Tracy Koronik

Lust

2010-09-10T12:25:00.000-04:00

I'm totally lusting after these shoes from Sam Edelman. See them at Zappos.

your Fire Island against my Sonoma

2010-08-10T16:21:00.000-04:00

I like this. It kind of reminds me of myself a little bit.

Topography

Sharon Olds

After we flew across the country we

got in bed, laid our bodies

delicately together, like maps laid

face to face, East to West, my

San Francisco against your New York, your

Fire Island against my Sonoma, my

New Orleans deep in your Texas, your Idaho

bright on my Great Lakes, my Kansas

burning against your Kansas your Kansas

burning against my Kansas, your Eastern

Standard Time pressing into my

Pacific Time, my Mountain Time

beating against your Central Time, your

sun rising swiftly from the right my

sun rising swiftly from the left your

moon rising slowly from the left my

moon rising slowly from the right until

all four bodies of the sky

burn above us, sealing us together,

all our cities twin cities,

all our states united, one

nation, indivisble, with liberty and justice for all.

27 of 154

2010-08-07T14:31:00.000-04:00

After a trip to the library yesterday I came home with Shakespeare's Sonnets. I've never really read any of them, and I'm curious to see what all the hype is about. They're supposedly these great passionate writings. I really just wanted to see and know for myself. After a brief look through last night, I read one that holds truth in it and wanted to post it here.

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,

The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,

But then begins a journey in my head

To work my mind when body's work's expired;

For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,

Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,

And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,

Looking on darkness which the blind do see;

Save that my soul's imaginary sight

Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

Which like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.

Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,

For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.

I kind of really love this

2010-08-06T14:43:00.000-04:00

So Kanye West was at the 2010 Singapore Singfest earlier this week wearing what may be the brightest suit I've ever seen. I saw a photo over at Go Fug Yourself and wanted to post it here because like the title says, I kind of really love this. It's so bright and just awesome to me.

I do zombies too: Part 2

2010-08-05T18:47:00.000-04:00

Back in June I posted images of my costume that I had wrecked for my dance recital. Over the last week in July I was in Ocean City with the rest of the team for the StarPower Nationals competition. We took a few dances including Ramalama, in which we're all dead/zombie ballerinas. So thanks to Universal Event Photography I was able to purchase a few photos of myself from the day, and I'm posting them up here to show the completed costume in action.

Eastern State Penitentiary

2010-08-05T18:26:00.001-04:00

Recently I went to Philly for the day with Errol, more specifically we went to Eastern State Penitentiary. It was pretty awesome I have to say. Being able to walk around and explore a prison that's in a constant state of partial ruin is cool. Now only certain cell blocks are open and a lot of it does look the same, but that didn't deter either of us from taking photos and finding shots.

Here are a few of my shots from the day. I took a few Polaroids also, those will be up as soon as I scan them in.

I brought my friend along with me.

Al Capone's cell

Photo Exploring!

2010-07-08T18:18:00.001-04:00

So on July 1st I had the opportunity to walk through and explore an empty apartment building that's scheduled to be demolished. Now how was this possible without sneaking in? All thanks to a friend of mine that works as a security guard and happened to be working the building that day. I went with Ashley and we did what I like to call the exploration of an apartment building scheduled for demolition documented through photos.

I had to settle with my digital since I didn't have any film for my Polaroid, though I think I managed to get some good shots. After looking through everything that I took, I've pulled a selection of photos that I enjoy and I think work well together.

I do zombies too.

2010-06-03T17:44:00.002-04:00

Ok, so it's June. And with June comes the end of year performance put on by my dance studio. I'm in a few numbers this year, but I think the costumes for one dance in particular are going to be extra awesome. The dance is a lyrical/modern number to the song Ramalama (Bang Bang) by Róisín Murphy, and the concept is that we're ballerinas that have risen from the dead. Everyone in my class was given a costume with a tutu from a previous recital and told to have at it.

I received:

1 sort of sky blue costume with velvet bodice, a few embellishments, and a long flowing skirt, slightly Cinderella-esque

1 white tutu

My materials:

1 pair of scissors

1 razor knife
a few pairs of rubber gloves

4 colors of spray paint - red, black, silver, and copper

1 color of screenprinting ink - dark charcoal grey

1 half full bottle of fake blood

2 other costume elements - elbow length white gloves and flesh toned stockings

Assistants:

My mom

My friend Ashley

I spray painted the tutu with the four colors to make it look dirty, old, and a bit bloody. I then tore the bottom edges for some deconstruction and wear, and also cut some slashes and pieces with my razor knife.

I had my mom help me achieve the shape I wanted for the dress by first jaggedly cutting the skirt shorter all the way around. Next we cut straight up the center of the skirt in order to open the front to show some tutu, and also get a bit of a drape. I didn't want the skirt completely even, and I liked the drape effect, so we tacked up different areas of the skirt to give it a careless yet cohesive look. The shape was right, but it was still too clean and nice.

Time for the fun part. Ashley and I took the dress, gloves, and tutu outside to a grassy area to get some nice dirt and grass stains on both the gloves and dress. Next came the fake blood. We generously poured and splashed fake blood down from the top of the dress to get a good look going. The dress was laid down on the grass and we splashed and splattered the blood over the front and back. While that dried some we went to work bloodying the gloves and splattering a bit on the tutu. Last came the grey screenprinting ink. We both pressed our palms into the ink and proceeded to randomly grab the dress to leave marks. We had been discussing putting tire tracks across the dress, but decided it wasn't necessary after the work we did.

Last was to cut the gloves a little bit - just a few cut off fingertips, fingers, and a couple of poorly sewn up holes - and to get a little fake blood on the stockings. Luckily the stockings are basically a perfect match for my actual skin color, so I'll just look like I have blood on my legs while up on stage.

And finally, some photos! I don't have any photos with the tutu under the skirt giving it shape yet, so just imagine for now!

Front view.

Detail.

Back view.

Detail.

Gloves.

Underside of glove.

Tutu.

Detail.

Waistband detail.

Bloody stockings.

Stockings detail.

Polaroid Adventures!

2010-05-29T14:39:00.003-04:00

It's almost the end of May, and I haven't been up to as much art wise as I'd like to be. However, I did take a Polaroid Adventure about two weeks ago with some expired 669 film that had been in my refrigerator for about two years. I'm definitely interested in taking some more Polaroids, it's just about finding the film. Of course ebay has pretty much everything anyone could ever possibly want, but there is a site called the Impossible Project that has recently expired instant films for Polaroid cameras, and I believe they also manufacture some of the films. Definitely a site to check out.

Finished Book

2010-03-30T12:52:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos of the finished book, which was very well received by the recipient!

Book cover

Cover detail

Front Cover

View of pages

End paper

End paper detail

Back of book

Front of book

Made for this guy

It's been a while!

2010-03-10T00:46:00.002-05:00

I'm making a book!!! :)

Artist Statement, what?

2010-01-23T20:36:00.001-05:00

Yes, artist statement. I've been putting it off and not sure of how to start or what to write, but I think I finally did it.

My art is very much design based. Whether that is unintentional or intentional, designs and patterns are always prevalent in the majority of my work. It acts as a starting point for me, a visual base to which all other elements are added.

When I work, I am very involved in the process. I thrive on the repetition and tediousness of my pieces. I don’t set out to work in a tedious manner, however I don’t mind when it happens. I enjoy the repetition of making dots, cutting out pieces from wallpaper, and making spirographs with the circular motion of one gear inside of another. This tedious way of creating while repeating shapes and designs is reflected in all of my work. Even my collage prints, which are pretty minimal compared to my other pieces, were very thought out, being positioned and repositioned before I could say they were finished. Though process is important to my prints and paintings, the finished piece is the most significant.

Currently, my work has two extremes; I make pieces with very little or no empty space and I make minimal pieces. While I work in these extremes, my body of work as a whole is united by color. I love color and working with color. Color perception is also something that I like to play with. I enjoy putting bright lime green next to orange so that it looks red when viewed from afar. The optical vibration that results from putting magenta next to blue and how that same shade of magenta changes when paired with green are situations that I really like to put into my work. My use of color combined with how I use designs and patterns is for the ultimate result of a decorative artwork.

Final Portfolio Choices

2010-01-20T15:49:00.000-05:00

It was a little difficult narrowing down my images to just 20, but I did it, and this set of images is going to be my final portfolio for applying to grad school. Images are not necessarily in final order.

Portfolio Pieces!

2010-01-20T02:48:00.001-05:00

Quick selection of pieces for my portfolio so I can see what I'm working with. I need 20 images in total, so I was thinking one whole shot with one detail shot. These images are in no particular order.

Reed Danziger

2010-01-16T21:11:00.003-05:00

I knew there was a link to this artist's works and website in my bookmarks for a reason. And I have to say I don't know why I haven't looked at her work since I bookmarked it. It's great! I would love to make pieces that are so intricately layered and designed and decorative!

Artist Statement that I found:

Within my paintings, a compression of layer upon layer creates a tension between the complexities of the delicately detailed patterns and decorative motifs with an intense bombardment of information repetition. It is my interest in creating a space in which the collision of that which is seen as merely beautiful or ornamental takes on new meaning as repetition and abundance give way to abstraction. It is in that space between organized information and chaos, predictability and disorder, which create a new vocabulary in which to examine the visual world.

Definitely check out more of Reed Danziger's work!

Reed Danziger

McKenzie Fine Art Gallery

A High Level of Ridiculosity

2010-01-16T14:18:00.000-05:00

So Kerri posted her manifesto from Senior Seminar the other day, and it was so ridiculous! I definitely got a nice laugh out of it. Since I was so amused by hers, I'm deciding to post mine up also.

I am for an art that is: touchy feely

fun to roll around in

decorative

creamy beige

a collective unit

cubes class on a Tuesday afternoon

bass vibrating through your chest

dancing all night long

birds sitting sideways on a slanted rooftop

breakfast for dinner

wawa at three a.m.

a beautiful breadstick moment

just because

a football game face paint

a late night liaison

brass knucks

secret handshakes

tempting to touch

grip ‘n’ sip

making up new words

not all we had for lunch

all the creamies

a triple treat

sharks

mmm, delicious

amazing like football movies

a love like John Wayne

a standing neck roll

safari vest walking down the street

redux

a bit bigga

inside jokes

busting through your walls

wispy stached

a thunderstorm of wow

night night

earl simmons

aka the dog

A Few Images

2010-01-14T16:35:00.002-05:00

A book, two works in progress, and one print from the fall of of 2008. Enjoy!

Untitled (Book), 5"x5", 2009

Work in progress. 24"x36"

Work in progress.

vhewgya9urhobf GRAD SCHOOL!!!

2010-01-08T22:38:00.001-05:00

Eeee!!! Grad school application deadlines are quickly approaching and all I've been doing is slacking! But I've finally been doing a bit of research and for the moment, I think I've decided on hopefully applying to the following schools:

University of Arizona
Academy of Art University
San Diego State University
University of Florida
University of Miami
Savannah College of Art and Design
Western Carolina University
James Madison University
West Virginia University

So in preparation for applying, since every school requires images for a portfolio, a very awesome friend of mine took photographs of my work for me. I'm waiting to see how they all turned out, very excited!!

In other news, since it seems like I haven't had an entry in forever, I want to submit to the DCCA Members Juried Show. I was recently gifted a membership, so all I need to do is fill it out and submit my images by January 22nd! Hopefully I'll get something in!

I believe that's everything for now. Images to come later!

A Small update!

2009-11-20T13:53:00.000-05:00

Yay! A small update! I recently got some work in on my current painting. I've been adding to it, and it doesn't seem as lost or as hideous as before. I'm hoping to work on it today since I'm feeling kind of motivated actually! I need to make it happen!

I am the best at what I do!

2009-10-16T03:14:00.006-04:00

On Wednesday, the 14th, I had the privilege to attend a lecture by KRS-One at the University of Delaware. The topic of the lecture was the Fundamentals of Hip Hop. Something rarely discussed, though I felt like KRS approached it very well. He spoke of the hip hop culture and how the history of hip hop as people know it, is more the history of rap and other byproducts of hip hop, such as graffiti, dj-ing, and breakdancing. That hip hop is not a physical thing, but a collective consciousness; a way of looking at things. He spoke also about perception and about changing the perception of your environment. Not taking things for what they are, but as what you can make them be for you. KRS brought up how people made it big in the music industry as it related to the origins of hip hop. His main point there was validation. Validation is what made people who they are. Put yourself in a persona where you are the greatest, support your friends and what they're doing. The person who validates you will then tell others about how great you are at what you do. Someone is going to notice.

I feel really inspired to get myself and my art out in the world. Get together with my friends and let everyone know how they are all great photographers, ceramicists, sculptors, painters, musicians, video artists, all of it, whatever medium they work with. I am the best at what I do. I am a great printmaker, screenprinter, painter, artist. I just need that second person to validate me and to start telling the world about my greatness.

And when it comes down to it, can I really be the real me? Without any consequences or regrets to my actions?

It needs something...

2009-10-09T23:08:00.001-04:00

So I started this painting with an image in my head of what it would look like and how it would be turning out. There's something about it that isn't right, so I paused my work on it to figure out what it needs. I'm thinking it needs some white dots next to the bluish-teal dots.

It's a start at least!

2009-10-05T13:15:00.002-04:00

I started work on a new painting yesterday! I'm so excited to finally be working on something again. After graduation and being forced out of my wonderful, awesome studio that I had, I'm back at home where there is little to no space to finish works in progress or start new pieces. At least not until the basement gets cleaned out and divided into a sewing area for my mom and a studio space for me. Fortunately, I have a friend that offered me some space to work, which was very awesome of him! Watch out for some photos soon!

Now what is this?

2009-09-28T23:53:00.001-04:00

Alexander McQueen, what are you doing? I think these colors along with their combination's are fantastic. Now I know I'm not a fashion expert, but I'm really digging a lot of the looks from Alexander McQueen's Resort 2010 collection. Here are a few images, but definitely check out the slide show over at Style.com.

Performance Art

2009-09-17T19:56:00.001-04:00

Yes, another post containing images of work. But it's not here! The post is actually on Kerri's blog, and you can get to it here. It focuses on an interactive performance based piece we did that involved water balloons filled with slip being thrown our way. I'll admit, not the most well thought out piece we've ever done together. But I think it still went over well with everyone.

BFA Show

2009-09-12T19:39:00.000-04:00

Ok, finally, here are the images of my pieces that were in my BFA Senior Show. The pieces here, and even a few from earlier posts, better represent where I am with my work and also where I'd like to go with it.

Installation view.

Crazy. 22"x30". 2009. Silkscreen on Rives BFK White.

Detail.

Tree. 22"x30". 2009. Woodcut and wallpaper cin cole with silkscreen on Rives BFK White.

Detail.

Untitled. 15"x41". 2009. Acrylic ink on wood.

Detail.

Detail.

Blue and Magenta. 4'x4'. 2009. Acrylic ink on wood.

Detail.

Wallpaper Ladies. 22"x30". 2009. Woodcut and wallpaper cin cole on Rives BFK White.

Detail.

Solar Plate. 15"x22". 2009. Solar plate relief and intaglio print on Rives BFK White.

Detail.

Paintings?

2009-09-12T17:09:00.000-04:00

Paintings!

Spirographs. 18"x24". 2009. Acrylic paint and ink on canvas.

Detail.

Untitled. 18"x24". 2009. Acrylic paint and ink with tape on canvas board.

Dots. 4'x4'. 2009. Acrylic ink on wood.

Detail.

Prints!

2009-09-12T15:50:00.000-04:00

A couple of prints. These two were actually made in a Green Ink Print Methods class I took during my last spring semester.

Potato Print. Water based ink on paper.

Detail.

Now this next print was made with a pretty crazy process. It was printed with a waterless lithography process. It involved drawing on a metal plate with a special water soluble litho pencil. Next the drawing was washed out using only water, a little rubbing, and the occasional squirt of soap when needed. Now the next step was just like more traditional lithography, the plate was rolled up with ink and printed. However, the best ink for waterless litho is rubber based ink, which is a very short, stiff ink. I believe that rubber based ink has stopped being manufactured, but UD just so happened to have what is probably the last can in existence.

Print quality was pretty unreliable and unpredictable with this process. Prints at first were very light and would fill in quickly resulting in only one or two prints with a nice black density. I managed to get five total pulls off my plate before it started filling in with ink. An interesting process to have learned, though I still prefer traditional lithography processes.

Untitled. 22"x30". 2009. Waterless Lithograph on Rives BFK White.

Detail.

Collabz!

2009-09-12T13:37:00.000-04:00

Yes! A collaboration! With my awesome collabz partner Kerri O'Neill. We went a little crazy on this painting, going into it head on without any sort of idea or specific vision. It was pretty nice for me just to be able to let go and work on something that I hadn't meticulously planned out.

Acrylic paint, ink, and collage on canvas. 4'x5'. 2009.

Detail.
Love the fish swimming into the shark's mouth!

Detail.
One of my favorite parts!

Detail.

The MJs!!

2009-09-12T02:42:00.000-04:00

All right now! What have we here? Some MJs!!

Now, they're not the best photos, but they're the only ones I have at the moment!
These are all 22"x30" Silkscreen on Arches 88 White. 2008.
MJs present: Smooth Criminal, The Way You Make Me Feel, Black or White, Scream, and Thriller.

With this series of prints I got really interested in Michael Jackson's music videos and his dancing in the videos. I started thinking about how iconic and recognizable he is based solely on his moves and I wanted to translate that to print. Hence the removal of his facial features all together. I believe that Smooth Criminal, The Way You Make Me Feel, and Black or White are the most successful grouping. Thriller is a bit smaller than the rest, and I feel like Scream sticks out by having no gold. But I still really love them all.

Some oldies, but goodies.

2009-09-12T00:37:00.000-04:00

It's been a while, yes. I'm new to blogging and still trying to get used to it.

Anyway though, I'm posting a few images of older work. I know as my work changes and progresses I grow out of or grow tired of some of my older pieces. These are the lucky ones that have survived!

Untitled. 2006. Silkscreen on Rives BFK White. Four color separation.

Monoprint. 15"x22". 2006. Ink on Rives BFK White.

Untitled. 2006. Relief Print on Rives BFK White.

Crest. 2006. Lithograph on Rives BFK White.

Untitled. 2006. Lithograph on Rives BFK White.

Gun. 15"x30". 2006. Lithograph and watercolor on Rives BFK White.

Pirates. 2007. Etching and Cin Cole on Rives BFK White.

Untitled. 2008. Silkscreen Monoprint on Rives BFK White.