Mircofiber Series

Last year, when I attended the 6th International Marine Debris Conference, I attended multiple panels that were discussing microfibers and microplastics. I was overwhelmed by the information and surprised the public wasn’t more aware of the impacts they are having on fish and invertebrates as well as marine environment. Many of the clothes we wear everyday are woven from synthetic fibers which when washed in our washing machines are not filtered and are so small they are able to slip right though treatment plants entering our waterways and ocean. This form of pollution really stuck with me, and I wanted to create with a new and exciting art to portray this information through the medium of textiles and carpeting.

I developed a process of shaving out imagery from discarded carpet and second hand fleece jackets. The work uses similar techniques found in relief sculptures in that it appears that the imagery is raised from the background. I am constantly vacuuming and collecting all the material that is shaved off during the process, and I plan on making small sculptures by melting the fibers and pouring into a mould. I am excited to see where this process takes me next. I am currently working on a series of images of the moments  I fell in love with the ocean.

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Portrait in progress of my brother and I holding Salmon we caught in Santa Cruz, CA.

Collected shaved fibers.

To reduce my micro plastic fiber footprint, I recently bought the GUPPYFRIEND™ Washing Bag from Patagonia. I have been meaning to get one but every time I went to the store they were sold out, which is also a good sign because this means others are also trying to do their part. I can’t wait to see how much this bag catches fibers during my washing of my synthetic clothing.

To help tie all of my art making and research that inspired me, please watch this stellar video created by The Story of Stuff, that does a great job explaining how microfibers enter our lives and then continue to have a negative impact on our marine environments.

International Coastal Cleanup Day 2018

Another successful Coastal Cleanup Day! It was a great clean up site at Tower 10 at Huntington State Beach where along side Orange County Coastkeepers we worked with hundreds of volunteers and collected 450 pounds of trash off the sands. I was able two show two different works right on the beach, the cigarette Albatross and my Micro Fiber Whale. To see the final tallies of Coastal Cleanup Day around the globe click here.

For the Albatross I hand collected each cigarette butt that were used to create the over 9ft long final piece. It totaled to over 1,500 butts! Having the piece come full circle and be displayed right on the coastline was very fulfilling.

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No ifs, ands, or...BUTTS!

This past week I have been working on a new interactive sculpture centered around the truths about cigarette butts for the Cali Roots Festival held in Monterey, CA, A butt of butts!  This weekends goal was to have something interactive for the 10,000 attendees to participate with and learn more about how the butts affect the local and global marine environment-mission accomplished!

The sculpture was showcased at the Save Our Shores booth to educate about how it is the most found item at beach clean ups and to educate about the plastic found in cigarette filters, which do not biodegrade. Very few visitors to the booth knew that the butts contain plastics and were excited to share this new information with others to promote litter free habits. Did you know...38% of a beach clean up is just cigarette butts!  GROSS!!!

Another insightful interaction was with ex-smokers.  Seeing their interaction with the work and relate to how much a smoking habit produces waste.  They also viewed that a lot of money was spent on their habit and the butt sculptor possibly represented a large supply.  Multiple current smokers were enthusiasitcally sharing with us their pocket, portable ashtrays. Click this link to learn more.

To start this sculpture I began collecting the butts which didn't take as long I thought because THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!! I then created the paper mache and cardboard base shape then went to work gluing on each butt. I finished the two cheeks and the upper half and allowed room for the public to help finish the rest. Once at the festival, I set up hot glue guns, gloves, hand sanitizer, and extra butts! Visitors had full creative license to place butts where they pleased. 

Attendees were surprised that cigarette butts are the most found object on beach clean ups globally.  However, they were not surprised because people see them everywhere!  At one point, several people brought handfuls of "butts" found at the festival venue.  The sculptor will be shown Friday, June 1st at Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History for the Ebb and Flow Arts Festival from 5:30 PM- 11:00 PM. 

Santa Cruz Resource Recovery Visit

A while back I went on a tour at the Santa Cruz Resource Recovery Center. On the tour we learned more about there recycling program! I recently finished my training to be a Save Our Shores Sanctuary Steward and was able to organize a time for a group of us to go and check out where all of our hard work cleaning up the beaches ends up. During our training,  Leslie O’Malley, a past steward and now Wast Reduction Assistant, came and presented on the City of Santa Cruz’s recycling program and went over what they recycle and what goes into the dump.  Wanting to learn more, we headed out to Dimeo Lane and checked it out!

Here are some interesting things I learned that I think we should all know about!

Recycling can be confusing and some times it can be hard to figure out what container certain items go in! Stick to your basics, paper, metal, glass, and plastic. It's always recommended to check your local city's website to find what they are able to recycle. Below are basics which are the main focus at the Santa Cruz Resource Recovery Facility. 

Above is a super important part of any recycling center! This is where pickers take out anything that they are not in capacity to recycle and any pieces that could jam the machine. Things like hangers, long pieces of plastic, or any kind of hand plastic strapping. Then the machine lifts the lighter pieces like paper up and over to another conveyer and the heavier pieces continue down another conveyer to one last set of pickers. Everything goes by super quick so they cant separate everything. One problem they are now having at this facility is with there paper bails. They typically send them to China but now is no longer accepting due to them having too much plastic within the bails. Now they are having to run the paper through their facility twice to get it up to standards, causing them more time and money spent on the hope of selling them to have recycled in another recycling location or country. 

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For more info check out the Santa Cruz Resource Recovery 2018 Refuse and Recycling Newsletter to see what they have available and learn about there helpful tips they encourage their community to use! I still encourage you to see what your city has available for your community think this is a great tool no matter where you live. 

Earth Day Feature on the Media Outlet Seeker

This artist, (ME!) turns plastic beach pollution into wave-inspired art that captures the spirit of Earth Day.

The video takes place in my backyard filling up the back of the wave and then installing the work at my Elementary School where I presented the sculpture to the students. It was a very productive day where I spoke to each class about what they could do to use less single use plastic. So many students already were using alternative such as bringing there own bamboo utensils as well as rubber and metal straws!

It was a fun day full of students adding new and insightful perspectives. One young student asked to be able to say something in front of her class. She got up and stood in front of the wave and told her class mates, "Treat the Earth like your friend, you wouldn't through trash at your friend so don't throw trash on the Earth!" It was pretty cute and awesome that she felt it nessesary to stand up and speak out! 

Straws Film Screening and Discussion Panel

I am excited to announce I will be on the Discussion Panel at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center - Unofficial following the viewing of the documentary film STRAWS which highlights the culture of single use plastics. The discussion panel composed of a variety of experts working to combat and raise awareness about the problem of ocean plastic pollution. 

Discussion panel speakers include: 
Jackie Nuñez, Founder of The Last Plastic Straw
Katherine O'Dea, Executive Director of Save Our Shores
Katie Peck, artist who utilizes ocean plastics as a medium for her sculptures

Doors will open at 6pm. Film will begin at 6:30 followed by the discussion panel at 7. This is a free event, however space is limited. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Please reserve your spot(s) here: http://bit.ly/2sBKiCU.

Tickets are going fast! Hope to see you there :) 

Chapman Magazine Fall 2017

I was recently highlighted in the Fall 2017 Chapman magazine on the first two pages. It has been exciting to see how far this piece has taken me. Here is a section of  the blurb that accompanied the image!

"Thrashing in currents, tons of plastic trash accumulate in gyres that some reports say reach the size of Texas. Then there's the stuff that washes up on our shores and that's where Katie Peck '17 comes in. The studio art major spent months collecting plastic debris from California beaches before transforming it into an eye-catching wave sculpture during Chapman's well-named Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. Peck turned data about plastic trash "into something visual and tactile to show the public through art what's happening along our coastlines," she says. The public is noticing, and she's still riding the wave. Her sculpture turned heads and crabbed media attention at a recent Coastal Cleanup Day in Huntington Beach."

I am excited to announce that I am curating a gallery show for the 6th International Marine Debris Conference this coming March held by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and EU Environment . I will be having an artist reception the night of the 15th and can't wait to show all the amazing artists I have curated into the show. I look forward to keeping you up date on my artist pursuits within the marine debris art world!

Beach Research Day

       This past week I fled from the smokey air due to Canyon 2 Fire in Orange County and met up with an old friend in San Diego. For most of day I spent time at the beach doodling the waves crashing before me at Ocean Beach. It ended up being really informative and helped spark the creative bug for my next sculpture. I have had great intriuge in ways of visualizing the Pacific Garbage Patch that is drifting not as far as you would think off our coastline. I look forward to where this takes me next! 

"Only we humans make waste that nature can't digest."

           ~Captain Charles Moore

The Big Day!

Early Saturday morning, I arrived at Huntington State Beach driving a U-Haul that held my sculpture in its five different pieces. I parked and quickly got to work with the help of my assistant to assemble the it. Within the next hour it was finally up and standing in the parking right next to the bike path. It was a goose bump occasion for me to finally have all the pieces screwed and bolted together with the beach and ocean as its backdrop. 

Shortly after bikers and runners were stopping and wanting to learn more about the work. It was amazing moment when I finally was sharing all the research I have been collecting over the past few months. 

Volunteers quickly started arriving and checking in with Coastalkeepers to begin their task of cleaning up the beach. As the day went on and the clouds cleared, it turned into a beautiful day of blue skies with a nice breeze coming off the water. Once the cleanup was over, the Trash Free Jamboree began. I talked with volunteers about their experience picking up trash. It seemed as though everyone was surprised that all the trash was so small. I think when people think about beach cleanups they have a preconceived notion that they’ll find huge pieces of trash. What I had to share with them was also the importance of picking up the small pieces. Those are the items that coastal animals mistake as food and consume. 

One of my favorite moments of the day was talking with the Girl and Boy Scout Troops that were really interested in all of the items on the wave. I went through and had them find the items such as the scorpion, mermaid, the 7 shoes, and the 5 shovels. We then talked about different ways they could incorporate into their daily routines to eliminate plastic usage. I loved their enthusiasm and was stoked that their energy made an impact to this event!

I am looking forward to future sights that my wave of trash will travel to in the near future and the impact it will have on educating people on plastics. Be on the lookout for other locations that it will be displayed.

Final Week!

With the end near I am full of every emotion. I am currently just working on small adjustments. Over the weekend I got my steel back from being powder coated and they look AMAZING! This week I have been spray painting the collected trash from the beaches blue and attaching them to the wave. It has been a long process and I can't wait to see it all together at Huntington State Beach. There are going to be around 200-300 volunteers and I am excited about family and friends to participate in the clean up and view my sculpture. 

The sculpture has also been getting a lot of press allowing me to promote the positive effects of beach cleanups and ways people can alter their life styles to produce less plastic. It has truly been surreal and very humbling. I look forward to continue to educate and show my sculpture with as many people possible. My goal is to create a wave of change!!!

For more information on Coastal Cleanup Day and a location near you click here.

Sculpture Update

This weekend was super productive and I have completed the frame work of the sculpture. Now I need to figure out the attachment for the wave and get it all painted! I learned so much this weekend working with such a heavy and large material. My beams are four by four steel tubing. Its been awesome to also see my welding abilities progress over the summer. 

This sculpture has really pushed me out of my comfort zone in the best ways. I am using everything I have learned throughout school and problem solving like no other. I feel as though I am finally creating on the scale I have always wanted to.

 Looking forward to working on it on the up coming days. Taking a quick break because school starts today. Four more classes and I am officially a graduate. Im feeling pretty stoked on that fact as well. 

Will keep you all updated throughout the up coming weeks. Coastal Cleanup Day on September 16th is coming up quick but Im currently feeling pretty good about where I am at!

Top 5 Lessons From SURF

1. Collect Mentors!

This was something I was doing throughout the program but only really realized this on the last day when Francesca was speaking about the lecture she heard by Leslie Odom Jr. She talked about how he told the audience the importance of collecting a variety of different mentors within many fields. I have found that people are excited to help you when you are interested in there research or share an interest in a specific field. So get out there and collect your Mentors!

2. Fail As Hard As Possible!

During the last two weeks I struggled with getting back into the working mindset after traveling in Europe and being away from my work. There were a lot of ups and downs and projects that I took apart. I was extremely frustrated one day and took a walk and ended up laying in the grass and getting sucked into the dark vortex of Facebook videos. Luckily I found a video by Peter Dinklage speech, “Don’t Wait.” What I took away from it was getting in the mindset of failing better. I wasn’t liking anything I had been creating and I think I just needed to hear that it was good to fail. But to think about failing in a better way in that I needed to take more risks! Do something crazy and get out of my head!

Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister from HBO's Game of Thrones) delivers the 2012 commencement address in Bennington College. Here are the key highlights of his message. warning: some GOT spoilers ahead song used: Rains of Castamere (from Game of Thrones)

3. You Don’t Always Need A Reason

Putting this into a title form was hard. With this one I mean that its okay to make something and not really know its exact meaning in that moment in time. Come back to it in a while or keep it in your studio. Maybe it plays into your work a week, month or year later. There could be a reason for making it but with time and space you are able to reconnect with that piece. I learned this through going on studio visits and listening to artists lectures. This isn’t something they tell you in school, which I totally understand why but great to hear that I’m not the only one who does this. 

4. Document Every Stage Of Your Work

It is very helpful to look back at all your work through images it also allows you to share and get feedback from others. I have found that I have been having a lot of conversations with a variety of people about my art work and no matter what it always helps to show them pictures.

5. Have FUN!

I seem to forget this every now and then. I get to focused or have an approaching deadline that I get so hard on myself that nothing ends up working. I usually take a step back and realize all over again that I need to have fun. Throw on a jamming playlist, not take myself to seriously, crack some jokes, and do some awful dance moves. Most of the time this gets my wacky creative juices flowing!

Chapman 2017 SURF Fellows after recieving certificates and awards at Commencement.

Richard Serra Early Work

Richard Serra born in San Francisco, California in 1939 is most known for his massive sight specific steel sculptures that rely on gravity and knowledge of how the steel interacts with space.

Inspiration

One of his early memories as a kid was watching a ship being launched from a shipyard with his father. He was mesmerized by how something can be so massive and industrial can then transform into a weightless object. You can see how this moment greatly affects his later works and how one physically relates to the steel sculptures. 

Serra also grew up drawing as a form of getting attention from his parents. He would draw everything, if his father and brother were working on the family car Serra would be drawing all of the parts they were using. He still draws greatly saying that it allows him to keep in touch with every day life. He says it also keeps his hand eye coordination in check due to him using it every day.

Early Work  “Verb List Compilation: Actions to Relate to Oneself”

OF TIME 

OF ENTROPY

OF GRAVITY

TO SPLIT

TO LIFT

TO FLOOD

Richard Serra. Verb List. 1967–68. Graphite on paper, 2 sheets, each 10 x 8" (25.4 x 20.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist in honor of Wynn Kramarsky. © 2011 Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

On two pages written in pencil Richard Serra wrote 84 verbs as well as possible contexts. In an Art21 interview Serra talks about how artists are continuing to try and see things a new. So this list became a tool for doing so through taking these actions to multiple mediums. Taking an action and then making a work creating a collection of work.

An important work that came from this series was "Splashing" 1968. In this piece he would heat up lead into its molten state then taking a ladle and throwing small amounts into the corner of where the wall and floor connected, the Gutter. He did this work first in his studio. The art of this piece was the action not the end creation. The image above is him working on the piece. He later did it again at the SF MOMA. He had a whole crew and it was created again later on in his career. They would have to work on it at night so that the toxic fumes wouldn't get in contact with the museum goers. He ended up using a total of 15,000 pounds of lead and created many molds of the gutter in the gallery space. It took around 15 people to move the metal off of the wall and then to flip it due to its immense weight. 

What I find important to take from this list of verbs is that small exercises you give yourself can change a materials potential. Giving you no boundaries but an action to practice with. Also never throw away anything! Just kidding! But it is crazy to think about now how important those peices of paper are to his work and within art history. 

Serra's first version done in his studio

The second version done at SF MOMA

Saturday Morning Inspiration!

Watching this video of  Benedict Cumberbatch reading a letter from Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse always gets me inspired and sets me in the right creative mindset! Its about getting over your self doubt and just getting to work to create what feels right, silly, bad, and intuitive!

Worth the watch!!!

In 1960, pioneering American artists Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse met for the first time and became close friends. In 1965, Eva found herself facing a creative block during a period of self-doubt, and told Sol of her frustrating predicament. Sol replied with this letter. Letters Live returns to London, Oct 4-8th 2016.

SURF Beach Clean Up!

Had a great time picking up trash and being able to share my disgust for styrofoam with some of my SURF peers today! Have yet to weigh the amount of trash we collected but we filled a large amount of the trash bags we were collecting with.

I'm looking forward to putting a ton of hours in this weekend in the studio and get a whole bunch of welding in! Stay posted for more in studio picks!!!

Day In the Studio

Did a little bit of everything!

Welding, sorting, weaving, and some spray paint! Getting lots of work done in the studio! Shout out to my personal photographer Francesca for the sweet pictures! 

It was a productive week working on getting to my final sculpture. I made some progress of creating forms that I could see becoming much large. Now I am working on how to integrate plastic materials on the steel frames. Currently trying out what it looks like on a loom apparatus. I am looking into other ways of attaching it as well. 

Summery of Visiting the Venice Biennale

Lots and lots of art! I have never seen so much art in three days. It has been an overload of inspiration, opinions, differing viewpoints and a huge variety of materials being utilized.  How this large-scale event works is that there are around 120 artists from different countries around the globe. The artists are given a pavilion, which is a unique exhibition space that was created, by differing architectures. So not only is the art inside intriguing but so is the architecture that houses the installations. The Biennale is located in a variety of locations. The largest are the Arsenalle and the Gardini, which are old shipyards, transformed into an artists haven full of pathways and outdoor spaces connecting each countries pavilion.  Other countries pavilions lie within the heart of Venice in different buildings scattered throughout.

Demon with Bowl (Exhibiton Enlargement)

To add even more to the craziness of trying to see all the pavilions there are additional “off-site” artists and projects being presented in conjunction with the biennale. They include a resurfacing of Damien Hirst, an amazing show at the Polazzo Fortuny, and a Mark Tobey exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. It’s a city that is currently housing some of the most informative works of historical work fused with the ideals and conversations within the contemporary art scene. Hirst’s show was a commentary on just that. As controversial as Hirst and his work may be, his show  Treasures of the Wreak of the Unbelievable at the Palazzon Grassi was very intelligent and critical. He created huge sculptures ranging from a three story high figurative sculpture to fake golden coins displayed in museum like cases. It was all supposedly found from an ancient ship wreak of the vessel ‘Unbelievable’ that he then resurfaced all the precious cargo. All of the items in the Hirsts show were of a fictional Alus Calidius Amontan who was a freed slave taking the items to the temple of the sun. The show included videos and images of the works “being discovered”. If I didn’t have a strong background in art and prior knowledge of Damien Hirst’s work, I may have thought this story he had woven about the sculptures being displayed was real. When really all of the work he created and then organized and choreographed the discovery and all of the historical displays of these “artifacts.” This show strongly felt like a critique of museum culture and the public’s fault in how they are quick to believe what is shown to them.  I spent a lot of the time laughing in how believable it all was and found humor in that so many of the people viewing the art thought a majority of the story to be real.

The Pavilions that I really enjoyed were Finland and Germany. They were all vastly different but inspiring and compelling for a variety of reasons. Finland artists’ were Nathaniel Mellors and Erkka Nissinen, who created the work The Aalto Natives, a video and animatronics installation about an imaginary recreation of what it would be like to recreate the world. It was a conversation from an animatronics speaking egg and a box that had eyes and a moving mouth, named Atum and Geb that were recreating the Finland to be of their liking. The two go into the future of the Finland they have created to understand the new culture and how it had developed. The piece critiques many aspects of Finland’s clichés using humor to highlight our lapses and shortcomings. The critiques are vast, religious, fetishism of progress, and rationalism to name a few. For more info click here.

Germany was awarded The Golden Lion for being the best work this year. Artist Anne Imhof piece Faust in the German Pavilion was a three-hour performance that had five performers interacting together and alone throughout the whole pavilion. Jumping from shelves on the wall to scrambling below the glass floor and performing below your feet, they were stone faced and you would have to move out of their way as they blazed a path through the crowds watching within the space. The piece moved from fast pasted, intense, and chaotic then quickly to still, quiet, and sculpture like.  I totally understand why the work got its accolades. It spoke to how we view art and interact with it, for instance, how viewers now interact behind their phones trying to capture the moments. One of the performers, in a chaotic burst of movement, grabbed a phone from a viewer’s hand and placed it on the ground. It was beautiful and I really appreciated it and can’t even begin to fathom what it would be like to perform this work and have so many phones shoved into your face.

    There was so much artwork that I am still processing, but it was a very exciting experience because I was introduced to so many new artists. It was also an invigorating experience because I was able to put to use everything I had learned throughout my four years of Chapman specifically to be able to critique and understand what was going on throughout my experience. I still need time to digest this amazing trip and have distance to get a better understanding of the experience as a whole and to understand why certain pieces I enjoyed and some that I disliked. I strongly believe this course has allowed me to have a foot up from many recently graduated artists because of the vast amounts of artists I have seen up close and in person. Also, to be able to have two weeks of over 80 hours of looking at work is astounding! It was a marathon but I learned so much about my own practice and am so inspired to get back into the studio and start working!

Documenta 14

Logo of Documenta 14

Early in July, I traveled to Europe to attend Documenta 14 with fellow Chapman Art Students. Documenta, which started over 60 years ago, is a curated exhibition that transpires every five years in the small industrial town of Kassel, Germany. This year Documenta was produced by Adam Szymczyk, who is known for the solo show of Sung Hwan Kim and the comprehensive exhibition in Europe of late American artist Lee Lozano. He also impressively co-curated the 2008 Berlin Biennale and helped organize shows in Europe including Rome’s Keats Shelley House and Istituto Svizzero.What is different this year is that Szymczyk has Documenta taking place simultaneously in Athens, Greece. Artists’ either replicated work twice, one for Kassel and one for Athens, or made a work very similar. This year the over arching themes of Documenta 14 is learning from Athens, post colonialism, immigration, destruction and/or rebuilding of culture.

The artwork that really stood out to me was George Hadjmichaliz’s piece called the Crossroad. The Crossroad where Oedipus Killed Laius. A Sescription and History of the Journey from Thebes to Corinth, Delphi, and the Return to Thebes. This work incorporates an iron table covered in dark black pigment and synthetic resin on nine steel plates, 64 gelatin silver prints, plus a video. The table itself encompasses a detailed map of the geography that appeared within the story. What spoke to me within this work was how Hadjmichaliz was able to describe the narrative through so many different mediums that each contributed a new take. The work also went through a shift of scale where the large table had super small details and the small prints had very close up shorts of the table. The video then brought the work to life on its small screen through panning shots. This piece gives me so much inspiration for my current research work by utilizing different scales and mediums to have conceptual aspects discovered throughout the work.

The event-taking place throughout the city of Kassel in museums, galleries, storefronts, and even an abandoned train station, has one exploring and re-contextualizing the pieces. This Documenta has raised many questions and criticism regarding the general bleak outlook on globalization and the state of the world, by not providing solutions. In an article by Jeni Fulton titled How Documenta 14 Failed Everyone but its Curators, states that with limited text available next to each art piece that it is taking away from the work, due to being in a post conceptual time in art, it is expected to have a concept that goes along with the work. I totally agree with this and think this is something that they should have provided to make a stronger exhibition. Even in the Documenta catalogue, little information was available that expanded on each artists’ work or themes.

It’s important to note that our group was much younger in comparison to the majority of other attendees at Documenta. The majority of the people I saw were large groups of older German couples about twice our age plus it was rare to hear other languages. However, I’m extremely grateful for the experience even though the curation and the pieces exhibited were not work that was enjoyable to view but allowed me the opportunity to utilize my education to be a critic of decisions that were made by the artists. 

An aspect that I discovered engaging and specific to Documenta was the incorporation of sound pieces found in most of the locations. The installations ranged from a single speaker to a fully immersive work stripping away all of your other senses and only allowing sound to visualize the work. I believe sound works will become more common because of Documentas influences on the art world. I find this very exciting! It is a genre that hasn’t been tapped into successfully. My gears are turning in expanding my work into creating a sound piece.  I can’t wait!!

Mid Week Progress

Started the week off with some weaving of my collected material. I started with some with rope as my base that I would then go over and under with my materials. However didn't look so great so I switched over to some fishing line that was donated to the project. It wet much smoother and Im excited how interacts conceptually and visually. Looking forward to continue weaving! The weaving is currently being done on a 5 foot by 5 foot welded frame. Still haven't decided if I am going to take it off or not. 

Also did some experimentation with some sheet metal that I found rusting away. Cut it up with the plasma cutter and then welded small sections back together. They turned a little bit into crowns or sea weed like. Not likely I will continue on that thought as of now but its a very different shape and structure then what I have been thinking about lately. 

This Friday I will be leaving for Europe to go see Documenta and the Venice Biennale !!!! So excited! I will be posting as much as I can about the experience and all the amazing art I am about to see. Can't wait.

Welding Women!!!

We are currently living in an age of a large shortage of welders. The average age of welders in the industry is 55 and many of the extremely knowledgeable welders are either retiring or dying of old age. They are currently looking for a new generation and reaching out to women to join the field. Only around 5% of welders are female in the US. It is a very well paying career with the minimum wage around 15 dollars and the working conditions are becoming much safer and cleaner.

"Women have steady hands and patience. And those are two very important things in welding," said Becky Lorenz, a veteran professional welder and machinist. Welders need a strong ability in math, science, spatial skills, conceptualizing ideas, and precise hand eye coordination. This is due to the array of job opportunities and the skill you need to lay down good beads.

One of the most famous female welders was Rosie the Riveter who during World War II rallied women to fill a variety of labor jobs and show that they are just as able to perform the same tasks as the men.  Unfortunately after the war ended, gender norms prevailed and the labor jobs went back to the men for the most part.

Beverly Peppers is a world-renowned sculptor working in cast iron, bronze, steel, stainless steel and stone. Many of her work spans over four decades and is sight specific. She uses her large metal sculptures to interact with the landscape and it is meant to function as public spaces. She is currently 94 and just a badass! She taught herself how to weld in factories surrounded by hundreds of men.

“The abstract language of form that I have chosen has become a way to explore an interior life of feeling... I wish to make an object that has powerful presence, but is at the same time inwardly turned, seeming capable of intense self-absorption.” - Beverly Peppers

I think I found my idol, Beverly Peppers. In an interview with The Telegraph in 2014 at age 91, Beverly shares that she grew up in Brooklyn surrounded by strong women. “There was nothing I ever thought would limit me because my mother and grandmother were very strong women. I didn’t know that’s not how women acted!” She considers herself one of the first artists to ever work with Cor-Ten steel, which is now well-known weathering steel.

She moved from Brooklyn to Paris, then Rome and finally settling in Umbria with her husband Curtis Bill Pepper and their two children.  Curtis was a writer and recently died at 96. Since both were a part of the art scene, they had a vast circle of artist friends

Beverly is a strong believer in being a part of the manufacturing of her work throughout her whole carrier explaining, “Being involved at all stage of the fabrication of my sculptures means that I can recognize and incorporate the divine accident. If I’m not there I would not be able to recognize that extra, unexpected element.” She received the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.