Last Meeting

Cameron and I had our final meeting last week. I have really appreciated working with him, and the meeting was a wonderful end to this semester's work. I certainly would not have predicted my work going in this direction, but I am pleased with how it turned out. During the last month, I have refined my approach to working with the fabric, and focused on two fabrics: a fine mesh fabric, and a basic muslin/utility fabric. I can see working with other fabrics in the future, but at the moment, it makes sense to focus in on the nuances I can achieve with these.

I completed a triptych, which consisted on one image spread across three pieces of muslin, with an alternate image printed separately on an overlaying mesh fabric. The muslin was treated differently for each segment.

Landscape 1
Muslin treated with water while printing

Landscape 2
Muslin treated with thin, uneven coat of gesso

Landscape 3
Raw, untreated muslin with folded corner

Detail of Landscape 1

Detail of Landscape 2

Detail of Landscape 3

During our meeting, I hung these three next to each other as I originally intended. Cameron however, felt they read better if given a larger amount of space. It actually greatly helped to give the images more space. When they are close to each other, they appear more muddy. I hope during the residency I am able to give each piece some space, though in the past this has proven not possible. Another really interesting and exciting discovery during our meeting was that the mesh fabric has a wonderful sheen to it when lit directly. There is a metallic/synthetic quality to it that makes the pieces very interesting to look at from different perspectives. This synthetic quality combined with the landscape/natural colors create a binary I've explored before, but now is much subtler. Cameron pointed out that moments with the top mesh fabric drapes is interesting also, revealing how colors are blending with the two images (seen above in the detail of Landscape 3).

Two other pieces I created over the last month are like the negative prints from the mesh fabric. I put these pieces behind the mesh while printing and they went through the printer at least three times. I find them interesting because the pattern of the mesh makes it look like the mesh is still there. I like how the folds of the mesh are imprinted on the fabric, creating the illusion of depth. 

3 Pass Print

Detail

This print was done as describe above, but on top of a print I made last month involving multiple images. Cameron felt it still needs one more level of abstraction because parts of the first images are still fairly easy to recognize. I think that is something worth exploring.

 This last piece is somewhat incomplete. It's a continuous print done in two pieces, and is also double sided. I plan to adhere the two pieces together, end to end, and perhaps suspend it from the ceiling. I haven't fully developed this idea, but I can see working with the fabric in a more structural way as having potential.

Overall, Cameron seemed very pleased with this work and appreciated the evolution that has taken place this semester. He felt two things that I struggled with at the beginning of the semester have been worked out: the tools (technology) is not seen as the subject; and the tools are not dictating the work. He did observe that I'm achieving scale through length, verses width and wondered if that restricts me at all. The width is dictated by my printer at the moment, but Cameron suggested I follow Wade Guyton's example and fold the fabric while it passes through the printer to achieve greater width. This could be interesting to try. Cameron also warned to avoid tie-dye and hallucinogenic affects. He said this is not happening in these works, but he does not seem that as a useful direction for this work, which I agree with.

After our meeting, I went to the MoMA again to view Mattise's cut-outs. These were excellent to see up close. The cut outs are much rougher than I imagined, and the large scale of some of the pieces was fantastic to see in real life. Reproductions do not do this work justice. I intended to see the contemporary painting show also, but apparently is had just opened and was only available to members only. I hopefully will make it back to New York in the near future to see it, as a few people now have recommended it.