landscapes

Maybe there are too many landscape pieces out there, and each one is pretty much the same usually: the artist is impressed by the beauty and majesty of a scene and so they represent it in an art piece, often showing as little human disturbance as possible. I guess the idea is often the allure of the primitive in nature- going back to the roots of humanity, when humans supposedly lived in harmony with the world. For a long time I have tried to show the exact opposite: how humans have impacted and changed the earth, this is a major focus of mine within landscape archaeology as well. However, here is a small pen-ink landscape that pretty much is just inspired by the amazing landscape of the strange sandstone hoodoos and slot canyons surrounding Dixon, NM.

wayyy too long in coming....

The commissioned batik I started back in May...wow my practice really got interrupted when I left the big apple...but it seems to be for the better anyways. It seems that I can't make things unless I'm in the right mood, inspired in the right ways. A very intuitive matter.

This version of it is the entire bed sheet sized. I think it's the final version...next step is crayons.

New art/New Mexico

just doodling on some paper bags- recycle stuff!

possible luminaria? thank you D. Martin for the inspiration!

new paintings!

I am working on getting photographs of my senior visual art thesis project installation up here, but, for now, here are a few shots of my painting projects:
The last two were finished today, but I have yet to photograph the finished works. Soon! The first painting is small, 16x20", but the second two are large by my standards: 51x40". All oil paint on canvass.

Painting

Oil painting was a new medium for me this semester. I had never worked in it before taking the class here at CU. It still frustrates me a lot, as I am not used to using paint at all, especially oil. But the work from class today was exciting (live model!) and I had spent Sunday in the Prentis wood shop building my own stretcher bars. Luckily Tracy and Brie were there to help rip down the 2x4 on the table saw, I could never have done it without their help! Anyway, besides being excited to have a canvass I built all myself, I liked the beveled edges and the large size (57x42) which was liberating to work on with the addition of large hardware store brushes. Far from finished, I am still proud of this painting!

Shrimp sounds- do sea creatures make noise?

Writing about art

Last night during senior visual art major's seminar we had an art critic come give a talk about reviewing shows. This reminded me that I did a few art exhibit reviews for the Columbia undergraduate newspaper a while back in 2009 (thanks to Hannah Yudkin, the then art editor, who gave me that opportunity!). I wanted to share them on here, so this is the link to the Columbia Daily Spectator's website with my articles on it:

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/contributors/hannah-kligman

Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker

dry point etching on zinc plate, printed in burnt umber ink, 2011

Shrimp

Squishy Objects

Clay-eats-clay World
claymation
2010

works in progress

large block, ~30x38", carved with dremel, unfinished


smaller block, ~10x18 ", unfinished, both hand carved and dremel carved
man in hazmat suit collects dead blackbirds, inspired by media coverage images of the Arkansas event


large block again, silhouette of blackbirds taking off from a tree, unfinished
this was inspired by images I found in the media coverage of the Arkansas event, however it is also inspired by a reoccurring dream of mine that involves a giant flock of birds and the end of modern civilization as we know it.



Wood block carving is taking me a lot longer to finish than I thought. I probably was a bit ambitious with the four 30x38 " blocks I cut the other week because it's taking forever to finish even one. I am envisioning a series focusing on the black bird kill in Arkansas that happened this past New Years Eve. But this event expands into a host of environmental disasters that have/are happening all over the world lately. I am especially intrigued by the conspiracy theories that are floating around regarding the bird and fish kills in Arkansas on the New Year, but I think the project could expand to other events as well, or general comments on these phenomena. The wood block medium seems especially important to this series of prints because I want them to be graphic and striking, mirroring the striking nature of these disasters. The wood block 'look' reminds me of stuff that might be seen in a propaganda poster, and the apocalyptic conspiracy theories I have been hearing lately remind me in various ways of propaganda.
Finally a timely article from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/nyregion/15doomsday.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

It's not all crack-pot conspiracy theories, there is real concern about environmental disasters and what will happen to our society afterwards. Fascinating stuff! Even in today's technology-driven world we are intimately connected to our landscape and natural surroundings.

Green heron etching

drypoint etching
2011

Octopus images

watercolor and pen
2011

still image from "The Adventures of Puss" stop motion film
2010

sharpie, sketch of Robbie Gordon, Mesa Elder, for "Oral Histories in the Land of Enchantment" stop motion film
2010

drypoint etching, an unfortunate moth I found on the window sill
2010

pen, Northern Yellow Shafted Flicker
2011