Land Blindness (for R. Smithson)
ink, gouache, salt, gold leaf and correction tape on paper (not pictured: accompanying rock from the site of Spiral Jetty)
drawing 30″ x 22″, installation dimensions variable
2011

I was very affected by our sojourn to the Spiral Jetty on our recent southwest road trip. As much as I was taken with the life and death of Amelia Earhart, last year’s oil spill, the Icelandic volcanic eruption, and responded to these events in my recent  work, I am currently working on a drawing in that loosely engages Spiral Jetty and the life and untimely death of Robert Smithson. The book Mirror-Travels | Robert Smithson and History has been informative, imparting the significance of the building site of the monumental earth work: close to the site of the driving of the Golden Spike, where the continent was joined via railroad.  Also today’s Daily Serving article about the potential fate of the piece is quite timely, yet unsettling.

Here are some images of sketchbook collages I made on the trip from the vast amount of magazines we took with us for the long car rides.

So it is happily between the drawing and painting studio that I will spend the rest of the summer, amidst gardening, sun tea making, gathering with friends and planning a large international exhibition for the fall (this time with my curatorial hat on). As I see it, that’s a pretty good place to be.

Since school ended in April, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time in the studio. I have the help of a couple of students, one who made a big batch of stretchers for me, another who is doing all of the stretching and gessoing. It’s great to have so much help, which frees me up to work on some new paintings, all in progress. I’m working with images from Iceland and algae flows, and playing around with volcanic ash, mica and silver leaf.

Also I have the modest beginnings of a new web-based project: http://deltiophile.tumblr.com/
I’m using it as a place to post the postcards I collected while in Iceland, some collages, pages from my sketchbook and other visual sources for my work.

As Jökulsárlón was our furthest destination, on the way back to our cabin (pictured below) we stopped for a hike in Skaftafell National Park, where the highlights were Svartifoss and a walk out to Skaftafellsjökull (Skafatfell Glacier).

Cabin at Horgsland :

Friday night was extremely clear, and around 11-midnight, we saw the northern lights.  My camera couldn’t do it justice, but our friend Beer got some great images, a couple of which I’m including here.

Sunday we headed back to Reykjavík and I snapped some images of the vastly varying weather conditions and landscape, as well as at the Skógar Folk Museum, a stop on our trip home.

It was a breathtaking weekend adventure, from which I gleaned much artmaking fodder.

Jökulsárlón is a glacial lagoon in Southeast Iceland.  This was our first stop on day 2 (Saturday).  It deserves a post all it’s own.

So beautiful it hurts.

This last weekend Mark and our friend Beer and I set out for a trip along the ring road following the southeast coast in Iceland.  We stayed in a little cabin set against a mountain and experienced three amazing days of frozen wonders.  Here are some sights from day 1 (Friday) of the trip:

If you can believe it, Day 2 held even more amazing sights than Day 1…stay tuned!

Out of the Blue and into the Black 2.1, liquid gold leaf and ink on photographic digital print, 15″x20″, 2010

I sent this piece off to a group show in Budapest today.  It is the first of a group of drawings on photographs.  Although I know of plenty of other artists doing this, my friend Abbigail Knowlton Israelsen, for one (who does it quite well, I might add), it’s a new turn for me.  I am going to work on them at my residency in Philly, for which I  leave in the morning.  Since its such a long drive, I am going to make a pit stop in Pittsburgh to eat at a veggie diner and see what’s on at the Mattress Factory.

I have been painting a lot lately and it feels great.  I used to be a painter exclusively and have come around to working in a variety of approaches and media depending upon what I want the outcome to be.  But painting  my first love and when I engage in it, it just feels right and it pretty much consumes me.  I like the work I am making and am rather curious about it, as each piece is feeling like a discovery.

I have found that reading about painting and art in general gets me psyched up to be in the studio.  I recently read Lives of the Artists by Calvin Tomkins,  Inside the Painter’s Studio by Joe Fig and am currently reading The Daily Practice of Painting by Gerhard Richter and Mirror-Travels: Robert Smithson and History by Jennifer L. Roberts.

I am reinstalled in my Ypsi studio for the time being until August when I head to Philly for another residency.  After working small in Iceland, it feels great to be working large again!  I love having the sea glass and ceramic in the studio and keep arranging it in different ways.  Now to keep from melting…

Here are some images from our group show, SKIPTI / SWAP at the end of the residency at SÍM.  On Monday we installed the show, had the opening, followed by a picnic in the garden, and de-installed the show.  Then I had to pack and say my goodbyes.  What a day!

Also, in addition to the drawings I made at the residency, I worked on a couple of photo-based projects and along with many of the other artists, became quite the collector of maps, stamps, postcards (new and vintage) and objects from the land such as shells, stones, sea glass, lava rocks and the like.

On Sunday I did a photo shoot of one of the Amelia Earhart islands in the Icelandic landscape set against the sea.  Here are a few images from that shoot.  I wonder what they’ll become when they grow up?

I am, once again, so grateful for this phenomenal residency and the opportunity to see breathtaking sights in a remarkable country, make work unimpeded, and become friends with such a fantastic group of artists.