Open Auditions for Spring Workshops

OPEN AUDITIONS:
Ellen Mueller is seeking physical and improvisational performers of all types for two free collaborative workshops exploring the concepts of success and evaluation.


About the Workshops and Ellen Mueller:
These two free workshops will be led by Ellen Mueller at the University of South Florida Marshall Student Center, February 28 & March 1, Noon – 4:00pm, and April 4 & 5, Noon - 4:00pm. The approach for these workshops is based on techniques gleaned from yoga, the Brave New Institute – an improvisation training center in Minneapolis, MN, the Theatre of the Emerging American Moment – a theatre company dedicated to dissecting and celebrating the experience of living in America today, and Viewpoints – a technique for building ensembles and creating movement. Specifically, we will explore our collective response to the concepts of success and evaluation. Our goal is to gather and develop images, ideas, questions, situations, and characters through the practice of movement and improvisational exercises. Participants can expect to learn about the Eight Secrets of BNW Creativity, as well as an approach to collaborative creation. The material collected will be used as research for new performance works, and may lead to future collaborations with workshop participants.

Ellen Mueller was raised in Fargo, ND and currently lives and works in Tampa, FL. She received a BA in Theatre and Art, and a BS in Design Technology from Bemidji State University. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Studio Art with emphasis on performance at University of South Florida. For more information about recent projects, please visit EllenMueller.com


Audition Details:
Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 7pm – 9pm

University of South Florida
Fine Arts/FAH Room 280
4202 E. Fowler Avenue
Tampa, FL 33620


Instructions:
Wear clothing appropriate for movement. Please bring a headshot, or a snapshot that clearly displays your face. No prepared material is necessary. The audition will consist of movement and improvisation exercises, and may be conducted individually or in groups as the schedule allows. If you have any special talents, musical skills, etc, please be prepared to share them. You will be asked to indicate which of the two workshop dates you are available for, or if you are available for both. To reserve an audition slot, please email Ellen at emmuelle@mail.usf.edu with your availability between 7-9pm on January 6, 2009. If you are interested in the project, but are unavailable on this audition date/time, please feel free to contact Ellen to make alternative arrangements.

Lightboxes at the USF Fine Arts Building

If you get a chance, check out the lightboxes on the north side of the USF Fine Arts building. I have a piece on display from the manual for "The System." Also on display are works from Chris Otten, Robb Fladry, and Jordi Williams. They look pretty cool after dark...

We were selected for the grant!

We were selected for the grant!

In November, I, and a group of 3 other students, applied for the 2008 – 2009 USF Graduate Student Challenge Grants for Building Research Partnerships Across Disciplines. Our proposal was entitled, "Fanaticism, America, and Sustainability." We proposed to research the status of fanaticism in America, and how fanaticism correlates to the sustainability of populations and the environment. Our sample population is 18-38 year old Americans. We will explore how their beliefs about environmental sustainability affect their fanaticism, and vice versa.

It sounds kind of dense and academic, but I'm excited because I'll be using my portion of the grant money to address these issues in a collaborative performance piece. We'll start out by doing a few improvisation workshops, and create from what we discover there. I'm very excited to have the resources to rent a decent performance space, costumes, props, production equipment, etc.

The other grad students on my team are:
Robb Fladry- Studio Art/Electronic Media
Jeffery A. Hinzmann - Philosophy
Elizabeth Victor- Philosophy

Old School Mentioned In ReadyMade Magazine

The latest volume of ReadyMade Magazine includes a recommendation of the Old School book!

Published last summer, this little book was created in concurrence with an exhibition at UPPERCASE Gallery and includes my drawing, Focus Here.
The book is filled with a lot of great art, including work by my friend Tonja Torgerson. It is great to see it getting press months after its debut. More information about the magazine's mention can be found here.
Information about Old School and how to purchase it can be found at UPPERCASE's online shop. If you haven't already checked it out, I really recommend you do.
[thanks Tonja for this great post!]

The System is complete

You may remember a post back at the end of September where I showed some cryptic white objects, which I claimed would become time travel devices... Well, those objects are now complete, and I have a few photos from the studio to show their progress:


The main console with cartridges stacked on top.


Main console and cartridges.


3 cartridges for loading into the console (one for future, one for past, one for found-images)


Demonstrating the image loader.


Box of custom rulers for analyzing found-images.


All 12 of the rulers (screen printed on painted wood).


The Scope, complete with rotating arms.

Included with The System are an instruction manual and a travel log, but I'll feature them in another post. Keep an eye out for them...

Poseurs: New Work from New MFA Students

We finished installing the show on Sunday, and everything seems to be up and running smoothly! Here's the press release:

Poseurs: New Work from New MFA Students - Reception November 14

Featuring the work of USF's first-year MFA students in a variety of visual arts media
With live performances by Khadijah Queen and Robb Fladry

TAMPA, FL – 'Pose(u)rs' is an exhibition of new work by ten artists who are pretending to be students by being artists. First-year Masters of Fine Arts students will be hosting their first visual arts exhibition at the William and Nancy Oliver Gallery, November 10 - 21, 2008. A reception will be held Friday, November 14, 7:00pm - 10:00pm. A variety of works will be on view, including photography, prints, sculpture, video, performance, and painting.

The exhibition will feature two live performances: Khadijah Queen's Liminal Acts: Movement & Madness (in collaboration with Natasha Marin) on November 13 at 9pm behind USF's Contemporary Art Museum, and Robb Fladry will be mixing audio and video on November 14 at 8pm at the William and Nancy Oliver Gallery during the reception.

Artists include Robb Fladry, Ryan Foster, Zak Hemsteger, Francis Marquez, Justin Martin, Bruce Monroe, Ellen Mueller, Chris Otten, Khadijah Queen, and Jordi Williams. Curated by Assistant Professor Neil Bender.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
USF MFA students present:
"Poseurs: New Work from New MFA Students"

Date/Times:
November 10 - 20, 2008
Monday - Thursday 11:00am - 3:00pm

Reception:
November 14, 7pm - 10pm
Featuring live performances on November 13 at 9pm, and November 14 at 8pm

Location:
William and Nancy Oliver Gallery
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave,
Tampa FL 33620
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Media Contact:
Ellen Mueller, ellen.m.mueller@gmail.com

Promotional images available for download at:
http://robbfladry.com/gradseminar/card1_web.jpg
612 x 792, 72dpi (web quality)

http://robbfladry.com/gradseminar/card1.jpg
2550 x 3300, 300dpi (print quality)

The System - Coming February 2009 - Commercial 3

I am pleased to share this third of three videos promoting my new body of art work. The System is a time travel console and instruction manual, to be promoted by my new character, Valerie Hartman. In February 2009, I will be presenting an installation and performance piece where Valerie promotes The System as a means of regaining control in one's life. Stay tuned!

The System - Coming February 2009 - Commercial 2

I am pleased to share this second of three videos promoting my new body of art work. The System is a time travel console and instruction manual, to be promoted by my new character, Valerie Hartman. In February 2009, I will be presenting an installation and performance piece where Valerie promotes The System as a means of regaining control in one's life. Stay tuned!

The System - Coming February 2009

I am pleased to share this first of three videos promoting my new body of art work. The System is a time travel console and instruction manual, to be promoted by my new character, Valerie Hartman. In February 2009, I will be presenting an installation and performance piece where Valerie promotes The System as a means of regaining control in one's life. Stay tuned!

Closing reception for FloCAS on Friday!

Don't miss the last chance to take in the 2008 traveling FloCAS exhibition this Friday from 9-11pm.

Date:	Friday, October 24, 2008
Time:	9:00pm - 11:00pm
Location:	Bustillo y Diaz Cigar Factory
Street:	2111 N Albany Ave.
City/Town:	Tampa, FL

The Florida Consortium of Art Schools (FLoCAS) is a collaboration between the dedicated graduate students and educators from major universities through out the state of Florida. There will be a closing reception on Friday, October 24th, 9 PM - 11 PM.

The 2008 FloCAS Traveling Exhibition was juried by North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art Director Bonnie Clearwater. There are a total of 30 graduate students from USF, FSU and UF exhibiting their artwork in the show. Before arriving in Tampa the exhibition has been displayed in both Tallahassee's 621 Gallery and WarpHaus in Gainesville.

For those on Facebook, say you'll attend our event!

Back from NYC! (Day 4 summary)

The final summary from the NYC trip...

SUNDAY
Sunday started out with a peaceful sit in the park next to The Brooklyn Museum (they didn't open until 11am, and I arrived early, so I took the time to outline the manual for my upcoming exhibition, Complete with Illustrated Manual - I'm so excited!).


Once inside, we (classmate Robb Fladry and I) went to the Jesper Just exhibition of video works, which was a highlight of the trip - it was some of the most interesting work of the whole weekend.

Then, we went upstairs to check out the Gilbert and George exhibition which was also interesting because it was digital art by people who seemed to have only a surface/minimal understanding of the software - it brought about some good discussion about value, archival standards, etc.


Following this museum, we grabbed a bite to eat, and I was off to the airport to catch my flight back to Tampa! What a whirlwind of art overload in just 4 days! I'll be processing this stuff for a while.

See also:
NYC Day 1
NYC Day 2
NYC Day 3

Back from NYC! (Day 3 summary)

SATURDAY

We started off by visiting USF faculty, Elisabeth Condon's, studio in Brooklyn.

Then it was off to do some more studio visits/artists talks with a photo-realistic painter, Ben Weiner


and Siebren Versteeg, who had interesting multimedia work based on scripting computer code.

We also stopped by The Kitchen to catch some interesting Alix Pearlstein video installations.


The surprise that topped off Saturday was a somewhat unexpected visit to Jeff Koons' studio! He wasn't there, but it was still fascinating to tour the "factory." The picture I have here isn't from our actual visit, but it looks pretty much the same, just different paintings on the wall. We weren't allowed to take photos, so this is the best I could find.


The rest of the day was spent searching for the TKTS booth that is not in Times Square (yes, there are 2 locations), finding it (after it was closed), trying to get back out to Brooklyn for another USF faculty's show, Julie Weitz, only to find that the 2nd train we needed to take was transformed into a magical shuttle bus that was not going to get us there in time. After finding some consolation in french toast, again, I went to bed exhausted!

Back from NYC! (Day 2 summary)

Technically I returned from NYC Sunday night, so let's see if I can remember it all...
This is a run-down of all the stuff we did the 2nd day we were there.

FRIDAY
We started off at the Museum of Modern Art, where we saw some Rauschenbergs that relate to our class work
,
a Lichtenstein, that I had to do the tourist thing with,
,

and the famous Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (I just had to mention it because it's the first time I've seen it live)
,
but my favorite exhibition there was definitely Looking at Music.


On our walk to the next place, we found these great Hello Kitty Sculptures. I'm not smiling because a crying kitty is serious.


Next, we went to the Whitney Museum of American Art where we were lucky to take in a big exhibition of Paul McCarthy work
,
and talk with one of the artists, Corin Hewitt, featured in a special exhibition, Seed Stage. He has built a lab/studio in a gallery on the main floor, and he'll be working there 4 days/week for 3 months.

After that, we went to a bunch of openings in Chelsea, and the most notable was Donald Moffett's Easy Clean. This image shows one of his paintings he creates with a pastry-chef's frosting tip and oil paint. It was tough not to touch these!



After all this art-ing and walking, it was another night where I fell into bed exhausted.

Back from NYC! (Day 1 summary)

Technically I returned from NYC Sunday night, so let's see if I can remember it all...
The trip was a part of my Graduate Seminar class, and this is a run-down of all the stuff we did for the first day we were there. (I'll post each day separately, otherwise this would get crazy long!)

THURSDAY
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw the Jeff Koons exhibit
and the Giorgio Morandi exhibit.


Then, we went to the New Museum of Contemporary Art, where we saw Elizabeth Peyton's retrospective: Live Forever
,
and the 2008 Altoids Awards.

It was fun to see the Elizabeth Peyton's work live because she is in the "Drawing Now" textbook I used in an undergrad drawing class.


Thursday was kind of a short day because everyone arrived in the city that day, so after partaking in an amazing deli sandwich, I turned in for the night, exhausted.

Opening at a Cigar Factory this Friday

The Florida Consortium of Art Schools (FLoCAS) is a collaboration between the dedicated graduate students and educators from major universities through out the state of Florida. As a result of this collaboration, the 2008 FloCAS Traveling Exhibition will open to the public at Tampa's Bustillo y Diaz Cigar Factory on October 7th. The exhibition runs through October 24th, and there will be an opening reception on Friday, October 10th, 6 PM - 11 PM.

The 2008 FloCAS Traveling Exhibition was juried by North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art Director Bonnie Clearwater. There are a total of 30 graduate students from USF, FSU and UF exhibiting their artwork in the show. Before arriving in Tampa the exhibition has been displayed in both Tallahassee's 621 Gallery and WarpHaus in Gainesville.

Please visit http://www.flocas.org for more information about FLoCAS and upcoming events.

When:
Exhibition Runs: October 7-24, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday October 10th, 6-11 PM

Where:
Bustillo y Diaz Cigar Factory
2111 N Albany Ave.
Tampa FL 33607

Gallery Hours:
M-F 9 AM - 5 PM by appointment only.
Please contact Cecile Raynaud.
813.598.4498
craynaud@aol.com

New work is coming along...

I've been working on some new pieces that will functions as props in an upcoming performance. They are still pretty abstract here, but I thought I'd throw up some photos just to show some progress. They are time travel devices that will eventually constitute a whole system/console for this character who is fanatically consumed by controlling and moving through time.

I was on TV! (briefly)

Check it out! I was on TV briefly because I participated in Pedro Reyes' installation/performance piece at the USF Contemporary Art Museum.



It's a quick shot of me smashing a faux-guitar, and it happens about a minute and 20 seconds into the clip. If any of you know Phil McCollam, you'll see him in the piece as well!

Video posted from Artery24

If you were unable to make it to Artery24 at The Soap Factory back in July, you can now check out a video section of my performance, Control and Death 2008, on my website.  The full performance was close to a half hour long, this section is only about 6 minutes long.

I'm a Featured Artist on MyArtSpace.com!

Fun news!  I'm a featured artist on MyArtSpace.com for the upcoming month.  Check it out here.

See if you can find me - I should be in the top row... YEAH!

1st week Grad school DONE & Going to NYC!

Well, I've completed my first week of grad school, and am sufficiently over-whelmed. I have a "Contemporary Thought" class that requires 1 full day per week just for reading the articles required for class (the professor suggests using Saturdays). I have a "Graduate Seminar" class that surprised us with a required trip to NYC in October (I'll get to that in just a moment). Then, there's the "Intermediate Drawing" class in which I am assisting a professor and a "Directed Study" course, so we'll see what fun surprises I'll be challenged with in my studio time. It's been overwhelming, but good - I came to grad school to be challenged, and they are definitely holding up their end of the bargain!
Tampa is a very hot and humid place right now (we're in our hurricane season), but I'm told time and again that the weather will improve soon. Other notable Florida items: there are little lizards everywhere, people are generally shocked and do not believe me when I say I don't have a car, and voter registration ends Oct 6th here! (I didn't realize how spoiled I was in MN where you can register the day of the vote)
Finally, as I mentioned before, I am going to be taking an unexpected trip to NYC October 9-12, 2008. If anyone is currently in NYC or knows someone there with a spare couch or floor space, please let me know... I am small, polite, and unobtrusive. I'm hoping to cut costs by finding some way to crash for free, or at a steep discount - any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!

Sneak Peak of the show up in Canada...

Have a sneak peak of the Old School exhibit I'm in up in Canada!  After seeing these photos, I really wish I could have been there for the opening tonight.  Poo.  

FLOCAS postcard almost ready to go...

I just finished prepping the postcards for the printers. Once they've been proofed, off they go! (let me know if you see any mistakes!) I'm pretty excited for this show. I'm learning a lot of important things about marketing a show in Tampa, which was one of my main goals in joining the marketing committee for this FLOCAS show.

Aside from this project, I'm just excited for school to start on Monday. I can't wait to get into classes again... and even homework! (I know, I know, I will be laughing at that line in a couple weeks, but for now I'm itching to get moving).

Searching for Maps and Globes

Anyone have an old globe they're itching to get rid of? Or did you see a ridiculously cheap one online? Let me know!

I'm also looking for pull-down maps similar to those found in classrooms (see pictures).

I'm searching for these and similar items for an upcoming project, so if you have any leads, let me know by dropping me an email (ellen.m.mueller@gmail.com) or leaving a comment here...
Thanks!

New Gallery on EllenMueller.com

Take a moment to check out the new gallery at EllenMueller.com
Control and Death 2008
These images are from the Artery24 performance festival that occurred July 5, 2008. I performed a 30 minute piece entitled, "Control and Death 2008," where I portrayed several characters simultaneously with the help of some crafty video projection. Soon I will post the video from the event.

Funny Promo Video for Old School Book

Enjoy!


Old School from UPPERCASE gallery on Vimeo.

I'm instructing YOGA again!

Good news: I was hired at the USF Rec Center to teach yoga on a weekly basis. As soon as I receive my academic schedule, I'll figure out when I can hold my 2-3 session/week. YEAH!

Technical difficulties...

So, being the curious web crawler I am, I tried using Feedburner on my blog and was quite disappointed with the result (it seems like a great tool, but not for me right now...) SO I have removed it from the blog, and hope that everyone that may have missed out on the last couple posts, will take a moment to scroll back a few posts or so (just to make sure you haven't missed anything fun!).
Thanks!
Feel free to leave any feedback on the blog, Feedburner, etc

"Wanted" -- One my latest acting endeavors

I'm in this little film, "Wanted," by my good friend Mike Forstein:



Directed, shot and edited by Michael Forstein. Produced and written by Colin Keith Thomsen. See more at youtube.com/roguesetmedia.

"Wanted" was a submission for the Summit Brewing Company film contest. He was awarded "Honorable Mention" by the Summit jury. There were three top prizes (which consisted mostly of beer), plus 6 honorable mentions, which means our film placed in the top 9 out of 45+ submissions. Not bad!

Made it to Florida!

I made it to Florida in one piece, and have started to settle in a bit. There's still boxes all over the place, but things are starting to get sorted out.
Here are some photos from the road trip down. Fun public art at Millennium Park in Chicago:





Additionally, I took some photos of my new studio space at USF:


Outside the studio building


A view of my studio space....

and again....

and again!
It's pretty empty looking right now, but I plan to get in there very soon to start plugging away.