I created a small accordion book, encased in red, to observe how red and blue interact with regard to space.
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Tulips Two Times
I made the first Tulip painting in response to the pandemic and the polarizing political climate. Just as I was, the tulips were exasperated, divided and distressed. I used only red, white and blue, a palette which I have taken up in recent months. Red breathed and cried while blue distanced and drained.
I made the second Tulip painting last week following the announcement of the 2020 election results. In dialogue with my previous painting, I introduced the third primary color, yellow, which made the full range of colors possible.
Read MoreCover of Field Notes
8 x 11 1/2 inches
Field Notes Accordion Book
A couple of weeks ago, I took a trip to the Hill Country with my partner. Hoping to grasp and play with the experiences we had there, I set about making a rough sketched object - an accordion book - to record and build some kind of narrative so I could refer back to it.
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Interior of the Glassell Building in Houston, Texas
BLOCK XXI Update
In August, I started the BLOCK Program at The Glassell Studio School, the educational arm of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The program is made up of 12 artists, including myself, and two mentors – Laura August and Francesca Fuchs.
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Homebound-Homemade Sketchbooks
I enjoy the act of crafting and building my own sketchbooks. It brings me closer to my materials and creates a stronger bond between me and my work. Plus, by designing and constructing my own sketchbooks, I have the opportunity to choose the type and size of paper I want to use.
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Purchase your copy of Art in the Time of COVID-19 here. All proceeds go to the Houston Food Bank.
Featured in "Art in the Time of COVID-19"
Shelves (2020) was included in the art book Art in the Time of COVID-19. Organized by Alexandra Constantinou, Art in the Time of COVID-19 brings together the artwork, writings, and recipes of 13 artists. The publication was inspired by WWII era cookbooks and rationing guides which contained drawings, advice, advertisements, posters, and instructional guides.
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Detail Photo
A Dog on Couch and The Great Gatsby
When I started the painting, I wanted the dog to stare directly at the viewer and invite the viewer into this odd setup. Once I completed the painting, however, I identified my dog’s unblinking, demanding stare with the bespectacled billboard eyes of The Great Gatsby.
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There is always spring, 2020
54 x 38 inches
There is always spring
This painting started off very differently. I made the initial sketch back in February. Covid-19 didn’t feel like big threat, and things were “normal” in Houston. People drove to their offices, drank at bars, and exercised in gyms.
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Kids Yoga Coloring Sheets
Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, nearly everyone has been asked to stay home. I am happy to share a few resources including the coloring sheets I made as a kids yoga teacher.
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Rectitude, Repose, Riddle: Jennifer Bartlett
For the past week, I’ve studied Jennifer Bartlett’s work. Bartlett (b. 1941) is a painter from the West Coast. She is what they call a “grid” painter. While that may sound orderly and simple, Bartlett’s work is anything but. On top of the grids, Bartlett plays and rebels.
Read MoreDiebenkorn's Somber Coffee Cups
Diebenkorn’s still lifes pleasantly surprised me. They are mundane and melancholic yet playful. I was delighted to see how often coffee cups made an appearance. It’s an everyday object. Not special but nevertheless the subject of a meditative study.
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Digital Artist-in-Residence
In September 2019, I was Open MFA’s digital artist-in-residence. During my residency, I explored how experiences and memories form and take shape. I took the residency with me as I traveled through northern Italy for 10 days actively responding to places as I moved through them.
Read MoreVenice Biennale 2019 Highlights
Earlier this month, I went to my first big art world event - the Venice Biennale. Lots of walking, looking, and feeling overwhelmed. Below are my favorite works from the event. Take a look and share your thoughts.
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Still from William Kentridge’s Stereoscope (1999)
William Kentridge: Charcoal Process Artist
William Kentridge is a process artist among many other things. He creates, paces, adjusts, and creates again. His work evolves, and ideas develop along the way. The process is natural yet not often seen or done so eloquently.
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Yves Klein with the collaboration of Harry Shunk and John Kender, Leap into the Void, 1961
Making the Moon Landing "Real"
I didn’t watch the moon landing. I wasn’t alive yet. And until recently, I haven’t been very interested in learning about it.
Read MoreRoni Horn: When I Breathe, I Draw
Roni Horn is a contemporary artist based in New York and Iceland. Horn makes use of sculpture, photography, and drawing. Unconstrained by labels and an “artistic style”, Roni Horn commits to ambiguous and challenging projects.
Last spring, I visited at the Menil Drawing Institute for the first time and viewed “Roni Horn: When I Breathe, I Draw, Part I”. The exhibition featured cut assemblages on paper. The works were large and precise. They were also oddly intuitive, natural. I enjoyed how both the deconstruction and careful reconstruction were subtly apparent.
Read MoreCopying the Masters
I participated in this centuries old practice for the first time when I was about 10. I copied Albrecht Dürer’s The Rhinoceros. At approximately 18” x 24”, it was the largest drawing I had ever made plus it looked gnarly. Even my older brother liked it and kept it safe after I tried to get rid of it.
Read MoreThe Drawing Marathon, part 2
I introduced The Drawing Marathon in my last post. Click here to read it.
To clear workspace, we kept our large drawings in the this room.
On the first day, we drew 10 22” x 22” drawings. We chose a model, drew his/her head 10 times and described the space it held and was held in. My classmates and I thought that was a lot of drawings of heads. Little did we know that would be the focus for the following two weeks.
Day 1 of the Drawing Marathon
The strong paper required at least 4 staples on the top and bottom.
The Drawing Marathon offered many challenges. Drawing all day, cutting heavy paper that just wanted to curl, gluing sheets together, stapling giant pieces of paper onto walls, getting charcoal everywhere, using a wall rather than an easel (made a complete 180 to study the models)… The most frustrating challenge, however, was mental. Instead of focusing on space and composition, I often obsessed over likeness. I felt compelled to concentrate on facial features rather than the over all composition. Self conscious, I wanted to prove that I could draw “well”. It was a huge distraction.
During one of the critiques Graham argued that most artists can be separated into two groups: “image makers” and “image searchers”. Picasso was an “image maker”. Cezanne was a “image searcher”. I am interested in exploring this concept… if you have any resource suggestions or opinions of your own, please share in the comments below.
Prior to the Drawing Marathon, I struggled with how to start. I thought it was essential to begin with a specific idea or concept. Working without a plan seemed frivolous or half assed. I was wrong. A drawing is legitimate even if its story is not apparent when the process begins. In other words, a work is no less powerful if its meaning is uncovered after the work has already begun.
The biggest surprise and greatest growth opportunity was the night I volunteered myself to demonstrate the next day’s assignment (draw a crowd using the the 10 heads we drew over the weekend) in front of the entire class. I had no idea what I was getting into. At most, I thought I would be sticking a couple of small drawings onto a larger piece of paper with tape and drawing a few planes and shapes to create the groundwork for a composition.
I was incorrect. After somewhat haphazardly throwing my 10 heads onto the massive blank sheet of paper, I waited for Graham’s instructions. Comfortably wearing jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a jean jacket, I had no idea I was about to draw vigorously across the sheet and nervously build a sweat for the next hour. Graham told me to redraw several of the heads 2-4x their size, add figures, hands and feet. I ran out of charcoal almost immediately. The TA’s helped me flip the drawing upside down two different times as directed. By the time I was finished, I had drawn for at least an hour in front the whole class. Prior to that I had never drawn in front of another person for more than 5 minutes.
The activity boosted my confidence and opened the possibility for play… even with people staring at me… (and, at least in my head, judging me).
Graham and his TA’s suggested I look closely at the work of Edvard Munch, Johannes Vermeer, Max Beckmann, Emile Nolde, van Gogh, Henri Matisse, and Francis Bacon. Over the next few weeks, I will reading about their work and sharing the highlights on the blog.
Reading:
Ninth Street Women, Mary Gabriel
Listening:
Peter Plagens: Artist-Slash-Critic, Glasstire
Watching:
William Kentridge – ‘Art Must Defend the Uncertain’ | TateShots
Introduction to the Drawing Marathon
For two weeks in June I participated in the Drawing Marathon at the New York Studio School and drew all day, every day. I woke up around 6AM, drank coffee, put on black clothes (essential for charcoal) and took the subway to the New York Studio School to draw until 6PM. At 6:30PM, our class met for critique. Around 8 or 9PM, class was dismissed. M-F, this was my routine. It was intense to say the least.
Our teacher and dean of the school Graham Nickson founded the Marathon programs in 1988. Since then, marathons have become a main component of the New York Studio’s MFA program. While NYSS offers a several types of “marathons”, the Drawing Marathon is the “original”. The course challenges students to engage with drawing as both a physical and cerebral activity.
Each Drawing Marathon is different based on what Graham feels is most appropriate. I met a few students who had participated in the program 8+ times. One marathon involved a bunch of umbrellas. Another, a miniature toy horse. In this summer’s session, we focused on the head as a means of understanding scale, space and depth.
A few days out and back in Houston, I’m still in a bit of daze. I got caught up in the city’s energy. Go, go go! Drawing, drinking, walking, looking at art, and meeting people. Now, I have a New York hangover. While I digest everything and catch up on sleep, read a much more well written New York Times article about the Drawing Marathon by Sarah Boxer.
Reading:
“Jerry Saltz on ’93 in Art”, Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine
Ninth Street Women, Mary Gabriel
“Probing the Proper Grounds for Criticism in the Wake of the 2019 Whitney Biennial”, Seph Rodney, Hyperallergic
Listening:
#188: Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport, 10% Happier with Dan Harris
Watching:
At Eternity’s Gate (2018)
On the Basis of Sex (2018)
Throwback to my earlier days in photography
It’s Thursday and I’ve started a new job at a photography gallery, so why not “throwback”?
Between 2009 and 2013, I was a photographer. I exhibited at Houston Center for Photography, attended Tisch at NYU, acted as the photography editor of my high school newspaper, and photographed for The Daily Texan.
I turned my attention towards photography after making That’s Me, a mixed media work, in 2009. It began as a photograph that I edited in Photoshop and later painted and drew on top of.
After 2009, I took photography seriously. My camera became my third arm, slung over my shoulder at all times. I shot everything. Coffee, trees, and (most often) my friends.
I loved capturing whatever I thought was in front of me and comparing it against my memory and what I was told. I particularly enjoyed film photography. It does what it wants. During my senior year of high school, I played with a small blue plastic camera. (In addition to being “fun”, It was extremely cheap and light in comparison to my DSLR.) I never knew what I was going to get until I developed the film. I took the above photograph with a Mini Diana. While drinking coffee and visiting with my friends, I took multiple photographs on top of one another. Delightfully, it worked out.
Between my junior and senior year of high school, I studied at New York University. It was intense to say the least. I loved and hated it. We were constantly on the move–taking photos, editing photos, or looking at photos. Somewhere in there, my roommate managed to cut my bangs.
Photo and styling by Tess Mayer
I continued to photograph after my summer at NYU. I became the photo editor of my school newspaper The Review, played with a “polaroid” camera, and began experimenting with social media.
April eventually came around, and I had to make a decision. Ultimately, I decided to study something “practical” at a state school instead of art or photography at private school. It felt safe and practical. I figured I could do art after my undergrad if I really wanted. Presumably it was a test of will or passion.
So, I studied advertising at The University of Texas. I wasn’t too happy at first. At one regrettable moment, I emailed a former professor at NYU and begged her to help me transfer to NYU. Nothing came of it, and things got better at UT. By junior year, I thoroughly enjoyed my classes.
To satiate my desire to return to my “former self”, I briefly joined The Daily Texan. Honestly, however, I was a mediocre photographer when it came to journalism, so I left that after a semester and joined the sales team.
My favorite books related to photography:
On Photography, Susan Sontag
Hold Still, Sally Mann
Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes
The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Charlotte Cotton
The Ongoing Moment, Geoff Dyer
My favorite photographers:
Brassaï
André Kertész
Dorothea Lange
Sally Mann
Lorna Simpson
Nan Goldin
Carrie Mae Weems
Diane Arbus
Bruce Davidson
To view more of my photography, visit my Flickr. For the everyday, follow me on Instagram. I had a photography blog back in the day that I have since taken down. If curiosity strikes you, you can attempt to find that on web archives at either ereedphoto.com or blog.ericaannreed.com. I started it in 2010!