Vicki Walsh

Marianela de la Hoz

Last weekend I had the opportunity to take in an art show at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Actually, I thought I should “eat my cultural vegetables,” as a coworker, Tyler Smith would say, while I was in Escondido but found that both the Municipal Gallery and the museum at the Center for the Arts were without a current exhibit. Now really, it’s seldom I actually want to go to an art museum and when I do they don’t have a show? I mean, COME ON PEOPLE! But I digress…

My brother-in-law and I had stopped by the OMA the day before so I knew that Everett Peck’s artwork was there and given my appreciation for low-brow art, I looked forward to seeing it. I also knew that Francoise Gilot’s work was there but knew little about her work or what to expect from her. Now, it has been a while since i’ve been to the OMA and to be quite honest I don’t think they had anything on the second level at the time. This visit, however, I found the work of Vicki Walsh and Françoise Gilot at the top of the stairs. I’d seen Vicki Walsh’s work at the MOCA in La Jolla last year and was fascinated by the transparency with which she uses the media and the almost scientific examination of the faces she’s chosen to portray but Marianela de la Hoz was unknown to me.

I visited the museum on a Sunday and it happened to be family day which meant that admission was free and that the place was filled with activity on the main level. I think it is great to see the museum actively engaging the community and fulfilling a role beyond the static “cultural vegetable” one that every community wants to have on its plate but few visit and the sound of children and their enthusiasm is a pleasant background sound for anyone who enjoys being a parent. I only wish they hadn’t set a table in front of a part of an exhibit. The exhibits were engaging and the variety was sure to please visitors with a diverse understanding of what art is and should be, after all, we all know what good art is when we see it, right?!

Ceramics started out a bit slow as it always seams to as I have to relearn everything I’ve forgotten about the way it feels to center the clay and slowly work it up into the form I’m looking for. One of my goals this year was to throw a few more coffee cups and to work with a slip made from clay found locally. The first part went well as the cups I’ve thrown appear to have dried well and the handles do not show any cracking where they attach to the cup. The second part appears to have gone well too but I will not know for sure until after they are fired. in order to work with scrifitto, or at least to have a direction in which to go, I selected a barley motif and used it in a variety of ways. This motif found a place on almost all of the cups and on a small flowerpot.

I worked with two different clays this summer; a white and a red. I generally preferred the red as it felt smoother as I threw with it and did not lose its structural integrity quite as readily.

At the beginning of this summer I picked up a new lens and a few filters. The lens has a fairly good macro feature and I used that as much as I could. I found it difficult to focus as the feel of the zoom was about the same as it was to focus. None the less I dug up some subjects I thought might be worth a photo for their potential for interpretation as well as simple documentation. I’ll develop the film next year and will see how well the photos turn out then. My initial opinion is that I should have shot in color rather than black and white. The muted color seemed to work well with the subjects as seen through the viewfinder. Of course, I can only develop black and white so the idea of shooting in color is a bit of a moot point. The suspense would still be there, however, so perhaps I’ll consider it next year depending on how the b/w turns out.

I have begun to throw some ceramics, however, and I am struck by the amount of review that is necessary. It takes me a long time to re-learn how to center the clay and I question my recall on exactly how to do it: “Am I doing this right?”

These are a few “sketches” that I’ve worked up so far. They will likely become coffee cups if I can get the handles to dry to the same point as the cups. I’m playing around with a slip this summer and trying a little scrifitto. Next year I’ll see the outcome and decide whether it is something I should continue or abandon.

As a result of some of the work I’ve done On (not IN) the studio I’ve found some objects I’d like to photograph. I’m going to work with some macro photography, one of the features of the lens I purchased at the beginning of the summer. No idea how that will work out or if I’ll actually see the film developed this year or next. Even if the film is developed next year, for this year, at least, the the studio is re-started!

Long concerned about the ethical treatment of animals she’s decided that she would like to care for a small flock of chickens and harvest their eggs to ensure the animals that contribute to her food supply are humanely treated. As a result, I‘ve been brought in as a part of the team working to provide shelter for these chickens. When I say “provide shelter,” what I really mean is “building resurrection” because what my father (the other half of the team) and I do is really bring buildings back from the dead.

BEFORE: So this is (was) the chicken coop when we started. You can see a little of the roof over the door and that is because that is all the was still above the walls. The rest of the roof had rotted and fallen into the interior of the coop. (No, the picture isn’t skewed, the building is actually leaning and held up by the boards in the right hand corner.)

AFTER: Four days later we’ve ended up with this. Ok, so it may not be pretty but it does have a roof that works and it is straight. In fact, (You can’t see them here) it even has chickens in it. With some good fortune it’ll soon have eggs in it as well.

Now, as this barrier has reached a point at which I am no longer needed (or I am able to work past this “Big Lie), it is time to get back into my summer studio. Actually, this little project isn’t too terribly far from one of my concerns and that is sustainability. I really enjoyed Thoreau’s “Walden” for its intellectual approach to the very core of human existence, subsistence. None-the-less, it is time to get back into the studio and I will do that over the next couple of days to get it started up and begin work on some projects I’ve been looking forward to for a while.

I’ve been asked why it is that I prefer to photograph old things, junk to some people. This has caused me to spend quite  bit of time thinking about this subject and why it is I am so often drawn to it.

One reason for my attraction to the subject, but not necessarily the most important, is the pure connection to history. I enjoy history, learning about significant events, and trying to put myself in that time and place. I live in southern California and travel back to North Dakota in the summer and I am struck by the differences between the two with regard to their history. In California the population has increased dramatically in recent decades and the continuous construction and redevelopment is associated with this increase has hidden this history or removed it from its context. Urban redevelopment places new retail centers where quaint seaside villages once were and  homes cover the rolling hills of what used to be vast ranchos so much so that it is difficult to see the place as connected in any way to an earlier time. A good example is Rancho Buena Vista Adobe, an historical rancho in the city of Vista. Some of the original buildings have been preserved and some converted into museums complete with relics and photographs but it is set so deep into urban sprawl, development, and the daily activity that accompanies such things that it has taken on a Disney Land-like quality. I am not trying to belittle the effort that so many have put into preserving a place like this but I am suggesting that a thing loses some of its historical significance when the context changes so radically as it has in Southern California. By changing the surrounding area some of the connection to history has been lost. The same is true for museums: In a museum historical artifacts are cleaned up and shown in such a way that they are hopelessly removed from from their context leaving the visitor’s experience altered from an actual encounter with history to viewing a show or commercial display. I am not alone in recognizing this as you can frequently see museums trying to change a visitor’s experience in an effort to reconnect it with the original human experience. It is a difficult task for sure to try to put a visitor into a point in time. In North Dakota, as in much of the Midwest,  the places I visit and the things I photograph are not removed from context at all. In fact they reflect the very history of which they are a part. Time is evident in their very condition. Rust freezes machinery in the place they were left after their last day of work, wood erodes as it confronts the relentless wind of the prairie just has it has always done. A person can experience the history of that place as is happening. In these places time has not stopped and the history of the place is laid bare. The are no obstacles between the visitor and the place, no filters, no Disney Land. Because of this, the experience is somehow more real.

A few of the photographs made at the studio last summer are pictured above. When I am working with photography I am distinctly aware of the role that chance plays in the successful capture of an image. Naturally, digital photography lends a high degree of control over an image and I understand the usefulness of this process. Traditional film, on the other hand, provides what seems to me as a greater chance for discovery and this is one of the reasons why it is a part of the process I use. Due to the mechanical and chemical nature or the process the actual image left on the film often differs from the image I think I’ve captured. I process the film myself in my studio which adds to the risk (I’ve screwed up a lot of film) as well as the variation in the imagery. Once the film is processed, I scan it using the default settings on an old scanner to limit the control I impose at this step of the process. This is how these photos have taken on this strange sepia tone from a black and white negative. I think it gives some the appearance of some early daguerreotypes or tintypes.

I enjoy the appearance these photographs have acquired. After all, I am not trying to make clear, fine quality photographs, (I’ll leave that up to the real photographers), I’m trying to find an image that is as much about expression as it is about discovery. The last step for me lately is to bring it into Photoshop to crop it up a bit and add the text along the bottom. In the end, I’m looking forward to seeing how this year’s photographs will look.

I’ve been working on this one for a little while on and off again. One day I sat down and decided to practice portraiture a bit and worked from  photograph of Sitting Bull. I struggle with individual character and planar analysis. I’m beginning to enjoy the tablet more each time I use it while at the same time I am aware that the major drawback a drawing tablet has is the simple fact that is must be attached to a computer to work. The advantage, on the other hand, is the sheer plasticity of a digital drawing. Unlike traditional media which is limited a certain amount of reworking, I can go back into the drawing endlessly. (Sometimes this is not such a good thing when it is difficult to know when to quit.) I think it was Da Vinci who said, “no work of art is ever finished, it is just abandoned at some point in time.”

I sat down for a movie last night and was particularly impressed with this documentary on one of the artists I find most difficult to accept and understand.. As art films go this one was exceptional for it’s pace, I didn’t get bored, it’s relevancy, it included interviews with Kenny Scharf and Julian Schnabel, and it’s ability to illustrate a point through the images of the artist’s work. If you get the chance, or for that matter, if you get netflix like I do, watch this movie!

The tilt of the head and the twist in the neck make this a challenge but I think it is coming together. The facial planes are somewhat believable and there appears to be some bone structure without looking too masculine. So far I am happy with it.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to get back in front of the easel; I’m back in CA (of course), and we’ve moved (which means I’ve just found my easel). I’ve had this painting that has been unresolved for quite a while and I have been unable to bring it to completion. Like the captives, it’s been sitting in my studio with only the car and the film strip. With a little luck I’ll be able to see it through soon.