Huge Thank You! to The Workshop Residence

Shout out to the generosity and warmth of everyone at Workshop Residence!

Getting ready for tonight's Open House

Works - in -progress

Works - in - progress

works-in-progress

Week Two

The OPEN HOUSE is this Thursday, July 16th from 2 - 4. Please come see the work we have done and support our SF Summer Arts Collective. 

This morning we had a long conversation about the nature of being misunderstood in general and  especially our artwork. Noa brought in slides of his previous work and the written descriptions of the work. We dissected the descriptions into their components and agreed that he had a perfect balance of biographical information, thematic considerations, presentation of materials, and meaningful insights. It's amazing what can fit into a short description when its well-written and how much a good writer can control the viewers understanding of the artist and work.

There are several collaborative pieces under way as well as individual artworks using sound, animation, sculpture and painting.

We ended last week with a trip to SCRAP to forage for materials and inspiration. This week the focus is on writing about our work and continuing to create our individual and collaborative projects. 

Day Four

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day

Our morning literature study revolved around various selections from Dosteovsky's Notes from Underground - in guided conversation we considered the ramification of the underground man's central belief that enlightened man must sit idle, arms crossed; it's only the fool who acts. The contradiction is evident: Dosteovsky himself doesn't promote nihilism or else he wouldn't have written Notes, but his discussion of the relativity of truth dovetailed with Monday's exploration of Dickinson's imperative, "Tell all the truth but tell it slant - "  and we also considered Duchamp's choice to simply play chess and stop making art and the Situationist's manifesto that called for an end to artmaking. It seems the underground man isn't alone in arriving at inaction as a reasonable end point to a life of decisive action.

Carlos Aguirre performed his captivating beat box and rapped version of Poe's "Tell Tale Heart" before guiding us through several mini-lessons culminating in a group exercise: adapt a stanza from Gerard Manley Hopkin's poem "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day" into a rap, add a beat, and perform it.

We are spending less time in structured assignments and more time developing ideas for our own work. This time together is short, but we will leave with works-in-progess, ideas in germination, and connections to mentors, friends, and collaborators.

Part of our ongoing process is to end the day writing a reflection of the day's work.  I have been considering my own creative process and the influence of others' approach to their work. I am trying to riff on an idea more freely and to even consider - incredibly - not overthinking things so much.

I celebrate myself and sing myself

We spent quite a bit of time digging through several "chapters" from Whitman's "Song of Myself" in search of meaning, truth, inspiration, and polyamory. Whitman was a true lover of nature and humankind and would celebrate the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage and cry over the ongoing use of the confederate flag to divide our people.

In pairs and small groups we made self portraits in the spirit of the third line of the first stanza: "for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." We were sure to work with different partners today and our results were equally serendipitous and profound - full of beauty and surprise.

In the second half of the day, Noa led a fantastic exercise in finding inspiration within oneself and then grappling with the question of how much to reveal, to conceal, and the act of control. After writing letters addressed to ourselves, we created envelopes for our letters. The results were far more sculptural than the USPS typically shuffles through their system.

Further Evidence of Day One

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — (1263)

BY EMILY DICKINSON

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind —

    After working with Emily Dickinson's Poem, Brigette, Rachel, and Salome created a Truth Machine that allows the viewer to see the composite view of all their various truths some more opaque than others. 

Camilla, Matthew and Carlos wrote a one-scene play that included a children's poem written in the same catchy ballad form as the original poem - a cautionary fable for an era of racially motivated police brutality - that reimagined the way we tell the truth to children.

SF Summer Arts Starts Tomorrow!

Hello all: tomorrow we begin! I'm very excited and I think we have an amazing group of artists across different genres, different ages, and different points in their career. This is going to be a very rich time for us to come together, learn from each other and create new work. 

Please remember to block off Thursday July 16 from 4 - 6. This will be our open house and we'll all need to be there to present our work. Start to spread the word and get others to save the date.

If you have any art materials that you are especially fond of or a sketchbook that you like to draw in or a pen you prefer to write with, bring it with you tomorrow.  I also recommend packing food and snacks though there are cafes nearby.

Welcome to SF Summer Arts Collective

To the members of the SF Arts Collective: 

The program begins in just under a week - on Monday July 6th. This email is a run down of the program’s curriculum and design as it stands now. Keep in mind this program is organic in nature and will grow as a result of our presence in a shared space. We have selected the first round of texts for the first week and will select the texts for the second week as we develop our understanding of the themes that most concern us at this time and the evolution of the art we are creating. 

Texts: 

Week One - using “canonical” texts to explore Autodiegesis - writing about oneself. 

Select poems by Emily Dickinson

Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground (selections)

Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Lived Underground” (selections) 

Prologue to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman

James Baldwin’s letter to his nephew in the preface of “The Fire Next Time”

Approach to the texts: 

Exploring the self from the inside out

Exploring the self from the outside in

Exploring your belief system through writing

Being misunderstood accidentally

Being misunderstood intentionally

What we reveal/what we conceal

Writing: 

We look at each text as a form of personal statement and as a model for our own writing. Following these various models, we work on writing personal statements that both feed our art making and help define it. 

Daily schedule: 

Officially the program will run 9 - 4 Monday to Friday. That said, we are free to keep working at Workshop Residence as late as 6:00pm and on the weekends as well. There is an opportunity to work offsite at Batle Studio for people who will need to use tools to manufacture their work. 

Important dates: 

Open house/ final exhibit of works-in-progress and finished work on Thursday July 16th 4pm - 6pm. 

Friday July 11th from 2:00 - 4:00 and July 17th from 12:00 - 4:00 we’ll work in service of Workshop Residence giving back to the space and community that has generously given us their space for this two week laboratory and seminar. Projects include painting, building, organizing and moving art works and displays. 

Things to think about between now and then: 

We suggest everyone start to think about a project or projects that they would like to work on during these two weeks. We imagine that there will be individual and collaborative pieces and we want everyone involved making art. We plan to break down the notion of the one way relationship of the teacher to the student the master to the apprentice the mentor to the pupil. Anyone who has taught knows this is falsely characterized. In practice, we would like to see us working as collaborators across generations and across experience (established vs emerging vs student artists) in two-way dialog and creation.