Seattle for Two Weeks, Part 1

Jaume Plensa’s 46-foot-tall Echo at Olympic Sculpture Park,

first time seeing this, love the powerful visual illusion at work here

I spent two wonderful weeks in my old haunt, Seattle, spending time with friends, visiting favorite places, and eating really good food. The weather was killer: bright sun, blue sky, light breeze. It was cloudy only a few days and rained once, and even those days were lovely. The city looked more beautiful than ever in full bloom of spring. Here are some of my daily observations from favorite places and artists:

Frank Gehry's EMP

Heron in Flight by Eras MFK and Doc Rot

Something Like This Design, another unexpected new favorite

from The New Frontier: Young Designer-Makers in the Pacific Northwest, Bellevue Arts Museum

Richard Serra's Wake, Olympic Sculpture Park,

an "old" favorite I never tire of spending time with

Thanks for reading.

The Pearl Piece Update #2

Whenever I make new work, I do a lot of research. I've mentioned how I read books, study articles, and listen to podcasts on the topics I want to illustrate in jewelry, objects, and installations. I like gathering information and adding knowledge and depth to my ideas. I tend to start with Wikipedia or a general Google search and things begin to open up. I look at the books I own and try to find new titles. I talk to friends and colleagues and often our conversations lend interesting thoughts and sources. Recently, a friend recommended a book titled Jewels: A Secret History by Victoria Finlay. The book details various kinds of jewels including pearls and I fiercely read each page of this chapter. It's a fascinating combination of history, lore, and personal experience, describing the origins of the name, how pearls are cultured, and a variety of stories about pearls from Julius Caesar to Mikimoto. This lead me to remembering my own experiences with historical pearl jewelry during my travels from the British Museum to the Victoria and Albert to the Palazzo Pitti. Here are a few pictures:

seed pearl jewelry

hand-shaped pearl pin

pearl and garnet necklace

Thanks for reading.

Textílsetur, Part 3

mountains and hills on a snowy day in Vatnsdalur 

I have gone on a bunch of day trips and little outings in just the last two weeks including a tannery in Sauðárkrókur, a drive through Vatnsdalur, and a tour of the wool processing factory here in Blönduós. I have learned a lot of interesting things and seen some really cool stuff. The director of Textílsetur Íslands, Jóhanna Pálmadóttir, has been very generous to drive the January interns and me all around while sharing her extensive knowledge of the area. From getting acquainted with 250 sheep to hearing about how fish are being studied at a research lab to the undeniable landscape that is all around, I am inspired in big and small ways. 

sheep pelts at Sútarinn, the tannery in Sauðárkrókur

the vault of Þingeyrarkirkja with 1000 stars, 1877, Vatnsdalur

hanging out with a lamb on the farm of Jóhanna Pálmadóttir

close-up of Kattarauga (Cat's Eye), 

a deep, warm-water pool with two floating islands, Vatnsdalur 

detail of a textile pattern at the Textile Museum

bags and bags of wool waiting to be washed at Ístex, a wool processing factory in Blönduós

detail of a frozen Lump fish, the skin is used in research at BioPol in Skagaströnd

See more pictures on Flickr.

Thanks for reading.

To the Great Lakes

On Wednesday I fly to Allendale, MI to teach for two days at Grand Valley State University. I've not been to Allendale before and I'm looking forward to visiting a new place and to being close to one of the magnificent Great Lakes. I will teach two process classes on Thursday and Friday, critique student work in one-on-one sessions and give a public lecture. My schedule is packed for those two days but I hope to fit in a walk or two. Then on Saturday I will attend ArtPrize, an annual international arts competition in nearby Grand Rapids. Fresh off my last Visiting Artist experience at RISD, I am super-excited to meet and work with students at GVSU and explore a new place.

If you live in the Allendale/Grand Rapids area, please come say hello at my lecture on Thursday, September 25 at 7pm at the GVSU Mary Idema Pew Library 030, Atrium Level. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Thanks for reading.

Into the Middle

standing in a canyon at Þingvellir

Just five days before I flew back to the US, I drove a Ford Expedition basically into the middle of Iceland, or into the Highlands. The Highlands are volcanic dessert and cover the interior of Iceland. The landscape is vast and flat and covered with rocks of varying sizes and a thick layer of dirt and ash. There are a few oasis and the ultimate destination for this trip was one of them, Hveravellir, a geothermal nature reserve complete with steam, bubbling water, natural hot pool and lush grass. 

But, before getting there, a few stops were made including some of Iceland's "classics" like Þingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir. Þingvellir marks where tectonic plates of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge meet and is now one of my favorite places in Iceland.

ever-present rainbow at Gullfoss

walking in snow near Langjökull glacier

mineral deposits at Hveravellir

driving through the Highlands in the fog at 1:30am

Hvítá glacial river, 2:30am

See more pictures of this trip here and read about my other trips here and here and here. 

Thanks for reading.

New Land, Old Ice

walking on new land

At the end of May I drove south again, but this time to Vestmannaeyjar and later to Sólheimajökull. Vestmannaeyjar is an archipelago of 15 tiny islands and I spent two days on the largest one, Heimaey. In 1973 the volcano Eldfell erupted and the lava flow destroyed part of the town here but increased the size of the island by 25%. Walking on the "new" land at just 41 years old was an incredible experience.

After Vestmannaeyjar, the next stop was Sólheimajökull, a glacier tongue that extends down to the lowlands from the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap. I walked carefully on the ice in my hiking boots, being thoughtful with each step. I was very much aware of the power of this ancient ice and moved about in a quiet, reverent manner.

Other highlights from the trip included a canyon that looked like something out of a fairytale and a hidden waterfall...

Heimaey harbor

volcano on Heimaey

Sólheimajökull

canyon at the foot of Eyjafjöll mountain near Ásólfsskáli

Gljúfurárfoss

See more pictures 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.

The Possibility of Place

This week I have shared two recent road trips with you, through brief text and photographs. A few months ago I was interviewed by SUNY New Paltz MFA student, Maia Leppo, and she asked me about "place." I thought I would share some of my answer with you now because it goes so well with these recent travel experiences. The following is unedited but abridged:

"Place is important to me because it effects me, and thus my work, on a very base or primal and emotional level, and also quite deeply. My surroundings influence how I live and they influence my mood and attitude... 

I think I probably could create work anywhere... Place is a challenge that can be channeled in a special way, in ways that one cannot comprehend until experiencing it first hand, and maybe not even then. 

…Place, especially a new one, influences my work and my process in ways I cannot begin to imagine or expect… I try to not think about what my experience will be like before I get there, too. I try to travel to this new place without expectation, which is a very challenging thing to do, but it is possible. I don’t even like to read about the place before I arrive. I like to have an open mind and not predispose myself to any sort of attitude or emotion…Then when I arrive I take it all in in a relaxed, yet excited way. I walk for miles on end for hours at a time. I carry a map, a notebook, pencils, and my camera. I take pictures of everything, 100s, 1000s of photos. I make notes, I write down how I feel, I write about things I see…and I create facts for myself, evidence…and all of it gets under my skin and comes out through my work. Some things are obvious and clear, while some things are so quiet and subtle I don’t notice until later, perhaps when I have begun a different project... Place educates me on things I have never experienced: culture, landscape, history, people…and inevitably my mind is opened even further and my perspective changes. I like to meet people, I like to sit and watch people, I like trying all sorts of new foods and find music and art that was created there. I visit museums and historical buildings. I look to tucked away spaces and places that only locals know about. I wander, I walk every street or along miles of coast, I walk through beautiful neighborhoods and less than desirable ones, fields and forests, I walk down alleys maybe I shouldn’t walk down and climb through places that are a bit treacherous…and sometimes I just sit and do absolutely nothing. None of this can be expected to happen or forced. I don’t think it would mean as much or feel as important. For me, these new experiences also create humility, empathy and compassion. And finally, all of this ends up relating to previous experiences in other places. They play off one another and I may begin to recognize patterns or answer questions I didn’t even know I had. What ends up happening is I get to know myself better as a person and as an artist. It’s amazing to me."

Thanks for reading.

Road Trip No. 2

Kirkjufell mountain on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula

Just this past weekend I celebrated my 40th birthday with another road trip, this time visiting places around the Reykjanes and Snæfellsnes Peninsulas… steam, hot springs and bubbling mud, unreal mountains, miles of lava rocks, basalt column cliffs, sleepy towns, a shipwreck, opalescent water, the most wonderful natural hot pot and a sunset, a singing cave with graffiti from the 1700s, dramatic cloudscapes… again, a mix of adventure and beautifully quiet moments. There couldn't have been a better way to spend such an important birthday.

Please visit my Flickr to see more photos from the trip!

Krýsuvík geothermal area

Blue Lagoon

Gerðuberg basalt column cliff

Stykkishólmur

Grimsby fishing trawler Epine, wrecked March 13, 1948 at Djúpalónssandur

Thanks for reading.

Road Trip No. 1

lava field

A few weeks ago I went on a road trip from Reykjavík to Höfn. The drive took my friend and I along the south coast of the island with many stops along the way, a few planned and many spontaneous... waterfalls, massive rocks and the sea, an abandoned plane, fields of moss-covered lava, glaciers and glacial lagoons, icebergs, ruins of old houses and barns, black sand beaches, hot pots and a very old pool built into the side of a mountain. I think my favorite moments were the ones in which time seemed to stand still or to not even exist. What a good feeling. It was an amazing experience!

You can see all my photos on Flickr.

steam and snow

a very old croft or turf house

DC 3/Sólheimasandi

an abandoned US Navy plane on a black sand beach

Heinabergsjökull, glacial lagoon

the Atlantic Ocean at Vík

Thanks for reading.

Taking It All In

sometimes I feel like my eyes are in my hands

It's been just a few days since I've arrived and I'm just beginning to take it all in. Jet lag has been pretty rough on me, which is not unusual, but is something I seem to forget every time. I barely sleep with jet lag even though I am exhausted and then I find it hard to concentrate and motivate. I'm feeling some pressure due to the amount of time I have, but I imagine this working to my advantage once I have a more concrete idea. I know I can't force any of this, but I have to keep the timing in mind. Striking a balance between these will be a challenge, staying on task while allowing things to happen naturally… I have gone on a few walks so far, just wandering with a few destinations in mind. So far I am thinking about islands and the connections we create as we go from place to place. I'm wondering about how I create home in a new place, especially a new place that is also foreign. I'm also looking closely at roof lines and these funny pruned trees. I will continue to walk and observe today and tomorrow and then I'll regroup. The actual creation really needs to begin on Wednesday…

islands off the coast of Sweden

today I will travel to the islands of the Southern Archipelago

little floating islands

I could have watched these guys for hours, they just floated on their backs the whole time

rooflines and street light

these oddly pruned trees are all over Gothenburg

See more images on Flickr.

Thanks for reading.