unfinished work for my upcoming group exhibition "Creatures of Habit"
This piece is also unfinished, but I really like where it is going.
This is my concept sketch for my painting "Little girl praying"
This is the concept sketch for "Little Girl Dancing"
The image I submitted for the booklet of the "Creatures of Habit"exhbitionI have been working for the past month or so on developing a new body of work for my second exhibition with the International Artists Collective. The group exhibition has the theme "Creatures of Habit". When I submited my proposal for the exhibition I had just finished my intensive retreat at the temple. I was really struck by the routine and the habits of the temple lifestyle. Then I began thinking about how all habits are really just a product of our education and the routines that we develop throughout our lifestyles.
We have certain habits because of the way that we have been raised and the things that we have been taught are right, wrong, good, bad, productive, unproductive...etc. I began thinking about the habits that the monks live in their every day lives. These are learned routines perpetuated by habit formation over time. But what struck me was not so much the habit itself, but the memories and associations in my own life that these habits evoked.
Spending all that time chanting and meditating was really interesting, but what was unexpected was that every time we would meditate I would have this image of my sister in my head. Perhaps a memory, maybe an invention or a collection of memories jumbled together over time. But of her sitting there with her eyes closed and trying to meditate sooooooo ard and concentrate on the task she was put to so devoutly. The present lived experience of meditating, triggered memories of previous meditating experiences, but just like riding a bike, physical habits that we form at a young age have a way of coming ack to us very easily. Similariy, every time that I would chant with the monks during the service I would have a memory of myself and other children dancing around to the sound of the mok-tok (the wooden percussion instrument that the monks hit to keep the rhythm of the chant).
And so my project really became about memory association to a certain habit or object. And how habit formation is a question of education and life experience. The piece has been developing as I go along. I originally wanted to do 4 paintings, then I wanted to do the 2 portraits of the little girls with a drawing of the habit; chanting, meditating, hung above them. But as the paintings have progressed, I have been feeling as though I want to engage the viewer more in a disussion about object/habit/ memory association. So I have decided to bring the actual objects into the equation instead of drawings. In front of the portrait of the girl dancing will be a mok-tok and infront of the girl praying will be Buddhist prayer beads. I want to get a plynth, but I don't know if the Jay Gallery will have 2 to spare..... we shall see.
I feel good about this work. I hope that I will be able to keep pushing myself forward as an artist. I have been feeling rather down about my work lately. Some times I get really dissmayed that I am supposed to be good at art, but most of the time, I feel like I'm not great at that and then I ask... well what the heck am I good at then? What is lacking is not the technical, but the conceptual skill or the risk factor so to speak. My work is safe. I know it is. But I don';t know if I have anything other to give. Some people like me, get really attached to their work and also take it personally when people like or don't like it. It makes taking risks that much more difficult. When something is so personal to you it is difficult to distance yourself from it and become a partial observer who can criticize it in a impartial manner. It's very difficult not to become overly precious with the work.
I have alternately been working on another series. I am trying to work on my photography, not strictly for resources for my otehr work, but as photographs in and of themselves. I want to start a collection of street art I find abound Seoul. I like collecting and documenting things. Some of my strongest work has been documentation and appropriated pieces. I think it's really interesting. So I'm keeping me eyes open and I have a piece in mind... but it will require a LOT of photographs of other random people's artowrk and a whole lot of tiny frames and nails.......... lots of time to develop that one.
For now, I have 2 weeks before the opening (ergo a week to really finish the pieces and get them show ready). That will hopefully launch me into further projects and colaborations with the international artists collective..... but I have been thinking that I may just try and get some work into a restaurant or cafe with Sarah, because I don't really need more than 2 shows in the same venues..... and Richard is a bit controling I find. I feel as though it is his project and we are allll just tagging along for the ride. I intend to tag just long enough to add the Jay Gallery to my CV.
