9.27.2013

Doing something different: Teaching a workshop!

Apologies for my woefully outdated blog.

To bring myself back into focus, here, I thought I'd share my upcoming workshop at MINT Gallery (the lovely hosts of my current, and soon to be ending, Leap Year Residency).  Scoutmob reached out to MINT with the idea of hosting a workshop series in October.  Lead by local emerging artists, folks will be able to sign up each week to learn a different skill.  Aubrey Longley-Cook, Chelsea Raflo, Ashley Anderson, Evereman, and I will all be teaching.

I'm teaching flagbooks, which seemed the easiest and most appropriate thing to share with folks in the highly limited time frame (only two hours).

Scoutmob's well written re-write of my idea:

"Wednesday, October 30: Flagbooks with Jessica CaldasThough Jessica primarily works as a printmaker creating large-format narratives like these, her appreciation for all things hands-on and process-oriented extends beyond the printer to the book arts, which she describes as a close cousin to printmaking. Her workshop will focus on flagbooks, a form of deceptively simple but fascinating and dynamic, accordion-like handmade books. Students are encouraged to bring old books, magazines, photographs or any other paper material gathering dust on the shelves that they can transform into a piece of beautiful artwork. (Translation: yes, you can turn those hoarded back-issues of Cat Fancy into something more.)"

I should note, I sent examples of flagbooks I found online and they used those as header images.  I asked them about it, since they aren't my work or my images, but no response yet.  Sorry to the artists who actually made those lovely things.

You can find more information about the classes and sign up here:
http://handpicked.scoutmob.com/atlanta/hand-picked/mint?ref=r1c0

3.18.2013

Countdown to the solo show...

Coming up soon at Beep Beep is my solo show, "Falling in..."  I'm not nervous...not one bit.




When: Saturday, March 30th, 7-11pm
Where:Beep Beep Gallery- 696 Charles Allen DriveAtlanta, Georgia 30308
What:"Filling In..." New work by Jessica Caldas

"Just as any love story does, the stories of violent relationships each develop differently. Though a relationship full of love should not be violent there is indeed love. There is a very human hope and belief in love. There are lines of power, control and anger that should not be crossed but they are crossed. Violence should not be hard to see, hard to distinguish, hard to name and yet it is.

When we see violence from an outsider’s perspective and we want to understand it we place ourselves, or those we know, in the moment and we ask “What if it was me?” Why do we have to ask this question? When we don’t want to understand violence we push the stories away from us, and we say “that could never happen to me”. In this moment we are failing to understand that, like love, violence is all around us.

This work visualizes relationships I witness as a Domestic Violence advocate; their development through the cycle of violence, the perspectives surrounding the relationships, and the questions of what happens when love is pressured by violence and control."

1.09.2013

WonderRoot CSA Project-yay commission time!

I haven't had a chance to write much about this, except in the brief timeline I posted yesterday but here's some more information about this project.  I was invited by WonderRoot to participate in their CSA, or Community Supported Art.

Here's how they explain it:



"What is the WonderRoot CSA? The WonderRoot CSA (Community Supported Art) is a new model for selling and purchasing artwork, adapted from the traditional agricultural CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).


What is the purpose? The WonderRoot CSA seeks to: a) cultivate a culture of art collecting for the local arts economy and b) support Atlanta artists by commissioning them to create work


Why did we create it? WonderRoot invites art curious individuals and seasoned collectors to invest in the local arts economy by purchasing a share to Atlanta’s first ever art-based CSA, The WonderRoot CSA. By investing in local artists, customers are helping to keep local talent in Atlanta, as well as claiming their share of our city’s most gifted creators. Artist contributors are able to immediately grow their collector-base to 50 individuals, in addition to a guaranteed commission before any work is ever created. The exposure to WonderRoot’s audience throughout metro Atlanta creates even more opportunity for participating artists to develop interested buyers.


How does it work?- 50 shares available to the public at $300/share
- Commission of 9 artists to create 50 works each
- Quarterly (total of 3) delivery of “art box” with 3 works within each delivery
- A “release party” coincides with each delivery with attendees as artists and shareholders"

Here's the really neat infograph they made (click to make it big):

Here's all the other artists participating (so neat, websites are linked):
Bethany Collins, Wret Rausaw, Henry Detweiler, Michi Meko, Patricia Patterson, Noble Beast, Jill Frank and Nick Madden
And here's the video of me talking about why I am excited to be participating in the project:


Finally, Floyd Hall, of WonderRoot, did a podcast interview with me.  I mostly meander about my moving around as a lot as a kid, my family, and my work with domestic violence victims but I also talk a little bit about the CSA.  Here's the link:
http://wonderroot.podomatic.com/entry/2013-01-03T18_47_50-08_00

I'm super excited about the work, and in fact finishing it all up this week and weekend to be hand delivered on the 15th!

Here are some other articles/blogs announcing and talking about the project:
http://crusadeforart.com/wonderroots-csa-for-art-um-yes-please/
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2012/12/20/wonderroot-announces-csa-style-art-subscription
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/a-csa-for-art-wonderroot-tries-a-new-idea

1.08.2013

Update for the new year!

So the next three to four months is going to be intense and since I'ave already started getting busy I haven't had time to properly update in a long time and there is so much to share!  In the midst of the following, I am additionally trying to get a proper website set up, better documentation of my work, and the other things that happen from day to day (day job is picking up speed, moving, etc).

But in any case, here's a quick breakdown of my upcoming projects:

January 15th-WonderRoot CSA project Due
This is WonderRoot's new program which features 9 artists they selected viz committee. Each artist is paid $1000 to produce 50 pieces f work for boxes that will be released three times a year (I'm in the first box and there are 3 artists in each box). People who subscribed paid $300 for a set and will get 9 pieces of art from local Atlanta artists! I'm doing 10 unique prints, each an edition of 5 for 50 pieces-work based on stories of Domestic Violence Survivors.
http://www.wonderroot.org/csa/


January 17th-Mass Transit Muse Workshop
Michael Molina, who I worked with on the Elevate project, has been working on this production called Mass Transit muse which uses storytelling, petry, singing, dancing, and visual elements to tell the story of a young man returning home and exploring the city he grew up in, particularly the people who inhabit it. It's really quite amazing and I've been asked to design the sets and other visual elements for the production. On the 17th at 7:30 at seven stages we have the workshop to invite possible producers, funders, and others for feedback and information about the project. The actual run of the show is to be in the late winter/early spring of 2014.
http://www.momolina.com/

February 15th-WonderRoot and boys and Girls Club of America Project-75 blue doors
25 artists will each design/paint/art the back of three blue doors based on interviews with youth from the boys and girls club of America. It's to honor the 75th year of the organization and the doors will be installed throughout the city in the month of April. the intveriws start in February, the doors are due March 15th
http://www.75bluedoors.com/

March 30th-BEEP BEEP GALLERY SOLO SHOW
This is the big one! Ha ha, my solo show at beep beep. I'm still exploring a lot of ideas but I'll be working hard the month of February to get to near completion on new work so that I can do Studio visits and get enough feedback and exploration done to produce a really awesome show. Scary but exciting. I'm bringing Mom down from Michigan and Alec and Jessie up from Savannah for this.
From Beep Beep's Preview of 2013 shows!
Ongoing:
Mural project in Athens at New Earth Music Hall
Adrian, who is the director I think, asked me to work on a mural on the wall of this building. He's looking to have it be an arts center, I think similar to WonderRoot. He has great ideas and has given me free reign of the 140 ft wall, with a longer term goal of getting it done. Exciting stuff and I'm hoping to enlist some of my other artsy friends to help complete it.

Commissions
I'm still working on a commission that keeps getting pushed back for Tamara's friends. It's a portrait commission and another of Tamara's friends has said they want one too.

That's the major stuff! I'm also entering into a few shows and contests and the like but its hard to keep it all wrapped up in my head. I have a huge calendar at the studio that's helping me keep track these days.