PROPOSAL STATEMENT:
The core of my practice (in both teaching and painting) deals with issues of connectivity and trust. These identities require that I unveil (or provide means for dissecting) information while allowing a deconstruction to ensue. The revealing process both fragments the archeology of time and grand narratives while serving as a detached trust relationship and servant to the lush variety of the metanarrative. With this proposal, I continue to be interested in trust relationships, however, I seek to do more than reveal - but to be more aware of what I "add."
I am asking people to donate their artwork to me so that I can interact with and transform it; thus taking something that is rooted and potentially inactive into something with new voice, force and leverage. Such an effort on the part of the audience emphasizes that movement comes not from stagnation but from risking and trusting others (even strangers) to aid us through living. I deeply appreciate this extension of trust.
HOW TO "PLAY:"
1. Find painting, drawing, collage, etc. that you made or own but do not wish to keep - perhaps you've had it around a long time or never finished it; maybe you just aren't "there" anymore; or perhaps you have a piece you really like and want to allow it to evolve? Please realize that whatever the work is - it will be altered/changed - and there is no guarantee that you will get it back.
2. If it is a canvas painting it is best that you take it off its stretcher bars and ROLL it up and send it in a tube. Otherwise, box the art and ship it to: Jodi Patterson PO Box 663, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
3. If you have titled the piece already, or had a specific idea in mind while working on it - please share that with me. I cannot promise that I will keep with the theme - but it may inform my direction. Also, please state media/ums you used.
4. You will receive credit for the base work and a photograph will be taken of it and perhaps displayed with the re/trans/formed piece, but the work will otherwise be the property of the artist - unless specifics are otherwise negotiated.
5. I will ask for your permission to display our correspondence on my website and perhaps at exhibitions. If any sent work cannot be utilized - it will be returned.
FELICIA
Hi, Jodi!
I hope this email finds you well.
I'm writing because of your earlier post to the Goddard Alumni Listserve, and I have an idea about the painting ... with the photos of me and my Grandma.
How about if you tore into those photos. The more jagged the better, and then painted over them with an ochre, and or burnt sienna, or whatever fit your fancy?
I think, then, the painting would be less specific, and have a broader appeal. Also, it might fit into the parameters of your new project. I love your idea, and am eager to collaborate (albeit from a distance) with you.
What do you think?
Here's hoping you have a wondrous, happy, and healthy New Year.
Love,
xoxox,
Felicia
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hello felicia!
i hope your year is off to a fine start. i apologize for not getting back to you sooner in regards to this note/project. i admit that i was taken aback by your offer for this reason … i had fully expected people to send me work that they perhaps didn't really "like" or know how to/want to finish. i had not expected to be trusted with the preciousness of what you are offering. your leap of faith made me nervous but since i've had time to digest it, i now feel honored by your gift and would like the okay to proceed forward.
when i look at your piece, i think of seeds. the initial photographs, being covered, seem like something that looms. of course, the grid and pegs and wood lend more to the story - but mostly, i focus on the photos. but since i also know a little bit about you, i think that you are evidence of someone who is rising above this and since we both work with the idea of healing and voice - perhaps i will depict such growth instead. somehow.
please write back with anymore thoughts. i've also received work from Roxanne from Toronto and i am excited to move ahead ... that's what we do, right?!
In wellness,
Jodi
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Hello, Jodi!
I am thrilled and excited by your ideas. Please, please, please, do whatever you wish. I love this idea of yours, and adding one of your fantastic metanarratives will be wondrous. Jodi, please know that I am also honored by your gifts.
I will also send you stuff I don't like. But I am intrigued by your new process and I only want to encourage you. I have to get used to the idea of sending you stuff I don't like -- that seems so foreign to me…
I wish you joy.
Much love,
Felicia
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Excellent, Felicia.
with just these few emails, we've already aired out tensions that arise from both sides of this exchange. i am hearing that it takes courage to send both well-liked and less-liked work to me. i suppose it has to do with the fact that irregardless, it is work made by someone with the intention to make something "special" and it is true that we don't really want people to see what we wouldn't mark as our best work. i can empathize with this! it is sort of like reluctantly stepping into a hair salon with split ends and brown roots ... but emerging ...
you are such a great supporter. thanks for being on my side. my life is going to change soon - new semester and all new courses - but i promise to keep you updated as it warrants.
warmness,
jodi
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ROXANNE
Dec. 22, 2007 – letter on red paper delivered USPS from Canada. (Great surprise)
Hi Jodi!
… I hope the enclosed painting called “Diversity Discourse” will still be of some use to your project. It was part of the 2005-2006 “Coulourblind” exhibit which toured around the greater Toronto area. I’ve been meaning to ship to you for a while, but wanted to enclose a lil’ letter too! … There’s an accompanying list of what the symbols represent:
Andrinka symbols of West Africa form the diversity discourse: Peacemaking, hope, unity/human relationships, learn from the past, support and cooperation, transformation, perseverance …
Things are pretty remarkable with my current gig as an apprentice Dramaturge with Obsidian …
Sincerely,
Roxanne
Xo
