02-28-2026
stopped by Ave Maria Grotto outside Birmingham on the way back down to new orleans
Extremely touching sculptures made by Brother Joseph Zoettl over a period of 30 years (1931-62), who was a Benedictine monk originally from Landschutt, Bavaria-Germany who moved to Alabama as a teenager and soon after joined the monastary at St. Bernard Abbey. The sculptures he made are mostly of famous religious structures around the world (and then some, like the great wall of china and lizard 0condo) and cathedrals for fairies.
Inspired by his innovated approach to concrete and stained glass, two mediums I’ve been working through and now see even more ways to build with...
stopped by Ave Maria Grotto outside Birmingham on the way back down to new orleans
Extremely touching sculptures made by Brother Joseph Zoettl over a period of 30 years (1931-62), who was a Benedictine monk originally from Landschutt, Bavaria-Germany who moved to Alabama as a teenager and soon after joined the monastary at St. Bernard Abbey. The sculptures he made are mostly of famous religious structures around the world (and then some, like the great wall of china and lizard 0condo) and cathedrals for fairies.
Inspired by his innovated approach to concrete and stained glass, two mediums I’ve been working through and now see even more ways to build with...
02-27-2026
its the last day on the farm!
i completed the tree, which i’ve called Tree Is Me- T.I.M. for short.
I haven’t made work since a year ago at the farm, when I came for the first time in March 2025.The two main stained glass Artifacts I made last year, Open Mouth Object [O.M.O.} & Subsequent Findings [S.F.}, searched for solutions to merge the image and the Frame, for which as a Drawer, has often been an afterthought. The Frame turns the Drawing into an artifact, it brings it into the physical realm. I always felt a disconnection between whatever Frame I used to enclose my drawings, and now I seek to dissolve the distinction between the two. The more I do stained glass the more I realize I connect with my abilty to shape the glass as a Frame for images that are pressed inbetween, rather than using glass to make the image itself. Last year, I made drawings on old typewriter paper that I got at J & J Junk Store outside of Birmingham Alabama. This paper is delicious- perfectly transluscent, weathered, warm with time. I love old paper and am always on the look for it now. Its sad to think even paper is diminishing in quality as we move into the future.
I thought the translucency of the paper inside the stained glass worked nicely, allowing the image to melt into the background color during the day and reappear on a white surface at night. Drawings feel especially pedestrian- I liked how this solution not only merged the frame and the drawing, but created something that is best when it is suspended. I don’t like when my drawings are against a wall and only one side of it can be seen. It interests me to make objects that react to time and perspective.
This visit I wanted to revisit this idea of encapsulating an image within two panes of glass. When I solder around the edges of the glass to seal the frame, the image inside is forever trapped, like a specimen. I gravitaed towards the thinnest clear glass I could find. The best kind I’ve found is taken out of picture frames. I thought about family photos and the pedestal given to an image when put inside a photo frame. As a sort of warm up I started making collages out of photos on my camera roll and ones I’ve taken over the past year on my red digi cam. I like making my collages by copy and pasting on Finder. You can’t rotate the images, do much editing except basics- which is perfect for me. More limitations please!!
I wanted to make a bigger Artifact this time, something that could stand on its own, so to speak. I cut out circle panels out of the clear scrap glass. I thought about venn diagrams and thought bubbles. I made this pregnant tree animation a week before my visit so it clicked that I should make a Tree. A Tree is where family is grown, violence is hung, paper is made, lift shelters. I cannot deny a motif the time of day when it keeps reappearing! Nicky helped me make the trunk out of scrap wood- three different woods glued together, planed and shaped into the same surface, jigsawed into shape, grinded divets on the trunks to hold the weight of the glass frames, which I began to call its Hair. Besides the scrap wood glued together to make the body, I found a way to assemble the rest of it without glue (i don’t want to use glue!) which was extremely satisfying. Everything is held up through friction, tension. The root legs slide on and off the trunk, and the glass panels are attached to each other like a Wig and can be lifted off the Body.
Today I had to finish the tree. I needed to interact and understand the Body. I lathered the whole thing in Linseed oil yesterday which felt like moisturizing skin. I thought, the Tree Is Me. In tattooing I sometimes use this stencil transfer paper to make stencils when i don’t have access to a stencil printer, and still have the same transfer sheet that I first used nearly 7 years ago. It’s a nice archive of designs- each time I use it, i trace the design on top of the stencil sheet to turn the paper I am tracing with into the stencil itself. It leaves an impression of the design on the stencil sheet while still leaving room for endless tracings on top of it. I wondered if this would transfer onto my tree Body. I also save all the stencils I use after tattooing them, and I pulled them out to see if they would transfer onto the wood (some did, some didnt.) It felt like this Tree and Me were searching for an identity. The different woods took the stencils differently. This wood with separate origins were forced to assimilate into one body, but they did not become a homogenous material.
I started compressing the collage scraps into the glass scraps as a way to resolve the unused material. As if looking under a microscope/ petri dish/ patterns, colors, textures remain / the debris takes a new form, its beautiful!
Ryan called it [ A Compass to Nowhere}
02-25-2026
Fiona Apple: “ I simply will not talk to you unless I think that you’re listening to me”
02-02-2026
The picture is coming together. What satisfaction! I feel most free when I start the painting. I want to hold onto that freeness as details emerge. I am afraid of overworking it and overthinking. Oil is oily and slippery. I like wiping it away with a rag or my sleeve. I like pushing it around with my brush.
1.angels
2.pregnant tree
3.sardine/bathtub
4.material bias
5.radio