Just so you know, Mondays are my days off. My days to wander and wonder and draw some and eavesdrop and spend time in spaces I wouldn't normally be. I consider the looking and thinking that I do on long walks to be as much of my studio practice as I do actually painting. And I wonder how the new environment (it's chilly here, trees everywhere, there's a definite sweater feel and a whole new small town/ medium-big city space) will affect, is affecting my art? I'll gather leaves. I'll draw leaves. I'll go to work tommorrow refreshed and ready.


Here's a lead for the sculptors (below) and here's hoping your day off this week is inspiring.
Take care,
Rachael

Residency
Sculpture Space, Inc.
(Utica NY)


Funded Residencies: Twenty new artists are selected each year and all receive a $2000 stipend to help pay their residency expenses. The selection is made by the Sculpture Space Review Committee and a rotating guest panelist in mid- December. Artists are notified in February of the panel's decision. Primary criteria are quality, originality, and potential for growth. Application must be received by November 1st of each year. NYS artists only: Free housing; $100 transportation stipend.

In exchange for time spent at Sculpture Space, artists are asked to help promote the organization by acknowledging Sculpture Space when the work that they make here is exhibited or published, and providing good slides of their work for our grant applications.

Application Requirements:
Applications should consist of:

No more than ten (10) labeled slides numbered 1-10. ONLY SLIDES, NO JPEGS.
The name, address and phone number of 2-3 references. 8 copies of a slide script with title, date, dimensions, and medium.
8 copies of a brief (half page) Project Description and/or artist's statement.
8 copies of a one-two page resume.
A Self Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE) for return of slides. If you are an international applicant please submit 5 international mail coupons for return of slides.

Include a self addressed stamped postcard if you would like confirmation of the receipt of your application package. Please put your name and address on all materials submitted. Applicants will be notified of the panel's decision in February. Please call if you have any additional questions. Information is also available on our website, www.sculpturespace.org

The Residency: Artists are expected to stay for a full 2 month work stay and are given a key to the studio with access to the facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Studio Manager assists with an introductory orientation, acts as a liaison with suppliers, and advises on technical problems by request. Artists are responsible for their own materials, specialized tools, fees for work done outside the premises, and for an assistant should they require one. We are able to help artists keep their expenses to a minimum but residents generally spend on average $1000 per month. Sculpture Space can accommodate a great variety of projects both in terms of materials and scale, and we will discuss each case individually. For the sake of safety a working knowledge of English is highly recommended. A personal visit is welcome and encouraged. Please call to make an appointment.

About Sculpture Space
Sculpture Space is unique in North America for its service to sculptors and the individual support given to artists who come to Utica, NY to make new work. The program currently selects 20 artists per year for two month residencies and has helped advance the careers of over 300 national and international artists since1976. Artists-in-residence are provided with the space, equipment, technical assistance, and specialized resources available in the Mohawk Valley to make sculpture on a scale which they otherwise might not afford and in an environment conducive to experimentation. The public is invited to quarterly work-in-progress receptions at the end of a residency period. The work that is made and first seen in Utica is often exhibited in galleries, museums and sculpture parks worldwide.

Housing: A subsidized three-bedroom apartment is available at low cost ($125 per month) to artists within walking distance of the studio. Shared bathroom. Food is the artists’ responsibility and there is a fully equipped kitchen in both the apartment and studio. No pets are allowed in the studio or the artists’ apartment.

NYS Artists: NYS artists receive free housing plus a $100 transportation stipend.

The Studio is located in downtown Utica, New York, in proximity to light industry and various fabrication shops. The facility consists of 5,500 square feet of open studio, and one 400 square foot private studio for special projects. The space is outfitted with concrete floors, a two ton system of traveling hoists, and extra wide overhead doors. The Artists Office has DSL and a G3 computer; artists should bring their own digital equipment at this time. The 3/4 acres of land that surround the building can supplement indoor studio space in the summer. An outdoor work pad is equipped with a 50' monorail hoist. Depending on the scale of the work, a maximum of four artists can be accommodated at one time.

Staff:
Sydney Waller, Executive Director l Takashi Soga, Studio Manager l Sarah Lathrop, Office Manager

Artists Office: Artists have a separate office with DSL connection.

For listing of equipment or any other questions, please visit our website.

Sculpture Space, Inc.
12 Gates St.
Utica, NY 13502
Phone 1-315-724-8381
Email: info@sculpturespace.org
www.sculpturespace.org


Application Date: 11/01/04


Sydney Waller, Executive Director
12 Gates Street
Utica, NY 13502
1-315-724-8381

Yesterday I was among a bunch of people watching David Bryne display and talk about his powerpoint art at the George Eastman House. I found the talk amusing and thought-provoking as the discussion moved more towards the conflict and connections of meaning and media and away from the particulars of Powerpoint. But then, there were wonderfully funny and beautiful powerpoint images. How does he get the bleeds between image? Not just that but how does one manage to create such a diverse body of work revolving always around stories of the ordinary. As I watched and listened, I kept thinking of the image of Bryne as a jittery guy, of which a little seemed true from my view 6 rows up, but maybe the energy is less paranoia and more the stuff that happens when you are constantly creating.)

The exhibit also includes some of Bryne's tree drawings; I'm hoping to get a chance to give these a closer look because I'm intrigued by how the language and the drawing can weave together and separate. David was there to sell his book no doubt but combined his talk with enough images and such humor that I left wanting to play more with powerpoint.
But instead of do that I looked up more about these Powerpoint presentations and found this Onion interviewand at the DJ Alchemi blog an interesting summation of some of the powerpoint art scene .
In other news, now that we have entered October, it feels cold and almost cold. Today started dark and gloomy and then was brightened by sunlight, creativity, and a cappucino. I'm painting a few pieces now and even if it is slow going I have a sense that the tinkering I'm doing now will result in something. Who knows what. As my friend Shelly reminded me today, "drawings (and I call paintings, too) have a life of their own."


Oh and apparently I won the lottery.
INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
REF Number: NLL/231-ILGI0431/04
BATCH No: DAL/15/096/PTNL
TICKET No: 40611465897-6291
SERIAL No: 342-891103
LUCKY No: 8-66-11-20-71-64
RE: WINNING FINAL NOTIFICATION

Sir, Madam
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lottery Winners International
programs held on the 28th of September 2004 Your E-mail address attached
to
Ticket number 40611465897-6291 with Serial number 342-891103 drew the lucky
numbers 8-66-11-20-71-64, which consequently won in the 1st category, you
have therefore been approved for a lump sum payout of US$ 1,000,000.00 (One
Million United States Dollars). This is from a total cash prize of USD$10,000,000.00
Million shared amongst Ten International Lucky Winners in the Category A
+ (Plus).

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
This lottery is a promotional program by DE LOTTO, (Biggest lottery Organization
in the Netherlands) to advertise to the world its existence. All participants
were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 50,000 companies
and 2,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world,
as part of our international promotions program, which we conduct several
times a year.

Be informed that your documents have to pass our authority to obtain a clearance....

To file for your claim, please contact our /your processing Officer
Mr.James Mash
Email:pgl_inc@mail2agent.com


yeah, right. I wouldn't buy that even if it were in Powerpoint !

take care,
Rachael

Well, OK, I don't know what the survey will say but I am very curious. Having art blogged for over six-months now and having spent a longer time reading and thinking about art, I wanna know you think. So, please do spend some time filling this out.

So, then, this has been a busy week at work, and with my adjusting to a new climate, but at this moment I'm loving the chill in the air, excited about seeing David Byrne's powerpoint presentation , thinking about how I'm gonna win the lottery ($101 million). Yes, I will remember you. I will remember the funny gang over at Yankee Pot Roast , even though they don't know me. But with that kind of hard cash, they will.

If my money doesn't come in, I suppose I'll be OK... I'm off to draw and look up some old friends from Atlanta and their projects (like this show at Agnes Scott college) .

take care,
Rachael

Watching the world go by sometimes results in drawings like this. Go look around, why don't cha?

Take care,
Rachael

It is easy for me to forget that we've just landed here. After seven years in Atlanta, and several years of feeling pulled back up north, now that we are here I half-expected to know where I was all the time. I kind of thought I would know what I was doing here. I know, I know....it's pretty funny. I am definitely meeting craetive people, finding inspiration, and, yes, I am cleaning out and cleaning up the room that will be my studio. I'm writing and reading more and am doing all the things the folks who advise new kids in town would have us do... but well, it is just so much easier to cause creative trouble, to help people make change in their own lives and those of others, to get to know new folks when you are connected to a place. Or so it seems to the new kid.

Today is my day off. And after drawing pea pods and and finishing my book , I set out to discover. The University of Rochester keeps their art books stacks underground. There are tremendously bright (like cadmium orange) trees all over this campus, and the co-eds all have their noses stuck in books and laptops...

The new kid looks out the window and wonders where she is. But I have a couple of books and a couple of ideas and plenty of time to fit in here. Might as well fix my head to consider the simpleposie question for today:

simpleposie question for the day #202
simpleposie wants to know:

What descriptive passage from a novel do you think would make the best
painting? Or to rephrase it, what is the most painterly excerpt from a
work of fiction that you ever read?

Oh, and before you ask, the pea pods are fascinating for the seed forms, for the long shapes which hold little round pods and I was thrilled to find that the mottled red and white pods hold mottled maroon and cream beans. And doesn't this sound good?

So, maybe that's the thing, as my mom used to say, "whereever you go, there you are," and the kid is the kid wherever she is, new and old, same and not so same. Just looking around and making art and trouble and hopefully some friends...

take care,
Rachael