Posts in Artists In the Studio
Flood of Consciousness: Eileen Bushnell in the Studio
Sep 25, 2015
Light pours in from the windows of the Etching Studio, glinting off of the copper plates. Sketches of plans and ideas hang pinned to the wall. Test runs of etchings and monoprints are scattered on the counter beneath them, each one featuring more characters and patterns than the last. The images are busy and chaotic,… View Article
Redacted: Shanti Grumbine in the Studio
Sep 21, 2015
“I want a transformation to happen,” Shanti Grumbine says. “I want someone to know what they’re looking at but also not know what they’re looking at.” Shanti, WSW’s Ora Schneider resident, deals with the familiar. She works with newspapers and advertisements, things we see every single day, and transforms them into something completely foreign. Using… View Article
Lost and Found at Sea: Carly Butler in the Studio
Sep 09, 2015
Sheets of paper hang on a dimly lit wall, each with succinct pressed type against an otherwise bare page. “You are somewhere on this line,” it reads. Red waxed bookbinding thread ties these words together, boldly underlining them before tapering off and hanging limply off the edge of the paper. The words read like poetry,… View Article
Dual Postures: Mari Ogihara in the Studio
Aug 14, 2015
A heavy clay body sits perched on a foam cushion, its head and chest tilted back in serene expression. Legs pulled into her chest, the feminine form extends one hand outwards, like an offering for the viewer. “The figure itself has a spatial presence and tension, like it’s really struggling to keep its posture,” says… View Article
Casting a Concrete Past: Barbara Westermann’s “Regional Planning Lab”
Jul 31, 2015
Public art resident Barbara Westermann points to a dimly-lit photograph on her computer screen. An array of cement bricks lies on a table, illuminated by the harsh light of on-camera flash, in what looks like a basement. “These are what they call ‘test briquettes,’” Barbara says, explaining how engineers would pour cement into these sponge-shaped… View Article
Tending Hearts: Laimah Osman in the Studio
Jul 25, 2015
“The poems are almost like secrets,” says Workspace Resident Laimah Osman, opening the screen-printed covers of her 2013 project Ishqnama (The Book of Love), full of poetry written by Persian women of the early Islamic period. “They’re so gorgeous and contemporary, lusty and hot. Like lyrics from pop songs now.” Struck by such powerful outcries… View Article
Building Narrative: Emily Speed’s Meta-Rosendale
Jun 13, 2015
Three miniature, makeshift buildings, each with a pair of pale legs sticking out of their foundations, huddle together in the dark chasm of Widow Jane Mine. Wordlessly, they become characters, swaying and motioning to each other. In front of them is Rosendale Cultural Crossroads resident Emily Speed, filming with her camera. “I’m really interested in… View Article
A Geometric Universe: Natalia Zapella’s “Nights, the Cosmos, and I”
May 28, 2015
Brazilian graphic designer and Artist’s Book resident Natalia Zapella often stays up all night. Mornings, she says, are for sleeping. Nights are for working under the still canopy of stars. “There are so few things interfering with your thoughts. It’s all about you and the stars,” she says, describing the kinship she found with the… View Article
Divining Direction: Ellen Wiener in the Studio
May 18, 2015
“How do you get lost in something that is so obviously pen and ink?” Ellen Wiener asks, unrolling a long, landscape drawing, densely populated with hatch-lined flora. Gesturing at trees that become paisley patterns, the Workspace resident describes the forest as a liminal space, a tangled thicket from which the wanderer emerges transformed. “Western myth… View Article
Converging Practices: Sarah Blackwell in the Studio
Apr 28, 2015
Amidst a landscape slowly emerging from the weight of winter, Chili Bowl Workspace resident Sarah Blackwell finds every excuse to work outside. Hands glowing with porcelain dust, she sands several hundred mysterious, hand-sized ceramic coils. “Clay has such a life of its own. It’s constantly shifting and warping. You want to force it to be… View Article