Stuck in my mind

So I'm back in Baltimore and living in an adorable little house with some sweet roommates. I finally have settled in and also found a dream studio space to begin working on my thesis for MAT. This will begin a new body of research about my time in Brazil, most specifically in Rio. Right now I can't stop thinking about the favelas and that last week I was there the experiences I had. I can't stop visualizing images of favelas themself even though I know the experience being there is completely different. I can't pin point the reasoning behind it other than the visual chaos that stuns me. It is attractive to me and I know they are so much more but the visual itself..is driving me a bit crazy. I can't stop thinking about it. Clusters and groupings. Something that is very present in my work and the process of how I make it. Sooo..with that being said. Here are some images I gathered through this past week. I went to Enoch Pratt Library today and am determined to start reading at least one out of the 5 books I picked up about Rio tomorrow :) I'll let you know how it goes and share anything interesting I discover.

Inspiring Work

Here is a few work I have been looking at lately that I find inspiring..

This first artist I found through a blog I read and realized I had seen a postcard about this artist for a gallery out in California. Kristina Lewis is the artist and her work looks amazing. She is very much into experimenting with her materials. She was featured in a show with an artist named Jill Gallenstein. They were in a show called Radialvec Both of their work is so beautiful and intricate. I love it!



The next image is from Jen Stark who is an artist that I am fairly familiar with and have been following her work for the last year or so. She graduated from Mica as well and I remember seeing her work on campus for a show she had in the student space gallery. It was phenomenal and I know somewhere in my piles of sketch books I still have the postcard from that show. I am always eager to see what she will do next with this work she has developed. I am hoping to see more video work and think it is an interesting direction for her work.



This past week when I was in Whole Foods I was browsing through the magazines at check out and happened to see the July issue of Juxtapoz Art and Culture plastered with the words BRAZIL ISSUE across the front of it so naturally I picked it up and quickly glance through it while waiting to be rung out. I unfortunately haven't purchased the magazine yet but checked out the website and found some interesting things but still think I am going to have to buy the magazine to thoroughly read everything. I guess you can't access all of it for free.. So more to come!! But from what I did find there were a few things to peruse through. I found this designer who created this font called Cabulosa that I thought was really sweeeet. It is a font that emerged from the depths of a Brazilian ghetto. It's a typeface heavily influenced by the urban calligraphy style of so-called “Pixo-reto”.It was created by Frederico Antunes, a graphic designer and typographer from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Chiba Chiba (as he is also known) works with many type/art related projects, including a set of typographic posters for MTV. Here are is an image with the font and also I poster he designed for a Diplo show who I happened to see at Sound Garden a couple weeks ago..weird.







So for the past two weeks I spent my time in Baltimore working for Mica's YPS (Young Peoples Studio) Program which I interned for last year. This year I had the pleasure of teaching a class and ended up learning a lot and having a lot of fun with the students.

In a nut shell the biggest lessons I learned were:
1. Teachers must be really organized in order to utilize their time in the classroom which often goes for anything. Organization saves time.
2. Don't assume your students will know something. It is better to ask lots of questions and work through the explanation.
3. Teaching can be really tiring! The students demanded my attention the entire time which I gladly offered. I was constantly moving around the room talking to each one about their work. It was very exciting. They were all so involved in their work.
4. Use lot of examples! Images! Samples of the finish piece you are envisioning! demos!Helps the students understand what is expected of them for the assignment.

I taught an upper elementary class that was observational drawing and painting. It wasn't as structured as I had originally had planned but I ended up being really happy with the student's work and so surprised how colorful everything turned out. It was a really valuable and important experience for me because it was the first time I had total control in the classroom and didn't have to worry about being critiqued by professor. A lot less pressure and it felt natural, being there, and working through the assignments. Pretty self gratifing.

The last day we had an artist talk and art show for the students. I was so amazed when I walked into the room to see all the work hung together. It was so inspiring. It made me want to continue teaching and work towards finishing in the next few years and just really excited for the students. I hope to teach with them next summer and hopefully teach more sessions and different classes. Perhaps a sculpture class inspired by artists who work with found objects and everyday materials? I know they would love it. I brought in the book from Tara Donovan's retrospective to show my class and they were so responsive to the different pieces.