KATHRYNARNOLD

8th Street Studio

My 8th Street Studio and its day to day, or maybe it will be week to week digression on my studio issues, art thoughts, and the duality experience between conceptual/rational and nonconceptual/intuitive. Grid and ground contained all within.

Studio Log

12_25_07

Almost the beginning of the new year and a degree of frustration with my work (artwork). Inspirations and ideas that have come to me during the year I did not write down. And then today, even though a holiday, frsutration that the 12 pieces related to blackbirds have only 8 frames that fit. All of these things see as trivial compared to more major things going on in the world and in people's lives. Yet then the frustration of my studio being cold. Yet to acknowledge suffering as part of life I think keeps me in balance. No highs, no lows at least not at this moment.

The question has come up if I wish to make prints of a couple of my originals; perhaps a direct scale match to some of the smaller works. I do feel that one of my consultants would sell them, and perhaps could market them through a few other channels. I will decide soon.

Need to send new images to my dealer in Philadelphia/NY who recently sold a paper work to Novartis.

But my main concern right now is to have time to actually get down and really work in my studio. Out here there are so many other things to do, the ocean, the forests, the museums.

On Saturday and Sunday I went to the nearby museums and saw some very cool shows, SF MOMA Olafur Eliasson, Icelandic artist, who I will here speak in Jan. or feb. has Take your time exhibition installations about color perception, light and use of mirrors and lenses up along with a frozen BMW. Love this exhibiton, more on it later. One piece used clear disk, about 24" diameter or more and a projection system with mirrors and colored lenses that cause it to be violet on one side of the room (the circular projection through the disk) and yellow on the other. The circle projections move across the walls as colored light in equal time on opposite sides - like symmetrical movements, with ellipses that change shape (think rules of perspective/ellipses) to then at one moment, when the projections collide, they create this brilliant play of white light...also saw Joseph Cornell, a very thorough exhibiton of his collages, boxes, graphic design work and collaborations, and Lucy McKenzie, an artist from scotland , an installation using interior space, fashion in this fine art piece - she takes references from art nouveau/arts and crafts movement. so felt very connected to the course I began teaching this semester. The marie Antoinette at Legion of Honor is revising history in a way I cannot agree with; not based on facts but in principle, I suppose I line up with Thomas jefferson in my view and can only see it as frivolous and nonmeaningful.

More later; hopefully I work tomorrow.

12_7_07

Today got notice of my piece #1, Piece of Spring is included in a January 2008 exhibition in San Francisco. This time I feel a bit of pleasure; something long missing, like it has felt like work to show my work, and this time I feel delight. Here is an image of the piece, it is 30" x 40".

Kind of funny to show a work named A Piece of Spring in January. I made this painting last Spring, spring 07. Or around then it was completed. S

12_1_07

This page is getting long!

Was at studio today working, built a wall, actually two, that did not stand up well so a bit of redesign is needed. That will be a next time. Put plastic up to separate the one third where I work in order to warm the place up a bit; it was 51 degrees all day today; usually not, but there is a cold front in the Bay Area that is dropping the temperatures at night to around 40 or so, some places colder.

Beginning in a week I will be able to be here a lot, like all day as many days as I want. Also will be revising my regular website and doing a mailing that will go out the first week of January, and then again in March, and then again in June. I hope to regain my life and not be so consumed 24/7.

I look forward to completing the large 5 x 7's over the winter months and perhaps create an audience for everything I have completed.

I am looking forward to visits to the SFMOMA, De Young, Legion of Honor and the Asian. I am also interested in becoming more acquainted with what the Wattis Institute does as it is all contemporary. Create some more reviews. I am looking forward to playing catch up.

Last Thursday went to visit the San Jose Museum of Art, a beautiful facility that lost their funding with the sale of the San Jose Mercury News, the local newspaper that had been supporting it. Had a really great room with some quite smart pieces from their collection - a great David Hockney watercolor, created with multple sheets of paper, or so I think it is a watercolor, from his Pool series. They had the Deibenkorn exhibit up; thought it was from when he worked in Mexico, but that was me - perhaps i want to go there to paint/work... not seeing the word New before Mexico in the exhibition title. Not sure if he actually ever even painted in mexico. Some beautiful works, with some of his ink drawings, random, some looked like Guston's, others looked like Miro, others looked distinctly Diebenkorn with the incredible way he handled values areas, such variety. Loved. They weren't like the Diebenkorn's I am most familiar with...The colors of the landscapes, ochres and neutrals also as rich as his grays and blacks and whites in the abstract ink pieces on paper. The Miro area was also beautiful with crayon like lithographs in bright colors with blacks; like stained glass almost. Appreciated especially the one created with or involving Calder's influences, could really see Calder's shapes with Miro's lines, fluid and lifelike, yet also solid shapes. Most of miro's seemed to focus on that solid shape. Some of this exhibition was related to his Constellations series; I am not sure how much. Saw Jim Leedy's ceramic sculpture up - in the permanent collection; have always loved his sculpture since I first became familiar with it as his sculpture student at KCAI.

So along the way for now; last weekend went to the ocean, this week accomplished a great amount; creative inspiration feels at the door, just need to answer.

11_26_07

Today prepared a momento painting gift for marian parmenter who appears to be leaving the SF MOMA Artists Gallery. I did not know whe was leaving so am surprised but also indicates I may be out of the loop.

Inspiration has continued to today; this may be a good sign for developing my work at the studio. I think about it anyway as the end of my semester teaching schedule is at hand.

Maybe it is the uplift i experienced from Robert Stanley's writing from his studio log. http://robertstanleyart.com/Studio%20Happenings%208.html If you have not examined Robert's work please take a minute to view his exquisate organic digital works.

"11/19
I think there is a common sensing center in our brains. Aquinas wrote of the "common sense," and I experience it. Lying on the couch, listening to the hum of machinery and the noises outside my window, I "see" the sounds as a textured, moving grayish-yellow-brown rectangle area, overlaid with Motherwell Elegy-like shapes, only less elliptical and deep brown, while pulses of other colors dots through. I "hear" my paintings as symphony-like, and kinesthetically feel the relationships. Seeing Johns does the same thing. In fact, I sense this sense in many artists: Johns, Diebenkorn, Pollock, Judd, Heizer, Mann, Kieffer, Viola. The ones I don't, like Tamayo, Gober and others, seem diminished to me. Some, like Richter, have it, but convey trifling ideas. The Chartres windows have it, too. This sense is the ground of expression, and exists even if the expression is not clear. Who believes in the Blessed Virgin like the Medieval peasants did? Yet, the windows still move us. Those artists that use that sense last longer and mean more. Too bad the postmodernists threw out such "essentialist" ideas. Among artists I know who are not (yet?) in the history books yet have this sense are Kathryn Arnold, Michael Bocok, and Gregg Hertzlieb. "

I like this idea of Aquinas' common sense and wonder if my uncle is familiar with this. This is different or maybe not than Frank Lloyd Wright's super sense, which I feel to be meaning a heightened state of awareness, awareness of awareness itself, magical. And rich.

11_25_07

Worked in studio? It was 51 degrees!! So not really extensively. Went up to ocean where it was 16 degrees warmer, the North Beach area of Point Reyes. Didn't even bring a camera. Then stopped on way back at a remote artist's open studio location, Mary Beck. Liked what she is doing with the paper, making it look like metal and sculptural, yet to hang on wall.

Thanksgiving day this year parents did not come out so had dinner with a miscellaneous group of people somehow connected because of knowing my brother. All,except one, and including him, employed by some of the tech giants in the valley: Adobe, Microsoft, Yahoo, EBay, Cisco in various occupations. I think I want to live in NYC where there is more of a sense of the arts and the arts importance. It is difficult to describe the gap except that it truly seemed none of them felt they had anything in common with me. May be true...

However, inspired by the long weekend to get back to work, bring in the discipline I need to maintain the studio, which is still clean but now cold.

Am getting ready to work on a piece dedicated to Marion Parmeter, director of the Artists Gallery connected with SF MOMA. It looks like she is leaving / retiring? after all of these years as I received an invitation to a reception. It doesn't really say why, except that she is moving on to another adventure. I wonder who will be replacing her. So they are collecting an 8 x 11 piece from everyone to put in a portfolio to give to her. and send it by fed ex on W. I will put an image here on the site also.

11_4_07

Maybe it is the time change that makes me feel like i can write in here, you know, an extra hour. My exhibitions are now all complete for the year unless something turns up for December. Have been developing a class and accessing multiple remote ideas intuitively lodged within my mind - but why don't I write them down as they occur. Is it the sense that i will never be able to use them? Was in an art supply store - utrecht- the other day and wanted to buy canvas, start new. Since that was totally irrational as i have maybe 50 or so stretched canvases in my studio, unpainted, I scratched the idea. Studio however is staying clean - either a good or bad sign, but I will rise again.

10_19_07

Yes, I have been working, mainly investigating design and letterfoms, an amazing topic. Along with that, I am currently in 2 exhibitions and am showing the following 2 works.

dark blue moment at Visual Voices, SF, an exhibition curated by SF Bay Area poets. October 2-October 22, SF, Ca

pacman eating at West Valley College, Saratoga. September 18 - October 11, 2007.

This selection titled “Pacman Eating”  has perhaps multiple meanings, so I will describe its personal significance.  As I was working on this piece, the small green figure in the upper left began to be experienced as Pacman, now part of our common culture. The field of energy and marks felt just like the game with that devouring energy and yet also creating psychical energy at the same time, inside/outside integration and just like the game!  This, I felt, was “IT”!

7_20_07

These three works are included in the Transformations Exhibition that is at Polarity Post Productions July 14 - October 13. Each is 24" x 55" so are kind of life size. As a group they are titled The Spirits Who Make Me.

The artist statement that was requested:

The Spirits Who Make Me: Red
The Spirits Who Make Me: Yellow
The Spirits Who Make Me: Blue

Forms that appeared as representations of spirit emerged as I poured varnishes one late evening in my studio. Each piece began to create a sense of memories of others who had been meaningful to me and who, in a metaphysical or transforming spiritual sense, continue to be a part of me and who I am. The shapes began to take on life-size and life-like qualities. The color identities relate to energies or these nonphysical beings/spirits as this is what remains today. Color functions in the unseen world (as energy/light waves) and also the visible world, becoming a perfect metaphor for transformation.

White light is created when mixing red, yellow and blue and in effect, the colors used are another metaphor relating to transformation.

The following is background information on color from  http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/light/U12L2a.html
“Each individual wavelength within the spectrum of visible light wavelengths is representative of a particular color. That is, when light of that particular wavelength strikes the retina of our eye, we perceive that specific color sensation. Isaac Newton showed that light shining through a prism will be separated into its different wavelengths and will thus show the various colors that visible light is comprised of. The separation of visible light into its different colors is known as dispersion. Each color is characteristic of a distinct wavelength; and different wavelengths of light waves will bend varying amounts upon passage through a prism; for these reasons, visible light is dispersed upon passage through a prism. Dispersion of visible light produces the colors red (R), orange (O), yellow (Y), green (G), blue (B), indigo (I), and violet (V). It is because of this that visible light is sometimes referred to as ROY G. BIV. The red wavelengths of light are the longer wavelengths and the violet wavelengths of light are the shorter wavelengths. Between red and violet, there is a continuous range or spectrum of wavelengths."

From  http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/light/U12L2a.html

7_1_07

Two pieces purchased by Corporate client. 3 pieces will be in exhibition "Transformations" at Polarity Post Production in mid July for a couple of months. Need to figure out framing; they are each 24" x 72". Work in studio is going well, major rearranging of studio space also. Making more room and throwing some stuff away. Seems like I hate to dispose of anything I may end up using, however getting quite crowded. I will not be doing open studios this year but will be doing 2 massive mailings.

6_13_07

Gearing up to revise my work website; I am going through the images of my inventory and new works to place them up online. There seems to be alot to do as an artist.

Heard from two of my consultants and hope to have a new exhibition in SF again this year. I would like to exhibit these three large horizontals that i am currently engaged in. I am also hoping for the sale of two paper works to go through / East Coast.

No poetic feeling today as i am in this kind of work mode. I am also working with connecting with other artists and hope to create an exhibition space in my studio once I get the 'stuff' cleared out.

I saw some grants and exhibition projects i could apply for that I am considering.

6_2_07

Worked in the studio 4 soiid days. I am working on 3 large 4.5 x 8' works, horizontal. They are connected to the passages idea. Going very well. A piece accepted into a book and wrote a statement yesterday morning:

"This work has arisen from my explorations in ascertaining significance. The idea of random acts coalescing into the creation of meaning entice me in my recent series “Random Acts”. The resulting color field abstraction is the transporter connecting these spontaneous, seemingly random marks with definition contained in the title. "

Title: My Piece of The Sky 48" x 48"

5_10_07

I will style this later but checking in quickly while I am working. I am moving smaller works to the townhouse to make space in this place that I hope to sublease an area or two by fall (When i have no time again.) And also create exhibitions.

I took a few minutes to check on everyone's artblogs (like reading the newspaper for me) but no one had anything new. Read Robert's again - interested in his idea of shooting his older works becasue at first i took it literally! Shows what happens if one comes of age nearby William Burroughs' paintings that he shot.

Am still setting up to begin this set of 3 5x7's, they may actually be 5.5 x 8". I hope to work on them all summer.

Replaced my broken minolta with a new old minolta (purely manual! - my favorite) and will take it to the mountains this weekend to see how it shoots. All of my lenses fit. The camera arrived on Tuesday, but today was the first time I had a minute to take it out of the box.

Had already forgotten about the Brice Marden inspiration from a week ago Thursday. I wonder now if i should let it go.

5_4_07

I have been working on my main webiste kathrynarnold.com and am ready to go through my inventory images. I am missing a large 6' x 6' work; I have no idea where it is. It is the one that I never could remember which of the two were Formation and which Origination. Origination is gone. I remember having it 3 years ago in my studio, but did not miss it with my inventory images and it is not showing up in those. I took photos of everything in my studio for the inventory. I am waiting to hear on the 2 pieces that went to Philadelphia and then the one at the Artists Gallery.

Went to see the Picasso exhibition at SFMOMA and also Brice Marden yesterday. Great exhibitions and was inspired by Marden's Cold Mountain and others in these recent series. Some of the colors just like the beach scene at the left. It was interesting how dated the Minimalists works were; however totally gorgeous and flat surfaces.

It is interesting how so much can be perceived through 'style' or should I say 'tinted'. Maybe in 20 years they won't look dated at all; think of the Renaissance.

4_22_07

Got a parking ticket at the studio on Friday!! If only I had left 10 minutes earlier but I guess that is how it is! Studio has been too crowded and I am in the process of moving books to the townhouse and also small works. The paper works are another issue as well as the works on unstretched canvas. Took a small work over (siphonostomata - a breach of trust ) to the SF MOMA Artists Gallery for their large event.

Have not heard back yet on my 2 submissions for the Abstraction show or for the Transformations show. My fingers crossed. Even though more effort toget one's work out there, it seems to be a needed requirement, a dialogue with other participants, whether viewers or other people engaged in the creative process.

In the fall I have the goal of opening up my space to a few other renters and also engage the 2 20' x 14' walls as exhibition spaces where we can hang new work once a month and invite others to come over to view. A once a month small reception or party would be also helpful to get this to happen, plus a once a month discussion salon. I want to immerse myself. If I can find the right collaborators - ones who share similar vision(s) then it would feel more energizing that work.

At the studio - readying myself to begin the 3 5 x 8's without finishing the other 3 large works! What a great idea!!

4_5_07

I will style this font later when I return home. This morning at my studio before meeting Art History classes for Field trip at Asian Art Museum. The weather is incredible to put it mildly. Last evening went to a hardware store and picked up flowers, some African daisies, small pansies, snapdragons, i think, an entire range of colors and shapes. These felt like spring, like the pieces of spring. I got them all planted in pots last night, worked on this for a couple of hours.

I do not know how artists have time to do their work. The ones who travel quite a bit, must not have any or they work very fast. Have been reading book of Hockney's on Secret Knowledge, The Use of Optics in Art. Not a completely new concept but what is standing out to me is how these artists, like in the Ren., were really punching out these paintings, how fast they had to work. And how much pressure there must have been to catch those commissions when they came about.

That is what I mean, by time. If artists pursue exhibiting their work, how do they also have time to make it. With exhibitions there is writing, framing, photography, delivery, pickup and more. And often no guarantee of payback.

As someone who used to spend every free moment pursuing grants and shows, somehow at that time I had time to work also. But now with the usually 55+ work week, I seem to not. Perhaps though, changes can be made in terms of everything i do to make it more streamlined.

My lease here is now renewed for another 5 years. I would like it to make this venture succesful, not that i feel settled in. Another choice is to make the space an artists' community and have exhibitions with additional artists' work areas. We'll see. Would have to do a lot of cleaning out! :-)

Want to get back into working with my Epson printer. It has been awhile but when I look at the pieces I did, am very interested in how they look and what they are about.

Was in NYC until the 28th - brilliant and beautiful weather, but the time change to get there and get back in the quickest amount of time was completely painful. I was very interested that there was so much more contemporary painting this time - really loved. Also viewed Klimt's Garden works, or at least many of them plus a shadow box Dali had done that I found quite interesting. Brought back strong senses of inspiration and took photographs in Central park. Today while walking to my studio from the train, knew I should have brought the camera! Poetic images with trees or day to day life with the world that surrounds me. Oh, to experience that duality in all ways all the time. This is it for sure!

3_18_07

Great week in studio, funny seems like now I need to get busy. The temperature is enough to give anyone serious spring fever. Yesterday was like june in SF, the fog around all day and then cooled down to freezing. Today and Friday the sun and warmth beautiful. But there are no pink flowers or pink feelings in the city - it is all about asphalt. Not sure why I return to my memories of spring and does it keep me from experiencing what is around me?

Signed the 12 small pieces today and left them flat on the studio floor, that I feel will be titled Pieces of Spring but now may change that to reflect the Wallace Stevens poem more. Also signed 2 that were larger, 35 x 40. They are all connected - perhaps contemplating ideas like how everything is connected and is that how we find meaning or search for meaning, by these connections. A long and lengthy interest of mine that nestles in with many forms.

I am to enter an abstract work for a show at one of the large buildings DT and also considered if my spirits who made/make me set would count as 'figurative'. I will see what happens with that.

In the meantime have the 5 x 7 ready and the 2 other large works, peeled off tape. Have created sense of energy flow from the exterior of the grid to the interior and will wait to see what happens. Like they say - back to the drawing board, and perhaps my drawing board this time will be the 1000s of images i have on my computer. Tonight noticed book on shelf called the power of limits. Maybe something I will inhale.

I will begin a set of 3 very large works when I return from my trip. Am interested this time in taking pen and pencil with me and scotch tape to create a visual record of what i see, experience and notice. each day i look at computer and realize the intense amount of power it has in image making and creating. May be a calling card drawing me in. And found involving creating this set of small works - would like to experiment more with that with computer.

Today after signing also worked a bit on them as well, making the formal relatinships more precise and removing drips! Can you believe? This time understood the innovations with drips and what they truly mean/represent and this time they were experienced as interference in the pure reading of this small set.

To make poetry in beautiful weather - almost cannot.

3_10_07

Have been at studio a lot recently and today hit the wall. Moved exhibition from may to August. A gallery in NYC is interested in me.

Read today both grandparents on my mother's side were straight from Denmark and met in a Danish village in the US.

I took the camera with me last week to studio and took an image of the recent work, not just one image but one of each. so 12 plus 3...the 12 being small.

I have three monitors here and the color on each is different, on one washed out, on one too much contrast and dark, and the third is perfect. I wish I had a way of controlling how it appears on others monitors.

Here is one: XII " > The river is moving. > The blackbird must be flying. "(Wallace Stevens)

Here is another: X > At the sight of blackbirds > Flying in a green light, > Even the bawds of euphony > Would cry out sharply. > > (Wallace Stevens)

The series is called pieces of spring.

Was viewing today works of Bob Brawley's, an influential and meaningful to me professor of mine at KU. Beautiful works; I am very very sad he passed on, seems unreal as i think of him. It is odd how the past can live on in the present.

Not sure about the drips on the one directly above, will probably try to remove.

Today at the studio was working in particular with the 2 large 6.5? x 5 feet hroixzontals, or they may actually be 7' wide by 5.5. or 6 feet wide.

Considering subletting sections of my space.

Have so much work I want to do and then realize it may not even matter.

2_22_07

Last weekend I was in the mountains.

I did not do much. Went up to the snow, a bit of short walks through snowy roads and pines, and sequoia. Giant sequoia with the temperature around 50 degrees. With snow. Complete wilderness, gorgeous quality.

I am getting very distracted from my work. I am trying to move the May exhibition to another time, they have a difficult drop off and pick up schedule that I find difficult to match.

If i take the camera to the studio tomorrow, I will have photographs of the new set of 12 that I am not sure are complete or not.

Aren't i vague. I am inspired though by my students that work every day. And the idea of artists who work each day. Surely I can match that. I used to; what has happened? Sometimes I wish I were immersed in time. Time perceived as a luxury item, need expansion in my mind.

Thinking of Kansas City, my friend Jane, and all the rest i left behind...maybe it is this rainy weather.

(a poem that she sent me as we used to share the newest poems we found...)

> here's a poem for the day as i have it just here at hand:

> > Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird > >

I > Among twenty snowy mountains, > The only moving thing > Was the eye of the blackbird. > > II > I was of three minds, > Like a tree > In which there are three blackbirds. > > III > The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. > It was a small part of the pantomime. > > IV > A man and a woman > are one. > A man and a woman and a blackbird > Are one. > This is good > V > I do not know which to prefer, > The beauty of inflections > Or the beauty of innuendoes, > The blackbird whistling > Or just after. > > VI > Icicles filled the long window > With barbaric glass. > The shadow of the blackbird > Crossed it, to and fro. > The mood > Traced in the shadow > An indecipherable cause. You will accept and I will question? > > VII > O thin men of Haddam, > Whyt do you imagine golden birds? > Do you not see how the blackbird > Walks around the feet > Of the women about you? > > VIII > I know noble accents > And lucid, inescapable rhythms; > But I know, too, > That the blackbird is involved > In what I know. > > IX > When the blackbird flew out of sight, > It marked the edge > Of one of many circles. > > X > At the sight of blackbirds > Flying in a green light, > Even the bawds of euphony > Would cry out sharply. > > XI > He rode over Connecticut > In a glass coach. > Once, a fear pierced him, > In that he mistook > The shadow of his equipage > For blackbirds. > > XII > The river is moving. > The blackbird must be flying. > > XIII > It was evening all afternoon. > It was snowing > And it was going to snow. > The blackbird sat > In the cedar-limbs. > > -Wallace Stevens

I love this poem! What is this blackbird? a quite great poem loaded with stuff for a long time, I am saving it > >

These lines will be the titles of this newest set of 12.

From Passages 2' x 2' on paper