Over the past two months I have sort of hated blogs. Stopped looking at them, stopped logging into this, stopped caring about the pseudo-gossipy nature of it all. I think it was a post-election downer, or something, since I was checking political blogs every 3 minutes right up until election night.

So I never got around to an end of semester wrap up, winter break post or even a welcome-back-to-the-spring-semester hello.

Since I should be doing work right now, for the first time in many weeks I have decided to update this.

The last semester was good. Hectic of course. Once studio ended, almost two weeks before all the other classes, I was thrown into a weird state of feeling like the pressure was off even though it wasn't. It took a lot of energy to get back into the pace of things and finish papers, projects and other details.

The highlight of this was the concrete-and-glass-bottle wall that my group made for our technologies class. I have a lot of pictures from last semester that will be posted once I organize them all, including that wall. It was fun and I learned a lot in a short period.

Over the break I worked with C-Lab and Volume magazine on a hectic, rushed upcoming "bootleg" issue of Volume, dealing specifically with global crises. More specifically with fiscal crises. As I type it is at the printer now but I cannot wait to see it. It was a stressful but in the end good experience. I worked with fellow blogger Wayne and his labRAD partner Arielle. Again, I learned a lot in a short period.

Right now I am working on making rammed earth for my current studio. I have Bob Marino, who caught my attention during the studio lottery by mentioning how the artist Robert Smithson used to bury things in the NJ Meadowlands. Some people who know me would therefore understand my interest....

He said this semester's studio would be one of material exploration, which he often doesn't do and has been "unsuccessful" with in the past. I have often felt like I've neglected materials, and by that, I mean working with one material other than a pencil and paper to really understand and push the use of the material, so I am happy so far with this studio placement.

The past week I have been led to looking at rammed earth, and I am trying to successfully make it in my little wooden molds, but the mixture hasn't been quite perfected yet. It seems that it's hard to get good dirt in New York.


Ramming mixture


Assorted forms


Some earth, mid-ram