Am I having an Adventure?

Central Park Race

Yesterday I got a post on Facebook asking me to keep up with my blog. I have not written posts because I am not on an “adventure.” I classify an adventure as leaving the city and going to make art in some exotic place. But then I realized I am on an adventure, many of them all rolled into one.

The most immediate one comes to mind happened just last weekend with 12 girls, two vans, and a 200+mile relay race in New Hampshire from the White Mountains to Hampton Beach. The annual “Reach the Beach” relay where we run non-stop,  each person running in rotation three legs until we are done. This year we ran it in 30:16, an 8:41 combined pace to take third place in our division. It was great fun. And what can be better than being in a van filled with sweaty smelly girls for  days?!

My next adventure? That is unfolding. I am running the Chicago marathon in less than three weeks, followed two weeks later by the New York Marathon.  Each day brings new excitement as I juggle my daily runs, deep water runs, swimming and strength training with my class schedule. My class schedule has taken on a whole new form. After 15 months of  sabbatical I went back to work full force.  Instead of teaching the required three classes, I am teaching four – a long boring story I will spare you – and taking a class. I am doing a little more than “taking a class.” With my obsessive personality it is not adequate to just “take a class” rather I have enrolled in the M.S. program in Exercise Physiology. Right now I am taking Clinical Exercise Physiology, I joined the Sports Science Club and I will be assisting one of the other professors on his clinical trials until I devise my own. I am looking at ways of combining my work as an artist and endurance athlete to my sports science studies. I am also thinking of ways to directly use my body to generate images. Instead of using the traditional pencil and paint I will use a lot of electronics, fancy treadmills and my own physiology, but that is a post for later.

The photo above is from a Central Park Race. I laugh as I look at everything I am doing “wrong”  running heel first, the little flick of my right foot from too tight hips, no driving force, but  I was keeping a 7:00 pace, so I have lots to look forward to should I get on my toes and learn to kick my legs and see if I can get faster. Coaching suggestions welcome!

Read Full Post »

Made in Tasmania Book

As promised yesterday I am posting  some photos of my “Made in Tasmania” Book. Right after I posted four people bought books, sight unseen! Thanks! I am expanding the theme into a suite of prints that will be completed at the end of the year. The Tasmania book has 8 page spreads and 3 pop-ups. It was made by cut stencils and running the paper through the press 8 times. This simple little 4″ x 5″ (approx) book took over 120 hours to make, cutting, printing, printing more, folding, cutting, screen printing and more folding. The edition is 15 and the price is $75 plus shipping.

Here a a few photos:

Read Full Post »

September NYC Update – HOME

I have been home one month now. I never imagined how the change would feel going from winter in Tasmania or summer in New York City. One thing for sure, I was very happy to be back in the neighborhood and have my dog. I almost felt like a newbie in the hood despite having lived there 15 years. The horns honking, the bikes with boom boxes, the kids skating up and down the sidewalks were a welcome sight and sound. I liked that no matter what time I was outdoors I would see people.

But it was not so easy as I expected. I had a really hard time leaving my apartment. I wanted to stay home indoors. I did not want to go to museums, my studio, or restaurants I just wanted to stay inside. I even had some anxiety about meeting my running team, but that was more about fitness, as I did not want to see that I might have slowed down or lost fitness. Luckily that was just anxiety.

While I feel like nothing has happened a lot of things have. I booked an exhibition and lecture in Wisconsin at Lawrence University; I am in a group show at NurtureArt Gallery in NYC. I am on two grants panels and I am applying for a new printmaking residency. I began teaching, founded a press with my friend John Shorb – we are still in the mission and market building phase – and hung a small exhibition at the gallery of my studio building. I ran two races, have run over 200 miles and enrolled in a Sport Science/Exercise Physiology M.S. for fun. I am also on the board and deep into planning of the Gowanus Studio Tours. But the odd thing is I feel like I have not virtually nothing. Strange how that happens.

This morning I spoke on Skype with my Australian friend and artist Susan Purdy. It was a wonderful surprise to get her call. Her exhibition ‘The Lost Forest’ opened to great success. We share parallel struggles on art careers and teaching, those things that feed us energy and those things that zap it away. We have begun a collaboration project that will culminate in an exhibition in 2010.

That is the update for now. I have completed the book “Made in Tasmania’ and it is available for sale, $75, the edition is almost sold out there are only 13 left which I will have at open studio. I will also post a photo of them here. If you are in NYC in October, open studio is October 18 and 19. 94 9th street studio 43, Brooklyn.

Read Full Post »