Leah Virsik

Together with some great help and valuable input from Claudia Lamar, Lanell Dike and Lorraine Bruce we put up my Dichotomy installation Tuesday evening at the Kensington Library at 61 Arlington Avenue, Kensington, CA. It’ll be up July 1–August 29, 2010. The library open hours are Mon & Tue: 12 – 8 Thu: 10 – 6  Fri: 1 – 5  Sat: 10 – 5.

di·chot·o·my: division into two parts or classifications, esp when they are sharply distinguished or opposed.

Acknowledgments
Thank you to my husband Tom for your patience and for listening. I appreciate you making me a priority and for helping me to clarify my thoughts for this project.

Thank you to Claudia Lamar and Lanell Dike for your enthusiasm and assistance in hanging this installation. Lanell, thank for suggesting a cleaner way of hanging and Lorraine Bruce, thank you for this opportunity and for asking me to exhibit in the first place.

“Meaningful Work”
mixed-media: paper, canvas, thread, collage, fabric, muslin, acrylic 7″ x 5″
©2010 Leah Virsik

I’m working on finishing up postcards for my show at the Kensington Library next week and trying to determine appropriate words for my process. I’m also thinking about my next question regarding the evolution of my work as I’m working through Alyson B. Stanfield’s Relatively Pain-Free Artist Statement e-book.

I started the postcards in November 2009 in response to inspiration from Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler’s book Good Mail Day and Leah Piken Kolidas’ Art Every Day Month Challenge. I started these works as something that I could do quickly and post on my blog in an evening. I initially sent them out to a few people and then I held back. I wanted to hold onto them and now they’re turning into a sixty postcard installation project. The roots of this work is about appreciating the process and ultimately, myself. It’s about play, acceptance, non-judgment, love, messiness, experimentation, connection and exploration. It’s also about working fast and completion. On one hand, the work is great fun and I get lost in it and don’t want to stop. On the other hand, it’s really difficult work that I don’t want to do. I love the work and I can’t believe I’m getting away with it. All these contradictions…Dichotomy feels like it’s going to be a good title. Thanks Tom.

I’ve created this project, designed how it’ll look, put it out into the world, and am in the process of defending (or at least explaining/creating a story about) it to my audience and my inner critic. It’s my first wall… outside of the studio. At times, especially lately, I’ve felt down about it… how do I hang them? It’s not going to work the way I’ve envisioned… no, no it’ll be fine… Tom helped me and I bought some nails he suggested. I’m excited about the way they look on the wall in the studio now. How do I arrange them? By color? By date created? What if I’m hurrying too much and I’m not doing the work or myself justice? It’s painful or so I choose it to be at times. It’s all an experiment. This is a picture of where I’m at in the world today. Do I like the picture? At times, I really do, other times I don’t want to look at it. It’s my work and I’ll continue to do it.

Next post will be more about my process and about how my work is changing.

Abstract Love, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

I am getting ready for two exhibitions today, one for Alameda Women Artists and the other at Pro Arts Gallery. A little surreal.

I’ve been on the computer all morning, well a little sewing on this piece “Abstract Love” that I’ll be mailing to Pod Post.

It’s a lot of work to blog and to post work, to keep up with others, etc. It brings up a lot for me. What’s important? What do I want to focus on? Maintaining balance. And the fact that I’m really enjoying this and want to keep it up. For now, I’m going to just focus on the fact that I’m enjoying this and not worry about the other stuff.

I was talking with an artist last night and my fantasy about him was that he didn’t have a day job and it turned out in fact that he did. Actually, it was good for me to learn and also know that I’m feeling pretty prolific in the moment creating all these little arts… §:0.)

Submerged, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

My largest painting so far 48″x48″… I went through such a process with this one… from “I NEVER want to paint this large again” to “I really like it”. It’s oh, so interesting to watch my process.

This piece entitled “Submerged” will be on display at Alameda Women Artists 16th Annual Alameda Museum Exhibit & Silent Auction from November 7 through December 5, 2009 at the Alameda Museum at 2324 Alameda Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501. The Alameda Museum is located off Park Street between Central and Encinal Avenues and can be reached at 510-521-1233.

Our Opening Reception is Saturday, November 7, 2009 from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. and we’ll be having a Closing Reception & Holiday Art Boutique on Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. We’re also having a silent auction featuring 3D mixed-media sculptural art pieces created by AWA members. The auction ends Saturday, December 5 at 2:45 p.m.

Exhibit Hours are Wednesday through Friday and Sunday from 1:30 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. Saturday from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Hope you can make it!

Art Has Become My Life, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

This is my “box” for Pro Arts 35th Anniversary Party/Box Art Benefit Auction: Saturday, November 7, 6 – 9 pm Preview Exhibition: November 3 – 7, 2009. Thanks to my dad for cutting the box of wood into nice 1/2″ pieces.

Inspired, I signed up for Leah Piken Kolidas’ November Art Every Day Challenge and received a really nice email back from her. I’m exited to join an online art community and post more of my work, more often.

Also, I signed up for Rock Paper Scissors Collective’s Sewing Lab Training. Looking forward to learning how to use their industrial straight stitch and serger! I want to make more books with fabric and leather.

We told Allison Tungseth we had 40 pigs on our mantle when it reality it turns we have 34 pigs with some elephants and cats thrown in. We were discussing the possibility of her photographing our house. We’ve met her before through Wendy and John, but this weekend Tom and I saw her deeply revealing photographs at her SFSU MFA Exhibition. I mentioned that our house is not quite ready to be photographed and she said many people tell her that. I imagine it’s a protective quality, I’d like to fix up the place, not expose too much of myself. Oh, well, the vulnerable parts, that’s what’s most interesting, now isn’t it?

Speaking of pigs, Tom sent me a great video on just the subject: A Wolf Loves Pig. Very cool!

We ended our San Francisco excursion Saturday with a trip to Kiss Seafood. What a treat. Our first time and we’ll definitely be back for their egg custard soup and other incredible Japanese delights.

Seth Godin’s blog makes my must-read list. This post inspired me today. I’m halfway through reading Chris Guillebeau’s article.

A painting at Nest on Fillmore this weekend caught my eye. Turns out it was created by Nicole Buffet. Ignorance is bliss. I had no idea who she was or who she might even be related to. But this piece definitely spoke to me.