Harvest: Hidin' From the Hair cut, Amongst the Sweet Corn

Kelly Bigelow Becerra
“HARVEST: HIDIN’ FROM THE HAIR CUT, AMONGST THE SWEET CORN
Paper Construction, 2006
Archival Color prints
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Kelly Bigelow Becerra’s digital compositions get their surreal and sometimes spooky sensibility, in part from the unusual process by which they are made. Becerra scans every single object or surface she wants to use in a composition. This includes the faces of family members, their clothing, and even the grass outside her family home. This use of a scanner as a camera allows her to combine a one-to-one truthfulness with the total artifice achieved through cutting and pasting into an image.

Her final compositions often use an organizational structure much like that of an American sampler, an art form made popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Young women stitched these small-scale compositions to demonstrate their skill, but in the process they also recorded their own histories. In these series of works, Becerra “stitches together” moments of her awkward and sometimes violent childhood in rural Michigan.

Statement from: Radius: Emerging Artist Exhibition Brochure –2005
J H, Curatorial Director,The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

CWOS in progress shot...

... just dying to see my new work

This is little thing was first in line to see my new work...
I couldn't resist taking a picture of the "dehydrated mouse/rat" that was in the hall way near my room.

In a White Room, with No Curtains...

Take 1 cinder block room (unsealed), add 3 gallons of linen white paint and 1 gallon of chocolate porch & floor paint and ....

TA-DA!!

... I still have tons of work to do.

Bigger is Better

((( oh yes )))

BIGGER is truly BETTER

SCALE is really EVERYTHING

Sorry to be a fountain of truisms but I'm working on one of the biggest/most complex piece's I've ever made and it is so exciting! I've been working small in my studio for sometime now (under 20"x 20") but for this installation I decided to pull-out-all-the-stops and tackle 8'3"x 9'5".

Each time another part comes out of the printer -I'm totally awe struck by the SCALE of it. So awe struck- in fact - that I had to post something about it - and shout to the masses -

(((((( IT'S ENORMOUS ))))))

Now if I :
• can just get it done by Saturday A.M.
• and somehow not run out of ink & paper or money to buy the forementioned items...

...EVERYTHING will be just GREAT!

and by GREAT - I mean HUGE!

"I hope you know that this.. will go down on your permanent record."

This year I'm part of the Artist in Residence Program of CITY WIDE OPEN STUDIOS, New Haven.(Oct 28-29) This program allows - about a dozen artist (out of the 450 that are participating) the opportunity to create a site specific installation in the room of their choice. It also allows them access to the space for a month prior to the show.

The Alternative Space this year is the old abandoned Hamden Middle School, right on the edge of New Haven. It's an amazing space filled with old classrooms-complete with desks and black boards.. it even has an old cafeteria with a working conveyer belt.

While exploring on the second floor, looking for the perfect space, I saw a door marked "FACULTY LOUNGE" and had to go in. The inside was filled with old tables and -what I bet at one time were considered stylish and comfortable- lounge chairs. Overall, the space was too big for what I had in mind - then I noticed a door marked "ADULTS ONLY" in the back of the lounge. Of course I had to go in - and I'm so glad I did! There was MY ROOM.. 4 walls and skylights..not too big..not too small....PERFECT! The only catch: it was FILLED - wall to wall - with FILE CABINETS. .....Say hello to the "Records Room".

So "we" (THANK YOU ROLAND) instantly began to clear it out. The best thing yet, ( in a "glass half full" way of thinking) - was that at one time the carpet had gotten wet.. so the bottoms of the cabinets were rusted and stuck to it. So, when we moved them -they in turn pulled up the carpet for us.

After we rolled up the carpet - I remembered we had the camera with us -and took the above picture(s) - I so wish I had gotten a picture of my room filled with file cabinets.

Me + Photocopier + Kids = The Ultimate Recess

Here are a few images of the 20ft collage I made with the children during my workshop at the Aldrich Contemporary Museum.This piece is currently on view in the education center of the museum.

It all started by asking the kids..."If you could do anything you wanted during recess..what would you like to do?"

And as you can see, some of their answers included...

"I want to play basketball" -"I want to play football" - "I want to go swimming" - "I just want to be by the pool" - "I want to dive off a diving board" - "I want to be a pirate" - "i want to be an Indian" - "I want to be Superman."

Special thanks to Nathan Lewis and Roland Becerra for helping assemble all the pieces that last day. I could have never finished this without their expert help.

I would also like to thank Carolina Pedraza, Museum Educator: Youth & Family Programs, for her endless support and enthusiasm as I squashed kids, grass, bark and flowers onto the copier :)