What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours

Last spring I was invited to exhibit at RMCAD in their small Rude Gallery.  The space is 15 feet by 8 feet with 12 foot tall ceilings.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to investigate for my new body of work, but by July I had decided on tornadoes.  Growing up in Kansas, I have always identified with tornadoes as they were a constant force every year that brought curiosity, fear and excitement to the late spring and early summer days.  The sky grows dark and ominous, turns to a moody grey green, then a stillness and the storm breaks in.  Great thunderstorms with vast lightning would streak across the skies and there was a real sense of being alive.

As tornadoes swept across the US in unprecedented areas this year, I felt that my personal identification with them was somehow shifted.   "What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours" is a new series of artwork that explores these thoughts.  The Rude Gallery exhibition contains a large tornado sculpture based on one of my drawings.  Exhibition dates are August 26th through October 7th, 2011.  A painting, drawing and printmaking exhibition of the same title will be held at Naropa's Lincoln Gallery in October.

THE SCULPTURE

The sculpture "What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours" is made of steel, wire, wood, fabric, fiber fill, paint, sand, hand made rope, papier mache and fur.  Mathias Leppitsch donated so much time in helping me by welding the armature, problem solving potential issues, assisting in the planning and install and in general making sure that I kept my cool as time ran out.  Major thanks goes out to him.

Sewing:

Pattie Lee Becker, What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours (process), 2011

Pattie Lee Becker, What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours (process), 2011

Pattie Lee Becker, What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours (process), 2011

Pattie Lee Becker, What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours (process), 2011

Pattie Lee Becker, What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours (process), 2011

Concrete Stair Construction:

Installing:

Pattie Lee Becker, What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours (installation), 2011

The finished piece:

Pattie Lee Becker, What I Thought Was Once Mine is Now Ours, 2011

General Update

It has been a whirlwind of a year. Between teaching loads of classes at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (RMCAD), Naropa University and CU Boulder, moving to Denver and making art, I've neglected posting news about all the wild and fun stuff I've been up to. The school year has started up again. I'm teaching Drawing, 2D Design, and Contemporary Art Studio this semester. When I'm not teaching I'm working on a new body of work about tornadoes. And when I'm not working on that Mathias and I are continuing to build out our live/work studio.

2900 build-out, wall with ladder

I hope that you are all well and looking forward to the coming of autumn. More to come soon. Enjoy.

Awesome Eraser Collection

The amount of erasers on this site is mind blowing.  Great forms and colors and patterns.  Check it out: http://borrandoque.wordpress.com/ Her collection puts mine to shame, in fact, now I don't think I even have one.  Enjoy.

Kala Art Institute Printmaking Residency

In July and August, I went out to Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California and worked on a series of etchings that investigate psychological space. Here are four finished works from the series:

Pattie Lee Becker, Intruder, etching, 9" x 12", 2010

Pattie Lee Becker, Blockaded Inside Dream Travel, etching, 9" x 12", 2010

Pattie Lee Becker, Discussions on Fear, etching, 9" x 12", 2010

I'd forgotten just how much I love to make prints.  Back in college, it was the act of making etchings that changed everything for me, foregoing a major in philosophy for one in art.  The process is mesmerizing and so tactile.  The beauty of the copper plate inked up and ready for printing - so seductive.  Here are some images of the process:

Registration Guide

Preparing the ink

Inking the plate

Wiping the plate with tarlatan

Palm wiping

Ready for Printing

Black Box Theater as Abandoned Zoo

Poetry reading and sculptural performance for the chapbook launch of Dana Elkun's Black Box Theater as Abandoned Zoo.  Performed at Endden Bellegrade in Boulder, Colorado on 18 March 2010.  Read by Dana Elkun.  Designed & Performed by Pattie Lee Becker and Lacey Coover.

Black Box Theater as Abandoned Zoo book signing

Pre-show at Endden Bellegrade

Pre-show: curtain going up

"The Iridologist said, ...."  (performance)

"The Iridologist said, ...."  (performance)

"Less You" (performance)

"Less You" (performance)

"The Essence of the Owl" (performance)

"The Essence of the Owl" (performance)

"Black Box Theater as Abandoned Zoo" (performance)

"Black Box Theater as Abandoned Zoo" (performance)

"Black Box Theater as Abandoned Zoo" Performance

Anderson Ranch Arts Center

I've been up at Anderson Ranch for three weeks now, and have one week left.  This place is amazing.  It's downtime for the Ranch and for me.  They are in between their summer programs and winter residencies, and I am the only visiting artist up here. The initial week was challenging as I adjusted to an empty studio and extremely solitary hours.  I had some sort of existential crisis as I wondered for days about the meaning of art and of being an art-maker.  It's hard to find motivation for making a new body of work when you are confounded by your day to day movements and desires. I was struggling.  I sought out Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Alan Watts.  I took walks and processed. 

Time progressed and I settled in, and then, art making became exciting once more, less cerebral and more active.  I've compiled a ton of ideas, studies, prototypes, and should have a handful of finished pieces by the time's end.  I feel grateful to be up here, and after lots of tail spinning and questioning, re-invigorated to be an artist.

It's been an amazing time to explore new ideas and to free myself from my intensive drawing practice.  My drawings have always informed my sculptures, but it is seldom that I get to focus this much energy and time on the creation of the sculptures.   The facilities here are mind blowing, and so I've tried to take advantage of them.   Here are a few images of the sculptures in progress that I've been working on while here at Anderson Ranch:

Finger Boomerangs (in progress)

Relational Bonfire (in progress)

Relational Bonfire (detail)

The Struggle of Multilateralism

Kindling for finger boomerang base

Diamond frame for weaving (in progress)

I'll be leaving soon, fueled by my new work and the experience here.  It has been a gift.  Genuinely.  For those of you who don't know about Anderson Ranch, please check it out.  They have amazing summer workshops,  a fabulous residency program, and many other noteworthy things.  Also, the people up here are generous, kind, and so very talented.

Slideluck Potshow

In the late 1990s I traveled back and forth across the States for a variety of experiences that I wasn't always looking for and some that I was.  I saw a relationship collapse under the weight of the Colorado sky, discovered a friend I thought I knew become permanently delusional from drinking too much liquid acid and learned that building a fort inside a bedroom can make you feel more lonely than safe.  I contemplated the need for good urban planning, feel in love with the music of Jimmy Dale Gilmore and the Flatlanders, was reminded that my mom is amazing and that true friends are easy to be around. During these trips I took loads of photos with my Canon Elf APS camera in panoramic mode.  I'm not much of a photographer and wasn't taking the photos for the sake of art, but more for documentary purposes.  I ended up with a lot of images that I was attracted to both in content and form.  I began pairing the images, making connections between colors, shapes and lines.  I had two full albums of these pairings and the project was meaningful to me.

In graduate school there was a fellow student who wanted to put my work in a group show that she was curating.  During a studio visit she discovered the albums and wanted to build an entire metal display structure for them as a collaboration between the two of us.  I was thrilled that the photos would be shown, especially since they weren't ever intended for that purpose.  I was asked to remount them on matte board for her display unit.  I spent hours getting the photographs together and handed her about 80 images of the works in a cardboard box I had laying around.  A few days later I showed up at the opening to see the exhibition.  Her huge display shelf was in the room, but my images weren't on it.  Instead, there was my box, an old cardboard box that must have shipped frozen meats or something, on the floor with the tape cut but unopened.  I asked her why the photos weren't up and she said that it was conceptually more interesting to keep them in the box since it had the word FROZEN printed on it.

Then came the opportunity nearly ten years later to put together a slide show for the Slideluck Potshow and I used those images.  Broadcast's song, Tears in the Typing Pool, accompanies the piece as it relates to the aforementioned experience and the parallel between text on a blank piece of paper and human development of the land.

BMoCA Ropes Exhibition

The exhibition Ropes at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art has been up for a couple of months and has one month to go before it closes.  Please stop by and check it out if you are in the area.  The series is composed of sixteen drawings and two sculptures all of which explore the simplicity and complexities inherent in ropes. Youngna Park at 20x200 wrote a nice piece on their blog: http://www.20x200.com/blog/2010/03/ropes-by-pattie-lee-becker-at-bmoca.html

Thanks to all of you who came out to the opening or otherwise and supported me and my practice.  It means so much to me that all of you have shown up to take a look.  Here are some exhibition images taken by the fantastic friend and photographer Ashley Davis.

Pattie Lee Becker's Ropes exhibition at BMoCA 2010

Pattie Lee Becker's Ropes exhibition at BMoCA 2010

Pattie Lee Becker's Ropes exhibition at BMoCA 2010

Pattie Lee Becker's Ropes exhibition at BMoCA 2010

The hanging sculpture is made of woodblock printed linen, batting, tubing, and steel.  Theresa Haberkorn, a local Boulder woodcut printmaker helped me with the carving and printing.  I had never met her before she agreed to come help on the project, and it was really nice working with her.

The Rope Pile (below) is made of handmade ropes that I created from various twines and other materials.  Mathias Leppitsch, a  fabricator, designer, and artist in Denver,  welded me a specific hook that fit into my drill to speed up the otherwise antiquated process.  We spun rope into the wee hours of the morning as the installation date drew near.  A life saver.

There are also two other shows up in the first floor galleries that are very worthwhile: Beverly McIver and Steve Steele.  It’s a privilege to be in their company.

"Ropes" Artcards and Coloring Books

Ropes at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art runs from 5 Febraury through 23 May 2010. To commemorate the series, a Coloring Book and Artcard Set with letter-pressed hang tags were developed with designer Justin Fuller of Pencil + Paper and printed and bound by Brad O'Sullivan of Smokeproof Press.

Pattie Lee Becker, Ropes, 8 Artcards for hanging and mailing, January 2010

Pattie Lee Becker, Ropes Artcard Hang Tags, January 2010

Pattie Lee Becker, Ropes Coloring Book, January 2010

Pecha Kucha Night Boulder 2009

In October, The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art held Boulder, Colorado's first Pecha Kucha Night. Pecha Kucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

The presenters were Mimi Steiger, Barry Ollman, Ryan Batch, Michelle Ellsworth, Ali Gid far, Pattie Lee Becker, Molly Baker, Monika Wittig, Alicia Davis, Joel Haertling.

I presented some older artworks with their corresponding narrative:

In the Lands of the Extinct or The Redevelopment Project

Autumn Leaf Portal, 9" x 12", 2003

One day, in a moment of great disquiet, an urgent animal conference is organized to discuss the demise of their kingdom, forging a plan to hunt for an ancient portal, spoken only of in myth, in hopes that its discovery will offer passage to a new land.  Over time, it is unearthed, and through this find, our animals leave us.  Later, far into the future when our lands are not the only ones we know, when people are giants and lifeforms are scarce, this portal is rediscovered opening up possibilities to restore our world with species and kingdoms once thought gone forever.  It is covered in leaves, with remnants of a unicorn, and twisting throughout, a heart of luminous and long ventricles.

The Diamond Thief, 14" x 17", 2007

This entryway leads the Travelers, a band of giants, a selected few chosen to roam from land to land in search of life forces, into worlds of great circumstance, hope, and peril.  One struggles to recover a diamond-encased soul from the bank vaults of lions.  Another is sent out to retrieve the diminishing element of song.

For the Troubadour, 14" x 17", 2007

She gathers a hawk from a lonesome tree and readies herself to transport it back to our planet through a ring of stones.  Forms have personalities and new purposes.  These are mystical days.  These are telepathic times.

Flame Carrier, 14" x 17", 2007

The Travelers have warm clothes that serve multiple functions as tents, nests and packs. A diamond death blanket is worn to cover the dead in hopes to renew life.  A flame carrier walks along a new land to bring light and warmth to where it is needed.  A hat provides the carrying system and a pathway to transport his collections home.

The Offering, 14" x 17", 2007

In the light of day in the bright cold, a woman crouches by the fire and offers up a gift to the land in exchange for another diamond-soul.  A bird companion, hers through shared stories, leads her from place to place in search of other's souls to collect and other creatures to encounter.

The Collector, 2005

The Collector (detail), 2005

And traipsing though the lands, The Collector, a mighty traveler of great skill and power, searches in the deepest and darkest of places.  With his death blanket, bird, nourishment, and leaves; he discovers remnants of an animal civilization not previously known in their world.

ESP Preparation Chart, 11" x 14", 2008

All of the travelers must look upon the ESP preparation chart and renew their connection to one another through the form.  Their lives depend upon this communication.  It connects them with animal, vegetable, and mineral.  It fuels their minds and spirits with community and shared space.

Blue Feather Arrow, 5" x 3.25", 2003

hey also share a common symbol, an object which they keep in their pockets, of a feather on a patterned field of blue crystal with an arrow shooting forth.  This icon represents a nest which supports the life that will be protected and saved through consciousness and fight.

Electric Discovery, 2003

Through this strength, persistence, and belief in a positive future; The Travelers make discoveries that begin to transform their land: the collection of diamond-encased souls, song, redevelopment organisms, flora and fauna.   Seen here, returned to their homeland and presented on platforms, Electric Discovery is a pile of unicorn intestines and a unicorn horn surrounded by mushrooms discovered in a different land.

Electric Discovery (detail), 2003

Later, we will discover that the combination proves fruitful in reintroducing the species.  And will it have been a fortuitous find?   And will the creature be true?

Rebirth to the Stars, 14" x 17", 2005

One Traveler discovers a spinning plant planet that captures its dying from the attack of others and transforms the dying into stars.  Those already dead and gone are covered by The Traveler's death blanket in hopes to capture the souls so as to have material to build up their crumbling civilization.

Rebirth in the Nook, 22" x 34" x 18", 2006

This is the rebirth of a heart, a procedure that was carried out by one of the Travelers.  The ceremony was performed in a cave where the damp nook breathed its air into the hands of the sky.  Later it is realized that this object has both healing powers and evil destructive properties.

Campfire Evolution, 66" x 54" x 42", 2004

A Campfire Evolution is manifested by the work of more Travelers.  A ghost pillow is set aflame in a campfire conjuring a true ghost to life.  As he crawls out of his tent, his life is renewed and he becomes an assistant to the Travelers.  The night will no longer be elusive and new adventures and opportunities are forged.

Campfire Evolution (detail), 66" x 54" x 42",  2004

The campfire is composed of feathers, minerals, mushrooms, zebra tails, and sticks.  This combination releases history and with the intention of the Travelers, the ghost is freed and willing to assist them.

Hand Holding Furry Rocks, 6.5" x 9", 2003

The ghost leads them to a group of hand-holding furry rocks that together form a circle.  They do not move nor make a sound, and the Travelers are perplexed by their purpose, until one ventures too close, and is sucked out of this world and into another.  It is discovered that the rocks act as another portal.

Redevelopment Organism: Unicorn Hoof-making Machine, 48" x 96" x 32", 2002

The Collector, one of the most powerful Travelers, follows his fellow Traveler into the opening of a world he had hoped to find, a world so sad in its present state, but so teaming with life.  This is the land the unicorns created long ago when their prescient minds came to understand their future demise.

Redevelopment Organism: Unicorn Hoof-making Machine (detail), 48" x 96" x 32", 2002

They built a portal and it took them into nothingness until their bodies shed themselves into soil and land was created.  Later the other animals discovered the entrance and with their inclusion the land eroded and all the unicorn died.  Ever since, the animals of this land have been conjoining their forms together in hopes to recreate the unicorns.

Unicorn Hoofs: Failed Attempts, 48" x 96" x 32", 2002

This is a Unicorn Hoof Redevelopment Organism that is comprised of marmots, polar bears, bacteria, and worms.  It is failing in its function, but succeeding instead in creating snake components that are rejoining and coming into a new creature.

Mineral Shadow Forms, 2003

And why the death of the unicorns?  A battle was waged based upon misunderstanding.  When the first animal discovered the gateway, it was a porcupine, and it jolted through space right into the heart of a unicorn -- the first death to occur in the land.  It began a wave of destruction.  These are the mineral shadow forms that cover the inside structure of the memorial death chamber built by the Travelers as a reminder of Reaction and its potential.

She Arose From a Vast Volcano, 14" x 17", 2008

The very moment that the structure was completed, in another land not so far away, a woman burst out of a giant volcano.

One of my favorite UFO drawings

When I was living in New York City and commuting up to Columbia University from Greenpoint, Brooklyn for graduate school, there were lots of times the subway ride nearly did me in.  There were only so many National Geos and only one Moby Dick.  There's a point when transferring from the L train to the 1,2,3,9 trains requires a long walk through a bleak tunnel.  If I was having a hard time, this portion of my journey struck me as particularly trying.  However, one day in the future I enjoyed the commute when I discovered an older street artist selling crayon drawings of UFOs that had landed in the city.  I bought one for 20 bucks, and for a long time, this was my favorite drawing of a UFO.  It's the image of a yellow UFO sucking up a white dog-aardvark with it's orange beam in front of an abstract brown landscape.

But I discovered an image not so long ago that offers me something more.  In this black and white picture there is a UFO sitting atop a perfect circle which is labeled with an arrow as a "decoy white ball, clear edges, not fuzzy."  It's about geometry, balance, and what I love most about the illustration is the way it blurs the boundary between two dimensional and three dimensional space.  To me there is the potential to have a real spaceship atop a flat circle, and this somehow blows my mind.

Saucer: One of my favorite examples of where two points meet

The juncture where the ball meets the base of the UFO perfectly depicts a space I have recently become obsessed with -- the single point where two lines touch.  I'll keep bringing this up as more posts arise.  There is something about this meeting point that I love, the balance, the potential energy, the tenderness.