Group Sculpture Exhibition :: Aurelia Argonauta

Hi friends,

I'm excited to announce that my sculpture Aurelia Argonauta will be on view at the group sculpture exhibition Into the Depths for the next two months.

This is my first exhibition and I’m so pleased to finally show one of my non-music works in public.

If you find yourself on the Oregon coast and want to see this show in person, here are the details:

Opening reception: 02june2023
On view: 02june - 30july2023
Newport Visual Arts Center, Runyon Gallery

Below are some images I took along the way:

deep dive :: ruth asawa

^ painted this portrait of r u t h a s a w a on her birthday, for my daily index card project in january.

recently i had the pleasure of taking a deep dive into the life + work of japanese-american sculptor
r u t h a s a w a.

aside from becoming more familiar with her large body of work, i was moved to learn about her collaborative nature + community-organizing spirit, and the many public arts projects she took on + delivered with the help of many hands.

+ of course i loved reading about her garden.

below - a rainbow-drenched desk + a few book notes:

index card project

a 31-day project
i did in january
with the subscribers of my patreon page.

we filled one index card with art every day + shared them with each other daily.
much needed color + brightness to fly through winter.

here are a few pieces I especially loved making
(click on foto to enlarge):

24 collages in 24 days

I made 24 collages in 24 days in september
+ shared them on my patreon page daily. (see all 24 collages on my patreon page)

My big hope for our flux patreon community: to motivate us to PLAY more often + enjoy the endless mental/physical/emotional health benefits of experimenting with color, texture, shapes, and materials. This is the service I hope to provide to the people who attach their boats to mine.

Join me on patreon and let’s play!

A few behind the scenes photos below:

off instagram journal :: flight club

backyard dining table / kite building station

backyard dining table / kite building station

Since I’m taking a year-long break from social media, here’s something I would have shared on there this past week.

I built a kite last Sunday + formed an official flight club with my neighbor. We plan to go flying on Sunday afternoons, as much as work + weather allows.

Holy shit…so fun! Physically demanding on your neck from looking up + and cheeks from smiling so much!

I named my kite PAPILLON, after the Steve McQueen character in the 1973 film Papillon - a movie I loved as a kid.

X
M

Aquarelle 2-year Anniversary Collages

••••IMG_8869.JPG
•••IMG_8387.jpg

My album, Aquarelle, is 2 years old today.
To celebrate, I created a small series of 12"X12" mixed media pieces, using the original record sleeves as the base underneath the layers of paint, ink, pastels, yarn, wires, and paper. These are the first collages that will leave my studio and live with other people. I hope those of you who have been gathering the Aquarelle collection over the last couple of years will enjoy this addition.
limited edition of 10 (5 black, 5 white)
signed + numbered

Thank you for listening. Thank you for the encouraging words. Thank you for the love these past 2 years.

female mythology

Mahsa and sculpture Feb2020.jpg

I’m deep in the sculpture world right now, while still making music. I was having dreams of big sculptures + paintings that I was looking at as if I was at a museum, except they were my work. So many dreams like this. I decided to dive in + make what I saw. I believe in myself, so why not?

A bit about my influence:

My sculpture work is influenced by the relationship between women + the botanical world. In my research, I came across a single tiny shelf in the library dedicated to Female Mythology among rows+rows of stories about male gods. My need for reading this work was not met by work that exists, so I’m here creating female mythology, written today, by a woman. Imagine that! 

farmer in the studio

todays yield960px.jpg
  1. farming is hard work, but also so damn romantic. i love watching the back + forth between what you put in + get out of the ground.

  2. it’s a fun little game to view my art in the studio through a similar lens. a farmer’s lens.

  3. i don’t know what farmers’ charts look like, but i know they make them. my version: find something in my practice that can be quantified + record that day’s yield.

  4. this is not to measure productivity. it’s something visual that reminds me i’m here enjoying my life. putting something in + getting something out.

    foto above : one of my studio farmer charts

notebook per book

book notes solnit.jpg
  1. i skim-read a lot of books to choose what books feel good to commit to.

  2. some of those books, i read “normally”. some i make a little project out of.

  3. for these “project” books, i pair up the book with a small companion notebook. i fill the notebook with words + passages + ideas i get from the book. i open these notebooks months/years later to spark ideas.

  4. this is not homework. this is for enjoyment.

::

a few pages from my notebook below:

aquarelle anniversary :: album cover shoot outtakes

it’s the 1 year anniversary of Aquarelle. i wanted to share some outtakes from the album cover shoot for the occasion.
it was a long + windy hike to get up to this location, add to that the transport of the sculpture i built for the shoot. i was really happy with what came out, so the effort paid off.

to see the final album cover shot with my sculpture, go here

input :: ginkgos are my favorite tree in the fall

^ page from my mossbüch

^ page from my mossbüch

i’ve waited for a “shazam” app for trees for years, but through some good fortune i’ve found something even better - suddenly i have 4 tree experts in my life and 3 of them live on my tiny street. i can go around, take a foto of any leaf and one of my tree people gives me the rundown. i’m taping leaves in my notebooks to retain their names + shapes.

so far i know that:

ginkgo trees are my favorite tree in the fall (ginkgo biloba)
silver birch are my favorite tree in winter (betula pendula)
magnolias are my favorite tree in spring (magnolia grandiflora)
still looking for my favorite summer tree

output :: mule mode

^ drawing + collage from my mossbüch

^ drawing + collage from my mossbüch

“i have the subtle sensitivity to know the difference when i’m working, between laboring like a MULE and riding on a JET STREAM. every once in a while when i’ve been laboring like a mule for months and months and months, suddenly something really weirdly cosmic happens and there’s an opening and now you’re on the jet stream and it’s just flowing and you’re in that space. that’s magic and it’s worth working very hard for, but you don’t get it for free.” - liz gilbert (interview on the new ted talks podcast, The TED Interview)

i get arrogant with my art + sometimes expect magical results from working on something for a short time. i drew this mule on a card + taped it to my studio wall to remember that i have to pay for the jet stream experience by first going around in mule mode. 

^ picture of my studio wall

^ picture of my studio wall

::16nov2018::

output :: tabula rasa (fresh slate)

^ digital + analogue collage from my mossbüch

^ digital + analogue collage from my mossbüch

it’s time. album two needs to be written. the first published work is often written over many years or decades before there is a public persona + an audience to receive it. with the second work there’s less time + more expectations.

towards the end of my fall tour for album one, i decided i need to start searching for a theme to wrap my writing around for album two. i journaled + brainstormed on themes. i wrongly thought i need to do loads of reading + exploring at the library to find this theme. i was mentally putting together a stack of books by some of my north stars. women like: patti smith • simone weil • sylvia plath • georgia o’keefe • zaha hadid • elizabeth gilbert • virginia woolfe • simone de beauvoir • yayoi kusama

the more i think about it, the more i am reminded of this lesson i’ve learned many times, in life + in art : planning a concrete structure before making stuff gives me stiff results. jumping into the unknown, making that first + second + tenth stroke without a plan opens me up in a different chamber of the universe that buzzes differently than the creative space i’ve boxed myself in. there’s good foreign power there. the milk is richer. i have to tell my controlling self to go away so i can start making FIRST, and trust that the theme will reveal itself later. TABULA RASA :: FRESH SLATE. but wait do i even need a theme? whatever. we can worry about that later. fresh slate. fresh slate.

the romantic grain in me still wants a stack of books by these women around. not to use as a launching point anymore, but to dip into from time to time and REVEL IN THE SOFTNESS OF THEIR HARD-HITTING MINDS. for bonus courage. to keep opening the door to the unknown everyday, for a bowl of rich milk. 

women like us don't get baby showers

^ analogue + digital fertility collage from my mossbüch

I've finished making a record + a visual world to go with it. After years of building, it’s physically in my hands now. The process came with both morning sickness + motherhood glow.

When I came near completion, I was invited to a couple of baby showers (the human version) and felt a little overlooked as someone who's birthing something all consuming, over years of my life, and not getting acknowledgement or a party to go along with it, thrown by the women in my life. 
But this is part of the picture, when your lifestyle is on the foreign side to convention. You live + work more on the solitary side, and have to be your own source of acknowledgement and approval most of the time. Your bio family can’t give that to you, because there is no mothering that is physically visible to them. No growing belly as proof of life.

I love mothers + babies, and seeing them together. But I've never felt a gravitation towards that kind of motherhood myself. My feelings squeeze me over different things. This style of creation is not superior or inferior. It’s just a different chemical wiring altogether.

With these observations, I will throw a ‘baby’ shower next time a woman in my life is birthing something from seed to a realized form. You’ve finished a collection of paintings, written a book, finished an album or film? Call me. I will throw you a party.

postkartes :: aquarelle series

i drew + designed some postkartes to write on + send you guys from tour. if you want, you can request one here

i just finished writing 40 postkartes on my porch. will be writing more + more this week to send them to those of you who asked for one while my kickstarter for Aquarelle was running.

in the process of making these, i learned how to use illustrator and designed my own font (which is displayed on the back of each postkarte). 

fotos below.

AIR MAIL

XX,

M

omniflux playlist 003

^ collage from my mossbüch

"Love, love is a verb. Love is a doing word" - Teardrop x Massive Attack

love loves summer and summer loves love. i made a playlist of love songs for your summer 2018 love fest, whomever it's with. big time love for self-love and strolling solo too.

enjoy!