Thursday, January 15, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Super 8, Leica, and Diana
Three cameras of my dreams. I've been obsessive about research on the Super 8 for the past two days, but have known and loved it for many years now. I'm strongly considering.....definitely considering Super 8, dreaming of a Leica (though too expensive for my budget at the moment), and will likely get a Diana. Sigh....
Its been a fulfilling and inspiring day of super 8 videos, looking for pictures and finding the aesthetic of the Diana camera (which i am instantly in love with), and research. slurp....
here were some of my favorite videos from the Super 8 research...
One i loved in particular was a documentary of people who traveled to New Zealand to go surfing. Makes me want to pick up and go...
Its been a fulfilling and inspiring day of super 8 videos, looking for pictures and finding the aesthetic of the Diana camera (which i am instantly in love with), and research. slurp....
here were some of my favorite videos from the Super 8 research...
One i loved in particular was a documentary of people who traveled to New Zealand to go surfing. Makes me want to pick up and go...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
View from the studio (my kitchen)
December 29th, 2008
Its been over three months since my last post, please forgive me oh blog gods. Its just days away from the New Year and there are so many things to reflect on this past year! Alot of travel (Philippines, New York and Miami for Basel), alot of painting, and in general i have to say its been an amazing year.
This past couple of months have been busy. I visited my friend Christopher Michel who has one of my oldest pieces out there that i made on found wood a number of years ago. The piece is in his house along with one other newer painting.
I also just finished six new paintings that were recently sent to New York. My house is empty again and i'm ready for the New Year, new directions, new explorations.
Finding myself really interested in old advertising for tobacco worldwide more recently. Its interesting to me how mass media and popular culture can drive trade and commodity to me. Maybe there will come a time where we all have the opportunity to be self-directed in our decisions, and things are not so fed to us, maybe 2009 is that time.
Some images from recent research that has inspired recent pieces:
December 29th, 2008
Its been over three months since my last post, please forgive me oh blog gods. Its just days away from the New Year and there are so many things to reflect on this past year! Alot of travel (Philippines, New York and Miami for Basel), alot of painting, and in general i have to say its been an amazing year.
This past couple of months have been busy. I visited my friend Christopher Michel who has one of my oldest pieces out there that i made on found wood a number of years ago. The piece is in his house along with one other newer painting.
I also just finished six new paintings that were recently sent to New York. My house is empty again and i'm ready for the New Year, new directions, new explorations.
Finding myself really interested in old advertising for tobacco worldwide more recently. Its interesting to me how mass media and popular culture can drive trade and commodity to me. Maybe there will come a time where we all have the opportunity to be self-directed in our decisions, and things are not so fed to us, maybe 2009 is that time.
Some images from recent research that has inspired recent pieces:
Friday, September 5, 2008
Mammoth
I started a 96 inch tall painting last week, toiling away painting it day and night these past days, finding myself wondering why it's going so slow. :) That along with the fact that its a bloody hot Indian summer here in San Francisco doesn't help much.
Here's the image of the unfinished board. It doesn't even fit the height of my place. Settling in, to the larger size has been a nice transition.
Here's the image of the unfinished board. It doesn't even fit the height of my place. Settling in, to the larger size has been a nice transition.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Life is but a circus...
There are times in our lives where we feel stretched beyond measure, times where we aren’t sure where the road leads, or why we are where we are. Its in those moments that we are most stretched that we push beyond what we originally believed to be true, and its in those moments that we find the most memorable moments of our life.
I have a painting that doesn’t event fit the height of our apartment leaned against my kitchen wall right now. In fact, I’m not even sure how I got it into the apartment, if only to say “very carefully.”
I had many resources to draw on this summer for inspiration. There was a huge fire in Big Sur that wiped out much of the countryside there, and almost burned down a friend’s home. There is the upcoming election, probably one of the most memorable presidential elections in history coming in just a few months. There was the Olympics held in Beijing in the face of the oppression of Tibetans. In my own life, thought it seems trivial, there are always the daily struggles of being an artist in a major city coupled with trying to do the right thing and to take care of those closest to me.
Life is and continues to a beautiful circus, equipped with sad and happy faces, face paint, tricycles, merry go-rounds, and ferris wheels. Sometimes i sit, while the world spins around me, and think, isn't this amazing. Thank you to those who have been on this ride with me. Snapshots from the lab coming soon...
Hope to see you at my upcoming shows in either New York or San Francisco.
more info at my website under "upcoming"
www.jennporreca.com
I have a painting that doesn’t event fit the height of our apartment leaned against my kitchen wall right now. In fact, I’m not even sure how I got it into the apartment, if only to say “very carefully.”
I had many resources to draw on this summer for inspiration. There was a huge fire in Big Sur that wiped out much of the countryside there, and almost burned down a friend’s home. There is the upcoming election, probably one of the most memorable presidential elections in history coming in just a few months. There was the Olympics held in Beijing in the face of the oppression of Tibetans. In my own life, thought it seems trivial, there are always the daily struggles of being an artist in a major city coupled with trying to do the right thing and to take care of those closest to me.
Life is and continues to a beautiful circus, equipped with sad and happy faces, face paint, tricycles, merry go-rounds, and ferris wheels. Sometimes i sit, while the world spins around me, and think, isn't this amazing. Thank you to those who have been on this ride with me. Snapshots from the lab coming soon...
Hope to see you at my upcoming shows in either New York or San Francisco.
more info at my website under "upcoming"
www.jennporreca.com
Monday, August 18, 2008
Big Sur Wildfire
A friend just sent me pictures of his dad's home by the ocean in Big Sur. Some of you might have heard about the horrible wildfires that struck across California last month. Its amazing the house didn't get taken along with it. Hoping to drop down there for a visit this fall to make some artwork...more on this soon. I've always wanted to spend some time in Big Sur.
Claus Gorge owned this home up until his death last november. Why is this guy so important that i write about him? I'm not too sure, except that i have found myself immediately curious about this man, and his life in Big Sur. What's exciting is that i have not had the opportunity to understand another artists' life lived by actually getting to spend time in the place where they lived their life, and to perhaps stand one day in the shoes of a man who has many stories to tell. I'm honored to be invited to this place, to this home.
His son, Justin, is a friend of mine, and has welcomed me to get to know the life of his dad by seeing his body of art down at the house this Fall, to read his journals, and to generally spend some time creating my own artwork in the pristine environment Big Sur has to offer. Here are a few images that Justin sent me. The fire almost reached the house....lucky for us it went back down the hillside.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jussman/BigSurPropertyAfterFire8208?authkey=5iw_e9aYbDw
More on this project soon....in the meantime, i'm still painting and getting ready for Open Studios in San Francisco. I plan to position the work as references to these wildfires here in California, the detruction they bring with them, and the new vibrancy that comes afterward, new growth out of the ashes of our burned past. Its also a metaphorical reference to personal struggles i've had more recently, and clearing away the old to make room for the new. Another mandala in life.
Claus Gorge owned this home up until his death last november. Why is this guy so important that i write about him? I'm not too sure, except that i have found myself immediately curious about this man, and his life in Big Sur. What's exciting is that i have not had the opportunity to understand another artists' life lived by actually getting to spend time in the place where they lived their life, and to perhaps stand one day in the shoes of a man who has many stories to tell. I'm honored to be invited to this place, to this home.
His son, Justin, is a friend of mine, and has welcomed me to get to know the life of his dad by seeing his body of art down at the house this Fall, to read his journals, and to generally spend some time creating my own artwork in the pristine environment Big Sur has to offer. Here are a few images that Justin sent me. The fire almost reached the house....lucky for us it went back down the hillside.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jussman/BigSurPropertyAfterFire8208?authkey=5iw_e9aYbDw
More on this project soon....in the meantime, i'm still painting and getting ready for Open Studios in San Francisco. I plan to position the work as references to these wildfires here in California, the detruction they bring with them, and the new vibrancy that comes afterward, new growth out of the ashes of our burned past. Its also a metaphorical reference to personal struggles i've had more recently, and clearing away the old to make room for the new. Another mandala in life.
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