Update from Mimm Patterson

Around this time last year I was submitting my application for this program, not knowing anything about McGuffey Art Center or believing that I had a chance of being selected. And now we’re sliding into the home stretch. This month a couple of my fellow Incubators and I toured the gallery space and developed a feel for how our June exhibit will look. I created a new website for my work (http://mimmpattersonart.org) and in the process felt justified in describing myself as an artist - a bit of a breakthrough for me. I also explored working in a larger format - 18x24 inches. Because I don’t have a large scale printer this forces me to cut images down into ‘tiles’. I’ve discovered this necessity slows the process of creating which in turn increases intentionality and focus.

Update from Elena Yu

This month I was in California for the entire month for a project I am working on at UC Santa Barbara with their Ethnic and Gender Studies Library Collection and the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives. After conducting research, a workshop, and meetings on campus for a week, I drove up to Oakland, California where I had a three week studio residency at Real Time and Space. I started a new body of work related to my research in at UCSB. I started many different material experiments that I plan to include in my final Incubator exhibition this June. One of my favorite discoveries have been “stamp weaving,” a technique I discovered in which strategically placed rubber stamping on paper results in the illusion of woven cloth. I sourced the rubber stamps from the abandoned belongings found in former Ethnic and Gender Studies Collection staff offices, which the university library is currently cleaning out to convert into group study spaces.

Update from Mimm Patterson

It’s hard to believe we’re beginning to discuss our group show in June - our Incubator Year has gone by so quickly! But February was a sad month that influenced my ability to show up for my art and for myself. My partner and I said good-bye to our 21-year-old cat Bruce. In between tears I tried to lean into my work and focused on photographing texture that I will later print onto Hanshi paper and apply in layers to cradled birch in order to build depth and detail. Meanwhile, my obsession with the energetic imprint we leave on objects that have meaning for us continues. 

Update from Elena Yu

This month I have been preparing for my upcoming residency and research trip to California, where I will be for all of March. I will be leading a workshop at a university library where participants cut posters into strips and weave them together. I have been collecting poster images online from the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives. I also tested out this technique on some of my own recent drawings, weaving together two drawings that used different color schemes but have a similar composition. I think the result is intriguing and I’m looking forward to exploring this technique more in the future.

Update from Mimm Patterson

My work this month has taken an unanticipated turn. I’ve reignited my affair with photography and have spent hours taking photographs of the things we leave behind. My great-grandmother’s wire framed eyeglasses. An antique sake cup with a chip on the rim. The wedding ring my mother’s mother wore. I’m exploring the energetic imprint we leave on the objects we love. I’ve learned that this makes the story I’m trying to tell more accessible somehow. We all store memories in the objects we decide to keep. In that sense, the story I’m trying to tell through my work is everyone’s story.

Update from Elena Yu

This month I went back to a practice that I used to spend more time on but haven’t for a while because it’s very time intensive: hand-stitched clothing mending. A client commissioned me to do an overall mend on her favorite shirt, which was threadbare in many areas and had big holes on the elbows.

Update from Elena Yu

This month I made two commissioned fabric TV slipcovers for two of my friends from back in California. I used mostly scraps and smaller leftover pieces from previous projects. I am happy with how they turned out and would like to make more when I have time for sewing projects.

Update from Mimm Patterson

This month I’ve been working on having a more focused eye while at the same time honing my encaustic skills. I’m dealing with air bubbles and de-lamination. Ugh. I’ve also begun reflecting on our June Incubator Show. It’s months away but I know those months will fly by. What story do I want to tell and how will the story be told? Am I able to create strong, resonant work that has heart and meaning? I’ve been photographing artifacts left behind by family members and then using that image to create an encaustic collage. I appreciate the energetic imprint left behind. This image is of a tiny Dew Drops daily reflection book from the 1850’s that was passed down through generations of women in my family. Through this process I’m discovering - or remembering from my previous experience as a working artist - that the creative process is a personal process. In the same way that we leave an energetic imprint on everything we touch, the artist reveals something about herself with every mark.

Update from Elena Yu

This month I have been working on developing and creating an edition of drawings for New City Arts’ 2023 Artist Exchange Edition project. After many tests and sketches I finally decided on a composition to recreate 13 times for the edition. Red net, purple mountains is an edition of 13, measuring 8.5 x 10.5 inches each and made with colored pencil and Neocolor wax oil pastels on BFK Rives paper. I am looking forward to making bigger drawings in this style.

Update from Mimm Patterson

This past month I ventured outside my comfort zone and explored scale by working on two larger pieces - one on 20x20” cradled birch and another on 16x16” cradled birch. Both pieces incorporate a transfer process that at best is ‘hit or miss’ for me but that’s why I find it intriguing. I never know what might happen. I appreciate the intimacy and story-telling aspects of my smaller works but am excited by the challenges of working large. This piece, ‘Miklat/Bomb Shelter’, is 20x20” and based on a photograph I took while on a visit to Jerusalem in 2016.

Update from Elena Yu

I’ve been enjoying lots of studio time while in between jobs and find myself getting back to drawing after a long while. I’ve been making studies of a 20+ year old lichen-covered basketball net recovered from my partner’s childhood home in the woods in Connecticut. Processes I’ve been drawn to since high school and college are re-emerging, such as using photocopies and tracing paper layers to distort, collage and abstract objects into new compositions. One of the finished drawings made from this new body of work will be on view in the Incubator Gallery for the month of November.

Update from Mimm Patterson

In September three small pieces were accepted into C’ville’s Second Street Gallery and this month I’ve had work accepted into a group show in Chicago’s Woman Made Gallery. This feels validating - as if I’m on the right path - but my focus over these winter months is less about exhibiting my work and more about slowing down the process. I was so hungry to create during the summer that I couldn’t stop playing with wax and now I have a wall full of work - but is it a ‘body of work’? Winter is a ‘yin’ season - a season of contemplation and reflection. And that is my intention. To spend time in considered reflection as I refine my techniques with the goal of creating nuanced work that touches the viewers heart.

Update From Mimm Patterson

I spent one week of September down for the count with an ear infection and the last ten days of the month in California, where I was inspired by the shorebirds of the San Francisco Baylands. I’m back in the studio working with the photographs I took and channeling my inner peliCAN (because who wants to be a peliCAN’T?).

Update From Grace Little

This past month in the studio has truly felt like a turning point in my studio practice. I have had a lot of sweet time painting, reflecting, imagining, and envisioning what could be. I’ve also had a lot of opportunities to share about the work & that has been quite honestly one of my favorite parts. Currently, I am working on a painting based on two large paintings, one being from the fabric I was ever so frustrated with last month.

Update From Mimm Patterson

This past month I’ve been developing my fledgling encaustic skills. I love the process - despite the frustrations - and know that it was the technique I needed in my toolbox to support the story I’m trying to tell.

Update From Grace Little

I had a pretty bad artist block the entirety of the month of August. I spent a lot of time in the studio reading & trying to come up with concepts for projects, while I wasn’t necessarily painting, I spent a lot of time thinking, processing, and learning what the next body of work would be about.

Update From Mika Rose

Since moving into the incubator space, I have found it easier to allow myself to settle into whatever the process is on any given day. Lately, Tuesday’s process has involved a tofu banh mi from Vu Noodle and a long look at pottery forms. In the evenings, I have spent many hours throwing pots on the wheel while watching episodes of House, something my pre-incubator self never considered. I recently launched a Mug Club with the intention of connecting with some of my followers and creating a prompt for myself. So far, no one has signed up.  Mug Club

Update From Tori White

This month, I’ve been working on this woodcut. I have never done a relief project this big, so I am taking my time with it. I am hoping to have the first carve done within the next couple of days so that I can print the first layer and move on to carving the next layer.

Update From Irene Arifin

Ever since I moved into the studio, I have been really excited to be able to work on bigger pieces. Lately, I have been experimenting with different styles, and it feels like with each pieces, I am gently holding the hands of my different personalities out as an introduction to the world.

Update From Elena Yu

In the first week after moving into my studio at McGuffey, I got into the flow of making by sewing daily “scrap sketches.” These are made from oddly-shaped scraps of fabric leftover from larger projects like quilts or clothing. I make them intuitively, often falling into a meditative state where compositional decisions are made quickly and subconsciously. I let colors and shapes lead my hands, while my mind wanders into reflections on my day or whatever podcast I happen to be listening to. I pin these scrap sketches up on my wall and wonder whether they want to live on their own as mini quilts, or if they’ll inspire something more.