Dell M. Hamilton’s work draws on not only the historical conventions of photography and performance art but also on the history of black theater, the written and oral traditions of black & Latina women writers as well as the contradiction &…
Many years ago, while living in London, I became fascinated with honey bees after reading The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. In the novel, a terrible disaster leaves only a few groups of people living in the world.…
A friend pointed out that a career takes a lifetime to take its unique shape, which is longer than I can conceive of. It’s defined he said not by who is tipping their hat to you at any given time,…
I tend to generate stacks of things – papers, books, wooden blocks, foam bits. I like to keep moving, otherwise I can get stuck. Generating a critical mass of something keeps me from making any one thing too important. Developing…
One of the most satisfying projects I’ve done was Yardsale. The viewers were a cab driver, a couple of good hagglers and a collection of friends and family. I have a few colleagues that consider it their favorite of my…
Last Sunday I had some friends over to my studio to pick out a wedding present. I pulled out work from all different eras, and tried to stay generally out of their way (a delicate kind of decision-making for newlyweds).…
Meeting with other makers has been essential to my practice. Sometimes it ends up that we work together on projects or take an exploratory trip, but it’s usually just a meeting for a few hours somewhere where we can check…
There was a flash blizzard in Nebraska in 1888 called the Great Blizzard. People froze in place ten feet from their homes, or saddling their horses. Some lucky individuals found a clothesline or fence to follow through the whiteout to…
These terms: Interactive Interdisciplinary Installation Process-Based Participatory Site-Specific Each in its own way makes my head hurt and collectively make me want to back quietly and slowly out of the room. Here’s an idea based project of mine called Attendant,…
Being the intersection I tend, over and over, to step into thin air by myself. I do it while making artwork and by not always knowing when I’m making artwork and when I’m just going about the day. Maybe you…
Our Daily Red is pleased to continue our artist-in-residence series, “Inside Out.” Every other month, a new guest artist will have access to the platform to publish images and jot down thoughts about inspiration, obsession, creative failures and insights. Unlike…
This is my last post as artist-in-residence at Big Red and Shiny. I have really enjoyed the challenge of making my thoughts coherent on a regular basis. Thanks for listening. Nocebo Placebo I. Satin paper, quartz (believed to augment crystal…
Recently, ArtSake posted a couple of blog articles asking artists if they ever set aside works of art that still had potential. Many of the responses struck a chord so I decided to take a look at my own habits…
I have started making new pieces in a similar vein to Hidden Marriage addressing our peculiar tendency to view man-made as unnatural. It’s a bit like saying that the castes worms make in the soil are artificial. Man-made is, after…
It turns out that, while I wasn’t looking, my brain made me do things I had not intended. Back at the beginning of the year I was doing a residency in North Carolina working on a collaborative new media piece…
I have been experimenting with mushrooms. Not the recreational kind, although I would argue that growing any species of mushroom is fun. In fact, the first experiment is an attempt at another kind of magic—a fairy ring. If you’ve ever…
I am extremely pleased to have been asked by Katherine Vetne and BR&S to contribute to Inside Out. Getting validation, as you’ll see in a moment, is a wonderful and very helpful experience. Always. Thanks Katherine and BR&S. I have…
Our Daily Red is pleased to continue our artist-in-residence series titled Inside Out. Every month, a new guest artist will have access to the platform to publish images and jot down thoughts about inspiration, obsession, creative failures and insights. Unlike…
“To work with a plan that is preset is one way of avoiding subjectivity. It also obviates the necessity of designing each work in turn. The plan would design the work.” – Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, by Sol Lewitt Much…
Last week, I posted a sneak peek of some of my sketchbooks, which I looked through for the first time (in too long) while packing up my studio for a cross country move. It’s amazing what you stumble across when…