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>>Posts about artists relevant to my work >>Posts about my works as they are made >>Commentary on issues in the art world >>posts reflecting on art events and activities |
10/24/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 3 (in class)It's a slow process, but I've been building up the layers on this painting. For the smaller sections, I'm going to use the matte board to make quick thickness, and I think that will save a lot time. On the other hand, the carving is taking a lot of arm power, even just removing the top layer of the three sections I will be doing. The assistant teacher suggested I make a print using this panel, but I think it will be too heavy and too uneven to do so, even though I think it's a really interesting preposition. I will only be able to do a progress critique and am pleased with how its coming along, despite the fact that I've only had the class time to work on it.
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10/11/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 2 (in-class)The following are some reference pictures as well as progress pictures from my in class project. After asking around, everyone seems to instantly recognize the cells and tissue so I figured I need to reference a city/landscape topographical image to make my painting more realistic. Overall, I really like the scale (4'x4') of the wood panel, but I realize that it is and will take much longer than I expected. I hope to have the base light molding medium layer done by the end of next week and decided to make the whole painting more interesting and more like a map by carving into the panel as well. Since the panel is so heavy and is relatively thick, I think carving in will help balance the piece. Also, I have not started with any colors yet, although I primed with a color I thought was closer to white. Regardless, I will be painting over the molding medium and between the molding medium with other colors to add depth. I have not decided whether I want to do colors yet and whether I will do tissue-like, city-like or black and white. Coach also brought up an interesting angle I hadn't thought of regarding the concept of "muscle cars". Although this project was meant to steer away from --haha-- the running car theme, I think that will be a nice complementary piece that will probably happen towards the middle of the year.
10/9/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 1 (home)After my summer attempt to make masks out of license plates, I am revisiting the idea with my home project and going back to my original plan to make one mask. Instead of melting them together or hammering them, I will be welding, and learning a new skill along the way, just like my projects last year. I managed to make a scale model in my sketchbook by cutting small slips of proportional papers and I think this will be the final design, excluding the curved edges, especially because I had 4 plates left over that I can use as spares. I think I might round off the edges a little more, but the 3D aspect of the mask was hard to portray on paper so it might round off by itself.
9/3/2019 0 Comments Summer Progress Post 3Finished the paintings!! The first four's invisible ink was very faded, so I didn't bother adding any for the new four, but maybe for one project this year I'll do something--plaques maybe-- with the actual forum text for each of the parts. I definitely still want to do something with the repair content, and am happier with how the new four paintings turned out in comparison with the old four, especially with the quality of the panels and the details of the actual parts. Also, together, I think the eight paintings are a good focal piece for my work collection so far, and I really enjoyed taking on this project this summer. As for my license plate project, it wasn't turning out like I would have liked, so I think I will let the idea simmer for a little bit, since I have the materials and the means, but I think the sculptural composition is something I want to refine since license plates are so hard to come by.
8/14/2019 0 Comments Summer Progress Post 2I have officially started with my paintings, and home to collect reference photos from my local junk yard. I have decided on a headlight, a tire, a shock absorber and piston shafts from an engine. I have also cut my “canvases” (wood panels) so that they are much cleaner than my last set and do not have exposed staples or glue, as was an issue during the critique for the first four parts. I plan on continuing with the invisible ink forum repair instructions and have even begun looking some up. An issue I noticed while looking at the first four panels was that the invisible ink was significantly faded in some parts so I think I will need to seal this new set. I have already painted my base coat for all four panels and will finish drawing and painting the others when I return from Bulgaria. Also, I have collected 10 license plates so far and looked into the melting temperatures of aluminum (which I can do at home) but I am not sure if I will be able to finish that project before school starts as i still need to make a mold that I can wrap be plates around but other than that it should be a quick project so I’m not worried about it being finished eventually, and delaying it should allow me to collect more plates. I am still considering using European plates, since I am in Europe and American plates are hard to find and expensive, but I am still debating about consistency. 6/12/2019 0 Comments Process Post 21This project came together relatively quickly, considering how much time I spent thinking about it's content and how it would tie to my running theme. I had fun making it as school ended, but it will probably need some touch ups before it can be displayed. I think my next project during the summer will also use some big part of a car like a trunk or a fender or something because I really liked the scale and the opportunity to do something with it. Also, this project also allowed me to revisit something I wanted to do at the beginning of the year, which was paint something classical like the old masters on this trunk we had sitting around in the shed. I didn't know I would be cutting into it like I did, and I'm not really liking the size of the square that much, but in the end I think it was a good use of the trunk. During critique, the paintings of the people were seen as unnecessary to most of the class, but others said that the trunk should be covered with more people. I like the latter option better, but I also understand the argument of the first group. Over the summer, maybe I'll work on it more. 5/24/2019 0 Comments Process Post 20Final product!!! Overall, this has been one of my favorite projects, from engaging with strangers to learning new skills. I'm pretty pleased with the result, but know that the little boxes idea (detached) may cause problems in exhibition. 5/22/2019 0 Comments Process Post 19The final developed pics!! I have one more roll I developed in class too but it didn't turn out as well. Seeing these pictures now, I have decided not to use the ones that stay dark even on the light box, but am pretty happy with how the others turned out, especially because I did them myself and at home, which was pretty ambitious for a new skill. 5/19/2019 0 Comments Process Post 18Here are some pics of the materials and process I used to develop my color slide film at home 5/14/2019 0 Comments Awareness: Ben ZankBen Zank was born in the Bronx, NY and started taking pictures when he was 18 after finding a Pentax ME Super. He went to college for journalism, but ended up doing professional photography instead. Despite this, he believes that he learned a lot from his college experience, specifically about telling different sides of a story. During college, he realized he wanted to become a photographer and began making youtube videos, and since then he has refined his work. Currently, at 27 years old, he lives in New Zealand, where he focuses on posting on both his website as well as his instagram, where he has over 90 thousand followers. His work has been labelled surreal, but when interviewed he says he didn't mean for it to turn out that way. Instead, he started out with more portraiture and funny pictures, and he still finds some of his pictures to be funny, but has recently accepted the label of surreal work. He has also mentioned that he is mildly colorblind, and as a result he does many of his photos in black and white. While he does take posed pictures, he often uses photoshop to touch up and re-touch up his pictures for hours. Zank has also spoken about how he finds his type of work to be based on trend, especially based on the amount of views he receives. He also understands the difference between today's social media culture and photography and believes that his pictures, or self-portraits, convey the truth about his subjects. In past interviews, he has warned new photographers not to fall susceptible to internet trends, because then their work will become saturated and they will run out of inspiration. He also advises new photographers to constantly take pictures, no matter if they turn out well or not. Although he began with a film camera-- which brings me to my connection with his work-- he now uses a digital camera because he believes it can capture more form and composition, whereas a film camera emphasizes more people and emotion. His work is minimalist, and--as he has mentioned--surreal, and that is what attracts his main audience. His focus on identity throughout his work and linear patterns is something that interested me, especially considering my latest project that will try and take one aspect of my subjects' identity and relate it to a bigger picture. His dramatic sets and interesting compositions come from his years of experience, and although I am not looking to become a professional photographer, I think his experience of going to college in a non-art related field yet continuing with his interest is something that I can learn from. His work makes the viewer consider what his content is and how the different parts of his pictures go together, which is something I strive to do in my project as well. Overall however, I was really interested in Zank's color schemes and juxtaposition between natural and unnatural objects, and the fact that he was able to use simple sets to create discussions of identity. Keep reading below for a list of his exhibitions and features: 5/14/2019 0 Comments Process Post 17I was able to experiment with making models with negatives and black and white, and I am extremely happy with how my first pictures turned out. I was able to learn a lot, but am still having some trouble cutting out my numbers, and I'll have to figure out something else to do instead, possibly with using leather presses. I recently ordered my color slides, and am excited to start learning how to use the chemicals. I plan to go to the VMFA or Maymont to find people to take pictures of, and hopefully I can develop them properly, and if not, I have two sets of film. If not, I have enough back up developed to still carry out my idea.
5/6/2019 0 Comments Experience: John FreyerThis quarter's Lunch Lecture featured John Freyer and his Free Coffee and Free Ice Water projects. He works at VCU, and is currently a big part of the Rams in Recovery Project. During the lecture, he talked about how he explores the role of everyday objects and their circulation in his art. He considers himself a social practice artist and focuses on the advocacy component. He often thinks about the question of conceptual art and how it applies to social practice art--like in Duchamp's work. This has caused conflicts of understanding between him and his audience, and is a reason why he has trouble coming up with creative names for his works, but I think the opposite is true-- while he is not referring to his art by labelling it as such, his plain and simple names could appeal to more general audiences like is his purpose in the Rams In Recovery programs.
Similarly, through his work in the Rams In Recovery programs, he is able to relate with his community both through his art and due to personal experience. The part of his projects that emphasized giving back to the community was something that struck me about his work, and reminded me of what we have discussed in class regarding the nature of social practice art, and of what benefit it actually is to the community, especially when the work is removed. Overall I appreciated getting to see the work of a Richmond-er and how the art world works, at least in a more local perspective. Although I still have some trouble seeing the difference (or perhaps tie) between social practice "art" and just social practice, I have no problem letting it slide because I know it can be critiqued in some way and appreciated by the greater population. Similarly to my previous awareness post, Freyer's work ties everyday activities/objects to a real world problem as a means to solve the problem beginning by looking at smaller examples. Although I am not sure as to whether my art will take this type of a turn anytime soon, I did appreciate Freyer coming in to talk to us. 4/15/2019 0 Comments Process Post 16Instead of doing six prints I decided to do four, not only because each took time to cut out, but I realized that for each individual print I needed to cut out more than one sheet of linoleum in order to get the proper layering of the colors. Despite this, I'm pretty happy with how the prints are turning out so far, especially with me only using a couple colors. I have been painting on the ink, which may have caused it to be a little thick on some of the prints, but I found this was easier to make the gradient effect that I wanted than using a brayer, especially as I had only cut out a few linoleum sheets. Also, I plan to do more experimenting with two layer prints, as I had forgotten that I had cut out the sky in most of my prints and didn't want a white outline around each of the pieces of the scene. For now, I am leaving them to dry.
UPDATE: I printed the double layers the next morning and found that in some spots the colors were too dark to be seen clearly. I'll do some more experimenting soon and try something new I think. UPDATE UPDATE: I decided to print some using my car, per Coach's idea, and I think they turned out better than me printing normally. I was pretty excited to try this way of printing and was not disappointed. 3/25/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 15It's that time of the quarter again... Time for another photo dump! Although this project isn't quite done yet, I'm really looking forward to finishing it and maybe even adding to my car's headliner over the next year. Just to add some more character.
3/21/2019 0 Comments Awareness: "100%純污水製冰所"
Artists Hung I-chen, Guo Yi-hui, and Cheng Yu-ti formed the group 100%純污水製冰所, after their first work, "Polluted Water Popsicles" achieved so much success. They come from the National Taiwan University of the Arts, and they were nominated for the Young Pin Design Award for their popsicles. They have not had a lot of gallery representation outside of places like the New Generation of Design Exhibition two years ago at the Taipei World Trade Center in Hong Kong, but I think that over time they will most likely accumulate more work that can be displayed. However, I know that this is political art that speaks a message that is more important than the physical piece, and that this cannot always be expected to be fit in a museum setting.
Past works include the following------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 100%純污水製冰所xGreenpeace Hong Kong: This collaboration sent wrapped soaps to Chinese legislative council members with 10 different scents based off of 10 different beaches in Hong Kong that also contained pollution found in water in the respective area. The group's intent was to remind the council members how big of an issue water pollution really is. The soap came with a letter asking the politicians to take action, and the creation of the soaps were also part of a city-wide engagement event. Marine Debris Guidebook: This book contains photos of hundreds of pieces debris collected from beaches in China, and is another call to action, but to the younger audience, in order to make trash collection more of a scavenger or treasure hunt. The group has also had other collaborations in order to spread the prevalence of the ocean pollution issue, including phone card holders and toys. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This group's works reminded me of what we have been learning about social practice art, and makes me think about the public engagement aspect of projects. Although I did not have an immediate message related to a global issue, I did want to incorporate my audience into one of my works through photo, and am inspired to actually do so some point next year. Overall however, this project (along with those they have been working with since then) appealed to me in craft, content and subject matter. I hope to be able to have a similar effect with my work, which I also hope to refine to this point. Also, as most of the information on this group is in Chinese and they are very contemporary, it was difficult to find their career path, but I think something similar will and has happened with my art, which comes out of the blue and develops its content from there. I really liked their use of found objects, a medium I share, and I think I will look towards doing casting or suspended resin for one of my next projects from this inspiration. 3/15/2019 0 Comments Connect: "How the Art of Social Practice Is Changing the World, One Row House at a Time" by Carolina A. Miranda and "Outside the Citadel, Social Practice Art Is Intended to Nurture" by Randy Kennedy The two articles by Carolina A. Miranda and Randy Kennedy spoke about social practice art, describing what it is as well as giving examples of how it is being incorporated into art education and museums today. I had already read Miranda's article for my curiosity page, but the information was still interesting to read, and I was able to look more in depth with more context after what we had gone over in class. In for Kennedy's article, he provided a better introduction to the concept of social practice art, and also provided examples that were worldwide, focusing specifically on certain foundations and schools that are working to make social practice art more prevalent in today's society.
Miranda's article, "How the Art of Social Practice is Changing the World, One Row House at a Time," considered some important points as to how social practice came about and its impact on its communities. For instance, she wrote, "Nato Thompson, chief curator of Creative Time, thinks that the form is a byproduct of our technology-reliant times. “I mean, doesn’t any kind of human interaction that isn’t on the Internet just feel very special?” he asks." (p 4) Similarly, in Kennedy's article, "Outside the Citadel, Social Practice Art is intended to Nurture," he also quotes Nato Thompson, saying how social practice art has changed from the straight forward art that existed years ago. Thompson also said that, "many of the most dedicated social- practice artists see a huge divide between themselves and the commercial art world,'" (p 8, Kennedy). I agree that just like with Romanticism and Neoclassicism, art movements have developed from others in extremes: one is too strict so the next is more emotional and so on. In this way, I believe that social practice art, which deals with human interaction and message, has become more popular today due to our commercial, technology-focused society. These artists are trying and take care of our communities in search of something "real". However, I also understand that social practice art is not really something that can be considered a movement. Judging by the range of media incorporated into the category, I say it is just that: a category. A manifesto cannot be written specifically to make social practice a movement, and as both articles have stated, it has been around for years, through other movements and without a solid time block that it can be contained in. But this issue of identification also fits into the concept of whether social practice art should be considered art at all and what its true effects on the community are. 3/15/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 14I’m excited to start on my next project this quarter—one that will end up taking a lot of work. My plan is to make linocuts of my car in different views around Richmond in a similar fashion to Hokusai’s 36 views of Mount Fuji. Although I know I won’t be able to get all 36 done before critique, I aim to have at least 3-5 by then. The content will probably come to me later on, but this is idea is connected with my photo project that will cover more ground and require more daylight.
2/22/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 13As per usual, here is a photo dump of the process of creating my sculpture project for this quarter. I really enjoyed getting to work with different techniques, including pipe bending and LED strips, junk yard visits, breaking glass, and using a heat gun.
2/19/2019 0 Comments Experience: Hollar @ VMFAThe temporary Hollar exhibit was interesting to see, especially after knowing the process behind printmaking from Art 2. The provided magnifying glasses made observing the works easier and overall more enjoyable, making each piece seem like a scavenger hunt. After all, the pieces sometimes were scavenger hunts, with names of towns and numbers inscribed in minute detail. My favorite part was probably trying to translate the german or foreign words from his maps. My favorite parts of his portraits and observation prints were the tiny etchings that made up incredible values to make forms. I could only imagine the amount of time and different glasses he went through to make so many prints so consistently. I for one don't have that much patience and would be overwhelmed. But in the end, I guess I would be very satisfied with the piece. This wasn't an exhibit I knew about and was dying to see, but the experience of walking through the gallery and appreciating all the work he put into his pieces was good, and I got to see it with a friend so that was good, too.
1/28/2019 0 Comments Awareness: Billy Al BengstonBilly Al Bengston is an American artist. He was born in Los Angeles and attended Los Angeles City College until 1952, where he then studied under Richard Diebenkorn at the California College of Arts and Crafts until 1955. He also studied at the Otis Art Institute in 1956. His first solo exhibition was at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. He was inspired by Jasper Johns and adapted his motifs into his work. Bengston's work is directly tied to the motorcycle sub-culture and auto and surfboard decoration motifs. This work is my favorite of his and I look forward to adapting his style into some of my future works. Although I realize our marks are different, I would still like to utilize his color schemes, blending and composition in the future. Other symbols in his work include the silhouette of an iris. I would also like to use natural forms in my figures as well, and I like the way he contrasts machine with nature themes. He has exhbited in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Honolulu Museum of Art. He has received grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has permanent collections in Paris, D.C., Chicago, and New York among other places around the world. He is represented by Various Small Fires in Los Angeles. I have not seen his work before, but after a suggestion from a friend, I will definitely look for it when I visit these museums in the future.
1/22/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 12As for the second painting, there was quite a journey to the final piece, all of which took place in a short period of time. However by the end of it, I was very happy with how it turned out and even think it is better than what it would have been had I not had to redo it.
1/17/2019 0 Comments Experience Post: Lunchtime LectureKirk O’Brien’s lunchtime lecture was interesting, but overall, the only part I think I would have absorbed into my work are the color schemes he displayed. Personally, do not read comics, so the role of government in their creation was not really as important to me as it may have been to others that attended the lecture. Although, it was informative to see how comics were limited in the past, especially after what we had been discussing in class and in our connect posts about the role of censorship in public art. After all, comics are a form of art that is open to to the general public so it still falls to the same critique and legal blocks as the art we have discussed previously. The most surprising part of the presentation was the part where Mr. O'Brien taught the group about the origin and role of the Comic Code Authority, which I realized I had seen in the title sequence of some Marvel Movies. If I were to see him again, I would most likely have other questions regarding his illustrations, and not necessarily the history of comics. I have heard that he teaches the younger art classes how to draw comics, and so I would like to hear more about that.
1/17/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 11I didn’t have so many pictures of this first painting because I worked on it in big intervals. After looking at the finished product, I realize I could have improved my composition, had I not been so stuck on recreating the picture. Now I’m off to work on the second painting, which should work as a pair to this one.
1/7/2019 0 Comments Progress Post 10I think for my next project I definitely want to do something like in Fahrenheit 451, where the author describes how when people constantly drive they begin to identify things as streaks of color and lose their details. Although I was hoping to do something with parts from the junkyard, it’s unlikely that I will be able to by the deadline so I want to do abstract paintings instead. This time I’ll make sure my base material is neat so as to support the work rather than detract from it. Also, I don’t know how I will incorporate light into this one, but I did buy a blacklight for pictures of my other work.
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