kissy lips again, this time about an art residency i did at the ace hotel in 2015
in my last blog post i talked about the kissy lips mac osx icon and how reactions of my use of it shaped the direction i took a lot of my art going forward - essentially, if i choose to express myself in a way and people tell me it's not professional simply because of misogyny, i'm going to double down. it was in september of 2014 when ben sisto, artist and expert on the song who let the dogs out, reached out to me about an art residency program he was running at the ace hotel, 24 x 36 - where 36 artists spent a night at the ace hotel in nyc over the course of 24 days.
i documented the chaotic (my fault) experience on my old tumblr, which i fortunately have the archive of so we can relive the experience together. my night was january 5, 2015.
for this residency i wanted to take something i've been doing but with a twist: this would be the first time that i made analog pixel art by taking a digital artwork and bringing it to paper. much to the chagrin of my wrists, i originally got into using colored pencils. i've since moved to the less physically strenuous and more versatile watercolor. i started my drawing in make8bitart of course.
this was 2015 so of course i was using snapchat to document the evening for my inner circle.
then everything took a dark, gritty turn. i had leaned the drawing against the wall at the back of the desk and it slipped and fell behind a small crack between the desk and the wall.
and - get this - the desk was bolted to the ground and had a full back panel that my drawing was resting, unreachable, against. i tried to fashion a device to use tape to catch and drag it up.
in case you're wondering if that worked:
i never asked ben if they finally got the art out from behind the desk, the last i heard they got the ruler. despite the drama that i and a bolted-down desk created, i really enjoyed this experience and am grateful that ben gave me the opportunity. i really admired his work in bringing culture into a space like the ace hotel in collaboration with artists like me that didn't have much of a name. sorry i was a pain in the ass, ben, and thanks for the photo booth, ace.
it's pretty cool how one free night at a hotel helped me focus on what kind of art i wanted to make, what media i wanted use, and the threshold for storytelling i wanted to add to the process as it's often as much a part of the art as the pigment and paper are - if not more. by the way, who knew that 6 years later to the day i checked out of the ace residency an insurrection would happen at the white house that would ultimately lead my variety twitch stream, hoobastank2, to come to its conclusion. if you know half of those words, congratulations but please drink some water.
xoxo jenn
p.s. in case you missed it, i have a new mailing list and also you can follow me regularly on mastodon. i figured it was a good time to remind you's.
