The Bird – Atalie Gagnet

For many years I’ve had a connection to birds.  The bond with this feathered animal swings from a personal feeling and is also sometimes used in my work.  This album is a collection of photos that I’ve been gathering for a long time.  They show birds from birth to death to afterlife.  Some of the images are examples of an interpretation of my chaotic yet organized thought patterns as well as what some of my art could easily look like.  This my dedication and shrine to my self and some of my art practice.  This is what I am, “The Bird.”

Patience Kurtz Final

(Sorry for the quality of the photo)

My idea for a community project is to create a chance to teach the children of Chicago the importance of environmental control and how each individual can do their part to help. Bike Riding is an activity that has become extremely popular in this city lately, unfortunately kids are riding bikes less than ever. Our generation has become too reliant on cars and buses taking us everywhere. I propose that Chicago children along with volunteer photographers explore the city photographing portraits of city bike riders. After these portraits are collected they would be displayed throughout the city, on buildings, buses, alleys, anywhere that the people of Chicago can be exposed to these images. These images would show that anyone can ride their bikes anywhere at almost anytime. Showing the diversity of the activity would hopefully help encourage kids to start riding bikes more often, as well as helping to integrate different members of the community and promoting the message of environmental awareness. Because almost everyone involved would be volunteers, this is a cheap project that would be inexpensive and with minimal upkeep. This is a great way to create a sense of community, get children involved in the saving of our planet, and show the importance of bike riding for the health and happiness of everyone.

My Shrine

This shrine/altar is made to the person who inhabits my room. It is all the remnants of the person who is there. I am rarely in my room, but when I am I tend to leave things everywhere. There’s food, and objects that mean a lot to me and photos and drawings. All these things get left here for long periods of time and are just lingering.

Harold Arts

If I were to receive residency to Harold Arts my art practice would gain a lot from it.  I would have enough time to complete a finished project and the space would help immensely.

If given the space, I would love to work with fibers and create a large work of art. I am really interested in the internal organs of humans and the implications and memories they hold form person to person. When creating internal organs out of fibrous material, they become somewhat ambiguous and much more relatable to the viewer. These works take something inaccessible and repulsive and make it desirable. It makes you want to touch it, and then hearing it’s a human organ, you kind of feel strange touching it.

Specifically, my project will be a large installation that disrupts the space and allows for interaction with the viewers.  I want to mimic the human red blood cells to create a basis of the structure. This would be made up of many little half orbs that will be crocheted. They will then all be connected to each other to create a solid structure. After this is created, I will begin to make some more loose replicas of the veins and arteries. This will be created by crocheting single lines and having them branch out over and around the blood cells. I would like to make the pieces look as gross as I can.

I would like to incorporate some kind of a jelly substance to make it a little more disturbing.

From here I would start to create some organ-like crocheted pieces. I would create the heart and possibly lungs. These pieces would be life-size. They will hang from the blood cells structure. They will hang to match the various heights of where a human’s heart or lungs actually are on different humans. Therefore, there will be multiple copies of the organs to allow for a range of people to relate to the height.

I would like the hearts and lungs to look as though they are floating in mid air. Like, the viewer has been removed and they are only able to see their heart or lungs.

This would be a big project for me and I want to take it on. I would appreciate the help of the Harold Arts Center and a spot in your residence spaces would be perfect for my growth as an artist. I’ve only recently become interested in fibers, but I feel it is a promising area of study and a large project with adequate time and space would be the push I need to get me going in that direction and to be more experimental in my process and more successful in the long run.

Please let me stay here, it would be an honor. Thank you.

carbon footprint

residency proposal

Roxy Carbonell

The strongest connection with oneself can only be reached through interaction with the world around us.

We find ourselves in an ever growing yet ever shrinking world. Mankind has spent the past hundred years embracing every potential technology that has come our way, enamored with the undeniable satiation caused by instant gratification.

We hunt for food by simply dialing a phone, and waiting on our couch. We keep ourselves warm with the movement of a dial. But through this gratification we lose touch with ourselves, we disconnect from our intellect and our bodies, until nothing remains of the person whom we are. We become a culture of mediocrity and exteriors.  Unknowingly contributing to a loss of individuality, and creativity.

Men no longer know how to work with their hands, they don’t know the satisfaction of a meal well deserved. They no longer know themselves, for they no longer have the need to problem solve and fight against the elements we were born to.

I propose disconnection.

I propose breaking from the systems that have become necessities of survival in our modern culture.  We do not need grocery stores, malls, or monetary systems.

I propose, not to abandon society, but alter living in a way in which one can connect with the world while remaining connected them with themselves. I believe communities and culture are important. I believe in the importance of talking to people. But I most believe in connecting with the world outside of our culture, so that we may return to society with rejuvenated thoughts and appreciation

I want to explore shelter. Create entirely portable homes that allow the user to travel through nature with nothing but what is on their back. I would build this portable shelter using only found materials from the area around my residency, I would eat and live in the same way only using things I find or manage to trade for, while doing this I plan to still engage in the community, to write about my experiences and use the things I learn by becoming more in touch with nature to help inspire myself and those around me. I plan to use this research to eventually travel with my compact home and live in this way on a more expanded and mobile scale

I think the building of a home is an important element of this piece. I feel a place to call home is important to human nature. However I feel its portability is equally important as it promotes that people should move to where resources are available, that one should constantly explore and make their home in many places and cultures.

Using two weeks at this residency as my base for a more expanded project. I plan to use the environment around me for survival while still interacting with my surrounding community. I plan to carefully document my entire process to later be shown to the public. I plan to use this experience to thoroughly educate myself, and educate the people around me to separate themselves from the systems of our society.

My Carbon Footprint

Bridget Breidenbach

I believe That Peter Leigh’s “The ecological crisis, the human condition, and community based restoration as an instrument for its cure” is very similar to Claudia Bernardi’s “Artist as Citizen of the World, Vision and Alternatives: The Act of Creativity.” as well as very different.

Most obviously one is a scientist, and the other, an artist. Peter Leigh is the scientist, and Claudia Bernardi is the artist. I would like to first analyze the definition of both of these professions. A scientist is understood as an expert in science, especial one of the physical or natural sciences.  An artist however, has many different definitions; A person whose trade or profession requires a knowledge of design, drawing, painting, or sculptor. Being aware of the differences can become difficult, and when examining Bernardi’s work and Leigh’s work the lines between science and art begin to blur.

In 1984, a forensic anthropology team was created in Argentina to provide evidence of disregard of human rights was carried out against civilian populations. Claudia Bernardi felt inclined to return home to Argentina to work with Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. Bernardi ascertained the scientific methods of handling human remains.

Claudia Bernardi then created archeological maps for this project. She also recorded the proof for families of the disappeared ones. She then decided to take all of her knowledge and created art that could be used to inform others of these tragedies. Bernardi is recognized as a human rights activist as well as a social justice activist. She has witnessed misfortune and many human tragedies. But instead of making work exclusively about these instances, she creates art based on the idea of integrity and hope for humanity.

Bernardi’s practice is much like Peter Leigh’s in the way that she utilized science to gain knowledge that she then made art about.

Peter Leigh comes from a far more scientific point of view. Although both Bernardi and Leigh both want to help and change the world, Leigh wishes to improve a different aspect of humanity. Leigh is creating a “community-bases restoration” which addresses environmental governance by infusing an eco-ethics into American culture.

Leigh recognizes the environmental and problems based off of scientific facts which are researched. Leigh wants to help the people, but giving them the knowledge they need to help the world. He wishes to “animate local communities to organize and task themselves with protecting and restoring their own jurisdictions without being forced to do so by central agencies.” So in other words, Leigh wants people to examine their own priorities, and recognize why taking care of the earth we live one should be one.

Most would look at Peter Leigh’s practice as purely scientific, but when examined hard enough you see he is (maybe be he isn’t even aware of it) a practicing artist. He wants to show people the information and the ways you can help preserve what we have left and restore what we had. He is attempting to create something beautiful in the world. Artists are problem solvers, and to recognize a social and ecological issue and then change something in a positive way is artistic.

Although their issues and methods are different, Peter Leigh and Claudia Bernardi are more alike then the first seem. Their goals to improve a horrific situation are the biggest uniting factor.

carbon foot print

so I couldn’t figure out how to get the picture with my info on the blog. so I am just going to type the information that I received about my carbon foot print.

Many activites impacnt our footprint. If everyone lived like you, we’d need 3.7 Planet Earths to provide enough resources.

here is how your ecological footprint breaks down: over 50% services, 20% food, 10% mobility, 15% goods, 5% shelter

To support your lifestyle, it takes 16.4 golbal acres of Earth’s productive area

I can reduce my ecological footprint by:

purchasing less products that used packaging or were made out of 100% post consumer recycled conent material

if all my appliances were energy efficient

if i used public trasportation one more day  each week instead of driving

if i took a local vacation to avoid flying