Category: Inspirations

Bernheim Regional Artist In Residence

Lots of long deep breaths taken in front of this tree.

 

So thrilled to announce that I have been awarded the first Regional Artist in Residence at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, Kentucky.  This prestigious and highly competitive Artist in Residence program has been established for over 30 years and have hosted the likes of national and international artists Ray Metzker, Lynn Geesaman, Shinji Turner-Yamamoto, Julia Oldham, Nicholas Dowgwillo, Firat Erdim, Jaime Bull, Tomasz Domanski, Carlotta Brunetti, Hideki Kanno,and Madison Cawein to name just a few.  This is an incredible honor and the recognition of my work means so much to me.  It also validates the decisions I made a few years back in being less career focused and more passion driven, encouraging me to stay on this path.

 

Art as seen on Lake Nevin!

 

(Click HERE to see the read more about the 2017 Artists in Residence at Bernheim)

 

Upon sharing my news, I have gotten a lot of “What exactly does that mean?” kind of questions.  Generally, an Artist in Residence means that you take actual residence at a place somewhere away from your usual environment and obligations.  Most often there is a fairly extensive application to submit and only a handful of artists get selected.  The granted experience provides time for reflection, finding inspiration and production of (usually) an already proposed project.  Some residencies cost money to stay there, others are free…some offer stipends, but most do not.

 

Dogwoods…a week ago when they were crazy in bloom!

 

Bernheim is providing me a stipend and temporary living quarters in exchange for a work of art to be left to the Bernheim Foundation.  This particular residency is also unique in that I have access to all horticulture and operations departments, as well as ecologists, scientists, naturalists and forest managers.  I am also allowed admittance to most scheduled hikes and eco classes offered throughout the calendar year.   I have literally been invited to become part of the entire ecosystem at this amazing place and I love how this program enhances the visitor experience through arts interaction.   This is an experience/opportunity I will not be taking lightly!

 

Little baby pine cones in the making.

 

I am encouraged to use this residency to further investigate, experiment, and explore new avenues in my work.  My project proposal for the Artist-in-Residence program is to create a large scale, multi paneled, photographic installation for a currently undetermined space in the arboretum.  The imagery will be captured during extensive exploration of the Bernheim grounds while in residency.

I currently explore the hands-on process of integrating photographic images with surfaces like wood, glass, and aluminum.  I find that the substrate is just as important as the image itself and the incorporation of the two has the power to transcend the traditional boundaries of the photographic medium.  I am enamored with aluminum as a substrate and have explored it thoroughly in the forms of both foil and plate.  It’s shiny, reflective surface is ever changing as you move around it and the material harkens back to the vintage Tintypes of the past.

 

 

But instead of simply transferring an image onto plain aluminum, I intend to “cook” my aluminum plates to distress and age them.  Cooking can be done in a handful of ways with simple gear that ranges from a dish washer to a turkey roaster as well as homemade designs using readily available materials.  The agents for change are cleaning products such as Cascade and TSP.  The objects I intend to use for distressing and creating unique, unduplicated patterns onto the aluminum plates are natural materials such as fallen trees, debris and plant material collected while exploring the grounds of Bernheim.  Essentially I am “developing” these plates with the natural legacy of this beautiful place that I will then transfer photographic images onto.   Working in this fashion lets chance intuitively dictate my work while asking the image to surrender to the process.

For more information about this process and my prior results, check out this blog post from a few months ago.

 

Early in the residency and days long past…magnolia blossoms for days!

 

I have been staying in their artist cabin for most of April, and will be returning methodically through out the year.  When I can, I’ll also be making work in the Lake Nevin Studio.  If you make a trip…and I highly recommend you do…let me know…it’s likely I could be there too!

This story has only just begun my friends!

~jz

(See the full list of former Artists-in-Residence and learn more about the Arts in Nature Program at Bernheim.)

Why I Marched

“Every woman’s success is all of our success.” Marcia Tucker

Last Friday night, I boarded a bus in Louisville, Kentucky, en route to the Women’s March in Washington D.C.  After arriving Saturday morning, I participated in the largest national mass demonstration in history.  Later that evening, I got back on the bus headed home.  I returned Sunday morning, totally wrecked, but ready to do it all over again.

So what motivated this kind of arduous activity?

It’s no secret that I am incredibly disappointed by the election results, but I didn’t march because my candidate lost, nor was I there to mock or belittle the newly inaugurated president.

I marched because I believe in equal rights for all humans, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, political or religious affiliation.  I marched because I believe in reproductive freedom, universal healthcare, right to clean water, clean air, and feel strongly that our environment must be protected.  I marched because I believe that our diversities are the strength of this country.  I marched because I don’t want to lose the ground that women have fought so hard for over the past 60 years!!  In the spirit of democracy I marched for what I believe is right and because I’m concerned about the new administration’s stances on health care, climate change, education and other policies I personally find frightening.

And when ya stand up for the things you believe in, it feels really good to do so!  By all reports, not one arrest was made in all the Women’s March demonstrations nationwide…including sister marches on all 7 continents…which is an incredibly impressive feat!!  With a polarized nation, during a time where tensions are most high, I think this something that ALL, regardless of party affiliation, can be proud of.

So why are women NOT ruling the world already??

On the bus, where a fellow marcher passed out the trademark pink pussy hats that so many of us marchers donned.

 

 

The bus arrived in D.C. later than anticipated, and the walk from the bus to the capital ended up being the closest thing to a march that I experienced due to the sheer number of people who showed up.  There were so many in attendance that all streets surrounding Independence Ave were jammed with little room for maneuvering!!  As we walked through residential neighborhoods to the capital, many locals came out and cheered us on…some with tears in their eyes.

 

 

 

Literally a sea of people…and this was still early!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Women’s March on Washington sent a powerful message to our new government on their first day in office.  But now the real work must be done.  All humans have the power to change the future.  May we be more engaged citizens in creating a stronger democracy for our country!!

 

 

Love is Love is Love is Love!

Peace,

~jz

Cooking more metals…this time with plant material!

So, it’s no secret that I have thing for working with metal these days.  My most recent work are images transferred onto large metal substrates, custom made from heavy duty aluminum foil, distressed in the dishwasher.  A few months ago, I started experimenting with cooking aluminum in a turkey roaster to get an aged look to the plates.  There is some resemblance of control when purposefully distressing aluminum in this fashion…but not always…and it’s that element of chance that makes this process so exciting to me!

Before I worked with items such as cardboard, bubble wrap, plastic stencils and textured fabrics to create one of a kind substrates…and I had some really great results.  But what kind of imagery can you get when using natural plant material?  Will the shapes of leaves be present?  Will the plant material simply disintegrate in the cooking process?  Pictured below is the plant life I cooked up.

No plant life was purposefully cut for this creative experiment!  Most was either picked from yard waste prior to pick up or pruned from my personal plants.

 

 

These two plates were sandwiched between a palm frond.  Love the mirrored look!

 

And here are more of my results from my cooking session with plant material.

 

 

And while it’s always interesting to see the results from the cooking process, here’s where the fun really begins…that of matching substrate to image!

Below are several examples visually detailing the process of matching image to substrate.   The individual aged plate is on the left, original image is in the center and the combination of the two are on the left.

 

 

 

The following are final results after transferring image to plates.  These have yet to be enhanced with oil paints…but it won’t be long until they are.  All I know is that I’m ready to do so much more of these!

 

I found that I really loved working with monotone type images and those with lots of negative space so the aging of the plates come through.  I also was quite drawn to those that became more abstract.  It was quite fun to line up patterns in plate to colors and lines in images…creating a new version of the landscape!

 

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  And as always…thanks for hanging in there!

~jz