Spring is here!

Hello art lovers! After a whirlwind couple of months, I feel like things are finally starting to settle down a bit…having two shows back-to-back is something I will probably try to stay away from in the future! It does nothing good for stress levels!

My first show this year at Pellissippi State Community College was very well-received. I enjoyed meeting many students and teachers at the closing reception in February and talking to them about the work. I was also happy that the show was able to be used as a teaching tool on installation art, as well as opening the possibilities about what you can do with paper.

Immediately after deinstalling the show in Knoxville, I schlepped everything over to Nashville and began setting up for my most recent show at the Sarratt Gallery on the Vanderbilt campus. For this show I was able to introduce a new piece: “Our Ocean”. This piece is moving even more towards a sea-theme than I have explored previously, with small pieces that look like coral, interspersed on a wall covered with overlapping silkscreen designs. I need to make a lot more coral pieces for this installation, it felt a bit sparse to me when I got it up on the wall, although I was pleased with how the silkscreen patterns worked, and the overall color scheme.

A close up here: 

And a bit closer up here:

 

I also was able to add to the barnacle piece “We held to each other so tightly, we became as one” and hope to keep adding to it for a while…

Here is a close up of one of the newer sections:

When preparing for my artist talk I had an epiphany about my purpose with this work…thinking about the importance of beauty, and how I communicate that. I feel strongly that true beauty has worth. It is valuable. Hence, the hours and hours and hours I spend on the work. I think beauty is worth it. I communicate that importance by investing my time and energy, and people participate in the importance of it if they spend some time enjoying the art. So thanks for spending some time looking at the art. Cheers.

Delightful Minutiae

Today marks the opening of “Delightful Minutiae”, currently showing in the Bagwell Media and Arts Center at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, TN. This exhibit is mainly a collection of work that I have completed in the last year or so, including one brand new piece! Woot woot!!

I was able to show some of the work in a different way in this space, which was fun. The triptych panel piece “Holiness” is hanging in the middle of the space here, vs. being shown against a wall, which I think makes it much more dynamic, and it also helps to break up the gallery space.

My newest piece, “We held to each other so tightly, we became as one” is one that I think I will be adding more sections to, so it will continue to grow.

The process it takes to create each section is extremely time-consuming however. The paper I am using for this piece is Thai mulberry, which is a bit hardier than the Chinese mulberry I used for the panel pieces. The actual steps for making this piece are:

1. Print the paper with colors and a textural design. The paper starts out as a neutral unbleached white, so I print the paper first with a monotyped color flat and then add a silkscreen layer of texture.

2. Coat or wax the paper. To protect the paper and give it some added stability, I either apply a layer of matte medium and let it dry, or I saturate the paper with beeswax, ironing off the excess.

3. Form the barnacles. Each barnacle is made separately. I cut the initial flat shape I need, then fold creases to create facets, and then glue it into a 3-D form.

4. Sew the barnacles together. Each barnacle is sewn to it’s neighbors by hand, and this step is a lot like putting together a puzzle with no edges. Fun, but sometimes a bit challenging.

5. Sew beads into each junction. This was something I hadn’t initially planned on doing, but liked it so much that it is now an integral step.

6. Hem the interior open areas. This helps to make the piece feel a bit more “finished” and also gives a nice added visual texture and tactile variation.

I’m looking forward to working on more of these in the future!

I will be having a closing reception for this exhibit on February 8th, from 3-5pm. This reception is free and open to the public. I will then be deinstalling the show and driving it directly to Nashville to install in the Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt University. There will be another new piece making it’s debut in this show as well, which is very exciting! If you are in the area, I hope you can make it out to see one or the other of these exhibits.

New work!

With two upcoming shows in January-February and February-March, I’ve been working hard trying to finish a couple of new pieces that I can include along with recent work. Hence the pretty much non-existent updates. So here is a long overdue update with some pictures. I’ve also updated my artist statement, and it has a little more explanation of how my concepts and ideas are continuing to evolve and grow.

I’ve been exploring new forms that reference more sea-life than I have before. This probably started with a piece I did in 2010 that was very barnacle-like. I had a good response to that piece, and I enjoyed making it. The coherence and unity that was created in a large group of similar objects was satisfying to produce. After a recent comment by a friend who was looking at some new objects and stated that they looked like something you would find in a coral reef, I’ve been experimenting with a variety of small forms that create groups. These groups go together to make a community of forms that all dwell together but have inherent differences.

When I originally started thinking about this show, I was thinking the colors would be more subtle. After a day-long printing session, I threw caution to the wind and came up with this:

a plethora of color.

I’ve also continued to explore barnacles as a subject matter. I like how the clusters of them form large beautiful fields of texture. Instead of having these barnacles be individual objects however, I’ve been sewing them all together. This has resulted in more than a few stabbed fingers, but I like how they look together. If only they didn’t take quite so long…..

Update….

Hello folks! Sorry it has been such a long time since I updated my blog! I had a couple of exhibitions this last year, and this summer I ended up taking a little break from making any new installation pieces or drawings, but focused instead on doing some projects around my house, as well as some sewing and gardening! Now school has started back up again and I am busy teaching a beginning lithography class, as well as an advanced lithography class.

The art sabbatical was good for me to do, I’m feeling refreshed and very eager to get back to making things. Some new drawings are in the process of being completed, which I’m very excited about, and after those are finished they will be integrated into some new installation pieces! Hooray!

I have two upcoming exhibits, one will be Jan-Feb 2012 at Pellissippi Technical Community College in Knoxville, and one will be Feb-March 2012 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. I will be a very busy lady in the next few months as I try to complete some new pieces for those shows! That’s all for now….more updates and pictures to come!

New Drawings…

When I prepare myself for a new round of paper sculpture making, I like to come up with a new series of drawings that I then shoot onto screens for my silkscreen layers. For my show last summer, all the drawings were fairly organic, but abstract, and much more like doodles, similar to the following image:

For my show in the Basile Gallery I had a green theme, and a leaf trend that seemed to tie the whole show together. All the drawings I worked on for that show looked like clusters of leaves, which when screenprinted, looked like the following:

The drawings I am working on now are becoming more focused in their intent, and are starting to resemble actual plant forms. I feel like I’m revisiting some of the modes of thinking I tried in graduate school, where I was making up my own organisms. However, I think now I’m much more free and am enjoying myself a lot more! The following images are a few samples from the new drawings I am working on. Hopefully this in turn will lead to more sculptures and drawings that keep getting visually richer and richer.

Our Benevolent Thoughts

Here are some images from my recent show at the Basile Gallery, located in the Herron School of Art building.

Some of the work was also in a show from the previous summer, but most of the work was completed in the last few months specifically for this show. With this show I think I am getting even closer to achieving what I ultimately wish to do with my work…create an environment that transforms the space and allows the viewer to be transported visually and spiritually.

This is a view from outside the gallery looking in. I ended up screen-printing my signage on the window.

This was a set of three panels I made. Each panel is made from Chinese mulberry, cut using an x-acto knife.

Closer view…

I created a window installation using silkscreen on the glass, as well as leaf forms made from fabric stretched over wood. Paper was then cut into small shapes and glued onto the fabric.

Close up view of window installation…

This was a new sculptural piece I did for this show…”Tulips and Tomatillos”

Close up view here…

Overall, the show has been a great success…I’m now looking ahead to my third show at Twist Gallery in Nashville…Coming up in May. Cheers!

Hey folks! It’s been a long time since my last post, sorry! I’ve been quite busy getting ready for another solo show, this one in the Basile Gallery at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. I’m making some new work, and will also show several pieces from my show this past summer at Wake Press. I’m including a few pictures of new work, but most of my new stuff isn’t finished yet…(ack). Hence my frantic art-making spree.

This is an image of one of the three panels I’m working on. It is Chinese mulberry with sections cut out. Many X-Acto blades have died since I started making this piece.

Small podlings. I need to make more of these.

I am also now on Tumblr…feel free to check that out if you wish, at http://laurenkussro.tumblr.com