“You slapped my face...Oh but so gently I smiled....At the caress."

"We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world. The lives that you admire, the attitudes that seem noble to you, have not been shaped by paterfamilias or a schoolmaster, they have sprung from very different beginnings, having been influenced by everything evil or commonplace that prevailed round about them. They represent a struggle and a victory."

-Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time (With a Budding Grove)

Thanks to Kurt

Nesbit wanted to thank you again for your encouraging and helpful words. For some of us it was a first (or second) time crit with you and it makes us sad you were never our teacher; but, as proven here on Nesbit we will continue to bother you until one of us dies (and there are more of us than you). You truly are a prince among men Sr. Kurt and next time anyone of us sees you in person we will really buy you tea or beer (we should probably tell Jeff that too), until then please accept this portrait of you holding a five headed Nesbit goat.

Thank you... and now my turn.

I wanted to thank you all...

This was a pleasure. Jeff Rau and I just had coffee and we were talking about how encouraging it is to see you all "doing it." You're making it happen... and as you know, you need each other to make it happen and to keep it going. My class got together after graduation and a bunch of us got a studio in Buena Park, and although it didn't last more than a year, it solidified our committment to each other as artists and I think helped a lot of us "keep going" after graduation. With this blog, you guys have taken full advantage of a new medium to have a virutal studio, and it's encouraging to see how often you all post and comment about each other's work. "Art apart" is truly a great concept. Bravo.

and Lauren, wherever you may be-- I hope things are well and I'd love to see some work whenver you may have the chance to be making it!

And now I selfishly ask you to freely make comments about my Northwoods Journals book, which I've just posted on facebook as a set of far-too-low-res screen shots. But hey, it fits your theme, so I'm going for it.

Click here for the facebook link.

first to crit: sucks.

I'm am going to apologize ahead of time for my crits... to be honest I am totally sick and I wrote them in a state. So now that I have your pitty...go forth and.

I love you, I am continually impressed and encouraged by your work.

anxiously awaiting

hello Nesbitters.

I am honestly very excited and honored to be participating... It makes me happy to see you guys holding each other to good healthy studio practices like this. The nerdy teacher/parent in me is very proud.

I'm still in Minnesota, heading home to LB tomorrow... and so I'm hoping to take some time on Wednesday to sit down and ponder your work.

Until then... it's all crap.



or not. actually, it's not. at all. I will say this, on first impression, you succeed in keeping me in the gallery... and I'm notorious for walking in an out of galleries quickly if I think it's crap.

Progress crit for Sydney

Untitled #1
10 x 10 in.
graphite, fabric, acrylic paint and gel medium on panel

detail

Untitled #2
16 x 20 in.
fabric, photo copies, acrylic paint and gel medium on panel

12 x 6 in.
acrylic paint, paper and gel medium on panel

Things I have been thinking about:

people we love crit-eleanor clemmons.

Yellow flowers shoot out by the creek, floral neutrinos spewing forth in circular whizzes.
Approx: 6x10"
Pen and watercolor on tracing paper on watercolor paper.



We cannot look back or we will dissolve with it like so many pillars of salt on the breathy air.
Approx: 5x7"
Graphite, pen, watercolor and acrylic on vellum on watercolor paper.


what I have been thinking about:

direction, position.
T.S. Eliot's phrase "undisciplined squads of emotion.
names-naming and being named.
circles, whirls-neutrinos, flowers that swirl towards the sun.
water. breathing.
trees, seeds, flowers-how they relate to people, sex, relationships, emotion.
repetition of natural shape and form in human invention.
making work about people while in a removed environment-where the two mix.

people we love? crit...

so this is one of two gesture sculptures...the following is a drawing of how I want the two to interact...we'll see how that works out.


some things I was thinking about while making this sculpture:
relationships
a square peg in a round hole
letters to and from elly
intimacy (ok, sex but as concept I swear)
personal histories
the figure
stuff people walk on
everyday use
I don't know...stuff.

and my text is all linked out...I don't even know where they'll lead you! good luck with that.

The People We Love, part 2.

I have been pretty sick this week, which is good and bad. On the one hand, I have been sick. On the other hand, I have been out of work for three days and have had time to finish this piece. It feels great. Why do I have to work? Oh yeah, money. Damn.

Anyway, this is Molly: my little love.

Finishing the edges


The back


The front


Framed, floating about half and inch off the back mat


Kurt: reference part 1 here. Also, don't judge my photographs...

Drool

Hilary Harnischfeger. Featured in: Paper Monument, a Journal of Contemporary Art, Number One, Fall 2007

"Ether"
"The Road East"
"Patternist"
"Limberlost"
All mixed media on paper, 2007

happy trees.

Hey Nesbit and visitors. Read Dan Callis' most recent blog on the Au Sable Institute.

Just a reminder...

NESBIT crit
When: July 20th- high noon.
Guest Critter: Gentleman and scholar - Kurt Simonson

The People We Love, part 1.

This is not totally finished, but I don't really know where to go from here. Square? Circle? Framed? Quilted? Any suggestions?

Started with a drawing:



Fabric, thread, embroidery:



Detail: