Sean Capone, Nola Zirin, Alexi Worth and The Ripple Project

Today began the home stretch of our stay in DUMBO. It was packed and informative as usual. Our day started with a visit from video artist Sean Capone to our loft. Sean set up his computer and projector, showing us some of his earlier work to the video he has created most recently that was on display at the Museum of Modern Art. Sean's videos deal mainly with the idea of ornamentation and the film itself being a decorative surface rather than a documentation of an even of performance. The films show a strong floral motif and are constantly evolving and suggest the cyclic nature of life.


We then visited the studio of Nola Zirin. Tim said that if he had seen Nola's work before meeting her he would have been even more blown away. I could not agree more. Some how Nola's laid back, welcoming attitude did not seem to match the abstract, expressive paintings she creates. Nonetheless, it was awesome to see her work space and listen to how she used the simplest of objects in innovative ways to create various effects in her work. Nola stated that her work was highly experimental and shared how she often has to motivate herself to not be afraid to make a single mark. Meeting Nola was eye opening and inspires me to experiment outside the mostly representational style I currently paint in.
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Next up was a visit to Alexi Worth's studio. Alexi spoke at length of how he was flirting with the relationship between photography and painting in his work. However, I was most intrigued by his paintings done on Nylon Netting. Because Alexi painted on netting, a semi-transparent material, the viewer is able to see through the netting to the wooden stretchers of the painting and the wall behind it. The subject of the painting is solid however, which raises several questions about the idea of reality as it relates to painting and the subject of materialism. Alexi's studio was also filled with sketches that seemed to be spilling out of various stacks and niches. This allowed me to see further how sketching is infinitely important to an artist.

Our day ended with a few question from Dylan Angell, a member of The Ripple Project. Our crew had the opportunity to see how the Ripple Project operates and watch some preliminary footage. For more information on the Ripple Project visit their website: http://www.therippleproject.com/ .