Life After Graduate School

Portrait Heads: late second century A.D.

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:07:00 +0000

The Vatican Museum is full of really amazing work. This post will focus more on the popularity of creating busts. If the father figure of a family died, they would make a wax mold of his face and create a shrine around it. The wealthy Romans wanted to have these turned into marble to show their significance in society. The popularity of this probably lead to artists creating portraits of living people.
Some of these heads showed intense emotion that had not been seen in sculpture before. Not all of them were idealized also. Many were true to life.

Pantheon, Rome A.D. 118-25

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:35:00 +0000

The Pantheon is another well known structure. It is a circular building with a dome that lets light in through an oculus (eye). It has been really well preserved save for some gold leaf that would have once adorned the ceiling. The exterior is predominately plain, but inside is very impressive. Marble has been used throughout as well as techniques with the concrete to make the ceiling appear airy. The conrete is dense throughout the structure, but niches here and there were added to give some more dimension to the space.
The Pantheon was dedicated to 7 planetary gods. Each of these are represented in the space. The dome has been said to mimik the dome of heaven.
Raphael was also buried here. I would like to give credit to Stuart Mayer for the photos of Raphael's cript as well as the exterior shot.

Colosseum. A.D. 72-80

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:37:00 +0000

The Colosseum is the first art historical place that I came across in my book, A Basic History of Art. It was an immense amphitheater for gladiator games in Rome. It is probably the most known of all of Rome's buildings. When it was built, it was one of the largest buildings; more than 50,000 viewers could be in the building at a time. It was designed so that people could easily move in and out of the structure.
I have seen numerous images of the Colosseum. I mostly saw it for it's size and scale. Janson points out the use of the columns. A column typically is comprised of a capital (top most section:think of it like a hat), a shaft and a base. Each level of the Colosseum had columns with different capitals. On the ground floor, Doric (simple and typically a basic square), the second floor, Ionic (two curved objects similar to a scroll) and the top two floors were Corinthian (highly decorative and similar to plants growing).
Today, the Colosseum is littered with tourists, contemporary greek soldiers trying to gather money from photos, vendors selling mini Roman sculptures and new technologies like group tours with headphones with monitors where you can hear your guide without being right next to him/her and the lazy man's ride, the Segway tour.
Basically, I am interested in how these places will remain the same. We learn about these places in our art history books, but how will these places be able to maintain themselves? Is it through tourists? Sightseers fork over quite a lot of money to view them up close. This means that the tourist is now part of the history of the place.

Art History Review

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:22:00 +0000

While I was a freshman in college, I took an art history class. Being a new college student, I did not pay that much attention to the class. I did just enough to get by. Now, I wish that I had payed more attention. Since I did not do it then, I am doing it now. I have started to reeducate myself in different ways.

-My trip to Italy revealed art that I had seen in my history books. This was one of the best things I could have done. I wish I had taken this trip as a freshman in college.

-While in Rome, I visited the Global Seed Diversity Trust at the Food and Agricultureal Organization of the United Nations Building and received a better understanding of current actions taking place. I will be creating a blog post about the visit on my Local Victory blog.

-I attended a lecture by Zahid Sardar, an author and designer of New Garden and San Fran Sisco Modern. This lecture was provided by the PNCA/OCAC MFA Applied Craft and Design program. I have seen a lot of lectures over the past few years, but it was really refreshing to hear someone talk about how important design is within our current society. Since I have been interested in crafting and gardening lately, it was great to hear someone speak about it intelligently.

Now, I have decided to reread my textbook from my freshman year and respond to the reading with images from my trips, add comments and also get a better understanding of where I sit within the history of art.

Pumpkin Pie Gang Plastic Bag Holder

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:25:00 +0000

I needed a break from thinking about art critically. I wanted to make something that was pleasant and offered me a new direction. I don't know where sewing will end up in my work, but I wanted to experiment with the simple act of crafting.

I was inspired by the pie that Vanessa and I made and made a sewn piece about it.
It can be found on my etsy here: Pumpkin Pie Gang

Sunshine Yellow Plastic Bag Holder

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:21:00 +0000

I have started my etsy sewing projects! My first piece that I added is a plastic bag holder. I found this really great fabric for the project that fits in perfectly with our kitchen. I made one for myself and one for etsy.
It is available on my etsy by following this link: Sunny Bags

Sewing with a pattern!

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:23:00 +0000

So, I haven't necessarily been good about creating a piece a day. I have made some really amazing cookies, learned the art of how to properly pour a latte with a heart design, modified some clothing and made some curtains for my studio.
I am most excited about my creation today. It took a loooong time. I knew ahead of time that this was going to be a difficult task, but I wanted to see if I could do it. I made a blouse from a 50 cent 70's pattern that I got at a local fabric store. I looked for the perfect fabric for a long time and found this really great design that has some white flowers printed on it.
I worked through the pattern. I would sit for a long time at points and just look at the pictures of how I was supposed to do things. They could seem incredibly confusing and then all of a sudden I would hold up my fabric and see what they were trying to describe. I did at one point sew the sleeve on backwards and had to take it out. That was frustrating. It is the kind of thing though that you have to make mistakes to get better. I will now double check that when sewing.
Overall, I am really happy with my new blouse. I have some more patterns that I may try working with or combining with others.
I look forward for an event to wear this to (perhaps teaching my own class one day...white might not be a good idea for a drawing class though...)

Pumpkin Pie!

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Vanessa and I made this Pumpkin Pie. She had never made it from an actual pumpkin before so I showed her how. My mom taught me how to do it. You just cut up the pumpkin into chunks and boil it until the skins just fall off. After you mash it and it is really easy. A small pumpkin that I bought at New Seasons will make three pies! I am freezing the rest so that I can make some pies this winter. Yeah!
My mom's recipe:

Pie crust (homeade or storebought uncooked)
2 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teas. salt
teas vanilla
teaspoon and a half of pumpkin pie spice
1 can evaporated milk
1 tbl. melted butter

Bake 425 for 15 min.
reduce to 350 for 45 min.
when knife is clean, the pie is done!

Let cool and serve with fresh whipping cream!

Mini Cinque

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:49:00 +0000

I made this little painting in honor of the tourist paintings that I saw throughout my travels. Local artists would paint tiny paintings for tourists to easily purchase. This is a 2"x2" acrylic painting similar to the ones that I saw. It is from Monterosso, Cinque-Terre. Most of the buildings are painted a pink or yellow color. This also shows the train tracks that run through the mountains.
I have posted this on my etsy:
Mini Cinque

Day 1. Vinci

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:54:00 +0000

This is a watercolor pencil drawing. The image is from Vinci, Italy. This is the town were Leonardo grew up. These are olive trees that are outside of the museum that houses some of his inventions. I am going to post this on my etsy as well.

starting plants

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:49:00 +0000

I have started the onions, peppers and eggplant.

"Cold Storage" at Worksound Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:39:00 +0000

For the month of February, my installation Cold Storage will be on display in the group show, White Noise at Worksound Gallery.
PORT even has a video of the opening on their blog. It ends by going into my iceberg; similar to my own video.

Artist Statement

Cold Storage

Mission Statement of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault:

“The purpose of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is to provide insurance against both incremental and catastrophic loss of crop diversity held in traditional seed banks around the world. The Seed Vault offers “fail-safe” protection for one of the most natural resources on earth.”

Currently, our world’s seeds are stored in a well locked tunnel on a quiet island of Norway. This vault is naturally cooled with freezing Arctic air and is surrounded by slowly melting icebergs. This construction is basically a safety deposit box for seed banks around the globe. For the “Cold Storage” installation each iceberg has been systematically created based on this vault.
Each of the icebergs are represented by a different continent. Each form is constructed with the countries from that particular region. The size of each country is based on the amount of seeds they donated to the vault. This changes the look and dominance of each country.
Two hundred and twenty countries store seeds at this vault and one wonders how these will be protected. If there is a global disaster will this single vault decide who has the most power? Could the country with the most seeds have supremacy? Of all the countries India would become the dominant authority; it holds over 45 million seeds at Svalbard. The second highest would be Mexico with 15 million. The smallest country is Equatorial Guinea with only 43 seeds.
A seed vault offers global insurance against disaster. Seeds are already disappearing and this vault should protect future generations. It seems like something from a science fiction novel, but this is our reality.

Opening

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:37:00 +0000

The opening reception went really well. There were a lot of people interested in the subject of Victory Gardening. Many pointed out that maybe Obama will reinstate it. The bands were also really great and it felt good to give this body of work some focus. I will take parts of this for my thesis show.

Solo Show at Launch Pad Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:19:00 +0000

In November, I will be showing my current project, Local Victory at Launch Pad Gallery here in Portland. I have been working on a lot of new approaches for the show: plywood cutouts, resin, colored pencil, and poster printing. Some of the processes have been difficult, but it has been great pushing some limits for myself.
For more information, please follow this link: Launch Pad

Second Year MFA Show

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:11:00 +0000

For the month of September, the second year MFA students have installed work that represents what we have been working on this past year. I decided to hang the first of four seed order paintings and create an installation of my "Local Victory" projects. This summer, I spent a lot of time in my yard. Being able to watch the growth of your food can be really satisfying. I wanted to include these plants in the show because they are also part of my work this summer.
Since I plan on having lots of plants in my thesis show, this was great to see how the plants do in this space. I put a sign on the tomato plants saying that people can eat them and it is rare that a red one sticks around. I think that people like the opportunity to interact with work in a gallery space because so often they are not allowed to.
Currently, I am working on connecting with some other organizations to see if some of these posters can be useful. On my "Local Victory" blog, there are many links to websites that are pushing the idea of contemporary Victory Gardening. This project has really been thought provoking for me and I hope an influence with others as well.

New Poster

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:09:00 +0000

I have been having fun reworking my drawings. I came up with this image.

New Drawing

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:55:00 +0000

I have enjoyed working on my current paintings, but I somewhat miss being more abstract. I like the combo of recognizable with abstract. So, I did a little drawing from a glass, paper cutout collage that I had created. This is a 6"x6" watercolor pencil drawing on paper.

Seed Orders 1997

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:01:00 +0000

I finished the first of four seed paintings.

The Round

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:57:00 +0000

Last sunday, I was part of an event called the "Round." Here, three musicians, a poet and two artists were on stage together. There was a good crowd of people and the atmosphere was really interesting. I have never drawn in front of people before, but I found it fun. The musicians were Nick Jaina, Michael Apinyakul from Shoeshine Blue and Sean Flinn from Invisible City Rockets. Poetry was from Trvino Brings Plenty. The other artist was Hillary Berry.

Drawing on the cover of the "Portland Review"

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:53:00 +0000

My drawing called, "Repression" is on the cover of the Portland Review. It can be found at Powell's Books. The image is reversed on the other side so that it mirrors itself when you open it.

Local Victory Posters...

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:54:00 +0000

There has been some interest in these posters. I would love to get these out to people and their communities. I am currently brainstorming on that aspect of the project.
For now, if you are interested in them, send me an email I will get in touch when I have that part completed.
Thanks for all the excitement with this project!

Painting in process

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:53:00 +0000

This painting is part 1 of 4 seed paintings. Every year of our family garden, my father kept track of seeds that were ordered, the plants started and the growth of the garden. I borrowed four of his journals and have been trying to find the exact varieties that he ordered. I have found that even though the earliest year was 1992, there are many seeds that are found with different companies or no longer available at all. I decided that this might make for some interesting paintings.

Local Victory Blog

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:59:00 +0000

I started a blog for my "Local Victory" project. I am going to collect stories and images of people and their home gardens. There are a lot of people deciding to grow their own food and I think that it is very inspiring.
Here is the link:
Local Victory

The End of Food

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:31:00 +0000

As I have been doing research for my thesis, I came across an article that really talks about the reasons for a contemporary "victory garden" poster. I will talk about it in my presentation, but if anyone is interested in reading about our current food climate, here is the article.
The End of Food article

Free Tree Start Project

noreply@blogger.com (rshelly) — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:03:00 +0000

As I have been working out what my thesis project is going to be, I have been thinking about a few aspects of it. One part involves giving people vegetable starts to get involved in creating a garden right away. Before that though I wanted to experiment with the act of giving starts. As I was weeding, I came across a bunch of Maple Seedlings that seemed to be in good health. I decided to make them into a project. I gave them little tags and put them in water on my corner. I put a free sign because I wanted people to know that it was a gift of sorts. I felt that something that could be tossed might actually become a use for someone. I encouraged people to contact me with pictures of where they planted their starts.
I really do not know if anyone will take them or just toss it off as some "hippie" tree hugging thing. This made then realize that for my show, I really want it to be more thought provoking. As I write this, I am watching a documentary on Andy Goldsworth. I could really do something interesting here with design and interaction.

If you would like to contact me with pictures, my email is: rebecca.shelly@gmail.com