a basement is a river
Monday, February 14, 2022 at 03:32PM
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.
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basement wall study, juicy #2, 2022
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