Processing

Exciting news! Well, for me. I got a new, jumbo, beautiful, stunning monitor! You may find this hard to believe, but all these years of digital art and glee have previously been faithfully provided for by my sweet little laptop. But now--the possibilities are endless! Or at least easier to see. 

Kiera Reese's Bigger and Better Monitor

There it is, in all its stunning glory. Don't worry, I've already made massive progress cleaning off my desk since this picture was taken. (Look at that panorama by the way! Though this particular studio shot is admittedly rather blurry, on this monitor, I can zoom and see each brick to scale. So fun!)

 

In other news, I decided my printer was ready to be used again. Photographs wouldn't be perfect, but large swaths of color printed on fabric are totally a go! 

Below are a couple works-in-progress. Enjoy!



Fabric Prints

I've done a significant amount of experimenting during the past three months. I decided to get away from photoshop for the moment, to see what other ideas come to the surface. Specifically, this experimenting brought me the surface of the work. I began playing with untraditional substrates in my printer and seeing what results. To focus on this process, I worked with more abstract imagery. To get this imagery, I used digital pinhole photography. Pinhole photography doesn't use a lens, so the images are generally blurry. I'm exploring how the digital and physical world interact; not in the controlled, predictable way, but in a very hands-on way. I'm interested in touching the imagery I work with, to pull on it and stretch it and layer it, manipulate it. It's been an interesting and liberating experience!


Gifs

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In my continual attempt to understand how technology shapes our understanding of time, I decided to create gifs. It was rather fun! Creating each frame is like creating a character. The gifs are appropriately always moving, but going no where. (Click on the gifs to see larger!)

New Name and Work

Continuous Now

Continuous Now

My recent marriage to my wonderful husband Ian has inspired the name change you see here. Formerly Kiera McTigue, I am now Kiera Reese. And while the wedding festivities caused this blog to experience some neglect, my art making has continued strong!

Currently in my work, I am exploring how the Digital Age is affecting our perception of time. With almost all of time available to us with a quick click or swipe, we no longer have to experience history in a linear, narrative progression. We can quickly jump from Henry VIII to the Moon Landing in a matter of seconds. Technology also allows us to live in a continuous now, fine tuning plans moments before they happen and learning of global news within hours of the event. I am not critiquing our culture's use of technology-it's a powerful tool that I personally rely on. I am more interested in exploring these concepts in a visual language.

Below are my most recent experiments with these ideas. I printed them 24"x72" and I assure you, they are beautiful. As always, I am very excited to see where this work takes me. I'll try to keep you posted!

Expanded Moment

Time Layers

Time Layers


New Pics!

I added a"Architecture" and "People" to the photo section of the website. Definitely check them out if you get a chance! More updates are hopefully coming this month so stay tuned! Clix on the images below to see more.

Big Deal

I've always had this tendency to want to make big art. Maybe it's because I'm young and have something to prove. Maybe it's just because I can. My freshman year during my undergrad, I made a paper-mache elephant with a classmate and it was about 6 feet tall. It was far bigger than anything else made by the rest of the class. To some extent, it's pushing a boundary. I feel accomplished to make something on a large scale. 

My current body of work draws some parallels to the Romantic painters of the early 1800s, who also liked to work on a grand scale. Their huge paintings spoke of the majesty  of nature, Manifest Destiny, and the work of man in comparison. I recently completed my large piece of work to date. I made a print that was 6x20 feet. Sometimes, I don't quite realize what I've myself into until it's too late. I printed it on my printer, that is only 24 inches wide, and therefore had to do the print in three long parts. It took over 6 hours to print, and then another 4 hours to assemble. But the affect was perfect. I am quite pleased. Here is a view of this print installed:

KieraMcTigueDisplay.jpg

The way the print pooled on the floor is intentional. I would have preferred to raise it up about two feet, but I ran into the ceiling. (For some reason 20 feet sounded shorter in my head.) Perhaps having it curve on the top would have helped, but at any rate, I was very pleased by this and am considering using this format again for my current series. It seems appropriate.

New Series

Here's a sneak preview of one of my most recent images! This series explores combining interior and exterior spaces, and creating surreal realities. I plan to create a gallery for this series once it becomes more substantial. Until then, enjoy!

So it Goes

Time certainly seems to be flying lately! My work in in a couple of shows, if you have a chance to check it out!

  • 2013 Biennial, New Hampshire Institute of Art, French Gallery
    • November 11-December 12
  • Light and Shadow, Gallery 6, Dover, NH
    • Dec 7, 2013-March 1, 2014

The opening for the Biennial was last night, and it was such a privilege to be part of it! Openings are such wonderful opportunities to meet artists and other like minded people. There is a wonderful variety, and I recommend checking it out!

As I mentioned last time, I'm creating a new body of work involving surreal, photographic landscapes. I'm endeavoring to solidify the concept, but the work is really getting quite interesting. I hope to be posting a gallery on it soon.

In other news, I have a new printer as an addition to my studio, and it's been so wonderful to have such unlimited access to it!

Printer.jpg

New and Improved

Welcome to my new and improved website!  It's taken more time than I care to admit to make it happen, but I think it's worth it. One of the thing you hopefully noticed was the added photography section. One thing I have a lot of is photography! I am pleased to have it incorporated on this site. 

I've also been up to making a new body of work. I am quite excited about the direction it's been taking. Here's the sneak peek! 

KieraMcTigueCut.jpeg
KieraMcTigueSmPans

If you want to read more about this work, check out my MFA blog here!

July News

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Somehow summer is never quite as relaxing as I expect it to be. I've been having a blast though! Lots of stuff to do, that's for sure. I have some work up right now at the Azure Rising Gallery in Wolfeboro, if anyone is heading up to the lakes region to cool off! It is a very scenic area. I snapped a picture on my way up at one of the scenic overlooks. The art work will be on display through the end of July. There a couple more shows coming up. I'll post again when those details are solidified. Wolfeboro

 

At the end of June, I started my masters at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. It's a low residency program, which means I attend a residency in June and in January, and during the rest of the year, I work independently, consulting with mentors and advisors regularly. I'm really excited to be starting. Our June residency was an amazing experience. Being surrounded by people intellectually and passionately discussing important artistic concerns for ten days was a superbly stimulating experience. I will be taking some new directions in my art as a result, which is something I was looking to do. I got a tremendous amount of feedback, inspiring some new ideas. You can follow more about this experience here.

Hot off the Press

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Spring seems to always be a bussle of activity. Like autumn, it's a season of transitions. There are birthdays, graduations, things to wind up and things to start. Somewhere in all this, life has to continue too. Thanks to some schedule changes at work that are common this time of year, I ended up with a couple days I was able to devote entirely to the studio. If only it was always this way! I guess one good thing about working other jobs is that it makes me appreciate these studio days all the more! Here's a sneak peek at one of the pieces I've been working on:

"The Unexpected Post" (in progress)

Sinking Sand

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Every moment I'm not creating feels like something wasted, something I can't get back. The sifting sands of time seem forever shifted out of my favor. There's an urgency, I don't know why, that causes me to constantly push and run for a finish line I can never reach, a resting point just out of my grasp. Perhaps it is because I'm still young, and do not yet value the longevity of time. It seems to pass too quickly. I'm running on sinking sand. Sands, 2012, 4x5 Scanned Film

Beauty

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"Beauty created by God is nature. Beauty created by man is art." -Immanuel Kant, 1790 A strong aspect of my of my work is "finding beautiful." This discovery process has become a driving force of my art making.  I am once again rearranging studio  spaces, and have been reorganizing my art. Much of it was from my undergrad days, and it's been fun to revisit some of these oldies. I looked for beauty in landscapes, beauty in people, in portraiture, in faces. Looking at my early paintings in particular, I can see happiness in my brush strokes. One my instructors once told me that. He said he could tell from my paintings that I was happy. At the time, I didn't know what he meant. I looked at my paintings and saw my frustration with an ellipse, my struggles with perspective, my uneasy attempts at a natural sense of space. I see it now though. I see the brushstrokes as works of joy.

The second landscape I ever painted in school, 2010.

I search for the beautiful has continued. I look for beauty that is beyond a visual aesthetic, more than what lies on the surface. I use the visual aesthetic as a means to represent powerful feelings of passion and wonder and other unnamed emotions. These feelings and desires are part of what makes us alive. And life is a beautiful thing.