Ordinary Time
After attending Catholic school for 12 years, I sometimes conceptualize time within the liturgical categories of "Ordinary Time" -the ordinary everyday periods- and ... Exceptional (?!) Time -e.g. Advent / Christmas, Lent / Easter, et cetera. However, since moving to California, it feels as though the patterns of our seasons have yet to settle into any "Ordinary Time." Once daily rhythms settle into one groove, something (an exhibition, a new job, et cetera) comes along to shake it all up again.
In keeping with this truism, the year has seen its share of re-adjustments, marked significantly with the decision to dramatically scale back my free lancing "day jobs" to take on a post more resembling a 9-5. In the studio during this time, I have been plugging away at a new body of work...or, rather, I have picked up an old thread that was lying dominant and unresolved as my current main studio project. Loaded with struggles on technical, conceptual, and formal fronts (like all new bodies of work) PLUS my reliance on midday sunlight for my archaic printing processes, the project has been slow going with this new schedule.
But enough is enough! There is work to be done, and it is time to find ways to do it. There are fresh prints cooking, and new testers in the pipeline. Fresh colors have been added to the stock (thanks!! to generous benefactors), and new combinations are being mixed.
Pictured is a second (third? fourth? fifth?) generation test of different color combinations and negative processing for one of the subprojects.
What's so special about Ordinary Time anyway.
Eastward / Westward
I love roadtripping. It might be one of my favorite things. And I have recently discovered how awesome roadtrip-image-making can be.The mix of chance and purposefuliness is fantastic. And the pleasure of going through the hundreds of snaps brings me right back to the open road. Most are crap, but there are a few winners you knew would be there. But best of all is the surprise gems.Here are a few favs from a springtime trip from Oakland to Denver on the occasion of the unparalleled Monique Crine's wedding + solo show at Denver MCA.
Cali to Colo. And back again.
TechnoColor Alt Printing
New adventures in archaic alternative photography printing: cyanotype + 3-color gum bichromate + van dyke. Voila!
New adventures in archaic alternative photography printing: cyanotype + 3-color gum bichromate + van dyke. Voila!
The idea of incorporating color and more painterly techniques into my darkroom work has led me to delve into gum bichromate printing, which uses watercolors and split tone negatives to make "full color" images. Pulling upon all my various printing medium experimentations, I have found myself with a five negative process that gives some exciting results.Preview pictured. Hopefully more to come...
Glass Experiments
With the new year has come new studio experiments, such as printing cyanotypes on glass.
With the new year has come new studio experiments, such as printing cyanotypes on glass.After immersing myself in the cyanotype on paper process for my Hemland and Robinwood projects, I have been trying my hand at printing cyanotypes on glass (plus some coffee toning). The experiments have been quite hit or miss, and it may not turn into a process that I pursue with any seriousness. But there is some pleasure in the trail and error process.
Credit to Joseph J. McAllister, whose videos and documentation have allowed me to get as far as I have on this lark.
Artist Profile
In conjunction with the pop-up show of Robinwood, Move Loot has published an artist's profile on their blog.
In conjunction with the pop-up show of Robinwood, Move Loot has published an artist's profile on their blog. Available here >
The exhibition will be on view through the end of November 2014.
Local Artist Profile: Jillian Piccirilli
1. Can you share with our readers a bit about the concept and history behind your Robinwood collection?
Robinwood is an ode to my grandparents’ home in the wake of their deaths and its sale. My own life has been marked by a degree of transience, and their handmade home had been a constant for me. Inspired by blueprints lifted from the December 1946 issue of Better Homes & Gardens, Robinwood was the house that Mae, an amateur photographer, and Jim, a carpenter, built together with sweat, luck, and modest means on northern Michigan cow pasture land; and it was the locus of their lives for sixty years. My Robinwood series echoes their blueprint source through the alternative cyanotype printing process and reflects how they made this template their own with the added warm color layers of gum bichromate printing and hand painting. Creating the series was an effort to both keep the home and also share it.
2. How were these pieces made?
The full Robinwood series is made up of 41 works that chronicle the homestead inside and out. My source material is a combination of photographs that I took, photographs that my grandmother took (she was an amateur photographer who kept a full darkroom in an upstairs closet), as well as snapshots by other family members from our archives. Each piece was first printed as a cyanotype, aka a “sun print” / “blue print,” on the roof outside my West Oakland studio. After the cyanotype was fully developed, I then added a gum bichromate layer, which uses watercolor pigment for the color and the sun again for exposure. Then I hand painted and mounted each image onto a wooden panel. The gum bichromate and hand work was all color coded according to which part of the house the image depicted.
3. How can artwork alter a space?
Art gives a space character and personality. It says something about not only about the occupants’ aesthetics, but their past and their values: Where have they been? Who have they loved? What have they lost? And having the work of a living artist speaks to a support of the visual arts as part of our contemporary culture. From screen prints to oil paintings, there is an staggering diversity of work and price points available in the Bay Area by artists at all career points.
4. How do you select artwork for your own home?
The artwork in our home tends to be rather personal tokens and momentos, alongside works that make us think and make us laugh. In our little kitchen is a teapot print we got while on our honeymoon in Ireland. There are a couple of concert posters that we bought from the amazing publishing house Drawn and Quarterly during a trip to Montreal. There is a tiny nest painting by a friend and colleague. There is a prized photograph of my great aunt (who was the first in the family to attend college) shaking hands with LBJ when she was a part of his administration. We recently moved, and it has been interesting to reflect upon how the art we surround ourselves with has changed over the years as our lives, tastes, and values have evolved. There is one or two token holdovers from the college dorm days; but, for the most part, our artwork selections have grown and matured along with us.
Holiday Pop-Up
Move Loot is hosting a pop-up shop for the holidays, and selections from Robinwood will be on display for November. Check out the work and the shop!
Move Loot is hosting a pop-up shop for the holidays, and selections from Robinwood will be on display for November. Check out the work and the shop:
Move Loot Pop-Up
537 Octavia Street { Hayes Valley } SF
M - F 10 - 8p / S - S 10 - 6p
Artists reception : Sun, Nov 9, 3-6p
ROBINWOOD @ Move Loot
Robinwood Installation
Installation images of Robinwood at Hinterland Art Space (Denver, CO).
Installation images of Robinwood at Hinterland Art Space (Denver, CO). On view September 12 - October 3, 2014.
ROBINWOOD @ Hinterland Art Space
The Coastal Post
On the heels of my departure to install Robinwood at Denver's Hinterland Art Space, Leah Thomason Bromberg paid me a studio visit to discuss the new work.
On the heels of my departure to install Robinwood at Denver's Hinterland Art Space, Leah Thomason Bromberg paid me a studio visit to discuss the new work. Read Leah's piece for the Coastal Post here >
Carpenter, Photographer
Leah Thomason Bromberg visits the studio of Jillian Piccirilli
There is a sea of blue in Jillian Piccirilli’s studio from quiet grey-blues to deep indigos. Cyanotype after cyanotype on hardy paper covers every surface of her small studio in the loft of a larger studio in Oakland. I arrived at Jillian’s studio in the evening in her last days before she traveled to Denver for her solo show,Robinwood at Hinterland Art Space. I was very excited to be meeting her in the final stretch before her show—I’d be getting a special glimpse of the work right on the edge between “in progress” and being polished.
Robinwood at Hinterland
It’s gonna be a party! Opening at Denver’s Hinterland Art Space on Friday, September 12th, 6-11p: ROBINWOOD.
ROBINWOOD
Sept 12 – Oct 3 | Opening Night Reception 6-11p
Hinterland Art Space
3254 Walnut St, Denver, CO
ROBINWOOD
My new series Robinwood chronicles the life of my maternal family’s past handmade homestead. A three-bedroom-two-bath set on northern Michigan cow pasture land and inspired by blueprints lifted from a Better Homes & Gardens, Robinwood was the house that my grandparents Jim and Mae King built together. Being the Kings’ only grandchild, I have created an illustrated ode to the space, which had been a constant against a typical life marked by transience. Through a merging of archaic photographic printing methods and painting that mines the family’s archives and artifacts, I have attempted to mime Jim and Mae’s impulses of creation and sharing. Robinwood is a re-creation and re-telling of the story of the space, which seeks to both contain and extend the homestead’s life.
HINTERLAND
HINTERLAND is Sabin Aell and Randy Rushton. Early 2008 the couple opened the art space, where Sabin curates and exhibits adventurous contemporary art. The term HINTERLAND originates in the german language, has been incorporated into the english vocabulary and means: Beyond what is visible or known.Reflecting on the name, HINTERLAND is explicitly featuring artists who work with extravagant and coherent visions. The art highlighted plays and seduces with compelling concepts within the roam of contemporary art. HINTERLAND shows artists who practice in a variety of medium, including: painting, photography, sculpture, video, glass art, textiles, fashion and design.HINTERLAND is entirely built with reclaimed and salvaged materials. All artists and guests are appreciated who are in resonance with the desire to share, exploit fun and co-create within living as energy efficient as it gets. HINTERLAND is part of the Rino Art District.
New Work, Upcoming Exhibition
Exciting announcement: Denver’s Hinterland Art Space will premier my newest series of photography/painting works this autumn.
Exciting announcement: Denver's Hinterland Art Space will premier my newest series of photography/painting works this autumn.
ROBINWOOD
Sept 12 - Oct 3, 2014
Hinterland Art Space
3254 Walnut St, Denver, CO
ROBINWOOD
A three-bedroom-two-bath set on northern Michigan cow pasture land and inspired by blueprints lifted from a Better Homes & Gardens, Robinwood was the house that my grandparents Jim and Mae King built together. Through a merging of archaic photographic printing methods and painting that mines the family’s archives and artifacts, I have attempted to mime Jim and Mae’s impulses of creation and sharing. Robinwood is a re-creation and re-telling of the story of the space, which seeks to both contain and extend the homestead's life.
HINTERLAND
HINTERLAND is Sabin Aell and Randy Rushton. Early 2008 the couple opened the art space, where Sabin curates and exhibits adventurous contemporary art. The term HINTERLAND originates in the german language, has been incorporated into the english vocabulary and means: Beyond what is visible or known.
Reflecting on the name, HINTERLAND is explicitly featuring artists who work with extravagant and coherent visions. The art highlighted plays and seduces with compelling concepts within the roam of contemporary art. HINTERLAND shows artists who practice in a variety of medium, including: painting, photography, sculpture, video, glass art, textiles, fashion and design.
HINTERLAND is entirely built with reclaimed and salvaged materials. All artists and guests are appreciated who are in resonance with the desire to share, exploit fun and co-create within living as energy efficient as it gets. HINTERLAND is part of the Rino Art District.
Kala40 Exhibition
On view April 17 – 25, Legymer from my Hemland series will be featured as part of the Kala Art Institute‘s annual auction exhibition and gala.
On view April 17 - 25, Legymer from my Hemland series will be featured as part of the Kala Art Institute's annual auction exhibition and gala.
Kala, located in south Berkeley, was the site of my introduction to cyanotype printing and where I recently took a course on gum printing. I am happy and honored to have this work be part of an event to support such a special institution!
Kala 40: Kala Art Institute’s 40th Anniversary Auction & Gala
Saturday, April 26, 6:30–10pm | Preview party: Thursday, April 17, 6- 8pm
Celebrating Kala’s 40th anniversary, this spring event will be a highly publicized exhibition and auction gala featuring outstanding artwork from prominent California artists. Along with the high quality original artworks will be unique art-related items offered through both live and silent auctions.This spring event combines a 10-day exhibition of works by the best and brightest artists currently working in California and culminates in the dynamic Gala Auction on April 26, from 6:30 – 10:00 pm. The exhibition Kala 40 will open with a special preview party on Thursday, April 17 from 6 - 8 pm.
Denver Westword | Exhibition Review
The Denver Westword’s Michael Paglia reviews our Pirate exhibition ITHACA.
The Denver Westword's Michael Paglia reviews our Pirate exhibition ITHACA.Paglia writes: "A smart looking show on display at Pirate combines pieces by three artists who first met in 2006 at Cornell University... Though each is doing something clearly different, they work in compatible styles, so the show is a seamless whole."
On my work:
The west wall, given over to Piccirilli, is tiled with dozens of small cyanotypes altered with wax and gouache. These oneoff prints are collectively entitled "Hemland," with some presented as single panels and others being diptychs or triptychs. These photobased montages combine travel pictures from her visits to the ancestral home of her mother's family in Sweden with images of letters and artifacts. Stylistically, there's a neodada aspect to them, although the chastity of the imagery also gives them a sort of hightech look.
ITHACA exhibition | Denver, CO
Keep Ithaca always in view.
Keep Ithaca always in view.
Getting there is your final purpose.
But never speed up your journey, no.
Better to let it last for many years;
and anchor on the island when you're old;
rich with what you gained on the road,
never expect Ithaca to give you riches.
Ithaca granted you the beautiful journey.
Without her you'd never have taken to the road.
She has nothing left to give you.
Showing at Pirate: Contemporary Art from Jan. 31st through Feb. 16th, 2014, Ithaca is an exhibition of new works by Monique Crine (Denver), Leah Thomason Bromberg (San Francisco), and myself.
The exhibition served as catalyst to fully realize a new series that I had been working through since 2011, exploring my maternal family's relationship to Sweden, where my great-grandparents and those before them hailed.
The full series, Hemland, can be viewed here.
Below, see the work in the context of its premier Denver showing.
*Excerpt from C.P. Cavafy, Poems, the Canon, trans. John Chioles, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.
HEMLAND @ Pirate: Contemporary Art
Oakland Open Studio
OPEN STUDIO | PRINT EVENT
Saturday, Jan. 25th | 2:30p - 7:30p | 3246 Ettie Street #15, Oakland
I will be previewing my newest work here in Oakland before it travels to Denver for its formal premier at Pirate: Contemporary Art. Hemland, a series of hand-painted cyanotypes exploring my maternal family's relationship to Sweden through travel artifacts and language.
The event will be co-hosted by the wonderful artist Carol Ladewig. She will be opening the flat files, showing and selling a selection of prints in a variety of media. Also on view is her Year in Color series. Come see her newest works documenting 2013, including the most recent incarnation Painting Days. And both of her large Year in Color works from 2012 + 2011 are currently installed!
Announcing Denver Exhibition
Opening Jan. 31, 2014, Pirate: Contemporary Art is pleased to present “Ithaca,” an exhibition of new works by Monique Crine, Leah Thomason Bromberg, and Jillian Piccirilli.
Opening Jan. 31, 2014, Pirate: Contemporary Art is pleased to present “Ithaca,” an exhibition of new works by Monique Crine, Leah Thomason Bromberg, and Jillian Piccirilli.
Currently based on the West Coast, the three artists were first brought together while studying painting at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Their disparate work was, and still is, bound by a commonly held preoccupation with idiocentric family histories set against broader notions of identity, home, and belonging. Each artist’s studio practice shares an interest in the intersection between painting and photography, both as a medium and an artifact. Pairing these forms with highly personal subject matter, the exhibited works are a study in the issues and implications of nostalgia.
Crine’s newest paintings are based on photographs taken of the artist’s father between 1960 - 1970. The work invites speculation into the identity of an individual, while also exploring the aesthetic constructions of formal and informal photography. Bromberg’s current work focuses on the moments of arrival and departure: between life and death, coming or leaving home, packing and unpacking. Her imagery is mined from family photographs and cell phone snapshots, and her story lines draw upon personal experience, her Southern hometown, and her Navajo heritage. And in her recently completed series “Hemland,” Piccirilli translates her maternal family’s experience of their ancestral home Sweden through travel photographs, letters, and artifacts into hand-painted cyanotypes.
Pirate: Contemporary Art is an eclectic and audacious artist-run cooperative gallery, located in downtown Denver for over thirty years. An opening reception will take place on Friday, January 31st, from 6 - 10pm. Pirate is open Friday evenings from 6 - 10pm, Saturday & Sunday 12 - 5pm, and by appointment. “Ithaca” is being shown concurrently with the work of Jason Lee Gimbel in the Associate Space through February 16th.
Pirate: Contemporary Art
3655 Navajo Street, Denver, CO 80211
303/458.6058
X-Country II : This Time, It's Colder.
We took our first x-country road trip in October 2012 to get ourselves, the dog, and a small selection of belongings relocated from Ithaca, New York, to Oakland, California. It was such a great experience that we decided to do it again!
We took our first x-country road trip in October 2012 to get ourselves, the dog, and a small selection of belongings relocated from Ithaca, New York, to Oakland, California. It was such a great experience that we decided to do it again!In December, we left sunny California and sped east, travelling through blizzards, ice storms, and under one persistant rain cloud all the way up the eastern seaboard. The return trip was more leisurely with nights spent camping and days meandering along desert highways.
Vikings / Pirates
On January 31st, I will be taking part in an exhibition in Denver’s Pirate Gallery.
On January 31st, I will be taking part in an exhibition in Denver's Pirate Gallery.Fellow Bay Area painter Leah Thomason Bromberg and I have been invited by Monique Crine to show with her at Pirate, an artist-run gallery cooperative in downtown Denver. With our commonly held Cornell art educations tucked under our belts, we are bringing our work back together in another frigid setting. It promises to be an exciting showing of fresh new work from each of us.Between then and now, I will be printing over fifty cyanotypes for a new series that draws upon my own and my fellow matriarchal family member's pilgrimages back to the Sweden. A bit about my recent trip can be read here.
Stay tuned!
Ghost Town Farm Harvest
On a recent beautiful Saturday, Novella Carpenter hosted the last Open Farm Day at her West Oakland Ghost Town Farm.
On a recent beautiful Saturday, Novella Carpenter hosted the last Open Farm Day at her West Oakland Ghost Town Farm.
There were pumpkins, tomatoes, kale plants, honey, t-shirts, and books for sale. There was a honey extraction tutorial and a round of lemonade made with the Farm's honey. A lovely time was had by all!
Here is a selection of photos from the Farm: first its opulent August incarnation, then its autumn harvest expression.
AUGUST @ GTF
OCTOBER @ GTF
Zip Ties
The most ambitious photography project yet with design company Actual.
The most ambitious photography project yet with design company Actual.
One of the trademark products from Oakland-based Actual has been the clever Zip Tie. Previously only available in a grey classic cut, our task was to introduce both a selection of new colors and a skinny complement. Inspired in part by my From the Weeds series, we called upon local friends and colleagues to model the tie while performing their creative pursuits: a painter / an engineer / a musician / an architect.
Next up...handbags!
Journey to Sweden
Almost two weeks spent traveling through Sweden in the company of my mama, here is a sampling of my images paired with my mother’s photographs from her tenure in Stockholm in 1981 and slides from my great Aunts Hup and Marg’s visit in 1964.
Almost two weeks spent traveling through Sweden in the company of my mama, here is a sampling of my images paired with my mother's photographs from her tenure in Stockholm in 1981 and slides from my great Aunts Hup and Marg's visit in 1964.
It was a beautiful journey, heavy with meaning and memory. We frequented many museums, cafes, used book stores, and vintage shops. Explored the country by train and on foot, from Stockholm to Dalarna to Malmo and back again. I took hundreds of photographs, made sketches, and collected a plethora of ephemera ranging from old naval brochures to cocktail napkins to flower petals. With these artifacts, I am currently working on a special art book project that examines our relationship to this country that was home to a familial branch three generations back and that we keep returning to. For now, though, here is a scrapbook of sorts...
