath. Something to think about as you look at the simplicity of this cloth. It is my belief that we can say much without using large amounts of words and imaginary." This is definitely what I'm trying to do with my Transformed Books.

Garden Cloth, left

The Measure of Your Effort, right



Another really cool new thing is the Creative Stream, a new artist-documenting web-site, based here in the DC area. Co-founder Jesse Cohen writes that "the goal is to develop a collection of interviews with creative individuals, organizations, and more. We look forward to the future discussions developed in relation to these interviews. Soon we will develop a discussion board directly related our work, and we look forward to your reactions here. Please respond to the content!" The first interview is with my friend Jennifer, who I met through Artomatic. I think the site looks great, and I'm really excited to see where Jesse and James take it in the coming months.