week ninteen: December 13th on

Working out the installation of the tracking images for the installation at my next residency. I stopped into Portland Color to explore the options to print the images large and hang them on the building to effectively set the stage for the walking on the green to explain mark marking, location, and the space at work in our being in the place. I talked to the Vermont College exhibition coordinator and need to send sketches. Exciting.
I attended the Bakery Photo Collective that evening. Wow, it was awesome! I was shocked to see so much creative energy, generosity and great work in one place, forgive me, in Maine. I was bad...very bad. I purchased a few things. I attended AIPID every other year until 2005 and buy a piece, but it has been a while now since Eric, Avis, and all my North Woods activities nested me. I loved the show. I have admired the work of Laura McPhee since the nineties, both because of the subject of complex landscapes and the process of the large format. I love the process of working with the camera and thinking through your perception of space. Whenever I try to settle for a smaller format, I lust for the greater control of perception, detail and process that thinking through the shoot allows me. You will always see me with a camera; my little camera is a diary, sketches of thoughts. Not for sharing, usually. I also was introduced to Scott Peterman by this wife, the fabulous Greta, at the Bakery. I love his work, he has a MFA and studied philosophy undergrad. I have requested he mentor me next term. His piece in the Go Go show brought me to questions of tracing a place and location. It pulled me in and played with my perception of space in that magical way I love in others and I aspire to myself. I also shared after buying McPhee's print how much I would love to study with her; I never considered it. He told me to email him and he would talk more. I need someone who I can show my work to for constructive critique, question the conceptual philosophies which I'm querying, and discuss questions of perception. I have my fingers crossed.
I am printing the images of the North Woods in 8x10 and 16x20 and editing which sizes will be displayed in Vermont. I have so much more film to develop. I am working through my project's visual perception [I have conflicted notions] and the elusive character of the North Woods, the memory of place, and the complexity of man and nature where there is not an answer or binary code but a plethora of divergent visions.
Still working on the audio, but sound brings another dimension to an installation. I am not ready for such an addition. I have used these interviews to question my work and questioning.  Thinking it out....
I hope I have a mentor for the next session. My fingers are crossed.

week seventeen: November 29 on

More shooting, recording, editing, reflecting, and thinking about what and how this collection works effectively. This is a process...

week eighteen: December 6th on

Photo a GO GO. I loved seeing all the photography from the region. I hope to have meet a mentor for next semester and I for a few pieces for my collection. Yes, I collect what I love.
Friday afternoon I stopped by Portland Color and met with Steve to discuss the printing services availble to me for my marking space project. I need to check with the school and confirm it is okay to use the front lawn. This is a very exciting installation. I hope to show it in Greenville this winter too.

week sixteen: November 22nd on

Thanksgiving. Thanks for the love of family and friends and gratitude that I escaped to the woods--Home for several days taking a break from all the activities and responsibilities of normal days. I read on my visual culture project and reflected on where these readings have taken me, some questioning. I still prefer James C. Scott to De Certeau for offering a contextual look at resistance and hidden transcripts of using space. De Certeau reads like poety; it is beautiful and thought provoting but I feel I need to read it several times to grasp the depth of his prose.

Week fifteen: November fifteenth on

Started the week attending a lecture at the Center for Contemporary Art in Rockland. The photography panelists represented artists, educators and professional services. I enjoyed the comments and critiques made by the alternative processes artist [who brought everything back to telling stories] and Andy Graham who sees the practise and spoke to the practise of art making. I was bored at several periods in the lecture as the conversation stuck on mundane redundant points of digital media: cool abilities, legitamacy of the input and value. This seemed lame to me. This is 2010; everything is art. Anything valued as communication and effective in its conveyance. Oh well... These excessive bows to professional photography and collector's resentments humored me if nothing else? I looked at Andy Graham's website and I am very excited that this studio can make my images huge so I can create the installation I've dreamed about as I drive that 28 miles again and again and again... Orange Tape!!!
The week took as side step due to family materials. I made the best of things and explored the collecting of stuff in my parents home. A dear friend, Dr. Fitchner, once said "Stretch. You're not a collector you're a consumer." The contradictions and mass of visual materials is awe strucking. I love the masses of books.
We made it back to the north woods and this morning I meet with my mentor to review the past month's work. It was a productive meeting reviewing, discussing choices that effect my voice, and looking to how I will present the works in Vermont. Great week. Cheers!

week fourteen: November 8th on

Sunday I studied puddles with Avis. Eric changed tires on the unamog, and I got some great pictures of that. This morning I studied my bathroom while A. dismantled the dvd collection. On the drive to town I studied the mile markers, flaggin tap, and interuptions of the excepted. There must be cutting planned because there is a lot of new tap. De Certeau’s critical theory of the production of space into policy and practice engages how I see both the paths through which I engage the day and the characters of my community and the multitude of roles we play. I am thinking about the tactical intimacy of the 8x10 camera and the way it opens a discursive space of dialog because of the technical need to produce the space: set up, read light, communicate the necessity of stillness, etc. The exchange brings us close and allows for depth otherwise taboo. Taboo in that I perceive American culture as desiring a comfort envelop whereby people are kept at arm’s length: don’t sit with strangers and no one lingers too long. The eight by ten allows a level of detail one cannot achieve in normal life without staring for an uncomfortable time. This interests me. Herein we have another question. 
 

week thirteen: November 1st on

Rabbit Rabbit...

What constitutes space? How do you configure space? The work of Olafur Eliasson offers many perspectives on space. His questioning of our particuilation, causal effect, and value of opinion lifted my spirit in this time before the election [axnious]. Eliasson's works play with space producing machines which interprete. He explores ideas through his laboratory experiements, explorations and mechines.  The archetechural ideas of space and coproduction with the viewer produces phenomena that are about the relationship and experience as points of view. That is what interests him because those are the open spaces that are inclusive and offer perspective of differences. The artist's participation in a dialog offering another terjectory or question. He asks us to think about space in different ways.

week twelve: October 25th on

Second Packet emailed on Monday with rough draft of visual culture paper. I find the De Certeau readings very challenging.  I photographed Greenville town manager John Simko on Tuesday. Thursday I attended the Univeristy of Maine at Bangor lunch and gallery talk with artist Todd Watts. He explained his inspirations and methodology for the recent works. He spoke about my faviroite piece inwhich a tree is repeated and birds fill the trees in different formations: random and grid. I keyed in on the topic given my interest in repetition and place. He spoke of how he had experienced photography from 60s Harry Callahan show in dictacted presentation to post modern installation experience of photography. At lunch I brought up the topic of Iceland because I have been reading Roni Horn's Library of Water and other works. A gentleman at the table discused how Iceland was a pure place genetically and ideal for genetic study. I was mortified by the generalization [thinking of Tibet and the assumptions placed on them] and humored by the assumption that anything is pure or absolute. Iceland is a flying hub and tourism mecca. The music scene produces amazing independent innovative work. It's history encompassed rich layers of blending build on thousands of years of the Vikings settling their booty and babes; Both were taken from throughout Europe and Eurasia. I am intriged by the colonial tone of discussion of northern remote places. I feel this in the North Maine Woods, Alaska, and in the Irish mythology and ledgends built on historical engagement with the Northern Invaders. The character of Balor illustrates the northern people. I am going to give this all thought and ponder...

week elevan: October eighteenth on

Happy Monday. I have a cold, Avis is teething and this outline has me in paralysis [paper will be written, and I will be extracting an outline]! I had a great weekend despite this cold and cranky old folk who disapprove of the presence of happy children, I digress. Saturday I drove down to Brunswick and visited my mentor, Meggan Gould in her studio at Fort Andross. Her space over looks the Androskogen river. She had just taken down her recent show from the Center for Maine Contemporary Art and the framed prints punctuated the room. The blackboards and computer screens in four or five times life size take the human gesture of personalization into iconic dimension. Our discersive spaces are facinating. I notice the items within the images that are no longer part of everyday use. It is hard to come by a book of matches today. I am projecting the human need of personalization and the gestures performed to do so. Lefebvre and de Certeau have possessed me as I tap this paper away.  I showed Meg the North Woods protraits since our last meeting. We discussed the ability to get past the smile to a true portrait. Saying dead kittens is not nice, but it works. She recommended several artists to look at, in particular Alec Soth. I love his book, "Niagara." I viewed his other works online. He offers a brief narraitve of each shoot in the end of the book. I want to present my interviews in such a way that works in tandeum for a discursive space. I also showed her my everyday and pathes project which are very much works in process. I am obsessed with the 28 miles of roads from the camps to town and back. Dorffi and I may walk it this month. There are stretches of road I know by a bumb, others by a sign, and others by a tree or open space. These transcend seasonal cycles and connect my years of passing through the space.
I stayed down country and visited the Farnsworth Museum Sunday morning. I am not a fan of traditional painting, but I felt the museum is in Maine so I should visit it. I truly visited because I wanted to see their selection of the works of Louis Nevelson. I am familar with her Dawn's Wedding Feast installation, and I wanted to see more of her works. I enjoyed studying the pieces. I took a few pictures to keep the observations accurate. The two pieces which stood out for me made use of common place materials from stationary, the post, wrapping paper, cardboard, et ceteras. The lighting was a challenge in viewing particularly her paintings. Reflections were cast by the doorways and windows; one could be concerned for the deterioration of the art. I did like the folkart rug exhibit. The New Hampshire historical society has curated similar shows which I appreicate for their celebration of the everyday. The Arnold Newman portraits in the basement were the most productive thing for me to observe. I had discussed the challenges of portraiture with Meg the previous day. I admire Arnold Newman's access to the famious and his ability to get those egos to expose themselves through his "environmental portraits." The best experience of the morning was the Emily Schiffer, "Cheyenne River" exhibit. Her installation of language and photography created a discursive space that explored and exposed the childhood space of play in the backdrop of life's love and loss.  In sum, I did not care for the museum; the woman who took our admisson was curt, uninterested in directing us and unfriendly about having a child. My assessment was echoed by my friend who felt they did not want to be open on a Sunday and did not appreciate a child talking. The museum store was friendly and my friend found several special gifts for upcoming holidays. No one likes every place and the Farnsworth is a place I do not need to return to again. Cheers!

week ten: October elevanth on

Reading new takes on Lefebve's theories of space and identity. I worked through Rosalyn Deutsche last evening. Her critique of revitalization, genrification and public space offered valuable insights to the use of displacement and stucture of urban planning. Today I reflected on her works and compared her take to those of Solnit, Lippard and Horn. I need to get an outline on the visual culture paper to my advisor. I have made so many drafts it looks like a multi-perspective sketch. I photographed Natalie and her nephew Thrusday at the soccar game. She sits on the corner; it was an interesting perspective. I got a new scanner and scanned the eight by ten negaitves this week. The Epson V750 Pro is a dream. Fast and quiet compared to my Microtek which sounded like a dying cat.  Meggan suggested it. There is much to do before meeting Meggan for our monthly meeting this Saturday. I need to review and edit the shoots on the everyday from the camps. I have been studying the road too. Paths are an obsession. I photographed Avis' crossings on the frosted grass this morning. Lovely graceful imprint her lttle feet left by moving the grass and pushing away the forst. I am eager to see Meggan's space and the collective space of her artist community. Much to do. It was good to reflect this week and see the images on my computer as a collection.

week eight: September 27th on

The studio side of my work processes through the challenges of connecting and satisfaction of seeing the images come to reality. The rituals of setting up the camera and following my exchanges in the interview allow me to explore the idea and role of affect in my work and how all inclusive it is to life, at least mine. Roadride to Portland Wednesday. I attended the opening of "Debating Modern Photography." It offered an educational comparasion of pictorial and f64 images from early photography. The selection and educational components were well done. I always enjoy seeing a Weston [father or sons] in person. I have seen many such educational shows, so my attention went up to Anna Heapler's Makeshift exhibit on the fourth floor and in the entry. Each piece engaged the transformation of space through time. 

week nine: October 4th on

Work continues steady and I am eagerly preparing for next week's critique. This week I returned to Beaver Cove to photograph Janise Kimball-King. She is a character living along the shores of Moosehead Lake. She retired in her twenties and embraced the do anything and everything life of surviving in the North Maine Woods. She is the Jacquline of Moosehead for sure! Her ash baskets, wool rugs and tapistries are a testiment to her rich experiences and ability to spin a tale. I hope to get more portraits Friday interviews folks up in the woods. This is a matter of asking and synrodyzing the right place and time.
I continue to read and work out the outline of my research. Writing is a matter of doing and editing, but I eag and awe myself into a tissy before I succumb and write. This too closely resembles the temper tantrums my two year old throws before she gives in and falls asleep. I love the readings, but order is a challenge I struggle to address; I am and that is the first step.
Thursday evening the University of Maine Museum of Art opened the Todd Watts exhibit, String to Short to Play. The bold color and play of focal plans were a marvelously refreshing sight. The element of movement was paired in several images by the placement of birds or water. The affect of this symbolism took the architectural space from the geometric to the psychological. In the words of photographer Frank Van Der Salm, today's best architects are photographers. The earlier prints brought held graphic repetition into play while the latest work juxtaposition the graphic repetition of birds from the formation of a square to that of a circle breaks up. I, of course, thought of Lefebvre's everyday repetition and the cycles of nature versus those of human engagement. The Piece depicting driftwood and a child's orange rubber ball repeting reminded me of David Spero's work, Ball Photographs, in which he places colorful rubber balls as puctuation marks on the scene marking the still lifes within the frame. Content becomes subject. I truly liked Todd's work and I will return on my next visit to Bangor. It warms my heart and mind to see such contemporary expression in the North Maine Woods. Cheers.
The opening also included the solo exhibition of Bangor Russian Artist Llya Askinazi. Llya shoots with a classic 8x10 deardorff producing traditional black and white landscapes of cityscapes from Maine, Israel, and al. The images are beautiful: alluring and haunting. The contact printing on slow contact paper produces images that must be seen to be truly appreciated the detail and tonal beauty. Like the F64 photography of the early 20C his prints have depth and breath that must be experienced to be appreciated. I love this technical achievement. I applaud its successful achievement as the poetry of photography that it is. Cheers.

week seven: September 20th

Started the new week with a full day of portraits and interviews. Connected with two subjects later in the week. I also continue to photograph at the camps, everyday paused. The first batch of film returned to studio and I am pleased with the tight shoots. The detail and intimacy are what I was looking for and what I question in the everyday experiences of living where repetition robs us of passion, intimacy and awareness. I continue to read Solnit, Lefehvre and de Carteau. David Deitcher added a reading from Rosalind Deutsche's Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics (the chapter
on gentrification and the East Village). This concerns displacement which is a subtheme in my reading of connecting to place. David directed me to consider affect and look again at Lefebvre's encyclopedia entry on the "Everyday and Everydayness" keying in on the two forms of repetition. My research is focusing on affect as a concern for place and the minute connections [subjective emotions] people carry as links to a place where their ideals and experiences touched. Perhaps I am also reading too much reference to Jane Austen, he he. I am absorbing questions of affect, resistance to imposed repetition, place, process and practise, meta-langauge, lack of communication and the art of the question itself. The exploration along these themes have been interesting, but now it is time to focus my thesis and outline the term's paper. 

September 13th, week six

I am busy, good busy, getting my ducks in a row and reaching for next step in my projects. I mailed off the first writing package to David today. He replied to my horror scolding my grammar in the email text. I had sent the file in the wrong format. 

This weekend Meagan Gould visited my studio. The time flow by reviewing the past six months North MaineWoods portraits and the everyday work from the camps. Our conversation and exchange brought up questions that have pocked at me for years. I need to choose one camera for a project and simplify the technical and open myself to the visual side of exploration and dialog. I shoot prolifically but the images are all over the place: in color and black and white and I jump between formats reflecting what amused me that day not necessarily the best choice. I am forcing a framework of discipline in that it will be one format. I will be just shooting with the 8/10 for the portraits and square for the camps although I am considering the 4/5 at the camps. I shoot some Velvia last month and it is beautiful. The detail studies of the tools I use from walkways to door knobs resonated the value of these ordinary elements and moments of pause in my day. I felt incomplete in my responses to Meg's questions of why I shoot black and white and why I use so many cameras. Part was exhaustion and part was it is a practice I have followed since NESOP. Once you get comfortable in a practice even if it is not practical you may continue. I am eager to simplify and see the results. My back and sense of time will appreciate the freedom. I do love black and white but it lacks the presence of visual dialog I want at this time. It is nostalgic and I do not want that burden. I am discontinuing the circle images at this time. Meg commented that the peep hole reference was hard to overcome. I am still laughing. I love the idea of the camera and it came from Michael Silver, which makes the camera a ritual of nostalgia not a constructive tool.

We hiked Hedgehog mountain on Wednesday to celebrate Avis' second birthday. The varied niches in the boreal forest were marvelous. Many squares shoot. I thought of De Certeau and Lefebvre chipping away the facade of diversity in my life. Our walking activity brought their references to humanism and the consumption equation to mind as I considered the relationships within eco-tourism and the logging of the North Maine Woods. Tree are the product to extract and sell or to visit and tour. The experience of being in the woods does not separate me from the questions of everyday and everydayness, it only brings new questions within the context. A burning question persists; am I being present, too reflective, too oriented, or can there be a happy balance? My husband did express frustration with my camera and the constant stopping which disrupted the pace, but I had a thirty pound kid on my back, so I was good to stop regularly. 

I admired many large trees, the product of the North Maine Woods, and discussed with Eric how they survived the waves of cutting expeditions that harvested this landscape in the last hundred plus years. Trees are an excellent marker of history and human presence in the landscape. I think of my great grandfather Weir cutting trees on both the east and west shores of Moosehead Lake. Timber has always meant money. 

I shoot portraits this week with the 8/10. Shooting with Provia which means color, beautiful color. The face and the hands taking the whole frame have my eye. I continue to ask folks to hold something that connects them to experiencing the North Maine Woods.

September 6: week 5

Joyously exhale. I finished A Field Guide to Getting Lost yesterday. This was made possible on the most beautiful fall day because Avis played quietly listening to me read and enjoyed a long nap. I love Rebecca Solnit. Like letters from a friend I am glued wanting to share more. Her melting of personal experience in a historical context stands boldly with poetic grace and stamina. Exquisite!

The Zoning is Sexy book and commentaries are being lay out today. The silliness and play with the word Sexy erupted some controversy, but nothing unexpected. It was slang for appealing in a topic, zoning, that appeals to few and effect all so profoundly. Even the Sumerians had zoning: garden plots, house plots and community space plots.

sexy - definition of sexy by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus ...

Arousing or tending to arouse sexual desire or interest. 2. Slang Highly appealing or interesting; attractive: "The recruiting brochures are getting sexier" ...
www.thefreedictionary.com/sexy

It was a fun project. The mannequins, the assemblage, the installation, the taxidermy,...it was all fun.

week 4: August 30th on

Meg sent a preliminary critique of my studio plan suggesting clear outline of final results. I tweaked the plan and sent it all to my mentors and faculty. I continue to read "Everyday and Everydayness" and experiencing Roni Horn's portfolio books. Her work is experiential and it effects me different each viewing. This morning was sad and reflective thinking of a lost friend. Last week was playful and almost silly staring into the back of these dead birds and noting how my mind traveled from page left to right.

I ordered a wide angle wearable camera/video. I do not like carrying about the camcorder. I feel like a tourist. I took it to the Obama Great Outdoors listening sessions in Bangor and recorded some bits to experiment and explore. The rabbit leg atop the box is too funny. I want to pat it. It does break the ice.

Cleaned my studio as a nesting exercise of clearing my thoughts and getting comfortable. I am organizing the book, Zoning is Sexy today. Hurricane Earl arrived last evening, but the humidity persists. I am a northern girl and heat seeps all motivation out of me. Snow would be lovely; It is September!

Week Three: 23 August on

Sampling the texts of my bibliography to engage the new ideas and perspectives and set my pen to write the studio plan. I am reading Roni Horn published by Phaidon and reviewing her portfolio books: Bird, A Kind of You, and Library of Water. I continue reading in A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit and her Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Both books envelop you in walking as an action and a muse. Her writing is marvelous. She takes on the depths of contemporary thought and history in a fun engaging prose. Reviewing the portraits and audio interviews. There is plenty of material there and I hope to add ten community members. I need to get the plan to Meg by Friday. Always the procrastinator this is a good motivator, and it gives me the weekend for editing before the final emailed text on Monday. This is a time to order my projects. Quantifying and qualifying each provides needed structure and limits.

Big excitement this week, I purchased the Garmin Oregon, and I set it to track me. Indian Hill is thanking me because it was pricey. I have wanted one for years admiring my uncle's trails from exploring the north country. Tracking my daily sallies about the camps chasing Avis. After a walk or lunch at the kitchen I admire the mark marking. Sunday 30th I went to Chesuncook village. It traced me there and back. I did glance at it once to confirm my turn. There are few signs on the Golden road. Generally, I set it and ignore it, do my activities, and admire the marks. I want to use the tracks as marks tracings my daily life.

Week two: 16th August on

I will be meeting my mentor the beginning of September. We have set the dates for the second weekend of each month. My studio plan is due Aug 30th. This exercise provides needed discipline. I am earnest to define the scope of my work. My interests include questions as the exercise of observing. I want to do some video, but I want to continue the 8x10 portraits and audio interviews of Moosehead Folk. I need to learn the software for audio editing. I also starting shooting with the holga again as I walk. It is a journey I carry as a pause to reflect during my day. This began in Vermont. The elusive image and experiences of place connect. Thinking about my ambitions and working out what is a challenge and what is doable in five months. I am walking the nature trail at the camps reflecting on all the going, being and actions of my day. How busy the mind is connecting the roles, duties, activities and passions of the day. I started reading about and looking at Roni Horn's works. The personal and abstract blend and pop. Close intense observations present us with our role in observing and perceiving the works. The encyclopedia of identity is a brillant set of works—very inspiring! Rereading Everyday-everydayness everyday to set it seep and be distilled in my unconscious.

Week One- 9th Aug Return/Reflect/Reach forward

The first week back is an adjustment back into my routines, a catch up, reflections on the residency and all the matters of daily life. The mannequines needed some repair from the bumpy travels in the trailor. I installed the installation's backdrop and the working forest mannequin in the storefront to engage the public for the remainder of summer. I typed my residency evaluation. It was a jumble of notes and comments which made sense to only me. I assembled the materials for the visual culture term. I like to review the selected texts and set a plan of attack from the intentions I left the residency with and any insights I get from their indexes. I have begun reading Rebecca Solnit's Getting Lost and I take Avis on morning walks to ponder my studio plan this term. I sent my studio advisor, Meggan Gould, my visual culture plan. I am thinking through ideas for the book on the Zoning is Sexy installation. The book will document the installation, its reactions and experiences. Busy.

Second Residency-July 30-Aug 8

Vermont College welcomed us back for another marvelous residency of research discussions, lectures, critiques and fellowship. Great to see familar faces and meet new artists beginning their program. My new advisor is David Deitcher of the International Center for Photography in New York City. I will be mentored in my studio by Meggan Gould of Bowdoin College, here in Maine.

Newspaper Press in Moosehead Messenger and Moosehead Matters!

Zoning is Sexy! Taboo? What is Mildred Kennedy-Stirling’s recent artwork about? It is 200 years of land use, experiences, and accessing the North Maine Woods. Development, the working forest and the wilderness have always and continue to attract people. Mildred wants people to see beyond their own experiences to other’s experiences and use of the landscape. The three mannequins represent these attractions to the North Maine Woods: development, working forest, and wilderness. The mannequins are sexy because humor opens conversations in an otherwise taboo subject. Each piece asks people what really matters in the North Maine Woods? The piece as a whole speaks to how our experiences are all connected; we are in this place together. Changes are inevitable, but the quality of a place’s attractions is essential to quality of life.

Mildred did the piece because the debate over land use, experiences and access affects everyone: residents and visitors. The Historical and current issues are connected. Zones mark the official land use but these marks do not convey the multitude of uses actually experienced on the land. The artwork, “Zoning is Sexy! Taboo?” consists of an eight-foot by eight-foot backdrop. It is a collage of 200 years of human land use paperwork: maps, newspapers, books, advertisements, logos and references to canoeing, stage coaches, railways, hunting, snowmobiling, hiking, skiing, ATVs and more. Mildred placed plastic over the collage as a lens to write important words. These words are signs of human experience in the place. The words project upon the collage adding another layer of connection between the North Maine Woods and human experiences. The three mannequins stand before the backdrop. The working forest mannequin wears the skin of the Delorme Maine Gazetteer. Victoria Secret lingerie had Beaver fur [nature’s engineer], chainsaw chains and bullets added to represent the jobs, hunting and animals of the North Maine Woods. The Development mannequin wears the Greenville zoning map and her White Victoria Secret lingerie has Greenville “For Sale” signs to speak of how the landscape is a commodity. The third mannequin, wilderness, wears the Moosehead Lake region Delorme map and moss has been applied to her Victoria Secret lingerie. The moss grows and fades due to feeding. Like the landscape, it is alive and in a state of constant change. The three mannequins present the three attractions to the North Maine Woods [development, working forest and wilderness] and the mannequins reflect in the plastic on the backdrop adding another example of connections between land use and human experience. Like the world the artwork is made of independent, interdependent and connected parts; Experiences are all connected; we are in this place together.

The artwork, “Zoning is Sexy! Taboo?” is on view at Moosehead View 2 lily bay road in Greenville until July 29^th when it will be moving on to Montpelier Vermont.

Final Critique First Term

Sunday evening Natasha Mayers viewed my artwork, "Zoning is Sexy! Taboo?" in the Moosehead View Gallery windows. The night time viewing was excellent. The words on the plexi reflected upon the collage as did the mannequins. I was very pleased with how it all came together. It felt great to stand back and see it, done. Natasha shared my enthusiasum. She suggested I write a simple explaination of the piece to accompany my artist statement in the window and to try to get an explaination in the local paper. It was published today. Seeing the color photos in the Moosehead Messenger was great! I hope more people stop by and view the work. I have had great fedback and questions.

Natasha and I shared a great term. This was a great step for me into public art and engaging cultural and social geography directly. The humor helped me and made it approachable for the community too. When you have this much fun, it does not feel like work.

Bert Call et miss elizabeth

Took the wee road racer down to Monson to see the Bert Call exhibit. Lovely prints of Bert Call's old negatives. Todd Watt restored and printed them. Lovely! His exploration and documentation, 1886-1940s of the North Maine Woods was 35 years after Thoreau's visits. I wanted to get in the spirit for next week's Thoreau-Wabanaki festival in Greenville. Seeing black and white large scale prints is breath taking; It is the details.

Raced back to photograph miss elizabeth. We have played phone tag for four months since the winter interview. It was fun and silly. She wanted to dress up. I wanted the piece of dyeki. In sum we got five shoots; three of which I think are workable. I love the pose of passed out on the grass with spilled glass. It felt like a Kate Spade Advertisement. The dyeki was worth the wait. I am eager to see the actual negative. It is perfect in my head, and hopefully the negative will not let me down. E wore an angle wing charm. The close up is of finger grasping dryki and the dangling charm. Loved it! Tomorrow off to see my wee sister barrel race in Showhegan. I'm gonna take the hobo and the holga! It is a day off to play and let wee Avis see the fair. I need to regroup to critique my installation Sunday for any final tweaks before Natasha comes on Monday. Exhale...

Maine Center for Contemporary Arts

Visited the center last week for a talk on landscape by artists in this year's biannual. A young woman from Peaks Island, Jessica George, applied resin over her painting. I really appreciated the reflective quality. As a viewer you feel a part of the painting. It takes on the space it is placed into for viewing. I have always appreciated this added effect of framing. I talked to Jessica about the process, but it involves the use of a torch to remove bubbles, so that is out with paper assemblage. Also, resin is nasty and I prefer not to consciously polute. Also, I like that my materials come from Ace hardware or found and saved in my studio.

I ordered plexiglass panels. I have written words on the plexi that convey the heat and passionate of the issues of space and place in the North Maine Woods. I have it up in my Greenville downtown storefront, and I visit it to think about where it is at and where I want to be. Many folks are stopping to read the artist statement and discuss which mannequin they like the most. The words add narrative dirrecting focus into my critique of land as commodity, recreation and wild.

Fourth July Parade

A slow drive through town and it is over. It was an experience: Good, nothing bad and a little ugly. The turn out this year was impressive, people lining the road. It took two hours to plaster the truck with signs and screw everything to the flatbed. We parked and waited for an hour in line and the actual parade took half an hour. Many people clapped and laughed. Many asked what? I heard three young women ask what is zoning. While in line, State Representative Thomas firmly expressed that zoning sucks and exclaimed that no one should tell a property owner what to do with their land. My husband urged him to come back and let me explain the work. He came, but after Eric had told him to listen and not just blow right wing ideology, he was not open to discussion. He stated his case that zoning in Portland is one thing, but up here there is no need. I tried to explain to him that it was a discussion of access: historical, present and future, but he was not interested. Along the parade my husband noticed more women laughed and cheered than men. I had fun. I loved researching the piece and I hope some take time to look at the work and see all uses share the common need for space to recreate, work and live. The structure and boundaries are points of record and open for discussion.

Thank you to everyone who cheered and laughed, after the grumpiness in line I appreciated that some people were creative and open to poking fun.

Happy Fourth! Mildred.

mannequins

The "Zoning is Sexy" work will be presented as a float in the Greenville, Maine fourth of July parade. I hope people enjoy it, get it, see the humor, and think. Ideas are curious things; they made you think.

The installation is an assemblage of land use media used in the North Maine Woods to navigate and interpret space. The map is an accepted authority of designating space. Victoria Secret is an accepted authority of sexy lingerie. I have appropriated these materials and many more for a discursive assemblage of land use and access determined by North Maine Woods’ zoning. The discussion of zoning engages taboo issues of property rights, public access, public domain, local control, and land use. It is sexy to play in the space but the intimacy of its special places intimidates people causing anger and fear. Change is inevitable, but damage and lose of resources, economics and use is the scary topic we cannot continue to avoid. An open honest dialog is needed and necessary to protect the qualities and resources that are here. The value of both the resources and the experiences are at stake.

week 21 final rush to parade

I am intent on doing a forth of July float with my installation on land use and access, "Zoning is Sexy!?" One mannequin and the backdrop are finished. Two mannequines are near finish. I acquired large quantities of glitter to make my pageants and I am experimenting with pastic paints to make jewelry resembling the game tags which I requested from the state but the Maine Game Wardens have not replied to my letter or calls. Fun.

week 20 University of Maine Bangor Museum of Art opening

Exciting week with a second outing to see work and discuss art. Jemma Goscoine kindly informed me of the opening at the UME Bangor Museum of Art. A good reason to venture south. The opening included Ceremonies of Mud New Paintings by Alfredo Gisholt,
Both Sides of the Camera Photographs from the Collection of Judith Ellis Glickman, and
Cloudscapes: A Selection from the Permanent Collection. Gisholt's painting speak of Mexico in a fantastical vernacular of popular icons, color, and references to Picasso and Goya, but the work is not just the sum of reflection. He pushing painting into cinematic motion with modernity through exhaustingly busy compositions. The layers of meaning go on infinitely. The selected photographs from the Ellis Glickman collection showcase the twentith century photograph greats. The collection is impressive but the printing of some of the images is shockingly poor. My favorite part of the opening was the Cloudscapes. The unexpected findings in the museum's permenant collection were impressive and curated a smart theme. The curator George Kinghorn is a great addition to the Museum as director and curator. I enjoyed an engaging conversation with Micheal Alpert about the Cloudscapes' piece by Manuel Alvarez Bravo. I was very impresed by the Univeristy of Maine has this piece in their holdings. The evening was a pleasure.

week 19 Center Maine Contemporary Art

Took a break from the studio and shooting to visit the Maine Center for Contemporary Art. The 2010 biannual offered a spectacular selection of Maine artists. Curator Bruce Brown's happy obsession with Maine artists shows. Sunday 20th the Center offered a talk on the importance of the Center and its biannual to Maine artists with artists Cassie Jones, Todd Watts, and Celeste Roberge asked to discuss their distinctive works and the role the center has had in their careers/lives. Roberge's chairs, Watts' photograph and Jones' installation, offered tribute to the range of talent in the state and how the region attracts people. The politics of the Center were touched upon given their financial concerns over the past few years. The exhibition space is marvelous with high ceilings and excellent light. Jones works were mesmerizing. The graphic color and mark making in full wall installation brought a dynamic dimension to the work. The layout brought reference to the periodic table. I saw the cereal isle with graphic colors in rectangles competing for my attention. Watts photograph of a familiar drykye jam explored the construction of the visual plan with the graphic application of an orange bouncy ball in repetition. The tilting plans forced the viewer to reconcile the viewing with a personal creative experience. Roberge's three chairs, "Chairs for Mining," were an ode to foraging as she explored the politics of metals: sociological, financial and geographic. In the downstairs, photographer Meggan Gould's exhibit, "Retro/Verso" explores the factors of space. I admire the diversity of her work and the examinations of space as theoretical construct.

week 17 fourth artist mentor critique

Reviewed by works yesterday with Natasha Mayers. Great visit, good feedback, questions and discussion. I love going to Natahsa's space. It is welcoming, cheerful and she feds me yummie food. The quality of time is greatly appreciated. I come away reenergized and eager to explore. The instillation juxtapositions the North Maine Woods' elements of land use and access: working forest, tourism and nature. The play is fun and challenging, working through popular culture, commercial and state policy and ideas of wild and natural. I am excited to see community reaction in the parade. July fourth is fast approaching, and the instillation is ablaze working to finish and add final fixes from my critique. The juxtaposition of historical documents, maps, books, brochures, and much more. The beaver and sign will be complementary elements to illustrate the humor of zoning. The installation will also be downtown for July until I leave fro my residency.

I am exhausted from six hours of driving yesterday and generally useless. I am well aware of my distance from all other places I might set as destinations, but when I venture out in one day the vehicle becomes an unfriendly space. I feel spongy.

Starting to consider artist mentors for next term. I would like to explore sound and video. Photography is my passion and I expect always an element of my work and the means though which I journal and explore space and the intimacy of places.

week 16 up for air

The last three weeks followed a different pace. In my last critique Natasha suggested my attentions focus more on my installation. It involves many parts and it all has to come together for the fourth of July parade. I have collected extensive materials and reviewed it all repeatedly to ponder the juxpositions. I stepped back and read for a few days to give the materials time to seep into my senses and play. I scanned newspapers, brochures, magazines, pictures, advertisments, and maps. The North Maine Woods is a space of recreation, the proverbial vacation land. Examination included old LL Bean magaines, the magazines by the Woods Industry Great Northern and the plentitude of twentith century vacation advertisements and the modern discussion of development and conservation. The space is marketed as remote, natural and pristine, but the history of tourism, woods industry, railways and being a small remote communities all play upon the prisim of identity. Each piece uses language and space distictively to define the experience of the North Maine Woods.

In the installation, Zoning is Sexy!?!, I had intended to dress the mannequins in clothing I designed from the resource materials that promote the region. In this pursuit I enjoyed studying the history and applications of lingerie. The project took a turn, no surprise. I decided to taboo or skin the mannequins in the maps used to experience the region. I had asked folks in interviews and general conversation which maps they use. This approach of the manniquin worked. The effect is sexy: it is intimate, it is spacial, it is mapping, it is experiencial. It lays out the questions I started with and asks more [that is how I define sucess!].

I continue to research and examine the ideas and expressions of space and place. I stepped back from shooting portraits for two weeks. The rain helped me make this step. I have read materials to support my installation. I continued to read Lucy Lippard: The Lure of the Local, On the Beateb Track, Ourselves and Overlay. Her writing reinforces the connections I draw between my experiences and my questions for the North Maine Woods. I read Shifting Horizons: Women's Landscape Photogrpahy now edited by Liz Wells and continue to reflect on two books produced by the CLUI, Overlook:Exploring the internal fringes of America with the CLUI and Experimental Geography: Radical Appraches to Landscape, Cartography, and Urbanism. I started MIwon Kwon's One Place After another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity. This book stretchs my frame of thought into the rhedoric of astheitics and role of site in the artist's work. I hope Miwon Kwon returns next term.

Set backs and frustrations? My moss keeps dying on one mannequin. I remove it, gather more and resew it the garmet. Misting it prolongs the life, but I know it will die again. It offers the intimacy of life. It is alive and present with me. The application of maps on the mannequins wa very time consuming. I prefer to interact with people and in dialog. Seeing the finished mannequin makes it all worth while, but the gluing was tedious!

To puntulate the display I am making a sign out of the deer hide. The strangest ideas come to me when I am driving out from the camps. I see animals and interpret their presence in cartoon installations. Strange? I saw the deer skin hammered on plywood with duct tape spelling access. over the letters were 308 ammo. Nice. The deer or lack of deer is an issue in this region. The timber companies cut the deer yards to meet their quodas. These yards are where the deer winter. The past three years have seen dramatic declne in deer population. People like to hunt deer, so few deer makes for few successful hunter that is many disappointed hunters which translated to bad hunting tourism. Sad. This is making me hungry ;)

week twelve-thirteen

I interviewed Moosehead Hooker, Janice Kimball-King, of Beaver Cove. She is a Jacqueline of all trades. Her house stands as the only one left on the point without indoor facilities. I loved her outhouse. She had caught it on fire years ago and the charcool edges puctuated its age. She noted the significant drops in tourism over twenty years. Again, her love of Moosehead rings true the connection people have with this place. I have continued to converse with the images, writing on them. Examining the dialog of landscape access and use.
The mannequins' covers continue to grow and shed. I add, think a bit, remove and change. The blend of cultural commentary and doll play is fun. I aquired a 1944 L.L. Bean catolog. It contains world war two references to rationing and racist cartoons of Germans and Japanesse. I am after old maps and logging equipment catalogs. They demonstrate the uses of the landscape past and present.
I will photograph the instillation once completed. When I am away in Vermont, I can leave the large print on view. Fun.

elevan- studio visit

My artist mentor, Natahsa Mayers, visited the wee Mild Red Studio this weekend. The fabulous visit involved reviewing and engaging my works. A visit to the camps allowed for plenty of time to discuss my framework and question the roles of humor and the sexy. Fourth of July will be a marvelous exchange with the community when the piece promenades!

Last two weeks were insane editing and getting out the second research packet, continuing to interview and photograph in the Moosehead Lake region, and putting form to thought in my installation. The packet finally got out. Interviews now number a baker's dozen, and I have begun working with how words carve meaning out of the landscape. I intend to do a book of portraits of Moosehead folks and comments demonstrating the bonds and common love of the landscape. I explored writing on photographs; this was a big deal for me. Photograph are precious to me having labored hours over each image. The Zoning is Sexy installation is up and progressing well. It explores the taboo topic of zoning in the Maine North Woods. People want things the way they are, but change is inevitable, and how do you maintain the traditions and the quality and allow new development. It is the big question because the answer effects access, which is the framework of our existence as a place. I am focusing my inquiry of access as it relates to tourism, hunting, mapping, forestry/silvaculture as the elements of Moosehead Branding in the North Maine Woods. I know this is broad and a lot to conceptualize. The instillation will bring it all together; I promise! My humor is how funny it is that a subject is taboo which everyone's lives depend upon. Yes, a little like sex. So, zoning is sexy and we should be respectful but engaged in it as a healthy part of our lives.

A wee rant on my part.....The unsettled territories of the Moosehead Lake region allow traditions and commerce long gone in most of Maine and the country. The working forest faintly resembles that of my childhood where thousands were employed to harvest and manage the landscape's renewable tree resources. Today a few hundred workers maintain the investment properties of lands now over cut. The lands offer little return at present because it takes decades for trees to mature. It is a critical time. What will become of this continuous woodlands owned by many. What will become of the North Maine Woods. Access is the issue. Access is key to all commerce and the quality of life. So many people love to explore and use this vast wild space: hunters, hikers, mountain bikers, walkers, skiers, snowshoers, snowmobilers, four-wheelers, jeepers, and road riders. The users are the living history of L.L.Dean! I call zoning sexy because it is taboo to discuss or event suggest the importance of legislation that maintains and protects the working forest.
How does your garden grow? With loggers and hunter, hikers and snowmobilers access is maintained, communities are sustained and America grows natural resources providing jobs and goods. Change is inevitable, but it needs to be smart and conscious of the lives [individual humans and communities of families] at stake.

nine

Mud season calls for a week away from this place. The reading materials for my next research packet will keep me busy. Lucy Lippard's Lure of the Local examines the topics near and dear to my heart. It will be good to step away from the interviewing and portraits. I will review materials. Distance and being in another culture offers some perspective on what I am gaining from my interviews, what insights.

While in Ireland I asked myself the interview questions in relation to my experiences in Ireland, past and the 2010 week. I love county Clare. It is a magical special place like no other. The mystique is a matter of experiences and authenticity. Like Moosehead It carries nostalgia but its significance is not just historical and landscape: Yeats' tower and Lady Gregory's gardens, the Cliffs of Moher, Lahinch's beach surfing or Ennistymon's falls. The places and experiences continue to touch people's lives in a special way. Experiences bringing awareness of old traditions and custom- to enjoy the qualities of life where time, space and people matter most. This is unique in contemporary life, and I hope it to be in the future.

I enjoyed all the public art in Ireland. We walked city streets, sat in parks, window shopped and visited the National Gallery. Now back in NH I visited a local sculpture gallery/garden. A Mammoth, made of local cranberry grasses, strikingly guards the drive into the gardens. This sculpture was on our friend in Ireland's refrigerator, It is a great piece and I had to visit it. The Mill Brook Gallery and sculpture garden currently has on display in the gallery the faculty from New Hampshire Institute of Art. I love the small ceramic pieces, lovely glazes!

Focused on writing at present so I can edit and than edit some more.

marching into eight

I dropped off prints to the folks I have interviewed, a little thank you for the time and stories they shared. It turned into a busy week despite two cancelations. The one portrait and interview this week offered marvelous new axioms and perspective on this place. I would like to embroider these axioms like old alphabet needlepoint or the proverbs framed and displayed as country kitsch. I spent some time reviewing the use of words with photography by artists like Duane Michaels, Peter Beard, and others. I am seeing them as separate and trying to figure out how I would incorporate them, successfully. Finally I decided upon a mannequin model and ordered there for my installation on North Woods access and land use. Materials form a facinating pile in my studio: official maps, logos, furs, animal parts, equipment parts, work cloths, recreational clothing and more. My pre-pregnancy knickers are serving as structural models of how garments fit the female form. This is fun. The process of working through the project blends humor and concern.

week seven: Good fedback and horrid writing

Meet with my mentor on my birthday last week to review my projects. Natasha is a great lady. Her enthusiasm builds off mine. I left energized, gained perspective from some constructive questions and returned home eager to continue the momentum. It was an exciting session sharing my personal work of storytelling and my exploration into instillation through collaging issues of land use. This is a good term. I am doing what I love and pushing myself into new terrain. The portraits and interviews portray the living landscape and timelessness of the North Woods. This narrative of space has revealed new knowledge on this place I call home. The details of family tress, employment, means by which person landed here, why a person stays, how seasons define personal experience especially surviving the winter and on and on. Lives are lived. This is a space I am eager to explore and understand. The Humanity of this place transcends the smallness of numbers and isolation on the map. Folks come here because they love the wilderness. All the stories share strong characteristics of individual strength and passion for experiences connected to the landscape. These factors may be in common with rural American life in other places but the distance to city centers and the edge of wilderness makes Moosehead unique. It is a different and special place. At least for me it feels like no where else.

Horrid writing is my curse. I do not like writing; actually I hate writing. The word syntax is evil and throws me into a tailspin. I enjoy the readings, love the process of making art work and debating ideas in the process of seeing how it all relates to my work. Writing is like nails on a chalk board, irritating to the point of distress. I have never liked to write. Actually that is not true. As a child of fourth grade in Mrs. Carter's class I loved writing folktales on the animal characters and plants of my world. My writing was surely horrid than too but she encouraged me to keep me engaged. I have to embrace the process...It is a tedious process to write a paper others can access. I need to read everything aloud, I need an editor who can stomach my lack of syntax, and I need lots of paper for edits. Any volunteers?

week six: research annotations & interviews

Busy week first getting my annotations into my advisor and in the studio. I am reviewing last week's interview, tweeking the questions, interviewing more folks and setting up interviews. I am really enjoying the perspectives. My last interview shed some interesting details about the train industry. I was aware two track systems came into the region for industry and tourism but the extend is impressive. People are a living history. The landscape has changed but folks remember fondly the past. I tweeked the questions because I want folks to be open to answer without any leds but the topics are needed to gather any experiences. I do not want to get off track from experiences into political rants. Dangerous mud! I am shooting with the 8x10 field and box, pentex 67, and my digital nikon. It is surely overkill but each is so different in the visual feel I want to see a month's worth and determine how I will proceed. The Hobo 8x10 is my favorite camera followed by the 5x7 deardorff. I do not like the 8x10 field because it is heavy and combersume. Folks love the experience and have facinated by the sheet film. It leds an interesting conversation about history and how come old processes are best. This is great fun and I am very excited for it all to come together and be shared with my peers, my mentor and my community. Our region's school is concerned with diversity. I see the differences within our community and see many lessons of acceptance, respect, and perspective. Life is a prisim; each cut is a different slice of life. I did my unergraduate thesis on the prisim of identity. That title sticks with me as a tried and true method to respect variances.
Concerned about my recording equipment. I am using a Olympus digital voice recorder and my blackberry phone. I was also using a zoom T4 but it died. Research on the internet revelled this expensive gadget is doomed with errors. So, I am on a quest. My concern is if I use sound, what format edits well and also what program shall I use. Work progresses...

Generous and Kind

First week of interviews productive. Each one's experiences of the North Woods of the Moosehead Lake region were dramatically different. Need to tweek the questions for tourists. I will have a option B for each question to relate it to the transiant stay. Folks have been very generous with their time and interviews. Story telling grants an intimate connection into the personal space: the ability to comprehend who someone is and why places connect us. The compresention of the so what behind experiences' meaning reveals the interdisciplinary weave of human geography. The land is symbolic because we engage it with meaning. We are one however separate at things.

Questions for Interview

What is the character of the North Woods of the Moosehead Lake region as a place, a space defined by people. Your experiences make the region unique through relationships and personal bonds.
1. Make is your full name; including your maiden name?
2. How old are you?
3. Where do you live/stay in the region: address, neighborhood, and type of dwelling, date of structure/contractor? If you live here, where do you recreate in the region? What do you call these spaces?
4. How long have you lived/stayed in your current location? Have you lived anywhere else in the region?
5. How long have you lived, visited or worked in the region. Please explain the nature of your relationship with the region: relationship through activities, family, and work.
6. If you came to the region, what drew you to the region?
7. What interests and experiences connect you to the region?
8. Who do you do activities with in the region? Explain these relationships ?
9. What is a typical week for you? What activities do you do at home, and what takes you out and about? When you come to the region, for work or as a visitor, what do you do while here?
10. What traditions do you observe in the region: holidays, seasons, and activities…? Are you a participant?
11. Have you lived elsewhere? If so, where and how long? What brought you back or to the region?
12. When you travel, where do you go? Where would you like to go?
13. What are the economic sectors of the region? How does your life intersect with these sectors?
14. Define the region in terms of geographic landscape? Define the region in terms of cultural landscape. What space defines the place, the region? What images have authority in defining the region such as in marketing, history and culture? How is the region different from other places?
15. How does the history of the region live on in the present? What cultural heritage remains and what symbolic representations exist?
16. What is specific to the current time and place at the region? How does the issue effect your life? Economic situation [woods, rail roads, tourism, service sector, etc], Political debates [nuclear waste dump, Big A damn, clear cutting, Squaw Mt.'s name change to Moose Mt., Plum Creek rezoning, road plowing, school consoladation, hospital, Moose hunt, number of moose permits, Deer, Bear baiting/hunting, lynx habitat, ATVs on Main Street, Scammon road for snowmobiles, etc], and what are the demographics of the region [Socioeconomic groups, characterized by age, income, sex, education, occupation, etc., that comprise a market]?
17. What do you see as nature or the wild in the region? How does your life intersect with nature and the wild? Explain the boundaries that separates the natural wild from the tamed cultivated space.
18. What objects define the place for you: trophies, keepsakes, and knick-knacks? What objects do you bring into your home, work and personal space to represent the region? What maps do you use?
19. What social dynamics exist in the community: neighborhoods, families, and economics? How do they shape the region’s experiences for residents, visitors and workers of the region?
20. What will the region be in twenty years? How will your place s change?

experimental geography at colby college

Visited Colby College yesterday to view the museum exhibit, Experimental Geography. Enjoyed my time tremendouly and intend to visit again before June. Hope many visit, bring friends and share their experience. The selected works offered varied media and methodology on the experience of and dynamic possibilities for questioning space as landscape, cartography and urbanism. Our lives exist in places. These constructed space struggle with their defined spaces; This exhibition didacticly engaged issues of experience. The issues of boundaries for a particular place and individual was tacticly achieved through pieces such as Ellen Rothenberg's De-Stabilized Geography and Yin Xiuzhen's Portable Cities. Whe I found the advertisement for the exhibition, I was drawn to the video piece, The Road Map, 2003. The work followed the travels of an israeli passport and a Palestinian passport along two routes in the same latitude. The Israeli traveler took 1 1/2 hours where the Palesinian took 4 1/2. The video projection with color and sound brought you with each traveler simotaniously. The viewer experienced the particulars of the region's landscape, culture, human relationships, political boundaries and the random changes of military requirements. The journey poetically disected the human conditions of landscape. The use of cartography is a new idea for me. I first encounter the form at my first Vermont residency, winter '10, in the work of my advisor, Ashley Hunt. The power of the map as a trusted didactic form and the ability to address and transform language limitations and problems of address are both matters I look forward to reading more about in the exhibition's book and in my research. Great Show!

week four-reading

Finishing up the first readings. Exploring the meanings of space and approaches to understanding the individual and the collective space. Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place explored the landscape of daily life and seeing beyond the expected. The close readings of Olson's poetry and commentary by John Stilgoe exposed how thin the vineer of expectation lays. Poety slows times passing to experience and see the beauty of a moment or action; the beauty expossed by knowing a subject, knowing it as a loved one: familar and intinate. Next book, Tuan's analysis of space and place: perspective of experience establishes grounding for questions I want to ask and caused me to pose new one in my interviews. Tung comes from human geography and engages theory familar to the disciplines of anthropology, psychology and literature. The subtitle places explains his quest clearly and concisely, The Perspective of Experience. The sharing of experence through ethos and imputing personality to space transforms space in effect to place (Tung 91). This ordering brings post structuralism into consideration as I use language to understand and explain this phenomena of a place defined by not just the geology of the land bu the people and thier lives. It is the process of making language understood. Learning the terms and diction. Like a poetic each work in a question changes the intent and gathers different responses. Besley's Post Structuralism, a very short introduction takes the pholosophical persepctive of "what it means to be human" through the twentith century of scholarly/ philosophical debate. In the end she puts it all in the most lucid sentence, "What Post Structuralism offers is, in the end, an oppertunity and cause for reflection (Besley 107)." Continuing to view the materials at the Cneter for Land Use and Interpretation. Their recommended reading offers wide range of human geology issues. I read on...

Collecting lingerie and researching the history of undergarments. Developing a base of understanding to design the collection.
Developing a list of land use issues and vocabulary particularly relating to access. Aspire to bring humour to the topic of zoning.

The Plan

I set my course. What is local? Questions delving into the places, pleople and things that make the local in the Moosehead Lake region unique and special. Through a selection of portraits and interviews of Moosehead Lake folk I will explore our shared persepction, experience and relationships with this space called Moosehead. Portraits and interview will be sought through channel 19 tube ad, the newspapers and local chat. Let the fun begin!

Week Two: Questions

The studio. The best advice on being an artist is to approach it like any other job: show up with intent and do the work. I also remind myself to embrace uncertainty and fear not failure because its lessons yield great wisdom and insights. I returned from VCFA two weeks ago eager to study with zeal. Reviewed my critiques, notes and lists of ideas for the term. Now I am decompressed and eager to meet Natasha Mayers, my artist mentor, on Tuesday and set my protect goals for these six months. Making lists of questions, lots of questions. This exercise haons my focus and provides context for perspective, ways of seeing. I love research, learning, dialog and most ventures. This leds to great conversation but easy distraction. In research this tentency pops up as I try to expand the area of my project's perameters. Currently culing my ideas and aiming for a clear and concise proposition. I started in the idea of wilderness and the bianary conversation of man and nature. This progressed to space and place as defined by culture and experience. Reading Tuan and pondering my own question for folks to understand the shared passion and love of the Maine Woods.

Week One: Setting

Landed back in the North Woods. Setting myself into practise but deliberately asking how things have changed. Need to review the experiences of ten very full days. Vermont College of Fine Arts' residency one now complete and in my studio period. The residency started slow with orientation. Appointments speed up and swearled me into the marvelous exchange of critique and research. Questions and challenges to explore. The faculty, guest criters, students and staff created an amazing environemnt and exchange; an experience so full and exhausting I am still in awe.