Ryan Trecartin

I read about Ryan Trecartin in the New Yorker and was interested in finding out more, thank goodness he has a Vimeo account!  Trecartin is a video artist and his work is I think amazing, it is kind of familiar and alienating at the same time. Anyway, watch and see for yourself.



excerpt from Sibling Topics (section a) from Ryan Trecartin on Vimeo.

Own Art

It would be lovely to fill one's home with art work, but we don't all live the kind of life that allows for it. I have found that a way to feed my art passion is to buy art zines. Zines are usually homemade or small-batch produced books/booklets. They can be on any subject from DIY, to graphic novels, to feminism. I have been into zines for a long time and the ones that excite me the most are art ones or comics/graphic novels. I have bought quite a few over the years and they are usually very reasonable. If you're interested in buying an art zine or two, try Etsy, they have a zine section. Or look through the resources on the pin board below.   Some of the ones listed on the board are actually free online graphic novels.

Art from Around the Web

A little curated inspiration while I get back into the swing of things.

The Art of Cornwall

St. Ives is a beautiful bay in Cornwall that I visited on holiday when I was young. I remember the studio of Barbara Hepworth and how it seemed like an enchanted palace - full of mysterious forms with the rustle of palm trees, the cries of sea gulls and sea lapping at the coast in the background. The Tate St. Ives is a spectacular building that was built with wide open spaces that complement the Atlantic perfectly. No wonder so many find inspiration here.

Why the Lull?

I know it has been a while since I posted. Much has changed in my life since my last post. I am now three months pregnant, which has resulted in a great deal of thinking and planning. It also resulted in three months of feeling pretty rotten! I am doing much better now, and I hope to be back to my old creative self.

Whispers from the Office: Scissors

As promised, I am doing a drawing a day. I have decided to begin by picking items I have in my office. It is interesting how much I learn and also how much more I see I must learn. These scissors seemed an easy choice but in fact were not so straightforward. The lack of detail and the hard lines meant that proportion and the need for accuracy were important because I couldn't rely on details as I would say, with a flower to do the work for me.

The Deception of Words

Summer is in full swing and so there are fewer community enrichment classes, which leaves me trying to continue my studies in other ways.
One way has been to take another MOOC. A few months back I did an excellent one through CALarts, the one I am taking now is through MOMA. 'Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies for Engaging with Art' is aimed at educators, but there is great deal to learn here about creativity and learning even if one is not an educator.  Many of the activities described are aimed at communication that is non-discursive, that is, without using words to articulate meaning or feeling.

Some of us, myself definitely included, have learned to rely on the word too much. The word is not always our friend. It is words that convince me not to act, that there's no point, that I am being naive in thinking I can produce anything of value. Words can offer encouragement which we rely on and if we hear anything negative we risk stopping.

With this in mind, I choose to act. My aim is to produce a drawing everyday.  Drawing has been my Achille's and I would like it to be something I feel comfortable doing. And I call on educators now. When I child has literacy challenges, that is problems with reading and writing, teachers see this as something serious, for our world is so dependent on these skills.  If a child demonstrates little skill in drawing,  educators often shrug and claim, that they're not very artistic and little is done about it. Imagine if this were not so, imagine if teachers worked as hard to promote art as they do literacy, how it would change the way we work, see art perhaps live our lives.