Willow Tree --> Charcoal --> Charcoal Sketch of Willow Tree

This is more proof-of-concept than finished project.

There's a willow tree south of Roosevelt, near the jail, that I seem to be obsessed with. I cut some of the smaller branches and turned them into charcoal sticks by firing them in a double-metal-can contraption I made just for this. I then took the charcoal and made a quick, crude sketch of the willow tree from which I cut the branches.

It draws me; I draw it.

Nick Cave: "Why are we still having these conversations?"

In my work there is a moment that is transformative, a moment when everything shifts.

Shifts?
Yes, if I shift my work in one direction of the other, it's going to be read in one way or the other. I'm not interested in labels like "art" or "fashion." But, unfortunately, we live in a society in which we want things to be categorized so we can understand them better, so we know how to respond to them better. That's the main problem. It's like "art" or "craft." it's the same debate, the same conversation. Why are we still having these conversations? Why are there still these prejudices between disciplines, when in reality the lines are blurred?


What's the solution?
To create work that constantly challenges and renegotiates the conversation.


And to work in a way that is more collaborative and interdisciplinary?
Yes.

from Nick Cave: Epitome

Christian Grove Church

I had to drive down to Mississippi for a funeral last week, and stopped at a small church and graveyard just outside of Yazoo City that I have been photographing for more than 15 years. Back then, this is what the church looked like:

And a few years later:

Here's what the church and graveyard look like today:

"A Decade of Country Hits"

Now reading ...

"In Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, James Agee wrote of working as: 'The effort to preserve simply the cruel radiance of what is.' We're motivated by a similar sentiment. We're not inserting art into artless places, but rather acknowledging and responding to the 'Cruel radiance of what is.'"

Certificate in Documentary Arts

The Center for Documentary Studies recently posted the projects by the seven of us who graduated on May 24, 2017, with a Certificate in Documentary Arts. The projects (viewable on the site) included three videos, an audio piece, an oral history, a multimedia project combining audio and photography, and a photography presentation that included hand-sewn textiles. That last one is my quilt project, Material Witness, which grew out of an attempt to document evictions in Little Rock.

From left: Trish Tolbert, Karen Healy, Rahima Rahi, Sydney Dye, Yulian Martínez-Escobar, James Matthews, Cyndi Briggs.

From left: Trish Tolbert, Karen Healy, Rahima Rahi, Sydney Dye, Yulian Martínez-Escobar, James Matthews, Cyndi Briggs.