Not a lot of progress on the project this week as I have a fairly obnoxious cold, and what I did get done was more of the same that I talked about last week. I did take a wonderful field trip to the Colby College Museum of Art to see the collections and hear Leonard Drew give a talk on his latest work, including a piece in Colby’s collection currently on display.

I forget sometimes how important it is to get out and see other work and hear other artists talk about their work. For it’s size and location Colby has a wonderful collection.

There was a remarkable traveling exhibit there, “We Have a Common Thread”, by a Mexican artist, Teresa Margolles, that made quite an impression on me. The exhibit focuses on social injustice throughout the Americas. Margolles worked with curators throughout the region to find local artist-embroidery groups in Panama, Guatemala, Brazil, Harlem, Nicaragua and Mexico. She provided the groups with textiles that had been stained with the blood of local women and men who had been assassinated.   The groups then further embellished the fabrics according to their local traditions. While they worked Margolles interviewed and filmed the groups (mostly women) discussing the issues, the work, before them.   The exhibit consisted of the pieces themselves in a quiet, darkened room:

Teresa Margolles, “We Have a Common Thread”, Exhibit Overview

Teresa Margolles, “When Most of Us Were Sandinistas”, Embroidery on fabric previously stained with blood from the body of a woman assassinated in Managua, Nicaragua. Created with the participation of Alantida Espinoza, Conny Gutierrez, Xiomara Gutierrez, and Susana Perez, 59″ x 41″

Excerpts from the filmed interviews on several screens played in a loop in a separate room. There is a book that accompanies the exhibit that contains the full interviews that I’ve just started reading in my cough medicine-induced hazed. It’s really quite moving.

Then there was Leonardo Drew’s lecture. Quite impressive. He spoke on the evolution of his work from his first solo exhibit at age 13 to today. Drew is a Brooklyn based artist. He described himself as a painter. Others have described him as a sculptor of found objects. My key take aways, the things I wrote on the scrap of paper that I found in my purse, (I forgot to bring a notebook!) were his implorings to ‘Get on with it!’, not to waste time, time here is short (he generally works on up to seven pieces at once) and his repeated insistence that he and other artists should not ‘Park it’. That it’s too easy for an artist to find that one thing that works for them and milk it, make a career of it and just stay there, and not evolve. For him his work (and actual physical works) are constantly evolving, he cannibalizes old work to make new work (at times at the cost of a sale). He also said he is working on a book about his studio process that will be out in March!