New old stuff in the studio.

I can't post images of my new work yet, as none of it is finished. I'm too excited to keep it to myself, however. Here is a transparency layered with cut paper, hinting at my new process and imagery.

Studio sneak peek

I recently switched studios. I am now working in the basement of my house at the Grant Wood Art Colony. As you can tell, it is a wonderful space. I couldn't be happier to be working here!

form the beyond|return series. About 55"x70"

a clump of trees by Coralville Lake, just below the dam. About 35"x55"

from the series beyond|return. About 55"x30"

Temporary Landscape closes this week!

This is the last week to see my exhibition, Temporary Landscape, at UMass Boston's Harbor Gallery.
There will be a closing reception and artist talk this Thursday, November 6th, from 3-5pm. I hope some of you can make it!

return|beyond?

           It's been hard to figure out what I will work on here in Iowa. I have been trying to foster a relationship with the landscape but it has been a little lackluster so far. In the past I have found images of flooding in the mid-west to be very engaging so I have tried using local flood images as an entry point, but it feels a little insincere. After a few dreary boring days where I wasn't sure what to do with myself I became aware that I was regularly, and somewhat creepily, staring out my windows. 

              For a while I had been looking at houses from the outside; noticing how they shaped the landscape around and between them, and imagining how the landscape looked before the houses were there. It was a strange blend of appreciation, jealousy, fantasy, disgust, and nostalgia. I looked at these houses while walking my dog in my parent’s neighborhood. We walked there because we lived there, in my parent’s attic, despite my age and degrees and effort and tenacity and, as my parents had always heard in parent teacher meetings, potential.

             As I looked at the modest colonial houses I both wanted and rejected what I saw. I wanted the stability and the comfort and the light, space and porches; and I rejected the order – and the stability. I’d imagine the commitment of having a mortgage and feel sick. To escape I would travel back in time and imagine what the landscape looked like before all the uncomfortably appealing boxes were built. A time when the systems of nature dominated, and people were rightly submissive to those systems. I had been struggling so long to gain a foothold in the unnatural systems we have created that I was nostalgic for a world with no penicillin and a very short life expectancy.

            Two months ago I moved out of my parent’s attic and into a house in Iowa City. I live in this house with 2 staircases alone and free of charge. I am a fellow and visiting professor at the University of Iowa for the year and the job comes with this beautiful house. So now I am on the inside looking out. I do not have a mortgage but for the first time in my life I have a car payment. I have this massive possession, which I do not own. I have a foothold in one of those man-made systems, and it has wrapped itself around my ankle.

My show at UMass Boston is up!

New series of small watercolors based on images of flooding in Iowa.

Temporary Landscape at UMass Boston

Iowa River Drawings

Iowa - first impressions

90% of land in Iowa is privately owned (or so I am told). Today I found a piece that isn't. It is a bend in the river where the army core of engineers engage in controlling the river via a dam. Next to the dam is an area know as the Devonian Fossil Gorge. It is an ocean floor fossil bed similar to what you find at the top of the Grand Canyon. The gorge was created/exposed by floods in 1993 and 2008 that washed the top soil away.

New Work from the series beyond|return

Great News!

I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded the 2014-15 Grant Wood Fellowship in Drawing and Painting at the University of Iowa. I am honored to be selected for this fellowship.

A day's work

This Spot Pond drawing is almost done. The source image is from the Fells Woods, but I consider all of my drawings based on the Fells to be part of the Spot Pond series. (roughly 55"x55")

studio snap shot

I should probably wait to share this until I get a professional photo taken - or until I finish it. Almost done...

Open Studios May 4, 2014

Find me at 59 Wareham St., Second Floor

Studio snap shots. New piece.

about 48" x 55"

new work

untitled from the series beyond|return   55”x67”   2013

untitled from the series Spot Pond   61”x55”   2013

untitled from the series Spot Pond   47”x54”   2014

untitled from the series beyond|return   53”x55”   2014

untitled from the series beyond|return   40”x26”   2014

untitled from the series beyond|return   40”x26”   2014

untitled from the series beyond|return   40”x26”   2014

untitled from the series beyond|return   66”x55”   2014

untitled from the series beyond|return   30”x22”   2013

untitled from the series beyond|return   30”x22”   2013

Grand Canyon   40"x26"   2013

untitled from the series Spot Pond   63”x55”   2013

untitled from the series Spot Pond   70”x55”   2013

Straight Canyon   30"x22"   2013