jessica pezalla

bramble workshop

2012-02-22T11:08:00.000-08:00

come check out the new website for my company bramble workshop!

we do event styling and store display in los angeles.

brambleworkshop.com

snowman

2012-02-14T19:26:00.000-08:00

(here)

dodo birds

2012-02-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

...

2012-02-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

(image sources here)

headdresses

2012-02-05T18:20:00.001-08:00

(image sources here)

carrie dickason

2012-02-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

my friend carrie dickason has a show up at public pool in michigan...

i love her work!

sneak peek...

2012-01-23T11:48:00.001-08:00

new window display

....

2012-01-23T11:28:00.000-08:00

(image sources here)

yes

2011-12-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

secret language

2011-12-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

(image sources here)

still life with crystals and christmas

2011-12-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

our handmade world

2011-12-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

"We didn’t have a storyboard. We just took for granted that each of us would do our part. When Robert asked me to come over to shoot the film on Bond Street, he said he had a surprise for me. I laid a cloth on the floor, placing the fragile white dress Robert had given me, my white ballet shoes, Indian ankle bells, silk ribbons, and the family Bible, and tied it all in a bundle. I felt ready for our task and walked to his loft.

I was elated to see what Robert had prepared for me. It was like coming home to Brooklyn when he would transform a room into a living installation. He had created a mythic environment, draping the walls with white netting with nothing before it but a statue of Mephistopheles.

I set my bundle down and Robert suggested that we take MDA. I was not really sure what MDA was but wholly trusted Robert so I agreed. As we entered the film, I wasn’t really conscious of whether it had an effect or not. I was too focused on my role in the project. I put on the white dress and the ankle bells, leaving the bundle open on the floor. These things were on my mind: the Revelations, Communication. Angels. William Blake. Lucifer. Birth. As I talked, Lisa rolled film and Robert took stills. He wordlessly guided me. I was an oar in the water and his the steady hand.

At one point, I decided to pull down the netting, in effect destroying what he created. I reached up and gripped the edge of the net and froze, physically paralyzed, unable to move, unable to speak. Robert rushed toward me and put his hand on my wrist, holding it there until he felt me relax. He knew me so well that without saying a word he communicated that everything was all right.

The moment passed. I wrapped the net around me, and looked at him, and he shot that moment in motion. I took off the fragile dress and the bells from my ankles. I put on my dungarees, field marshal boots, my old black sweatshirt–my work clothes–and gathered everything else in the cloth, and threw the bundle over my shoulder.

In the narration of the film, I had explored ideas that Robert and I often discussed. The artist seeks contact with his intuitive sense of the gods, but in order to create his work, he cannot stay in this seductive and incorporeal realm. He must return to the material world in order to do his work. It’s the artist’s responsibility to balance mystical communication and the labor of creation.

I left Mephistopheles, the angels, and the remnants of our handmade world, saying, “I choose Earth.”

- from "just kids" by patti smith

diamond patterns

2011-12-24T08:43:00.001-08:00

(image sources here)

still life with fabric scraps and citrus

2011-12-18T07:52:00.001-08:00

i'm always making things...

2011-12-13T13:32:00.000-08:00

new rug sculpture

2011-12-07T09:40:00.001-08:00

(in progress)

rainy day random

2011-11-20T15:48:00.001-08:00

(image sources here)

clay lace

2011-11-18T22:29:00.000-08:00

tabletop objects

2011-11-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

pillows

2011-11-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

rug

2011-11-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

jen pack

2011-10-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

the top two pieces by jen pack are in the show "recrafting history" at taylor de cordoba.

they are made from tiny scraps of chiffon, stitched together and stretched on a wood frame. i love the basket-like shapes- the pieces wouldn't be as interesting as rectangles.

baskets as textile art

2011-10-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

from the book "baskets as textile art" by ed rossbach.

taking photos of pages in the library seems to be a good alternative to lugging home a heavy book and then scanning... though now i can't remember why the last image was included in the book.

robert gober sinks

2011-10-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

one year!

2011-10-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

i just realized that october 12th was the one year anniversary of this blog! i never would have predicted that it would last this long.... i love having a meeting place for the art, images, ideas, and random findings that inform my creative life.

here is some work by the artists i talked about in my first post; mark manders (top two) and robert gober (bottom two).

quiet morning

2011-10-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

(image sources here)

sculptures and gravestones

2011-10-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

My new series of sculptures is inspired by gravestone renderings of  pillows and books. In the Victorian era, gravestones, through their shapes and carved embellishments, symbolized ideas about death that words could not convey. For Victorians, gravestones shaped like pillows were a symbol of eternal sleep. Closed books  represented the fact that the story of this life is over and open books were used to record a short biography of the deceased.

I love the way that these tactile, familiar objects become hard and permanent markers, removed from the mortal world and placed in the realm of eternity. A tangible object becomes a connection to the intangible.

My sculptures are made from papier-mâché and, as with gravestones, the weight of the pillows and books is changed. Organic forms often move through the sculptures, reminding one of the grass, worms, or roots that pass through the ground beneath the stone.

mindy shapero

2011-10-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

here

high desert test sites

2011-10-17T20:21:00.001-07:00

this weekend i went to high desert test sites with a friend. we definitely didn't see all of the art (it was scattered around joshua tree/29 palms), but this was our favorite piece. it's a combination crater/swimming pool by ball-nogues studio.

the event is hosted (?) by andrea zittel. i have always liked the clothing pieces that she made and was a bit surprised to see that she owns a pink iphone case.

anton lieberman

2011-10-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

i saw this sculpture today and liked it. the artist was really nice too.

the forms are made from cast pieces of cactus and asparagus.

Anton Lieberman, Growing, 2011

 Plastic, foam, paint, glue, string, hardware

http://ltdlosangeles.com/

renilde de peuter

2011-10-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

here and here

my grandfather and the botany club

2011-10-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

he's the one in the center with the mandolin, surrounded by an adoring crowd of young botanists

saturday morning balcony

2011-10-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

woman and skeleton

2011-09-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite paintings...

Albert York, Woman and Skeleton, 1968

 Oil on canvas mounted on masonite 

12 x 11 inches

darling dust

2011-09-26T07:38:00.000-07:00

DUST

by C. K. Williams

Face powder, gunpowder, talcum of anthrax,

shavings of steel, crematoria ash, chips

of crumbling poetry paper—all these in my lockbox,

and dust, tanks, tempests, temples of dust.

Saw-, silk-, chalk-dust and chaff,

the dust the drool of a bull swinging its head

as it dreams its death

slobs out on; dust even from the scoured,

scraped littoral of the Aegean,

troops streaming screaming across it

at those who that day, that age or forever

would be foe, worthy of being dust for.

Last, hovering dust of the harvest, brief

as the half-instant hitch in the flight

of the hawk, as the poplets of light

through the leaves of the bronzing maples.

Animal dust, mineral, mental, all hoarded

not in the jar of sexy Pandora, not

in the ark where the dust of the holy aspiring

to congeal as glorious mud-thing still writhes—

just this leathery, crackled, obsolete box,

heart-sized or brain, rusted lock shattered,

hinge howling with glee to be lifted again . . .

Face powder, gunpowder, dust, darling dust.

sepia

2011-09-25T09:15:00.001-07:00

photos taken with the sepia camera app on my phone

ever after install

2011-09-22T21:21:00.001-07:00

my sculpture installed at the chapel of the chimes in oakland as part of the ever after show.

glass cactus

2011-09-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

hello!

(here)

building small things

2011-09-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

(image sources here)

alexandra bircken

2011-09-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

alexandra bircken: think of me at kimmerich

so excited to come across new work by this artist- i've been a fan for a long time!

rug sculpture

2011-09-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

rug drawing

2011-09-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

new sculpture...

2011-09-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

leah wolff

2011-09-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

another amazingly talented friend from vermont studio center

http://leahwolff.com

~~~

2011-09-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

(stopping off place)

handmade houses

2011-09-08T20:47:00.001-07:00

i'm dreaming of someday leaving the city and building something new...

here

untitled

2011-09-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

ever after

2011-09-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

OFF Space is pleased to announce the opening of its new exhibit:

Ever After

Sunday September 18 at the Chapel of The Chimes in Oakland.

Please join us to experience the first exhibition of visual art in the Julia Morgan designed chapel and columbarium, Voted Best of the Bay’s, "Best Place to Spend Eternity".

Most stories end with happily ever after --but the stories being told by artists in this show are using Ever After as a starting point.  Poignancy, playfulness, and sharp insights into the nature of the eternal are the common threads used to weave a series of site specific mini-installations through chapel niches. From the minimal to the Baroque, artists use these unique spaces to reflect upon notions of ritual, remembrance, loss and celebration with critical alacrity and humor. 

Ever After features 15 installations by artists:

Glenna Cole Allee, Rachel Dawson, Victoria Heilweil, Elyse Hochstadt, Karrie Hovey, Phil King, Marya Krogstad, Yuki Maruyama, Emmanuelle Namont Kouznetsov, Jessica Pezalla, Maggie Simpson Adams, Luther Thie, Linda Trunzo, Andrew Witrak, Kathrine Worel.

Ever After

Exhibition Dates: September 18 - November 13, 2011 

Reception for the artists: Sunday September 18 from 5-8pm

Location: Chapel Of the Chimes , 4499 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, CA 94611

RSVP and follow updates on facebook

random findings

2011-08-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

(image sources here)

spencer finch

2011-08-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

366 (EMILY DICKINSON'S MIRACULOUS YEAR)

This work is based on the year 1862, Emily Dickinson's annus mirabilis, when she wrote an amazing 366 poems in 365 days. It is a real-time memorial to that year, which burns for exactly one year. The sculpture is comprised of 366 individual candles arranged in linear sequence, each of which burns for 24 hours. The color of each candle matches a color mentioned in the corresponding poem; poems in which no color is mentioned are made out of natural paraffin.

http://www.spencerfinch.com/view/installations/37

back to pillows

2011-08-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

starting a new pillow sculpture tomorrow!

(image sources here)

a time of transformation

2011-08-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

still life with shell art and spider plant

2011-07-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

spiral

2011-07-24T10:05:00.001-07:00

still life with birds and the brightest article of clothing i own

2011-07-24T09:13:00.001-07:00

still life with objects from my grandma's house

2011-07-10T09:01:00.001-07:00

still life with drawing and the desert

2011-07-04T19:01:00.001-07:00

work in progress

2011-06-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

hanging sculptures

2011-06-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

lee bul (first two), abigail doan, david hicks, other images sources here

still life with mango and monsters

2011-06-26T15:52:00.001-07:00

more josh faught...

2011-06-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

 Five O'clock Shadow,  2009

 crocheted wool yarn, garden trellis, hydrocal dipped in indigo dye with xerox transfer

still life with coelacanth fossil and cornbread

2011-06-19T10:59:00.001-07:00

anatomia vegetal

2011-06-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

illustrations from the book 'Anatomia Vegetal' by Frederik Elfving (1929)
http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/06/anatomia-vegetal.html

andrew guenther

2011-06-14T04:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.kayceeolsen.com/exhibition/view/1984

still life with animal planter showdown

2011-06-12T07:52:00.001-07:00

jennifer cohen

2011-06-11T04:28:00.000-07:00

Untitled, 2011, plaster on paper 26 x 31 cm, 24 x 33 cm

Untitled, 2009, celluclay, cement, bronze, 26 x 8 cm

Grey Line in Formation (II), 2009, wood, celluclay, cement, fabric, leather shoes, 66 x 78.7 x 40.6 cm

alexandra engelfriet

2011-06-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

(via the best time of day)

still life with coffee and contemplation

2011-06-05T10:35:00.001-07:00

what am i going to make today?

patricia fernandez

2011-05-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.ltdlosangeles.com/patriciafernandezimages.html

http://www.patriciafernandez.com/

still life with cactus and crazy-looking horse

2011-05-29T16:54:00.001-07:00

josh faught

2011-05-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

Blessings and Miracles,  2011

 Indigo, silk handkerchief, pins, hand-woven and crocheted wool and hemp, hand-made felt, nail polish, letter organizer made by prisoner, jewelry, spray paint, guide to dungeon emergencies, and gifts on linen

http://www.lisa-cooley.com/artists/view/josh-faught

still life with beads and macrame book

2011-05-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

celia eberle

2011-05-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

celia eberle

sunday morning still lifes

2011-05-15T16:58:00.001-07:00

still life with abe lincoln and tea cups

still life with weaving and wheatgrass

still life with box of buttons

still life with jay and j

still life with pineapples and the passage of time

(i've been photographing a still life in my apartment every weekend and have decided to start posting them here.... here are the ones i've taken so far....)

palais ideal

2011-05-13T16:24:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Cheval

weaving

2011-05-07T16:11:00.000-07:00

scans from the 1973 edition of the book "card weaving" by candace crockett

necklaces

2011-05-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

(image sources here)

eugene von bruenchenhein

2011-04-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

tassels

2011-04-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

(image sources here)

the shell shop

2011-04-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

the shell shop in morro bay is one of my favorite places in the world...

someday i would like to own a bunch of the hanging shell sculptures, but for now i just have one, hovering over my bed like a sea creature... (i took this photo with my phone before falling asleep)

textiles

2011-04-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

(image sources here)

mari eastman

2011-04-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

i went to the mari eastman show at cherry and martin on saturday...

(detail of thumbtacks.... love)

these sculptures made me happy.

(not in the show but i'm including it because i'm obsessed with rugs)

around the apartment

2011-04-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

collars

2011-03-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

image sources are here

hooked rugs

2011-03-29T17:14:00.001-07:00

i'm interested in the craft of rug hooking and am about to start making a rug...

(image sources here)

spirals

2011-03-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

italian church pavement; snake-labyrinth

mandala by a patient of jung

the golden egg of brahma

mexican feathered serpent showing the union of heaven (bird) and earth (snake)

scans from the book "the mystic spiral; journey of the soul" by jill purce, published in 1974

the end or the all

2011-03-20T07:32:00.001-07:00

banjo bag

collar

mandalas

scans from the book "needleweaving... easy as embroidery" by esther warner dendel, published in 1971.

caption: "You never reach the end or the all... Taurus woven over a shoe box- with one green eye, one blue- by Celia Wagner"

a pair of gloves

2011-03-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

found here

collections

2011-03-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

from top: marian bijlenga, ?, julia elsas, magnhild disington

living room

2011-03-11T20:28:00.000-08:00

i made this installation when i first started the post bac program at SFAI in 2003. before starting grad school, i was making small, tentative collages and books. the fist crit was pretty rough and, in classic first-semester-of-grad school fashion, i decided to drop it all and make something big and completely new to me.

it was really fun. i found the crazy wallpaper at a thrift store and a pile of green carpeting in a dumpster. i sprinkled grass seeds on the carpet and left it outside school in the rain... the grass sprouted and i moved it inside to an empty studio that i took over. i bought plastic aquariums plants and a bag of river rocks at home depot. a strange little world began to take shape. over the semester it kept growing and changing.... sometimes visited by snails collected in my friend's garden.

8 years later and i'm still thinking about the same things... the overlap between interior and exterior spaces. the natural and artificial. careful arrangements. a little kitsch. some interesting creatures crawling about. it's all here. the original fake nature.

.::.

2011-02-27T19:53:00.000-08:00

kevin bauman (via), hoolawhoop, maryanne casasanta

moss garden

2011-02-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

wall reliefs by anna betbeze at kate werble gallery

from the nytimes review:

These titles (and the show’s title, “Moss Garden”) refer to Michel Foucault, who lectured that “the garden is a rug onto which the whole world comes to enact its symbolic perfection, and the rug is a sort of garden that can move across space.”

wish list

2011-02-22T18:45:00.000-08:00

wunderkammer, diary of a wandering eye, petco

living/making

2011-02-15T16:34:00.000-08:00

i love working at home (and i'm not just saying that because i can't afford a studio!) it can get really messy, but i love living with my sculptures and there are so many interesting art/life overlaps that occur. also, it really makes sense for my current body of work to be made in a home because of the themes i'm working with.

mobiles

2011-02-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

Art from Found Materials (discarded and natural) by Mary Lou Stribling, Crown, NY, 1970

(via stopping off place)

a new sculpture

2011-02-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

made from papier-mache and rope

seth papac

2011-02-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

http://sethpapac.com/

(via the best time of day)

pineapples

2011-02-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

what is it about pineapples?

i wish i knew...

via bibliodyssey

max hymes

via bibliodyssey

at swim-two-birds

the beginnings (?) of my unintentional pineapple monkey pod collection

a visitor at my apartment

hands & feet

2011-02-03T16:36:00.000-08:00

here is a post with a random theme... why not?

(from top: ?, via weird friends, barrao, francis upritchard, pearl blauvert, anna sew hoy)

magic horse

2011-02-02T16:57:00.000-08:00

during a studio visit with chris martin, he noticed a plastic horse in my studio and told me that whenever i had a question about my art, i should ask the horse. for some reason, i left that horse in vermont and have been lost ever since. until... i found a new one at a flea market this weekend! all of my questions can now be answered.