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.