A Final Onward Ideas, Creating Space

objects found while walking around Richfield Springs

I need more room for my things... Those bits and pieces I brought back from Iceland this year, and last year; the objects I collected in Sweden; the stuff I found over the winter and the pieces I picked up yesterday while walking. My well-curated collections grow and change constantly and I like having room to spread them out. I also like arranging them just so and altering the arrangement as I acquire more or just want to rearrange the pieces. My sweet studio is not very big and there isn't a lot of room for everything so I got a great idea to move my dresser out of storage and into my studio. Now it holds objects instead of clothes and each drawer contains pieces from a specific place. I also painted a panel of wood and now have a flat, white surface where I can create arrangements and photograph them.

Working with my objects like this is a great way to exercise my mind, play with spatial relationships and create mixed narratives. It's also a fantastic way to come up with new ideas as I contemplate form, material and memories. I think of it as one more method of my practice and the perfect way to further cherish these sentimental souvenirs.

Read more about my thoughts on objects and collecting here.

See more collections and arrangements on Flickr.

Thanks for reading.

My Hands are in It, Part Three

For the last few weeks I've been working on a collaborative project with my friend, John Rogers. The project is called "Fieldwork."

Fieldwork is a collaboration between artists John Rogers and Amy Tavern.The project is a multidisciplinary “fieldwork”, presented online & IRL, that incorporates ideas of space, movement, memory and technology; place, image, experience and object.The “findings” of Fieldwork are presented in an array of formats, with internet and social media explored and reconfigured as art spaces, creating a flow of content and an expression of information generated by moving through the world.

This includes a map that uses GPS coordinates to accurately place photographs, found objects, videos and other media into an ongoing online presentation. As well as the “facts” of these travels, the map will collate the artists’ experience of the journey and the project’s development, via accompanying texts and process documentation. Fieldwork will also be shown IRL, drawing together these strands with projections, arrangements of objects, exhibition of images and videos, and the artists present and working in a constructed art-lab-gallery-studio environment.

Presentation #1 takes place in Reykjavík, Iceland, on June 18, 2014 at the SÍM basement, Seljavegur 32, Reykjavík 101. The presentation will also be open June 19 and 20 from 2-6pm each day.

Begin exploring Fieldwork via the map, which can be found here.You can add Fieldwork on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr and YouTube to watch the project evolve.

John and I will be in residence for the three days it's open, continuing work on the project and welcoming visitors. In this regard, Fieldwork is an eternally unfinished live work - a process and a scenario. Drop in and see us.

Thanks for reading.