JUNE MATTINGLY AT MODERN DALLAS

While in Dallas I had met this adorable lady who came to visit my studio during the Centraltrak open studios evening.

We started chatting a bit and it turned out that she is a writer, and an art critic that used to own her art gallery. She is also a New Yorker that has left the Big Apple for Texas. I believe that this bold move was sparked by a spirit of adventure to the west and by the opportunity to conquer a new territory of an up and coming arena.

Well, I've just found out that she has written a piece on me here is the link to it:

http://www.moderndallas.net/junemattinglyspecialeyetowatch.html

VISIBLETRASH.NET, check it out!

Hello everybody!

I thought I share with you these links (see below)

Every time I browse through their pages I feel the same sensations of wonder when as a child I would come across one of those really colourful and glossy magazines of stickers I used to love collecting but only came to me on special occasions as a special treat. My greedy eyes would never get enough of those eclectic collages of colour, images and stories, all there, in front of my eyes, all together, all at once! And I, like a sponge, would try to soak everything in; drink up the whole delicious feast of extravaganza: an healthy elixir of the bizarre, a cure for the eye. My eyes craving the treatment and my hi mind all of sudden overwhelmed. What should I to do first? Stare and enjoy, or rather let the imagination canter on, riding those images to the wildest destinations?

Well, all I really wanted to say is that I find these links very inspirational and informative!

ENJOY!

http://www.visibletrash.net

http://www.fingerpaintingonmars.com

both linked together here:

http://www.littleshiva.com

'THE BOTANY OF DESIRE' my art work for the indoor space

TITLE:

'CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: BEAUTIFULLY ORGANIC, GLOBAL AND 100% CERTIFIED!'

'THE BOTANY OF DESIRE' my art work for the outdoor space

TITLE:

'BEND ME, CHANGE ME, BEND ME MORE, BUT DON'T LEAVE ME, WE CAN WEATHER TOGETHER'.

I would like to thank the art students of the University of Texas at Dallas, all the stuff in charge of the University grounds, artist Albert Scherbarth and Prof. Greg Metz curator of the show, for all they wonderful help and support.

This outdoor installation of 5 elements about 10 feet high and made out of about 1500 plastic bags each, was made to interact with the Texan winds. Having said that I had experienced nor imagined how wild the spring Texan wind could be!

While setting up the wind was blasting 20 nods an hour and going up. The metal rods, under the sails weight of the bags bended within 10 minutes and had to be replaced with stronger once which also bended although not as much. Unfortunately that is how far I was able to see of this battle. I had to leave it transformations in the hands of the grounds stuff as I was to depart back to Europe. In the night a hurricane like storm of winds and rain led me to imagine nightmarish natural disasters of white plastic bags.

Despite all the drama and the stress in putting up the work and fighting the weather in the end I was pleased that everybody had to in one way or the other interact with the work! Also it has been a great experience and a learning curve fro me. My work is getting much more transient and aims to interact with the surrounding and therefore continuously transforming. I never thought it could be to this extend which has open new doors and vistas that need some time to think about and to resolve, definitely I have learned to let go and be less controlling!

'THE BOTANY OF DESIRE' my statement

THE BOTANY OF DEISRE: STATEMENT

Claudia Borgna

Like a bee I am drawn to my pollen: plastic bags. I collect them in the thousands, from everywhere, to seed them across the world, to make my honey, or should I say art? Well, that is for you to decide, you are the harvesters!

Am I a honeybee, a killer bee, a queen bee or rather a genetically modified drone? That also has yet to be established. Ultimately I cannot help but mimic the cyclic, repetitive action of nature.

Did I choose my medium or did it choose me? Not everything is under my human control after all! Maybe my task is just to observe the rise and fall of a symbol. Like the bees, plastic bags too are on their way towards extinction.

In the meantime, while both species are quietly humming away, I like to lure the viewers into my artificial landscapes, and for an instant, attempt to capture their imagination by intoxicating them into a dreamlike floating vision that drifts from the tangible to the intangible and to a bittersweet awakening: a reminder of the contradictions of our beautiful world where the desire for creation and destruction coexist side by side.

'THE BOTANY OF DESIRE' next group show in Dallas

BOTANY OF DESIRE Main Gallery- University of Texas at Dallas

Exhibition is curated by Greg Metz

Opening: Friday, March 25 6:30-9:00pm

Dates March 25- April 23,1 2011

"Botany of Desire” examines the relational aesthetics visual artists share with the plant world. Whether through metaphor, cultivation, derivation or innovation, there is the sweet, the beautiful, the trippy, the traumatic, and the structural incorporate with which artists, like plants, struggle as co-evolving, reciprocal species." Works include installations, paintings, drawings, plantings and mixed media by the following artists:

Claudia Borgna / London, Kimberly Alexander / Dallas, Ric Heitzman/ Los Angeles, Rebecca Beachy/ Chicago, Tracy Hicks/ Dallas, Jeffrey Miranda/ Dallas, Vernon Fimple/ Los Angeles – Arizona, Lizzy Wetzel /Dallas, NYC, Julia McLain/ Dallas, Albert Scherbarth/Dallas, Clayton Browning/ Dallas