Warmth

It's 72 degrees in Boston today - "unseasonably warm" as the news proclaims - and I feel the need to stop and think about that. Thoughts on climate change aside, I'm wearing a shirt with no sleeves (and a pair of pajama shorts if we are being honest here, because I've done nothing but read essays and paint a room this morning), and as I flip pages in my backyard I can feel the warmth touching the outermost layer of skin and intensifying as it soaks into my body. This sensation is just about my favorite feeling in the world (though I'm hesitant to admit I also love the helpless, out-of-my-control feel of being tossed about on a good roller coaster).

I've been thinking a great deal about sensation from the inside out, but this first brilliantly warm day is a definite outside-in sensation that's a constant in each year of my life. While I can conjure up the essence of many internal sensations after the fact, this is one of few external sensations I can replay. "Unseasonability" aside, I wait for it all winter long knowing that the first bone warming day of the year will always arrive.

2/3/16

Today I spent a considerable chunk of a 2.75 hour meeting admiring the distinct silhouette of a completely average black desk lamp sitting against a window allowing diffused light from a grey drizzly nondescript day to gently enter the room. It was beautiful but entirely unimportant and my intent was to grab a quick photo of the moment on my phone at the end of the meeting - before becoming distracted by the next task - but in the last 5 minutes of conversation the lamp was knocked off the windowsill, lightbulb glass shattering everywhere.

rabbit hole cycles: light experiments

What feels like a million years ago we showed a glimpse of my new work, rabbit hole cycles, at the Luminarium Gala. At that point I knew what the work was about, knew roughly what I wanted to accomplish, and knew the deadline to find a stable stopping point (yikes). More on the content of the work another time, though.

Since the gala, I started a grad program to work on my MFA (as you probably know) and continue to work away at this new piece. I've never been so actively aware of my process, and as I reflect on my work I've been generating a series of screenshots from rehearsal footage to take snapshot assessments of where I'm at! In case the world is interested, one of my major goals was to house this piece in multiple worlds, all located in one stage space. I am differentiating these worlds through the use of light, so it's vital that each has a very unique look and feel, while the light-source/technique is fully integrated into the work so that it doesn't feel gimmicky or extraneous. The piece is also designed to repeat endlessly (with the dancers' roles switching), if only we had concurrent stage spaces. Someday...

The images below are really rough and experimental, of course! Most looks involve cheap clamp lights as placeholders (there's only so much a gal can haul through Central Square), and other makeshift equipment. I'm SO excited to show off the polished lighting and other scenic elements of this wacky piece but you'll have to come check out Spektrel if you want to be the first to see it! Tickets here.

(click on images to view larger)

World I: Multidimensional Shadow