p://www.phantasmaphile.com/2009/04/the-wonder-parlor.html

Clare Parry and Julia Westerbeke delve into fantastical and decorative imagery in collages, paintings and sculptures, creating an ecosystem of their own making. In this new realm, science fiction meets Victorian design and antique decorative motifs live side-by-side with alien tendrils of Dr.-Seussian flora. Visual symbols of the future and the past co-exist here, creating a Darwinian environment where one design seems to encroach upon or sprout from another.

Clare and Julia met while attending the MFA program at the University of California, San Diego. While their individual practices are visually different, these artists immediately noticed that they share similar source material and inspiration: themes of ornamentation, detail, intimacy, fantasy and the feminine. “The Deluge,” their second major collaboration, will explore how two artists can use the same point of inspiration to create diverse yet deeply intertwined imagery. Each site of activity is an experiment in symbiosis and encroachment.

Coming up this December, Julia Westerbeke and I will be completing a month long Artist-in-Residency program with the de Young Museum in San Francisco. More news on this new collaboration with Julia Westerbeke to come!!

To see pictures of our last collaboration at the New Children's Museum of San Diego, "The Wonder Parlor", look under work from 2008.

This past week, I found out that I was nominated by our department to be this year's MFA to be partake in the UCSD Summer Graduate Teaching Fellows Program. For the fist half of Summer Session, I might be hired as an Associate Professor to teach a course that I have now TA'd for twice. I would be teaching VIS 1: Intro to 2-D Media.

I would love to have any of my previous students who have still have to take VIS 1, to come along with me once again. Hope to see some familiar warm bodies opposite me!

Supersonic will be held January 21, 2009. Supersonic is an annual exhibition showcasing the artwork of Southern California's graduating MFA classes. The show will be at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Supersonic is to coincide with Los Angeles Art Show which will also be held in the convention center down the hall in a separate but adjacent space. This will all be taking place during Los Angeles Arts Month, which will be a month-long festival of activities and will include the College Arts Association's (CAA) annual conference that will take place during February 25-28, 2009.

Please come check out Supersonic if you are in town for CAA! It would be amazing to see some familiar faces!

I was recently chosen to be UCSD's class representative to put together supersonic with other representatives from the nine participating schools. I am going to be working very hard to put this together with everyone else, so I can truly promise a fantastic show!

Julia Westerbeke (a fellow MFA student at UCSD) and I will be installing our installation, "The Wonder Parlor" at the new Children's Museum of San Diego, located in downtown San Diego on Front St. Together we will be doing a 6-week residency as collaborators.

Come visit us in the space and add to our installation!