day 14 at ox-bow

so i started making a really large rust print yesterday and will keep working on that for the next couple of days. I think I am starting to get too settled in i am getting anxious about leaving and transitioning back into my regular studio life, and i am especially nervous about the sumter gig after this.Last night there was a dance party here and that was cool, tonight we are having pizza for dinner so that will be nice.

day 13 at ox-bow

when i came into the studio this morning one of the stacks of bags had toppled over and i thought that was interesting
so i stacked it back up and waited for it to fall again and caught it on video this time

So i gave my little talk last night along with two other artists. One was this faux naive painter john parot, and the other was a korean painter named chae eun rhee. The night before was a talk by a self described conceptual artist named artur silva, and another chicago faux naive named rob doran. The longer i stay here the more i am learning about the chicago art scene. There seems to be a real penchant for “expressive work” coming out of chicago. Or more accurately work in the style of expression. Many of the artists make their work as a therapy or way to air the dirty laundry of their personal lives. They feel it necessary to present themselves as outsiders and damaged goods and use their artwork as a vehicle for expressing their perceived flaws. The work presents itself as if it is a uniquely personal work or approach, but in fact the work is highly stylized and composed and borrows form some of the most academic techniques and approaches known to art making. I mention this because for me art making is an activity, I prefer to express my personal anxieties in other arenas. I enjoy discovering new materials, and processes and enjoy making objects and images. I say all this because after i gave my talk and realized that everyone else who gave their talk talked about how their personal lives and a sense of being damaged goods, trying to express their discomfort with the world, that i was just sort of happy go lucky(i mean i ended with a fart joke...which i guess is expressive on some level). I like my job as an artist, but I can honestly see myself moving on in a couple of years. Being here at ox-bow, surrounded by painters who are trying to express themselves, has made me aware that there is a limit to my commitment to the myth and role of the artist. I say all this now, but it may just be because i have work up in three group shows right now and i am about to start a really difficult site piece in sumter in 2 weeks and i just sent off 3 more applications and in november i am going to the vermont studio center so i may just be feeling a bit of justified anxiety. Oh well maybe two more weeks at ox-bow will help me sort this out.

day 11 and 12 at ox bow

so since some of the bags blew off of the big bag stack i started making a vertical stack around the lights i constructedi got this far on the large basket and decided to give it a rest, maybe forever
right before the bags fell down they started to get these interesting cracks and fissures along the seems, and then they fell off

i did laundry today, and was reminded of how difficult it is to get several jeans to dry at the same time in one dryer. I also got back into this really great book i was reading called the paradox of choice. Tonight i have to give my little 30 minute slide talk, I have totally over thought it and made a full blown power point complete with video and text and what not. I am still debating whether or not to include some lip dub videos in the talk, although they are not technically part of my "body of work".

day 9 and 10 at ox-bow

so these are a couple new photoshops i did this morning to make myself more comfortable with what i will potentially do in sumter



although it is hard tio see i am holding up a wire armature that is roughly the shape of the outline of my body
so this seems to be a good solution for the brazed pipe piece, i like that it looks like a contractor's folly for a hotwater line.

so that's two trips worth of sticks from starbucks. it is harder to get stir sticks here since the starbucks is a full 20 minutes away.

i got a phone call yesterday from a very confused woman at the sumter cultural council. She wanted to know why some many boxes of coffee stirrers were just delivered to her office, I explained that they were in fact materials for the accessibility exhibition. I also went to holland yesterday to work on another application, and to exchange a faulty pipe cutter at the home depot. While i was there i swung by the starbucks and relieved them of their excess stir sticks. I started a large basket in the studio using my self as the pattern, we will see where that goes. i also reached a bit of a resolution with the copperbrazing piece, and definitely have some ideas of what to do with it. I am starting to wonder what benefit i am getting out of being here, but i know from past experiences with uncomfortable feelings in tight knit artists communities that the benefits will reveal themselves after the fact.

day 8 at ox-bow

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i only went to starbucks once so this was all the stir sticks i could get this time



i have been adding to the pins bit by bitso i am starting to get the hang of the brazing and i now have an idea what tp dp with this piece



the relative solitude and peace here at ox-bow was at once disturbed and enhanced this weekend with the arrival of re-enforcement artists from chicago. The new crop of chicagoans all seem to know each other giving the impression that chicago must be both a big city and a small town where everybody knows everybody. I managed to fiddle around in the studio part of today and to work on another application for a nother residency. There is a certain irony about working on a residency application while one is already an artist in residence. Tomorrow i need to go back to home depot to exchange the pipe cutter i bought for cutting copper pipe and to do some more research at the local starbucks.

day 7 at ox-bow

i think i am realizing that my time here may be spent best as time away from the studio routine. Today i found myself incredibly uneasy with the surrounding natural environment. The constant chirp of the crickets in the studio drove me over the edge. To cope with my overwhelming discomfort with the natural world i retreated to my natural environment, startbucks. Thankfully there are three within driving distance of here, providing a much needed outlet. I did however take a brief walk around the campus and discovered an incredibly disturbing sculpture installation.

Day 5 & 6 at ox-bow

yesterday was the fall open house at ox-bow. Several members of the community came through the studios to look at what we have been up to.the event was really nice and i got to speak with some people from the town, one of which offered me some free materials from a barn he was renovating. Today i did laundry, and tonight i think people are going bowling in the town. after several days of mild weather it got downright hot today. I have been working on the bag stack, and several failed attempts at copper brazing. I am not sure if i am getting more comfortable around here or if i am getting bored with what i am working on. I have not been able to bring myself to start on the next couple of rust prints, but maybe tomorrow i will.

day four at ox-bow

this light puts a nice glow through the fiberglass chair, that is hard to see in the day time.
in an effort to teach myself a new trick i got a bunch of copper pipe elbows and have been trying to teach myself improper techniques for brazing copper.
so these lights were in the 50% off section of the hardware store and i just built fixtures around them the way they were.
this is a long view of the studio

last night was really exciting two of the other artists, japeth mennes and Rebbecca Baldwin, gave artists lectures. after their lectures we had a fire and made s'mores, and spent our time gushing about a mutual love for public radio personalities and other things arty. I am getting into a strange routine. i feel a bit like jerry from edward albee's the zoo story. Jerry explains how he " has been to the zoo" and proceeds to give play by play of how he walked north and how he went to the zoo and ended up in the park. Well I went to The home depot yesterday to get brazing supplies to braze steel wire with. I actually got the wrong stuff and ended up with copper brazing supplies. No worries so i ventured out to the local hardware store to get steel brazing rod, but they do not stock it. The cashier told me that if i went to the right for 8 miles i would hit the blinking light and then if i turned left there and went another 2 miles i would hit fenville and that the true value hardware store there would have the rod. Sure enough hey had the rod, but they also had a 50% off table with three of the circular fluorescent energy efficient bulbs on it. So i bought those three bulbs because i thought it would be cool to see them just lit up by themselves. I bought outlet and wire and some plug and wired up my very on set of in the box lamps. Tonight two of the other artists are lecturing and hopefully following that will be another fire.

day 3 at ox bow

Monday i ventured out a little and discovered a dollar general store with some pretty amazing bargains, like all these balls for 10 bucks. They were in packs of 4 that were normally a dollar but they were 25% off. I also “discovered” an office furniture manufacturing plant and talked with the secretary there about getting some of their scrap. She put me in touch with the plant manager, but i only got his voicemail. She was optimistic that as long as corporate approved them giving away their scrap it would be okay. So i will give it a day and then i will head back there again. I made it to the local lumber store which is incredibly overpriced, if i need anything that the dollar general doesn’t sell, then i will just drive the 20 minutes to home depot. Well here comes day three of my residency and i am starting to figure out how best to use my time here



The silence is deafening. No really the noise from the crickets the hum of the fixtures in our shared studios, the sound of silence is giving me a headache. I am not sure what to do with my time here. I am not really into escapism and isolation so the rural setting is thus far lost on me. I did however find myself very still in the studio this morning as the sun was coming up, and made this video as a meditation on silence.

day two at ox-bow

i think i will take a break from working today and just explore the area and get some new ideas. I have met some of the other artists in passing but haven't really gotten to know anybody all that well. This is probably mostly my fault since i go to bed around 10:30, and get up around 6:00. I think I am starting to get anxious being here, so i hope that leads to some new ideas and work. i orderd 25,000 stir sticks yesterday for the sumter show and i hope that will be enough.

day one at ox-bow

so this is a strange view of my bedroom



i did this last night after dinner

so this is my first attempt at combining the coffee cups and the rust imagery some test patterns
just making myself right at home

i woke up this morning and got showered and dressed to head to the studio like any other morning but then i caught myself reaching for my keys. Now i just have to walk around the corner to get to my studio. Although I am in a shared studio with 3 other artists, there are several outdoor spaces that can be utilized here. This morning i checked on some rust prins i started after dinner last night and then began some new ones. I am trying to get several test patterns before i start on the 20 foot roll of paper. I think this is the beginning of a happy compromise merging my pattern making work with my coffee obsession and fortunately i have time and space to see it through out here.