Upcoming Art Shows!

This summer my grid portrait series, 100 Reflections, will be featured in two shows. The first is the Emerge Show, held by The Art Trust Gallery in West Chester, PA. This show features emerging local artists from several surrounding art schools. The shows purpose is to bring philanthropy back into the arts, and connect local businesses with emerging artists.

Emerge Show, The Art Trust Gallery, West Chester, PA reception June 1st, 5:30-8:30pm, shown from June 1st to July 30th.

The second show is a solo show at The Bean Cafe, located on South Street in Philadelphia, PA. The Bean cafe showcases local artists in an eclectic environment. It is one of my favorite cafes! The show will run from June 13th to July 10th.

Come on out for these great local Philadelphia shows!

Peace & Love

Green I.T. an environmental parody.

This is going to be a very subjective post about the “green” status of my university. This post is inspired from an incident, an experience I had this week during one of my classes (and in actually, from having to read assignments for that class.)

My university, over the years has done many “things” to become more environmentally friendly. They’ve opted to post “smoke-free” signs all over campus but everyone still smokes. They’ve removed the butt cans for the cigarettes, to try to enforce this but people still smoke and now since there’s no where to put the butts they litter them all over the grounds outside the buildings.

The university has remodeled a few buildings and used eco products in the structures (insulation soy based, etc.) In these buildings the bathrooms have been installed with automatic flushing toilets, which coincidently, flush three times as more often as the hand flushing units because the sensors are so sensitive to physical movement (does this really save on water usage and germ control when you physically have to flush it when the unit fails to operate correctly?)

What happened this week with Green I.T. really clinched it for me though. I’ll explain…

Green I.T. is a plan that progressively cuts down on the university’s paper usage over a certain amount of time (years) by implementing things like: limiting the amount of actual sheets of paper a student can print per day and per week. As of fall 2010 that limit was 125 pages of printed paper per week, per student.

I am taking two art history courses right now. Heavy in reading, heavy in writing. Over the years the teachers have begun to post more and more assignments on-line instead of handing out printed materials in an effort to be more environmentally conscious. Still, those on-line materials need to be printed! So it falls on the student to do that, either at the university or at home.

With just the reading assignments for one of my classes this week, which consist of entirely essay material, I used up my 125 page printing limit at the university for the week. Just from this one class!

When this teacher asked our class if we had any questions about the essay material I spoke up and asked if there were a hard bound physical copy of the essays to purchase instead of printing them out. She asked me why. I explained about having the physical copy for reading and reference purposes, and also because of the printing limits placed on the students by the university.

As a side note, even if owning a printer at home is something you have, that’s a lot of paper and ink for one class for only one week!!!

I try to do what I can for the environment. I’m not super conservative, I recycle, I buy smart and I try to be aware of what I’m using and how much. I’d rather spend the money on a textbook, and have that physical reference for years to come (and also support a publishing, printing-house) than 1.) stare at a screen reading all my assignments for 4 hours a day, and 2.) waste that much of our resources unnecessarily.

Spaces In Between.

Rain. Tons of it.

Last Sunday my friend Amanda and I were riding on the river trail, finishing up a 20 mile ride and we got stuck in the rain on the last half of our ride back. It was a positive ride, regardless of the weather. When we returned to my house, my neighborhood was flooded, my street was an actual river. I had stopped to put air in my buddy’s tires, and feeling undeterred by the weather, we walked up and down my street, took some photos and then braved the waters again, as I had to drive my friend back home.

My town was a wet mess. There was severe flooding in some lower laying areas. Unbelievable stuff, flooding I haven’t really seen since I was a kid. I dropped my friend off safely and then voyaged back to my house, parking my car on higher ground a street over, as my driveway was completely under water now.

It’s funny, I mean, watching the water was neat, in an awe-inspiring kind of way. I understand why people get really upset with it, with nature in general when it comes along and basically shows you how little control over everything you have….but really, have you ever just sat there and watched it?

I used to do this a lot with the ocean during storms. I’d sit on the beach, watch and listen to the waves just beat the beach senseless. Surfers would line up along the breakline and kind of mull over whether or not they’d want to risk their lives for that perfect swell. Moments like that are priceless. Photographs never really capture them, you can’t recreate the smell of the ocean and sandy beach, the sting of the rain slicing your face while it’s falling in sheets. The stillness of those surfers watching the water….it’s almost religious.

There’s a lot of anxiety happening right now around here because of this approaching hurricane. I’m sure, people are worried about their material things: homes, apartments, cars, technologies, etc.

I understand all that anxiety. I don’t know if I can relate to it the way I used to. I have a pet rat, Mona Lisa….I’d be worried about her, she would be that one thing I’d grab if everything went to hell. You know, what’s most important to you that you’d want to risk everything to take it with you?

Sunsets and Existence.

The sunset last night, from the back of the Wegmans parking lot in Collegeville, PA.

Fictional.

Last night I was walking past a wall of windows and I saw this, actually it was more like felt, this wall of orange and pink hit me. I looked up through the windows to the sky and stopped in my tracks when I saw this. I was on a break at work, and quickly went back to the room to grab my phone and head outside to take a picture. I found the professor I was working for outside as well with a student, taking in the sunset and its amazing colors. The three of us just stood there, watching all the oranges, pinks and violets move over the clouds and sky. It’s been a while since I’ve had a moment like that, and it was nice to share it with others.

Something else happened today. I’m working back to back shifts at local center and I have  a three hour break in-between the classes I’m working. I was taking my time wandering around campus in the afternoon heat and decided it would be nice to sit under a tree and enjoy my late lunch.

Do you remember the last time you spontaneously sat under a tree in the shade on a hot day? I don’t. It’s been a really long time. I put my back against the tree trunk and let the breeze and shade cool me. I ate my lunch and listened to the leaves and birds. I watched this squirrel walk very causally across the grass in front of me, pick up a nut and eat it. Then the squirrel climbed a tree and laid down on a branch. His legs were spread out on either side of him, his front legs stretched out as well, his tail flopped behind him and his head rested on the tree bark. I watched him for half and hour. Occasionally he would pick up his head and look around, then rest again. Like a couch potato, but in a tree.

I thought about how long it’s been since I’ve sat under a tree with someone. A long time…and reflecting on this, it would have been nice to do that this afternoon, and to watch this lazy squirrel do squirrel things. It was however, really amazing, to just be able to sit and take everything in as though it were the first time. Just a tree, the hot summer and a woman watching a squirrel.

Ideascrap

Hazy NJ-PA. But there’s something about Chester, covered in the suffocating summer blanket of evening air that makes me thoughtful. Especially when the bridge is empty of travelers, both ways. Like, that hazy shield keeps everyone in…and bridges just sit there, high above murky swirling lukewarm gray.

Oh America.

Suck Up Everything…

This entry is going to be mainly about climbing….with a dash of art.

But first, lies.

How often do you tell yourself that something is a certain way when in reality it isn’t? It doesn’t have to be a big thing, it could be something you think is harmless. Maybe something like: I’ve gained a few extra pounds but it’s ok because my pants fit, and no one else can really tell I’ve gained the weight. Or maybe something more like this: I can’t get to work on time because the traffic is horrible and I shouldn’t have to leave any earlier to get to work on time, it’s consuming enough time already.

These are specific examples, maybe you can think of a few more that…feel….the same way.

Sometimes in climbing, and definitely when it comes to making art, the more I lie to myself about what is really going on, the more it hurts me and the harder it makes it overall, to accomplish what I set out to do in the first place.

Itching To Climb (Ian) ©ChossyGrl

Today I was climbing at my local crag with a friend. He had led an old favorite, Itching To Climb (5.8), and left the draws up for me to lead. It was one of our warm-up climbs for the day. The last time I had climbed this, I sent it clean. Today when I stepped up to the start, I told myself, “you’ve got this, you know the climb.” In the past, the first move always shut me down. It’s a right hand cross, and very bouldery (I’m not much for bouldering these days.) I would always have someone else clip the first bolt for me. It was never something I looked forward to doing. Past couple times I’ve climbed it though, I’ve done it from the ground up, and it’s been good.

Remember what I said about telling yourself one thing, when reality can often times be something else completely? This climb is a good mirror for that I think.

Despite having sent it before, clean, I hung all over it today. Telling myself at first, I was tired, I hadn’t had a long enough warm-up, that it was hot, I didn’t have enough chalk. Everything else was responsible except….well, me.

The start move off the ground went fine. At the second bolt I realized I had taken all my mental garbage up with me, and it was getting between me and the climb. I was over thinking and sketching out, instead of just finding the awesome rests I knew were there, and breathing. So important….the breathing.

I gave my friend an earful at each bolt about what was really on my mind. It helped, purging my system so to speak, and really taking responsibility for why my climbing was crappy. But also, it was depressing…knowing I had allowed myself to take all of that energy and waste it on mental processes that hindered me.

Pictured above is my friend Ian, from last year, working the start of Itching To Climb (which is actually, a very fun climb.)

So I spent a good part of the day thinking about how all those little lies we tell ourselves actually do more harm than good. Not that they ever do good, mind you.

Making art can be affected by the same disillusionment.

If you take away all the things you’ve used to build yourself up, are you still good? Competent? Will you still have confidence?

Can you still evoke…

How honest can you be with yourself.