I SEE A NEW WORLD

Last month, April, I did a very cool thing: I went to Munich, Germany to participate in I SEE A NEW WORLD, a weeklong art and music event at Villa Stuck. I was one of several artists who was assigned a room in the temporary museum in which to make an art installation and take part in a music/sound performance at the end of the week. What a thing! I initially thought I would make a lot of things out of cardboard but when I arrived I found out I could paint on the walls so I changed everything around and decided to do some big painting on the walls.

I will often feel a space out and not stick to previous plans when I do something like this. It feels important to go with how it feels rather than stick to some idea from a month ago. It keeps it fresh, and like Jonathan Richmond says, it’s like bread: even a day is too old. So I kept the colors simple and started thinking while I was painting about how a room could suggest a story, how big shapes and lines (or no lines) can fill up our eyes.

I started thinking about the windows and the door (in this former accounting office) as portals, as gates to walk through or fly in and out.

I liked making the shapes touch, but just a little bit.

this was the only corner that didn’t cross over. I thought of that as beginning and end, or an entry and an exit. It wasn’t an endless loop, it was more of a story. I have now invented a new genre: SHAPE FABLE. also a great band name. It was (and continues to be sometimes) important to me to not draw lines. al the white parts are negative space, so in a way I was making a line by painting everything around it. I find that really thrilling!

I needed something to bring the room together. I felt like the set dressing was finished but I needed the actors for the play to start. I started by making this quite rickety and janky table out of cardboard and house paint. Shout out to Villa Stuck for hanging that fishing line for me. I made birds. I made a parade.

While I was working on this I was listening to a lot of Michael Hurley songs. He has one called OH MY STARS and I thought about those words a lot. It made me think about wonder, possession (both kinds) and the absurdity, joy, and sadness of the whole deal here. So I called this room OH MY STARS in tribute to and in honor of the song and the person who sings the song.

There is much more to tell about my trip, the music part and the new friends part, and that will come soon.