Courtney Reints
Official website is updated. Check it.
I could hear the water drop from the rooftop into a puddle of rocks below. The sun was shining and snow slowly melting. I watched the water without even noticing the rabbit half blanketed with snow. Its color camouflaged into the earth and cinder blocks, the snow not yet ready to reveal its treasure. Yesterday I could only see feet and torso. Today’s sun was warm and the rabbit’s head was exposed, a brilliant blue eye hidden by winter.
Courtney Reints
3.8.2013
Today I was informed about Wisconsin’s Taxidermy and Cheese shops. I WILL be going to some of these. This photo I found online from a store in Mapleton WI was titled ‘Cheese Heads.’ Thank you for my new fascination Stevie! All of the best things, all in one place. Only in Wisconsin.
A golden female moth, a biggish one with a two-inch wingspread, flapped into the fire, dropped abdomen into the wet wax, stuck, flamed, frazzled, and fried in a second. Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing… At once the light contracted again and the moth’s wings vanished in a fine, foul smoke… Her antennae crisped and burnt away and her heaving mouthparts cracked like pistol fire…And then this moth-essence, this spectacular skeleton, began to act as a wick. She kept burning. The wax rose in the moth’s body from her soaking abdomen to her thorax to the jagged hole where her head should be, and widened into a flame, a saffron-yellow flame that robed her to the ground like an immolating monk. That candle had two wicks, two flames of identical light, side by side. The moth’s head was fire. She burned for two hours, until I blew her out.
Sketch Install
A few photos of a very sketchy install for my senior project. Editing down proofs and playing with image groupings and objects. After my critique with David Little, and the many conversations I had with people while sitting with my work on Friday, I am rethinking my initial plans but am excited for where I will go from here. It will be up in a 3rd floor alcove at MCAD until Wednesday.
2.11.13 Courtney Reints
A recent select few from my ‘working files’ folder for my current project. 2104 images and counting.
Secret Words
“life will sneak upon you
something minor
insignificant will happen
in response your body
shakes and shudders
when the muscles finally
stop shaking
and there is silence
and life is suddenly run by you”
I found this today. It was written in pencil on the top of my kitchen cabinet, surrounded by scattered dead leaves.
"If you get to experience being in the midst of the moment of creation, of exceeding what you thought was possible for yourself… Being able to get up and do that when ever we feel like it. It’s a thing all humans sense as being valuable, but very few have the courage to pursue for themselves."
NB
Most recent progress with my project, made on Feb 6. My website revamp will be done soon. For now, the project is titled ‘In Progress Work.’
Apparently, I like evergreen branches.
And bird things on velvet furniture.
…
Terrarium Treasures
I found this terrarium in the basement of National Camera today. So naturally, I left a note on it saying I would take it off their hands if they were going to trash it. I want to photograph it so badly! But in a different setting.
Yet, I have no idea how I would get it home, and have absolutely no where to keep it.
I still hope someone calls me about it….
"Balance between initial and potential observations, and an awareness of clearly looking at the world with analytical, focused attention. Intuition demands reality a more intimate experience."
CR
John Cage - Some Rules for Students and Teachers
It is my last semester at MCAD and most important is my senior project. The first day of class Stevie gave us, “john cage - some rules for students and teachers.” These are my favorite rules, not only for students and teachers, but for artists and everyone.
Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
Consider everything an experiment.
Be self-disciplined - this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.
The only rule is work. It will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.
Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.
Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.
Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything - it might come in handy later.
I have been in school my entire life and in a few short months, I will no longer be a student. Utilizing all that school has engrained in me.
I miss my palace.
