things happening...

The past few months have gone by in a blink. I am one week away from finishing my first semester at George Mason University in the Arts Management graduate program. The classes were really great - especially the Finance class which taught me many things that a CFO does and just generally increased my confidence in running the financial aspect of an organization. Next semester is Finance 2 and I think that gets more into budgeting an organization. I'll be curious how that one goes. I'm also currently in the Alchemical Vessel show again at the Joan Hisoaka Healing Arts Gallery. This year we were given a cigar box to use. Mine was created at the time of David Bowie's death and is influenced creatively by his message. The show is up through May 6 at least. That is the night of the artist closing reception. It's also my birthday and John is doing a reading at the Epicure Cafe in Fairfax, which we are of course attending. Then we will rush to DC for a concert.

I'll also be in a show carated by Superwaxx, which will take place at the Fridge Gallery in June. (more info to come) I'll be doing some other shows/curating in August, and then spend half of the month in Vermont at the Vermont Studio Center on residency. For these two weeks, i'll be finishing work on my show which will open at the beginning of September at Jordan Faye Contemporary.

collaborating with other artists - an update.

I've had a little bit of downtime since my show ended back in November. I still have work other places and will have a post about the amazing Snap!Space gallery in Orlando. I've been in the early stages of a commission which will include a very cool installation working with a designer in Winter Park, Florida. There's also Lost River Trading Post - Grasshopper Gallery, in West Virginia, and Crossroads Art Center in Richmond, Virginia.

I also had a really fun photoshoot with E Brady Robinson (visit her site: http://www.ebradyrobinson.com/) she'll be in Miami at the Sagamore Hotel on February 15, 2015 signing her fantastic book Art Desks. (buy it here: http://www.art-desks.com/) The shoot in my studio was for a calendar supporting my new studio Red Dirt - another post on that!

It was a great day to have my portrait taken - if you need a great shot contact her via the links above.

I'm also excited about my next solo show which will be at the Fridge Gallery in Barracks Row/Easter Market opening on September 12, 2015! More on that coming. (I'm trying to work out an email communication calendar)

I sincerely will make an effort to keep my blog updated at least weekly with this new show. And also I have a residency in Puebla Mexico starting on May 25, 2015 for six weeks! (LOTS of posts on that.)

More soon.  As in probably this weekend!  You can also follow me on Instagram: @jherrity

old work, new forms.

Looking forward to a show coming up in November in North Carolina with my studio-mates from Flux Studios. Before I left for Naples, Florida, I had a great talk with Novie about my work, and the work for this show. It was a really great conversation for me, one of the first one-on-one type critiques that I had after finishing at the Corcoran. It was nice getting such direct and caring feedback. It made me think about my ceramics practice and that I really need to focus on that a bit more since I sort of abandoned it at the Corcoran in my last year of study. I'm glad I made a couple hundred pounds of porcelain slip, and started playing with molds again. 

Like any artist, I have about 100 projects currently in the works. Ok, probably only about 10, but it might as well be 100. My timing leaving for Florida came right about when I was getting some good studio-practice practice. Luckily for me, I am working on a piece for a friend (i'll do another post about that later) that has me very excited and it has a deadline which is great because it forces me to get through any creative blocks I CLEARLY have as a result of this new found artistic freedom.

So, for this show - which I'll post details about as soon as I get them - needs to be ceramics. Ok...I can do that. In my conversation with Novie, she mentioned a piece I have been manipulating so many times - each result better than the last - and so we started playing with the pieces. We talked about different approaches that I could take, and as I've been thinking about it over the past few weeks away from the studio, not yet committed to sketchbook stage yet, I think I know what I'm doing.

Ok, there are two ideas.

The first is a large wall piece, much like this configuration here when I was trying to make it into a piece at school (and there are probably photos of it on this blog from a while ago) for my first project in my CORE studio class nearly a YEAR ago. (I abandoned it at the 11th hour and did something completely different)

My new idea will require about four times as many of the pieces arranged something like this, but much much bigger.

Of course, this probably won't even been the end result because there was something else that Novie and I discussed that i'm eager to get working on as a further exploration of the piece. More on that as I work it out.

But, the whole point of this post is really that I'm excited to work on this new piece and not really know the outcome. I see the finish line, but I'm not sure the path I'll take to get to it.

who says you can't teach an old piece new tricks?

could it be? new work?

So NEXT closed, but not before we as a class did another project for another show in Baltimore at AREA 405. I've returned to the world of clay, porcelain slipcasting really, and some photography. I really just stumbled upon this work, but realize that I how some is born - in a mixture of fun/play, creativity, and panic. I had been working on a painting, and wasn't really happy with it, so I created these pieces.

I have been using kitschy 70's ceramic molds for a while now, but realize that the piece that comes from each isn't necessarily the work I am looking for. I thought...'I need to look a bit closer. closer. closer. and then even closer'  I took a photo of my Mary bust and the result screamed "THIS IS IT" at me. I like the reflections and everything about the image. Reflected in it is another piece I did (an owl - which I have a connection with because my oldest sister Debbi had this trippy owl mobile in the 70's that I always secretly LOVED - it changed colors as it moved and I thought it was magical)  I then figured that I need the owl in the work as well. And then another.

The result?

Interesting.

what's NEXT?

Sorry for being so quiet the past couple weeks. It's been intense and i'm just now getting my head above water with anything non-thesis oriented. Oh, yeah, that. Thesis. Dropped off on March 19th and have been working to get it fully installed for the opening on April 14, from 8-10pm.

What a strange place my worked ended up in. I don't think I saw the work happen until it was in front of me like an army staring me down before battle. I did it. My spring break was spent in the studio making the pieces that only arrived in my head a few days before. Jim and Janis were talking to me about my pieces and really encouraged me, and they punched me in the gut too. With their help and guidance, my hands were ready to make things.

I had to think really hard about what I was trying to accomplish with this piece and how trying to get to my original idea caused this new approach. I created an 'army' of data. One thing that I think was in the back of my head was that these tall devices that I wanted to make were actually figural. Once I knew that, they started to create themselves in my head and THEN I knew what I needed them to be.

I had many sketches in my journal, all with various approaches to expressing the form. During the critique for the work (in Gallery 31) -  the maquettes - a 4x4 secured to a 17 x 17 inch board on casters. I didn't realize how figural they were until they were out of my studio and in a space, and then with my artist statement, it was only obvious. Then, Ivan pointed out the same fact and I knew it was was the piece was supposed to be. NOT some strange video carts with monitors on them.

I spent many hours at Home Depot trying to figure out the best way to produce these forms without revealing hardward or their structure. But that was the easy part. I KNEW what they needed to look like, and then after some trial and error, I knew how they would be created. Then, the whole 'paint or don't paint' dilemma that the Jim and Janis critique made me think about.

One day down in the sculpture studio talking to Dan or Elliot (both probably) I realized that they were to be painted black. for some reason, in my head they were always black. After painting the first one, and then looking at the base, I realized the base needed to be the white part. But then, how did I connect these pieces to all my other work this semester and create a cohesive - or close to cohesive - body of work. Flame orange. Yep. The flame orange - SAFETY - orange duct tape around the first painting of the QR code, was to be what the sides of the bases would be.

It's like the data from the QR Code painting arose from the canvas into these structural formal figural forms.  Odd how that works. NEVER was this my original idea, but I'm so glad that I allowed flexibility in my process to guide me. (so very NOT the way I used to work)

The final pieces, 10 total figures, will now be gathered on the second floor of the Museum and visitors will be encouraged to move them around. The cameras have been their own adventure and the Dropcam staff have been incredible. The cameras will be battery operated and I'm currently trying to resolve how to keep a constant feed going. Right now the cameras are plugged in, and you know the drill - you can watch on your comptuter: jeffherrity.net/focusgroup

will work for art

Well, I began my final semester of my fourth year in my BFA/MAT program here at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. I also have begun the first of my two consecutive years of thesis work. First up, fine art thesis. My thesis preview work has been well received and I think a great chance for me to begin to think about how I take a 4x4 foot tile piece with an embedded camera to the 'next level.' When I created that piece, I had some pretty clear thoughts about what the work was accomplishing, and what I was trying to communicate. It wasn't until my critique for that work that new ideas came to the surface and I realize that the work is about some other things that also fascinate me.

Surveillance. Watching. (not in the creepy way) What does it mean that we live in a post-9/11 world where we are constantly living our lives on cameras?  Is this for our safety and protection, or an invasion of our privacy? Are we different people when we know we are on camera? How does marketing influence the art world? How does technology influence our connectivity and communications with each other?

This is the direction my thesis work will be taking and I'm still in heavy research mode trying to understand my work. I know - at this point - how the 'piece' will be in the museum and the cameras have all been ordered and sketches sketched.

Because the nature of my work is marketing and communications it only made sense to me that I needed to involve sponsors to help me finance the work. I've been talking to friends that have small businesses and have had a great response towards my sponsorship goals.

I've created different levels of sponsorship, and there are many great benefits to them all. First and foremost, they get their company logo and name included in my artist statement, and incorporated into the piece in some way. BUT, the hidden benefit is that each level of support includes several hours of my marketing consultation time. Considering I spent over 15 years as a consultant, it only makes sense that support of me and my work translates back to MY support of my sponsors work. Perhaps this is the nature of the piece, this technology driven communication and connection between two individuals is really structured on a barter system.

please contact me if you want more information on sponsorships. And, watch this blog over the next few months for regular updates on my thesis project, and information specific to my sponsors. It goes without saying that I would like you to support them as well.

brrrrr...it's HOT at The Fridge

Seven of us BFA seniors are currently showing our work at The Fridge gallery in Washington, DC. Our work was first on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art + Design in the side gallery 31 - but unfortunately due to bad timing and events, our show was missed by many. (Thanksgiving holiday break, Obama tree lighting ceremony, and portfolio review day)

In a fit of frustration that my partner John couldn't see the show or attend the opening, I called Alex Goldstein the founder and director of The Fridge gallery. I'd been to several shows in his incredible space on Barracks Row near Eastern Market, including the Corcoran's own BORF - aka John Tsombikos - and knew at that time, I wanted to show my work there. Alex was instantly welcoming to our group, and lucky for us, his month-long downtime was immediately filled making sure that we would have the best show.

And we did.

As Alex stated in the announcement of the show on The Fridge website, this show is a great opportunity for us to get feedback from people outside of our normal creative environment - the critique space. Having our work in a gallery setting gives us the chance to tweak the work some, and most importantly to TALK about our work when a grade isn't hanging over our heads.

The other great aspect of this show is that we were able to 'set' the show ourselves in a more intimate space that complimented our work amazingly. My piece required a sturdy wall to support it's weight, and so we were able to then build the show around it, and each piece seems to seamlessly blend to the next and really play off each other.

I think we went from loading the work to fully installed in just a few hours, also with the help of Edwin the gallery technician at The Fridge.

Our opening was a huge success. So many people, some we knew, and some we know now, showed up and talked to us about the work, and really spent time with each piece. I had a great conversation with Amanda Wilson, and she wrote some great reviews of our work.

thanks a million times to Alex.

AND, look for our first post-graduation show at The Fridge sometime in May or June....

yes, it scans.

So, last week I installed my Senior Thesis Preview Show in Gallery 31 along with several other classmates. All the stress leading up to this show instantly melted away once my piece was successfully hung on the wall. I was a bit worried that the weight of it would send the whole piece crashing to the floor and I would have to quickly re-write my artist statement to include how this was planned. Ok, not really, I wouldn't be able to bullshit my way through a catastrophe such as that. I think in total, the piece weighs in at a little over 100 pounds.

One thing DID change once the piece was hung, my beloved Dropcam got fuzzy. This isn't because the quality of the camera isn't good - it is fantastic - but many things started to work against me as I got closer to finishing. I had to embed the camera into the middle of the structure behind one of the black tiles which caused the signal strength to drop significantly. This isn't a flaw in the camera. The Corcoran is also notorious for bad internet signals, and so the wi-fi up in the senior studios is also working extra hard. Never once have I had the signal drop.

Once the piece was hung on the walls, the camera is really sandwiched between tiles, plywood, 2x4s, drywall and more plywood. Across the gallery, directly in front of the QR code is the monitor that displays the live internet feed. One feature of the Dropcam(have I mentioned how great this device is??) is that I get a notification on my iPhone and email any time there is movement around the piece. I wasn't sure how I would use this when I was planning the work, but then found that I like a record of the people interacting with my work. There have even been a couple times when friends have been looking at the camera and playing around and I take a screenshot of them and text message it to them. It goes from fun to creepy in about a millisecond. BUT, that is what the piece is all about, interacting with me and interacting with the work.

My critique for the piece went well and there were many questions raised that I had also been considering. In my head and my plans everything went perfectly, but it wasn't until the piece was hung in the configuration that I wanted that some new ideas arose. This piece has become more about how we live today under constant surveillance. Sure, my original idea about how we interact with objects and gallery spaces holds true, but the broader question is how we are constantly watched EVERYWHERE has come into play. My THESIS piece may change a bit...

We have our celebration reception this Thursday December 1, 2011 from 6-8 pm. hope you can make it, and if not, sit down at your computer and go to: http://jeffherrity.net/target2 to watch.

"boy, what a great show." - mike teavee

"Look at me, I'll be be the first person in the world to be sent by television!" - mike teavee Growing up, I loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder. To this day, the movie creates a sense of wonder in me and every time I watch it I want to be one of those kids who explores the great unknown world of Willy Wonka. (Don't get me started on the terrible Tim Burton version...) To me, Gene Wilder is the only Willy Wonka.

There is one moment in the movie that has stayed  with me all my life, and probably in some way guided me into a career in the internet. The scene where Willy Wonka is transporting the chocolate bar across the room and all the bits are zooming above everyone's heads. That also kind of freaked me out. But it has made me think about how we share information today. We send information, now wirelessly, almost anywhere. I always think about these little particles of information constantly floating over my head in our wireless wi-fi world. We even store our data in some magical cloud now. (which also totally freaks me out)

We have iDevices that allow us to pay our parking meters, video chat with people on the other side of the planet, control our homes while NOT at home, and surveil our surroundings. We can look and interact anytime, anywhere.

My latest piece that I have been documenting on this blog is nearly complete. Today I finished all of the grout work on the tiles, and I just need to wait for it to cure before I embed the webcam. This piece is also about how we see, and how we watch and how we look. But, at the same time, it's about how we are looked at and how we are seen, even when we don't know it.

As we all know, i've been exploring the current marketing phenomena - QR codes - and how through our devices we are able to quickly get a marketing message. That seems weird to me; companies are doing very little work to get their messages to us. WE do all the work. It only takes a few seconds to make a QR code. It's a total marketing win - just put this little doohicky on things and people will scan it and hopefully buy something. The ROI on these must be astounding.

But, what happens when these codes look back at us like we are animals in this greater marketing zoo? What would the QR code see?

I've been giving much thought to how people see with their new iDevices and how we use them to interact with our environment and the gallery space. Like I mentioned above, my large ceramic QR code has a webcam built into it. This webcam will broadcast, via the internet, a feed of the people interacting (scanning) with the code. This information will be transported to another part of the gallery during the show - much like Mike Teavee - and put back together so everyone can see themselves as they are seen by this code.

AND, even if you are not able to see the show in person, you can watch from wherever you are via the wondrous powers of the  internet. I've even been broadcasting the creation of the piece if you have been watching - and I know you have.

enjoy the show.

is this thing on?

Oh, it's on! On November 21, 2011 I will be installing my newest piece called 'Target Audience' which is a continuation of my previous works incorporating QR codes. My last piece 'Mission Statement' was well received, and I learned many things during my critique of it. It's hard to describe how a critique went for a piece that is fairly experiential - it's hard to critique an experience where not everyone participates - meaning they did or didn't scan the code. And, this piece wasn't available to the general public, only my fellow classmates. It is now in my studio at Flux and I've had some interactions and positive feedback. Hopefully the piece will be in some shows and I can reach a broader audience.

My new piece is a bit more ambitious and at any point the whole concept can come crashing down on me. I'm creating the same QR codes but with 2inch by 2inch ceramic tiles. The first problem I have encountered is that there are tiles of different heights. The black tiles I ordered are taller than the white ones. Of course the price different should have clued me into the difference in height (and quality.) I'm not entirely sure if I will seek out shorter black tiles or taller white tiles. I've spent many hours already working on the layout of the code - and not sure if I want to spend the time doing the same task again when my task list is already so long.

I'm at the point where I need to solidify my decisions and proceed with construction. I was talking to a colleague yesterday who informed me of something even more important...the tiles will need to set up before I can really manipulate the object. UGH. So, that means that I have to be done before the 21st - which is good for time planning.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when working to a deadline is that the timeline is not considered in a backwards direction. I was so glad that he reminded me of this, and so I was able to go back and look at my timeline differently - backwards. My calendar has changed drastically now.

It's funny that when I work on these types of labor intensive projects, I reject all technology. Normally, everything I do and manage is through technology. iTechnology really. Now, some cloud manages my entire existence. In this case, my calendar is hand-drawn in my project journal.  My new finish date for the tiling is November 18. Less than a week. And there is so much that has to happen now. It is no longer a project but a carefully choreographed dance. And at this point, I have no idea who my dance partners are. WELL, I do know, but I don't know what kind of dance they are doing. Tiles. Home Depot. Wood. etc. Oh, and a webcam where I can't control the IT environment in the gallery space. fun.

This piece, while a working scannable code, will also have an aspect that addresses time and how we perceive space in a gallery. Embedded into the middle of the piece, UNDER the tiles, will be a webcam that is creating a live video feed over the internet. I won't get into specifics here, but there is something that I'm working on that will make the piece multi-dimensional. Is this QR code a code or a doorway to another place? (admittedly, I won't go into specifics because this part may change depending on many variables...) BUT, if you want to take a peek into my world you can (but only if the camera is turned on...i'll post when I have it more permanently active...) Hopefully, I will move this camera into my studio so viewers can watch my progress on the piece.

The webcam was it's own little nightmare aspect for me to deal with. (seems like a lot of my work these days has a hint of unpredictability that keeps me 'honest.' My friend Jim R. once told me that I always saw the finish line in my work which made me often miss opportunities to explore...so all my work now has this aspect of uncontrollability (i think i keep making up words here...) that terrifies me.

But, back to the webcam - i've purchased several and only one works with MAC nicely. The Dropcam. I was able to set it up in minutes, no PC required. It was fun yesterday getting that side of the piece working and I had the camera pointed at me while I worked. I sent an email to my partner John and told him he can see me. I promptly forgot about it and that it was recording and broadcasting my every move. At one point I had an itch in my nose and started picking. Yes, I was picking my nose. And then I looked over at this eye - webcam - staring at me and I thought 'oh great, is that thing still on?'

It was on.

i saw jesus in the clouds

Finished day one of my installation of my piece at the (e)merge art fair. All is going very well so far because the awesome Andy Martin, a fellow artist and great friend from Philadelphia, came down for the weekend to help me install. And, let's face it, it takes a special friend and person to deal with me when I am in this 'mode'. (read: INSANE)

I was able to get a little bit of a head start yesterday and got my infrastructure built and even a few bags inflated and installed. This was great for me because I felt that I was able to get several hours of work out of the way so that Andy and I could really get rolling on Thursday.

Today, we spent 7 hours working on the piece, and again like the first time I worked on it in CORE last year (a version of it anyway) - I remember what this piece is really about. Me, diligently working on something that I have a basic idea of the outcome, but really let the materials drive the finished piece. Some bags pop, or deflate, the piece will shift as i'm tying new bags to the form. It's insanely frustrating.

There are several new aspects to the piece that help me with the space and how the piece comes together in the end...and these new elements are how the piece got it's new name:

I Saw Jesus in the Clouds.

so many options.

Last night I went to the opening of the WPA show Options 2011  <--click for details -in what has to be one of the coolest spaces for a show in DC - some random pre-demolition or pre-renovation space on New York Avenue next to District Crossfit and the DC Eagle. You enter the space up a flight of crack-house style stairs and through a narrow (about as wide as me) opening into a large cavernous series of rooms. Amazing. There were many artists' work in the show that I'm familiar with, Heather Boaz, Lisa Dillin, and Katherine Mann. Katherine's work greeted me as I walked up the stairs and blended into the space nicely, almost too nicely since some attendees didn't even realize it was her work. Corporate culture was the theme in Lisa Dillin's work (also a current teacher of mine) and I really connect to it having spent so many years in corporate america (lowercase intentional) - and the work seems even more relevant today in how hostile corporations are towards the public and their own employees.

I was instantly jealous when I saw the installation/performance by Heather. She had sent out a request for volunteers to be in the piece and I wanted to do it sooooo badly until my feet betrayed me. She needed someone with a size 10.5 shoe. I'm 11.5/12 and would have gladly cut off my big toe to fit in the shoes that the person had to wear. They had handles on the bottom. Incredible.

If you have a chance, you should check out the show.