Grad School: First week. Second semester.

View from a rooftop in Bushwick.

Semester Dos had a pretty epic kickoff - NYC baby!  The trip was a success - everyone made it back alive and we collected morsels of inspiration to savor for a very long time.  The days were cram-jammed with gallery, museum, and studio visits.  It was a whirlwind of awesome, all done in frozen tundra-like conditions.

Let's take this NYC biz back into the studio - how can that insane city fit into my work?  I saw an apartment with potted plant-filled windowsills which overlooked the most unnatural landscape.  In front of every residential building were countless browning, discarded, and undecorated Christmas trees mixed in with the garbage.  The lines between public and private environments are stretched as thin as humanly possible.  Spaces are built within spaces then stacked on top of more spaces.  As we were being hustled along in a crowded coffee shop my friend said, "there's just nowhere to be", which I think is a perfect description of New York.  It's as if you have to remain in motion because there is no room to stand still.

I find it all fascinating and revolting and energizing - so I am making a painting about it.  Here's the progress...

stage one

stage two

stage three

stage four

While the paint dries on the NYC painting, I have a couple of other projects in the works.  I got my mitts on some badass wallpaper scraps.  They are old and dirty and crumble at the slightest touch and I love them.  What does one do with such greatness?  Well...you laminate and layer them, you glue them to wood panels, and you cut them into squares, stack, and hang them of course.

Then it's on to researching and drawing the house.  I scored some amazing books in New York, Funeral for a Home and Playing at Home:  The House in Contemporary Art, and the stack of books wasn't high enough in the studio so I hit up TCU's library and found Rural Studio.  I am absolutely in love with the chapel-like space that serves as a connector for smaller living spaces.  It is that particular space that has my undivided attention at the moment.

from Rural Studio 

from Rural Studio