website! finally!

well, not QUITE yet, but tonight it should be up and running. please check back after 9pm on december 10. i have been completely obsessing over it and although it is temporary, it is something. www.summerkemick.com

I always thought it was going to take me longer to get a job in the New York art world, apart from freelance installer/art handler, but this job fell in my lap a couple of months ago and was something I couldn't really say no to. However, the day I can't make my own work because of my job is the day I quit.

Installation shot, April 2007.

Dear Silvio,

Here are some photos of a video sculpture that I made. The theme ties
in with my photographs, in that it deals with my struggle in the city
and lack of open space. The video is a 13 minute loop that is a still
shot of the underground, with subway trains passing by. In the silence
of the tunnel, I have added bird sounds, creating an unusual
environment. When the trains come, the noise is deafening, drowning
out the birds and tunnel sounds. The glass eyepieces create a
binocular effect and when the trains go by, rings of light zoom
towards the eye, almost making the viewer dizzy. When I made it, I
thought of the idea that New York is a compact city surrounded by
beautiful and lush land. The thought of the city being overtaken by
plant life is something I think about often. The subway is strange
during rain or when snow is melting because it often sounds like a
river when the water is flowing quite a lot. This is what gave me the
idea that in some sense, the underground is New York City's natural
habitat, though it is also probably the furthest thing from nature.

One thing I would like to fix is positioning the plant below so that
it is "floating." I would like to mount it to the wall somehow so
there is no support below it. Other than that, I am happy with how it
turned out.

I would love to hear what you think, although I know it is not ideal
to view it as a still image. But I hope my description gave you an
idea of the feeling. The volume was quite loud, and even though there
were headphones, the noise could be heard throughout the hall. Also, I
made one of the eyepieces movable so it could accomodate different
distances of corneas and gives it an interactive element.

Best,
Summer

I haven't posted lately, as I am preparing for my show coming up, among other things. Also, a new job is in the works... Very exciting. When it is solidified, I will divulge more information.

After delivering art pieces to The Armory Show yesterday, I found out that there are multple art fairs going on this weekend all over the city. Some of them include Pulse, The Art Show, Scope, L.A. Art Fair in New York, and Diva, a digital and video art fair. I guess it makes sense to have all of these art fairs at the same time for collectors to come in to town and see them all, but I wish they were spread out a little bit more so I would actually have time to attend them.

I worked for an art transportation company today and had to deliver some pieces to The Armory Show art fair on Pier 94 in Manhattan. Besides having to wait in a lengthy line to unload our truck, the building the show is held in is overwhelmingly massive. It was like Grand Central during rush hour, but with everyone carrying large pieces of pricey artwork.

I saw a Spanish painting show called El Greco to Picasso at the Guggenheim Museum recently and I really enjoyed it. I think it was a good show to see for an introduction to the museum, having never gone in my year-and-a-half of living here. Each of the paintings had a presence that filled the space that was allotted to them without overpowering others. I did find that I was very interested in the classical portrait style of artists like Francisco de Goya and Bartolome Esteban Murillo, while works by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali were difficult to look at in comparison. The beauty that the formal portraits possessed was so compelling that I found myself skipping over the more abstract works in order to get to the next Goya or Murillo painting faster. I think that much of contemporary photography is influenced by portraiture painted around the 16th and 17th centuries and its formal style.