New Piece of art

Onion Skin House; just finished this today. Mixed media (onion skins, tree bark, tissue paper, wood veneer, craft paper, acrylic, conte crayon) on open tea box. I'm not going to comment as I am still absorbing it.

Call for Boxes

Would you like too contribute to a work of art in-the-making? I am gathering and priming opened boxes for a major project. I generally use boxes from medicines, tea, art supplies, toothpaste,  hardware, etc- but not much bigger than a tea box. You can see some examples above. If you would like to collect and send me some, you can mail them to either my address in Massachusetts or here in Mallorca. Please email me or post a comment on this blog if you would like the mailing address. To incorporate boxes from America and Mallorca and beyond, as well as the concept of recycling will make the project even better. Thank you. lauriepearsall@mac.com

Gathering Fossils

More teasers!!! I need to keep the suspense up for myself as well. These slices of lives once lived were shot in Inca last friday. I usually can't get into the abandoned homes, but this one on the bottom was wide open. Delicious.  The work inspired by these images are a combination of black and white mixed-media drawings, and plaster pieces with rusted and natural elements integrated into the surface. See my earlier post "What goes around comes around" to make more sense of this one.

Building Foundations

This is a recent study I made planning for some large scale pieces. I am posting it today because this morning I received an email from a former student of mine and wonderful person, Thom Harding. I checked out his art here:

(http:/www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/stuart/StudentArt/ast_id/25024). Click on enlarge image number 2, Landscape after Doig. 

This particular image struck me as I am playing now with the layers of bedrock under the ground. Clever minds think alike!

Art Work from 1995, part 3

Remnants, unique book, single edition. Mixed media: photo emulsion transfer, wood, thread, paper, colored pencils, etc.

Remnants, open; composed of 4 individual panels that are lifted up for viewing.

Kid Gloves, Unique book, edition of 1.  Mixed media: kid leather gloves, curtain lace, ink, old bra hook, paper, thread, etc.

Kid Gloves, open. Opens in all four directions.

Art Work from 1995, part 2

Here are the separate cards from Apron Strings (see yesterday's post). Mixed media: photo emulsion transfer, colored pencil, wall paper on card.

Chain Reaction Unique book, edition of two. Mixed media, wallpaper, colored pencil, etc.

Chain Reaction, detail of title in drawer

Chain Reaction, detail of inside. The story reads: "While sewing on an outfit, she became frustrated and threw the doll down, cracking its face.  'I cried for hours'.  She keeps that doll as a reminder of the lesson she learned about temper and blaming her problems on inanimate objects." This is a true story told to me by my mother.

Art Work from 1995, part 1

Dismantled, Three-way screen (10 X4 feet/ea.) ink on sheer fabric; pine frames

I will post in two parts a selection of work I displayed in my 1995 masters thesis show at the Massachusetts College of Art. The show was called Childhood Allusions.

Apron Strings, hand-made apron with vintage cloth; 3 mixed media images in pockets.

Hair Piece (detail) , hand-made pillow stuffed with real and synthetic hair; doll image stained with ink.

Hair Piece (approx. 12X18 in.)

Malena's Painting

A Guy   by Malena Luque Pearsall 2008

8.5X11 inches Crayola Easy Wash Markers

Historic Sites of Muro, Mallorca

Historic Map of Muro

This is a project I just finished in collaboration with the principal of the high school here.  This project has helped me get to know the rich history of this little village.

What goes around Comes around

Can you tell what these two pictures are of? I'll explain in a bit, but first, follow my visual train of thought for a moment...

Above is an image of a church floor plan. I have always loved architectural plans and topographical maps and have been collecting a lot of them lately for a new series. Something about the arial view and relation to cross-section that inspires me. In this particular example, I love the tilt on the right hand side. 

Family Tree (total composition approx. 6 X 4 feet)  This image was made in 1990 for my thesis show at the Cooper Union. I just remembered it a few days ago. I based the composition on church floor plans. that's 18 years ago, folks...and back then I was so unsure how to be an artist. Little did I know my subconscious was formulating plans for years to come.

Attic Hideaway (aka The Escape) This piece was made in 2006. The compositional format was based on an open tea box. After unpacking so many boxes from my overseas move, I was contemplating that which we take with us and that which we leave behind during big changes. I have picked up this 'open box' concept with my newest work and will post some at a later date.

The first 2 images of this post and the one above are some I have made of torn-down facades in Mallorca. Over the last year and a half, I have shot dozens of photos like these. There has been a major construction boom which is now turning into a major construction crisis, leaving all these unresolved projects. While the floor plans and open boxes have an arial perspective, these show a slice, or cross-section in profile. YUM. I am particularly fond of the remaining medicine cabinet and dangling shower fixtures!

Mending Wall
by Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'

'Muro' means stone wall

A few years back, 2002 I think, a long lost friend saw my recent paintings and said, "why are you building walls"?  I defended myself: "No, I am not building them, my plans are to tear them down- but you have to get really close first".  Then recently I had a good chuckle with friends visiting from MA about the fact the the name of the town I live in in Mallorca is MURO, which translates to stone wall. Ok, Ok I get the message! I had only put stone walls in a few pieces back then, but now, understandably, the image has returned. You'll see.

gathering

Process is as important as product. I take tons of pictures of textures that inspire me. Here are some recent ones I am incorporating into my newest series of paintings.

This morning I collected more twigs and rusted materials. Malena and I walk by the bull ring each day on our way to school. The dirt road there is a dumping ground for various cast-offs from orchard pruning and home repairs. This combination of materials invokes the dual relationship of "man vs. nature" and "man with nature".  Alas, in the end everything returns to the original state.

Sedentary 2008 34X44 cm mixed media/dirt on bark paper

Rolling 2007 2(30X60)cm ink and gold leaf on wood

Yes, I know, my website is inaccessible at the moment. Bear with me on that one. In the mean time, here's another image that may be new to you. The text in gold says, "Do not rob them of their path"...words of wisdom thanks to a dear guide and friend years ago.

New Beginning

Just before I go to bed I will christen the site with an image. 

It is new and already sold.  I had so little time with it, 

I need to see it objectively to bring the ideas into other pieces.