WW14: Root System

Feb 14, 2018

It was warm afternoon. The ground has thawed somewhat and even shows some promise of spring. I used the shovel to extract a fragment of the garden to put in the two containers as terrariums.

Feb 20, 2018

The terrariums continue to sit outside in the backyard, a few feet from where they started.  The large bottle has been covered with another glass pot, the fish tank has been open to the elements and got quite a bit of snow over the weekend. Comparatively the soil in the large bottle seems very dry, so I left it open for the time being.  I would like to find a large stopper for the bottle and a large piece of plexiglass to cover the fish tank.

As I facilitate this backyard specimen I am reminded of this article that I’d seem circulating the internet about a man who put some dirt and a seed in a bottle many years ago: 

https://www.boredpanda.com/sealed-bottle-garden-david-latimer/

I am also reminded of The River Project, an education and research facility on the lower west side of Manhattan, outfitted with a series of tanks where they temporarily house local marine life in a specially designed system that constantly cycles through water to and from the Hudson River.

Hello Wonder Women! The first link is the pages I have scanned – excerpts from Wangari Maathai’s ‘Replenishing the Earth’ for shared reading. the first two spreads are separate excerpts, and then Chapter Four ‘the Power of Trees’. Would love to hear what you think!

RE_2excerpts_Chapter4

Also, I read this article about Swoon’s art activism and white privilege. It was an interesting read for me. I was familiar with Swoon’s work and did not know she was white, and don’t really know much about her background. I know a bit about her work and that she has a Foundation with a humanitarian mission. The article is calling her out for being silent about her privilege as a successful young white artist, and while it doesn’t seem to come right out and say she is exploiting her subjects, at the very least the critique is that she is not going in depth enough with her chosen ‘activism’ jumping from place to place, and that her worldview is naive. If any of you have a chance to read and have any perspective, I’d love to hear it.

https://hyperallergic.com/427544/swoon-the-canyon-1999-2017-contemporary-arts-center/

Have a happy and productive week, look forward to seeing you all next Sunday!

UPDATE: I fixed the polygons on the skirt, now this is an accurate representation of the data

model v3 from Sharon De La Cruz on Vimeo.

data skirt v1 from Sharon De La Cruz on Vimeo.

I finally figured out how to plot data points onto the skirt. This was a huge challenge for me since I’m just learning python but I figured it out with the help of some friends and good ol’ google and stack overflow. I like this piece as a version one. I’m not completely in love with it. I’m going to play with smoothing the skirt and the design and placement.

I’ve also talked to a friend whose 3D printed on a variety of material and she recommended resin.  By the end of this week I’m going to send this piece off to be printed. VERY SCARY. I’ll upload more design tweaks next week.

http://marionwilson.com/

http://www.marymattingly.com/

http://www.ellendriscoll.net/

https://www.vanceartworks.com/

http://marymiss.com/
particularly her “water” related projects

http://melchin.org/oeuvre/art21-chin
and his particular work, Playdirt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV71FeUgFjk

Midori Yoshimoto, Ph.D.
Gallery Director/ Associate Professor of Art History
Art Department
New Jersey City University
2039 Kennedy Blvd.
Jersey City, NJ 07305
T: 201-200-2197
F: 201-200-3224
http://www.njcu.edu/center-arts/visual-arts

Yesterday was a beautiful day with the sun warming every surface. The structure of the Ark will be completed by this weekend, even though I must move inside to avoid the coming rains.

Week 3 Gaia Ark Project

Tuesday, February 13, 2018. The weather today is more agreeable than yesterday and I think it might get all the way up to 38 degrees, therefore, I can begin working outside today. Today I am layout out and cutting the base for the Ark project from recycled butcher block and making the pattern for the keel and ribs.

I have cut and repurposed the butcher block deconstructing it into thin strips of oak. It is really very beautiful and straight. It must be at least 40 years old as it lived in my kitchen when I lived in New York City. I have sanded off any old finish, leaving only the marks of age and use. Finding this piece in the corner of my basement was fortunate as if anyone else had come across it the result would be living in dumpsterhood.

At “State of the DysUnion” multi-media installation, artist Joyce Yu-Jean Lee shared amazing resource “newseum” a website that posts front page of the daily newspapers across the globe:http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

Week 2  February 7, 2018

It’s a strange sensation taking the train again to Jersey City. In the past, my journey involved walking 1.5 miles to the train station in Metuchen, taking the train to Newark. Changing to the PATH onto Journal Square and then the #10 Bus down Kennedy Blvd to NJCU. Now stopping at Journal Sq. and walking one block seems so easy. It’s a relief really…not having to drive. It frees my mind to wander; sometimes getting into the weeds but always pulled back to reality when the next stop is announced. But this coming Sunday I will be driving to Jersey City. It is expedient and it will be pouring rain. I don’t need to torture myself to get to NJCU.

February 12, 2018 Week 3

Leaving our residency meeting at several minutes past six last night I found that a fog as dense as matted cat fur had descended on the streets of Jersey City. The Newark Bay bridge construction added to the uncertainty of path finding. As I ascended the bridge the fog intensified to a distinctive sodium vapor orange and with my descent the red of aircraft landing lights in the distance made traceries through the orange mist. The industrialization of the Elizabeth Seaport area and refineries are amazing and terrible at the same time.

Which brings me to a friendly comment about time and the residency, time for all of us is precious.  It feels to me that we are experiencing a little “mission creep” as the time has extended from a commitment of 5 hours to now over 7 (not including travel time). I understand the absolute need to be present and accounted for during the discussions and reviews but I for one would like to pay closer attention to the time and even volunteer to run the stop watch. I respect the other commitments we all have and feel the best way to honor ourselves is to keep to the schedule to the best of our abilities. Your thoughts?

I start construction today on the Ark Project. I have found and will recycle an old butcher block top for the base. The fine lines remind me of planking. I have worked out the dimensions of other supporting members of the construction and will use a birch plywood for the ribs and keel. I’ll post pictures as I work. Thanks for the input about a mobile “art on a cart” part B.

Yesterday it was supposed to start raining in the afternoon. The rain started as soon as I parked my car at theRichard W. DeKorte Park in the Meadowlands. I was visiting to grab a couple of buckets of water for use in papermaking. Most of the water was frozen, but one bit of water underneath a elevated boardwalk had melted. I walked out there and grabbed 3 half-buckets of water.

Next time I return I will visit the Meadowlands Environmental Center. I will return for more water, to spend more time looking for bits of plastic. I anticipate venturing a bit off-course to find these plastic bits.

This week, I will be pulling sheets of paper in my studio, using Meadowlands water. Creating the paper is one of the larger tasks of the project. I have a set-up in my studio with large sheets of plastic to protect from drips.

Amazing show that everyone should visit: ‘Our Anthropocene: Eco Crises’ Through March 31.

Center for Book Arts,

28 West 27th Street, third floor, Manhattan;

212-481-0295, centerforbookarts.org

Reviewed in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/arts/design/what-to-see-in-new-york-art-galleries-this-week.html

This week I assembled and reformatted existing documentation of the backyard. One of the challenges in working with this material is that when documenting I wasn’t envisioning a specific final output so the aspect ratio of the video and photos are different. Do I crop the photos to fit the video format or the reverse? Or perhaps I just work with the still photographs and use only the audio elements form the video? I am hoping this will become clear as I continue working with the materials.

I also located a fish tank (approx 12” x 12” x 24”) which I could use for the terrarium. I may also have a large glass bottle somewhere in my basement which could work and look more like a living artifact (though the opening is quite small from what I remember so it may be challenging to get the dirt and plants inside.)