“You cannot say to a painter, why do you use always red and green and yellow?
I use the material that has the spirit inside…
For me, lead has spirit.”
Anselm Kiefer, the Art Newspaper podcast
Recent work in progress. Excavation. Deterioration. Construction; deconstruction; reconstruction. Ruin and decay. Layers upon layers. Textures upon textures. Chasing the spirit inside.
A million thank-yous to iconic art historian and critic Betty Ann Brown, for her essay in Art & Cake LA about Beyond/Within. A few highlights:
“The adamant physicality inherent in Ray’s use of materials recalls the work of Antoni Tapies (1923-2012), the Spanish master who worked with everything from socks to shirts, barbed wire to honey. Like Ray, Tapies developed his own language of marks (bars, Xs, crosses, etc.) and arrayed them across canvases that resemble ancient artifacts. American artist Cy Twombly (1928-2011) and Italian master Alberto Burri (1915-1995) similarly explored mark making–scribbles, graffiti, and calligraphy–as the essence of their paintings. Tapies, Burri and Twombly stand as potent predecessors for Ray.”
and…
“Perhaps this exhibition gives us insight into an alternative existence when birds read runes. Perhaps they worship in the Rothko-like stillness framed by the black voids of Ray’s paintings. The relationship between the birds and texts remains mysterious. You will have to go to the chapel-like installation at Launch Gallery to decide for yourself.”
Read the full essay here. Truly a tour de force.
It was my recent pleasure to spend an afternoon filming with LA art documentarian extraordinaire Eric Minh Swenson. He came by my studio to discuss my newest body of work, “Post-Apocalyptic Petroglyphs.”
Here’s what happened:
I’m so proud of Beyond/Within, currently on view at LAUNCH LA (Sept. 7 to 28). Curated by Andi Campognone, it features work from my new “Post-Apocalyptic Petroglyphs” series and the textile sculptures of Samuelle Richardson.
And yay! We are an LA Weekly Art Pick! I love Falling James’ descriptions of my “evocative and haunting collision of black and white paint burying hints of letters, words and other vestiges of communication under a seemingly random splatter of entropic plaster” and Samuelle’s “rough-hewn cloth sculptures of disembodied heads and squawking birds spliced up with scar-like stitches.”
(L to R) Christine Ferrouge, Andi Campognone, Joy Ray, John Richardson, Samuelle Richardson, James Panozzo, Cudra Clover
Seen here: Betty Ann Brown, Jhn Richardson, Catherine Ruane and others
James Panozzo and Andy Moses
Haleh Mashian and Andi Campognone
Samuelle Richardson and John Richardson
Alex Coewenberg and Michael Campognone
Kelly Berg and Haleh Mashian
Joy Ray and Betty Ann Brown
Samuelle Richardson
Alex Coewenberg, Jason Harsin and Mike O’Connor
David McBride and Joy Ray
Alex Coewenberg and David McBride
Art Documents LA and Christine Ferrouge
Seen here: Christine Ferrouge, Art Documents LA, John Richardson, James Panozzo, Andy Moses, Kelly Berg, Kim Vodden, Josh Vodden
Seen here: Andy Moses, Kelly Berg, Shana Mubari
John Richardson
Samuelle Richardson, Andi Campognone and Joy Ray
Seen here: John Richardson, Samuelle Richardson, Betty Ann Brown, Kristine Schomaker, Elisa Rochford
Seen here: Catherine Ruane, Betty Ann Brown, Kiersten Ware
Kathy Rivkin Daum, Nick Daum, Chris Mellow, Cynthia Mellow
Seen here: Catherine Ruane, Betty Ann Brown
Joy Ray and Christine Ferrouge
Jason Harsin, Frank Sacramento, Joanna Sacramento, Joy Ray
Robert Soffian and Joy Ray
Catherine Ruane, Kristine Schomaker and friends
Betzi Stein, Samuelle Richardson and Bibi Davidson
John and Samuelle Richardson
Jason Harsin, Ben Yashon, Catherine Ruane and Samuelle Richardson
Joy Ray and Kim Vodden
Marthe Aponte and Terry Cervantes
Many thanks to Andi Campognone, Kristine Schomaker, John Richardson, Monica Wyatt and Genie Davis for the photos.
Not to worry. There are plenty of times to see the show:
LAUNCH LA is open Thursday - Saturday from 1-5pm
Samuelle and I will be at the gallery every Saturday from 1-4pm, probably with treats of some kind
There is an artist talk on the closing day, September 28, from 4-6pm, moderated by curator Andi Campognone
We are happy to schedule private tours at your convenience. Let us know what time and date you would like!
I’m so thankful to the LA Weekly, especially Falling James and Shana Nys Dambrot, for their support of my show with Samuelle Richardson at LAUNCH LA.
“The Hawaiian artist plants enigmatic clues in her mixed-media artifacts, coiling flowery, sinuous strands of twine against
an abstract but evocative and haunting collision of black and white paint and burying hints of letters, words
and other attempts and vestiges of communication under a seemingly random splatter of entropic plaster.”
Indeed.
Thank you to Genie Davis for her thoughtful take on my newest body of work:
“The power of the unseen is what viewers may feel in Ray’s current work. There is something both alchemic and tribal in her approach and in the finished works. There appear to be layers within layers, not just texturally, but with elliptical meaning seething just out of reach, ready to emerge in the fullness of time.”
- Genie Davis, Diversions LA “Joy Ray: There’s a Darkness on the Edge of Light”
This article is sooo up my alley: The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool.
it talks about different ways that knitting can be used to hide secret messages:
Simulating morse code using “combinations of just two stitches: a knit stitch, which is smooth and looks like a “v”, and a purl stitch, which looks like a horizontal line or a little bump.”
Tying knotted codes into yarn and then knitting the yarn to camoflage it - “When the German authorities carefully unraveled such a sweater, the story went, they found the wool thread dotted with many knots. By marking a vertical door frame with the letters of the alphabet, spaced an inch apart, the knots could be deciphered as words by measuring the yarn along this alphabet and marking which letters the knots touched.”
Using the knots as morse code: “An ordinary loop knot can make the equivalent of a dot and a knot in the figure-eight manner will give you the equivalent of a dash.”
Using yarn to hide secret objects/messages - “She hid scraps of paper with sensitive information in balls of yarn, which she tossed over a cliff to hidden soldiers right below, under the noses of the enemy.”
I’ve been exploring the idea of knots as personal / secret codes for awhile… here are a couple of examples:
A friend just shared this video with me, about one of my favorite fiber artists (yep I said it!), Anselm Kiefer. I love the way Kiefer hacks at his straw paintings with a machete. He says,
“It’s always important to have some edge between order and chaos. If you do too much order, it’s finished, it’s not good. If it’s too much chaos you cannot work anymore, it’s too much ideas and things.
You have to find a way between order and disorder.”
And also:
“I was always interested not to use color as illusion but as a material that means something to me.”
The scale, the rawness, the visceral quality of his work is so inspiring to me.
PS - Bonus quote:
"What interests me is the transformation, not the monument. I don't construct ruins, but I feel
ruins are moments when things show themselves. A ruin is not a catastrophe. It is the moment when things can start again.“
The feeling when someone is able to beautifully articulate your intentions. The feeling of being seen. I’m so grateful to Shayla M. Alarie (aka @artsy_historian) for these incredible and generous words.
Delightful rabbit hole #23,582, courtesy of Hyperallergic: the oracle bone!
In ancient China people would carve questions on animal bones, then heat them up until they cracked, and interpret the cracks. This is a form of pyromancy, which (via Wikipedia) also includes:
Alomancy, divination by salt, one type of which involves casting salt into a fire
Botanomancy, divination by burning plants
Capnomancy, divination by smoke; light, thin smoke that rose straight up was a good omen; otherwise, a bad one.
Causinomancy, divination by burning (non-specific as to the object burned)
Daphnomancy (also, Empyromancy), divination by burning laurel leaves
Osteomancy, divination using bones, one type of which involves heating to produce cracks
Plastromancy, divination using turtle plastrons; in China, this was done by heating pits carved into them.
Scapulimancy, divination by scapulae; in Asia and North America, this was done pyromantically.
Sideromancy, divination by burning straw with an iron.
Love!
If you haven’t been to the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, CA, you should go.
And right now is a perfect time to go, because the current show (Woven Stories) is incredible, curated with creativity, wit and brilliance by Andi Campognone.
And I’m in it! Or rather, my largest and most ambitious piece to date—DREAM INVENTORY—is:
DREAM INVENTORY is inspired by my fascination with the mysterious forces that hover on the boundaries of the rational world—dreams and premonitions, the afterlife and the subconscious, memories and desires. Suspended on nearly-invisible threads, forty-six hand-sewn pieces sway in reaction to the viewer. Narrative fragments, symbols and gestures repeat, connect and respond—an ongoing transmission in search of revelation.
Dream Inventory, installation in progress, May 2019
Dream Inventory, installation in progress, May 2019
I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share some of my favorite FRAGMENTS. These bits and pieces incorporate secrets, hopes, fears, highly personal bits of mental detritus, ‘automatic embroidery’ and experimentation and exploration of different materials and techniques. They are purposefully imperfect, defiantly human.
Some of my Fragments, pre-installation
Some more Fragments…
Each fragment is individually suspended on invisible thread, and the pieces moves / breathes in reaction to your body as you move near it. There is something magical and otherworldly about the experience.
Other incredible artists in the show:
Samuelle Richardson (who I’m doing a 2-person show with at Launch LA in September)
Lisa Solomon (one of my earliest art crushes)
Annie Seaton, Diane Williams and Ray Beldner (who I know through Startup Art Fair)
Mike Collins (who I know through Shockboxx)
Nike Schroeder and Maria E. Pineres (whose work I know through Walter Maciel Gallery)
And many, many others…
Up through July 21.
“Trust yourself, for god’s sake, for 2 minutes. Is that so hard?
In the west, we don’t trust it anymore. You trust it in who you love and how you dress and the things you buy, because it gives you pleasure. But you get to art and you think I should understand this and be smart… The voices in my head are never mean. If they’re mean, that’s your regular best friend who lives in your head who hates you. That best friend that thinks you’re a piece of crap, she or he is not allowed in your studio. I promise you, the second you come out, they’ll be there. Right? You’re a fake. You’re no good. But in the studio, develop an audience of your friends, your peers, living in debt, and let them tell you what to do. And they will.”
Listen to the whole darn thing. It’s so fucking good.
And then, and then, and then.
“If the art’s good, I think it’s got a strength where it reaches out and embraces you. And if you have an open mind and you’re willing to embrace it…
- James Hayward
The way he talks about art feels like medicine. So fucking great.
As heard in this very charming video (skip to 4:15 or just watch the whole darn thing):
“The one thing I always go back to whenever I start writing something is:
And if it doesn’t work (with audiences), then it’s out of my control. That’s not something i can negotiate or manipulate.”
- Sam Esmail, creator of Mr. Robot (from his recent Without Fail podcast interview)
Fragments, and fragments of Fragments (2019). I am a fan of taking photos of my art on fucked up cement
Loving this story about Martha Graham that was floating around Twitter yesterday, apparently courtesy of MIranda July.
Just going to park this here.
Post-script; dying.
Oh and here’s the one he “hearted”:
As quoted in Forms of Enchantment: Writing on Art and Artists by Marina Warner, a current obsession.
I’ve been wanting to write about this book for awhile now. But by “write about it” I mean totally fangirl out and basically quote the whole fantastic, beautiful, inspiring, beyond-beyond-beyond book.
…so for now I’ll just give a shout out to the essay, “Felicity Powell: Marks of Shame, Signs of Grace,” in which Marina Warner mentions an exhibition, curated by Powell, that featured “lucky charms, amulets and folk remedies found mostly in London by Edward Lovett, a civil servant, in the early part of the 20th century.” This led me down an incredible rabbit hole. Behold, souvenirs:
More to come, or not!
“The word “graffiti” first entered the English language to describe ancient texts and images on the walls of houses at Pompeii. Prior to the 19th century, Italian words like sgraffito or sgraffiato were used to describe decorative techniques — in architecture as well as on pottery — where scratching through a whitewash revealed a different color beneath.”
and this:
“Writing on walls, whether public or private, interior or exterior, was widely accepted in Europe (not to mention throughout the world) through the early modern period and even later…
From The Clandestine Cultural Knowledge of Ancient Graffiti by Michael Press in Hyperallergic
I can’t get enough of this. The whole article is amazing.
Artifact (never), 20” x 18”, 2019. I’m obsessed with the idea of private messages in public spaces. The visible clandestine.
My first art crush was Andy Warhol.
My friend Matt introduced me to David Bowie in high school. (Thanks Matt!)
I made my way through Ziggy and Heroes and so on, and eventually found my way to Changes, where I found a curious song about Andy Warhol.
Who was this strange fellow that had so captivated Bowie? I did what we did back then and went to the library to find out.
It was there I discovered Andy and Edie and Lou and Nico and the Velvets and Paul Morrisey and the Factory and so on. I fell in love with everything Andy. I bought records. I subscribed to Interview. I dressed as Edie for Halloween. I moved to New York.
And I read The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again, which I just started re-reading.
This book is a mainline shot of sweet nostalgia for me. Time stops. I’m in my teenage bedroom, learning about a world 3000 miles away from my small town. It’s funny and crass and boring and intriguing and charmingly old-fashioned. It’s patently true and blatantly false. It’s everything. That is all.
I posted these to IG while at the salon getting a pedicure. I think A.W. would have approved.
“I tend not to write with overarching whys…I don’t have any special messages in mind. Writing, to me, is less akin to actions as willful as inventing and deciding than it is to discovery, a slow revelation in which I am more like a conduit. I sometimes think I’m a witness, rather than a person who makes. I don’t write to provide answers, I say. I quote Cortázar, whom I love:
- R. O. Kwan, from “On Being a Woman in America,” in the Paris Review
Talisman (dream siege), 2018. A conduit….to what, or whom? Does knowing the answers close the door? Should I remain on the side of the questions?
