style from a spider

daily melody: Air "Sexy Boy"

Last week of school...the last week of structured-classroom with the specific confines of time and location will be ending. I will be re-taking a class I dropped during the summer with a very close and caring professor. It's all going to work out in the end.

In the mean time I finally sent my poor laptop off to wherever to get fixed. I've been holding off for the longest time and my dvd/cd drive hasn't been working and my hinges are wearing pretty badly. The poor bette is almost 4 years old, so I had it last minute shipped before my warranty gave out! I'm going to have to do what I can outside the invisible safety net college has strung me in concerning things such as laptop warranties, health insurance, and discounts.

On an off note my style icon and inspiration for the moment is Miss Spider from the movie James and the Giant Peach. She was my inspiration for a final project for my graphic forms class dealing with either fortunes or hand-to-mouth. Open-ended and delightfully harder than expected to go with.

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I've got various sketches and what not of my illustration that I'll be inking up tonight! Final projects.....and Magic Hat #9 tonight...

I have taken quite the liking of depicting her eating handfulls of drippy vibrant peach.

...and the rest of the show!

daily melody: La Roux "Bulletproof"

I have to send a huuuuuge apology for falling into my little infamous lapse of posting...especially to leave readers in suspense from the opening of my show! Which went......SPLENDID!!!!

I luckily had assistance moving each television by a two-tiered cart with a fellow friend and visual communications major, Blake, who assisted in moving them across the street from the bowels of Coleman studio [in the basement] to the gallery. This was of course after 3 hours of pre-running around doing errands, picking up things, and whatever else was needed for the opening. Some of this included: my vinyl lettering of my show title and name, a table for my postcards, business cards, resume, and guestbook, a new dress [which was thrifted with the table at the Syracuse Salvation Army], cheese, crackers, pepperoni, humous [hors d'oeurves], screws for my deer mount, and any other minor things needed.

...oh and my postcards [which I sold for $1 each at the show] and business cards came in on time a day before my show! phew! that had been such a burden on my shoulders....

Here are some photographs care of Shanna of the rest of the show and artists:

My good friend Kari and her photographs of body and texture.Benjamin with his emotionally charged abstract paintings.

Megan and her pigment charged Bacon-inspired horse paintings.
photo cred: Shanna the fabulous!!

The show was up for 4 days and I de-installed Tuesday night to get the gallery back in order for the remaining 2 shows that will be in the gallery....I was the 2nd show.

I had my oral defense explaining my work, artist statement, and the process I went through to 3 professors [1 senior project, 1 chosen from Syracuse University, and one I chose]. I'm crossing my fingers I did alright on it....

I'm content that I had this experience and learned a lot as I went through it all.
I hope to show at many many more galleries to come.


Above all I am an artist.
This is what I am doing.

theatrical electronic

daily melody: Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Soft Shock"

Theatrical Electronic
Caroline A. Locatelli
2009-2010
Mixed media installation
NFS

Theatrical Electronic is an installation solely based around discarded, donated, and found objects revealing a charming anecdote between technology and nature represented through six television sets and the head of deer.

As I mature and expand as an artist I reach out more to the treasures of discarded and found items to incorporate in my works. I choose everyday objects that an average person has the ability to relate to, recognize, and often use themselves.

Using the selected objects for their forms and connotations I enjoy breathing life into the lifeless creations, for example televisions, that are around us.

The television sets are each blanketed in individual, yet unifying bold colors- stripping each of them of their model information, brand identification, and visible signs of consumerism.

In this work, I have created three classifications: nature, man, and the inanimate objects man creates. The deer mount suspended above the televisions represents nature in bright robust gold to signify a higher caste, royalty, and purity; as well as the branches that sprout from the televisions and the artificial grass beneath them.
Both television and deer speak quietly to one another captured in a cathartic moment. The television sets struggle to alter their burdensome bodies and transcend into a higher level despite their inevitable destiny. As each television strives to be ever closer to nature only dead branches sprout from their tops.

The deer shows its sorrow and silently weeps out of respect for

the creations man has constructed. . .

loved in a fickle respect. . . . .

and finally discarded. . . . . .

The opening went fantastic!
I couldn't be happier and more proud with my installation.

....sleep deprived, sick, and oh-so exhausted from all the other work and things to do left....

*** Thank you sooo much, Shanna for shooting all these lovely photographs for me!

4 days....getting closer

daily melody: Thom Yorke "The Clock"

Now that I am finally ready to post some photographs I took of my installation [senior exhibition] in progress off of my lovely friend Sarah's digital camera, the piece has since progressed after a late-night work session last night.

I will be installing all-day Friday and the opening is this coming Saturday from 2-4pm in Cazenovia, NY. I just need to get through this, and finish my senior thesis paper [on televisions as a contemporary art form]. On a good note my postcards and business cards seemed to have finally shipped!! I have been worrying constantly on their arrival and if they would be getting to me in time of my show. These worries began when the estimated shipping date stated April 26th...4 days after my show.

here's to a week of little sleep and lots of creation!

Mediums: spray paint, acrylic paint, hot glue, found objects [television sets, deer mount-found of craigslist, Christmas light net]

It may seem a little perplexing to wonder why I am spray painting discarded television sets off the side of the road, and through generous donations...or why I have a taxidermy deer head also painted and dripping.

Through the transformation of my illustrative style and artisitic abilities I have found a common theme among my work that was not as strongly apparent to me before as it is now looking at my work from a retrospect. I enjoy personifying animate objects, man's little creations....giving a voice to an object that was built with none. In this case I am allowing the communication between the telelvisions and the deer to be presented, the relationship between technology [a creation of man] and nature.

The televisions yearn and struggle with all their being to become a part of nature, after being discarded-cast aside by the fickle nature of man. Nature, which will be represented all in gold will represent a true purity- the highest caste in the pyramid; above man which is above technology.

This has been the most inspiring and in-depth work thus far in my life...and I couldn't think of a better way to live my life.

More photographs and insite into the piece to come!

oh my ghosties!

daily melody: Crystal Castles "Magic Spells"

Despite the fact that I am stressing like no tomorrow, I do still manage to have good moments in my life, and this is an example of one of them...involving a tiny plastic ghost.

I traveled to Armory Square, in Syracuse, yesterday cashing in on my free tall coffee at Starbucks [check the top of the bags of ground/whole coffee beans for the rebate] and walked on over to Sound Garden where my little Totem Doppelganger [his birth name by product] and my new Munny were purchased. You can also find Munny friends and other cute creatures on KidRobot, My Plastic Heart, or any other contemporary business.

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These little guys [or girls!] are small, eerie, alert, charming, and vibrant with color are miniature versions of Anton Ginzburg's wide-eyed stackable ghosts. And they stand at about 1.75-inches tall and come in 14 different colors...perfect for pockets, purses, dashboards, window sills, and bookcases.

Prior to the purchase of my own purple ghost, I housed no knowledge of the installation and sculptural artist Anton Ginzburg or his work. Even when I'm alone I sometimes feel a tidbit of shame for not having prior knowledge of this beautiful and inspirational Russian artist. I am very content with my ghostie and the fact that his presence ties directly to the artworld, before his purchase or the fact that I had no clue someone made these guys!

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A bit of Ginzburg's Totemdoppelganger [from his website] :

[ A ghost is imagined as a person’s posthumous double.

In Totemdoppelgänger, Ginzburg has appropriated a cartoon ghost—a memory of East German stickers from the 1980s—and manufactured three-dimensional multiples of it. Enlarged and repeated, stacked one on top of the other, the ghosts acquire the seriousness of graven images. The installation mixes the sacred and profane according to the logic of dreams, where throwaway objects can take on profound significance.

Ginzburg has incorporated a reference to another of his works, Haunted Circle, into Totemdoppelgänger. That installation employs a similar strategy of creating fetishes from commonplace things, using a marker, chain, and nail to make a ritual circle on the wall. In Totemdoppelgänger

the marker hangs in mid-air, suggesting a circle yet to be drawn, an ambiguous vulnerability. ]

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As of the moment Doppelganger guards my Mercury Grand Merquis from the middle of the dashboard like a deadly ninja. Yes, though he a tiny purple ghost....he has stepped up to the plate to protect my only means of transportation. He's uncannily cute and so fun to play with because he's a flexy acrylic material.

Maybe if I get the time....and a camera [I've been very good about looking on eBay for pne lately...] I will do a mini series of the little guy. I know I'm in possession of a tiny Starbucks espresso mug from Germany [in english] and some other fun things he could pose with for some good wit and humor.

I love when creative people invent little stories personifying objects!

bottom line: I love little [positive] surprises in my life.

one week to go....

daily melody: Moby "I love to move in here [Proxy remix]"

Less than one week. Panic isn't satiable yet...fear has slipped into my bones and my mind to gnaw on the utter primal and innate characteristics and needs. Doing what makes me feel good....for the moment. Completely knocking my veg loyalty to greasy corporate packaging at a $1.08 [including lovely New York tax].

Last night more events caught me more off guard than I needed when I let them steep in my brain like chili which just meant more dwelling on the negative and all that still need to be accomplished. [Excluding shipping my laptop off for repair before the end of warranty and the anticipation of my postcards and business cards....eeek!]

...tired of being threatened by the spray painting I am doing in the space I have in the corner of a basement studio....

want a good show...and more peace.

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...on a good note I now own a Munny! [a Trikky to be exact....] and I am very excited about the myriad of possibilities of adorning the charming minimalist toy.

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Thank you, Nicholas, for this inspirational little guy.

***note: I have a deep adoration for techno music which will become increasingly more evident as this blog grows.

little card creations

daily melody: Crash Kings "Mountain Man"

I'm really quite anxious to see how my new batch of postcards comes out and have been playing around with the idea of having more illustrations or the whispers I write up to be treated as postcards or small cards.

French Croissants
[my tried-and-true love for France and the French language]
April 2010

It's never worth calling you back
[recent break-up inspired]
April 2010Golden croissants
April 2010Magical Spot
April 2010

I intend to color the first three, to be at a finishing point like the last one. I have the last one clipped and tacked to the wall in front of my desk beside my laptop so I have it close if I want to catch a glimpse. I might take my markers to it again and color it completely....possibly....

I scanned the third card under black & white settings instead of color like the rest, even though 3/4 of them are monochromatic, so it took on a sharper more contrasting appearance in line quality.

Just little drawings that I snuck in while I have piles of classwork, projects, and to-do lists galore!

how I spent my easter

daily melody: Hot Hot Heat "Middle Of Nowhere"

The holidays are always full of hassle and no-relaxation when they decide to come around on the calender for me. They are spent with the usual long drive home where homework and projects are pushed aside, but not forgotten and thus fretted upon in my head, long days spent with family members, and the feeling of a lost weekend when I return back to college.

My weekend commenced on Friday, not to a good start, with the topic of my future and commencement. Saturday was filled with working a double at Pier 1 Imports, but Sunday was spent [not home...which my family will not be happy with me about] at the art park with friends exploring found tree houses, bunnies, and grassy adventures with some bottles of Magic Hat #9.
I intend on stopping home to see my family one day this week and saying hello. It's not that my family is atrocious, I'm heading in a different direction and sometimes it's more frustrating to go home and be expected to fit back into my old life with a disregard to my blooming one.I love the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in Cazenovia, NY more than life itself sometimes. I love walking around and seeing the same sculptural pieces I've seen for three plus years, finding new pieces that were just added, or noticing older pieces I had overlooked in the past.

It moves me, it relaxes me, it's where I go when there's no one else around....and I love it. Art and Nature are a beautiful combination.

I need adventures to live.