Carola Perla's "Spelling Bee" Featured in the Zero Edition of ELSE Art Journal

 

It's been almost a year in the works, but the inaugural annual issue of ELSE Art Journal -“Trans-what?” and “Everything Else” is finally here!

 

Moreover it features a 2-page spread on my 2012 "Spelling Bee" visual poem and cut paper installation, which itself is currently on view in the "Lit / Lite" Solo Exhibit at The Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri, until November 7th, 2014.

 

Thank you so much to the staff for inclusion in this impressive annual academic art journal.  I'm thrilled join this list of international artists and honored to have been deemed relevant and worthy by my peers.

About ELSE:

 

ƎLSE Journal International Art, Literature, Theory and Creative Media Journal
is a peer-reviewed annual journal that welcomes experimental and alternative forms of creative work.

http://www.transart.org/else-art-journal/

About Transart Institute:

 

Transart Institute was founded in 2004 by two artists. The MFA in New Media program was accredited by the Austrian Ministry of Education and Culture through Donau University Krems, Krems, Austria in 2004 and the first summer residency was held in 2005 with an international body of 25 students and eight faculty. The current MFA Creative Practice program is accredited (accredited in BE) through the School of Art and Media at the University of Plymouth in the UK.

 

'LIT/LITE: Visual Poetry Installations by Carola Perla' at the Foundry Art Centre# - A Look Back

My very first solo show 'LIT/LITE: Visual Poetry Installations' opened two Thursdays ago at the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles (St. Louis, MO), and I am still finding it hard to believe...

I say this for two reasons: the first is that I feel like such a novice.  I started with my paper cuts three years ago and it still startles me a bit to think of myself as an artist.  The title 'artist' seems to imply such a lot of struggle and suffering, countered by that unmistakable streak of genius and determination.   I instantly recall scenes from 'Of Human Bondage', because I had always imagined myself more like that novel's protagonist, a dilettante rather than the real thing, a lover of the bohemian life, a romantic, not meant for an actual hard life on the street in search of a dream, never really risking the gutter...I never imagined a road towards 'artist' a clean one...even as a writer, I battled demons, I lived a solitary life, at times I sacrificed...but this art, for which I am suddenly recognized and rewarded, this art had been a path of few stumbling blocks, of real joy, of (dare I admit) caprice...how have I found myself in this place, I wondered that evening in Saint Charles?  Can I be deserving?  What comes next?

Which I suppose is the question that brings me to my second reason: last year when I received my prize, it felt like such a beginning of something.  A year later, it feels like a closing chapter...because the truth is that with all my work displayed, I must forge a new path...I have to figure out what I need to do to grow, what still needs saying, do I intend to sell these things one day?  How much longer can I consider myself an artist without selling a piece?  Is this a fork in the road?  These are the questions I am not prepared to answer yet, and so the experience remains stubbornly in my mind an unsolidified one, a castle in the air, a whisper of memories...I am not ready to be nostalgic...

So instead I will focus on the journey of this past year, on the loneliness I felt last June, my uncertainty as I entered the Foundry, afraid of feeling inconsequential, of not being able to stand on my own...and knowing that all these months later, I could not feel more loved or consequential, at least to all who matter most to me...if I happen to elicit any such feeling from others through my work, then I can count myself truly blessed, and perhaps even an 'artist'

'LIT/LITE' runs now through November 7th...here is a bit of what you will see:

"LIT / LITE: Visual Poetry Installations by Carola Perla" Solo Show Launches at the Foundry Art Centre September 25, 2014!

ITS TIME FOR MY FIRST SOLO SHOW!!!

I will save my full comments about this experience for after the opening, I'm too nervous to go into it now...what I will say is that this show punctuates my life in more significant ways than I could have foreseen last year when I unexpectedly won the Best in Show at the Foundry Art Centre's "Paper Cuts" exhibit.  Life is a never-ending stream of surprises, lessons, and miracles, and if I ever stop believing that, then all I have to do is look back on this moment...I am so proud, grateful, and full of emotion, having sent off three year's worth of work - my entire collection - to this show, not sure if I sent enough light bulbs, wrote the correct measurements, made good enough work, and yet knowing that it doesn't matter, because this is all part of the journey...I will keep you posted on the results...in the meantime, here is the flyer for the show:

 

The Spring 2014 Quarterly Newsletter is in!

Visit www.carolaperla.com for contact details on how to receive the newsletter via email:

 

Carola Perla Part of "Diverse Dimensional Approaches" Paper and Sculpture Exhibit at Impact Artists' Gallery

"Diverse Dimensional Approaches"

Paper and Sculpture Exhibit at Impact Artists' Gallery

Buffalo, New York

March 5 - April 25, 2014

 

http://www.impactartistsgallery.org/exhibits/

 

So excited to be part of this new exhibit!

 

Sculpture : In its complexity, sculpture is both noun and verb, both the means and the end to production.
Noun : The art of making two- or three-dimensional representative or abstract forms, esp. by carving stone or wood or by casting metal or plaster.
Verb : Make or represent (a form) by carving, casting, or other shaping techniques.

Paper art can be traced back to Japan, where it originated over a thousand years ago.
From complex paper cutting to book carving, this is an ever expanding area of design that is hardly talked about.

 

 

 

Selection in this exhibit coincides with being awarded a Showcase Winner in ART SLANT's 1st Showcase in 20014 Competition!

 

 

http://www.artslant.com/ew/showcases/showcase?sublist=35%5Einstallation

 

 

 

 

CTC Virtual Book Tour of Gibbin House: Thanks to All for the Great Reception!

 

A great measure of thanks all the participants in the CTC Virtual Book for "Gibbin House", their wonderful reviews and generosity in hosting my author guest posts:

Traveling with T - review and guest post

Review:

http://travelingwitht.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/gibbin-house-by-carola-perla-review-giveaway-ctc-book-tours/

 

"...Gibbin House is so interesting, so heartfelt, so much so that I’m struggling with words...A book that will hang around in your thoughts after closing the book or clicking off the Kindle!..." 

 

Guest Post:

http://travelingwitht.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/guest-post-carola-perla-talks-about-how-margaret-ball-changed-her-life-ctc-book-tours/

"Literary Influences: How Margaret Ball Changed My Life"

"I LOVE this guest post. Seriously it’s made of fantastic and dipped in awesome." - Traveling With T

 

 

What is That Book About - guest post

http://www.whatisthatbookabout.com/16/post/2014/02/on-malot-the-birth-of-anka-and-paper-houses-by-carola-perla.html

"On Malot, the Birth of Anka, and Paper Houses"

 

 

Life of a Female Bibliophile - review

http://lifeofafemalebibliophile.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/book-tour-review-and-giveaway-gibbin-house-by-carola-perla/

 

"Perla is a great writer. She creates this world with a cast of characters that have varying personalities, and puts hard work into detailing the people and scenery. It makes the reader feel that the are living in Gibbin House as well. The settings were so realistic and I liked that Perla uses this poetic literary language that you usually only find in the traditional classics."

 

Library Educated - review

http://libraryeducated.blogspot.com/2014/02/book-review-gibbin-house-by-carola.html

 

"...It seems like those books are kind of rare!"

 

 

Hobby Lady - excerpt

http://kellyatx.blogspot.com/2014/02/book-tour-giveaway-gibbin-house-by.html#.UwOK_bCYbIU

 

A Book Geek - excerpt

http://abookgeek-llm.blogspot.com/2014/02/gibbin-house-blog-tour-excerpt-post-and.html

 

Not Drinking Coffee - excerpt

http://notdrinkingcoffee.com/

 

 

 

Moreover, an enormous thanks Ashley at Closed The Cover for her expertise and professionalism in organizing and conducting this virtual tour - she's the best!

 

 

More than 1,000 entries in the Giveaway!

 



Congratulations to Lori R. who is the Grand Prize winner of the CTC Virtual Book Tour  Giveaway, and to Dee and Rhonda for winning signed copies of Gibbin House!  Thanks to everyone for entering:))

 

4 Star review of Gibbin House by Life of a Female Bibliophile!

February 9: Sunday's stop on the CTC Virtual Book Tour was off to a great start with this wonderfully written 4-Star review from Life of a Female Bibliophile...

 

 

http://lifeofafemalebibliophile.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/book-tour-review-and-giveaway-gibbin-house-by-carola-perla/

 

 

I really enjoyed reading “Gibbin House”. It was nice change of material from the typical books I read and it had an intriguing storyline. The novel, is an historical fiction story and takes events from the past and meshes with a interesting plot. It took me a while to understand some of the historical contexts I was reading about since I wasn’t very knowledgeable about the country and the time period. Doing a little side research cleared up my confusion immediately and I was able to understand and follow the plot.  Perla is a great writer. ..READ MORE

 

Thanks again to Life of a Female Bibiophile for taking the time out to read Gibbin House and offer your great insights!



Gibbin House - CTC Virtual Book Tour - February 8 -15, 2014

 

 

Just recently I ran a Google search for "Gibbin House" and stumbled upon the most remarkable thing - the last line of my novel being quoted as a keynote at a National Youth Assembly for the United Reformed Church in the UK (the theme was Lost and Found: People in Exile)...

http://stewartcutler.com/

 

I assume the speaker probably Googled the line (in much the same indiscriminate manner as I had my name), being in search of a quote about exile, and stumbled on it on Goodreads (I assume this because my circle of readers remains, for a lack of a better word, concise).  The path, however, is really quite irrelevant, as what matters is what it signifies - that even in relative obscurity, in this day and age, a self-published work has a life, a resonance of its own in the ether...the Internet is a wonder...



That said, I happily and most enthusiastically announce the upcoming Virtual Tour of "Gibbin House", conducted by Closed The Cover, February 8 -15, 2014.  Below is the schedule, which includes an assortment of book reviews, excerpts, Q & A, guest posts, and fantastic giveaway!  Stay tuned!

Tour Schedule

February 8, 2014
Closed the Cover - Kick-Off Post and Giveaway
Library Educated - Book Review

February 9, 2014
Life of a Female Bibliophile - Book Review

February 10, 2014
Hobby Lady - Book Excerpt

February 11, 2014
All R Media - Book Review

February 12, 2014
A Book Geek - Book Excerpt

February 13, 2014
Not Drinking Coffee - Book Excerpt

February 14, 2014
Book Hostage - Author Q&A

February 15, 2014
Traveling with T - Book Review and Guest Post

 

Peripheral ARTeries Art Review - Article and Interview, Dec 2013 issue - Carola Perla

This past December Peripheral ARTeries Art Review featured an 8-page spread on my art work, along with one of the most thorough interviews I've done in a long time.  It was such a wonderful opportunity to share my experiences, inspiration, and thoughts on the direction of contemporary art. 

Check it out!

http://issuu.com/artpress/docs/peripheral_arteries_art_review_-_de

 

 

Creative Quarterly Journal Annouces CQ34 Winners

 

The art journal Creative Quarterly has chosen to include me in its Spring 2014 online gallery as one of its select 25 international Fine Arts Professionals! Although I narrowly missed out on the Winner Circle to be published in the esteemed magazine's CQ34 issue, I will feature online with my fellow Runners Up.

http://cqjournal.com/winners

 

 

"Mariposa" (Butterfly) - My latest KONZEPTION Installation for the novel "Humboldt's Riches" - PART 1

As of October 12th, I am officially underway in my KONZEPTION cross-pollinating literature and art project.  "Se Vende" led into the theme.  "Prologue" served as the page of inception.  Now "Mariposa" begins to introduce some of the main themes in the novel, which I can't wait to start wrestling with over the next few months.  I will talk more about naturalism and Alexander von Humboldt, the Prussian explorer who inspired the title of my new book, in the next post.  For now I will leave you with this description and images from the new art installation.

The subject is Amazonian butterflies: mariposas.   The installation depicts them as biological nomenclature hovering amidst a lattice-like net and sculptural 'foliage', to which cling crystalline vellum butterflies, transparent yet veined with white ink and pencil.  In "Humboldt's Riches", the main characters are a family of young biologists who have journeyed into Peru's Apurimac region to run an uncle's hacienda hotel, with the idea of continuing their study of butterflies there.  Once arrived, they endure the hardships of living in this remote wilderness and start to see hints of the impending dangers that will catapult them into the novel's adventure,  Yet all the while they cannot resist delving into the forest for their quarry, the variety of vibrant papilios, some rare and uncatalogued, as large as their spread hands. 

Note: my parents were equally obsessed with capturing and cataloguing butterflies and moths (and a fair share of insects) while we lived in the rainforest.  I grew up with these frames, which traveled with us from Peru to Germany to the United States, even when other important objects (all my baby toys spring to mind) were left behind.  As a young girl in Munich, my parents even raised a specific species of domestic butterfly, just to see it hatch in the thousands in our small studio apartment...but more on that in my 'Germany' book)

The installation, as seen presently, offers a depiction of this butterfly theme.  Only when the novel is read months down the line, will the installation offer a different perspective on the subject, begging the question of who is being chased, who exactly is trapped in that lattice-like net among the sculptural green???

 

 

 

 

 

Carola Perla Chosen to Contribute to InterArtive Magazine's Art & Mobility Issue

 

 

As those of you who have read Gibbin House or seen my art installations can attest, immigration, travel, assimilation, and the effects of language on identity lie at the core of much of what I do.

 

So naturally, when I saw this call for prosecti from InterARTive for its special October "Art & Mobility" issue a couple months ago, I really wanted to be a part of it.  I did so for several reasons, not least of them being that the theme of mobility plays such a central role in my writing and paper art, and  that this would also be the first legitimately academic medium in which to share my  work.  I applied and was over the moon to find the brief email notice in my inbox a few weeks ago, announcing that I would be among the amazing roster of international artists featured.

 

InterARTive describes the idea behind this issue in the following words "to reflect on the multiple aspects of cultural and artistic mobility and to open the way towards a transdisciplinary field of study that increasingly claims its place in the analysis and research of the social and cultural dynamics of the contemporary world."

 

In simpler terms, the world is changing.  For centuries we have defined our art and aesthetics by our cultural values and social constructs.  But in the 21st century, in this global and 'mobile' society, we no longer have distinct aesthetic or cultural boundaries.  Obviously this is not a new idea.  But while most people will focus on the benefits of the multi-cultural melting pot results we see in our modern experience, there is another side, a tale of displacement, transience, homelessness, resettlement and asylum.  Art has explored such issues in recent years as mass-manufacturing, globalization, etc...so it must now tackle the most immediate topic of immigration, transculturation, and the recalibration of self in a transnational world, as it concerns our emotional, political, and ideological existence.

 

I consider myself an emblem of this experience, a child of many cultures, a citizen of many countries, with each foot in a different place, never quite sure of where I belong, because my skin, my language, or my social behavior will forever tag me with the label of 'other', no matter where I am.  More than any single factor in my life, this state of not belonging coupled with my appreciation of every culture that lives in me, will forever color everything I create. 

 

Thus, inclusion in this issue is a great show of acceptance of my work, as it pertains to the topic and to the conceptual art community at large.  It means my message, however transmitted via the whimsical flurry of white paper and light, is being heard, is valid.

 

To read more on my "Lichtsprache" (illuminated language), follow the link:

Art and Mobility: Carola Perla's Lichtsprache

 

 

 

Four Points Contemporary: Latest Exhibition Selection

This past August, I had the honor of being selected to the Four Points Contemporary's 1st Annual All Media International Juried exhibition.  The online exhibition, which seeks to discover promising talent from among emerging international artists, runs now through September 30th, 2013.  Visit the link to see the complete exhibit: Four Points Contemporary Current Exhibitions .

The honor tops off an amazing summer of 'Little Victories', from Bronze in the Art Ascent Magazine "Emergence' Competition to 'Best in Show' at the Foundry Art Centre's 'Papercuts' exhibit, as well as selection in the Vargas Gallery's '2013 South Florida Group' Show and the American Art Jury's 'Gallery of Invited Artists' Salon, as well as a feature article in South Florida's Sun Post.  On the literature front, 'Gibbin House' has also had its little moment in the sun, with reviews, interviews and author spotlights, and giveaways.

In all, it's only been six months since I began an active push towards making my art more public, and the response goes to show what can come from some concentrated efforts.  As I begin 'Humboldt's' Riches' and the 'KONZEPTION' series, I foresee this forward trajectory slowing, being that writing and making art will once again consume my free time.  Let's see what the next six months bring...

 

Carola Perla Author Interview @ MoonShine Art Spot

This month I had the pleasure to speak with MoonShine Art Spot in a special author interview, released in conjunction with the Summer Giveaway Hop 2013.   I had the chance to address my inspiration for "Gibbin House" and other personal experiences that made it into the book.  Here is an excerpt from the interview.  To read in its entirety, follow the link:

 

MoonShine Art Spot Interview with Carola Perla

 

In your debut novel “Gibbin House”, the protagonist is a young Romanian woman who is forced to leave her home after the Second World War and start a new life in London.   Is this story of exile based on anything that happened to you?

To some extent, yes, although I was much younger than Anka when I left Communist-era Romania in 1979.  Five years earlier, my father had traveled from his native Peru to Timisoara, to study biology at the Polytechnic University.  He hadn’t been there long when he went to a party and met a leggy blonde with John Lennon glasses.  He barely spoke a word of Romanian, but he was beautiful and brilliant in after-shave and bell bottom jeans.  It was a typical hippie love story, but for the fact that the Ceausescu regime forbade relationships with foreigners... to continue...

 

Did you have your mother in mind when you wrote about Anka’s journey to London?

Naturally.  Here is this young woman – my mother - with an old suitcase and a baby in her arms, without a penny to her name, having never eaten spaghetti or watched a scary movie, in clothes she’s sewn herself, getting on a plane, and seeing her own mother, as far as she knows, for the last time in her life...to continue...

 

 

Do you see migration as a central theme to “Gibbin House”?

 

Certainly one of them.  I’m interested in how people find a ‘home’, what that means.  It would have been a very important consideration after the war, with so many homes destroyed, families separated, political boundaries redrawn, deportations forced on various ethnic groups.  How do people recapture ‘home’ after all that?...to continue...

 

Did any other personal experiences find their way into the book?

Like most authors, I write what I know, mostly in terms of relationships between people. Anka’s feelings in a new country are very familiar to me; her inability to speak mirrors my many months spent in silence every time I moved to a country where I did not know the language.  Her close connection with her mother is also something where I could inject elements of myself.   And of course there’s the romantic plotline...to continue...

 

 

To read the interview in its entirely, go to www.MoonShineArtSpot.blogspot.com



KONZEPTION: My New Literature/Art Project Unveiled!

Be the first to read up on my new series KONZEPTION, an unprecedented literature/art installation project, recently unveiled on August 10th, 2013 and scheduled to last through Summer 2014 with the completion of "Humboldt's Riches":

 

 

KONZEPTION – a cross-pollinating literary fiction and art installation project – aims to make a novel visually manifest by interpreting its creative process concurrent with its evolution, from inception to publication, through works of cut-paper sculpture and mixed media visual poetry installations.  The art works become inextricably linked to the written word with the novel’s opening lines, which are composed within the first piece in the series “Konzeption: Prologue”.  Subsequently, as the writing process continues, the novel’s themes and events inform new installations, while they in turn serve as springboards and incubators for later chapters. 

 KONZEPTION marries Carola Perla’s prose work with her sculptural ‘Lichtsprache’ – lighted cut-paper sculpture and visual poetry installations.  She created her first installation, “Off the Page” (2011), as a direct reaction to the hermetic process of writing her debut novel “Gibbin House”.  Her desire to visually celebrate the completion of this book led to further exploration in ‘lighted’ words and cut paper that incorporated published text as well as in situ ‘poetry chants’.  KONZEPTION  picks up where “Off the Page” left off, examining the birth of the novel instead.  The source here is the in-progress literary fiction novel “Humboldt’s Riches”, a semi-autobiographical Heart of Darkness that follows a young family’s escape from the remote Amazon region of Apurimac during Peru’s 1980 guerilla uprisings.

 

“Konzeption: Prologue”, written in a similar way to other ‘poetry chants’, sets the stage for this South American adventure story.  Breathlessly, it describes the dangerous task of driving in the Andes.  As a spontaneous composition, the prologue cannot be amended.  With no space for error, the artist is much like the Andean driver, maneuvering on a knife’s edge, aware that each carved word will irrevocably form part of the novel’s opening scene. Above the lines hangs the second sculptural element of the piece, a theatrical curtain that introduces this story.   Ruffled and fragile, with lace-like lattice cuts, the constructed white ‘curtain’ is meant to work simultaneously fragile as well as imposing and precarious in its weight and irregularity. Like an avalanche, with its frayed layers casting craggy shadows, the curtain portends the nebulous beginnings of something.

“Konzeption: Prologue” was unveiled on August 10, 2013, officially launching the KONZEPTION series that is projected for completion in summer 2014.  A special-edition photo book documenting the KONZEPTION project will be released as a companion to "Humboldt's Riches" upon publication. 

 

 

 

Gibbin House Honored to Be Part of Prize in Closed The Cover's "Room to Read" Ebook Fundraiser Giveaway!

 

 

Support Girls Education and Literacy with This Great Fundraiser Giveaway!

 

August 15 - September 15 @ www.ClosedTheCover.com

 

A Small $5 Donation Enters You to Win a Prize Package that includes 

 15 free e-books  

by some of the best indie authors writing today

Follow the link to Closed The Cover' giveaway page to enter:

Closed The Cover Room to Read Fundraiser Giveaway

 

Closed The Cover is a superb book review website, dedicated to celebrating books and the written word.  It not only offers readers insightful and unbiased reviews, but also supports authors with opportunities like guest spots, interviews, and giveaways.  I've had the pleasure to be included on that front, and will always value the wonderful experience.

CTC's philosophy is perhaps most evident, however, in its  ongoing support of and campaigning for the "Room to Read" international child education program. 

This ebook giveaway is part of CTC's efforts to meet its 2013 fundraising goal of $500 for Room to Read, and I'm so honored to have been approached by CTC's founder Ashley LaMar about including Gibbin House as one of the ebooks in the prize package.

 I urge all my readers to support this worthy cause!!!

 

To learn more about ROOM TO READ, follow this link: www.RoomToRead.Org

 

 

To Find Ashley LaMar's review of Gibbin House:

Closed The Cover Reviews Gibbin House

Read my Guest Author Spotlight:

Author Carola Perla at Closed The Cover

 

SUMMER GIVEAWAY HOP 2013: Win a Signed Copy of "Gibbin House" at MoonShineArtSpot!

Hi everyone,

Visit MOON SHINE ART SPOT  www.moonshineartspot.blogspot.com for the chance to win an autographed copy of "Gibbin House"!

 

Moon Shine Art Spot has been kind enough to sign us up for the Summer Giveaway Hop 2013, hosted by I Am Reader and Bookhounds, running now through August 7th, 2013.

 

In addition, the book review blog has posted a great candid interview with yours truly, along with lots of info on Gibbin House.  I'll be featuring parts of the interview in later posts, but for now, enjoy the book hop and good luck!

 

LITTLE TRIUMPHS: Winning Best In Show at the Foundry Art Centre

"Se Vende" is Awarded Top Prize and Solo Show in the "Paper Cuts" Exhibit!

Warning: Candid Observations of a Personal Nature Below...

Dear Readers: earlier this Spring, I felt a sudden urgency, as I had never before, to realize my artistic ambitions in a concrete way...oh, I had written the novel, made my art, held a reading here, a signing there, managed not without considerable feet-dragging at last to build a website...but my sporadic efforts quite plainly lacked focus, cohesion...I was keenly aware that for the most part I had dropped the ball these last two years, for a number of reasons, which were ultimately immaterial except for the fact that they had all conspired to distract me from my purpose.  I was left with no other choice than to face my failures and roll up my sleeves...

Going forth, my plan for 2013 centered on two main tasks: 1) to garner reviews for Gibbin House as a lead-in to my next book, and 2) to gain acceptance into art exhibits outside my gallery.

By April, my first task was well underway, and as I continue to work with a host of kind reviewers, I welcome readers to message me here or on my Carola Perla Website with any testimonials they're willing to share!

For the second, I scoured possible gallery and online exhibits.  It was not the easiest thing - my pieces were too large for most, the wrong medium for others.  Moreover, I was desperate to find an exhibit that celebrated paper and sculpture together - I wanted to see my work next to my peers, as a confirmation that I too belonged.  Naturally, when I stumbled across the Foundry Art Centre's Call to Artists for 'Paper Cuts' I instantly regarded it as 'the' event I wanted to join.  Cut-paper exhibits are shockingly rare, and the space seemed so beautiful - I told myself that acceptance here would be the ultimate sign of  accomplishment in the task I had set out for myself. 

By the time the center's response letter arrived in June, I had already placed in another group show and had won an art magazine prize, so I told myself that it wouldn't be the worst thing if I didn't get in.  The envelope was so thin, I reasoned its contents could have no other message for me.  But then it did.

Fast forward three weeks, the short time span I had in which to ship my pieces and arrange my own travel to St. Louis.  As I have confided to my friends, I flew over there with the sensation of never having traveled before, much as I had navigating my way around Tallahassee during college orientation when I was eighteen and away from home for the first time.  It was strange, to be getting dressed for the exhibit opening, as if for the prom, going to see my work in a new space, all grown-up, heading towards this seminal moment which I had awaited with such anticipation, validation of me as an artist...and I was doing it all on my own.  Once again I stood in Anka's shoes, a shy little thing, waiting for the reality of my situation to sink in. 

The space was indeed lovely, a converted train car factory that still had the original steel lifts - in the second world war it had assembled torpedoes - with lots of natural light and high ceilings.  Any worries for the state my pieces might be in (thank you, fedex) immediately subsided as I spied them at the end of the long gallery.  They had been installed with great care and lit with just the right degree of intensity...from here on out, I told myself, I could deem the experience a success.  Being there is all I had wanted, it's all I had worked towards.  I even managed to mingle, to ingratiate myself a little with fellow artists, pose for a picture, not drop my wine.  It was all turning out better than I could have hoped. 

And then they called out my name.  Going Solo Award for "Se Vende" by Carola Perla.  The piece I had done in honor of my family, as a tribute to Casa Marsano, an expression of my love for all things Peru.  The jury could not begin to imagine the deeply personal significance of the house motif or the Spanish poem, its allusions to Chabuca Granda, dust and garua, fairytales and broken dreams...they could not know and yet they thought it deserving.

Now, I know there are exhibits around the country every day, meaning that artists are winnings awards every day, and so I will not let this little triumph go to my head.  There is so much work...SO MUCH WORK ahead of me.  But I will keep the feeling of this first victory in a safe place, to call on when doubt sets in, as it always will.  Because it is a beautiful, necessary thing to work for yourself, to make art that feeds your own soul and gives you a pure purpose...I worked happily in the shroud of anonymity for nearly a decade, as I felt I should.  But every decade or so, it's nice to receive an accolade, a stamp of approval...the community of directors, curators, and artists at the Foundry Art Centre were wonderfully kind and welcoming, and for their support of my artist's journey I thank them...

On to the next one...


For those of you in the St Louis area: please note that the exhibit runs through until September 27, 2013.  It features beautiful work in cut paper as well as book art. 

Here are some photos from the 'Paper Cuts' opening event, which took place June 28th:

Paper Cuts Exhibit at the Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO

"Se Vende" and "Spelling Bee" by Carola Perla at the Foundry Art Centre

"Se Vende" and "Spelling Bee" at Paper Cuts Exhibit

"Se Vende" and "Spelling Bee" paper installations at Foundry Art Centre

"Se Vende" and "Spelling Bee" paper installations by Carola Perla

Winning piece "Se Vende" by Carola Perla

"Spelling Bee" visual poetry paper installation by Carola Perla

Carola Perla and Director Angela Fowle

 

JOURNEYS: "Paper Cuts" Exhibit at the Foundry Art Centre, June 28, 2013

 

Ever since sending off my two large installations, "Spelling Bee" and "Se Vende",  to St. Charles last week for the "PaperCuts" exhibit, I have been experiencing terrible pangs of anxiety. 

I keep wondering if it's because I'm worried about the state they will arrive in (being they've never traveled that far)?  Have I provided the right materials to display them?  Will they be hung correctly? Will they will make it back to me safe and sound in October?

And then I again, I wonder if my mind is really on something much more deep-seated...am I worried about how they will be received?  What would I do if someone wanted to buy them, would I be happy about it, or spin into another spiral of worry altogether?

And what if it's not any of the above?  What if it's because I am entering a new phase of my artistic life, which is my life essentially?  Starting this July, I will be participating in two separate gallery exhibits, in addition to unveiling a second piece for my upcoming novel "Humboldt's Riches" at ATELIER 1022.  I have left the safety of my own studio and have ventured out into the world.  I have no idea what reaction to expect.  There is as much responsibility in success as there is in failure...will I look back on this summer and see it as the monumental shift in direction as if feels to me now?  Is this the start of something or just a wave, a swell as occurs from time to time only to see things die down again?

 

I deliberate on all this from my seat at the dining table/computer desk in my living room.  Slanted rays of afternoon sun play on the palm fronds outside my window, balmy air pulsates through the mosquito mesh.  I am stationary, yet in motion...I am, I realize like my Anka in "Gibbin House", traveling without moving...Again, as so often in the past ten years, I find myself in her shoes, and it is brought home to me how very real my heroine is, and I love her all the more for it.  She understands what I feel just now.  As I enter this next chapter, I offer these lines:

"I pulled the covers over me, but my skin prickled from the inescapable chill that comes from lying alone.  I could not gather myself tight enough to feel solid and whole.  My stomach still seared from the coffee and now the astringent gin.  All the fluid in my insides rocked with the forward motion of the past week.  I lay inert, and yet my body was on a train, on a ferry, in a subterranean car, traveling without moving.

 

"I now feel most intimately that the process of traversing distance is an erosion of the spirit.  The thrill of change that accompanies the onset of a journey is a deception, the fearful attachment to outcome which makes adrenaline kick in a way not entirely un-pleasurable propelling the lie.  For a moment one feels positively alive.  One is duped into committing to the chaos.  One inhales the fumes, joins in rigid attack stances near sliding compartment doors.  One holds on feverishly as stuttering wheels grind to a halt.  One is titillatingly taunted by visions of missed connections, rerouted trains.  One presses on.

But after hours of vigilance and wide-eyed awake-ness, one adopts patience.  Or as it ought to be known, the self-congratulatory brother of fatigue.  Patience then gives way to indifference, and in time one becomes a heretic to the creed of goals and ends and satin-ribboned resolutions.  One stops caring about the names of foreign cities, stops seeking out their hearts from window seats.  Eventually one realizes they are all disfigured, all the same sketch of blasted glass and ruins and fire-retardant weeds, anonymous to the fickle gazes that graze them.  One drifts among them, a shipwrecked figure on Gericault’s raft, gaunt and delirious, running one’s arm through the air outside without hope or aim." (p. 36-38)