In The Studio

I've had the chance to spend a lot of time in the studio this week thanks to the holiday break. It's been a good opportunity to catch up, to spend time looking and thinking. 

A reminder that I've been posting many many images on my Tumblr, Tiger Feathers. It's a catalogue of what I'm looking and find interesting. Please take a look and follow if you are on Tumblr as well.

 :: Marianne Dages, Small Fires No. 4, Letterpress ::

The last print of 2013!

I made some updates to the website, a selection of work from my residency in Iceland is now included. You can see it HERE.

 :: Marianne Dages, Dictionary I, 2013 ::

This January if you are in Philadelphia, I will have some print pieces in Due North, it promises to be an interesting and varied exhibition of work by American and Icelandic artists.

:: Due North Opening, Thursday January 9th ::

Hope to see you there!

Looking Forward, Looking Back

Many projects and opportunities coming into being these next few months. An exciting and busy time, a time to look forward and look back on a wonderful year.

:: from the National Land Survey of Iceland ::

:: Stem and Stave, for the Due North Portfolio ::

:: Small Fires No. 1, for R/W: Reading & Writing Visual Experience‌ ::

:: Oculus Song, for Light of the Moon ::

Arrangements II

Preliminary Arrangements

 

Dictionary Drawings

Dictionaries, chance operations. 

:: Marianne Dages, Dictionary, 25" x 28," 2013 ::

Experimentation

:: Home, walking in Tinicum ::

Back home, back in my studio, I'm processing the my experiences from Iceland and the drawings I made, and translating that into print.

:: Marianne Dages, Fragmented I, pencil and watercolor, 2013 ::

Working with fragments, pieces of rope and charcoal I brought home with me, memories of the landscape, spare at first, but bursting with detail under close inspection. Herringbone, the lines of geological time. Layers.

 

Studio Visits & Iceland Work Part Two

This week a couple studio visits of note. One from Amze Emmons, a founder of Printeresting, and all around delightful printmaker, painter, collaborator, and person. His visit was posted on the site, you can read the article and see pictures here.

:: the studio back in the summer, courtesy of Printeresting ::

And yesterday, I had a visit from Amanda D'Amico and students from The University of the Arts MFA Book Arts and Printmaking Program, great people with a great Tumblr (go there to meet them and see their work). As usual, I forgot to take a picture in the moment and only have the spread of work I put out to show. I had a wonderful time talking with them and hope they stay in touch. 

:: the spread of work ::

And I continue to unpack my work from my residency and look at it, starting to think about what it means and where it will take me. I recently had a breakthrough regarding themes in my work, that much of it has to do with translation/mistranslation, and the connection between language and culture. 

I had a strange experience while in Iceland. On the way to the residency, I took a long bus ride, exhausted and lacking sleep. In those moments of dozing, I would hear the Icelandic passengers talking to each other and for brief moments, I thought I understood them, and then it would disappear.

I grew up in a bilingual home and I've been losing my second language for years. With the loss of language, I gained the uncanny feeling of distance from parts of myself. In a way, I'm performing a personal archaeology, a unearthing and cataloguing of idiosyncratic symbols, sometimes fragmented, meanings lost. I'm making my dictionary.

:: Dictionary ::

Iceland Work: Part One

I'm starting to unpack my work from Iceland and photograph it. It was a strange and exciting experience to see it for the first time back in the states, in my studio. The light was so different. These are small paintings, about 7" x 11", all paintings, all untitled for now. Gouache, acrylic, graphite, and gesso. 

Reykjavik

White Lepiota

We are walking together,

the alder and the oak.

Carrying

a desert of lapwings

under our coats.

Back to the beginning,

back to the seabirds and foam.

The bull slides across the pitch ocean floor 

All the names are gone

White lepiota grows

our mossy hearts - the grind of planets -

songs of tallow and bone.

One foot in the water

- two far travelers -

Setting fires along the road.

- Marianne Dages, 2013

Iceland Part Sixteen

Iceland Part Fifteen

It's been raining here for the last two days and I've been holed up drawing. At night the rain turns icy and brushes the house in gusts. It made me dream that the house was under the ocean swaying between giant seaweed branches.  

Iceland: Part Fourteen

I'm starting to feel that the end of this residency is looming. Trying to keep simple days and take in the lighting and textures of the landscape, and though they don't figure in my pictures prominently, the people, I'm going to miss the people that have made me feel so welcome here. I'm also looking for the arctic fox...so arctic fox, if you're reading this, please come out and hi. Thank you.   :)

Iceland : Part Thirteen

Time is passing quickly here in Iceland. I wrote a post about the Jan Voss show here in Siglufjordur and it was posted on Printeresting, you can read it here. Also, while I'm here, I had a couple of letterpress prints in the .918 show at Samford University pictures of their reception are up here. They also made printed a catalogue, chock full of great print work. I also have a couple pieces at the Making IT exhibition at The University of the Arts, a juried exhibition of work by recent alumni. More exciting projects in the works. For now, eating, sleeping, drawing, walking, listening to podcasts and having a lovely time. 

Iceland: Part Twelve

Coffee in the morning. Drawing on the floor, making a dictionary of symbols. Quiet. Listening to raindrops at night. Hoping for snow again before I leave, the tops of the mountains are white, the clouds are lit up by the moon.

Iceland : Part Eleven

A storm came in today bringing cold wind and rain. Today I walked down by the water, looking at shells and rocks and twisted pieces of metal. Yesterday I walked up the mountains near a waterfall and watched the fog roll in,  listened to rocks falling, ravens murmuring. 

Iceland Part Ten: The Herring Era Museum

On a clear crisp day, I got to visit The Herring Era Museum, a beautifully curated, crafted, award winning museum that tells the story of the herring industry in Iceland. The museum is actually three separate buildings, these images are all from "The Salting Station." The third floor of the building remained untouched, including the "brakki," sleeping quarters for dozens of girls who worked in packing herring, and the office of the herring speculator. Örlygur Kristfinnsson, artist and director of the museum, is also one of the founders of the Herhúsið residency. 

:: looking out on the old piers ::

Iceland: Part Nine

A hike high up in the mountains, a stone that looks like Iceland, songs around the table, familiar stars, and an exhibition of artist's books by Jan Voss, all in Siglufjörður. Feeling so happy and welcome and lucky.

 

Iceland: Part Eight

 This morning, I had a visitors, artists in the residency the next town over. We had breakfast at the bakery. Bego Anton, a photographer from Spain, had been following me on Tumblr, and saw familiar looking mountains...two people from across the world in the same small place.

Drowsy evening, drinking cold coffee, trying to follow intuitions and make clear decisions, simpler, simpler, make it more simple.

Iceland: Part Seven

Last night, I saw the Northern Lights (picture here). Today, I took another long walk to a new place with a trickling stream and interesting stones. Warm, relentless wind that smelled like animals.