OCTOBER
Greetings all I hope this finds you well and happy! It’s exciting to work together and I am looking forward to seeing what you are all up to!
The new work started in Berlin and is available in August and September blog posts on my web site. the current post for October has questions in Red and links in Blue, ideas, writing, and work.
After thinking about the agreement it might be taken there’s too much to look at, but the reality is this month is lacking in output in comparison to my normal production. I keep a minimal requirement of myself and this month falls short. BUT if you don’t have the time or feel I’m imposing just review visually and don’t worry about the rest.
Sculpture Research Paper-
https://www.michellevara.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/10/miChelleVara_no237_2016.pdf
Again I am away from my studio home for the week so follow the link below at our scheduled times and your convenience- https://www.michellevara.com/2016/10/02/october-monthly-progress-post-2016/
Hi there miChelle! –Greeting Julia
good to see your work from the last few months – for someone who says you haven’t done much, you seem to be very prolific! When you did your 30 minute presentation in Berlin, I was not alone in watching all the work and being impressed with your output and all the ways and means you use to express.
I’m sure that you have favorites in the work that you do, but also I’m so impressed in how you are not just sifting, but diving, and digging deep, doing lots of work to get to the SEED or kernel of truth in your work.
Your seeds of joy really speak to me. I love all the ways you approached the simple form of the sunflower seed, in itself a wonderful metaphor on many levels, and found compositions and colors to extract from one tiny simple idea. That is a true challenge – how do you continue to explore something that seems simple,-
mV- It really presented itself in a lecture I heard myself say – seeds of in reference to describing and connecting. On the way home I thought about how many seeds of ideas i could connect with the Joy and how it could actually blossom. I begun calling them out to my husband. That night i looked them up and drew the first one so as to not lose the momentum. The next day stopped and bought a bag of sunflower seeds and started looking at them- they were so beautiful it seemed very simple. From there it seemed seeds were everywhere! Since the blog post i have created a book from the drawings. The journey was in joy! But the dimension of thought they have opened is so numerous i can’t begin to list.
J- is really a deeply held idea and journey for the artist. It’s magic.
As I looked at these pieces, I felt pulled in by the colors and how each composition was radically different than the previous one. Lines were expressive, simple, or thick and heavy, the oil pastel was rich and creamy, and the colors held the compositions together when used.
The seeds of joy morphed into different thoughts and impressions and a very strong feminist voice emerged – some of the shapes are very sensual, vulvular, like a pudenda in some – it reminds me of the work of Judy Chicago – her best work “The Dinner Party” which is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum in NY. Here’s a short paragraph from their website:
Yes, I have seen it at BM but never drew the connecting line.
“The Dinner Party comprises a massive ceremonial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of thirty-nine place settings, each commemorating an important woman from history. The settings consist of embroidered runners, gold chalices and utensils, and china-painted porcelain plates with raised central motifs that are based on vulvar and butterfly forms and rendered in styles appropriate to the individual women being honored. “
I ordered the book- Thanks
was dismissed for her work being offensive at the time, but this was her motif – female genitalia – the feminist work she did as an artist coming into her own. If interested, anyone, read her book “Through the Flower” – it was written to help young female artists during a time when women as artists were even less respected than they are today. It’s still is and certainly way an old boy’s network in the 70’s and 80’s – at least in NYC at the time. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/
Back to the seeds of joy idea, I’m sure you’ve seen Ai Weiwei’s work –Yes “Sunflower Seeds” from 2010. I’ve read that artists going to that show and conscripted a handful into their pockets when no one was looking! The seeds are 100 million miniature sculptures of porcelain representing the population of China – one seed for every 13 Chinese person. Ai Weiwei person. Ai Weiwei saved a Chinese village by employing the residents to make the seeds – and considers the work as a “mass production.” It took 1600 people 2-½ years to make. There’s a great article on this by art critic Sarah Thornton, in her book “33 Artists in 3 Acts.”
The opening review of that book is -the world’s most important living artists humanize and demystify contemporary art. I think for me the one thing that has become very evident on my path is HUMANIZE – my current body of work is strung with this realization of importance and whispers distinct value i hold in relationship with other and self! Do you have the article if so would you photograph so I could read?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/arts/design/19sunflower.html
I love that your father was a Zen Buddhist Master (Masha Allah, as they say in the Arab world!) – and you have this from your childhood as a “seed” to guide you in life. I agree that our own thought processes and consciousness is all we have control over and it’s all we own – and no it’s not easy to work with in this difficult time in the world, but yes, for me too miChelle, it feeds my Soul. I once heard the phrase “The greatest power you have is the choice of what your next thought will be.” On this note, I also believe we manifest our thoughts in the plastic ethers of what we call our life around us. As a man thinketh, so is he. That sort of thing.
Your phrase as the gardener of images and objects is very succinct and again has all kinds of metaphoric images that come to me. I see it in the breadth of your work so clearly.
Yes – Metaphoric- its thoughts and reactions on many levels of experience- existence, but with the simplicity of form that I was choosing. the Seed can apply to so many applications of life. The process of oil pastel is so euphoric and simple, truly what an art process should be when its all working together.
All the seed analogies to joy are engaging to me as an idea and also as a process to go within myself – not to mention the artistic nature of what you did.
Each piece, though simple holds the energy of your consciousness.
They must look incredible as a series up on a wall – what are the sizes I was wondering.
They fill one sketch book and then a few 8.5 x 11, the book is 5.5 x 11.
I have made them into a book.
It was jolting to jump to the opposite of joy and see the images produced with blood and the like… Yes -their supposed to jolt out of comfort zone! Funny though for me they worked back to joy and I should mention brought a lot of thought to the forefront of reality- Humanity? the world and where its at? How we look treat others?
so I think I’ll just keep basking with your seeds for now! Lovely Lovely work, miChelle!
Where are our group its looking like no one is going to communicate?
I have just emailed lets see what happens?
THank you for your review and time! ~m
Thanks for sharing your work.
A real wide range of expressions and mediums. Although it seemed a very minor part of your current work, I found the Altered states of Process and Reality’s photo especially effective. The way that it flattens out and abstracts the materiality of (I presume) metal is really Dream-life and powerful. I think it would be interesting part of series if you chose to pursue, and really makes an interesting contrast with what I normally associate as the materiality and tactile-ness of your practice.
Briefly, re some of the other work on your blog:
The anti-joy works – dismemberment and pain were difficult — effective and unpleasant.
The breadth of color / shapes and perspectives of the seed paintings were rich, lush and sexy.
The most masterful piece seemed to be the no.237 “Nucleus of Atom” – which clearly reflected your love of texture and material. Powerful, authoritative piece. It really takes over when placed next to no.238 “False Positive”, which feels more temporary and transitory, next to it, maybe your intent.
Yes– Sweet Raphael -Thank you
Thank you for sharing your work. Sounds like a full and productive time in your practice.
And I hope your lecture went well. -Raphael
Yes- Wonderful young adults with wild questions and perspectives!
Hello Michelle!
-First off, I’m totally digging the top image in this document!
Everything Always Works Out~ for me and you!
-Things can certainly only be, what they are going to be!
So obviously you are well aware after reading my blog and the on going work in utopian aesthetics. I haven’t started reading this book yet: https://smile.amazon.com/Dancing-Streets-History-Collective-Joy/dp/0805057242/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477597580&sr=1-1&keywords=dancing+in+the+streets
But perhaps if you wanted to we could read it simultaneously and have ourselves a little book club?Sounds good just ordered it.
The seed as an act of reproduction, even the shape of the shell is vulvular (I guess that’s not a word). This act of reproduction both in the act of intimacy and the aftermath of birth both kind of rang through this series for me as I looked through it. Perhaps that’s a bit literal, but it also feels like such a core element, asking the question of what seed are we? We are a million seeds.
Yes- this was the fodder for idea that has so many aspects I could actually create more because, really- everything is somehow related! Not hard- very simplistic! Yes I am a very literal person! I have cleared that with the office!_hahah
I know my Joy do you know Yours?
Before I even started investigating joy, I knew it’s origins for myself and what i perceived as an easily accessible way into it for most people… Music.
Agreed _ Music is vibration -vibration is at the core of many things like healing etc. there is so much information on this subject it actually becomes overwhelming! I think its easier to move Humans to or through emotion, action with music than visual art. I have learned a lot about sound over the last year!
The ability of music to force people into a mental state can also certainly be used for unsavory endeavours, such as Hitler using Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ as Nazi propaganda or the countless other times it has been bastardized.
I did a bunch of research on “Ode to JOY” that piece has really been around the block. did you know its a Schiller’s poem (Joy, beautiful spark of divinity,) then it became Beethoven’s and michael Jackson used it in his opening for “Will you be there”. But always a monument! Interesting so much success (Hitler is that a success? – sorry I could help opening that can.) for so long in many different hands of perspective and not always joy as expected.
the question becomes what do I do with that- in the parameters of research and writing a paper?
Well, I think there is a body of academic work to pull from on the subject, I know some from the Performance Studies, one of which I shared above, but I think even the Zen vs. Christianity duality- (Excellent idea) you have going on now, would be a basis for a kind of comparative religions looks at the topic in relationship to your work. How you talk about about it as an chased after aesthetic, well… I’ll keep you posted on that one.
Garand Shot… well this is fun and must have been fun to make!
I continue to be amazed by the amount. Scope and depth of your work. I look forward to hearing more and talking it up about joy. THanks JP
Best, Jp
Hi miChelle, Thanks for your post!
I love the Seed of Joy works. You might find it interesting to contrast with a number of Ai Wei Wei’s works which use seed imagery, albeit not remotely from the viewpoint of joy.
Interesting: Im talking about the extreme swing that occurs: FROM/ in / out/ around/ of- “JOY”! it has caused obvious physiological outcome!
find that these particular works of yours read highly sensuously – was that your intent?
Partially- in simplicity one needs stimulation so I used intention in the batter. Because the scope of ideas is so large in the simple seed i also think it offers a natural sensuality.
I always find it interesting to see many reiterations of a theme. Although there is the repeated vocabulary of shapes, the way in which you re-invent each with colour and space I find compelling. I am especially drawn to those works in which the seed is imperfect: torn, or broken in some way. Somehow they feel the most joyful to me – joy as being hard-earned? ?
HArd Earned never thought of that interesting! Ill have to digest that idea.
Regarding Keifer’s techniques:
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- Remember that video we watched at your place on Kiefer? I remember that after we watched it (You Tube?) there was another video that came up after that showed him working on some of those paintings, and a couple of his assistants were shown in conversation with his gallerist (?- at least I remember it as being his gallerist). I tried to look for it and couldn’t find it, but maybe you have it bookmarked? I’ll send the link on if I can ever find it!!!
- · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmn-w2J68pU I think this is one of the ones we saw?
· Another artist to look at in this regard might be Sylvia Saftie
Lehav is very reminiscent of the shape Ive been working. Her paintings have a very similar feel as my tar paintings. She doesnt introduce color- I will have to read further on her.
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- Carol Bernier is another artist http://www.carolbernier.com/en/accueil.php
- Joesph Beuys- LOVE him! is another artist who pushed the notions of materiality – it might be fun to revisit some of his writing and how he relates the materiality to emotion-
Funny I just finished reading some of his creative writings- his teaching and in his mature “action” and sculptural artworks, that “art” might not ultimately constitute a specialized profession but, rather, a heightened humanitarian attitude, or way of conducting one’s life, in every realm of daily activity. “action” art, the performance of which suggested how art may exercise a healing effect (on both the artist and the audience) when it takes up psychological, social, and/or political subjects. a Dead Hare symbolic potential as well as its literal significance: honey for life, gold for wealth, hare as death, metal as conductor of invisible energies, felt as protection.
was happy (see … spreading the joy!) to see how you had progressed and in what way on the works from Berlin. I’m looking forward to seeing how the larger versions of your pastels read. From what I can see here, despite your disclaimer that the photo doesn’t do the painting justice, your attempts to translate the pastel work to a larger format on canvas are successful. It can be a difficult thing to have a work which was so visceral translate to another format and maintain its integrity and intent, but I think you were able to do it! Thank you!
I love the last piece! It brings to mind the grittiness of Francis Bacon, but with your vocabulary of colour and intensity. Although you say that this work came out of the antithesis of joy, it feels as though the remnants of hope cling firmly to it.
Hope is the brother to Joy. hope is the first stepping stone in the quarry path.
The dichotomy of colour and emotion, gesture and form is something I certainly think you can bring to a discussion of your work. Emotions are not absolute–
I just attended a lecture where that was the platform of subject and i really gathered looking at psychology of Joy is all an emotional perspective.
there is always an economy of scale to consider.
I believe that is the indicator of which one can change onlooker perspective through. (again Hope of persuasion) I think a lot of artist use scale as a crutch when they can’t find voice. I want the work powerful in any scale.
An examination of Yin and Yang is not always about polar opposites, but degree. What degree of joy is sufficient?
Any degree- even no Joy – it only matters that one find relief of negative/ grief. weather minor or major release in any or all ways. I have come to realize that joy live in all aspects of life it more about how to find its glimmer and hang on. The longer you can hang on to it the more you see and share which ends up making one the joy bearer/ sharer!
What would be relevant for creating the scale against which you measure degrees of emotion?
I think Ive been testing that through the works you see recently. the scale becomes the scope of work – doing the anti Joy which by the way is how I found new or hidden Joy through to the common object and how they are rendered. That even leads to where object, space placement can insinuate- tickle or inspire- emotion!
Your work is a reflection of yourself,
-all artwork is a reflection of self no matter how hidden! We can only communicate our experiences without words. I think that frustrates some people whith which that frustration would better fuel visual conversation than the dead works they pursue. Isn’t that why we research?
so in what ways is it possible to define a scale in terms of others? And is that necessary?
Love that you’re bending cause and effect- but I am going to have to say other outcome is not mine as intention and yes love it when the work speaks to another but I seek not to attempt that focus I do hope to stimulate -keeping self-engaged entertained, connected and that is all. It’s hard not to comment visually about the world around us. The now is so dramatic! Even though my work is on Joy it pertains to the Geometry of and is alive!
Your sculptures, as always, have such strong pivot point to them. They seem impossibly placed in space until you consider that their negative space provides resting points (we’ve had this conversation before!). The use of disparate materials in which each element feels necessary speaks to your ability to edit the piece down to that which is necessary.
Looking forward to talking to you about it all!
Deborah~THankS!