January 2011
5 posts
The Olivettes and Chef Chiapiggy
I’m working on creating a full environment for these characters, including a bar maiden who swings from a chandelier as she shakes a martini.
Watch
Watch
WatchClip from new short animation…
December 2010
2 posts
WatchScreen test for Olivettes supporting ‘cast’
break
I’m on break, letting myself be minimally productive for a few days. To mediate any residual guilt, I am going to post a video.
Wedding planning/dress/shoe and seamless underware shopping have taken over at least one week of this vacation. When I get back to the studio next week, I’m going to bust a move. Turns out stop-motion is real time consuming. So….I have a lot to...
November 2010
1 post
Pre-Crit
Tomorrow I have my last crit of the semester (already!).
Showing a video installation. Documentation to come.
So I’m presenting a “collection of parts” that are iconic beacons of sexuality, or gender identity: long legs in high heels, a pink floor length gown and long gloves, top hats with spinning ties, and lips. In all cases I have eliminated all the individual human parts...
October 2010
2 posts
Training
Wondering how to:
1. get up earlier = get to the studio earlier
2. stay in shape = counteract hours of studio (sedentary) work affect on my body
Also:
I have been thinking (again) about legs (I’m 1 min 50 seconds into Single Ladies….almost done!), and the phenomena of the army of pant-less women (i.e. busby berkley numbers, rockettes, syncronized swimming, this) and how I’m...
Watchi’m in grad school, and I’m doing stop motion…..it’s in progress….
September 2010
2 posts
August 2010
4 posts
Extracurriculars
Grad school starts in two weeks - more or less. In the meantime, I’m moving (again), and hunting for a wedding venue. I also want to get out of “Clean Your Brush Stop Hitting Each Other Wash Your Hands” mode, and get into “My Art Career” mode. So, on the agenda for the next two weeks: at least one call for entries I want to apply to, (and make a new piece for!),...
ALMOST!
Just deposited another grand. I am almost to my savings goal! I am really saving more than I thought I could in a few short months. This begs the question: why is this the first time since college that I’ve saved any money? Imagine if I had forgone a few misguided purchases, and started saving earlier. Oh well.
I do need to start re-hydrating beans and making lentils…..I’ve...
Power up!
+ $450…..
Space and Time
Now that I have officially completed phase one of my “transition to new life where I am a grad student with a fiance” - I have been thinking hard about how I’ve changed in the last four years. And, like most observations about myself, I am trying not only to quantify this change, but also to determine whether it is positive or negative.
Moving gives you a good opportunity to...
July 2010
6 posts
Engaged!
We’ve been telling everyone we know about it, and they immediately ask: have you set a date? (um….we haven’t picked a YEAR.) We have not thought that far. So now I am facing the reality that this engagement means that at some point I will need to plan a wedding. Which, as far as I can tell is a giant art project. So the question is; Is it doable to be in grad school AND be...
Packing v. Sewing
Yesterday, sewing won. I made a garment! My first non-costume wearable thing from scratch.
I have this idea that instead of buying new clothes, I am going to re-purpose old clothes that I have found fault with. I have lumped this project in with packing, which I am beginning to realize is functioning as packing procrastination. Oh well.
The shirt I made yesterday afternoon (it took about...
Un-Firm
Reason #4 to pursue higher education: job security.
Maybe I have a tenure track position in my future, or maybe not. I do know it’s not even an option if I don’t have an MFA. Which is the goal. Because my current professional life, however rewarding, is unsustainable.
“Committing” to two to four weeks, or even ten, for an unsecured amount of money is an unsustainable...
June 2010
6 posts
...Half Way
My new goal for savings is at least six grand. I could live on that, right? (p.s. I’m taking art supply donations! I can reduce that expense.) And I’m over half way there!
I raised my goal due to a gift from my grandparents, to use “only for food” (this stipulation was emphasized) during “college.” It is super sweet of them to help, and a bit funny, since...
Saving...
…..$500 more…..
$
Saved first $300 for grad school! High five!
Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s been YEARS since I’ve saved any extra money I got. And I’ve been in the red, living on a thread, full of dread. Now I’m in the black, and hoping for a towering stack (of benjamins).
Goal: $1,000 per month for summer minimum
Ultimate goal: $4,000 minimum
Bring em on!
W.W.L.D.
Louise Bourgeois died this week, at age 98.
A sculptor who’s first major retrospective didn’t happen until age 70, she was still active and working in the studio up to weeks prior. She had no limits in medium, subject or style, using hard or soft materials, making wearable, interactive or monumental works, and continued to grow and evolve throughout her career.
In my art historical...
May 2010
6 posts
Lost (and Found. Repeat)
I.
I almost lost the gallery’s sidewalk sandwich board.
I totally forgot to bring it in from the sidewalk last night. I locked up and walked right by it I guess. I continued to forget all night (where instead I was having nightmares that the ringworm had spread to my scalp and I was losing my hair), and up until this morning, when I basically sat up, remembered, and swore.
I came down...
No U Turn
My Dad’s show.
I’m realizing with all the work I’ve been putting into this show that I have been trying to sell my dad’s work since I was little. I have memories of myself as a glasses-wearing precocious child chatting up patrons at the Petosky art fair. (At least when I wasn’t traipsing through the woods collecting bottles with my brother to exchange for dum...
Watch
ZERO BALANCE
I’m about to tell you a big secret: I like to shop.
2008 was the first time I began establishing credit, and I quickly began to use my increasing credit limits to increase my wardrobe. Whoops! I had some credit card debt. Not a lot. But always enough that it was getting harder and harder to pay off and then I just started letting it grow. I wish it was all venerable spending from such...
Childhood Ailments- Part II
Kids are simultaneously always sick or contagious with something AND they want to hug you climb up your leg hold your hand rub their face on your stuff.
So my students have undoubtedly shared yet another funky kid contagious thing with me. The first one was over Passover, when I had strep throat. Yes, strep. The last time I got strep I was probably six.
Now, I have what appears to be...
"Whatever - I Do What I Want"
Realization: I am destined to be a roving entrepreneurial artist-type, with the eventual settling place being a self-sustained creative practice.
This is something I am thinking of right now because I realized I was sad - SAD! - that I would be in school and not ‘doing the books’ for my teaching artist career this fall. Do I like doing/paying taxes? Is it weird that the...
April 2010
2 posts
The Culmination of Family Internet Research
This is the last page of the internet.
And it’s a Holwerda!
My dream of a ‘Flying Holwenda’s’ show, featuring me, my brother and my dad will be about a quarter realized this summer, as my dad will be featured at Jackson Junge Gallery, where I now work. It’s a family affair! I’ve been updating artist books, and today I’ve gotten around to my dad, who...
Busy-ness
Spring break is over, and classes have started at the charter school, where I teach in two second grade classrooms, and at Hyde Park Art Center (where, miraculously FOUR of the five classes I proposed actually ran!).
This is in addition to my standard Wednesday gig at the Little City Foundation, and my every-other-week workshop at a homeless shelter on the south side.
PLUS, I started working...
March 2010
3 posts
Re-naming
It’s a long-standing rule in our apartment, that white tank top/ undershirts are not to be called by their popularly used term, which I will not dignify by repeating here. The term I’m referring to, which is directly offensive to women, is replaced by: ‘girlfriend- lover.’
Recently, I’ve come across several articles about the reality of women in the workplace, and...
Grad School End Game
The results are in. Finally. The process that began last fall, cost me probably 1500 dollars so far (not even counting an impending $1000 deposit), at least two dozen versions of my personal essay, endless future plans conversations with my partner, a few angry e-mails to admissions, frantic reminder phone calls to reccommenders, six manila folders scrawled on with Sharpie, and lot’s of...
Installed
I installed my fingers in a new shape - a dense horizontal line, expanding into a triangular, less dense shape that spans the height of an entire wall. The ENTIRE wall. I got a whole wall! And the one facing the street too - you can see Poke from Milwaukee Ave. It pays to be so out there no one wants to put anything next to you.
Installing my own work is something I make a point to do as...
February 2010
5 posts
POKE and two more grad updates
First, I am installing POKE for the fourth (and final?) time tomorrow.
I am trying not to hear the resounding words of a recent critique: ’ I see no growth.’ Fine. I will argue that repetition is just advertising, establishing myself as an art brand, and getting the piece even more exposure. Sure, it’s also a show I have done before. Honestly, I wanted to have a different...
Interviews
Apparently the application process is in the interview phase - I have two interviews to do this week! MICA on Friday, and I just heard that I am a finalist for CCA in San Francisco. Unfortunately for my pale skin and Gray Chicago Winter Syndrome, CCA is doing the interview over the phone. I haven’t had a chance to go out there yet and see the school. Maybe there will be another...
Friday
Today, I finally got around to cleaning up that dress-form I ordered in the summer. It arrived from an anonymous e-bay seller smelling like a Midwestern basement. There was some kind of twenty year old heather gray cotton jersey hot glued around every movable panel of the adjustable form. Needless to say, I didn’t dare use it yet. It was gross. Today, I stripped the fabric (OMG so dusty...
Olive Juice...and other ideas
Financial catastrophe seems to encourage my entrepreneurial spirit. I am desperately waiting for checks that will barely cover my bills. Which are due. Yesterday. I need money. So I start to think about product designs.
When I am done with my taxes, and file my FAFSA, I am going to start my store. Finally. Although, I have to do it without an ounce of capital. *Sigh*
Ideas:
Olive Juice...
January 2010
5 posts
Done.
I am all done with grad school applications! Six. I have been thinking about grad school since this summer, so this has been a long process. Let’s hope I get in to one!
Now, I’ve got some grants and shows to apply for. Regroup.
At least I for sure have nailed down an artist statement! Six versions of it.
Chairries - the garment
The faculty show in Hyde Park will be closing soon. My piece there is 48” x 72” - or, in the words of my partner in crime - too big for the car. I failed to get it immediately into another show (read: cheap storage). It must be dismantled….but then what?
I have spent yet another day looking researching (obsessing over) Lady Gaga, and her precedents, like Leigh Bowery and...
2010
To do List for creative work in this new year (decade?):
-Reevaluate the “Catalog of Bad Fashion” drawing series. It might be relevant after all!
-Tulip Management Authority performance for tulip-laden Michigan Avenue median
-Garden Synchronized Swimming (working title!) Performance for lawn and garden hedges
- Ruffle something. Ruffle costume, or cascading ruffles wall piece. ...
December 2009
5 posts
Prep Time with Ms. Sara
I like teaching art. *goofy smile* I just spent my morning making a Totem Pole example and making worksheets about animal totems, and color symbolism. Next, prepping paper plates for Dream Catchers. Later, I’m going to shop for art books.
So fun!