spikow

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A little bit after midnight lol. But Here is a taste of some of the beautiful images @rheelightnerstudio took of my Neoprene Funeral performance @cosmicmoustachecomics and I did on my 35th bday. Super special memory and one of my favorite things from 2020 - trying to end on a high note :) www.sparklezilla.com/neoprene-funeral https://www.instagram.com/p/CJfYCUABFQk/?igshid=wg95ezvkiycu

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Posting many photos at the 11th hour lol but I really wanted to close out 2020 posting about my 35th birthday on Feb 9, 2020. I was so busy at the time I never got too. But it was a really perfect day and before this year went bananas. We started off with fluxus club doing prompts with our @pique.gallery friends. Then we moved it into a crazy 20 min performance that I refer to as the neoprene funeral. It was a private performance in the stairwell of our home for our friends and family, even my grandma. Clint made me a custom video for the performance and we made music. Then afterwards we invited everyone to color on some of the performance relics and we had a rainbow potluck and watched my favorite circus on the projector. It was when we were allowed to be around people and not be afraid. I’m gonna do one more post tonight after this one showing the beautiful documentation photos that @rheelightnerstudio took. If you want to watch the performance and see all the photos it’s on my website sparklezilla.com/neoprene-funeral https://www.instagram.com/p/CJfVoSKBNcG/?igshid=12g1r50od40hj

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After @intheshowersorry ran our score and Action Objects at first Revelry of 2020 at the @cincycac and made those beautiful scans with patrons of the event- we had planned on workshopping out objects together. But right after that event the world went into lockdown. We didn’t actually get to perform them until a brisk Nov morning at dawn later this year. I often tell students you know you are an artist when you volunteer to do extra things you don’t have to do. We got up at 5 am on a Friday to perform these objects for no other reason than we were excited and interested in performing them together. I am really interested in the fact that we started this before the pandemic and continued it after. I performed some objects and Noel shot images of me and then they performed and a shot some photos and them we performed together and @non_pacifist took amazing images of us together. I love this project with @intheshowersorry. Action Objects nails some things I hadn’t resolved yet and I look forward to seeing where it goes. There are more images and info on my website sparklezilla.com/actionobjects #performanceart #artistfriends #art #contemporyart https://www.instagram.com/p/CJfUNdlBxB-/?igshid=vdgr9nuhpsme

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Noel Maghathe and I started this train of thought for the inaugural Revelry event last Feb (2020)at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. @intheshowersorry and I are both interested in making objects that have many applications (ie. can come to the body, can be activated, can be explored in a space as installation and/or sculpture).  Noel and I are also Fluxus artists at heart and believe that all objects have the potential to become art objects (especially ordinary objects) and all people can create and have art experiences.  For this Revelry event they invited us to respond to Lauren Henkin's work.  Noel and I felt kindred to Lauren's work being in spaces that were not traditionally reserved for art like bathrooms and hallways, and we also loved the idea of thinking of one's work as "interventions."  We chose to pick our materials from the hardware store for our first set of "Action Objects" as a reaction to how Lauren traditionally works materially.  The strategy Noel and I enacted when we went shopping together was picking objects that excited us either aesthetically or desire for experimentation.  Where we differed from Lauren Henkin's work, and this didn't hit us until we started working, was that we realized we were not actually making props, which is how Lauren referred to her installations at the CAC.  Noel and I are both performance artists that make objects. The more we talked about it the more we felt like the things we made were more than props, but they also weren't stationary sculptures.  The objects we made had a soul, they were an invitation for action, action from us and everyone we invited to participate and activate our score.  These objects are never really finished until they are being engaged and activated and even then they are always an open ended conversation with no conclusion. Our decisions when making our objects were based around visual appeal, but also objects that had no "right way" to interact with and would ideally prompt curiosity.  This collection of objects is the first in our series of "Action Objects" and Noel and I look forward to pushing this idea further. At Revelry Noel workshopped this objects with Our score. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJfRu8VhK8U/?igshid=1oi32qtgxwa3i

[spikow]

Noel Maghathe and I started this train of thought for the inaugural Revelry event last Feb (2020)at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. @intheshowersorry and I are both interested in making objects that have many applications (ie. can come to the body, can be activated, can be explored in a space as installation and/or sculpture).  Noel and I are also Fluxus artists at heart and believe that all objects have the potential to become art objects (especially ordinary objects) and all people can create and have art experiences.  For this Revelry event they invited us to respond to Lauren Henkin's work.  Noel and I felt kindred to Lauren's work being in spaces that were not traditionally reserved for art like bathrooms and hallways, and we also loved the idea of thinking of one's work as "interventions."  We chose to pick our materials from the hardware store for our first set of "Action Objects" as a reaction to how Lauren traditionally works materially.  The strategy Noel and I enacted when we went shopping together was picking objects that excited us either aesthetically or desire for experimentation.  Where we differed from Lauren Henkin's work, and this didn't hit us until we started working, was that we realized we were not actually making props, which is how Lauren referred to her installations at the CAC.  Noel and I are both performance artists that make objects. The more we talked about it the more we felt like the things we made were more than props, but they also weren't stationary sculptures.  The objects we made had a soul, they were an invitation for action, action from us and everyone we invited to participate and activate our score.  These objects are never really finished until they are being engaged and activated and even then they are always an open ended conversation with no conclusion. Our decisions when making our objects were based around visual appeal, but also objects that had no "right way" to interact with and would ideally prompt curiosity.  This collection of objects is the first in our series of "Action Objects" and Noel and I look forward to pushing this idea further. At Revelry Noel workshopped this objects with a score we wrote https://www.instagram.com/p/CJfRgCHBR7M/?igshid=14uqryiq8pim1

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This year I have been focusing on 2 concepts. In the idea of teamwork, I focus on bringing as many great minds together as possible. In the idea of becoming a more extreme version of myself (Sparklezilla Extreme), I am pushing myself to experiment on aspects of my identity in a deeper way. In “I am Super Tall (sang), Communal Hat Version 1 of 2” I wanted to make something that functions as a sculpture off the body and as a potential communal performance object on the body while incorporating both concepts (Multiple people could wear at the same time (literally putting heads together), and a hat that makes me taller.) In February this year, I worked with a team of youth to make a giant communal hat with a performance score that many people could explore and activate together on the 6th floor at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati OH. This project is an extension of that important idea. I like as much of my work as possible to be an invitation to collaborate and perform. Clint and I only scratched the surface on this as a performance object - I love any opportunities to perform with @cosmicmoustachecomics I made this back in October. I never posted about it because it was part of this year’s Secret Auction for @artworkscincy and we couldn’t reveal ourselves until after the auction. It was hard not to share because I had made some fun videos about working with EVA foam as a sculptural/wearable material for the Radical Fit Tutorials program via YOUmedia social media channels put together by the Chicago Public Library and @rebirthgarments. This hat is the focus of my part 2 video. Radical Fit is an 8 month fashion based program series that embraces craft, making and DIY while providing a safe space for teens to discuss gender equity, and to dream and create through personal expressions of style. The initiative is funded through Project Next Generation, an education technology initiative of the Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian, Jesse White. Instagram:   @youmediachicago Twitter:   @YOUmediaChicago Facebook:   YOUmedia @ Chicago Public Library News Post: http://www.chipublib.org/RadicalFit #CPLRadicalFit https://www.instagram.com/p/CJc6bpRh0HS/?igshid=pm5qf8jn76hk

[spikow]

This year I have been focusing on 2 concepts. In the idea of teamwork, I focus on bringing as many great minds together as possible. In the idea of becoming a more extreme version of myself (Sparklezilla Extreme), I am pushing myself to experiment on aspects of my identity in a deeper way. In “I am Super Tall (sang), Communal Hat Version 1 of 2” I wanted to make something that functions as a sculpture off the body and as a potential communal performance object on the body while incorporating both concepts (Multiple people could wear at the same time (literally putting heads together), and a hat that makes me taller.) In February this year, I worked with a team of youth to make a giant communal hat with a performance score that many people could explore and activate together on the 6th floor at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati OH. This project is an extension of that important idea. I like as much of my work as possible to be an invitation to collaborate and perform. Clint and I only scratched the surface on this as a performance object - I love any opportunities to perform with @cosmicmoustachecomics I made this back in October. I never posted about it because it was part of this year’s Secret Auction for @artworkscincy and we couldn’t reveal ourselves until after the auction. It was hard not to share because I had made some fun videos about working with EVA foam as a sculptural/wearable material for the Radical Fit Tutorials program via YOUmedia social media channels put together by the Chicago Public Library and @rebirthgarments. This hat is the focus of my part 2 video. Radical Fit is an 8 month fashion based program series that embraces craft, making and DIY while providing a safe space for teens to discuss gender equity, and to dream and create through personal expressions of style. The initiative is funded through Project Next Generation, an education technology initiative of the Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian, Jesse White. Instagram:   @youmediachicago Twitter:   @YOUmediaChicago Facebook:   YOUmedia @ Chicago Public Library News Post: http://www.chipublib.org/RadicalFit #CPLRadicalFit #YOUmedia #youmediachicago https://www.instagram.com/p/CJc5cD9hkbR/?igshid=1ryiwb93q2obb

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I was super pumped to get the newest volume of @Emergency_Index I love this publication. I love that it doesn’t try to take a curatorial stance on the hierarchy of performance art, it doesn’t even try to define what performance art is, it just gives artists a chance to share their performance documentation in the form of writing. There are performances submitted from all over the world. You can travel the world through the lens of performance art from reading these pages. These volumes come out each year. But this particular volume is special to me because many people I think are awesome have work in it! @intheshowersorry @upspiralcreative @cosmicmoustachecomics and @future.clint @laurencsudbrink and of course how special to have Spikow2 in this volume. I had to privilege of being part of a lot of incredible performances in 2019 - it was impossible to decide which one to submit. But Spikow2 was such a weird and magical event that involved so many important people to us. I felt compelled to put it out there into the world and declare to the world we will find away to produce Spikow3 the reenactment opera in 2024. I have missed live performance so much this year. Which is why I was so excited to get this book and read and dream about time based art. I think I decided that a 2021 goal for me is to read a performance in this book everyday and maybe even respond to some. Note: Kat Burke is listed as a performer for my performance #spikow2 in this publication. After this performance was submitted to the publication Kat changed their name is Jasper Rose! :) @incisorz #performanceart #performance #artpublication #emergencyindex #emergencyindexvolume9 #artists #magic https://www.instagram.com/p/CJXrNxWBnKs/?igshid=j9613heer1y7

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2020’s Wedding Dress - Dress #7 Images 1 -7 This year’s dress features a tulle sculpture that was an over dress. To me it seems like tulle is really a symbol for wedding dresses . . .and it’s really fun to spin around with. People seem to recognize my wedding dresses as wedding dresses more when there is tulle involved. lol. Then there was also an under jumpsuit. This year Clint made the fabric print for the jumpsuit which I LOVE. The design for that fabric and the jumpsuit . . . well they evolved from dreams we were receiving from the future . . . . it was very strange. . . To be continued. . . . Images 8 - 10 People often ask me what Clint wear’s each year. Last year he wore a custom suit my mom @klwhittle made him for the opening of #archiveasaction from his custom fabric of his comic characters. This year we wanted him to make a 2020 wedding outfit also. So @cosmicmoustachecomics painted a leather jacket about @future.clint and . . . Future Lindsey. . . . I. LOVE. THIS. JACKET !!!! #marriedartists #2020weddingdress #weddingdress #color #fashionartist #6thanniversary #weddinganniversary https://www.instagram.com/p/CJVgIRbhimX/?igshid=ii48yij88are

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2020’s Wedding Dress - Dress #7 Images 1 -7 This year’s dress features a tulle sculpture that was an over dress. To me it seems like tulle is really a symbol for wedding dresses . . .and it’s really fun to spin around with. People seem to recognize my wedding dresses as wedding dresses more when there is tulle involved. lol. Then there was also an under jumpsuit. This year Clint made the fabric print for the jumpsuit which I LOVE. The design for that fabric and the jumpsuit . . . well they evolved from dreams we were receiving from the future . . . . it was very strange. . . To be continued. . . . Images 8 - 10 People often ask me what Clint wear’s each year. Last year he wore a custom suit my mom @klwhittle made him for the opening of #archiveasaction from his custom fabric of his comic characters. This year we wanted him to make a 2020 wedding outfit also. So @cosmicmoustachecomics painted a leather jacket about @future.clint and . . . Future Lindsey. . . . I. LOVE. THIS. JACKET !!!! #marriedartists #2020weddingdress #weddingdress #color #fashionartist #6thanniversary #weddinganniversary https://www.instagram.com/p/CJVfOVQhzti/?igshid=100562mpb87ur

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Another Post leading up to this year’s Wedding Dress is all the BEAUTIFUL portraits @Graceduval took last year of each of the 6 past dresses. The first 5 dresses are images she took at #Spikow2 which was an event that reenacted all of the performances from our original wedding (#spikow) and added new ones. This was a highly collaborative event and the last performance event I initiated at the @cincycac for the 3 person exhibition #archiveasaction in 2019. All of the dresses were on exhibit spread out throughout the Museum in the two weeks leading up to #spikow2. Grace took sooooo many beautiful portraits I had to collage a few together to choose 10. The last image grace took at @facility_chicago during #fallafaire2019 She would have shot that dress at #spikow2 - but it didn’t exist yet lol!! Hopefully at #spikow3 -wedding reenactment opera in 2024 grace can shoot this year’s and future ones! #portraits #photography #weddingphotography #weddingdresses #fashionart #durationproject https://www.instagram.com/p/CJVcvm9h9LY/?igshid=19gnj499zxowv

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Another Post leading up to this year’s Wedding Dress is all the BEAUTIFUL portraits @Graceduval took last year of each of the 6 past dresses. The first 5 dresses are images she took at #Spikow2 which was an event that reenacted all of the performances from our original wedding (#spikow) and added new ones. This was a highly collaborative event and the last performance event I initiated at the @cincycac for the 3 person exhibition #archiveasaction in 2019. All of the dresses were on exhibit spread out throughout the Museum in the two weeks leading up to #spikow2. Grace took sooooo many beautiful portraits I had to collage a few together to choose 10. The last image grace took at @facility_chicago during #fallafaire2019 She would have shot that dress at #spikow2 - but it didn’t exist yet lol!! Hopefully at #spikow3 -wedding reenactment opera in 2024 grace can shoot this year’s and future ones! #portraits #photography #weddingphotography #weddingdresses #fashionart #durationproject https://www.instagram.com/p/CJVXfG6hgt2/?igshid=20t2oxsjgaiq

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I had to unplug and be sad for a while to deal with the my student who passed last week and some covid related recent stresses. I am still sad/ processing- but also trying to find myself again - - There are many posts I want to do before the end of 2020 lol so be prepared for a sparklezilla blitz lol. Before I post some detail shots of this years wedding dress I wanted to walk down memory lane of the 6 previous wedding dresses shot in the year they were made. I LOVE This duration project. I love that the dresses represent where Clint and I are at each year and what we would have worn if we got married that year. But mostly what I love about these dresses is you really witness Clint and I becoming more of our weirdo ourselves a little bit more every year. It’s way a to reconnect and recommit and celebrate the marriage and art collective we have worked so hard to build over the years. I love each dress for different reasons. But I am always especially attached to the most recent one :) #wedding #weddingdresses #weddinganniversary #dress #fashion #fashionartist #marriedartists @cosmicmoustachecomics https://www.instagram.com/p/CJVQ8Ilh4rS/?igshid=1h14t9fe87vkq

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I had the privilege of working with Jada Kirk for 1 summer when @graceduval and I were lead teaching artists for @artworkscincy during Blink in 2019. We tapped into magic with that whole amazing group of apprentices and it’s one of my favorite projects I’ve ever been a part of. I think about it all the time and use it as a standard of successful classes. Jada profoundly impacted Grace and I. She was bold and brave and bright. She shared her talents so fearlessly and with so much heart. We watched her pick up new, challenging skills fast and then would help teach her peers what she learned. We watched her volunteer to perform in the 3 act performance “Other Wordly” we all spent a months putting together that took place under the Roebling bridge with the Cincinnati dance group @ponesinc during Blink. She had never performed in this way before she absolutely rocked it- performing alongside seasoned performers. I only got to experience her bright light for a short time and I feel shocked and shaken and broken about her loss. I can’t imagine the depth of what her family feels and what they are going through right now. Jada was a student who meant a lot to me, I learned a great deal from and I am grateful to have known her. I hope I carry even just a little of her light in me to share with others. The last 4 images are digital colleges she made that were projected during our performance. First 2 images are by Bergette photography and the performance night images are by Grace DuVal. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJEgsqnBvqb/?igshid=1r27am7qbhpyj

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I will post more thorough images and descriptions of our wedding outfits tomorrow. But I just wanted to show up here and wish @cosmicmoustachecomics a happy 6th wedding anniversary- thanks for always being your awesome self. I hope one lifetime is enough for our love/art story. ❤️💖💜💚🌈⚡️🌈⚡️🌈⭐️⭐️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ #marriedartists #love #weddinganniversary #besthusband #lovestory #color #artists https://www.instagram.com/p/CIw5dXmh__z/?igshid=zd81i3fpkrfx

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Sorry - had to repost bc some images were black??? It was such a privilege to get out some work and spread some inspiration for the holidays for Found - Windows of Wonder put on by @agaragency @3cdc_official @hailefdn and @artworkscincy (Post 1 of 2) This window will feature live performance by @ponesinc on Dec 18 at 7 pm- you can watch from the street (1300 Main st #Cincy OH) or HERE on my Instagram live. I worked on shifting the sculpture I commissioned @adams3215 to weld from drawings I gave him in 2018-2019. (I also commissioned Adam to make that incredible white pedestal in this image) This shape was about a shape Clint and I drew together. The first version of this sculpture was an interactive piece that was displayed on magnets at @cincycac during #archiveasaction. Version 2 got a new layer of stretch mesh with a print featuring the performance @ladythundermaker (image of fabric included) and I did for the opening of Archive As Action. Also for version 2 the display is through stretch mesh tubes that can also be brought to the body. This piece has been a beautiful and heavy journey for me, and Version 2 was about reclaiming it’s voice from someone trying to hijack it. I also was grateful for a chance to get last years collection back out. Clint and I have been working on a teamwork collection together this year. But I really want to find good homes for the 2019 Spikow Prequel collection first. I am working on getting all of these things listed on my website. But . . I have to make wedding dress first lol The Spikow Prequel collection is about Clint and I using our marriage as an art collective as we were at the 5 year mark last year. This collection has 9 (still for sale out of 11 total) interactive table top Plexiglass sculptures, 5 collaborative jewelry pieces, and 3 clothing items. 2 of the shirts I hand beaded. The jewelry collection was made by @tricialenzergottschall All the metal is sterling silver and all the of jump rings were made by hand so that the charms can be removed to make mini sculptures. All of these items are limited and will not be reproduced once they are gone. https://www.instagram.com/p/CIrCgLwhC6e/?igshid=12btbhxhbhame

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It was such a privilege to get out some work and spread some inspiration for the holidays for Found - Windows of Wonder put on by @agaragency @3cdc_official @hailefdn and @artworkscincy (Post 2 of 2) This window will feature live performance by @ponesinc on Dec 18 7 pm- you can watch from the street (1300 main st Cincy ON) or HERE on Instagram live. I asked @rheelightnerstudio to take all of the powerful images posted here - I layered some into the background so I could double post lol. Believe it or not, in 2019 I made a list of performances I wanted to with @cosmicmoustachecomics in 2020. When I made that list I had no idea what was coming for us in 2020, especially in our case some intense family losses. I had done all of the performances on my list except this one. I had just decided that since it was such a hard year, I would cut myself some slack if it didn’t happen. Then I was approached about doing a #FoundWindow and I took it as a sign that it was meant to be. Clint and I did this performance on 11/30/20 for Rhee Lightner and passer- byers on main street that night. If you want to watch the footage of this performance it is on display in the window of 1300 main st Cincinnati. This year I set an intention of becoming a more extreme version of myself and merging my work more with Clint. The extreme version of myself has been a lot of slow steps, but I made a lot of progress merging work with Clint - very exciting. I am SO grateful I got to do all of the performances on my list, and that I got to do them with Clint. Stay turned - Pones will be (masked and distanced) activating these pieces 12/13 and I have never let someone else besides myself lead/explore this work with action - - so I am excited/nervous - in a good way :) Version 3 of this piece will most likely have another fabric print of 2020’s performances so this sculpture will visually carry it’s documentation through each showing. #art #performanceart #marriedartists #photography #window #windowart #2020 #artprevails #cincinnati https://www.instagram.com/p/CIrAdWchVtj/?igshid=1tdk2bgjwspsa