afterthought**

afterthought**
Artists' Talk:  Conversation with Ellyn Weiss
DC Arts Center 2/12/17

"Toxicity in the Air"
an installation to provoke awareness of pollution poisoning the atmosphere using recycled and repurposed materials with petroleum products...
(handmade paper using recycled paper and/or lint as pulp base, recycled tar paper, found vinyl cord)

additional elements:
Performance A
Actor stands at exhibit entrance and passes out face masks to all upon exit.
Performance B
Actor stands at podium wearing face mask reading statistics about air pollution

**refers to science/scientific method without incorporated scientific elements
    reconstructs empirical experience as science/scientific sample
    uses common pastoral landscape (clouds) to reference urban pollution




abstraction from a writers point of view
means shared language
like french or spanish or farsi or zulu
how many ways to say
whatever
are how many ways to say
whatever

writing
"abstract"
a narrative?
a vision?
a mind game
perception
how u look at it
how u see
reading
it

material-
a (first)  level of language)
texture
shape
form
color
pattern
line by
line





starting point:
Thanks
to DCAC, B Stanley, Phil and Mike for agreeing to show this body of work in the context of a retrospective...
to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for awarding me a fellowship based on this work.

the show title "January 15 - October 16" are execution dates and include all the work produced during that time with the exception of "Walk in the Park: Apartment Living" and "The Black Army," both on view at the Prince George's County African American Museum and Cultural Center.

Organized in three parts, it featured the installation "Toxicity in the Air," "3sided," a studio exercise and a PopUp Patrons' Boutique which represented the retrospective aspect with a catalog and miniature collages using paper dating back to my days at Eastern Market...

artist statement:
My practice integrates image, object and frame using abstraction to make pictures or settings that read as something familiar. My intent is to articulate issues of contemporary culture and art thru installations and objects that embody social and/or aesthetic ideas. I work to strengthen the artists' relationship with the public at large and to challenge how "fine art" is being defined for "ordinary" people.

random thoughts:
abstraction is a mind game         out the box/on the fringes    
      competition      literal vs allusion vs illusion        
                       being independent in the art world            necessity
the more people that understand a language the more effectively you communicate