Over the past four+ years I have spent a significant time away from social media & spent time adjusting to a new life in the Pacific Northwest. Last fall I enrolled in a Woodcut Printmaking class and tapped into a creative flow and a technical process that was relatively new to me. Below, an example of a first state of an ongoing piece:
It has been a while since I have posted here and I sometimes wonder how a viewer may change over the passage of time. For example, if say someone once looked at my blog/website upon a previous time and later revisited the same image of a work I had posted, is that view experienced the same way? Over the past four+ years I have spent a significant time away from social media & spent time adjusting to a new life in the Pacific Northwest. Last fall I enrolled in a Woodcut Printmaking class and tapped into a creative flow and a technical process that was relatively new to me. Below, an example of a first state of an ongoing piece: I promise I'll post more images soon of additional prints.
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I just remembered that this weekend was the big Halloween weekend celebration in Isla Vista. Now being well over 230 miles away, I thought about San Diego in contrast to IV. Sure, the sexy costumes and walking wanderlusts (wanderlush?) are not different, but the large concentration of young 20 somethings parading, partying, observing, binge drinking,... there is no place like IV. This past summer has been a major transition for me, and one that is still enduring. Displacement and estrangement feels like a never-ending theme, and I think about my past project in IV that explored affiliation through relocation. I figure it might be good to attach another write-up about IV. Below is a belated post from a draft I had written well over two months ago. ****************************************************** In late August I attended the official opening of "the LOOP" in IV. The LOOP boasts a new and affordable living space for Isla Vista students. It is also LEED certified, which means this building sucks up less energy and is able to sustain itself. Not bad, eh? I received a second-hand invitation to attend the VIP reception that was located on the rooftop. The food was yummy (baguette sandwiches!!!) and I enjoyed looking at the metro modern & cheeky aesthetic of the building. IV rooftop parties cannot compete with this one. The view is breath- taking. My affiliation with the LOOP primarily deals with the red ceramic party cup fundraiser campaign, "Party for the Arts," a small initiative that funds emerging UCSB artists' projects from the collected proceeds from the purchase of a red cup. The architect of the LOOP utilized a few of our red cups and hired a designer to incorporate them as part of his wall installation inside the lobby of the new building. I like the idea of commissioned pieces that specifies characteristics of its site, and in this particular case, the caricature of an American party classic that resonates in such social college towns as IV. Also note the bike frame lighting sculpture that is also rigged in the same lobby. If you haven't seen the bike culture around Isla Vista, you must make one of your tourist stops on Pardall Road to understand this reference.
There is a refreshing, vibrant, & energetic feel from the LOOP that I am curious about how it is doing today as housing for students. I hope that the LOOP will help bring out more arts & culture in IV, whether through possible programming for art projects or that it will provide more opportunities for commissioned pieces in/out/around the building. The name itself references the shape of the downtown part of IV which curves in a loop. Like the trajectory of a loop, how can this new and promising building bridge art to the community, the community to its stake holders, the stake holders back to the building and its occupants? I'm in the middle of transitioning out of Santa Barbara and after moving out of my studio and returning my set of university keys, I'm a little short on the resources I once had access... including the internet. I've also learned that weebly and Google Chrome are not compatible, which is why for the past couple of months, I was unable to troubleshoot loading errors. I guess they'll break up to make up maybe one day. I’m barely pushing through here on Explorer. But don't fret, dear reader. Here's a small list of publications that you can catch up on reading, particularly with the recent exhibitions I've participated. Here’s a slam on the group exhibition BOOM by KCRW’s Ed Goldman. Ouch, Ed. Ouch. And a review of Goldman's review. Here's another publication on BOOM from LA I'm Yours. One of my older works was featured in the MFA thesis exhibition Headgear for Tony, review by SB Independent’s Josef Woodard. Here's a downloadble .pdf version. And if you're wondering what I've been sticking my nose into, I've been reading other "light" material, such as Anne-Marie Slaughter's "Why Women Still Can't Have it all," from Atlantic Magazine, and Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams. The latter is quite poetic and reminds me much of Calvino's Invisible Cities. An excerpt from the novel was part of the graduation speech that my committee chair Marko Peljhan, read to me in front of our audience. It was quite evocative, and I often refer to such materials when addressing/poeticizing past experiences. More soon. Read on. |
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Van (rhymes with "fun") C. Tran Archives
September 2018
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