Week Ten

Well it's big critique week and I worked my ass off to make as many paintings as I could especially since I feel a little late on deciding my focus. I'm happy that I brought the cube back to see it with all my other work too. Granted it was a little distracting since everything else was painting but it helped arrive to a way I can further push my concept. Russell really liked the cube and felt I should go more in that direction which threw me off a little since I was seeing it as something of an experiment that brought me back around to painting. After talking to him and others, I arrived at trying a painting on a mirror to push the uncomfortable recognizability that I'm going for in the paintings. Since technically what you see of a mirror does not exist without the things around it, the forms would truly not have a space to inhabit. The only thing I don't think I'll like about the mirror is if it's hanging directly in front of the viewer, they'll see their reflection which I do not want at all. That would maybe make the viewer want to relate themselves to the form or something and that's not what I'm going for.

Week Nine

This week I am getting more confident in my idea and figuring out different ways to paint my "blobs" or forms (still trying to find a good name for them). I feel like the word "blob" just doesn't create the correct approach I'm going for with these. Critique definitely helped resolve some issues with the backgrounds since I brought in an older painting where I felt like the shape needed to be grounded in something but it can simply stand alone which also makes it even more of a mystery. At this point, I'm more curious about the form itself rather than the background surrounding it. I also brought it the start of a painting that I'm basically suffocating the canvas with these forms and leaving a blank shape in the middle. I'm trying to manipulate and move these forms around the canvas as much as possible.

(Finished photo)

Week Eight

After last week, I finally decided rather than trying to execute all the ideas I have; I need to focus on one thing that I'm passionate about right now and explore that more. These "blob" paintings are what I enjoy and want to develop on for this class. I am so interested in these forms mostly because I wanted to improve my formal aspects of painting and also because I've toyed around with "abstract painting." The forms themselves do not root from anywhere in particular. I just started to paint them because I wanted to paint funky flesh shapes. The shapes, of course, grew into something more which I haven't completely figured out yet, however, I do enjoy them.

A couple artists that helped inspire these paintings at this point are Christian Rex Van Minnen (left) and Paul Wright (right.) I love the colors  Paul Wright creates in his layered portraits and the painterly style. Christian Rex Van Minnen makes almost creepy paintings that I find hauntingly beautiful and i can appreciate the realistic skin like forms he makes and adds tattoos which I find pretty amazing. Some of the color tones he uses are more realistic but how he paints the forms is definitely something I can learn from. I enjoy how he makes almost personalities from his faceless forms.

Week Seven

This week, I tried going along a common theme I have with my transformation drawing. What I liked about those drawings was working in a larger scale, having to make quick major changing decisions and starting from a base that I build from. I felt this piece wasn't as successful because I made it in one sitting and there was no base to start from that I previously made. In critique, I made it clear that I had little connection to the piece and did not see it as anything significant for my portfolio. It was worth a shot but was both unsuccessful and unfulfilling. It got a good response in critique aesthetically but it is not a full direction to take for my portfolio.

On the bright side, I did have a lot of inspiration that will hopefully influence what I make next week and put me on a clearer path. 

Week Six

After the hurricane, it was pretty difficult getting 8 productive studio hours but I did work for about 8 hours. I don't have much work to show that I really enjoyed and I completely took apart a sculpture that I started since I didn't like where it was going. After taking down the board I had taped against a window and the tape on the rest of my windows, the giant pile of tape from it all looked too interesting to just throw away. I started arranging it and ended up trying to make a hanging sculpture with the tape on the ceiling. I wanted to add more so I walked around outside and found some really worn out pine straw and started hanging that from it. The biggest problem was the tape wouldn't stick to the ceiling. I tried tacking it up but the tape still was slowly breaking apart and essentially deconstructing the sculpture as I was making it. I planned to put palm parts on the ceiling around the tape but the tape kept falling and unraveling which ruined the rest of the sculpture.

On the bright side, I had some great inspiration this week. It's kind of all over the place but I love each composition especially since I work with relief printmaking, graphic design, painting, and mixed media. The colors in the bottom left and middle are great to fix with a fleshy tone for a painting. The top left and right are two artists I've liked for a while and the middle one I just enjoy how it was painted to look almost incomplete.

Reading Response

The Dada Manifesto was a little nonsensical at times because of the interesting metaphors and vocabulary but I liked his take on documenting art and how humans want to "crucify boredom." Art has always been consistent through history to give us interest. When he wrote about logic not being a part of art, it hit me that my art is where emotion slips out since I'm a pretty logical person. The Gutai Manifesto had a very natural approach to artwork by letting the medium speak which I understand but do not practice in my own work. I do like the close connection strived for though. 

Week Five

This week shook things up a bit since I was forced out of my element in doing 4D work. It was a nice experiment but definitely not something I will keep doing. If anything, I might body paint again but do photos with it instead. It's not that I don't want to learn more about video art, I just don't think it fits into what I'm going for in this body of work. Having to make another person's artwork was interesting especially since it was someone I don't know as well compared to others in the class. Having only seen Grace's work from portfolio, I had not too much information to work with but I went with her themes of printmaking and religion but put my own spin on it. With a background of 9 years at a Christian private school, I had plenty to say about Christianity and religion but definitely not in a great light.

When thinking of body painting, there is an artist whose work I've followed for a bit so I went to her work for some inspiration. Though she paints more realistically, I looked to how she painted the body. 

Reading Response

Thinking about my work in a historical context was difficult since I see such a wide range of artwork today that I can see my work fitting into today's art partially for that reason. Comparing to my past work, there paintings are a sharp turn of branch off of a lot of my previous work since I used to focus more on sculpture. I haven't completely departed from my intuitive process and the paintings have a sculptural aspect. I did realize I like to deal with a duality in all I do.

Week Four

This week, I revisited a process I used to make a work years ago to explore another way to execute my idea of these "blobs." It was experiment more than anything and I enjoyed working with mixed media. I am not sure if I'm going to continue this since I am trying to decide what exactly I want to explore and stick with. Layering on different materials is something I do a lot but I don't know if it feels right for my portfolio. I just want to push my work further since it is not there yet.

Reading Response

This reading was extremely beneficial in helping me try to focus my ideas on what I want to make my theme or body of work about. When it talks about teaching, I like when it says that we're all fellow travelers and teaching is part of being an artist. I feel like I'm still getting around to making the work that really matters to me since I feel like I'm almost beating around the bush but I don't know what it is yet. The quote before chapter 8 really made me think because it takes critiquing past just looking at the art. It asks if it even should have been made. I need to make my work meet a goal rather than just making something randomly with no idea of what I'm supposed to be doing. On page 99, the Zen proverb made me feel like I am still the beginner since I see multiple paths I could take since I haven't quite found my way. Especially with this weeks work, I revisited an old technique and made it new to an extent but still feel like it was ineffective but still staying in the style I want. Page 104 had a great passage pretty much explaining how art is essential to humanity since we've gotten by with so many other things but art is consistent. Chapter 9 made me realize I need to make more meaningful work and really think about what I want my work to be.

It's a little unrelated to what I'm making, but I found this artist this week and really love her work (her name is ironically Victoria too). I just love the linework of this piece so much since it varies. Really makes me want to draw more.