Final Review of Class and Project

So for my final project my actual means of presentation changed a lot before the final product.  Working with the idea I had with my project, I began questioning how I would actually present it to the class.  Website?  Power point presentation?  Me just talk with images on the screen?  Then I saw Prof. Rothrock's blog and noticed she had emphasized letting the work speak for itself, I realized I probably needed a different way.

The cool thing is, days before I began working on the final piece I had an idea about a child's story about memories.  Since Dana passed away and left her son, I've been kind of struggling with the idea of how he will have to deal with everything that has happened.  When he went the funeral he wanted to move around and go play.  I'm almost certain as a four year old he had absolutely no idea what was happening and how final it was.  Weeks afterwards he was still asking when Dana would come home.  So I wanted to transmit the memory concept I had before in a way a child might be able to perceive it.  (Not sure if I succeeded, honestly I think I'd need children to look at it to know for sure.)  But I am happy with how it came out.

Also, I like the way I presented it for a story idea.  Using a basic website lets the user interact and choose the page they want to go to and take their time reading whats provided.  When I get better at websites, I could add in even more interactivity, letting viewers submit memories through a forum.  That's kind of what the box that I collected memories in was for.  I got caught on the 'no talking about your project rule' and the limited amount of time we had, so I didn't go into it.  (Also none of the other student asked so I guess they weren't too interested?  Or maybe they forgot?)

 FINAL EVALUATION OF THE CLASS
I extremely enjoyed this class.  Honestly I feel like I've grown a lot as an artist while taking it.  Between Contemporary Art History and Concepts, I've had to think, a lot, about what I'm doing and learn a lot about different artists and their means of doing things.  I don't think I necessarily sharpened any skill making skills like drawing, painting, etc, but I do feel like my steps to think BEFORE starting those processes has extremely changed and improved.  I'm really glad this class is required for art majors, it seems like an extremely important one.

New Project, Clearer Ideas

So for my last project I am going to do a proposal for a project.  The project would require gallery space and a lot of work so that is why I'm doing a proposal for it rather than doing it.  The project would be called Memories: Closed.  The project would be looking at memories and how they affect us.  How traumatic or hurtful ones can cause us to try to seal ourselves off from ever repeating the same mistakes or experiencing the same painful sensation.  However with trying to avoid experiencing that pain again we end up missing out on new memories that could be good, or we trap ourselves with those old hurtful memories.

Memories: Closed would be part performance and part gallery show.  Located in the gallery would be a large wooden trunk, one that is large enough for a person to fit in.  Surrounding the trunk would be tapestries with digital art and images of past memories.  Some of the images would be normal photographs taken in good times but blurred a bit or altered to show memory affects.  Maybe even bring up the contrast and bright colors some to stress how we exemplify the good memories, sometimes making them better than they even were because that's how we remember them.  (And vice versa for the bad memories.)  Then leading up to the trunk would be more disturbing images, more grayed or blurred images much like my dreams after my best friend died.

On opening night the trunk would be opened.  The viewers entering the gallery could look inside the trunk and see that there are hundreds of snapshots or written down memories on paper in it.  At some point the performer would enter the gallery with all of the images everywhere and look to one of the tapestries with brighter memories.  They would rip the tapestry off of the way and then take it into the trunk.  Afterward they would lock themselves inside of the trunk and a sign would be hung on the outside saying MEMORIES ONLY.  (The trunk would be designed to let the person breathe comfortably because they would stay there for the rest of the show.)  Underneath the area where the performer yanked down the tapestry would be a space to reflect a projection off of.  The projection would start up with animations/video/images about the performer's memory, all skewed because memory is never as accurate as we like to think it it.

The action of the performer locking themselves in a trunk full of snapshots is a metaphor for when people lock themselves in their own minds with memories.  Getting stuck in them its hard to move on and see that there is still the present and future.  

The next part I'm not sure about, but is a possibility:
The trunk would have a slit on the side and there would be paper and pencil somewhere in the gallery with instructions to write down a memory and put it in the trunk.  That way viewers could become participants and share a memory.  The instructions would read something like:  "Share a good memory and I'll share in the happiness of that day."  Or "Share a sad memory and I'll weep with you."  Or even, "Share in an unimportant memory and we'll make it important."  Just something to make it more interactive and so people won't just be walking into the performer's memories.  Kind of like crossing memories, joining them, bringing new light to them, etc.

New Project

Looking forward to the new project I'm excited and nervous.  I spent almost two hours on and off writing directions for the next project.  At the time I was set on a video.  Looking at identity once again.  Examining aspects of my identity.  Last time I feel like the painting I did had a lot of parts of who I am, but not going deep enough.  Something that I've realized during the past five months is my ability to use escapism for everything.  I use it for thoughts, relationships, friendships, family complications, medical, etc.  Instead of facing problems I find a way to escape it and I feel like my first project was just that.  Instead of showing me, I showed the wall I use to keep others out.  So I wanted to delve a bit further.

But delving further is straight up hard.  Literally I have pages of scenes and what I want to focus on for the film.  But when I went to record some, looking at the footage I didn't like it.  The ideas were very similar to what I used to do in high school with friends, but without another person to help film it doesn't feel right.  I was considering possibly going back to Fayetteville to shoot it and recruit some friends to do it, but then I realized almost everyone will be away until after the semester ends.

So I think that particular film idea is out.  Its okay because it was starting to depress me and that's a great way to ruin a project quick.  My next idea came to me in biology class today.  We've been studying installation and performance artists lately in Contemporary Art History lately.  (Which I have right before my biology class.)  I was listening to a lecture on pathogens when I started doodling a space.  I was thinking about what I would do for my senior exhibit for Digital Media.  (Even though its not til a year from now.)  And I was thinking what would be funny.  Then I thought what if I brought in a trunk like object that a human could fit into.  I could put two tapestries on either side of the trunk, hanging from the ceiling like curtains.  The tapestries would have digital images I've made printed on them, kind of like a hazy collage of photos of friends/digitally manipulated photos/artwork/etc.  (Much like the digital art printed tapestries Jeff Murphy uses.)

 The surrounding images are basically an example of photo manipulations I'd use.  They are all images of me because that's what I feel comfortable displaying at this point.  I'd also use plain photographs from my past, but I would blur these and probably gray them out depending. 

But yeah, my idea for this project is a proposal for this idea.  Something that I feel like our art department doesn't prep us for is leaving the university and what we will have to do once we leave.  I mean your last semester you finally make a business card and possibly a website.  You're supposed to all of a sudden become established artists in one semester?  But that gets onto a different rant.  My point is if any students are looking towards doing residencies after college they need to start researching them as soon as possible.  I still have a year and a half but I'm starting now.  And I'm trying to think of what I want my 'statement' to be.

For this project my statement would surround memory.  I don't want to give away too much, especially without illusrtations, but the trunk would be used in a performance piece opening night.  Once that night is over it would be used as a tool to expand and evolve the art piece.  Meanwhile in the gallery memories would be spread throughout it.

Cycle

I think Cycle went really well.  I'm really glad I had a groupmate who I worked well with because that seemed to be a problem that appeared in other groups.  Honestly when group projects are announced I normally dread it because I tend to be one of the people who drag along the group.  But this project wasn't like that at all.  Our work dates, editing, communication, everything went really well. 

I would like some critic on Cycle though.  The class was very supportive and asked interesting questions, but there were no suggestions on what could have been better or more interesting.  I know the sound could definitely be adjusted.  During the critic one of the speakers gave off a terrible white noise which isn't on the original footage.  Its a good lesson to check videos on the speakers you'll present them on before showing it.  In a classroom setting it was okay I suppose, but imagine going into an interview or proposal with faulty sound. 

If I had to critic the video we made I'd ask if it was edited to be too corny.  Like those news segments or documentaries that are created with the intent to induce a certain emotion.  I really hope it wasn't like that.  I would also ask if anyone got a message from it, or understood it, etc.  Basically, what do people get from it when they watch it?

Cycle

Monday Nov. 22nd's Class

Monday Arielle and I worked on the performance piece for our most current project.  We did go with the idea I mentioned in an earlier blog about the cycle of group homes.  Arielle did the performance and I documented it.  We thought it was appropriate for her to do the performance part because she actually grew up in and out of group homes.  Even though I had friends who went in and out of them, I never experienced it firsthand so we thought it was a good conceptual choice.

Here are some shots that were taken at the performance site:

Jennifer Wallace and Final Piece

I really enjoyed the class when Wallace came by and spoke to us.  I've been thinking about the different exercises she had us do in class, for instance making a repetitive sound, saying a word oddly over and over, making a traveling motion you constantly do, etc and trying to think if I can incorporate it into a work I do in the future.  Its definitely something I've been thinking about for my final project.  Still not sure entirely what I'll do but I am leaning towards video and the concept of identity.  Kind of like a throw back to our first project but a bit deeper or concentrated, not sure.

Gomez-Pena Temple of Confessions & Alfredo Jaar

Alfredo Jaar

Last year I saw Alfredo Jaar speak at UNCC.  I really liked his message.  He was addressing political issues he felt strongly about and finding ways to portray them in a very poetic manner.  He inspired me somewhat to keep in mind that political art is possible.  Its weird because coming out of high school I was very political and following the leaders of the U.S. and keeping up on many different issues concerning Amnesty International.  But since entering college I've lost a lot of it.  I guess Jaar reminds me that there is something out there to speak about and a way to do it. 


Gomez-Pena

From what I saw I really like Gomez's work.  I think I responded to it so much just because its so interesting.  The whole visual aspect and the interaction between viewers, it kept me very entertained.  Though I wonder if keeping me entertained in a work of art like this is a good or a bad thing.  As in am I just viewing his Temple of Confessions as something to gawk at and then miss the point of it all?  Of course I recognize the message and different things he is trying to say, but I do wonder.  
 

Reading D.J. Martinez 374, W. Gu 295

D.J. Martinez
 
Starting out questions:
1.  Is he a primarily political artist?
2.  What's going on with the piece saying "I Can't Imagine Ever Wanting To Be White."
3.  Did he place the piece Quality of Life in front of a U.S. flag on purpose?



Ending Questions:
1.  How did he get so far in the art world coming out of such a trapped cycle life style?
2. How does he feel about the current immigration rights controversy in Arizona? 
3.  What is his recent work?


W. Gu

Starting out questions:
1.  First off, whats the message with the tampons?
2.  Very similar but what is happening in Oedipus Refound #3:  Beyond joy and sin?
3.  What is this artist's concept for their works?

Ending Questions:
1.  Does Gu realize that the bodily items he uses to unite humans (like semen, menstral blood, and placenta) are items that actually repulse humans?
2.  Do humans ever look at his work and actually think, wow, we all menstrate that means we are connected?
3.  How does he think impregnating multiple women around the world and leaving them to raise a child without a father or child support is a good or artistic idea?

Class Nov. 10th & 15th

I'm passionate about a lot of things in my life right now.  For one I'm a vegetarian who would like to see a change in the meat industry in many areas including mass waste production, animal cruelty, and a change in the hormones/steroids they use in meats.  Also growing up I was very involved in Amnesty International and Save Darfur, mainly concentrating on the areas of refugee law, immigrant rights, and genocide in Burma and Darfur.  However I must admit after my best friend died I completely broke away from all of these things for about a year when I was adjusting.  But now I'm coming out of that and I'm feeling more passionate these days wanting to make a change.


Class on November 10th left me paired up with Arielle on the topic of child abuse in group homes or something related to the matter.  Another topic that I feel pretty strongly about.  I never would have thought of it though for a project, so I'm excited in a way.  At first we had a very clear idea on what we would do, visit a group home she's very familiar with and give a presentation.  Though after class this past Monday I'm questioning it.  Especially after seeing Gomez-Pena's Temple of Confessions and hearing Jennifer Walace speak.

I think I want to do more of a performance piece.  Maybe centered around the cycle children and teens often get stuck in when they enter group homes.  A very close friend of mine growing up went in and out of group homes with her brother.  I constantly saw the effects on her as she was shuffled around into homes she didn't want to go.  Her brother had more extreme reactions to it.  I remember him running away all the way from Texas back to Fayetteville, NC.  Of course he was thrown into juvi once he was caught, but its extremes like that, that sound off an alarm that something isn't right in the system.

Red String

Red String is a short film about making a path.  Connecting to nature.  And taking what is not ours.

When I was in 10th grade one of my friends went missing.  It wasn't until my freshman year of college her remains were found in a wooded area back in my hometown.  From there I developed a type of phobia of woods.  Of what I could find, or the people who might be lurking in them.

When we started this project the first thing we covered was safety.  A fellow classmate shared an experience about a flasher in Reedy Creek Park.  I reflected on all of the scary things I used to find at a wooded park back in my hometown.  Once my brother and I found shredded clothes, another time we heard crazy screams for help, another time a duck that had been ripped apart by what looked like hands.  It was a park where a woman pushing her child in a swing was stabbed to death by a stranger, and it was a place I was warned not to go alone.

So when this project began those two aspect came to mind.  Another thing that came to mind was how these things happen, how they are allowed to, and how we deal with it.  One thing was our connection to nature.  Its been said time after time, but it seems these days we are disconnected.  We are disensitized through the hundreds of images we see a day.  Our thoughts are peversed to think things are okay when they really shouldn't be just because it happens so often.

In the film Red String I make a path with red string.  I drive.  I follow the path the string leads me to.  I witness something disturbing with the string over, and over again.  I come to notice nature.  I change the outcome of the disturbing string.  I pick up what is not mine.  I show an image of what happened and then change it at the end. 

These actions are both of the victim and the peverse.  Leaving a path to retrace it for safety.  Drive to forget, to get away, to get to a place.  Following a path to follow someone else.  Following a path that is supposed to be safe.  Seeing what someone else has done and becoming horrified.  Seeing what you yourself have done and being horrified.  Notice nature.  Connecting with nature in the park.  Taking what is not yours.  Changing what has happened in your mind.  Changing what you have done in your mind.  Replaying it over and over again until it seems normal....

I feel like I get hung up on these subjects in my artworks.  It was supposed to be an installation project in the park and somehow my project turned into dealing with some twisted mindsets.  I'm glad I am finally formulating them somewhat, but I hope I'm not missing the point of the class assignments. 

In the end I can't even tell you if the film is saying connecting to nature will heal us or if we'll still be in danger.

Chris Burden

Wow, Burden's work was pretty interesting to say the least.  When the movie first started I didn't want to give the guy much credit.  I first learned about him with his shot in the arm stunt and didn't think much of him.  The college art world (at least to me) if filled way too much with "shock value art" and artists trying to stand out so they do whatever they think hasn't been done yet or would really shake viewers.  To me your first thought in art making shouldn't be, what hasn't been done yet?  Or I'm going to make an art piece that shocks everyone!  It should be more of what you feel or about a message you want to portray... but then again, thats all my opinion.

But as the movie progressed past calling Chris Burden a genius scientist (which I thought was ridiculous) and actually showed and explained more of his work, he slowly grew on me.  I understood more of the scientist comment after seeing him do problem solving type activities associated with his artwork.  How he explained his piece with the nickles with the matches on top was a cheap way to make it work but then quickly assuring the camera man that wasn't the main reason why he used them made me giggle.  Definitely an interesting character.

Red String

 While trying to think of how to go about my project I decided to just get out into Reedy Creek park and do some walking.  I brought my video camera and some red string with an idea in mind, but honestly what I ended up with is not what I expected.

Professor Rothrock left a few questions and comments on my last post.  She pointed out that the topics were heavy and questioned how I'd touch upon them.  Suggesting symbolism and sounds. 

As I arrived to the park I immediately noticed the sound of leaves and gravel crunching underneath my car.  The wind was also very active assisting that sound.

I drove around for a while looking for a good spot to start.  I found one near the Nature Center with a large rock marking the entrance to a trail.

I took my roll of red string and left a piece in my car and just started walking towards the trail.  My idea was kind of like Hansel and Gretel and how they left a trail so they could find their way back.  The story touches upon child abduction and not trusting strangers so I thought it would be a good touch point.

 After leaving a trail of string throughout the park I ended up finding a spot where I wanted to weave my main installation.  I started with a simple weave with spaces inbetween.  (The photo to the left was after I walked back to the car and retraced my steps the second time, collecting all of the string and finally hanging it up in the tree.  The simple weave will be seen in the film.)

My idea with the path of string points to the Hansel and Gretel story, our connection to disconnection, and for me memory.  I will expand upon these ideas the more I work.

Pre-Environmental Project

I'm not entirely clear on what I will do for my project.  I know for tomorrow I will bring my video camera and SLR along with a roll of red and black string.  In the beginning I wanted to do something with people.  Maybe gathering as many friends and participants as possible and bring them out to demonstrate numbers.  But now I'm changing my mind.  I also had the idea of touching upon the idea of missing persons.  Since the finding of my friend's remains in a wooded area I've had a bit of a fear of woods.  Or rather a fear of what I might find there.  Paired up with you can't walk through heavily wooded areas anymore without the risk of being abducted or bothered, its something I want to talk about.  I don't want the project to be depressing in any way, maybe just a comment on the fact that this happens or why as humans we allow it.


Below are stats taken off of MissingKids.com

The U.S. Department of Justice reports

-  797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
-  203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
-  58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
-  115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)

Its disturbing in many ways.  I also wanted to use this in relation to the park and a nature area because I somewhat feel like we need to get back to nature to heal us of this perverse problem.  Purely my opinion, but I feel that we've become so detached, so disensitized while living in a society ruled by images, that its no wonder some of us have lost touch and gone bonkers enough to abduct a child or commit a vicious crime.  Of course its not entirely that easy to chalk it up to that, but I do feel like its a contributing factor.  If we could get back to nature, notice while walking the sound of the rustling grass or crunching leaves rather than the music we are blasting on our Ipods, cherish the fact that we can still feel the cool biting breeze rather than ignore it and hurry to the heated building.  Enjoy digging in the dirt again like we did when we were kids.  I think it would help heal many of our problems.

Even if I don't address the missing persons issue, maybe I'll address the disconnection problem I think we all face or have faced at one time...

Christo and Jeanne Claude

Hm, what to say about the umbrellas.  The idea was definitely a visionary one.  Aesthetically they were beautiful in a way, definitely making the landscapes they graced something to take a double look at, but I have to question if they were worth it.  Two lives were lost, many teams of hard workers had to put them up, take them down, try to put them back up in storms, take them back down, etc, and many on the team were treated horrible by Cristo and Jeanne.  Now I will acknowledge that everyone volunteered for it and probably had an idea for what they were getting into, but it was a lot of trouble it seemed.

I really would like to know if the documentary just made Jeanne seem that self centered and maniac like.  A lot of moments he was captured in was not a good light for him.  But I've never met him so what kind of judgement can I pass...

The project just took so much time, energy and even lives.  I would like to know if the artists felt it was worth it.  If the viewers thought it was worth it....

Andy Goldsworthy film

To me Goldsworthy is a type of crazy genius.  But when I say crazy, I literally mean he's a bit off.  But thats not a bad thing to me.  I think he thinks in a way most of us don't, and the creations he comes up with because of it are fantastic.  The way he made his ice sculptures from hand and didn't use gloves amazed me.  This is stating the obvious but ice is cold, it hurts terribly when you hold it for a while, so the fact that he would continuously touch it and mold it for his artistic vision, I have to give him props.  I think thats why when I read about Shuckman's work and saw how it was written intensely in his favor I was a bit turned off.  Comparing Shuckman to Goldsworthy put Shuckman in an odd light. 

Goldsworthy continuously goes out and makes artwork that many people see and critic, but he just does it because its his artistic vision.  (Or at least thats why I think he does it.)  Shuckman kind of shies away, catering to one person and only focusing on that person.  Feeding his one and only audience with the terms he wants them to use, almost brainwashing him with an idea of how great the work is.  Am I becoming too harsh on this one?  Let me back off and go research Shuckman so I'm not a complete jerk about him.

Skip Schuckman and Besty Damon

Skip Schuckman p. 34

Beginning Questions:
1.  Does he do all of these pieces by himself?  Does he have any help?
2.  Does all of his artwork take place outside in nature like Goldsworthy does?
3.  How did he get those stones to stay in the cave like piece?
4.  Are all of his materials from nature?

Ending Questions:
1.  What other projects has he done?
2.  Has his style/artistic vision changed at all with the ongoing years?
3.  Is he a bit self delusional?


Besty Damon p. 356

Beginning Questions:
1.  From the photos it looks like she does wide scale outside pieces.  Are they related to landscape in any way?
2.  What medium did she start out with?
3.  Does any of her projects touch upon addressing environmental issues?

Ending Questions:
1.  Is she somehow involved in all of Keepers of the Waters projects?
2.  I ask this a lot, but what has she been working on lately?  Has she made any advances in her artwork that she really likes?
3.  How does she fit into the U.S. art world?  (As in do many people know her in the art community and acknowledge her as an artist?)

Consumption: Project II

My project for consumption revolves around the idea that consumption can be positive and needed to live, or like a monster overtaking the consumer.

My idea stems from the idea that consumption can be like a monster.  Growing up I've seen a lot of friend's lives ruined with consumption.  Your classic alcohol or drugs, or even greed.  Four years into college I've met some new close friends and I'm still seeing how consumption can effect their lives.  Alcohol becomes a necessary tool to function in society.  (I've even seen this in myself within the past year.)  Street drugs help them feel a happiness they can't feel anywhere else.  Prescription drugs help them not struggle with chronic pain but destroys their inner organs.  Consumption for them is a monster.

However, I also see how consumption helps.  By the consumption of healthy foods, or really food in general, plenty of fluids, etc, a person can remain healthy.  Just for me consuming enough calories each day is hard but a necessary and rewarding task.  Something that I found when keeping track of the things I consume was how much paper I use each day.  I use it for assignments, printing out notes, test photos, jotting down useful notes, planner, working out thoughts, writing poems, etc.

I chose to make a type of constum for the project.  It will represent a type of Consumption "Monster".  Italicize monster because I want it to not be clear if it is a monster or not.  Just like no one can clearly define consumption as good or bad.  The base skirt type thing will be entirely of recycled magazines and papers representing how much I use daily.  It will also be made of ads that we see everyday.  Ads telling us what we need to consume.  The mask will compose of cardboard from item packaging I use daily, bottle caps from the drinks I've drunk, among other recycled items.

Project II: Consumption

3 Hours (Morning):
- Toothpaste
- Tissue
- Water
- Hot Tea
- Bagel
- Cream Cheese
- Paper
24 Hours (After the 3 hours)
- Water        
- Soup
- Hot Tea     
- Paper
- Water        
- Animal Crackers
- Paper        
- Chocolate Truffle
- Water        
- Peanuts
- Soda          
- Chocolate Truffle
- Water

On this page are a few preliminary drawings for the project.
My idea stems from the idea that consumption can be like a monster.  Growing up I've seen a lot of friend's lives ruined with consumption.  Your classic alcohol or drugs, or even greed.  Four years into college I've met some new close friends and I'm still seeing how consumption can effect their lives.  Alcohol becomes a necessary tool to function in society.  (I've even seen this in myself within the past year.)  Street drugs help them feel a happiness they can't feel anywhere else.  Prescription drugs help them not struggle with chronic pain but destroys their inner organs.  Consumption for them is a monster.

However, I also see how consumption helps.  By the consumption of healthy foods, or really food in general, plenty of fluids, etc, a person can remain healthy.  Just for me consuming enough calories each day is hard but a necessary and rewarding task.  Something that I found when keeping track of the things I consume was how much paper I use each day.  I use it for assignments, printing out notes, test photos, jotting down useful notes, planner, working out thoughts, writing poems, etc.

I chose to make a type of constume for the project.  It will represent a type of Consumption "Monster".  I italicize monster because I want it to not be clear if it is a monster or not.  Just like no one can clearly define consumption as good or bad.  The base skirt type thing will be entirely of recycled magazines and papers representing how much I use daily.  It will also be made of ads that we see everyday.  Ads telling us what we need to consume.  The mask will compose of cardboard from item packaging I use daily, bottle caps from the drinks I've drunk, among other recycled items I've found or used. 

Reading: Thomas Kinkade and Vanessa Beecroft

Thomas Kinkade

Beginning questions:
1.  Why is this type of artwork in this book?
2.  What is the purpose of this kind of art?
3.  Is this even considered art?  Or an art with meaning?

I initially asked "is this even considered art" for a conditioned mentality.  I certainly recognize Kinkade's paintings as art, I mean they are aesthetically beautiful and I would imagine would take very developed painting techniques.  However I've seen them my entire life on merchandise type objects and when I first saw the pictures for the chapter, I automatically thought, wait, this isn't art, this is merchandise.  It took me a second to realize that yes, originally this was produced as art and not mass produced machine printed items.

Ending Questions:
1.  Is his "happy" perfect sounding life still that way?
2.  Has he worked on any other projects besides this one?
3.  Has he been through any traumatic experiences?


Vanessa Beecroft

Beginning questions:
1.  What is her message concerning multiples.
2.  Is she going for a sexual feel?
3.  Is all of her artwork like this? 


Ending questions:
1.  What will she do as she ages and loses her "youth beauty".
2.  What is the real reason for not using herself in the pieces?
3.  Is there any other medium she has (or does) experiment in?

In Class Notes Sept. 21

Michael Ray Charles - Painter who paints graphic design type paintings addressing the issue of racism in ads.  He started out stating that many people say that he is perpetuating stereotypes in his work.  For every painting displays a black figure displayed in a mocking or even scary way.  He says that beauty embodies what we find ugly as well as beautiful.

Mathew Barney - There wasn't much I took away from this artist that was in words.  His major piece of artwork covered in the film was Cremaster.  I didn't have many words for this because I was just so interested in watching and seeing the intriguing images on the screen.

Andrea Zittel - This was an artist who created small spaces with everything she needed to live in.  Her artwork definitely made me feel uncomfortable, especially since I'm claustrophobic.  In a way I don't understand why she would want to create spaces like that, but in a way I do.  She mentioned that she grew up in a protected type living space and then moved to N.Y. as an adult.  She seemed shocked by the idea of new environments or people, culture, something in that experience.  So it seems that she creates these controlled spaces in order to feel safe.  If that is the case I understand it, but I hate tight spaces.

Mel Chin - This artist had some very interesting works.  Some I didn't quite understand, but still interesting.  For instance the idea of putting a dying out art form into a new one, IE the patterns from carpets from dying out cultures into a new culture of video games.  Or a project to give new life to a house that was burnt down.  The involvement of worms in the project didn't make sense though until the end of the film. My favorite though was the project where plants were planted into an area with toxins in the soil in order to clean it up.

Jennifer Price's Lecture

I'm always surprised by the artists in residency we get at the McColl Center.  They always seem so interesting, it feels too good to be true in a way.

Jennifer Price, a fine arts print maker from the UK whose work is similar to ink blot tests.  Reflecting her past and current conflicts with mental health.  My overall impression of Price's lecture was a good one.  She presented a variety of questions.  Should art perform a duty?  To this question she presented the option beauty for beauty's sake but at the same time she pointed out that content is important.  She almost made it seem as if art for beauty's sake wasn't worth it, at least for her.

Price also presented the question, what is my art about?  A common question among developing artists.  (Its certainly a question I've been asking myself lately.  She would later go into details, but she presented an interesting viewpoint being that in the beginning her art lacked confidence and it showed.  She began using ego as a tool and continued to use it.  It helped produce endurance and a drive for her artwork.  I was a bit surprised to hear that ego could be used as a motivation in art.  It certainly was an interesting viewpoint, especially since I try to take ego out of my work or artwork.  When I thought more about it though, it makes a lot of sense.  Artwork without confidence can seem meek, and ego could definitely boost that.

Price said that she began getting a firm hold in the art world with the Inkblot Series.  A series of prints in which she made by inking up objects and then laying down a sheet or similar cloth item on top of the inked item to make a print.  The process for the prints results in the use for the objects being taken away.  In a way the prints are an oxymoron of giving and taking.  To make the prints something has to be given up, lost, and that is the object's purpose.  But in the loss something is gained, a piece of artwork.  Something that I admire in the ink blot works is that Price leaves the interpretation of them completely to the viewer.  I normally try to push the "meaning" of my artwork on the viewer, but I really want to get away from this.  Examples of these prints were The Angel In The Laundry Basket and Suicidal Fairie.

She also commented on her work acting as art therapy.  But she also mentioned that she wanted to steer away from it be self serving only. Again this spoke to me.  Being an artist who uses their work primarily as art therapy, I often don't think of others when I do my art.  Many times my primary goal is to just get out a feeling on canvas or paper so I can deal with it there.  I really liked this aspect Price presented though.  It would be nice to reach a point where my art is not only self serving.

More questions were presented like can obstacles be overcome?  During a rough part of her career starting out she used salvaged plates from friends, bedsheets, and stockings for her prints.  She found places that she could exhibit for free.  So she found a way to do art in many obstacles.  It wasn't just laid in her lap.  Soon she found herself in the last year of the university feeling overwhelmed with the next step in life.  She had to decide to stop thinking about leaving the university and tell herself to just do something.  On this note I really feel for her.  Its something that has been approaching me lately and its frightening beyond belief.

Her talk moved on to her accident and I thought this was an interesting part.  When she was in the car accident she mentioned that her first thoughts were,  "I can't die yet.  I haven't done anything to be remembered for."  She mentioned that until you think that you cannot do something will you want to do it.

To finsih, Price mentioned during the Q and A with the crowd that she was very personal with her work.  That she has to find a way to part with an artwork that she feels a connection to and then sell it.  Hearing this made my heart leap because it is a major dilemna I've been facing lately.  I want to create, I want to paint a lot, I want to be an artist.  But I am very attached to my artwork and never want to let any of this go.  It would be interesting to hear how she gets around this attachment and I'm sure if I get a chance to talk to her at the McColl center I'll ask her about this. 

Identity Project.... Finished?

 

My piece makes a commentary on my identity rather than an explanation.  The figures in the painting are fictional illustrated characters that I have formed during the last year. They were formed after a best friend's car accident that left her brain dead.  The figures in the painting have similar bruising to hers when I saw her for the last times in the hospital and then wake.  

The figures represent the escapism defense mechanism that I have been using since the accident.  Creating a different, fictional world in order to cope with the present realities of accepting traumatic experiences.  The figure on the left is looking off, possibly at the wooden stake driven into the canvas.  He is weary, bruised, but determined and alert.  The girl on the right has a slight smirk, addressing the audience.  The boy's color is blue, the drips representing memories, internal like veins.  The girl's red drips for streaming blood, that has been exposed to oxygen.  As his blue memory tries to extend towards the right of the canvas, trying to connect to something, it is cut off by a smear of the blood of the red drips, leaving part of the blue drips floating without connection on the right hand of the canvas.  To me this symbolizes the accident.  Blood doesn't turn red unless its released.

The scarecrow in the back is the presence of alternate realities and escapism too.  I began drawing scarecrows in almost every piece after her death.  In a way scarecrows can be very cute but also very sad.  They are made to mimic being human, left in fields by themselves.  I think I use that as a metaphor for myself sometimes, when I don't feel like I fit in to the whole being human thing, isolated with certain feelings or experiences.

The pieces of wood driven into the canvas are related to experiences.  Within the last five years it seems that situation after situation keeps occuring.  Starting out with the death of my father, going through friend's suicides and murders, most recently ending with my best friend's death.  These wooden pieces are like the challenges coming through, piercing through the canvas.  The canvas in a way is like my skin I suppose.

Identity Project: Cont'd

My idea for the Identity project keeps changing.  At this point I've started my project, but it has changed from the original plan of digital paintings.  I'm doing a more traditional painting.  I haven't figured out if I want to use oil or acrylic paint though.  I want to paint in oil, but I don't think I can handle the fumes at this point with this respiratory infection or have the time for it to dry completely.  [Edit:  I decided on acrylic.  Here are some photos of what I have so far...]

I realize that I didn't add some of the information requested so I'm adding it now.

Touch points:
- Moving back into my childhood home.
-  Meeting Mrs. Faires. 
-  Joshua's death. 
-  Pam's disappearance. 
-  Dana's accident. 


Chosen touch point:
- Dana's accident.

Five adjectives describing that touchpoint:
- Heartbreaking, Stirring, Painful, Disheartening, Dismal, Understanding, Shocking,

Five metaphors/list of materials describing touch point:

- Scarecrows, pieces of broken items, objects or colors referring to the womb, sharp items, birds.


Action applied to materials:

The paints are applied both in dry and wet format.

- A scarecrow will appear in the painting, pieces of broken items and or sharp items might be impelled in the canvas, bird items might be added to the canvas, etc.

Touch Points for Identity Project (Continued)

For my identity project I will do a series of five digital paintings that might include some more fine arts materials such as watercolor or inking but they will be primarily done by digital means.  These five "paintings" will be sequenced and named Concepts of Dream Identities.

Each "painting" will depict a scene of a dream.  None will be literal representations of actual occurrences of my life, but they will try to depict some type of mood, feeling, etc of the experience.  Right now I'm going through a type of artist funk where I realize an artist will never be able to fully get across their meaning or intention to the audience.  The viewer will always view a piece with their emotional or experience "luggage" or their lack of it. 

That sounds very pretentious on my part but there is truth in the statement.  A viewer who has never had their friend go missing for two years, knowing that they were murdered by their father and also knowing that the murderer could never be caught without the body.  Going through the psychological trauma of desiring their friend's body to be found, only two years later having the friend's remains found in a field, and not enough of it for a trial to be started, the viewer normally won't get it.  Even more so, they'll probably translate it completely wrong or even be so turned off by it that they ignore and draw away from it.  I'm tired of trying to portray experiences like these and having reactions like these.  You pour so much of yourself into it for nothing.

So for my project everything will be in a dream state, nothing too literal or personal so the viewer will literally be thrown off.  There will be traces of feelings felt, but nothing that reveals too much.

Class Notes Aug. 25th

Maya Lin - She had an interesting idea with the ice skating rink and relating it to the stars and constellations.  The fact that she did the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC surprised me.  I've seen it in person before and it was nice to connect the artist to the piece along with seeing other projects she's working on.

Kara Walker - I wasn't a huge fan of this artist in a way, though I liked her medium and means of doing artwork.  To surround a room with black silhouettes seems like there would be amazing interaction.  Just imagining being in a space like that seems beyond interesting to the mind and eye, especially when you try to follow a narrative.  However her concentration on the silhouettes having such violent images is a bit sickening and I wonder why.  I mean in a sense I get what she is trying to say, but I do wonder if she's been able to move away from just portraying the fear brought by paranoia with maybe some hatred thrown in there. 

I read an article that pointed out that when she moved to Georgia when she was 13 she experienced constant racism for the first time in her life.  Before knowing this I felt a bit off by her.  I questioned if she experienced an immensity of racism or something like that to make her dwell on this issue.  I mean she has a right to just feel strongly about the issue, but the way she dwelled on it almost seemed perverse.  You're just recreating these terrible scenes you've imagined, based off of real history perhaps, but she didn't witness it first hand.  (I'm referring to the silhouettes of beheaded figures and such.)  So she's dwelling on it, reproducing it, and almost glorifying it. 

I guess these negative feelings could stem from the idea that I might even feel threatened by her in a way.  Growing up I went to inner city schools that had primarily African American students.  I didn't grow up with racism, I didn't even notice that our skin colors were different until around 7th grade when other students who were my close friends began to drift away or even turn on me because I was white.  Then racism became real but only because I was on the other end of it.  Maybe I'm just reminded by those students who would treat me badly using the excuse that I was white and therefore contributed to slavery in the past.  (Which I think was ridiculous.  They didn't know my family history and that was just an assumption and racism on their part.)  But a lot of them acted as if nothing bad had ever happened to any race besides blacks and made me feel bad for terrible things people did before I was born who I'm not even related to.

But I did find an article on Walker in the New York Times and after reading it I do feel a bit better about her artwork.  Here is a paragraph I especially found interesting: 

Several African-American artists with careers dating from the 1960s publicly condemned Ms. Walker's use of racial stereotypes as insulting and opportunistic, a way to ingratiate herself into a racist white art industry. In 1997 one of these artists tried to organize a museum boycott of her art. Ms. Walker responded with a vehement outpouring of diaristic drawings titled “Do You Like Creme in Your Coffee and Chocolate in Your Milk?” Some are text-heavy, direct-address and issue-specific: “What you want: negative images of white people, positive images of blacks.” Others are angry, funny, obsessive notes to self, examining race, racism, her own racism, her rejection of it and her dependence on it from many angles and various personas. -- Holland Cotter   

Doh Ho Suh - The idea of making a house you could bring with yourself to make yourself feel comfortable.  Its a pretty cool idea and one that I would be interested in.  Needing a comfort space a lot of times the idea seems very nice. 

Reading: William Kentridge

Beginning questions:

1.  What is Kentridge's ethnicity?  (After reading I found out he was of Lithuania and German Jewish decent living in Africa.)
2.  Do the figures in his work represent him in any way?
3.  Is his work political?


Favorite quotes:

"William Kentridge probes the guts of a governing body suffering from its own abuses and illustrates the consequences of tis accumulated offences."  156

"In Kentridge's films, the horror of torture and dismemberment occurs within the internal domans of memory adn conscience, not as it might appear in pupular media accounts."  158

"Can reconciliation, once it has been accomplished as a formal court procedure, evoke comparable accomodation within the secret recesses of the human conscience?"  161

"...windshield wipers work fervently to clear the conscience and bring the past into focus.  But grims continually accumulates on the glass, obscuring the scenese much in the manner that the mind represses painful memories."  161

"He can't say, 'Well, it wasn't my fault'... It's that sort of indeterminate position.  He is the dricver, and somehow tied into and responsible for events that he is part of even if he is not, as it were, foresically guilty of it."  162

"He's busy, but the sobering things is, well, if he's just back and busy in teh world, then what was teh point of the whole journey?"  162

"...here's a person who's in a coma because of the weight of what he's seen, of what he's been through.  Is that going to kill him?  It becomes clear.  No, people don't die from the guilt of their feeilings or the weight of their memroies - even though they ought to, perhaps.  But they contain them.  These memories may suddenly resurface in a crisis, but they get pushed away."  162

"Traces of people, objects, and landscapes appear and disappear like memories.  .. Kentridge mirrors the real life process in which current events are inevitably affected by past events."  (163)

"To say that one needs art or politics that incoporate ambiguity and contradiction is not to say that one then stops recognizing and condemning things as evil.  However, it might stop one being so utterly convinced of the certainty of one's own solutions.  There needs to be a strong understandng of fallibitlity and how the very act of certainty of authoritativeness can bring disasters."  Kentridge  (164)

Ending questions:
1.  What is he working on today?  (If he is.)
2.  With digital advances of today, would (or is) he still using same techniques?
3.  How does opera tie into all of this?

Reading: Nan Goldin

Initially before starting this reading section flipped through some of her photographs without reading the text below them or studying them too much.  I first asked the questions:

- Who is Goldin's intended audience?
- Are the scenes in her photographs real or set up?
- Does she even know these people?
- Do they have some kind of narrative or story behind them?

Here were some of my favorite quotes from the chapter:

"Her death completely changed my life.  I'm constantly looking for the intimacy I had with her, in my life and my work... That's why I photograph.  I miss so many people so badly."  - Goldin (201)

"The manic tone of the events obviate the need for artificial staging and posing, or contriving lighting and props."  - (201)

"What I'm interested in is capturing life as it's being lived, and the flavor and smell of it, and maintaining that in the pictures."  - Goldin (201)

She also made a statement concerning journalism that I found interesting which was that it is "too devoid of emotional involvement."  Describing snapshots as "the form of photography that is most defined by love."  "People take them out of love, and they take them to remember."  (201)

An indication of growing up... "Her new work, says Goldin, is comprised of "many landscapes, photos of maternity, of children, of my friends in nature. Yet they remain inspired by human relationships."  (203)

"Memory allows the endless flow of connections."  - Goldin (205)

Ending questions:

1.  What are some examples of her new work?
2.  Is she still taking tons of photos?
3.  Is she planning any new projects?

Touch Points for Identity Project

So far Concept Studio seems interesting.  I've flipped through the book for the class In the Making some and so far I love the writing style.  The author presents some thoughts I actually had to stop and thinking about and they don't write in a way that you can tell they are trying to sound "artisticly intelligent" and borderline pompass.  For our first project Identity we had to write a ten page autobiography and then find five touch points from it.  I'm guessing these touch points will be a guide to what our concept of the project will be, but I'm sure that will be cleared up more after today's class.  In the meantime, here are my touch points:

- Moving back into my childhood home and being reunited with kindergarten best friends Harrison and Taylor.  <I chose this because to me, without this event happening I would have never gotten involved in art in the way that I am now.  They introduced me to a world of art and creativity that I don't think I would have experienced anywhere else.
-  Meeting Mrs. Faires. 
-  Joshua's death. 
-  Pam's disappearance. 
-  Dana's death. 

Well its off to class.  I'm pretty excited about this project so far.  I really like the approaches taken to start it, so I expect it will be very interesting.