Adventure and Daring Found in Print

NYC artist, Chris Twomey is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Moving/Still #8
Inkjet printed on archival paper
11" x 8.5"
©2012ElizabethRiley

Elizabeth Riley’s multimedia work has always been, for me, adventurous and daring. She puts together disparate elements from architecture, the urban environment and abstract forms, occasionally throwing into the mix, figures and objects.  It is free-wheeling, with a fractured sense of space, time, and reality.  

The digital collage I now have in my collection was derived and shown at her recent installation exhibited at Storefront Bushwick in Brooklyn, NYC.  The physical installation, “Tabletop Cityscape” was created using inkjet-printed video stills, embedded video and found wood. One video was intimately embedded in a 6" hole and while another projected a video of the Green Chair 2, conveying both private and public modes of experiencing a city.  It was so active and full of life.

My print, made from video stills and ipad photos, is called “Moving/Still #8.  It is from a series of 12 digital prints. Each are inkjet printed on archival paper, 11 x 8.5” in an edition 200.They are quite inexpensive. I loved mine because of the colors, references to origami and that weird hairy plant in the lower left.  The quality is wonderful. See more of her work or get a print for your own collection at www.elizabethrileyprojects.com


Chris Twomey is a multi- media artist, filmaker, curator and writer. (and a mother... so to Chris, and all you other hard working, hard loving momma's out there- Have a Happy and Beautiful Mother's Day!)

To see more of Chris' work or to contact her:

Studio phone & fax: 212-505-0586

Chris Twomey Website

www.christwomeyparallax.com New Monograph

Broadthinking Website

Friday, May 11, 2012 @ Artists Talk on Art

 Westwood Gallery, 568 Broadway at Prince Street, NYC
Fridays, at 7:00 PM, with doors opening at 6:00 PM.  $7.00 admit

http://www.atoa.org/Spring2012/May.htm

Upcoming Solo Exhibition: Chris Twomey - STOLEN GOODS

JUNE 7, opening 6-8pm – June 31, 2012

MUSECPMI 

580 Eight Avenue, 7^th Floor, @ 38^th Street NYC

http://www.musecpmi.org/

That Elusive "X"

I realized that making art is often like a treasure hunt. Sometimes, I want to go right to the X, the treasure/ the finished piece. BUT, each step is a clue to the next one, and like a treasure map it is not always linear or clear. Lately, while working on my wire, pulp and encaustic pieces- primarily the forks, knives, spoons, and nets, it has been frustrating the heck out of me. I can appreciate the process but it has been a challenge not quite seeing how they work together, how they hang, and more specifically how I am going to put it all together when I install the work in the window at the Fashion Center at 209 West 38th Street in Manhattan in two weeks (!)

While in my studio today I reflected on the process and the treasure map analogy and I could see how each step along the way has informed or moves me to the X ... whatever that may be.

My friend Marian sagely pointed out, that like in life that X is not always clear and changes and evolves. So for the next two weeks, the boys are in camp and I have the luxury of going into my studio and continuing on this great adventure of making art and gaining insight along the way.

Learning to Look...Remembering Mary Buckley Parriott (1926-2010)

I received my new issue of Gateway- The Community Newsletter of Pratt Institute in the mail today. Browsing through it, I learned of the passing of Mary Buckley Parriott. Mrs. Buckley (as we knew her) was my teacher foundation year for the Light, Color and Design course, and truly taught me to LOOK at light, color and the relationships between the two. I have thought of her often over the years and continue to remember her as I notice the red light filtering through the trees at sunset in my backyard. I continue to remind myself to pay attention and truly look, as well as pass on her teachings to my students and my own children, urging them to lift their eyes from their books or ipods to truly look out the car window and notice the beauty in simply looking.

This news comes at the heels of learning about the death Louise Bourgeois another artist whose work I have always responded to and loved. Truly an icon and a pioneer, I remember seeing her in person at the Max Hutchinson Gallery in Soho in 1980-81 where I had my real first art job as a gallery assistant. Max represented Louise, and there she was at an opening - diminutive with her long graying hair in a pony tail wearing a tuxedo T-Shirt!

As I work in my studio these days, preparing for my window installation on 38th St. in NYC, I think of her work and how it first influenced me as a young art student and continues to resonate with me as a mature woman and artist.

YOU inspire me

Albert Einstein said it best when he said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." I feel that way about inspiration... the good, the bad, the beautiful and ugly... can be inspiring - a call to action - even if that action is "to be." Of course, New York City as inspiration is a given- every where you turn. A beautiful spring day, just makes it easy!

I took the Double Happiness bus on friday from Wilmington, DE to NYC (an adventure in and of itself!) It was a beautiful sunny day full of friends, family (with a surprise visit to my brother), art and more art. I went to see the window I am doing an installation for in June, had lunch with Laurette and Jennifer, went to MOMA (William Kentridge and Marina Abramovic) and then meandered back to midtown and found this wonderful space filled with art. Habitats for Artists (HFA) has an exhibition up until tomorrow (!) at Chashama on West 44th St. They are a collective project that uses the idea of an artist's studio as a catalyst for mutual engagement between artists and communities. Laurette and I stopped by, chatted, drew on the walls and chatted with the founder- a very friendly guy named Simon from Wales. Fun, fun!

Here's a shot of one of the places I take my inspiration... my studio!