First post with catshup

This is the first attempt at my own blog page. I’ve had a blog running on my myspace page but just realized that older posts get wiped out. So, this first post will be a recap of some of the posts that I’ve put up over there in an effort to keep them around longer.

The current project I’m working on is called “Cuentos y Memoria” (stories and memory). It is a Dia de los Muertos installation at the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame. The exhibit will run from October 28 – December 16, 2007. For this particular offrenda (altar/offering) I will be creating a traditional altar with some contemporary elements to honor those members of my family that have passed on.

So, working backward…

October 10, 2007

Last night's cutting session ground to a halt. Somehow I wore down my favorite "v" cutting tool in an unbalanced fashion. Where once it cut like a hot knife through butter, now, it cuts like a ...well, it's ripping more than cutting. So I have to grind it down and build a clean bevel on it once again to get it where I need it.

I guess it was bound to happen. I've had these tools for a few years now and have only had to strap them to keep a good edge on for cutting. I hope I haven't totally f'd it all up.

sigh

October 9, 2007 (happy birthday John)

The sliver of a moon plus a super bright Venus, Saturn and Regulus made me stand like a stunned ox in the middle of the road this morning. Beautiful.

Two weeks to go before I have to install the Day of the Dead ofrenda. I'm still carving the 6 blocks of wood that will make up one 14' long image when pieced together...and boy are my fingers sore! The decision having to be made: do I save time and go for a linear and broad flat spaces approach to defining the images or do I do more of how I usually handle my woodcut print mark making? I'll have to decide quick and get on it.

The video...I'm going to have to go with what I have and hope it all makes sense with the editing. It's only meant as a slice of a running documentation but I really want it to look good. The stories and recollections being electronically regurgitated will take the place of the conversations that traditionally occur at the gravesides. Of course, I still need to translate some the spanish and add subtitles for the mono-lingually impaired.

Things that have dawned on me by doing this project:_
-People want to help...let them._
-It's a family thing._
-My parent's married at such an early age that their siblings and their spouses really did absorb one another as a second family. For instance, my dad knows much more about my uncle T (my mom's sister's husband) than he does about his own brothers, mostly because he spent his life from age 17 on working and living next to him.

September 17, 2007

I got to record three more family members and their recollections this weekend. I'm not a very extroverted person so it is difficult for me to be "out there" and get someone else to open up. However the common bond of family and my excitement for how this project is evolving makes it easier.

Recorded this week - two brothers, mis primos, talking about their beloved father who's resourcefulness, story telling, and zest for life is missed on the eleventh anniversary of his death. My uncle, recounting his travels to the States, talked, tentatively at first, about his siblings that have passed, his father's hard work and the effect of his mother's last embrace and kiss.

I know it is hard for people to talk but I'm grateful that they are willing to expose themselves and do it. Of course all this can't help but cause a change in how I'm looking at things. Right now I'm just glad I can listen and that I might somehow be able to pass the story along.

September 11, 2007

The elements for Cuentos Y Memoria (Stories and Memory) the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) installation I will be creating at the Snite Museum of Art are coming together. I've got about 4 1/2 weeks before the actual installing is supposed to begin. I've planned to make the installation a combo of traditional and contemporary elements. The installation is planned to fill a small gallery rather than just the traditional ofrenda (altar) that usually takes up the corner or one wall of a room.

The gathering part has been going on for some time now. I'm really glad that the whole process has evolved, as it would be for a home ofrenda, into a family and friends collaboration. My Mom has been making the table coverings required for the ofrenda. My sisters are helping me out with the flower arrangements and offering elements. Various people are lending me their photos and my elder family members are making time to give me their stories on tape.

Video is an unfamiliar media for me that needs to be worked on in addition to various 2-D and 3-D elements being gathered and later assembled. My nephew, Adam, and my friend, Krista, have been walking me through some basics to get me started with the video element I'm incorporating. Now, I have no illusions about being a videographer so this will have to be a pretty basic point and shoot exercise. The big work will be in editing down all the great stuff I'm getting from my relatives into a coherent shorter block that can be looped and projected in the space.

Some of the stuff still to come are the prints, papel picado (cut paper), sugar skulls, and more…

August 27, 2007

This weekend I began collecting video stories from my parents and family for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) exhibit I'm installing in October.

It was interesting to hear my parents recount memories of family members that have passed and their histories. I'm going to have more information than I'll know what to do with. Besides getting the material I need for the installation my priority is to get some of these stories recorded before they are lost. First steps...