New work completed from June to December 2013

     In June, I began working on a series of fabric lined frames with silhouettes of figures and hand stitching.
These are the most recently completed pieces. I apologize for the image quality. I have inadequate space and light to photograph my work. I am working on improving it.

Alienation

Bad Energy

Last Performance

Transcendance

Anger in Me

     

     I have also been working on a series of "flags" that feature questions that continue to plague me about life in our culture. Based on the concept of Tibetan prayer flags, they are not prayers but questions and concepts that seem to be searching for attention. Originally I wanted to make one flag a day to create a mass of questions, but I ended up making fewer with more thoughtful compositions.

 "No Right Answers".

     The last piece I have been working on, is an old chair that I have inscribed with words and thoughts about oppression: the oppressed vs. the oppressor. The idea is the trap of oppression where the oppressed, once liberated, may in turn become the oppressor. This cycle of violence seems to continue in the world. In American culture I see this played out in our worship of wealth and accumulation that equals power and domination. This piece is still unresolved. I'm not sure the materials and the message are working together. I experimented with wrapping the chair with wire or fabric and considered several versions of a cushion for the chair. I will continue to experiment with this piece. It may be more of "sketchbook" for these ideas.

     

   In my class in digital media, our assignment title was "Follies of Technology". Here is a video I made that questions our ability to integrate technology and modern life. This is my first attempt to use Adobe Premier for video editing. I wanted to animate the still images by repeating them in short bursts and jumping back and forth between them. 

Two Visual Literacy projects

     I've been taking a class to continue my exploration of digital media. I created these two posters using Photoshop. The first one uses the concept of synecdoche (part to whole relationships) to communicate an opinion about a current event. It is a reflection on the financial crises and its effect on our society.

     The second poster is a spoof ad that I created to mock anxiety about aging and over-emphais on youth and beauty that is prevalent in southern California culture. I purposely made it look like a cut and paste collage to make it stand out from the idea of slick advertising forms.

Here is a recently finished painted textile piece with hand stitching.

Completed Work

    This piece is made of layers of sheer fabric and words collected from the Los Angeles Times during the last three weeks. The words were selected based on my thoughts about their relevance and stitched randomly between the layers. It reflects on knowledge, memory and thoughts that are hidden, or conveniently forgotten.

     This piece reflects on my life. The figures represent me as I have been influenced and controlled by others. Eventually I learned to respect myself first.

Art That Inspires Me

These are images of work that I am studying and reflecting upon this semester.

http://pinterest.com/aky44/ann-olsen/

Something I'm working on

     Here are two photos of a work in progress. Each frame contains a white-on-white silhouette. There will be stitching on each piece that relates to the image inside the frame and how it relates to an adjacent frame. I am considering connecting the frames with thread. I have been working on this piece since April, but as I continued to reflect on it in relation to what I learned in June, I discovered that it is autobiographical.

     I have added more stitching since I took these photos and will post a current image later this week.