Tied loose ends.

        
            I finished some of pieces I've been working on for the last couple weeks. Now I’m in the process of cropping, editing, and reducing photos of them to images and sketches. I built six 12 by 12 stretchers the other day, so I can get started on painting from the photos. I'm still debating on the fabric I want to stretch. I have some linen, but my favorite thing about the first painting (the one of the paper painting) is that he's related to the others not just in the image but because of their nontraditional material. However, the pin-striped fabric I used received some critique. The nature of the pin-stripes could be a cheap way of elevating the painting over the original piece. This wasn't my intent, but I'm trying to be more aware of the implications that each type of fabric of design might have on the viewers read. Not using patterned fabric just for the sake of being nontraditional but using it in a specific way to inform the content of the piece. I'm excited about the changes that have been made to the yarn ready-made pieces. I’m thinking the space and composition will be really fun to translate into paint.

            I finished the string painting for the Chance show. I only finished the one. I felt the other wasn't clean enough for a show. To finish this I was focused on the idea of chance in decision making. However, Chance and decision are to opposite ideas. I don't really believe there is such a thing as pure chance in art making. Even the things that attempt an organic happening are usually in some way manipulated by the artist. Still, I tried to let go of all this and let random occurrences come in to play.

             I was working with six spools of yarn and string. They were randomly places around my studio, and this placement would change every time I used one or the other. I would roll a die. Say the die landed on four, I would start counting where ever my gaze landed and count clockwise to four and that would be the color I used. My decisions about direction, composition, or amount time with that particular string were quick. I had to work in a rhythmic motion because I was stretching the yarn from one side of the 3 foot canvas to the other. It was about this intuitive gesture or natural movement of the body. It’s just tension that holds the piece together; another way chance dictated my actions was as I got further along in the process the nails became really loaded with yarn. Often one would slip off and cause that entire piece to pop off. Some of the thinner string would break off randomly and I would leave it when it did so. When anyone came into my studio I let them roll the die and choose the string, again, to limit my decisions. Once I got to a place I was comfortable with, I called in finished and walked away. This piece is probably something I’ll go back into again, but for its purpose now it’s complete.