Katie Armstrong

Open

2010-03-01T12:36:00.004-05:00

This is a little animation I made for my Aesthetic Theory class in response to Joseph Kosuth's 1965 work, One and Three Chairs.

Staring at snow

2010-02-26T14:01:00.005-05:00

A beautiful animation by Betsy Dadd for Rachael Dadd. Both the Dadd's are endlessly inspiring! Below is a short written piece I did a couple weeks ago for my Essay class. The assignment was to write about something outside the art world that has influenced my work. Naturally, I chose Britney Spears.

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Young.

The word would be yellow, were it a color. For some reason it would have the texture of cat fur and would smell like new books or grass stains or salt water. I guess you could say I was young once, but I don’t know when that stopped. Something has been lost in the transition between being small, curled up inside my dad’s open guitar case and being big, squeezing zits in the bathroom mirror and thinking “I’m probably too old to be doing this still.” Too old? I actually thought it. Opening drawers in this apartment that has my name on the lease, that realization: I own measuring cups and a broom and a gallon of laundry detergent. When did this happen?

JD Salinger died a few weeks ago; he was the first person to make me feel like a phony. It’s not that I thought Britney Spears was some kind of God or anything, rather that she was strange and interesting, like a shiny bug on the sidewalk. I guess I was eleven years old, awkward in the charming way all kids are before they hit the greasy, painfully self aware part of adolescence. Britney paraded down the hallways of her fictional high school in pigtails and a mini skirt, singing about romance and reality in a way that would scar me for life. Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know?

I memorized her lyrics, sang them in the shower, and fantasized about the way life would someday be for me, doing cartwheels into the arms of faceless, basketball playing gentlemen who would teach me all the things I didn’t understand about love and sex. I took Britney at her word back then. But it only took a year or two before I was slinking about in school hallways of my own, with stringy hair that was chopped into a regretful bowl cut. No, this wasn’t right at all. Where was my entourage, where was the sunshine of beautiful, self assured happiness? I could say what everyone does about how angry I felt, or the betrayal of pop music, but I wont. You know the story all too well. They lied to us, infecting the world with blatant, hideous delusions and, to be frank, really bad music.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not so much, I find myself obsessively incorporating my own pop song covers into the work I produce. It is as if, by singing them myself, pulling apart the formulaic structure of the original tune, and presenting it in addition to some kind of visual aspect, I can somehow confront the alien-ness of the song, and coax it into becoming something more human.

But it’s more than that, isn’t it?

Memories, yellow youth, the ruthlessness of time and how it pushes us into the present ceaselessly. Britney shaved off her long blond hair and attacked an SUV with an umbrella; clearly I’m not the only one so terribly confused.

Chin up, chin up, chin up!

2010-02-24T22:50:00.003-05:00

I'm working on a little animation for my Aesthetic Theory class (pictured above is one of the many drawings I've made for the piece!). In other news, there is a possible snow storm headed towards New York. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited for the possibility of a day off from school! Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

Bleughhh

2010-02-19T11:34:00.003-05:00

Standing on the work table in my studio. This is a still from a video I took of myself as motion reference for Goodbye Sorrow! I've got a new animation in the works for Open Studios in the spring, as well as some other goodies. The days are too short, I tell you!

In other news, Charlie has been especially truculent lately. Each morning begins with tail fur up my nose and an impatient paw tapping on my eyelid.

A human face disturbs me

2010-02-10T14:00:00.007-05:00

This drawing by Allyson Mellberg-Taylor is eerily similar to how I look and feel today.

Benjamin Constant (1767-1830), Adolphe, First Chapter

"My feeling of constraint with him had a great influence on my character. I was as timid as he but, being younger, I was more excitable and kept to myself all that I felt, made all my plans on my own and relied on myself to put them into effect. I considered the opinions, interest, assistance and even the mere presence of others as a hindrance and an obstacle. I developed the habit of never speaking of what I was doing, of enduring conversation only as a tiresome necessity and enlivening it by perpetual joking which made it less wearisome to me, and helped to hide any real thoughts. Hence a certain reserve with which my friends reproach me even today and a difficulty in conversing seriously which I still find hard to overcome. From the same cause sprang an ardent desire for independence, a considerable impatience, with all ties and an invincible terror at forming new ones. I felt at ease only when quite alone and such, even now, is the effect of that disposition that in the most trifling circumstances when I have to choose between two courses of action, a human face disturbs me and my natural impulse is to flee in order to deliberate in peace. However, I did not possess the depths of egoism which such a character would seem to indicate. Though only interested in myself I was but faintly interested. Unconsciously I bore in my heart a need for sympathy which, not being satisfied, caused me to abandon one after another every object of my curiosity. This indifference to everything was further strengthened by the ideas of death, an idea which had impressed itself upon me when I was very young. I have never been able to understand how men could so readily cease to be fully active upon this notion."

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Sometimes, when you need to write something real, it helps to let your fingers type up someone else's words for a little while.

Cats don't have to go to school

2010-02-08T10:13:00.009-05:00

It may be the Valentine's Day fever talking, but I'm in love with this little comic by Anna Claire Bongiovanni on Flickr. Sometimes I wish my mind worked in a more logically narrative way. I've been feeling the urge to make a little story, but when I sit down to write...POOF, my mind buzzes blank and I end up drawing a big cat or something.

Speaking of cats, I wish I was one. Felines don't have to go to work or fret over empty bank accounts. Bleugh.

Luke, you were right. You were right about me.

2010-02-03T14:39:00.005-05:00

Curled up watching Star Wars: Episode VI because I'm secretly a 12-year-old boy. Of course I can't just watch, I have to obsessively screen cap. But, come on! Look how beautiful this is! How am I just now getting into Star Wars? Who has been keeping this from me? I demand a pillow stuffed with Wookie hair.

I wanna' be the girl with the most cake

2010-01-29T12:22:00.010-05:00

"I decided if I was going to be exploited, then I would do the exploiting myself."

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I've had some kind of evil stomach virus for the past few days, and as a result I'm feeling a little frail today. Somehow collecting music videos from some of the wonderfully brilliant and/or bizarre women I've admired (or have been strangely fascinated by) has helped me buck up a little.

Goodbye Sorrow

2010-01-17T17:26:00.015-05:00

Installation shot of my thesis project. I decided to put the video online because I really want it to have a life after the exhibition is taken down. To watch it in its entirety, click here or just read through to the bottom of this entry.

I couldn't have dreamed of a better opening. The night was a blur -- smiling faces, hugs from all sides, my innards vibrating with the wings of a thousand butterflies... Thank you to everyone who came. I can't even begin to tell you how unbelievably magical I felt in that gallery surrounded by people who really think I'm worth a damn. The truth is, most of the time I doubt my worth-a-damness, but I'm working on letting the love inside!

The piece I made for the show is an animation which came to be known as Goodbye Sorrow. I began making it one morning after a peculiar incident involving the making of tea. I stood at the counter in my kitchen, a cup of hot water before me, dunking my tea bag in and out while absentmindedly worrying about life the way we do sometimes, and I realized something: All I wanted to do was stand there and continue to steep my tea forever. I couldn't bear to stop, not if it meant I had to eventually put on shoes, walk outside and face the day. I suppose this is called unhappiness, but it felt more cavernous, and much more abstract at the time.

But I digress, the animation itself does not have anything to do with tea. The fact is, existence is very difficult. As simple and possibly naive as that sounds, it was really all I was conscious of thinking while I made the work. I think Goodbye Sorrow does more than drag its feet around in sadness though, somehow. There is a kind of searching or longing that is not extinguished by the end of it, I hope.

The soundtrack is a cover I made of the Europop song, Blue (Da Ba Dee) by one-hit-wonders Eiffel 65. I have a habit of making strange, sad covers of pop songs. It can really only be described as an attempt to find and reveal some kind of humanness in even the most seemingly soulless, irritatingly formulaic cultural garbage. It's funny, the Wikipedia entry for the song claims that the subject, "blue" was picked at random, and that the lyrics were written to be more or less nonsensical or irrelevant. It's strange how much the song changes and how meaningful the words become, just by singing it a little slower and juxtaposing it with different imagery.

The animation was created using hundreds of tiny ink drawings and watercolor paintings which I scanned, one by one into the computer and animated with Flash. For the installation, the video was projected into a corner of the gallery. Beside it, I attached every drawing used to create the animation in hopes that showing the process would add a richness of understanding to the piece.

Here are a few more installation shots for you to peruse:

And now, internet, I give you Goodbye Sorrow. Share it with those that you hold most dear!

I've got the shakes

2010-01-13T09:06:00.006-05:00

Damn, Married To The Sea always get's it right.

Tonight is the night, friends. Da/Sein is opening, and there's no going back. I suppose I've got to just trust that I've made something worthwhile and hope for the best.

Installation shots and video will be posted within the next couple days. I'm still debating whether or not to put the full animation online, but I'm leaning towards yes. More on that later!

My favorite feeling.

2010-01-11T22:42:00.002-05:00

Charlies belly makes the world a livable place.

And I eat men like air

2010-01-07T10:22:00.007-05:00

I just had to re-blog these quotes from An Interview With Marguerite Duras by Susan Husserl-Kapit, 1975:

"I think feminine literature is an organic, translated writing...translated from blackness, from darkness. Women have been in darkness for centuries. They don't know themselves. Or only poorly. And when women write, they translate this darkness."

"Do you know the thesis by Michelet about witches? It's admirable. (By the way, I think, and many people think, on the basis of letters and journals, that Michelet did not have a normal sex life -- which is certainly in his favor.) He says that in the Middle Ages, when the lords went off to war or on the Crusades, when the women stayed alone for months at a time on the farms, in the middle of the fields, hungry and lonely, then they simply started talking. To whatever was 'round them: trees, animals, forests, rivers... Perhaps to break the boredom, to forget the hunger and loneliness.
The men burned them. That's how witches came into being. Men said, 'They're in collusion with nature,' and they burned them. That's how the reign of witches began.
I add, personally, that what they did, in effect, was punish those women because they turned a little away from them and became less available to them. The women who began to come into contact with nature, as if by osmosis, took part of themselves away from men. So men killed them to punish them. And that madness -- talking to animals, trees, that part of themselves which suffocates and explodes, that transference -- you find it in all women, including women in the middle class. It's what I call their neurosis. Neurosis in women is so ancient, thousands of years old -- all women are neurotic in my opinion -- that people are used to their behavior. And much female behavior that one finds normal would be considered neurotic if exhibited by males. Of course women express this neurosis differently in our day. They no longer talk to animals or trees, because apparently they aren't alone. In fact, however, they are completely alone in their millions, in their poverty, in their comfort, and in their slums, in all their completely functional marriages -- whether rich or poor.
They are as alone as before. And everywhere. Madness has found other expressions, but it is still there. It is still the same madness."

Marguerite Duras is a terribly interesting character, no? I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little mad today. It's day 2 of installing the Da/Sein show, but I haven't gotten out of bed yet. I need to get myself downtown and finish the surprisingly grueling process of attaching hundreds of tiny pieces of paper to the gallery wall. I should have been there an hour ago! I blame the last stanza of Lady Lazarus. For some reason, I just can't stop repeating it in my mind, and this repetition has sort of trapped me under all my blankets. Oh Sylvia, I thought I was over you, but somehow you will always make me feel like my angsty, 15-year-old self.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

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2010

2010-01-02T09:37:00.008-05:00

Ah, two thousand and ten, how do you do? My name is Katie, and I have been trying to grow out my hair (really really really really long), but I just cut it all off again because I can't stand those awkward in-between phases. Hair purgatory!! To make myself feel better, I've been Googling photos of Twiggy, Jean Seberg, and Mia Farrow.

I didn't make any New Year resolutions. I'm the kind of person who makes daily resolutions. Aside from hair growth, I have been working on dancing much more, learning how to deal with stress in a way that doesn't totally debilitate me, and ceasing to feel like I'm somehow missing out on life just because I prefer spending nights in bed eating ice cream and drawing instead of going out on the town.

The point is, I'm a work in progress, and I'm not going to put all the pressure on you, two thousand and ten, just because you're a New Year. Let's take it day by day, okay?

feel momentarily wonderful

2009-12-27T15:47:00.006-05:00

Gamblers All

sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think,
I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside
remembering all the times you've felt that way, and
you walk to the bathroom, do your toilet, see that face
in the mirror, oh my oh my oh my, but you comb your hair anyway,
get into your street clothes, feed the cats, fetch the
newspaper of horror, place it on the coffee table, kiss your
wife goodbye, and then you are backing the car out into life itself,
like millions of others you enter the arena once more.

you are on the freeway threading through traffic now,
moving both towards something and towards nothing at all as you punch
the radio on and get Mozart, which is something, and you will somehow
get through the slow days and the busy days and the dull
days and the hateful days and the rare days, all both so delightful
and so disappointing because
we are all so alike and so different.

you find the turn-off, drive through the most dangerous
part of town, feel momentarily wonderful as Mozart works
his way into your brain and slides down along your bones and
out through your shoes.

it's been a tough fight worth fighting
as we all drive along
betting on another day.

I know many people immediately think, "chauvinist jerk" when they hear the name Charles Bukowski, but I've got to say, I don't read him that way at all. He really knows how beautiful and terrible it is to be a person.

Happy Day!

2009-12-25T20:25:00.003-05:00

As a Christmas gift to myself, I redesigned my blog. Now that it's lookin' so snazzy, I feel inspired to post more more more!

I hope you are having a nice day, celebrating whatever it is that you celebrate. I'm feeling pretty cuddley, in fact, I think I'll go smoosh my face in my kitties belly, just because I can!

Da/sein, I exist

2009-12-21T13:57:00.008-05:00

Hi cyberspace! Guess who finished her thesis animation? You're damn right I did! Here are a few stills, take a gander.

The opening for my senior show, titled Da/sein is Wednesday, January 13th from 6-8pm at SVA's Westside Gallery, located at 141 West 21 Street. I would really love to see you there!

I was asked to design the PR image, and this is what I came up with. Why a disco ball? I guess you're going to have to come see the show to find out!

And now, I am going to be totally lazy for two weeks in Maryland. Happy holidays!

Oink Oink

2009-11-30T23:21:00.001-05:00

To top off an already dandy semester, this ol' gal spent all of Thanksgiving break shivering under about ten blankets with the grand ol' swine flu. Yippee.

2009-11-15T17:37:00.002-05:00

This is an image I designed for the Degenerate Craft Fair, which is a fun project developed by Amy Wilson and Shannon Broder. Curious? I nabbed this quote from the DCF website:

"A sort of anti-art-fair, the Degenerate Craft Fair features over 20 artists, designers and their work. Just in time for holiday shopping, most of the items offered will cost less than $50.

Taking place in three separate locations over three weeks in December, the DCF will bring the artists and their work to very different audiences: a DIY performance space, a storefront, and a Chelsea art gallery."

Due to being totally overwhelmed with my senior project, I will not be selling anything in the fair this year. But! I will definitely be at the launch party, and you should come too if you live in New York. It's December 4th at Silent Barn. See you there!

2009-11-01T21:25:00.004-05:00

I've been having a really hard time getting settled inside my skin lately. Things are changing, and finding some kind of balance has been tricky. Anxiety, anxiety, anxiety!

But! Not today. I had the whole day off, and spent it the way every day off should be spent: Zach and I woke sans alarm clock, threw on some clothes and scarves and went to our diner across the street. A Belgian waffle, omelette, and glass of fresh orange juice later, we put on our jackets and took a nice long walk along the Hudson...everything is so red and yellow, the world is saturated in Fall, it's so beautiful! After that, we came home and had a nice long bath, followed by a cozy nap. Upon waking up, we were ravenous again, so I made a true cold weather dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. Which brings us to the present, in which I am sipping a root beer float and sketching a bit.

Perfect.

What's up, pussycat?

2009-10-26T13:56:00.002-04:00

I have quite a few of these, perhaps I will stock up the ol' Etsy shop?

Outpost Evidence!

2009-10-25T22:19:00.002-04:00

The space was designed and built by Erin and myself. It is small but mighty, I say!

I made the four silk screened and embroidered kitties for the show.

Erin's beautiful monoprint and paintings.

Brochure, Visual and Critical Studies matches, and bartering forms.

As promised, here are a few photos of the outpost exhibition.

I'm the worst blogger of all time.

2009-10-12T13:51:00.005-04:00

I know this is something I should have mentioned before, but I helped design, build and curate a really fun little exhibition for the Visual and Critical Studies Department at SVA called Outpost. (That lovely blog was designed by my partner-in-crime, Erin and myself!) Outpost invites members of the public to trade or barter for original works of art. It was the brainchild of my professor/friend/mentor Amy Wilson, who by the way, makes really great vegan cupcakes, just for the record. The opening took place last night, and I'm happy to say that it was really fun. Thank you to my pals who came out!

To read more about the show, check out this post from SVA's blog. (There's an interview with yours truly!) In my excited, slightly drunken state, I forgot to take photos of the finished space last night, but I will be reporting later with those. I promise!

A few words before a nice long bath

2009-09-20T18:28:00.008-04:00

Lying With the Wolf, ink and pencil drawing by Kiki Smith, one of my favorite artists of all time.

The sun is setting, and my bedroom is/will be flooded for a few minutes with a beautiful golden glow. This time of day makes me feel really fuzzy and quiet. I am happy to be home, as it seems that I have not spent any time here since school began two weeks ago.

Last week was grueling, and included too many hours of work (I have upped the anty to two jobs, which when combined with school is probably going to crush my soul), a night spent in the emergency room (to be with a very good friend), and a laughably undersized amount of sleep. I could go into detail, but boo-hooing isn't my favorite thing to do (Zach is probably reading this and laughing, but it's true I tells ya', it's true!).

To put it simply, all I want is enough time to make art and enough dollars to stay healthy. That, my friends, is what I am working to achieve! I'll get there.

Anyway, here is a little sound piece I did last week, it is my interpretation of Daniel Johnston's tune, The Monster Inside of Me.

Click here to download and take a listen. Put on headphones and close your eyes.

'Eeeeyyyyyyyy

2009-09-06T23:59:00.001-04:00

I knoooow, the bow is too much. In other news, I'm eating spaghetti in bed!

Bed Head

2009-09-05T10:58:00.001-04:00

Ah, bed. I will miss thee, as once school starts, I have a feeling I won't be enjoying your soft, warm comfy-ness quite as often.