Ariel Elizabeth Churnin: January 2010

Monday, January 25, 2010

November River Sticks

Mid-October to mid-November, I worked mostly outside using found objects, inspired by Andy Goldsworthy and October visiting artist Nina Katchadourian (for a list of visiting artists at VSC click here). The river is the mighty Gihon, which runs through Johnson. All of the stick pieces, except for the Red One, were assembled naturally, using only materials found in the area.

The river pieces all fell naturally into the Gihon with the heavy rainfall of mid-November.

The wall of sticks was assembled with Nathan Kurzmann, from Alaska (visit his website here). He said that native tribes in Alaska build walls out of sticks and cover them with moss. They are called spirit walls and keep evil spirits away. We decorated the spirit wall with pieces of ice formed in depressions of river rocks.

The star painting which made its rounds amongst the sticks now belongs to the lovely Shawn Gardner & her wonderful husband. The final piece was created by weaving thin sticks together and winding them in a tree.

Enjoy!

Escape from NY Sep-Oct 2009

In September I began work at the Vermont Studio Center, a sweet deal which includes a studio space, food to eat and a place to sleep. The first pieces I made as a Vermont resident were very much a reaction to my time in New York and the experience of being in an MFA program.

The Great Escapes:
Escape from New York & Escape from San Francisco
oil pastel & acrylic on paper 37" x 44"
September 2009, Vermont

Leaf-Painting October 2009

Visiting artist Chris Martin was the inspiration behind this piece. During a studio visit, he exclaimed that my patch-work paintings from the MFA show needed to be outside!! I agreed completely. Together we placed it outside in the grass outside the Church studio building. Chris then picked up some leaves from a nearby bush and arranged them on the painting, letting them fall naturally into the creases.

For the next few days I revisited the piece, rearranging leaves and lighting it at night. It was liberating to work outdoors again.

October 8 - October 12, 2009
80" x 58" oil on sewn canvas, leaves, grass, floodlights, small insects

October Leaves, Vermont

Intrigued by the Vermont foliage, I made a series of impermanent pieces in the landscape and in my studio. It was fun introducing my pieces from the New York Studio School to the October leaves, burying them and bringing them back to life again. I even experimented with coloring and preserving the leaves, and in doing such inadvertently poisoned some of my studio-mates. Sorry! The final photos of this series depict a friend, Andrew Morris, interacting with the angel wings in my studio.

VSC Residency II August 2009

More watercolors from my August residency at the Vermont Studio Center. After the little book, I expanded to larger formats, still listening to Derek O'Neill's Baghavad Gita tapes and some other things mixed in. Please contact me with any questions or comments.

The following works are all watercolor on paper, sizes ranging from 5" x 10" to 10" x 18".

The Beginning and The End
each approximately 5" x 10"
watercolor on paper August 2009

The following are from a book of watercolors I made while listening to Derek O'Neill's Baghavad Gita tapes. Visiting artist Allison Smith suggested that I make as many watercolors as I could in a day to let the ideas truly flow. There are several hundred. At the end of the month, everyone received a watercolor or two from the little book.