It’s hard to believe this semester is almost over and I’m approaching my 4th residency. Exciting that 2008 is almost over it’s been a lot of ups and downs this year and I’m looking forward to a new year. While I am excited about the direction my work has taken I feel a sense of anxiety at the same time. I look forward to having more opinions about the work and seeing where it can go next for the thesis. This week I am immersing myself in the studio and Critical Theory reading. While I was home for the holidays I was able to make two trips into Manhattan to see some shows. Of course I made an extensive list of work to see and didn’t get to everything but there is always after the residency. I was able to visit the International Center for Photography, the Guggenheim, The Whitney, The Museum of Art and Design and the The Frick which I had not been to. I was excited to see the Frick more for the space it’s intriguing to me this space which used to be a home and is now a museum. Similar to the Isabella Stewart Gardner these homes are so ornate. I want to revisit my artist statement and review my thesis outline more.

Busy since my last post. I saw Sally Mann lecture at the MFA which was great. When I had time off from work I was able to get handle on some other writings and do a ton of interviewing and photographing of more homes and objects. Looking forward to spending more time in the studio printing. Last week I saw Henry Horenstein lecture at the PRC about his new book Animalia. I wasn't able to make it to First Friday this week but I hope to get to those galleries soon. I did however, get to the last day of the William Christenberry show at Massart I had enjoyed his lecture this fall and was very happy to see his work in person. I also went to the DeCordova with some friends the Drawn to Detail show is unbelievable I would not have the patience to create those drawings. Alison had work in the Zea Mays Printmaking show so that was nice to see. Now I just need to work on studio work and critical theory reading to get ready for the residency.

I am excited about my new series of work on home and I am looking forward to the residency and getting some more feedback. The interviews have been so interesting and rewarding I love talking with people about this topic.

Changed up my flickr links, I have new images now under home series. I find myself going back and forth excited about my new work and yet stressed all at the same time because I feel like I'm finally choosing a more solid direction. My meeting with Shellburne last week was great she feels I'm headed in a solid direction with the series I have been creating. I need to make a few more prints of the bed and table series to see how those will work and if they will be as successful as the lamps. I want to broaden my interviewing to younger, older, different race and backgrounds. I am in the process of talking with people about that and I hope to do some shooting over the thanksgiving break. I'm looking forward to the next residency.

Work and school continue to be busy. I met with Shellburne again 2 weeks ago and it was a much needed meeting I had been feeling lost in my work and unsure if it was headed in the right direction. I started interviewing people (friends to start) about home. Asking them to define home and then pick 3-4 objects that created home for them. The interviewing alone brought about interesting conversations and brought my thinking around home to another level. I placed the images of objects in a series with a quote from the interview see image above. Shellburne really liked the work as well as the series I have been working on photographing other objects that are in other people's homes such as beds, kitchen tables, and lamps.
Since then I was able to go home to my parents house and interview my parents and photograph my childhood homes again with a new direction in mind. I look forward to getting in the studio to print the work as well as interviewing other people.
I have been to a couple lectures Tara Donovan at the ICA (10/14), William Christenberry (10/20), and tonight I saw David Hilliard (10/21) which I really enjoyed. I have always admired his work and it seems pertinent again as I begin re investigating series in my work.

I have been shooting and trying to organize more of my thoughts around home. I have been interviewing friends asking them what home means for them and what 4 objects they would pick that represent home for them. Then I have been photographing the objects. Working on how the images can work together does there need to be text from the interviews? or does this exercise just further inform my work and project. I am also still interested in the lamps that I have been shooting in my family homes and mine. Wondering how I can push that idea can there be series of images done of objects that bring about comfort in the home such as tables, beds, couches, etc? It has been interesting talking with friends with specific questions to be answered about home. Gets me thinking more about my own ideas of home which I still struggle with but I feel this exercise gets me out of my head a little. I am excited about where it could go and love that my mentor has been challenging me conceptually as well as with the installation of the work.
Yesterday I went the the Isabella Stewart Gardner to see the Luisa Rabbia show Travels with Isabella, Travel Scrapbooks 1883/2008 I loved the use of photographs turned into a video with drawings and music added to the work. The combination of the two media was beautiful. I am working on putting lectures into my calender and trying to find a weekend for a museum/gallery visit to NYC.
This week I am trying to get my paper organized and written. I also need to make some changes to my critical theory paper but after being at the Gardner I am making a new round of connections between home and the museum. Since that was her home and it is now a museum.

It's that crazy time of the year however, I feel much better about the balance I have this year than last year. While things are hectic I feel more comfortable balancing grad school with full time teaching. Last week classes started and I was away with middle school students for 3 days and 2 nights. Now it's back to a full week of teaching.
Went to the library last weekend and took out a bunch of books. Shellburne and I met on August 28th. I had made some images of my old and new apartment empty and full, the images aren't really working but are getting me to the next level...I hope. (should be on flickr soon) We also spoke about images of zoomed in lamps from my different homes I'm excited about them and they seem to be more successful. While I still seem to have a lot of questions I'm feeling good about where the work can go. Shellburne and I discussed me interviewing people about what they think of home and choosing objects within their living space that create that sense of home for them. I'm excited about this project. A discussion of installation was helpful to, as I feel the installation of the work is important. Some of the questions I still have milling around in my head are:
Why do I photograph home?
Now where do I go? What is my intention?
Collection, home, place, and space are words that seem to fill my brain.
I need to spend some more time with my thoughts and really work on more thoroughly answering more of my questions.

Back to reality...I am settling back in after my family vacation to South Africa. The two week trip was amazing and now I find myself readjusting back just before I start work again. Leaving the country was exactly what I needed due to the many changes that have been happening in my personal life in the past month. Now with some perspective I feel somewhat renewed and ready to get back to work. I shot a lot before leaving on my trip and now it's time to get into the studio and do some printing before my mentor meeting this week. I am also working away on my Critical Theory paper. Being in South Africa and seeing townships was an eyeopening experience and also pertinent to my current thoughts around home. While I still feel uncertain about some of my ideas I hope to have clarity soon from printing more of what I have shot. It's going to be a busy week since I will be transitioning back into work but I'm ready for the challenge.

Gallery sitting today at the Boston Young Contemporaries show. The space is so interesting and it's great to see the work of my contemporaries. I was so excited the other day I sold my piece that is in the show.
Leaving for South Africa in a few days which will be an amazing trip I can't wait to go! I am going back through notes so I can get my Critical Theory III paper completed. Then I need to spend a lot of time printing. I have been shooting a ton and this afternoon I plan to photograph more in my new apartment with all my stuff moved in. I plan on doing a lot of reading on the plane so I can get ahead start on that. I know September will be crazy with the start of school again so I want to get as much done now so I can focus a lot on studio work.

My personal life continues to feel crazy. My trip to Wyoming was great upon returning I moved 24 hours later. Needless to say some other things have taken my away from writing on my blog. I have continued to shoot a lot in both my apartments now that I have moved in I need to photograph objects and belongings in my new space. I had planned to photograph objects as I unpacked them but that become more challenging than I expected. I still plan to make a sort of catalog but that will come in time. In a week I'm gone again to South Africa which I'm so excited about it will be a trip of a lifetime. Then it's time to get back to work both in the studio and with my teaching job. Today I went to the DeCordova Annual Exhibition I new two of the artists and enjoyed some of the work. Especially what Marguerite White had to say about light, "Light can alter the way we perceive our surroundings, prompting memories and provoking the imagination to see or experience a place differently." I also enjoyed the ideas Vanessa Tropeano and Matt Brackett spoke about in there work. I have yet to see my work in the BYC show I went the other day but sadly the gallery wasn't open.

As I sat in my studio this afternoon looking through work and deciding where to go next I had the following thoughts. Home, what is my home as I try to get a stronger grasp on those concepts I have been photographing my old and new apartment both empty and with belongings in them. What is it that makes home, I am beginning to believe my understanding of home is through my connection to the objects in my life. This has become more apparent as I photograph my spaces empty and see them just as spaces I once occupied or anyone occupied for that matter. They become my home when my belongings are in them. Photographing my spaces throughout my move has proved to be more difficult than I imagined beyond having some other things happening in my personal life moving brings about anxiety. I make a direct correlation to that anxiety from moving back and forth as a child and now in my adult life I continue to move just less frequently. So now the question how do I make my images come together and create a sense of home and place?
Ideas of space keep floating in my mind personal space something we all need and want, and yet feeling comfortable in my own personal space. The space I occupy how I and how I deal with space and belongings. So much of that seems to stem from out culture and need to have material possessions yet those are what make up my personal sense of home and others as I speak to people about what makes home for them.

I had a great first meeting with my new mentor Shellburne Thurber the other day. I will elaborate more later. Lots of information and ideas I need to go back through my notes. I can't believe I'm leaving for another trip in the am I'm off to Wyoming! This week was crazy but I got a lot of shooting done in my new apartment which was great. Now I just need to pack and move and get in the studio before I go to South Africa in August. All this travel seemed like a good idea. Anyway it will get done I need to spend some time with all the thoughts that I have about my work and new shooting I have been doing. I am sad to be missing the opening for the Boston Young Contemporaries Show next Thursday.

After 2 days out from the residency I still feel tired probably from all the running around I have been doing. I'm headed out of town in the morning to go to my family home in Michigan. I plan to do some shooting there and go through my notes from the residency. I have my first meeting with my new mentor Shellburne Thurber next week which I am looking forward to. Plus a lot of shooting to do before I move and then once that process is over. While I feel a little overwhelmed at my tasks at hand I feel good about where I need to go.

About to start 3rd residency. This program seems to be going by quickly. It's been a busy month with the end of school and finishing up odds and ends for the residency. I was able to catch a few shows the painting work of Antonio Lopez Garcia at the MFA was wonderful. While his landscapes of Madrid are beautiful I was more interested in his interior drawings and paintings as well as the subtleties in his work. The PRC juried show had some nice work as well as the color camera obscura images by Abe Morell. Now I'm just excited to start the next residency and get some more feedback. I really loved the following quote by Antonio Lopez Garcia

"I'm not attracted to paintings that are born consciously related to past works, but to paint a still life of food inevitably calls to mind Velazquez or Caravaggio...I ask myself, why aren't there more paintings of commonplace subjects, if, for example we all come together around a table, three times each day, to eat."

Working on getting things done for the residency. My last mentor meeting with Jesseca has been rescheduled for next week. Still working on the small images from my childhood home I'm trying to decided on the right box I have about 5 in my studio now. I'm really happy with the new work I have doing and can't wait to go to the residency. It's that crazy time of the year at my job so things are hectic but I seem to be balancing it. I am excited that I got one of my photographs in the Boston Young Contemporaries Show, I attached it below.

I am having some more large prints made of my image this week, which I am very excited about. I continue to work with size and think about the format and display of my work. I have also been working with materials and mounting smaller images of my childhood home and placing them in a box. I see those images as something that is movable but is still important to the project and ideas I am discussing about home. My struggle has been what kind of box the images go into as well as what they are mounted onto. I have been using balsa wood which is flexible and thin giving some physical weight to the images and making them almost like old postcards. I just painted clear and white gesso on the back of the wood to see how that changes the feel of the images. I spoke with Jesseca in my last meeting about different mounting possibilities maybe aluminum which I need to further explore or gator board which is like foam core just a little stiffer. There is something however about the thinness of the balsa wood that I really enjoy. I am looking forward to showing this work at the residency as it is a change from last semester. Well lots to do before June and everything seems to be crazy, it will all get done though!

I have Open Studios this weekend which should be good. It's been a busy past couple of weeks and that's going to continue until the residency just trying to put my head down and go. I met with Jesseca on Monday and had a good conversation with her about where my work has currently gone. I have been further exploring my space and photographed my childhood homes a couple weeks ago while on a visit.
Last night went to First Friday despite the rain seems like every time I go it's rainy but it was good to get to those galleries because it's tough for me to get over there during the week.

Finally getting some work online. I had a big printing weekend which was great. I am excited about where my new work is going and it's a change from what I had at the last residency. Soon I will have more individual images on my Flickr account. I have been thinking about my next paper I want to incorporate the thoughts I had around going home, to my parents homes a week ago. How photographing my childhood homes felt different than photographing my own home.

Went to NYC this weekend it feels a little like a blur I need to spend some time processing all the work I saw and some of the shooting I did at home. While in the city I had a marathon day the Whitney, Metropolitan, and the Guggenheim then it was downtown to some Chelsea galleries. There was so much more I wanted to see but I accomplished a lot in one day.
I was able to photograph at home..my childhood homes. It was an interesting experience I may use some of the images not sure yet it didn't feel like home partially because I don't live there anymore and things have changed in the houses. A big one is that my mother doesn't live in my childhood home she now lives in NJ a different state than where I grew up. I focused more on the objects pieces that had been part of my childhood. I am looking forward to doing a ton of printing this weekend I have a lot of material to work with.

Sometimes I wonder how can all this work be done....? Conferences at work today but all the judging was finished for the art show I'm hosting at work. Denise and Michael were some of the judges so it was nice to talk about work and AIB with them today. Earlier in the week I saw Linc who also did some judging great to see people who have finished the program. Shot more tonight and I'm looking forward to going home and to NYC to see shows. I spoke with Deborah the other night and I need to make some changes to my last paper and focus more of my thoughts. I am really enjoying what I'm photographing and I'm looking forward to getting into the studio to do a lot of printing.

Above image: Moyra Davey's work

Can't believe my last post was 2 weeks ago work has been so busy since returning from vacation. I am hosting a large art show at my school which has been occupying a lot of time. Anyway still plugging along with grad work.
Met with Jesseca my mentor at the end of my vacation and had a good meeting with her. We discussed my newer work in which I have been hanging multiple images on the wall next to each other. Working with size of the images and dealing with both my interior and exterior space. Using imagery of both has allowed me to make a more personal connection to my sense of place. I have still been working and looking at maps but I feel they are becoming more of just an influence than using them in my work. I went to visit Coe at Fitchburg and was able to make some larger prints which was great they change the layout of the work and I can't wait to make some more with new images I have been shooting. Other than my work I find I have been looking a lot I have a ton of books out from the library. I went to part of a symposium at Harvard on Saturday about the Moyra Davey show at the Fogg. There were some very interesting speakers and I enjoyed getting to see the show a second time. I also visited the landscape show at the PRC.
I'm looking forward to a visit to NYC this weekend for some gallery and museum visits. I will also be visiting both family houses which will give me an opportunity to photograph at both places. With the work I am currently doing I feel I have been focusing more on my current home but it should be helpful to do some shooting in my old homes, the ones my parents still reside in.

Back from some time off. The SPE conference was fun and I was able to see some good lectures, get some information and books. My week in California was filled with lots of reading and rest. I did some shooting while I was there. Today I spent all day in the studio printing which was great. Getting organized for my meeting with Jesseca. I need to photograph more in my apartment but before vacation there was construction in my bathroom so I haven't really been home. I am trying to focus and write my next thought piece I have read enough just trying to get my ideas focused. I feel very lost in my thoughts right now trying to still move through this awkward phase in my work. It was nice in Colorado to see AIB classmates and talk through some ideas. Rebekah said she would start calling me a nomad after I spoke with her about some of my work. I began thinking about that and there is a part of me that is constantly moving from one place to another, whether it's one home to another or my apartment to my boyfriends apartment. Constantly occupying my space as well as others that are close to me. I keep focusing on what the work is about while trying to move through these ideas. I don't seem to have one idea around place which I think is fine. I just don't know if it's enough... Being in California and spending time with my family reminded my that I have the one who moves. Not in a bad way it just allowed me to feel some steadiness to these ideas that center around me growing up in two different places. I keep focusing on ideas Space and Place.

Painting by Rackstraw Downes, The East River with Gracie Mansion and the Triborough Bridge, 1981-82

I took a bunch of books out of the library the other day, trying to just look and see as much as possible as I push through the awkwardness I am currently feeling around my work. Looking at many painters currently I was going through a book of Rackstraw Downes work when I cam across the image above. My mind was immediately flooded with childhood memories. That was the view from my parents apartment looking out onto the East River with Gracie Mansion below. I even remembered sledding down that hill and Carl Schurz park is there too. I was attracted to many of his other paintings but this one clearly stuck out because of the immediate personal connection. I enjoyed seeing the way he painted multiple vantage points of an area how can that change the viewers understanding of the place. This view above may not have been the exact one I saw as a child but the elements of the landscape are there.
I have been thinking a lot about place, and I'm don't have a clear sense of mine. I do know that I need to try and answer some of my questions as I make my work. Lots of ideas are running through my head and I'm working on some of them. Later I will be loading some images from work I did over the weekend. I did some self-portraits in an attempt to bring some life into my work however, I don't know if the images of me are really getting any closer to my place.
The other night I watched the Mother Project about Tierney Gearon's work it was a beautiful documentary that Kate Philbrick had recommended. While her work is different than mine I seemed to relate to some of her struggles. Today I went to the Fogg to see the Moyra Davey show Long Life Cool White. I was interested in a sentence from the introduction to her work by Helen Molesworth, "Davey's oeuvre: a close attention to detail, in which the eye is trained on what is conventionally overlooked combined with, the precision that photography can offer and a sensitivity to psychological themes embedded in everyday objects." This caught my attention because I too have been photographing stills of objects in my life as well some of the landscapes I photograph which I see as a representation from my day. I am interested in that sense of meaning to make connections to the landscape, place, and things I see everyday that can be overlooked.
I plan to seek some answers to my questions as I go on vacation in a week. Work has been hectic and it's time for a break. I'm off to the SPE conference on Friday in Colorado and I get to see Liz S. and Rebekah. Then I'm off to California for some sun and relaxation with my family. Then I'll be back in the studio upon my return since I will have one more week of vacation. Until then I have a couple shows to see before I go and few more things to do in the studio.
This weekend I began setting a piece up in the corner of my studio laying images out to create almost a map of my day/life. I also plan to play with some other ways to show my work perhaps that will lead to more of an understanding of where to go with my ideas around place.

Laura McPhee

Last week I worked on my Critical Theory II paper. I also tried a small project to shoot one roll of film a day of my surroundings. It was tougher than I thought it would be, many of the days I could only get half a roll done it seemed too dark in the am and then not that much light when I got home. I don't know why I just didn't want to take a lot of flash photos. I just picked them up today and I plan to lay them out in my studio tomorrow.
Thursday I went to the Arno Rafael Minkkinen lecture sponsored by the PRC, it was great. I really enjoy his images and the lecture good too. He spoke to the truthfulness of the photographic image which I found interesting in this digital age and also spoke about serendipity in life. My favorite analogy he made about work he was speaking about a Helsinki bus station you leave the station and you find a way maybe you stay on the bus instead of getting off eventually you find your way, this idea of working through the work. Which was great because that's currently how I feel about my work confused and not sure where it's going. I'm just trying to work through it. Saturday I went to the DeCordova to hear Laura McPhee speak about her work in the show there, images from her project River of No Return in Idaho. I enjoyed when she spoke about this place (Idaho) she wanted to enter but wasn't sure how after growing up in Central NJ. I have included an image above I just love the vastness in that work and not just because of the size but also that place...out west everything is just so big.
I have more books from the library to go through and some exhibitions to check out still. While I feel confused I'm trying to keep working and just see a lot and read hoping that it helps. Well I'm tired off to bed....

My mind seems to ramble lately about place..I continue to question what that means to me. I began to think about my childhood homes but that no longer feels like my place rather more of someplace I visit. So then what becomes my place? Is it where I currently live just because it's my address? Is that ok that my sense is more than one place especially since I grew up knowing more than one place as my home? What is it then I'm trying to say is it about home or place are they interchangeable? How then can I further push my sense of place visually, an idea I had this weekend was to put portraits with places? is that really getting at my own sense of place. I need to further investigate the self-portraits.
I met with my mentor Jesseca Ferguson for the first time last Thursday. It was a good first meeting she gave me some other artist's and books to look at. I have been photographing myself in my surroundings and objects within my apartment and outside and in my neighborhood. Jesseca suggested pushing beyond just straight photography spreading out my ideas on the wall of my studio and make different parts of my home. We discussed some images I had put into two grids on my studio wall. I challenged myself to photograph one roll of film inside my apartment and another one outside in one afternoon. I am currently pushing that further by shooting one roll a day for an entire week. Today I did not get all the way through my 36 exp roll but my plan is to finish it tomorrow. The challenge for me is the light, I photographed this evening a little with flash. This should be an interesting experiment.
This weekend I spent some time outdoors but also watched Edward Burtynsky Manufactured Landscapes, it was a beautiful documentary. I really loved what he said at the end of the film that while his work is making a political statement, he wants the work to be more about the conclusion the viewer makes rather than pushing his work as a political statement.

Finally feeling like a human again after being sick this past week, thank god for a few more days off from work. Went to the studio yesterday to organize some work and go through some ideas I definitely need to just keep pushing through my ideas. Not really sure where my ideas are taking me right now but I goal for the semester is to be uncomfortable and I am feeling that.
Went to the DeCordova to see the new photography show which was just what I needed. See some other work for inspiration it was a big show with a mix photographers work. I enjoyed the landscape photographs of Elke Morris she photographs in Maine and then creates a sense of place in photoshop. There was a mixed media piece by Peter Sullivan that created a sense of layers and information.
I am still thinking about ideas of place and how can I visually push those ideas. I tried some drawings of maps of home from my mind I'm not really happen with the sketches. I did photograph maps again so I'm planning to work with them in photoshop.

Ugh I'm sick, and home from work. Everything finally caught up to me. I have a lot of printing I want to get done, last week I did a bunch of shooting that I was happy with. Lots of self-portraits and some studies of my interior and exterior space which I had printed and I'm looking at in a grid. Lot's of ideas still flowing I'm trying to keep working through the weirdness. I have been reading and watching Art 21 season 3. While resting I'm trying to work on some more reading today.

Getting back into it...well it's finally happening I am able to balance everything a little better. The first two weeks back at work were rough to say the least. I have been shooting a lot and just finished my residency summary so I have a lot of information floating around in my brain. After writing my paper some of my bigger questions are why am I photographing place? What does place mean to me? I've been thinking a lot about the landscape I photograph, I started doing some self portraits and more interior shots I am interested to see how those will look together with outside landscapes. Yesterday I thought about photographing myself but in my different places, such as my parents house, my apartment, etc and creating a sequence from that. Perhaps photographing in different rooms and making connections. My work feels like it is in an awkward place and I know I need to take a risk so I am just shooting and hoping to both work through it and find that jump I need to make in my work.
On Friday I went to First Friday on Harrison ave, despite the rain it as fun to look around. I enjoyed Lissa Rivera's work of private schools and Greek life. Especially her work of private schools it is interesting to see the spaces empty something she perhaps planned yet on a normal say that wouldn't be the case. I thought about that in connection to my own lonely landscapes, images of the city that seem empty. I have also been looking into lectures and upcoming shows I want to see. I have been in touch with my mentor Jesseca and we will hopefully be meeting next week. I am really looking forward to getting started with that. Now I'm off to more shooting and reading!

My life has become a real balancing act, I mean I knew it would be going in to this and it continues to be. Finishing this residency and going right back to work has been a challenge. I feel in a much better place than I was in the fall. The past two weeks I have been thinking about my work and all the questions I have what will me next leap be? As I go back over my notes and listen to recordings of critiques (glad I got the voice recorder it has been very helpful) and thinking about ideas and different ways to print. I don't have the answers to my questions yet I do know I need to get into the studio and make and keep reading. I'm in the process of updating new information for the semester onto my blog.
Last Friday I went to the Griffin Museum to see the Stephen Wilkes gallery talk. His image of Ellis Island are beautiful and got me thinking both about his scale and the text he put next to his images, both things I have been thinking about in my own work.

As an archive below is my book list that I read and artists from Semester 1:
Else/Where: Mapping. Janet Abrams
Camera Lucida Reflections on Photography. Roland Barthes
“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Illuminations. Walter Benjamin
Ways of Seeing. John Berger
The Future of Nostalgia. Svetlana Boym
The Art of Light + Space. Jan Butterfield
You Are Here. Katherine Harmon
Photography: A Critical Introduction. Liz Wells
“Sweet it is to Scan…’: Personal Photographs and Popular Photography.” Patricia Holland
Illuminations Women Writing on Photography from the 1850s to the Present. Liz Heron and Val Williams. “Remembrance” Annette Kuhn and “What Becomes a Legend Most: The Short, Sad Career of Diane Arbus.” Catherine Lord.
On Photography. Susan Sontag
Everything That Rises A Book of Convergences. Lawerence Weschler
Artists:
David Salle, Gary Duehr, Cindy Sherman, Abelardo Morell, William Eggleston, Nikki S. Lee, Bruce Gilden, Azra Aksamija, Lewis Baltz, Light and Space artists of Southern California, Jerry Eisenberg, Gerhard Richter, Georges Braque, James Valerio, Karen Kitchel, John Virtue, John Walker, Anne Appleby, Robert Smithson, Starn twins, Gordon Matta-Clark, Rosemary Laing, Justine Kurland, and Lauren Greenfield.
Aaron Siskind, Dan Eldon, Robert Frank, William Wegman, and Irene Shwachman.

It's been a week and half since the residency ended and it seems like it was a long time ago. Work has been insane since coming back from the residency. I plan on spending this weekend going through all my notes and compiling my thoughts for my first paper. I have been working on processing all the ideas from critiques there was a lot of great information floating in my head! Thinking a lot about my last critique of the residency with Oscar Palacio he had great recommendations and questions for my to tackle. I know I just need to start making work again to push through where I am currently, what am I trying to say about my sense of place? I am looking forward to taking more risks this semester in my work I'm just not sure what those are yet. Lot's of things to think about....

I can't believe it's 2008 and I'm about to start my second residency. It's been a busy year and I'm excited about where my work is headed. I have been starting to think about questions I have about my work for the residency. How can I further incorporate maps into my work? Is a visual narrative coming through in my imagery?
I want to begin further exploring drawing my own maps. When I drove home for the holidays I thought a lot about the space around me and what I was seeing as I was driving. Ways I could translate what I saw into a drawn map of my own. I'm sure I will have more questions and answers over the next 10 days.