Body Class Comments 4/21/08

Wow, gotta say saw some of the most unsettling work to date today. I think this work was unsettling to me due to the issues of body form that i have. I know all of us have a diversity of issues that prevent us from seeing and experiencing our bodies for the incredible bioforms they are.. It is interesting that we are discussing performance art in contempt art history on this same day. Many of these first performance artist although they seemed to be in new territory were in fact engagfing in some activities that the ancients would also engage. Chris Burden risked his body for the sake of art but as you said native americans perform sundance rituals were similar sacrifice of the body is implemented in a form of prayer and to attain a certain state of mind or no mind. Particularly Josef Bueys and his piece with the coyote, this was a direct grab from native traditions and the idea of shapeshifting. Alot of this performance work with the body seems to have the goal of transformation, either literally or in the mind. This relates to the Zappa quote about the mind being the ugliest part of the body, it certainly has the ability to taint or elevate our physical form. I think our ancient swere onto something using the bodyform to access certain mental and spiritual states. It is a crying shame that we have been so conditioned to ridicule and despise our bodies-the actual things that keep us alive nad embibe us with limitless methods for experiencing and affecting the world. One of my fav writers Terence Mekenna said that they landsape of the future is the inner landscape. This is a place that is still private and ours- not for long. we owe it to ourselves to love our bodies and explore and exalt them for they make it possible for our spirits to experience this beautiful world. so much to explore and so little time. some times i wonder what it would feel like to be in the body of a tree or a stone or various animals. i fear that our time alotted with these forms is limited and that we a re suppossed to use these bodies to accomplish the next phase of our incarnations, if we do not we will fall into a time of deep sleep or dormancy from which we may not awaken. personally i feel this body is a gift( just gotta work thru tha programming) and we nned it to find where we go next seize it own it it is ours--- for now.

4/16/08 Barbara Schrieber

Tiny explosive packages... "irritable little paintings about the absurdity of life" "no one will take you seriously if you are funny" Good maybe thats the f--in point ,maybe we all take ourselves just a weee bit to serious. I mean really, who do we think we are. Babies, monkies, trousered apes, humans-- such a farce by nature! Barbara was an absolute delight to meet. Very real and honest and true to her ideals despite outside hearsay. Liked that she works small and intimate but about pretty huge and global issues. Enjoy that she enjoys what she is doing even though it makes her uncomfortable, and this translates into the work and the experienc eof the viewer. Not sure what to make of the squirel girls, I was once attaked by a gang of squirels in Seattle and have never been the same. this makes me think this sort of violence may be on the rise.

4/14/08 Class Comments Location, Location

Liked Graflands Bolivia photos. Reminded me of Peter Beards work who I love as a fellow journaler and also fab fashion photographer. Beard shot fashion about 20 yeras ago mostly high fashion and one of his contributions was the ideas for fashion in remote and challening areas. One of these was Africa , he did alot of journaling there as well. But to see these high fashion models with zebra carcases and elephant bones and bloody skins in the harsh dirty desert was an extreme conflict and compliment. He pushed the idea of location being very essential to expression. For the record i have always been a big fan of earh works artist and also SRL. Saw these guys twice in two different spots and the location or site made a hUUUGGGee difference, for artistic as well as safety issues. Oh you know I loved the video projection polock ( can say that cause i am part polish) that made me cry i did wait till after class, but really moving and transformatory, ties in with the artist as instigator, in his case working to heal and rebuild what has been injured or mangled.

4/09/08 Field Trip Muralist

Thanks to Will for his hospitalty. Glad to see someone makin it as an artist in this town. One piece struck me more than any others -the long horizontal witht he gut and shotgun and pickup truck with barn and animal skins in back ground. even thoguh at times Will's palette felt awkward to me I felt this piece was a embodiment of his strongest points. Depicting a slice of life that not everyone sees and some people fear is the first step to diplomatic realtions among diverse groups of people. Way 2 go Will!!

4/07/08 Class Comments--- Instigation

Diggin the idea of artsist role as instigator for community involvemnet. in Contemp Art History we saw Cut by Yoko Ono. I must say that the piece really disturbed me, what disturbed me more was the comments from females in the class saying that she asked for or deserved it in some way. Like saying a woman in a short dress deserves to be raped-WRONG. i think Ono's got some huge balls to put herself in this position to basically test humans to see what tthey will do when presented with certain options. Sad to say humans pretty much fail most of time as compassionate sensitive coinhabitants. We will all- WAY too quickly destroy each other when given the choice. This work as well as Mariana Abramavic's especially one piece where she presents her body and series of objects for pain and pleasure and people almost f--kin kill her. this is what she said after that, " if you leave the decision to the public, you will be killed.' Why when given the choice do we choose to harm each other instead of give pleasure? I am at times so increduably saddened by the behavior of our species. What these two women did was extrodinaraly brave and revealing. Now we need to discover what will change this hateful instinct in humans.

Class Thoughts 4/03/08 Time Projects

Today I was quite ill so I may have not been my normal engaged self. But I gotta say that I wonder how much thought really went into our projects. it seems that formal choices are really a hurdle for a lot of us. Another thing is being able to discuss our work,( personaaly not looking to forward) this is really key otherwise it seems like we only did it half a--. Until now I didn't fully comprehend how challenging conceptual thought and execution could be.Another thing that I am noticing is that time means different thngs to everyone. This goes back to our talk about doing work that has a universal appeal. Time is something that we all share, one of the few things. it moves on with or without us and i venture that we don't question it's nature as we should. We don;t question very many things really.

3/31/08 Brandon Boan

A more unique and pure individual I ahve not met. Brandon seems one of those rare people who lives to explore ideas , the world and himself. A vdery noble and difficult venture in a society obsessed with things and power. It was a bit tricky to follow his train of discussion at some points but mostly I did kinda git what he was gettin at/\. very thougth provoking stuff. he seems to pay attetion to the things that most of us take for granted or most of us don't even notice. An objects awareness of itself, looking at itslef? these border on extreme theoretical physics of which I have only read a little. fascinating subject however. Really jived with Brandon's quest for collaboration and how important that is today. A little disheartening that ther eis no money to be made in what it appears artist must accomplish these days(backlash from Warhol?) Still I think part of me knew thata long time ago. Artist like Brandon are eresponsible for the birth and growth of ideas, ideas that will probably get him into trouble someday. Malena seems to have ideas such as these, I do think that there isa manner of success even if your work gets banned, there has gotta be like a blackmarket in the art world where all the subversive and challenging art goes to be viewed. i fI were a wealthy woman I would surely create a space for these things , where ideas are truely free to be born and thoughts and emotions are not censored , a place where the goal is self-expression and exploration and not income and conformity. at times it is difficult to imagine this sort of world and live in the one we do , then those few individuals come along who dare to expand and imagine- thanks Mr. Lennon Thanks Mr. Boan

3/26/08 canceled class

3/24/08 canceled class

3/19/08 Missed Class -Rudolph Stingel

Read about Stingel in old Art In America mag. He lined walls in space woth Celotex-a shiny material able to be imprinted on my wrinting drawing etc. Stingel invited people to leave their mark on the walls of silver and boy did they!! Reminiscent of a fancy bathroom stall this installation got mass response from people. Marks and notes and gum adorned the walls. People do have a desire to leave a mark on the world-from the Lacroix cave paintings to reverse graffitti to for a good time call... when givin a place to comment mostly anonymously people don't hesitate. i'm curious if people do sign their names to the marks or just do it on the sly.

3/17/08 McColl Phantasmagoria Show

This show rocked!!!! So much inovation and creation. I enjoyed the old lady shadow with the book, because it challenged the space in the room and the fact that there is enough substance in this shadow to hold up a book. Loved the death notices on the mirrors you had to breathe on to see. The idea that these images on the plates were about death and you had to use your life breathe to view them. The wall of sound was amazing, really curious how this was done, going back tonite may have to ask. Really liked that it was completely interactive i saw fellow students getr eal excited about this piece. Rare that people get this excited about art. It has truely come a long long way from classic painting and alarms in museums that keep you away from the art. This art only works if the viewer is no longer a viewer but an active part of the work. I want a smoking bench at home- this fulfilled one of my recurring fantasies-to dissappear. I will be driving somewhere usually in the country and I'll get this longing to just vanish from my life, to dissappear and go somewhere no one knows me and I can start over. A new life created fresh from the smoke of my vanishing. This seems to be a sort of freedom from myself that I will never know, but the smoking bench got me closer. Thank you smoking bench!

Class Comments 3/12/08

These two are truley inspirational artists...
Cai Guo Qiang you know I loved his work, and his philosophy. I am very drawn to Eastern ideas and methods, they seem so much more thoughtful and aware than western ideologies. Also there is a concerted lack of control like when Qiang says he lets the gunpowder lead him sometimes and how he enjoys having obstacles to overcome. I really liked what he said about his art being about those "other things that you don't say " directly, this is intrigueing cause it infers there is more going on than what meets the eye. What he says aboutt he power and beauty of destruction and the aesthetic of decay show an incite into the underlying nature of the universe and his thoughts on the " aesthettic of pain" in reference to the tigers. amazing concept that you can make people feel pain just by what they are looking at. I think advertisers knew this along time ago, and ahve been using it to control the masses for awhile now.
Tim Hawkinson has to be one of the quirkiest artist I've been exposed to. It is important no crucial that thre are people like this who think so far outside the box that thebox doesn't exist to them. to tim I imagine anything is possible and he can probably build it. his environments really seemed to engage and inspire people of all ages to wonder and delight in the world.He truely has a freshness when looking at the world that even some children do not seem to have. i wonder what it is about our culture that kills this wonder in so many of us? I wonder if we could all be abidextrous had we not been told to "choose" a hand to write with? Why is imagination such a dangerous thing to some people? Why do we allow ourselves to be lead and blindly participate in someone elses reality instead of creating our own?

Class Comments 3/10/08

Lots of great sources in class today! Huge fan of graffitti art for a long time, got to see some aamzing sh--t in SF bay area. Also NYC and DC. There was a place in SF calledd Psycho City( have ti dig out my negs-yes that old.)it changed dailey sometimes it was a huge parking lot in near Tenderloin and Van Ness where it was legal to do work. Literally so much paint on those walls it was thick thick inches probably. And like a truley public art space, but you rarely saw peopel working even thoguh it changed constantly.Went to school with a guy named twist barry something or other and his girlfriend ruby who both became pretty large in that scene. I remeber i show of twist in museum there that had his stealth tagger coat with extra pockets and spots for tips and such. It was like artist survival gear .Like Bikes against bush,. I'm super impressed by artists whoa re also scientists. This crosses many barriers and frightenens all the right people. The spider lady also addressed a different genre of art today similar to the moss artsist but different from Morales agressive machines. Morales and Theo Jansen are the mad scientist/artist and the other two work from amore natural subversion. All of this is leaps and bounds from what art was 100 years ago. i almost shudder to think what is to come.... almost.

Class Identities 2/25/08 and 2/27/08

Viewed identity projects in class and talked bout sources for inspiration and the importance of research in art work. I unerstand the value of research and sourcing, it's like argueing a case in court you must have evidence of how and why you arrived where you did. Sometimes though i think we shold just guess and not validate but forge forward like an innocent with no idea of past or present only complete and utter awareness and acceptence of now. I like many other artist appropriate images and ideas from all around me, I also think it important to cultivate an inner dialogue that reveals personal mythologies instead of always seeking outside ourselves. I believe there are more answers and even more questions in each of us alone than in all the computers in all the world. The inner landscape is one we must travel if we are to make our way in the material world.

Kim Simonsson's Alien Innocence

Went to Border's today to find one of the artsy magazine's so I could complete this assignment. i looked at art forumn and some other mags that seemed to be mostly flat of 2d art. then Sculpture caught my eye, I flipped thru it an dfound many articles and images that were intrigueing. First, a Finnish artist who works in ceramics(not my fav) which after seeing Simonsson's strange manga like ghostly children sculptures. They seem to be about innocence lost in some mirrored shimmery synthetic. surface. One is spitting a long glass drip of saliva, one has a n elephant head and sits on the floor in a public restroom(really in a public restroom). Another is flattening some sort of shiny metallic dog, another is made of the same tile pattern as the public bathroom she hides in. These ceramic children appear alone and isolated the shiny ceramic surfaces make them seem prescious and fragil but simaltaneously cold and ghostly. There is anadmitted manga style to these children. Simonsson is commeting on the youth culture of today, well groomed, high-glossy, the image of perfection, at what cost. perhaps our lifestyles and obsession with glowing shimmery slickness and perfection has caused us to despise the imperfections that make us human and vulnerable. Maybe it were better if we were bugs with thick exoskeletons and hive mentalities. Seems we don't celebrate much about being human any more we strive to be more like the dolls and machines that we create. Documentary photographer Laureen Greenway captures the youth of LA , these girls are getting nose and boob jobs at 16, before they are even developed. Why would a 16 year old want a boob job>? Why are we obsessed with perfection? I thought human individuality and imperfection was what makes us different special something that cannot be copied or duplicated- oh wait I forgot about cloning-wonder if when we do clone humans if they will ahve the freckles and moles and strech marks and sweet scents that makes us human. Maybe we will have to redefine what being human means anymore. Why do we not like the way we smell? Perhaps Simonsson's children are the perfect child-quiet, shiny and void of human scent. Who needs real humans ? We can just create a breed that looks feels and smells just like real ....plastic.

Identity In Art- Class 2/4/08

What is the true nature of self?
I believe this to be a question that each person has to ask themselves and only they them-Selves shold be the one answering. Self is defined as the identity, character of any person or thing, one's own person as distinct from all others. So the true nature of ourself? is a better question perhaps. Discovering my self or nature has been a life long search with glimpses and retreats into the"country of my mind" where I believe my self dwells. My self seems to flicker and draw people and experiences to it. It seems to learn about itself by experimenting in the physical world. This experience can often be abrupt and painful for my physical body and my spiritual heart.Sometimes my self is not a flicker but a vast void never to be measured or filled. Such emptiness is comforting because I know from this all of everthing arises.
What does it mean to be human?
Human means we live in physical reality and need resources in order to survive. We may not be the only beings that are defined as such but one thing we think makes us unique is our ability to think. Most of us can't talk animal languages or communicate telepathically so we really don't know if other creatures are thinkers as well. Although i suspect they do. Humans exist in a very specific ecological system that we, as humans take for granted often, way too often.Humans compared to some trees have short life spans, but compared to some butterflies who exist for only hours we live eternities. Also I think that being human is about learning about and engaging other humans and other species for the pure reason that we are built to experience and engage the physical, mental, and spiritual realms.
Who am I as a unique individual?
This seems to vary frequently. I tend to be very sensory and empathetic in my experiencing the world. This leads to rapidly fluctuating emtional entity who isn't always sure whether her emotions are her own or someone close or far or if the trees sometimes seem to whisper secrets of the earth and sky. Not quite skizophrenic but there seems to be a few of us in here sometimes. That said I do feel like there is a preserverence to my unique methods that gives me a certain stability and ability as an affective and effective individual. My parents are amzing people and great parents, I have been exposed to diverse places and people all around the world. I ahve met some incredable and essential people in my life thus far and I consider myself pretty blessed to be who I am at this space in time. I think all of us as individuals have the abilities and opportunities to create a beautiful diverse world.

Class Commentary 2/18/08 and 2/20/08

This week has been whew well uh how to put CRAZY!!! but in an ultimately self improving kinda way. My mama said that this month was gonna be all about personal and global power shifts and sinking or swimming in the interior realm of our evolution. This was the month for regenerating lifestyle and thought patterns that aided you instead of holding you back. I feel like I have been slingshotted into hyper surreality. I missed a wednesday class about individual projects and artists from our book. I did enjoy our guest Elizabeth Alexander. Particularly aboutt he importance of journaling this refers to my theory that the inner private world is jsut as valid if not more so than the outer. Joseph Cornell created amazingly intimate visually rich boxes in his mother's basement. He was tapping into something unseen, something more hidden. Alexander seemed to have alink to this otherworld through her famliy. she also seemed to be creating structures that are stand-ins for the human form, so many little compartments for hiding away our trinkets to ourselvs. secrets are like private memorials to the idea that all we are is not seen and cannot be exposed to light. There will always be caves and caverns in our souls to explore with gropping fingers and willing hearts. There will always be more to explore.

Identity Vs. Itself -Class 2/11/08

I haven't done this much critical analysis of my own psyche in years, it can be an extremely gruelling yet nurturing experience. I do of course think it is essential to do in this day , artist or not. The times we live in are unlike any other time before in that we have endless opportunities to affect change and a stronghold of knowledge at our very fingertips. There are literally more possiblities existing now right now and now times ten each moment forward that we must seize. To know what to do with these moments we are given we must understand our natures,our strengths and our demons. When you know yourself and your positioning on the surface then you can act with precision and efficacy. That being said, this path is by no means simple or consistently enlightening. Often the process leads to yet more questions as you traverse the quadrants of mind. The only things that i have found to be limitations are apathy, ignorance, and trepidation. These go hand in hand often, you can't gain knowledge unless you ask questions, you can't ask questions if yer afraid to be wrong, and ya can't do either if ya don't care. The only thing is the will to act after that jumping is easy.
My mind is a tree breaking through the cement. Now You try My mind is a......
My body burst like water over rugged stones. Now .You. My body ....
My home is where i make it.My home...
My will is the turbulent winds blowing thru all time. My will....
My heart goes out into darkness seeking myself.

Field Trip 2/06/08

Exciting trip to The Mint Museum of Craft and Design, lots of work to view and a very well educated docent to guide us. One piece keeps coming back to me more, it was a suspended piece using died fabric. It hung in the middle of one room and had about six -seven panels that all had blue cirlces on them, the blue was kinda faded from one end of each circle to the next. what really enthralled me was that when you looked at this piece you could see through the other side.People looked blue and fuzzy almost like they were behind a filter or on some blued-out late niter tv. I don't know if this was part of the artists vision but it really enhanced the piece to make it literally transform the space around it, or at least the view of the space. Not just flat or 3-d almost holographic.

Making Meaning- For Classes 1/28/08 and 1/30/08

One thing I am coming to realize is the huge responsibility and history that comes with being an artist in this century. I had no idea how much thought about materials and space and even the history of the viewer brings to an art work. We have been learning in Contemporary Art History about Abstract Expressionists and how they wanted to find a universal language that communicated from one subconscious to another. To communicate ideas you must be able to understand ideas and what created those ideas. This is a bit daunting and i'm starting to wonder if my brain can handle the insight and understanding it takes to be a successful artist, successful partly meaning expressing ideas in an artistic method that is clear. sometimes I'm not clear-like now- on what it is that i want to say when so many people are talking what makes on voice more relevant. Perhaps that is why I like art is sometimes it screams at you but never breaks the silence.I guess discovering and conveying meaning is one of the hardest things we do. If i can convey a meanig or message in my art perhaps i will find the meaning/message in my own life.

Interpretation and Controversial Art 1/23/08

Liked the juxtaposition of the "modern" and "classic" at the end of the discussion. This speaks volumes about how crucial the viewer/interpreter is in art. Many times when controversy arises around an artist work it seems due to the " baggage " brought to the work by the viewers. Does an artist have any control over what viewer's are gonna see in their work? I would say no no one person can truely control another without consent to be controlled. Eric Fischl's work is intrigueing because he really seems to push some psychosexual buttons. He toys with the viewer challenging them almost to face these scenes in their own minds. One thing about some strong images once you have seen them they in your psyche and left to play.There almost seems a certain amount of trickery to art and psychology- the most sensitive parts of ourselves we keep hidden away, but these are often the parts that need attention, so artists and shrinks must figure out a way to access these parts and pull them intot he light, often a painful but eventually rewarding thing. I believe artists are very apt at drawing out the parts that we all try to keep hidden.

Guest Speaker Ms. Mary The Fiber Lady 1/23/08

"everybody loved my scribbles" artsist=genius "an artist is a hard thing to call oneself"

These phrases really stuck with me. Mary seems to see more in things to me than most people. Almost like she gets a view into the invisible world or the collective unconscious. Her work is very personal and politcal in a unique and sensitive way.This art appears to challenge societies and her own views of femine archetypes. The way this appears is not all together comfortable to the viewer perhaps this is due to Mary's "haunted childhood". I must say I can relate to this spending some time on the dark side myself but i believe most of the world finds glimpses into this world unsettling. Sounds like what art should be to me- personal- social- disturbing and aesthetic. My studies into shamanistic practices and religion make me postulate that in some way Mary is performing some sort of ritual service to the spirit world. As a "modern" society our connection to the spirit world has been drastically severed by fear, superstition , cultural taboos and serious lack of understanding. Many aboriginal peoples believe that the physical world is created from the invisble or dream world. The Dhammapada says " We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world."

Guest Speaker and The Professional World1/14/08

We had a great speaker from Graphic Design talk and answer questions about blogging. What i learned from this was that there are always many ways to accomplish something in the world og blogging. Mr Tslentis was very friendly and helpful I especially liked what he said about learning to learn. This is the whole point of education for me. Artist are curious by nature and it is necessasry for us to know how to think things through and to discover relevant questions and solutions to prblems. training the mind is key in the discovery of ourselves and our true work.
woking in the professional art work for a living instilled in me many of the topics in the discusiion of art Reality and The Professional World. The reality is tough and has it's own set of rules and challenges. i have several bodies of work I have accumulated over the years and now need a way to exhibit these to complete the cycle including an audience. until now much of my work has stayed hidden from public view perhaps due to my own timid insecurities about exposing my self in these works, no excuse I know. another great art mag is called High Fructose -mostly illustartive but very cutting edge and outside of the mainstream. Speaking of journals i've got acollection of those too. Perhaps I will scan some pages and do a seperate littelblog on journaling. hmm. One instance that really gave creditabilty to journaling was an exhibit i saw in NYC of Peter Beards phots and journals and artifacts from his years shooting fashion in Africa.
mostly my work can be descibed as photography mixed media. I also incorporate painting and use of resins to encase objects and photos. i guess audience for me is a big issue nad I really need to spend some time searching out gallery spaces and other non-traditional places that i can exhibit my work i am coming to realize that the cycle begun with the inspiration is not complete until the work is viewd by people. I do believe that this incompletion can manifest in the artist(myself) as depression and anxiety. Two things I would like to avoid.

McColl Center Trip 1/16/08

Wednesday the 16th we ventured to this exciting resource for artists. The featured show was Susan Harbage Page. She used found objects, photo, video, audio and painting on fabric. She addressed themes of womens place in society and in personal relationships. One particularly striking piece to me was a found embroidery with 4 victorian looking female profiles embroidered on a huge cloth. I'm guessing Page found this, but she had added an embroidered hand in the middle of the women clenching strings which were tied around the womens throats. The piece was called "Control".this theme was echoed in many of her other works-- some titles were-- "You Never Knew What Kind of Mood He Would Be In" " I asked Too Many Questions" and "I Hide My Successes In The Dresser Drawer". This show seemed a catharsis for Page as well as a way of reaching out and offering support and reassurance to other women who have perhaps had to hide their light or were labeled hysterical or depressed because they expressed something other than docile submission.
Another piece by a different artist was an installation using found glass desert dishes overflowing with mass produced labels reading "Misconceptions". This piece like many others forces the viewr to decode what the artist is getting at. It raisess questions and pushes the viewer to answer those on their own. Again this seems to be about the "labels" put on people by society these labels often reflect more than anything societies "misconceptions" about the true natures of humans.
I will be thinking more deeply about all the choices an artist makes when designing a work, it seems every detail is significant.

One Tough Class 1/09/08

The 9th of Jan was the first day of Concept Studio, I can tell this class is going pull- push -force and wrangle my brain into spots that may feel at times scary and cramped but will eventually lead my mind to a place of continuous freedom and expansion. I accept this with all my faculties willinging actually joyfully-like the top of the roller coaster b 4 you dive!
I believe this class is really about pushing hte envelope or even creating a new one perhaps. Brain storm thoughts from class ....smart observant people find connections everywhere between all things... would it be possible to cook a gourmet meal with found food? What inspires sometimes forces artist to create?? Why do certain things last ? What makes a pattern endure? maybe its nature of holding it's true nature while constantly changing. i am one of those people who must create or make things..if i do not my brain inside becomes tangled and dark, not a comforting place for me to dwell. It seems that the creation of "art " clears my internal clutter -basically i think we all have things ideas objects inside us as ideas and we must birth these notions into the outside world ,even if they are not the perfect child they still need to live. This forceful expulsion of self on the world reminds me of the macro micro idea, again a pattern that endures. sometimes i feel i am reflecting the world, consuming ideas sometimes i don't get to choose what i consume {gotta work on that}.

Anyone ever heard of gleaning? webster's says--1to collect ( grain left by the reapers) 2 to collect ( facts etc) gradually- gleanings. There is a great film, french documentary called The Gleaners and I. This title comes from a famous painting called The Gleaners portraying woman in the forground and figures in a field behind her. These gleaners were usually poor poor and would come to the fields after the big machines and salvage what ever potatoes or food they could, there was always something left. In the documentary the filmmaker explores this notion even further. Artists who work with only found objects" one man's trash..another man's treasure." people who eat only what they find. I like the idea that a person can convert something seen as refuse into something that sustains or inspires them.