JULIANNDRU

 Julie Strassner, Andrew Landrum

julianndru@yahoo.com

Austin, TX

OUR PROJECT

An intimate journey that began with the notion that by conversing with paint brushes, over the course of days, months or years, a piece of art could transcend time as an intricate representation of individual paths that work and play delicately together.

A Rocking Chair was chosen as the surface on which to paint for its relationship to movement but also for its symbolic reference to time - it has a significant role in our lives as a place of Beginnings and a place of ENDINGS.  Our collaborative journey brings the rocker into the foreground in life's interim by way of the chair's shape, surfaces and textures. 

The chair is intended to be ever-evolving . 

The images caputure moments- some of which may be fleeting.  Diverse points of view focusing on significant moments in the chair’s evolution- some being quite minute at the time of execution- transform/metamorphose when isolated by means of the camera's lens; enhanced with the artist's vision.

US

We met in May of 2004.  Looking back it was clear even then that art was going to have a major impact on us as a couple.  The journey of discovery that ensued took us through discussions of "aretê" - living an artful life; to the game of "exquisite corpse" - taking turns adding onto a piece of art without any previous knowledge of what the other was going to be painting.   In October of that year Julie purchased the rocking chair and over the course of the next year and a half we took turns painting while digitally recording our progress.  As we developed our pictures we realized the shutter was capturing images from the chair that were sometimes missed with the naked eye.  We bought a micro-lens and began photographing the chair with the minute in mind.  What emerged were beautiful, sometimes oddly captivating images that we've attempted to interpret into individual pieces of fine art.  We refer these smaller pieces of our project as "translations". 

In the Spring of 2008 after the purchase of our new gallery and studio, we began a new project.  Not unlike our "Mythos" chair series, we started with a piece of furniture.  This time it was the family table that Julie had grown up with.  A pine, darkly-stained banquet table, we felt it needed to maintain a certain masculinty-something that would be perfect juxtaposed the more feminine chair.  We decided to imbed metal fittings down into the table top.  First we invited some our closest friends over to participate in the tranformation.  They helped us by drilling holes in the table.  WOW!  That was a leap of faith!  But what ensued was a delightful interactive art project that was deeply inspiring.  After imbedding a variety of copper, brass and stainless metals into the table, we began our "translation" phase.  Like before we worked to capture images from the project.  This time however, we did it by means of charcoal rubbings off of the surface.  Like the project before, we were surprised and delighted by the outcome-each time we took turns pulling a new piece we were amazed at the captivating images that were emerging.  The "Black Infinity" project is the perfect partner to "Mythos and the Muse" balancing her colorful femininity with the darker, more structured feel of the charcoal and metal.

We've worked to verse ourselves in the language of fine art so that we may translate and interpret our imaginations from chair to paper and canvas; from table to charcoal ... and eventually into other media such as block printing, screen printing, copper etching as well as sculpture and relief.  We hope to capture the nature of our conversation in introspective meditative art. 

OUR RESUME'

Date:  October 2006.  Since we began our project over a year ago we have had a tremendous response to what we are doing.  Because we believe so strongly in the depth of our project, we strive to ensure that each piece in our growing collection stands on its own artistically.  Therefore, in an ongoing effort, we are entering individual works (translations) from the original projects into exhibitions throughout the year.