Zacharytrebellas - Zachary Trebellas - Tumblr Blog

Zachary Trebellas. Ancestry. Text on 35mm photograph taken at the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens. 2016.

Thoughts I had while standing before this temple in Athens last summer.

——

This piece is part of the series I’m working on, Nippo Greco American, exploring my relationship with the three ethnic groups I in some way identify with.

From 6-9pm on May 29th I held a closing reception for Flex Gallery at the Avenue for the Arts [gallery] Space in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I displayed each participating artist’s armband along with prints, collages, textile pieces, and other additional work by the artists. Visitors were enthusiastic, fluffernutters were in abundance, and the work looked great in the space. It was a great way to end the first year of the project. Overall, I had a wonderful time working with each artist, and was very excited for the press the project received. I can’t wait to do it again next winter.

A logo I made for my workplace’s (the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum) upcoming exhibit.

One more of the Saugatuck Dunes from February 14th of this year.

Three more film photos taken in February along a neglected section of Division Ave in Wyoming, Michigan.

Film photos I took on my birthday in February at Saugatuck Dunes State Park in Saugatuck, Michigan.

An Artist Flexes His Curatorial Muscle by Opening a Gallery on His Arm

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — There is a lot to be said for implementing your vision, but when you’re talking about the art world, the supporting infrastructure to show work can be difficult and costly to …

My curatorial project, Flex Gallery, got picked up for an article on Hyperallergic. It just went live today, and I’m over the moon about it! For more information on the project, visit my other tumblr, Vis Ed.

I’m just finishing up my tenth week of the 12-week run of Flex Gallery. Several days ago, I had a photo shoot to celebrate the five artists who’ve shown work on my arm so far (photo credit: Rachel McKay). So far their work has been displayed in Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York, in airports, museums, buses, airports and many places in between. It’s been a pleasure to wear their pieces and to interview each of them and learn about their passions and processes. Three interviews are up on Vis Ed currently, and three more are coming soon. Next week I’ll be wearing the final artist, Tag W.R. Hartman-Simkins, a designer and comics artist from Galesburg, Illinois now living in New York City.

Flex Gallery, the 12-week mobile gallery wrapped around my left arm, keeps on going. Check out this interview with recent participating artist Alyssa Roach and keep reading for more interviews if you’re interested.

In response to a lack of public art opportunities during winter, on January 11th, I launched Flex Gallery, a mobile public art space located on my left arm. For the project, I sent canvas armbands to six artists, requesting they turn them into artworks. Each artist works in a wide variety of media, and I provided them with no themes or limitations other than the dimensions of the band. For the past week and a half, I have been wearing the work of Alyssa Roach, a local printmaking and textile artist and recent graduate of Grand Valley State University. I spoke with her last week to learn more about her work and her creative process.

ZJ: While you were  majoring in art at Grand Valley, how did you land on your current trajectory with the work you’re making now?

AR: I’ve always been really interested in clothing and fabric. In all of my classes, it was this constant choice of materials. Even in sculpture classes or technology and art classes, if I needed a material, and I needed a lot of it, I would use bedsheets that I had or spare clothing. The material really resonated with me for a lot of reasons, and when I got to printmaking, I would ask my professor different ways I could make prints of clothing; I was so curious about it. It started off as experimenting with doing etchings with soft ground, where I would imprint clothing into the soft ground and then etch it onto a plate. But I noticed when I did that, some of the soft ground stuck to the fabric, so one day in the studio I just thought, “Oh, I’m just going to try to print this and see what comes of it.” It was a cuff that had been pressed into a plate of soft ground and then went through the press with a piece of paper, and I loved the look of it. It was so much cleaner and simpler than etching and it seemed like it could be a lot more flexible. So from there we just started experimenting with ways we could start inking up clothes and make prints from them. It was a whole semester of just experimenting and taking notes.

ZJ: Have you been sewing and working with textiles from a young age?

AR: Yeah. I’ve been sewing since I was very young. I would always sew when I was a kid. I’d do things like stitch things into my dolls’ clothes or change their clothes. Then when I was eleven or twelve, I helped make costumes for a dance performance that I was involved in.

ZJ: So you’re currently making socially-engaged work. Were you always making that in college or did you just decide one day that that’s what you really cared about?

AR: I feel like the subject matter that I’m working with was something I was always inclined to include.

So I guess at first it wasn’t the objective, but it felt really pointless to me to make prints of clothing without that [focus on labor practices]. I mean, if you’re going to make artwork about clothing, it’s within the material, so it took a little exploring, but in the end it just needed to be there. It wasn’t my starting goal, I just sought the issue through working with the material.

ZJ: What is fascinating you lately? What are you really into right now?

AR: I’m really interested in sculpture lately, and working with that as a medium. My mind’s always drifting to different sculptural ways of working and how that looks within the subject of clothes and sweatshops.

ZJ: Do you have any ideas for that yet or is it something that you’re just interested in at this point?

AR: I feel like I have too many ideas at this point. Which is a problem because I can’t tell which one’s are good, so I think it’s time to start just working a little bit with it. Sculpture takes up a lot of room though.

ZJ: See, that’s my problem. I’ve been more and more interested in 3D, but I feel like I don’t have the lifestyle to support it.

AR: Yeah, with all the materials for printing already take up so much space in my room, makes it so messy and chaotic that I can’t imagine adding sculpture, but I’m really interested in it.

ZJ: How have you been experiencing sculpture?

AR: Mainly through researching fiber art and 3D fiber art. I’m following a fiber art account on Instagram right now, and it’s really good.

ZJ: Are there any artists in particular that you’re inspired by right now or that you were inspired by during your development?

AR: One artist that doesn’t work with fiber arts at all, but her work is very rooted in social justice is Sue Coe. She’s a printmaker, and she makes work about animal rights. And she was the first artist that I saw working with a topic so rooted in social justice that it just kind of make me realize – see, in art school people talk about that kind of artwork as separate from the rest of [fine art] or [saying that] people aren’t interested in viewing it, so then when I stumbled upon Coe, I thought, “Ok, this is someone who’s been doing this for thirty years, she’s reaching people, her work is resonating with people.” I connected a lot with her work and I still think about her and her work a lot. Her images are really powerful.

ZJ: Do you think that activist art has a special strength versus the other forms of art?

AR: Yes, I do. When you take art and a topic in social justice, I feel like it’s really powerful because it’s not just the information people are getting, it’s also engaging their imagination in another way, so I feel like it creates a super powerful experience. Right now I feel like information is really omnipresent, especially in social media. You can go onto Facebook and in your feed see so many important, relevant articles, but you can view an article, and be really shocked by a scene or really motivated to do something, but then the post right below it is a really cute cat or someone’s adorable child, so you’re simultaneously being shocked and consoled. So I think what’s really important with art and social justice in the twenty-first century is finding ways to get people to look at it and pay attention to it. Because people know about sweatshop labor. They hear about it and probably see it in their Facebook feeds, but they’re desensitized to it, and I think art has this ability to present it in a different way where it sticks with people or it hits them in a different place where they actually feel motivated to do something about it. It’s more memorable.

ZJ: It has an emotive power.

AR: Yeah, and I think that’s really important now because you can ask anyone about sweatshop labor, and they know about it, but it’s just information to them. So, I think the intersection of art and social justice has the ability to bring back the emotion when it comes to these issues.

ZJ: So you graduated recently, and you’re having a show right now at Lantern and you’ve just had one at Sparrow, so what’s next for you?

AR: I’m trying to go to grad school. I’m spending the next year making a second body of work for when I apply. And I’m working on all of my letters for the application process. So, it’s not until January, but it feels like a new project. It would be for my MFA either in printmaking or fiber arts. And I’m not sure [which]. I really feel split down the middle. ZJ: Finally, what about the act of creation do you enjoy? Can you verbalize it?

AR: With printmaking, you do all this prep work, you ink something up and roll it or use your brayer and finally you think it’s done, and then there’s this moment when you peal [the material] back, and that is my favorite moment. With the process or printmaking, there’s so much planning and cutting and carving and inking – everything is so time-intense, but then in just ten seconds you pull it away and that moment of seeing the culmination of all of your hard work is really powerful to me. Even if it’s something I’m not happy with, it’s still my favorite part. It’s like opening a present.

Alyssa Roach’s work is currently on display in a solo exhibition at Lantern Coffee Bar and Lounge through April 1. Lantern is located at 100 Commerce Ave SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Posts by Zachary Johnson are also available via instagram under the name Vis Ed.

Sometimes while trying to plan a public art project, you need to meet to discuss Potawatomi poetry with the woman who owned the playhouse you acted in as a 14-year-old at an old time radio convention in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The invitation for this weekend’s birthday party. I’ve always wanted to celebrate Presidents’ Day, so it seemed like a good idea to combine mid-February’s two holidays. This is President Hayes (1877-81), by the way.

A save the date I whipped up last night for my birthday party. 

I don’t know if people enjoy reading long posts on Tumblr, but I certainly enjoy hearing everything Chris Sutton has to say.

Flex Gallery and the work of Christopher Sutton

In response to a lack of public art opportunities during winter, on January 11th, I launched Flex Gallery, a mobile public art space located on my left arm. For the project, I sent canvas arm bands to six artists, requesting they turn them into artworks. Each artist works in a wide variety of media, and I provided them with no themes or limitations other than the dimensions of the band. Over the next four months, I will wear each artist’s work for periods of two weeks.

For the past week and a half, I have been wearing the work of Christopher Sutton, an Austin-based artist and alumnus of the Savannah College of Art and Design. I spoke with him over the phone last week to learn more about his work and his creative process.

Zachary Johnson (ZJ): We’re both graduates of art history programs who became artists as well. How did you start to make work?

CS (Chris Sutton): Ever since I was young I’ve always drawn and been creative in that way. And then when I got into comics in high school, I drew a little bit more, but I never really connected to any art teachers. I had an art class freshman year of high school, and I didn’t like the teacher, so I never took art again. So it was something that I knew I liked, but I didn’t really have a direction.

Once I started going to SCAD [the Savannah College of Art and Design], and I had people that I knew who were going to be professionals, it was something for me to do while I was hanging out with them. And then it just morphed into its own thing where now I can’t not make something. I go crazy if I’m not creating something in a day.

ZJ: Do you usually make something every day then?

CS: Yeah. I always have five plus projects in the works, so I get motivated about one thing and work on it and then get stuck and work on another piece. But then I get an idea for the first one and stop and go back to it. It’s that kind of process.

I think [SCAD] really drove me in the direction I’m in now where I like doing collages, acrylic paintings, and paper sculptures as well sometimes. It really all stemmed from being in college and not having a lot of resources, so I was just trying to make something out of whatever I had in my room. I had a lot of friends that smoked cigarettes, so I made tiny little matchbooks for them and it kind of just evolved from stuff like that. It was never my intention to make something that would go on a wall, maybe just something that someone would have on a knicknack shelf in their apartment.

ZJ: Is that still your intention or are you interested in exhibiting work at this point?

CS: Now I’m trying to focus more on showing. I feel the difficulty with that is [the question] what would people actually want to hang up? The biggest thing with me is every time I make something, it just looks like something I make, and I have an issue with that. It just makes me want to start on the next thing.

ZJ: Are you not completely satisfied with some pieces then?

CS: Yeah. I wish I could step back and look at them from not my own perspective to see what it would look like. But I also feel like that [lack of satisfaction] kind of helps me be more critical of myself.

ZJ: That’s something that Ira Glass talked about once. It’s a quote of his that circulates a lot. It’s about how when you’re starting to make things, there’s a period where you have really good taste and a really good eye, but for a while you’re continuously unsatisfied with your own work because you know what’s good, and you apply that to yourself. And he says it’s just a process to get where you like what you’re making and feel that it’s worthy.

CS: Yeah, I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what I’m able to do, and with that mindset, if I were to say what my biggest skill is, I’d say composition. So whenever I create something, composition is the first thing I’m thinking about, especially when it’s a larger piece. I think about what I’m able to do and the materials I have and then it evolves from there; I can already see where I’m going.

ZJ: Have you been playing around with materials, expanding as you’ve gone along?

CS: Yeah, totally. When I first started it was just mostly collage. And then it wasn’t until about two years ago that I decided to start painting;  I did a painting on a back of a kid’s book that I gave to my sister. And it made me less scared about trying to do a painting.

At the same time I was just really nervous about trying abstract art because I always thought that was maybe something that was too easy, and I didn’t want to necessarily do that, but those were the images that kept on coming to me. So, I think once I finally embraced that and did some abstract [work] to see what it looked like, it really opened up what I felt comfortable with.

ZJ: I do like how your work looks like it’s grown out of doodling, but then it’s gotten more and more complex.

CS: Absolutely. And that’s a composition thing. When I take photographs, they’re a lot emptier, and there’s a lot of negative space, but when I do a collage or a painting, I’m constantly trying to fill up space. When I look at an art piece, I definitely like a lot of detail. I don’t really think my work has a lot of detail per se, but I definitely think it has a lot going on [within it]. I like to try to create scenes where they’re constantly pulling the viewer’s eye all over the place.

ZJ: So you’re not going for a center point.

CS: Generally not. Recently I did a piece for my sister’s wedding. So I wanted to do a sillhouette of her and her husband and the other elements started from there. The piece ended up having four focal points, but I started with two and went from there.

Whenever I create stuff, I always have the idea that I’m sending stuff to family members, so I don’t feel as nervous about making something.

ZJ: How do you acquire the materials for your collages?

CS: I’m always looking. In college it was easier; I would literally pick up everything that was at a coffee house. Now I’m in spaces that don’t have flyers so readily available like in Savannah. I have this shop that’s connected to the public library, and when books are no longer fit to be in the Austin Public Library, they send it to this store and it’s fifty cents for a paperback, a dollar for a hardback. And because they’re mostly damaged in the first place, I don’t feel bad cutting them up. So, whenever I’m running low, I’ll just go and fill up a box and pull from there. I like materials where I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, but then I can create from it once I come up with an idea. I’ll still pick up flyers and stuff, but I’ll usually go to used bookstores for materials.

ZJ: Have you shown at this point?

CS: I’ve only gotten into one show, but I’ve only applied to one show, so it’s worked out so far. So, I have a piece hanging up at the tax office at the town text to mine.

ZJ: The tax office had an art show?

CS: Yeah, it’s kind of too bad because the hours are something like 8 to 4:30, but I think a lot of people must see it.  Definitely my plan for 2016 is to create some kind of solo show. I just need to find a space I can afford or a company I can link up with.

The other thing I’m trying to work on is having more pieces because whenever I create something it’s always with the idea that I’m already giving it to somebody or for a specific reason. I create it, and all of a sudden I don’t have it anymore. So I’m trying to work on a lot that I just have on hand for myself so I can create some kind of show.

ZJ: You mail out a lot of pieces. I’ve gotten some postcards and small pieces from you, as has my brother, but I don’t know who else has. How many pieces would you say you send out a year?

CS: Well, if we’re thinking postcards, a year would be hard to say, but I’d say at least twenty-something a month.

ZJ: Wow That’s pretty impressive that you’re creating so much.

CS: Well, whenever it’s a smaller canvas, it’s a place for me to think about ideas. Recently I did a bunch of tiny Spurs basketball paintings for some people and it helped me think of how I’m dong a certain process. For instance, I hope to try and get into oils soon, so for that I’ll get a bunch of inch by inch canvases and do a few paintings with that to kind of see how that goes, which will help me get into larger oil painting. And whenever I do postcards I’m generally thinking about a project I’m working on and it helps me think some ideas through while actually getting content on paper.

And honestly the whole idea – so much of creating art for me is I like the idea that I was alive that day and I made that and the idea of one day having thousands of postcards and just thinking about where those might be. Even if someone gets my postcard and just throws it away, it’s still out there, and I like that about it.

ZJ: Where do you see yourself moving as an artist?

CS: The biggest thing right now is that I’m much more focused on bigger projects. So much of what I would do in college would be postcard-sized collage work. I think now that I’m having more patience working with canvases and working on bigger cardboard to do collages, I think the direction I’m really headed is showing my work instead of just doing it because I feel like I have to. And don’t get me wrong, I love the way my brain works that I really want to create something everyday that I wake up.

ZJ: Is there something that you want your audience to receive from your work?

CS: The biggest thing is…if someone were to look at it, I would want them to be engaged more than just a quick glance. I like the idea that my pieces don’t just have one big thing going on, but a lot of smaller details. I try to include clues along with the general idea in those works, so that people are constantly thinking about what they’re looking at. It’s not always there [those clues, that detail], but when I do a piece that I work on for a while that’s generally what I tend to think about.

ZJ: Do you feel like you’re influenced by any other artists, either in big ways or in small ways?

CS: I’ve always been a big fan of Kandinsky. I wouldn’t say necessarily the composition or flow I would get from him, but certainly the colors. I still remember learning about him at SCAD and just being blown away by what he was able to create – and wishing I could be in a room and talk to him for a bit – that’d be incredible.

He is who I would go for in terms of fine artists, but the biggest thing I would draw my inspiration from would be film and television because that’s definitely my biggest hobby and something that I’m constantly consuming in my free time.

ZJ: So what have you drawn from that that’s been important to you?

CS: I think that’s a big place where my composition comes from. Thinking about cinematography is something that I really got into when I was attempting film school at SCAD before I switched to art history.

I think that comes off the most in photographs I take. Also…I’ve been doing a lot of colorful abstracts and in a lot of ways I view them as concept art for a movie. Cause you had mentioned about a lot of my stuff stemming from doodles, and it really does. So I approach my work in different stages. If I really like something that comes to my mind I might draw it on a pad of paper with a pen, then I might try a watercolor with it and then if I really like it, I might pull elements from that or just expand it onto a canvas. So in my mind, I think of it as different media and stages in how complete it is, so it’s kind of related to film in that way.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A 1950′s map of Kyushu I scanned in today and reworked. 

35mm photos taken in Detroit and Holland, MI in November and December.

Follow along on instagram if you like!

Christopher C. W. Sutton. Untitled. Mixed media, acrylic on canvas armband. Flex Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI. 2016.

For the next twelve weeks I am displaying works by six artists on my left arm in a project titled Flex Gallery. Currently I’m on my third day of wearing this arm band, created by SCAD alumnus Chris Sutton (@christophersutton​). I’ve sent out five more blank canvas bands to local and national artists specializing in collage, comics, fibers, ceramics, painting, and printmaking. I expect each band will look radically different from the last, and I can’t wait to see what everyone creates. I will be featuring interviews and additional work by each artist during their two-week run, so stay tuned.

Zachary Trebellas. Foreign Resident Ethnicity Form/ 居留外国人の民族性用紙。Ink, marker, inkjet print. 2015. This is the updated version of a draft I created earlier this year. You can find the earlier version here. The title of the form reads Foreign Resident Ethnicity.  In the lower portion I used the Japanese test marking symbols: X = no, O = yes, and △ is somewhere in between (typically a ½ point). The left side heading reads “Please enter your appropriate ethnicity” and the right “Please enter the appropriate ethnicity of the applicant.” So, the left side is my answers, and the right is what I feel could be an average Japanese person’s answers about me. 1. Foreigner (at times derogative, lit. outside person) 2. Other 3. Foreigner (neutral, lit. outside nation person) 4. Japanese 5. Of Japanese descent (lit. Japanese-type) 6. American

The twentieth piece in my photo series on group identity. I took this one of my friend Shareen on the Asian side of Istanbul in August.

More info on this series at the project site.

The nineteenth piece in my photo series on group identity. I took this one of my coworker/friend LG in an alleyway in Grand Haven, Michigan.

More info on this series at the project site.

Zachary Trebellas. Pen/Pen Keisu. Scanogram. 2015. This is one piece of several I’m working on that focus on the Japanese habits that have replaced my American ones. In this case replacing the habit of throwing a pen and pencil into my pocket or bag with owning a pencil case full of various materials. A friend of mine pointed out once that Japanese students, with their school uniforms and strict rules against makeup, piercings, and certain hair styles, express themselves in school with their pencil cases. I definitely found that to be true. —— This piece is part of the series I’m working on, Nippo Greco American, exploring my relationship with the three ethnic groups I in some way identify with.

A late draft of a flyer I’m making for my work. I really enjoying having a working scanner again.

Zachary Trebellas. I say “In Japan” too much, don’t I” (study). Colored pencil, sandwich bag, paper, magazine page, digital text. 2015. ザッカリ・トレベラス。In Japan と言いすぎちゃいますね（習作）。色鉛筆、プラスチック袋、紙、雑誌のページ、デジタルテキスト。２０１５年。

Hey, check out my new art ed project if you get the chance! 

With (extra)ordinary Jihyun Hong invites us to see everyday objects not by their familiar functions, as sponges, spoons, pineapples, etc. but as the interesting visual objects that they really are. A pineapple is a piece of food, sure, but also a bright, spiky, sweet-smelling ball of armor. For her installation, she collects objects, spending time with them until she gains an affection for them, finding ways to present them in odd, new ways. In her work at the UICA, she’s placed these objects within a colorful space covered in silver plastic. I asked her where we are when in the space, “A cartoon? A dream? Your mind?” She replied, laughing playfully, “my mind”. All images courtesy of the artist. More images, info, and a great video profile on Jihyun can be found via her Art Prize profile here.

I just started a new art ed project that I’m really excited about. It delves into artists and their works through short posts on instagram and tumblr. You can find it at @viseducation here and on instagram.