June 5, 2015

East  Village Interactive Mural enjoys a 2nd  spring in the First Street Green Cultural Space park on Houston Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue. Bushes blossom white petel flowers with lush green leaves bursting color announcing spring, spring, spring ! The weather has been unpredictable to say the least as temps sore up and down the thermometer as restless a lover wanting attention.

Documenting the piece through all the seasons as well as day and night has been incredibly cool. Night shadows, children calling for their mothers caught on video, day light creeps and crawls along the wall a nature draws redefining, tagging the mural with shadow. An unexpected collaboration with nature. Metal hard drives attached with wires reflect as a mirror the piece, the surrounding environment natural and man-made swing in paces moved by wind or wandering people. the vines left swing and fall painted to reflect the colors present. It does what I 'd hoped interacts with what and who are present.

"Wild is the Air", 2014 (c) Dianne Bowen, interactive mural, East Village, NY associated poem  left side

"Wild is the Air", 2014 (c) Dianne Bowen, interactive mural, East Village, NY associated poem  right side

June 4, 2015

5:30 am a family of hawks now resides in the high tower of the church across from window which has become quite the bird sanctuary of late. Waking at sunrise is amazing, as the sun begins it's path across the urban terrain rising slowing a warm yellow glow appears. It's magic time up here on the 6th floor. So much inspiration had come from this time of day. More work continues to flow. It's lines akin to rivers, trees, land, ariel views of mountains, rivers, roads and the like creating paths through the earths topography, seismology, cartography, brain scans, weather, storms, rain, lightening are all present in the new work. The directions brings more fragility to the recent cut out additions which are weightless as they appear like nets over the paper air currents and shifting weights an accumulation of subtraction. Suspended in mid air a high wire act. blue, silver, pearlized - transparent appear and disappear, glinting catching light, shadows moving as you change position. Transient, impermanent, flux is constant there is nothing stable.

What if ?

May 28th, 2015

Late night studio activities lead to small paper works. While the writting for these comes at a slower pace, the visual works flood my thoughts. Bend and fold, light touches thick paper, curl and glide pencil, paint pen to paper finding the perfect spot to stop and rest. Glinting silver comes and goes depending on light and where you stand.

In the studio, progress;

"Contiental Plates Shifting Weights", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen working title

 

Current paper sculptures #1 and #2 untitled at the moment, (c) Dianne Bowen

May 24, 2015

New work is teaming with life and a new color palette. I'll call them "tubular paper sculptures" for now. The first related heavily to rivers and running water as well as weather and ariel views. The associated writing came rather quickly tho much quieter and perhaps more simple in construction.

"river seeking level, flowing an inaudible tale, whispers past lake stones, thrashing through white water, falling from cliffs into blue abyss"

"River Seeking Level", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen

"River Seeking Level", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen

"Continental Plates Shifting Weights", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen working title,

newest work studio shots sneak peek. in the studio page. cheers!

"born in whirl-wind", detail 1, 2015 (c)Dianne Bowen mylar wall relief

 

Spring blossoms in the studio fresca, 6 floors up !

"Down the Rabbit Hole", 2015 found blue print sketches, vellum cut out, found metal spring, used guitar wire, glow in the dark map pin on archival light weight museum board, 10" x 7" x 6" (25.4 cm x 17.78 cm x 15.24)

Spring we hit the ground running in the studio fresca think tank in the East Village. The interactive drawing mural comes down in April but I'm hoping may stay a little longer. March I simply watched it's progress. On sunday I noticed some peeling which revealed a bright red underneath. Like skin it's reacting to weather condition's and environmental conditions.  (pictures soon). If you haven't had a chance to see the piece, better do it before it comes down end of April. Take a picture of you with it and post to social media, just tag me #diannebowenstudio would be great to see people with it.

"Down The Rabbit Hole", 2015 marks me return back to paper and interest in 3 dimensional elements in my work and expanding more into the environment weather through installation or more formal sculpture. Exciting time as ideas are coming like a sumani in season danger, beauty, possibility oh my!! Dorothy is out for a walk about in the woods again. A friend of mine Patti Kelly gave me some of her sketches she'd done over the years on carbon paper. She draws over it millions of times and her lines have always had a connection to mine so she gave me some scraps. I used them as our lines began to converse they grew into a more structural form, they rose like smoke upward, architecture was coming into play, the "collumn" became foundation as spirals of various materials wound and sprang around and upward shifting weight as it grew almost like jack and the bean stalk I climbed with it and into it.

The new series of work continues in this vein now also including paper and drafting film wall reliefs. My writing comes as I work tho it does stand on it's own. Perhaps a small chap book of all the note and code poems will be my next book? I've been thinking about it for a few months. Something small, 5" x 7", simply titled.Stay tuned that's in the works for this coming year and will be a small limited edition run. Email me if your interested in reserving a copy. diannebowenstudio@gmail.com

New series of wall reliefs bring in new textures as well as color. Green has made it's appearance !!!
The writing also shifts it's weight for these..

There is a new direction in these works as I go back in some ways in materiality, I move forward as if walking with old friends having a chat. The excitement mounts as the game is afoot ! 

"Across the plain where the bison roamed, arrogance on steel wheels speeding by leaving tracks of blood, remember when the plane was a vast horizon of green and blue?"

"Across The Plane I" 2015 detail (c) Dianne Bowen, acrylic medium, watercolor, pigments, gouache paint pen, oil pigment stick on cotton vellum

"Across The Plane II" 2015 detail (c) Dianne Bowen, acrylic medium, watercolor, pigments, gouache paint pen, oil pigment stick on cotton vellum

"a line floats across the surface, to become, nothing, a gesture constructed to simply be, wiped away in glided movement, elegant, and deliberately, nothing"

"holding my breath counting to five, releasing air, weight and line, releasing myself into the flow, arms wide bare-chested, inhale filling sails of vellum rounding off the wall, puckering from strokes of water, a blue we have never known, appearing and disappearing with changing light, sunrise to sunset"

"Constructed Gesture In Blue" 2015 detail, (c) Dianne Bowen acrylic medium, watercolor, pigments, gouache paint pen, oil pigment stick on cotton vellum

"Constructed Gesture In Blue" 2015 detail 2 (c) Dianne Bowen acrylic medium, watercolor, pigments, gouache paint pen, oil pigment stick on cotton vellum

daily diary in the studio, think tank east village

I've been working with paper again. Recently I bought a few sheets of various hand made papers and a beautiful yellow-ish natural papyrus. While helping a friend sort through her work she gave me some old sketches she'd made on carbon paper. Yes, that old wonderful blue carbon paper used to transfer drawings. Lovingly rolled and popped in my bag, this was going to be an impromptu collaboration.  After 2 weeks of planning and playing with the papers I finally got to work to make my first paper piece of 2015 I've tentatively titled "Down the Rabbit Hole".

I wanted the piece to harken back to  earlier book sculptures I'd made while in Ravenna, Italy as my mind has been going back there recently. The idea of careful excavation of frescoes, pieces of mosaics unearthed with the gentle care of using one's pinkies I thought. Peeling back fragile layers, time, history, cities, systems, ancient, extinct, present..? This began the journey.

"Down the Rabbit Hole", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen (working title) found spring, used guitar wires, mylar cut out, found sketches on carbon paper, museum board, glow in the dark dress pin

"Down the Rabbit Hole", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen (working title) found spring, used guitar wires, mylar cut out, found sketches on carbon paper, museum board, glow in the dark dress pin

thinking out loud

Weather conditions of late have been both influencing my work and mimicking life. Abu - Abu !! I cry out internal voice straining. Push through, never give up keep going. My body strains to keep up with my mind. I went to see the Matisse cut outs and stained glass piece he created for the chapel in Vence. It wasn't just his work I wanted to see but I wanted the experience of being around the work with the knowledge of his illness during that time. It takes a brass set to keep ones self intact during such an assault on the body. Now really understanding the depth of it I can pull inspiration without falling into it. Use what is needed and let go the rest. And so it goes I tell myself every morning as the sun rises warming my face. So I see we're here again are we? Then let's get to it and see what the day brings. And so goes, and so it goes, and so it goes.

Back to my love of papers and films, while working on the large outdoor piece which is fortunately within walking distance I work as I enjoy most, multiple pieces simultaneously. It's how I view drawing really, my process is the same. Original books and book sculptures have been on mind. Re-visiting works to help move forward. A friend gave me her old blue copy paper she had been using for years to transfer drawings from paper to paper. Her work has fluid full round lines which I've always loved. An unexpected kind of collaboration, appropriation one might say? I decided to mulch the paper recycling it into a hand made paper to create a sculpture. The pieces are small, table top size really, intimate in scale. From micro to macro I go again in thought and scale now.

Drawing is like taking a line out for a dance, sometimes it's a heavy metal slam dance, sometimes it's as slow structured as a waltz, and sometimes it's a virgina reel and I'm just switching hands and partners, pencil, paint, paper, wood...

Daily Diary thinking out loud

The second layer of drawing in the snow at the mural has melted. Paint now only a memory in color of the previous mark settled lightly on the surface. It's dry form almost like lunar mountains through the Hovel telescope. Everything is in flux, my mind is brimming with so many questions I can't keep up. The mural project has proven to be a perfect vehicle to stretch out into the world literally and figuratively. Mark making, drawing, what is a line and how do we understand or perceive what it is to draw is still my main focus of exploration currently I'm in the midst of changing hands and partners as the virgina reel brings me back to various papers and films, pencils, wires, shadows, glinting light, a gently flow, languid fluidity. I've also gone back to working on my collection of original artist books with a dimensional approach, "sculptural or temporary micro installation" books. Ripping our perceptions apart, what is a page, a line, how does a word sit within the confines of such an object, what is such an object ? So many questions, my fascination gets the best of me and I loose track of time or even days.

I've been sorting through my flat files and materials looking at the various papers I've collected over the years. Inspiration is coming as I look backwards picking at peripheral thoughts I'd tucked back in the drawers for later.

Daily Diary, East Village Interactive Drawing Mural, snow day #3

Tossing and turning from a restless night the sun rising slipping in through my curtains. Light slightly altered from a stained glass piece sitting on my windowsill. My indoor studio time yesturday was more task oriented than I'd planned. Working on the mural even through blizzards and chilling temperatures, my "Studio Fresca" as I've named it has been a blessing in so many ways, allowing for experimentation with how my installation pieces react, respond, grow, evolve, effect and interact with the surroundings and spontaneous audiences. As a public work set outdoors, I've become fascinated with how all of this ties together in a cyclical kind of relationship. How art influences or affects simply by it's presence. I play a kind of call and response game of challenge. Making marks, drawing in one form or another, leaving it and coming back to see what kind of reply has been made. The work like it's surroundings is in constant flux. Using reflective metal hard drives creates the ability for the work to see itself and track movements, weather, light, time all are changed and recorded in a temporary way. This is akin to the idea that we could be the reflected images of the universe allowing it the ability to see itself through a different perspective.

The day and night are completely different worlds. The piece is ominous, salacious almost sinister and aquatic at night. Voices become more haunting, light and shadows move as ghosts, traffic blares yelling, honking horns flashing lights and sirens a chaotic storm of sound and light. While day is more calm as shadows slowly fade in and out, more as air currents occasionally kicking up a squall at sea. It's more mischievous, playful in a salacious catch me if you can? Are humans not exactly this way? Human nature- Natures nature- natural nature..? A twisted tale I'm trying to excavate, locate and decipher.  Pouring and splashing blue paint on the snow created a layer of drawing and color to be excavated after it dried. I pulled up a piece with the underlying snow to examine. Science and Art have always good friends as Di Vinci had stated. A relationship  with similarities. Both inquisitive, methods, theories, pondering what if? 

Daily Diary, Interactive drawing mural, East Village, NY

Snow day #2 in New York City. As the city gets back to it's rhythm the snow still falls tho more manageable than the night before. Winter sun is so different. An eery yellow...  surreal brightness to it. There is a strange dark disturbing glow that has always attracted me. The gates were closed in the park tho not locked. The layer of drawing in the snow from yesturday had been completely covered by new snowfall. The idea of vanishing layers tugged at me like a child wanting attention. This morning after coffee I'd decided that I'd take the spray paint but also a little can of cobalt blue to the park. The second layer would be made with the spray paint with the addition of throwing some blue paint into the snow similarly to the original work I'd used for the initial ideas. Splashes of blue in oil were now splashes in the snow. Thicker in consistency, they rest on the top layers of the snow. Thick enough one could if they were inclined, simply pick it up from underneath.

These vanishing layers, black and blue would leave no print for the human eye. They swing into the surroundings C'est la vie ! Tomorrow is only a promise.

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, snow day #2, second layer of drawing in the snow

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, snow day #2, second layer of drawing in the snow

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, snow day #2, second layer of drawing in the snow

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, snow day #2, second layer of drawing in the snow

Snow day; drawing in the snow East Village Mural daily diary

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, detail of spray paint drawing on snow

Yesturday a blizzard hit New York City. Perfect timing I thought to go do some work on the mural. The park was silent, pristine and empty. Usually a loud siren somewhere but not today, just me, the storm and the drawing. Perfecto !

I paced a bit to and fro thinking about the next move. That morning I'd come up with a loose plan. Using black spray paint I'd follow the lines from the work out into the snow and see what happens? My "what if?" moment. Playing with the wind I'd allowed it to have it's two cents. Holding the spray can close to the ground for clear lines and farther to allow the wind to dissipate the paint mist.

My intention in thought; the paint a mist sprayed onto the snow would vanish to the human eye as the weather changed just enough to change snow to water. "Changing states" it would be released from the snow and allowed to gather or flow into or away from it's current origin or perhaps simply seep deeper still into it's current location? A line which appears, disappears, simply changes states like glass; never really still..

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, detail of spray paint drawing on snow

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, detail of spray paint drawing on snow

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, detail of spray paint drawing on snow

"Wild is the Air", 2015 (c) Dianne Bowen, detail of spray paint drawing on snow

Daily Diary East Village Mural, January 15, 2015

A new year begins ! The mural is beginning to shed it's vines as the winter weather takes hold. The reflection from the metal hard drives adds beautiful playful movements in light across the surface dipping into areas of sky and ground.  Three of them came down with the vines which lay a pile of blue, black, white and yellow on the ground.

The light and shadows of January have changed position and intensity. Now rising from the bottom left of the work. The wrought iron fence in the foreground slowing climbs the piece as the sun rises and descends as it sets. Ominous feeling I took a picture of my shadow with it.
Shadows from the far foreground now begin to create a third layer of interaction. The trees beyond the fence are now visible as they cast their shape across the more minimal left side.

I've edited several video clips which show the diversity of the work during the changing light, seasons and weather conditions. A theatre noir at night and subtle quietness of the shadows appearing and disappearing over the course of day.

Dianne Bowen, documenting interactions of light and shadow, December, 2014