Spring Break- New Materials

Last week was spring break, which was a much needed vacation for me. I went to Florida to visit with my sister and celebrate her graduation from Nursing school. I also visited my parents back home in Anderson, SC for my mom's birthday. Overall a wonderful break surrounded by family!

I spent a lot of time gathering some new organic materials to incorporate into the weaving of my sculpture dress. All plant cuttings that I find interesting and beautiful- and that I can see transforming into sculptures, weeds, vines and natural cotton (that I am now growing.) I have been expanding on my circle theme, and have a new idea for a metal sculpture of multiple circles within each other. It is free standing and mimics a hand-held magnifying glass--the idea is to have transparent circles that when seen passing through each other, creating an image within images.

The idea that I had before the break, to blow up my "slide" photograph very large is still in the works, as I was not able to get to the large format scanner over spring break. I still have to print the image smaller and scan it, then print it as large as possible. I'm hoping to have this done for the MFA in progress spring exhibition and am very excited about experimenting with large scale photography as I have never done something like that before in my work.

I also have my Great- Grandmother's handwritten memoir of her life that was given to me after she passed away last year. It is unfinished as she became too ill in the end of her life to finish the writings. I really want to find a way to transfer her hand writing onto fabric or a surface of sorts for a piece. (Perhaps incorporate this into a photo series as well.) This is still an idea in the works, but I would like for it to come into fruition before the end of the year.

I am also working on a commission public art piece that came up yesterday for the city of Rock Hill that will be a steel wall sculpture for the outside wall of the building beside the old Cotton Factory. The building is attached to three other stores that will eventually become coffee houses/ breweries. This is all to happen very quickly as the patron wants it installed by May.

There is also going to be an exhibition in the Coke building for the week of April 20th and I have to create a piece for that show as well. This might be a good opportunity for a performance piece or for my large slide photographs to be displayed.

Long story short, these next couple of months are going to be EXTREMELY busy and full of a lot of hard work and time spent on my art. However, I couldn't be more excited to be back in the studio with deadlines ahead and a lot of exciting new opportunities. Sorry for no images today, but there will be a lot to see in the near future!