So, the irony to this email is as I am writing this email it is almost 100 degrees in my art studio today! Ouch...I have Star Trek the Motion Picture playing in the background (I have had a science and science fiction obsession since I was a little kid). Tonight I am in a group show at Coastline College with over 60 artists from the Southland of California. I am presenting a drawing in connection with my work on the California Leonardo Da Vinci Institute of Discovery. The drawing I am presenting demonstrates what Leonardo Da Vinci looked like in his late 30s. When I did the drawing I pulled over a 100 paintings and drawings of what I felt were drawings of him by his fellow artists. They, the drawings and xerox copies were pinned all over my art studio walls as I worked each feature of his out like nose, eyes or chin. I really learned a lot from portraitist Don Bachardy and my time with him paid off on this project. Large quantities of forensics went into the drawing but there was no room to showcase that in tonights exhibition or even a thorough explanation of the science involved while executing the drawing. Back to the Da Vinci Institute - This is something I formulated and created a couple years ago where its purpose is to demonstrate the advantages of combining science and art together. I approach a lot of the projects in the manner of: What if Leonardo Da Vinci were alive today, what would he be creating or dreaming up? How would modern day issues impact him like space exploration and colonization of Mars or colony collapse disorder of bees and their beehive colonies.......Well, you get the general idea. I went out to First Thursday Art Walk in Laguna Beach last week and stopped in to the Laguna Art Museum. There, I ran into Tyler Stallings. Tyler is the head curator for the University of California Riverside-Culver Center for the Arts and Sweeney Art Gallery. Last year he included me in an exhibition titled Free Enterprise: The Art of Citizen Space Exploration. At Laguna he was giving a lecture on his latest book Aridtopia. I didnt realize that he had published a new book and didnt even know he was lecturing. I apologized and said I would have made it if I knew he was speaking. He smiled and explained he rarely sends out releases when he is speaking. My loss. He smiled glibly as he was on his way out to dinner after the lecture and handed me a copy his book. It sat on my desk for two days before I started reading it. Tylers book touches on so many topics of exhibitions he has curated dealing with dessert communities, solitude various forms of steading and how we live or move into and interact with new terrestrial environments. One show he discusses deals with train whistles and their Zen qualities and affects towards nostalgia.....Living and having my art studio next door to a train station I have always known this. I tried to explain it to others but it never even occurred to me to incorporate it into an art exhibition. An other chapter deals with male culture around the California swimming pool. The exhibition spotlights Bob Mizer 1950s physique photos against Cali skater culture and how defining male masculinity plays out around the swimming pool and the two unlike subjects actually relate to one an other. Its BRILLIANT!! Other chapters deal with Levi denim biker jackets and elevates them from kitsch clothing to major pieces of American folk art. He touches on dessert mythologies like how there is a story about Walt Disney put into cryonics suspension and stored in the desserts of California. So after reading for about two days I came to a chapter on The Free Enterprise show that I participated in, here is an excerpt: I didnt expect a chapter on that show to be in the book. It was a very nice surprise! Least of all I did not expect a mention of myself or the Leonardo Da Vinci Institute or the way that I work to be mentioned in the book. It is probably not a big deal to Tyler but for me to even get some recognition for my art or that it can have an impact on others or to be part of a shift or movement in art is a big deal for me and I am very honored to be included!!! I have really worried that my art work wasnt worth mentioning or didnt have any relevancy or the ability to impact others or bring about some sort of change or make people see things in new ways. I pulled away from the art scene for a long time and went into solitude in my art studio. I think my friends, family and myself are starting to see it might have been worthwhile move. When I see this stuff happen with my art this is the sort of stuff that makes me want to work harder and push the envelope when it comes to demonstrating the positive benefits of combining science and art together. Besides thanking Tyler I owe a big thank you to my friend-Suparna Mukergee. Suparna once came out to my art studio to help me on a project I was working on dealing with Leonardo Da Vinci and optics. At that same time, Suparna, was working for JPL designing the Mars Rover Lander. I thought to myself how amazing this 32 year old girl was and how daring to design a robot to explore a new terrestrial terrain! It opened my eyes. With all the Da Vinci research I was doing then why couldnt I design concepts for rocket designs but do it with the imagination as though Leonardo were working in the art studio. It paid off and Suparna really inspired me to shift directions in my own art. So this brings me to the close of this long and lengthy letter. I had a email conversation with an artists buddy Sandow Birk last night - his is my conclusion while chatting with him: Tyler makes the dessert fun again. Not since Georgia Okeef moved and painted New Mexico or Donald Judd went to Marfa, Texas and fabricated his large light and space sculptures has the dessert been truly an interesting place in my mind. He opens a lot of doors into the dessert and visits topics not just in optical but acoustical ways. Strangeness and an eye for the unusual that most of us would have certainly overlooked. He brings about a certain amount of excitement and humor with his curatorial skills. I am not saying this because he placed me in a book but because he brings originality and innovation and the unexpected to the topic. Its really cool to see the shows that he has curated over the past several years compiled in a single volume and be able to draw the conclusion that he is not a good art curator but a great curator for his originality. - Skeith
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 21:06:43 +0000
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