Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Symbols, Letters, Words






"The Between Times"


Looking for a little sun & warmer weather...

How about heading south...

I have some work @ 

1624 W Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471  

 November 4th  2011– January 6th 2012 

A great space to see work...

This weekend they are having a great event

Music for the Arts on December 2nd!

You'll need to RSVP soon!





Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Harvest




Happy All Hallows' Evening!



Harvest Moon



The Winter Squash


And lastly


Brother Gus making venison sausage from his recent hunt.
( Max Dog making sure each morsel is used)

These are just some of the things we are thankful for...
Wishing you all the best...







Thursday, November 17, 2011

Object Acquisition # 77-363.1 Pneumothorax Apparatus

Documenting objects from The Hunt Show:




Object Acquisition # 77-363.1 Pneumothorax Apparatus
Object interpreted and Statement by: Dorothy Sharrar

The object I "found" was a Pneumothorax Apparatus. It was used in the 1930's to collapse a lung diseased by tuberculosis, allowing it to heal while the patient breathed through the other lung. The process was called "resting the lung" and it could take months or years for healing to take effect. There was only about 50% chance of success.

My response to the object was elicited from my family history and my father's personal experience of losing both of his sisters and his father to tuberculosis. Tuberculosis was a stigma, a family secret that my father was taught not to divulge to anyone at the time because of the disgrace it would bring to the family.

During the process of working on this project, I thought a lot about the aunts and the grandfather I never knew, about my grandmother who endured the loss of her daughters and her husband to the disease, and about my father who fed his sister her last meal at 21 years old, witnessing her struggle for breath and life to the very end.

I used materials and processes that were able to reflect the qualities of breathing-- movement, transparency, weightlessness; and at the same time the qualities of the disease process-- the struggle to breathe, the strictures and scarring from the disease as well as from the veil of secrecy surrounding it. I chose to work with fabrics and hand-sewing, utilizing found handkerchiefs; a common item used for personal hygiene, they hold a sense of intimacy and fragility-- cared for, monogrammed, embroidered, tatted-- valued as a personal possession, reflective of the era in which they were used.

My piece is titled "For Kathryn" in memory of my aunt.













Curator's note: Small white crosses embroidered over and over, meditation and reflection.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Chandler & Price Press Finds New Home With an Unlikely Mate



This is the new press for Robin Press Studio.
This Chandler & Price is from 1889 and is 112 years old.

My sister, Carey, has dubbed him Johnny Tremain.
He needs a little cleaning up, new rollers and a treadle.

In the novel Johnny Tremain, it concludes 
on a note of hopefulness for the future. 
Although the beginning of the war 
has wrought great death and destruction, 
American Patriots have defeated the 
British army and surrounded Boston, 
a doctor will have mended Johnny's hand, 
and Cilla and Johnny have exchanged their first kiss.


Johnny recieved a nod from the older(?) printer 
Obie - the Epson 9900 I purchased last year.
I think they will be fine mates and 
am eager for them to play together.


Note: 
Obie is the artificial intelligence with the ability to alter local regions of realityin Jack LChalker's Well World series (1977)

Time to get to work!


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Object Acquisition # 77-28.2.66 Drug Kit

Documenting objects from The Hunt Show:




Object Acquisition # 77-28.2.66 Drug Kit
Object interpreted and Statement by:
Derek Faust  www.derekfaust.com


Using my designated object, a late 19th century traveling doctor’s medicine kit, I created “graduated cylinder” using acrylic, mylar and uhmf plastics. I used the shape of the vials filled with various chemicals and remedies to inspire my material choices. Also housed in the kit was a variety of scratch papers, when folded these acted as containers for the doses of powdered medicines to be taken by a patient. 

My process began by investigating the visual and conceptual elements of the object. Then I worked with this element through a minimalist and formal approach using materials that resonated with the original but in a contemporary context.  I created “graduated cylinder” so that without the original object or context the work would read as a simple gesture, an exploration in an arrangement of materials, whilst within the context the piece begins to reveal the language of the tubes and vials of medicines from the doctor’s kit.









Curators Note: This is a great reminder for myself... the more you take away the better and more wonderful it can be....