signed, sealed, submitted & feeling smart
This is me, tonight, right after I finished applying for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. YAY! I've been working on it for two weeks. Ah that's why I haven't been blogging. (btw ~ what do you think of my new glasses?)I haven't applied for any grants in a long time. I have to say that for all the work I'm very pleased with my application. The competition is stiff since this is a nominated grant, so I won't be disappointed if I'm not chosen. 150 artists are nominated for 25 awards. The important thing is that I submitted the best application possible for me at this time. If I win one of the $25,000 grants, I will be surprised... and thrilled of course.
Well for all that work I can at least post my 300 word statement on the blog. Click on the links for more information about the eight images submitted for the grant.
As a sculptor I've always been curious about the membrane or threshold between interior and exterior experience, which I call the "rhythm of attention." I've been informed by other disciplines, notably the music of John Cage and the writing of Eileen Myles, whose work shares my interest in pattern and meaning.
A quilt is both a 3-dimensional and a 2-dimensional space. It unifies the visual waves of painting with the embodied elements of sculpture. I consider it a pure form for exploring the rhythm of attention, through which meaning exists and is discoverable.
My current work samples are, in a sense, scores for activating recuperative rhythms of attention. Outwardly, The Mantra Trailer is a score for collective civic discourse; inwardly for shifting repetitive resonance. (The visual interior of The Mantra Trailer is hand-quilted in golden silk, but has never been photographed, not even for my documentation, because its sacred interior space exists beyond spectacle.) Passage Quilting is a score for experiencing the transformational patterns of bereavement. Group Stitching Mantra is a score for experiencing trance, and connectedness with others through shared, independent action and vocalization. The Geography of Mending follows an unpredictable score, created by habit and use. The improvised personal rhythms of Mod Mood or RGB Modern, in contrast to the natural rhythms of chance and randomness in I Ching Modern, ignite very different attention patterns as they are made and viewed.
My purpose for creating this work is restorative. These attention activating sculptures all reveal meaning, and all contain the blessing-- that is, the caring touch-- of the hand. They unify interior and exterior through a process that involves time and devotion. These are slow, humble, complex objects made by bodies, resonating with deep rhythms of attention that are easily lost in the age of the screen.
20th Century Comfort Room, 1998, Headlands Center for the Arts