Studio Thoughts---> Painting Second Hand Memories (S.H.M.)

What Are Second Hand Memories? -Remembering memories (personal, told, read) while painting. Recalling my own sensory experience of places (spirit of place), remembering my memories of hearing stories told, oral histories that have become apart of my history, etc. during the formative painting (thinking) process. -Describing these 'second hand memories' with intuitive color and found systems of explorative painting methods i.e. (no representational images used to formulate compositions, except from memory). -Painting as a way to depict and communicate as an analogy of the incomprehensible (idea from Richter); examples---> conveying and retelling lost nostalgia's, remembering epic indigenous resistance using knowledge of the land and spirit of place as protection, embodying romantic ancestral memories of pre-colonialism.

Coyote Canyon MFA Trip!

I have been chosen as 1 in 10 MFA candidates from around the nation to participate in the first Wide Open Studios trip to Coyote Canyon in Southern California this Spring Break! "Coyote Canyon is our first trip offered through the Signal Fire Residency program based out of Portland, OR. It is specifically designed for emerging professional artists. Part workshop, part experimental residency, students will camp together on public land for the duration of the week, making new work in response to the landscape. The instructors will demonstrate the basics skills of desert camping and backcountry safety and travel, and will provide readings and discussions designed to spur an exploration of our creative practices. This trip will take place in California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, an arid land of beguiling beauty and startling extremes. Cactus and wildflowers will be in bloom in a land naturalist Susan Zwinger describes as “the secret passage into a Southern California of a century ago.” Here, at the western edge of the Sonoran desert, we’ll convene a group of graduate students to explore the potential for making remote work in response to a stunning and dramatic landscape." I am very excited for this trip!!!