to my "followers"

I hope you will join me at my new location. I had to move blog sites. Everything was all good here until I started trying to add photos to my posts…then I was in “blogger hell”..;o)!! If you ever want to start a blog and think you might add photos this is not the place!! The photos wouldn’t go where I wanted, they kept disappearing, there was a lot of me yelling “are you fucking kidding me!” at the computer screen…stuff like that. So at some point, having the low computer pain tolerance that I do, I decided to pack it up and move. So I re-posted all the old ones at the new site (it was easy because there weren’t very many) suelatta.wordpress.com...i'd love to see you over there ;o)!!!

The Things We do for Love and Money...

It's week two and I'm down by 1 pound, whichcould just mean that I haven't had enough water..? But I did go to the gym...yes the gym...4 times last week. BSU offered free January at the BSU Rec. for staff so I took them up on it, it really is the only perk that adjuncts get. It's a very nice gym and I've found a couple of machines that I like, unfortunately school starts tomorrow and I will probably never get my favorite machine again...:o(

The studio was very busy. Since I finished the last project I had to get started on the next project(s)...and I've been doing a good job at documenting the process just

for you!

So I started 4 new projects this week but I only made progress on 2 so you can expect to see the other 2 next week (fingers crossed)...did I mention that school starts this week? That does complicate my studio schedule...;o)

Project 1

In December I was involved with the Trey McIntyre Project 10+1 show (I didn't document the process at all) and I sold all the pieces!! ;o) YEA! And I offered them as an edition and actually sold 1 more besides the 3 that I made...so this week I made that piece and had the opportunity to document the process...somewhat. I don't know if any of you saw them but they were relief sculpture of a figure next to some text (text written by Trey McIntyre). Cast in white resin with a black wood frame. So here are the pictures of the re-make:

Relief

mold

Frame

finished piece...Wa Laa! (sp) I'm afraid I'll have to post project 2 later it's time to go to the studio and get to work!!

off and running...

One week down...so far I have lost 0 pounds ;o) But I know you're watching that's going to help I'm sure of it!

I've been thinking about this and since I didn't make one single entry in the blog in 2011 I think I'm going to post a highlight reel (so to speak) of the art from 2011. Now I just have to gather images from everything I made...I've been very disorganized about that so it won't be this week but look for it in the weeks to come. This will give me the impetus I need to get down to the mayor's office to photograph my Boise Visual Chronicle piece, which sat finished in my studio for over a month and I never bothered to take a picture of it...ugggh!

Now that I have made this commitment to you (whoever you are ;o) I've started taking more pictures with the thought that I'll document the process of each piece from start to finish. This is all new to me, mostly I've spent my life not documenting anything, for many years I didn't even sign my work...lame!

OK so this week I finished a piece I started working on before Christmas. A piece of furniture that is. Very functional, not art...It was a barter deal. I did learn some things though, I learned how to laminate a countertop (I don't know when but that might come in handy), I learned that you need to spend the extra $15 for the cabinet grade plywood instead of just the sanded stuff and that drawers are easier to make than you might think and I make a good drawer..;o)

So here it is:

Two cabinets, pullout shelf, drawer

laminate countertop to match the existing counter

All finished (installed it on Saturday) and already covered in crap...Just the way it should be!

Happy New Year!

Hey look it's 2012! It seems that I didn't write one thing in 2011...I missed a whole year on this blog, how does that even happen?! Was I that busy? Was I watching too much TV? I don't know about you but some good stuff happened for me and there were some things that I wanted to happen that didn't...but enough about 2011. It's 2012 a fresh start!

So I have some resolutions for 2012 and I figure the best way to commit to them is to put them in writing and then share them with the world so I have someone to hold me accountable. Even if no one ever reads this it's the idea that counts, you know that mental twist that happens when you think someone is looking?!

1. 25 pounds...I mean it this time ;o) I have to confess that I had the same resolution last year and the year before and maybe the year before that and here I am pretty much exactly the same place, give or take (mostly give) as I was all those Januarys before. So this time I mean it. This time I'm actually gonna do something about it instead of just talk about it. I found out that just talking about it doesn't really work...damn!!

2. Work Harder...I know what you're thinking "Doesn't she work hard already?" (or maybe you're not..;o) I do work hard but I also dawdle a lot, I waste time (a lot of time), I'm very unorganized, I work hard at things I shouldn't and don't work hard enough at things I should. So this year I focus. I figure out how to make it all happen, how to fit more hours into my day, how to get it all done in a timely manner and still have time for my Wife and grandkids. Really what I want is to figure out how to make a living without being afraid all the time and still manage to have a good life!!! That's what I meant when I said "Work Harder"

3. Actually write this blog...Is that weird?! I feel like I want to make a commitment to this?! I've been thinking about this a lot and what I've decided is that "My Voice", me, Sue Latta, the artist, my voice is found in the art, or maybe I should say "ART". So I want to document that process here, to share that with you, and keep a record for me. You know what that means...more pictures. Specifically, my goal is to write and post pictures of what is going on at the studio at least once a week.

Now you know...and I want you to hold me to it!

Solo Exhibition @ VaC

My new show

"Works of Fiction"

at

Visual Arts Collective,

3638 Osage St., Garden City, Idaho

Regular gallery hours are:

noon - 6pm

Wednesday through Saturday

The show has been extended through January 28th

Please Join Me Friday Dec. 3rd at 7pm

to celebrate (again) this new body of work!!!

"Works of Fiction" Artist Statement

This body of work which incorporates the photographic image along with various sculptural and recycled materials to create 3-dimensional tableaus is a response to the notion that everything an artist creates is somehow born out of some deep dark life experience. I've heard it said and I've said myself that all artwork is in some way a "self-portrait". I spent many years operating from this premise, telling my own story, working through the timeline of my life from adolescent angst, through the trauma of being female, to my new experience of adolescent angst in my own children. My artistic production laid bare the story of my life...and then I was tired of me. But I had learned some things along the way, about myself, about art, about materials and process, but most significant are the things I learned about storytelling. A well-told story can be very seductive, it can evoke excitement, sadness, or even absolute repulsion whether it's a memoir or complete fiction. I also learned that I have a capacity for storytelling. It's amazing the world of possibility that opened up for me once I realized that I could tell any story it didn't have to be my own. When I discovered that I could create "Works of Fiction".

The Artist Interview

Does this happen to you? You get an e-mail from a friend / acquaintance / complete stranger, that says, "I'm doing a paper / article / research project, would you be willing to answer a few questions?" It happens to me...not a lot, but often enough, a couple times a year maybe. And generally this is how I respond..."oh fuck, now I have to do a homework assignment and I'm not even in a class!" (Yes, that really is how my brain works and very often the first thing I say)...Well that happened again and after I said "Oh Fuck!" I thought this time I'm going to write it once and for all and then anytime somebody is doing a paper / article / research project I can just send them to this entry on the blog and my part is done. Good idea, right?!?!

So here is the latest list of questions: (from a friend)

What is your educational background?

How long have you been using this material?

Can you tell me more about this medium? And why you are using this?

What was the biggest learning curve working with this material?

Do you have ideas for what medium you might try next?

What artist inspires you and or your work?

And here are some other questions I've been asked...or maybe these are the questions I would ask if I were interviewing me:

How long have you been an artist?

Why did you choose to be an artist?

Are you a full-time artist?

What other materials have you worked with?

If you were to do something else, what would it be?

I guess that's it, I'm sure I've been asked other questions over the years but I can't think of them now...and really these are the important ones.

I'm going to start with my questions in case you have a short attention span... ;o)

How long...well truth be told I was probably born with it. My favorite toys were the wood blocks, lincoln logs and legos. I was very serious about my legos this was before they came with a map to tell you what to make, none of that...back in my day (hehehe) we had to use our imagination. I also built interesting things for my Barbies. A butcher shop store front complete with hanging meat, all made out of aluminum foil, wheel chairs made out of paper plates for their recovery after the car wreck, etc...But I didn't put a name to this disorder until I went to college. I started as a psychology major (and some days I wonder "what if?" I might be a doctor right now), then I took that first photography class...during one particular critique the instructor said about my work "This is a photographer's photograph." That was it, hook, line and sinker...my ego jumped up and said yep that was me, I did that, look what I did!!! I went and changed my major...I think that was 1984.

Why did I choose this...if you read the last paragraph you know that I didn't choose it I was born with it. It's kind of like being gay; it's not something you choose...it's something that you just can't not do.

Full-time...If by "full-time" you mean do I pay all my bills from selling art, no. I have had moments of that; I think there was about a year when I had no other job. Right now I have two other jobs. If by "full-time" you mean does it take over every waking moment of my life, then the answer is yes. I'm a maker it plays out in everything I do...I can't help it.

Other materials...I was a photographer, an industrial sewer, a steel sculptor, a visual merchandiser, a house painter, I've insulated, drywalled, caulked, I've framed rooms (and some pictures), I've built fences and a deck and a waterfall and terraced flowerbeds and furniture, I've carved stone and wood and plastic, I've cast paper, bronze, aluminum, resin and jello ;o). Right now I believe that given the right tools and some instruction (or not) I could just about make anything out of anything...and if you ask my wife she would tell you that too (I'm pretty sure I have her convinced).

What else...I've often thought that if I had picked a vocation that actually had a paycheck with it I would have become a structural engineer or something like that. My brain works that way, figuring out the structure of a thing or the way things are put together are my favorite parts of the making process.

OK now for the official questions:

Education...I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in photography. I attended the University of Nevada Reno, University of Montana and graduated from Boise State University. I have a Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in sculpture from Boise State. And I have years and years of self-taught, hard-way, wouldn't ask for help if my life depended on it, mistakes and failure...there is just no better education than that.

Current material...polyurethane resin...hmmm...I know that it's plastic ;o) I know that now after five years of working with it, it will most of the time do what I tell it to and I think I've seen most of the possibilities of what it does when it's not obeying. I have used it in almost all the ways that the manufacturer recommended against...I think?! Really the hardest thing about working with it, besides having to be a freak about dust, is that it is unpredictable. But then again sometimes that's good because I have made some pretty cool discoveries. It has also done some things that I just can't get it to repeat.

What next...well I'm not finished with what I'm doing now so I'm not moving on any time soon, but I have thought that next I might get on the "green" bandwagon and start making art out of garbage...??? I might even be able to fool you into believing that it's not garbage?!

What artist...Well I have a list: Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Tim Hawkinson, Robert Gober, Doris Salcedo, Tara Donovan, Anselm Kiefer, Robert Rauschenberg...to name just a few. But those names don't really cover the things that inspire me. I'm also inspired by numerous other artists whose names I don't remember or never knew in the first place. I'm inspired by cracks in the sidewalk, broken things, decay of any sort and things that have been taken over by nature; I'm also inspired by objects that have been really well designed and really smart song writing. Or like I tell my students, "Everything you see, everything you hear, everything you read and everything you experience."

OK there you have it "The Artist Interview" does that about cover it? Sorry it got so long but now my homework is done and with any luck I will never have to do this again (unless of course someone comes up with a new question%).