catch up post: art so far in the spring semester

I participated in a University of Iowa Center for the Book Show at the Quad City Arts Center Gallery, in Rock Island, IL.  Here are two artist’s books I made in my pop-up book class in the fall.

I’m organizing a department wide print exchange here in Iowa. Here’s a shot of the Colophon, designed by Kyle Peets.

Here are two shots of my screenprint, titled The Queen City or Paris on the Prairie. I’ll post the final shot of it on my website soon. I’ll also be posting some of my colleagues images for the exchange on this blog sometime in the future (I hope).

The Printmaking Department also had a one-night show at the Grant Wood Colony this Month. Organized by our fantastic Grant Wood Fellow, Kristina Paabus it was titled Out of Hibernation and technically took place in her apartment on the Grant Wood Colony Grounds (the people reading my CV don’t have to know that though!)

I showed my series of prints Ambiguous Grounds (Bethlehem Steel Administration Building). It is a Variable Edition of Reduction Woodcuts that frequent readers may remember me working on for the entire Summer and then hiding it away in my drawer come fall and forgetting it even existed. Even though this is a body of work that I now consider in my past I was excited to get it out in the world (albeit the small Iowa City art world) briefly.

One of my counterparts in Print Media, Sarita Zaleha used the opportunity of an apartment exhibition to show her Global Warming Quilt to its best advantage… on a bed! This quilt has sensors wired though it that it heat up whenever a participant climbs in.

And two shots of my fellow printmakers that were too good to never have an internet life….

I’ve been making blank books in my Bookbinding II class. So those of you that thought handmade books for Christmas was a one-time-deal…. get ready for round 2. These are my 4 needle Link Stitch Books (also known as Ethiopian or Coptic Stitch books)

And here are some sneak peaks of my preparations, notes, research and process  for my MA show. I bought a sheet of plexi-glass that is 36 x 72″ and am attempting to fill the Porch Gallery with giant trace monotypes. For those of you in the Iowa City area it will go up for the week of March 9th and there will be some sort of reception early in the week. Stay tuned! I’ll post more as it gets closer!

Art in Iowa City (Part II)

Photo evidence of what happens when you force a group of art students to move out of their studio space so it can be salvaged and (maybe someday) torn down. Fellow Print grad Jenny Harp and I collaborated on a goldfish inspired room in Painting grad Ian Etter‘s old studio space.

The pan….

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Kyle Peets’ Flying Machine on the third floor

David Dunlap in the Attic.

an unknown installation across the hall from the fishbowl.

and a viking funeral in the outdoor bath tub for the very  goldfish that inspired our installation.

The one photo I took of Jaime Knights installation at the Grant Wood Colony.

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Andrea Ferrigno’s Printmaking and Painting thesis. Andrea manages to pair up each print with a seemingly drastically different painting perfectly. The first time I’ve actually seen the over used art critique buzz word “conversation” in action effectively. She also had a special guest that inspired an epic photo shoot….

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General, end of semester crazy-ness- The dino scene collab.

Christopher Pickett’s MFA show in the Porch Gallery, Studio Arts

And visiting professor, Amanda Lee’s work now hanging at PS1, Iowa City.

There are plenty of talented people here that I did not have my camera ready for their shows. If interested, I will link websites to names, same as above. Again, apologies to anyone I missed.

Brendan Baylor

Mary F. Coats

Sarika Sugla

Gabrielle Roth

Lee Yoo

Sarah Smith

Mollie Goldstrum

Richard Wenrich

…and my studio neighbor Josh Dailey, who doesn’t have a website and I forgot to take any photos of his MFA show. Instead, i’ll leave you with the pile of bike parts sitting in his studio….