How was class? Part 2.

The final week of class was critique and then work-work-work. We were supposed to end the class with 2 final large pieces and 2 smaller experimental pieces, but I only wound up with 2 larger final pieces because I am too old to do an all nighter...or rather, it is in the best interest of my children that I get sleep and not turn into Momzilla, destroyer of fun.



This started out with maps of the greater DC area and the Roanoke-Salem area of VA. I was trying to figure out how to relate them to each other, and John wandered by and said that the smaller map looked like a bush, so I went with that. This one leaves me with a sense of blah. It's such a heavy subject, and there's so much baggage attached to where one grows up, it was really hard for me to effectively communicate all of that on an 11"x14" piece of paper. Plus I'd sort of visited the whole idea of my home state before.


If looking at this makes you dizzy, that's because it was photographed during a thunderstorm with out a flash and without a tripod. (the hazards of a having an overly curious child is that you put things out of their reach and then forget where you've put them) I'm sure that at some point in the nebulous future it will be re-photographed and possibly re-posted, but I make no promises.
This was one of those pieces where I started with a bunch of images, a line in my head (in her dreams, there was always Paris), and then set about to create a story with images and unwritten narrative. Which is way harder than it sounds. This took a lot of arranging, rearranging, sketching, and sleeping to get it just so. I think ultimately it's really successful b/c it evokes a mood and draws the viewer in for closer inspection.

So what I took away from all of this grueling work and crazy schedule is as follows:
1. you cannot create a successful work if you do not create crap first.
2. push yourself! you are capable of more than you think.
3. nobody will die if they eat hot dogs for dinner 3 nights in a row
4. in my next life, i will be wealthy enough to have my own studio space and hire someone to do the washing up