N E W V I D E O + O P E N I N G

Here is "M E R R Y - G O - R O U N D" completed and in action.  This was a great return to sculpture and has fueled me with many ideas to expand upon.  Thank you for following my process and if you are in Finland on July 2nd, please come and see everything for yourself:

I N P L A T I N U M

New drawing to feast your eyes on.  I suppose this is an homage to finishing the sculpture and is the first part of a series.  Destruction is brewing..... 

CARE Art tour and some fellow residents

Saturday 6.18.11 we participated in a great event of artist lectures, performances, interviews and screenings through the CARE (Contemporary Artists Residency and Exchange) program.  The day started off with an introduction to the art scene of Tampere, Kunsthalle, Backlight, CARE, Arts Council of Pirkanmaa and Katie (kathrynzazenski.com) and I speaking about our work.  There was a good show of Tommi Musturi (www.tarrynandpilar.com) a local Finnish comic artist who is quite good and has a wry sense of humor.
We left Finlayson for Akaa and the Nakyma 2011 presentation.  There were many artists interviewed in Finnish (quite interesting) for there participation in this exhibition titled "Raw Art" as well as our fellow resident artist from Australia Pilar Mata Dupont(www.tarrynandpilar.com).  Her video work is snarky and great!   Following this there was quite a long performance piece involving ash, singing, drawing and and Ahab....What?  Interesting but a bit long with no climax.
We finished the day at Voipaala Art center, a nice art space with many historic barns, buildings for residency, exhibition and teaching.  The space was beautiful and location serene.  There was some good work from Turku there ranging from cast wasa crackers on a grand scale to painting on glass.
This was a great space for presentations by the rest of the Arteles crew; Paolo Ricci (Italy), Travis Janssen (www.travisjanssen.com) (USA), Helene Baril (www.helenebaril.net) (France) and our resident writer Gaylord Brewer (gaylordbrewer.com)(USA).  Please visit all of their sites!  They are all great artists who explore making, thinking and creating in very different ways and have been quite inspiring this past month at Arteles!  Lastly, Edwin Petrus (edwinpetrus.com)(Netherlands) shared his work and practice with us which was exciting!  He is a painter using digital weaving to articulate his experiences and memories.  He said "I did not feel like much of a painter and felt like I was just painting by number..." which is very similar to feelings I have had this past year.  Crazy!  Yesterday he gave us a tour of his apartment over looking the square (the first photo is from there) and of his exhibition in Tampere. His place is insane (you can't miss "EDFIN" taped in the window from the square) and his approach to materials and installation is fresh and great to see.
Thank you everyone for an amazing trip Saturday, sharing your work, inspiring me and doing what you all need to do!

Edwin and his Dutch cheese:

M E R R Y - G O - R O U N D (complete!)

After a little falling out.... Finished! Here is a preliminary shot for the completion of the first installation.  I will have video of this bad boy spinning away soon!  It measures about 12 feet tall or higher?  Thank you for following along!

Cheers,

Trevor

Here is the first video documentation!

M E R R Y - G O - R O U N D (new heights)

I am over 7 feet and it is getting precarious!  I think I will be finishing off the top soon and posting final install photos... fingers crossed!

M E R R Y - G O - R O U N D (round two)

getting taller....

W O O D splitting 6.14.11

finger lock
back
ache
splinter
sore
swing
aim
ting
thud
drop
lift
adjust
numb
lock
mud
roll
bark
sore
sweat

M E R R Y- G O- R O U N D

Here are some shots for my first installation of this series.  Arteles is located in an old Finnish school (please see their website for some amazing performance videos from the 70s!) and as I walked around yesterday morning, I found myself drawn to the Merry-Go-Round/forgotten playground.  Maybe it is child hood nostalgia? Maybe just the simple playfulness of the form?  Anyway, these sculptures are an extension of the drawings and explore the relationships of people to land and each other here.  The wood piles become many different symbols depending on location and offer me an honest material that can be transformed daily.  This installation is more of a playful one and turns the wood pile into something absurd, childlike and dislocated.  Almost reclaiming the playground for itself.  There are many more incarnations to be so check back!
The process:
At first I ran into some interesting problems with peaking in the center and the wood wanting to slide off.  Building up the outside to always be pointing down and in seems to be the trick but definitely time consuming. I am learning that many of these projects I am working with really make me read the wood more closely than expected... or none of the tasks are as simple as they seem on the surface.  I am still building this one up but was unfortunately rained out today.  I will keep you posted with progress.

STUDIO 6.11.11 (chopping wood)

Though I am painting and sculpting wood piles, I am finding it necessary to understand the process first hand.  I have spent a few days and plan on many more splitting wood.  It is obviously strenuous but also locates me...  My muscles are adjusting, my hands are gaining strength and I am also finding this act meditative.  I have discovered it is not about simply hitting logs with an ax or wedge but more reading the grain, understanding what a knot is and how it will affect the split.  My goal is not to make interesting images or sculptures from an outsider perspective but to understand how one lives here, what is necessary to do so and use this as the foundation for my work.

STUDIO 6.11.11 (cont.)

These are the first two flag/wood pile paintings that kicked off this series of isolation/independence.  I am making one every other day or so and use them as immediate opportunities to create, think visually, have fun and not be precious.

The wall piece is a 10 foot square mixed media project I am launching exploring the same ideas.  This is the base sketch I am working out and the first paper piece I have done in years.  It is composed of the few sheets of BFK I brought with me and found paper at the residency.  I am very excited to experiment on this scale, see how using my whole body to make will affect the outcome and creating a piece mostly from found materials (as my paints are no more...).  I see this as an opportunity to really get dirty and keep it honest and fun.  I will keep posting the evolution of this piece as it unfolds... yay!

STUDIO 6.11.11

On my first day cycling through the Finnish countryside and inevitably getting lost for a few hours, I could not stop noticing all of the wood piles at each house...  Everything where I am is very spread out and I am told that isolation and silence is very indicative to Finnish culture.  I felt as though each home existed as its own island/country/city-state independent from others.  The wood piles grew in my thoughts to represent this idea.  So, in my first week I have started a series of sumi/mixed media on mylar drawings exploring the relationship of Finnish people to the landscape and each other (kylla kylla). These are reactions and are also meant to have an element of playfulness/absurdity about them.

F I N L A N D

Moi!  This  is the introductory blog about my studio practice, art thoughts and for the next few months, all things Finland!  I am at a residency (www.Arteles.org) in Haukijarvi, Finland for the summer working away... My paints were seized getting here but with this view from my studio window, there is plenty of inspiration.  I have tackled a project which will be unfolding through mixed media drawings (small and large), sound, sculpture, installation and if I am lucky, collaboration.  I will post images later today.
I will be editing this blog further and updating regularly, so please follow my blog and feel free to leave any comments or just say hello!
Thank you,
Trevor