willbryantmfa:

Making work to figure out why I’m making work!

After a week and a half of barely making anything I was able spend some hours in the studio with focused energy. As I’m constantly questioning my art practice, intentions, motivations, and interests I repeatedly find myself experiencing these lulls where I’m incapable of making something.  

On Friday morning I attending Portland’s Creative Morning featuring the design duo of Duane King & Ian Coyle. It was quite refreshing to be welcomed in such familiar territory! I left feeling inspired, balanced, and excited.

So with this energy, I returned to the studio for a collage session and got buried in clippings from old National Geographics. The goal is to continue translating my aesthetic across different mediums and experimenting with forms in hopes to articulate what it is that I’m communicating. Right now more than ever, it’s seems crucial that I just make something because I’ve been so bummed out. So I did! Well, I got started.

I also fired out 10 new ink drawings that will complete a set of 30 total abstract studies. I’m collaborating with my friend Rand Renfrow to produce a silkscreen zine (interior & exterior) that documents these explorations. It will be a limited edition run that will be distributed online with a few copies going to some of my favorite consignment book stores in the States.  

Hopefully this will get the ball rolling on me producing a pile of zines like:

  • A memoir of Avey Tare  - the beloved cat lost on the Oregon Trail in 2011
  • Seriously. What?  - words often used when discussing Contemporary Art
  • I should be honest with myself, I NEED to make an Air Jordan fanzine 
  • Roothless & Toothless - documentation of a young man with dentures
  • Eagle Trail - a collection of merit badges earned after Boy Scouts

Lastly, this weekend I plan to rummage some thrift stores for supplies to craft an environment in my studio. I just need some stuff, alright? No promises on adding dance to my art practice, but I’m not saying there isn’t a chance.