twists and turns- two

The first print is on window cling with lovely colors, fantastic to see it all in one (rather than fragmented paper pieces!)

However, after speaking with the gallery and there not being any glass surface, I realized these have to attach directly to wall. And therefore there will be two versions, an indoor one with the lighting/transparent effect and an outdoor one, where the colors are more pale rather than yellow and where the transparency is not seen. These two versions is what one sees on a sliding glass door and how the paper itself acts in this configuration. I loved understanding light and how it acts through this process. Above should be how they hang on the gallery on wall. Title: "Indoor Mother Whore, Outdoor Whore Mother, Sliding Glass Doors."

off to the printers

-All figures scanned and digitally manipulated for transparency effect of background lighting.

-Currently standing at 12 inches by 5 feet

-Will play with various backgrounds in the morning including paper, vinyl, etc.

Congratulations Tereza,

I'm so happy for you!

Thank you for sharing this with me - wishing you all the best with the upcoming show.

Great work,

A

The Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show 2011

Dear Tereza Swanda,

Congratulations! Your artwork, Whore Mother Totem Pole, was chosen by this year’s jury to be included in The Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show 2011 at the SoFA Gallery (which will be renamed the Grunwald Gallery of Art mid-way through the exhibits run).

Please see the details below for shipping information. Your shipment should also include a completed copy of the attached loan agreement and a prepaid return shipping label for your artworks return shipment. Congratulations again, and we will be sending additional emails to keep you updated on opening reception and promotional details. In the meantime, if you have any questions, contact us at kiart@indiana.edu.

Details for Shipments

Artwork should be scheduled to arrive Thursday, May 5 - Wednesday, May 11. Hand-deliveries will be accepted May 10-11, 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. As stated in the brochure, shipping of artwork to and from the exhibit is the responsibility of the artist. All shipping must be prepaid. Ship artworks to:

The SoFA Gallery

Kinsey Institute Juried Show

1201 E 7th St.

Fine Arts 123

Indiana University

Bloomington, IN 47405

The artwork must be framed and ready for installation. Late or damaged work will not be exhibited. In the past we have had problems with fragile pieces arriving damaged. Please take all precautions to protect your artwork during shipping.

Artworks must also be prepared for return shipment. Shipping cartons and materials must be reusable for return shipping, and a prepaid return shipping label must be included unless prearrangements have been made with Garry Milius (gmilius@indiana.edu).

Exhibited hand-delivered work must be picked up Tuesday, August 2-Wednesday, August 3, 12-4p.m. Shipped works will be crated and ready for return by August 9. It is the responsibility of the artist to provide postage and insurance to and from the exhibit. Nothing may be shipped COD. Any work that has been left after August 30, 2011 will become the property of The Kinsey Institute unless other arrangements have been made.

Again, congratulations, and please let us know if you have any questions.

YES!

I am so happy for your realization! I'm also excited to pick up Krishnamurti as well. (I just sent the first article from the 1st workshop to the same students I wrote about last night.)

Yes, the lessons are finally being realized! It is all so significant, if only we stop and look.

I have not taken my work all the way to the source- at the root I am sure the themes are mother/father, masculine/feminine and now they are the mix of the two, from the act of rubbing two egg portraits together in a gesture of two meditation balls, one of a man and one of a woman in 1998 to the overlapping figures on glass today. I have just considered the bodies but the gesture is the same.

Much more recently I've realized the architecture standing behind victims/perpetrators, mothers/fathers and how the architecture (space created by mental constructs,) affect the bodies that perform in that space.

For me the process has been shifting the mental space to create space- I reread your passage as there is so much to dialogue with. I really enjoy this sentence: "I have always been interested in transforming something I understand in my mind into something I can feel, understand, and communicate through my body." I resonate strongly with "I've understood how to express vulnerability and compassion in my work by allowing those aspects of myself to be exposed, softened, transformed...It's the knowing without getting caught up in the concept of knowing."

It is a huge understanding of yes there is famine, disease, war, and at the same time there is healing, compassion, empathy. There is the knowing without judgement and blame, without a label.

I have this concrete lesson currently within my body, a dull reminder in my sacrum. I tried to stuff my vulnerability, afraid to expose myself and voila- the energy had to go somewhere.

Thank you for the post and the lesson. I am eager to read "Education and the Significance of Life."

A more balanced outlook

I am glad you found your daughter and that all was not lost.

I too have come to a much different understanding of things since my last entry.

Re-reading Krishnamurti's "Education and the Significance of Life", and finding endless inspiration from it. Feeling the growing life inside me and getting filled with anticipation and love. Can it be that after winter's slumber I have renewed unbridled energy?

Synchronicity abounds...all judgement dissolves. Tensions leave me. Creative thoughts begin to connect with previous work and projects yet to be undertaken. I am so excited. The middle of the night is now an excellent time to work! I have never been awake this consistently between 3-6AM, but for whatever reason, canvases are still getting worked on, and ideas are being consolidated that have been dormant in my mind. Seeing the black sky slowly turn blue each morning is uplifting, even though there is still terrible unrest in the world and many people are dealing with homelessness, radiation fallout, famine, disease, and war.

I had tea with an artist friend yesterday.

It was a lovely afternoon, and we talked about many things. She is currently participating in NYFA's MARK program, and has had a very positive experience so far. She mentioned that the program has helped her in terms of presenting her work to groups of people who don't know her or her work. She spoke clearly, articulately, and confidently in a way I have not witnessed before. A huge weight seemed to have left her. I was happy for her, and was encouraged by her this change.

As the afternoon wore on, there seemed to be a mutual sense of relief of knowing what we are both doing with our work, and now never running out of ideas to work with. As both of us have had the tendency to take things a little too seriously and to become very hard on ourselves, we have recently realized there is no sense of having to recreate the wheel every time we step in front of our work. Better yet, I felt like there is more space to get out of the way of our work!

I told her about my most recent revelation, while installing my most recent piece at a gallery in Rosendale. Something that hit me in a very profound way was that I have really been working with the same thing my entire life. I have always been interested in transforming something I understand in my mind into something I can feel, understand, and communicate through my body. Since 1996 this has taken the form of painting, mixed media work, and performance.

It all connects: in 1996/7 I remember loving small text pieces I began 'on the side' that didn't have anything to do with my painting (typed words on handmade organza baskets); the methodical process of stringing beads to cover texts I found offensive to women; intervening on The Scarlet Letter by making a 500-page necklace out of it; salting another version of it and hanging it in a grid; the mediational and repetitious actions of embroidery in Airing Dirty Laundry, the endless counting and meditation of the Morse code pieces...it all has a lineage I just realized for the first time.

In performance work as well, Meaning Cleaning takes the concept of 'doing public service' and actually realizes it through often grueling outdoor manual labor: sweeping, scrubbing, packing, sorting. It is actual participation rather than an idea of participation.

Finally, In painting: I've understood how to express vulnerability and compassion in my work by allowing those aspects of myself to be exposed, softened, transformed. In 2007, I overcame my deepest obstacles. Because of that decision, I have been able to understand what universal empathy can feel like in a painting. I am beginning to understand why the Hanging Meat painting from Rembrandt is so important; I see Fran Angelico in a much different way now. It's the knowing without getting caught up in the concept of knowing - it's the realization through one's body of what is truth.

In 1996 I began painting the back of the head, neck, and torso as a way to highlight this investigation; paintings of fragmented body parts followed, fragmented undergarments, slips (with words either painted on them or behind them), shoes, and a lot of angry process work. Concepts of death and rebirth were investigated through paintings of black cats, ravens, and jackels. I kept things separate - there was not an awareness that everything was the same. The anger I felt in my body scared me, and I didn't want to work with it. What I presented through my paintings were removed from the series before it. It is really in the last month that I have understood that everything is the same. Everything has equal space. Everything is connected and is in relation.

As you know, I stopped painting for five years, from 2004-2009. Since I have returned to it there is such a deeper investigation of how to articulate my questions of how the body understands one's experience of this world. Even at my most critical, this question comes up in my mind. I understand as I work, I understand through the work.

The Rain Season

Of Good and Bad:

We had an incredible week on the Oregon Coast. What beauty! (God lives at Cannon Beach.) And after all the glory a few moments stripped it all away. For a second I thought I lost Al which sent me into complete panic followed by a panic attack, insomnia and a pinched nerve in my sacrum. All previous beauty dissolved! How ridiculous! (It did help me enjoy homecoming.)

In response to your post, this is what I wrote to my students tonight:

All in all, I wanted to discuss this notion of 'not loving what you are painting.' It is a very important concept to observe and I'm glad it came up last week. We seem to be in the mindset of likes and dislikes most of our day. (Like, I really don't like this pain in my back.) What this does is it sets up binary opposites- things that relate but are on opposite sides. This is still within our mental constructs which sometime block creativity. We think we know. We label the plat. (I know it is green, it lives in the soil, etc.) But all these words stop us from really seeing the plant. (Seeing that entity in front of you stripped of all the labels.)

The still-life which wasn't still at all is a living entity- that changes, is form and color, is in relation to you.

A Good Day

It's interesting to notice attachments to either feeling "good" or feeling "bad".

During this last week (week 37 of pregnancy), there was a lot of feeling emotional, weepy, feeling hopeless, feeling useless, feeling lethargic, despondent, and physically sick. I perceived this as "difficult" to get through, and did very little to resonate with these feelings. Rather, I fought against them, judged them, judged myself. I contributed to my own feelings of misery.

Today, on the other hand, I began to feel wonderful.

I received encouraging and uplifting news from many people, which helped in my tying up a lot of loose ends.

Suddenly, seemingly tons of pounds were lifted from my shoulders; I felt relieved, happy, optimistic, lighter, bright-eyed and focused. Small but profound connections were made between people, places, and energy...I noticed the subtleties of the world around me and felt comforted by being alive in this moment.

Why is it easier to feel more aware when perceived 'good things' happen than when 'bad' things do? Where does judgment come from, and why?

Is any of this part of the practice of non-attachment?

What part is noticing?

What part is being aware?

Tonight I have insomnia again, and am continuing to work on a beaded Morse code piece based on the John Donne poem Death Be Not Proud. When I took a short break an hour ago, I found an email from a friend who forwarded me the announcement for Liza Lou's most recent exhibition at L&M Arts in Los Angeles.

As I only have the thumbnail images on my computer screen to base this observation on, it was a pleasant surprise to see such a shift in Lou's beaded work. There appeared to be so much more transparency and weightlessness to the pieces: a transformation from earlier work. I felt myself exhaling more deeply after seeing the exhibition highlights online. It had such a more quiet atmosphere around it. A stillness and a breath that I haven't felt from her work before.

Synchronicity

Chance occurance

Focus

Attention

Awareness

Stillness

I will continue to work until I get tired

On another note

Just about 4 weeks to go...xo

Airing Dirty Laundry progress and install shots

Residency application draft for Women's Studio Workshop

Project Description

I am interested in creating an artist book based on my interactive performance piece Airing Dirty Laundry. This ongoing piece has existed both as a growing site-specific installation and as an interactive collaboration between the public and myself. It has aimed to reveal a common thread between meditation and everyday actions. It began as a collection of various commands and criticisms amassed via public interaction over the last few years; it has continued as an embroidery circle, most recently at a winter residency at Roos Arts in Rosendale, where I worked alongside volunteer participants embroidering the phrases onto antique table linens and white bed sheets. I hope to expand upon the collaborative nature of the piece in the form of an artists’ book.

Embroidery as a central visual element has emphasized the connection between internal reflection and external daily activity. The playful yet suggestive notion of “airing dirty laundry,” in combination with public participation, has facilitated a creative space to reveal stories and life experiences we might otherwise keep to ourselves.

The book I would like to make will be comprised of 12 antique table linens or ‘pages’ that have various commands and criticisms embroidered onto them. Linen and thread color would both be white, pointing to - and at the same time subverting - notions of neutrality, purity and cleanliness. The pages would be housed in a handmade portfolio, and experienced either in one’s hand, or as a wall-mounted installation. Both configurations aim to underscore the intimate nature of the texts themselves. Edition size would be 9 or 12; portfolios and pages to be created at WSW.

It would be a natural extension of the piece to continue its fabrication at Women’s Studio Workshop. WSW has a long-standing commitment to the tradition of making work in a collaborative and non-competitive environment, which is in line with my philosophy of art making. Especially in this piece, collaboration and participation from faculty, staff, and other artists would be encouraged.

recentering

sending messages of love -

organizing donation buckets and funds-

researching shipments directly to people-

there is a lot of work to do.

Mother Kitten Breath for Bodies Reform, To/From Project

Whore Mother Totem Pole (Sliding Glass Door)

indoor

(details)

outdoor

In the work, Whore Mother Totem Pole, (Sliding Glass Door), I play with the two acceptable roles for women within patriarchy, that of a mother and that of a whore. These two, not mutually exclusive stereotypes, interweave and support one another in this piece. I am interested in developing a gestural language through figures interacting. I use everyday materials to find a language that represents what we embody. I play with bodies to reform, alter and affect one another.

Airing Dirty Laundry: February 6, 2011

Today was an excellent day to begin this piece.

Everything - from the installation, to the informal interview with Db Leonard, to the actual embroidery circle - went smoothly and in the way I had hoped it would go. The atmosphere was warm, inviting, and with purpose.

The table was set with five stations of embroidery hoops, practice cloths, needles and thread. Within the first five minutes of the opening, each station was filled! Each person understood that this was the first day of the installation, and, with help, that the piece would grow as the residency progressed.

I taught the group the only embroidery stitch I know, the chain stitch, which was easily mastered by all. Everyone worked with vigor and great enthusiasm.

I've only ever made my own work, so to have such willing participants in one of my pieces was a new and humbling experience. My aim is to embroider upwards of 50 sheets during my time at Roos. Hopefully with this much positivity and encouragement, I will attain this goal.

Images to follow

x

blurring boundaries

exploring the impermanence of an edge

Airing Dirty Laundry

Airing Dirty Laundry

Angela Rose Voulgarelis

6 February - 12 March, 2011

Opening Sunday, February 6th, 1 - 5 pm

Roos Arts is Pleased to Present

Airing Dirty Laundry

Angela Rose Voulgarelis

6 February - 12 March, 2011

Closing Party: Saturday, March 12th, 6 - 8 pm

Gallery Hours: Tuesdays, 1 - 5 pm, Thursdays, 4 - 7 pm, Sundays, 1- 5 pm and by appointment

For five weeks, Angela Rose Voulgarelis will create an embroidery circle at Roos Arts, bringing to life the second of three phases of her performance piece Airing Dirty Laundry. This picks up the thread of the first installment, which invited visitors at the show, Made In Rosendale, to complete various phrases on small cards, and place them into a transparent ballot box. The phrases collected from that exhibition are now going to be embroidered onto over 50 white sheets that will be exhibited in and around Rosendale at a later date.

As an ongoing process, Airing Dirty Laundry has continued to exist both as a growing site-specific installation and as an interactive collaboration between the artist and the public. During the six-week ‘residency’ at Roos Arts, the artist again invites community participation, this time as fellow embroiderers. Embroidery, as a central visual element in this piece, works as a way to reveal the commonalities between meditation and everyday actions. The playful yet suggestive notion of “airing dirty laundry,” in combination with audience participation, provides a lighthearted incentive to reveal stories and life experiences we might otherwise keep to ourselves. The sheets, needles, and thread will be provided, as will basic embroidery lessons. All ages and skill levels are welcome to join on Tuesdays between 1 and 5 pm, Thursdays between 4 and 7 pm, and Sundays between 1 and 5 pm, until March 10th.

Please join us on February 6th, between 1-5 PM, for the first day of Angela's residency at the gallery, accompanied by warm beverages and cookies.

Special thanks to April Warren for all her help!

For more information, please contact Heige at hk@roosarts.com or 718-755-4726.

**Free Municipal parking available on Main Street behind Rosendale Theater. Thank you in advance for not parking at Rosendale Cafe parking lot.

Women's Works 2011 24th Annual Fine Arts Show, proposal

Bodies Form, To/From Mothering Alphabet

8' x 8', Dust and dirt on contact paper and wall

thoughts

integrating art and teaching

proposing, proposing, proposing

bodies reforming

between fem and ism

learning as I teach

planning this season's garden

Feb. 1, 2011

Been up since 5AM, awoke with the snow.
Black cats and self portraits abound in studio.
While Egypt is still rioting, this is the biggest storm to hit the Northeast in 30 years.

As the paint dries on another canvas, I clean the studio.
It's in the mud stage...

The reflected light from the snow is almost too much

Cut.Fold.Interrupt.Repeat

Cut.Fold.Interrupt.Repeat
Installation views
Linksoul Lab
San Diego, CA


Morse code translation of Women and Children First
by Ingrid De Kok
Coral, glass, silk, silver


Alternate view


Morse code translation of
Not To Speak Is To Speak
Not To Act Is To Act


Alternate view


Detail


Installation view

Recent work

Recent Paintings
Late 2010-early 2011

Jak na novy rok, tak po cely rok

There is a Czech proverb that states: how on New Years, so too for the rest of the year.

I'm taking time...

to play

to love

to be in sunshine

to de-install and be with the artwork

to reflect

to step-in and speak what I believe

to know I don't know

to feel satisfied

to sit

to drink tea

to connect

Memory Upgrade, Center on Contemporary Art Annual 2010

6413 Seaview Avenue NW ● Seattle, WA 98107 ● 206 728 1980

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Ray C. Freeman III, President
(206)349-3147 ray@cocaseattle.org
David Francis, Artist Liason
(206) 851-9641 david@cocaseattle.org
Center on Contemporary Art
(206) 728-1980 info@cocaseattle.org
http://www.cocaseattle.org

CoCA Pioneer Square Presents the 2010 Annual Juried Exhibition,
Memory Upgrade

From December 2, 2010 - January 1, 2011, CoCA Pioneer Square will present Memory Upgrade, a juried exhibition featuring work from 16 emerging as well as established artists in a wide variety of visual media, including 2d, 3d, and video.

Memory Upgrade explores the ways in which artists have responded to the global financial crisis by changing various aspects of their work. Considered collectively, these artists hint at the heightened importance of memory, history, and the role of the artist to affect social change.

Over 180 artists from across the county, Europe, and Australia submitted works for consideration. CoCA has presented the Annual since 1989, each time inviting an independent juror to select the work. For this year's 21st anniversary of the show, CoCA is proud to have Juan Alonso as juror.

Over a career that spans 25 years, Alonso has received numerous grants, awards, and recognition from a wide variety of arts organization in the Seattle area, including the Behnke Foundation, PONCHO (2007 Artist of the Year), 4Culture, Mayors Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Artist Trust, Pratt Fine Arts Center, and Centrum. Born in Cuba in 1956, Alonso came to the Unites States at an early age, leaving behind his family to learn a new language in a foreign place.

There will be an opening reception on Thursday, December 2, from 6 – 9pm at CoCA’s Pioneer Square location located inside the former Elliott bay Book Company at 310 1st Ave South in Pioneer Square. Juan Alonso will announce prizewinners at the reception and field questions via satellite from Miami / Basel Art Fair.

Participating artists include: Minh Carrico, Laura Castellanos, David French, Douglas Gast,
Sarah Gilbert, Harold Hollingsworth, Phillip Hua, Alma Leiva, Nia Michaels, Nate Orton,
Scott Schuldt, Patti Shaw, Garric Simonsen, Tereza Swanda, Kate Sweeney and Jillian Vento.

CoCA Statement

In Bodies Form, To/From Mothering Alphabet, I leave an imprint, a trace of my movement with another, specifically my child and mother. I explore interconnectedness. I fill the form with what feels more like us rather than the superficial image. We end being a joint body made of the same or similar everyday material, residual dust, hair, cobwebs, lint, bread crumbs, flour, and threads. All of the material is collected through the “mothering” process of tidying up, (keeping home) and exposed within the joint shape instead of discarded. Twenty-six symbols reveal an other’s alphabet. I use everyday matter combined with the people who matter the most in my life to find a language that represents what I embody.

Bio

Tereza Swanda, born Mazurova, in 1978, Jesenik, Czech Republic, has shown her artwork at University of Oregon in Eugene, Berliner Kunstprojekt in Berlin, 450 Broadway Gallery in New York City, online in Storyscale Journal, Anthology One, and elsewhere. She has installed site-specific work at Chemeketa Community College Art Gallery in Through the Eyes of Strangers, artists visit South Africa. She received her M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts where she was awarded scholarship. Swanda also holds 2 BFAs in Painting and Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design as well as an NCME Certificate from Bellevue Montessori. Currently, Tereza lives and teaches in Redmond, WA.

Sweet Studio

I had a remarkable class yesterday.

We started the day talking about theatre. More specifically we talked about making a puppet theatre for the puppets we made last week. We talked about the background, what our character/puppet needs? Where does s/he live? Children were given a large sheet of paper and the class turned into a painting studio. Children painted standing up with their canvas in front of them and painted until most of the paper was covered with paint. The goal was to transform the construction paper into a different world.

From there we moved into painting the theatre itself (a cardboard box.) And for the finale each child (3-6 yrs.) got up in front of their audience (each other) and presented their puppet in his/her world.

Anything is Possible- Film Art21

One of those films that resonates. My condensed list of memorable quotes:

"I'm only an artist. My job is to make drawings. Not to make sense."

He is talking here about the seriousness of play.

"It is in the looseness of trying different things that images and ideas emerge. It's always been in between the things I thought I was doing that the real work has happened."

And perhaps my favorite one,

"I think one does think with one's hands."

between fem and ism (digital sketches)

I have been thinking about the difference between theory and practice and how one falls short without the other.