In the Studio - Late Fall

This has been a nice Thanksgiving break: lonely without our families, but easier in that we've not had to travel. I've been able to get into the studio more and that feels great. A smart friend on the phone today said something like, "I'd love to see images of what you're working on. Maybe you have a blog?" and I cringed because I do have a blog, two in fact, but don't often post and even less frequently show the work I'm making. So here to remedy that are some images of the things I've been working on in my home studio.

My main focus is, or should be, preparing for a solo show that opens this February at St. Norbert College. It will be a retrospective of sorts and will feature three distinct bodies of work-- Costumes to Save Your Life, the Land Scouts, and the LAND BOOTS-- with a few other newer pieces.

A floor plan of the gallery and a thinking-drawing.

In the meantime, I'm working to extend To What End?, a 30 foot chain with oversized links made of stitched mylar food wrappers and lined with various found materials. It is my piece of purposelessness and helps balance out the overthinking I bring to the other work.

To What End - Katie Ries, ongoing

I'm also working on fleshing out and making paper patterns for some head pieces. I hope this will grow into a series, but will start with (It's a Great Day to Be a) Red Bird.

At left: notes on the head pieces and other works. At right: the paper pattern waiting on the mannequin.

I'm also trying to stay up on drawing and to push myself to draw more often and with greater ambition-- which I define as experimenting with materials, methods, duration, and content. Drawing often and for more than an hour at a time remains a challenge. I think it is more important for me (right now) to keep limber and draw often. Hopefully the duration and content will build from that.

A drawing started at bar drawing and worked up further. Also studio detritus on the table.