Cry The Bird

Lineage: Paintings by Dolores Jordan (a.k.a. my Gran)

Megan — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:39:53 +0000

In honor of my last “20′s” birthday I thought I’d share some work from one of the many talented individuals from whom I’ve descended: my maternal grandmother, Dolores Jordan.

My “Granny” is an amazing woman and a talented artist. She’s someone I feel I take after a great deal. We are both avid readers as well as artists and we share a particular affinity and passion for teaching. And, lately, we get gushy over our love of watercolor….

Although she has worked in oils for the majority of her life (two of which are hanging in my kitchen), my Gran has picked up watercolor in recent years and has progressed very quickly. She’s recently started taking watercolor classes again after a (too) long vacation from painting and I asked her if I could share some of her works here. Thankfully she loves me and agreed! (Mom, you’re next!)

Much love to my family: thank you for the amazing genetic code and the upbringing to make something of it over the past 29 years.

“Lay of the Land” on view at the Infinity Art Gallery online.

Megan — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:05:21 +0000

My work, Along The Void, got into the Lay of the Land competition in the Infinity Art Gallery, the other 19 artists are pretty amazing so check out the exhibition online.

Information about the show and statements by the winning artists.

Gallery of works in the exhibition.

: M. Levacy, Along The Void, watermedia on paper, 15.5″ x 19.5″

Kick Start

Megan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:20:00 +0000

Classes start tomorrow and I couldn’t be more excited about this new semester: 1) I’m only teaching two courses instead of the five from last semester which gives me much more studio time and more time to devote to individual students 2) Many changes have been made to my course curriculum and I’m trying out some new projects like a student “SketchBlog” and a trompe l’oeil assignment including painting and photography and 3) I have been assigned my very first graduate assistant (Welcome Kyle!).

Application season is also getting into full swing. I’ve already applied to around 30 positions and that’s only half way through the stack – I’m really hopeful this year since I did get two call backs last year when I didn’t have any post-grad teaching experience AND I’ll be attending the CAA conference in LA at the end of February. The new course load enables me to spend more time on these applications and (fingers crossed) the interviews that will result.

This week I changed my artist portfolio for the billionth time (it’s a never ending process) and updated my resume with my very first 2012 exhibitions and publications and I’m feeling very energized and anxious for some studio time. It certainly doesn’t hurt to get a motivational kick-start by winning 2nd place in a juried show and having work published in a literary magazine within the first two weeks of the new year.

The 2nd place win was awarded for a post-graduate work, Flight of Memory, in the SeaScapes – Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery – International Juried Exhibition for January. My piece, Along the Void, is being published in the upcoming issue (#5) of the RiverLit literary magazine and blog in February.

Let’s hope I can keep the momentum rolling. I’m looking forward to some good research time over the weekend as I’ve just gotten in a new (to me) book of poetry by Rae Armantrout, entitled Versed, a book called Seeing Trees with excellent multi-layer composite photos, and I’m expecting the new artist book on Shahzia Sikander any day now.

Which reminds me – it’s late and I have class to teach tomorrow. I suppose I should wrap this up and curl up in bed with one of the aforementioned books so I can get up early enough to have breakfast with my husband and drop off the latest batch of job applications at the post office before work.

Busy days ahead!

(If the apocalypse happens and ruins all my plans this year I’m going to be completely miffed.)

Reflections on a fantastic year…

Megan — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:21:53 +0000

2011 was a BIG year for me: I received my 3rd degree, created 3 individual solo shows in their entirety (although, to be fair I started my thesis work in November of 2010 not January of 2011), started my first post-grad job (with a 5 course load at that), brought a little frog into the family, established my first dedicated home studio in our second bedroom, and successfully transitioned from “student” to “professional artist” without a major break down. In addition I got to see C.A.K.E. in concert (best time ever!), made a couple of new friends (and got closer to others), learned to set better boundaries, let go of a lot of excess baggage, and discovered the joys of having a rice maker. I have much to be thankful for.

Because of the crazy amount of work created for my MFA show and the two exhibitions that followed I have a lot of work from 2011. To start the year off right I backed up all the files on my computer and in the process I went through and culled a bunch of my work documentation – I felt a bit like I was looking through a couple of years of work not just one. As a result, it was easier to see the transitions from one body of work to the next and some of the works I remember disliking earlier are now viewed more positively with fresh eyes.

The following are some of my more liked “personally under-appreciated” works of art from 2011 – some made the list because of some kind of a revelation that occurred during the creation while others were because of the actual product itself.

: Butterflies, pinhole photograph

: The Cabin, double exposed pinhole photograph (The cabin was where my graduate studio was located for three years, the double exposure of one of the study skins I was working with for my MFA thesis was an accident – a wonderful accident.)

: Dragonfly and Wasp (details), gouache on paper

: Cataloochee Valley, watercolor, ink, and pastel on paper (done on location)

: Bahloo’s Nest, graphite on paper

: Casualties (Deer), digital photograph

: Ringing Glass, pastel, ink, and watercolor on paper

Happy New Year!

Making a tiny piece of work a day.

Megan — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:29:21 +0000

For the last two months I’ve been creating a small 4×4 inch work a day as a way to prevent my creative juices from backing up and growing stagnant. When I started this project I had just taken down my most recent exhibition and found myself in an awkward limbo where I was too exhausted from cranking said show (and teaching a five-course load) that I wasn’t really creating anything at all that didn’t have a course heading at the top.

Within 6 months of graduating I had cranked out two individual exhibitions of entirely new work and this outpouring had left me a bit dried out psychologically – the idea of either A.) continuing to create work exploring the same concept or B.) coming up with an entirely new concept was overwhelming and the result was temporary paralysis.

As luck would have it, I stumbled across a little exhibition of “Painting a Day” works at a local gallery during our cities First Friday downtown and had this “ah, ha!” moment. The works on display spanned a 30 day period. Each artist took vastly different approaches. Some had themes – most did not. The interesting groupings demonstrated a sense of exploration and creative abandon – these artists were less concerned with an over-all cohesive aesthetic than simply exploring individual moments in either concept of media.

So, this “work a day” idea seemed like a rather applicable solution to my problem – that very evening I created my first piece. I made a commitment to continue to do so until the semester ended as a way to keep focus and process my beginning thoughts about where to take my work next (without feeling overwhelmed by the all that this process entails).

This process certainly kept me out of my own head, focused the energy and excitement that was stimulated by my students daily in positive and productive “low-pressure” ways, and helped me experiment with different ideas in a more hands on way than a sketchbook. I made works until the day after I entered all my student grades and now I’ve got quite a little collection of interesting pieces – several of which represent seeds for the work I’m currently in the process of researching and developing.

November 4th (First Day)

November 5th

November 18th

November 19th (Sisley Tribute!)

November 23rd (Bahloo, in collage!)

December 10th

December 11th

New “Interesting Artists” listed.

Megan — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:52:21 +0000

Finally, after 10 months, I got my various notes together and came up with some new listings for the “Interesting Artists” page on this blog. I’m sorry it took so long. I’m making a New Years Resolution to be more diligent in adding new artists on a regular basis. As a teaser – here are a couple of artists who made the list:

Minor White, Photographer

Minor White, Ritual Rocks

Minor White, Barnacles

Jennifer Cronin, Painter

Jennifer Cronin, Untitled #1

Leonor Jurado, Photography

Leonor Jurado, from New Work 2

Leonor Jurado, from New Work 1

Val Britton, Mixed Media (Painter?)

Val Britton, Beginning Anywhere

Val Britton, Divided Skies

Convergence: An email conversation with a friend.

Megan — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:00:38 +0000

I received an unexpected email from a friend which referred me to a book of poetry by Rumi (one of my top favorite poets) that was illustrated with artwork which shared a familiar tone with my own work.

As a scientist and writer, my friend has a certain way with words. After some discussion of the book itself, he wrote the following:

“I love reading a poem that says something I have said or felt. I hope you enjoy seeing art that is similar to what you have created. It makes me question our connectedness. How powerful is the universal unconscious? Is there some “wavelength” we sometimes vibrate on that no one sees or understands but produces a similar creativity is completely removed people? Does the universe talk on this frequency? Can we become more sensitive to that? Or is it that two separate processes of deterministic actions can converge to form the “same” piece of art?”

He goes on to say that one of his professors told a story in class about a literary critic who was noted for saying that “T.S. Elliot makes perfect sense and is enjoyable to read…If you read everything he [Elliott] read, thought everything he thought, and feel the same way about everything as he felt” and then adds: “The processes are deterministic actions because your entire life of events that lead from one to another coalesce into a single painting. A painting can only be reproduced (perfectly) if the mimicking artist went through the identical steps of formation as the original artist. Since nobody else grew up with my parents, brother, and sister no one will mimic me. Yet someone may simultaneously come to a similar conclusion as I do. In evolution it is called convergent evolution – like wings. Bats moths and birds evolved the same structure in far different ways. Anytime I see art work that is similar but likely unconnected to another piece of art, I cannot help but think these things.”

I was really moved by these words and they made me think a great deal about a great many things that I continuously mull over in my head. After about a week I formulated the following reply:

“It’s funny that your email came at the time that it did because only a few days prior I had an intense conversation with a group of students about what it means to be referential in both good and bad ways, about how important it is to find your own voice. The question was raised that “isn’t everything referential in some degree” and this divergent path seemed awfully familiar to the content of your email.

I think that it’s easy for some (or even at certain times in your life as opposed to others) to loose sight of the things that have led us to where we are and why we are unique to ourselves and unlike anyone else. But there are threads. I love the convergent points that tie me to other people and particularly to nature. [...] These pneumatic moments are spiritual to me.

Case in point: Rumi is one of my two favorite poets. I respond to his work and Rilkes so much that it influences and drives my work at times. To see artwork similar to my own in a book of Rumi’s poetry (and that you would see this and think of me and write what you did) was exhilarating because it reminded me of how connected everything can be.”

And of course, this led to a great deal more introspection as great and well-timed conversations often do.

Digital collage experiments.

Megan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:39:42 +0000

Its been rainy (and snowy) today and yesterday and as a result I’ve had a strong desire to curl up on the couch with the heating pad, slippers, kitty, and computer. I’ve been working on application materials and reviewing Color Theory rough drafts about censorship of the arts for the most part (I’ve gotten some really good papers this semester). I was in a mood after classes today though so I decided to play a bit with some previously scanned magazine images.

This endeavor was in large part inspired by a recent project done by a colleague but I have created several works of this nature in the past as demos for a similar (but decidedly less cool) project with my own class. Despite the familiar process it was fun to experiment with my recently updated version of Adobe (CS5) and I spent the best portion of the afternoon just fiddling. Keeping in line with the 4×4 work a day project I’ve been diligently doing since October 25th, I decided to make these images as part of my daily exercise. However, rather than one, I ended up with four. It was quite fun.

Here are some results:

Savannah Lights

Megan — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:16:02 +0000

While in Savannah for the SECAC conference earlier this month I was really inspired and impressed with the city. Not only did we stay in an amazing hotel (in terms of ambiance and location) but the weather was gorgeous and perfect for walking around. I’ll be sure to post more about some of the highlights of the actual conference but for now I thought I’d post a collection of cell-phone “Polaroid” images taken of the many wonderful light fixtures found throughout the hotel, SCAD, and the city of Savannah.

Many thankful moments.

Megan — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:51:21 +0000

Even amidst the hustle and bustle of this hectic semester I occasionally have tiny quiet moments of reflection (or wonder) which help invigorate me and encourage the personal development of my own creative work. There have been a great many such moments as of late, in part due to a wonderful trip to Savannah, GA, with a few colleagues to the annual SECAC conference. Unfortunately, with the end of the semester swiftly (and a bit sadly) approaching I haven’t found much time to post the little bits of ephemera that typically accompany such times. So… the following are a few of the things I’ve been hoarding the past few weeks (SECAC conference aside).

Pigeons at sunset during November first Friday in downtown Johnson City.

Sleepy boy-cat with a light-blub-shimmer-bird in background.

Tree seen through bird feces and morning frost on windsheild.

Late fall leaves plastered to the road in front of the art building in the early morning.

First morning ice on window.

The return of the turkeys!!!

Another accidental photo of something that ends up looking like a bird...