About the Female Flaneur
During Graduate school, I discovered Baudelaire's notion of the flaneur via Walter Benjamin, and became enchanted with the notion of this urban wanderer whom, while meandering, examines the pyschogeography or impact of the environment on the emotions and behaviors of an individual as they walk through the city .
The Female Flaneur Exploration was for me about challenging notions of femaleness and the role of the female in public spaces by intentional making myself vulnerable and approachable through the public act of painting in St. Louis. Enroute I discovered issues of permission, safety, and interaction- When did I have to get permission to paint? What was my level of danger of being kicked out? In what public spaces did I feel safe to paint? When was I able to walk and when did I feel forced to drive? How did people interact with me?. See the paintings.
The Female Flaneur Exploration was for me about challenging notions of femaleness and the role of the female in public spaces by intentional making myself vulnerable and approachable through the public act of painting in St. Louis. Enroute I discovered issues of permission, safety, and interaction- When did I have to get permission to paint? What was my level of danger of being kicked out? In what public spaces did I feel safe to paint? When was I able to walk and when did I feel forced to drive? How did people interact with me?. See the paintings.
Female Flaneur Exploration
Mildred Lane Kemper Museum
2007
Working on Site Process thoughts
Cherokee Street Parking Day, 2006
I'm often drawn to work onsite when painting. Painting in public, I've found, exists in an interesting space between participant and spectator. When I paint on site, although I am privately engaged in the reflective act of creating an artwork, suddenly I become more approachable to other people. I engage in conversations that I might not have otherwise. When I am traveling in other countries painting has served as a method of communication when I lack the language. I tend to believe that the sounds, smells, and sites I experience, are imbued in the painting as much as the mark makings of my recorded observations. At times I play around with including ephemera from the places into the paintings.
I started painting onsite as a way to record places I found as I walked around the woods near Columbia, Missouri. This early approach was monastic, reflective, and romantic in the traditional sense of painting. While traveling through Europe backpacking, I realized that what I really enjoyed was the interactions that happened while I was painting. This ultimately led me towards the animated documentary format I use in my animations.
I started painting onsite as a way to record places I found as I walked around the woods near Columbia, Missouri. This early approach was monastic, reflective, and romantic in the traditional sense of painting. While traveling through Europe backpacking, I realized that what I really enjoyed was the interactions that happened while I was painting. This ultimately led me towards the animated documentary format I use in my animations.