few words: My work is about what you see.
- These are projects I have created over the last 15 years.
- Style and materials are elements that contribute to that particular object's conceptual need.
- Objects made are not black and white, they overlap and fuse, go in different directions and separate, keeping kernels of the memory of the Actual Experience. They travel many roads simultaneously, reflecting a nonlinear existence and mirroring the complexity of life.
- Intelligence and intuition simultaneously aim for the elusive wonder and resonance that makes an object go beyond the artist.
- In 2001 I labelled myself as a PostConceptual pluralist. However, in 2010 I think labels are for art historians, and to be frank art history can only be written in retrospect. Most importantly to me, since I believe whole heartedly that there are too many words in art, my work is about what you see.
June 2011 neuroMorphic
- Beland Gallery Essex Art Center, Lawrence MA, June 17 - August 11, 2011
- Site specific installation
- Connection
- I have always been awed by the life force
- Evolution
Uprooted
- The 1996 paintings that gave rise to the Americana Hispana Project were the building blocks for the conceptual world of UpRooted in 1999.
- As a child of immigrants I have been very aware of being UpRooted. Rather than viewing cultural uprooting as a loss, it can be thought of as a fuller, richer condition in which the seemingly destructive chaotic struggle results in the creation of stronger hybrid roots.
- I have an obsession with the forces of nature. The Earth is one mutable living being and we are some of its cells. Plants and trees live above ground and underground simultaneously interconnected (visible and not visible, concious and unconscious). Trees embody a form that exists in nature in infinite scale (fractal qualities of matter). A science-fiction story I read over 30 years ago (Alien Earth by Edmond Hamilton, © 1949) permanently changed my poetic view of life. The use of trees as a metaphor for connectedness on the microscopic and macroscopic scale was thus a natural consequence.
Retablos
- Retablos have along history in Spanish speaking cultures. They are small personal altars of worship. Here is a link for those who need some background information on retablos.
- I appropriated the concept in 2003 to use for presenting ideas of things that seem insignificant, yet that are important in life.
- I value the small scale of the presentation and the intimacy needed to experience them.
reconstruction
- The 20th Century was obsessed with deconstruction to the point that it lost sight of the bigger picture, even in the arts.
- UpRooted in 1999 brought me to the process of Construction/Deconstruction/Reconstruction.
- This process led to the interrelationship of emergence, chaos, complexity science, theoretical physics, psychology, and biology, giving rise to a view of creating the new via the process of construction, deconstruction, and finally reconstruction.
- Chaos is the ultimate creator of the new.
NeuroMorphic Universe
- A very painful experience in 2003 was so intolerable that in order to survive I had to let go of everything. In the process of falling, screaming with eyes open, an epiphany connected Uprooted and created the NeuroMorphic Universe. This universe is heavily populated with NeuroMorphic Trees and 'I guys'.
- The NeuroMorphic Universe exists in the realm of 'FlatLand' but has dimensions that go beyond the flat.
- It is microscopic and macroscopic simultaneously.
- My interest in archaeology as a metaphor for the unconscious (as presented by Sigmund Freud) led me to the use of 'stones' (saxa loquuntur) along with my NeuroMorphic Trees . The stones are simultaneously cellular. The NeuroMorphic Trees and stones embody archaelogically what is hidden and unconscious (what must be excavated/found/unearthed/search for self/meaning), as well as time and life.
- The NeuroMorphic Universe project includes the poetic 'Words are Seeds' project.
Avatar Project
- I have been a virtual gamer since 1988.
- In the 21st century the virtual is a significant and integral part of an individual's identity.
- In 1996 my children made me aware of the online multiplayer community created in Team Fortress through the M-Player website.
- In 1997 I was the 'Noble Lady Natacha WildDreamer Master Swordswoman' in Ultima Online. I hated PK (player killing) so I left this online world to be part of Everquest.
- In 2005 I made a video which encompassed a performative aspect of my virtual avatar which existed as 'natacha wildDreamer' in 'The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind'.
- In 2006 I became 'Natachita' as part of the World of Warcraft. This ongoing experience is part of the discourse and evolution of human identity in the 21st century.
Not Black and White
- This is a new project I am working on and as yet undefined.
- I am just listing it here to reserve its space for the future.
Ritual of Giving
- In 2003 I began a series of performances which I called the 'Ritual of Giving'. I initially made food that I brougt to share at the places where I spent my days.
- From 2005 I also made small art objects that I gave away in the 'Ritual of Giving'. I continue with my Rituals.
- The Ritual of Giving is important conceptually since so much of society is more concerned with taking.
Artist Books
- Artist books whether involving drawing, painting, photography or sculpture are wonderful small objects.
MFA thesis
- In 2006 I presented my MFA thesis at Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Its title was 'NeuroMorphic Universe'. I chose the style of the work influenced by the history of manga and anime in Edo period Japan. I had written a short art history thesis paper on manga and anime and its effect on the 21st Century and was aware of it being a good example of how art can influence cultures slowly and quietly over time (with no need of bloody revolutions).
- A very important part of the thesis was 'the Actual Experience is the work of art' as a performative element. I enabled the audience to participate by giving them the option of painting their face or body becoming parts of the the NeuroMorphic Universe.
- The entire gallery was painted in sky blue intentionally as a metaphor of interconnectedness and representing my cultural bias.
- The work comprised three rooms in the Aidekman Gallery at Tufts University. The first room (gallery entrance) had an installation that was a self-portrait. This was presented as a drawing of a NeuroMorphic tree that was the entire wall of the room. A pedestal and bookshelves had important books in my life as well as a few hundred small sculptural 'I guys'.
- The main gallery space had small and large NeuroMorphic Universe paintings.
- The third part of the gallery had paintings, 'I guys' throughout the room and a video installation.
Photography
- I loved photography since childhood and still have my original Brownie camera that I used at the age of 12.
- At age 20 I started using a Nikon 35mm SLR and a Hasselblad 120mm using only black and white film. I photographed myself in varied roles. I was also very intrigued by the presentation of movement (passage of time) rendered in one frozen slice.
- In 1972 - 1974 I lived in Berlin, Germany and worked as a photographer.
- In 1997 I left traditional photography and began using digital photography.
- In 2002 I created my first 'Book of Days'.
The DNA of Memory
- "The Actual Experience is the Work of Art"
- In 1996 I began to collect the lint from the dryer of my family's wash. My husband and children also participated in this ritual signifying the collection of the DNA of memory and experience, and the importance of family. I am still collecting.
- In late 1999 I did my first performance at the NHIA French Auditorium in NH. I called it "the Actual Experience is the work of Art". It lasted a few minutes and was gone...never concretely captured.
- In 2001 I began a series of private performances 'In My Garden'some of which I videotaped and some of which I created a series of Encaustic paintings holding the DNA and the memory of "the Actual Experience"
Americana Hispana
- I have been a biological and cultural hybrid all my life, as a naive teenager in the late 1960's I hated my differences and just wanted to blend in, to fit.
- Age and education have given me some wisdom...enough to relish my hybridity.
- What I viewed as lacking I now see as a gift.
- This project began in 1996 with a series of classical paintings and in 2001 I created 'Americana Hispana'. I intentionally used a classical European style in order to stress that Caribbean culture is inclusive in the discourse of American History and Western inspired art. Like it or not, we are after all, 'cannibals' to the Empire.