Back at Haystack

Well, this June, I was able to cross off a major life goal from my bucket list (I hate the phrase “bucket list” but there you have it) by teaching my first full session course at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft. 

I first attended Haystack as a work Study student in 2007, an experience that was directly responsible for me applying to graduate school and formative to me in many ways. Since then, Haystack has served as a yearly (sometimes a few times a year in one capacity or another) reset. While I have taught short workshops there over the years, this was my first time as a two week course instructor and it did not disappoint. The class, entitled “Reinterpreting the Familiar Object” was loose in theme with sporadic intensive demonstrations and one on one training and discussion. A small group, my Seven student class consisted of a fantastic mix of people from a broad spectrum of life. 

I teach best in these kinds of settings. A class in which students propose their own ideas, and I guide them through the execution of that idea. We had furniture, turning, sculptural boat forms, and much more. So much fun and such a great group. 

Here is a smattering of images from the class. 

Also, we were there for an amazing full moon on the summer solstice. It was positively glowing for most of the two week session. 

Stay tuned for more updates as I prepare to leave Maine for California and a whole new grownup teaching adventure. 

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Back to the Wild West: Big Things Are Afoot

It seems that this blog, which started as a log of my everyday thought process, has increasingly replaced regular process and “what’s new” content, with sporadic major announcements. Today, I want to share with you all a big one…

 

After 5 years living and working in Portland Maine and at the Maine College of Art, a brief spell teaching in New Bedford Mass, a semester in residence at UW Madison, and a whole lot of fun times back in the Northeast, it’s time to move along and begin a new journey.

Back From the Frozen Midwest, Into the Frozen Northeast

my parent’s house in Warren Maine, from my recently acquired drone.

Hello all, and welcome back to SnarkAttack. I haven’t posted much of late because things have been a whirlwind since about midway through my four month stint in Madison Wisconsin as Windgate Artist in Residence in the Furniture Program there. A lot has happened.

Madison Windgate Fellowship Residency: Week 3

Madison is on an Isthmus, and that’s where we are. Between two lakes.

Madison Windgate fellowship residency: week 1

Hi Everyone. I have just finished my first week in Madison for my Windgate fellowship residency. I will be blogging weekly while I’m here, and this is the first of those posts. First of all, I always like to start with a good picture, so here is this…

3 Things

Since I apparently can’t post with any real consistency any more, post-worthy topic tend to pile up for me. So, in order to bring us up to date, today you will learn about 3 big things, in chronological order, all of which are awesome for me.

But first, This hospital pain chart from the Blue Hill Hospital…

Starting off a busy summer: Lanesboro, MN residency

“A Small Craft”

Here is a little timelapse video of me, with the help of Amertah Perman and BA Harrington, de-installing my recent show at IUP’s Kipp Gallery…

Shows and Things

Craftening in The Bostons

So last week we brought our majors down the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, where they were invited to participate in Craft Boston for the second consecutive year. It was a mad rush getting the booth down there and setting up last minute, but they rocked it and got plenty of great feedback.

Here is photographic proof in case you don’t believe me:

Some kind of things

So it’s come to this: I’m going to lame out and just dump a bunch of pictures of things on you. Starting now…

Sketchy Business

I hate to put up a new post and send my Thesis work to the bottom of the page, but its time to move on…

Contrary to popular belief, the weeks following one’s thesis exhibition are anything but calm and relaxing. Granted it is vastly different than the long days at the studio that I have grown accustomed to, but I don’t really feel as though I am in some magical land of relief and relaxation. Honestly, I don’t really think I would like that. who does?

making space

After spending the day at the studio as per usual today, Amertah and I went to the South Park “Walkabout” for the first time and friends, it was magical. There were people and babies and more people and “Boutiques” and “shoppes” and all sorts of other cleverly named places to spend money. one of the highlights of this outing however, was a flea circus…

Its raining raindrops!

Tonight I went in to the Studio at about 11 pm to get a couple of little tasks finished up and it was raining really hard. This was a really beautiful rain so I’m ok with it but the SDSU art building is not. our back porch was about two inches deep at the center and the drain was totally clogged. so, I plunged it out and it made the coolest whirlpool I’ve ever seen. It was dark out and I was cameraless so you’ll have to take my word for it but it was wicked fast and then it started making this really loud suction noise as it drained the water as quickly as it could.
After dealing with that, I went to check on my rocking shed (it looks a little something like this…

Artish

Today we had a crit in Seminar of a short term project that began over Margaritas and Mexican food last week. Wendy handed out a paper napkin to each of us and told us to draw or sketch the first thing that came to mind. Then we passed them one person to the left and she told us to make a piece in a week about that person’s drawing. Some fun work came of it. I like these short assignments like this because it allows for a kind of unrestrained creativity that sometimes gets complicated over the long term. That kind of exercise, I think, really helps inform how you think and make work in the long run.

diving in: its kind of cold outside

so, compared to much of the rest of the county, no, its not that cold here in San Diego. However, two days ago i took this picture which is a bit unusual… in my short history here at least.

12 feet of sun drenched fiberglass

Before I get started with what I’m working on right now, I want to show you what my special lady friend, Amertah, did with my sawhorses that I posted the pictures of the other day, while I was at the studio today. here’s a hint… genius.

Talking “Helter Shelter”

So last night we had a grad critique on the theme of shelter that most everyone (Although I’ve worked a lot within this theme, I’m kind of doing my own thing at this point) has been working on for the past five weeks or so. It was a good crit and I took pictures of it for your viewing enjoyment.

death of a tape deck

recently the tape deck in my Subaru failed. Aside from a couple of mix tapes that I have, the deck was only used to plug in one of those shitty tape auxiliary plug things for my ipod. I wanted to take this opportunity to contemplate the tape deck at this point in history…

thinking of new work

As I get ready to get back into the studio and finish this current piece up, I’m (as usual) more interested now in what’s next. I really want to move past these house structures that i was working with so much in the past few months and this sickness interlude has really stalled my momentum. I’ve been looking at some new artists lately that are making some really cool work that inspires me. Here’s a guy named Michael Beitz who i found out about because he just finished up a Bemis residency, which i just applied for. his house box fan in particular is pretty awesome. His work is right up my alley and it seems like he too is a recent MFA grad. i like his level of interaction and playfulness but overall i want to make more intervention type work that speaks to its location more that that.

There are some really great local artists that I have been looking at too. Andy Ralphmakes some great work. you may remember his wacky outdoor lawnchairs from the Here Not There show at MCASD La Jolla. This piece however,

something new, something blue, something Flu

is this back-alley church or a dry cleaner?

so I’m starting to go crazy in my house and, just in time, I think I may be recovering from this evil Flu.
On a note unrelated to school or my impending thesis or our seminar class, I want everyone to get as excited as I am about the forthcoming new Panda Bear album “Tomboy”. Here is a link to a sweet cut from it called “Last Night at the Jetty” over at Pitchfork.

First Posting: Where I’m at, what we’re doing, and what’s coming up

Am I blogging yet? Am I a “Blogger”? not quite. I wouldn’t yet consider myself a significant part of the “blogosphere” or any “blogoverse” but here is my attempt at publicly airing my concerns and ideas for general consumption. Generally I work in a kind of off the cuff manner, so I think that this process should be interesting for me.
This is my last semester of gradauate school and as a part of our seminar this semester, we are all undertaking this exciting experiment in fancypantsness for our own personal betterment. I myself intended to start a blog long ago and have of course put it off until it has been mandated, but, better late than never right?… right.