i n s p i r a t i o n

Slowly getting acquainted again.

When it is unknown, be still and alert.

From David Garrigues

"...Be on the scent of it. That's enough. Don't neglect it..."

Pratihara - to look inward. All senses focused inward. Mastery of the senses. I am using my senses to track what i am doing - senses, nervous system, brain... in real time... asana research and pranayama... 

nearly anything goes

be kind

If you aren't following David, his instagram posts are so cool and inspiring. 

https://www.instagram.com/davidgarriguesyoga/

 

From the Archive

 S p r i n g 

Meals: 

salads every day. Especially a simple arugula salad tossed with fresh lemon, olive oil and parmesan. 

Journal entry from 2016

Excerpts from A Bourdain's Book on Japan

"... In Japan you are confronted constantly, almost violently with how much you don't know. I liked that feeling, I liked that steep, virtually impossible learning curve. I liked, it turned out, that strange feeling of  being a stranger in a strange yet wonderful land, not understanding the language, lost, every little thing a discovery." p x

"...It was a glorious and lasting derangement of the senses that first trip, and I've never been the same since..." p xi

"...The plan is to stay here as long as it takes to find stories like these -- deep, experiential narratives that tell us something about this country that only the food and its creators can...

 "...micro disciplines with infinite room for improvement...The concept of 'Shokuin', an artisan deeply and singularly dedicated to his or her craft, is at the core of Japanese culture... 'The shokuin has a social obligation to work his or her best for the general welfare of the people.' says sculptor Taiso Odate, The obligation is both spiritual and material in that no matter what it is, it is the shokiun's obligation to fulfill that requirement.'"

The Record

Happy 2021 and best wishes for a slow, thoughtful year ahead. I am traveling home to New Mexico after 10 days in Pennsylvania. 

Because my birthday is on New Year's Day there is some added pressure around resolutions and intentions for the year. Here are a few benchmarks that I would like to do this year. Some fun, some exploratory, and some just dogged work. January is going to be good. 

Art

• Quarterly studio visits (schedule TPS and Suzanne for March)
• Make my studio a residency with monthly and weekly goals
• Make 1 pen and ink drawings a month 40x40 or 30x30 or 20x20 
• Explore Flashe paints and start a new body of work on paper - with standard sheet size
• Daily morning pages 
• Get a maker's mark
• Meet with carver
• Make a birthday quilt +++++

Health + Wellbeing

• Cleanse on the seasonal changes
• Daily 20 minute walk with blue
• Daily yoga
• Daily meditation with Calm app
• Sunday hikes
• full moon camping quarterly
• acupuncture + facials or massage quarterly
• Cook 1 new vegetarian recipe a month

Business

• Make 8k a month
• Set up 1% to the planet
• Set up quarterly and monthly taxes
• Present and Propose
• Set up a shop page on Light | Space and list jewelry for sale quarterly
• Follow the principles of Profit First - set up P|l sheet
• Keep quickbooks up to date or hire a book keeper
• Investigate pitchbox or hire a drafter per project
• Stick to instagram goals 

Financial

• Eliminate debt 
• Have a 6 month emergency account
• Max IRA
• Don't spend
• Keep the car clean and maintained
• 6 month emergency account
• conference and festival fund
• Streamline all extraneous bank accounts 

Home life and habits

• Re arrange studio
• Build a wooden table
• Get a vacuum cleaner
• buy new coffee and water travel containers
• De-clutter 
• Make pots for all succulents
• make juice on Saturdays and freeze
• Weekly cleaning on Friday and Tuesday

Inspiration - Graphic tees

I love a good graphic tee, it can elevate a simple outfit. I live in black, so most of the designs that I am drawn to are strong simple graphic or typography. They are a great way to remember a trip, a designer or a favorite destination. Here are a few favorites, and one that got away. 

Maude Andrade cloud tee

the mañana tee

marfa book co tee

Opuntia Cafe Tee

The one that got a way is a die wilder limited edition by artist Tasya Van Ree. She came onto my radar through the socials, or an interview about fashion and art. interview-coveteur  The lesson is to get on those limited runs if they strike your fancy. I am thinking about getting the intergalactic girl's club hoodie for the winter ahead....

tasya tee

inspiration

I use tool boxes, trays and baskets to keep things organized, they are visually pleasing and remind me of all of the studios that I've had over time. I usually buy used ones - I have one that a previous owner taped the handle to make it really comfortable. I keep my grinder and glass cutting tools in it. My favorite in this list is the spare parts trays. The first basket is from La Boheme | Santa Fe one of my favorite places to browse in Santa Fe and where I discovered the Oaxacan baskets. 

My favorite in this list is the spare parts trays I would use them for papers and jewelry supplies. I prefer to have lids, but the orange color would be great in my minimal space. And incredibly helpful for coralling all the little things.

Take a look



the spare parts tray

nesting cases

 

the silver Japanese box

the Oaxacan basket

another Oaxacan basket

the record 9/29-10/6

ink on paper 2013

September 29-October 6th
Hello, how was your week? This is a way for me to capture some of the things that I've done and thought about, read and listened to each week. Things to look forward to and back at.

• I worked with Michael to get elevations and surveying on my clients property in the East Mountains. I will work with the client on minimal aesthetic choices that create focal points in a 10 acre property. These include groves of trees, stone boulder groupings and Japanese inspired pathways.

• I am starting to expand on my design philosophy as a way to hone the way that I discuss and approach talking to clients, reading a site and discerning the spatial and planting potential of each site and client. The intent is to listen- to the spoken and unspoken desires of the project owner, expanding the possibilities of what would work, and what they don't know they want. By looking at the whole project or site, style of architecture, lifestyle, present and future goals we can create a design that is timeless, grows well, settles in and fits well.

• I finished a 40x40 inch drawing, it's up on the wall. Its a big looming form. It catches me by surprise. I'm excited to have some work under my hand. So lovely.

• I need to find a photographer for the library project.
• I'm so excited to think about writing and publishing as a way of research that is separate from academia. That I drive, that I decide on. 
• We started a mastermind group to keep each other accountable and motivated, as well as working towards collaborative projects and competitions, we can each start working on articles, books and side hustles to support the cause. The cause is to have a profitable business. 
• I made my first turquoise square ring last week. It's not perfect, but i like it. I want to make about 20, and then post them on instagram for sale.
• I am writing morning pages, and I can feel a shift, a deepening, a commitment to my work and my life. Things are coming forth to meet me. What you sing to, comes.

Listening:

I listen to a ton of podcasts each week, when I'm driving, walking, working on production and filling time. I'd like to be more intentional and at least recap what I am learning and hearing, rather than just consume information because it is interesting and keeps me company. I listen to 2 ultra endurance based podcasts, as well as poetry, process, business and personal interviews. I would say that most of what I like to listen to is personally challenging. To be more consistent at working out, eating whole food and plant based, consistent in my drawing and yoga practice, and consistent in my business. I'm in my first year, and it is very easy to get discouraged. The learning curve is steep, it requires a lot of humility and patience. I am learning to ask for help. But listening to other folks in the trenches is really helpful too. As Chris Hauth says " You've got to do the work."

• The Moment, Bryan Koppelman | Steve Gorman | Black Keys drummer who just published a memoir
• Rich Roll Podcast | Ryan Holliday new book Stillness is the Key, I had never heard him describe his writing method before- he uses boxes and index cards that have a keyword at the top, I want to use that system for studying and for writing my first article on the library. There is something about the physical accumulation of cards and facts that appeals to me. I can shuffle them around in real space. I can see the gaps and themes, It will get me out of my head, and onto graspable notes. I can make boxes for each article and book that I write.
• Finding Mastery | Apollo Ohno- On competition and life, very interesting conversation, I remember watching him dominate in the winter olympics. Strong visualization techniques, In addition to being dedicated at practice he focused on mental toughness.
• Tim Ferris | David Allen | 384- The art of getting things done. He promotes getting things out of your head. 

 "That process takes, usually, in my experience over all these years, for the mid- to senior level professional that we actually coach with this process, it takes one to six hours, just to capture what has their attention. Not to organize it. Not to prioritize it. Not to make decisions about it. Just to identify it."

• Tim Ferris | Safi Bahcall | 382 - Hypnosis and incentives. Really fascinating insights through hypnosis, on focus and conquering insomnia. I want to try it with someone in ABQ.
• Metta Hour with Sharon Salzburg - Marc Lesser the seven principles. This really hit me. I loved the principles, and have them on my desk.

1. Love the work
2. Do the work
3. Don't be an expert
4. Connect to your pain
5. Connect to the pain of others
6. Depend on others 
7. Keep making it simpler

Reading: (in progress)

• Old Buildings, New Designs- Architectural Transformations | Charles Bloszies
• From Concept to Form in Landscape Design | Grant Reid
• Site Engineering for Landscape Architecture | Steven Strom
• The Professional Practice of Landscape Architecture | Walter Rogers

Numbers: 

Yoga  x 20 2

Walking x 30 4

Drawing 

Finished one

40 x 40 started

30 x 30 started

Morning pages x 45

3

Instagram daily average 104 minutes

the record
July 1-7

• Dogs make a road trip better. I drove from PA to NM, and it was slower than I wanted it to be, but better because I had to stop every couple of hours and take a little break.

• Things take as long as they take. I worked with my dad and Jay to install hardwood flooring into Frank's place. I love working on projects like this, because they force precision in an early 19th c brick row home that has quirky walls and floors. We worked with 4" wide oak, each piece was so beautiful and had some knots. I tried to take it as it came off of the pile, not placing too many. It will outlast all of us- it demands attention, slowness and steadiness. 

• So much to read - Looking forward to diving into some reading and writing this summer.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/26/books/best-memoirs.

have faith

have faith in what you immediately recognize,
in the particular longings that you feel.

facing a sheer sky. slow things down. be really clear, failure is okay.

you are my still lake

our bodies are permeable. so being in that quality of light is such an experience. the light penetrates -we are made of water and light particles
always feel it and respond to it.
white on vellum
translucent opacities
wall painting
white on white

how much space can a line hold before it disintegrates?  good at getting in the body. transfer of energy. space. breath. thinking about marfa and frozen cornstalks, colors of AW and the desert, tea gesso charcoal.

what is the attentive presence?
do I get there at my house? Drawing is such a relief, It can be mine for a long time. I can sit with this for a while. I want this work to record and trigger a body response, a memory, an emotion.

Something about the looking can be as deep as the love. that it can carry you. It's so amazing to be here, in a relationship with so much space. Back in yoga-- 6 weeks or 7. Drawing. In meetings with the city about art and water. I love these days in the studio where we get to think about and ask central questions. (clear mind, wild heart)

I love the scratchy, searching, nervy line- love being this quiet and watchful. What is it? I hope I provide that space for my friends and my students. Tomorrow, back to smaller scale-- how much space? What is the ephemeral? How much is enough? Seams of bones knitting together, an abutment, fraying, disintegrating.

Skies, lying down, looking at birds in flight
fluid city, art practice.

with nothing to opose we have nothing to grab hold of.

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weekly recap

I flew in from France on Tuesday, I went there for 3 weeks to fulfill my last three credits for it was a Master in landscape architecture degree. Paris was magic, but it was also one of the rainiest springs on the record.

currently reading

When I need a break from writing and learning new programs and screen time, I dip into Oudolf Hummelo and remember why I'm taking all this work on. I love looking at plants outside, huge grasses, huge agaves, black striped mesquite trees and creosote bushes. 

I just discovered one of Oudolf's inspirations. Mien Ruys (1904- 1999). Her garden is still open to the public in Dedemsvaart- the Mien Ruys Tuin. I've just added it to the long list of places to visit. 

I have been doing some free writing sessions for my thesis topic. Trying to wrangle it in to something manageable and absorbing. The focus will be on urban design- walking and idiosyncratic space. I realized I've been designing shade structures since I arrived in this program. I live in Albuquerque, the sun is so intense out here. There is so much opportunity to play with light and shadow here.

It's been a lonely time this fall, so interesting to be in my third year of the program. Three years of intense, absorbing work, both within Landscape Architecture, and my own art, life and yoga. I don't really have a social life- (not that I ever did, except for maybe the Philly years) but here, it has been interesting to spend so much time alone again. A huge relief in a way, and waiting it out in others. I talk to the J's at least weekly it seems, so that helps too. I feel sorry for them, a little, because they have to survive my torrent of ideas, observations and state of being... There's a Rumi line that keeps circling about loneliness. It keeps me in my studio, or in my writing.

Don't surrender your loneliness 
So quickly 
Let it cut more deep. Let it ferment and season you 
As few human 
Or even divine ingredients can 
Something missing in my heart tonight 
Has made my eyes so soft, 
My voice 
So tender, 
My need of God 
Absolutely 
Clear. 

"The trouble with you is you think you have time." Jack Kornfield. the trick is to keep everything in check, to let the stress roll off of me, not to hold it, not to let things affect my work/ vision and attitude. To take the long view, to be resiliant, deep like a well, so that if a pebble was dropped into it, it would fall silently with barely a ripple. (another zen poet, maybe suzuki roshi?)
Have a good day, poets lovers, Generals.

claim your ground

ink on paper part 1

2013

untitled (reverb)

The studio is sacred space

claim your stance- claim your ground. Some things should be off limits until you are ready for feed back or scrutiny. 

watch the timing

be careful what you ask for. (and when) 

If a careless person comes into your space, you have a couple of options.

...you can make them tea

...you can ask them to leave

...you can leave

the most important thing to remember is that it is your work, your process, your space, you. This process requires vulnerability, not everyone can be that generous at any given moment, and might say something that shifts the mood-- that beautiful and precarious tight rope that art making requires. Sometimes people forget how demanding that psychic space is, so part of the learning is to protect yourself. To demand respect. To surround yourself with allies, like Guston, like Brady, like Twombly and Deibenkorn. Like your own amazing work. Your drawings, your sculptures, the things that you love, that are home for you. That send you out. Get gone on the investigation. 

seduce 

cajole

praise

be generous

make tea

but by any means necessary, get yourself some solitary space. It took me a long time to understand that, to understand that it was a necessity for me. That the protective energy required in a shared space was never worth it. We are distracted /distracting enough on our own.  We should not have to fight for it with anyone else.

And one thing for the weekend:
aha moment

this is the life

"this is the life" my best friend said, as we sweated and cut and hacked away a bank full of brambles and vines. To be able to have time to work together, to make ceramics and drawings and bracelets is an amazing gift.
I am back in Pennsylvania for the summer, adjusting to the intense humidity after living in Albuquerque for 9 months. I had heat exhaution twice since coming back. But I think I am figuring it out now.

from the archives

..." what i really wanted was every kind of life. It's so effortless to let my lonliness defeat me, make me mold myself to whatever would (in some way- but not wholly) relieve it. I must never forget it... I want sensuality and sensitivity both... let me never deny that... I want to err on the side of violence and excess, rather than underfill my moments." Susan Sontag

Finalist for Marfa Housing Competition

I just got the news that Jackie and I were finalists in the Design Marfa housing competition. I posted the boards on my webpage- here. 

I have been going to or through Marfa since 2008. I was on a road trip to Colorado when I first passed through. I fell in love with the silence and light of that landscape. Now that I live in Albuquerque, I go down there every once in a while. (it's a seven hour drive.) But it's different than up here. There is something to the remoteness, you don't just show up there- you have to decide you're going there. I love the desert, I love the combination of art and space, and the people that go through there too. I feel so honored to have had my work in front of the jurors.
Good news is so motivating. Here is the first board

reading::drawing

The color studies that I started this Spring will continue  each season that I am here in abq.

the bosque

4th street landscape

el malpais
white sands

I am interested in space design, urban and natural landscapes and technology. This constitutes a research project, and investigation into the same concerns that pervades my drawings. Light, shadow, lines, arcs, ovals, triangles and the poetics of space in both mediums. The question remains, how to reduce structure to pattern-- what are dots and points --the point of departure from form to shadow

what does it mean to describe a somehow sublime but imprecise realm on the margins of iconic representation?

inspiration and year in review

I wanted to share some of my inspiration looking back... and next post will lay out the work for the year ahead.
It's a double whammy for me because I'm a New Years baby. I love resolutions and the feeling of a fresh start-- a clean slate. I just got back to abq after 3 weeks in the East with my family and friends. I've been slowly making my lists, and thinking about the year to come. I have decided to work on monthly and quarterly goals this year. It feels more doable, easier to recalibrate. This article is so inspiring. I hope you enjoy it too. And remember, it can be really simple.

http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/01/05/resolutions/

I took some much needed time off from the intensity of the Fall. The semester was challenging on many levels. It has led to some new research topics though, so I'm excited to head back into school, setting up reading lists...  Here's a little break down of my year--because I rarely look at my accomplishments. But this year was pretty epic now that I think about it.

Spring Semester- I started my second semester in Landscape Architecture and one of the highlights was an independent study with Bill Gilbert, he started Land Arts of the American West with Chris Taylor, and the Art and Ecology program at UNM. Every week or so we met at my studio to look at drawings and talk about work and research. This program was a huge part of why I chose UNM to study. The main question that emerged is how or if I integrate my art practice with Landscape Architecture. I can't imagine that I will ever give up a studio practice. I'm okay with a parallel practice, I'm okay with a non- traditional landscape practice. There is time to sort it out.

My research assistantship was with Story of Place Institute in support of a plaza design for the International District in Albuquerque. Every week I would meet Christy Snyder, a cultural Anthropologist, and we would walk the district, meeting people and getting to know the neighborhood.

In March a great friend came out to New Mexico to show art work in Albuquerque and go skiing in Taos. Willi Singleton is an amazing potter.  He has work at the Weyrich Gallery and an annual show there. His friends in Taos are tea Masters. (Urasenke trained) We went up to Taos together and I hung out at the house with Cathy, and watched a tea lesson, and shared the matcha from one of Willi's bowls.

My drawings were selected for an emerging artist exhibition in Albuquerque. Surface at the Harwood Art Center. This included a workshop that ran on Saturday after the opening. We got to meet writers, curators and gallery owners from Albuquerque. It was an excellent introduction into the art scene here. There are young artists and curators that are choosing to live and work here. There is great energy. Central Features and West Bund West are two of my favorites.



Summer Session: I stayed to participate in a class that focused on a design charrette for a festival in the International District. Buster Simpson came in for a week to work with us. It was a great opportunity to work with Alf Simon, Katya Crawford and Michaele Pride, as well as my peers from architecture and L.A.

July and August: I went home to Lancaster County and started clearing out a ceramics studio that I had at my parents place. It was the first medium for me. So many hours of practice and learning were spent there. It was amazing to be back there, taking it down. I was able to give 2 of my students a kiln and about a ton of clay to take to their new studio in Philadelphia. I have been incredibly fortunate in my life as an artist, this field is so generous. It felt significant to pass it on.

I have not stopped working with clay, but it is no longer my central practice. I do have an iron clay body that I love, a Rob Barnard recipe. It is finicky and fine grained-- you cannot get away with anything, I mean, if you just look away for a second it cracks. But it does amazing things in a long wood firing. I got to make some cups out of it this summer that rival the best that I have ever pulled out of a kiln. The balance in the cups and the color in the clay was incredible. Every summer for the past 10 years I have spent at least 2 weeks in August firing with Joy Brown up at Still Mountain Center. This firing was shoehorned in. I also got to spend a day with Christine Owen in New Haven, looking at artwork, visiting Yale's campus. The Maya Linn sculpture was a highlight. As was the day with Chris, talking about our own work, and struggle for balance with teaching and making good work. Christine is part of a fabulous performance team called the Bridge Club. She also makes ceramic sculpture and pottery. Like me, she has many things in play. It's rare and not rare, but so great to talk to a fellow practitioner.

Fall Semester: This semester focuses on systems and a more regional look at design. Because we worked on two Urban projects simultaneously, I'm not sure that I got to pull out as far as I had hoped. Construction drawings studio was great, we did detail drawings for documents. I have a lot of ideas about how I would like to use them in the future. CAD was interesting and challenging-- barely scratching the surface of this program.

My drawings were selected for a solo exhibition at the Bechechi Open Space, Bernallilo County. It is a beautiful building designed by a local architect.  The exhibition opened in October.

Design Marfa  held a competition that I entered with Jackie Bryan, a duel architect/la masters candidate at UNM. We will find out the results in February. It was my first LA competition. It was great to collaborate on this design. Our faculty were so supportive with feed back. I'm so curious to see how we did.


Finally, I revamped my website, and have my drawings and current studio work up. I will be posting my public work from Philadelphia as well as the L A studio work semester by semester.  I had considered archiving this page and using the blog on square space, but I like this space. Here's to another great year.

parking day with unm

UNM Landscape architecture students made a park outside of CityLab along. It was a beautiful day, plenty of sun, flower seeds and seed bombs making there way into the city.

See more about parking day here.

http://parkingday.org/

desert bound

I'm sitting in the emptiness of my studio apartment, packing up some drawings for an exhibition in September. It was such an amazing space to live in for almost 3 years. Drafting table as the central axis. So many thought streams of work came together in this space.

I'll be living in Albuquerque for a couple of years because I am starting a masters of landscape architecture. I don't know what to expect, but I do know that I am looking forward to a ton of drawing, research and time in the desert. I hope to post some thoughts and drawings from my sketchbooks and personal studio work.

Summer project thing two: Murals

Theme: Botanical: We will be using tree shadows and plants that grow on the site as a starting point in this multi faceted project. I prefer to make murals that are abstract in nature, less directly representational.  We will look at and discuss interpretive and scientific ways of drawing plants. If you have any suggestions or links, I'd love to hear about them in the comment section.

I am looking at fibinacci sequence as a way to spiral students and neighbors through the passages. That led to a ton of other mathematical research such as fractels and Mandelbrot sets. Not sure if I can or should insert that imagery, but it is stunning.

I'm also looking at the cellular structure of plants, I remember being blown away in a Botany class by the beauty and abstract qualities of the cross sectional slides. I'm going to try to gather some commonly known plants, like sunflowers, mint, corn and maple trees to use as layers or components of the spiral.

I also just went to an amazing exhibit at the American Philisophical Society, "Through the Looking Lens" on Cornelius Varley, he was an artist who made drawings and water colors of cross sections of plants. His color palate is definitely going to inform the choices that I make on site. I've always loved old hand drawn maps and botanical studies are becoming a close second. The second botanist that I am researching  is William Bartram,  we will go to the gardens at least once as a group. Here is some of the source imagery that I am looking at so far. Links will follow at the end.

Cornelius Varley

Mandelbrot Set

fibonacci Sequence

Bass wood Rings

Zea Maize (corn) root cross section

Architectural rendering by Henaghen Peng for the VA Museum

My chief collaborator is Kaitlin Pomerantz, who has been doing some great projects with "weed"/wild plant identification in Philadelphia.

through the looking lens

we the weeds

Bartrams Gardens

I start in one week, I know that I have 2 walls, (actually one building, a childcare center) and one smallish wall 9'high by 16' long. I will be working with a highschool team to create some of the imagery and to execute the murals. 

It's always a wild ride, stay tuned...

Summer Project: Thing One

There is a new Restored Spaces project starting at Shoemaker Mastery Charter School in West Philadelphia. I will act as the consultant on the art making concept, and do a quick summer project from July 1- July 19th.

You can learn more about the Restored Spaces initiative by following the link below. Many of my previous projects are documented there.

 Restored Spaces at Mural Arts

We partner with various city and national entities to promote environmental awareness and promote the interface of visual art with natural systems. In this case the plant life that is embedded into the streets and marginal places, and a new planting that will be bases on stories that we hope to collect from the elders in this community. Every culture has folkloric and medicinal uses for wild plants and herbs. We hope to add them into a mixed perreniel bed.

The other plants that we are researching are for pollinators, such as butterflies and bees, so we expect to use butterfly bushes, grasses, yarrow, mint, lavender, milkweed etc.

My hope for the garden is that it softens a 4 foot high berm around the school entrance, and becomes the seismic record of breezes, sunlight and shadow and seasonal changes.

View of School with mature trees and berm

The stone wall is about four feet high- imagine nasturtiums and grasses spilling over the edge.

Here are some source images:

Designing With Grasses: Neil Lucas

miscanthus in winter

Piet Oudolf

We have plans for 3 12 foot long x 2 foot deep beds. 

Here are some of the places that I have been for inspiration:

piet oudolf

butterfly gardens

the highline nyc