a basement is a river

Inprocess:
About the basement is a river project: I am recording and reconstructing a room in my basement that is designed with western style framing, paneling and doors. My process thus far is to use stored materials and things that I am letting go of to construct the suspended soft sculpture walls, trim, fireplace with mantel, support posts and barn style doors.
Though the room with it's hand-gouged wood grain has always influenced and even in some cases become a dominate part of my paintings, drawings, and installation, I had never thought of recreating it until recently when my husband suggested we move to a condo closer to the city center. The room had become such a muse to my process I began to think of it as a river of ideas and the aggressive gouges just read like river rapids. There is a lot of nostalgia in the retro wooden basement but also being from Colorado, the west was always a bit violent for me, rarely romantic. Like many other women who served as bartenders and waitresses in western themed restaurants and bars dialogue and expectations to please the hyper-male culture was extremely stressful. Often times I would get sick to my stomach before my shift would start. So that is what I think about in this basement of wood: river, time, what we pack up and store, what we let go, nostalgia and cruelty.
north wall, 2021-2022
plastic, vinly, cloth, paint, inks, carpet padding
6ft x 8ft
north wall dartboard (front and side view), 2022
medium: photocopies, plexiglass photo magnets, gum, nails, darts
39in x 38in x 5in
dartboard + window: basement marriage, 2022
watercolor, ink, pencil on archival tracing paper, photograph
11in x 9in
basement window studie #1, 2022
archival tracing paper, color pencil, marker, mechanical pencil
9x11inches
9x11inches
basement window studie #2, 2022
archival tracing paper, color pencil, marker, mechanical pencil
9x11inches
studio installation of wall grain/gouge studies, 2021-2022
acrylic paintings on canva
installation varies upon site
18 gouge wooden gouge samples,
acrylic paint on wooden panel
2021-22 5"x7"ea
white gouge study #2, 2022
acrylic on canvas
14x11 inches
basement wall study, juicy #1, 2022
acrylic on canvas
14x17 inches
basement wall study, juicy #2, 2022
acrylic on canvas
14x17 inches