We purchased our second house in France, this one we intend to live in. Very excited about our adventure in western France in a town in the Deux Sevres called Thouars.
The Pig House
We looked in France for a house with character, in a small village, with full services and out buildings for studios. We discovered Thouars and this beautiful house, dating from the mid 1800s. Built across the street from the train station, this modestly fancy house was renovated in the 1920s by a pork broker who invested heavily in a beautiful facade.
In the 50s-60s, the house was turned into a hotel and tarted up further to include seven bedrooms and an out building dedicated to laundry. In the 80s-90s, the kitchen was remodeled, a shower was added, and the wainscoting and wall paper were installed.
The house is listed as a Båtiment remarquable, thus the envelope of the building is protected. We can’t make any changes to the exterior. This designation exists primarily because of the beautiful facade with the pig amidst the acorns. This means that any insulation work has to happen on the inside. We will make significant changes to the interior of this house to accommodate the use of heat pumps which require good air circulation. These changes will also open up the space with more light and range of sight.
Thouars
Thouars is in the Deux Sevres region just south of the Loire Valley. The population, 14, 797, is similar to Petersburg, VA where we live now.
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Floor Plan
The grey area is building, white is the yard which is fenced.
Interior Brochure
The house was charming, full of small rooms each with a fire place, festive wall paper, beautiful light. We fell in love.
Bedrooms
Beautiful light with double pane thermal windows.
Out Buildings
The buildings in back of the house and the fenced yard really closed the deal for us. There is a old laundry room I’ll use for painting, a barn we will convert into print and paper, and Alain will have an old garage to set up shop.
Floor Plan
The house feels narrow, broken up into small rooms with long hallways punctuated by doors.
House Inspection
The French have a very thorough process for reviewing houses prior to sale. We learned a lot about the house and the city through this process.
D Rating
Like many houses in France, this one had little to no insulation. The primary heat source, fire places, were also inefficient and undesirable for us.
Repurpose
We began planning what is would take to modernize this space and customize it to our use. We can add solar panels in the back, plant trees and flowers. I’m very excited about the yard.
Insufficient Insolation
Reconsider the Entrance
Lots of light comes into the front of the house. We’re going to remove some walls, widen entrances, and increase airflow between rooms.
Structural Reinforcement
Opening up the middle of the house required the addition of steel and concrete beams.
Door to the Left of Entrance, the Den
X marks the spot, taking down these walls separating the two rooms in the front of the house and a hallway will really simplify the space.
One Down
One wall down, entry on the left.
Boiler Room to become Bathroom
We’ll move the small bathroom from the middle of the house to this space in the den that used to house the boiler.
The Bones
We removed all the wallpaper, wainscoting, radiators, fixtures, and fireplaces so the insolation can be added from the inside. No modifications can be made to the exterior of the house.
Partway There
A front window and a side door, work in progress.
Side Door
There are three doors that lead to the yard. I just love that, the outdoors is close.
Next
Before we can take the living room wall, a support beam must be installed.
Living Room
The X is the same X wall from the previous picture. This fancy room had some imposing wall paper! A bathroom created walls for the front room and the back. Removing it opened the space up beautifully.
Beams
An engineer signed off on this part of the project. We’ve been very pleased with our contractors, Nessi Ceuta, and are glad to have them on board for the next phase of the work.
New Entrance
In addition to the benefits of more open spaces for increased light, this layout will allow our new heat pumps to work efficiently.
Supporting the Beam
You can see through the front of the house. Fire places cut off most of the corners in the house which I am anxious to reclaim.
Wide Open
From the entrance looking left, the hallway is gone.
Concrete Beams
Wallpaper Removal WIP
Stripping every surface of wallpaper. These walls will be between the outside of the house and the newly insulated interior walls. Wallpaper would mold under those circumstances so all of it had to be removed.
Fire Place #1
These fire places were beautiful, but they were eating my corners. I’m hungry for wall space and won’t compromise it for these beasts of sooty burden.
Front Room Down to the Plaster
This room looks naked, we’re down to the bones.
Corner Restoration
The fire place is gone, symmetry is returned.
View from Living Room to Den
Pre wallpaper removal.
The Well Under the Stairs
There is a well in the house under the stairs with the last vestiges of original floor, beautiful. Some stabilization is necessary here!
Moving the Door
We will close this space off, lengthening the wall in the den for bookshelves. The entrance to the stairs will be around to your left. We’ll build out a closet in this newly created space.
My New Sitting Room
The room behind the living room had great windows and a door to the outside. My painting studio is visible through back.
Sitting Room from Outside
The wall in the back comes out. To the left is the kitchen. Not excited about the tile or the wall paper . . .
New View from the Kitchen
The main floor of the house, rez-de-chaussée, will become one large U-shape with the stairs in the middle.
Front to Back
Tearing out the bathroom connected the two rooms on the left side of the house.
Bathroom
This small but very deep room in the middle of the house really broke up the space.
Behind the Bathroom Wall
A lot of room behind this wall for plumbing.
Extend the Kitchen
The doorway on the left will get walled up, adding to the kitchen and creating the other wall for the storage closet in the stairwell.
Reduce, Recycle
Taking down plumbing and wiring after wall and wall paper removal.
Fire Place #2
We carefully disassembled the fireplaces and saved all the marble.
Soot and Bones
Demolishing the fireplaces revealed branches and nests, seemed like a hundred years of coming and going.
Fire Brick
We also salvaged the fire bricks from the fireplaces, which encase the heat from the fire. We’ll use those to build a barbecue in the back yard.
Lived in the Chimney
This beautiful specimen was nested inside the chimney. A large bird, got in but coudn’t get back out.
Kitchen Door
Door to the stairs on the right and to the kitchen on the left. We will open up that wall, XXX!
Charming Little Kitchen
The kitchen is very cute, quite small for a hotel. The other side of the XXX, looking for a bit more space here.
Looking into the Kitchen
Lots of light when we connected these two rooms.
Kitchen Beam
This renovation required another support beam. The door in the kitchen opens to the garden.
Making Friends
We have friends and they have friends. Meeting locals helped us find a guy to help in the yard! It’s a jungle out there.
Removing the False Ceiling
I love the little pantry in the kitchen but we have to insulate that exterior wall so I think I’ll get a bit less of it when all I said and done.
Real Friends
Caroline helping remove wall paper. It took us about two days per room just for the wall paper.
A Sticky Mess
We made a big mess out of every room in the house.
Removing the Appliances
Getting the house down to the bare bones.
The Bare Bones
The kitchen fully denuded and ready for phase two: insulation, plumbing, and electrical.
Outside Kitchen Door
We’ll find a nicer light fixture but I love this door leading out of the kitchen.
The Cave
There is a cold storage under the laundry. We’ll use it for things that won’t be bothered by mice.
Russian Vodka
There were a few artifacts in the house suggesting someone had a relationship with mother Russia.
View of the Yard from the Second Floor
On the left are the laundry / painting studio. Behind it is the barn / print shop. At the end is the garage / shop. And the lean-tos on the right will be reduced in size and new structures built for solar panels.
Door to the Laundry
My studio will be three steps from the house.
Studio looking at House
Northern light, perfect for painting.
Looking Toward the Barn.
We found some rubber tiles which will help soften this concrete floor and add some insulation as it sits above the cool cave.
An Awning
I love these blue stripes.
The Studio Ready for Insulation
We will have to rebuild the wall on the left and put in new thermopile windows. The studio will have a heat pump.
La Porte
We’ll put in a door between the studio and the printshop.
Supporting the New Outline
The contractors did a nice job on this.
The Door
Connected!
The Door from the Printshop
We’ll build stairs which I can already imagine sitting on.
If Walls Could Talk
Sadly, we’ll cover this wall with insulation. Creature comforts over age old charm.
Light Floods the Barn
The barn had a dirt floor and no insulation.
Heavy Equipment
The gate to the back yard is big enough to drive equipment through which is handy.
Work in Progress
Sometimes the contractor sends us “proof of life” pics along the way.
Barn with New Floor
A concrete pad was added to the barn floor to hold the presses and type cabinets. We’ll add thermal windows but will probably have to replace the wall on the right to do that.
View to Studio and Barn Doors
A custom door will be built for the barn / printshop. This space will be insulated but not have it’s own heat pump.
Alain's Shop
This rickety garage is a bit of a downgrade from Alain’s current space.
Not as Tiny as it Looks
Alain is buying machines that will work with the voltage in France, a small tablesaw, a drill press, a jointer, a planer, and a lathe will fit in here.
from the Shop to the gate
The back forty as it were…
A Jungle
Not exactly sure what’s growing but the good news is that things grow in the garden, so the soil must be good enough to get started with my big plans.
Keep Oliver In
A gated yard is a dream for a dog owner and hopefully for a dog!
Looking for the Second Well
We dug around every likely location but never found the second well.
Looking for the Second Well
Looking for the Second Well
Symmetry in a Muted Palette
Doors
We are repurposing wood from the doors for floor molding and etc. Modern doors are sold with jams so reusing these doors should be difficult.
Marble and Fire Brick
We remained careful with the marble as it has a resale option.
Dirty, Rusty, Broken
Insides of the fire places were rotten, glad to be rid of them.
Back Wall
We’ve started taking down small trees that are growing out of drainage pipes, some under the out buildings.
Yard Rehab
Chop, chop, chop. You can see the fragile exterior wall of the barn here.
Reduce, Recycle
All of the garbage has to be sorted for recycling, which I love! Go France.
Flower for the Door
All the exterior doors in the yard had flower ornaments. We will make a cast and replace them, they’re so cute.
View of the Yard from the Third Floor
You can see the surrounding houses. We are nestled right in.
A Hawaiian Blessing
I sprinkled a little Maui Salt to spread some Aloha on our new home.
Seven Bedrooms
Each with a beautiful window, wood floors, and a fireplace.
Front Rooms Have Balconies
These spaces are lovely and will be even lovelier with white walls and art.
Fire Place #3
Second Floor
This will be our bedroom on the front of the house. We’ve cut a hole connecting it to another bedroom which will become a large closet.
Fewer Walls
After wallpaper, corner shower gone.
Reclaiming Our Corners
Looking from our bedroom into the new closet.
Funny Place to have a Shower
Finishing up in the Bedroom
The rooms are much simpler now, the house feels less cluttered.
View from the Closet to the Street
Dogs and dog walkers! We are across from the train station.
Closet
That fireplace eating up my corner!
Bye Bye
Moving a Door
This is a bedroom that becomes our closet with a large opening facing our bedroom.
Door to Bath
X marks the wall removed between the closet and our bedroom and the door looks into the bath. Heat pumps throughout the house require open air flow and we light the feel of open spaces.
Better View into Bath
Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper
Walk-in Closet with Balcony
View from Closet
Big Bathroom
This bathroom will have a shower, the washer/dryer, and a bidet. The toilet will be in an adjacent room.
Bathroom
We’ll replace the tub with a show.
Selfie with a Sink
Reclaimed Bath
View from Bathroom into the House
View from Second Floor Bathroom
Last Room on the Second Floor
This room will be a sitting room. It’s quiet and overlooks the garden.
Beautiful Artifact
This is an image of the paste paper after the vinyl wallpaper was removed. It retains an impression of the pattern that was highlighted when we sprayed it with water.
Remnants of our Process
Radiators Too Heavy to Move
Sitting Room Sans Fire Place
Removing Doors and Hinges
Alain Rarely has Idle Hands
Third Floor, Four More Bedrooms
Move This Door
The third floor will have the same layout as the second, walls will be opened up to allow airflow for the heat pumps and the four bedrooms will switch roles and become one bedroom, a large walk-in closet, a large bath, and a sitting room.
New Door, New Bathroom
Support Beams
Looking from the guest bedroom to closet.
Wide View of Bed/Closet/Hallway
Closet into Bedroom WIP
Remove Wallpaper and Repeat
Make a Mess and Repeat
Remove a Fireplace and Repeat
Unearth a Wildlife Sanctuary and Repeat
Lots of Banging to Accomplish This Phase
View from Guest Room Closet
Reclaiming Another Corner
View from Closet to Back of the Third Floor
We will reintroduce doors in places where privacy matters.
Bringing Hawaii to France
This Becomes the Guest Bath
This rooms sits at the back of the house directly on top of the second floor bath. We’ll tile this room and use the wood from the floor to make repairs where the fire places have been removed.
Goodbye Fireplace #6
Looks Brighter Already!
Demolition
Corner Reclamation
View from the Guest Bathroom
Wait! More Wallpaper
Guest Bedroom Down to the Bones
Guest Bedroom Looking into Closet
More Hands On
View Across the Street from Guest Closet
Goodbye Fireplace #9
Rubble with a Side of Random Twigs and Old Newspaper
Last Corner Reclaimed
Castle of the Dukes de Trémoille
The backdrop of Thouars is this fortress. Built in the 17th c, it sits high on a steep promontory overlooking the Thouet river. It now houses the middle school. I can’t wait to get inside it!
The River, the Bridge, and the Castle
Another view of the Thouet and the Castle of the Dukes de Trémoille.
Jardins Familiaux
Plots of land on the river are rented to locals and they have their vegetable and flower gardens. it is spectacular.
Sunflowers
Fields and fields of flowers. The weather in Thouars is similar to Petersburg, Va without the humidity. Thouars is subject to increase in heat associated with climate change.
Saint-Médard Église
The expression depiction on the church façade really resonates with me . . . I love these beautiful churches and the idea of sacred these spaces create. It’s so deeply human.
Inside Saint-Médard Église
The Interior Light of Saint-Médard Église
Door Hinge Chapelle Jeanne d'Arc
The Chapelle Jeanne d'Arc in the center of town, houses a contemporary art space. Splendide! Getting an exhibition there is a goal.
Ceramic Tiles in the Church
Door Hinge Chapelle Jeanne d'Arc
Boat Launch on the Thouet
Bridge Over the Thouet
View of the Fields Across the River
Houses on the Edge of Town
We are making some lovely friends in our new home, some of whom live in beautiful houses overlooking the river and the vast fields in the distance. It is spectacular.
Café des Arts
Café des Arts serves delicious food in a friendly environment with great outdoor seating.
Future Home of a Kunsthalle?
I want to turn all buildings like this into Kunsthalles, big open spaces for revolving art exhibitions. Thouars doesn’t have one but it does have a few of these unoccupied buildings . . .
Beautiful House on a Narrow Street in an Old Town
City Hall
A Sagging House on a Hill
Building Styles Based on Available Materials and Technologies
Roof Structure
This house is hundreds of years old and the roof structure is in excellent condition. Stunning in design, materials, and longevity.
Poissonnier
From the Sea
Cerises
Steamy
Handmade
Thouars has a wonderful open market with fresh produce, seafood, food stands, and general goods. It’s beautiful and fun.
Chåteau d'Orion
The Chåteau d'Orion, built in the 15c. appears as a last drip of opulence from the edge of the Loire Vally just north of Thouars. It is now a museum showcasing a stunning interior speckled with contemporary art exhibitions. A real gem to have right down the road!
Overlooking the Moat, Chåteau d'Orion
Fireplace Detail, Chåteau d'Orion
Images on the Ceiling, Chåteau d'Orion
Images on the Ceiling, Chåteau d'Orion
Roof Structure, Chåteau d'Orion
This reminds me of a whale skeleton.
Thouars or Bust
Alain near the end of our last trip.
Next Steps - a New Bathroom, First Floor
Make a larger Opening to the Stairwell
Door Becomes Wall
We are extending a wall from the kitchen which will create a closet in the stairwell and add more counter space.
Evidence of our Labor - Wallpaper Removal, Check
Already Buying Furniture
We have the cart in front of the horse a bit but found some nice stuff for a great price . . .
So Excited for this Dramatic View
Feeling Hopeful
I May Never Tire of this Lunch
all the feelings
These works on paper from 2021 (28” x 22”) visualize quick captures of the soundbites and the headlines and the guest speakers on the podcasts . . . spill over on my mind and in my head.
Works on paper are designed to be drawings (not paintings) with a goal of quicker, simpler image making. I continue here exploring an expanded composition, pushing my imagery off the picture plane to create visual tension.
The bottom four images are paintings on canvas, same materials.
Black Chevron, (work on paper), 44" x 44"
work in progress
These images capture the process and the spaces I make. Photos are from 2011 - 2021.
2020
I am working larger than ever this year, trying to amplify my voice and stretch my limbs while I still can. Bright colors and a vocabulary of bold shapes pushed towards the edges of the frame create a visual tension and allude to a pressurized disorientation reflective off the state of the world.
Acrylic, shellac, oil pastel, oil paint, charcoal and oil stick on canvas.
Blue Cross
72” x 72”
Red Flag
45” x 37”
Pump
56” x 47.5”
Yellow Triangle
72” x 72”
Pink with Blue Box
54” x 70”
Joseph Beuys Goes to N.M.
64” x 64”
Yellow Bucket
64” x 64”
Sing, Sing, Pray, Pray, Sing, Pray, Sing
62” x 56”
Blue Bottle
70” x 54”
Yellow Capsule
54” x 42”
Orange Shot
70” x 54”
Christopher Columbus Goes to Jail
54.5” x 84”
Red Mask
54.5” x 84”
Top Soil
54.5” x 84”
covid-19
This work was created as part of a week-long micro-residency at Studio Two Three and the ICA at VCU entitled Solidarity is Essential. I created a mixed media panel 6’ x 4’, 60 screen printed and letterpress posters, 28” x 22”, and a RISO book in an edition of 60. Images of some of the work is included here.
red rover red rover
The world is heating up. These works on canvas explore an exaggerated visual response to the combative and imposing rhetoric blasting from all sides. My thoughts here explode on the page like rolling dice that hit the wall. Bright colors and graphic shapes crash into the picture plane. Half glasses of water, the shells of building, and shape shifting folds are drawn to characterize a sense of displacement like a reactionary free fall in a tumultuous time.
Square paintings are 31” x 31”, pink rectangles are 30” x 36”, white rectangle is 31” x 25”.
Acrylic, oil, shellac, oil sticks, pastels, pencil on canvas. 2017-18
City Lots
City Lots
There is a particular collective memory in the South, one haunted by God. A stubborn pride controls a narrative of cultural patrimony in a visible process where an enduring white memory and black resistance to it clash with renewed vengeance heightened by social media.
This work borrows from that vernacular to challenge notions of race and privilege. City Lots is the second in a group of mixed media drawing projects using found objects to explore the political struggle for power and identity that favors whites over blacks.
Taunts to “speak for yourself”, “practice sorting faces”, and “#UB2” challenge the viewer to reconcile disparate truths. Pitting slave songs “call & response” against children’s games “finders keepers” illuminates power and privilege.
Bright colors and graphic shapes crash into the picture plane. Turned over cars, the shells of building, half glasses of water, and scattered chess pieces are drawn to characterize a sense of displacement, a reactionary free fall in a tumultuous time.
The color line of today is as apparent as it ever was. Unfortunately, it is expanding. A more inclusive swath of“otherness” encroaches on ideals of white supremacy and warns that everybody’s troubles are coming by threes and by twos.
I am very pleased to have this work discussed on the Look See art blog .
City Lots was made in 2016/17 and measure 18" x 24" each. Materials include shellac, colored pencil, oil stick, oil pastel, conte crayon. and pencil.
risography
Hashtag activism, Fox News, and Waiting for Godot . . . These riso zines explore the way language continues to oppress either because it is used to threaten or because it is denied. Social justice and individual rights can seem hopelessly out of reach as we discuss the value of Confederate statues (a lost cause indeed) and reproduction rights (my body, my choice). The ground is shifting and the tremor of the fault lines has everyone off-kilter. The only path forward is through.
Amazing Grace focusses on finding voice through a lens of intersectionality. The Mason jar is used as a stand-in for the body as vessel. It is utilitarian, cross-cultural and has a foundational agricultural reference. Shoes with wings belong to Hermes, god of thieves and travelers, transgressor of boundaries.
In Stop & Frisk, the jar is the holder of language, bias, and atmosphere. The black hood image is c/o the amazing David Hammons. Constantine the Great appears in Don’t Tread on Me early in the narrative to trigger ideas of Western decline. I am conflating illness, addiction, and despair with racism in Amerika. Other references include the image of torture in Abu Ghraib, Marlene Dumas Measuring Her Grave and David Wojnarowicz reminding us that we are still experiencing Brushfires in the Social Landscape.
Miss Me explores the rage I feel from being silenced and the on-going dread of the power a minority political force with outsized desire to control my body can define what it means to be a women. In this atmosphere of repression, my refrain to stay away from the water demonizes a most elemental source of life. Courbet’s Origin of the World references a complicated relationship to the gaze. The personal is personal; I am a fallen angel.
Winner Take All is a critique of capitalism and the new “gig economy”. Everyone in America, it seems, needs a side hustle to make it in the early 21st c. Corporate tax breaks and record profits, mechanical advantage - the system IS rigged! The economy is changing faster than we can adapt. I sympathize with the Yellow Vests of France - #Occupee #RESIST
Mercy Mercy Me, where did all the blues skies go? Marvin Gaye inspires me to carry on the fight to save the planet and bemoan our culpability in its demise. In the last 45 years, we have killed 60% of the Earth’s wildlife. Constantine is my stand in (again) for (white) power and ego driven reckless behavior. Accidentally on purpose, we will gift our children a sick planet.
Some of us are pawns in this game but most of us can strategize a better outcome for most of us if we pay attention and participate in the process.
Zines were printed at Studio Two Three in Richmond, VA the summer of 2019. Each has 16 pages (including covers). Editions vary in size from 30 - 40.
The Box Project
The Box Project
The Box Project uses chipboard boxes, the color of paper bags, to explore the narrative surrounding African American skin color. It draws intentionally from the story of Henry “Box” Brown, a 19th-century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate to abolitionists in Philadelphia.
Also implied in the work is the paper bag test, a type of racial discrimination practiced in the United States. A brown paper bag was used as a way to determine whether or not an individual could have certain privileges; only individuals with a skin color that is the same color or lighter than a brown paper bag were allowed the advantages of their light skinned brethren. The test was used in the 20th century within many social institutions such as African-American sororities, fraternities, and churches. In addition, brown paper bags were used in multi-racial social events. The term is also used in reference to larger issues of class and social stratification within the African-American population.
Issues of race and color are further complicated with the immigration debate as we expand ideas of other and a populist rage with overt edges of white supremacy and renewed interest in re/segregation are taking hold of the public consciousness. Designed as an installation and performance about power and those without it, The Box Project confronts the viewer and the maker with questions about complicity and the walls with which we surround ourselves.
The Box Project, performance + installation, 2015
sketches
These mixed media works from 2018 are part of my process for working out ideas, colors and shapes for larger paintings. They are made on mat board scraps using shellac, oil stick, conte crayons, and colored pencils. Square images are 12” x 12” and rectangles are 15” x 11.5”.
I can't breathe
Eric Garner made this statement famous in 2014 with his last gasping statement to police who were choking him based on a perceived threat. The threat, it seemed or the source of fear for the officers, was his blackness. The hashtag has gone on to mean many things.
In this group of posters, I’ve printed the statement over and over again on a set of paper colored in the mix of the rainbow. Gasping, choking, withholding, panic, fear and despair can keep us frozen, unable to breathe for countless reasons - asthma, poisonous air, anxiety, or in Eric Garner’s case, and since then George Floyd, because someone is literally and physically choking you.
Letterpress on paper, 28” x 22, 2019
the homestead act
I continue to be baffled by the white nationalist agenda which positions people of color as separate but not equal. The Mason jar stands in as a black body here as I explore the diaspora. Shellac, oil stick, conte crayon, oil pastel, colored pencil on mat board. Squares 12” x 12”, rectangles 15” x 11.5”, 2018
curriculum lab & sketchbook project
The Curriculum Lab was a collaboration spearheaded by JLee in 2017. Ten artist were each given 20 discarded library cards with which to work. The only rule - we couldn't make our final pieces larger than the original card (these images were taken before I cropped and completed my cards). One pice from each artist went into a larger grid - grids are for sale and all proceeds go to the Early Literacy through the Arts program. I was able to get cards related to my current inquiry around race in America, the roots of slavery, the dark middle passage, and genocide.
The sketchbook project is a "thing". It's like the Monster Drawing Rally - a performance / event / exhibition. You buy an empty book, fill it, send it back to Brooklyn and they keep it in a travelling library. They also digitize the books.
My book was in response to the Sandy Hook School shooting in 2012. There were just enough pages to "memorialize" all 27 victims, whom I have identified by name and age here.
tarpaperpress
“Winner Take All”, “Why Can’t We” act more presidential, “Lady Liberty in Distress”
Triggered by the increasing polarity of the political discourse and inspired by the Women’s March on Washington, I began a series of protest posters shortly after the election. My jumping off point was the Statue of Liberty.
A universal symbol of freedom and an emblem of friendship between two nations, Lady Liberty was conceived and designed to enlighten the world. She is considered the Mother of Exiles, greeting millions of immigrants and embodying hope and opportunity for those seeking a better life in America.
Times have changed. This work borrows the notion of upside down flags as symbols of distress or protest against the government. Here, Lady Liberty crashes into the picture plane from multiple angles and is frequently inverted. Scattered text and image is designed to characterize a sense of displacement, a reactionary free fall in a tumultuous time.
I have also taken on late stage capitalism with a series of posters focussed on the dangers of a contingent workforce, the ratification of the ERA, school shootings, and abuse of power in broad, sweeping visual gestures and pointed text.
The graphic qualities and aesthetic range of printmaking lend this work a visual cohesion within the vernacular of traditional poster design. Freedom of the press has been a benchmark of our democracy and I use that freedom here to express confusion and concern about issues of cultural patrimony, equity, and human rights.
Why Can't We Act Presidential
letterpress on hand screened wall paper 36" x 40", 2018
Inspired by games, reflecting the learning that happens on the streets, seeped in conflict and competition, the race wars rage on.
I can't bring myself to say #neveragain
Friendly reminder
Stubborn Pride, letterpress on hand printed paper, 23" x 28", 2014
Money Talks
painting + drawing
Much of my current work is a response to a heightened sense of impermanence and the associated anxiety stemming from displacements and the looming threat of extinction and erasure.
Drawing is the fastest way for me to pursue an individual critical inquiry and to address a communal culpability. Marks are like self-portraits or reflections of a personal, internal state, a way of bearing witness to the conversations that dare to suggest we are complicit in the effects of industry and human behavior on habitat.
Sticky Bombs, mixed media on paper, 30" x 24", 2014
Permeable, Porous, Inside/Out
from the series, Red Rover (Red Rover), shellac, oil stick, oil pastel on rag paper, 48" x 48", 2017
One Ton Prop
from the series, Red Rover (Red Rover), shellac, oil stick, oil pastel on rag paper, 48" x 48", 2017
Train Stations, Cemeteries, Stadiums
from the series, Red Rover (Red Rover), shellac, oil stick, oil pastel on rag paper, 48" x 48", 2017
Half Empty
from the series, Red Rover (Red Rover), shellac, oil stick, oil pastel on rag paper, 48" x 48", 2017
Planes, Boats & Buildings
from the series, Red Rover (Red Rover), shellac, oil stick, oil pastel on rag paper, 48" x 48", 2017
Shells & Fragments
from the series, Red Rover (Red Rover), shellac, oil stick, oil pastel on rag paper, 48" x 48", 2017
from the series Red Rover (Red Rover)
shellac, oil stick, oil pastel on rag paper, 48" x 48", 2017
green jar
oil stick, crayon, pencil on paper, 30" x 24", 2016
Black Box
30” x 24” oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
Water Tower
30” x 24” oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
Comets, mixed media on paper, 30" x 24", 2015
Mercury
30” x 24” oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
Brown Book
oil stick, crayon, pencil on paper, 30" x 24", 2016
yellow jar
oil stick, crayon, pencil on paper, 30" x 24", 2016
Red Hourglass
30” x 24” oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
Comet
17.5 x 15.5”, oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
The King Died
17.5 x 15.5”, oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
Pearl
17.5 x 15.5”, oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
Head Stand
17.5 x 15.5”, oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
Passers By
17.5 x 15.5”, oil stick, colored pencil, crayon on paper, 2016
green, grey, red, mixed media on canvas, 42" x 54", 2015
yellow, yellow, green, red, mixed media on canvas, 42" x 54", 2015
red, green, red, mixed media on canvas, 42" x 54", 2015
orange, orange, green, mixed media on canvas, 42" x 54", 2015
blue, 42" x 54", mixed media on canvas, 2015
Mind/Mined, ink, oil, encaustic on paper, 15.5" x 7.25", 2015
Mind Racing, ink, oil, encaustic on paper, 15.5" x 7.25", 2015
Head Stand, ink, oil, encaustic on paper, 15.5" x 7.25", 2015
The Melting Point of Ice, oil on canvas, 31" x 25", 2015
West Side
mixed media on paper, 40" x 40", 2014
East Side
mixed media on paper, 40" x 40", 2014
Knock Kneed
mixed media on paper, 46" x 36", 2013
Bones, Blood, Butter
mixed media on paper, 30" x 24", 2014
Gag Law
mixed media on paper, 30" x 24", 2014
Natural Disasters, a partial list
mixed media on paper, 30" x 24", 2014
Por favor
mixed media on paper, 30" x 24", 2014
Orphans
mixed media on paper, 30" x 24", 2014
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2015
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2015
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2015
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2015
Test Tubes
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2014
Startled, Starteld, Starteled
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2014
Rising Tides
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2014
Landlock
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2014
Stand Your Ground
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2014
Floats and Bueys
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2014
Molecules (hot and cold)
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2014
Natural Disasters
mixed media on tar paper, 16" x 16", 2014
Uprooted
mixed media on paper, 6' x 3', 2013
American Experience
mixed media on paper, 6' x 3', 2013
Air Lock
house paint, tar paper, 36" x 14", 2000
Insights
house paint, tar paper, 36" x 16", 2000
Drift / Float / Draw / Swim
house paint, tar paper, 34" x 18", 2000
Balloons
mixed media, tar paper, 36" x 16", 2000
Garden
mixed media, tar paper, 36" x 16", 2000
Glass Ceiling
mixed media on tar paper, 36" x 24", 2002
Blind Love
oil on panel, 30" x 30" x 4", 2000
burning bridges
This group of work was made between 2007 and 2008. All paintings are oil on canvas and are in response to environmental and political pinch points including increased surveillance / decreased personal privacy, climate change, and on-going military conflict throughout the world. Formally, I am pushing color and space in this work in new ways. I had been without a studio for five years at this point, so I dug right in.
No Single Raindrop (Believes it is to Blame for the Flood), oil on canvas, 34" x 45", 2008
Event Horizon, oil on canvas, 45" x 34", 2008
Incidental Implications, oil on canvas, 34" x 45", 2008
Internal Combustion, oil on canvas, 34" x 45", 2008
Shifting Sights / Sites / Cites, oil on canvas, 34" x 45", 2008
On Polemics and Speculation (Transfer and Exchange), oil on canvas, 45" x 34", 2008
Arrested Movement (Trap Plays), oil on canvas, 45" x 34", 2008
Half Lives and Half Truths (Overtones and Undertows), oil on canvas, 45" x 34", 2008
Hot Plate, a Parable of Speed, oil on canvas, 45" x 34", 2008
(Sipping at) 1000 Straws, oil on canvas, 34" x 45", 2008
My Mind = King Kong (I Keep it Locked Up Most of the Time and Bite My Nails), oil on canvas, 45" x 34", 2008
Shadow of a Doubt (Le Supplice / La Question), oil on canvas, 34" x 45", 2008
Motive and Opportunity (The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered In),oil on canvas, 34" x 45", 2008
Echo to Echo (Silent Alarm), oil on canvas, 34" x 45", 2008
Shanty Towns
oil on canvas, 40" x 24", 2013
objects found + made
I am a collector. DIY culture has had a positive influence on the way I think about process and product. The prototype culture of today suits my visual and conceptual sensibilities.
Life boats and blocks, church ladies - things I see. Birds (the canaries in the coal mine). Water, the currency of the 21st c., and wonky buildings, capitalism in tattered repose. Wrapping and stacking, objects found and made.
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI
narrative forms
I love stories and I love to work with my hands, so making books felt like a perfect fit immediately. I can sew, fold, cut, paste, draw, print, paint, build. I can be tidy and precise or sloppy. It's the perfect art form.
Bookmaking is like a quilting bee - it can be a very social activity, but is also deeply personal. I have told some secrets in these books.
By The Time You Reach a Certain Age
An Alphabet Book, 1996 - 98
digital, collage, letterpress, bound in ledger
The Uncertainty Principle
accordion fold book -etchings, aquatints, steel covers, 11" x 9", 2000
Hindsight
cast glass, gold leaf, 10" x 22" each, 1999
Partially Buried
Artist book, letterpress, silver gelatin contact prints, edition of 11, 6" x 4", 1999
Said / Unsaid
artist book, letterpress, drypoint, zinc covers, 9" x 11", edition of 4, 1999
Priceless Pearls
A Thrilling Game | A Wreck, altered book, 6" x 10", 1998
Two Words
Loaded Dice, altered books, 6" x 14", 1998
When the Tide Turned
altered book (all text except stage directions whited out), 9" x 7", 1998
Good & Bad Days
mixed media on paper, 8" x 20", 2005
Papercut
mixed media on paper, 8" x 20", 2005
Instead of a Forward
artist book, letterpress, drypoint, zinc covers, 9" x 11", edition of 4, 1999
japan
In May of 2018 I had a wonderful adventure visiting my friend Quynh in Japan. She was finishing a project at Kamiyama A.I.R., an artist residency program in Kamiyama on the island of Shikoku. We spent a week there among the farmers and their rice fields and then enjoyed a safari of shrines and temples in Kyoto before finishing the trip in the bustling town of Tokyo.
At every juncture I was awed by the craft culture, food, and attention to the seasonal bounty and nuance of the land. I hope to return and am applying to the Awagami Factory as an AIR to make large scale pulp paper paintings, wish me luck!.
I have made a series of drawings inspired from the shapes and colors from my trip - seen at the end of this feed. The multi-purpose cloths seen all over Japan, the tenugui, really struck a cord with me. Tenugui has many uses and comes in an astounding variety of fun and beautiful designs. I made thank you gifts for my hosts at Kamiyama by collaging book pages decorated with woodcuts (made with a laser cutter) and letterpress from my home studio in a nod to the tenugui.
Of course i also enjoyed visiting flea markets and thrift stores to score textiles, paper and ceramics from the region.
my dear darling
Sometimes pictures are better than words. I make postcards and small books for friends and family to celebrate or acknowledge a difficult situation or spread some love. I also write fan letters.
My mother was in the convent before she got married (and had 7 kids). My catholic upbringing continues to . . . influence me. collage on book cover, 1999
13 Notes
liquid light, collage, letterpress, 11" x 15", 1995
These images were taken between 2006-07. Wandering the neighborhoods around my new town, I was struck by the beauty and loneliness of these empty houses. One house in particular moved me, 333 Mistletoe St., and I returned several times to photograph it. One day, it was gone. I felt a palpable loss and photographed the now empty lot, which led to other empty lots and the images changed. Some of these houses have been reclaimed, some are falling further into disrepair and many have been demolished. Entire neighborhoods are beginning to disappear.
I shoot short videos of these same places now. I’m working in color and with time. And with time more of the houses are crumbling and the number of empty lots is growing and I’m still struck by the loneliness and the beauty.
328 Hurt St.
213/215 Henry St.
S. Dunlop / W. Washington
601/603 Greslett St.
602 Harrison St.
605/607 Plum St.
624/626 Harding St.
827 W. High St.
841 Rome St.
923 Diamond St.
933 W. High St.
935 Hinton St.
1026 Bolling St.
1115/1117 W. High St.
Pocahontas Island
S. Crater Rd. (PG Co. line)
3 Centre Hill
5 Centre Hill
22 Corling St.
26 Liberty St.
30 Liberty St.
31 West St.
34 Filmore St.
114 Chappell St.
124 West St.
125 N. Jefferson St.
126 Jefferson St.
137 N. Jefferson St.
150 Virginia Ave.
208 West St.
213 Wittens St.
221/223 Jones St.
228/230 Mercer St.
237 Mercer St.
301 Jefferson St.
302/304 West St.
308/310 West St.
309/311 Hinton St.
323 Hinton St.
327 Porterville St.
329 St. Andrews St.
333 Farmers St.
403 St. Andrews St.
421 Grove Ave.
403/405 Harding St.
431 Adams St.
423 Grove Ave.
531 Grove Ave.
434 Cross St.
455 Harrison St.
Harrison / Porterville Sts.
541/543 W. Washington St.
531 St. Mark St.
333 Mistletoe St.
333 Mistletoe St.
418 Harrison St.
558 Hinton St.
609 Hinton St.
699 Hinton St.
710 Stark St.
833/835 W. Washington St.
1408 Ferndale St.
memento mori
Photography is a potent form of bearing witness. The fleeting nature of life can be captured by the camera and expressed in the print. I push the boundaries between the fact of the photograph as object and the way process can reimagine the image and subvert the subject.
The postmodern disruption of representation and new technologies further splinter the role of the photograph. I'm fascinated with this philosophical debate as it unfolds in front of us.
Pere La Chaise
C-Print, 19" x 19", 2000
Habitat (series)
toned silver print, 11" x 14", 2001
Habitat (series)
toned silver print, 11" x 14", 2001
Habitat (series)
toned silver print, 11" x 14", 2001
Habitat (series)
toned silver print, 11" x 14", 2001
Habitat (series)
toned silver print, 11" x 14", 2001
Habitat (series)
toned silver print, 11" x 14", 2001
Habitat (series)
toned silver print, 11" x 14", 2001
Habitat (series)
toned silver print, 11" x 14", 2001
Bundle
silver print, 11" x 14", 1996
Gathering Dust
toned silver print, 11" x 14" (unframed), 1995
Gather
toned silver print, 11" x 14" (unframed), 1995
Brancusi's Studio
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
Brancusi's Studio 2
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
Brancusi's Studio
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
Totem 2
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
Totem 1
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
Totem 3
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
Wire 2
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
Wire 3
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
Wire 1
toned silver print, 16" x 20", 2000
empty house videos
I continue to wander my neighborhoods and documents the houses I began photographing in 2006. I have moved on from a view camera to my iPhone and am working with video. These shorts exist somewhere between photography, painting and a moving picture for me. Subtle movements and the surrounding sounds really draw me into the scene. I would like to pursue this work with more depth. Visit https://vimeo.com/aimeejoyaux to see the videos. Images are stills from the shorts.
house parts
I learned digital photography when I moved to Petersburg kind of by force, I needed a job. One of the many I got was working for our local newspaper, The Progress Index. I used every bit of knowledge I had about the camera, the subject, and light to capture and deliver in a timely manner - city council meetings, sporting events, carnivals, school plays, graduation ceremonies, car accidents - you name it. We would shoot as many as 900 pictures a day. It was a great way to learn the layout of the Tri-Cities and take a deep dive into this new photography. It was grueling and rewarding work.
In the meantime, the iphone was introduced and has proven an incredible tool for photo documentation as part of the digital ecosystem. It has been a significant contribution to my creative process. A mobile art studio that fits in my pocket and connects me to the entire globe, crazy.
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
dye sublimation print, 3.5" x 3.5", 2012
Public Art Petersburg
Petersburg is a special place with an amazing history. We are committed to this community and were really pleased to be able to bring the fantastic project started by Candy Chang - Before I Die, to our town.
I also beg, borrow, and steal other cool projects from the incredible talent in Richmond, so we were fortunate to get some of their extra LOVE letters recently!
I See Myself
As a grad student studying photography in the 90's, nude self portraits seemed to be de rigueur. As a young feminist, reclaiming my body as subject and object was an intellectual exercise as well as an artistic statement. As a person, it felt risky.
Stand Your Ground, 7" x 5" silver print, Polaroid negative, 2000
Wave After Wave, 7" x 5" silver print, Polaroid negative, 2000
Run, 5" x 7" silver print, Polaroid negative, 2000
Woman As (Bridge), silver print, paint, 11" x 14", 1993
Woman As (Bust), silver print, paint, 14" x 11", 1993
Flash, dye sublimation print, 5" x 3.5", 2012
monster drawing rally
The monster drawing rally is an awesome community event / fundraiser put on by 1708 Gallery in Richmond. One part performance, ± 20 artists working in hour-long shifts (3-4 shifts); one part sweat-shop - all work made is sold for a fixed price ($60) and there is an admission fee - so, two parts fundraiser. It brings a lot of folks out, families wander back and forth, it's engaging for everyone. It brings the process of art alive and makes a little money for the gallery - win, win, win.
MDR is a unique way to think about "drawing"; an hour in front of a flock of flaneurs. So, I always plan ahead and come prepared to create a series; quick notes or nods to something.
MDR 2019, mixed media on mat board, 16" x 16"
MDR 2019, mixed media on mat board, 16" x 16"
MDR 2019, mixed media on mat board, 16" x 16"
MDR 2019, mixed media on mat board, 16" x 16"
MDR 2019, mixed media on mat board, 16" x 16"
MDR 2019, mixed media on mat board, 16" x 16"
#citylots#fake
#citylots#tobigtofail
#citylots#halffull
#citylots #isaymyname
#citylots #lies
the box project, monster drawing rally, 2014
the box project, 11.5 x 7.5 x 4.75, 2014
the box project, monster drawing rally, 2014
the box project, monster drawing rally, 2014
the box project, monster drawing rally, 2014
Ochre
12" x 15", mixed media on paper, 2011
Startled
12" x 15", mixed media on paper, 2011
Early Enlightenment
12" x 15", mixed media on paper, 2011
Arrowheads
12" x 15", mixed media on paper, 2011
Tom, Dick, and Harry
12" x 15", mixed media on paper, 2011
Art First Aid
collage, pastel, 8" x 10", 2013
Mad as a Brush
collage, pastel, 8" x 10", 2013
Art & Artifact
collage, pastel, 8" x 10", 2013
Tough Guy Stuff
collage, pastel, 8" x 10", 2013
Orange Cross
collage, pastel, 8" x 10", 2013
Paprika
collage, pastel, 8" x 10", 2013
Whiplash
collage, pastel, 8" x 10", 2013
Equal
collage, pastel, 8" x 10", 2013
The Truth of the Text
1/6, oil pencils, 12" x 15", 2012
The Truth of the Text
2/6, oil pencils, 12" x 15", 2012
The Truth of the Text
3/6, oil pencils, 12" x 15", 2012
The Truth of the Text
4/6, oil pencils, 12" x 15", 2012
The Truth of the Text
5/6, oil pencils, 12" x 15", 2012
The Truth of the Text
6/6, oil pencils, 12" x 15", 2012
Non-Representational
12" x 15", mixed media on paper, 2011
cornmeal press
I fell in love with letterpress because I fell in love with book making. I fell in love with printmaking in the process.
My letterpress production got a huge infusion when we salvaged hundreds of printing plates from a seed and feed bag company in Richmond in 2011. I also got a proofing press and a few dozen drawers of type. I have more plates than I can ever print - so I started a co-op called cornmealpress, a community print factory.
I'm very interested in small scale, local production (grown close to home) posters and broadsides that explore language and have begun a series on southern pride or stubborn pride (I use them interchangeably) under the name tarpaperpress.
Penland School of Craft workshop results
Press On Propoganda - VCUarts Bowe House Press
Thrilled to have Bowe House Press take advantage of these great plates for tickets and posters for the premiere of the letterpress movie - Press On!
Had a great time printing with the Comm Art students at VCU!
The Itinerant Printer came to the shop and made some great work!
The Itinerant Printer, Chris Fritton, creates beautiful washes by running the paper through the press rollers as part of t=the clean-up process.
Chris works with type shops across the country making imagery from regional collections. Here he adds some CMP iconography to a sheet printed weeks earlier from French cuts.
Students studying graphic design at Longwood had a great day printing!
5 O'Clock Somewhere, letterpress on Atlas Sheets, 11" x 15", 2014
5 O'Clock Somewhere, letterpress on Atlas Sheets, 11" x 15", 2014
Cornmeal Press one-day workshop at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond - Posters & Broadsides, 2012
A Chicken in Every Plot - Exhibition Poster
A collaboration with Alyssa Salomon.
Printing chicken posters en masse
Dairy Feed, unique print, 16" x 20", 2012
Virginia Clover, unique print, 11" x 14", 2014
Imprint 104, unique print, 9"x12", 2014
tarpaperpress chop, 4"x5", 2014
Half Horse, unique print, 10" x 14", 2014
Superior, unique print, 11" x 14", 2013
Dairy Feed with Triangle, unique print, 20" x 20", 2013
Maria with poster for Old Tavern Kiln Collective - I traded some space in the wood kiln for these posters.
Old Tavern Kiln Collective, unique print, letterpress, 18" x 30", 2014
Grown Close to Home, unique print, letterpress, 18" x 30", 2014
Don't Postpone Joy, letterpress on hand printed wall paper, 24" x 30" (1 of 15), 2014
Joyeux Noel, party invitation, edition of 50, 2011
A Print Harvest - three print shops in two blocks, each venue printed part of the poster - free event with Studio 23, VisArts, and Power & Light Press, 2012
Printing book covers for SOHO - a Space of Her Own, youth mentoring program, 2013
Saucy's Walk-Up, letterpress, 11" x 18", edition of 32, 2012
Bizarre Market, letterpress, 15" x 12", edition of 30, 2013
Free Range Creativity, letterpress, 15" x 12", edition of 60, 2013
Free Range Creativity RVA, Art-O-Mat tokens, 3" x 4" x .5, edition of 45, 2012
all y'all
In an effort to not immerse myself solely in a warming climate of discord, a recent series about inclusion uses letterpress on wall paper samples scrounged from a dumpster, one love.
posters & cards
I work on both ends of the spectrum here. Handset type is as slow and hands-on as you can get. I love making cards to share with the world. Digital design offers a different plethora of options. I often do pro bono work for local agencies or friends just to have an excuse to play with software. So many ways to solve problems and no messy clean-up.
Appomattox River Clean-Up, event poster, digital design, 32" x 40", 2006
Appomattox River Clean-Up, event poster, digital design, 32" x 40", 2007
Art:24, event poster, digital design, 2010
Working Places / Living Spaces , event poster, digital design, 2008
Work Places, Living Spaces, event poster, digital design, 16" x 20, 2008
Logo, 2000
Logo, store sign, 2001
Clay Bird, product tag, 1998
You Are Beautiful, letterpress cards. Thousands distributed randomly.
#thesmileproject (and its precursor)
I don’t do much portraiture but I got a great new video app that is inspiring me. Cinematic makes beautiful 6 second videos. I’m asking people to look away from the camera and slowly count to 3 and then slowly smile and look at me. The videos are lovely but there is a moment, a decisive moment, when that smile cracks that I’m lovin’!
Practicing gratitude #thesmileproject
The bottom images were made at Appomattox Regional Governors School in Petersburg, where I taught for four years. I kept a large format camera set up in the classroom as a fun distraction. The kids were always happy to pose. These images were made with outdated Polaroid film, I scanned the "throw-away" side and we used the digital files to explore new media tools.
Messiah
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Anne
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Lily
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Rainbow
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Kevin
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Tay
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Kendra
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Rainbow
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Tye
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Tye
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
Erika
digital image from 667 polaroid residue
the petersburg project
In 2002, my new husband and I found what we'd searched the country for - an affordable building we could live and work in. We also wanted a reasonable climate close to an international airport. We found Petersburg on the internet and came out to Richmond in 2000 for an SPE conference and fell in love with the area.
We purchased an 1850's cotton warehouse from the city. It has 12,000 sq. ft. of what is now beautiful loft live and work space. Getting to this point has taken eleven years and we still have a few large pieces to complete.
Alain had the vision and the skill to refurbish the entire space - a full floor ofluscious living spaces, he a large shop, me a large mixed media area, a print shop, and a darkroom. We will soon have a garden and a fantastic retail space - restored to its original splendor. We love Petersburg, have a lot of friends and are able to get a great deal of creative work done in this quiet little town. Richmond is close enough to visit easily and often.
Alain did everything on this project (after consulting with engineers and architects, of course). 11,000 sheets of drywall later, he did the demolition, the wiring, plumbing, duct-work, design, building, everything, himself, except - he hired out the hanging of the drywall on the ceilings. He's pretty tired now. I hope he recovers a little.
Live and learn. I can't believe how much I love it here. Paulette Roberts-Pullen wrote eloquently about our space for RHomein 2010, pages 36-39.
Our building, on the left, dates from the mid 1800's.
It's been a hat shop, a grocery, a copy shop among other things and had a "men's club" on the second floor for a while . . .
Titmus Optical purchased the building in 1906 and did a lot of renovation, including cutting a large hole through the center of the place for a lightwell. This caused some serious structural issues for us.
The front of the building as we found it.
As we found it - pidgeon shit and more pidgeon shit... stairs to the third floor.
Alain working to reveal the heart pine floors.
We re-purposed as much material from the demolition as we could.
Everything was recycled or reused.
Some beautiful wall paper here and there.
Lathe and more lathe . . . There are holes the size of cotton bales (upper right) on all three floors that have been quite handy for re/moval of material.
Decorative tin ceilings were sadly torn up for non-decorative drop ceilings.
The plaster was in bad shape and we ended up removing all of it.
Doors and windows had been returned to their original locations.
Our temporary electrical panel - portable yet sturdy (took a little effort to get that past the code guy).
The hole in the building created by Titmus required new structural beams - an engineering feat for Alain.
Replacing the wooden floor in the entry way.
Lathe through the second floor view of the loading shaft.
Rotten beams, now gone.
Missing a third of the floor here.
Repairing a beam and a beam pocket.
Simultaneous efforts on the walls, floors, windows. Brick, wood, concrete and plaster.
Continued assessment and occasional breaks.
Ruby, my redbone coonhound, a constant companion during renovation.
View from the courtyard into what was supposed to be the summer kitchen but what is now my print shop. Windows and a large french door will provide light into this space and a view out to the garden.
This is in our now uncovered courtyard. Alain setting up underground electrical feed.
Second floor - plaster removal (it was all dropped into the basement and tamped down to level the ash pockets from a fire prior to the current structure.
Strange configuration in the back stairway?
Removal of all the knob and tube wiring and old water pipes.
Plaster removal contraption.
New stair stringers.
New stairs from the second floor to the entryway.
The second floor "Men's Club" with stairs to the third floor in view.
Windows in the back of the second floor, what is now our bedroom. That ceiling doesn't look so good.
Third floor, guest room - note loading shaft.
Back wall of the third floor, where my studio will be. There are bricked up windows behind all that.
Widows revealed in my studio. These walls were built out and insulated.
Brick removed, now it is a room with a view!
Studio move-in begins.
Alain mending spaces continually.
Window before (he rebuilt them).
Windows after.
Alain taking on a few side jobs along the way - porch parts for a friend.
When son Daniel visits (or anyone else for that matter), we put them to work!
Well we found in the basement - has clear water and who knows what else.
New stairs to the basement and window wells to the courtyard have been cleaned out.
All that rotten plaster from three floors found its way to the basement.
Level twice - newel post, tried floor.
Working on the wiring for the first floor.
Alain's brother, Paul, dressed as Alain - ready for work!
Hauling concrete for the kitchen counters.
Cement mixer in the kitchen!
Molds in place to pour counter tops.
Counter tops, stove, back splash... progress is being made!
Sink and dishwasher, we're getting there.
Starting to unpack some boxes.
My sister Martha came to visit from California.
The other side of the kitchen is the living room.
Beautiful morning light in the living room.
Living room, dog, and books - settling in.
Alain was interviewed recently for a film on Dennis Oppenheim's SCAN.
We are enjoying our spacious home.
Alain worked with Dennis in Michigan and Indiana.
The guestroom, third floor, ready for guests.
First floor commercial space ready for commerce (or more realistically, for us to store our plunder!)
View of the front of the first floor before the new storefront is installed.
Lovely warm afternoon light on the back of the house, second floor, bedroom.
I spent a few hours each week at a local laundry mat, yes I did.
Removing the shed roof off what will be our interior courtyard.
Fabricating new decorative ends out of zinc for the first floor pediment.
Alain making window lintels which he will stain to look like brownstone.
Our new front doors - significantly larger than the standard doors there before.
New columns for the storefront, 11.5' ea.
Repairing the gutters, restoring the cast iron, and installing the front windows.
Rented a lift and crossed our fingers for safety. All went well.
Alain and Darryl removing the glass from the storefront.
Alain and Darryl dismantling the aluminum casing and taking off the doors.
Almost gone.
Alain built a temporary wall in preparation for new storefront - new front doors are in.
Foundation for new front windows.
Did someone write their name in this? Yes... they did.
New storefront with deep display space.
Alain building the casing for the windows.
Everything is crooked (except the windows), so some tricky construction here.
Everything ready for the windows to arrive.
Looks nice - will look even nicer with the windows!
We are on an alley, which makes disposal of some goods easy.
Big Al with his favorite toy - his Oliver planer.
Inspired by so many great examples in France, we are creating an interior courtyard. We've observed the patterns of sunlight and shade and are ready to pick plants! This space is on the first floor between my print shop and Alain's workshop, view is from my upstairs studio.
A non fruiting cherry tree, 2 Japanese maples and a pizza oven in process! Everything in the new garden made it through this first winter.
Cy
We lost Ruby to old age but found this guy on the internet at the Sussex County pound, $10 (he weighed in at 60 lbs.)
Free range dog walking every Sunday at Battlefield Park - my girl friends and I have a great habit of trekking year round; Cy sets the pace.
Here we are, fresh to Petersburg, full of hope, 2003.
maui - my island home
I grew up on Maui but left immediately upon graduating from high school to "see the world". Luckily, most of my family stayed, so I have a reason to return. It's been 45 years now and my relationship with Hawaii and it's people has gotten very deep.
I went to a very small local school. We studied Hawaiian history instead of "American" history or the history of the United States. We had to play the ukulele and dance the hula for May Day celebrations.
My parents had a lot of misgivings about their perceived lack of culture in the islands, but we kids marveled at the many languages and foods, religions and customs and really - is there a more beautiful place to grow up? I'm awed each and every time I go "home" by the beauty of the place and the people. Lucky to live aloha.
inspiration
I love to look at things. We travel frequently to look at art and as my understanding grows, I am making connections between art through the ages and powerful people, technological advances, cultural aesthetics, and religious mores that have shaped our world. The story of art is the story of humanity.
Guston, The Morgan Library and Museum, NYC
Musee Matisse, Nice France
VMFA, saints and sinners
Paris Metro
Dan Flavin, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rennes
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
Mauritshuis, Den Haag, Holland
Quai Branly, Paris
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Metro, Paris
Musee de quai Branly, Paris
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gettysburg National Military Park
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gettysburg National Military Park
Musee du Louvre Paris
Musee du quai Branly
Musee du Louvre Paris
Musee du Louvre Paris
Rubens, Musee du Louvre Paris
Bruegel (the elder), Musee du Louvre Paris
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Musee d'Art modern de la ville de Paris
Lucian Freud (catalogue)
Musee Matisse, Nice
19th c. frame
The Morgan Museum and Library, NYC
Penitents
18th c. France
Duchamp
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Musee du Louvre, Paris
Peter Paul Rubens
English, c. 1540
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Hans Memling
c. late 1500s
Kees van Dongen
c. 1560s, Northern Renaissance
love in the 1480s
costume, c. 1500s
Museum national d'Histoire naturalle, Paris
Musee du quai Branly, Paris
Museum national d'Histoire naturalle, Paris
Museum national d'Histoire naturalle, Paris
small girl, Musee du Louvre, paris
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Paris Metro
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain
Cy Twombly, catalogue
Richard Serra, catalogue
Serra model, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain
Eve Lintel, Gislebertus
Last Judgement Tympanum, Cathedral of St. Lazare, Auton France
Last Judgement Tympanum, Cathedral of St. Lazare, Auton France
Ravenna was a treasure trove of beauty.
Ravenna, awe inspiring
wow
Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna Italy
Neonian Baptistery, Ravenna Italy
Grunewald, Unterlinden Musee, Colman France
Tiepolo, Venice Italy
Maison de l'Outil et de la Pensee Ouvriere, Troyes France