The Sea for My Birthday

May 1, 2014, 7:58pm

When I was in Iceland in 2014 I celebrated my 40th birthday, and for the entire month of May, my birthday month, I took a picture of the sea standing in the same exact spot. Every day I would walk to the rock wall across the street from SÍM where I was a resident artist. I would climb on top of one particular rock and place my foot in a groove that perfectly fit the side of my left combat boot. I used this groove as a tool to position myself in the same way for each photo, and it was a ritual: walking there, climbing on that one rock. placing my foot just so, looking out, taking a picture. I would also try to pause for a moment before and after taking the picture just to look.

I've been holding onto this series for over a year, thinking about it occasionally, and now that I'm without a studio, it's a great time to move forward. I'm trying to decide what to do with the images so I'm playing around with collaging them into a grid or a calendar-like composition. Another thought is to position them horizontally, side by side, in one long line or to create a book with one image per page. My friend, Brandon Dawley, who does all my graphic design, is helping me with the cropping, using his expert skills to get the horizon line perfectly centered in each image.

May 31, 2014, 9:21am

Thanks for reading.

Decompression

my original thoughts and ideas for "In Between," folded up…

the last thing I did when I cleaned my studio and packed up yesterday

I'm beginning to decompress after an intense, and wonderful, three weeks at California College of the Arts. I cannot believe the amount of stuff that happened in that time and I have that feeling of being excited and inspired and sad that it's over all at the same time. This might just be the best way to end something…

See more pictures on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

Now I am Here, #3

looking up into the two-storey elevator at Velvet da Vinci, 

the site for my upcoming installation

Yesterday I went to Velvet da Vinci to see the space and it helped my thought-process and ideas immensely. Things are a bit more clear now.

The installation opens Saturday, October 25 from 6-8pm. My lecture and special showing of "I Live Here Now" begins on Saturday, October 18 at 7pm. Both shows close on Saturday, October 31. 

Thanks for reading.

Now I am Here, #2

my view as I waited for BART this morning 

These hills are just out of reach and hazy, and that's how I feel about my ideas right now.

Thanks for reading.

Installation Beginnings

Ache

I'm preparing to create an installation in a working elevator at Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco. I've been researching installations inside elevators and thinking about how I can best use this symbolically-loaded space. I've also been looking at my own work and revisiting ideas from the past, studying the why and how behind each piece and looking for the things I would like to expand upon. My first installation happened at Velvet in 2011 as part of my solo show, "This is How I Remember It." Later I created "Ache" and, most recently, I showed "Silently (I Saw a Robin Today)."  I've been reading and writing a lot and but have nothing concrete yet, but this is just the beginning...

Collected Memories at my solo exhibition at Velvet Da Vinci

Silently (I Saw A Robin Today)

Thanks for reading.

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.

Onward Ideas, California Reality, Part 1

a favorite photo from my last time in California

Last year I taught a spray painting workshop at California College of the Arts and had a wonderful experience with all the great students there. At that time Marilyn de Silva, chair of the metals department, invited me to be a resident artist at the school and we began planning. Now I'm very pleased to say I'm going to CCA in October for three weeks!

talking with a student at CCA

As a resident, I will get a dedicated studio space with the grad students and have access to all the tools and equipment in the metals studio. I will give weekly critiques and/or demonstrations and give a public lecture. I'm looking forward to talking with students one on one and in groups about their work and I imagine all those sessions will make me better at communicating during critiques.

As for the work I will make, I'm working on ideas for an installation, of course. I'm questioning how I can translate my jewelry techniques and experience into a different form and I'm planning to use techniques I can't do in my own studio. I'm moving around ideas of repetition, accumulation and layering. I'm contemplating creating volume through multiples. I'm wondering about combining metal with other materials on a larger scale. I'm thinking about establishing a feeling through the creation of a space. Three weeks is not a lot of time so I will try to develop a (flexible) plan before I arrive and aim to use the limited time to my advantage.

demonstrating how to use spray paint on metal

I'm also looking for a place to show what I make. Perhaps there is a space at CCA that will work? It could be indoors or outside. Or, I wonder if there is a space in Oakland or San Francisco? I know it's probably too short notice to find a gallery because they schedule shows months in advance, but I'm asking around just in case. If you live in the Bay Area maybe you know of a gallery or space that might work for me? Please leave a comment here or send me an email (atavern@gmail.com) if you have any suggestions.

Thanks for reading.

Onward Ideas, Etsy Adjustment

Gold Teardrop Earrings

Etsy is fun and I love my little shop there, but I don't spend as much time maintaining it as I could, or should. In September I'm going to introduce some new designs and have a short sale to promote them along with a "new," revamped Etsy shop. I want to rewrite the item descriptions, make my listings consistent in content and retag most everything. I'm in the process of designing new pieces now which is always, always fun, and challenging, and I'm getting pretty excited about the designs. How about some great new basic earrings in my Line Drawing Collection? Or, maybe a new design element in History Repeats? And, even better, a brand new color palette in my Regal Graffiti Collection that reflects the way I see Iceland? I say "yes" to all, and more. In the meantime, I've added a bunch of pieces you've seen before here on my blog and on Facebook, but not yet on Etsy.

Please file my "New Etsy! Sale and Such" in the back of your mind. It's coming in September and details will follow in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading.

Onward Ideas, Drawing Iceland

I've got a lot of ideas these days. I always have ideas really, but lately it feels like I have more than usual. The focus of my studio practice and average work day has shifted again and now I'm devoting more time to my business, planning classes and lectures for the fall, and designing new collection pieces, among lots more.

One of my big ideas involves Sunday and devoting it to making new work. Yes, I get to make work a lot, but not daily. As a small business owner, I juggle lots of different things every day and spend a lot of time in front my computer. So in an effort to create more studio time for myself, I thought of this Sunday studio idea.

I started my first Sunday with a new project that focuses on drawing Iceland. I selected some favorite pictures from Iceland, choosing ones that represent moments in which time stood still for me. I made these images black and white, cropping a few of them, and then printed each on 8.5" x 11" copy paper. I hung these on the wall and spent time just looking at them. Then I wrote down all the different ways I could think of to make marks using the lines in each composition. (The line of the edge of an iceberg, for example). Next I placed tracing paper over each image and then traced the lines I see. Drawing is a scary thing for me so tracing is a great way to get going and make marks in a seemingly effortless way. By the end of the day, I had 10 drawings and I will take them farther next Sunday.

In the coming days I will fill you in on many of the other ideas I'm moving around that I mentioned above. I'm excited for future plans and projects!

Thanks for reading.

The Start of Something

May 6, 5:14pm, an image from the series "The Sea for My Birthday" (work-in-progress)

Sol Lewitt, one of my favorite artists, believed the "idea behind the work supersedes the work itself." I read this a few years ago when I saw his retrospective at Mass MOCA; it got me then and has been hanging around in the back of my mind ever since. I thought about these eight words a lot while at SÍM and now I find myself holding onto them like the things I pick up off the ground while walking. It has become a precious statement to me and one that I think I understand and can't even begin to understand at the same time. I think the most significant thing I learned at SÍM was the importance of ideas and how acutely interested in them I am. I also realize my own ideas feel elusive to me, just out of reach. It feels like I'm on a path to find them but they keep changing position, making them harder to find. It's a strange and exciting place to be. I really have no idea, for lack of a better word, where I'm going right now. There are glimpses and moments, but so much remains unknown.

Here's a list of things I'm thinking about which I posted last month

 along with images of the work I made during my residency:

space

immersion

(changing) perspective

creating a feeling

giving pause

layering

silence

solitude

warmth

capturing

illuminating

elevating

light and shadow

observations

accessibility

place
subtlety

anything and everything can be a material 

an image from the series "11 Minutes"

arrangement of found objects

exhibition view, Fieldwork Presentation #1

still image from a video made at Skógafoss in south Iceland

sketch of one of my found objects

Thanks so much for following me while I was at SÍM. I look forward to sharing more with you as I continue to move forward. 

Thanks for reading.

My Hands are in It: Part Two

A few weeks ago I mentioned my videos and now you can watch them on YouTube. One was made in Höfn, Iceland and was made in the U.S. on a train. (I will add more once I figure out a pixilation problem I keep running into.) I still don't know how I will use these pieces, but I've been thinking about projecting different ones on each wall in a gallery to create an immersive space, or perhaps projecting them onto a sculptural installation. 

May 1, 7:58pm

In addition to collecting these short videos, I'm thinking more and more about my photos, which I started to tell you about when I showed "11 Minutes"  at the Sím May resident artist show. Another project I've been working on happened during the month of May, my birthday month. I took a photograph of the sea every day standing in the exact same spot near the Sím studios. I took the pictures at different times of the day whenever I could easily be in that one spot. I missed a few days while I was away for my birthday and another day when I just plain forgot, but this is a diary and I don't mind the missing days. I'm not sure how I will show these images once I'm ready--a long line might be really nice or a calendar-style format with blanks for the days I didn't take a picture. 

Thanks for reading.

Sím Progress Report: Thoughts

Over the past two months at Sím I've been writing about ideas for new sculptural work/installation and what I would like to achieve through its creation. My thoughts so far are just thoughts but they do feel solid and give me the feeling I'm on the right path. Here's a list of some words and phrases I'm focusing on and will continue to consider now that I've begun my third and final month at Sím:

space

immersion

(changing) perspective

creating a feeling

giving pause

layering

silence

solitude

warmth

capturing

illuminating

elevating

light and shadow

observations

accessibility

place
subtlety
anything and everything can be a material

Thanks for reading.

Reading and Listening

the corner of my childhood home and site of my earliest memory

My work begins with a vague idea, a translucent thought and/or a broad question based on my memories. Then I read a lot and I also listen, and as I do both, I think and take notes. The following list includes links to articles and podcasts that made an impact on me while I was developing ideas for "I Live Here Now":

The Psychology of Home: Why Where You Live Means So Much 
by Julie Beck at The Atlantic

Home, Dismantled by Olivia Judson at The New York Times

Personal Identity is (Mostly) Performance by Jennifer Ouellette 
at The Atlantic

“Is there an afterlife?” Ghost-Hunting at My Grandmother’s House by Ben Shattuck at Salon

In Grief, Try Personal Rituals by Emily Esfahani Smith

The Definition of Home by Verlyn Klinkenborg at the Smithsonian

Lost and Found on Radiolab

No Place Like Home on This American Life

Away from Home on This American Life

On Not Going Home by James Woods on London Review of Books

porcelain escutcheon cover of the front door 

of my childhood home

lava fields covered in moss, my favorite place in Iceland

Thanks for reading.

I Live Here Now, Part 4

gold wreath from Greece

I'm in the final week of making work for my show…my deadline is Friday, the day I have to ship everything to my photographer. My personal deadline is Wednesday by the end of the day, whenever that is. I'm doing this because I like have time to just be with the work once it's done, to just sit with it in my studio and think about it. I think this is a very important part of the process. Then I'll spend Friday measuring everything and then packing it all up to send off to Seattle. This week I plan to post every day about the work in one way or another. For today, here are some of the images of historical jewelry I'm using as inspiration:

men's jewelry set, 1920s

Italian reliquaries

portrait miniature with braided hair

chatelaine

jet mourning jewelry

Thanks for reading.

Starting Point

a partially frozen stream a few blocks from my house

I started working on the "homeland" part of my upcoming solo exhibition on Monday. I've been taking daily walks to allow my mind to wander and also to remember growing up here, to collect photographs and other visual information, and to begin forming ideas. As I walk I try to clear my mind of everything else (easier said than done!) and I try to focus on my work. I've been thinking about the definition of home, or my definition of home, and I'm thinking about ways I can show this in new jewelry. When I get back to the house, I do some writing--sentences, lists, short paragraphs, questions--just get my thoughts recorded for further reference. I would like to walk every day so by early January I have a rich collection of information to work with.

I read an interesting article on Brain Pickings Tuesday night that couldn't have come at a better time. The piece was about a book on generating ideas. A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young, written in 1939, describes the five basic steps in forming an idea. I was so excited to read the steps--I see each one in my process, especially because I begin with walking, a great place for the process to evolve and happen. I immediately bought a copy for myself and can't wait for it to arrive.

I'll be adding photographs to Flickr and Facebook regularly…or find me on Instagram!

Thanks for reading.