My Rock Is A Purse

Issue 33 Deception Spring 2009

Inventory / My Rock Is a Purse

Susan Greenspan

“Inventory” is a column that examines or presents a list, catalogue, or register.

In 1996, my friend V—— gave me a rock that looked like a tiny purse, one with a thin metal clasp at the top, the sort you might carry when you dress up to go out at night. V—— had found the rock in the mid-1970s during a vacation to Pantelleria, the volcanic island between Sicily and Tunisia. At the time she gave it to me, I was building a collection of things that looked like other things—a potato chip that looked like a heart, a piece of white bread that looked like a T-shirt. We put the rock that looked like a purse on a piece of crimson velvet and took pictures of it.

Since the rock-purse gift, I have been searching for more rocks that resemble other things. I found the majority of my current collection (about twenty in number) at the beach. Most of the “meats” (bacon, pancetta, tripe) were found in and around Santa Cruz, California. The bean and the macadamia nut are from Fetiye, Turkey. The egg and the black-and-white cookie are from Cape Cod.

purse

gorgonzola

bacon

Source is Cabinet Magazine.  Link here to see more rocks.  

T. Allen Lawson, Artist

“Much of my process is deciding what to leave out instead of what to put in. I often use very fine sandpaper to remove paint, shape a passage or manipulate the pigment. The process then becomes one of refinement.” ~ T. Allen Lawson from the January/February 2012 issue of The Artist’s Magazine

Stan Shellabarger, Artist

detail of Untitled (Walking Book 14, 2201 S. Union, 3rd Floor, Chicago, IL), 2008

Stan Shellabarger is an artist who walks or, rather, he is a walking artist—that is, walking is his art. He records his walking activities not with pen and map nor strewn breadcrumbs, but by attaching graphite or sandpaper to his soles and making contact with paper laid down in his path. He follows a planned route, albeit a brief one: a staircase, or a stretch of sidewalk. Back-and-forth repetition is key. The resulting paper reveals either a smeary frottage of silvery graphite or a patterned tread of holes, depending on which implement Shellabarger wears on his feet. The paper is proof of contact with the world.

Scott Campbell, Artist

Graphite in Ostrich Egg Shells

Chris Hosmer, Artist

Hong Seon Jang, Artist

Layers of clear tape on chalkboards.

Kjell Varvin, Artist

Peter Clough, Artist

Untitled Drawing (with Balsa, Acetate and Sharpie), 2011
Sharpie on acetate, balsa wood, black duct tape, packnig tape, scotch tape
12" x 12

Untitled Drawing (with Cardboard and Xerox), 2011
House paint and graphite on cardboard, xerox, digital ink-jet print on high-gloss paper, electrical tape, packing tape, scotch tape
14" x 10"

Untitled Drawing (with Cut Saran Wrap), 2011
Digital ink-jet print and pen on printer paper, sharpie on saran wrap, double-stick tape
8 1/2" x 11"

Konrad Wyrebek, Artist

"FuV" installation with 4 drawings, black tape, salt shapes. Exhibited in Barcelona may 2010

Greg Schmidt, Student Work, Found Object Challenge

Found object. Debris found a walk to school.

Drawing made in response to the found object. 

Student Work, Erase

Greg Schmidt

Andi Parent, Student Work

A drawing inspired by a tin can.

"Ancient-looking rusty tin can I hesitated in picking up somewhere in the woods. Held it in two fingers all the way home for fear of diseases. Possibly a hobo's. Since at least once a week you ask us to take a project on a date, I started to view this object as if it were a person. I felt as though this found object had the most character of all the objects gathered so I went the next step and gave it a life. It's an old and rusted can, used up and dried out. It made me think of a weathered old cowboy or vagabond eating food out of a tin, and what kind of person they were. I wanted to capture the tin's essence and personality into a portrait."

Student Work, Wrapped

Andi Parent

Greg Schmidt.  

Student Work, Thread

Derek O'Brien

"This is the thread project. my concept was to mark things that were “Hidden in Plain Sight” throughout the room. Nobody really noticed that there was string marking these items that were commonly used in this room. There were also 2 marked outside of the classroom. One wrapped around the elevator in the art building.  The items that I marked were, the border of the room, the computer, the closet door, the overhead screen & the stand. "

Andrea Landers, Student Work, Erase Challenge

Erasing By Overcompensation.
I signed my signature over and over itself to show the way that I tend to try to define myself and in doing so, I "try" to be myself and lose my real identity.

Losing Ground
I partly filled in a crossword puzzle, some of the words were fit but not the "right" one. Erasing them showed what it's like to see progress undone."

Starting Over
 I wrote a letter to a friend that I want to reconnect with who hurt me, but is far way.  Instead of writing about things in the past , I erased those things representing a new point of time.

Diminishing
A drawing of how things can gradually fade way, concrete can become faint. I erased the inside shapes totally and lines of center shapes to show a process of fading.

"Cheating-tweaking the truth, covering it up."

Cheating

Tweaking the truth. Covering it up. 

Andrea Landers, Student Work

Andrea Landers

Found Object

Drawing made in response to found object. 

Found Object

Drawing made in response to found object. 

Student Work, Thread

Student Work, Sandpaper

Student Work, Thread

Lay It All Out

Amber Fox

Steph Valle

Ryan Flannery

Student Work, Wood

Steph Valle

Audrey

Luis Camnitzer, Artist

Eva Hesse, Artist

Sol Lewitt, Artist

"Sol LeWitt (b. 1928) is an originator of conceptual art, in which the work of art--typically an installation rather than an art object in the conventional sense--is either incarnated by language alone or produced according to the artist's written instructions. LeWitt developed the idea for the wall drawings in the late 1960s." -from the National Gallery of Art. Link here to read more.

Image from the National Gallery of Art.

Yoko Ono, Artist