Grandpa Bill Opening His GIF

I've been reflecting on the life of Grandpa Bill---his intellect, his love, his sense of humor. I think Bill would have chuckled to see the way this GIF captures a moment in time. And if Bill had been a digital native like his grandchildren, I can imagine him, with a twinkle in his eyes, making a pun on the words "GIF" / "gift".

I'm proud to be your granddaughter, Grandpa Bill.

Love,
Abbie

"Give to the Max Day". . . What can $10 do for MCBA?

Thursday, November 15 is Minnesota's Give to the Max Day. I'm giving to MCBA to help them help artists.

Please join me. For five years, my membership in the MCBA Artist Co-op has been my opportunity to witness MCBA as arts advocate, community builder, and friend. I sincerely thank you for hearing my request: Please give to MCBA as a way to recognize and support their outstanding work.

Give here: http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Minnesota-Center-For-Book-Arts

12'12'12'

Get ready for the Minnesota State Fair! And 12'12'12', an exhibition featuring twelve Minnesota artists (and their artwork).

The Minnesota State Fair's Fine Arts Exhibition always features a small special exhibition alongside the larger juried show. But this year the Fair is trying something dynamic and new. For this year's show, twelve artists are each given one day to use the gallery corner as a studio and demonstrate their artistic practice to the Fair-going public.

Photo by myprontopup on Flickr

Details

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Exhibition run: August 23-September 3, 2012
Location: Minnesota State Fair, Fine Arts Center at Randall Avenue and Cosgrove Street
Abbie's day: Monday, August 27, 9 am to 9 pm

What you'll see if you visit 12'12'12' on August 27:

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12'12'12' aims to make the work that artists do transparent and demonstrable. So in keeping with my creative practices, I'll present a breadth of projects. Over my 12 hours, I'll shift from the solitary labor of painting, to the text-based production of letterpress, to the intangible work of speculation, storytelling, and inquiry. And back again, as making informs thinking and thinking informs making.

My artwork on display, courtesy Groveland Gallery, is a small painting from my Deciduous Series. With intricate patterns similar in scale to miniature work, The Deciduous Series is a visual contemplation of the urban forest that grew out of my research into Dutch Elm Disease.

Throughout the day, I'll set aside my brush to operate a platen press. Lent for the day by Minnesota Center for Book Arts, this little cast iron machine dates from the 1930s. Spectators will gravitate to its ka-chunk-ka-chunk sound as proofs are pulled by hand. What I'll be making on the press is a free multiple connected to my creative practice as an amateur naturalist.

For over 2 years, I've been working on a project called Open Phenology that chronicles natural phenomena through the seasons. (Phenology is the scientific study of periodic life cycle events, such as flowering, breeding, and migration.) This project, visible to the public as Web-based documentation at openphenology.org, was conceived as an experiment to raise awareness of the senses and the ecology we inhabit. By focusing on ephemeral biological phenomena, I aim to encourage reverent stewardship of nature by re-enchanting our relationship with it.

Links:

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• http://www.twincities.com/bestlocalblogs/ci_21344405/state-fair-time-means-food-fun-and-fine
• http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/166955916.html

Local Artist Interviews: Abigail Anderson - Painter - Printmaker - Multimed...

I was recently asked to participate with Local Artist Interviews, a blog dedicated to creating exposure and opportunities for Minnesota artists and organizations through interviews, grants, and networking.

Read the post here: http://www.local-artist-interviews.com/2012/07/abigail-anderson-painter-printmaker.html

The Clearest Way, a Star Trib Art Spotlight

The Clearest Way, my three-person show with Clara Ueland and Cynthia Rae Levine at Groveland Gallery's Annex, was recommended by Star Trib arts writer Mary Abbe. Read the "Art Spotlight" article here: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/stageandarts/161451205.html

Daily Daydreams of Minaki

What books will I read? How many times a day will I jump in the river? What birds will my dad and I see "for science"? What will become of Minaki?

Opening June 1: The Clearest Way

Groveland Gallery is pleased to present a unique exhibition of paintings, prints and sculpture by three Minnesota artists. Inspired by elements of the landscape—both natural and urban—artists Abigail Woods Anderson, Clara Ueland and Cynthia Rae Levine seek to cultivate a balance between representation and abstraction. Their title is based on an excerpt from John Muir’s journals: “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forested wilderness.” This passage echoes the shared artistic approach of Anderson, Ueland, and Levine: their art-making is defined by their conceptual processes, resulting in a compatibility of subject matter, light-filled and detailed compositions, and simple yet sophisticated forms.

Science continues to inform Abigail Woods Anderson’s paintings and prints. Her most recent collection of compositions are inspired by the effects of Dutch elm disease on the shady boulevard near her childhood home in Minneapolis. Using tracings from the stumps leftover from the impact of the disease, as well as scientific knowledge of the boring beetle that carries the fungus from tree to tree, Anderson has created paintings that pay homage to the trees, while drawing attention to their demise. The artist explains: these paintings are embellished with patterns derived from the elm tree’s natural history and Dutch elm’s disease’s pathology. I scavenged and restyled images from botanical illustrations and figures, entomology databases, micrographs, and art history, especially landscape paintings and studies by John Constable. The resulting works are a meditation on ecology, contemplating the entangled fates of four organisms: the elm tree, the beetle, the fungus, and humans.

Raising my glass to . . . podcasts

This weekend's painting benefited from non-stop podcasts. It was a delight to discover the conversational wisdom (and humor) of "Dame is a 4-Letter Word" & "Science... sort of."

Cheers to the podcast hosts! Slàinte!

Description of Scolytus multistriatus

Entomologist as poet?

... frons of male is flat, oblong and hirsute; frons of female is weakly convex, weakly hirsute and sometimes glabrous; pronotum is densely punctate on upper surface; triangular scutellum densely hirsute; elytra dark red-brown, oblongly oval and bluntly rounded apices; grooves on elytra are dense, deep and sharply punctured; narrow interstices are densely punctured

Source: ForestryImages.org

Erik Satie's Helpful' Hints to Performers

These Gnossiennes of 1890 were the first pieces in which [Erik] Satie did away with bar-lines and both key and time signatures. They were also the first to contain the 'helpful' hints to performers such as

Postulez en vous-même (Wonder about yourself),
Ne sortez pas (Don't leave), 
and Munissez-vous de clairvoyance (Be clairvoyant).

Source: Peter Avis, 1988 (Liner notes, Erik Satie, Anne Queffélec piano, Virgin Classics Ltd)

Oh Delight!

A day in the studio, sunlight pouring over my table, listening to Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Working on the surface treatment pictured below (detail, in progress).

This is it. This is how time is spent. This is how paintings are painted.

A lot of my time is spent like this. Colonizing paper continents with micro-mark-making while listening to podcasts, audio books, and online audio programming. Here I'm listening to a Dharma Talk by Mark Nunberg, guiding teacher at Common Ground Meditation Center.

Found Drawings

The windows of my workspace. Found drawings composed of shadows and traced contours.