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Studio News from His Room as He Left It
Studio update
Dec 13, 2019
Perseverance
Every minute of every day I want to be doing my work. Drey and Sparkleton are my only children. They were born in 2003 and remain with me, once growing strong, but now stagnant due to the two major debilitating chronic illnesses I am daily battling like a mofo.
Sometimes I even forget what I’m up against, my time being so consumed by basic needs like accessing proper food, symptom management, and ADLs. I’m also without truly adequate studio space, so when I am able to work, it’s within tiny confines or very difficult to access.
I am heartbroken that this great passion to live, eat, and breathe this project has been stabbed in the side by ME/CFS. Rather, the passion remains, it shouts, “Hey!” from deep inside me every day. It’s my ability to work that has been crippled.
There is nothing I’d rather be doing than thinking and working almost all day every day, like I did when I was manic, and even after that subsided. Now things are very different. My brain is affected by disease and medication, which has shifted my creativity sideways and sloooowwww. I can work, but rarely. But I am not going to stop.
Sparkleton will come alive, more and more, slowly but surely, I promise myself, and I promise Drey. I am not giving up on this thing I love most. I will fight for this, my life’s work, with my broken self. I will build his room around me, with my boy and all his friends, the townsfolk, the Flying Saucer, and the lake. I will complete his story, and it will be good.
Thank you for listening.
June-July 2019 sandpaper FINE
will be spreading a mix of very fine rust and mica dust & glue onto these painted pieces to make sandpaper.
April 2019
Going through photos this week, I realized there’s very little here showing things in Drey’s room as they will be when the project is finished. I tend to mostly post progress pix and finished pieces. So, along with the great pix by Kevin and others from FaF in 2015, here are a some scenes that are more evocative of the overall mood.
And a funny layout sketch on the inside of my working drawing for the Crier…
Jan 2019
working on FERT “Dung-Along” mobile manure air freshener…
october 2018
Glad to be back in the (new) (quasi-) studio!
june 2018
Why I haven't been able to do much artwork:
https://www.meaction.net/about/what-is-me/
XoX
Mystery Train Amherst Summer '17 Group Art Show
Delighted to be a part of this summer show, with a blobby shape painting or two (from FECIT).
Thanks to the magical Josh Burkett for the invite!
Andrea Glampyre
Ariel Kotker
Bryan Gillig
Clark Griffin
Conrad Capistran
Jan Anderzen
Josh Burkett
Shunkle Ebunkle
Mystery Train Records
178 N Pleasant Street
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002
(413) 253-4776
Opening: Friday, June 9 at 6 PM !
https://www.facebook.com/events/134997377060555/
'No Respite' Group Show
The talented and terrific Greta Svalberg has included a few items from HRAHLI in this group show, which runs through the end of April:
Opening reception Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 5 PM - 8 PM
Come on down!
No Respite: Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, Photography, and Sculpture
Andrea Sroka
Ariel Kotker
C'naan Hamburger
Danny Monster Cruz
Esther S. White
Hollister Fitch
Lee Ranaldo
Loren Burke
Noel'le Longhaul
Sam Guerin
Trevor Powers
Curated by Greta Svalberg
Rozz Tox Art
at Feeding Tube Records
221 Pine St. / Room 141
Florence, MA 01062
Gallery Hours
weds, thurs, fri 4PM – 8PM
saturday noon – 8PM
sunday noon – 6PM
http://feedingtuberecords.com/rozztoxart/ https://www.facebook.com/events/1300410770026538/
Drey's empty bottle of lighter fluid sketch
May 2016
It'll be made of painted aluminum flashing and polymer clay. See FINISHED PIECES for finished piece.
Drey's WOOL-ITZ "Natural" Sweater
February 2016
Here is Drey's blue sweater, some (blurry) working pix, some almost finished and one "in action" shot. I still need to sew on the second brown elbow patch and create some fake burrs to stick on the edges of the sweater.
Sweater: old fleece blanket; cut, assembled and sewn Tags: sewing on blanket edging and old fabric Elbow patches: yarn glued on cut fabric.
Find & Form Space show
6 March 2015
What a lovely night, thank to everyone involved.
Pix by me, Allison Mather Cook, my Mom, and whomever she handed her camera to.
The bed (I included the raw cardboard bed in this show to give a sense of the dimensions of the finished room), rug, diary, hunting cap, and slingshot are still in progress. When finished, the bed will have the same "faux" appearance as the other furniture. The rug, which is painted newspaper, will be larger. My sketches for things to make & things already made are up on the walls, along with my ideas for Drey's bird comic, squirly mag, taxidermy, etc.
Really terrific shots of my work, all by Kevin Frances:
Find & Form show announcement
24 February 2015
here is a tiny tidbit of what you'll see if you join us at:
find & form space
524 Harrison Ave LL
Boston MA
02118
on this night:
6 march 2015
6-9pm
thanks!
Woodcock Waste Can
January 2015
Progress shots of Drey's wastebasket. Acrylic ink and pencil on cut, sanded, crimped and glued aluminum flashing.
Cake Balls Lid
6 Dec 2014
Here is the finished lid for the tube of Cake Balls. Polymer Clay, Acrylic Ink
Shoebox Take II
6 December 2014
Re-did the "WALKING SHOES" shoe box entirely. Still am working on the Lid. The Tissue Paper will be crumpled inside. Drey has taken the shoes out of the box and used them to walk into the sunset. The box will be in his waste basket, along with an opened and empty package of Boxer Shorts. Gesso, pencil, colored pencil and chalk on cut, folded and glued cardboard.
Shoebox Tissue: colored pencil on tracing paper
Shoebox
1 October 2014
This will be an empty shoe box in Drey's waste basket. It is SUNSET brand Walking Shoes, with a road into the sunset and Lake Erie on the horizon. It will be folded and glued to be like a real shoe box, the outside will be finished with the design you see here, and the inside will be colored cardboard colored brown chalk or charcoal.
Find & Form invitation / ArtSake blog post
31 August 2014
Hiya,
I'm thrilled to have been invited by kevin frances to do a pop-up show in march at find & form space in boston. check out his work, it's wonderful!
also, as always check out the artsake blog run by the massachusetts cultural council.
here is a post about documenting work that's kinda tricky to document..
many thanks to dan blask for inviting me to contribute!
Ariel Kotker, sculpture/installation artist
My project is best seen and touched in person, but of course I can’t invite everyone for a studio visit. So I keep a blog to tell how I’m writing a story in sculpture. I aim to present the different ways I write the story. Some sculptures are cut and colored paper, with stenciled or drawn words. These I show in photos, and post links to running drafts of the text. Some pieces portray, say, a rabbit’s foot on a chain, but made of gilded clay, malleable plastic, milkweed and wire. These I show step-by-step, from armature to finished “fur.” Sometimes (but not very often) people mistake my sculpture for found objects, so it’s helpful to share how my work is constructed. I want folks to know that all the items are handmade. His Room As He Left It is a work in progress, and a blog is handy for documentation and marking time. I add artist statements, inspirations, pieces in-process and done, or video of my work “in action” (e.g., me reading from Drey’s diary; a rolling toy car; pants which I can fold and unfold). I often revisit what I’ve posted when looking for a spark-plug to get myself working more devotedly.