2017 Artist-In-Residence

very excited & grateful to announce that I have been selected to be the new artist-in-residence at Charles Adams Studio Project's Live/Work Studio #4 (January 2017 thru December 2017)!

this was a highly competitive application, & is the perfect next step for me as I graduate with my 2nd Masters degree this December 2016, with my MFA in Photography & Letterpress, from Texas Tech University (graduated with my MAE in 2013).

I have so much planned, for my artwork & artist future, plus lots of collaborations & community involvement. cannot wait to show you, throughout 2017!

lots of love, & more soon.

xoxo!

Live/Work Studios at CASP are located on the block adjacent to the Charles Adams Gallery at 1010 Mac Davis Lane. These unique studios designed by architect Upe Flueckiger  provide a personal residence, 1,100 square foot studio space, cover…

Live/Work Studios at CASP are located on the block adjacent to the Charles Adams Gallery at 1010 Mac Davis Lane. These unique studios designed by architect Upe Flueckiger  provide a personal residence, 1,100 square foot studio space, covered parking, and yard/courtyard area.  Live/Work Studios give artists the opportunity to create, share, and exhibit work through monthly First Friday Art Trail events, open studio hours, and other community engagement opportunities.

❤️

Source: http://casp-arts.org/livework-studios/

Review of MFA Thesis Exhibition (The Bowerbird)

very grateful to Hannah Dean for writing this review in The Bowerbird!

PRESS(v.) at 5&J

November 10, 2016

Hannah Dean

*PRESS(v.) is on view at 5&J by appointment only, until November 25th. Contact CASP at http://casp-arts.org.

PRESS(v.), the MFA thesis exhibition for Victoria Marie Bee, was a step above. Her large scans of various liquids, fabrics, flowers, and fruits are modern-day, sexy vanitas. At first glance they are beautiful, reveling in the senses, full of striking colors, lux textures, juicy bits of realism abstracted by glitter and milk. 

Victoria Marie Bee, & the buzzards came & undressed her., pigment print, 2016

As seen in “ & the buzzards came & undressed her,” they are carefully crafted, giving the viewer pure pleasure in their design. (I met with Bee the day following the opening, to ask about her process. She takes her time - often weeks - in preparing her petri-dish compositions, stacking fruit, underwear, orange soda, etc. into cheap glass photo frames. Then, she scans them throughout different stages of their decomposition.) Upon closer inspection (and reflection), they project a different purpose other than indulgence. As PRESS(v.) implies, the work speaks of not only the pressure used to make the images, but the emotional and physical pressures of a romantic and sexual relationship. The various tropes employed, the split oranges and cherries, champagne, and milk take on obvious meanings and stand-ins for the body, sexual devices. In “le petite mort,” I giggled and felt as though I was in on the effervescent joke. “Little death,” meaning orgasm.

Victoria Marie Bee, le petite mort, pigment print, 2016

Beyond the innuendo, there are more sinister tones to the work. The fluids that these fruit, lace, and beads float in are not preservatives, causing the “still-life” to go to ruin, the milk to curdle, the panties to mold. In the moments after the bubbles release in petit mort, they will fade, going flat. These tropes are not new, devices used to illustrate the brevity of life.  Still, the potential for spoilage is short of a complete read for this body of work. It’s not that it doesn’t rend the viewer into the unglamorous, even savaged moments of love and/or sex, it’s just that the work is so dang gorgeous. Unlike the vanitas tradition, these don’t leave me thinking of spiritual ideals, coming away moralized by the images. Instead, I revel in the gratification of the work, the sensual pressing of objects into glass, as if to give testament to the good times.  Feeling elevated, rather than humbled by or dismissive of beauty is a rare treat, and Bee delivers. 

*The author's opinions are her own. Photos courtesy of the artist.

Source: http://www.thebowerbirdlbk.com/single-post...

[sketchbook snapshots] the pill bottle.

In the photo her back is turned and the light is that late afternoon light that at least in the photo, and through the white linen curtains, past her, seems self-conscious, shy or otherwise mild, a kind of light that does not want to be there but has accepted itself as having to be there, a sad portion of the capitalized Light, a castoff bit of light, the aunt without children, the friend who remains unmarried or otherwise without partner, the part of light that enters into any situation awkwardly and wants nothing more than to be gone but cannot be; light that would not be termed bright but has not yet gone gray nor been afforded some bit of color from the impending sunset, flat light, forgotten light, a dying species of light, and her back is turned in the photo, and she is standing off-center in the jamb of the doorway to their bedroom, and she has her hands in front of her, near to her chest, in the manner one would when reading a book or saying a prayer or struggling with the clasp on a necklace, some task that requires a bowed head and at least a bit of focus and it is October, in the photo, late afternoon, and they have come upstairs so she can get a sweater, a striped sweater, a horizontally-striped grey and orange sweater, a cardigan, the collar of which sits low on her back, pulling down her shirt collar with it and showing fully the pale skin of the nape of her neck, those two inches between the collar and her short blonde hair and because she is wearing the sweater, has it on in the photo and is standing with her back turned to him, she knows that they have lingered longer in the bedroom than the time it would take to just grab the sweater and go, but she has no idea now where they went that day, only that it seemed a necessary thing to get the sweater and put it on before they went, and that in that span of time something else caught her eye or otherwise overrode the idea of leaving, something that involved her hands and a bowed head, but she has no idea now what that thing was.

written by collaboration partner-in-crime, Charles McLeod

& published at Cheap Pop

Source: http://www.cheappoplit.com/home/2013/11/25...