I'm posting this month's update two days earlier than originally planned in anticipation of a late winter snowstorm/blizzard bearing down on the Northeastern coast of the US that could cause power and Internet outages.

Although I had intended to post some writing for this month's update I am not going to. It has been a very productive month painting with Petra and Franz therefore I want to direct this blog post to that work. I will be traveling for approximately a week at the end of March, painting less but writing, reading and writing about the reading more, so it seemed logical to postpone the studio-writing updates until April.

Here are the direct links to this month's studio-making-painting updates:

Good Witches of the Between, Part Three

Influential Dressing

Franz Painting, Part One

Petra Painting, Part One

One Painting Three

Since the February update I have traveled to NYC to attend a session at CAA and de-install an exhibit, visited the ICA Boston to view current exhibitions, attended an evening of performance as part of XFest 2017 in Holyoke, MA and delivered to works for a group exhibition at University of Rhode Island Providence Campus. I have continued to review sources on my initial bibliography and the suggestions that came from Caroline Koebel, external reader of my RDC1. As of March I have officially completed that first stage and am working towards the next stage of the process- RDC2.

Tuesday, February 28 was a full committee Skype with Andrew Cooks and Roberta Mock. Main point of our discussion was next steps forward in the studio from which the writing emerges- the connection between the two process. Andrew brought forth the suggestion of drawing on the process from the Patchwork Surfaces into the writing; we discussed ways in which small bits of writing- sketches, chapters, paragraphs, sentences in whatever form might become collaged together as the basis for a chapter in a process or style similar to what occurred with this group of paintings. From that body of work also came the suggestion of working with Franz and Petra to copy one of the paintings -the results of this to date can be viewed in the post One Painting Three . Roberta questioned how much I am 'working with them' as opposed to channeling; and to consider how I describe my relationship to them in the studio- how I articulate this- with, through, as and/or between. Why now and not another time/place? For the time being I am building ground (surface) and documenting more than analyzing the methods documented. Roberta likened it to a process that is continually evolving rather than one with a finished product insight...which is a continual conversation point with Andrew, when is the work 'finished' and when do I just get tired of it and put it away? We discussed my questions of focus, how to 'be in the moment' and its relationship to what I am doing; and how I perceive what I am viewing- the 'loopiness'- in the videos as I reflect on what I see being done. It is a making strange of looking at the self (not as the self) from the outside. Andrew asked if Melusine can come in and make trouble? Quite possibly, although she doesn't appear to be a painter, so the trouble she makes most likely will be elsewhere....Petra on the other hand did stick her hands into Good Witches of the Between when it was not her place to do so! [See second video in link] A few ideas floated about the videos as I eventually edit them together- the ones posted this month are raw and unedited- including directorial voice overs (personas) and commentary (mine, theirs). Also, how the camera is placed, what it records- what the persona is seeing or what the persona is doing? Andrew reminded me of the first 20 minutes or so of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly; the point of view is that of Jean-Dominique, the voiceover we hear of his response to what is happening around him/being done to him was recorded separate from the conversations of the people in the room. However, the key question remains: How do you explain this to others from the outside? Our next full committee meeting will be in the second half of April.

Currently Petra and I are working in a shared sketchbook doing basic drawing exercises from the photos using the same materials. I'll end this update with two images of drawings done a few days ago from a photograph I took of the movement artist Claire Elizabeth Barratt in performance at XFest 2017.