We began our conversation discussing the presentation of my project work from MCP501 at Winter Residency. Most of the presentation along with the question and feedback portion was documented in video, photos and audio and can be found in the gallery section and served as the basis for our discussion of the performative angle, set up and visuals of the presentation, tying this into both Duchamp’s as well as Agnes Martin’s approach to art and life. Richard Schechner’s Performance Studies: An Introduction was suggested as a reference to further explore methodologies of theater and the exploration of different ideas about performance in various non-theater situations. The idea of the performative was also addressed in direct relation to my recent series of self-portrait photos, Self Reflective. Laura suggested that I look at the work of the artist Fiona Jardine, specifically regards to her use of transitions within a PowerPoint presentation/lecture, the performative aspects of the presentation, and in general the approaches she takes in her paintings and the incorporation of work with textiles. We discussed the use of chance and method in my work; how chance and methods have been more commonly applied/explored in the non-visual arts, and the possibilities of their applications which I am exploring in my work. We discussed the painting currently on my easel which I am working on as part of an exhibition involving paintings framed with mirrors as a means to expand and create new spaces which the paintings can occupy. The question arose how the scale of the paintings influences the perception of a more expansive, narrative driven space; a space less fragmented and more sentence like in structure. We discussed this relation to narrative, space and scale as it also appears in the Self Reflective photos, and how Laura has used this in her work, as well as how it begins to address the idea of the hidden/revealed- game of hide & seek as used by Tarkovsky in Stalker. This led to a discussion of the idea of the loop, the “where do you start? where do you finish?” play between subject/object which I use in my painting and how it occurs both within the picture plane as well as beyond it. Laura encouraged me to consider the possibility of going larger, “territorial”, and how this might be done beyond the canvas. We discussed the return to the palimpsest with the layering of the written text in the painting, and how the relationship of voice and language fits into this when the voice goes beyond language (the text) and becomes tone and rhythm. Alvin Lucier’s I Am Sitting in a Room was suggested as a reference point/pioneer of sound art, to explore this movement. This led into a conversation on the nature of the push-pull/limit-limitless explored in my work. We discussed the nature of limits, for the work from a technological-material standpoint, from the view of the maker, as well as for the viewer. The question arose: “the work has edges, but does it have limits?” We discussed how the digital limits the individuality/expression of the individual nature which I explore in my work. We ended with a discussion of the piece Look In Glass and its completion in the presentation at Winter Residency, the relationship to Duchamp’s Large Glass [along with the box], the shattering nature of glass and mirrors, and the logic behind the breaking of glass both physically as well as metaphorically in regards to mental breaks. In the metaphorical sense a psychological shattering has often been misunderstood a being of an illogical nature, when really the nature/pattern of the shatter is quite logical both in the reality of the glass’s shatter as in the psychological shatter of a mental state. And this brought us back to the metaphorical relationship of this to my project’s exploration of Epilepsy. We briefly discussed the next steps I plan to take in the studio both towards our meeting in April as well as the Summer Residency. And we ended the conversation with a short discussion on my interest in pursuing research beyond the MFA; the steps and possibilities to consider as I move into my second year with the MFA program.