the desert

Day trip to the Salton Sea and Salvation Mountain

Sightings and Events (if memory serves me correct from this trip taken a couple weeks ago):
wind farms and date trees on the way there, a really tan guy in a speedo (corvette guy) photographing himself, flocks of giant pelican-like birds, ice cream truck (nothing beats a strawberry shortcake ice cream in the warm desert sun), bone/barnacle/specimen collecting, plenty of tilapia carcasses on the shores (and people fishing for them too), Salvation Mountain (that's all made out of bales of hay, tires, and TONS of paint!) and getting a tour from Leonard Knight, half-buried homes and trailers, and a beautiful salt crystallized mechanical crane...

on the path to work

'still waters run deep'

This is the other piece I recently finished for the "Common Threads" show. Similar in nature to my 'Silent Sorrows' piece, which has a hundred flesh-like rocks raining down from the ceiling, this work also uses the tear-like stones and chain. But instead of a massive downpour, this is simply a single line which emanates from a little plant. They are connected. There is the struggle of sorrow. But there is also endurance. And hope.

'make haste slowly'

One thing I noticed at the gallery at Coastline Community College were these 3 inch diameter support beams that were sort of in the middle of the space. You can't just move them since they're part of the structure and I wanted to make a piece that would interact with them. Since I've always been drawn to details outside like plants growing out of cracks in the sidewalk, I decided to embrace the cement crack that was already there and create this vine/plant (made of bronze) that is entwining itself up the pipe. It was such a small detail in the gallery that I am unsure as to how many people actually noticed it, but that is partially what I find interesting about it.

Slinkachu

Okay, so it comes to no surprise (to anyone in the arts and education) to see miniature people from model shops being used in art work. In fact, sometimes it gets to be really redundant. Sure, they're small and cute, but then what? Why? Then this weekend my mom (who is not an artist but is curious by nature and has an amazingly open and creative mind!) showed me this book "Little People in the City" by Slinkachu (UK based artist). The images/installations are hilarious and contemplative with the perfect blend of cleverness and commentary on urban life and its dwellers.These tiny lives parallel our own (indeed, they are set-up in and around the city), and give us a chance to not only notice something small but make us take a closer look at our surroundings and actions.