on the mark

A statement from the artist0

Relationships are very important to me, even though I spend most of my time alone (usually working on art). And being a reserved artist, I reflect on many different things- family and friends, significant others (both past and present), or even just fantastical people and places only existing in books or shows. I think of art as being a moment of reflection. It’s a vehicle for expressing thoughts, mood, and feeling. The process of creating art is in itself a personal experience that is unique to each artist.

My artwork often illuminates how I think of certain persons, perhaps caught in their own moments of reflection. I paint self-portraits or portraits of those closest to me because that is what I know, and what I like to imagine. Similarly, in my prints I illustrate a fantastical race of evil creatures, because it is an escape from reality that I often delve into. The books from which they come from are inspiring to my work, (and my moral outlook on life due to the philosophical questions the author poses). Most of my paintings or illustrations have fantastical elements to them, such as the backgrounds which emphasize the idea of personal struggle that is inherent in the work. Color, brushstroke, or even computer-made strokes are all artist-unique elements, and are things that unify my work. So even though the work has left my hands, I believe the touch of the artist still reverberates on the canvas.

Posted under 1

I gave pause to these0

Lee Bontecou

This piece reminds me a lot of what Sarah Sze’s pieces are all about. The form has so many small details to make one large statement, and it just draws your eye in to it. Literally, my eye is drawn to the eye in the center of the piece.
Petah Coyne

*shock* O_O Coyne uses wax-embalmed branches and flowers to create forms like these; the left picture is “Brides in Mourning,” and the right one is “Little Ed’s Daughter Margaret.” I like the description Coyne gives about her work: “[It's] like a plant on somebody’s porch that’s kind of lost its mind.”
I really like “Little Ed’s Daughter Margaret;” the form is like a demented silhouette that emerges from something that references floral, but in a very nightmare-ish way. Interestingly , this piece includes a nearly buried plaster religious figure with a hidden mechanism programmed to cause its eyes to well up and tear twice a day at unpredictable times. Coyne remarks that it does this “possibly at night, when it is alone.” creepy. o__o;;

Posted under Sculpture II

make make make…x_x0

Though this was part of the spore collective, I had to include this picture, because it’s probably my favorite sculpture project that I’ve completed. Well it is nice to look at, compared to my other pieces. Even I was surprised at what a little plaster and other bits can do. *cough* I meant to say, isn’t this anthropomorphic kelp amazing? I found it off the shores of the pacific. O_o;;

I actually like it this way. It kind of reminds me more of tree and nature all bundled up like this than when it was actually a large form that you could walk under. All those hours and hours to make it, and only a minute or two to destroy it. And sometimes, its just better that way. I really enjoyed transforming and reusing the same materials for multiple projects; it’s not only cost friendly, but it makes you think: what could I possibly do to this thing to make it sing a different tune? (It really reminds me of an old simpsons episode when marge joins a country club and re-sews her suit a couple times to make it seem like a different outfit)

the left picture is a piece I planned to incorporate with my large tree sculpture, but it never came to fruition. I was actually going to make a bunch of them and hang them from the large piece. Of course I could have added more and more to that large sculpture, but where would it end? Well, nevertheless I’ve included my copper pieces here for everyone’s enjoyment. I do like to work with wire, but mostly because it was free and I had a ton of it, so really my artistic processes are in debt to my practicality.
The picture on the right is two copper spiders….originally I made one as a kind of counterweight for the large sculpture, and then I discovered that it makes an excellent hair clip, which I indeed wore during my performance. I made another in case I decided to wear two.

My last little transformations of material…the top of my tree became an umbrella. I had really seen it that way all along, so its more like, the umbrella became a tree, and then reverted back to what it was going to be. I was making the mask, and I knew I wanted to use both, but they didn’t really tie in together at first. Thus the addition of black on the parasol, and the tweaking of the male horror mask into a more feminine/geisha-like but still horror one. So I made it into a wearable piece, and I couldn’t see what I was doing all that well, but I’m kinda glad for that. I felt a duality in dressing up; on the one hand I got to hide my face, but on the other hand I stood out so much and couldn’t help but feel foolish for having to be art in front of a crowd. Dressing up at a convention isn’t half as embarrassing because lots of others are dressed up as well, and you’re admired for not just your costume, but the character you’re impersonating. So it was a good suggestion that perhaps what was needed was more participants in the performance.

Posted under Sculpture II

Letters to a Young Poet0

Upon reading Letters to a Young Poet, I did find some really striking points that Rilke brings up, but I had a hard time remembering all that was said in the letters because they are in such a formal speech and out of context; that is we only know what Rilke’s letters say and not the ones to which he is responding to. So I think Letters is really something that should be read more than once, or at least more carefully.

That said, I think the first letter is especially relevant to writing and art; right from the start Rilke says that he doesn’t believe in critiquing work, which is a curious thing. (And something as an artist that none of us could get away with…though we’ve tried). Rilke argues that criticism does works of art a disservice, but I don’t see it that way. An artist may grow by looking inside himself, but they may also grow from learning the viewpoints others. Often the artist can become trapped by their own narrow focus, and not until they hear the opinions of others do they re-think their artistic processes.

The second point that I was especially excited about is where Rilke gives advice regarding topics to write about. I really like this line: “If your everyday life seems poor to you, do not accuse it; accuse yourself, tell yourself you are not poet enough to summon up its riches; since for the creator there is no poverty and no poor or unimportant place.” How often our lives seem monotonous and pointless, and in order for there to be meaning we have to create meaning. Its really up to the individual to make their life interesting, or at least partly so since there are many coincidences and unintended events that occur in life to add interest (sometimes too much interest to the point of exhaustion). And that even if one were to end up in jail (or a mad-house!) you would still have your memories and imagination to draw from. And if Art Brut is any indication of this, being in such solitude may produce even greater works than not being in confinement. Like Darger and Wolfi, the desire to create was so strong, that they did not concern themselves with the outside world’s opinions, but were completely engulfed in the realm they had created. So while the viewer’s opinions can be encouraging, they are not altogether necessary if the artist is truly producing works from inside themselves.

Posted under Sculpture II

The Flux Capacitor! Is that a movement? XD0

The Fluxus movement is still very relevant today, along with the other movements that challenged what art is like Dada art and Happenings. At the time when these movements were still in conception, such as when Duchamp introduced his readymades, they were challenged by the art world and created a lot of controversy. But they certainly set the stage for what art can be now, which is so broad of a term, that what art can be is virtually anything. Even art that is virtual is art, ha. Is there such a thing as anti-art anymore? (“There is no world anymore, only corporations!”)

So it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn the kind of “art” Rirkrit Tiravanija does, although it is still unusual. He creates spaces for which people can socialize, often incorporating cooking into the event. What better way to get the audience to participate then when there’s food involved? Essentially he is doing a Happening, since there’s really no narrative or fixed performance, but rather a created set-up by the artist for the viewer to take part in. I certainly wouldn’t mind taking part in that kind of event. After all, food is artistic, right?

Fischli and Weiss are even more relevant to the art world I think just because what they do is really impressive (Sorry Rirkrit). Although many of their works are just as temporary as Rirkrit’s works, Fischli and Weiss really give a performance that the viewer can enjoy from observing, rather than becoming part of it. It’s not as much of a stretch for the viewer to think of it as artistic, at least not for me. All those physical and chemical reactions going off perfectly is not only an amazing feat, but aesthetically pleasing to watch.

Posted under Sculpture II

Five neat sculptors? I really meant seven :-30

Sarah Sze

Wow- the forms she creates are really beautiful. Her sculptures feel a lot like they’re just a 3-D version of a painting. And the bottom picture I put up is my favorite example of her work; It reminds me of graffiti art, except the forms are in real space. She uses so many small, everyday objects in may of her works, but I wouldn’t call it a random pile of things because they’re all so meticulously placed. It’s more like a ton of small pixels that make up a whole picture; all of those small objects work together to make the work eye-catching and perfect as one piece.

Louise Bourgeois

Those are very large spiders. And I like the inclusion of the guy who’s pretending to be overwhelmed by the spider. Spiders can be such beautiful art forms, especially the ones made by Bourgeois.

Posted under Sculpture II

The Spore…0

1. One must strive to push his/her imagination beyond the comfort level.

I think this is a hard thing to keep in mind because when I’m making art I’m focused more on an idea I have that I wish to pursue, and how I can get there and make it good. And what pushes me to do better is seeing the kind of work others are doing and wanting to be on that good of a level. I was having a conversation with my outside collaborator one day, and I was asked that if I could do things over or change whatever I wanted about myself, would I be a very different person? Well of course I could think of a million things, but one of those things I said was, If I could go back I would have been more ambitious in my art making (among other things). I do spend a lot of time in the studio, but I don’t think it’s ever enough. I wish I didn’t have other classes, because I just want to keep working in the studios. I see some amazing works from fellow students, and I see students who have taken all the opportunities given to them, and I wish I had done more.

I also wish I had finished a lot of my past pieces that aren’t quite resolved. I think there is some level of competition, and I really do want a good critique, because that encourages me to keep working. And if I don’t have that acceptance of what I just made I kind of lose heart in it. Also I was a little distressed at first when I learned we would have shows this semester..for sculpture class, of all art classes…D-: But now I think it’s just a good motivating factor. I know my work will be seen, so I really have to work hard at it.

2. One must embrace the wonderment of the creative process and disband any thoughts of assignments and grades in order to work in the spirit of the spore.

I like this idea that what’s really important is that we have 5 good pieces to show at the end of the semester, rather than the old system. And I like to be given assignments, but on the other hand, I’m going to make what I want to anyway, so it doesn’t seem like a big stretch to make. I just need to come up with some ideas…and find those darn materials… What I do find strange though is the whole work as a team thing. I’ve always been kind of a loner…and against team spirit/efforts…I can proudly say that I was a huge frustration to some of my very early teachers, hehehe… >:-D

3. One must experience the commitment to being an active participant in the collective. One must go to the Fast, Cheap and Out of Control blog on a regular basis and must respond to posts in a thoughtful and timely manner. More than one response per post is welcomed.

Again this is right up my ally; the nerd that I am I’m on the computer a lot anyway, and highly prefer to do blogging and online forums and things rather than writing papers. Who doesn’t feel freer to speak their mind on the net? Well maybe it doesn’t matter as much to people who are really outgoing or articulate in person. :-/

4. One must strive to leave the course a stronger artist.

All my art classes have made me a better artist. ^_^

5. All must strive to make this the best class of the year.

Well finally I can say that I’d rather be working on my sculpture than my pot. I think it’s a funny reversal, since I remember all the sculpture students would be in ceramics all the time, including myself. And as I brought it up today, I said now I’m always in sculpture and my pots are drying up. I feel like Carole and Lorene are playing tug o’ war with the students….If I’m in one studio too much the other prof. gets unhappy…. o_o;;

Posted under Sculpture II

What’s Happenin’0

Art happenings were essentially performances that usually involved the audience in some way. Allan Kaprow coined the term, and one such happening that he did was ‘Yard,’ where he piled a bunch of tires together in a courtyard and asked the audience who had gathered near it to walk in or around the tires, and would call out different actions for them to do. Using audience participation like this of course calls for some improvisation, and the piece can never be perfectly scripted, even if the artist has a good idea of how he wants the event to go.What’s really interesting about happenings like this, is that you have more than one way to look at this piece. From the photo, I can say how visually interesting it is to have those many tires piled together, because we normally wouldn’t pay much attention to tires. The artist in doing the task has forced us to look at it from an aesthetic viewpoint. But then you also have the performance aspect of it, where the viewers play an active role in the art making process. When I think of a work like the Spiral Jetty, it’s neat that you can actually walk on the piece and the viewer plays an active role in enjoying it, but it’s still fairly different in concept. With Yard, the audience really becomes part of the piece, which is neat because it would always be different each time you did a performance with it, as opposed to a piece where just the artist was doing the performing.

Posted under Sculpture II

Second Critique0

Well, this isn’t exactly what my sculpture looked like for the second critique since I took off the paper to work on it. This is my current edit; I decided to add more structural elements to the top, since there was too much open space with only the four draping pieces. Now I can add much more, time willing. Of course the more I add, the heavier it gets, and I’m having difficulty keeping it from leaning too heavily to one side. It’s also fairly wide, and as it is I’ll also have trouble getting it through the door. Although it is fairly flexible, so I’m counting on it to bend a lot. How is going to be able to travel? This is a great concern of mine.
My spiders from the first critique haven’t moved from the floor, but I at least made a context for them, should I wish to include them. After seeing Molly’s pegacorn, I was inspired to go in a new direction from those small spiders, which is why I began making a very large spider which turned into more of a tree. It doesn’t photogragh well, since it’s so linear, but hopefully in person it has some wow factor. I got fairly good comments this second time around I think, I just need to keep working on it.

Posted under Sculpture II

First Critique0

The top picture is actually me working on the sculpture from last semester, but I included it because I like this photo. I think it shows why I have an interest in transparent materials like vinyl plastic.
So I decided to stick with the spider theme. Not sure why, I don’t even like spiders. O_o;;
At least not when they’re in my room, but then I keep thinking of how I like to read fantasy books about the dark elves (drow), who worship a spider goddess. Their Matriarchal society is full of evil and chaos, but the drow are portrayed as being quite beautiful. Although my spiders aren’t as evil and creepy as the ones in the books would be. Not that I had any intention of going that route.
At this stage I need to work on presentation, wow factor, and scale. It was said that the sculpture should be at eye level.

Posted under Sculpture II