Local artist, Christine Tillman, continues my recent project by writing about "discovery." As usual, I extend an invitation to all local artists who would like to participate in this effort. Just email me!
Without Love
Overhead Projection
2004
Christine Tillman: Discovery
I discover things two ways. I hunt, discovering things by looking, shopping, searching for what I think are treasure. Then there’s the discovery that all artists experience in the studio.
I grew up in the Northern Chicago suburbs, Libertyville to be exact. I grew up shopping. That’s how my mother and I bonded. Going the Gap, searching out unique snowflake ornaments for the Christmas tree, having lunch in the food court, quality time.
I collect things, learned behavior probably. Cake toppers, fake flowers, plastic trees, doilies, little figurines, things on sticks, sequined fruit, anything felt or embroidered, plastic stacking things. Thrift store, dime store, garage sale doohickeys- I love these things. I think that all this stuff are abstractions for the really important emotions in our lives. Stupid plastic hearts are trying to talk about love, that’s how we do it. Love is like the greatest thing and here it is distilled down to this dumb disposable thing. Cute, fun, festive, and romantic, I try to rescue all this stuff, save it from ambiguity.
With my work I want to make these objects transcend their leftover status. I use pattern, scale, beauty, and color. I want to discover ways of using things that seem simple and genuine. Like a little plastic bell sitting on the surface of the overhead projector is the same gesture as putting the useless bell on top of the cupcake or whatever. I like to use either objects from my collection or materials that speak directly to the kinds of things I collect. I trace things, using the exact shape, and exact shadow I try to discover ways of making the objects tell their own stories in the simplest way possible.
Flower Tree Skirt
Wool Felt and Balloon
2004
Previous Posts:
Charles Neenan: Tradition
Kelly Towles: Color
Ryan Mulligan: Originality
Matt Hollis: Confinement
Dean Fueroghne: Originality
James W. Bailey: Obligation
J. Coleman: Depiction
Andy Moon Wilson: Decision
Molly Springfield: Language
Bryan Whitson: Scene
Elyse Harrison: Motivation
Jiha Moon Wilson: Influence
Alexandra Silverthorne: Derivative
Jose Ruiz: Contemporary
Kathleen Shafer: Focus
Jennifer McMackon: Connection
Gregg Chadwick: Responsibility
Warren Craghead: Material
Angela Kleis: Purpose
Peter Reginato: Order
Anna L. Conti: Community
Wayne Schoenfeld: Content
Elizabeth Morisette: Naive
Tim Tate: Craft
Jesse Cohen: Hidden
Greg Ferrand: Experience
Joseph Barbaccia: Commitment
Jamie Wimberly: Burden
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