I had my last meeting with my mentor last week which was great. This past Saturday my advisor Deb came to my studio, and we were able to discuss my work and I handed in my last papers which was a relief. We further discussed maps and the idea of creating my own maps, and moving away from the set symbols used in maps we see everyday. What makes my map personal? I'm looking forward to spending time next semester experimenting with drawing my own maps, something which makes me a little hesitant but I want the challenge. Pushing my mediums of choice further and allowing myself to explore these current ideas more. Now just the critical theory reading and some more printing before the residency. After speaking with both my mentor and my advisor I am excited about where this new work can go and I can't wait for more feedback from the residency. I spoke with Deb about starting to make my own maps so I plan to try and sketch some before the residency. Since I'm going home for the holidays I plan to photograph at my childhood homes. Lately I've just been thinking about ideas discussed with Deb and Laura around my work and where I want this work to go. How maps fit into my process and project.

I can't believe it's December already where has the time gone. As I continue to think about maps in connection to my work I fine my self looking at the details closer and closer. Last night I spent more time tracing over maps onto transparency paper with sharpies. Taking out all the other information that while I love I'm still challenged with how it will fit with or next to my images. I'm working on where these transparencies can take my work by using just the lines of the maps information to make connections to my imagery. It was interesting as I spent more time analyzing the maps of places where I have lived I began to see small things I may not have realized or noticed before. Things that were different when I was a child like the space and time between towns and cities. I also began to think of tracing the lines as another way to think about travel and the roads/lines I travel to get to family and one place to the next.
How different the roads look when all the other information is removed. There is so much information in maps it's interesting how there is still some sort of information left by the line a crossing or way of making the path I have travelled. How then do these lines look when layered a jumbling of color and line makes me also think about my life currently going in a million different directions. Yet still with some sort of focus or endpoint. As I trace the maps I focused on highways in one color and water on most of the tracings. Just breaking down where the highways interact is so interesting. The other piece was how close I have been to water my whole life perhaps a silly fact but one I think I have taken for granted. Above are two examples I have scanned in with nothing done to them yet.
I found this quote in Real Simple magazine the other night.
"When I speak of home, I speak of the place where–in default of a better–those I love are gathered together; and if that place were a gypsy's tent, or a barn, I should cal it by the same good name notwithstanding." -Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
The quote makes me think of home with my family...then I wonder which home? Regardless it comes back to ideas I currently think of that home is where you make it, where the people you love are around you. Thinking about different places especially as I come into the holidays with lots of travel on my plate before the residency begins.

I've been busy the past couple weeks I had Open Studios on 11/17 & 11/18 which went well I had my newer work out and some old work, it was nice to get different feedback. I went to the Andrea Robbins and Max Becher lecture sponsored by the PRC on 11/15, I had not seen there work before and it as interesting to see there take on the landscape and how they work together as a couple. Last night I went to a lecture at BU of Magdalena Campos Pons work another artist who I did not know that much about. However, I was intrigued by her work. She makes connections to home and memory in her work which is something I'm tackling in my new work.
It was nice to have a break from teaching for Thanksgiving and I was able to spend some time in the studio which was much needed. Still working with maps and thinking about ways I can use them differently in my work. I just scanned some negatives in which I photographed multiple exposures of maps in my studio with my Holga. Last night I thought again about making my own map, and possibly tracing on top of maps the way I travel to work, home, etc and then scanning those lines to create a linear map of my travels then juxtaposing that onto my images. I'm excited about where this work can take me and all the possibilities.
There is a part of me that can't believe it's almost December and my next residency is fast approaching but I'm excited to show the new work I have. I still have reading for Critical Theory to work on but it's all getting there one day at a time I try to keep telling myself.

Sometimes I can't believe where time goes..or my time for that matter I try to plan everything out so well. I had open studios this past weekend which went well and I was able to sell some work. I have a bunch of maps hung up in my studio and it was interesting to see the way people were drawn to them. I'm still thinking about maps a lot and trying to push how to further incorporate them into my work and make it not so obvious. Looking forward to picking up some new negatives this week and I need to shoot more! I'm not going home for thanksgiving so I will have more time to spend in the studio which will be great.
Got some new books and spent time going through some other books I had last week from the library. Aaron Siskind's images on Place where interesting for me to see his close up work again something I touch on in my own work and did more of before. I'm continuing to work on series of images from my travel, path, home. I also want to photograph myself more I am excited about where these pairings can go. I just keep plugging away. Got an email from Laura today with some images which was exciting, one of them from Dan Eldon's book which I have so I'm going to look through that tonight.

William Wegman

I had a great meeting with Laura on Wednesday about my new work. It was great to talk about what was working and not working. I have been exploring more about how to incorporate maps into my work and try and create my own map to visually show my place, home, travel, and life. Looking forward to going through books I have from the library this weekend. Some other artists I have been inspired by lately: Maya Lin and William Wegman's paintings with prints I have put two with this entry. I am so excited about where this work can go and where I'm headed with it. Being in an awkward stage with some of the prints but trying to push through that into the next level. Starting to see parts of my life coming into my work more. I spoke with Laura about my traveling as a child and how that has changed my concept of home. Being in a family with divorced parents and traveling to a different home on the weekend. I just wrote about that in my last thought piece.
Looking to the next residency I need to work more on my technique with photoshop and experiment with papers which was one of my goals for this semester.

It was a busy weekend in NYC of art visits and time with family. I was able to go to the MOMA and see the Seurat drawing show and a few pieces from the Martin Puryear sculpture show, there are a few other shows I would like to see to, hoping to get back in December. I enjoyed a quote on the wall at MOMA:
I value the referential quality of art, the fact that a work can be quite diffuse, so I would describe my usual working process as a kind of distillation - trying to make coherence out of things that can seem contradictory. But coherence is not the same as resolution. The most
interesting art for me retains a flickering quality, where opposed ideas can be held in tense
coexistence.
Puryear 2007

Next it was on to the photography. I enjoyed the show Present Tense with the work of JoAnn Verburg in which she explores the spacing of her images in multi panel landscapes of trees. Just walking through the photography collection there gets me excited to come back to my own work. Other artists I enjoyed seeing: Berni Searle, Scott McFarland, Roni Horn, Lee Friedlander, and a portrait series by Joseph Albers.
Then it was on to Chelsea it's been a while since I've spent time exploring the galleries there so I found a pamphlet with all the galleries listed and just started moving around the blocks. I saw a lot of work some I liked, and some I didn't, I would have liked to have seen more photography but it might just have been the galleries I went to. I went to the Chelsea Art Museum, went to a few more galleries and decided I could walk no further and I'd taken in all I could for the day. I did some shooting while I was in NYC but I found myself not that inspired, and began thinking about how do images that represent my childhood/growing up fit into my current search for place and narrative?
Today I have been able to work on some of my grad stuff while at school, scanned some negatives and printed some more contact sheets. Getting work in order for my meeting with Laura on Wednesday.

It's been a long week finding out one of my good friends has inoperable mesothelioma cancer which just sucks. Busy and tired I push through and I'm almost done with my 3rd thought piece. I have tons of books to finish going through from the library which I am really looking forward to, and I have most of the critical theory readings for the next residency printed out. Oh the balance it's been a busy week with grades due at school and working on my papers. I have been shooting and enjoying playing with series of my new images. I just picked up some more maps to begin cutting them up and seeing where that can go or fit into my current ideas. Still thinking about other ways to map more of my home than just photographing it, maybe layers of other maps can be that way?
Off to NYC this weekend for the big meeting of my boyfriend's parents and his and my parents!!! Saturday though visits to galleries and hopefully MOMA so I'm excited about that.

Getting it all together. I went to an opening at Mass Art yesterday In Situ where I saw Deb's work and some other interesting pieces. The room by Nick Dong was beautiful covered in tiles and getting to sit in the space and experience by myself was wonderful. Before that I saw Martin Creed's work at the Mills Gallery. The work definitely challenged my thinking; walking into a gallery space with blank walls and the lights going on and off just as the title suggests.
Working on my papers and getting through some books so lots of ideas flooding through my mind. Still shooting and printing experimenting with combinations and sequences. Finally got some work loaded onto flickr so there is now a link to that on my blog.

Experimenting with pairs and series today in the studio. I have been using a large plastic white board to attach my cut up contact sheets to have a space to view images together off my table. This seems to be working and gives me a place to look and come back to about the work I want to separate or put together. While I continue to think and look at maps in my studio and then to this white board of images it gives me a sense of navigation through my work. Going back to navigating through my life and also ideas of exploration as I visually document what I see daily.
Today I was again questioning how some pieces are coming together, I am working to push beyond simply the aesthetic and make connections to myself and place. Also thinking about the contrast in images from city to nature. This idea of visiting nature was something Oliver brought up in one of my critiques during the residency. On the weekends it could be considered this idea of visiting nature to hike and rock climb.... Is it still visiting when it's part of life?

I have been thinking a lot about maps and exploration and looking at maps. I just received some large maps from USGS which I plan on photographing up close. I am still working with visually mapping my life and printing individual images as well as series of images. I want to experiment with putting pieces of the maps next to my imagery. They are images from where I live now and grew up in CT. I have been scanning other maps from an old atlas and manipulating those in photoshop. I feeling in a better place about my work and that it has some sort of direction now. Just got some more new books from the library and a book with an essay Laura recommended reading.

Got out this weekend and did more shooting which was great. Went rock climbing today which was some much needed exercise and break from everything. It's nice to do some travelling around the Boston and MA area while I continue to think about mapping and mapping my life visually. I have continued to photograph parts of my day and travels on the weekend I'm excited about where this work is going and look forward to more exploration.
Thinking about other ways to show this project/work maybe in a book or fold it like a map. That might be to literal right now so instead I'm concentrating more on just the prints and what images may go together or be printed separately.
I have been working on scanning new work and playing with my contact sheets to make connections between my images. I have also scanned in multiple maps I am working with manipulating them and how they will work with images of my own.

I'm excited about new work and the ideas I'm working with around mapping. Spent the evening watching more of Art 21 Season 2, I had watched Season 1 a couple weeks ago. I have enjoyed both listening and watching other artists create and discuss their work. Seeing them thinking and questioning is helpful in my own work and questioning of myself. Headed to the library tomorrow to get some new books for research, then more shooting.
While driving home tonight I kept thinking about this mapping project I am working on and the differences I can push with this work. An everyday sense of place and travel and what is my own personal place. This space that I now call home. I plan to cut up the contact sheets I printed today of last weeks shooting to begin exploring how this new work will come together and translate. Excitement around this new flow of energy and where mapping can possibly take my work. Exploring different types of maps can those fit in with the visual images?
While I photograph the landscape I am also photographing myself within my own space and spaces I travel in.
I had taken some books out by Seamus Heaney as a suggestion from Deb, to find words to help influence my imagery. I may revisit his work I am interested on still considering how phrases and words can influence the space or memory of what I am photographing.

lots of shooting

After another late night at work on Thursday I am finally done with late night work events and can focus in on some much needed work in the studio. I have had some new thoughts running through my head while working a lot more on much needed shooting. Thinking about the idea of mapping and how that pertains to my own life and sense of place. I hope to push some of my current ideas further by photographing not only myself but imagery I come in contact with on a daily basis almost a mapping of life. Beginning this Saturday with my apartment and starting to photograph my space and myself within my own personal space. I then moved out of my apartment and rode my bike through part of the route I drive to school, slowing down both my looking and ability to photograph. I am excited about this new shooting and where ideas of mapping can take my work and thoughts. Looking forward to spend some more time shooting in my apartment and exploring other ways to map that space. I have been thinking about a visual document of my life and how mapping where I am and where I go is important to me. While still thinking about landscape and the ordinary I have been photographing before I started on this project of mapping. I am excited about researching more ideas of maps after viewing the show To Fly: Contemporary Aerial Photography at BUAG this weekend which showed a selection of artists work dealing with imagery of landscapes scene aerially. This was exciting to view the images were beautiful and got me thinking more about my own mapping and how will it work? Looking forward to exploring these ideas literal and visual how do maps influence my sense of place and map of my own life? This week I plan to order some topographic maps of Boston and research more on mapping the MA area where I currently find my sense of place. After growing up in two homes this feeling I continue to have to find my own place in this world.
I was able to get out of Boston up to NH for part of the long weekend which was a much needed break from all the stresses, and good to get outdoors and do some hiking and climbing. While I continued to photograph more and think about ideas of mapping and photographing myself within the landscape.
Working on reading tonight and into the studio tomorrow. Looking forward to finishing the book from Laura and tracking down an essay recommendation from her. I need to get through some books I've had from the library and make another research trip this week to AIB library.

work

Well I need to be working more in the studio and shooting. I met with Laura today and spoke with Deb last week both were helpful. I have been in a limbo asking a lot of questions and not finding answers, it's time to get back to the work. I continue to think about place and my sense of place where am I in this world. I plan to put myself more into my imagery work on exercises and explore maps or mapping in. Where do I travel what are the images I see on my way to work how can I further push the images I have been creating?
My life and the changes that have occurred over the past year and half keep coming into my thoughts and they are starting to translate into my work. I struggle with too much of a literal representation but I need to explore some of these ideas before I know if they will work.
A balance is necessary and I need to be putting even more emphasis to my shooting and work right now. I finally feel like the balance I need between teaching and grad school are happening. I'm excited for the challenges and well as this unknown that I am currently in this state of questioning in my work is exciting to me.

a good day

It's starting to come together I spent a long day in the studio printing yesterday which was wonderful. I am finally feeling as though things are coming together. Of course I still have lots of questions about my work but it's getting there. It's been a balancing act for the past 2 weeks with teaching starting up, I now feel as though I am able to get a good balance. Today I have been going through a bunch of the books I took out from the library. Looking for more inspiration! I have some ideas floating around about my second thought piece but I want to touch base with Deb before I do that. I would also like to be making more consistent entries on my blog.

movie

I went to see Shadow of the House on Thursday night at the MFA and the director and Abe Morell were there speaking about the movie. It was a wonderful film and really inspired me. This week has been a tough transition with beginning teaching and having graduate school. I think it was also the stress of the start of that, feeling better this weekend that I have accomplished some work. I know it will balance out and I can do it, I need to have confidence in my abilities.
Looking forward to printing more this week. I have a meeting with my mentor Laura in two weeks and I want to have some more ideas formulated.

stressed

Definitely feeling stressed with the start of my teaching job in full swing this week. Wanting to be in the studio printing right now but need to get lessons organized. Looking forward to this weekend for some printing. I know it will all balance it's self out soon enough, or least I will keep telling myself that!
I need to shoot some more new work and make more prints from what I already have. I'm excited for new stuff!

first mentor meeting

On Monday I met with Laura Blacklow for the first time. The meeting was great it was nice to connect with her and have both my work from the residency and new contact sheets from the work I have been shooting over the summer to look and talk about. We looked through my new contact sheets talked about ideas and questions I have about my own work.
She spoke to the ideas of cropping, disorientation, scale, loss of horizon line, a visual memory, folding time, sequence. I talked about light and shadow in my work, and she asked "What does light and shadow say to me in the 21st century?"
Another question was "Why is this working for me?" The new work I have been shooting, imagery that for me also questions why am I photographing this?
Laura recommended looking at Alice Wells work and to read the first chapter of John Berger's Ways of Seeing before I read Walter Benjamin Illuminations. We looked at Robert Frank's Lines of My Hand and a Lee Friedlander book while I was at her house.
I felt good about the meeting and challenged at the same time. I'm looking forward to printing this new work. I'm struggling a little with the first thought piece but I know I will get there. Meetings at my teaching job start this week so I'm feeling a little stress from all around.

getting there

I'm back from Michigan it was a great trip, lots of photographing and relaxing. My family had a service for my grandfather and it was wonderful to have some closure after he passed away in January. While I was there I was thinking more about my work for this semester and my idea of place. What is my sense of place? and how do I photograph that? Even if I do photograph my personal sense of place how does the viewer determine that? How does the viewer know that it has to do about my ideas of place? Does that matter? I feel that's an important idea to keep in mind. Something that was discussed in critiques during my first residency that the work should be able to speak for itself.
Perhaps what I need to consider more is my story. What am I trying to say I seem to be using the landscape so far. I'm hoping to start making some prints. I just ordered a new lap top and an Epson printer for my space.

Completed

I finished my task to see all the shows that are ending soon, before I leave this morning for my trip. Yesterday I saw the Edward Hopper show at the MFA. His paintings are beautiful, however, I have not seen that much of his work besides some of his most famous pieces such as Nighthawks. I had never seen his etchings and was intrigued by his understanding of light which is evident as well in his paintings. One etching in particular A Corner 1919, an image of a street corner with strong sense of light in the small print. I was really attracted to the warm light in the painting Sun in an Empty Room 1963 which was towards the end of the show. . Something I try to translate into my color photographs a strong sense of light and color. The show Jewelry by Artists: The Daphne Farago Collection was a striking show of such different types of jewelry. The last show I viewed was a Contemporary Outlook on German Photography. I enjoyed looking at Thomas Struth's image, Galleria dell'Academia 1 Venice. The show was a mix of German photographers I would expect to see in a show of that nature the Becher's, Ruff, and Gursky to name a few.
It was a good trip and I'm glad I saw all the shows before heading out of town. I'm looking forward to some more vacation before teaching starts. As well as some time to photograph and work on more reading.

one more to go

Well the past week has been busy but I've almost completed my goal one more museum to go. Thursday I met Alison and Melissa and saw a few galleries on Newbury street, many are closed for August good to know. Some interesting work and some not that interesting. That evening I went to the ICA to see the Philip-Lorca diCorcia show which was larger than I expected. I enjoyed seeing all that work especially the portraits capturing people on the street; where the background disappears allowing you to focus right in on the person. I was also interested in his experimental narrative sequence a Storybook Life.
Continuing on my journey to visit shows that will end soon or while I'm away. I visited the DeCordova Museum to see there Annual Exhibition coming into the space and seeing Sandra Allen's enormous drawing of a tree was incredible, the detail it was so beautiful. I was attracted to the large prints by Sarah Amos and I look forward to doing more research on her work. The kinetic sculptures by Anne Lilly were very impressive just watching the smooth movement of each piece was amazing. I decided I had some more time so I was off to Winchester to the Griffin Museum. I wanted to spend a little more time looking at Joyce Tenneson's photographs since I didn't see all of them after the lecture.
This morning I went up to the Peabody Essex Museum which is a wonderful space, I had never been to that museum. The Joseph Cornell show was amazing and worth the visit. I spent the majority of my time there at that show looking through all his images and boxes.
Monday I'm off to the MFA to see the Hopper exhibit the last on my list before I leave on Tuesday.

shows

Well for the past couple of days I have been resting from having my wisdom teeth out and working on my reading. I spent some time scanning negatives in the other day and printed out some contact sheets. I like some of the images, I need to start making some larger prints. Yesterday I liked the light in my apartment so I set up my medium format camera to take some pictures. Here is a new image from the shooting I have been doing.
Last Friday I went to the Mills Gallery which I had not been to before and saw photographs by Oscar Palacio it was a small exhibit but I enjoyed his large landscape images. There was another show (un)building which had a mix of work I was most interested in the photographs and small scale sculptures by Sally Moore. This week I plan to see a lot of shows that are ending in August. The MFA, ICA, The Joseph Cornell show, The DeCordova and The Griffin Museum, it's going to be a busy week. Then I'm headed to northern Michigan for 10 days where I plan to do a lot of shooting and reading. I'm excited about my new work I think things will be even better when I make some prints. I'm working on getting a new printer for my studio space at the moment.

Joyce Tenneson Lecture 7/12

I went to the Joyce Tenneson lecture at the Griffin Museum last Thursday. I was a little late so I missed the very beginning of her talk or so I thought I had just missed some of the earlier slides to music of her work. The rest of the talk consisted of a PowerPoint to music and then a long and interesting question and answer period. I have always found her work to be interesting and looked at it in undergraduate when I was photographing the female form. This was the first time I have heard her talk and she spoke a lot about herself and what she had been through which was interesting. However, it made me think back to discussions in the residency about thesis and talking about "when I was 5...." Overall it was interesting I would like to go back to look at the work more thoroughly as some things had been moved for the lecture.

I am looking forward to visiting some more shows in the next week. I am currently working on my first paper and thinking a lot about my work. I have been photographing a lot and I look forward to printing some work out and beginning to make connections. Last night I had a dream about my work and it was very different, I was setting small scale images up in my studio. Interesting since I have thought about that but I'm not sure that's where my work is headed right now.

back to work

I'm back from Colorado it was a nice break did some rock climbing. Saw Patrick and went the the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and checked out the outside of the Denver Art museum, got there a little to late to get in.
Just trying to photograph now, I have some new film to be developed. Get through my first book and I need to start writing my first paper. My mind is still filled with so many ideas and questions, still searching for answers. Headed to the Joyce Tenneson lecture this evening.
I'm trying to get my new studio space organized, it's all coming together.

next on the check list

I'm so excited I just sent in my mentor paperwork today so there is one thing that is complete. I am working on compiling my thoughts and all the great information I got at the residency so I can type my first paper. I leave tonight for Colorado and I'm so excited to do some shooting out there. Now I'm moving on to starting some reading and looking for lectures and more shows to see. My advisor told me to see a show of Oscar Palacio's work at the BCA so I'm planning to do that when I return. I saw Coe had put a link to the Joyce Tenneson lecture at the Griffin museum on July 12th so I am also planning to attend that.
It's exciting to start getting things organized and making new work! I have so many thoughts filling my head about why I want to photograph people. I think I've decided to try photographing myself for now and continuing to photograph the landscape while I explore and answers questions for myself. I also want to explore my printing process papers and the type of prints I will be making this semester.
Why photograph people or myself?
Why the landscape and texture?
What am I trying to say with my series/diptychs?
Is there a narrative in my work? How can I explore and push that further through my work?
What is my sense of place/location?
I plan on trying to answer these questions this semester through my work.

Shows seen in June

Before the June Residency:
Richard Serra, Museum of Modern Art, New York

During the Residency:
Boston Young Contemporaries, 808 Gallery
William Wegman, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
Art on the Harbor Islands, Teri Rueb, Institute of Contemporary Art
Exposure: The 12th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition

Just getting started

Well after a few days of much needed sleep I finally feel ready to go back through everything I got out of this first residency. The experience was amazing and I'm so excited to begin reading and making new work. I also need to go through my ideas, answer questions for myself about my making and practice.
I want to continue photographing the landscape and thinking about texture and light. While incorporating a narrative or series. I would like to photograph people again or myself and I keep asking myself why the past couple of days. I haven't gotten to that answer but I hope some shooting will help sort that out.
I have been working on finding an artist mentor I emailed three artists on Saturday and heard back from Laura Blacklow first, she is interested in being my mentor. Which I'm very excited about!
I leave for Colorado on Thursday and I can't wait to photograph out there I just bought more film for my Holga camera. I will hopefully touch base with Patrick.