The (Waaaay) Out There Orlan

Back on the topic of meat as medium (after that cleansing of the pallette post featuring Kaitlyn Miller's sweet and spirited ceramic art...) consider the work of this artist, whose plastic surgeries make up a body of her work. Pun intended. Ouch. To both - to the thought of undergoing surgery for art's sake and to the bad pun...

We studied Orlan's controversial performance art in The Decorated Body, a fascinating art history course I took at MECA during my sophomore year with Professor Aimee Bessire. In this course we studied body modification practices such as tatooing, piercing, scarification, even transgender surgery, as well as more surface modes of body alteration such as hairstyles, make-up and clothing.

(Hairstyles and Attitudes, are they connected?)

Now For Something Completely Different...

Seeing those meat portraits gave me the same feeling as seeing an exhibit of Lucien Freud's work years ago in DC. I felt like I'd been skinned. I went next to see a Matisse exhibit and that was a healing balm. Here are some pieces of ceramic art in my home in Woolwich that were created by my daughter Kaitlyn. They bring me joy.

Till We Meat Again

You are what you eat. Pinyar Yolacan's fascinating and provocative meat portraits. Oh yes, the push me/pull me is at work while viewing these. Attraction and repulsion, equal parts. There are many artists who have used meat as subject and medium: Rembrandt, Chaim Soutine, Francis Bacon (with that name, it was destiny...) and Jana Sterbak, Zhang Huan...

These portraits also recall Julie Heffernan's paintings.

I once asked my dermatologist if it is difficult sewing flesh. She said, Oh, no! Skin is a wonderful material, so resilient - it's so easy to stitch!

(I have a difficult time just cutting a chicken leg in half...)

The Haunting Susan Hauptman

I just found this artist's work - Susan Hauptman - and see a kindred spirit. Like Hauptman, I have created many self-portraits with the dressed/undressed, exposed/clothed thing going on. This has been a recurring theme in my work, based on some past traumas.

I am having some interesting physical therapy work (IMT) done on my big toe joints right now. Part of the therapy is energy work, and the releasing of emotional pain that causes physical pain. The PT spoke to me this morning about how we hold "our stories" in our bodies. Interesting that I should find Hauptman's work right now. These are all works on paper using charcoal and pastel.

House in the Woods

shed/greenhouse

truck stuck in muck - this scene looks more like a maine march than a maine november...

workshop

andy has used many recycled items to build his workshop - the windows, doors, wooden gutters...

new house foundation

My son Andrew and his wife Oceanna are building a house on a portion of our property that we gifted to them. It's an enormous project - Andy has spent months manning the controls of heavy machinery to clear the land and to make the very long driveway that leads from the road up through the woods to their new site.

He has now nearly completed his workshop (it resembles an old fashioned one room school house, very cool...) and has the foundation for the house poured. And last weekend the well got drilled (that happened after the well digging rig got royaly STUCK in the mud, requiring massive tugs from the excavator. Andy remains undaunted by difficulty - he's amazing!) With all this going on, he is also putting up a small building on our old barn foundation, one that will have clear panels so it can double as a shed/greenhouse. My husband has always wanted a greenhouse.

I enjoy reading about astrology, and one way to look at our astrological charts is the pattern that is formed by the placement of the planets. There are names for these patterns and definitions of the corresponding personality traits. Andy's pattern is The Locomotive:

People with Locomotive charts typically attack problems head-on.

I'd say that fits!

Car Talk

They're getting big!