Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
began BCA res today!
About the BCA Artist Residency Program
This non-traditional, ten-week residency program provides a unique support system for individual artists, including funding, studio assistance, and the opportunity to experiment and share one’s practice with an audience through three individually designed workshops. This residency seeks to help artists explore audience engagement outside of typical art education models. The residency may be especially appealing for artists who are interested in public programs but who have limited experience with them, or would like to take their current practice in a new, more public direction. Click here for the2010-11 Artist Residency program and workshop schedule.
2010-2011 ARTIST RESIDENTS:
Christy Georg
Christy has been called "a sculptor of wit and ingenuity, clearly in the tradition of Jean Tinguely and Bruce Nauman, but brilliantly original in her use of existential humor to invigorate the works" by fellow sculptor Rob Fisher. Her work is often created for use in a specific location or inspired by a particular historic account. During her time at the BCA, she will be working on a large map of the Boston Harbor and its evolution from 1776. She will be using a relatively new technique to make her drawings by creating new images from existing images found on the Internet and in books.
Georg's public workshops will take place in January/February 2011. In one workshop, she will introduce participants to the sailor's art of marlinespike seamanship, a technique she re-interprets in her contemporary sculpture. In her last two workshops, Georg will explore how people from Boston relate to the Boston Harbor as part of her research for a large map of the Boston Harbor.
Monday, December 27, 2010
blizzard, specs, carbs, and flight
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
oh, limbo
- I'm hanging at my parents house in Houston. Oh, Texas, you ignorant but warm bastard.
- I will not be able to work on or finish my 'saddle' piece until I get to Jentel in March.
- All my stuff totally reeks of eau de Pine Tar. Big time. Mom is not a fan.
- I really want to work on the saddle piece, but can't. Crap.
- I also will not work on those cowboy-ish drawings I didn't finish. I won't work. December is pretty much a loss, though I did visit lots of great friends and family, and this is the way the residency train rolls.
- I have loads of paperwork to do over the holiday, of course I can't be making stuff- applying for a few sweet teaching jobs, the Pollock-Krasner grant, and doing research/sending packets to bigger venue curators. I need a high profile gig. Hello, fancypants curators: I'm ripe for the pickin!
- Yet, I'll begin negotiations with another University gallery. It's become a rut I should get out of.
- I'm edgy about my finances. It's hard to relax and have faith things will work out.
- I have to deal with logistics of being carless in Boston. How to make light-tables and get the project started? It's a ton of meticulous work for only 10 weeks, but I need to complete it in that time. I'll have to learn to direct my interns. Wow, I get interns!
- My mind is turning to my upcoming Pacific Crest Trail hike, I want to get planning! Have some gear issues to resolve, pinpointing mail drops, and most importantly how to turn it into an art project. Blogging on trail, sure. I'd love to find a way to record sound and have it play online in real time. Huffing and puffing, cursing at rainstorms or brutal heat. I like the idea of transmitting the moments. They can only be experienced in real time. All things must pass.
- I'm feeling the ease of being at sealevel, coming down from 7,000' Taos. I have been running outside every day, and it feels like I can run forever. Hitting the gym and pumping iron with my parents is pretty cool too. Feeling pretty okay about my endurance level, but the most hardcore training will begin shortly. Thanks to Bill, fabulous friend and fitness buddy in Taos, for sticking with me through tons of hikes, runs, and yoga sessions. I hope to start the hike around April 20, and have my blog showing expected arrival times at points on the trail, so friends can join me for section hikes!
- I'm trying to be more active with blogging, and now posting on my facebook fan page and on twitter. Thanks to Tania for pushing me to do that!
- It's nice to be rocking a T-shirt in December. Can I move to California?
Sunday, December 19, 2010
my work @ Maine Maritime Museum
Cross Currents: Visual Arts Distilled from the Maritime World opened to the public on Saturday, Nov. 20.
Just as history is a compilation of complex interwoven elements, Cross Currents will explore how maritime life has been diversely captured in four disciplines in the visual arts - by Carroll Thayer Berry, through printmaking; by Loretta Krupinski, through painting; by Claudio Cambon, through photography; and by Christy Georg, through sculpture.
Carroll Thayer Berry (1886-1978) is one of Maine's best known printmakers. Although the schooners and shores of the Maine coast are Berry's most-recalled inspiration, he was also drawn to the industrial shipyard scene, documenting naval ships at Bath Iron Works as well as the dramatic pouring of the lead keel for the America's Cup defender, Ranger, in 1936.
South Thomaston resident Loretta Krupinski paints outward from historical photography to regain the emotional context and colors of particular moments along the working waterfronts of coastal Maine communities, both living and forgotten.
Claudio Cambon has been a documentary photographer for more than 20 years, recording captivating moments of life and culture around the world, including Maine, through his camera lenses. His work has been exhibited, published and collected internationally.
The unique installations by Christy Georg move otherwise staid maritime objects, techniques, and material - knot work, tattoos, scrimshaw, horns, signals, lanterns - into startling, humorous, and ironic frames of reference. Her work is a provocative reminder of the swirling undertow overlooked by a strictly historical cataloging.
Cross Currents will be on view at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath through Sunday, February 6, 2011.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
find me on my Facebook fan page
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
new work
Monday, September 6, 2010
Wurlitzer Foundation residency begins!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Boston!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Fogo Island, off northern Newfoundland
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Brigus residency
My 3-week stay in Brigus is almost complete. I was selected as the 2010 Artist-in-Residence at Landfall’s Kent Cottage in Brigus, Newfoundland. It’s been a dream come true for me, staying at this historic artist cottage, (Rockwell Kent and A.E. Harris worked here) while hobnobbing with Bartlett descendants and the people of Brigus! This quaint town of about 800 residents is steeped in sea culture that interests me personally as a professional artist, a schooner sailor, and a Massachusetts resident with ties to Bob Bartlett’s old schooner Morrissey.
I sailed on Ernestina in 2001 when I was a graduate student at MassArt. About twenty students went on a most memorable 5-day trip…but that’s another story. More recently I worked as deckhand aboard other New England schooners as a sort-of research project to inspire my artwork. For several years I’ve been developing my “Nautical Body” of sculpture, drawings, and photographs. I’m interested in the history of Brigus, Bartlett, and the Ernestina for an upcoming art project.
Last night I enjoyed a fantastic concert by Jim Payne’s Crowd of Bold Sharemen from Newfoundland and Wren Music from Devon, England. There were plenty of sea songs, the tune “Captains and Ships” mentions Bartlett. This concert was part of the Cupids 400 Celebration happening which highlights Newfoundland’s English roots. Cupids is a town next to Brigus where archeologists have an ongoing dig site recovering artifacts. It’s the oldest English colony in Canada, founded by John Guy in 1610, so this year is its 400 year anniversary. There is a bit of irony of course, in that Newfoundland only became part of Canada in the 1940’s, but hey, it’s another nice tourism destination in the area.
I was cooking a codfish dinner one night, and a pod of whales came into the harbor, breaching right at the foot of my cliff! A mother whale rolled over revealing a speckly-pink piggish belly. They must be chasing the caplin, Ron Burke tells me, it’s usually about this week. Ron is the caretaker of Landfall and was born in the big white house on the south side, smack across the harbor. I saw old pictures of old caplin runs, and one newsreel of Bob’s talking about this “tasty snack” which was mostly used as crop fertilizer. The huge school of fish swarm right up on the beach, and people would just scoop them up inti buckets and carts!
Capt. Bob Bartlett’s family home, Hawthorne Cottage, is a well-preserved museum. I suppose it looks about the same as it did when Eleanor, one of Bob’s sisters, the last Bartlett to inhabit the house, died. I spent a long time watching all the old newsreels that Bob made on his arctic trips in the 1940’s. I’d only seen little bits of Bob in moving-pictures at the Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College in Maine, so it was really charming to hear his voice and get a feel for the man in the very rooms he grew up in.
Ernestina is held truly dear in these people’s hearts. Everyone has stories or old photos to share in response to my inquisitiveness. Bill Pomeroy, a descendant of the family that built Landfall Cottage in the 1790’s, was a crewmember on the sail from Brigus to St. John’s in 1988 or '90 when she visited under Capt. Dan Moreland, now captain of Picton Castle, (who I briefly met in 2007 on Block Island when I was crew on Mystic Whaler). Bill visited me at the cottage carrying loads of old pictures of the town and harbor. He pointed to the little island in the harbor across from where the Bartlett pier was. Bob’s uncle had a tunnel blasted in the rock to make the pier more accessible for his big sealing ship Panther; it’s a big tourist destination in town. Bill grabbed the binoculars and showed me how there are still big chains attached to the rock on the island- the Panther would be lashed between the island and their pier. He pulled out a photo of it. It makes sense, given the geography, but for me it was magical to look at Bill’s old photo collection while hearing his first and second hand accounts of how things have changed while I was looking at the place. With the bird’s eye view of town and harbor from Landfall, he pointed out different landmarks. It was a warm sunny day, and I figured I was in heaven.
Some folks, like Bill, follow SEMA updates, but many are shocked when I tell them of the plight of the Ernestina, and how much repair she requires. Last summer Newfoundland held many Bartlett Celebrations to honor the man in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of Robert Peary’s “dash” to the North Pole to which Bartlett was essential. Reading a brochure of the events for the Bartlett Celebrations held all over the island, I became fairly mortified that the schooner Bowdoin (a fine old arctic schooner) visited for the festivities instead of Ernestina. At that point, she was in the yard in Maine having her stem revamped at last, which was valuable progress… It’s just such a pity that work (and more) could not have been done sooner to allow her to participate in a monumental event that’s part of her legacy. Ernestina is the “official vessel of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ” part of the New Bedford Whaling National Park, the oldest fishing schooner in New England, and a designated National Historic Landmark. Maybe these designations indicate a relic; do they read like an epitaph? She’s not dead, I sailed on her just 9 years ago. I never felt more alive, and I swear she loved it too! She has a very viable mission as a sail-training vessel, school ship, and educational enterprise. It seems positively criminal that she’s so neglected!
What I’m enjoying most about Brigus is that everywhere I turn I meet with a personal connection to the history of Bartlett. I discovered that both Andy Critchley (who runs Landfall Trust) and Jenifer Soper (my liason from the Rooms in St. John’s supporting my residency) are grandchildren of Bob Bartlett’s sister Anne. Bob’s nephew Rupert’s wife still lives here. I met with many people, especially old people, whose fathers or other family members served with the Bartletts sealing, fishing, or exploring the arctic. I met the Bartlett family maid’s granddaughter. I ate dinner at Jenifer’s house off identical china-ware to what’s in Hawthorne. It was her grandmother’s, of course, and all the Bartlett women had ordered the same set!
Flipping thru the guestbook of Landfall which Jake started in the 1960s, I find an entry from Dan Moreland on Aug 2 1990. He drew a picture of the Morrissey in the harbor from right there, and thanked Jake for the hospitality.
I hiked way out beyond my cottage to the lighthouse at the tip of the rocky peninsula. With the strong land-breeze aiming to blow me off the cliff I imagined what the Morrissey looked like sailing into this scenic little harbor. Jenifer Soper has a photo in her home here of her mother as a child sitting on Uncle Bob’s lap. She told me how her mother would describe to her how the Morrissey would enter the harbor and just where she would tack, and with her pointing out the window to the harbor, I imagined it. But what I’d really like, it to see it with my own eyes and for Brigus . Let’s rally up support to SAVE ERNESTINA and sail her up for a visit! . It was a really big deal, Jenifer said, when she sailed in the harbor. The town provided her crew and provisions and affected everybody’s lives. Its no wonder that even some 60 years later, she’s still beloved.
Learn about my “Nautical Body” of art: http://www.christygeorg.com
Donate to Schooner Ernestina/MorrisseyAssociation:
http://www.sailernestina.org/%3Chttp://sailernestina.org/?q=node/178
Saturday, June 19, 2010
sewing?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
solo show @ Khyber ICA in Halifax
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Struts Gallery artist talk today
Saturday, May 29, 2010
oh, Canada!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Appalachian Trail start
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
sold.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Hit the Road!
Monday, April 5, 2010
planning Appalachian Trail hike
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Peary was an asshole.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
drawin an' a hikin'
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
My "stern air of sadomasochistic ritual"
ok so I edited down this review just to the part about my work. Woah, pretty ballsey there, Greg!
Purposeful randomness
By GREG COOK | February 17, 2010three-person show "Experiments, Memories & Devices" at Bristol Community College's Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery
(777 Elsbree Street, Fall River, Massachusetts, through February 25).
INTRIGUING Georg’s Monitoring the Dunes Apparatuses. |
Also on view here is art by Christy Georg and Richard Metzgar. Georg makes curious devices like a scissors-like clamp, spoon-scraper things, or a large metal funnel connected at bottom to a hose attached to a pair of what look to be earphones. Her Triple Doser (2005) is a bowl with three small attached spoons. It sits atop a stand connected to a kneeler. The idea seems to be that three people could kneel down and drink fluid poured from the bowl into the connected spoons, as if receiving a sacrament. But beware: the bowl and spoons are made of toxic lead.
Monitoring the Dunes Apparatuses (2003) includes a pair of crutches that stand on what seem to be speakers, and connect to a pair of headphones. Photos show Georg wearing the gear at the great dunes of White Sands National Monument in New Mexico and holding herself aloft on the crutches like an acrobat. She describes it as an "endurance performance" in which the artist is connected to the earth only by these stethoscopic crutch ears for as long as she can hold herself aloft. Georg impresses with her craftsmanship and her ability to invent creepy, mysterious objects that seem like artifacts from another era. Her stern air of sadomasochistic ritual can feel like pretentious affectation at times, but the goal — isolation of senses (taste, hearing) to generate a more powerful and elemental connection with the world — intrigues.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
mysterious Mary Celeste
Monday, February 15, 2010
more Capt. Bob
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
"Best Sculpture" people's choice award
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Prizes! Prizes!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
guitar. beer. progress
So the other night I stayed up late recording some fun old songs. The recordings are lousy, but who cares? It's just incentive to 'master' some songs, meaning... to remember them the whole way through. It's harder than you'd think. Anyways it was good to feel my fingertips really burn again since playing with the boys at VCCA.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Newfoundland!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
I Am A Machine!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
simple day
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Good, The Bad, and The Delicious
- I didn't make the final cut for the Boston ICA's Foster Prize. Thats fine.
- I should finally have the second half of that grant I got last year in my hot hands this week!
- I dropped off Super Sweepsy and a crate of Sweepsies (Sailor's Whisks) to the Foothills Art Center for "Timmy Flynn's Hardware Store" group show that opens Feb. 5. Nice place. The postcards are super cute too.
- I got my contract for my next residency at Struts Gallery in New Brunswick, Canada. They are hooking me up big time, and I'm enjoying the sudden relief of a potentially non-financially terrifying time for awhile. Maybe till the fall. This is very, very good.
- I bought a cute winter hat today at Target. It was in the kid's dept on clearance for 2 bucks.
- I just had my first sip of 21 year Balvenie scotch, aged in Port casks. Bliss! Thanks Jim!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Application and Bluegrass
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Arctic Research Continues!
I'm pretty sure my "Nautical Body" is moving Northward. I've been obsessed with Newfoundland for a couple years now, largely because Capt. Bartlett is from there, Brigus. Bartlett owned the first schooner I sailed on, back in 2001 when I was in grad school. The Ernestina (ex-Effie Morrissey) is the state ship of Massachusetts and is in dire straits factually. More on that later.