thought i might be uncomfortable making art "for someone" (one of the reasons i make art is to do exactly whatever it is i want to do or think should be done, no compromises) but i wouldn't have pursued it if i didn't want to make the piece and frankly enjoyed both the conception and the work i've done so far - so, excited. video stills (just started):
over the past few days two big finishes.
one: blue and orange painting, have been working on it for a while and wasn't quite sure how to get it where i wanted it to be. here's a still:
two: seems like almost everybody hates moving. if you tell someone you hate moving, they often say "yeah but i really hate moving" as if it's extra hard for them. anyway i figure most of us don't like moving. but once you're settled in - i love having moved! here are some pictures of my new studio. it's multi-functional, i can create and project computer graphics at the same time as i paint, go back and forth between different media... very pleased that i can get the projector closer or farther from the easel depending on how large an area i want to use.
video to come and more details to come. but this is from friday night. (people drawing and tracing people with colored chalk and charcoal in a projection of other people drawing with chalk in a projection of other people tracing people and drawing with chalk.)
finally completed my four seasonal new media installations with "summer shade" last week. i think summer is a pretty laid-back time and i hope this piece reflects that, when you see the finished work but also in the making.
while i sipped limeade, my camera recorded the shifting patterns as the breeze flowed through the tree leaves overhead, and the sunlight dappled on a screen and the surroundings, forming patterns of light and shadow which were quite mesmerizing to look at. every few minutes i would move the screen and the tripod, capturing different compositions and varying degrees of movement, sunlight-penetration-of-vegetation, etc.
felt very reassured by the camcorder telling me it would be a piece of cake.
in actuality, had quite a bit of trouble debugging the digital (dynamic video) component.
the resulting piece composites any three moments of the hour-length video) but worked through it and satisfied with the result, which is then projected back onto the portable projection screen. video documentation of the completed piece to come.
in the middle of a move which i haven't wanted to blog about (despite being thrilled to be moving). however also in the middle of two collaborations, both have short timeframes but i'm super-excited since judson and i have been wanting to do something together for a long time and katharine and i have been wanting to do something together for a long time. seems like it is actually happening with both. one of the bittersweet aspects of the overall thoroughly-gratifying spring planting project was urging judson and katharine to work on a piece together - realizing i just didn't have the time to be involved even if i had "fit." so right now, it's making up for that one twinge of near-regret.
below are an exploratory image katharine and i have created together in photoshop (emailing an image back and forth, working on it in stages) and also the description of what we're trying to do which, again, we wrote collaboratively, emailing it back and forth.
stranding memory
erik sanner and k staelin
sunday, june 7, 2-6pm; tuesday, june 9, 5-8pm
a collaboration between erik sanner and k staelin, two artists who grew up in the same town yet first met in new york city while living around the corner from one another, "stranding memory" uses the structure of the double helix to explore our movement through time and the falling away of events and memories. captured within a translucent plastic membrane, fog rises, forming one strand of the helix. Images of people are projected onto this fog and as they ascend their movements gain speed. in contrast to the people in the rising strand, video and animated pictures of discrete events in the artists'
personal lives is projected onto the descending mist and slowly spirals down the second strand. on the journey, portions of the images blur while other portions become more focused and delineated.
some memories become intertwined; all are lost.
this installation is on view sunday, june 7th 2-6pm at dutch kills gallery and again tuesday, june 9th 5-8pm
dutch kills gallery
37-24 24th street, suite 402, long island city, ny 11101
dutchkillsgallery.com
there's something to be said for pulling something together very quickly, without planning, or overthinking - you just start working, it has to be intuitive because there's no time to get away from what you're doing - and then there's plenty of time to reflect on it later - but you've done it, you've made something, and hopefully you've gained something through the experience.
isaiah (http://www.ikingdesign.com/) and i have worked on two short video pieces together. each time, we have come up with something neither one of us would have made by ourselves, which to me, is the real allure of collaboration as opposed to working solo. a still frame from the result:
how we got to that point - well, isaiah and i were in maryland, near the water. he made an animation, which became one layer in the video. here's a still frame from it:
the previous weekend, my brother paul and i had driven down to virginia beach, the same route isaiah and i took to get to maryland. on the earlier drive i had hooked up my intervalometer to my camera and was taking pictures every three seconds for much of the ride. those thousands of timelapse driving photos became another layer:
people went swimming! i shot a few short handheld clips of people hanging out in the water or on the dock, another layer:
someone else had brought along a book about the ocean. i took photos of some of the images in the book, panning across different photos, another sort of animation, the final layer:
here are a few stills from what the three layers i put together looked like (the driving, the dock, and the ocean):
putting isaiah's animation on top of all that - well, here are the stills. i was really happy with it.
sometimes i think (sometimes i even say this to him) that isaiah and i should spend more than a few hours working on something at some point. i love the liberating feeling of not setting aside huge chunks of time and energy to work on a project, just doing it spur-of-the-moment - maybe we need that, the two of us? luckily we're both fully committed to a number of other projects over the next few weeks/months so we don't need to prove anything one way or the other anytime soon...
